Wednesday 31st July 2019

The virus scan has started with no issues at all so far, thankfully.
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Steve's aunt apparently put a photo up of the pup while I was asleep last night, so I'm gonna go and add it to my homepage now... brb.
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OK, the photo is up now... the puppy is relaxing on a sofa with a cat bless 'er!

She's coming home today and I can't wait!
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That's me supplements down the hatch... they semi-misbehaved today, unfortunately  😞.  Hope that isn't a signal for how the rest of the day is gonna go 😟.
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She's hooooooome!!!

She's on 3 meals a day and just "a handful" of her daily rations for each meal as well as 2 pills twice a day each, but she's home until she goes to get washed on Saturday now!  We've got to put her in the bath in just plain water on the days she doesn't go for her baths but she's back for good now, instead of just visits and the house already feels more love-filled!

Love you Mitzi!  So so much!
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Just taken a couple of video's of the puppy who is actually awake and moving for a change lol
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And another video is just uploading.  Back to being asleep in this one lol.
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Taken a 3 minute video of our beautiful baby girl, just waiting for it to upload and process on You Tube then I'll add that to my homepage too!
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Mitzi-moo has just had her lunch and she'd scoffed the lot before I even brought the tub back in here lol  Poor puppy was obviously hungry which Steve  reckons is a good thing, but I'm not so sure.  Steve's cousin knows better than us though, so I'm gonna go by what she says now, rather than Steve.
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'marto zoop for our human lunch.  Steve's having 2 bread rolls with his zoop, but I'm not.
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Just seen the review I posted of Patrick.  I've had him for 5 years this week and couldn't be without him any more!

I've just tried out the wrist alarm I got from Victim Support the day after Mitzi went to stay with Steve's cousin to get treated.  Oh boy is it loud!  Just need to remember to put it on my wrist just before I take the puppy out tomorrow now lol  Gotta remember to fill in the form if I have any trouble from our neighbour so that the police can use it against him if it's taken to court.
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That's my prescriptions taken, so as soon as the melting one has finished melting, I'm gonna publish this then head to bed for a well-deserved early night I reckon.
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Not even 7.30pm and I'm gonna head to bed.

Nite nite orl.

😴💤😴💤
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Tuesday 30th July 2019

Steve finally sorted out the fan this morning so I can put the old one on Freegle now.

I've also taken my supplements with one mouthful of squash for each of 'em and only drank half of what I thought I'd need to get them all down.

Hopefully that means that today will be a good day!  🤞
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That's the fan advertised on Freegle and Mitzi's thyroid story told on the Westies! group, so I can relax for the rest of the day now.  👍
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The puppy's home for another visit for today then back again for good tomorrow!!!

It's sooo good to have her home!
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Got 3 photo's of our baby girl now, in her usual position - laying down asleep lol.  Gonna put them on my site now.
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The puppy is a lot lighter now!  That kilogram makes all the difference... she's like a feather in a breeze in comparison now!
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A video is up on the front page now and I managed to get it up on You Tube without going via Steve first!  lol  Got an app on my mobile that works the same way as on the computer so I don't need Steve to put video's on a USB thingy for me any more either!
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Another video is just uploading - caught the puppy awake for a few seconds this time lol
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Using the opportunity of the video uploading to charge up my phone.
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It was done in about 10 seconds with the charger plugged in!  I'm gonna go back to fully discharging my phone now though.
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And another video is uploading.  She's definitely awake and moving a bit in this one 'cos she wants Steve to share his popcorn with her lol
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Taken 8 photo's of the puppy today... a few of them she's even been awake in 😄

Last night without her tonight then she's back home with us!!!  Yaaaaay!!  😀
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Clearing my caches ready for tomorrow's virus scan now... there's loads going on tomorrow - the virus scan, the puppy coming home and the occupational therapist as well at 1pm tomorrow... it's all go, but definitely worth it for both our sakes!  👌
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The puppy has just gone back with Steve's uncle 💔... only until tomorrow this time though then she'll be home until she gets washed again on Saturday.  I've only got to miss her for about 15 hours-ish now though!  Can't wait until she's home for good again!
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Prescriptions have both been taken now, so I'm gonna shut down as soon as they start kicking in, ready for tomorrow.
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Just bought another few courses with the New Skills Academy which is gonna keep me busy until at least the weekend.  It's a busy day tomorrow, but when that's sorted I'll be able to start studying again and none of them are video courses, so I'll be able to answer the door to my prescription whenever it decides to turn up.  The puppy will be home so I'll be able to relax then and concentrate on the courses.
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Prescription is just starting to kick in, so I'm shutting down and heading to bed.  Nite nite orl.  😴
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Monday 29th July 2019

First up, thank you sooooo much to the 15 people who read yesterday's blog post.  Dunno what was so interesting in it 'cos it was pretty short but I'm grateful to every single one of you and I hope you will keep on coming back 'cos it does my motivation and confidence the world of good to see double-figured numbers of readers of each blog post... it doesn't happen very often but it's such a good feeling to see so many people read what I wrote while I was asleep!  You are all wonderful!

