1 - Up before 7am. . .walked in the cold biting wind. Sat in a pill box for a cigarette and made the mistake of leaning against the wall. It was covered in something unpleasant (from a couple of aerosol cans that had been sprayed over everything and then burned) and I got it all over the back of my coat! :o( . .ate biscuits . .sat around/TVd/PCd the day off. . ate a couple of mini sausage rolls, a banana and a ham sandwich . . took one of the codeine tablets to ease my back pain and then walked the woods . . . touched base with BB . . . ate a banana and a bowl of muesli. . TVd until bed around 11pm. cp
2 - Woken by Sally snoring earlier, then up around 7am. . . walked. Feels like I'm just 'going through the motions' at the moment. Everything seems so utterly pointless. There really is a terrible overwhelming bleakness to my view of the world now. God I wish these prozac tablets would hurry up and kick in! . . had a prod at stripping some more of the box room wallpaper. That particular form of excercise actually somehow seemed to be good for my back. . walked up Mums and borrowed the small triple-step ladder. I need to go buy a proper one, but that small one will enable me to carry on with the paper stripping for the time being. WHAT a slow laborious job it is. I've only 'almost' bared one wall so far! . . drank a sip of wine and cooked and ate fried bread, potatoe, bacon and eggs and then a handful of biscuits . . TVd . . napped. . . walked the woods. Wow - feels really warm. Wearing too many layers! Sat on the beach for a while and managed to retreive another cuttlefish 'bone' from the waves for Sally to chew on (and actually largely eat!). She really seems to like those things!? . .TVd . . touched base with BB . .ate a couple of chicken and veg pies with crisps and then bowls of co-co pops and chocolate. . TVd until bed before midnight. Actually turned into not 'too' bad a day moodwise in the end. sdp
3 - Up just after 7am. Pulled the living room curtains and the curtain track mount broke! :o( . walked in the hazy sun and chilly wind, headachey. . stripped off just a little more wallpaper. Yikes - that is some crack in the outside wall!! . . .ate fried bread, potatoe, bacon and eggs and then a handful of biscuits . . TVd . . napped. . . walked . . touched base with BB . . TVd . .ate corned beef, mayo and lettuce sandwiches. . TVd until bed after 11pm. sp
4 - Up around 7:15am . walked . . left Sally at home and drove to shop (£60.75), to get it over and done with so I can avoid all the inevitable Easter crowds. Popped in a DIY store and bought some socket boxes, PVA, wood glue etc.(£17.95). . did dishwashing chores . . . ate corned beef, mayo and lettuce sandwiches with crisps and then a couple of hot cross buns . . napped . . ate some marmalade on toast . . walked the woods and sat on the beach for a while. Collected up a bunch of cuttlefish bones for Sally to have at some point. Kinda like 'free chewy things' for her . . TVd . . ate bowls of co-co pops, hot cross buns and chocolate. .TVd until bed around midnight. sp
5 - Woken earlier by Sally then up around 7am. . walked and cleared up a few beer cans. Some 'holidaymakers' from London have covered one of the pill boxes in spray painted graffitti. :o(. . .stripped off more of the wallpaper in the box room. .Mum called to touch base and then minutes after hanging up, LB called. Apparantly the people in my old house are having all the windows replaced! . . Mum popped down to see what I was up to, bearing food and chocolate easter eggs. . . ate the Mum donated chicken and stuffing slices in sandwiches with a bag of crisps. Ended up all headachey (can't help but wonder if that meat was off!) and lay down to fitfully nap for an hour or so . . stripped off a little more wallpaper . . walked. Really warm out. . drank a mug of the last of the red wine . . briefly touched base with BB . . cooked and ate fried potatoes and mushrooms with two pieces of bread and butter . . TVd until bed around 11pm. dp
6 - 'Good Friday' bank holiday. Up around 7am . walked in the sun. .stripped off most of the the rest of the wallpaper in the box room , glued up part of a broken floorboard, removed or hammered in a bunch of the enormous number of wall plugs in the walls . . tidied up a little and vacuumed all the bits of trodden around wallpaper from all over the house . . ate corned beef, mayo and lettuce sandwiches with crisps and a couple of buttered hot cross buns . . . sat around/TVd/PCd . . walked . . TVD . .touched base with BB . . ate bowls of corn flakes . . TVd until bed around 11:30pm. p
