My Life That Happened In #18 Part 1

Episode #17

… March 2025

Saturday 1st

I have finished work and spent the day resting and waiting for my washing to finish so I could go to bed.

Sunday 2nd

Today is shopping day and also the first day of our holiday. It’s the wife’s birthday at the end of this week and we are having the annual week off. Although, this year has changed a little bit. I will be going on a course, for work and have to split the holiday in two around it.

So today, we went out to the monthly food shop and because the wife wouldn’t stop, we popped into IKEA for some new plants.

Also while bringing the shopping in I noticed that the arm of the back wiper was cracked with a chunk missing. I don’t know how long it has been like that but, it will need to be fixed. I have ordered a new part.

Monday 3rd

I thought it was about time I booked a plumber to come around tomorrow and fix that broken part I snapped while trying to fix it. We were getting used to the alternative way of flushing the toilet and it was about time I did something about it.

The wife is treating herself and a workmate to a visit to the cinema. But before, I dropped her off, we popped to the shops again to finish off some missing things.

Back home I started on some jobs, that I wanted done to the car, nothing major just some cosmetic stuff.

Tuesday 4th

It finally happened. After nearly a month of not having it fixed the toilet is working. I even got my leaking hot water tap working again. It cost a bit but I am happy, and hopefully that makes the wife happy. The wife, however, wasn’t pleased, with the mess. But she does enjoy cleaning. Okay enjoy is a strong word.

Technically her OCD won’t allow her to do anything else so it’s pretty much the same thing.

Wednesday 5th

Today is the start of two long days. I woke up at about half past 3, in the morning and slowly got ready to leave for 6. It was early but I have a routine that takes, a couple of hours. I then drove to work and waited for someone I promised I would give a lift. In an email, I wrote I would be leaving work at 6.30. And I did, on my own as they didn’t show. I also got to use my Android Auto car screen again today.

When I left my workplace I was followed by another car carrying people to the same place I was going. I hoped they weren’t relying on me to show them the way. It didn’t help that I went the wrong way twice on my journey. But somehow I lost them on the QEII bridge.

The Drive

The drive was surprisingly good, I was okay, and I didn’t feel as anxious as I thought I normally would. Maybe it helped that I had changed my hat back to a bucket hat and was wearing my driving shoes to help me feel more relaxed. Who knows? But it was a nice drive. Over halfway through the journey I drove through roads with woodland on either side I did enjoy this.

What I didn’t enjoy; was when the road got narrower and people drove towards me like they were on the motorway. I had branches scrap against my wing mirror.

I finally arrived at my destination, another work location in Croydon. Here I would spend the next two days learning the rules and techniques of being a Mental Health First Aider. I would be joined by seven other people from my workplace and another eight from the Croydon branch.

Stress Matters is a company working with the MHFA authority, for the UK, conducting the course with a man named James running the show.

We had snacks and toys to play with, this was for when we got a bit fidgety throughout the day. But by the end of that long day, I was knackered. There was a lot of information to go through and I did my best to keep up.

I got home, ate and I went to bed. James wanted us to have a self-care hour. But I was completely drained to care.

Thursday 6th

On day 2 of the course, I woke up around 4, and repeated everything the same as yesterday, to get back to Croyden. I felt the drive today. My lower back was aching and my arthritic knee took a turn as well.

I spoke to James about the point system to hopefully win a book and asked for any books he recommended. He gave me two and I was able to find them and download them to my Kindle before the course restarted. Later in the day, I suggested one of the books I had already read to a colleague, Atomic Habits by James Clear and helped them use the same way I get books to help them get theirs.

I was starving this morning and thankfully a Croydon colleague arranged for some pastries and other snacks, I filled up a bit to be satisfied for a while.

This course has mainly focused on self-care and how to speak to someone when helping them. We learned about the various mental health problems but the main focus was making sure we were in the right mind space to be able to help in the first place.

Today was again a long day, but it also took a toll on my head. I am more used to working in a more physical environment. I ended up mentally fatigued and had to put on my tinted glasses as my head was slowly unable to deal with all the information and environment of the indoor lighting with no windows. I did go outside during the last break but it wasn’t enough.

As much as I had had a good time, on the course, I was glad it was over. I needed the rest.

At Home

It was a long drive back as there was more traffic than before but I was glad to be home. But the first thing to do was to unpack everything and relax.

There were a few parcels waiting for me when I arrived home. The one I had been waiting for had finally arrived! My new gadget. I am hoping it will help me in the long run.

