Day Seventy-Four – Saturday 30^th May –

Today was BUSY!

I got up early to get to Sainsubry’s with my Dad. He was doing he usual shop, I was shopping for the meal I was going to make, plus things for lunches during the week and snacks of a varying nature of healthy to unhealthy.

I had to deal with a headache today, but it was a headache I could work through. I started to play a game on my iPad once everything was packed away in the kitchen and sit with the dogs (they howl if we all go out for the 11am neighbour chat).

At about 3pm-ish, I headed downstairs to work on my pudding. I decided to make Gluten-Free Fudgy Cheesecake Brownies. It was good fun because I got to swirl the cheesecake mixture into the brownie, and it was my first time at trying to do the marble effect. I chose a gluten-free recipe because there has been a shortage of flour since lockdown and I didn’t want to tempt fate. The brownies took about 20mins of prep and then 30mins to bake. They turned out so good – delicious and fudgy. They are in no way sugar free or healthy but who cares! I certainly don’t.

I read a bit in the late afternoon, but I was mostly reading old fan fictions and clearing out my fan fiction reading list. I went through a phase of favouriting every fan fiction I read and amassed a list of 795 stories. My tastes have obviously changed over the years, so I went through and removed A LOT. I only left ones I have repeatedly read on the list, so now there are only 113 stories on there. I feel better now.

I made dinner at around 7pm-ish. It wasn’t exactly a long dinner to prepare and cook. I make Lemon and Feta Linguine with Garlic Asparagus, and it all went very well other than burning the garlic!

It has been a while since I cooked, before the lockdown my Dad and I would cook together every Saturday, and before that I sporadically cooked whenever I wanted. Apparently, according to my parents, this was the best meal I’d ever cooked. So, I guess I’ll be making this again. (Side note, my parents were both astonished that I’d essentially fried the asparagus and not boiled or steamed it.)

I managed to get my Mum to play a little Xbox with me this evening. Dad was on a phone call, so I dragged her upstairs. I got her playing Star Wars Lego with me and it was a hilarious experience where I laughed so much that I started coughing like a smoker who smoked 6 packs a day!! She was actually pretty good at it and I enjoyed the time spent with her. My Dad did eventually get off the phone and come to join us. My Dad was not as good at the game as Mum but then he didn’t like being told what to do 😉 he just wanted to follow his own rules.

Day Seventy-Five – Sunday 31^st May –

I had such a fantastic day yesterday that I was expecting the mood of today and the accompanying headache. Don’t think me all doom and gloom though. Usually when I have an exceedingly good day, it is followed by a bad day, that is the result of how my syndrome affects me and it has nothing to do with my mindset and I was not in any way, ‘willing’ a headache to come.

It was a bad headache with sick feelings. I stayed in bed and I slept most of the day. I did manage to read a book but that was by reading a couple of chapters every hour or so and stopping immediately when my vision started to spin.

I did manage to regain some of myself in the evening. I got up to have a shower and wash my hair when it was a little cooler and I spent the evening watching the simpsons while stencilling out some more cards to paint. Not a totally productive day but not a complete waste either. I did have such a good day on Saturday, so it was well measured.

Day Seventy-Six – Monday 1^st June –

For some reason I didn’t realise it was the 1^st of June until lunchtime. Wow, the months are flying by!!! In three weeks, it’ll be my Mum’s birthday. My parents were supposed to go on holiday the last week of June but obviously COVID cancelled that. It’s so strange to think that I’ve been in some form of lockdown for almost 80 days now! I mean 80 days is usually when I start counting down for Christmas!!

It’s crazy to think of everything that is happening, but I feel some sense of safety that we’re all in the same boat together and that we are all trying to find our way in these uncertain times.

Back to working again today, the sun is hot, but the wind is cool. I’ve actually had a productive morning pulling data into all the spreadsheets I have to send off at the end of the month. Last week was the busiest the phone has ever been since we went into lockdown. I got 15 calls from operators looking for work. I can only imagine what it is like for some people during this time.

I have my windows open and my curtains drawn, it is creating quite a delicious breeze but I had to find something heavy to keep the door open because it slammed in the wind and the dog jumped a foot in the ear and abandoned me for the rest of the afternoon!!!

Day Seventy-Seven – Tuesday 2^nd June –

Mum and I walked the dogs early today as it’s very hot. We went on a different walk to our usual walk but we’re lucky to live in an area that has a lot of wooded walks and hills.

It was quite busy on the walk, more than we were expecting. Some people were very good about keeping a social distance, though I have noticed that it is always my Mum and I who have to stand to the side with our dogs and wait for people to pass in front of us or from behind us…Apparently people are rather selfish on the walks, and don’t believe they should have to slow their pace to keep the 2 mtr distance. They’d much prefer to walk fast and force you and your blind confused dog to the side of the path…(not that I’m angry about this or anything!)

However, there were also people who weren’t social distancing at all! There was two families out with their children and they were all walking together in a bunch, touching and sticking close to each other. I just think it’s ridiculous to think that you’re safe just because the threat level has gone down. The virus is still out there and just because you think you won’t get it or that you’ll get it but be fine, doesn’t mean the people you interact with will be the same.

Over the past week, I have overheard on the walks or listened to colleagues or voices on online courses or chats about all their suspicions about COVID-19 and honestly, I don’t know where they’re getting their information from or how it can be SO twisted and wrong.

