Eleven

I give thanks the 'living corner' of the living room looks and feels so much cosier with curtains...and look forward to the rest of the room becoming less like a tip as the weeks go by! A trip to the tip would help, ha ha! Today I have a late in the day renal appointment though so the most pressing matter is to organise getting myself to and fro in the inclement weather and hope they don't declare me unfit for purpose when they check me out.

I give thanks for giving up trying to work out why I couldn't connect to the local hotspot with my laptop last night, resolving to be grateful for being able to use it at all being without my own broadband still..and for still being able to use my tablet and phone. For getting up off the sofa and tidying the cushions and spotting the very small SD card trying to run away under the seat...reinserting it and getting back online.

I give thanks for seeing so much of the sea, the fabulous churning waves. For jeans loose enough to comfortably fit leggings underneath...it's a tad nippy today and I suspect I may get damp before it's through but the hospital is bound to be balmy...and require me to expose some portions of flesh! I give thanks so far the train I plan to catch has not been cancelled, though the preceding one was so I'd better get out there and fight for a seat. I may be some time...

Ten

I give thanks for people who can draw stories, whose artwork tells you detailed tales with so much skill it looks simple. I give thanks last night I finally got round to watching the enchanting Ethel and Ernest before the download expired - made me cry and laugh especially the delicious irony when Mr & Mrs Briggs were disappointed when their son Raymond wanted to go to art school because there was no money in it and he'd never get a job!

When I wanted to go to art school a GP told me I'd end up 'starving in a garret'! I give thanks it's never been quite that bad...though to be fair, though I'm undeniably creative, I'm not much talented artistically. Unlike my cousin Adam. I give thanks for receiving my copy of his fascinating book 55 Earth Years and 25 Homes  - a richly illustrated chronicle of the places he's lived.

I give thanks for sleeping long and well and cosily though in much need of more rest today...and after an unavoidably energetic morning for being able to give in to my body's demands for moving as little as possible to keep the pain levels down. I give thanks for part of the energy expended being used finishing the curtain extensions to the extent that they could be hung up by Cathy's husband Colin who she volunteered to put up the new pole.  He also put up some coat hooks and my skinny wall cupboard that is back in a hall again after being in bathroom for some years. It was in several halls before that but started out in a bathroom twenty odd years ago. I give thanks for choosing (and building from flatpack) this exceedingly useful bit of kit! I think it may be rewarded with a coat of paint later this year...

I give thanks for the sun streaming in those big windows and warming me up. For phone apps to find out about the ships I see on the horizon. And I give thanks for my friend Pat who before she died sent me the very well chosen gift of a beanbag to hold a laptop or tablet at just the right angle on your knees or the sofa beside you if you're lying down...or a book you want to photograph without getting up!

Nine

I give thanks for another day in my gradually becoming sorted home. All things must pass and I'm sure there will come a time when I don't say to myself several times a day how much I love living here but, at the moment I'm loving I do that too...

I give thanks for the sound of the communal stairs being cleaned this morning. It is not the prettiest hallway but it looks better when it's clean and it's more comfortable going to the front door in your socks too!

I give thanks for going to the front door to let in first a man to talk about electrics, especially the kitchen rearrangement, and another to talk about new windows...plus other things as he's a friend of mine. For doing my bit too, starting sewing the curtain extension, and managing to change two of those light bulbs that save energy by not giving you any light until five minutes after you need it. One of these was in one of those enclosed bathroom shades which looks a lot better for a wash as well...and one of the things I talked to the handyman electrician about was lengthening the pendants on the ones I cannot reach so they can be changed too.

I give thanks for mulling over the concept of home lately - it has different meaning according to context and the individual considering it of course, but although this flat already feels very much like home in one sense, the town I was living in for more than a decade still feels like home in another. I give thanks for being able to travel quite simply and speedily between the two as required.

I give thanks for my exceptionally hearty appetite today - always a healthy sign I think. I thought after a two small breakfasts, an ample cooked lunch and generous amounts of sweet treats in a cafe in town with Mima I might not want much more...but I picked up some goats cheese on the way back and it's calling to me to spread it on garlic bread with maybe some slices of apple on the side. Oh my goodness I give thanks for having my fridge freezer back. It may be cold outside but having a patch of controllable cold indoors is such a wonderful thing!

Eight

My goodness me I give thanks I took it easy yesterday as today has been very busy mentally and physically. I give thanks for wrestling my printer into submission - finding drivers with utilities for this ancient model that work with moody Windows 10 so I could clear the nozzles etc and prepare a form for registering at the surgery here... Shame when I got there they said it was the wrong form but as I said to them, at least I got the printer working to print it!  The real form was very long but I could do two pages quickly as they were all about alcohol consumption! Scary questions! I give thanks as it will take them a few days to process my application (despite being almost tee total) the dear folks at my previous medical practice are sorting out some pills I need sooner than that.