Friday 7th

I woke up feeling like crap my head and eye are sore and we have to go out. The wife believes she has tonsillitis but none of that matters, but she will moan about it most of the day.

Today is my wife’s birthday and we have a booking at the Design Museum in London. I booked this in October as the wife has been waiting nearly ten years to visit this place.

Well, not the actual place but what arrived at The Design Museum, the Tim Burton Exhibition.

I hadn’t fully recovered from the course but I knew some proper fresh air and some natural light would help a lot and today, I was going to get both and a little exercise.

Before getting on the train we popped to Greggs and bought food and drink for the road. I also purchased an extra bacon roll. I had been waiting a long time for this as I wasn’t able to get one on the course. My wife told me later on the train. I had something on my knee tomato ketchup from the bacon roll. I didn’t care.

Arriving at the Gloucester Road station before getting the bus to our final destination. We noticed the weird but awesome wall statues and the station looking like something out of any period drama from TV and movies.

We Got Lost

Leaving the station, we got on the bus only to get off, to find out we got off early and why didn’t that man sitting in front say something. He kept looking at us like we were doing something wrong. We had. He could have said something instead of staring. So after getting lost for a while I gave up and ordered a car from Bolt to come and collect us.

After nipping to the toilet, it had been a long journey and afterwards, we entered the exhibition. It’s not as long as we thought it might have been, but we were allowed witness to what is: the life work of Tim Burton. An autobiographical walk through his years of art and design and how his imaginations were brought into various mediums.

After the exhibition, we returned to the ticket office to collect the book I purchased with the tickets. We then headed outside to where there was a separate merchandise shop from the tiny one inside and of course, everything was expensive. I wanted a little souvenir for my travel bag that I may change and buy a new one in the future I will have to see. The wife also purchased some items. We then had our snacks from Greggs outside while we worked out what to do next.

She has Ideas

The wife had a list of things she wanted to achieve by the end of the day. But we had to work out how to get there and try not to use our phones as the batteries were running low. The missus worked out where she wanted to go next. But I then realised, when we were on the train, that if we were going where I knew we were going we could stop at a station early and go to the Disney store. She of course melted and that’s what we did. It also helped that she wanted to go to HMV as well and that was across the road.

So that’s what we did. We got off at Bond Street and went to the Disney store, which was a good move for us as we discovered that Selfridges was a couple of minutes walk down the road. Here we found on the 4th floor was Build-A-Bear the wife wanted to try to get the birthday bear but settled for her first choice, something associated with Hello Kitty: Pompompurin.

Then we headed back to HMV and grabbed a couple of drinks from Boots. Before arriving at Bond Street the wife wanted a birthday cake so we had popped into M&S.

After looking around I bought a couple of CDs and a couple of badges. We then thought it was time to go home.

Then it went wrong…

We went to the station and got on the train. I turned around and saw the wife still on the platform as the doors shut. She freaked out and I looked at her telling her to stay there. I will be back. Eventually, I made it back to her. But it was too late. She had started to have an attack and it was still a long journey back.

After a while, I was able to get her on the train. I surrounded her in the corner and with some coaching we were able to get to Stratford. From this point we were stuck we couldn’t go any further and we needed help from the train staff to get her away from the crowds of people. It was the worst time of day as it was rush hour. In the end, we were able to wheelchair her onto the train to West Ham where I was able to get her to walk to the last train and by this time she was back.

Arriving home, after having my eyes hurting from some pillock smoking on the train. We got ourselves sorted and I ordered pizza and then crashed on the bed, watching videos from YouTube.

Saturday 8th

Today we wanted to do some things but we were both buggered. So we just rested. I have been sitting on the sofa since half five in the morning and I hadn’t left. The wife went back to bed and we are trying to heal and recuperate. So I am writing this blog from the sofa instead of the office. I need to feel like I have achieved something.

I eventually headed to the office to commence sorting photos for the blog and also worked on my licence cards for the various courses I had passed.

Sunday 9th

Another day of resting and healing. Why is my body aching so much?

I spent the time creating new cards for all of the courses I have passed so far and it’s slowly building up. I couldn’t be happier. Then continuing to write more of this blog, creating and uploading the next video for all of my social networks.

Monday 10th

Finishing off the upload I started yesterday I found a message and a missed call. Supposedly I was supposed to have been at work. This wasn’t true but I sent an email anyway I am hoping it will be sorted out pretty quickly. Back to work tomorrow early morning.

I received an email about some more training. It’s not a major one and I already know a little about it. But it always helps to learn a little more in case I have missed or don’t know something.

That’s all for now but there is more to come this month. See ya soon!