Sarah's Transition Diary .. weeks 301 - 304

.... is for those who might want to contact me about my diary.

Day 2129. Thursday 7th October 2010.

Memory Joggers ...

I’m not sure I slept much at all .. we experienced quite a bit of turbulence .. not particularly violent but enough to shake you awake if you weren’t already ..

02.15 .. The flight crew wake us all up .. they are beginning their final service .. a continental breakfast.

I try to sort my hair out sitting down .. in these cramped conditions it’s impossible to I slide into the aisle seat and do it over the side towards the floor .. I look in my mirror .. it’ll do .. and my eye makeup has survived all my sneezing and watery eyes during the night.

02.58 .. I get my “continental breakfast” .. a muffin and a plain yoghurt .. WOWIE ..

03.05 .. I spot the coast below .. I suspect it’s just above north Wales .. well there are lots of clear patches so hopefully we’ve towed some Canadian prairie weather home with us .. << smiles >>.

03.10 .. or should I say 10.10 .. now we are less than an hour from landing ..

10.13 .. The flight deck pop up with a message .. we are 28 minutes from landing .. that’s even earlier than they had told us .. the plane starts to descend .. as I try to catch up on some diary notes.

10.25 .. We are getting quite close to the ground .. time to stop typing maybe .. I spy what maybe a farm now .. but with unmistakeable runways, maybe an old WWII airfikeld.

10.30 .. Gosh the pressure in my ears .. horrible .. I pack the laptop up.

11.32 .. I walk into the arrivals hall and search for my name amongst the many signs being held .. I guess I’m easily read cause “Mike” seems to be waving my name at me .. << sighs >>

“Mike” takes my trolley from me and wheels it to his car .. a mere Mondeo estate ..

11.58 .. I’m home .. Mike carries my bags to the door ..

I need to plan my time .. I’m shattered .. I sort out my suitcases

I do a quick weight check .. 14st 10lb .. sob, sob ..

13.30 .. I’m in the shower ..

14.25 .. I’m in the bank .. a little late ..

14.28 .. I’m called through ..

15.32 .. I leave the bank with plenty to think about .. and head down a couple of doors to the solicitors .. to get my form for my congestion charge defence witnessed and stamped .. the Solicitor doesn’t charge me for it as see me as a current customer due to my incompleted Will they are handling.

15.45 .. I head for the garden centre to gety some flowers for Karen ..

More to come ...

Day 2130. Friday 8th October 2010.

No notes today .. sorry ..

Day 2131. Saturday 9th October  2010. (28th Wedding Anniversary )

Memory Joggers ...

It’s the Saturday morning weigh in .. 14st 8lb .. 2 lb off in 2 days .. Canadian excesses .. live too long in a Canadian hotel and you’ll look like nearly every other Canadian eating there .. << grimace >>.

More to come ...

Day 2132. Sunday 10th October 2010.

No notes today .. sorry ..                                   

Day 2133. Monday 11th October 2010.

Memory Joggers ...

05.55 .. The alarm goes off

07.53 .. I start to get my motor bike kit on .. this feels so weird .. I make several mistakes which means back tracking ..

08.18 .. I’m finally on the road .. I’m about 10 minutes later than I wanted really .. and now the school run mums are out .. and I make the mistake of taking the car cross country route .. the A30 from Sunningdale would have been quicker on two wheels.

08.50 .. I arrive at work .. given I was held up on the A30 on Egham Hill for about 2 minutes by road works .. I’ve been incredibly quick .. 30 minutes door to door .. + dressing and undressing time ..

Mark arrives on his bike and asks if the other one outside is mine .. yes I reply .. “It’s very clean” he says.

Boss Jon won’t be in today .. he forwards me an e-mail with a list of complaints about faults .. asking me to enter them into our fault logging system ..

12.35 .. I head for “The Canteen” with my lunch box to eat my fruit with Mark and another. We are joined by the new director of technology who sits beside me .. we chat about my history .. and discover we have a lot of mutual friends over the years .. LOL. Lunch was PABO .. yes 4 pieces .. with a Satsuma.