I give thanks for finding the Royal Mail Delivery Office (tucked away in an unexpected place) and picking up two packages which I haven't had time to open yet...

I give thanks for discovering a problem with a damaged surface on some furniture where tape used to keep doors closed had kind of fused with the finish. It's an faded 'oak effect' desk top computer cabinet, several years old, variously modified and not a thing of beauty but useful for holding printer and files. Neither the removal guys nor I had any idea it would end up looking worse. In my head I was thinking, well I was going to paint it anyway...maybe if they gave money for some paint. But while I was wondering how to word it they came up with the elegant offer of me selecting some paint and them picking it up and delivering it...that's hundreds of happy for me!

I give thanks for starting the thing I meant to do today - working on lengthening the living room curtains. Unfortunately the temporary ones in the kitchen and bedroom both fell down earlier so I've been sidetracked sorting out those plus creating dinner and ambience for Rachel...who had car trouble again and had to cancel. I give thanks for persuading my digi box to replay stuff recorded in my former life. Not a ghost of a live TV signal though. I may have to get a man in...

Seven

We lead such complicated lives these days don't we? I give thanks for persevering with all the online 'paperwork' and phone calls trying to inform the right people of more changes of circumstances. I particularly give thanks for the ones that work first time without websites crashing, long waits on hold to talk to chocolate teapots or hard copy proof requiring printing and posting!

Feeling very weary yesterday evening give thanks for an early night and, still not feeling right today for a suitably snoozy Saturday, for Paracetamol for the aches and pains and a huggy hot water bottle.

I give thanks for ticking a few things off the to do list in short bursts of activity with bribes of another cup of tea and biscuit and some idle activity when I finished each task...or finished what I could do with it for the moment. I give thanks for arranging the living room furniture in such a way as to make the room more useable, including setting up the table and chairs so I can eat my food looking at the sea but not in full view of any passers by looking up at the window. For finding some useful items forgotten about, and that some more useful paperwork has vanished into thin air. For attempting to print some forms...and giving up gracefully when I realised not only was my laptop battery flat but there was no convenient place to plug in the printer. For discovering, despite aerial type cables sticking out of various places not one has and end piece to fit the TV...and that the nearby open wifi signal is mostly strong enough to stream catch up so its no big deal for now.

I give thanks after my first completed week I am still very happy with my choice of new home..and look forward to further comforts like curtains, television and my own cooker and internet improving my quality of life even more.

Six

I give thanks for so much to do...and so much time to do it. What a luxury eh? I give thanks the luxury of waking up in my own comfy bed is still a novelty so that when the non-entry entryphone buzzer went at eight am, I weighed up what I was expecting and how much hassle was involved in getting downstairs in time (always assuming it actually was something for me rather than a delivery person chancing it) versus getting to a pick up point if I failed...and decided staying put was much the best option.

I give thanks when I was looking for a dessert bowl last night I found my speakers instead. I don't plan to set the stereo up for a while so I just left them in the box, but this morning I thought about the cloth they were wrapped in and went back and dug it out and found it might just do for extending those living room curtains currently dangling from the ceiling and draped across the floor.

Although I'm pleased with the unpacking, sorting and arranging I've done I'm grateful for all I haven't achieved as well. Some rest was needed and it's good I didn't push myself. As I've been having some problems in that department I give thanks for some new seals that the surgical supply company sent me to try...and I give thanks I wasn't far from home when, with no warning, they gave up on the job! It would have been better if they hadn't, or if I had been at home, but the vegetable aisle of the Co op is only a short brisk scuttle away...I give thanks for the gathering dusk and an absorbent coat...and yay for my washing machine!

Five

I give thanks for bursting out laughing when after all that trouble hanging my curtains, as I tried to open them this morning one end of the pole came down! Luckily Mima had already agreed to bring amenable to a little light chauffeuring and some medium lifting this afternoon so I could buy my flat some presents and get them home and inside. I give thanks for finding a suitable pole, some brackets for a shelf from leftover bits of Mima's kitchen cupboards and a giant paper lampshade for the living room until I can afford a chandelier. I also bought bought a beautiful blind for the bedroom, plus a curly metal coatstand as there's not room for a wardrobe in there. This was not on the shopping list but was just inside the door of the first shop we went to begging for a lift home in the car... It is perfectomundo! Apart from from food from Waitrose it's also the only item I can use right away, all the others requiring tools, skills, height, strength etc. Oh well, I give thanks for being prepared in case I grow strong and nimble again!

I give thanks for a wadge of post arriving including notification of a refund from the building society as, despite the many delays and complications that was technically a mortgage port and I didn't have to pay a redemption fee. That will come in handy especially as I still don't have a completion letter so can't prove to the benefits people that my apparent wealth was a very temporary state of affairs.

