I’d like to start by dispelling the myth that me and Rich have split up. That’s completely not the case. Many people have said that “Oh, are you still together then?” yes we are, completely. Nothing has changed with me and him; we’re still as close as ever. We’ve dealt with the long distance before, and we will deal with it again.

My dad has done so much work to get the house ready for me to be back in the house again, and its very heart warming. My bedroom is fantastic (even with the funky carpet). The TV Ariel is now working, and I can enjoy all four channels in bed, and the new shower curtain is fantastic.

I have a sparkly new pc table too which Kira has decided she quite likes to sit under.

New pc table, with Kira attached!

The garden, well, what I can say. The dogs have just lived in the garden since we got here. Kira has absolutely loved the freedom, and that’s super lovely to see.

Today’s the day that the last of the garden gets fixed up! The last side of fence is being put up, and all of the nasty bushes down the right hand side are being taken away, yay!! It’s going to make the garden look a lot bigger. Although Kira did like to sleep under the bushes, so she’s lost her hiding place!

The bushes have gone!

Aside from the above, not much else is happening at the moment. Just trying to work out when I’ll be able to see Rich, as it’s really tough leaving him!

1. I want to work to the highest of my abilities at work for the period needed to earn the promotion to a full member of staff.I actually achieved this and am very proud of myself! I managed to become a full member of staff and worked there for a successful 6 months.
2. I want to earn enough money to pay for a holiday to Parga, Greece for me and Richard.I haven’t achieved this one yet, but it’s still really high on my list of things I want to achieve. Me and Rich have talked about when we’ll manage to go on holiday, and we’re hoping to book something for the early parts of next year.
3. To stick by my decision to have a birthday party. (Something I always avoid as I lack confidence in most areas and feel I don’t have enough friends to warrant a party. This will be a real hard one to stick by).We spent my birthday with friends (who sadly we no longer have contact with due to certain circumstances..) over on the Isle of Man. It’s definitely been one of my best birthdays to date. I’m really sad the friendship ended as it did, but my birthday was one I’ll remember always.
4. I vow to work as hard as possible regarding all of the Open University courses. I hope to pass the said courses with the highest grade possible.I did indeed pass one of the courses I was registered for, which I am ecstatic about! I’m due results on one of my other courses on the 6^th August, and fingers crossed that will be a pass as well. I’m really struggling on the course i’m registered to currently, and am hoping things will settle down when I get moved.
5. I hope that in the upcoming year I can work as hard as possible to keep my health as stable as possible. This means that I hope to manage any activity that would strain my fatigue levels. (Not an easy resolution to stick too, but beneficial at the end of the year).My health has improved vastly over the last 7 months. There’s been a stable improvement in my activity levels.
6. I wish to to take up Archery as a hobby. This involves completing a 5 week Archery course.Me and Rich both joined an archery course and after 5 weeks training became full members! I hope to get back into the sport when I move back up to Coventry.
7. And finally (for now), I wish too be in a better financial situation at the end of the year than I am in now. I hope to start to save money regarding the chance to get a mortgage.I am currently in the middle of moving home to kick start our Mortgage fund. This resolution is definitely work in progress!

I’m really proud with the progress I’ve made over the past 7 months, and I think that’s really reflected in the above list.

Today’s achievement was the fences going up in dads garden! And my first words when he sent me the pictures where ‘OH MY GOD’. It was such a moment of relief, knowing that the garden is now safe for our puppies. Yay!

The garden itself is actually really quite big! This is what it was like before:

Before!

and after:

After!

I am SO pleased. From the pictures it looks as though it’s turned out amazingly. Will have to wait till Saturday before i can test it out with the dogs!

I’m moving back in with my dad as me and Rich are saving for a mortgage, and that’s best done with us not living together (I can save more if I’m living at home with dad).

I’ll be moving back into my old room, which to me fair I didn’t do much with when I was previously living there.. the carpet was a nightmare (see below picture), and the walls weren’t much better.. I got as far as repainting the whole room white, but not much more was done than that. The chimney breast was plastered over (with the other walls wallpapered), so I’ll have to re-wallpaper the chimney breast when I get the decorating started.

My bedroom carpet!

