My neighbour is...

...obviously having a good day with his disability today because when I opened my door to check that the recycling containers hadn't blown away overnight, we actually had a short, semi-civil conversation that went like this:

Him:  Alright?

Me:  Yeah ta.  You OK?

Him:  Just moving the cars around.

Me:  Ah right.  I'm just checking that my recycling hadn't disappeared overnight

Then he spotted his son and went to talk to him instead.

He and one of his sons are the only ones living in the street, and the Council have, in the last year or two, brought in a residents-only parking scheme in our street, with each house only being allowed one parking spot, which is fair enough.  

The father and son are two houses, so they are only allowed two parking spots, but they've got 5 cars between them and another son lives on the corner of the street with an address that isn't in the street, but he and his family park their 3 cars in the street too.  

Maths has never been my strong point, but where is my adding up going wrong with this calculation please:  1 family, in 2 houses, plus another extention of the family are parking 8 cars in a tiny street when they are only allowed 2 - my maths says that the family are illegally parking 6 vehicles in the street, right?  

Then there's the hospital staff and carers using the street to park in for free while they are at work too, as well as parents and school staff at a very close-by private secondary school parking here too so it's no wonder that there are rarely any gaps to park outside my own house!

Apparently there are supposed to be regular traffic warden visits to the street too, but I can count on one hand the number of inspections there have been in the last two years and still have two or three fingers left!

That's another Freegler...

...with a thumbs down!

I took the cardboard boxes into the hall, he threw them all over the place, choosing only the ones he wanted then left.  It took me 20 minutes to get from the door to the living room and it usually takes about a second.

I've readvertised them on Freegle and put them on Olio too, but I will only be recycling boxes from now on, not offering them any more.

I was in a good mood before the Freegler arrived but now I'm seething with fury and won't be able to sleep tonight now.

Just need to whine for a bit

It's been a while since my last whine and I'm feeling pretty rotten atm, so I figured I'd let it all out for a while.

I'm exhausted, swollen, in pain, my memory is shot, I'm thirsty, tired and just generally bleurgh.

It's one of those days where I wish I could be healthy and happy and not have to have such a limited life.

My best friend is coming over tomorrow and I bet I'll forget to text him when my lunchtime carer has gone, but even more than that, I don't want to be like an old, thread-bare, worn-out towel that's been through the wash too many times.

I'm just on a downer this afternoon.

Looks like...

...my lunches next week will be a single pot of yoghurt a day 'cos apparently 3 yoghurts and 800g of grapes in 2 days (yep, totally serious) is too much according to today's carer so it'll be Weetabix for breakfast and a single pot of yoghurt for lunch, so I'll be living on less than 500 calories a day which will mean I loose weight I can't afford to lose, but as long as my carers are happy, that's all that matters, right?

I need chocolate

I was in a good mood, feeling pretty positive, no pain and having a good day until my carer decided that she would empty the kitchen rubbish straight into the rubbish sack and did the same with the living room rubbish then came and sat down for a few minutes writing her notes about how much she had helped me.

I've now gotta pick out every bit of rubbish out of the rubbish sack, rebag it and hope that my mood and pain level improves soon.

That's the...

...carers and Council Tax paid up and out of the way.  I want to be my carer cos it was over £530 for less than an hour of actual support this month!!  £530 an hour is really expensive by anyone's standards, but apparently I need them so that I can keep living independently and I should be more grateful for everything they do for me!

Aaaaaarrrrrggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!

I'm having huuuuuuuuge email problems and it looks like I might have to re-install the entire programme if the repair doesn't stop throwing up errors and decides to work!

I'm so behind on everything today and this is just putting the tin hat on the lot of it and it's starting to sever my last nerve.

If I was allowed to drink alcohol (which I'm not any more because of my rare disability and the majority of pills that I pop every day), I'd have been in the pub and drunk out of my skull by 8am today!

C - I've read your email on my phone and I'll reply as soon as I can - I promise I'm not ignoring you!

So much for being a carer being a low-paying job!

