Worse

Friday:

Horrible night with very little sleep. Lots of pain. Sometimes when the pain is not too bad, like a lot of the daytime this week, it's been hard to pinpoint where exactly in the abdomen it's coming from. But when you're lying awake with two spheres of pain throbbing in your pelvis, it's pretty easy. Today the pain hasn't reduced as much as it has other days after bad nights, and for the first time the pain isn't symmetrical, being rather worse on the left. Feeling a bit worried. Hopefully the tests show something, but it seems so long before I get any results. Two/three days, plus weekend, and then almost straight away for ultrasound report. Call it Wednesday** for all of them. That is a lot of sleepless nights away.

**I couldn't get a follow-up appointment with my doctor until Tuesday week! I booked it in, but I'll keep trying to get one earlier - they have a few available if you call first thing on the day. No way I am waiting that a week and a half if I'm still in pain, I'll see anyone.

When I saw the doctor she asked if I was taking any painkillers and I said no, I think by her follow-up comment she took to mean not bad enough for painkillers. I should have objected. The thing is, medication just isn't my first or second or even fifth choice of treatment for pain. My order probably goes:
1. Sit quietly (TV/book) and hope it gets better
2. Eat something, even if nauseated, unless actually throwing up
3. Drink something, especially tea if I am tired or headachy
4. Nap/sleep it off
5. Search internet to self-diagnose
6. See doctor
7. Painkiller medication, after doctor has mentioned it

Tim is the same. We just rarely even think of taking painkillers. 3am when I decided I needed them it took Tim ages to find some that weren't past their use-by date. They helped a little, pain down to a dull roar and an hour's sleep before waking again. I got up as soon as there was a hint of light. Changing position helps, although it hurts while actually moving. I don't know if it's the lying down that makes it so bad or the fact I am motionless for so long.

Sorry to go on about my health so much but it is rather in my mind at the moment.

I took more painkillers in the afternoon and managed to get comfortable enough to nap a little, not feeling so horrible this evening.

In happier news, I do believe the rumpus room is finished!

This was the "before" with the sagging ceiling, the leak damage, and the rather surprising carpet tiles.

It's great to finally get that finished!

Getting worse

Thursday:

I made a doctor appointment on Tuesday about my lower abdominal/pelvic pain but then cancelled because I started to feel better during the day. But I keep having to discard theories about what is wrong, and after yet another bad night last night I called the doctor to reschedule an appointment. Time to get an expert opinion. I searched the internet and couldn't find anything that fitted my symptoms; pain in that particular spot, worse at night, no hernia protrusion, not affecting bladder or bowel function etc. While days are better than nights, it is still very difficult to do anything that involves bending or twisting, like putting on my shoes or picking something up from the floor. Struggling to cope this morning.

I went to the doctor and she wasn't able to give a diagnosis, but she examined me and sent me for blood and urine tests and also for a pelvic ultrasound next week. I'm hoping it will be resolved before I have to do that. It may seem like a trivial discomfort, but anyone whose had to drink a lot of water then not urinate for two hours, and have someone poke around your very full bladder will know just how unpleasant that experience is! One time when I was pregnant I ended up sitting on the toilet crying after the test because I was in so much pain but I couldn't make my body let go and pee. At least this time I don't have a baby sitting on my bladder.

Tim is better today and wonders if he was experiencing a migraine yesterday. He hasn't been diagnosed, but sometimes gets headaches with blurred vision. Worrying.

The painters returned early this morning and did the final coat of paint on the ceiling, now I just need the electrician to replace the lights.

I knew it! Didn't I tell you?

Wednesday:

The painters were here for four hours today, but it is cold and rainy and they couldn't get the second coat of paint to dry so they have to come back tomorrow morning to do the third coat. I think it looks great as it is, but presumably they know best. The ceiling lights also need to be re-installed by the electrician, so who knows when it will be done? Not I! I told you I wouldn't dare get my hopes up that it would be finished today!

