New Years Day.

So once again I still have to get used to being off at Christmas time with no loss from your actual annual work holiday allocation, third year running and I’m really still not used to it. This holiday has rushed past and I haven’t done anything that I actually wanted to, but not for any reasons that you might have guessed.

This time the intention is that its all for the wife, she has had an incredibly shit year, I simply wanted to give her the best time that I could, did it work, I will let you be the judge, this was always going to be an emotional one, going forward, in reality it was always going to be just me and the wife, or so we thought, anyway the time off went off to a strange start, I got to see a Dr it wasn’t a happy ending, I did get to vent my annoyance (notice not anger, If I was angry the NHS simply bar you so they win, one more off the list) I was happy I had had my say the Dr wasn’t happy, as she wasn’t aware of the issues, the member of the pharmacy team sat in his seat and squirmed (more on that later) I came home and decided I need (yet another) work bag, bag ordered (its green by the way, matches my winter work coat), the day slide by and  I did some work as it was the last day of the work year and I was working from home because of the Dr’s appointment.

Friday started as it normally does, except it then went sideways the wife was taken poorly, I honestly thought she had had a stroke, an ambulance was called, it came quite quickly, we got to the hospital quickly and it said that it would take 4 hours to get seen to , that bit was correct it was the crap that happened after, the upshot we sat for another 4 hours after being lied to, it took the head nurse to explain that the Dr had lied to us, we went home (at a cost of £45 for a taxi) I’m not going to do a long rant about the NHS, its in a crap state, lots of people doing fuck all and nurses having to input a shit ton of paperwork that some chinless wonder has decreed that they need to do, its dying and will continue to die no matter what we say or do, the politicians have decided they always get what they want, my solution clear out the middle managers and use the money to actually pay the nurses a decent rate of pay and actually get more staff, I could do a full on rant but I won’t the NHS I was brought up on no longer exists, I hope I die before it becomes a private company, its going to happen its just a matter of time.

I disliked the time in the hospital as all manner of ghastly thoughts go through your mind when in reality its not as bad as first thought, so it was a weekend on the settee so she could recover, we had some repairs scheduled so that had to happen, repairs completed I screwed my roller shutter the one that was repaired literally 3 weeks ago, this was something different but £500 I could ill afford, the guys were very prompt and professional  is this how the holidays were going to go? I also received an email I had to go back to the surgery on the Monday, oh goodie more shite.

But it wasn’t, I got to see the person who I had been trying to see since September, (she had some family issues with the same hospital that we had been to) she went off on one especially as I had to see the pharmacy team again, but guess what, yes you got it, they had all taken the day off, what because of me surely not, they will regret it as the person I was seeing was not impressed and left four very professional voice mail messages telling them she wanted to see them all when they came back the next day, I was happy, I got my old medicine back and I got to see my health care professional go atomic on their asses(watch this space for any further developments) she really is what the NHS should aspire to.

On the Sunday we had to jaunt to the place that can’t be named so we sort out the seats for our next massive adventure (that will bankrupt us) seats sorted I bought the latest edition of Fireworks (the music mag) My two Fish Box sets came they are great but I don’t have a very good set up so I really don’t want to play them as they will likely bounce all over, to be honest there’s nothing on them I don’t have on them I’m simply being a completist, sad me, who knew. We finally had the kitchen painted by professionals my body is too knackered to do it, as much as I wanted to do it, I simply couldn’t do it, it’s no wonder I walk around with my head hung low in shame, it’s not like I don’t want to do it, I’m simply in no fit state, honest if I was a pet a vet would have no issue with putting me down!

Thursday was a day of relaxing we had a cunning plan to complete our shopping on the Friday which went wonderfully, first a stop to the Chemist to get my prescription, then off to Costco to get everything special that we wanted, I even treated myself to a rather large bottle of Vodka (it’s the size of a bloody artillery shell, me have a problem erm I honestly don’t know), we got home and the hurricane arrived we still had to go to Tesco for the family shop, which again went really well, again I treated myself to a bottle of Rum I had been looking at this particular bottle for about the last six weeks, sod it , it can only kill me, honest I don’t have a problem, this will last for the coming year, the older I get the less I want to binge (not like the old days).

Saturday was again a lazy day I put the gas on to our meter, and then chilled music, food, more music, a bit of tv, yeah it was all good in the hood and I was at all times keeping an eye on the wife to see if any symptoms resurfaced, they didn’t! Christmas Eve the Hurricane went home, and then the day, the main attraction was upon us I was expecting a lot of tears from the wife as this was the first Christmas day without the Kraken, she did get misty eyed a little bit (but way better than expected) and the Dinner was probably the best one I had done in a while, my sleep pattern was shot to shit still with me averaging about 4 hours a night I was starting to feel like the walking dead, I probably looked it as well. You all want to know if I was a good boy and did I get a lot of presents, I didn’t get much, I never want much I prefer for others to enjoy, but I did love everything I got, I also have a cunning plan for next year’s Christmas Eve Blog to do a spoof on a Christmas carol, my version, lets see if that happens but I do have many coming cunning plans, I’m really not a very Christmassy person.

Boxing day we had the eldest and the kids, it was an easy day, but the day after I nearly had a full on meltdown you upgrade something and everything stops working correctly, I wasn’t good to be around on that day, the hurricane returned as there as always ongoing issues we are trying to help but there s no quick fix, when he’s here he’s as good as gold when he goes home he turns into Damian, I would hang him upside by his ankles, his mum is trying to do all the right things she is a lot more patient  than me, but again with us he masks his problems, one day at a time hopefully we will be able to help fingers crossed on that one!

Thursday was a crap day as I hadn’t lifted my spirits, I felt ill will to the world and most of the population, don’t ask me I simply was but the Hurricane helped get through the day, hopefully we can help each other, I decided to do a blog simply to vent all the bile in my system and to make myself feel better, you know what it worked, this blog was the next planned blog, but its heart would have been black and I’m sick of doing that type of blog, I wasn’t really in a bad place I was simply pissed off (me with my reputation……NOOOOO).

Friday was a whimsical day as I received a call from a friend, and I found out some peeps were coming to visit us from the South Shields massive, it lifted both our spirits, we cracked on with a bit of a spring our steps (as much as two old people can) , Saturday was a great day full of busy, busy, busy, then our friends turned up it was a great afternoon, much pizza, much crack, the Hurricane behaved himself and after the friends returned down the mountainside, we went and did the weekly shop, it took us all of 30 minutes, a quiet night and then a miracle of miracles, I slept for a full 14 hours yes you read that right 14 hours and I felt great, it was easily the best sleep of the year, go figure.

New years eve was just us pottering with small tasks, we were alone for the night as the Hurricane went home like a little angel who turned into the devil spawn as the night progressed, no surprise he has returned today, but not before I cooked another pleasant meal for the wife, it’s the thing I like best about the holiday, I’m not very good, but I do try my best, good solid food nothing fancy, well not as fancy as beans on toast. So, there you go the first blog of the year, 2023 we had over 116,000 hits to the blog so what ever you lot are doing by all means keep doing what you are doing, yes the name game is in play, yes its bloody simple I don’t care, I can name them what I want, there’s around three or four on the boil I do not intend to do more than one a week this year no matter if inspiration takes me, there will be moments of relaxation, I intend to enjoy the blogs this year and the intention is to have a social life so that it can feed the blogs once more, yes it will all be written in code, so watch the skies for incoming, so stay safe and stay alive, until the next blog…………………..Toodles!