I give thanks for not doing any cooking today, getting snacks in cafes en route including the last broccoli and Stilton pasty in the bakers. Yum, yum! I give thanks for running into dear Dorothy on my travels too. She is eighty and rather a lot, very deaf and not as mobile as she'd like to be, but still great fun when she can grasp what you are saying. When I told her I'd moved here she asked straight away 'Is that more convenient?' I give thanks that yes, it is!

Four

I give thanks after creating a corner of living space in the living room yesterday I listened to my body and took it back to the bedroom for a couple of hours before a bit more sprucing, supper and an early night.

I give thanks for surviving a frustrating morning of repeated calls from BT regarding my fantasy of having a phone line, though I did lose my temper a little I must confess. I have been assured so many times it's all sorted and now they assure me it will be sorted by 14th Feb...which would be great as I'd be able to receive all those birthday calls! Oh well, I give thanks for picking up a Fon hotspot signal much of the time. Good old Fon eh? The person who got the brunt of my frustration was Archie from the estate agent who repeatedly rang the entryphone buzzer and who I had to go down to let in to get a closing reading for the meter as the electric company wouldn't take it from me. I give thanks we're used to each other by now...makes up for the time he time he had a hangover!

Apart from these mild inconveniences I give thanks for plodding on as best I can, though I've been too tired and sore to have much of an impact on things today. I give thanks for feeling the benefit of a nice long sit down on hold to various benefit agencies...for another round of trying to lure alleged 'handymen' to the phone, if not the premises, to discuss the many jobs I cannot do myself... I give thanks for finding the hammer plus one lone picture pin so I could put up a calendar. For finding lots of clothes for a change from the few I had with me before (women do get weary and all that) but not a single extra saucepan to extend my cooking repertoire. Never mind...I give thanks for profiteroles and strawberries reduced in the Co op for dessert if I can rustle up some pasta or something first...

Three

Oh my, I sure do give thanks for being able to sleep in my much loved bed, and for being able to get out the right side of it for my various health needs. It's good to be able to reach with my good arm for the light switch and cuppa too!

It was a great treat to be able to have a lie in enjoying the comfort but I give thanks for the sunshine and various tasks to complete in my old home town so I had to get moving eventually. I've said all along it would be easier to get there and back if I moved here and today I proved it so - half a hill being harder than none! I give thanks for all the friendly people I chatted to including the receptionist at my lovely long time surgery who said I must come back and visit when I'm around and warned me to expect a less friendly service at the new practice. I'm steeled for its horrors, but after the time I've spent with the team there, even the nicest new ones will seem a bit odd...

I give thanks for remembering everything on my list even though I didn't write one let alone take it with me! For trying to find a balance between the fatigue (and accompanying urge to doss around) and the urge to do more nest building to make dossing more comfortable. The living room looks like a second hand furniture store and the spare room like a charity shop...but it's all stuff I believe to be beautiful or know to be useful and I don't need to ask the price! I give thanks for finding a duvet cover in a real charity shop to make almost instant window coverings for the kitchen and feeling the fear and doing it anyway at the top of the big ladder again to hang the second living room curtain. They'll have to come down again to be extended but maybe I'll be able to run to a new pole at the same time to save too much mountaineering. In the meantime they are far prettier and more insulating than the ones I've replaced...

Two

Phew! After many long hours sorting stuff out I give thanks for banging my head full on on the sloping ceiling making it ache, and fiddling about so much with this and that my hand and arm twisted into a seized up knot and I had to cease and desist..

I give thanks for my removal team - what lovely bunch of chaps they are - so friendly and helpful. You want your bed put together? No problem! Shall we plumb in the washing machine too? No problem! Ah, actually there is...we left the hoses in situ at the other place. Tell you what...if you can get one while we're working we'll do it for you when we've done. Couple of frantic phone calls later, yay I can buy one at the top of town here...but I cannot find my purse! So removal man gets out his own money and lends me some...and while I'm gone they arrange the furniture in as homely manner as they can!

I give thanks I now have a working washing machine and fridge freezer. I was practically skipping with delight to see them, likewise the toaster which was the first thing to emerge from a box or bag - I've been using the top of the oven here but can't turn the fan off and as the door is crooked you get a very warm kitchen just browning a slice of bread. Normally the room is pretty chilly though so this is not an entirely bad thing. I don't waste the heat, I commandeer some sort of table and seat and eat my food in there.

Not all the ceilings are low - some you almost need breathing equipment to reach! I give thanks for my old very long curtains being long enough to cover the window, but they'll need extending to reach the floor which I prefer in a tall room. I give thanks for...eventually...psyching myself up enough to get on the top platform of the ladder to attach one to the rail to see. For a heavy cupboard on casters to wheel next to me for an extra handhold. For not kidnapping the very tall Tesco delivery driver and forcing him to attend to my soft furnishing woes and closing the door on that room to go back to another day.

