Where's the land gone

Well this is novel; I am no longer attached to the shore, the first time since February when I transferred to the George, which was strapped alongside Scotland. Since then a lot has happened in some ways and very little in others and I am even missing a few body parts, well a gall bladder and associated stones.  I am not complaining though as it is good to shed the bonds of the land once more.  I do miss Debbie and the little ones though, I know I have lots of pictures of them and we will be in phone range some of the time but I still miss them. I can’t really complain though as we will only be at sea for a week and they will come to see me when I get back to the south coast.

 

I had been hoping for a clear night so I could go out and look at the stars, as you can’t beat the night sky at sea. There are no real background lights so you get a most wonderful night sky just like Dark blue velvet sprinkled with handfuls of silver dust. Unfortunately the 4-8 managed to find a huge rain cloud and the ship has had a fresh water wash down.  Having a week at sea though I am sure we will have at least one clear night where I can sit out under the stars.

 

It has been quite a busy week all in all, after a quiet weekend I had my Medical on Tuesday at HMS Drake. Well it saved me forking out £80 and then having to claim it back as Drake does it for free.  They are definitely more thorough as well, as there were tests they did during the medical that I have never done in 19years.  I am pleased to say I was given a clean bill of health and a two year ENG1.  After the medical we had a nice wander around Plymouth and got little Elizabeth’s Birthday presents.

 

Then came the horrible train journey when I had to wave good bye at the station.  As I got on the train I heard Beth start to cry which made it even harder, but we are going to have to get used to it.  The journey itself, although 8 hours wasn’t to bad. As I had gone for a specific train with the booking cell it seemed that the cheapest ticket was first class so free coffee during the journey and thankfully Debbie had packed a few cans of apple juice for me.

 

It was strange coming back to the same ship but it has helped with the settling in, as always lots of emails to trawl through but at least we have already had the planning meeting as that helps me get things into my sawdust storage device. It is not going to be much of a trip as we have very little in our programme but at least I will have Williams Christening to look forward too and we will be on the south coast quite a bit so I should get to see Debbie and the little ones.

 

Teething

It has not been much of a week, William is still teething so we are having very restless nights. Although saying that he is getting more mobile and it is so cute how he stands up in his cot to greet us in the mornings.

Little Elizabeth is her usual cheerful self and she seems to have forgiven us for putting her beloved Teddy in the washing machine the other week.

She has even started saying Teddies rather than just Teddy, well there are two of them. I did get in trouble yesterday though as I forgot to get teddy out of the car when we came back from the shops.

The little ones do play wonderfully together though and they already seem very fond of each other, I got some wonderful pictures of them earlier.

It hasn't been much of a week though, we got quite a bit of weeding done at the beginning of the week but Tuesday morning Debbie woke up and couldn't move her fingers so our GP told us to go to A&E. Why can't I escape from hospitals this year. Anyway it seems that Debbie has swollen tendons so she has to rest them for a few days and then hopefully all will be right as rain. It was just lucky I was home as she would have found it hard to cope if I had been away.

Well I think I am definitely over my Op now, medical next week and then straight back to sea and a full nights sleep. I have started trying to get myself fit again after four weeks of Cbeebies. I fired up the Wii Fit yesterday and had a go on that and today Debbie watched the little ones whilst I cycled to Stibb and Back, it was only two miles so I have a bit to go before I can get back up to the 50mile distances I was doing before the Op. It was good to get out on the bike again as I have missed my regular bike rides. I am going to have to try and go swimming regularly again next time I am home as well. Last year I managed to do 100 lengths but I think I would struggle to do 50 at the moment. With the more stringent fitness standards that the RFA are phasing in from Jan I am determined to get fit so I don't come a cropper and anyway I still want to do the Devon coast to Coast next year and one day I will do Lands end to John O Groats.

Back on my feet, well sort of

After another few days of having to watch CBeebies I finally cracked and said sod the bed rest. I had, had enough of those groovy moves on Show Me Show Me and decided to go out and do some gardening. Debbie and I actually managed to get quite a bit done, we de-weeded large areas and I managed to mow the back lawn where the grass was half a foot high. I must admit though that after mowing the lawn I did feel a bit wobbily and my inside hurt a bit where my gall bladder used to be. Maybe it will take a bit longer than a week and a half for my insides to mend. It was good to get outside and do some hard graft though.

After a few days of grafting out in the garden we decided to have an easy day today so we had a day out in Bideford. We had a wonder around the farmers market and then took the little ones to the play ground. Little Elizabeth really enjoyed herself on the swings, squealing her headoff which was quite funny and made a nice change from earlier in the week when we had to wash her teddy. She is very attached to teddy (two of them), he goes everywhere with her so as you can imagine he gets grubby. Anyway Debbie thought it was about time for Teddy to have a bath so stuck him in the washing machien. We then had twenty minutes of crying from Beth whilst we waited for the cycle to finish, we couldn't even console her with chocolate.

As for the little boy he is definitely teething so needless to say he is sleeping even worse than usual and getting Debbie and I up every two hours. Saying that he gives us such wonderful smiles so that more than makes up for the lack of sleep. He can now also pull himself up so in the mornings we go into his room and he is standing up in his cot smiling away, which is quite cute. I think that by the time I come home next he will probably be walking.

Recovery is Dull

It is now a week since my Op and the dressings were finally removed today to reveal the four little holes in my tummy. I will finally be allowed a shower tomorrow which will be wonderful. I know they say it is major surgery but it has all been a bit surreal. The day after the surgery I walked out of the hospital and felt OK, well sort of. The five hour journey back to Devon was a little uncomfortable but bearable thanks to the pain killers.

Debbie has been great making sure that I get rested and looking after me, although she is probably getting a bit frustrated as I hate sitting still and doing nothing. It doesn't help that little William doesn't sleep that well so Debbie is doing all the night feeds because the nurses say I am not to lift anything for a while. I must admit I do tire easily at the moment and am still uncomfortable but the outside is almost all healed up now so the inside must be almost there as well. I just want to get up and do things but I am worried about doing damage where I can't see it.

At least I have my next appointment sorted out, I have my medical on the 24th and all being well travel up to the ship on the 25th. I will be going back to the one I just left which is good as it should be easier to settle in. Also we had been planning to have little William christened onboard. When I fell ill we thought the christening would go out the window but thankfully all should go to plan.

Well hopefully over the next couple of days I will be able to get back on my feet properly and give Debbie a hand before I go back to sea. At least with all thats gone on we won't loose our holiday again as the office have been really understanding and they are sending me back for a shorter appointment so that I can pay off on the 3 Dec for our holiday on the 6 Dec.