Working for my first client as a support worker I learnt to put together afternoon tea with a proper tray. Because if you’re chronically ill you make enjoying tea an occasion and do it properly with sugar in a bowl and lemon slices. When I worked as a cleaner I adored the women I shared … Read More
Am I just waiting to die? I have no idea, probably if I’m going to get hit by covid19 at it’s height then I’ve already got it. If I’ve already got it I’m not sure that theres any amount of cleaning of my client’s surfaces or wearing of masks and gloves that will help. But … Read More
Sometimes I catch myself feeling astonishingly self-satisfied with my life. I have travelled (four continents and counting), I have eaten some truly weird stuff (including guinea-pig – several times, alligator – not recommended and rat-onna-stick – kind of wish I was joking about that one) and I have met some fascinating people (the guy who’d … Read More
I have to admit to having a strange relationship with dating. Partly that’s because I’m poly but more and more I suspect it’s because I find it very easy to know if I want to shag someone and a lot less easy to know how to go about ‘dating’. But then it occurs to me, … Read More
I think one of the most annoying and frustrating things that people have said to me since I started sharing my chronic fatigue symptoms was about yoga. The comment that they didn’t understand why I found yoga poses to be cardio exercises. Now, yoga can be cardio, but generally they’d be talking about my finding … Read More
Day One of a two day visit to a Spa with my Mum. I’ve been here before, over ten years ago but at least then it was me, M-I-L and Mum and there was no over night stay. This comes after the awkward moment in France earlier this year when Mum got as far as … Read More
I think the worst thing about recovery, any recovery, physical, mental, everything is that it’s never a straight line. There’s no straight forward gradually rising slope upwards. It’s all curling back and forth getting something right, whilst something else goes wrong. It’s frustrating. Unless you look at it like a game of Talisman I guess. … Read More
In a very real way I am living the life I wanted to as a kid. Sure, if I were to meet my eleven year old self now I’d have to tell her that I didn’t go to Oxford University (and am actually pretty relieved about that) and am not yet a published author (it … Read More
I have a strange relationship with cleanliness, though I expect that it’s a similar one to that which anyone who has had serious depressive episodes or a physically limiting chronic illness has. I have, at my most depressed and at my most fatigued (which have crossed over, one causing the other) spent days in bed, … Read More
I am hugely enjoying my sports massage course. Today was a revision session in preparation for next week’s exam and I am very much hoping to pass as I really want to progress from level 3 to level 4. Level 4 is when you start to learn about what causes muscle problems and how to … Read More
