Quenched

I give thanks for the rain... the dry earth needed it didn't it? Personally I could have done with a bit more warning however! I give thanks I've not been outdoors much, and so far not in a hail storm...though I did have a treatment room with a view to admire it after it had rattled on the windows and told me to have a look. For otherwise being focused on the gripping and moving three part dramatisation I somehow missed last year about the lives of those dealing with the poisonings in Salisbury and Amesbury. I love it when they show you the real surviving people at the end of this kind of thing and they did. And for being alone to have a little weep... 

I give thanks for matron Rob making me a sneaky extra cup of tea as I dialysis a bit earlier than I estimated when booking my taxi to stage two. Just what I needed to fuel me for a damp wait when it was late.

For the magic cannula man being on duty at oncology...and for him not being required as I had a magic cannula woman instead. Really improves the quality of the experience if they manage just to slide one in first time! She also offered to make us all a cup of tea which I sometimes see evidence of, but have never actually experienced. I give thanks I was already quenched and could write this instead. 

Preparatory

I wasn't prepared for quite how sore and sleepy I was going to be today. Don't know if this should be attributed to a restless night, fibromyalgia, two and a half doses of Covid vaccination or any one of a number of other culprits but I'm grateful I didn't see it coming or I'd not have been at all keen! It's this weekend I expect to feel rough, having passed both the preparatory blood work 

and my own gauge of preparedness for another immunotherapy treatment. I give thanks for managing to make food for fridge and freezer in readiness between a lot of dossing about today. 

I give thanks for remembering yesterday when I felt so much better. Also for remembering yesterday when I felt so much better and, while fetching groceries in the drizzle before going to treatment, spotted a charity shop window where the mannequins were suddenly sporting macs over their spring attire! Top marks I think, don't you?

Talking of spring attire I give thanks for being delighted by various internet bargains added to virtual baskets over the weekend. One garment needs a small alteration before it can be worn but that's fine - I'll add it to the pile of items awaiting attention from needle and thread. I give thanks there's no rush as it's turned so chilly again...and for evidence this isn't just me being a wuss. There's been hardly a soul around today and those that have been have been very well clad!

I give thanks the chap who keeled over on his favourite park bench early eventually made it back upright again. I'd been keeping a worried eye on him for some time as I've personally known two over indulgers who suffered strokes and were assumed just to be 'sleeping it off'. It was some relief when he made it across the road to get a fresh can and didn't quite fall off his bike into the brook as he rode away, but not entirely. Poor chap, bet that's not what he wanted to be when he grew up. 

Cosmetic

I give thanks I live by the railway station as well as the bus stop as Stagecoach failed to deliver their timetabled service today and I could just go round the corner and get a train instead. For more trains running again now lockdown has been loosened, and got it being a nice smart one I caught! For feeling well enough to toddle about and for my phone with its railcard app and to use to call for a cab to meet me. 

For a different journey through the city passing some of its rather grand veranda fronted houses (and plainer prison!) all dripping with wisteria. 

For accidently catching part of some programmes about the history of cosmetics, which I wouldn't have thought were my cup of tea at all as not interested in make-up per se, but finding the historical detail of recipes, adverts plus the mores and mindsets that led to its changing face (see what I did there?) fascinating. Did you know during the Victorian era when women were supposed to be untouched by tint, men coloured their mustaches with something called mascaro? Ooh I love learning something new! I also learned I somehow missed a great dramatisation of the behind the scenes goings on after the Salisbury poisoning...but that it's still on iplayer which is how I know it's great!

I give thanks for a good day on the unit and a lot of laughs on the way home. For remembering I'd forgotten I had vegetables cooking while I wrote this, before something nasty happened to the pan. For bathwater heating up on a chilly murky evening. 

Quirky

I give thanks for an unusually grand day out of the office. For another long medicated sleep and a leisurely start before the doctor came to give me my third Covid jab. The surgery had phoned me yesterday to say there'd been a problem with vaccination number two and, on advice from the renal team, thought it better I had another shot. I give thanks they gave me the choice of another home visit despite establishing for their records I'm not actually totally housebound - it gave me a chance to find out more about what had gone wrong, and to see that charming chap again! Apparently as he took his gloves off going down the stairs he realised there was liquid on them which should have been in my arm. And felt so bad about it he brought some rather lovely flowers to apologise. Grateful? An attractive man brings me flowers? Did me as much good as that jab that did I reckon! 

I give thanks for then taking a train for the short journey I usually use the bus for, as I was visiting Julie which I've not done yet at her (now not very) new house (well, mostly garden obviously) and that's close to the station. I'd forgotten how scenic that little stretch of line is! Julie's home decor was too of course, (I was looking for the loo, honest guv!) and so good to see all the projects she's described. I give thanks the showers passed us by... 

I give thanks for managing to make a tasty Quorn pie despite a problem with my cooker requiring some ingenuity. For the quirky play Orpheus in the Record Shop. Loved the beatboxing too! For finding an ancient blood request form while clearing out a drawer. That will come in handy if the online request goes missing again... 

Rationed

I give thanks for an OK day both in the office and out after taking one of my magic pills prescribed for pain that also tend to help with sleep. I ration them as I figure they wouldn't work as well if I took them all the time and I wouldn't have that rested feeling to be so grateful for. Sleeping soundly without medication would be even better of course but my body doesn't seem to be into that just now. Insomnia is common in renal patients and we usually have a little top up nap during treatment so I gave thanks for managing to mine in the last half hour after lots of unavoidable noisiness and interruptions.

I give thanks for blossom, even when it turns to snow. For the spotting the difference in the trees along the roadside since Friday's journey - actually I swear they were different from this morning too. For the miracle of brown buds turning green and opening into leaves. 

I give thanks for managing not to eat all my risotto yesterday so there were leftovers to eat for tea while watching a journey along the Spey River. For the possibility of ice cream for dessert. That's normally rationed too but I have the oat based sort. 

Stiff

I give thanks I could tell it was still cool in the stiff breeze today by the lack of trippers' skin on show. I didn't have a problem with this as a lot of stiffness about the joints and achiness in between meant I wasn't up to going far. I give thanks for getting out of bed and into some clothes which took a while to do. For starting putting away the wintriest ones and inspecting my mostly ancient lighter weight togs to see if they a) still fitted and b) were fit for my increasingly ancient and unfit bod to be seen in. For thus authorising some internet shopping haha! 

I give thanks for completing a couple of minor amendments and mending jobs on garments too...and feeling inordinately proud of myself. My mind continues to consider these trivial tasks but failing eyesight and dexterity means they're actually quite a challenge these days. 

I give thanks making a lush leek and smoked haddock risotto in my new cheapo casserole. Perfect piece of kit and perfect comfort food to start a snoozy afternoon on the sofa. For settling down to watch a second season of something on Netflix and realising I can remember I can remember very little of the first...so I now have both to enjoy! It's set in Galicia so I give thanks for the memories... 

Gone

Some days I never get going, and I give thanks for reminding myself when this is the case that given my various illnesses and hindrances I get a remarkable amount of going done! Today it looked like one of those days, and I give thanks for just going with the very slow flow...and that at last it speeded up! 

I give thanks for a plan to get out of the wind, which by then by the coast almost freeze dried you on the spot...and also to get away from the holiday making crowds in town by heading to the countryside just off the main road and handy bus route. For the warmth of the sunshine. For spring greens and flower colours, including banks of primroses and violets that you'll just have to imagine as they were on a narrow winding lane too busy to risk getting a pic... plus bluebells in a pretty churchyard. For finding a seat in a field with a lovely view and hardly a soul nearby. This did this soul much benefit!