I've just seen how much I'll be paying as of the next invoice for my carers - just shy of £650 a month for less than half an hour of actual support.

I've been keeping a spreadsheet of the actual support I receive each time since the end of July and the total so far is... drum roll please... 21 minutes and 33 seconds in exactly a month (I started the spreadsheet on 29th July) so rounding that up to 30 minutes means that they actually get paid £1300 for an hour of actual support.

Assuming that I actually got the 6½ hours of care that I'm charged for each week, that's £8,450 a week and £33,800 a month which is a huge £405,600 a year.

Apparently I get the full 30 minutes twice a day and that I should be more grateful for their support though 🤷

Today's (23rd July 2024) lunch photo

Today's lunch was just another mug of instant vegetable Cup Soup, made entirely by me while my carer parked her arse on the perching stool, popping her gum every few seconds and not looking away from her phone.  It's a good job that I got the soup out of the cupboard before she arrived otherwise I'd've gone without any lunch because she decided to move the perching stool to cover half of the corner and put the towel basket on the floor, covering the other half!

Don't worry, I won't get too ranty about it, I'm used to it now 🤷

Here's today's lunch photo:

Mornin' all

I've had less sleep than recently but I'm feeling more awake this morning for some reason!

I've popped my 5 morning pills and started the virus scan off and worked out that, money-wise I wanna be my carer 'cos they earn over £104 an hour!!  Here's my maths:

I'll be charged £202 a week divided by 13 visits is £15.53 per visit, right so far?  They are supposed to be here for an hour a day, so times that by 2 for the 2 half hour visit makes the total £31.07 an hour, right?  Divide that by 60 to get the amount they are paid per minute is 51p a minute multiply that by the 8 minutes that they've got to actually do anything in means that I *should* be charged £4.14 per visit instead of the £15.53 that I'll *actually* be charged per visit.  They are basically earning £15.53 twice a day for using their phones.

Enough ranting lol

The virus scan has finished and was thankfully clear, so I'm gonna put today's to-do list up now.

BBIAB

Quick rant alert

This morning's carer was one of the two who have been trained to hold the towel almost on my back "to give privacy" and I can barely move my elbows back without coming into physical contact with them which makes a tough job even harder.  How on earth it's supposed to give me privacy when they see me naked as I'm filling the sink up, seeing me naked as I get washed and dried, as well as when I'm putting my deodorant on and brushing my teeth then waddling over to the stairs to get dressed, I really don't know.

The 2 carers that hold the towel up to give me privacy do more than the other carers combined though, so I guess I should be grateful.

Today's (26th April 2024) lunch photo

My second and last meal of the day was also the same as yesterdays - an 80g bag of dry roasted peanuts.  I've had an extra today though, 'cos I had a 250ml carton of chocolate soya milk for elevenses and I've got a decaff instant coffee on the go now too.  I'll be 100 calories below target today, even after taking off the remaining 593 calories from Wednesdays lunch, so I'll be able to have a couple of me-friendly creamy hot chocolates from tomorrow and be back on track to turn my FitBit graph green each day, rather than blue like I've done today and yesterday or red like I did on Wednesday.

My carer has had another easy visit today and is spending the entire 18 minutes sat on the floor, charging her phone up and playing a game (Call of Duty) on it, but she's going to post a letter for me when she leaves, so that's worth it, right? 😔

Here's today's lunch photo:

Well that was new!

A new carer came to help me today and the first thing she did when I opened the door was to ask how I was, so I replied saying that I wasn't too bad and she replied to that saying "good thanks!" then she asked if I had WiFi here, so I said I did and she goes "what's the log-in details so that I can sign in?" which left me speechless 'cos the other carers use their phone's connection rather than mine!!

When I gave her the details, she logged in and made sure she stayed at 2 metres away from me for the entire 18 minutes, then I had to remind her to do her notes and sign out!!

She also had her wireless ear buds in, so she's obviously gonna be one of those carers who are more interested in listening to their music and using their phones (on my connection) than supporting me!

Urgh, I hate it when carers don't do what I pay them to do!  I'm just glad that I didn't fall over today!