Tim is home sick today with nausea and dizziness and he can't focus his eyes very well. Not fun. I assume he has the same bug as me but with emphasis on different symptoms, I had some of those Sunday night/Monday. My abdomen continues to be worst at night, it hurts quite a lot whenever I try to turn over. But during the day it isn't so bad most of the time, and it is gradually getting better. The only good thing about Tim being sick is that it reassures me that I just have a virus and not something weird/serious.

Tim doesn't get man-flu, he is generally very stoic about illness unless it's really bad, I'm the one who mopes around and wants sympathy (if you don't know, man-flu is when men get a minor illness and make a big fuss whereas women apparently soldier on and still manage to juggle work, family, cooking, saving the world etc) but he made an interesting comment about the possible origins of man-flu. In a hunter/gatherer society, the hunters (men) needed to be in good health and fully alert to tackle dangerous situations and aggressive animals. If they weren't 100% well, it was much safer for them to stay home in the cave, hence the tendency to make a big deal out of a minor illness. The gatherers (women) were generally doing less dangerous jobs so it didn't matter if they weren't able to make split-second decisions or have their full strength. They could still make their contributions even when sick without endangering their life. It's an interesting theory.

Report card:
Diet: Poor. I want to eat and eat.
Exercise: Poor, none.
Water: Ok.
Sleep: Poor.
Mental health: Poor. Low spirits today.

Fridge, roof and fitbit

Monday:

I guess it wasn't dream stomach crunches after all. Last night and today included nausea, dizziness and fatigue. However I feel a lot better this evening, on the mend now I'm sure.

Our fridge was delivered this morning. We have a fairly small space allocated in the kitchen for a fridge, when we moved here we bought the biggest we could find that fit the space. This time Tim managed to find one that was the same width but a bit taller. I have a working fridge with all its shelves! Amazing.

Since I was feeling unwell all day, I didn't get out to the shops so the new fridge is still pretty empty. I had instant noodles for lunch then ordered home-delivered Chinese for dinner. That is about three billion mgs of sodium! I'd better not weigh myself tomorrow. And I should be able to get out to the shops and stock up on real food tomorrow, at the moment the lovely big vegetable drawer has half a lettuce and two lonely mushrooms.

I stopped wearing my fitbit a few days ago because it was starting to make a mark on my wrist. I still have a discoloured dent there, days later, and a bit of skin rubbed off. I was wearing it 24/7 except in the shower, I guess that is too much for my girly Princess skin. I tried putting it on my other wrist but that just felt wrong! I'll give my left arm a longer break then try it again.

While I was sitting slumped in front of the TV I saw a vaguely familiar tradesman wandering up and down our driveway (the room they've been working on is separate from the house and I've been leaving it unlocked because it is empty). He knocked on the door eventually and told me he'd finished sanding down the new plaster ceiling. And a while later the painters called and told me they're coming on Wednesday. Are we really on the home stretch? Now don't get your hopes up, Natalie, you've been fooled before! But the great thing is it rained a lot on the weekend and the repaired roof didn't leak! Or if it did, not enough to seep through the ceiling (yet). I'm glad the interior work was covered by insurance, otherwise these weeks and weeks of on again off again work would no doubt cost a fortune.

Report card:
Diet: Poor.
Exercise: Poor (sick).
Water: Poor.
Sleep: Absolutely terrible.
Mental health: Good this evening.

It was an uninspired past three days but I am feeling much more perky now.

The hills of exhaustion

Friday:

Another bad night. I'm not sure what to do about it. I spend enough hours in bed, I (usually) wear my CPAP, I've been walking during the day, I (usually) take my Vitamin D and B12 each day. Oh well, I'll keep going to bed each night and hope something changes.

I was exhausted and headachy this morning and decided to get out into the fresh air - I guess that is good progress, choosing a walk to try to feel better! -  so I went to the Arboretum. I wandered around among the winter-bare trees and climbed the steep hill to the "wide brown land" sculpture (it's a phrase from a famous poem about Australia).

