This Must Be A Record ...

Even for me! It's been over 2 years since I lasted posted and of my 'free' blogs via blogger this was the one updated last.

Life has been changing a lot for me once again. I opted to use this blog as I felt, and still feel, that this one is the most 'me' one I have. Kind of hard to explain that but let's say it is the most 'true to the real me' of the blogs I have both here and elsewhere in cyberspace.

It's Been Awhile

I will never give up my love - and dream - of writing. Unfortunately my health problems are intent to keep from fulfilling any literary goals.

Out of Control

I really have to get all these blogs under control ... I want to keep things as simple as possible in the coming year. So I will select a couple of blogs that I will post to. Probably here and my Invisible Me blog where I talk about living as a disabled person. Also using my self-hosted book blog as well. But I will be relaunching my book blog early next year and gradually adding to it through out the year as regularly as possible. I'm aiming for regular posting rather than as often as which was part of my problem keeping it updated, also this placed a lot of unneeded pressure on myself which made it harder for me to actually relax and write.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Santa was good to them, and if you don't celebrate Christmas personally I hope you had a good time as well regardless.

Seasons Greetings

So Christmas is fast approaching once again and in a week we will be getting ready for the last ‘sleep’ before Santa as the children’s programmes keep informing us.

This coming week will undoubtedly be the busiest for myself and my family, what with getting ready for the actual day, finishing shopping for stocking fillers, finish wrapping (started doing this this afternoon!), delivering wreaths to my family graves, three different graves at two different cemeteries (which is scheduled for Wednesday), grocery shopping for the festive break (scheduled for Sunday the 23rd, the 23rd being our preferred day leaving Christmas Eve for preparing food and any emergency items we need to rush to the supermarket for before early closing time).

And those are just the tip of the iceberg for the coming week, also tomorrow (Tuesday) and Thursday are childminding days when we look after my youngest nephew then put him into his nursery class at 1pm. Also my youngest nephew has come down with a stomach bug which is a shame as he is just getting over a horrid cold.

Also my eldest nephew is going into the hospital on Thursday to have an operation on his big toe, he has a horrid ingrown toenail which is causing the toe to become continually badly infected. It’s an in-patient appointment for a short operation which means he goes in early (around 8am actually) and hopefully will get out in the late afternoon at the latest.

Also on Thursday (or Friday) depending on my schedule (with my eldest nephew going into hospital that day we might have the school run and feeding the eldest two that afternoon/night) to drive across town and hand in our (my parents and I as well as a couple of small things on behalf of my nephews) presents for our aunt into her house as well as pick up the bags she generally has. Not all ours, mostly gifts for my three nephews, my brother and sister-in-law as well as our own from her to save my Dad struggling home on the bus with multiple bags of gifts.

So all in all a busy busy week!!

So hopefully it will be worth it on the day(s) to come.

So if I don’t get back to you before then, have a great holiday season regardless of your religion or beliefs on the season, I wish you all well and hope you have a great time.

Still Here

Well, I am still here, still around but unfortunately I am experiencing computer problems. First my desktop without warning wouldn't switch on one day, after being away for almost a month it was returned to me with a new PSU (power supply unit) on the inside of the tower itself replaced. The PC is working but I am experiencing a lot of blue screens/crashing whenever I go to shut down my computer every night. Half the time I get the blue screen and the PC totally reboots and has to be shut down again. When this happens it takes up to 30 minutes from initial shut down to the actual shut down occurring. If it does work first time it takes at least five to six minutes to shut down. So not working greatly.

Still Alive

Well I'm still alive just am having difficulties typing. Last week at the Occupational Therapist's assessment she tested my hand strength and found I had less than 10% of the strength I should have.

So on top of the hand exercises she gave me I also have my shoulder ones, the ones for my lower limbs and my spinal ones.

It's a nightmare trying to fit them all in.

Kobo Vox has arrived

My order with WHSmith arrived just minutes before I left to take my youngest nephew to nursery school so luckily I was in to accept the package.

According to said package it was sent out yesterday by Parcel Force 24 but at least I don't have to arrange for someone to be home for the next 48 hours in case it arriveth.

Due to the fact that the workman my brother was expecting tonight texted that he would arrive at around 3pm rather than in the evening our plans for this afternoon had to be totally reorganized. Instead of picking up all three boys from their relevant schools the youngest is going to football practice with his dad after school while the two eldest get picked up by their grandfather and then travel by bus home where I am currently awaiting the workman's arrival.