I give thanks thanks for rigging up temporary window dressings in the bedroom and bathroom instead for more cosiness and privacy. The kitchen I got as far as finding a telescopic pole for and then shut the door on that too. Home wasn't built in a day but there certainly have been some improvements made in the last twenty four hours or so.

One

Well, I've been using song titles for my blog posts almost a year now and the novelty is wearing a bit thin - let alone the supply of fresh ones. I thought I'd start some new naming phase when I moved...but, after well in excess of three thousand posts and much to deal with in other departments, I'm right  out of ideas. So, as I was telling someone in some call centre earlier, as it feels to me as if the year has only really just started I'm going to stick with numbers for a while...

I give thanks for a fairly successful twenty four hours - especially Julie finally finding my messages and dashing to my rescue. Honestly I don't think she could have fitted any more in her car, so I'm so grateful what fitted was all there was! I give thanks my new bath and chair bed were super comfy as there wasn't time to try out much else when we'd finally lugged everything upstairs. For finding the sale boards two different estate agents left behind fitted tidily in the bathroom window frame to cut out some drafts, and using a heavy duty throw thrown over my screen to do a similar job in the front bedroom.

I give thanks for being very pleased with how my new carpets look and feel in the other two rooms. I'd wondered if it were really necessary to get rid of what was down there before - and it was! For making a start on sorting out what is here to make room for what is arriving tomorrow. For catching twenty winks here and there as I'm still too wound up to sleep enough at night, and as both a BT engineer and Rachel were due later a full on siesta wasn't best. I give thanks for not losing the plot when neither of them actually could make it...and for it being rather chilly as I'd just started cooking for two and the fridge is still miles away. I give thanks for a shop only metres away to buy cake to cheer myself up!

Obviously there are odds and ends need fixing, and a few things much larger than that, but on the whole at the end of day one my general impression is of comfort and homeliness, fascinating things to watch outside the window, and lots of luxurious space...to fill with furniture and boxes and bags tomorrow of course (I hope!)

Time is on my side

One thing we didn't manage to master yesterday was the entryphone. The buzzer sounds when someone presses the button at the bottom but nothing happens when you press the button at the top. I added it to my list of things to ask an electrician to quote me for, and in an odd moment found a second chap to send a message to. The first one had said he wasn't qualified to do the cooker work, and the second made me burst out laughing when he phoned and introduced himself. Turns out I know him in a completely different capacity - he's one of the Death Cafe organisers, and also the acupuncturist who took over Rachel's slot at the  treatment centre where I first met her. Electrician, acupuncturist...yes I can see the connection!

In the meantime I give thanks there are a few less stairs to negotiate, and the ones there are seem easier on the knees! For a delicious lunch with Mima in local eatery to fortify me for round two... Round Two? Round a hundred and two more like! I give thanks, though it seemed impossible, managed to get everything sorted cleaned and stowed into boxes and bags...and before nightfall too! I will give even more thanks when I hear from Julie she is on her way to collect me and at least some of said baggage...I've had enough of limbo now.  I give thanks I'm trying to remain calm and relaxed and think of Plan One Hundred and Two if she's disappeared into a black hole...After all I don't have to be at the new place til 9am!

One more night

I give thanks for eating and sleeping better, and waking up feeling more well. I was still tired though, and stiff and sore, so I give thanks though I couldn't imagine getting out of bed, let alone lugging goods and chattels about the county, I managed the former just in time to be dressed when Mima came to help me with the latter!

I give thanks we had a successful morning, between us solving the riddles of the various heaters, hob and oven. I give thanks the estate agent's mate came and took away the fridge, washing machine and kitchen implements. He didn't want the giant freezer but kindly manhandled it into the spare room and we chucked the other bits and bobs in a cardboard box to take to a charity shop. Then I started feeling better...those leftover items had been really getting to me and feeling so ill yesterday a new flat just seemed like one more hassle not a joy at all.

I give thanks for Julie and Spencer bringing the chair bed that magically appeared in front of them last week after I'd said I wanted one...and for it being much nicer and much comfier than I imagined. I'm really pleased, and so grateful for all their man/woman handling!

I give thanks if all goes according to plan there's just one more night here and then one more day of packing, lifting and shifting on a deadline. There'll be lots more to lift and shift and manoeuvre after that...but it should be up to me how long I take over it.

When the going gets tough

What was it the renal consultant said to do if I started feeling unwell - trudge around with a rucksack and suitcase in the wind and pouring rain was it? Tried that...didn't seem to help!

I give thanks my purchase completed surprisingly early today... Earlier than I was ready to pick up the keys by a long way! I give thanks for getting to the property before the rain started in earnest. It's a nicer bigger space than I remember - and shabbier! I give thanks for managing to shut a stuck window so it's a little less draughty and can make a plug in heater work though not succeeded in producing signs of life from the storage heaters, oven or hob. I give thanks the estate agent assures me the vendor's stuff will be removed tomorrow but we've heard stuff like that before and I am gutted it's not gone already as it feels like it's not my place yet with someone else's things in. Bit like where I am now really!

