Windmills of your mind

Another funny couple of weeks.

John had another stroke but things are finally looking a bit more settled in terms of health related benefits. I apparently have no more battles awaiting me for which I am grateful

On the housing front, we came home from holiday to find the paperwork we had been waiting for all winter had arrived and although it meant yet another form to fill in (one that I have already done as well) the news looks quite good and according to the woman I spoke to on Wednesday, one of the new houses on the first phase isn't out of the question and if we are able to get one we may even be able to choose our own kitchen and other fittings - how fab.

The important issue is that these houses can be adapted - there is already the reinforcement in place to fit a lift, or a stair-lift and the tracking for hoists have been designed in. So hopefully even if another stroke happens we wouldn't have to move again. We really would like now to put down some roots.

Lachlan and I have just walked back from Homebase at Beacon Park and taken a twirl around the sad houses, empty and boarded up, on Woodhey Road. The demolition has barely started but in a year it could be our new home - wherever we are, we'll be together.

Moving

We received some limited information, over the holidays, about the next steps in the neighbourhood regeneration programme.

They are inviting us to apply to the local housing register, which I did back in December just to find out how the new system was working, so at least I have reduced the forms left to fill in in my life by one.

We are finally getting out into the garden which we have ignored for the last two years due to weather, ill health and the crushing sense of defeat brought about by the fact that we are going to loose our home.

We should be grateful for our social housing, and we are, very, and it is not the loss of the the house that is the issue but the loss of our home and the disruption that this will inevitably mean.

The plans for the new estate, which can be found here, look lovely; I'm not hoodwinked into believing that this is not a land grab, however the houses all have dining kitchens - something we don't have at present, which will mean a lot to us. They are also future proofed with level thresholds, gardens, planning for adaptations etc; having three strokes now under our belts this seems like a necessity, a point I will be stressing in our face to face interviews.