I was feeling a lot better at this point. Bit of fresh air and exercise did help.

As I started back down towards the café I was suddenly bombarded with inspiration for work on my novel. I had to wait until I got down the hill and grabbed my manuscript from the car, then sat in the café and scribbled frantically for half an hour. By the end of that time I had my ideas down on paper, but I also had my headache and exhaustion back.

I dragged myself to the shops and had lunch and bought groceries then came home. I made some bad food choices today. Too tired to make the effort to struggle. And guess whether eating unhealthy foods made me feel better or less headachy? But when I am so tired it is just so difficult to make good choices.

The tradesman came on time and spent the whole day here installing the new ceiling in the rumpus room. I don't know why I got all hopeful about it getting finished, it still needs to be sanded and painted. Next week some time. Sigh. So we can't put anything in there yet. It's supposed to rain on the weekend, that will be the real test of the repairs.

Report card:
Diet: Poor.
Exercise: Great.
Water: Ok.
Sleep: Terrible.
Mental health: Ok.

Blah day

Thursday:

I woke this morning feeling a bit sad and out of sorts, and the feeling was reinforced by various events of the day.

Damnit. I called the real estate agent to arrange seeing that house we really liked which was supposed to go to auction in two weeks - and it sold yesterday. Within our price range. I knew we should have cancelled the relatives visit and go down last weekend so we could make an offer if we liked it. But I suppose we couldn't have because we still don't have an answer from Tim's work, and won't this week (hopefully next week but who knows). So it's Tim's work's fault. Anyway, we had only seen pictures on the internet so who knows if it was right for us? I do. I know it was. Sigh. Feeling a bit down about that.

I shouldn't even look at other houses online until we get a firm offer from his work. But I like looking at houses!

...Looked at more houses online. Nothing I liked.

The tiler came back this morning (I thought he must not have yesterday, it was getting dark) to finish the roof, which is fine with me, I just wanted it done. So now the outside is done, yay! Something good happened today.

And I went for a walk. It has been cold all week but my wattle tree seems to think Spring is on its way:

I've always been blonde but the past ten years or so my hair has been gradually getting darker, to "blondish". For about a year I've been lightening it out of a bottle. This afternoon, after the kids got home, I applied the stuff then sat around for the required 45 minutes. The instructions are covered in warnings to not go longer than that. I was just about to jump in the shower to wash it off when there was a knock at the door, and I heard Aiden open it (which he shouldn't have done). I had to rapidly pull some clothes back on and rush out there. It was a neighbour, so I stood in the doorway in the winter chill and chatted for a couple of minutes, aware all the time of my inadequate clothing, freezing feet, and bleaching hair! Luckily he only stayed a couple of minutes and the colour turned out fine.

My brother is really irritating me at the moment (when does he not?). But I just came back and deleted the long rant I wrote about that.

I feel like a pincushion at the moment with all the finger-prick tests, but interesting the only thing I've eaten that has raised my blood sugar continues to be that sweet chocolate I had twice. I have not been restricting my foods particularly, in fact I deliberately ate some dark chocolate this afternoon - blood glucose was fine. I had pasta again. Fine. Potato. Fine. I had a large amount of starch at lunchtime and my blood glucose went up a bit - but still within the normal range. Only the really sugary stuff has affected me. (Before anyone criticises my deliberate testing, I remember recently someone who got sunburnt just to see if they had lost enough weight to change the pattern of red!) I know from past testing that processed rice products - both 2 min/ramen noodles, and rice crackers, affect my bgls, and they are not sweet so I will keep trying and testing some more. I need to buy more test strips!

I've been watching a new reality cooking show Hotplate in which restaurants from around Australia compete, and I've been to the Sydney one that was on tonight! I went with my sister-in-law to a girls' night out only a few months ago, it is very near her house. How exciting. We thought it was pretty good when we went, and they did well tonight, scoring best so far.

