What a difference a week makes

The weather is warmer, possibly heatwave stuff here, meaning I can almost be too hot when I have so much to do. Not a thing I'm used to saying.

Anyway, I now have a sink and some worktops. The main kitchen is still a work in progress but I can cook a reasonable meal now and it even looks half like a kitchen! I've also ordered a dishwasher as my hands have lost the battle between me and the all invading plaster dust, gloves don't help as it's everywhere, not just when you get wet, so after half a century on this planet, I get to enjoy what other people take for granted: my own dishwasher. I can't wait until Tuesday when it comes.

The rest of the house looks almost respectable except for the bathrooms. One is currently a store room and the other a disabled shower room but it's usable and with my super homemade temporary net curtains (amazing what you can do with 4 nails, a stapler and a length of net) and a few hooks screwed into odd holes in the wall it's quite functional too.

The depressed painter rang to see what progress had been made in the hall and was told not a lot. "Oh, still waiting for the plasterer are we?" Well no, actually we didn't even get that far, we still have no hall ceiling and WH is being somewhat tardy getting it put up. Maybe it was something to do with the garage fire door, he started that on Sunday night, abandoned it having lost his temper because the brickwork wasn't true and hasn't looked at it since, feeling an urgent need to do jobs for everyone else every evening so far this week. So no change there then.

The other bit of good news is that I finally have a tenant. The old house has been spring cleaned, the kitchen and one bedroom re-painted, new blinds and lights fitted, smoke detectors purchased and the garden manicured to perfection. Result 4 viewings in 3 days and one successful applicant. They move in next month and my bank account will be looking slightly healthier.

Tonight I can't move, 3 long evenings this week of gardening in the wilderness we call the back garden has given me aches in places I didn't know I had. We can see the whole garden now and the cats love it. I have a huge pile of cut down shrubs and stuff and it's been so hot it might be dry enough to burn over the weekend, otherwise I'll have to load it into the jalopy and take it to the local tip. Hand-weeding most of the original borders has unearthed some gems, seedling broom bushes, 2 Rosa glauca bushes, an Acanthus, which one I don't know, and a load of other stuff. Next week I can start making some flower beds.

As the painter said when he surveyed a large hole I had dug in the kitchen floor where an old pillar had to be removed, insulated and cemented over, "You couldn't have done this twelve months ago." No I couldn't, but now it seems the more I do the more I can. Great isn't it?

Reality check - pinch me if I'm dreaming

We finally cleared the new house of tools and rubbish last night prior to the carpet fitter arriving this morning. We now have painted bedrooms, all the light fittings and curtain rails. I am just about to load my car with all the stuff I need to clean windows, wipe down doors and paintwork and hang curtains. After 16 months it barely seems real. My stallwort friend and lifesaver T is arriving later to help. What I would have done this last twelve months without her support I do not know. OK she started as the 'hired help' but as in all the best stories she's now a part of the family and a great friend to boot.

My other 'dream' scenario is my energy level. Over the weekend I moved a lot of bricks and some builders sand which I was sick of seeing. Since then I have cleaned as though my life depended on it. I keep waiting for the crash and it doesn't come. Even 6 months ago I could not have done all this, so now I am testing myself daily to see how much more I can do. The results are amazing not just me but everyone around. For this I have to thank my Lovely Lyme Doc and his faith in my treatment.

And just to put the icing on the cake of this upbeat post, the nightingale has arrived and is singing not 20 metres from my window. What a joy.

Houseful

My living room is ablaze with flowers. Saturday brought 4 separate lots and a plant. Unfortunately 3 of these were delivered in person so I had vistors for the most part of the day and was dishing out cups of tea to all and sundry. One set though, made their own tea, tidied my kitchen, put the remains of my disturbed lunch in the fridge and commented on WH's lack of housekeeping skills all the while marvelling that I wasn't in bed like they thought I would be. As these relatives have never visited in the 17 years of WH and I being together I should think myself highly honoured. This was in addition to taking 2 little walks to the new house, alone.