After watching a program about Victorian housewives past times, some of the craft work they did (nearly always recycled), it occurred to me I wanted to give a few of them ago. One of them being shaggy rag rugs! (picture to follow). They are rugs made out of rags or strips of fabric woven or stitched together.

After trawling the internet I finally found a fantastic tutorial of how to actually make them! (tutorial can be found here). This is the aim:

Tshirt latch hook rug

To make it you lay out your latch hook canvas and start to thread through your strips of fabric with the latch hook tool. You fix the material in place using a special technique with the latch hook tool, and after a lot of latching, you create your rug!

I’m hoping that every aspect of the rug will be eco friendly (aside from the tool and canvas which I’ve had to buy). Am hoping to start on this as soon as I source a vast quantity of second hand tshirts!

As far as my job goes, it’s hard work, but very rewarding, so I don’t think I could ask for anything more! Uni is going very well (even though I did panic for a while and didn’t think I’d be able to manage my extra courses which are due to star next week). My last assignment for my current course came back with good marks, so I’m happy about that.

That’s about It for now, I’ll update as soon as I can.

So this is why I’m here; to compile a list of things that I’m hoping to achieve in the coming year.

1. I want to work to the highest of my abilities at work for the period needed to earn the promotion to a full member of staff.
2. I want to earn enough money to pay for a holiday to Parga, Greece for me and Richard.
3. To stick by my decision to have a birthday party. (Something I always avoid as I lack confidence in most areas and feel I don’t have enough friends to warrant a party. This will be a real hard one to stick by).
4. I vow to work as hard as possible regarding all of the Open University courses. I hope to pass the said courses with the highest grade possible.
5. I hope that in the upcoming year I can work as hard as possible to keep my health as stable as possible. This means that I hope to manage any activity that would strain my fatigue levels. (Not an easy resolution to stick too, but beneficial at the end of the year).
6. I wish to to take up Archery as a hobby. This involves completing a 5 week Archery course.
7. And finally (for now), I wish too be in a better financial situation at the end of the year than I am in now. I hope to start to save money regarding the chance to get a mortgage.

And there it is. The ‘start’ of my New Years Resolution list. Some of them are things that I’m really struggling with at the moment, for example wanting to keep my health at a stable level (it being something that I’ve struggled with over the past year especially). The Resolutions regarding my work (as a Customer Services Adviser) are also important to me. I really do want to work hard (with it being my first proper job). It also means that we will have virtually a full second wage coming in, so if I work hard enough and stick at it, i could bring in enough money to be able to afford a few luxuries.

Edit 6/1/10: Every week I read back over the entries that I’ve posted through that week. I like to make sure that the things I post are as accurate as possible, I guess, and sometimes I like to add to posts with things I’ve thought about after I’ve posted.

In this case, reading back over my new years resolution list, not only did I add a resolution, but I felt that my list didn’t portray that however normal those resolutions seemed, for me, they are a great deal. I can always hope, and dream, and really do feel if i manage my illness, that I can achieve a great deal. A ‘great deal’ for me is managing to work, and earn, and maintain/manage my health those things mean a lot for me.

There was also a few other things I wanted to mention (which I’ll go into briefly at the moment as I’m sitting at working updating my blog!).

Firstly is a Video created by a friend relating to M.E and being Bed Bound. It really touched me, and is something I know all too well as I have been Bed Bound in the past due to my M.E. All I ask is you give it a quick look, would mean a lot to us and our cause.

Sever M.E

I will also be adding a section to my Blog about M.E, and the Campaign for recognition and publicity. It will be linked to a YouTube channel, created by the Administrator of a M.E group on Facebook. The youtube channel will be used by sufferers of M.E to highlight the difficulties of living with M.E on a daily basis. I am also planning to post my own video to the channel when it goes live, so please watch out for it.

There me and Rich where, driving down a main road just outside of where we live (I was taking him to work), and he suddenly shouted ‘Father Christmas!’ I didn’t realize he actually meant ‘I see father Christmas’ haha!

Father Christmas on a Harley. Dam, the bike was nice!

Father Christmas on a Harley

I HATE ROYAL MAIL. I know that ‘Hate’ is a big word’, but this has gone beyond being annoyed. They tried to deliver a parcel they deemed was too big for the letter box. They knocked; no one answered, and chose to take it back to the sorting office (that’s their version of events!).