13.05 .. Back in the office . .I spend a little time doing an edit on an early diary page, part of my “anonymising” my diary pre August 2010.

Update a load of Marantz PMD560's after talking to a friend, Malcolm, regarding a “fault” I have on a unit .. his son Daniel makes a suggestion of updating the firmware .. on investigation all the machines here are well out of date .. some have the earliest firmware version still.

17.34 .. I start to get dressed to leave ..

17.45 .. I’m the last to leave from “technology” .. I only get a few miles when I need to go on my tank’s “reserve” setting .. then I hit a big bump and my front nearside indicator lamp fails ..

18.22 .. I’m home post petrol stop in Egham ..

18.40 .. I log in on the PC and have a few chats on Yahoo with friends ..

19.20 .. Dinner is served .. steak and salad . .dessert is strawberries and Cornish ice cream ..

Post chats I work on another 2 diary pages “anonymising” them and upload the three done today.

21.40 .. I do some diary notes for today ..

22.05 .. I call it a night .. nightie night ..

More to come ...

Day 2134. Tuesday 12th October 2010.

Memory Joggers ...

06.00 .. The alarm goes off ..

08.14 .. I’m on the road in Sparkle ..

09.01 .. I’m in the office ..

12.25 .. Lunch .. I head off to “The Canteen” with the others .. I’ll be eating my fruit .. others are eating food they have brought in too .. for me its PABPP .. 2 plums added ..

Post lunch I head to Gerrards Cross with Mark .. he’s after some chain for some chandeliers he has bought .. I’m after a 60W ES bulb for a lamp at home .. the replacement has to be a 42W halogen “60W equivalent” ..

13.36 .. We are buck in the office ..

17.40 .. I head for home .. via a fill up in Egham .. then get caught by the station level crossing .. 4 trains worth .. arghhhhhh ..

18.38 .. I’m home ..

20.01 .. I’m in the pub .. Latitia is there, no sign of Amanda yet ..

20.22 .. Latitia and I head for the restaurant .. we’ve sat down for about 2 minutes when Amanda arrives ..

22.32 .. I leave the pub ..

23.32 .. I climb into bed .. nightie night ..

More to come ...

Day 2135. Wednesday 13th October 2010.

Memory Joggers ...

06.00 .. The alarm goes off ..

06.09 .. Up and at it .. I need to do my hair today ..

06.53 .. I’m back in the bedroom .. hair in a towel .. I lay on the bed and watch the Chilean mine rescue .. the first miners are out .. great news ..

07.18 .. I must go dry my hair ..

07.34 .. I’m finally in the kitchen ..

08.14 .. I’m on the road in Red ..

09.07 .. I’m in the office ..

Cable pulling with James and Peter .. running 4 Cat-5 cables across our massive shared office ready for when new boy Phil starts next week ..

12.35 .. Lunch .. I head off to “The Canteen” with the others .. I’ll be eating my fruit .. others are eating food they have brought in too .. for me its PABPP .. 2 plums added ..

James helps me screw a board up in CTA to mount more BT / ADSL stuff on .. we need to do some tidying up and I’ve got a project to mount there too ..

17.15 .. I go get my car and park it in front of the warehouse .. Peter and James have already gone in and Peter wheels out the box of T shirts being donated to Karen’s school .. I suspect they were once “giveaways” for competitions .. “2006" World Cup ..

17.43 .. I finally drive away ..

18.31 .. I’m home ..

19.18 .. Dinner part 1 is served .. a bowl of Waitrose Mexican chicken soup .. it’s lovely ..

19.35 .. Dinner proper is served .. it’s a grilled chicken fillet with a salad .. dessert is a “Gu” Chocolate Bonoffee Pot

I sort a decent “Fujitsu” keyboard for Dan at work and get a box of mugs from the garage .. mugs from the “good old days” at the old place that would have been smashed up after the station was renamed .. several of us spirited away boxes of mugs to stop the criminal destruction .. the mugs will be welcomed for sure at the “new place” .. << smiles >>.

While getting the box out of the garage I catch my leg on Jamie’s old bike .. making a whole in the bottom turnover on the left ankle .. and taking a chunk out of my ankle .. it weeps blood .. Ouch .. 

