New Boots

Following on from Monday’s post ‘… and me boots are heavy’ – my boots really were heavy.  After I had a fall a few weeks ago (please note that when you are old or have an issue for which a fall is a big deal you don’t simply fall over you ‘have a fall’ which makes the whole thing sound so much more dramatic don’t you think) a few days later I nearly had another fall – my foot went over again and I stumble but remained upright – just as well since it was going dark and Bud and I had just walked past the last house for a bit.  So I decided it was time for new boots…

Aren’t they lovely and shiny and big looking.

And here’s my somewhat used and moulded to my feet old ones looking, to me at least, somewhat smaller in comparison.

However when I weighed them to confirm that the one ones were indeed heavier than my old ones the difference is pretty minimal.  New ones 571g, with the old ones weighing in at 477g per boot a meagre difference of barely 100g (4oz).  But they feel so much stiffer and heavier however they are keeping my feet firmly rooted on the ground and they have much better tread…

Whilst buying the boots I came across these…

Ohhhhh, trainers!  Now I haven’t bought new trainers in years (since exercising was a bit of a no, no) but I can confirm that these carry a caution against doing anything in them except walking!

‘Product to be used for walking only.  This product is specifically designed for walking and normal daily wear.  This product is not intended to be used, nor should it be used, for any other athletic endeavour.’

And that’s because they are my ‘hidden beauty secret’ (I’m so nice I’m sharing it with you) and they will enable me to ‘get more out of everything I do’ with ‘jusqu’a 10% de calories bruelees supplementaires’ double ohhhhh.  Oh, wait that should be ‘up to 10% increased calorie burning’ plus, yes there’s more, they will make my leg muscles have increased activation of anywhere between 14% and 29% more.

I got these two days before my last appointment at the hospital and wore them for the first time the day before on a short trip to a retail park (just in case they made me hobble).  Now you may remember that when I got weighed at said appointment I’d lost 2kg.  B is well impressed – 2kg after an hour’s wear!  He can’t wait to see the long term results.

Holiday Wardrobe

Ahh, the old ones are the best ones!  Prior to going on holiday I went clothes shopping with a friend predominantly in Primark – a shop, a little like TK Maxx, where you need to be in the right mindset for shopping and not have your husband in tow.  As we’d only managed to get the first week’s accommodation a week before we arrived I hadn’t bought anything – perhaps in the hope that cutting out one biscuit a day would result in being a size 12 before I had to try anything on!

So here is my real holiday wardrobe…

 

 

 

 

Handmade dress (the one started for last year’s holiday) and 3/4 sleeve cardigan (£6.00).

 

 

 

Five pairs of pink socks in varying stripes (£2.50)

 

White linen pants – half lined (£15.00), hand knitted cardigan (Peony) from last week which now has flowers attached but no buttons – not too sure I like it, well I like it but I don’t think it’s me.  T-shirt Nicole Fahri from TK Maxx (£7.00 should have been £35.00).  And erm, what’s that round Bud’s neck?

In case you’re wondering how come we have not one, not two, but three pictures of me in the same post, it rained yesterday so Buddy got a five kilometre walk and then after drying off while eating our butties in the car, we came back and B had that much time on his hands (five minutes as opposed to 30 seconds) I got at least 15 pictures to chose from (as opposed to his usual point and click ‘Yes that looks like you.’ ‘But is it okay?’ ‘You can tell it’s you.’ photography style). Plus we have better mobile broadband connection where we are now than the landline connection at home!

Linen casual pants (£9.00), 3/4 sleeve cardigan (£6.00), same T-shirt.

Same trousers getting dried earlier in the afternoon because, did I mention, it was wet.  If we’d not had Bud it was go shopping and then the cinema weather now it’s take Bud during a dry bit and doh, it’s raining again before we’ve finished weather.

Yes I sat in the car in a woodland car park in my knickers (fortunately I had a spare cardy to hand) while I ate my butties – and if you look closely at the previous photo you’ll see I was correct when I exclaimed ‘Oh, look me knickers match me cardy.’

