I think I've been overdoing it in The View from the Terrace

I think I have been overdoing the high life. Since our weekend away I have woken with migraines every day, so I have been taking it easy this week. I did manage to get into the garden on Wednesday. It was a beautiful sun filled autumn day. I managed to plant 2 wallflowers and tidy up a bit. Today I have a duty at the helpline. I haven’t done one for 4 weeks as I have been quite busy going away twice and in between we went to another party, this time for 2 people from our folk club who are leaving the area.

We nearly didn’t get to that. It was at a hall up in the Black Mountains and we had never been there before. It was a dark rainy night with a heck of a wind. We had put the postcode in the sat nav and it kept telling us to turn right into a farm. Luckily the gate was closed or goodness knows where we might have ended up. As it was we drove on and then turned around and drove back down the road we had come along and were on the point of giving up and going home when we saw another car turn up what look like a narrow lane to a farmhouse but turned out to be the way to the hall. There was a problem with the electricity and they hadn’t been able to put the lights on in the car park. I realised later that postcodes cover about 10 addresses which is quite a wide area in remote spots.

I’m so glad we found it as we had a great night. They had a ceilidh band and there was lots of dancing. It was amusing to watch a room full of over sixties twirling around with such energy. I was feeling really good that night and enjoyed the dances, some of which I remembered doing at school. Unfortunately Hubby isn’t a good dancing partner. He’s a great dancer on his own but he can’t coordinate with another person, luckily a lot of country dances don’t require a lot of dancing with your partner. The food was good too. There was even a vegan curry. I couldn’t believe that here in the midst of a farming community in the depths of Herefordshire someone had made vegan food. Cat will be delighted when I tell her. Once again I indulged in 2 puddings. Well how could I choose between two of my favourites, raspberry meringue and lemon cheesecake, so I had some of each. I hope we don’t get invited to too many parties or my weight will go up and my knees wont be able to cope!

For a while now I’ve been having trouble with my knees. It started a few years ago with the one knee occasionally giving way when I climb stairs. At that time I mentioned it to a colleague at the helpline and she told me that was how hers started, eventually she needed a knee replacement operation, that was a cheerful thought!

Just over a year ago I told the doctor about it. She felt them and said I have early arthritis in both knees. She said she could treat them with steroid injections. She also suggested painkillers but I don’t feel I can justify taking more tablets just to ease a pain that only lasts while I climb the stairs, and since painkillers take about 10 minutes to work I would have to plan ahead. I decided to cope for now as it is only going up and down stairs and not all of the time.

Tony makes jokes about calling the Stannah stair lift people but I pointed out that in our old cottage I’m not sure I would trust the walls to hold my weight! Moving to a bungalow would be a possible solution but I love our house and I like going upstairs to bed. I would really miss the view.

What I would like is a downstairs toilet. I also have a bladder problem which means I need to go quite often. I looked into it and found there is a grant available for things like stair lifts and downstairs toilets if they are essential for your health but you need to be worse than I am to qualify, so for now I am trying to take some of the weight with my arms when I go up and down. What is really annoying is getting to the top and finding you have forgotten what you came up for and then remembering when you are back down at the bottom!

The other annoying thing is what just happened. I am relaxing in bed with my laptop when I hear a knock at the door, probably a delivery man as my 2 sons are Amazon’s best customers. I get up, put on my dressing gown, get down the stairs as fast as my knees will allow only to find they have gone. This just happened and there is no sign of a parcel or a note saying they missed me so maybe it was someone else or perhaps the neighbour will be round with the parcel later and then I won’t be in because I will be at the helpline. I wish these delivery men would give me more time to get to the door.

I really hope we get some good weather over the next few days so that I can get a few more jobs done in the garden before winter sets in.

Last updated November 04, 2017