22.45 .. I head for bed ..

More to come ...

Day 2136. Thursday 14th October 2010.

No notes today .. sorry .. .

Day 2137. Friday 15th October 2010.

Memory Joggers ...

08.32 .. I arrive at my mums .. and go check the outside wall where her mobility scooter is supposed to go .. the “Home” company have failed in their commitment to even put a charging socket outside ..

17.36 .. I drive away from work ..

18.32 .. I’m in Waitrose in Sunningdale ..

19.15 .. I’m at home ..

20.45 .. I arrive at my mums .. to find her dressed for bed .. grrrrr .. she knew I was coming and what I was trying to achieve .. so now I have to do it all myself ..

21.08 .. I’m home .. Karen is in bed ..

22.15 .. I head up to bed ..

22.42 .. I climb into bed .. Karen is not a well bunny ..

More to come ...

Day 2138. Saturday 16th October  2010.

Memory Joggers ...

06.55 .. The alarm goes off ..

07.25 .. Up and at it ..

08.55 .. I head for Lightwater in Red .. two missions .. to collect the remaining items from my last prescription and dive into Budgen’s to get Karen some Wheatabix ..

The pharmacist ( the friendly regular one ) sees me enter and gets the bag of my stuff off the shelf .. she apologises for the fact that my GP has messed up my repeat prescription .. something else .. 1/4 of the strength, has been substituted for proper Hibiscrub .. DOH.

09.20 .. I’m back home .. having seen the warnings of a sharp cold snap starting tomorrow and Monday .. I decide to “winterise” the washer bottles on the three Jazz’s .. by adding extra concentrate and making up a new mix that I suspect should be good for -10c .. what I’ll be using for the next 6 months or so.

09.31 .. We are on the road in Red to get Claire .. I’m driving as Karen doesn’t feel good ..

11.00 .. Bang on time we arrive at Northampton services South .. Claire and her minders are waiting for us .. it’s a quick exchange because it’s so cold in the wind ..

11.02 .. We are on the road for home ..

15.20 .. I do the “Saturday morning weigh in” .. 13st 7 1/4 lb .. but it’s not morning so this doesn’t really count.

15.46 .. We head for my mum’s ..

17.05 .. Claire’s asking to go home .. how can I refuse her .. we head for home.

17.25 .. We are home ..

17.38 .. I order the Pizza .. gosh it’s early .. no holding Claire back .. I’m told 10 - 15 minutes .. this is rare .. must be a busy time ..

18.02 .. I’m home with the food ..

More to come ...

Day 2139. Sunday 17th October 2010.

No notes today .. sorry ..                                  

Day 2140. Monday 18th October 2010.

Memory Joggers ...

06.25 .. The alarm goes off .. Karen is still unwell .. so she’s off work too ..

06.45 .. I head for a shower ..

07.15 .. Robert is hassling me for the bathroom ..

07.22 .. I’m back in the bedroom .. I find my dressing gown to cover up and get back into bed briefly .. I go make Karen and I a cup of tea ..

07.50 .. Up and at it .. I head down for breakfast and pills ..

I boot the PC .. check my e-mails and try to find

09.25 .. I head upstairs to dress ..

09.55 .. I call the “Homes group” manager responsible for my mothers flats complex to discuss the new issues.

10.10 .. I give up with the area manager from the Homes Group and head for my mum’s ..

10.28 .. I arrive at my mum’s in Red .. I go through her paperwork file and find all the original documents for her purchase and move into Manor Farm Court in Egham .. there’s some interesting limitations in the original agreement between Runnymede Council and the developers .. clearly what the “Homes Group” are trying to do .. by making the whole building open and more atractive to younger buyers is outside what the council allows for this site .. hmmmm.

10.45 .. Mum and I head off to an M&S, not what I signed up for Saturday .. via the Mobility shop she bought her scooter from .. we need to acquire a cover for it.

11.08 .. Mission, part 1, accomplished .. we head for M&S in Camberley, rather than Staines, as she’s insisting I fetch her a wheel chair and walk her half way around Staines in it .. NO WAY !!!  