Report card:
Diet: Ok.
Exercise: Good.
Water: Good.
Sleep: Ok.
Mental health: Poor.
 

Roof, maybe?

Wednesday:

The cleaner came this morning so I had no trouble convincing myself to get out of the house, anything to get away from the chemical smell of cleaning fluids! I'm not sure how I feel about the chemicals, but he does a good job and it's lovely to have a clean house. It doesn't smell for too long. I went for a half hour walk, enjoying the fresh air and buying some apples and tomatoes along the way.

I spent a lot of the day doing some critical reading for someone in my writing group. Their manuscript is really good - I didn't want to stop reading!

There has finally been progress on the roof of my rumpus/studio/junk room. After another call; "oh, didn't he call you back?" the tiler came and did the first half of the work; he had to let something or other dry before he continued. Several hours later it was getting dark, and we went to Jasmine's dance lesson. No idea if he came back to do the second half in the gloaming, or if maybe he'll come back tomorrow. I have organised for the plasterer to finish the inside on Friday. We may actually have a usable room by the weekend! Hopefully it will be waterproof this time. I would love to be able to move all the stuff back in there. We need an exercise section - with the treadmill and the weights and balance disc, and a music section with the drum kit and the keyboard, (we also have a guitar, trumpet, violin, flute and piano accordion but they don't take up so much space so we can keep them in the main house. The drum kit takes up half of Aiden's bedroom.) and a storage section for about a dozen boxes full of books and various other stuff. Christmas decorations, camping stuff that got used once (and not by me!), clothes that might fit me one day... We don't have an attic or basement like I read about other countries having in their houses, so this room is where all this stuff needs to go. It will be so good to have the room usable again, and with new flooring and a ceiling that doesn't leak! And the main house less full of clutter.

I've been testing my blood glucose and so far the only thing that sent my levels high was that same chocolate I had after the pasta yesterday. Today I had some by itself, so it was a lot less total carbs in one go, but my blood glucose levels still went up high. It was not quality dark chocolate, it was milk chocolate with a sugary filling. Hmm, maybe I can have pasta after all. As long as I have it without a sugar chaser! Everything else I've eaten over the past couple of days has been completely fine - including starchy carbs like the fajitas last night. I will continue to eat a variety of foods and check my blood two hours later so I know my personal limits.

Report card:
Diet: Good.
Exercise: Good.
Water: Still some work to do before bedtime.
Sleep: A bit better, at least my CPAP was working and I kept it on until 5am. Still restless.
Mental health: Good.

The roof saga continues

Friday:

I had another semi-bad night with nausea, I am not sure what is going on and why I only get it when I'm lying down. Residual virus issues, I guess. Feeling ok today.

Today was supposed to include taking the kids to Flip Out (an indoor trampoline playground) then doing some grocery shopping. But we woke to pouring rain and Tim needed to be at work at a certain time (dry) and then there was a knock at the door while we were all still in our pyjamas and it was the guy back to do the ceiling in the rumpus room. Actually four guys this time. So Tim took the car to work and the kids and I snuggled down inside.

A couple of hours later I was called out to the rumpus room to be told and shown that the roof was still leaking! Obviously they aren't going to put up a new ceiling when it's just going to get ruined again. In a way it's lucky it rained today or it wouldn't have been noticed until the water seeped through again. I called the tiling guy to come back, hoping that with the ceiling gone and it currently raining he would be able to see where the water was coming in. I have no idea when he will come, he didn't today. This saga is so annoying! I don't want the new flooring ruined. Our house and garage is cluttered up with all the stuff that should be stored neatly in there. We don't even expect to be in this house in 3-6 months (either move or rebuild/renovate) so we don't want to keep doing work to it, but we can't have a leak in the ceiling! So much time and hassle over the past few months.

The workmen were here for around five hours, nonetheless, replacing the part of the roof that didn't have a leak (ie the part I didn't think particularly needed replacing). So now I am left with an even larger hole (it gets bigger every time) and an unpainted plaster roof with no light fittings. They will come back once the leak is fixed to finish.

