Mixed luck in June

First the wins!

This works, perfect legs skin miracle, thank you to feelunique.com on twitter.
£5 tesco online grocery voucher
Olay Regenerist Complexion Corrector thanks to supersavvyme
Dr Browns storage pods on twitter - these arrived very quickly.  Handy pressie for someone.
House of Fraser, Union Jack dog toy. Twitter again.
A footie mascot from a text.

Not a long list, but still fun.

I also had a PVD which wasn't so fun.  Handy wiki link - Posterior vitreous detachment. I was just sitting on the sofa, about to check my emails, when I felt really swimmy, and a swirl of thread appeared in my vision.  Very very odd sensation.  In a few minutes it had changed to bits of squiggles and dots.  My parents were here, thank goodness, though I'm sure it was scary for them too.  My dad is a retired doctor, so he knew all the nasty things it could mean.  I tend to put every ill down to my ms, and go back to bed to sleep it off, but dad was gently insistent that it needed looking at, so I rang for an emergency appointment at the gp.  The gp suggested the optician, so we went to Smith Family Optician, Well Street, Ruthin.  He managed to squeeze me in around his appointments, and had a really good look.  I felt very relieved when he found the problem, partly because he looked so very relieved too.  Not a tear or detached retina, but a tiny, tiny leak.  He rang the eye casualty, and made an appointment for me to go the next day to have his diagnosis confirmed.  It turned out not to be anything very drastic, but it could have been.  And I am stuck with a load of new floaters.  They won't go away, but apparently, I'll get used to them.

If something like this happens to you, don't ignore it, or think it will be okay.  Go get it checked out.  Let the experts decide.

May wins

I know, I know, we are nearly at the end of the month, but still.  Here's my list of luck for May.

£10 Doritos 
£5 Walkers - I'd decided that I would just take that first cash win, and not gamble it.  That's probably how they manage to not give away too much money maybe, because many would take the risk and end up winning nothing.  
Bottle of Abbot Ale 
£50 to spend at Bonmarche, thanks to lifeinabreakdown.com.  I chose trousers and 2 tops from the David Emanuel collection.
2 books from Joolz Denby on twitter
Klondike dvd, Hey U Guys Rafflecopter
Boost pink lemonade, facebook
Coke and Co-op, weekly shop, nice cheque, from a text
2 Monster and Chips books, lovereading4kids
Battery force batteries! Yay!
PG Tips samples x 2. I just love that silly game.
Tshirt from Jennings Brewery
Tomato seeds

It was my partner's birthday on the 11th, and I had new clothes to wear for it, Lisa had a perfect bracelet, and our spending money was all from comping.  How fab is that?

Lovely April wins.

If anyone is wondering why they can't get a good nights sleep, it's because I've stolen all the sleep in the world.  All of it.  I didn't mean to, and I would love to share it out again, but no, I'm stuck with it.  Felt so muddy headed yesterday, a little better today, but still.  Not very awake.  Never mind.

Win list for April.  Very lucky again.

MAGIX Samplitude Music Studio 2014. MusicRadar magazine daily entries.
Voucher for Coors Light, hasn't arrived yet.
Month supply of Vapourlite, which is just fab thank you Ness at alwaysbeafriend blog
Book from First Reads, not my thing, but passed it on.
Our choice of photo printed on canvas, thanks to Christine at mummyof3diaries and Loren at canvasdesign.co.uk. Must choose something, the photo we liked, we realised we didn't have the original.  Oh well.
A Samsung phone charger from their Winter Olympics competition ages ago.  Need the phone now.
Easter egg from Guylian, thank you Emma at theminimesandme, I look forward to that arriving.

Too many competitions on crisps at the moment.  I love crisps and I love competitions.  Dangerous combination.  Still, I won £10 on Doritos today, and £5 on Walkers yesterday, so I'm getting rewarded for eating unnecessary snacks.  BOGOF in Coop on Doritos, I'm sure there are more offers too.

March wins +

Not a very long list but some nice things, so I'm still very happy with comping.

Token for a Panebello pizza
Fruitella goodies - instant facebook win, not arrived yet.
The Shadow of the Crescent Moon, long-listed for the Baileys prize.  And a books are my bag bag.
Multivape kit and some extra menthol.  Lisa's happy with this, she was thinking about getting one, so saves some pennies.  She finds it helps with cutting down, and very useful in vile weather! That was a 50p text comp with the Weekly News.  Not a huge prize, but they were giving away 50 of them, so thought it worth a gamble for something we wanted anyway.
And a Sony bluetooth handbag speaker -  Sony-SRSBTM8B  Thank you to @expansysUK for this great gadget.  That was just a retweet, so very lucky from at least 3000 entries.