11.30 .. ish .. We arrive at “The Meadows” in Camberley so mum can do her M&S shopping .. I end up wheeling her around in a wheel chair still .. gosh she’s so embarrassing .. but at least I’ve parked 30 yards from the entrance .. rather than ½ mile away.

Mum’s being herself with M&S assistants .. it’s just more embarrassment for me ..

12.10 .. Mum’s being helped by the 3rd assistant in a changing room .. I call Karen .. there is some good news .. Jamie’s flight isn’t “expected” till 13.55 now .. that’s 30 minutes late.

13.35 .. We are back in mum’s flat .. I opt in to the offer of tea and biscuits .. I’m seriously hungry.

14.02 .. I try calling the “Homes Group” manager again .. and get his secretary ..

14.06 .. I leave my mum’s heading for LHR T5 ..

14.15 .. I’m on the roundabout at M25 J13 when my Sarah phone rings ..it’s Karen .. Jamie has finally landed 5 minutes ago ..

14.22 .. I’m in the terminal .. the board for the Calgary flight is still showing “landed 14.10” so it’ll still be a while .. I go to Costa ( rip off ) coffee and have a chocolate muffin and coffee .. when I compare the value to “Tim Hortons” in Canada 2 weeks ago .. this is over twice the price, and not as good .. rip off Britain at it’s best ..

I’ve finished my coffee when a woman with a baby, maybe 6  months old arrives, and sits behind me. I turn in my seat slightly .. the baby looks me in the eyes and beams a smile at me that is so lovely .. he’s clearly pretty happy at the moment ..

14.43 .. ish .. Jamie wanders out and is scanning around .. I satand up .. he see’s me and smiles and walks towards me.

I try to pay for the car park .. but the first machine will not accept any coins .. I push the help button .. I’m told to try another machine .. success. Jamie loads the car up with his gear ..

As we drive away the fuel light comes on for the first time .. what excellent timing .. Jamie’s borrowing this car for the next two weeks ..

15.08 .. We are home ..

17.35 .. I head for Waitrose to get some things ..

18.25 .. I’m back .. but voices rise as I look for some keys that are not in the usual place .. Karen finds them in another place, probably my fault from earlier .. but her tone in front of her two sons sends me looking for comfort to the bedroom ..

Eventually she comes to find me .. apologises a bit then heads back down to her sons.

19.10 .. ish .. dinner is served .. I head for the kitchen to find mine. When everyone is sorted I discover Robert has decided to honour us with his presence .. normally he doesn’t eat with Karen and I .. as I’m last to arrive in the lounge there is nowhere for me to sit and eat .. so I go to head for upstairs or the dinning room .. Karen explodes on me again ..

Robert comments that in 11 days he’ll be gone .. what .. I thought it was this coming Friday he was moving out .. grrrrr.

The dinning room table is 6" thick with abandoned junk .. so I return to the lounge and kneel on the floor with my tray on a pile of empty storage boxes to eat .. Karen storms off saying now that she must ring Claire .. I lose what ever happens .. I

19.32 .. I head for the PC ..

More to come ...

Day 2141. Tuesday 19th October 2010.

No notes today .. sorry ..

Day 2142. Wednesday 20th October 2010.

No notes today .. sorry ..

Day 2143. Thursday 21st October 2010.

No notes today .. sorry ..

Day 2144. Friday 22nd October 2010.

No notes today .. sorry ..

Day 2145. Saturday 23rd October  2010.

Memory Joggers ...

It’s the Saturday morning weigh in .. 14st 73/4 lb ...

11.23 .. We are finally on the road for Newmarket .. it’s a 104 mile trip according to Jane.

13.12 .. We arrive at the Newmarket Jockey Club .. but the room isn’t ready, we can’t get any refreshment here so we have to go out onto the High Street to get lunch .. and it’s raining .. so we drive away again.

The hotel opposite looks good, but the car park behind has a lot of confusing signs about wheel clamping .. so I drive out again .. patrons of where ?

Luckily we didn’t have to go far .. to find a 1 hour parking bay ..

A quick lunch becomes a nightmare of slow delivery after fairly quick order taking ..

