Saturday 4th August

My big sister arrives today, actually she's really not very big, the shortest of all my siblings, and it has to be said, older than me....

Despite living "UP NORTH" someone has too... she likes to come down and enjoy the beauty that Jersey has to offer, and of course our incredible hospitality.

Like all our family members, its always a bit of a "bus man's" holiday, and it makes us all laugh when friends say to us "Have a lovely holiday", when really whenever we arrive at whichever destination there's invariably  a long list of jobs lined up!

These are nearly always dependent on the capability of the person staying, for instance, Betty is very good at sewing and mending, and loves ironing (!) She makes a pretty good macaroons too. Weeding the garden, picking fruit and providing she's armed with rubber gloves will tackle the cleaning, yes even on 'holiday'. Don't worry she has 'time off' to play tennis, swim in the sea and do the crossword occasionally, when she's not beating the boys at Crib, or Steve at Canasta. Now she's taken up playing Bridge as well!

Sally's talents far outreach mine ( in fact I'm not sure I have any).. which of course makes her very useful to have around for a few days. My brothers meanwhile come with their own set of rules, but I was never a very good listener.

The trouble with me spending so much time sitting or lying around the house, (not that I don't appreciate being at home for one minute) is that everywhere I look there's always things to do, and it's frustrating!

I know that I sound like an old nag half the time, requesting friends/family to "do this, do that' pleasssee, and I try to be a mobile as I can. I do have a portable cylinder I can wear like a backpack  that means I have more access to different areas, but they are expensive to run and last about 6 hours each, so much so that the "Oxygen Team" brought me a Dolly Trolly yesterday. It's a convector like the larger ones I have so means it takes in air purifies it and gives me neat oxygen. It's not exactly 'portable' but a good piece of equipment to have and I am grateful.

Yesterday morning I managed to get out on the swing seat and enjoyed sitting in the garden with a friend, found myself burbling nonsense, blamed the morphine. She was very understanding.

I have been attempting to sort out more 'paperwork', nothing hugely exciting, but quite cathartic in a way to have general 'clear outs', it does make you wonder why you end up keeping so much stuff, or perhaps that's just me. I used to try and wait for a rainy day to do those jobs but.......

A quick lunch followed, I'm afraid my appetite is not great, I'm still trying to get as much protein in as I can, this does involve high protein drinks as well as food, but the ongoing lymph issues are increasing, certainly back in my stomach.

There's nothing I can do about that but  hope that this weekend is not spent back in hospital with a another drain in....I'd like to have a full weekend at home for once, as would Steve.

Consequently It's very hard to plan anything too far in advance, I never really know how the day will progress, and much as my body thermostat doesn't work properly I also miss the signs of how quickly I tire.

Steve and I spent a lovely afternoon seeing our good friends (second daughter?) and "grandchildren" out west, only for a few hours, which was so lovely... but upon arriving back home, when in theory I should have rested. I pottered around the kitchen for an hour or so, and then ended up by 7pm, totally shattered, and asleep downstairs for the whole evening. Waking up at 9:30pm to chat to some of the family, before going back to sleep, at least until 4:30am.... when I thought about starting this blog post.

So here we are at 6:30 am and unsurprisingly no sign of anyone waking up yet, so I shall add a few photos, and wish you all a very good weekend. :-)

Piglet: “How do you spell ‘love’?”
Pooh: “You don’t spell it…you feel it.” —Winnie-the-Pooh