The 17th of November. 

Much improved sleep last night. Drugs are good, but they do make me feel like a dormouse for most of the following day. Not that I could have fallen asleep, as round the corner they were having the annual Christmas lights switch-on, which means we have been blasted by the PA system all afternoon. I am festive, but not so festive that I wouldn't unplug the amps if I had the opportunity. 

This morning, I had to write about Saturday before I could actually do the blog post and get it published. I think yesterday I just got so into my Christmas shopping I completely forgot. And today, as soon as I was finished on SquareSpace, I was back trawling the internet for ideas. It's so frustrating that I can't make anybody anything good. Curse you, left eye. Tomorrow, Mommy and I are going to do some shopping in town, so hopefully I get inspired there. 

After lunch, I went upstairs for Dark Time, but couldn't have my usual Gardener's Question Time nap because I was annoyed by the noise coming from the high street. I am the embodiment of a grumpy old man. Dragged my body to the kitchen where I made a small coffee, and settled back down in the living room for Kung Fu Panda 2 and more shopping. I have bought one more present. I find it really hard to shop for Mommy because everything I consider buying her just seems shit. I have bought her many excellent things in the past, and I just cannot live up to my own standards. 

The 18th of November. 

A very long day!

I woke up an hour before my alarm, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it meant that while I was lying in bed trying to go back to sleep, I remembered that my wheelchair needed charging up so I texted Mommy (who I knew was awake) and asked her to plug it in. I thought about it on Saturday night while I was in bed (again), made a mental note to ask someone to get it out of the car on Sunday morning, then when it got to Sunday, I completely forgot because my brain is a sieve. 

Had a very stressful twenty minutes just after ten, because Joe's Crisis @ Christmas gig went on sale then, and the Glee's website almost went into meltdown - I was in a queue and I think I was number 241? It seemed to move pretty quickly, but once I got to the actual order page, it just kept refreshing, got to the paying stage once, failed, then I found out it had sold out. That was only the pre-sale for people on the mailing list, and the rest were going to become available at midday, so I knew I had to be on the ball when that time came. 

Mommy and I left to go into town to do some Christmas shopping at half ten, once my wheelchair had charged up. We decided we would shop separately, meet for lunch, then finish whatever we wanted to do before meeting back up at the car to go to the dental hospital. 

I needed to get some more Vaseline lipbalm (in a tube, not in a pot), so Boots was my first port of call, then Starbucks for a peppermint mocha because I am awful. That took a little while, because they were ridiculously busy for mid-morning on a Monday, then I went to Selfridges to have a look at the Christmas cards in Paperchase. It took me ages to find them, because they've moved everything around down there, and the cards are all hidden away. I found one card that I might give Mommy, but I left them there so I could see what John Lewis had, and if I didn't like any of them, I could go to the Paperchase in Grand Central and get my cards there. 

It was coming up to twelve, so I needed to find a place to hunker down online and make sure I got one of the general release tickets. I went up to the top floor of the Bullring, set my coffee down on a table, and got ready. Several browsers open, multiple tabs, continual refreshing as the minutes ticked over. Now I don't know how, maybe it was just a fluke, but on my first attempt, I got through the ordering page, past the purchasing one, and my confirmation was there! I suppose I was just lucky, because there appear to be a lot of unhappy people on Twitter. It's a great line up this year, so I'm not surprised it was so popular - Joe, plus Darren, Suzi, Guz, and Rose Matafeo (using her full name because we are not friends yet). It will be excellent fun. 

Having got that done very speedily, I sped off to John Lewis, feeling very pleased with myself. I went up to the top floor and found something there for Mommy, which makes me happier because I'd only got her one thing so far. Still need to work on Daddy because I've got barely anything for him. 

I was in communication with Mommy about lunch, and I wanted to have another pretzel, because the first one I had wasn't warm and that's when they are best. We met up to eat, but once again it was cold! I'm going to have to have a word with them. They're no good when they're not warm. Very unimpressed. Apart from getting pretzels, Mommy had been very busy buying jumpers and books and potentially other things - she'd already put them in the car when I saw her so she could have any number of secret things. We both still had places to go, so split up again, but after that I was largely unsuccessful. I couldn't find any cards I wanted to get except one, and I found no other gifts to buy, although I did see a couple of books on Foyles I may purchase, but need to go back and look at again. I also took a picture of two different copies of The Little Prince they have, which I've sent to Mommy as an idea for someone to buy me, because I lent my copy out and have never got it back. C'est la vie. 

I had set an alarm to remind me to go back to the car, so when my bag started vibrating, I knew it was time to motor off back to the car park. I arrived from one end just as I saw Mommy appear at the other, and we pootled on down to the dental hospital for my six monthly check up. 

They were running late, as per, so I sat and played games on my phone and hoped I got called in before the battery died. Fortunately, John came and got me by the time I was still only mildly annoyed by the tiny girl screaming at everything in sight. He asked about my eye, and seems to be familiar with amniotic membranes. Maybe they use them in the dental world too. Anyway, he looked in my mouth and was delighted with the state of it. He is reluctant to discharge me because last time we did that, I ended up back there within a few weeks with a mouth full of ulcers, so we're sticking with the biannual visits for now. 

We arrived home just after four, and I'm about to have a super early dinner before I go to Nicole's for a Cats Protection fosterers meeting. Time to find out if anyone has any ideas on how to get my kitties eating actual cat food!