14.12 .. We are finally in our room with all our bags and hangers .. how long to get ready !!!

14.52 .. We have to leave the room .. all I’ve done face wise is some 5 minute working eyes .. a slick of lip salve finishes me off.

As we head for the room for the ceremony we pass the two brides having their pictures taken together and individually along the corridor that links the bedrooms to “The Rooms” ..

14.56 .. We’ve taken our places in the ceremony room ..

15.05 .. ish .. The brides arrive together .. and slightly late .. as brides are allowed to be.

The ceremony is very nice, if a little methodical and to the point. There are some “readings” and there daughter Zoe reads a poem she wrote .. though it’s not easy to hear at the back due to a very young child in a push chair snoring his head off !!!

15.25 .. ish .. it’s all done .. and the brides, Alison and Christine, lead us all out to another room, as we queue to meet the couple and we are handed glasses of champagne ..

Folk mingle, get plied with more drink .. the entertainment is still with the singer and guitarist .. it’s actually very pleasant.

17.00 .. ish .. We are summoned to another room for the “Wedding breakfast” .. the food is very nice and the wine flows .. I finally dispense with my hat. There’s an ex colleague of Alison and her husband with us on table 6 .. along with Dawn and Anne and their four “kids” .. I ask Emma what she and her husband had done to deserve sharing a table with us .. they laugh. 

There’s all sorts of goodies been organised for the guests .. things to keep both “children” and adults amused. Each table has been supplied with a disposable camera .. to record happenings on each table. Sadly a few of the ones from our table might be ruined when people failed to press the button to charge the flash before taking photo’s. I take a few .. with and without flash .. and get some good ones .. including a shot of a burning candle on our table without a flash gun .. it’s quite striking.

Speeches and toasts follow the meal .. both of the brides giving speeches.

18.30 .. ish .. with the breakfast over .. we are invited to another room for the official cake cutting ceremony .. The figures on the top of the cake .. clearly two females in elegant dresses, had been made secretly by Zoe .. so nice.

20.30 .. More food .. mainly for those coming to the evening party .. however we learn the secret of the wedding cake .. one of the tiers is chocolate under the white icing .. << grins .. yummy >>.

23.25 .. ish .. Party pooper’s .. we head back to our room, but we find Alison and Christine first to thank them for everything .. it has been a fabulous day ..

We find them close to a rapidly disappearing bar .. gosh they are glazing over .. and why not .. it’s their day. We all say our pieces and exchange hugs before separating .. they suggest going home tomorrow via their place to chat and catch up properly ..  

More to come ...

Day 2146. Sunday 24th October 2010.

Memory Joggers ...

08.01 .. I thought we’d wake earlier than this naturally .. up and at it .. Karen hits the shower first .. I start to bag a few things ready to go later ..

09.20 .. Karen and arrive in the room where the ceremony was yesterday .. for breakfast .. it’s a “full English” of sorts .. well it does seem to vary from place to place.

10.05 .. We leave the breakfast room and head back to our room to clear the devastation we, ok I, have created ..

10.50 .. Seems the whole of the remaining party have landed outside in the car park together .. all busy packing cars up. It’s lovely outside today ..

11.02 .. Having held back to take some photo’s we head for home .. it’s a cruise rather than the dash we had yesterday ..

We leave the M11 and head anti clockwise .. really I should have just gone the other way .. however we join the usual M25 roadworks queue just as we hit the exit for the M1 towards London .. so be it .. I head for London .. and the North Circular .. 

12.20 .. ish .. Stupidly .. I decide to go up the A5 to head out via Westway and the A / M 40 .. this proves a serious mistake .. with 3 miles to go till the A5 / Westway intersection, I get the TomTom out and head east a little to bypass the nightmare traffic on the Edgware Road ..

13.00 .. ish .. We stop for fuel at the Shell garage on the A40 just before Hanger Lane ..

13.48 .. We are home ..

Lunch is served .. a ham sandwich .. olives and crisps with a dip ..

Later in the afternoon as we relax I’m aware my left foot is starting to hurt ..

In the evening my foot has seriously ballooned up and is agony to try and hobble around on ..