I give thanks I'm somewhat drier than when I arrived back after getting an extra key cut. Definitely colder though! I give thanks for managing to eat something. I'm hoping a little food in my tummy, a hot water bottle and blanket, hat and scarf and mindless TV may soon result in a nap and waking up feeling rather better. I'll certainly be grateful if that is so. I give thanks for thinking I can keep going a little longer. Likewise...

The drugs don't work

I give thanks I felt so rested yesterday evening I made an apple crumble. Given the kitchen facilities here this was no mean feat but it was worth it for the comfort factor and it tasted pretty good too. I give thanks cooking also warmed the kitchen enough for me to do the washing up after as well...

I give thanks after only fifteen minutes or so on hold this morning I got through to an unusually kindly advisor regarding the letter telling me me my benefits were being cut due to my new wealth (ie. from selling my old flat) This should not be the way the process works but, although I had explained the situation previously and it was in my notes, I hadn't explained it in the right tone of voice to the right person looking on the right computer system last time so oops a daisy I have to prove it when I've bought another and wait for a decision maker to decide if I can be exonerated and have money reinstated. It reminds me of when I complained to the medical director of a hospital my stroke symptoms had gone unrecognised by any doctors or nurses and he said 'You are an articulate woman - couldn't you make yourself understood?'. I give thanks for our benefit system as I give thanks for our NHS but sometimes they can't get the staff, you know!

I have been in a lot of pain in a lot of places again today so I give thanks I had to go out and get some odds and ends as, though chilly, it was lovely in the bright sunshine. I give thanks for buying an enormous cream cake to reward and cheer me up...shame I forgot the Paracetamol though! I give thanks for more sorting stuff out and packing it away, interspersed with much sitting down... and for the extra central heating which has made moving around easier than it might have been. And when fretting a little over how rough I feel  in general today I give thanks for reminding myself all I really have to do tomorrow is collect the keys...and even that is optional if my body requires something else happens instead.

Nice 'n' easy

Yay! Finally, after months of asking, arrangements have been made to empty the kitchen at the new place which has still has a washing machine, fridge, freezer and assorted utensils and odds and ends left over from when it was a rental property. I was very grateful to hear this a little earlier on...as it's a big step nearer to moving my stuff in!

I give thanks the carpet man has been and measured up and amended his recent quote to the one he made a few days ago after I made him recalculate - downwards of course! I give thanks for provisionally booking the return of my chattels when the fitters have done their work.

Other than attending to these matters I've not done much today so I give thanks for the luxury of a rest, interspersed with a little light packing and sorting out...plus reading a novel...and earplugs and a hot water bottle under the covers a delicious snooze.  On the whole I wouldn't recommend combining complicated health problems with a protracted relocation. I give thanks for my resilience and for remembering, when possible, to be gentle with myself.

Bus stop

I give thanks that I've had better days...and worse ones too so I know this one wasn't so bad! I give thanks for dragging my soreness out of bed with plans to turn an outpatients' appointment into as best an excursion as it could be despite the time slot being as far away from bus connections as it could be. The bus to catch the bus I could catch to the hospital was very late which scuppered these schemes but the things I meant to buy were unavailable anyway so I didn't need the time I thought I did...and I give thanks for getting a flapjack I didn't need as the lunch I had promised myself was off the menu too and I ended up really needing a snack!

I give thanks for my treatment not being too painful - most of the time! The podiatrist was pleased with the state of my toes but is still urging nail surgery in case they get worse again. I give thanks for signing the consent form in case they do (or I might still be there!) but have no intention of allowing either the deterioration nor the remedy for the foreseeable future! Large chunks of the present having been obliterated I give thanks for giving up on any other escapades and trying to get home. I'd have had to wait over an hour to catch a bus to catch a bus back here so I took the other option and hurtled down a connecting road to catch bus 2. There really wouldn't be time to get to the stop if it had been on time but I figured everything had been delayed today and I might just manage if this was late too. As it wasn't I give thanks at a push I can still trot...and for the driver kindly waiting while I did!

True

After a very little sleep and nightmares when I did I give thanks I set my alarm for a busy morning in the office. I'll be even more grateful when I get my proper office back - the one with the extra firm mattress and two bedside lamps!

I give thanks my diligence paid off and in mid afternoon I had the confirmation contracts had been exchanged at long and winding last. I know it's not quite over yet but this much is true and I shed the same kind of tears of relief as I did when I first felt a finally working fistula on my arm. I give thanks it's not been required just yet...hang on in there kidney!

I give thanks for a chattery trip to town. I'm grateful I'm hopeful my quality of life will be enhanced by the move, but also that I won't be going far away and should be able to come back easily to this especially friendly place.

