Faithir's dae .....

I have a problem with 'special' days - as a sufferer of chronic illness both physical and mental - and it is simply this; everyday is a special day for me - if I can get out of bed before 0900 and function as near to what is described as a 'normal human being'.

It is something ATOS and the DWP can not assess for because their flawed ipsative psychometric model is supposed to be for an 'average day'. There is no such entity as an 'average day' for folk with chronic health problems, you have functional or non functional days which can be week's worth or 12 hours worth depending on the impact of a multiple of parameters.

For example my week up to today went:

• Monday -  OK
• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - manic
• Friday - transition, lots of neck pain, fibromyalgia very painful, stomach cramps, increasingly depressed and withdrawn
• Saturday - hide under the duvet, lots of fibrmyalgia pains, isolationist, very depressed
• Sunday - transition, happy to communicate with partner/ dog/ cats but not interested in going over the doorstep, not even to play golf ... still random aches from the fibromyalgia.

So in the last seven days - I had one special day. 

During the 'manic' phase I got a lot done, with the sense of fatal urgency that goes with being manic, but as a result of over exerting myself, I triggered acute pains in my hands and arms from my cervical strain which in turn triggered the fibromyalgia which ensured the mental health see-saw swung to the other extreme, of depression.

As to Faithir's Dae ... well my ex-wife made me a really amazing evening meal in which the pineapple/ coriander salsa was to die for ( thanks H) and I bimbled in my garden dead heading, taking cuttings, having cups of tea and rescuing plants which had been superceded by bigger and nastier plants. I even took time out to ponder the state of my compost bins - sweet smelling, hot to touch and the hieght dropping at an even rate, as you so kindly have asked. 

Most of all I wondered at the amazing shapes, colour mixes and forms of the aquilegia that abound in the garden from pure white through powder blue, to the most amazing and complex combination of white and pastel pinks and blues in the petals.

As for the kids, the daughter in Northern Ireland sent me felicitations while my son in Japan asked if I could send him his Everest Base Camp standard tent to him in Japan ....... kids ...eh!