20.25 .. I need to go do the drudgery .. so I do ..

20.55 .. I’m in that position .. my foot even laying flat out is too much of a distraction to my relaxation .. it doesn’t go easily as a result ..

21.58 .. I’ll have to call it a night .. things aren’t going right at all .. I’m a little short on depth .. and it’s getting more than a little messy.

22.05 .. I start my cleanse .. the first flush syringe is not good .. this is what happens when you can’t relax properly ..

Doing my cleanse I squat on the side of the bath .. left foot in the bath, resting on my right haunch .. right foot on the floor .. normally my left foot takes my weight .. but not tonight .. so I’m tense .. not helping.

Drying my left foot has tears flowing down my face .. gosh it hurts .. it’s massive in size now.

I hobble downstairs to take my meds and another pain killer ..

22.35 .. I’m in bed ..can I get comfortable .. not really .. can’t get my foot into a position where the weight of the Duvet doesn’t press on it ..

More to come ...                                   

Day 2147. Monday 25th October 2010.

Memory Joggers ...

What a nightmare .. the ibruprophen really didn’t help much ..

06.00 .. I was awake when the alarm went off ..

More to come ...

Day 2150. Thursday 28th October 2010.

Memory Joggers ...

17.30 .. It seems like it’s been a long day .. I head for home via Maplin’s in Slough .. I need to sort a better route to get there .. the last part is always a nightmare at night.

17.55 .. ish .. I’m in Maplins to pick up one of their bargain Seagate 1Tb USB external drive .. £59.99 .. makes trying to re-drive my old LaCie drive a financial nonsense. However, the drive I’m offered is not the white cased 5 year warrantie .. it’s a Seagate 1Tb in a black case and only a 2 year warranty .. at least it’s a Sata drive inside, so will be cheap and easy to replace when it dies.

It takes an age to get served though .. I start to think mail order might have been quicker ..

18.20 .. I finally leave Maplin’s and head home the traffic down through Windsor and across to Ascot is terrible .. bing .. the penny drops .. it’s school half term and half the world is at Legoland .. it’s turning out loads of cars .. DOH.

18.52 .. I’m home ..

More to come ...

Day 2151. Friday 29th October 2010.

Memory Joggers ...

15.00 .. ish .. I find my list of computer parts and do a quick on line order with E-Buyer .. £1046+ .. oo er, and that does not include the SAS hard drive I’ve decided to use .. or it’s controller card. For the first time ever I’ve decided to use an Intel CPU .. a  3.02Ghz i7 .. on a “stonking” Asus motherboard, 6Gb of memory*, W7 x64 Ultimate*, Blue ray recorder* and a blue ray rom drive to so I can copy things too. *Some of the parts I’ve bought “retail packs” rather than OEM packs .. it has advantages sometimes .. like a copy of Windows you can legally move from one PC to another in the future.

15.15 .. ish .. Our new director of technology arrives for his second visit carrying beers and J2O’s ..

I look at the Insight UK web sight .. for the drive and interface card I need .. I want this PC to be as close to the “state of art” as possible .. Seagate Cheetah drives are ultra fast, state of the art and claim amazing reliability .. I’ve had enough of SATA drives dying on me after 12 - 15 months .. just so much hassle. The Adaptec SAS controller isn’t cheap, I want the PCI-x8 version .. and the cable to break out from the card to the drive is an extra £57 !!!! .. One 300Gb drive to boot from, the controller card and cable .. £463+ .. and they won’t negotiate a price. I do the deal ..

16.00 .. ish .. Afternoon tea is being brewed in the corner .. I join the croud .. which includes the boss of the IT section. I tell him what I’ve just ordered .. he’s impressed by the spec of the machine I’m building .. when I tell him where I’ve got the drive from he asks if I’ve used the company staff discount option with Insight .. I knew nothing .. he tells me it could have saved me 20% on some items .. DOH .. << ho hum >>.

17.34 .. I leave work and head for home .. the M25 is Friday night hell .. I really must try and develop a cross country route for Friday’s ..

