family

Labelling My Condition – Endometriosis

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) adult, British, Cotswolds, Endometriosis, Event, family, Hospital, Humour, Illness, love, Medicine, Nonfiction, Uncategorized, Young Professional , , , ,

A personal statement, in regards to my general health

Labelling My Condition – Endometriosis

Pre operation and post operation.

Shortly afterwards I was placed on a drip.

The start of this week has been the roughest I’ve faced in this recent chapter of my life. Aiming to remove a benign lump in my uterus, in theatre consultants discovered extensive Endometriosis tissue, the removal of which left me in a world of pain, unable to stomach food and doped up on a cocktail of morphine and other drugs. 

I have so much respect for the tremendous staff at BMI Droitwich Hospital for their expertise and care. Those who wiped away my tears, sat with me through the night when I was at my worst and made me laugh when I needed it most. Aside from now walking around like an old woman (blame the stiches) I’m equally lucky to have an incredibly supportive family who’ve been nursing me back to health since my hospital discharge.

A final point for all my women in arms; DON’T suffer in silence, DON’T take no for an answer and DON’T ever ignore your body. Endometriosis is notorious for being side-lined by health professionals; don’t be a muppet like me, too scared to rock the boat.

After years of suffering, I finally have a diagnosis. Here’s to a future where I can label my condition, access support groups and, now, better understand myself.

With love xx

Edit: I’ve been overwhelmed with positive well-wishers and messages. Thank you. I’m heavily contemplating writing a separate blog post on how I got to this point. Not necessarily a mini-saga (“it all started when I was 12 years old…”) but a piece covering the last few months. Despite all the pain, there have been a couple of lighter moments that it would be equally nice to share. Stay tuned. x

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Working From Home, Day 330: The Cat Hates Me

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) adult, British, careers, comedy, Coronavirus, Cotswolds, Culture, Event, family, Finance, House, Humor, Humour, job, London, Mellennial, Mermaid, Nonfiction, Office, Pets, Social Media, Swindon, Uncategorized, Work, Young Professional , , , ,

This one goes out to everyone powering through a seemingly unending home working setup, whilst having to share with others who are perhaps less understanding.

Yes, I’m talking about our pets.

It starts innocently enough, like this:

Discovering that the traditional ‘chair hop’ approach wasn’t getting perhaps the desired result, Squeak starts trying on some new moves. Well, I say new moves, it involves her sticking her bum in my face and using my torso as a multi-level way to easily climb down.

Then all hell breaks loose.

This continuously carries on until, weeks and weeks later, I’m tipped over the edge of breaking point.

She’s totally the only reason I’ve started taking to wearing a dressing gown around the house all day. Nope, sure as heck nothing to do with anything else, I’m as sane as a…drain?

(Oh, and before you ask, I have no idea what I say at the end either. Let’s just settle with ‘generic old woman grumblings’.)

So, to ensure any work gets done we’re had to reach an uneasy compromise. It looks something like this.

FYI if anyone is on the receiving end of a questionable email or ‘jdfsklfdivl’ (or similar); the cat made me do it.

That said, I am becoming increasingly aware of how much sensitive information my cat has access to.

She’s also taken to passing judgement it, too.

If looks could provide constructive feedback…

As home working is likely to be a major factor in working life both now and possibly into the longer term, Squeak and I are just going to have to work things out between us. Not that I’m comparing a family pet to that of a human child, but I’ve discovered this tactic of distraction (using a personal laptop) works surprisingly well.

(Just sayin’)

And if all else fails? Well, if you can’t beat them…

…Turn them into free blog/social media content.

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Cheers To The Happy Couple

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) adult, alcohol, British, comedy, Coronavirus, Cotswolds, Culture, Dating, Economy, Europe, Event, family, Friends, Garden, House, Humor, Humour, love, Mellennial, Mental Health, Mermaid, Nonfiction, Pets, Prompt, Social Media, sophistication, Swindon, Uncategorized, Work, Young Professional , , , , , ,

For the lockdown marriage of one of my mates (remember Woman on The Verge of a Birthday Breakdown?) the groom’s sister asked everyone to record a video message to send to the happy couple.

“Sure!” I thought, “this’ll be easy. I can be classy and endearing at the same time, that’s totally me!”

Then again, this is also me:

Several glasses of prosecco down (you’ve got to get into the party vibes with this sort of thing), I set up my phone and filmed this.

“I mean, it’s something,” I mused whilst watching it back. “Not sure what that something is, but it’s that. Hmm, maybe I’ll do a second take, just in case.”

And then the cat came along…

It was a tough call between the two but ultimately I knew which one I was going to send over.

Yes, I sent the cat video.

(Jess, I hope you and Dave had a lovely wedding day. See you on the other side when we can properly celebrate. x)

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Have a Merry (Nicolas Cage and/or Lobster Themed) Christmas!

