One word? When seven would do…

First thing this morning I set my alarm and rang the doctors as soon as it opened to get an appointment. I managed to get one for 20 minutes time which meant I had to do a very quick dash out of the house without even a cup of tea, which was rather hard but worth it.

I saw yet another different GP, but I’ve found with NicFace the women doctors are rather more sympathetic to the disfiguring qualities of the whole thing (easier to empathise I guess) and this woman was no exception. She prescibed further steroids to top the course up to 10 days which is what’s been needed both times before, and gave me some more cream for my face too which should help to ease the dryness and flaking. She said once I have finished the oral steroids if my face still needs help then I can use topical steroids and can just ring for a presciption for that rather than needing to see a doctor again. She also discussed with me the best next step and we debated allergy testing versus dermatoligist, plumping for the latter as she is sure it is a contact reaction rather than an airbourne or consumed one based on the lack of other symptoms eg breathing trouble, swelling of tongue or throat, runny nose or itchy eyes. It is my skin that swells and flakes and itches. So I should hear about an appointment for a consultant soon hopefully.

I then had a half an hour wait before my next appointment (made a few weeks ago) for a smear test, so I walked across the road to the chemist to get the prescription filled and pick up the cheapest magazine I could find. There are no magazines or other reading matter in the waiting room there – I think that happened at the time of swine flu and they have never been replaced. I used to enjoy reading out of date womens magazines in the waiting room so I left my copy of Bella there for the next person!

The person infront of me had not arrived to see the nurse so as I’d already checked in for my appointment I was seen early. No need for too much smear test related detail but it required a couple of goes and some tilting to complete which left me sore. Fortunately I have no worries about the embarrassment factor of such procedures and the nurse and I chatted away about crofting and Scotland and livestock while she rummaged.

I was back home before 11am and ready for several cups of tea to catch up!

A prompting text from one of my lovely friends galvanised me in to action on the Scary Phonecall to the CCCS. It was time to come clean about our actual circumstances and budget as we have been scraping together the money to pay the full amount of our DMP all year based on our previous salaries. Not easy and we’ve had some very tight financial times this year, particularly when we did the wild camping stint, but we really wanted to keep paying off the debt and to not be questioned by our creditors on our actions so it was worth it.

We now want to settle the debts, which Dad is prepared to lend us the money to do until we sell the house. This should enable us to settle for lower figures than the actual balance (which in most cases included large amounts of interest, hence them being willing to settle for less) and mean that should the house take a long time to sell we do not have to find £350 a month for paying our DMP on top of managing the mortgage once the tenants have moved out and we have no rent coming in. Actually explaining our financial situation at the moment was interesting – no gas, electric, TV licence, internet, council tax, water rates etc expenses, but large petrol costs and a mortgage still being paid. We will be back on the lowest £5 per month payment to our creditors again until the debts are settled but the agent advised me this is a good thing as it will make them more inclined to settle early.

Then I spoke to the Final Settlement Advisor who explained the process for making offers to our creditors. I’ve talked to Dad and he’s happy to carry on with that so at some point in the next few weeks we’ll get that underway. I think we’ve now been financially stable and frugal for longer than we weren’t and the end of that dark period is very much in sight. I’ve never dwelt too much on it all and am very aware we have friends who think we may have mishandled the entire situation (and infact may still be continuing to do so) but I feel we have done the best we can to rectify our mistakes and take responsibility and it is this situation which has contributed quite heavily to our current lifestyle and plans for a different path. My prime concern has always been our own happiness and memory making over and above large creditors on the basis that this affects our lives but we are not adversely affecting anyone else. I don’d do hair shirts, self flagellation or beating myself up and in the same way as I’d turn off a TV show that was really pissing me off I would expect anyone who was deeply irriated by me and my choices to simply not listen or get involved with me. If I want judging I’ll go audition for X Factor 😉 (and yes there is some defensiveness there!)

Anyway, that was a big load off my mind and Ady’s too, so Christmas will be much the better for being able to get the kids the couple of presents they have asked for and we may even end this year debt free :).

Next on my list of achievements today was all of us going to visit my Granny. Something we’ve put off so far both due to being really very busy ever since we arrived home and to it not being a terribly desireable thing to go and do. However I’d spoken to her on the phone last night and arranged to head round there for a visit so we did. Mum came too and we were there nearly 3 hours, she talked to us about being evacuated in the war which was really interesting and then I showed her some photos of our adventure on my laptop which I’d taken round for that purpose. I was actually a perfectly nice few hours :).

Back home for a very quick snatch of a sandwich and then I left the others and headed back out again to my friend Sarah’s for a couple of hours. She had a lot on her mind about work and family so I mostly listened to her getting a load of stuff off her chest, she even cried at one point. She sent me a text later this evening apologising for monopolising the conversation but actually it was quite nice to be listening rather than talking for a while 🙂 And I had my first mince pie of the season round there too! Arranged an evening drink during Christmas week which hopefully some other friends can come along to for me to catch up with too.

Back at home again I had a bath, followed by the kids, did a couple of loads of washing (oh the dramas associated with laundry in this house!) and helped Ady with dinner – chicken stew with yesterdays leftovers from roast dinner and added vegetables and dumplings, very gorgeous but not my parent’s usual sort of food.

After dinner Ady and I both felt stuffed and sedentry so we went for a walk round the block and called into Sainsburys for some reduced bread rolls for lunch tomorrow. On the way back we also happened upon a hub cap on the side of the road which we brought home and fitted to my wheel which had been missing one since my puncture at the beginning of the year. And it fits 🙂

Theoretically we’ve done some more business plan tonight but actually we were not in the right frame of mind really and decided we need to involve the kids in it a bit more as it’s felt like we have lost them slightly since we’ve been home, so we’re planning to sit with them tomorrow evening and explain what we’ve done so far in the croft application and get some of their input in the business plan. We’ll then put the final touches to it over the weekend and get it printed off and sent by this time next week. We did reply to various emails I’d had kicking about in my inbox about next moves though so felt like we’d done something productive, and we started messing about with photos to create a photo book of our year too.

We have now ticked off most of our to do list for this period – dentists, doctors, opticians, car on the road, willow off the road, house on the market, tenants given notice, croft application all in hand, family and friends all visited or with firm plans made to do so, kids caught up on playing with toys and enjoying space, finances put in order and a sensible interim plan for covering costs until the house is sold. I now feel we can start to concentrate on the important business of Scarlett’s birthday next week, Christmas camp the week after and Christmas the week after that. I’m really looking forward to time with friends, away from this house and no longer ‘on show’ where we can really be ourselves, catch up on chatting and playing and relaxing and properly enjoy some downtime before everything cranks up again after Christmas for the next phase of the adventure.