Hi Taff, nice to hear from you!!  Yes I have quality of life but it's now within a twenty mile radius, it used to be 600 miles .  So I keep in touch with friends without trying because it's always been my way.  Hubby is getting better each day and we hope to be able to do more together as time passes.  His quality of life has been awful to watch and I have never left him when he has been too ill,    Family have always cheered us up and you are right little things matter, a nice cup of tea, a chat, feeding the birds and watching tipping point and calling everyone idiots that can't answer simple questions! !  It  upsets him as he says my life is on hold because of him, but to have him here in this way is better than him not being here at all.  I hope you are doing well and love hearing from you.  Regards Carol 

I also think it's important that you can still get a nark on with him, the normal state of married life with it's getting on each other's nerves from time to time. That's a normality that I like and what many miss out on, I think.

And of course, very few people write about all the minutae and are probably not aware of it for most of the time. I think they're missing out.

That's true Taff. 

The stair lift did have a fault so it's fixed and we dash to the hairdresser before I miss this appointment.   I have coffee nd scone in my usual quiet coffee shop, ten minutes with the newspaper and call him to get me, it's  1.5 degrees and too cold to wander around. Back home we have ham and egg pie from the market and then he decides to nod off in the conservatory due to lack of sleep.  I  sit in the front room and Watch Elephant Walk , with Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Finch,  peace reigns until the doorbell rings, it's someone trying  to sell me double glazing so I'm not amused.   There's a funny smell permeating the house so I walk into the kitchen and it's strong and catching my throat, hubby is sat asleep and oblivious to the smell, it's the small electric fan heater burning through the plastic and causing the fumes.  I can't breathe let alone him and I don't have cancer or a cough!!  I 1 pull the plug out and he wants to know why I've switched it off!! Oh my God, he complains about my few candles and a few duvets hanging off the banisters to dry, doing a man with a bad chest no good, but can sleep through a burning fan, he's lucky I haven't hung him from the bedding off the banister! !  Anyway we are still here and I managed my tooth splint last night,  so I should now hang onto my teeth.  Patch up time on his bum, plaster out, he manages to stick it to his thumb, then his underpants and then asks me what I'm waiting for, stick it on he says,  I just laugh, it's so funny,  like a carry on film but our real life,  have a good day all of you. Xx

Well we seem to have survived trying to asphyxiate ourselves and it's  a gorgeous day.  Unfortunately hubby is suffering with a sore mouth, due to the sirloin 28 day matured steak I cooked, to keep his blood levels up!!  So today he's living on shredded wheat and bananas, if he complains one more time about it he'll be living on it for good  I can't find anyone to go to the Wynyard Glass House with me so decided to go on my own.  It's  beautifully done and I buy a couple of things to go with my new China and a couple of embroidered Easter cards for the family.  I walk slowly through the gardens and fountains and decide to have soup and a roll.  The soup is cold and as thin as gruel and the bun is a piece of crust hard baguette.   I try my hardest but it's horrible so I complain.  Money refunded I decide to not let it spoil my day walk outside, stand on a pepple and promptly fall over!!  I land on my hip and jar my wrist, but there's no one about to help, so I pick myself and my shopping up and hobble to my car.  I'm safely home and because we don't keep pain killers in the house Hubby  has gone to get me some.  I bet I've seized up by tomorrow! !  Take care .xx

Hello Carol; have just caught up with your last few posts.  You have survived a few mishaps; let's hope ityou get a hassle-free couple of days to make up.  Have just come back from taking the dog out; it is bitter cold and I have just removed the top two layers of clothing.  Am having a little glass of Baileys to warm me up; only a little one as alcohol and I don't really get on - it gives me a headache.  Hope you are not sufering too much.  Annie

Hi ANNIE,  I'm stretched out on the sofa with a bag of maltesers,  ok if I don't move!It would be nice to have some warmer weather,  enjoy your Baileys,  very warming.   Xx

It's  minus 0.5 degrees here today and I have a vest,  thermal T shirt and a jumper, boots and socks on and that's in the house!  I ache all over, I've realised the older you get the harder the fall and I don't have much flesh on my hip bone.   Hubby still has an awful cough but I have given up getting up with him as according to the Doctor his chest is fine. I've  dashed to the shop in a blizzard for a few essential sand intend going nowhere else today.  Sofa sitting is safer for both of us today.  She you tomorrow. 

It's a blizzard so I don't attempt to go out.  Hubby stays in bed and I call both my daughters,  tell them all s well and decide to have coffee and toast in peace, I should have known better !   Beep, beep goes the stair lift and hubby comes down, I put bread  to toast  for him, fill the kettle, get the milk out and ask him if he can manage to do his own bread,  of course I can he states.  The next thing I know the whole house is without electricity as he has tried to shove the bread in the wrong way and the toaster has predictably cut out causing us to have no power cut, the bread is too thick for the toaster! He says annoyed.  I now have to go out In to the snow and the garage,  move the recycling and numerous other paraphernalia, get the stepladders and  climb up to the roof to reset the trip switch.  He's not in the least bit sorry, although we have to re-set the heating and the  microwave amd he gets annoyed with me because the torch won't work and he can't see in the airing cupboard .  Anything that upsets his routine is a big issue and I put this down to him having not been responsible for anything at all, over the past year.  I can see I'm not in for a good day as my new Now TV box has just arrived and hubby wants to know about how it works, I will have to read the instructions I say patiently,  that'll be a first he says sarcastically .  My temper is rising and one more nasty comment,  there is going to be ructions.   I'll see you tomorrow .

The blizzard carried on all afternoon and it was as chilly inside the house as out due to the atmosphere.   I kept shutting the doors to keep us warn,  which resulted in  being accused of locking him in the kitchen,  I'd had enough by now and shouted I'm locking the noise out, not you in, this must have hit a nerve as at tea time he turned the volume down whilst I cooked tea, the Holocaust is not conducive to cooking a happy meal.  I know he's tired and his leg is hurting him but being locked together al day is too hard.  I hate knowing that this cancer is not going away and we have to live with the consequences  but it's too hard some days.  The box from Amazon was his birthday present,our daughter has sent him weights for his arms, they should come in handy when I feel like knocking him out for some peace and quiet! ! He was up again in the night and we are both worried  about this cough, if it hasn't gone when he finishes the steroids we are going back to the Doctors again.  This morning I was addressed as Darling when I gave him his up of tea, let's see how today goes