Round Up of The Week

 Although I am still not well I have been able to achieve some important in the house jobs so maybe not rushing about here and there has its upside.   I am still not well enough to go out to the cinema, catch trains, walk far, go for massage, or  guarantee that I can get from A to B when I arrive anywhere due to fatigue.   The only thing that helps is ibuprofen which takes away the fevers when they come. 

What have I done this week?  I went to Hannah for a hair cut, the first time I have seen her since my holiday so we had plenty to catch up on.  I park outside.  Her news and my news.  Football and holidays - she goes this weekend to Kos.  She loves Greece so has good taste. Kos is new to her though.  Football, we discussed many teams not least England of course.  Tuchel does such good things with the England team that Southgate didn't.  I was very hot while I was there and the fever came.  I remembered an old conversation with Hannah three years ago when she said I appear to have the menopause.  Of course I laughed and said this was many years ago but it set me thinking then. 

I ordered Dr Louise Newson's book on the Power of Hormones on the strength of remembering the conversation with Hannah and being told by my doctor when I asked for a hormone test that they don't do hormone tests on the over 70s.  The book should come today.    The doctor would not budge on hormone treatment or tests though.  I went on my way and bought Yam cream at the time.    

**  Dr Newson is a GP and her husband is a consultant urologist.  The book has now arrived and I am looking at it and will report later when I have read more, if anybody is interested**. 

Medical text books are based on treatment for men, not women.  Dr Newson has been ridiculed for her stance on hormones and cancer links and was subject of a BBC Panorama programme which said she was a charlatan.   She has since been proven correct in her studies but still awaits an apology from the BBC. 

Next, and importantly, I prepared my paperwork for my tax return.  I could do this mostly sitting in a chair.  A little later than most years when I aim to do it in May but then I have an excuse, I had my holiday then.   The papers were all sent off to my accountant and the tax return has now been submitted. All complete and I have the accountants bill to pay.  I then have the July tax to pay.   Everytime I think I might save some money I can't.  

I paid my house insurance.  I have a listed building house so I pay over the top for insurance.  I asked for it to be reduced.  They said I had already stripped out all ways of reducing it and there was nothing left.  I paid it.  I looked back in my cash book and found it has been going up since 2023 by £100 per year.  I pleaded with the girl that I live alone, I live in a safe area from crime, safe from flooding,  surely I am as low a risk as I could be.   She said all this had already been taken into account. 

I paid my electricity, the lowest month this summer so far.   That's something to be pleased about. 

My oil tank needs filling.

My firewood needs some summer-rate logs to be delivered. 

I had a holiday, yes, so I am not destitute.  But I never buy clothes.  Perhaps I will buy myself a summer jacket with the euros I had left over from my holiday. My summer jacket has holes in the elbows which I have patched and mended.   Summer jackets cost well over £100.  Perhaps I should make one on the sewing machine.  

No round up of my week would be complete without a mention of the Makerfield by-election result.  Andrew Lawrence does a good summary, much better than I can say it.   It only takes 2.37 minutes to listen to him.    Read the comments on YouTube, they say it well too.