July 2025
It’s July now, I got back from Scotland yesterday, and tomorrow is my birthday. Before I talk about Scotland, I wanted to mention, that Gemma is living in a Residential Home in Desborough, she’s been there for just over a week, on a six week trial, and if all goes to plan, she can stay there. I’m really hoping this is her forever place, as she seems really happy. Scotland was brilliant! It’s so beautiful. Stunning landscape, and generally really well looked after. It's the furthest I’ve ever driven, there, back and every day in between, we travelled 1, 359 miles in the 6 days. We also managed to tick off three things from my bucket list. Visit Scotland. Go to Loch Ness and Stand in, and drink from a Waterfall. We were so lucky with the weather, it rained once, but we were driving at the time. And we lived in shorts and t shirts. The only time we wore jackets, was on the Loch Cruise. It was lovely getting to spend quality time with my mum too. As morbid as it sounds, the reality is, we’re all running out of time. We might not have many more opportunities. I don’t mean death, in particular, although this could also happen, and inevitably will, but I mean health. My dad can’t walk far these days for example. We never know how many more Mother’s Days, Christmas’s and birthday’s we have left together. Speaking of morbid, although I love talking about death, so it wasn’t a biggy for me. But Ian and I signed my mum’s Power of Attorney today. We had to sign ourselves, and then sign to say we’d witnessed each other sign. This is stage one. Basically, if mum get dementia, she’s signed her rights over to me and Ian, to make the right decision. If this all goes through, she’s going to do the financial side of things. This reminded me, I was going to look at Pure Cremations this year, and still haven’t. I’ll put it on my never ending, to do list. While I was driving all that way, I noticed something that annoyed me, but vowed I’d NEVER complain about this thing again. My hair kept catching in my seatbelt and the collar of my tops. It's because it’s at an awkward length at the moment, but the reason I’ll never moan about it, is…. Thank you to the perimenopause, I’ve been losing my hair over the last year. Literally, if you look at one photo a month from July last year, each single month, my hair is getting shorter and shorter, and I hadn’t had it cut, and getting thinner and thinner. It's really bothered me. It’s felt quite soul destroying and upsetting to be honest. I have been embarrassed. The amount of people who, every month, would say “oh you’ve had your hair cut”. I literally haven’t, it’s just been falling out, and breaking at the ends, to appear shorter. So the fact that it’s getting under my collar at the moment, means it must finally be growing again. Thank god! I can’t describe how awful the perimenopause is. Like seriously, when does a woman’s body get a break? I started my period at 13. So this meant monthly excruciating pain, migraine and extremely heavy bleeding, that lead to anaemia. Like…..every month! Then we obviously grow a chest, mine gave me awful back pain! This is one of the reason’s I’m getting rid of them in October. We have the pregnancy and birth. Our bodies change FOREVER after this. I actually joked to Jake earlier, and said “Right I’ve lost my weight now, but what do I do about this wobbly belly? You caused it, so you can sort it out”. I have to say though, people don’t talk much about Perimenopause and Menopause. Here is the official description:- Perimenopause, the transition into menopause, is marked by a range of symptoms due to fluctuating and declining estrogen levels. These symptoms can include irregular periods, hot flashes, sleep disturbances, mood changes, and vaginal dryness. Other common experiences include brain fog, joint pain, and changes in libido and many more.