 I am sick of looking at it.

So here is a picture of my delicious lunch, a tortilla with pulled pork and salad, pre-wrap.

 

 

I've been reading one of the books from the library, The Blood Sugar Solution by Mark Hyman, MD which seems (I've only ready about a quarter so cannot be definitive) to promote a sensible unprocessed plant-based diet, plus lots and lots of vitamin and mineral supplements. I did have a few doubts from an editor's point of view, things like one paragraph saying 'don't wait until you have diabetes, by then it's too late' but in the next paragraph saying 'it's never too late' and similar little gaffs, but overall it seemed reasonable with lots of citations to scientific papers. He has lots of case studies about patients whose lives he has improved by diagnosing all the problems other doctors have missed, and on page 100 we see J.P. "He had canker sores (gluten problem 2)" which immediately interested me as I get canker sores (mouth ulcers) quite often. He seemed to be suggesting that canker sores and gluten intolerance are related. So I looked up the quoted study on the internet; "Celiac disease and recurrent aphthous stomatitis: a report and review of the literature." Sedghizadeh et al. And you know what? It concludes "Our results demonstrated no significant differences between groups for ... recurrent aphthous stomatitis." and "no significant difference between the CD (celiac disease) group and the control group."

 

He is quoting a study that disproves his beliefs, not supports them. Are the citations just there to look pretty? This puts the whole book into doubt for me. Don't think I'll bother to read any more.

 

I've started another which I like much more, will talk about it next time.

 

Report card:

Diet: Good.

Exercise: Poor. Nothing today. A couple of months ago, I put my gym membership on hold with a med cert due to my shoulder, and that runs out on Sunday. From then I'll have nearly a month before my membership expires. I can't say that going to the gym is that appealing at the moment, but it's out of the cold!

Water: Ok.

Sleep: Poor. Confidently hoping for better tonight.

Mental health: A bit frustrated over the whole roof thing.

 



A big hole

Friday:

I had a lovely day yesterday. It had the three things important to me on a birthday. Firstly being surrounded by people I love; my husband had the day off work to spend time with me, my kids were home after school, and I received lots of phone calls and texts and facebook messages. Of course I missed my parents, my first birthday since their deaths. Secondly the lovely presents I got yesterday; I spent quite a lot of time either colouring in or playing with my new iPhone. And thirdly food! Yes food is still a bit part of celebrating for me. I ate a gazillion calories -- actually my best guesstimation on fitbit was about 2,700 -- but I did keep my almost-diabetic state in mind and managed my carbs/sugar throughout the day. For instance I had a chicken breast in cream sauce for lunch (few carbs) then half a sweet dessert. And at dinner I had another third of a different dessert. Never too many carbs at one time, to keep my blood sugars steady even if I wasn't exactly eating healthy! And I had ten glasses of water.

Tim is home again today but unfortunately sick this time. We've both had various flu symptoms this week. My back is really aching today and I'm feeling generally yuck. I have not felt sick enough to stay in bed but Tim spent the morning in bed which means he is pretty bad. At least we were both more or less ok for my birthday yesterday so we could enjoy the day.

The man the insurance company appointed to fix the ceiling in the studio/junk room/rumpus (it's called rumpus by real estate agents so I'm going with that) came today and I thought that saga would finally be over. This is what it looked like before:

And at the end of five hours work, and the tradesman going home, here is the after:

Um, is this an improvement? There is a huge hole in the ceiling and lots of visible nails in the plaster beside it holding up that sheet, and new cracks where he pushed the sagging plaster up to nail it on. He didn't have the right cornice and will have to order it, he grumbled that he hadn't been given all the information, and then he decided that the whole room needs to have the ceiling replaced and has gone away to get approval from the insurance company even though I told him we are probably knocking the whole room down in a few months. I don't know if he is incompetent, or trying to get more money out of them, or if the ceiling truly does need the work. I don't have any choice in tradesmen since I handed it over to the insurance company, so I just have to wait. It is a complete mess now. Oh well, I guess we'll get a completely new ceiling which will look nice if we sell. It better look nice, or there will be trouble, I don't care how shy I am. But it is dragging on and on and we can't use that room and have all the stuff that was in it cluttering up the house and garage. Since I'm not feeling well today I think I found it particularly difficult to deal with the whole situation.