I’ve given up trying to correct people or offer the correct information because it is either ignored or brushed off and I’ve come to the realisation that people will believe in the most ludicrous over the facts. If people want to live in denial about this virus, I will let them. If they want to risk their lives and the lives of those around them, I will avoid them at all costs, and just focus on making sure that I am staying safe and healthy and that those around me are doing the same.

It has been so hot today that it has been difficult to function. It’s been an activity today of working for a couple of hours, taking a break, catching some sun and then repeating the process all over again. My poor Mum got a migraine today – personally I think it might have been caused by dehydration and heat stroke because she was out in the hot garden for most of the day. Anyway, Mum doesn’t often suffer from migraines and when she does, she retreats to her room with the curtains closed and sleeps it off.

I tried to help her feel better the best I could but secretly I was envious that she could fix her migraines so simply when mine go for maximum impact and pain.

The day was rather good for me. I didn’t go into work as there are still complications over the new servers being put in. I won’t be in now till Friday – when I might be in all day as I’ll have 2 weeks of post to sort!!! But the day passed quickly, and I felt like I got a decent amount of work done and felt quite accomplished by it all.

It is supposed to rain tomorrow and Thursday, so I am expecting to have a low air pressure migraine to capture my spirit. I am planning against it, but we’ll see how it goes!

Day Seventy-Eight – Wednesday 3^rd June –

It somehow seems ridiculous that it is Wednesday already! I’m starting to feel like I’m leading the life of a Sim! Although I haven’t found myself in a room with no reason to why I am there yet!

It’s actually been a busy morning work wise and I finally found the tool to allow me to view my emails separately rather than as a conversation. When I loaded outlook onto my MacBook, it started to group emails in conversations, and it got really irritating. If I had an email, I wanted to respond to but someone else had responded already, my original email would disappear, and I’d have to reply or forward the whole conversation and it frustrated me to no end! However, I’ve now fixed this and feeling quite relived.

I feel really tired today which is annoying because I actually went to bed early last night – 10:30pm – and slept quite solidly. I did have a rather disturbing nightmare though, that I have spent all morning trying to get rid of!

The air pressure is really low today, meaning I have a migraine. These migraines are pants because they’re one of the few that aren’t affected by my medication or paracetamols. So, there is really nothing I can do to take the pain away, I just have to try and power through as much as I can. The rain hasn’t fallen yet, so the pressure is still there. Hopefully, the rain will soon come because feeling like a squirrel is pummelling you with a wooden hammer while also feeling like you’ve just spun around in circles and feeling as sick as a sea sick person on a boat is no fun at all!

Day Seventy-Nine – Thursday 4^th June –

Today was a bad day. I woke up with a headache and I tried to look after myself, drinking plenty of water, having some paracetamols, sitting with my window open, taking breaks etc. I did get quite a bit of work done in the morning before it all went slightly pear-shaped.

I had some lunch and then felt quite sick for a good while after. Then I started to feel dizzy and the pounding in my head went from a level 7 to a migraine. I ended up having to email my boss to let her know that I couldn’t continue working for the afternoon, and instead I needed to sleep.

I suffer from air pressure migraines, low air pressure to be exact. When the clouds are low and grey, and the air is muggy, it becomes the prime condition for me to get a migraine and unfortunately, this migraine only goes away when it rains. I had hoped it would rain today or at least through the night but according to the weather report, where I live is going to be missed by the rain and we’re looking at four more days of muggy cloudy weather with a high wind. Meaning, I’m looking at a migraine that could last days. These are the worst kind.

Normal migraines can be managed. Attack migraines follow a routine. I can’t do anything to help myself with an air pressure migraine, I can’t distract or improve the pain. It’s especially hard to deal with because it pulls my mood down and I have to work very hard to keep my mood level and not allow myself to dip one way or another.

Day Eighty – Friday 5^th June –

I had to come into the office today, not at 1pm but at 10am because I haven’t been in for 2 weeks and I was expecting A LOT of post to sort and scan (and I was right!). The migraine is still with me, I thought it might have gone this morning when I saw the sky had cleared a little, but it has come back in force now at 12:30pm. I am just starting to wind down with the work I have to do for in the office, so I can relax a little.

I was awake a lot in the night which didn’t help, and I had this weird dream but the only part I remember was a crowd in front of a stage where Jason Derulo was performing. He was asking the audience questions and this toddler who was autistic kept shouting the word ‘bear’ while holding his winnie the pooh bear aloft. Jason bent down to talk to him and the child proceeded to tell everyone that he’d won the bear in a competition – his mother had sent his bear to a radio station and they’d sent it back saying he was a winner. In the dream there was a very awkward silence.

I have 3 more card orders to post today, which is very cool. One of my card series a ‘thinking of you’ card is almost out of stock, so I’ll have to make some more of those over the weekend. My dragonfly cards are also out of stock and I’m halfway through making another batch of those.

I got some book mail yesterday of 2/4 books I ordered from Waterstones. All of them are children’s books and I can’t wait to read them. Hopefully the migraine will clear up enough to allow me to enjoy my weekend, my fingers are crossed anyway.

I had an idea to make a folder with pollypockets in it for all the loose sheets of recipes that are floating around on shelves at home. Basically, the whole cookbook cabinet is an OCD nightmare for me, and I try my hardest not to look at it too much. I thought this would help keep the loose recipes in place.

I also got a ton of new stamps in the post, so I’ll be putting my creative juices to good use and experimenting with them this evening maybe or over the weekend.

I need to convince my Mum to play more Lego Star Wars with me because I think we could both use the laugh right now.

If anyone has any good jokes, let me know! I could use a good laugh.