In Rememberance....

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them..

Who's a Lucky Boy Then?

My friend Mandy was clearing out some of her Mum's cupboards and came across some old towels. They were going to go in the bin, until I said Fred might be able to make use of them!

As you can see, he even managed a smile for the camera LOL - and now he has 3 lovely bright towels to use after his splish splash bath or muddy walks...

Bless him, it was just like Christmas for him - he even opened the bag himself!

Woof Woof - Thanks Aunty Mandy, Lick, Kiss!

Happy Birthday Sally-Ann

It's Sally-Ann's birthday today, and we had all decided to go out for a meal to celebrate. We booked a table at the Crab-Picker in Portreath, and arrived all suited and booted, ready for a good meal and relaxing time with friends....

Sally-Ann sat pride of place at the head of the table, with Paul next to her....


then Mel, who tried desperately not to have her picture taken...

then Mike and the other end, followed by me and Ricky...

Yes! I know there is no picture of me.... I was holding the camera!

Another lovely evening, concluded with our friends, as we tried to work out how soon the next birthday was so we could do it all over again!

That Pesky Psoas....

Since I started going to Pilate's back at the end of April, my awful back pain has subsided and I no longer have to see a chiropractor/osteopath every 4 weeks or so.

In fact since April, I have only had to visit him twice, this is most definitely a great testament to the wonders of Pilate's, and the very knowledgeable Mel, who teaches us.

Anyway, to get to my story.... as you are all aware (from my profile info) I am the proud owner of a flashy crystal blue sports car called Betty Blue.... she is beautiful and spends most of her life with her lid down so that my unruly locks can feel the wind, and become even more tangled than they normally are!

In an effort to ensure that she stays beautiful, Betty gets garaged at the end of each and every outing. Unfortunately, because of all of the accumulated possibly useful in the future' stuff' we have acquired over the past 2 and 1/2 years, it has become increasingly difficult to open Betty's door, once in the garage, to exit her lovely sleek little profile.

After one such outing, I parked a little nearer to the wall and 'stuff' than normal and only lefty about a 2 inch gap to climb out of her, and PING! upon twisting my leg into the available gap my Hip Flexor (Psoas Muscle) popped and then...... PAIN!

and O M G what PAIN! - this was back in July.

Mel got our her anatomy charts and showed me what the muscle was and how it could affect my movement, and suggested some lovely stretching moves that would help with the release of the muscle and aid it's repair.

God Bless Mel!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the pain is still there, and since our initial decision of the cause, we have decided that due to the length of time it is taking to heal, and the areas of movement that have been affected, that some of the 'attached bits' (no that's not the technical term) got torn - this means a long drawn out process of healing.

Meanwhile, Mel, being the complete anatomical genius that she is, has given me yet more moves to help release this pesky Psoas Muscle, some of which are the Cat Stretch, Shoulder Bridge, Leg Slide, Side Stretch, Clam, and of course the 'doorbell, letterbox, catflap combo'. There is also this rather awkward looking thing I do lying across a hard foam roller with my legs stretched out - it pulls the Psoas out long and feels fantastic!

One of the bits of information about the Psoas Muscle that Mel found out, is that is affects your mood, and depending on it's state, that's how you are, if it is relaxed and happy so are you - yeah right! - Well you know what? I reckon, having laughed about this, it must actually be true, for the last couple of weeks I have felt totally miserable, and this can only be down to my Psoas feeling miserable too - No Kidding!

I know that it will be a long haul, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and with any luck, my sleepless painful nights will soon be over!

Thanks Mel - without you and Pilates I would have gone do lally tap! Roll on Monday nights class!

Daylight Saving Sunday Afternoon

Whilst we were at Asda this avo. I had a text from Sally-Ann to see if we would like to take the boys to the beach at Godrevy, as the tide should give us plenty of beach.

And so we headed on back from Falmouth and picked Fred up, followed by Sally-Ann, Mike and Hamish, and headed over to the National Trust car park by the Godrevy cliffs.