Time to take me supplements now... brb.
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That's the supplements down the hatch.  Not the easiest ever, but better than the worst times too.  Time to dish out the Twix's then start studying I reckon.  Which course should I do though?  One long one or two shorter ones?  Should I do a free course or one that I've paid for?

So many questions!  😁
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Questions answered by New Skills Academy.  Just bought 4 courses for just under £50 and realised that there are 4 single module courses that have been paid for which, in theory, take under an hour each to do, so I'll study those today and maybe one of the 4 or 5 module courses this evening.  Not looking that far ahead though... aim for today is the single module courses then I'll take it from there.
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First course studied and only got one question wrong, which was great going by me, I reckon!  Time for the second course now I reckon.
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Our baby girl is home for a visit!!!!!  Yaaaay!!  She's looking better than she has for years, she's more energetic and a lot less depressed than even a week ago!  We can feel her ribs and she's got more of a shape to her now too, so her weight problem *was* because of her thyroid, not, like M thinks, because I was over feeding and under exercising her!  Hopefully she won't be on her prescription food for much longer now and we can feed her "normal" food again.

So glad she's back home (if only for a visit today) and on the right treatment (for her thyroid)... I've missed her so much for the last 2 weeks!  We're very nearly there now though!  Yaaaay!!
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Second course passed - 9 out of 10 again which ain't bad.  Gonna do the admin for it on my navigation page now then take multiple photo's and video's of the puppy.
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Third course passed as well - 10 out of 10 this time!  😁

One more course to do, hopefully before we have lunch.
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Seven courses in total today and passed each one of 'em first time too!  Having a celebratory cuppa now.  Should I do one last course before the shopping comes maybe, or shouldn't I risk it?
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Eighth course of the day completed.  That really is it for the day now.
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The puppy's gone again now  😢  She'll be back on Wednesday but we didn't have her for anywhere near long enough today  😭

Missing her already and it's only been 5 minutes!  💔
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That's my prescription taken and I've asked Steve to come with me to the doctor appointment on Tuesday just in case I need to have an internal that I never cope with alone.  The internal ultrasound was fine, so hopefully the internal examination will be OK too and it's just smears that I can't do alone, but I've never had a non smear test other than the ultrasound and my anxiety levels will be through the roof.  It's just because it's a first time is all.
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Off to beddy-byes now.  Nite nite orl 💔 💤
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Sunday 28th July 2019

That's the rubbish and recycling out before 8am this morning!
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I've requested Steve to do three things today, because our rubbish is such a small amount, I've asked Steve to help me to chop up a few more branches of the butterfly bush so that we can make the most of having room to get rid of it without risking it falling out.  The second thing is to spray the WD40 on the tap and the third thing was to work on the things I've already paid him to do.

He's got until 3pm to do the butterfly bush and 5pm for the tap or I'll do them both myself.  He's got until midnight on Wednesday to get the programming finished or I want a full refund that he can't afford.

He's being paid to be my carer for over 35 hours a week which is 5 hours a day... I'm lucky to get the 5 hours a month and the 35 in half a year!!  If we include the cooking, that's less than an hour a day, tops, so what does he do for the other 4 hours?

Sleep.

That's what.

Time to simmer down and take my supplements now.
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That's them swallowed.  Fortunately it wasn't too bad this morning to get them all down.
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I was a third wrong this morning.

Steve's just gone into the bathroom with the WD40 to fix the bath's cold tap for me then he's going to make us another posh coffee.  I'm hoping that we'll do the butterfly bush branches after lunch.  If we do that's about 3 hours tops that he's cared for me today (an hour for the tap, an hour for lunch and an hour for the chopping up).  I can almost guarantee that he won't do anything else for the rest of the week though, so I'll still be 32 hours of care than he's being paid for.
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If I'm re-awarded PIP, can someone remind me to renew my blue badge pretty please?

TIA!
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Gorgeous Rogan Josh curry for lunch today.  Nice and spicy without being too hot.  I personally reckon that anything hotter would, for me, spoil the flavour.  We've got a jar of Jalfrezi (sp?) to try which apparently is medium spiciness too, but neither of us has had a Jalfrezi before so it'll be a "virgin taste test for both of us" to quote Steve.  Can't wait!

