The Blog of meggi51

I guess I just need to vent, so please bear with me, pals!

My weekend wasn't great.

As usual, I was stuck in the house, unable to go anywhere because my untreatable back condition was giving me enormous pain.

My husband had a stressful day at work and, arriving home late, got annoyed with me because I was replying to an Email and didn't immediately abandon that in order to rush down the stairs and minister to his needs!

Earlier that day, I'd posted a thread on another site, expressing my disgust with the wall-to-wall coverage of the European football tournament.

To clarify this for my American pals: by football, I mean soccer.

This tournament is for the  awarding of a trophy to the team that comes out on top after a series of play-offs.

There is not a single side from the UK taking part, yet, because TV stations had spent huge amounts of money to win the right to cover the tournament, every game is being televised.

I actually watch very little TV: last week, for instance, I watched just three hours.

BUT, I still have to pay best part of £200 a year for the right to own a TV set.

So, before I lose my way completely......

I posted this thread, saying that I am really sick of looking at the TV schedules for the coming week, to find that there's no escape from the soccer coverage.

The channels that aren't covering it are offering only repeats of of episodes of series that we've already had repeated at least twice.

Immediately I posted this, I got responses from people who told me that I could always turn off my TV and do something else! One of them went so far as to say that she thought that people like me don't seem to understand that our TV sets actually have off buttons!

An assumption was made that, because I observed that there's no quality programming for those who HATE sport, that I'm the type of person who has her TV on all the time.

I found that assumption insulting.

Another respondant suggested that I should find a hobby that doesn't involve television......?

I read, I write letters, I knit.

Someone else suggested that I should go out and either do some gardening, or go for a walk......

Duh.....! I'm crippled by pain, unable to walk more than twenty yards!  All of which I mentioned in my thread.

Today, I've received the final slap in the face.

My inability to walk far means that I haven't been out with my husband in over two months to do the grocery shopping. That's because the supermarkets have huge carparks and we most often can't find a space near to the entrance of the store.

This makes it very difficult for me, when the pain is at its worst, to make it from the car to the store..

I had an Assessment of Need last week to determine the extent of my lack of mobility on my life in general. The lady who did the assessment was very sympathetic. She encouraged me to apply for the Blue Badge: that's a card one can display in one's car windscreen, entitling one to use the parking spaces for the disabled that are situated close to the store entrances.

I had a letter this morning, telling me that I'm not entitled to the badge, because I'm not in receipt of  the Disability  Living Allowance.

I can't claim that allowance unless/until I become wheelchair-dependant.

I despair, friends.