We're back home at last ---- we were living with a friend for 8 weeks, twice as long as we should have been. The place is still surrounded with scaffolding which we don't much like, all our books are in the wrong places so we can't find anything, we haven't made enough space in the living room to put the rug back down yet but apart from all that it's a relief to be here.
We've both been very stressed. J blacked out getting out of bed and hit his head. That resulted in 5 days in hospital where they found nothing physical wrong that we didn't know about already. Then, he had a huge panic attack at his cardiology appointment. The Dr was very good, she checked his heart etc. and told him that she was very happy with it which helped him to realise that his heart wasn't banging away in his head. I just carried on taking the tranqs! Luckily they do help me.
I think that it was too much for our friend as well. She had just started a new job which she loved at first but last week she told me that she wasn't getting the training she needed. Also, she'd just started a new relationship and they hadn't been able to see each other because of very bad colds. We were resting one Sunday when colossally loud music started, real ear banging. I thought it was a car outside which we do get round here but it turned out to be hers. She'd never done anything like that before, she had it on loud enough to hear while she was outside gardening. It really felt as though she was making a statement. J accidentally turned it off while trying to turn it down and she flew at him, shouting and swearing. The previous week I had said to her that if she was finding it too much having us there - and we were very respectful of her space and privacy - we'd move out even if the scaffolding was still up. She didn't say anything. Before we moved out J and I had talked about what to do with our 2 cats and had decided to lock them in one room and come and get them when all our stuff had been taken back home and when we'd got a second cat box. She had said that she was taking time off that day to help us move. On the day itself she insisted that we take them first thing so that she could get on with the cleaning, if we didn't she'd let them out. It really felt like an ultimatum, it WAS an ultimatum.