Definitely not as nice a day as yesterday.

Report card:
Diet: Mixed. I did well all day until takeaway dinner driving home from ballet.
Exercise: Poor, but I was sick so that is ok.
Water: Good.
Sleep: Ok.
Mental health: Poor.

Hopefully everything will be better tomorrow.

Facing my fears

Monday:

(morning)
I had two things to dread today and have got one of them over with, the dentist visit. I am very dentist-phobic (I bet there is a real word for that - there you go, ondontophobia). I have no problem with doctors or needles or intrusive examinations; but put me in a dentist chair and I'm a trembling mess who gags every few seconds as the dentist tries to do something horrible like, oh, clean my teeth. It is actually a very stressful experience for me. After I had to have a root canal, which took several hour-long visits, I didn't go back for four years. This time it's been two years since my last visit, and I tried a new dentist, the one I take my kids to. She is lovely, and she tried a few things to help me. She let me sit up instead of lying back, and that was enormously helpful. It's not pain I'm scared of, I think it is mainly that helpless feeling. Also I can feel like I'm drowning. So sitting up was much better. Also she put some salt on my tongue. I've never heard of that before, but it actually helped stop me gagging so much. Weird. And finally she did half the clean with the usual electric stuff and the water spray and suction etc but decided I wasn't handling it well and went to just a manual pick. She deals mainly with kids and I think she was great!

The best thing was no cavities so I don't have to go back for another year. But when I do, it will definitely be to her. And she asked me to put a review online, I will and it will be glowing!

The other worry for today is getting the roof inspected, I need to get the tiles fixed asap but it's hard to find someone to do it soon. I've got the representative from a big company coming today, and I've just got the feeling they are going to be very pushy about getting the whole roof restored or something I don't want or need. So I will have to be assertive, which I find a bit scary. But hopefully it won't be like that. I try not to worry about stuff that might not even happen.

(afternoon)
The roof guy was very nice but as I expected pushed for total roof restoration which is not something I want to do right now with the future so unsettled. The interaction was fine, but he said there isn't really a temporary patch-up that he can do. The worrying part is that I actually believe him about what needs to be done, I've had quite a few handymen/insurance people etc come out here lately and this house really needs some work. But I don't want to spend thousands when I don't know if we're staying, or going away for a year, or renovating, or maybe selling permanently. Yet I don't want the roof to leak every time it rains and destroy the new floor and ceiling (when we get a new ceiling)! Troubling. I plan to get another opinion about the roof from another tradesman, and I'll see if they give different advice.

(evening)
I was just finishing dinner and feeling good when I got yet another phone call from those scammers. They call from India, so there is nothing the local police can do, and it may be one group or several with similar stories, but it is basically the same scam: "we are from x internet company and we can fix your computer remotely if you give us access". I was nearly caught out the first time because I was indeed having serious computer problems and they seemed to know about it, it was just bad timing (for me, perfect for them). I was lucky they didn't get away with anything. This is, what, the sixth time they have called me? And most of those in the past month or two. I responded much as I did last time: "Does your father know what you do for a living? Does your mother? How can you live with yourself?" Last time the woman hung up on me straight away, this time there was just silence until I hung up on the man. Then I started shaking. I could hardly walk for a minute, my legs were trembling so bad. I really hate confrontation! And part of me actually feels sorry for these people in a country with so much poverty where they might not have much choice. Would I steal food if I was starving? It's just a more sophisticated form of doing that. What if your choices are starvation, prostitution, or working for internet scammers where you never have to meet your victims? Of course some of them are probably heartless bastards. But some of them might feel guilty every day.