I also got two bras for £6.00, 12 pairs of knickers for £7.80 and after a couple of bargains in the 30sfp sunscreen department Chris ended up insisting on carrying my bag while I carried her one pair of trousers!  Another myeloma perk?!

And as to what Bud is wearing above, well here’s the rest of it…

maybe that’s why it was half price at £2.00 – the floppy brim really flopped!

What’s the fuss about felt tips?

Tuesday I needed a short sleeved top to wear to the hospital for access to my PICC line.  For some reason…yeah some reason, like I don’t know, I have a limited number of tops, short or long sleeved.  The reason being I put weight on so buy the minimum required until I get back to being a size 8-10 bottom and size 12 top (due to my manly back and not my womanly front).  I of course anticipate this happening by putting in about 0.5% of the effort Lorna has put into her Thinning Thursdays.  I also anticipate getting a six pack of abs without even looking at a crunch from the corner of my eye – now Crunchies are another story completely.

Anyhoo back to Tuesday.  I did have one top stored in my very, very casual pile eg, for pottering round in the garden and painting.  It had been moved to this pile a couple of weeks ago after a spillage of tomato pasta sauce hadn’t washed out.

Okay you can’t really see the five tomato marks on that pic because they are quite small but they are there – trust me.

So I decided to adorn the top with five additional flowers with their centres covering the stains.  Ta-da! (I couldn’t spell voila.)

It now looks like this again…

Okay for the eagle eyed pics one and three are more than supciously alike, they are indeed the same.  I didn’t anticipate sharing my endeavour into textile design however my creative space is still filled mainly with orange otherwise.

I would also like to say I don’t know what all the fuss is about children and felt tip pens as we can clearly see from the above, if you draw on clothes with them it just washes off!

Other creative spaces are here.

 

Let’s not be rash!

I’m still itchy.  I thought it was getting better.  The prickly heat type tiny lumps have evened out and the back of my hands are now more dry than anything else and the rash in the small of my back hasn’t really itched – until today.

My hands peak and trough from no itching to intense itching that then stops.  I have been taking the Chlorphenamine 4mg (Periton) but only one about 20:30 so that the itching doesn’t bother me at night as my hands get itchier the hotter they are.  However last night somehow, possibly B getting ready to come to bed at 2:00 and loading the dishwasher with what seem like a surplus amount of clanking, I woke up and the itching was so intense I had to get up and look how many tablets I could take in a day because with taking just the one I hadn’t checked.  I took another one and nodded off.

This morning the small of my back was itching so I resorted to yet another Chlorphenamine which may or may not have resulted in a nap this afternoon whilst B washed the car.

Interestingly I read when I was catching up with filing my paperwork backlog – I finally found the receipt for the TV in my sewing room which has a line across the screen and the letter from the gas supplier saying they had overcharged everyone in 2007 and they’d like to give us some back but not yet the card reader so that we can access the bank accounts online – so I read that Doxorubicin can cause a rash in an area where radiotherapy has been given and that would certainly apply to the small of my back.  My hands? I have always had a tendency to prickly heat in really hot weather so maybe they are a weak point and since three out of the five things I’m taking can cause rashes they are easy game.

Anyhoo moving onto less itchy things I called into TK Maxx – which if you are not familiar with it is like a bazaar with racks of clothing split into type ie, trousers and then size with only occasionally two items the same.  You then have to sort through all sorts of tat, I mean designer items that previously retailed at ridiculous pounds, until you drop onto that perfect item.  B hates it and I have to admit I have to be in a certain mood because you have to work hard to find something.  I went in to find some long sleeved tops because the PICC line has highlighted a severe lack of these in my wardrobe resulting in me wearing my Primark cardigan a lot over the last two and a half weeks and let’s just say it’s showing it in the washing.  I rooted until I found the perfect thing – a pair of casual fit linen trousers!

Hey, they would appear to be bargain – when I googled the designer, Fenn Wright Manson, their website had slightly more tailored linen trousers for £79 and £89.  I paid £19.99 – let’s just hope they wash better than the Primark cardy.