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) adult, alcohol, British, chocolate, Christmas, comedy, Coronavirus, Cotswolds, Culture, Death, Economy, Europe, Event, family, Friends, History, Holiday, Humor, Humour, London, Mellennial, Mermaid, New Year, News, Nonfiction, Pets, Prompt, Religion, shopping, Social Media, Swindon, Uncategorized, Vacation, Xmas, Young Professional , , , ,

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to everyone who reads MHAM. regardless of faith, 2020 has been a rough year for absolutely everyone, I wish you all a peaceful time with family and chocolate and Nicolas Cage.

(Things may be terrible, but now they’re terribly wonderful.)

Oh, here’s also a highly relatable photo I took of a shop window from three years back (I’m going to guess it was Ted Baker).

So go on, stuff your face with lobster too. You’re welcome again, have it on me (the enjoyment of the photo that is, I’m not a free-for-all lobster bar or anything).

I’ll be back with new content in the new year. In the meantime, there’s always my Contents of wonderful blog posts with plenty of material dating right back to 2014! (Alright, no need to roll your eyes.)

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A Very 2020 Take on the 1974 UK General Election

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) adult, British, comedy, Coronavirus, Cotswolds, Culture, Economy, Europe, Event, family, House, Humor, Humour, London, Mellennial, Mental Health, Mermaid, News, newspaper, Nonfiction, politics, Review, sophistication, Swindon, Television, Uncategorized, Work, Young Professional , ,

While the rest of the country flipped out over Covid for the billionth time that year, my sister and I chose to spend one particular Saturday night watching the high-quality coverage of the 1974 General Election.

No, I’m not joking.

One day we’ll look back on things like this and go, “yes, we really were living life to the best when in our 20s.”

(By the way, we shouted “PHONE!” When the phone was heard ringing in the studio. It’s not quite audible on the playback and I’d hate my reputation to be damaged by this one element.)

Spoilers: Harold Wilson of the Labour Part won a majority of three seats and took over from Ted Heath’s Conservative-led government (I may have Googled that – even I couldn’t face staying up until 12:45am).

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Woman on The Verge of a Birthday Breakdown

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) adult, Birthday, Book Review, British, comedy, Coronavirus, Culture, Europe, Event, family, Friends, Humor, Humour, Mellennial, Mermaid, Nonfiction, Prompt, Social Media, Swindon, Uncategorized, Young Professional , , , ,

Another novelty of lockdown – birthdays aren’t going ahead in the traditional way, so as part of a collective project I recorded a short video to celebrate my mate turning another year older.

Well, at least that was the plan. In reality, it was on a to-do list which I may have have let slip until the last minute, when it became a 1am scramble to get filmed. Which is inevitable when you get this:

Now, even though it was stupid o’clock in the morning, I felt strongly possessed to rerecord my message, again, and again…and again. Eight attempts later, I STILL was after another the perfect VT.

“I know! My background is too plain!” I exclaimed.

Initial hurdle, I don’t have any of those fancy bookcases the boffins on TV tend to have.

Must…promote company, but must also…show off intellectual status! Argh!
Ooh, a man with TWO Oxford dictionaries!

However, I thought I’d try something similar. Presently I don’t own many of the classics, over than those Dick King Smith story books from when I was a kid and The Victorian Celebration of Death. What can I say? I’m a girl of extremes.

Knowing that both wouldn’t really set a great tone (“Happy Birthday!! Did you know the Victorian aspiration wasn’t necessarily to save up for a nice house or clothes? Nah, it was to have a super expensive tombstone carved out and a burial plot decided on whilst still alive. Coincidentally, the male life expectancy was 40 so, you know…chop-chop.”)

Exactly…couldn’t fit that on any greetings card.

In the end I went for this:

Did you see it? You may need to re-watch the video a few times to spot the subtle message, it’s quite well hidden on my headboard. I went and sent that one over.

So yeah, I think that’s done the job in reassuring my mate in her ability to select friends.

(Oh, before I forget, I actually did write-up a five minute review on that book. Check it out…or not. It’s a free country, I’m not your mother.)

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Be Right Back – Quick Update

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) adult, alcohol, British, comedy, Coronavirus, Cotswolds, Culture, Economy, Europe, Event, family, Humor, Humour, love, Medicine, Mellennial, Mental Health, Mermaid, News, Nonfiction, Review, Social Media, Swindon, Uncategorized, Work, Young Professional , , , ,

For those not already aware, I’ve been pretty rough of late.

Quick update, I seem to have turned into a floating head.

I suppose anything that gets me one step closer to forming a tribute act to Talking Heads…

Jokes aside, things are still very on/off. Moved onto new antibiotics on Thursday and I’m holding out on those to sort me out which should take a couple of weeks. I’m also on strong pain meds, probably why you might find me posting things like this:

My stomach is swollen up and burnt to shreds from the hot water bottle, but nobody wants to see that (including myself). It also means I can’t drink alcohol while on this medications OR COFFEE* (*on the particularly bad days).