There's no place like home

I give thanks for an unusually long telly fest yesterday. I can't watch for hours on end (even tennis) but with a few breaks I can very occasionally find enough material to binge on and enough fatigue not to care. I give thanks for realising the Black Lake that was on wasn't the one I'd seen before and that warranted some serious catch up with a bowl of soup and a hot bath in between...

I give thanks for feeling pleasantly rested this morning and, for the first time since coming here, making pancakes for my brunch. For reminding myself to give thanks for worktops when I have access to these wonders of Western civilisation again!

I give thanks for Mima advising it was a pleasant day beyond the blinds and for driving us somewhere to go for a longer walk than planned before the brisk breeze blew the clouds back overhead. For the view through this tunnel under the railway...and for finally persuading my phone to react to it not process it as a square of light. For Costa providing us with much needed refreshments and discovering Home Bargains sell a lot of bargain foods - even foods to interest me! I'd been running down stocks ready to leave but there were items too useful for someone without worktops to leave behind...

S-s-s-single bed

I give thanks for some good nights' sleep recently, but last night wasn't one of them! For nonetheless getting myself going early enough to go to the Post Office and back before Laura was due, and for there being two Portugese tarts left at the deli to collect to have with a cuppa when she arrived. For a few quiet bits during the remainder of the day, and a few cosy ones...though not necessarily at the same time. For snoozing on the sofa with Barnaby and Troy when they did...

I give thanks for schemes and plans. Yes, I know you should live in the present moment but sometimes it's the best thing to do with the here and now... I'd been thinking I'd like to get a chair bed for the 'spare' room for when it's not a store room, which is clearly a long term aspiration, but I'd also thought if I had it sooner rather than later I could sleep on it before my furniture arrives. I'm not much given to roping others in for second opinions on stuff I might like to buy, but as Julie would have to fetch and carry it I sent her a picture of an IKEA one I fancied. And then a picture of a second hand one from Gumtree after she suggested I look for a cheaper option. The seller said it was still available but then didn't reply when I suggested coming to see it on Sunday. Meanwhile Julie came across one almost identical this afternoon in a charity shop she was in, sent photos, checked it over and offered to buy it and hang onto it until next weekend. I give thanks for my friends and for the strange ways things turn out.

Perhaps. perhaps, perhaps

So this morning we had window cleaners sprucing up the many panes of the building, and largely based right outside my door. Oh well, I give thanks this was a good reason to stay in bed, but the dogs were going berserk and I gave even more thanks for realising after some time that berserk dogs meant no owners on the premises and that there might be enough hot water for a bath. Ooh and I was grateful there was! The bathroom is not pretty, practical or even comfortable to use but a long soak in hot water is still a treat. I give thanks for my earplugs as my ears were nearer the dogs, and a novel to distract me - including from looking at my phone every couple of minutes to see if there were any updates.

I give thanks that finally there were some updates, and if all goes according to plan we hope to exchange on Monday and complete on Friday a week today. Friday is not an ideal day for several reasons but there are many more reasons why completion is better than not and having a date to count down towards is psychologically better than not as well! I give thanks for suddenly feeling a bit more energetic after this news, and going out to spread the news - making tentative arrangements with carpet suppliers and removal folk and visiting the estate agent to ensure they are on the case regarding the vendors clearing the flat.

I give thanks for getting some odds and ends of unavoidable shopping and finding a large bag of baker made scones for £1 and another of less than perfectly fresh Chantenay carrots for 50p at the greengrocers. Carrots are one of the few vegetables I'm encouraged to eat and I've only recently discovered they come in different flavours. Lidl's 'unicorn' carrots are divine...but Chantenay are pretty good too. Some of them went into a tasty (for ready made paste based) curry for my tea. I give thanks for managing to save some of that for tomorrow.

Who let the dogs out

... because the dogs felt it wasn't enough and barked and howled for hours! Having put my knees through more paces than they would have preferred yesterday I give thanks for easing their pain with a fairly sedentary day, though quiet it certainly was not! For trying to remain patient with canines, and humans and their vehicles and kids and diy...for remembering they are merely going about their lives and it's just unfortunate I'm trying to live mine at a quieter volume a few feet away.

I give thanks for trying not be any more of a patient than I am already. For keeping as cosy and comfortable as I can, which isn't very but enough to doze off in front on the TV after doing the domestic chores. For going as far as the bins to catch a glimpse of daylight and remind myself it's not nearly as cold indoors as out...well except possibly in the kitchen!

On the road again

I give thanks for the gorgeous sunshine...Add in a reasonable night's sleep, my tax return cheque arriving and the letter from the doctor's turning out to be routine not alarming I've had quite a spring in my step today, which was handy as I had to go to another town to pay the cheque in!

I give thanks for going by train instead of by bus as I usually do and seeing the journey from a different pespective. For a most of a delicious toasted goats cheese sandwich for my lunch and leftovers to bring home.