Well first things first they obviously didn’t knock very hard!! We were in the living room (right next to the door), and we didn’t hear a thing!! Secondly, they state it will take 24 hours to take it back to the sorting office. What are they doing, crawling the whole way!!! It shouldn’t take that long.. Surely.. I was prepared for it to take 4 or 5 hours, (after their delivery round), but 24 hours! Pathetic.

It’s really got my goat. It’s not like I’ve already waited 5 days for the dam parcel..

*calm thoughts*.

Whilst I’m on the ranting subject, there’s one other thing that I wanted to mention, which has really been bothering me for quite a while now. (I know I’m moaning overly, but I try not to do it too often..).

Tuesdays is bin day. I drag my bins down to the road, get them emptied and drag them back up the garden to my back door. End of bin day. Now what is so hard about that?? A certain house down the road seems to get the idea that you need to bring the bin outside to get it emptied, but doesn’t seem to get the idea that it has to be BROUGHT BACK IN AGAIN.

This stupid bin always gets left infront of my drive, and every single week I have to get out of my car to move the bin before I can reverse my car in to the drive. I swear one of these weeks I’m just going to run it over…

There was a news article about this a few weeks ago, Nottingham have in-forced a ban for people that leave their bins in the road (as it makes it hard for parents to push pushchairs down paths). Why can’t Coventry have a similar system! If it happens many more weeks, I’m going to attach a note to the owner stating the bin is designed to be brought back in again after bin day.

/End of rant.

I just have a burning desire to update my blog at the moment, so here I am! Theres quite a few things I want to cover. Ranging from news articles I’ve seen over the past few weeks that I’ve wanted to comment on, to my hunt for a job.

Theodore Sypnier

This is a story I first read yesterday (9th December 2009). I formed my view on this instantly (which is unusual for me). Sypnier was charged in 1999 with raping two young sisters, who were aged four, and seven at the time. He has been released from a half-way house to a flat in Buffalo.

I completely agree with the article! He should spend the rest of his life behind bars, in jail. He shouldn’t be anywhere near the public/children, let alone in a flat of his own! What made this worse was the fact that he admitted even though he was 100, he’d never change. It’s disgusting. Truly. I have always been one for the American justice system. When a person in the US is found guilty of murder, they serve there life in jail. A life for a life. As a posed to the way the UK justice system works. Dammit, that’s a completely different point to the one I’m trying to make here. When someone rapes someone else, they should get a lot longer than 10 years! Especially when the crime involved children. He only served 10 years, he shouldn’t be freed, irrespective of him being 100! What makes things worse is he’s still able to walk ‘miles’! He said himself, he’d never change, he should stay behind bars.

MPs’ Expenses

Oh come on, I’ve had enough of all of this! I can’t be the only one that’s had enough of hearing about all of this? It really frustrates me! I’ve heard it all before. When I’m cycling through my Sky News phone application, I always ignore ones about MPs and the government.

I’ve always had an interest in the political world, especially before the Prime Minister changed to Gorden Brown, but recently, things seem to be heading down hill, and I truly do think the UK needs a change in direction.

It annoys me so much that instead of the government spending their time and money on more important things (I.E medical research and recovering the economy) they spent their time and money on porn and garlic peelers! I don’t even think I can say any more than that! *insert angry face*.

Job hunting!

Well.. what can I say? After moving to Coventry, part of my benefits where stopped (another sore spot sadly..). So I had to start my job hunt this week. I had major help from Richards parents, who where great and helped build my CV. My mum was also great and helped supply dates for the document, so I got that built and ready to go. I did take a trip down to the job center as well, but am not eligible for job seekers allowance, arg!!

That’s where my job search began, there in the Job Center. I hate this place. It’s fall of people who look lazy.. are lazy.. and are being paid to live by the rest of the population! Occasionally I have seen people who actually are hard working individuals and genuinely don’t want to be claiming from the Job Center. I respect these people immensely.

Anyway, that’s a different subject entirely! I started my search on the Job Center Plus website when I got home (I couldn’t face using the machines in the building in town). I’ve been checking the website daily since then, and applying to several jobs I see each day. I also started using a website called ‘Reed’, (they have a shop in Coventry center), and I’ve had more luck through there than I have anywhere else.

