POST BEGUN MON 25 MAY 2026 1228HRS BST

 

THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE

 

Sigh. Being married to Asperger's is challenging. Latest (ok, on-going) challenge? Housing.

 

Long story short my darling Aspie and I agreed an end to my deeply held cherished dream of moving to a slightly bigger home so I can stop living in the living room and get a second bedroom and bath (shower room, I am tired of risking a fall climbing in and out of these British ridiculously high and deep bathtubs with shower over). We've instead agreed a major renovation and 2 small extensions to our current home. 

 

Complete re-wire including raising the mains outlets to hip-height (no. more. bending. to plug in the vacuum, no more snaking lamps and components cables behind furniture I can't move...). 

 

Walk-in shower cabinet and a stacking clothes washer-dryer in the bathroom, conversion of one of the cupboards in the study (sigh, formerly the sole bedroom in this bloody little shoebox cottage) to a WC and hand-wash basin he can shave at. Kitchen footprint retained with better appliance placement (raised oven, 2-hob cooktop, narrow side-by-side fridge-freezer), easy-clean laminate worktops and equally easy clean cabinetry as pull-out under-worktop drawers and pull-down uppers. Bifold doors to enclose the rear porch (which will cut energy bills:) and I can use as a mini-home gym.

 

The two extensions? One at the front as a good old fashioned New England style storm porch and the second as a small conservatory off the side of the living room - close to the kitchen and will be used as a dining room.

 

Sigh. Now we wait for plans to be drawn up and then planning permission to be granted. And then finding and trusting a reliable team of renovation stars.

 

The only reason I agreed to this rather than the easier-simpler move to a turn-key property? My adorable Aspie came close to tears whilst informing me another house move would kill him. 

 

Why in the hell didn't he tell me during the run-up to the last house move he'd suffered chest pains and multiple panic attacks until yesterday during playback of the taped F1 sprint and qualies highlights??!! I feel like a monster over both about my stoopid heart thingies mandating to that move and my push to find a slightly bigger house now.  

 

 Once he made that confession (and we got past the 'WHY didn't you say anything?!' bit), we talked, really talked and the end result was the compromise of 'doing-up' this house to avoid a house move whilst giving me the important things (except a bedroom, heigh ho, I'll make do with a large flat-pack wardrobe and daybed to double as a sofa during the day).

 

The things we do for love.  

 

POSTED MON 25 MAY 2026 1313HRS BST 

 

 

FRI 8 MAY 2026 POST BEGUN 1004HRS BST

 

Happy 22nd birthday to my eldest grand, finding it a wee bit shocking and totally joyous I have a 22yo grandson! His cousin, No2 of my three grandsons, will be 21 in July. And the eldest grandson is big brother of youngest grandson who will be four in October. I love being a grandma (three grandsons, two granddaughters)!

 

Meanwhile we here in the UK are running the election coverage in the background as we await news of how the vote turns out in our particular area. So far Reform is scooping up seats from Labour and Conservatives down in England with our Scottish results not expected until later this afternoon (estimated to be announced at 1600hrs/4pm our time today). 

 

I stood in the too-short queue to vote yesterday asking myself 'Why am I bothering, what is the point, my idiotic fellow Scots almost certainly will tick the SNP or Scottish Labour boxes and my Reform votes will be a futile exercise in protest voting. Reached the front of the queue, went in, got my ballots and nonetheless ticked both boxes for Reform. We'll see but I'm not holding my breath.

 

I'm succeeding at my reorganisation project (formerly known as 'decluttering'). The current uncertainty around motor fuel and 'the cost of living' (meaning sky rocketing petrol-utilities-food prices - omfgosh!) means things I have realised I can do without have to be stacked and tarp covered on the back porch in hope that one day we'll be able to hire a car to lug all this to the skip and charity shops. 

 

I finally forced myself to understand the best Christmas planning is to go with one each warm-white prelit green and flocked 2ft PE trees, one colour tree baubles and matching tree toppers, simple mantle garland and Holy Family sculpture with the Advent Wreath as the dinner table centrepiece - it all fits into one bag. The rest is now in four bags out in the shed because dangit hope floats one day we'll be in a slightly bigger home and my 4ft Balsam Hill tree will once again be star of the show. HEY! A girl can dream, can't she?!

 

It took me two weeks to sort through 15 years of accumulated Christmas 'stuff', and I was surprised to discover half of it all elicited 'What the bloody hell was I thinking when I made/bought THAT?!'. Hopefully the charity shops will be thrilled to have that to flog. 

 

The rest of it went into two piles - one being the mini things including single colour sets (green, blue, red, gold) for use in my new 'midmalism' scheme. 'Midmalism' being a step between max and mini malism). The second pile was for decor I can't bear to part with. 

 

Well, you know, one thing leads to another. I somewhat ruthlessly went through ALL the seasonal decor (four seasons plus Halloween and Easter) and pared all that down as well. Paul is of course over the moon, he is a minimalist to the core. I think he'd be fine with one chair, one plate, one...

 

Still doing brain challenge things, I'm currently massively hooked on word search puzzle books. My Essential Tremor and the gerontology medics encouraged me to take up colouring-in books as well. Oh. Dear. I now own several sets of watercolour pens and I've lost count of how many colouring books I have. Whilst awaiting a miracle (a move to a slightly bigger home with two bathrooms) I content myself with 'painting' colouring book images of rooms and gardens. BONUS: I now know my favourite colour is Autumn. 

 

And yes, I'm still at the maths thing. I have found I am great at addition and subtraction but if I don't reinforce the multiplication and division bits every single day, I 'lose' those two vital skills. 

 

My cardiologist is impatiently waiting out my current pericarditis flare to put me in cardiac rehab. He wants me to do the rehab programme for people with my unique heart 'challenges' but won't refer me until this latest stupid flare is sufficiently passed. I love he calls all the heart thingies 'challenges' although I do have to wonder if he means treating my complex set of conditions is more challenging for him than for me. Any road, he found me a no-incline treadmill and a compact rowing machine, both to be ordered once the rehab stint is completed. And while he's not thrilled to hear I have a balance rocker and a set of hand-weights (he still thinks I'm going to push myself during the flare recovery period - hahahahahahaha, hey Doc, this ain't my first rodeo!) he is ok with me having those items as long as I promise not to use them until he gives the go-ahead.

 

Oh nice, an election update just hit, Reform is mopping up the political floor:) Nice. Nice. Nice.