Half Term

Well as half term comes to a end, I realise that I haven't done anything that I was supposed to do, in fact I have been rather lazy. This time last week my girls and I were waking up in Woodbridge, Suffolk at our friends house, we had a lovely weekend. My friend had been staying at our house for a few days, so on the Friday we went home with her, as we travelled from Bedfordshire to Suffolk the temperature began to drop, talk of picking up her husband and going for a meal soon turned into grabbing a Chinese take-away and heading for the best seat in front of the fire! Saturday I had two teenage daughters who didn't want to get out of bed, so my friend and I braved Woodbridge Tesco, I really don't know what it is about this shop, I cant seem to make a full shopping trip with out having a moment and am beginning to wonder if its like a learnt behaviour thing, you know...this always happens so its going to happen again! Anyway armed with bread rolls and tins of soup, and quite a lot of chocolate we drove back to the house, after lunch we walked over to the local garden centre, something was starting to fall from the sky and it was too light to be rain. I love Woodbridge, its a very beautiful part of our country, you can walk along the river by the tide mill, I especially love to hear all the boats masts clinking together where they are moored up, and there is something very relaxing about looking around the boat yard or just sitting watching the little boats bobbing around, anyway, I was desperate to get my fix of fresh air, but it wasn't to be, Sunday was even colder, so we stayed by the fire, my friend cooked a scrumptious Sunday lunch and then her husband drove us back home.

Daisy had the best seat in the house All weekend!

On a previous visit.

My youngest daughter and my friends husband doing exactly what you should be doing when in Woodbridge...Relaxing!

Sunday was Valentines day, a day that is emotional for me and my family as sadly we buried my Dad on Valentines day, this year it has been 19 years since we lost him at the grand old age of 49!! When we got home Ralph was so happy to see us and the Valentines day fairy in the shape of my partner had delivered heart shaped balloons, flowers, chocolates and a lovely card. As the week progressed and the various appointments had been met, it was Wednesday already, the girls were going on a shopping trip with their Dad, so my partner and I took the train to Peterborough, it was lovely to wonder around the shops with nothing much to buy, we had lunch, brought a Birthday present for my mates little boy and trundled back home...now, let me back track at bit, so, just before I learnt that my sight had definitely got worse, there had been some signs that things weren't so good, one of them being I found I couldn't see bugger all in the kitchen, so after much deliberation I thought how difficult can it be to simply change the light bulbs to a higher wattage? Right? NO! So, I climb up on a chair and fiddle about with these stupid down light things and finally the thing pops out, so does the entire plastic stuff which holds the bulb and all the electrical bits into the celling, the heat from the bulbs over time had corroded the plastic and there I was standing on a chair with all this black plastic crap all over my face and hair, several swearwords later I realise that i just made a bad situation a whole lot worse. What do I do? I get a man in of course...only this man is not your average man, has a look and rubs his chin and what comes out of his mouth made me dizzy.....Well love, you see, I could change them bulbs for ya, you gonna need new fixtures, its gonna cost ya, so why don't ya get in touch wiv someone who knows what sort of lighting you need in the kitchen to best help ya, AND ya neva know, there might be some sort of funding to help ya what wiv being blind and all...of course I don't mind doing it, but why don't ya check out all your options before chucking money at something that might not be right for you....HOLY SHIT!!!! I hate it when men have more common sense than me! So, anyway after my faith in human nature had been restored, I did just that! I contacted Action For Blind who gave me a link to Bedfordshire sensory Impairment team, who came to visit me on Wednesday afternoon. A really lovely lady who seemed very understanding, she asked lots of questions, filled in lots of forms, and agreed that I needed help with the right sort of lighting and, yes, there was funding to help me pay for the changes....see what happens when I listen to a bloke with more common sense than me! This will all take place ASAP, when ever that is!

Thursday and Friday flew by with more appointments, washing, ironing and housework, whilst I was sitting in Bedford college waiting for my eldest to come out of a interview, I was pretending to flick though my phone to avoid making small talk with the cleaner, when something caught my eye, someone had liked a Facebook page and for some reason it popped up on my phone, after a closer look I realised that it was a old work colleague, who had changed jobs and moved away, his page was called John Devitt Art, when I got home I looked him up on the laptop, sent him a friend request, then all these photos of paintings started filtering through, I was properly amazed, they were fab, and they way they are painted makes sense in my eyes, you need to see them to see what I mean, I found myself looking at them for ages and that old warm feeling of  how much I used to enjoy art seemed to just switch on, so yesterday I got out my pencils and found some paper and began to doodle again. They aren't the best sketches in the world, but this has given me a new chapter if you like, when I stop working, this is something that I can do...knew rules need to be applied and this week I have learnt to stop thinking about the things I wont be able to do when I can no longer work but focus on the things I can do, I suddenly feel inspired and confident for the future..

   

                                       My fat mouse and a dragon fly, I don't think its too bad for a blind lady who hasn't drawn in about 15 years!!