Have you had a ? day? Are you worried, scared etc?

Well, i had a blip on Saturday. I have determination running through me like à stick of Blackpool rock, very independent and battling my own war, soldier on
with sleeves rolled up and all that. .... BUT there are days when the grief of losing part of you, sneaks up on you like a thief in the night, takes you totally unaware and for me that occured on Saturday.

None of my armour plating was strong enough to withstand........ and in my case, the loss of what I once was engulfed me.

I find at such times, this helps me . X

I try not to think about what is potentially ahead this winter, I hate being cold, and I am furious that we are all facing a grim, miserable winter, and with absolutely no government at the moment either. Whitewave you have my deepest sympathy, I had your problem after extensive dental surgery; lots of general anaesthetic, inability to eat anything other than yoghurt, I was in great discomfort, I do hope you get a successful solution. Those of you with bad news about family and friends .

I have to distract and detach myself from what is happening, I get so enraged that it cannot be good for me.

Like others on here, we are doing our level best to prepare for this winter. We have no central heating just a log burner with three hot plates and an oven in our open plan wooden bungalow. The bungalow was was built for us and the insulation is superb, even so can get a bit chilly! Slow cooker, microwave, thermals, electric blanket (a luxury!!) and awaiting, as we speak, the delivery of a 0.6 litre kettle, holding just enough water for two cups of tea/coffee. I have already given up the dishwasher except on family days, and wash in 30○. Low voltage light bulbs throughout. I can't think of much more we can do. Lots of sympathy to all who are suffering personal hardship and sorrow. Cancer is such a b###d, and I don't think that there are many families who have not been affected by by this vile disease. My DH survived prostate cancer 12 years ago now, but has diverticulitis which flares up now and again, which is, without going into details, horrid. Old age never comes singularly, aint that the truth.

Good day for me??????

Wahoo Whitewavemark2 - excellent news! ?? x

Whitewavemark2

Good day for me??????

That's a relief

Phew WWM2 - not an experience to be repeated in a hurry I hope.

We are preparing for the Winter as best as we can, though we are already pretty frugal so economising will just shave a bit off here and there. We will need to have the house heated well when we have our youngest GD here two days a week, but will be minimal otherwise.
What worries me more than anything though is all the talk of using candles. A friend's house was recently set on fire by one and I find that very worrying. Won't have candles here but I do have battery powered lanterns in case the electricity goes off. I know it's teaching G'ma to suck eggs but please take care with candles!

Hooray WW2 I understand your relief and have sympathy with the problem, an understated issue.
We too are trying to minimise fuel costs, I have Raynauds and feel the cold, MrJ not so, who’d have thought it’d all be necessary.
To those suffering, themselves, family or friends with cancer, I have little to help, but I’ve been there, it’s horrific, scary and you have little control, my thoughts are with you.

I had a bit of a ?day yesterday. I was out in the garden watering my pots ( with a watering can) when I tripped. I didn’t fall but somehow managed to kick myself in the shin!
Now I’ve got a huge gash in my leg. (I have very thin skin that damages easily.
On the plus side... the doctors were still open and the practice nurse waited for me and dressed the wound. That was a really nice surprise.

I am trying not to think about it! We'll have no choice really but to get through it.

I do get sick of the BBC in particular banging on and on about how we are going to manage and interviewing low income families and pensioners hoping for bad news. They (BBC) love bad and sad news.

I bought a huge bag of wheaty-bag wheat last year and I'm making....er...wheaty bags with odds and ends of fabric. I already had a couple of bags that need just two minutes in the microwave so I've weighed them to get an idea of how much to use to fill my own bags. They are very comforting to hug, especially in bed since I sleep alone. My dog is also comforting to hug. I have a kind of poncho thing that I wear around the house. Weirdly, I got it from the Avon catalogue. It's a big square with a slit from halfway along one side up to the centre and bound all round with blanket stitch. Easy to make something similar, from an old blanket or bedspread perhaps, if you're handy like that. Get someone to measure you right across your back from one wrist to other to get the size for the square. Actually, mine is oblong, if we're being technical! ?

DD gave me an oversized hoodie blanket last Xmas. An amazingly comfortable garment which saved me putting the heating on. Will be getting one for DH this winter!

Well, I'm having a bad IBS day today, have only just managed to escape the bathroom for longer than 10 minutes. Just very inconvenient as we have house guests. But it hasn't been this bad for months so I can't really complain. It will pass - pardon the pun!

Whitewavemark2 Hope you feel a lot better now

Trying not to think about energy bills etc. This week we have 10 family members staying with us, so 2 electric ovens, 2 microwaves, 2 coffee machines, the kettle, dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer all in use at least once a day, and of course the immersion heater for plenty of hot water for all those showers! It will be interesting to see what difference that makes to our monthly consumption. But it may be their only visit to us this year so we'll enjoy our time with them and just afford it somehow.

I keep reminding myself that whatever is happening here at least we're not being bombed as the people of Ukraine still are. My Mum used to say 'There is always someone worse off than you'. So to all those suffering illness, pain, worry or loss

FannyCornforth

Re the bloody energy charges.
I read on the ITV website that we should try do just one load of washing a week.
So we’re going to be sitting by candlelight; cold, hungry and grubby.
What on earth is happening to this country

Unless you are a very large household one load of washing a week sounds reasonable enough to me.