The weather was perfect, and we were thrilled to see all of the seals, and their baby's on the beach below us - I tried counting, got to 76 and gave up, as some of them are out of view from this spot...

such a lovely day, could not go by without an ice-cream, and so with a little arm twisting (not) Mike treated us all to some lovely Cornish ices

and what were the seals doing during all of this indulgence - they were still sunning themselves in the cove!

A lovely afternoon,, but as we drive back home, the downside of daylight savings time hits us - it's 5.30pm and starting to get dark already - Boo!

An Update On My Dilema

The decision is made....

The static caravan is on the market, despite the ridiculously huge commission that is being asked to sell it for us.

NO - we are not having an RV, we are going for a touring caravan - the one thing I said I would never do, but have been surprisingly amazed by how good they are these days.

Fingers crossed, and I'll keep you all updated, as your comments have been a huge help.

Thanks for the comments, emails and telephone calls x

A Momentus Decision...

It's time for a break so Friday the 9th October ended with us finishing work at lunchtime and packing up the car with all of our cases and store cupboard foods.

As we head off to our BAH for a few days holiday, we know that this may possibly be the last time.

For the past 4 or 5 weeks we have been discussing the pro's and con's of selling our beautiful 2 bed static caravan, and swapping it for and RV....... Needless to say Paul is very much in favour and has wanted one for many years - I am not so convinced and, just know that my usage of diazapam, just to make a journey, will increase 10 fold. Not a happy thought!

We decided to drive up to Somerset via Exeter, as there is a large Motorhome dealership just off of the M5/A30 changeover junction. Their website revealed many lovely, albeit very old RV's, that would fall into our limited price range.

Upsettingly, once we arrived, it became apparent that the website had not been updated in the last FOREVER as there was nothing on their lot below £23k - more than double the price we are looking at.

We headed on up country towards Somerset with a dark cloud over us as we thought that maybe this would be a very swift change of heart, and we would stay put until we are no longer wanted in our current sited location......

Dilemma: Static caravans are allowed on site for 10 years, then they are considered too old and unattractive and you are asked to either part exchange them for a brand new version costing anything from £23k - £50k, or, alternatively, the site will remove the van and dispose of it for you..... Our van is 7 years old, but we extended out site contract to allow us to stay on site for 15 years......

At present, it is a very attractive holiday home, with inside porch, 2 bedrooms, reasonable sized kitchen, lounge room with TV, DVD, Video (yes I do still live in the dark ages), and Hi-Fi, and a dining area.

Having had a quote on what it would be worth to sell, we were very happy that it was exactly what we expected, meaning we would not lose too much on our initial investment, and that holidays have only cost a minimum for our time on site.

Horror: They will charge us 15% of the sale price to sell it for us!

WHY? we only paid 1.5% when we moved house!

I am now digging my heels in and want to stay put and get the total amount of years out of my BAH, but my friends and hubby suggest that doing this will mean the van depreciates more and will be worth less when we do sell it at a later date.

Yes this makes perfect sense,but I'm a stubborn bird and need to come to a decision myself, and then let them all say "We told you so" later - at the end of the day, I know they are all right, and that the van has to go now, so that we still have money in it to invest in the next holiday option..... It would just be nice, not to be taken advantage of by the holiday park - the money they will take off us, could be a chunk off of our mortgage, instead it means all monies received will have to be reinvested in a holiday home and nothing off of the mortgage..... GGGRRRRR!

We are now home and no further forward - Suggestions please.....

Birthday Meal

OK, so it's not the greatest picture in the world of me, I'm in my glasses as I cannot wear my contact because of a sore eye and the angle makes me look fatter than I actually am, but this is the dress that Marg and Keith bought me for my birthday, and it's what I wore tonight for my meal out with Paul.

If you double click on the image, you can open it up and will just be able to make out the lovely earrings and necklace that Kelly bought me.

We ended up at Gwel-an-Mor a lovely chalet style restaurant, up on the cliffs in Portreath.

A truly lovely evening, finishing off a great day.