2013’s been wonderful – so far.

My year started at a house party in a warm kitchen surrounded by lovely people, including King Russell and Fat Sister. They stayed the night with me at the castle and this morning we had a relaxed start to the day and year.

Leftwing Idiot and I met up this afternoon and headed out in the bright wintery sunshine. We went for a delicious lunch at a nearby pub, and to get there we took a shortcut through a park that I’ve walked through many, many times.

It’s a small open park that’s on a slope and the path we took cut through the middle of it. It went gently downhill which meant Leftwing Idiot didn’t have to push my chair and could walk beside me. This made a nice change and I really enjoyed gliding along autonomously.

This feeling of independence continued after lunch – I’ve spent the afternoon at the castle on my own! My ‘ticcing fits’ mean I don’t spend much time by myself, so when I do it feels great. Although I’m on my own I’m not unsupported – Leftwing Idiot’s on call nearby and if I need help he can be here very quickly.

I’m using this time by myself to write, relax and do a few bits of life admin. One of the things I’ve been sorting out is the logistics of the next few days. Tomorrow afternoon I’m due to go to hospital to have my tonsils out. The operation will be the following day and I hope to be back at the castle in one piece by the end of the week.

I’ve been worrying about who’ll support me after I come home. I knew I wouldn’t have my Access to Work support worker because they can only support me when I’m working, so it was a huge relief when my social worker got in touch yesterday to say that my personal budget had been increased to cover the support I’ll need while I recover.

This means I can make the necessary arrangements today, and all that’s left to worry about now is how much it’s going to hurt on Thursday!

Wish me luck.