Yesterday and today
As well as stupid amounts of medical stuff and dashing around trying to get there, I also managed a little bit of shopping - specifically Leigh type shopping, stuff I can buy there either easily or cheaply.
There were 2 main things I went for. New shoes, as my last pair of normal-wear shoes died last week. I'm down to pretty or nothing for enclosed shoes, though I do still have a good few pairs of open sandals I can wear, one of which has steadfastly refused to die for going on 8 summers. I normally count value by months of wear per £1 spent. Those sandals are up to 4 months. These days for my normal shoes I buy what the podiatrist recommended, which usually come in the form of what I call Old Lady Shoes. They have a durable but comfortable sole that's moulded to shape properly, and they have a velcro strap, and usually they are a wide fit. Unfortunately, they are usually a horrible colour, this dark cream colour that just looks geriatric. Luckily for me, the colour suits me despite being awful, and on me they mostly just look like everyday shoes. And, they are always tremendously expensive. Given even my most amazing, beautiful shoes for Indian weddings only cost £15 max, I object to paying over £50 - once as high as £80. But I need them. If my shoes break suddenly and unexpectedly, I can sometimes end up paying that much. However, in Leigh there is a shop called United Footwear. I found a pair reduced to £20 that are really comfy, and not a horrible colour. They are red suede with dark red leather patches. And a random stranger lady on the bus even admired them. Though it was an old lady. In any case, I can certainly more than live with them as my main shoes. And when I have to go back to Leigh for my CAT scan I might get a second pair took keep as spares. I'm not vain enough to pay more for better looking shoes, but if I can get nice ones at the cheapest price I might as well, right?
The other thing I needed was more Simon birthday present. We have bought him Ed Sheeran's Divide on CD so we can sing the songs together in the car. Sophia is going to give him a Skyward Sword necklace. Leigh has a great shop for buying goth ornaments, so I wanted to have a look in there. I didn't just want something purely ornamental, because he'll like it, then stick it on a shelf. But I found a goblet and a tankard, both of which were really nice. I rang Peter, because I wasn't sure which one to get. He said I should get both, one from us and one from his parents. Which I did. But I think it wasn't a great idea. One something like that will get used on occasion, and I liked the idea of a goblet because Simon gave Sophia a fairy goblet last year, so then they would have one each for dinner parties. Not sure about him having 2. Seems overkill. But we will see what he thinks.
I also managed to find paper tablecloths. Pretty hard these days, as even cheapo 4 for £1 ones are plasticised! Just need to find all the felt tips I don't care about so they can go mad on them. Simon initially thought it wasn't a great idea, but has either come around or been rail-roaded (not something I do to him much, so I'm finding it hard to tell the difference!)
Then I went to Tescos. I was looking for a blank cake I could decorate. They didn't have one, but they did have an emoji one that was basically just yellow on all the parts I don't need to cover up. So that'll do. I'm going to do a sugar skull on it. The skull will be moulded and will be black on the yellow. The designs are going to be in orange, purple and green plus whatever decorative sweets I choose from my stash.
After that I went to stanza. My Palmyra poem went down incredibly well. Mike wanted me to publish it in a national newspaper. But I'm not sure how widely I'd want it circulated under my name. It could cause trouble. Last year a normal Muslim guy was executed by extremists for wishing his Christian friends a happy Easter on Facebook. A poem like this one would put a target on my back. Also, it's really one to be performed, not read. But I'm glad it was well-received. I felt it was really good, and the others who enter lots of competitions felt that it was of winning standard. Bill's poem was really nice, and I have kept a copy - which I rarely do. It just spoke to me.
Today started with my carer being late - they had her in at 9.30 instead of 9. As I was eating breakfast, Natalie went outside to put the wheelchair in her car only to find chaos outside. She'd accidentally left her engine running, and no handbrake on. The car had rolled across the road and bumped into the back of a large parked car. The owner said he thought it might have been stolen, joy-ridden and dumped. He couldn't get into the locked can, so he opened the bonnet and disconnected the battery to make it stop. So then Natalie had to sort out swapping insurance details, etc. It was just really lucky that it hadn't done much damage, and hadn't got knocked or swiped on its way over the road. I was nearly 20 minutes late for Pem Pens. They were also really impressed with the Palmyra poem, though being a lot more amateur, I explained a lot about the circumstances before instead of after. They also helped me give it a title, The Temple That Man Built.
I managed to grab a few more party supplies in town. Then came home and got some odd jobs done, including loading up Simon's CTF before his birthday, using up last year's allowance, not this year's, assuming the payment actually counts as today, and not next business day.
And although it sounds like I've had a worthwhile, productive time, I've actually really struggled through. I've been zoning out, shaking, feeling incredibly paranoid, stressed, muttering to myself, even started crying on the bus. People were getting close to the gibbering junkie in order to get clear of me. *sigh*
But to look at the positive, I spent the days busy so I didn't turn inwards, I enjoyed time with friends, and I avoided eating rubbish - though today I ended up in the wrong place and I had to eat, so I had an egg mayo baguette, and the mayo didn't agree with me.
Now I'm home, but I have to go out again. Pemberton Festival is having their opening meeting tonight when they unveil their programme and they are putting food on as well. I just hope there's something I can eat!