When I get to Sunningdale I think I’ll be helpful and head straight into Waitrose .. as I enter the car park I call Karen to see what I should get to get through tomorrow’s lunch with Claire .. nothing .. she went to M&S in The Meadows earlier .. I do a circuit of the carpark and drive straight home.

18.35 .. I’m home .. there’s a hire van parked in the drive .. Robert’s loading it up with some of his stuff .. in fact by the end this long wheel base van is stuffed .. and he had wanted to use our Jazz to transport some of the larger things .. “Dreamer” .. LOL.

19.45 .. ish .. Dinner is served .. half a quiche and a salad .. dessert is cheese and biscuits ..  

One of Robert’s house mates arrives to help load the van .. with my ankle I’m not going to risk it.

21.20 .. Robert disappears with a stuffed van .. he’s still got stuff to remove from his room. It’s the first time I’ve been in here for years .. gosh the state of it .. dirty, feeling damp in places .. it’s disgusting. The room is going to have to be gutted and redecorated to make this double bed room somewhere nice to stay for folk in the future. I start hoovering around .. I don’t make a big impression after 30 minutes .. but it’s an improvement for sure .. the carpet is still skip fodder .. blue tack has been trodden into it in lots of places.

My main worry is the damp feeling .. he’d blocked off the vent above his door despite my wishes, though he’d had his North facing small flap window open most of the time .. the hot air outlet into that room is just by it on the ceiling so even when the heating was running, the air forced in must have gone straight to the window rather than circulating around the room first.

22.10 .. I head back downstairs .. to sort myself out .. I butter some malt loaf so I can take a Voltarol  .. I take my other things and go back to the PC for a while .. I change my profile picture on both my Facebook accounts to cropped hatless picture from last weekend, taken by Karen.

23.30 .. ish .. I climb into bed ..

More to come ...

Day 2152. Saturday 30th October  2010.

Memory Joggers ...

06.55 .. The alarm goes off ..

It’s the Saturday morning weigh in .. 14st 91/2 lb .. oo er .. I really need to start cutting back .. .

08.50 .. I unbury and boot the laptop which hasn’t been used 19th September .. according to the date on the copy of the diary on it. The battery has sagged a lot and there are 20 updates for Windows, 2 for Firefox, Java and the anti virus is screaming ..

09.35 .. We finally drive away .. the laptop is still doing windows updates .. but after 5 minutes it’s done bar one file and it asks for a reboot .. sorted.

10.15 .. Karen’s mobile is ringing .. I answer it, it’s Hazel from Claire’s home .. they are running about 15 minutes late .. so Karen slows down.

11.07 .. We are parked up at the services when the power dies to my laptop .. the plug on the cable for the power socket Y lead I made has overheated, melting the plastic .. I’m going to have to replace that now.

11.14 .. The homes  car arrives .. Claire in in a good mood it seems .. time will tell, she greets me with a hug and a kiss before getting into the car. Hazel asks if I’m enjoying my new job, the company I’m working for brings back fond memories for her from her child hood .. her dad was in the army in those days and she was a keen listener.  

11.18 .. We head for home .. I pack the TomTom up, so I can plug my laptop’s inverter straight into the cigar lighter socket with out the broken “Y” lead.

12.05 .. ish .. We join the M25 and straight into the usual roadworks jam. Karen pinches out to take the outside lane and the contraflow .. but for a good couple of miles the contraflow is travelling as slow as thetwo other lanes .. but then takes off and saves us a lot of time ..

12.28 .. We are out of the road works, Karen pulls aside to allow one of those Paramedic Volvo estates to go by .. I’m staggered that it’s got a”personal number plate” .. W999 *** it’s not an old car !! .. £80 a throw transfer charge on an emergency service vehicle .. hmmm.

13.01 .. We are home .. 

More to come ...

Day 2153. Sunday 31st October 2010.

No notes today .. sorry ..                                 

Day 2154. Monday 1st November 2010.

No notes today .. sorry ..

Day 2155. Tuesday 2nd November 2010.

Memory Joggers ...
           
Find shower leaking in evening ..

More to come ...

Day 2156. Wednesday 3rd November 2010.

Memory Joggers ...

Steve the plumber in to fit a new shower ..

More to come ...