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Beginnings

The Cappieshill, the ancient barrow mound across the road from my gate.
Welcome to a blog about my life, my home, my pets, my hobbies, my learning to live a new life with an autoimmune disease and about Just Life.

I am Brenda, I live with my husband Paul, our two chocolate Labrador dogs, maggie or Madam Madpants, Mister Jones Esquire, The Mister our F4 Savannah cat, Ralph the rooster and his women.

We live rurally in a beautiful part of NE Scotland, we are both Welsh, but love and call this place home.

I aim to post often, hope you find it interesting enough to follow, feedback, comment and come back again and again.

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Learning, adjusting, endings and beginnings.

I often forget I had a life before my autoimmune system went Pete Tong. I used to be very active, I was one of those very annoying 200 mile and hour people who never sat still, always had something new to do, I didn't understand the lure of a holiday, I always wondered what I would do after the all you can eat breakfast. I got as far as read a book, then what? Relax, hmm I hadn't mastered relaxing in 50 years, bit late to start now. I imagined myself staying in full time work until I could no longer do the job, I aimed for someplace in my mid 70's. Retiring was never an option. I loved my job, I had worked damned hard to become a Team Manager Social Work and I got such satisfaction from knowing I had helped to change a life, to help someone. Coming home each day feeling I had done the best I could gave me such joy. I went to the gym for 2 hours most nights, I loved going out with friends, I loved to party and dance, I so loved to dance, I might not be any good at it, but ...
It is 3 days before Christmas, the house is decorated, the tree is all sparkly with lights, baubles and my old Venetian chandelier, which I have used as drops to catch the light. Atop the tree sits Pamela, she has sat on every tree since as long as I can remember and I am 59. Pamela has new wings, but has lost an arm over the years. Yet she still sits there in charge of the tree and all that is on it. I love that she has seen all the Christmases of my youth, the excitement of me and my brother Trevor getting up at 4 in the morning, excited to see the few gifts my parents could afford and very happy to get a pillowcase full. I used to love the felt tip pens, the pencils, the colouring in books, the plastic dolls that one year had one that could walk and talk. The three wheelers then bicycles and the stocking with tangerine, selection box, chocolate coins in their little net bags and sweet tobacco sweets. One year a doll's house, that I loved, complete with little lights and fu...

Welcome to the family

While our family photo's are rare, we would have put the Addams Family to shame, not that we all wore weird black outfits and my Dad certainly didn't rock a pinstripe suit and pencil, moustache.  The thought of my Mum and Dad doing the tango is just so far out of my experience it boggles my mind.  No, we looked, to the outside World as perfectly normal, however, the things we got up to when we were bored is a little odd. Sunday afternoons, especially rainy day ones, usually saw us all bored.  We had stuffed our faces on dinner and pudding, dishes done and a bag of sweets for us all,  The afternoon film was usually left unwatched while me and my dad sat doing the broadsheet crossword, me doing the checking for answers in the encyclopedia, I mean, who really knows names of obscure lakes and rivers in the Andes?  No Google then, just heaps of books everywhere, including a really old medical one that had graphic pictures of smallpox that I had written Trevor ...