T'was the night before Christmas... well not really, it was the Thursday before actually and the venue wasn't a cosy family scene around a log fire - it was me and my PA in Tesco!

Christmas brings out the best in people. It is a time of good will to all men and of extra special good will to disabled people.

The charity boxes are filling up nicely giving people a warm and cosy feeling inside...

Note from Editor: Little do they know they may have inadvertently helped another person spend further years in an institution - but never mind.

and people are falling over themselves trying to help.

Ahhhh. How lovely. Actually not. Not lovely at all when you are the recipient of such goodwill. Now I know people are just being nice, and God Bless them for that because it's better than being left to struggle.

However, take this example from that dreaded day.

My PA was selecting vegetables and you would have thought I personally was adding to the variety of vege in that area (Ed. crip joke), when out of the blue an elderly gentlemen beamed at me and proceeded to squeeze my cheeks like you might do to a cute baby in a pram.

For goodness sake, I'm a thirty something woman not 3 months old. He told me how pretty I was followed by a comment that I wasn't to think of him as weird old man - he just thought I had a pretty face and felt I shold know that.

I smiled and wished him a Happy Christmas... but he lingered on. He carried on chatting whilst his wife did the shopping. I was turning a shade of red and struggling on how to politely get away.

"Some people wear a silly hat or have to shave to look beautiful - but you don't".

"I should hope not", I laughed. "If I have to shave my face then I'm in trouble".

He laughed and off he went.

But it wasn't over yet, do gooders were all over the place asking could I reach things and if there was anything I wanted. My Yoghurt Lady (a member of staff who works in that isle and is very helpful every week) spotted me in another end of the store and shouted 'I'll go and get the cherry yoghurts ready for you, how many do your want"? Back she came with my goods and popped them into my trolly.

As my PA was packing things into the car, the guy in the next car offered to help put them in.... there was no end to this jolyness!

If you are on you own then all this help is probably just that - helpful. When you have a PA around and you have to keep declining help and explaining you have your own assistant - it becomes tiresome.

Thankfully, now, people are going back to their every day lives and Christmas goodwill is a thing of the past. No one will offer me help, probably, until next December. And that's the real point of this entry.

We are disabled for life (well a lot of us) not just for Christmas - so spare a thought throughout the year rather use up the annual dose of goodwill all in one go - thanks.

Tags: Patronising, disabled, wheelchair, christmas

And so we embraced You Tube:

Take one digital camera capable of 7 minutes of video recording, 2 Pigs and a Box, one hubby to shoot the video and me to edit it and you get Pig In A Box!

Tags: guinea pig, You Tube, Movie

The saga began with the need to replace an old front room window to double glazing. One day a company called to say we were on their list as looking for a window (as a result of a door-to-door call some months earlier). We had all the usual quotes and decided on this company.

They are called Pinnacle - remember that name.

We ordered one window and a new porch roof (which covers our crap door provided by JLC) on September 22nd 2007.

The roof was done first - they turned up out of the blue and were promptly sent away again. It turns out they were not told we were having it re-boarded and did not have the material. Back they came on another day.

Then we had the window.

1) We made it very clear from the start what type of beading we wanted. The sales agent wrote it all down - alas that info never reached the company making the window.
2) We queried how well the first surveyor measured the window - they said that is why a second comes to confirm all the measurements.
3) The window was made and the company noticed the beading was wrong - so we had to have another made - several weeks passed.

Day of installation.

1) We had several phone calls about the time of installation and they eventually arrived.
2) My husband checked the style was correct - yes all looked good.

However, shame the size of the new window was not checked prior to taking out our old one.
Had it have been checked, they would have realised it was 150mm too long.

3) Installers had to chop the frame in half (and a panel) and put it in as a temporary fitting.
4) Since that date we have had not contact or apology from Pinnacle or date of a new window being fitter.
5) Pinnacle will be hearing from us having contacted trading standards.

Well, since my last post, I think they have been here at least 4 times to try and fix the door which is as wonky as ever. It is driving my husband mad. First of all someone came, had a look and said he would order a new part. Came again, part didn't work. Said they would change the whole unit - returned some weeks later with only a replacement logic board. The problem was even worse now.

One day they said they said they would arrive at 8.30 but didn't turn up until 4!

He said 'Oh dear, I don't know what's wrong it it ' and again said they would replace the unit. That was a few weeks ago. Then an e-mail to say the part had to come from Spain and could take another 3 weeks..... and so it continues.

JLC are useless - never get a door from them.

Tags: JLC door, disabled

With this 12x12 layout, most of the background was already part of the paper. I used a simple 'cymru' peel-off underneath the English already printed on the paper. The paper is a glossy card texture.

I started picking out my favourite pictures depicting scenes of Snowdonia and sheep. The colours were vibrant with lots of orange, green, brown and slate colours. I used textured glossy card stock from HOTP to double mount each picture.

The dragon was a Welsh Peel-off (that I had bought in anticipation of scrapping a welsh trip - as you do) and when I was there I discovered a small craft shop selling celtic stamps. I used Brilliance Ink, in dark green, and used the stamps on the same red card. I cut around the stamped squared and went around the outline in a gold metallic gel pen. Next I mounted each celtic stamp image on a square piece of dark green Angle Hair for some texture.

The result was a very pleasing celtic layout.

A 12 x 12 Welsh Cottage.

Made from K&Co daffodil range using a basic tag and a photo of the cottage we stayed in on a simple mat.
A K&Co 3D butterfly sticker made an easy embellishment and a simple brad and ribbon.