Steve's got his two Jaffa Cakes as a reward for cooking both days of the weekend and our fan has, officially, given up the ghost, so it was a good job I bought a new one on Friday that was delivered yesterday so that's something else we've got to do today... unplug the current fan and remove it then replace it with the new one before it gets too hot outside again.
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There's definitely no room in the rubbish bag now, so maybe it's a good thing that we didn't chop up the butterfly bush this afternoon after all.  When the Grand Prix has finished, our lunch will have gone down a bit so we can hopefully sort out replacing the fans.

I'm proud of what Steve's achieved today though.
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Mitzi is coming home on Wednesday!!!  Only until Saturday so that she can have another wash, but she's coming home!

It can't come soon enough!
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Prescription swallowed and I want a semi-early night, so I'm gonna shut down now.

Nite nite orl!  💤💤💤
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Saturday 27th July 2019

It's been raining overnight, so hopefully it'll be a touch cooler today.
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Gonna go out for a stroll to get my legs used to walking again.  Just the same amount as I do with the puppy between Tuesday and Sunday then I'll walk the marathon on Monday morning and try and remember to go out every day next week so that my legs and especially my knees don't complain when the puppy comes home for good instead of just a visit.
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Lovely and fresh out there... the rain ☔ has definitely broken the heat and it's just a nice, pleasant temperature out there now.
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Gonna take my supplements now, so that I don't forget them again.  I'm hoping there's enough squash for all four of 'em!
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Apparently there was a photo of the puppy last night that Steve emailed to me overnight, so gonna go and put it on my homepage now.
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And a photo from Steve's cousin on Facebook, so I'll add that to my homepage too.
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Steve's just made the 2 bottles of squash for me.  Thankfully my supplements behaved today so I managed to swallow them all with the remainder of the squash from last night.
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Grrr! 😡  For some reason PSP doesn't like the photo that Steve's emailed to me, so that's gonna cause trouble for ages now.  😡
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Needed to save it from Facebook rather than the email for some reason, but it's up there now, so time to make a start on the surveys I reckon.
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Just got the letter from my GP with the result of the ultrasound.  Apparently the coil is a bit low in my womb so I need to make an appointment with the person who fitted it (it was done under general anaestetic) to get it put back into place.

I've got a double appointment with one of the female GP's about my bladder issues, so I'm hoping she'll be able to help with the coil thing as well, at the same time.  After the ultrasound I know that I can deal with the internal things without screaming my head off, so hopefully the doc will just be able to sort the coil out in the same appointment so that I don't have to be put under again.  Assuming the bladder and coil can be sorted in the same double appointment, if they are both internal examinations that I get through without screaming my head off, then maybe that means that I don't need to go into hospital to have the coil replaced next time?  I'm really hoping so!
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Just finished the second book and it was so interesting!  I know that what the author went through is different to the reason for my brain damage, but it's really opened my eyes that I'm really not going mad and that I'm *not* the only person with a damaged brain to go through the memory loss and anger and confusion and depression and so many other things!

Another 5 star review coming up I reckon!
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Took my prescription an hour later than normal 'cos my reminder didn't pop up so it's gonna be a late night tonight.
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Time to head to bed now... nite nite orl!  😴
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Book Review: Prognosis: A memoir of my brain by Sarah Vallance

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

Wow.

What a great book!

It's made me feel understood and less alone with my own brain damage now, to such an extent that I've written a letter to my GP about it, asking for more information about which parts of my brain are damaged, what I can do to hopefully improve the damage and asking for the answer to the question that I've been wanting to know for the last 16 years: is there any way I can recover, even if only slightly.

I haven't been brave enough to ask those questions since I was diagnosed with brain damage when I left hospital in 2003 even though I really want and need to know the honest answers.  This book gave me the push I needed to write the letter.

It's encouraged me to be brave enough to ask about the MRI scans I've had and the Neurologists thoughts before he discharged me. 

If you can be patient enough to get through the initial 15% of the book, you will hopefully find it as interesting and supportive as I have.

A must-read for anyone who has been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (like the author) or brain damage (like me).

The first few pages were like struggling through treacle with so much back-story, but I'm so relieved that I carried on reading!

Friday 26th July 2019

Brushed me teeth and had a very quick bath 'cos the water was waaay too hot and the cold tap is siezed up and won't budge at all, so I'm gonna invest in a can of WD40 'cos I can't deal with another hot bath in this weather.
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Supplements swallowed.  The Iron was a PITA but it went down eventually, so I'm dosed up for the day now.  Just gotta go and see Brad in about an hour then that's it for the day.
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Gonna shut down until I get back from the appointment with Brad now... BBS!
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Back now!  He wants to see me once more in 6 weeks time, just to be absolutely sure that the reduction isn't causing any issues and I can go back and see him whenever I need to - especially as the days get shorter and darker (I get affected by SAD) but other than that I don't need to see him again unless I feel I need to.