My brother is due home after football practice, so some time between 4.30 and 5.00 pm and we can head home once he arrives.

I had a short time while having my lunch to play around with my new toy and found it instinctive and easy to use. The touchscreen was very responsive and the update to the software took less than 10 minutes to do and then I logged into Kobo and downloaded by meagre library there.

I will check out more of the android side tonight and see about downloading the Kindle app which works with this device by all accounts and also downloading an app which allows me to import my other epubs from other sources.

I will also play around with the browser etc., as well as already installed apps to see how it all works out.

Order Sent

I woke up this morning to an email from WHSmith to say that my order had been sent out by my chosen delivery service. I opted for first class courier, the most expensive shipping method, hoping that three things would be obvious:

Finally Friday Once More

I am glad to see the end of these past couple of weeks I can tell you.

Last Saturday I got the declaration from my bank to verify the bogus iTunes charges, also on Thursday before I heard back from iTunes about the charges and they were reversed, my account frozen, re-enabled and password changed again.

The iTunes CS person was quick to respond after the initial response to further emails, and I found out how my removed payment card was used. Even though I deauthorised use of this card used to create and verify my account as well as removed it from my account my details were kept on record and reverted back to once store credit was exhausted.

If only it hadn't taken 72 hours to send an order confirmation on the first order placed I would have caught this before a further 4 orders were placed as well. If only iTunes sent an automatic email as soon as an order is placed I could've nipped this is the bud.

I was all set for a relaxing day starting with a sleep in as I knew I had babysitting duty on all three of my nephews tonight for the second night in a row at their house. Last night it was the two youngest only but tonight it's all three. Luckily - or rather unluckily - the middle is being punished and had to be put to bed straight after he finished his dessert after his evening meal. So that left two, the youngest is playing in his room while the eldest is out playing on his bike with a friend.

Now the youngest is sitting next to me as I type this watching Fireman Sam, at least this way I know he isn't bothering his middle brother who is on punishment in his bed for spitting on a girl he decided he didn't like at school today. Really vile, I really hate spitting, a pet peeve of mine.

Hopefully this weekend will be more relaxing, we did our shopping and don't need to go out until Monday for groceries. So barring any emergencies or unexpected favours for any family members I can get some reading and some blogging done.

FOUR-OH-OH

Well it's official, I've turned 40!

I saw my nephews briefly in Halfords today when I popped in to pick up my reserved Garmin Sat Nav which was my present from my parents.

My sister-in-law had just picked up her new car, a Citroen Picasso C4.

My brother popped in to drop of my cards and pressie while the boys attended the youngest's gym class which is attends every Monday afternoon. Tomorrow sees them all returning to school after the extra long weekend off they have had.

It was a lovely warm day when you were in the sun but briskly cold elsewhere. I woke up stiff and sore with my RA raging wildly, such a wonderful welcome start to my birthday.

I don't know what supposed to be different now I'm 40, I had the same lack of any negative emotion when I turned 30 as well. I could never understand people who wouldn't admit to being their age or somehow feeling  upset at certain ages. I'm not one to lie - or be concerned - about my age.

I was thrilled, I kid you not, when I found I had gotten a lovely white/silver hair running through my hair. My first official 'grey hair' and I thought it was so cool. It looked great especially with my long brunette hair.

OK ... I'll admit it ... I might be considered a bit strange with the way I react to signs of ageing. But it's better than the alternative, every minute you live you grow older and nothing can change that regardless of feelings about it. It's a waste of time and energy to rage against something you can't change, so why let it bother you.

Reading Rut

I am currently blessedly climbing out of the reading rut which has plagued me over the past weeks, I splurged on 8 Carina Press titles which came with a eBook Bucks Rebate at All Romance eBooks. I got roughly a $10 rebate in total, just over to be exact, as well as qualifying for my free eBook code. Now I only have to remember to actually redeem this one before it expires.

Yesterday I read new author, called Amanda E. Alvarez's, debut novel called Hunting Human, my review has been posted at my book blog.

Today between babysitting, school runs and playing referee to my three nephews I managed to read Dana Marie Bell's Blood of the Maple. Another good read I'm seriously considering reviewing now.