7 - Up just after 7am . walked in the sun again. Really is starting to feel like summer. Lots of boats all buzzing around in the bay and a microlight buzzing around over the hills . . pottered in the box room getting absolutely nothing done and just looking and looking at it! Did at least nail and glue the broken floorboard back into reasonable shape. What I'm finding SO diffiult is where to try and put the new socket boxes in the walls. I fully intend to have that tiny little room as my 'computer room', but I want to position the sockets (as near as possible as dictated by the studwork walls and floor joists etc.) in such a way that if it is used as a normal bedroom (which is of course how it will have to appear when I sell) the sockets will be in 'useful' places in relation to where the single bed will go (and a single bed will only 'just' go in one of two places). I also if at all possible at some point, want to drill a hole through the wall and bring the phone line wire through into the bedroom underfloor void there to enable me to do proper hidden phone line circuits/sockets. At the moment the wire comes down the front of the house and somehow disappears around and into the front door/window frames before re-emerging at a junction box in the hallway - and from there, surface mounted extension leads tacked down all over the place!! If I don't relocate that beforehand it'll be a headache if/when I have the doors and windows replaced. Much to do. Decisions decisions!! And I have to say it - at the moment I really can't see the point in doing any of it! I'm starting all over again!! Look at all the work I did in my Bristol house. Spent much of my life doing all that - and as it turned out - for what? Just to have to throw it all away like that!!! What IS the point?. . .finally spotted what's been absolutely wrecking my otherwise untouched peanut bird feeder. Turns out a huge black crow is the culprit responsible for continually undoing the clipped-on plastic top of the feeder, and bending the whole thing out of shape - and occasionally dumping the whole thing on the floor!! . . Mum popped in briefly . . ate Mum donated sausage rolls with crisps . . . napped . . walked the cove and the woods . . TVd . . ate ham sandwiches . . touched base with BB. . TVd until bed around 11:30pm. ps
8 - Up just after 7am . walked in the sun. Wow I feel down again!? Sat around . . Sis1 called to touch base and announce they may all be down some time this week to see the house .:o( . .forced myself out of my inactvity and somehow managed to start working on new sockets in the box room after having lifted another short section of floorboard. Started off on the stud wall and managed to rough in two singles and a double (phone/TV aerial(s)/power). Didn't go 'too' badly and, despite needing to go buy a better sort of double socket box at some point somewhere, I can see it'll probably work out ok in the end. Inspired by the relative success (the 'success' being as much as anything else, the fact that I've stopped spending hours just looking at it and have made a decision about where to try and put them and have actually started!!) I marked out a similar trio on the brick party wall in the opposite corner of the room and had my first go at chasing out some of the wall, using the drill, disc cutter and hammer and chisels. Wow - didn't expect that! Turned out the wall was made of construction blocks rather than brick, which made the cutting out of the three recesses easier than I could possibly have imagined! Eventually called it quits with only part of the work done, but actually quite happy with how things went. I think that's gonna be quite do-able, but I need to go buy cement and plaster and conduit before I can get serious with it - and I need to cut through one of those floorboards to raise it! . . Ate late, ham sandwiches, crisps and biscuits . . . walked . .felt SO tired, I could easily have been in bed by eight o'clock!! . BB called . .needed to eat something but just felt far too tired to cook/make anything and ended up eating a banana and bowls of corn flakes again . . TVd rubbish until early to bed well before 11pm. ps
9 - Up around 6:45am . . walked. A bit misty and much cooler this morning . . PCd a bit of this . . sat around . . did laundry . . cooked ham ring, mushrooms and potatoes . . napped . . walked . . ate corned beef sandwiches . . to bed around 11:30pm. p
