Knackered

Mr G's holiday from work is now over, and decorating went well. I will say one thing about Mr G and I, when we set our minds to something, we are a formidable team. We managed to get so much accomplished in just over a week; the downstairs loo, the back porch, the kitchen, living room, bathroom and our bedroom. This was the biggest pain in the backside of them all. 

Located at the front of the house, where it lies in the shade for the vast majority of the day, for some unknown reason, we decided to paint it purple a few years back. Not a nice light shade of purple, like a lavender colour, oh no. I'm talking Cadbury purple. Premier Inn purple. It was like a cave in there, even in broad daylight. It's now a lovely pale grey colour - lighter than the kitchen and bathroom, but it did take three coats on top of a calming coat of white first. We put up a new checked grey wallpaper behind the bed too.

This is just a snippet of the decorated room to show the colours, underneath lay a very messy bed and floor, this was taken before the big clean up!

It hasn't been decorated for us, though. The plan is to switch rooms, put the boy in our room, and us downstairs in his room. The logistics of it, however, not so much fun. The room we're going to not being that much larger than the one we're leaving. All my oldest son's stuff still being in that room as well. Mr G having more clothes than a Kardashian sister, and his half of the massive fitted wardrobe in our room is already rammed with clothes. So the plan is to keep the left hand side of the huge wardrobe for storage, we will keep our coats, suits and some clothes in there, stack storage boxes on the shelves, and the boy can have the right hand side of the wardrobe, which will be more than enough room for him. We will get there, eventually, but it's a bloody headache, let me tell you. 

However! To keep momentum going, we have finally ordered our Hypnos mattress and divan. I am so excited, let me tell you. Diamonds? Keep 'em. Holiday of a lifetime? Shove it. Designer handbags? Just a more expensive way to lose my phone, purse, keys... The way to this girl's heart is a good night's sleep and hopefully less back pain. Woop! (Fish and chips, Maneki Neko and new tarot and oracle decks are also acceptable routes to my heart, just so you know). 

Earlier this week, we watched a documentary about former Leeds Rhinos rugby league player Rob Burrow and his battle with Motor Neurone Disease. Even if you're not a RL fan, chances are you will have heard about his diagnosis, because it was such a shock, and it did garner a lot of media attention at the time. I always had a little (massive) crush on him when he played, he was small, blond and cute, and I like small, blond and cute (sorry Mr G, you're just small and cute). Much to the displeasure of Mr G. Not because he was jealous or anything, but because he was a Leeds player, and it's just not done when you're married to a Wigan fan. 

Well, it was heartbreaking and inspirational at the same time. Shocking to see how quickly the disease has progressed in such a short space of time. To think it was only January that he walked out onto the pitch at JJB's testimonial match to play the last few minutes. There were tears, both Mr G and I sat with tissues. Absolutely heartbreaking in parts, but his positivity and determination would put anyone to shame. If you didn't catch this, even if you don't know who he is, it's well worth a watch, while it's still on BBC iPlayer. It's called Rob Burrow - My Year with MND. 

If you can, watch the documentary, send a text and donate. You don't have to humiliate yourself online, climb any mountains or shower yourself in ice this time, you can add it to your phone bill at the end of the month. Such a horrible, debilitating illness. I know there are other horrible, debilitating illnesses, but this is one that doesn't give you a chance, no treatment, no cure. And considering he was only diagnosed in December of last year and to see the rapid physical decline already in such a young, no doubt super fit man, only just turned 38, and a father of three young children. I know times are hard right now for a lot of people but charities are really feeling the pinch of Covid. 

Hopefully Mr G can book another holiday at some point before Christmas to get the house finished. We only need to do the hall, stairs and landing (we bought the paint, but didn't find the time) and the other three bedrooms. Some of it can be done on his days off, after all, it's not like we can go anywhere or do anything right now! It would be nice to have it all done by Christmas, though. I already take the entire month of November off for NaNoWriMo and then before you know it, it is Christmas. 

I've managed to sort one present out, at least, my daughter wanted two tickets to some concert in Manchester in October of next year. I bought the tickets with insurance on them, just in case. I'd like to think that we'll all be in a position to attend concerts a whole twelve months from now, but who knows.

Fresh week tomorrow, Slimming World in the morning, least said the better there, but I will be taking a seat. Not expecting a weight loss, had a rather lax few weeks where we haven't been following plan but I have to keep going to group, keep my nose in and hope that something clicks again soon. It's so hard when everything is upside down and you've been painting all day, sometimes from the early hours of the morning (yeah, I was that idiot painting at half four in the morning). Also my moods are up and down, I'm veering from blind hope and optimism to we're all fucked and going to die anyway, so eat cake, drink wine and inhale pizza. 

Hopefully Mercury Retrograde is going well for you all, too. I didn't give you my usual heads up this time around. So far, it has been kind to me, no exes crawled out of the woodwork, no computers have blown up on me, and nothing electrical has given up the ghost. So far, so good. 

My cousin sent me this, which I thought was really fitting for Mercury Retrograde. Gave me a giggle anyway ;-)