Seeing life through new eyes

I’ve been really bad at blogging these last few months. I don’t really have any excuse aside from the fact that once the clocks go back I tend to hibernate so hence I haven’t been up to much. It hasn’t helped that my computer problems have gotten much worse. The Compaq pc which I inherited from Phil has been shaky and slow for a while but a few weeks ago it stopped loading Google Chrome which is the browser that I use. I have tried reloading but to no avail. Phil stepped in and defragged and uninstalled loads of programmes and it has speeded up a little but internet is still iffy and I still can’t load Google Chrome so I am having to use Internet Explorer version 7 which is basic. I have tried loading IE8 but it won’t let me. My backup Acer PC is behaving even more badly and has just about stopped working. I need to have another go because I use Basic Real Time PAYE once a month and am not sure if I can just load onto another PC. Ian very kindly lent me his old work laptop and I can get quite a good internet connection but I can’t print to the wireless printer and also it doesn’t have Word or Excel. Last week was uneventful. Mum phoned up early last Tuesday to say that her TV had gone wrong. Now it’s a fairly new TV so initially I thought she’d pressed a wrong button. I decided to call out a TV engineer from Melton who were able to get to her mid morning. I was glad I did because it turned out mum needed a new aerial and replacement cable because of water damage. You never know if you are being ripped off but they sounded genuine and at the end of the day, TV is mum’s life so it was worth paying out for. Emma my next door neighbour from no 11 came round for a cup of tea last Thursday and we caught up with gossip. I miss living in number 11, I love our little flat but some days these 4 walls seem to cave in on you. Life seems pretty good for Emma, Jason’s business is thriving and the children are doing well at school, so all is good. I went to Tesco’s at Kingston last Friday to get my eyes tested. I knew that my prescription had changed because one night I struggled watching the telly in the bedroom. I put it down to tiredness but turns out that my long distance sight had got worse and so had my near vision. I now need glasses to drive and watch the telly. I ordered 2 pairs but it was BOGOF so the total price came to £95 which I didn’t think was bad. The trouble with me and glasses is that I tend to loose them, or break them, which is why, for the last couple of years I have been buying £2 specs from Primark. I need to be more careful with these new pairs, glasses don’t grow on trees. On Saturday morning I went shopping for curtains at the city centre with Harriet. We got there early so had no problems parking. I guessed we shopped for a couple of hours and ended up getting curtains from BHS. I dropped Harriet off at Newport and then went back to the flat to iron the new curtains before going back to Newport to hang them. The new curtains in the bedroom fitted lovely but the curtains in the dining room were a couple of inches too short which was a pain. There was no way I was going back to the city to change them so instead I went to kill a few hours in the gym. I was up way early on Sunday morning which was just as well because I was going to mum’s for the day. I was on the road by quarter past seven and arrived in Melton before 9 am. Mum had quite a bit of paperwork for me to go through and I had to sort out the new mobile phone that I had brought her. I thought I could just switch the sim card but the phone was locked so I had to add contacts and credit. Actually I don’t know why mum has a mobile, she carries it in her hand bag whenever she goes out but I don’t think she has ever used it. Still she has it if she has an emergency. On the way home I stopped off to see Sue & Ian at their new caravan. It made sense seeing I was driving right past the park. Ian’s daughter had been to stay for the weekend with her 2 children and I don’t think her visit was a success; both Sue & Ian looked done in. I stayed for about an hour and then went back to the flat. I had been up since 4 am so it felt like it had been a very long day. I have spent the last couple of days applying for jobs; I’ve got an application in for a job at The Stadium MK, I’ve also applied to be a check out girl at Asda (28 hours per week) and after posting this blog, I am submitting an application for an admin job at the OU. All of these jobs I could do standing on my head, but whether I will be invited to interview remains to be seen. Jobs aside, I feel like I have got my life on hold at the moment. The funeral for Marie is next Thursday and I will be glad when it’s over. The results of the post mortem showed that Marie had an oedema which burst in her heart, it would have been instant and she wouldn’t have felt anything. Marie also had high cholesterol, high BP and hyper tension. She was 66 years old and otherwise healthy. Step dad is not doing so well which is not surprising really. I phone him every night at 6 pm and some nights it can be quite hard work. Actually step dad has taken mum’s phone spot so now I try to fit her phone call in either late afternoon or while the ads are on in Emmerdale. So now I have 2 depressed people to call every night. Maybe I should apply to be a Samaritan? Step-dad John & Marie on holiiday