Happy New Year

Everything is back to normal. laura has been back a college a week and feels she's never been away. She really didn't want to go in today as she's being assest on feeding a geko with live crickets.  Before Laura returned to college she had her last check up at the Children's hospital, Manchester.  We saw the specialist nurse who was well pleased with her recovery and her ex-rays were good. The nurse said she could lead a normal life with no restrictions (except for the ridgidity of her spine) and was discharged. One very happy girl. She still has a few problems with her muscles but very slowly the are getting better as they become strong again.

During the Christmas break I replaced my aging vehicle (Grand Vitara). I never really liked it when we got it but it was all I could afford at the time and it served it's purpose. My new, to me, car is a Renault Capture. It's smallish and so easy to drive and feels really nippy. Unfortunatly after having it for only 2 weeks a driver thought it was a good idea to overtake me when I was turning right (indicators on) onto a side road and we collided. Thankfully no-one was hurt. I've been given a very nice courtesy car, A Vauxhall Mokka, it has so many gadgets, heated seats and a heated steering wheel. I didn't know you could get heated steering wheels. I should get my Capture back sometime next week. The insurance company has to give the repair company permission to go ahead and fix it.

Martin is also looking for a replacement car for his taxi. Begining of December his car was written off by a drunk driver. Martin's night driver got a bump to his head and a broken finger and the passenger sustained a broken collar bone. The driver of the other vehicle had no injuries and a bit of damage to his car. He was 4x over the limit and has been fined £500 and banned from driving (can't remember for how long). Insurance have still to pay out but won't be long. Martin was off work for only a couple of days as now there is a taxi hire company, locally, so he's been able to continue to work.

The last three years have been pretty difficult and I figure we've had our lot so this year is a new year new start. Except for the bump things are looking ok. I want to be more organised and possibly find a new job. I'm not sure what I can do as my arthritis is still bad.
First on my agenda is to get a pension statement and forcast and go from there and whilst I decide what I want to do I'm going to do some heavy decluttering. I did some before Christmas but the house didn't look any different. I am lucky that, thanks to my dad, I have a safety net that will allow me the time to make the right decision. Laura will leave full time education this year and hopefully will find the job she really wants, this means we will lose her child benefit and the child tax credit. Although I do have the safety net I will continue to be frugal and try and find more ways to cut down on spending. I don't spend silly anyway but I'm sure I can find ways to cut down further.
Second thing on my adgenda is to be more positive and look forwards not backwards

Thank you reading and have a nice day.

Carolx