I give thanks for Paul and I finding a way to speed one thing up. There was a document I needed to sign in the presence of a witness so instead of sending it here, me looking for someone and sending it back he left it at reception and the nice lady on the desk handed it to me, watched me sign and took it back to him. Still not all sorted but hopefully just a few days now.

I give thanks for a cup of tea at Mima's and a lift home with my clean washing... and then meeting in the middle on foot as I left my phone behind. This meant we both got to admire the pretty sunset which otherwise we wouldn't have seen...

I give thanks for another fave rave from my pre-teen years. Canned heat would come in very handy this evening!

Subterranean homesick blues

I give thanks for an unusually pleasant evening...by current standards anyhow! For Rachel bringing me homemade dahl and rice for my tea along with good conversation and company. giving me a soothing, healing treatment. For enough hot water for a shower of pleasing temperature and duration, and another enthralling episode of the Manhunt trilogy. For five hours joined up sleep!

Today I've been weary and weary of waiting for developments while dealing with the difficulties here so I give thanks for doing my best not to let it get me down. For making some nice simple things to eat for breakfast and lunch, and leaving my sleepy hollow to see the pretty sea and sky while picking up some groceries for tea.

I give thanks for hearing from Paul while writing this. He is highly thought locally as a particularly efficient and ethical solicitor, but also manages to communicate in a warm and friendly manner which, from the very first time I spoke to him, impressed and cheered me. They can seen rather heartless souls! I'll spare you the details but according to him we are 'not too far off now'.

I give thanks for remembering this Dylan gem. Still perfectly relevant in this imperfect world...and I still love the video!

Take the money and run

I give thanks my viewing schedule lived up to expectations - there was a programme about amazing homes that didn't only feature grand designs costing many spare bank account grands - they even visited Slab City!  And for a gripping dramatisation of a true murder investigation with Martin Clunes as the detective. I've only ever seen him in comic roles, and not many of those as he doesn't make me laugh, so it was a revelation to see him in a straight role. There was even an advert I actually enjoyed though this was for a bank I already use so no use to me...

Today I give thanks though the day has tried to try me I've tried to remain in fairly good spirits.  I didn't have time for breakfast with everything else I had to do before my blood test so I give thanks for a cinnamon Danish and cup of tea in the mild sunshine on the seafront. I give thanks for my emergency fiver tucked away in a corner of my purse as when I went to get cash I discovered my bank card wasn't in it. For another session of trying to find carpet I like at a price I can afford - the problem being I really want two rooms done before the furniture goes in...and have tastes that don't match my income! I thought I'd seen something acceptable in the window of a shop shut for an extended Christmas break so I wasn't at all amused to be told the samples on display there were discontinued lines just to show they sold flooring and the price quoted related to another line no longer available.

I give thanks for randomly checking my emails on the bus to another shop and finding my cancelled phone engineer was still on the way to the property I don't yet own...and for the notification including his mobile number so I could head him off at the pass!

I give thanks for a cut price Higgidy pie for my lunch, and when the post finally arrived from the main building for finding the money I still owe for Council Tax is more than offset by the extra amount the Inland Revenue owe me over and above the sum I'd roughly calculated. Enough to get something a bit nicer to go over and above the floorboards methinks...

Just one look

I give thanks for the Dunelm kitchen providing me with a tasty bargain lunch today. I'd woken late and the frozen bread toasted dry, unappetising and almost inedible so I was in need of sustenance after accompanying Mima to window shop in a couple of stores. She actually did a bit of purchasing but I was only there to look, though I did look at window blinds! I give thanks for choosing one for my bedroom, if I get a bedroom and have some money left over when I do...

I give thanks for homemade cake later, a lap sit from Molly the moody cat and successfully finding four pieces in a very hard jigsaw puzzle!

I give thanks there are, unusually, a few things I'd like to watch on TV tonight. Also, even more unusually, they can (signal willing on the appropriate channels) be watched consecutively. And I'm even more grateful that they are (even more unusually) all on channels with advert breaks so I'll have chances to go to the loo, get refreshments and refill my hot water bottle without missing programme chunks. Missing adverts is pretty much always a bomys these days as they drive me to distraction not online stores and shops... missing my pause, rewind, record and fast forward facility almost a permanent state.

Show me the way to go home

I give thanks we had extra heating yesterday evening plus there was no noise above my head. I don't know if the folks there are away for the weekend, or gone back to their homes for good, but it was wonderful to have a bit more peace and physical comfort and improved my mood a good deal. Still stayed in bed though as the wifi doesn't work on the sofa!

After waking up a few times in the night feeling most unwell I gave thanks for being much better this morning. For getting the bathroom warm enough for a bath though sadly by the time I did there wasn't a bathful of hot water so it was just a fleeting dip. For staying indoors getting on with domestic chores and cooking to keep myself cosy, and  and going out to the bins to get a glimpse of the greyish daylight. For trying not to get worked about the intensely intrusive neighbourhood sounds... I give thanks there may be barking dogs where I'm going, and possibly tantrumming tots, but no one can park a car outside my living room window, toot the horn, rev the engine and have a lengthy chat - well, unless they're up a ladder I suppose! 