I’m aware that to an outsider perspective this might look like me adopting Kerry Mucklowe levels of melodrama…

…But if you genuinely want you to know why I’m not responding to your emails or texts or anything else, that’s why. It’s not you, it’s really all down to me. Well, and Squeaky the cat.

I put her as acting secretariat but as expected, she’s a cat.

The times I feel more myself, I hurriedly blogging future posts/writing Christmas cards/doing human things, as well as the full-time job.

So please and thanks for bearing with me. x

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Oh, and I’ve had a few questions about why I’m so rough. High-level summary; cut in my arm didn’t get bandaged correctly, so that got infected. Plus complications with a routine procedure so more infection! (It took 5 weeks to get a formal diagnosis which is never ideal, especially when you’re being told to take painkillers and see how it goes. But hey, it’s in the past now. Totally over it…totally.)

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UK Christmas TV Adverts 2020

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) adult, alcohol, Baking, British, Charity, Children, Christmas, clothes, comedy, Culture, Europe, Event, family, food, Friends, Holiday, Humor, Humour, London, love, Mellennial, Mental Health, Mermaid, New Year, Nonfiction, Poem, Prompt, Religion, Social Media, Technology, Television, Uncategorized, Xmas, Young Professional , , , , , , , ,

This post has been sparked off my Mumma B, who only the other day asked me about this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert.

The thing is, she comments about the lack of visibility, but at the same time records everything on her YouView box purposely to skip all the adverts. You see the dilemma here?

Basically I’m posting all the Christmas adverts for the main UK players so that my mum can see them in one place (and once only).

I’ll add to the list as and when any additional companies release theirs (please do also poke me with a metaphorical stick in the comments). Otherwise lets get to it! In no particular order…

UK Christmas TV Adverts (2020)

John Lewis / Waitrose Supermarket

Aldi Supermarket

Lidl Supermarket

Walkers Crisps

McDonald’s

TK Maxx

Argos

Barbour

Very.co.uk

Amazon

Tesco Supermarket

Asda Supermarket

Morrisons Supermarket

Sainsburys Supermarket

Boots

Lego

Dreamies Cat Treats

M&S Food

Disney

Coca-Cola

JD

Ralph Lauren

(Disclaimer: All videos above have been lifted from YouTube via the URL. I don’t own any part of these videos.)

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Look Out Gardeners’ World: Dad’s Polytunnel Revisited

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) adult, British, careers, Coffee, comedy, Coronavirus, Cotswolds, Culture, Europe, Event, family, food, Garden, House, How To, Humor, Humour, job, love, Mellennial, Mental Health, Mermaid, Nonfiction, Prompt, Review, shopping, Social Media, sophistication, Swindon, Uncategorized, Work, Young Professional , , , , ,

Following the huge popularity over my previous post on the topic of Papa Bennett’s polytunnel/allotment (Dad’s Polytunnel), I decided to drop on by to give an update on how things were progressing as of October 2020.

Papa B was busy at the time I wanted to film this, so I didn’t have his services to help document the changes. But still, it’s only a couple of plants, how hard can it be?

Yeah. I think the cat had a better idea of what was going on (and she’s a cat).

Thankfully, Mumma B showed up to provide from subtle guidance. And you know my Mum, she was incredibly patient and by no means frustrated by my lack of knowledge…

I think we can agree that going forward we’d be better off asking the cat to tend to the plants.

That said, at least the raspberries are coming out alright (Papa B asked me to include this as proof he can grow more than six. Sorry, Dad).

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Be Right Back

My Housemate's a Mermaid (Alice E. Bennett) adult, British, comedy, Coronavirus, Cotswolds, Culture, Economy, Europe, Event, family, Humor, Humour, Illness, job, love, Medicine, Mellennial, Mermaid, News, Nonfiction, Swindon, Uncategorized, Work, Young Professional , , , ,

Full disclaimer – I’ve been bloody rough of late. At best, I look like this:

And at worst:

(Oh, and there was a delightful interlude when my arm got infected and swelled up to the size of my face. My face, that was too sleep deprived and exhausted to even care anyone.)

I’m still rough (the water bottle and I are now exclusive). Hot drinks = pain, eating too much = pain, too much sleep = pain (wft?), ice cream = PAAAIN!

You get the idea.

I’ve been watching Selling Sunset in a bid to get my body to pull it’s shizz together:

If anything I think it’s making me worse.

It’s an unpredictable situation, after I upload this I’m going back to bed. I’m that exhausted.

I’ve got loads of great posts lined up, bear with me on this. If it makes you feel any better, you’re not the only one missing my sparkling presence.

NB – this is totally unrelated to Covid, it’s not contagious and I’m being cared for and supported by a mix of family and friends.

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