I admit I used to do two, but now do the cool cycle - shirts, t-shirts, socks one week and tea-towels, dish-cloths, bed linen,towels and underpants the next on the hot cycle.

We wash ourselves daily and shower three times a week, turning the water off while soaping ourselves.

We feel and smell clean and our clothes are no dirtier than before when we change them.

I work at home. Last winter I did not have the heating on until 4.30 until about 9pm and an hour in the morning and on 18/19 degrees. It gets cold in my 'office' and I get no extra from my employer for internet etc or working at home as they now have an office - which is really too small for the whole team to work in and as I have been shielding I am reluctant to go into crowded places. Even our mileage is being pared back. Like many of you everything is switched off and I try to batch cook and use the slow cooker. Not sure what to do about Xmas lights as we usually decorate the outside of the house and have several indoors. It is quite depressing and what a state our country is in. And I do appreciate that there are many a lot worse off than us i.e Ukraine and Pakistan.

Katiecat13

Am very worried and sick at heart and know it won’t help. Brother (18 months older) has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, told he has ‘months, not years’ by the consultant last week. He lives alone, an hour’s drive from me and doesn’t want any fuss. Am just ‘being there for him’ and going to appointments with him, which is all he will let me do. Feel so helpless and hopeless. Also scared to lose him….

So sad to hear your situation Katiecat . You know best how to support your darling brother, be there and be just yourself, stuff happens that we can't avoid just manage our way through , bless you both just keep loving him and being his sis.

shower . . . turning the water off while soaping ourselves.
I love these posts. If I turned the water off while I soaped (how long does it take?), I waste more water than I do leaving it on. When we turn the shower off even for a moment the water that comes out when you turn it back on, is cold again. So unless I want to stand under a cold shower, I have to waste water till it warms up. DH and I simply follow each other immediately to avoid this.
We do what we can, but turning the shower off wouldn’t help.

Tree lights only this year and led not slurping power. Actually I'm quite looking forward to a Christmas like we used to have, just 3 days of being greedy/ boozy/ slouchy then decs down after New year's in! It's time we all got back to the tradidional british Christmas I think! You know- pulverised sprouts, bronnley soaps, Tia Maria(just the one!) And lumpy white sauce , then a cake that needed a jackhammer to crack icing and lasted up to Easter,,,.....aah happy days..... And ONE present!! And I'm afraid I'm not going back to the American way of outdoor lights either , national lampoon's Christmas vacation is soooo 1980s dahling...... It's classy not trashy for us nowadays!

I live in one of the smallest towns in Wales, a village really, we only have a mobile library so that's no help to keep warm, I will be getting my pension in November and we manage quite well but I'm very concerned for some people so I'm lobbying the Town Council to heat a couple of rooms in one of our community buildings which has wifi, tables, a few arm chairs and am going to ask my WI members and others to volunteer to be there, make warm drinks etc. Will ask people to bring craft projects, board/card games etc or just chat and push for volunteers so people can come as that and not feel embarrassed that people will think they can't afford to heat their homes.

Jaffacake2 - Yes, I feel just the same and I think back to my childhood and WW2 - that was soul destroying.

Katiecat13 Sympathy & comiserations I hope you can find some pleasant thought every day.

My worry is for all the ultra-protected children who haven't learnt to say boo to a goose. Without the resilience of facing difficulties from birth, how can they learn how to cope with the problems life will inevitably throw at them?

I shower over a bucket! Whilst waiting for the hot water the cold goes into the bucket and is then put on the garden, I then turn off to soap. same with hair wash, and the rinse goes down the drain.

Katiecat13. Sorry you must think I am rude - I am so sorry to read your news. Life can be so hard at times.

Katiecat and Witzend, our troubles small compared to those you love having such a diagnosis. You can be there for them as they want ?
The rest of us, we will get through, everything passes.

I’ve had the shittiest of shit days because sodding bastard cancer has struck my family once again ? I’m sorry but I make no excuses for my language.

This time it’s my younger brother. We’re very close and he was my rock when I lost my DD and DH to this f***ing disease.

I was on a bus when he phoned with the news so had to control my emotions until I got off.

I’m angry. I’m so, so angry.

I’m so sorry, Katiecat. My reaction is not helping you and your worries.

Got up on a low. Thoughts of DH who died 3 months ago together with thoughts of DD who died just pre Covid came surging together. Gave myself a shake and started to get on with the day. Then wanted to print something but drat machine missing bits of print. Tried to change catridges. Never having done this before used YouTube for help but couldn't get the old ones out. Think I pressed tok hard and fingers covered in ink.decided I needed help and went to neighbour, again! I found it really difficult to explain the problem apart from showing him my hands covered in ink. I just wanted to cry and cry but didn't. Took quite a while and a lot of cleaning up but with my wonderful neighbour printer is working.I went out to do some gardening to try to perk me up. Did the jobs but, I'm bubbling now. Real s..t day!