Failed at Napping

 Wow, 7 years since my last post. You'd be forgiven to think I'd forgotten about this blog. Life is a lot different now. We have a house we call home, we don't live there yet but we will. Eventually. We have a team of carers that help look after the boys and we have another dog. Main headaches these days are dealing with the Deputy, architects and managing a boot load of appointments. Oh and the knacker van. Shouldn't be a knacker. It's a Mercedes but since we got it it's had a liking of going into limp whenever it feels like it. It's spent a lot of time with the local dealer and they haven't been able to fix t. So yes, it's time to start thinking about a new van. Again. I used to talk about photography on here now and then. That's changed a bit for me. I now volunteer at a local place where I run a weekly photography group for neurodivergent adults and adults with additional needs. Which is great and helps me feel like I'm part of something....

Yep, a dog sleeps on me.

Dole life Once they've got you in the system they don't want you to leave. At least not until they've with you down and accepted your worthless existence. I could do with some more money, as could most people, so I looked into how earning some money would effect my benefits. I can earn £20 per week! Wow, a whole £20! Anymore than that would be deducted from my benefits. If I earn enough to replace that benefit then I'll be above the threshold for my carers allowance so would need enough to replace that as well. By then if probably be losing my other benefits as well. The way I work it out I'd need a starting wage of about £21k to be in the same financial situation I'm in now. But then I'd have to add on the costs of going to with (travel, meals, clothes, etc) and I'd be worse off. The chance of going into a new job at the same level as my old job after a break is pretty much non-existent. So this means I'm pretty much stuck on benefits. So is it ...

It's November and already I'm sick of Christmas. So, in no particular order, here's a list of things I hate about Christmas. It starts too soon. As soon as Bonfire Night is out the way the Christmas adverts start on the TV, Christmas stock starts appearing in shops, decorations start going up in shops and later in November in people's homes. It's just too much, too soon. Everyone wants your money. The shops want your money. New shops open up selling cheap junk to try to get more of your money. Charities want your money more than ever, t'is the season of goodwill to all men after all. Black Friday and other sales. Why do we even have Black Friday here in the UK? Again, it's just a way for shops to part fools with more of their money. The sales stock is all just junk they couldn't sell at full price so now they try to sell it for closer to what it's worth. New stock is also shipped in just for sales. This stuff might have the same brand on it but i...

You know those days where you wish you could just go back to bed, have another's hours sleep then start again fresh? Well today has been one of those days. My day started at about half five when John woke up. As usual I changed him in bed before carrying him downstairs. He's usually quite active when he wakes up but while I was changing him this morning he managed to kick me in the face. Twice.  This set me up for the day in a bad mood. Once you're in a bad mood, if you don't get out of it, your day is just going to get worse.  I tried to cheer up, I really did. But I was just too tired to shake off my grump. The day was full of all the usual little things that normally wouldn't bother me. But today, thanks to my mood, they did bother me. I was overreacting and snapping at things, not thinking things through, acting before thinking. I even managed to launch poor Matthew down the back of the sofa, head first! Eventually the day came to an end. The ki...

If you don't know what this is about it's probably best to get the background from the first post here:  https://sndad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/photography-project.html Ok, this is another image from the series. I like the concept but not sure about execution. You have to study the photo to see what's happening here, maybe that's a good thing. Anyway, in this photo I'm taking John for a walk with the dog. The dog doesn't want to stay on the lead walking the streets so I've got John in his off road wheelchair and we're going round a route I walk quite often. This could pass for an "other" road on an OS map and I've rode up and down here on my bike but pushing John up here isn't easy. The surface is scattered with large rocks and at the point I'm at it's very steep. However, John likes to be out and enjoys being out and has a good sense of adventure so as long as he's enjoying the ride then I'll take him anywhere I ca...