eye eye

Sunday was a lovely day this week - compared to last Sunday which was vile, (where we managed a row before 10.30am thereby spoiling the whole day for ourselves.)

We went to Beer for brekkie, which we do alot throughout the summer, and there I found, very weirdly, my old school mate Vanessa lounging by a beach hut on a deckchair. This is made weird by the fact that I have seen her only a handful of times in the last 20 years, and then twice in the last couple of months. I don't think I could have been more surprised if the Queen had strolled by.... anyhoo, after a lovely veggie brek (including tea and toast with marmalade) Mark and Oliver bimbled off for some (much loathed by me) rock pooling and I bullied Vanessa into walking the cliff path with me. It was very pleasant and convivial to walk along putting the world to rights. After that we returned home, I had a burst on the old cross trainer (yes, I still do use it!!) and then did THIS:

Ta DAH! I feel a real sense of achievement having done this, not so much because it looks better and we now have a system (?!) for sorting 'stuff', but because I actually said I would do something - and did it. I am a bit crap for spouting off about doing things and then not.... That grouting looks very noticeable now though.....

Had a sore eye yesterday - for those who don't know, I suffer a bit of dry-eye syndrome which sometimes can lead to corneal abrasion - very, very painful although a thankfully very, very short-lived spell. Nevertheless, when there is soreness, or abrasion - the whole day is pretty much a total waste of time, since blinking causes massive discomfort and/or pain and in truth, although it goes against the grain, you literally just wish you could sleep until the next day when you know the pain will be gone. The eye is very fast healing which is a constant source of amazement to me. Want to give Oliver a better day today - he was very sweet to me yesterday and sat with me to watch a film (with one eye for me) and then later he read me a story. So sweet because he would never normally voluntarily read anything.... That's a real downside to home-teaching - if I'm off-par, it so impacts on him.

To add to my discomfort yesterday, I had notification of my final children's tax credit award. Now, I use the term 'award' loosely here, since it appears that I will be getting sweet F A for the rest of this tax year, the next one and possibly half of the one after that. Since they were giving me around £200 per month, you can understand that I stopped breathing momentarily. I even telephoned to check this horrific fact, and was informed that this was, indeed the case. This information, delivered cheerfully in a lilting welsh accent did not seem as terrifying as when I had to repeat it to Mark later on. I am going to have to write down all my outgoings including my sodding debt which I have carelessly dropped myself into, and go through it with him. This is not a prospect I am relishing, but I think it will be good for me in a not nice way to start with....

And finally, think I will re-participate in the Art Raffle, which I have not done for months, but feel it would be good for me in order to be more creatively productive.