Last week was a slow week, and each day couldn’t finish fast enough. After around 10 days, my stomach ‘issues’ finally eased up and at least I’ve been able to enjoy some meals, albeit very plain meals. I cut right down on coffee, I’m down to one a day now (it was creeping up to 3 or 4). I have tea in the morning, ginger tea in my break, and I don’t have a coffee until I come home from work. Now, if I could stop having a ‘coffee withdrawal’ headache I’d be laughing. I’ve been more stringent on hand washing in case I’d picked up a bug in work, though the downside of this is that the skin on my hands is splitting. I’ll take in a small bottle of moisturiser this week, to combat the dryness from handwashing/antiseptic gel.

Plainer food suits me better, though my son likes spicey food, and is often mithered if we don’t have the same meals, citing extra washing up (like he ever does that) and extra effort. Washing up and extra work be d*mned; I’m adding more plainer food to the menu, for myself at least.

I’ve had some lovely Greek salads this week which have been very enjoyable. I’m not eating bagged salads anymore as they often upset my stomach, and I’ve read that most are chlorine washed. If I want leaves, I’ll buy an actual lettuce. I’ve also been washing all fruit and veg in a white vinegar and water mixture, and I’ve added spirulina to my diet. This is supposedly a ‘super food’ and very good for you; often referred to as a blue-green algae. My kid sister has long extolled its virtues, and after a single dose (though this could be a co-incidence) my stomach stopped hurting me – I’d had stabbing pains for over a week. I’ll see how it goes anyway…

The Ship’s Dog has become ‘fussy’ again, and I’m crushing treat biscuits into his kibble just to get him to eat. For a while he had pouches of meat and gravy and that tempted him, but he’s ‘off’ those now. He’s always been a fussy eater.

In work, we’ve had 3 people leave recently. I’ve alerted my son, though he says he doesn’t want to work in the same store as me. I can understand; it’s too far to walk, and he’d always have to work the same shifts as me, or opposing shifts, so that I could take him in. He keeps looking for work at a closer store, though they rarely advertise. He’s also looking for work in his chosen field, and now that things are easing, maybe he’ll be lucky and find something. I have noticed in work many of the staff are very young and don’t stay long, or they’re like me; much older, mostly women, and we’re working because the government deferred our state pension until we reach, in my case, 66.

Oh, our GP surgery sent a blanket text recently stating that they’ll no longer take prescription requests over the phone. We must do them online (I already do this) or take the paper form to the surgery. Which they closed! The other surgery is more than 2 miles away. Just when I think the local GP ‘service’ couldn’t get any worse…

I like it well enough here, and I have a job, but sometimes the call of Wales/home is great. Once my son finds work, and is one day able to move out, I’m not sure I’ll stay here. We have issues with road traffic noise, parking issues; the street is staring to fill up again, it’s getting so busy again, and the local landfill is under investigation due to a frequent stink – I drove to work the one morning with a gloved hand over my nose or else I was going to vomit; it really is that bad some days. The other option is to move to a new house, though the dog is a stumbling block there, for now at least.

I just heard my son get up, so it’s oven on, walk the dog, then pop some frozen pastries in to have with a pot of coffee; probably my only one, so I better enjoy it lol.

Have a good week. Take care if going out.