He asked about taking it down to 5mg but I'm really not comfortable with that yet - I wanna lose more weight first, then yeah, I'll give it a try, but right now I don't want to take it too low and risk a relapse.

Feeling really positive now!  👍👍
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Gonna leave a five star review for the fan, considering it's been on every day for ¾ of the year for the last 3 years so it's done us really well!  Gonna put the review up here on my blog as well as on my homepage and Amazon so be back in a bit!
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That's the review up on my blog, homepage, and awaiting moderation on Amazon.  We're 'aving zoop for tea then I'll get Steve's Jaffa Cakes out of the tub, take me prescription and head to bed.  It hasn't been as hot today and the fan has been on since yesterday morning, so hopefully it'll be cool enough to get under the duvet tonight, might even turn the fan off in the bedroom tonight too.  We shall see.
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Prescription taken and 18% of the way through a Kindle book.  There's no way I'll finish it before I head to bed, so I don't know why I even started it this evening!  Why didn't I start to read it when I came back from seeing Brad? lol
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Finished the chapter, so I'm off to bed now... nite nite orl!
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Product review: Fine Elements Oscillating Pedestal Fan, 16-Inch

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

I bought this fan 3 years ago, not expecting much given some of the negative reviews and the cheap price but it's been on all day every day for three quarters of the year for every one of those 3 years and we can't fault it at all.

I realise that some people say "if you buy cheap, you buy twice" but that hasn't been the case with this fan!  It's been amazing for us in our small living room with a TV, 2 laptops, 2 humans and a dog creating heat but a little while after turning this on and the room is livable in again.  After getting on for 900 days of use, often overnight and only turned off when we both leave the house it's done fantastically well!

The only reason that we're getting a new fan is that the blades/motor are getting a bit clogged up with dust and it's making funny noises now, so it seems to be telling us it needs to retire now.  It's done fantastically well over the last 3 years though and I have every reason to highly recommend it for small rooms of about 10 feet by 12 feet that is used by high heat things (laptops, televisions, humans and dogs) or a larger room that doesn't use so many highly heated things throughout the entire day (bedrooms, dining rooms etc).

I can't recommend this fan highly enough!

Thursday 25th July 2019

Virus scan finished at about 5am.  I'm still virus free so gonna set the back-up going now.  Keep yer fingers crossed that it's all sorted first time so that I don't get stressed out please!
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So far so good with the backing up, so I'm gonna see if Steve's gonna come out for the preparatory stroll with me know, while all the files are being copied over.
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As predicted, Steve didn't come out with me today.  My legs were kinda going "WTAF??" after not leaving the house for 8 days, but I did it, so I know that I can now, just gotta keep doing it every day again now.  Gonna do it first thing tomorrow then head for my appointment with Brad.

Gonna take me supplements now.
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They all went down really easily this morning!  Only needed a smallish amount of squash to get 'em all down too... could this and the walking and the backing up be signs that today is gonna go well?  Possibly?  I'm really hoping so!
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That's the back-ups finished painlessly too.  I could get used to this lol
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That's the bladder appointment sorted and another letter is being sent to me about Tuesday's scan... soo anxious now, less than 2 days after the scan and I'm getting a letter with the result - if it wasn't bad news, why are they sending the letter out so quickly?!  😟  The coil is still inside me, which was the whole reason for the ultrasound, so why did the ultrasound lady say that something shouldn't be there and why is it a letter instead of a phone call?  Why is the letter being sent out so quickly instead of making a routine appointment with my GP or something?  Why did they scan my bladder after they found that the coil was still in there?  If they could see the coil on the external scan, why did I have to have an internal one too??  😟
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Just a short blog post today.  Just taken my prescriptions and Steve's pumped up Patrick's tyre ready for tomorrow and I'm finishing off a book that I'll review on here (as a separate blog post), my homepage and Amazon before I head to bed tonight, then jump in the bath as soon as I come down tomorrow morning so that I don't stink the GP surgery out tomorrow lol
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Just finished the book, so time to do the review then I can head to bed... BBS!
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Review's posted, so time for beddy-byes now I reckon.  🛌

Nite nite orl  💤💤
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Book review: Lies We Tell Mothers: A True Story by Suzy K Quinn

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

What a great book!  When I saw the title I thought it was going to be about the way a mum badly treats her children, but I was wrong.  So wrong.

I've been reading it all afternoon and evening.  It's one of those rare books that the only time I stopped reading it was to go to the bathroom and have barely taken any notice of my husband while my nose has been stuck in it.

I didn't think I would enjoy it because I've got nothing in common with the author (I'm 41 and don't have any children instead of being a twenty-something mother of two) but I loved the book so much and can't recommend it highly enough!

It's a short book (read it cover to cover in 7 hours) but soo worth your money and a fantastic way to relax and let the afternoon slip away from you.  A definite must-read book IMNSHO!