Family First

Well as you can well understand family must come first. As my nephews other set of grandparents aren't available for a couple of weeks we are looking after my youngest nephew every day. As well as doing the school pickups ourselves so my time generally devoted to being online as well as on my own hobbies is greatly curtailed. As such excuse my absence in the next couple of weeks.

Not An Excuse

Ignorance is Not An Excuse. So I do not except George Osbourne's excuse for his 4x4 being parked clearly on a disabled bay just because he wanted/needed a BigMac.

I'm sick of the excuses and outright reasons high profile - and regular - people give for parking in disabled bays. I have been unable to use stores/shops because I couldn't park as I am entitled with my Blue Badge because non-blue badge drivers think they have the right to use the bays closest to their destination.

I don't know what's worse, those that take these spaces regardless or those who believe having a new flashy expensive car means they can use the larger disabled spaces for their new motor to avoid scratches from trolleys. I kid you not. A couple of years ago I was at Tesco and thought myself lucky that I got the last disabled bay and didn't have to detour to another supermarket to get my much needed groceries. Walking slowly, actually more like stumbling with my carer holding me upright, I struggled into the store. Passing the other cars no less than six had absolutely no blue badge displayed, and the only thing they had in common?, they were all brand new luxury cars just released that month.

Massager

My latest 'aid' that I bought with the help of my DLA arrived today. It's a seat topper massager, I had one years ago which went AWOL when we moved to this house a few years back. My Mother and I both have Homedic Shiatsu Pillows but these are quite a bit more limited, but no less helpful in their own way, that the seat topper.

It cost me around the £25 price ticket including postage, I'll be putting video or pics up to show it properly. Probably better than I can explain in written words.

I love that I can massage (with or without heat) my entire spinal column, my shoulders and all the way over my hips, all at the same time. Also the massager has three separate areas, bottom, middle and top of the seat and you can use them altogether or in one or more area at a time.

DLA is a benefit which is there to help cover the added costs that living with a disability/long term illness can incur. My seat topper is just the latest 'big' purchase I've made courtesy of my DLA. There is regular smaller items like special shoes/clothing requirements (as well as those which require regular replacement due to quick wear/tear), specialist food/drink, specialist facials cleansers (I can't use regular soap) as well as special hair shampoo/conditioner due to the side effects of medication and some of my medical conditions themselves cause.

Snow ... YK !!!!!

I noticed that the forecast is for snow .... again !!!!!

Please don't let it come true, I'm fed up with the continual attacks of snow we keep having. It wouldn't be so bad if the payoff was any half decent summer weather but we haven't had more than the odd day - or in most cases a few hours - of relative sunshine since the bad bad bad winter of 2010.

If nothing else I would like some time where I could save my family on heating bills as the continual price increases are bad enough without having to burn our heating in the supposedly 'summer' time of year.

My parents received their bill for the last quarter just a couple of weeks ago and it was almost £400 ... and that's before the latest increase hits us. And people think we are exaggerating when we say that our DLA is crucial for things like heating because I know that my bad reaction to cold and damp has led to our heating being on a lot more than my parents themselves need.

Luckily my Mother believes in paying all year long into credit but that doesn't make the higher bills hurt us financially any less just because my Mother plans for it and continues saving/adding to our credit during the times when we don't actually burn our heating.

Update

Well it's just a quick update from me today again. Tomorrow my Uncle - who passed away last week - is due to be cremated at 12.30pm. So I have to go across town at around noon and try to get a decent parking space as close to the crematory that I can so I don't have to mobilise too far given how much pain I am living in at the moment. It's more than usual and that's saying something.

Some of my problems is due to the over doing that I have been doing but as I had no other alternative or option I had to 'over-do' more than usual over the past two weeks. Unfortunately I haven't been able to rest more to recover during this past week while my brother is on holiday with his family and I have a break from child minding duties.

Shame but RL does not give you breaks just because you desperately need them.

Excuse Me

First excuse any absense at the moment, we have experienced a death in the family so life outside cyber space is quite hectic keeping all the 'balls in the air' so to speak.

I had planned a few well thought out pieces to begin preparing for my blog here over the Easter break while I no longer had child minding and school runs to interrupt my daily chores. Unfortunately such as losses can't be scheduled so I apologise in advance if I don't get back to what I hope will be my fluid schedule which I have been trying - without much success - to get up and running since the start of the year.