God only knows

Mmm... I give thanks I went and got gonged last night! One advantage of a less than cosy abode is it's not so hard to leave it on a chilly winter's evening. I give thanks it wasn't raining and that the bus was warm but the glow had worn off by the time I got to the venue where Sally welcomed me with open arms. 'Oh you don't want to hug me' I said, 'I'm covered in cold!' 'That's fine,' she replied 'I'm having a hot flush!' so we had an extra long embrace happily swapping body temperatures...

I am so grateful I can have a gong bath now and then. It is one of the very few things I do that now that I would do if I were still young and/or well. And one of very few hours in the last few weeks when I haven't thought how much I hate my life! I give thanks for lift home-ish afterwards as it's so much nicer than trudging back to the stop and waiting for the bus.

I give thanks for a busy morning in the office, chasing this and that. For an extra large bowl of spinach and ricotta ravioli with veg for a late lunch followed by an extra large late nap. For stirring myself and zapping about collecting odds and ends before the shops shut and for finding lots of irresistible special offers which pleased my purse but not my back and knees lugging them back home.

I give thanks for finally getting the wifi to work, for the owners coming home so their dog will shut up and, as there's nothing to watch on TV and the heating is off,  for taking to my bed fully clothed with the leccy blanket on with a sarnie and a book. I give thanks rumour has it I may get a date next week. No, not that kind :-) I did hear When a Man Loves a Woman in a charity shop earlier though...cracking track, I gave great thanks for that!

Cold as ice

For a while last night I wished I was more 'normal' then I wouldn't mind listening to the folk upstairs listening to soaps as I'd be enthralled myself. But then I paid attention to the bickering tones they used to talk to one another and was very grateful for being too odd to be anything other than on my own! I give thanks I decided to avoid lower floor flats when looking to buy. Yes, my knees are enjoying the lack of stairs here but I if I never have to hear another person using a toilet above my head it won't be a moment too soon...though I still don't know when that moment will be.

I lost the will to get up today, so I give thanks for staying cosier in bed. For my earplugs as it wasn't very peaceful and for occasionally accessing the unheated kitchen and bathroom as required. The kitchen has two and a half outside walls, one of which is window and gets ferociously cold, so I give thanks for enough coins for the meter to put the cooker on before I went in there for anything that took longer than grabbing the biscuit tin.

I give thanks for the landlords putting the heating on for a while in the early afternoon so I could brave the arduous process of getting dressed in mutluple laters including scarf and hat, topped off with hot water bottle and throw. No sign of it coming back on again so I give thanks I'm planning to go out later and will be getting colder still!

January

Hmm... gratitude is not coming easily to me lately. I give thanks for the times when I don't feel downright depressed I guess. For managing to make it through another twenty four of various difficulties and discomforts and trying to remind myself how lucky I am.

I give thanks for not sleeping all day after not sleeping most of the night. For not staying in bed reading books all day either... and for the howling dogs encouraging me to leave the building!

I give thanks fo keeping passably warm indoors and out and not having to wait too long for buses. For going to the carpet shop I think I'll buy from as I thought looking at what I might like to buy might help it seem as if I really might - after a month in limbo I'm beginning to feel very stuck! For coming up with a Plan B when I got there and found they are still on their Christmas hols. This involved another bus, and when I got off at the stop I was horrified to find roadworks had closed the stop on the other side of the road I'd need to return. I give thanks for having the strength to go further... and that being out later than originally intended meant I got to see some pretty sunset sky on the way back.

I give thanks for keeping myself sort of fed! And for still having an appetite of course... For reminding myself I am doing astonishingly well for someone who really isn't!

New Year's Day

I give thanks for a mostly horizontal evening, starting out in the bath as I figured if folk were going out getting to the hot water first was a good plan. For hurriedly making sandwiches for tea as there was something I wanted to watch on TV and, when it turned out to have been rescheduled, for retiring to bed with catch up on my laptop instead.

I give thanks even with my earplugs I could hear other people were having fun, and of course see some pictures of it posted on social media too. For remembering when I used to go to parties...dressing up, dancing, drinking, all that stuff. I give thanks for those who have have family, partners and friends to stay home with if they prefer, and comfy homes to be in too.

Today I give thanks for being not just vertical a lot of the time but mostly in motion as well. For a massive session of clearing up and cleaning here, to make me feel I'm taking a step towards clearing out. For taking a break when Mima felt like a drive out in the very clement weather and taking a flask of tea and some snacks to join the world and his wife, mother, brother, cousin, three kids, two dogs and a selection of seasonal toys on the dunes with a view of the sparkling sea.