I have received ‘Ikigai: The secret to a Long and Happy Life’ by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles today. I am hoping that the ‘Happy’ bit helps me with removing pain from my life. Am I beginning to sound like a stuck record? Sorry. Actually, I did have some time today that wasn’t too bad […]

    You will be pleased to know that I am in marginally less pain and today was a swim day. I just want to wax lyrical about swimming for a moment. Picture this, it is painful and slow getting changed, I hobble down the dangerous (for me) poolside, I over balance as I take

The pace of life was due to increase today. Well, the body disagreed as did the universe. In the UK, a term used for a fart by children is a ‘trump’. So we (the world) had a fart inaugurated as President in the USA and the day in Ugly Derbyshire was also like a stinking

I think Dear Dairy will be short today. Dear Diary, I felt sh**t today. Perhaps this is a little too short. I fear the fibromyalgia and the drugs for the sciatica were the main causes. It makes me feel pretty fed up never mind feeling sick with fatigue. I will be honest with you, although

Today seemed to go by in a flash.Whoosh…..just like that it was done. But as I reflect, I am not sure why it all disappeared so quickly into the mist (not that it was misty, just cold). Here we go then: I did a bit of writing. I pivoted to domestic chores. I can assure

Dear Diary… I didn’t ‘do’ much today. Writing this makes me twitch a little. Most of us measure ourselves on how much we ‘do’ everyday. Today’s photo shows my alter ego ‘The PA’ having a cup of tea (inside Mikey the Mug – the little lid keeps the liquid warmer for longer). She is sat

I didn’t go out until later in the day. That meant a lot of time in front of books or computers. Not terribly exciting in terms of a diary. It did mean quite a bit of introspection and a fair amount of cut and paste (editing). I suppose the introspection may be quite interesting. So

I managed to wiggle a mention on national radio. I asked Ryan Tubridy (Virgin Radio) for a book suggestion. I need a book to make me laugh for my book club but I want it in the crime genre. Luckily, he came up with the author Bella Mackie and I have both of his suggestions

I made a definite decision today. It feels so good. I can’t make it public just yet but I am clear in my head, and more importantly, my heart, it is what I want to do. All I will say is: Although I have many challenges (suddenly feeling exhausted, pain etc), I feel excited about

Today was hard. The pain was overwhelming. By lunch time I felt sick with tiredness. I still made myself go swimming, I did what I set out to do – sort of. My left knee threw sharp pains into my workout so I had to keep stopping. I am sure it is osteoarthritis combined with