October - whoops!

Well, that month went by quickly!!

Some of the lack of posting is down to ill health - I haven't been having the best of times. Some of it is down to laziness, and some of it is not knowing what to say.

We didn't manage to sort out our Floatation tank experience which is a shame. But we did manage to take care of our nails for the whole month - including nail gels, moisturising them daily, and basically growing them so long that they're a slight danger to the cats!

One tough part of October was the news that my PiP triburnal was set for 30th October. So I spent a lot of time worrying myself into the ground about whether or not I should go ahead with it. For those of you who don't know, after you receive your original result when you apply for PiP, you ask for a mandatory reconsideration if you don't agree with the decision. If you are still unhappy, you apply for a triburnal where you get to meet a Dr, a member of your peers and anothe person who question you and make the final decision. However, they can decide to take any award you have received away from you.

So imagine, you are applying for PiP for mental health issues such as anxiety. Imagine the DWP have already said no to you twice. You then get a chance to speak on your own behalf. But to do so, you have to sit in a room and discuss all of the things that make you anxious, how badly they impact on your life, how much help you need.

Imagine what this does to a person who is already suffering from anxiety. And that is why so many triburnal don't go ahead. Because it's an impossible situation - if you say the wrong thing, come across as too confident, don't meet their criteria, not only can they say no to adding to your award, you can lose what you already have.

Suffice it to say that after about 20 days of not sleeping properly, nightmares including waking nightmares, and all that is entailed, I decided that I couldn't go through with the triburnal. Not helped by the last time I attended one being warned quite strongly by the 'judge'  that they could take away the award I already had. Even my advisor from the local council said that was a very strange thing for her to have emphasised quite so much - almost threatening.

So I have an award that lasts until 2021 and I will reapply then, taking into account any deterioration. And I'll see how that goes.  Only three years to psyche myself up for that one!

In other news, I have Quingo coming round tomorrow to show me one of their scooters. I did explain to them that I don't have the finances at the moment but they said no pressure, and it would be great to see if it can fit into the back of the car, etc so if I do manage to save some money I know what I want to get.

And I wrote part of a story so my Muse has awoken,

November's task? The International Cake Festival that Stripes has entered and the Pet Show which is just an excuse to feed my insane desire for yet another furry beastie!