benefits – Enchilada Sunrise

Accidental week off.

Or nearly a week, anyway. Six days. I completely forgot to blog at the weekend… and managed to carry on forgetting all week until today. Whoops! So I’ll extend my blogging an extra week, I think. Or maybe I’ll keep going until the end of July. I’ll aim for that. And beyond, of course, but hopefully every day until then.

So, what have I been up to this week? Not a lot, really. Much the same as I have for the last few months. That’s mostly involved not going out a lot. I don’t actually remember the last time when I managed to leave the house by myself, either. Not counting letting the cat in and out, and putting the rubbish out – somehow that doesn’t seem to count as Going Out in my wonky brain, even though if I want to go somewhere further than the end of the garden path I haven’t made it past the flat door. Make sense of that!

I had to go out today, and will again tomorrow, as I have an appointment with my psychiatrist in the morning. Mum has been brilliant about coming over and helping me get out / taking me places. Today was an appointment at the Jobcentre to talk to them about work and things now that I’ve been moved onto the new ESA benefit. In my case, that was pretty much going over the fact that, what with not being so well, I can’t do full time work, but I can continue with the (part time) Permitted Work scheme. So that’s OK. What was less OK was the panic attack part of the proceedings, but it wasn’t a major one and I think I’ve remembered everything alright. If not, I can ask Adam-the-support-worker who was there with me. Mum had just dropped me off there, as Adam knows the ropes for this kind of appointment. But she will be coming in to the appointment tomorrow, as per usual. Her perspective is useful, but she can also remind me of anything I forget to mention as well. Two heads are better than one, and all that stuff.

And on that note, I’d better go and make my list of things I have to remember for tomorrow. Oh, and wipe my phone ready for taking it back to the shop for repairs. Poor wee thing. (No phone? How will I cope?! Noooooo! etc) Good night!

The Good, The Sad, and the Dusty

I know, I know. It’s been ages. Again. I won’t try to update on everything that I’ve been up to, so here are five things: three good, one sad, and one dusty.

The Good.

1. I have a new blog! What on earth for, when I hardly ever post in this one, you may ask? Well, this one has kind of got too unwieldy for me, so I’m taking out the ‘Review’ categories that I never use, and narrowing the focus of this blog to be… well, what I actually do post about, which is knitting and bipolar, for the most part. So no real changes, except to how I think about it. Never mind, it helps in my weird brain. So the new blog, Frozensoul.net, is my review blog. So far it’s all book reviews, but it’s for whatever I feel like reviewing. TV, movies, music, podcasts, gigs, events, stuuuuuff. I’ll probably go back to posting general life stuff and fandom rambling at Dreamwidth / Livejournal, as well. There may be some crossover there, though.

2. I’m going to be an auntie! My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a little girl this summer. Yes, I am knitting. Mwahahaha!

3. The doctor (psychiatrist) reckons I’m well enough to start back to work gradually! So I’m going to be looking into the Permitted Work scheme, and speaking to the Bridge-builders worker at Together, as she has info about all of that. So far, the vague plan is to get back to freelance web design part time, and see how that goes. Fingers crossed!

The Sad.

My lovely fuzzy Xandermog has moved on to hog the big sofa in the sky. He was really ill last year, and he never completely got back to full health, although he was happy and active and pesty up until he got ill again last month. It was all very quick, and he went peacefully – lovely Adam the Vet did the necessary while I was stroking Xander. It’s very strange and quiet to be mogless, even though he wasn’t a noisy cat most of the time. But I’d had him for over 11 years, so I spose I was used to his presence. I shall probably find a new furry dictator to arrange my life fairly soon.

The Dusty.

I’ve been spring-cleaning. Or really, I spose it’s getting on towards summer cleaning by now! It’s an ongoing project. My allergies aren’t impressed, but I’m sure they’ll be happier with the final result. I’ve sorted out a whole load of things that I was hanging on to for no good reason – hairbands and scrunchies when I’ve had my hair short for over a year with no intention of growing it again, and so on. Old make-up, random bits of paper and fabric… so much clutter! I seem to have all manner of things that I’ve stashed away “just in case” they might come in handy some mythical day. But no! I need to get rid so that I can do the re-organisation of my living room that I’ve been planning for months. I will get it done!

One Month Before Heartbreak

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to wrangle my brain to write a proper post of my own on this subject, but I urge everyone to go and read through the posts and links at One Month Before Heartbreak.

Just to give you a bit more info, it’s a “blogswarm” event, where many bloggers post on the theme of disabilities and the UK disability-related benefits system between 14th and 16th January ’11. Those dates have been chosen because the current consultation on DLA reform ends on 14th February this year, and frankly, it’s not looking cheerful.

As yet, I haven’t looked in detail into how any reforms might impact on me, and I’m trying not to be too pessimistic about it before I know for certain. It’s not easy though, and I’m definitely nervous. Deep breaths!