10 - Up around 6:30am . .walked - quickly . . back by around 8am and phoned the doctor looking to get my repeat perscription. . PCd (I've still yet to rebuild the system after that latest crash) and found I don't have the product registration code for one of my main programs (the one I did all my videos on!!), so I can't instal it! :o( . . .Doctor phoned me back and agreed an increase in the prozac dose to one and two on alternate days. I think he's also gonna put me down for some counselling, after I laboured the point that I need some help right now!. . walked with Sally and picked up the script (£6.85) and walked to the DIY store and bought a handful of socket boxes. .sat around. Another badly down day. . mustered the energy to leave Sally at home and drive in the congestion to the nearest DIY store and bought some conduit, sockets and plaster (£20.03). .Mum called to touch base . . cooked ham ring, eggs, mushrooms and potatoes . . napped . . .walked. The seat I've sat on pretty much every day since I've been down here (Sally running ahead even lays down by it and waits for me to catch up and sit) had recently been vandalised and three of the four wooden seat rails had been torn off and were floating out to sea. So - I won't be sitting there any more. :o( All the graffittied pill boxes have been freshly re-painted today, ready for the next assault. (Forgot to mention - a few days ago, some council workmen re-tiled the vandalised roof under which I also sit most days). . BB called . . TVd . . ate bowls of corn flakes . . TVd until bed after midnight. sp
11 - Up around 7am . .walked . PCd a bit of this. Problems with the PC and I really just can't be bothered with sorting it! . .succesfully cut through and lifted a floorboard in the box room and had a go at roughing in the power socket box and conduits using plaster rather than cement as I have done in the past. Made it rather more difficult to do. . . Mum popped down for an hour or so . . did a bit of filling . . ate sausage rolls and crisps . . napped . . .walked . . sat in the garden. Tightened up some of the wobbly garden furniture . .sat in the front garden. Buzzed by a bat as darkness fell! . . touched base with BB . . ate Mum donated ham rolls . . TVd until bed around 11:30pm. app
12 - Up just before 7am . .walked . PCd a bit of this . .worked in the box room, mostly sanding and filling . . ate defrosted mushroom and veg. pastry pie and a pastie with crisps . . napped . . walked . . TVd . . touched base with BB. . ate bowls of corn flakes. . TVd until bed around 11pm. ps
13 - Up around 7:30am . . .walked in a shower. . real hard trying to get going at anything, and sat around for ages in the box room just looking at it all . . eventually walked with Sally to a local store and bought a couple more single metal socket boxes and some filler (£6.94) then returned and had a go at cutting out the wall to take another trio of sockets. Actually went ok-ish and by around 4pm I had them pretty much all done and roughed/plastered in place. Cleaned up/vacummed/showered/did dish washing chores . ate a banana to stop the 'lack of food shakes' . . walked . . cooked and ate four cheese burgers . . TVd with chocolate and biscuits . . . TVd having trouble staying awake (almost fell asleep on the floor next to Sally!) until giving up early as soon as BB had called . . exhausted to bed around 10:30pm! pp
14 - Up around 7am . . walked the woods. Incredibly warm out . . . ate defrosted buttered hot cross buns with a coffee in the garden . . PCd a bit of this and then got into trying to sort out the mess my PC is in. Made a bit of progress and even managed to find the product ID for the DVD software I was so upset about not being able to instal. Messed around with it until afternoon . .Mum popped in for an hour or so . . cooked Mum donated bacon with eggs and chips and ate with two pieces of bread and butter . . napped. Woke feeling a bit yucky . . walked. When I was younger (in my early teens I think) I had the occasional really unpleasant migrain type headache. It always used to start with something weird going on with my eyesight, before any hint of a headache. Hard to explain but it was something along the lines of knowing my eyes were working perfectly ok, but not actually being able to see properly, as though there was a perceptual blind spot somewhere. My brain simply wasn't processing the data correctly. Really unpleasant feeling, and of course pretty incapacitating! I eventually learned the pattern, and that as soon as the headache arrived, my visual disturbance would return to normal. Despite those headaches being excrutiating, they were easier to function with than not being able to 'see' properly, and dare I admit that on desperate occasions