Report card:
Diet: Ok. Better today.
Exercise: Poor. Very short walk. It was something.
Water: Good.
Sleep: Poor.
Mental health: Poor. It's been a very stressful day. And I was really hoping to hear about Tim's job, but no.

Leaking

Wednesday:

Bit of a hectic morning. I was expecting the cleaner at 8:45 and the handyman at 9:00, but I was still in the middle of a hurried breakfast of peanut butter on toast (no time for eggs today) when there was a knock on the door and it was the guys here to do the floor out in the studio/junk room. Who I was expecting tomorrow. I checked the paperwork, definitely tomorrow. But I decided it didn't matter, get it all done today. So they got started prepping the floor.

And then I realised it did matter. Because one of the handyman's jobs was to replace and paint some damaged plaster in the ceiling out there. And he was bringing someone to help him with specifically that job. And they were on their way and would be here any minute. And if the underfloor was still drying he wouldn't be able to access the ceiling. I had a bit of a panic but after speaking to the floor guys they said the prep stuff was only going on the uneven bits, not the whole floor, so it would be fine. Whew. Until they called me out to show me the roof was leaking.

The ceiling had been damaged by rain a few years ago and I'd had the tiles fixed then. Or so I thought. I don't go out there much so it could have been still leaking every time it rains. Right now it's been raining heavily for a couple of days. And the damaged spot is dripping. And it's probably a lot more damaged than it was originally.

So I called my insurance company to get them to organise getting it all fixed. In a way I guess that is a good thing because I might get the whole thing done for only my excess instead of paying out of my own pocket. They are coming out Friday to look at it, don't know when it will actually be done.

I told the handyman he wouldn't be doing that ceiling now but there was plenty of other work for him and also for the other guy so it worked out ok. Having the cleaner here just before the handyman probably wasn't the best arrangement - in fact he's coming back on Friday to finish the bits the handyman messed up. I didn't even ask him for that, he just said there was no point doing the floors now and he'd come back on Friday. How nice!

And he cleaned up my gravy disaster. Did I mention that? Whole pan of gravy upside down all over the oven and floor? Obviously I cleaned up at the time, but there were still yucky bits like the oven drip tray. I am enjoying having a cleaner! I have to tidy up before he comes, but then he does kitchen and bathrooms and it all looks lovely.

You know my big problem today? Access to the bathroom! Either there was someone actually in there cleaning or fixing, or in the hallway doing something and blocking my way with a ladder or a dismantled door or something, or I was called over to discuss one of the jobs or I was on the phone to someone. Did a lot of holding it in.

The handymen were here all day and I now have working doors and gates and tiles re-glued and everything. Then the floor guys came back, once the underfloor was dry, and laid the vinyl floor. So that is all done. Now I am only waiting on the curtains. Oh, and the leaky roof... there is a bucket out there at the moment protecting the new floor.

And our TV has finally died after weeks of shilly-shallying. Don't know whether to try to repair, or buy a new one, and will at least wait until we hear about the job. We have a tiny old TV to watch.

Tim had his job interview for Norfolk Island today. He said it went well. He was able to ask some questions, and the main new-ish thing he learned was how little we'd be able to take with us. I think it would just be one standard airline suitcase each! Anything else would go by sea and take a couple of months to get there - and I don't know how much that would cost so obviously we'd need to be really minimal in what we'd take. The rental houses are furnished, so we wouldn't have to worry about furniture, but I think we'd have to go digital for books and most games! I'm still keen, it would be an adventure!

It's a bit hard to tell if the new CPAP settings are helping, because I think I am slightly unwell which doesn't help me sleep. I had the upset stomach for a couple of days, and now a sore throat. I'm maybe sleeping a tiny bit better.

Report card:
Diet: Ok.
Exercise: Poor.
Water: Poor.
Sleep: Poor.
Mental health: Ok.