This morning the neighbour was hammering again but I ignored him, I had an appointment with the optician. I decided to walk the few hundred yards as want to try and get a bit fitter. As it was it took me about 25 minutes to walk 800 yards…. I’m just getting more unsteady and it’s a vicious circle of pain and shaking with the Parkinsons.

To the opticians, as I thought my cataracts are getting worse, he agreed, but that at least means I might be able to get one eye operated on.

I picked up a few groceries on the way home, enough for one bag. I needed some vegetables and porridge. Then home slowly in the sunshine.

When I got in I decided to pay for my garden waste collection. I tried ringing the council but got automatic voice messages explaining that I would have to pay online and no one would personally take my call. After feeling frustrated I decided to text my local councillor. That’s hit and miss as I have to spell check everything because I don’t always hit the right keys. This was asking if I could ring another number and get a real person!

Finally I tried the council number again. I chose a different option and a man answered. He put me through to the waste department and I got a real person, a woman to speak to. She asked if I could get a relative to pay, but one is dead, another lives 80 or 90 miles away and the other one is abroad. I could go down to the library she said. I explained I had already been to town and was tired out (my car was blocked in or perhaps I could have driven). Eventually it got through to her that I wasn’t going to be able to do it so after speaking to a manager she took the payment over the phone. Looking back I could have been nicer but I was tired and flustered. I she told me to use my key pad on my phone to type in some numbers and I didn’t realise she meant the phone keypad, I was looking for a qwerty keyboard! I did apologise for taking up her time.

So then I fell asleep and dozed for a while. It’s taken me a while to get this down on my phone keypad. I don’t normally have the energy to do so much in one day, my feet and ankles ache and I’m feeling a bit grumpy!