I would attempt to encourage the inevitable transition to the headache, by karate chopping the back of my kneck!!!!!!! Uhuh?!!!!!!! Anyway - why relate all this? Because as I walked Sally this evening, I became aware that I was having THAT sort of visual perception problem!!! My conclusion is that it was directly related to my change in body chemistry as a result of taking the fluoxetine. Walked slowly and carefully, and sat around on one of the benches for quite a while experimenting with alternately looking out of one eye. An unpleasant and actually rather worrying walk, inevitably thinking about Dad a bit! . .by the time I was heading home, things seemed to settle almost unnoticed back to normal, thankfully WITHOUT the expected bad headache?. . as usual, as the evening wore on, I felt better and even treated myself to a £1.39 can of Stella Artoise. Sat in the gardens both front and back supping on my beer and actually feeling 'relatively' 'happy'. Sad ain't it? Takes me a heady mix of a cerebral embolism, a high dose of prozac tablets and some alcohol to even get near feeling just 'ok'. :o(. . . TVd . . ate spam and lettuce sandwiches and bowls of co-co pops. .TVd until bed.pds
15 - Up just after 7am . . walked in just a t-shirt it was so warm. . ate a couple of buttered hot cross buns with a coffee in the garden . .PCd a bit of this. .worked in the box room and somehow ended up making the decision to attempt to strip off the two layers of flakey paint on the stud wall . . . spent the whole day scraping!! :o( . . showered the layers of dust and grime off me, ate a banana and then walked . . ate bacon, eggs and chips with bread and butter and then some buttered hot cross buns . . BB called . . early to bed. pp
16 - Up just after 7am . . walked in the warm. . pottered in the back garden a little trimming a few bits of this and that, and eventually decided to have a day off from the box room and then spent the whole morning cutting the lawn and trimming bushes and moving potted plants around in an attempt to make things just a little less cluttered and more to my liking. It really IS a neat garden, despite the worry of having far too much growing in it (particularly those four big trees, the cherry blossom already far too big and requiring serious, impossible, high level pruning at the very least!). .
A large paving slab has been strangely
plonked on the earth near the table and chairs, stopping me from
digging over the rest of the earth where I removed those bushes
obscuring the view of the garden from the house. Figured I'd get
that out of the way. As I picked up the slab, I couldn't believe
what I saw. Right in the middle of its cover was a wriggling pile
of straw and leaves. A mouse nest, the cute little black eyed
adult staring up at me, with babies!!! Yikes! Quickly, gently
dropped the heavy slab back in place. Damn. Damn, damn, damn!
What to do? I wasn't thinking straight. It seemed like a good
idea to get a bucket and simply pop them all in it and then
safely relocate them to a different part of the garden so that I
could get on and move the slab. Idiot. Of course as soon as I
picked the slab back up, and propped it up out of the way, there
was mayhem. The mother mouse flew off across the garden and
disappeared under the fence, scattering a couple of clinging mice
as she did so. All the babies then started scrambling about all
over the place in different directions. MISTAKE! I struggled to
quickly gather up the babies and unceremoniously stuffed them all
back into their nest, forcibly encouraging them to remain there
and keep their heads down. As soon as I had them all gathered in
there, I put the slab carefully back in place. No way did I want
the deaths of all of them on my conscience!!! Oh dear - will the
mother return to them or are they doomed? Like it or not, the
slab was going to have to stay there for the time being, to give
them the best possible chance of surviving in spite of my
untimely intervention. Trouble is, for how long? Damn, damn damn!
Poor mice. Such was my guilt, for the next several days, a
regular offering of broken pea nuts was carefully scattered
around and under the edges of the slab. Something ate them -
maybe a bird - maybe Sally - hopefully the surviving mice. :o/ .
. did my best at trimming a few of the bushes in the garden with
the old garden shears I've had for years, but it pretty soon
became apparant that would be a full time job! No way was I going
to be able to keep on top of everything with just hand tools.
Like it or not, a hedge trimmer is going to be an absolute must!