I must be applying for a good 10 – 12 jobs a day (maybe not all that many for the average person, but for me, thats a huge amount, especially due to the fact I have only one real qualification due to being sick, and most of the work available at the moment requires a degree, or at least a full education). I think I’ve heard back from 2, after the vast amount of jobs I’ve applied for, it definitely leaves me feeling despondent.

I made it to the second stage of interviews with a company called Source Marketing Direct, but it turns out that the job they were advertising, wasn’t all above board.. Meaning it was commission based (so no real wage), and it was door to door sales, not me what so ever!

As well as the above, I had an appointment at a recruitment agency today. I was interested in a customer service job with unusual working hours. They asked me to fill in an application form for their agency, which didn’t take long. She explained that the company I was applying to had already taken on the two candidates they needed, but due to the shifts starting at 5am (till 9am), very few applied, and due to me being flexible with when I can work and the fact I have my own transport, I stand a good chance of being offered a position (the candidates may resign due to the working hours, or the company may feel they need more staff, so I’ll be the next person they call, hopefully!).

I know I should be daunted by the prospect of having to be at work for 5am, but it actually would suite me very well! It would mean they dogs wouldn’t be alone more than an hour a day (due to Richard starting work at 8am at the earliest), and it leaves the rest of my day free for studying, so all in all it would be perfect. Lets just hope something comes up and they offer me an interview/job. The representative at the agency said she’d pass on my details, so I’ll have to wait and see!

The thoughts on my mind at the moment though are mainly linked to the dairy intolerance. I’ve officially been on the diet over 3 and a half weeks now (and Richard on his Wheat and Gluten free diet, but that’s a whole different story), and I defiantly think I’m benefiting from the change. I think if it wasn’t for the flu, I would be feeling a bigger change than I actually am at the moment. The flu kinda cancels all the benefits out.

The whole reason for the diet in the first place, was to try and combat my migraines (which I’ve been plagued with for 4 or 5 years). I had my first migraine 3 or 4 days ago for the first time since the diet change, and I was completely surprised! I usually get extremely severe ‘medical’ migraines, but this time, it was actually quite mild! I’m praying that it’s due to cutting out the dairy. But then there’s the whole question of, if its the dairy intolerance that causes them in the first place, why did I get another attack? I just don’t know, it could have been a whole number of things!

I think we’re coping with the change pretty well. The way in which I did the weekly food shop had to completely change though, I couldn’t buy anything really that I’d usually buy. The ‘Free From’ range in Tescos is pretty great, they do several meal options that don’t have wheat, gluten or dairy in (which works great for both me and Richard), but I’m finding it a little difficult creating different meals, so the food we eat isn’t the same week in week out. I’m thinking a ‘Wheat, Gluten and Dairy Free’ cook book might be on my Christmas list!

Eating out is a whole different story though. We went to a Chinese noodle bar yesterday (which was great!), and somewhere along the lines we think Rich consumed Wheat and Gluten, and I felt pretty sick, so not sure If something I ate was dairy. Gets us down so we don’t eat out that much any more (which saves money for sure).

When we moved in, we had to decide whether we wanted to go with Sky, or Virgin (for the TV, broadband, and phone line), and we where initially leaning towards sky, until we had looked in to Virgin. It was Richard’s dad who first mentioned Virgin, and with the fiber optic broadband line with the faster Internet definitely leaned us towards Virgin. There TV system also seemed much better than Sky. I think sky is so over publicized.

We’d arranged for the Virgin installation. Unfortunately they couldn’t install until two weeks later (one week more than Sky had quoted us for), but we took that option because of the better services we’d hoped to get. Two weeks later, no sign of the installation guy, so we called up virgin for some advice on what had happened (a call that I later found out cost me £17….), they informed us the installation had been postponed for another two weeks due to an unforeseen problem. They apologized and later offered us £25 off of our first bill because of the hassle they’d caused, but to be honest, after the customer service and the cost of the phone called, I’m really not happy. We’d hoped they’d offer us more than Sky could in every way possible, but it seems that that ideal customer experience just isn’t possible. I think they are all just out to make money, like any other company.

Sadly we hadn’t been feeling that well really the weekend before we got the keys. We presumed it had just been a cold, and tried to get on with the weekend. We attended a family fireworks display that weekend, and we hid at home on the Sunday as we really where starting to feel rough..We managed to get the keys and get all of the stuff moved in on the Monday. By GOD was that a task. I’ve never known moving to be so stressful!

