Our New Life in Devon

 The weather here has been raining almost every day for what seems like weeks now. I was sat here thinking how nice it would be to go abroad to somewhere dry and warm for a week or 2. However, looking at the news I can see Spain has had torrential downpours, Sicily was flooded with pictures of cars floating in car parks, and Tenerife has huge waves and torrential rain. I've been to a few of the Canary Islands years ago and visited Lanzaroti while working for a disabled couple as their personal assistant -  or caregiver if you're reading from USA. Floods in Sicily  credit to Manchester evening news When I left social work I took a temporary job with an agency as a visiting home carer. Following this I then decided to look for something more permanent and went to an interview for a Personal Assistant to the disabled couple. At the interview the job was described as cooking breakfast,  helping the paralysed person to shower and dress, doing some laundry, light housework...

  Today started well with OH vacuuming the house, and taking the dogs for a run with our son while I mopped the floors here. An hour later son rang to say OH couldn't find his phone. It's a new phone and he's only had it a few days! I searched the house but it was not here. They soon returned and son managed to track it to Teignmouth beach!!! where they had taken the dogs swimming. It had been in the sea as the tide was now coming in, and a lady had picked it up on the sand. She answered it when son rang it. As she took it from her pocket to answer it the seawater poured out! The screensaver was damaged but the screen was OK underneath tg. Son rinsed it out back here and got all the sand out. He put it in a plastic box with those packs that absorb damp for a few hours. The new case OH bought this week had disintegrated, so off they went to Teignmouth, yet again, to the phone shop to get a new screen saver and case. Phone seems OK as it is waterproof (so they say) so fingers...

 I received a Halloween party invitation from one of the neighbours through the door this week. It's unusual as we are normally at our daughter's home for Halloween, but staying home this year. The invitation was odd to say the least. The date was 30th October which is the day before Halloween and time was 12pm - 8pm. It was also only addressed to me. I knew the neighbour quite well so decided to pop in around 2pm mainly to see if it was the right date, time, and if it was OK to bring OH and son who is back here for the next fortnight on his annual leave. Also if they wanted anything for the table as we used to do with our parties back in South Gloucestershire. The neighbour greeted me warmly, giving me a booklet, and explained it was a skincare and makeup party. It was all displayed nicely all over the living room. I left, saying I would return later when I'd explained to OH and son, taking the booklet with me. I did buy a couple of small things for Christmas presents when...

 Had a call from Mark, our son, on Friday saying he'd like to come and stay for the weekend. Due to high winds some ships have been unable to travel to the UK so he's off work until Monday. I'm never lonely here for long lol. It was a nice few days having him here, and he's quite helpful around the house which is a bonus. He's back on Thursday for a week on annual leave. We aren't going to daughter's home for Halloween this year so have bought plenty of sweets for the trick or treat children when they call. I finally decided to make the French Apple Cake today. It turned out very nice and we all had some after dinner. It's made by melting the butter instead of creaming which is something I haven't tried before.                   French Apple Cake  Lily, our daughter, rang for a chat this afternoon. She's really busy this week so won't be visiting. It's unusual as most school holidays she comes with our granddaughter for a holiday By...

 The UK seems to have become very patriotic lately with Union Jack or England flags appearing everywhere. My problem is I wouldn't know which flag to put up! One side of my family were French immigrants and moved to England to marry and start a new life. I think they eloped. The other side were Welsh and English. So I had one parent with duel nationality as they were born in England, and the other parent half Welsh and half English. Now when it comes to religion I had Catholic, Church of England, Jewish, and Presbyterian in my immediate family so it's definitely a good mixture. I wasn't brought up religious, but father did want the 'last rights' from a Catholic priest and a Catholic funeral when he died. I don't speak Welsh at all, and my French is limited to what I learned at school alongside German and Latin. I wasn't very interested in any of them at the time sadly. Just to add to the mix 2 of my friends are Pagan. I believe that people are individuals fi...

 Went to the Doctors on Friday as my breathing was deteriorating with this cough as I have COPD. My GP is very good as I rang at 10am and was seen at 4pm. I'm back on antibiotics and steroids again so it's bye bye hair in 6 weeks time. Hair thinning is a known side effect of steroids but it does grow again in a few months. I've done a covid test and was negative same as OH. I didn't get the sore throat or temperature though, just a bad cough and cold with a chest infection. Today I've managed to strip my spare bed, finish unpacking my bag, do 2 loads of washing and generally tidy up the bedrooms. That's a good achievement atm for me, as my breathing is starting to improve now. I won't bother with moving into the spare bedroom again as it was a waste of time anyway - as it didn't stop me catching his germs lol. Granddaughter did very well in her science tests so daughter took her to McDonald's for a treat. She's a bright child but quite young for ...