Who'd have thought it - ME ending up needing as an absolute
necessity, a lawn mower and hedge trimmer!! lol . . ate spam and
lettuce sandwiches mid afternoon . . . walked . . dabbled in the
front garden, digging out some of the weeds in the border next to
the path. Mum and then BB called in the middle of things . . sat
in the garden with coffee and cigarettes as the light faded and a
small bat circled over the gardens between the hedges only feet
in front of me. Turns out the bat thing is pretty much a nightly
occurance, and seems pretty damn cool to me. :o) . . ate bowls of
corn flakes and TVd until bed around midnight. Another school
type massacre in the US this day. :o( p17 - Broken sleep then up just after 6am. It was really hot when I went to bed so I just slept under a duvet cover - I ended up too cold! . . walked and cleared up bags of bottles and beer cans, strewn in and around the lower pill box . . did dish washing and vacuuming chores . . PCd a bit of this . . pottered in the front garden a little, weeding some more . . PS arrived around midday . . . corned beef and lettuce sandwiches with crisps . . all drove to BHead and walked about a bit. Very warm. Treated by PS to a coffee and 'tea cake' with butter and jam at the cafe. . . returned home to sit around a bit before all heading out to walk, via the store for a couple of cans of lager . . sat in BGdns for ages drinking the beer . . . back via the store for PS to buy more cans and then back to sit around and TV . . ate a couple of sausage rolls with crisps . . . TVd until bed around 1am. ppds
18 - Up around 7am . . waited for PS to rise and eventually woke him around 8am . . all walked . . cooked up sausages, bacon, eggs, fried bread and fried potatoe . . sat around . . bid PS farewell around midday . . . sat around/TVd/PCd . . . walked . . ate four sausage rolls and crisps . . touched base briefly with BB . . TVd until bed around 10:30pm. p
19 - Woken by Sally climbing up the stairs around 6:45am . . walked . . left Sally at home and drove to the DIY store via the garden centre, looking at hedge trimmers. .bought a cheap one in Focus (£14.99) together with some timber, paint and 800 grade lining paper (£30.54). . worked in the back garden with the hedge trimmer and trimmed everything back a bit. VERY tough without a decent step ladder to reach the tops of the overgrown hedges, but, yep - it works. Hard to see how I can manage this garden without one of those now! . . ate spam and lettuce sandwiches . . napped . . walked . . sat in the front garden but ended up pottering around with the secateurs trimming a bit of this and that. .chatted with the quieter of the next door neighbors and asked a few questions about the people who used to live here. Turns out, they gave him their hedge trimmer!!! Grrrr. Give it back!! lololol - the other neighbour popped out and announced he had a spare key for my front door and did I want it!! Ummm yesss!! (Both neighbours used to come in and feed the cat and such!). . touched base with BB . . ate bowls of corn flakes . . TVd until bed around 11:30pm. pp
20 - Woke earlier then up around 6:30am . . . walked in the sun again. I've almost forgotten what it's like to have overcast, wind and rain!. . ?-//-?
23 - Worked in the box room . . the doctor left an ansaphone message cancelling my Frday appointment and saying he wanted me to provide blood for baseline samples, and I should contact the surgery to arrange an appointment for that, and he'd see me after the results were back. Hard to explain but that made me feel really down. Aside from being forced to have the hassle of arranging the blood thing, I couldn't help myself thinking (pure nonsense paranoia of course) such things as maybe the doctor had now received my thick wad of medical records, had looked at them and thought 'to hell with having to see that time wasting nutter'!! :o( . . napped . . .walked . . BB called
?-//-?
24 - Up around 7am. . . walked . .sanded filler in the box room . . left Sally at home and walked to the doctors surgery to arrange the blood test. They could fit me in in an hour! . .withdrew money from my building society account and got round to updating my address details. . wandered round town a little checking out a couple of charity shops . shopped and treated myself to packets of reduced ham and a pack of bread rolls and then a huge bag of 'past their best/bruised' bananas for £1. . DIY store for this and that . .registered at the library . . back to the doctors to have my blood taken. Results should be in around the end of the week. . ate four ham/bread rolls with crisps . . napped . . .walked . . glued more of the lining paper to a couple of the walls in the box room . . ate four ham/bread rolls with crisps . . TVd until bed around 11:30pm.