We did though, sadly, start to get sicker the next few days after we moved in. Rich had it worse than I did initially, and I decided in the end to call NHS direct (the out of hours doctors surgery), and they advised we called the flu pandemic line and was later diagnosed with Swine Flu. Great! All of the family we came in contact also fell ill (Richards parents, and brother and his wife, her sister and their parents. Somehow my dad avoided the whole thing!). I’m still feeling the effects of it (due to my M.E/C.F.S).

Since moving in, we’ve done very little, really. I started my search for a small part time job due to loosing my Income Support benefit. The search is going as well as to be expected. Due to having little work experience and only a handful of qualification due to my illness, I’m not holding out hope that I’ll get employment straight away. Theres a few jobs I’ve got my eye on, which would be perfect, but we’ll just have to see how fate deals its hand.

We managed to get our feet on the ground. We picked up a rug for the living room, and a coffee table relatively cheaply. We also bought a 2 piece suit for £100 at a second hand store (a charity which is a great cause). We’d already got quite a bit of the other stuff, although had to spend out for a new fridge/freezer and a washing machine, which couldn’t really be avoided.

The living room had been redecorated before we moved in (the owner paid for that work). The carpet is DISGUSTING though, so hence we bought a rug to cover some of it! The kitchen is just tiny. Theres room for a cooker, and a tiny amount of work surface; Coventry is a mining town, so the houses tend to be small, and the kitchens even smaller. We have three bedrooms, two of them doubles pretty much the same size, one of them having a double bayed window (which we’ll probably use as the master), with a small single. The single is larger than what you’d usually get in a house in this area though. The bathroom is also small (but does the job), no shower though, which is slightly off putting.

The garden space out side is what sold the property too us. Its a corner plot (which is rare, we where just lucky I think!). The garden starts at the front, and runs all the way around to the back which has a decent sized lawn. Theres also a shed, and garage, with space for a car in front. (We have the two motorbikes in the garage, and my car in front of it). Finding a property with not only a garage, but off road parking, is just, non existent . It seems people where just too off put by the decoration!

The decoration upstairs is just.. terrible. The owner wasn’t willing to paint up there. The bathroom has wallpaper half way up, which is slightly moldy and needs repainting (the carpet in the bathroom is slightly stained too, but will be better with a bath mat). The hallway, I can’t describe. The painters only painted half way up the stairs, then claimed they ran out of funding and didn’t take the painting any further up! The hallway upstairs will need to be repainted, it’s mainly just the stair rails and the doors (which are pink). The first double bedroom is a creamy yellow, and livable, but the master bedroom was PINK! Oh the curse of pink bedrooms.

We’ve started to paint out the master bedroom (as we’re currently living in the back double). The walls took two coats of cream, and the ceiling also two coats of white. The ceilings and skirting boards and rails where stained a nasty yellow colour due to the previous tenant smoking in the bedroom so it all needed re painting. We’re hoping to get the second coat of gloss on today or tomorrow.

As for property repairs, when we moved in 3 of the lights down stairs didn’t work, so we had to call in engineers to fix it. The fire had been condemned shortly before we moved in, so we had to fight for the owner to provide an electric heater as the central heating just wasn’t cutting it and we where pretty cold the first few days! The garage door also needed replacing, which has now been done. The roof in the conservatory is also now leaking, which we’re told isn’t repairable, so the whole roof needs to be replaced. URG! Chances of the owner paying for that is slim though. The guy that came to look at it said it would probably take over a day to repair if it wasn’t replaced. This all means we can’t lay our carpet in the conservatory, which means it’s being unused at the moment.

Apart from all of that, we love the place! We had some problems with some kids on the property the first day we moved in (which ended up with the police being called, but that was quick and painless with Richard working in the force). The next door neighbors also seem slightly.. annoying. They keep throwing moldy bread in to the garden which the dog keeps eating, and then they keep us up at night with knocks and bangs and shouting, but, we can live with it at the moment!

As for this weekend, my dad arrives today, and we have a local rock concert tomorrow with family, which should be a lot of fun!

For now, I’ll leave it there, that pretty much covers everything that’s been happening the past few weeks.