The community cafe for MS Trust went well.  Lots of delicious cake was eaten, and my dad sold some of his photos, and some of my aunt's Holy Socks too.  Over £300 raised, so that's brilliant.

Twitter comping, I do like a bit of retweeting myself, and even tweet occasionally. But I do wonder why some people copy and paste the competition tweet as well as retweeting. And then complain when their tweet gets retweeted. If you are going to tweet something that starts with RT, then don't be surprised when it gets RT'd. Still. Whatever makes people happy!

Marks and Spencer?

Writing about my MS for the Cake in Cilcain post, I remembered what it was like to hear my diagnosis.  Not all that unexpected for me, what else could it have been?  But Lisa really wasn't expecting it, she was waiting to hear that I just needed to take a tablet or something, and I would be okay.  She'd been trying to give up smoking, but as soon as she heard, she wanted cigarettes.  Pub was closer than the shop, so she went the few doors up the street to the Standard of England.  She wasn't looking very happy and the barmaid asked her what was up.  She said that we'd just found out what was wrong with me.  MS.  

Wot?  Marks and Spencer?

Lisa was close to punching her, but didn't.  And she can't remember if she said or just thought her incredibly thick.  She couldn't tell me that first day, but when she did, a day or so later, we laughed so much.  See what happens if you wear their underwear and eat their sandwiches?  

Eat Cake in Cilcain for the MS Trust

The Cilcain community cafe will be raising funds for the MS Trust on Saturday 29th March, 2-5pm.  Cilcain is in Flintshire, North Wales.  Not that far from Chester.

More than 100,000 people in the UK have MS
57 people every week are diagnosed with MS
The most common symptoms are invisible: fatigue, pain and slowed thinking
MS is the most common neurological condition affecting young people
People are usually diagnosed with MS in their 20s and 30s
MS affects more than twice as many women than men
MS is not a fatal condition
Most people diagnosed with MS will not need to use a wheelchair on a regular basis
At present, there is no cure for MS. But there are many ways that symptoms can be treated.

My parents are running this, with help from others in Cilcain.  A good excuse to eat cake.  Really good cake too.  You could always go for a walk up Moel Famau first to work up an appetite.  If you do, please remember there are lots of lambs about, so your dog must be on a lead at all times.

I copied the info about MS from my Dad's facebook.  I'll just have a look down the list.  Yep, fatigue.  I don't remember what it feels like to have lots of energy.  Pain, not constant for me, but as I type, I have pain in the right side of my neck, not too bad, but maybe time for more meds.  Slowed thinking.  Oh yes.  Slow to recall words, names of things.  I forget stuff.  It's hard doing more than very simple things.  Following a recipe is tricky. Just too complex.  Do this, then this, then this while this.  Nope!  That is just not happening!  Oh well.  What's next on the list.  Yep, I was diagnosed when I was 30.  Was I 30?  Or 31?  Anyway.  I'd got to a reasonable level of fitness, decided what I wanted to do with my life.  Been to the open evening and got the forms for psyche nursing.  Not fatal that list says.  Lisa was floored by my diagnosis because she had a good friend die very young from it.  So her immediate thought was that I would die too.  The wheelchair thing.  I could do with one  now.  It's very limiting not having one.  More for others than for me, I know people want to take me places.  Though I'm not sure how well I'll feel with places rushing past me.  Still.  I'll find out soon enough.  No cure, but symptoms can be treated huh.  I've tried a few drugs for alertness and not found them helpful for me. Baclofen for muscle spasm, that's a good one.  Pain would be worse without it.

Still.  Cake is good!  So if you are in the area next weekend, do come and have a cup of tea and a cake.  

Dad, do send me any links I need to add to this!
http://cilcainvillagehall.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holy-Socks/211010952323300  Holy Socks will be available!

Favourite Luxury Sports Watch from The Watch Gallery

So I saw this competition to win-100-asos-voucher-with-watch-gallery.html and thought I would have a go at it.  Maybe I would find a nice watch for Lisa's 40th birthday coming up in June.  I missed that word luxury.  That means crazily expensive.  I did find a nice watch, this Hublot Big Bang.

Rubber strap, so it wouldn't irritate her skin, looks good doesn't it?  Views of it from various angles here - thewatchgallery. I really liked it, and showed it to Lisa. She really liked it too, she's not exactly girly, so cute and shiny isn't her thing. Not sure she would wear any watch for weight training, but it would look good afterwards, when showered and fully dressed.

Then I noticed the price. £10,200.  Sorry Lisa!  You aren't getting that for your birthday!