Geraldine's musings

After a couple of nights with hardly any sleep, I slept like an angel last night and didn't wake up except to turn on the radio, until 11.30, thus completely missing The Archers, but feeling much better and really rested.  It's just as well, because I have a busy fortnight (for me) coming up.

I haven't done much this last week, except for going to the Ophthalmology Dept at the RVI, where they said that they're happy to keep any eye on the condition of my left eye and not subject me to laser treatment (Eeeek!) just yet.

On Wednesday I went to cardiac rehab and managed to keep up a bit better, although I still had to do some of the exercises sitting down.

Austin very sweetly sent me a bell and horn for the leccy trike this week.  The horn is wonderful;  it makes me feel like Harpo Marx.  I may have to have a bubble perm and dye my hair blonde again!  The cats were initially terrified of the horn, but that soon wore off, and they hardly deign to open an eye now when I sound it.

We've found out that Charles doesn't have to pay for his course after all, since the college has now received notification that he's in receipt of suitable benefits to be let off payment.  He's getting a bit nervous now about going to his first session on Tuesday, but I'm sure he'll be fine.  That reminds me, I need to find him some stationery from among the quantities of it I have stashed around the house.

I have another appointment with the psychologist tomorrow and have a feeling she asked me to do some sort of mental "homework", but can't for the life of me think what it was.

I have cardiac rehab again on Wednesday and on Friday I'm supposed to be working for Caroline again.  The following week I have a dental appointment as well as a diabetic review, cardiac rehab, *and* a committee meeting for my writing group.  I shall be knackered for a fortnight afterwards.

I've got interested in my novel again and have spent some time today plotting characters for the dramatis personae.

Yesterday I made some wonderful gluten-free brownies for Charles.  I have to admit to having eaten a couple myself and they are really delicious.  They're made without any flour at all, just ground almonds.  I can see I shall have trouble keeping up with supplies of ground almonds, dark chocolate and walnuts!

Last night John treated us all to a take-away curry, which was really good.  I managed to prevent myself eating too much this time and didn't even have indigestion.  Maybe it was the bottle of perry which gave me such a good night's sleep!

I received a letter from my bank's complaints department more or less saying "Yah!  Boo!  Sucks!  We're keeping your money!"  and denying all knowledge of the first letter I sent.  It's a bit pathetic when you have to decide to send all correspondence to your bank to be signed for on delivery.  I would have thought they could have been grown-up enough to admit they'd received it and just apologise for ignoring/forgetting/mislaying it, which was all I wanted.  I didn't actually ask for it to be treated as a complaint about the charges, because I'm afraid I was pretty sure what their answer would be, and I wasn't disappointed.  Bad Bank!  I know the banks are having a bit of a hard time at the moment too (altogether now "Aaaaaaaaaaaah!") but I really think their treatment of me was like that of a cut-throat loan shark.  I understand from their letter, however, that they may have to change their collective mind if some case at present before the ombudsman, or the courts, or whatever finds against them.

I've cancelled all my direct debits except for insurance policies, and they're staying cancelled;  the bank can do without their charges for them.  I'm not giving the lbooyd bank another chance to steal nearly 2 week's pension from me for an unauthorised overdraft extension of less than £100 for a period of 4 days!  Especially as they didn't actually make the direct debit payments at all, but made and then recouped them the same day so that the money never actually really left the account.  If I thought any other bank would behave any better I'd move my overdraft (cue hollow laughter!), but from what I hear, they're all as bad as one another except for the Co-op, which has other irritating quirks, like keeping one's money in limbo twice as long as other banks after transfers or receipts.

Never mind!  I'm not letting anything annoy or upset me today.

I feel quite embarrassed at listening to Abba, but I defy anyone to stay miserable when they're playing!