Time to update today's spreadsheet then make my breakfast methinks.

That does it, I'm...

...definitely getting CCTV put up so that I can prove just how useless the carers are.

This morning's carer decided to unfold the toothpaste tube and curl it up from the bottom, so I can't brush my teeth so easily until the tube has finished now, then she moved all the magnets around on the board and tried to undo the zip on my skirt because it was open and at the top, leaving a gap.  I had to say no and raise my voice 4 times because she thought she knew better.

She came in wearing her gloves, didn't change them when she came in and left wearing the same gloves too, so that's really healthy for me and her other clients today too.

I've officially given up with this care agency, but I'm stuck with them now because apparently "the next one could be worse" according to my social worker and my sister-in-law apparently arranged for them so it'll make her pissed off that I'm not more appreciative too.

From now on, whatever my carer wants is what will happen.

Oh boy.

I'm gonna be in agony and extremely uncomfortable all day now, thanks to my carer.

She did absolutely bugger all to help me get washed and when it came to getting dressed she put my socks on backwards three time and pulled my trousers up so high that the waistband was literally at the bottom of my ribs so I've now got a painful lower half and my socks to put on when I've stopped shaking.

I've had a comforting mug of drinking chocolate and I'm gonna go and weigh myself now so that I know if I can do my laps this week or not.

TTFN

Today's carer was...

...the worst of the bad ones.

Why?

Because I was in the bathroom when the doorbell rang so I hurried to the door and apologised for taking so long to get to the door.  She pushed past me and said "that's good" then signed in.  So far so good.  The second her phone tinged the successful sign-in ting, she took her personal phone out of her pocket and started sending texts to someone.  Her phone beeped 5 times in the 2 minutes that it took me to get undressed, another 7 times while I was getting washed and dried, twice while I was putting my deodorant on. She put her phone on the side to put the toothpaste on the brush, then it beeped another 4 times while I was brushing my teeth.

Then, oh boy, it came to getting dressed and she snatched my bra off me, stretched it to the entire width of the stairs and put it over my head, making my glasses fall off.  Her phone tinged another 3 times and she went back to answering that while I finished getting dressed.

She then filled the kettle right up to the top with the hot water tap and started it boiling, then asked me what I was having for breakfast, signed out and buggered off thankfully.

In the 4 minutes since she's been gone, I've already fallen out of my bra 3 times so that's another piece of underwear stretched beyond use now, but apparently I can afford to go through 7 bras, 7 knickers and 14 socks stretched so that they don't fit any more every week 🤷

Time to finish this angry rant, update my to-do list, take the bread out of the freezer for my breakfast then do my first set of laps of the day now I reckon.

Nite nite orl

I've had a very long and very stressful 48 hours with very little sleep and what I did manage was very disturbed, so I've taken my pills and am heading straight to bed.

Basically because there aren't any errors anywhere any more, there's nothing else that Broad Oak can do to help me so the manufacturer is coming out at some point to inspect and hopefully fix it.  It's the Easter long weekend now so it'll be Tuesday at the very earliest before I hear anything so I'll have been without any kind of heat and the small amount of hot water in the tank getting used up by my carers doing the washing up and wiping the sides while the hot tap is running, so I'll have to have another cold bath on Saturday, but as long as there's enough hot water for them, that's OK right?

I'm gonna stop ranting now and head to bed.

I'll see you all in the morning at some point and hopefully be able to have my mug of soup for the first time in 3 days tomorrow lunchtime 'cos I've had 2 meals in 3 days so far this week and none of them have been made by my carer, but that's pretty standard stuff now.  This morning's carer started her day with a mug of decaff tea, milk and sugar and this afternoon's carer talked to someone in her native language for the entire 18 minutes she was here, so I'll be paying for an hour of care today and haven't even had 1 second of support from either of them today, which is pretty standard too, but they will all be expecting me to make them hot drinks instead of helping me to wash, dress and make my lunch now <shrug>

Time for me to hit the hay.

Nite nite orl.