25 - Up just before 7am. .ate a banana. . walked . . plastered up part of the wall in the box room, in an attempt to 'lose' the weird very noticeable depression in the middle. Put up a couple more pieces of lining paper - the last I can put up until that final warped wall is sorted. .put a new double socket box in the main bedroom, on the opposite side of the stud wall from where the others are in the box room, because it was easily done with little hassle and nothing more than a stanley knife and a screwdriver! . .tidied up and vacuumed just a little. . ate four ham/bread rolls with crisps . .napped . . walked . . TVd . . ate bowls of corn flakes . . BB called. . TVd/PCd until early. p
26 - Woken by Sally around 7:45am after not enough sleep . .coffee, cigarette and a banana to 'wash down' the prozac . . walked. .dabbed a tiny bit of filler on the wall of the box room, but there isn't a whole lot I can do now until that plaster dries out, then I'll have to apply some more and set about 'matching it in' to the rest of the wall with huge amounts of filler and sanding down. :o( . . PCd a bit of this . .did a tiny bit of paperwork and phoned and set up a direct debit for my council tax bill which I finally received just the other day (and which suprisingly seems to be pretty comparable to my bill in Bristol - just a 'little' higher) . . removed the weird dark-wood (ugly!) wall unit in the kitchen that had been left attached to the firebreast, and stashed it in the garage, awaiting a probable donation to a charity shop. Makes that dark kitchen just a little bit lighter. . cooked up bacon, eggs, fried bread and potatoes for a large lunch . .napped for a few hours . . .walked . . touched base with BB. . ate a tin of bangers and beans with grated cheese and four pieces of bread and butter . .TVd until bed around 11:30pm. app
27 - Woken by Sally moving around before 7am . . .walked . . walked with Sally up to the local building supplies place and bought a 6" ceiling pendant set, more filler, and a packet of five dust masks (£7.90). . walked with Sally up to return Mums spade and to pick up her old unwanted strimmer . .rang the doctors and was told the blood results were not in yet and they could only make an appointment for a phone consultation with the doctor on Tuesday!?? . . sanded down the new plaster patch on the box room wall and applied a bunch of blend-it-in filler around some of the the edges. I think it's gonna need more plaster here and there! :o( . .
stashed some boxes up in the attic and had a
look at the wiring to see how much hassle it would be to move the
box room ceiling rose. God only knows why it was put where it
was, all painfully off centre in two directions! Turned out two
of the three runs of wire would probably reach the new position
without 'too' much of a stretch, so it only meant having to
replace one of the runs that linked to the top of the stairs
landing light. . set about it and without 'too' much hassle
eventually had the new ceiling rose all wired in place. In the
middle of things, the electricity meter reader turned up to read
the meter! lol ?-//-?
walked and treated myself to a beer in the woods, sat high off the path amongst the bluebells. . . ate pasties . . TVd/PCd until early.
28 - Up around 7am after only around three or four hours sleep! . . walked . . didn't feel too good and had to lay down but couldn't sleep and eventually got back up and ate four pieces of marmalade on toast . . lay down again but still couldn't sleep and not wanting to waste a day, eventually worked in the box room and put another layer of plaster on part of the wall. Used a bit of the left over mix to have a bit of a go at filling in an eye sore depression/crack in part of the ceiling, attempting to duplicate the weird ugly lumpy finish by stippling the almost-going-off plaster with a large paste brush!! The experiment was actually 'fairly' successful and not 'too' noticeable, so rather than have to redo the entire ceiling, I'll probably make do with patching the rest of the affected area(s) for the time being (although I'll have to buy more plaster before I can do so). .Mum arrived luckily just as I'd finished and was about to wash the buckets and tools. .upset stomach! . walked with Mum down to the woods so she could see the bluebells. Felt rather unwell at times along the way!