I really am doing much better than last time. Yesterday, to celebrate that fact, we went to Kingsbury May Festival. Our short trip turned into a marathon involving a stand-up burger lunch, afternoon tea in a village coffee shop on the Somerset levels, an electrical part fest in B&Q, 2 supermarkets for cat food and other urgent needs and finally dinner in a local pub.

I was hoping to have a rest today, still being only 6 days post-op, but I started well by having to make tea for the workforce at 7.30am while they chewed over their respective weekend's events and tried to summon up enough energy to plod round the corner and actually DO something. I've just had a phone call to tell me that the breakfast delivery is late. Oh, were they expecting me to take it then? Er... YES.

Maybe I should just go back to work, I might get waited on then.

Not much to say

...other than it has been an extremely busy week so far:

The Painter is in residence sorting out the bathroom
I have spent HOURS on the phone to solicitors, estate agents and the like.
Mr Hippy Chic has been to visit and to collect his post.
WH's No 1 Assistant is coming back from India and bringing his wife to visit too. Yay!
I dug up a huge bush in the back garden.
I'm sunburnt badly from the effects of gardening, so....
I am now sporting a big hat, cotton gloves and fetching zinc white sunblock.
The holiday confirmation arrived.
I have been packing for the move.

I am still feeling so much better. ......

Dr Wonderful

I saw my Lyme doctor yesterday. He is very pleased with my progress and more to the point so am I and so is WH. Daily I can feel the layers peeling away and I am becoming almost human again. Eleven weeks of the antibiotic therapy is beggining to give some lasting benefit. I'm trying for another 12 weeks by which time I should be part way there.

Two things conspire to scupper my progress, the first is inbuilt, I am reacting to the sun big-time. I have to keep out of it and, for a died in the wool sunworshipper and lover of the great outdoors, this is hard. I wear factor 50 all the time but even so, a short drive to our nearest shops (6 miles) gave me a substantial burn on my right hand. Dr Wonderful suggests that on my forthcoming trip to Greece I stop the meds a few days before-hand to get the drug out of my system and don't take it for the duration of the trip. If this works I will be really over the moon.

The second blur on the horizon is the very real possibilty that my GP practice will not now prescribe me any more antibiotics beacuse they are 'off licence' in this treatment. It won't stop me taking them, however, as I shall obtain a private presciption and get the drugs elsewhere. It does beg the question though, which I have posed here before, would the NHS prefer for me to remain ill rather than stump up the cost of the drugs which are making a real improvement to my health for the first time in 15 years?

What I've been doing this last week

A whole week's gone by and it has flown. I'm knackered. Anyway here's a brief resume of my activities:

1. Dug a whole huge patch of my back garden and removed oodles of Three Cornered Leek which had taken over. It was only AFTER I planted it I read a quote from Alan Titchmarsh which said it was a 'pernicious weed' and never to plant it in a small garden.

2. I have redone the stone border around 90% of my back garden. It's so unusual to be able to garden so early in the year, the weather was fabulous last week and the ground so dry it was almost a pleasure.

3. Spent 3 hours shopping at Cribbs Causeway on Sunday, bought a few gems and joy of joys Anne Harvey has reopened her shop so that was cause for more expense. ( Yes I know it's part of Alexon and NOT an exclusive designer shop but I like their stuff and it FITS)

4. Got sunburned, in April!

5. Emptied the whole of Mother's flat, disposed of the rubbish and cleaned it all out. That feels so good.

6. Saw middle step- daughter and bump last night, not long to go now. She was working, so we just called in briefly on our way past.

7. I have been playing Hayseed Dixie's fab new album. As usual I prefer the original material but they just bring a smile to my face and a bop to my step.

8. Reorganised my entire garage contents ahead of our imminent move; if we're keeping it, it's in a plastic storage box, colour coded and labelled in order of importance. Following this activity I had a trip to our local tip with a whole car load. Spring is for cleaning. Right?

Do you notice anything different reading all this??

I am feeling a lot better and I have the energy (and a little weight loss) to prove it. A trip to Dr Wonderful on Monday will hopefully confirm we are on the right track. It has only taken 15 years.