Having a quiet day after being woken up at around 8 am by enthusiastic people arriving at the Fijnhout theatre across the road from us.

As they are actors, their voices carry along way so we could hear every beautifully pronounced word.

All was punctuated by theatrical laughter it was a wonderful performance worthy of a bigger audience than just the half a dozen apartments who got the benefit this morning.

Had to remind myself this morning that it was a treat when I got so cruelly woken up.

If the actors were not enough, the dogs heard another dog, I did not, but that of course was not the deciding factor as just as soon as the actors stopped braying with laughter the dogs started barking big time.

Luckily Richie managed to persuade them that it would be better for them to shut up which they just could manage to do.

It is another hot and stuffy day, the sun is mostly behind the clouds but it is there as you can feel it.

The first thing that I say to Richie in the mornings lately is please turn the fan on before I can manage ‘Good morning’.

Wonder how other people with MS are feeling today, I am feeling vey limp and rather looking forward to the cooler evening.

My hands are pretty useless in this heat every time I stop doing something my hands clench up into a floppy fist.

Everyday as it gets closer to the time when I get hoisted out of bed, my fingers start to bunch up and it becomes more and more difficult to do anything.

Have been very fortunate that I can sleep alright these days which is brilliant as did not enjoy waking up regularly at 5 am and having to try to lie quietly for hours until Richie woke up.

What really annoyed me about waking up so very early was hearing the pigeons try and make a concerted effort to work out how to use the bird feeder.

The last time I heard the pigeons try to climb onto the bird feeder they just looked at me and that was it until the dogs came trotting in and sorted it right away.

Of course that sort of stuff gets rewarded so they rushed off delightedly to collect their biscuits.

The dogs love their biscuits, used to be made by me but Richie does it now which I still miss doing so much.

It's a very rewarding thing to do as homemade are so much better and you know precisely what you have put into them.

Ours are a mixture of flour,oats, baking powder and olive oil and chopped up peanuts mixed and gently kneaded into one lump and pushed onto a baking tin and flattened and pre-cut into pieces and put into over for 30 minutes on a slow cool oven.

When they are crisp enough they are ready and need to be left to cool, usually take two out to cool off and give to the dogs that have been waiting patiently, usually n front of the oven.

The recipe is

Dog Biscuits:
1 mug flour
1 mug oats
1 mug chopped up peanuts
1/4 mug olive oil
1 spoonful of baking powder
mix oats and flour
add oil and mix throughly adding 2 spoons of water if needed knead slightly and form into a ball and push into a flat tin, push flat with hand rolling pin.
cut into squares so when cooked can be broken up into biscuits
place in cool oven@ 150 degrees
for 40 minutes or until cooked
they must be crunchy, can be baked twice.
cool and break up and keep in air tight tin.

At the moment the dogs are off monitoring what Richie is doing, and what he could maybe be doing if they only used their thinking capacities.

Wish I could use my capacities better than I can;wish somehow I could still work but I keep forgetting that I am a cripple, a bona fide poor sick person and as such will never get harassed again.

Unless their computer system goes very strange I will never be called up again and there will be no more work for me.

Something that was a great relief to me when I was at home just after my shock diagnosis in 2006.

It is pretty amazing to me now that it is only a mere 3 years ago since our lives got turned upside down so drastically.

Wish now when my work put me on inactive that I had refused and demanded to get back to work and made them carry out adaptions to the Service desk office.

At the time I was so shocked at the diagnosis and the fact that walking pretty much stopped just after the diagnosis.

I managed to get to the neurologists appointment to be assessed ok and even managed to shuffle down to the hospital for the results but the next appointments had to get on the bus at the end of my road,

Then just managed to get there and back with help from the bus driver and passengers on the bus that drives long the Prinsengracht, and Richie helping me on and off.

Took me forever to get about but could still get about, after I went for the first MRI I had a couple of weeks holiday.

Being at home made life easier as could manage to move around there by holding onto everything and until mid October 2006 could still get up and down the steps to the front door with a little help.

Did still get over the road for my physio sessions though noticed that every time I finished I was in great pain and could hardly manage to drag myself upstairs again.

Realise now of course that was my last gasps of mobility, if only I had some support after diagnosis.

But there was none available which amazed us both as we expected this aspect to be well organised here.

At the time the hospital I attended had no MS nurses, so there was no one to talk to or turn to for help and advice after diagnosis.

So we did then what we do now which is use our own common sense, shame though that there was no one to talk to.

Felt very alone and isolated with my problem as if I were the only person with MS.