We have woken this morning to a rumble coming from the generator Scottish Power have put in our street to ensure the village has electricity throughout the day whilst they work on updating something or other which has caused all the recent power cuts… The genny, delivered yesterday, is pretty big and quite noisy but, if it keeps everyone warm with plenty of cups of tea / coffee for the day and allows Scottish Power to get the job done, then I am sure we will live with it for however long the job takes!

There’s been lots on Facebook & other social media warning people about today’s essential works… Scottish Power have taken over Buccleuch House (pronounced Buh-Kloo) so the 175 homes that are being affected have somewhere warm to go and get a cuppa & hot food, so that’s good… I only worry about those who might not be on social media and the reliance on it for communicating. That said, at least this work seems to have been well planned and, according to the social media posts, those affected should have had a visit from SP representatives over the weekend too.

So what have we been up to this past week or so..?

I’ve been to the Docs to see about my hand pain and had a blood test to check for rheumatoid arthritis. Until I saw the Doc, who was very nice (from South Yorkshire – I don’t think anyone in this village is actually Scottish 🤣), I had never noticed my right hand is slightly bigger than my left which to the Doc, suggests inflammation. All I know is that my little finger on my right hand goes from locking in a bent position to not bending at all and that this gives me serious pain in my ring finger, wrist, thumb and up to my elbow… a pain that’s worst during the night and first thing in the morning than it is throughout the day.

My Mum has really wonky thumbs that she’s barely been able to use for years and I don’t want them if I can avoid it! The doc will give me a call once the blood test results are back & then we will decide what happens next. It was nice to meet a Doc who appeared genuinely interested in me – I left feeling I had been listened to and not like I had wasted 15 minutes of her day!

Pete wasn’t feeling too good last week following his latest chemo – as I have said before, it’s the extreme tiredness that gets him down most of all, as other symptoms, for him at least, are minimal. He gets really frustrated that he has no energy to do the things he wants to crack on with – it’s the first time I have seen him feeling really down in the dumps since the treatment started 🙁. You know something is up when Pete does not feel up to even going for a walk around the village! Very unlike him… still, a phone call from our Louise gave him a boost and also hearing from our friend Pete W too…

Thankfully, Pete has bounced back this week since he had the final 10-day injection last Sunday (30th November) and we have made more progress with the house and been out for a few walks…

Having ripped out the last of the fitted wardrobes in our bedroom we have made the penultimate trip to Hawick tip for the year (just one more to go when we rip up the carpet later this week, ready for our new one going down next Monday!) and managed to take in the Makers Market (very nice but left with just a cake each) and the Hawick Christmas Market (bit crap but nice to see the little kiddiewinks performing their Christmas songs with their Christmas hats, antlers & hear the Piper etc). The weather was horrible and very wet so we didn’t hang around too long!

Of course Monday 1st December marked the start of meteorological winter – our weather seems to go from brilliant blue skies & crisp days one day to chucking it down & flood warnings the next, with no snow in the forecast just yet… Monday was also a bank holiday here in Scotland although the two village shops and the butchers were all open…

1st December also marks when we start thinking seriously about Christmas too! Having received our first Christmas card last Saturday (well done Iris, first through the door as usual!) I was prompted to pin down brother Andy’s plans so I could send my niece Romi (short for Romanista) her birthday & Christmas gift. This reminded me of brother Steve’s pending annual visit to see Mum, giving opportunity to get a few pressies in the post to her too – that will give Steve and I something to do with her during our FaceTime call later this week 😊❤️

Yesterday (2nd December) we found another new path out of the village, down river and managed to find the field home of the Alpacas we have only previously seen from the road… what characters they are!

Oh, and we put our Christmas tree up so it’s definitely beginning to feel a lot like Christmas…

That’s about it for now… busy week next week with a new carpet and sofa coming plus the run up to Pete’s 5th chemo session! TTFN xx