Today's (9th March 2024) lunch photo

Today's only meal was my usual mug of instant vegetable Cup Soup made entirely by me because my carer was more interested in following me around and getting in the way than doing her job today.  I didn't have breakfast because this morning's carer decided to wash up the bread board, knife and side and leave it all soaking wet and I didn't feel safe enough to dry it all up this morning so I just had my usual bottle of orange juice for breakfast and this mug of soup for lunch, so my entire calorie count today is only 119 calories, but never mind eh?

Here's today's lunch photo:

Today's (28th February 2024) lunch photo

Lunch today was an instant vegetable Cup Soup made entirely by me while my carer made things so much harder for me today.

While I was filling the kettle, she literally threw the basket off the perching stool.  I put the kettle on to boil while she lifted the perching stool to where she wanted it and I lifted the basket back onto the box so that I could go and get the packet of soup out of the cupboard.  I came in here to put my laptop onto the floor and she moved her leg so that her knee was touching the back of my thigh as I squeezed through.  

When everything was ready in here I had to squeeze past her to make the soup with the freshly boiled water.  I needed a wee pretty urgently after using so much water so I had to squeeze past her other knee to get into and back out of the bathroom, by which time the soup was ready, so I had to squeeze past her original knee with a full mug of soup and back again to wash up when I'd finished drinking it.

I'd just about finished doing the washing up when her 18 minutes were up and to her credit, she lifted the perching stool to the other side of the kitchen again, but put it in the only free space in front of the kettle and towel basket, so with wet hands I had to rearrange everything for the second time so that I could dry my hands and make myself drinks this afternoon.

I had to literally squeeze past her 6 times because of where she had decided to sit and each time I asked her if I could squeeze past, she moved her leg less than 5cm each time.

She left the house leaving the front door wide open so I had to close that before I could sit down and recover too.

Basically, what should have taken 5 minutes with plenty of opportunities for her to do what she's paid for, she decided that she wanted to make it even harder for me than if she hadn't been here.

I'm now sat here in a great deal of pain, shaking like a leaf and with my mood through the floor, but she was here for the minimum time so that's OK right?

Here's today's lunch photo:

Today's (15th February 2024) lunch photo

Is it dangerous to drink a mug of barely tepid instant vegetable Cup Soup that has barely been mixed and is covered in freshly swept up dust please?

My lunch today was my usual mug of vegetable Cup Soup and a 6 portion packet of crisps, made entirely by my carer today, but her idea of stirring the soup after adding the boiling water was moving the spoon backwards and forwards by about 3mm each time.  After bringing the mug in for me she decided to vacuum the carpets but didn't know where the vacuum was, so I had to find that for her, came back in for the second attempt at my lunch, but she couldn't work out how to put it together, so I did that for her too.  Attempt number 3 was interrupted by her not knowing how to turn it on and attempt 4 was interrupted by her yanking the phone cable out of the wall.

I managed to just about lift the mug off the table before I was interrupted for the fifth time and her wanting to know how to use it.

I had about 2 minutes of peace before she brought the vacuum in here and started bashing it into the table.  I was stuck in the kitchen at this point so I was hoping that there wasn't any soup going into the extension sockets or laptop.

By the time she'd finished blocking the gangway she asked for a brush, so I went and got it for her and she decided she wanted the long handled one, so I got that instead.  Just as I got into the living room door she decided she wanted the dustpan and brush after all so I went to get it for her, she handed the long handled brush to me which I put away and she started sweeping the living room floor and brushing the hallway dust into here too.  I'd given up by that point.

She finished sweeping all the dirt into the dustpan just as I sat down and was preparing for attempt number 6 at having my lunch.

My carer then wanted to know why I hadn't finished my lunch yet and I'm sat here wobbling like a jelly, coughing my guts up, in a vast amount of pain and not being able to see straight when I realised that the mug was full of dust particles.

Never mind.

I took a mouthful to shut her up and she stayed in the doorway talking on her phone until I'd almost finished the mug, then she realised she'd been here for the minimum time, signed out and left.

I drained the mug and ate the packet of crisps then went to tidy up after my carer.

After that rant, here's today's lunch photo: