Week 33 - One Daily Positive and Project 365

The negatives

Although I know I can't buy souvenirs and send a postcard to Stephanie it's still upset me. Migraines and food choices.

The positives

I've managed a couple of runs while we've been in Crete, it's been hot and my time has been improving.

Saturday 15 August It's the day of the Virgin Mary in Greece and we were advised that many places may be closed and the roads busy, so we opted to spend the day on the beach. It was very windy and the sea was rough so we went to the harbour beach which is sheltered but there were no sun loungers. I did have a swim and spent a bit of time beach combing for litter after getting attacked in the water by a bag for life. I prefer to have my main meal during the day and Peter had a bowl of soup. Back to the hotel for the afternoon in the pool and reading. Down to the village for dinner for Peter and I had a cocktail and a dessert. Walked back in the dark and watched some TV.

Sunday 16 August I don't join Peter for breakfast as I can't eat much, so I have tea and and cereal or yogurt and fruit in the room. We then walked into the village for coffee and were back poolside by 11am as it was too windy for the beach. We had snacks throughout the day and at 6pm we headed back into the village for dinner at a restaurant over looking the harbour. Back to the hotel at 9pm. Dinner really is a relaxed affair. 

Monday 17 August Our last day trip and off to Chania on the west of the island. A beautiful and colourful City with so much to see and do and of course a Starbucks. we didn't have a lunch, but I'd taken a gluten free sandwich and Peter bought one and we walked around eating them. I also found a gluten free cake shop and bought a rose flavoured cake that we took down to a park near the sea to eat. On the 90 minute drive back we stopped at Koumos Lake for a swim, there are fresh water turtles there and a variety of restaurants where we had some cold drinks and explored local potteries also. We were dropped in the village, enjoyed dinner and saw an amazing bright red sunset, before walking back to the hotel.

Tuesday 18 August A lie in as I woke with a migraine and I needed time for my tablets to take effect. We went out for a coffee and sat in the shade watching the world go by. I then went for a swim in the sea while Peter watched the bags and then back to the hotel to laze by the pool. Back to the room around 2pm for a late lunch and a rest, then into the village in the evening for dinner. It's getting hard to find something to eat every night without repeating the same thing. I miss just being able to have a jacket potato or a toasted sandwich.

Wednesday 19 August After breakfast we caught the bus to Rethymno and explored the the fortress and the old town. It was really hot today as there was no cloud cover or breeze. I had gluten free pasta for lunch, there were lots of drink stops and after we got back to our village I stopped off for a coffee and Peter returned to the hotel to get a spot by the pool. I joined him and we read for a couple of hours, with me floating on my giant inflatable. We then returned to the room and watched TV while doing our packing and in bed around 11pm.

Thursday 20 August We had a lie in and checked out around 11am, leaving our cases in the hotel and wandered down to the village for a coffee, dropping off the books we'd read in a lending library which was a shelf on a wall in the street. I had a swim in the sea and we had a late lunch and returned to the hotel for a swim in the pool and to read our books. We were given another room we could use able to shower off and get changed and spent the evening reading our books on the veranda waiting for the bus to pick us upper our transfer back to the airport and our flight home. Smooth collection on time, if you've flown in and out of holiday airports you'll know what I mean when I say it was a long wait. CSKA Sofa football team were there after their match against Crete in the Europa League, they caused a bit of a stir because no one knew who they were but had loads of security. I just googled their kit sponsor and football and fixture list and word got round lol.

Friday 21 August A good flight home, we dozed a little but no real sleep. landed at 4am, bags, got a train to New Street and had a coffee while we waited 30 mins for the first train home. I left Peter at the station while I fetched the car for the cases. The cat pleased to see us, case unpacked, everything in the wash, had a bath and we both had 3-4 hours sleep then went out for a food shop. Deforsted a home made curry from the freezer and Peter put dinner together while watered the pots, most of the garden is dead, but we do have a glut of tomatoes and peppers. Whilst we ate we caught up with some TV. I then went round the neighbours to fetch the cat home, several times, the kids brought her back several times. I was in bed by 9pm.

On the blog this week:

Post Comment Love - Link up with any post written this week

Word of the week - Colourful in Crete

My garden in August Part 1

Managing a food diet on holiday - Gluten Free

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The best bits of April 2026

In no particular order:

Our next cat. Been hanging around our house and garden for quite a while now despite Pushkins seeing it off on a regular basis, although at the time of writing not seen for a week or two.

Enjoying the sun, but why she has to sit here, I do not know.

Watching us while we do the garden.

Not helpful at all.

A visit to Brockhampton Estate.

A day out at countrytastic with child2, Dil and the grandchildren.

An easter party in our old neighbourhood with our oldest friends.

Three football matches this month. It all went a bit Peaky Blinders for the game against Blackburn.

Attendance was low against Preston North End. I'm in the yellow coat.

Last home game of the season against Bristol Rovers and I got whacked in the head by one of their players.

Great to get the washing out on the line. There has also been a lot of gardening done but too many photos to choose from.

Kath turned 50. She is the one responsible for me running the Brighton Marathon. I've got to blame someone. She is also my motivational coach who kept me going when I didn't think I could do it.

Flowers and good luck card from Kath the day we travelled down to Brighton.

Fundraising was probably the hardest part of the marathon and I'm grateful to each and every one of you who dropped something in the pot, with almost £2000 raised since last September.

Nails painted in the colours of Bowel Research UK. It's a great way to get the conversation started and now I can casually drop in 'oh did I mention I ran a marathon for them to raise funds in memory of Stephanie?'

And finally the Brighton Marathon.

Before:

During:

After:

And my final finally my support crew - Peter. He's not a big fan of featuring on my blog. In 2024 I insisted on taking a selfie a day for a year and he moaned like mad about it. At Stephanie's funeral he acknowledged how grateful he was for all the photos I had taken over the years of us all as a family as we had so many photos of Stephanie to choose from, he's just not a big fan of me sharing them everywhere.

Word of the Week - Cat

Pushkins our expat cat, from South Africa. She moved in with us in 2012, 13 years ago, the vet said she was about 3 years old at the time.

We moved to Dubai the end of 2014 and she relocated to the UK with us in 2020. She's 16 now.

She's also not a she, but a he. We found out a year after our move to Dubai, we've had her details changed on her microchip and vet records, but she'll always be a she to us and she still wear her pink studded collar.

This morning we had a trip to the vets and I had to change pronouns. The vet gets quite upset with me as saying 'she' would make a huge difference if he was to get lost, in helping us find him. FFS microchip and records up to date. The vets in Dubai found it funny and called her, she. 

Anyway at 16 she is still very active, clearing the fence, starting and finishing fights with the neighbours cats. She's overweight (again a vet issue) she's always weighed 5 kg. She needs a tooth extracted as it's broken (again a vet issue) the tooth has always been broken and she needs blood tests and scans to check she doesn't have a, b & c (again a vet issue) she's a cat, aged 16.

We spend a lot of time with the cat, she's either on our laps, or under our feet or shouting at us for food. We think she misses Bob the dog still (it's been 18 months since he died) she's much more needy (could be old age) she's forgetful (can't find her food) and we don't think she can hear as well and recently she's got herself locked in a cupboard and in our shed, but I think that's more of a Peter problem for not checking than it was hers.

This week I got the paints out to make a card for my son's dog who is recovering from surgery. I found myself explaining to the vet (and to you now) that the card was for my 3 year old grandsons benefit and I only told the vet so they weren't alarmed if they found anything red on the cats paws.

After the vets we went for a coffee while Peter did a food shop as it was too hot to leave her in the car.

And the rest of the day we spent at home for cuddles, after feeling sorry for herself after her jabs.

She's disappeared out now for the evening, prowling her territory, she'll be back soon scratching at the living room door. Failing that, I'll find her under the neighbours hedge where she'll make me go and drag her out, purring her head off.

She'll be up early waiting for her food, then she'll take herself over the road to the neighbours where she likes to perform her morning duties. She'll return home for her food, that we'll have to take her to her bowl to eat 2-3 times before she realises her food is there and she stops asking us for it, then she'll sit out on the front door step in the sunshine, making us step over her as we come and go and she'll watch the world go by. On a school day she entertains the kids and the parents on the school run and stares out any dogs as they are walked past.

At 2pm she'll start asking for her tea, for cuddles, for attention until one of us gives in around 4pm, usually when I come home from work.

Post Comment Love 1st-3rd April 2022

Welcome back to #PoCoLo with Stephanie from Lifeat139a and I. Good to see so many back and new people also. 

I've been craving a normal life for a long time from living abroad, life however has felt a bit ordinary recently, it takes some getting used to not travelling and it is still a novelty having everything in one place with the firm knowledge we don't have to move anytime soon.

It's not boring though. We celebrated the cats 13th birthday on Wednesday and we're having a joint (belated) party with the dog who was 12 last month, when our grandchild comes to stay this weekend.

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Post Comment Love - 14th -16th February

Happy Valentines Day.

Time is flying by. I've been back in the UK now for 2 weeks. My husband travels back to Dubai this afternoon and I'm returning the car hire and getting home by train. Our local station is a 10 minute walk from our house, one of the reasons we first moved here back in 2002.

I've had a house full of family, which has been lovely but also quite tiring and emotional considering this is now my home and I'm on my own in a 6 bed house, with the furniture from a 1 bed flat and the cat and dog.

After 9 years of tenants we've had to do a lot of renovations, so far mainly repairs and fresh white paintwork, walls, doors and ceilings, giving us a blank canvas to work from. I'm back in Dubai in March and will be sorting out what furniture is being packed into our container and what stays in Dubai when we rent an apartment in the Marina.

Until we decide if we're staying here or going to move on once my husband retires in 2-3 years, we're not doing any more work to the house. The kitchen and bathrooms will eventually need updating, but for now some minor fixes, like a new bath panel will suffice.

What have you been up to this week? Both Stephanie and I would love to hear from you.

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Bob and Pushkins arrive in the UK from South Africa, via Dubai

We were adopted by Pushkins in 2012

We adopted Bob in 2013

6 months later

In December 2014 we moved to Dubai taking them both with us.

Last week they completed their journey after 5 years in Dubai with their arrival in the UK, which will be their final home.

We're having a lot of fun so far, lots of walks, new sounds, smells and places. I'll update you on their experiences next week



You can read more of our Repatriation story below:

Some of these links aren't yet live and will be updated.

Repatriation or Operation Relocation

Part 1 Things we have to do

Part 2 Starting to get organised

Part 3 Transfer of Residence

Part 4 Relocating pets. Dubai to UK

Part 5 Sorting out our new home in the UK

Part 6 Bob and Pushkins arrive in the UK. What do they think of it? February 2020

Part 7 Renting an apartment in Dubai May 2020

Part 8 Vacating a Villa in Dubai May 2020

Part 9 Moving Day May 2020

Part 10 Relocation

One Daily Positive - Week 13

One day I might write a whole weekly blog post that doesn't involve sand, blood tests, scans or dental surgery, who knows when, but it's not this week for sure.

Think it's time to get new tenants and agent, since the last agent left the company, things have run as smoothly. We found the building regulations sign off sheet after the loft conversion in 2004, to prove we had fire doors and an adequate escape route. When the tenants moved in in 2017 they removed the automatic door closers that form part of the regulation requirements, we had them put them back on, but they keep asking to have them removed which would mean replacing all doors with fire doors and now mysteriously 2 of the bedroom doors slammed shut in the wind the other week and need replacing

Also I had a new boiler installed last March and it's due a service, they've rearranged the appointment 3 times now and it will invalidate my warranty if it's not carried out soon, the agents failed to inform us the service wasn't carried out on Monday as arranged.

We had tenants from hell in 2012 and a rental agent who was scared of the tenants. Our current agents keep coming down on the tenants side, even telling me the tenants are conscientious and have always taken great pride in the properties. All I've ever had is complaints about the quality of repair work that some how is always at our expense and is arranged by the agents not us.

Alarm bells are ringing and it's time for a change, before we get into another mess that we've only just financially recovered from.

83 Sunday Swept through the downstairs and mopped after de shedding the cat and dog, then off to the gynaecologist to see if irregular bleeding is the cause of my anaemia or something more sinister. My stomach doesn't absorb iron or B12 and my levels can only be maintained by infusions and injections, I've never been anaemic when my iron levels were low. Spent the afternoon in bed, I'm so tired all the time and having cognitive difficulties processing what I'm thinking, saying and doing.

One minute it's raining then blowing a sand storm, then too hot. Guess I'll spend a lot of summer dreaming of the cold.

84 Monday Dental surgery bone grafts and implants for two teeth. 4 hours in the dental chair and £3,600 lighter in my wallet. I have a mouth full of stitches. This is phase 2 of 5. Phase 3 is next week, 2 hours and one implant and bone graft in my lower jaw. Slept most of the afternoon and didn't sleep much at night. Had some rice and fish for dinner.

85 Tuesday woke early and felt absolutely fine, face swollen but no pain other than irritation with the stitches. Dentist phoned to see how I was, I was at the dog park drinking coffee, he was surprised I was out and about and was eating and drinking as normal. Had a sleep in the afternoon after doing the ironing and sewing the lining of my winter coat, then Peter came home early and we went out for coffee, had dinner, watched TV and bed.

Meet Bob, Boris, Harvey, Jade and Geoff. Some of the regulars.

86 Wednesday Peter was at a meeting all day then out for dinner with clients, so I dropped him at the hotel and I headed off to the beach for a walk, a paddle and coffee, breakfast and blogging. I forgot my purse, it was raining so I returned home, made soup and dog biscuits and watched TV. I popped out for coffee, collected Peter and had an early night while Peter went out with colleagues.

The face of dental surgery, bruised, swollen and lopsided.

87 Thursday Woke to torrential rain again, roads flooded. Dog wanted to go out then come straight back in he's not used to this rain anymore. Took myself off to the local mall for coffee, blogging and pick up a few bits and pieces. Finally it stopped raining so Bob and I went out for the afternoon.

88 Friday Took Bob for a long walk, we stopped for coffee on route and then spent the rest of the morning watching TV back in bed. Got ready around midday and headed off to Brunch, spent the evening recovering on the sofa. The stitches in my gums are really aggravating me now and making the gum sore.

89 Saturday A lovely lie in, followed by a dog walk, weather is getting quite humid and these day time walks will end soon. Watched movies all day and persuaded Peter to pop out for a McDonald's  for the cat's birthday party.

On the blog this week:

After 16 years of owning teenagers, the last one turns 20 next month. I did however stop day to day parenting almost 7 years ago, when the almost 20 year went to boarding school. So empty nest is well and truly over

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Animal Antics in Dubai in January

We've had mixed weather in Dubai this January from sun bathing in the garden to

dog walking in the rain.

We've had numerous trips to the dog park

 which means lots of baths

leaving both the cat and I traumatised.

The cat has been quite adventurous and scarring the living day lights out of me as she tries to catch birds from the balcony.  

Bob was caught napping on my chair. I now pile books on it when I vacate it.

We've had this cat visiting, it's in a bad way, someones pet they no longer want and have dumped, sadly the neighbourhood strays aren't very friendly towards her. 

We found these crabs and a starfish on the beach.

And had plenty of cuddles with Bob and Pushkins.