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.