Glen – Well Eye Never

October & November 2025 Favourites

Hello again, I hope you’re doing alright and are looking forward to Christmas.

During the last couple of months, my mother has been recovering well from her fractured wrist, both physically and mentally, thanks to all the support she’s received from the NHS and social services. There still are, and always will be, times when she gets anxious or finds things difficult of course. But having melatonin to help her sleep at night, and a wheelchair to help her get out and about more, has given her a real boost, along with various other forms of help she’s had. And at the very end of November I was even able to go out for a long walk and explore the shops by myself like I used to do, because she felt able to cope on her own.

You can find out more about all of that in my journal posts as usual, including some recovery of my own after I had a wisdom tooth extracted. You can also hear an interview I recorded in October for RNIB Connect Radio about my caring role, which was featured in their Good Company show and then released independently as a podcast.

All that aside, I’ve naturally been enjoying plenty of entertainment as well including Doctor Who, comedies, podcasts and audiobooks. So that’s what I’m going to focus on here, and I hope you enjoy this latest roundup!

Carer’s Journal – November 2025 – Part 2

Time to bring you up to date once again with my life as a carer. And things have gone much better than expected in the latter half of this month, as neither Mum nor I have had any problems resulting from our minor bits of surgery (I had a wisdom tooth out, while she had a small skin biopsy). And Mum’s continued to have more confidence and less anxiety, in large part thanks to her wrist recovery and improved sleep cycle, to the point where I’ve been able to go out for a while by myself like I used to do. So this is quite a positive update, I’m happy to say, and I hope you find it interesting.

Carer’s Journal – November 2025 – Part 1

Welcome to the latest of my journal posts as an unpaid carer, and I’m happy to say that things are continuing to move in the right direction for my mother so far this month. I’ve taken her out in her new wheelchair a couple of times, the reablement care has come to an end so that we can get back into a proper routine, her sleep pattern has improved, and we’ve had another nice mental health appointment. I’ve explained more about all of that in my diary entries below, along with a few other bits and pieces.

In addition, I’ve also appeared on the radio during the past couple of weeks! Back in October I was interviewed by Amelia Hilton for RNIB Connect Radio about my experience of being a carer, in response to the posts I’ve been sharing about it, and it’s now been broadcast and shared online.

You can hear my interview as part of the Good Company Show from November 4, where I also pick a song that means a lot to me, or as a dedicated podcast. So I hope you find it interesting, and thank you so much to Amelia and the team for featuring my story!

I’ve had very kind comments about my caring role from other people as well recently, as you’ll see in these journal posts, which I’m humbled by and grateful for.

So let’s get on with the latest updates, and as always I hope you find it of interest.

Doctor Who Review – Series 6

Recently I began revisiting Matt Smith’s reign on Doctor Who, by taking a deep dive into Series 5 as part of my ongoing posts about the modern era of the show.

So now it’s time to move on to Series 6. With the previous series, new showrunner Steven Moffat had given the programme a big overhaul, and very successfully too. So this time around things are more settled. The 11th Doctor is again joined by the gorgeous Karen Gillan playing the feisty Amy Pond, along with Arthur Darvill in the role of her newly wedded husband Rory Williams. They make such an enjoyable trio with great chemistry between them, because they became such good friends off-camera when they started working on Series 5 together. You can see how much fun they have together in the Confidential documentaries as well.

We also see plenty more of Alex Kingston as River Song, and we finally discover who she really is. Her identity is revealed as a mid-season cliffhanger, as originally the series was split into two halves, with a 12-week gap between them. Such a break had never happened in the modern era before, so it was a bit frustrating at the time, especially given the big reveal. But at least the series can be watched all in one go now. Other mysteries from the previous series, about The Silence and the exploding Tardis, also continue to develop here, along with new story arcs about the Doctor’s death and Amy’s pregnancy.

So there’s plenty to get through in this post, in terms of the episodes and the various extra features as per usual, and once again I’ve compiled a playlist for the series with lots of clips and bonus material. I hope you enjoy!

Caring For Mum – Part 4 – Breaking Point

At the beginning of August I wrote about the decline in my mother’s physical and mental health, given her struggles to adapt to her blindness and the fact she was having a lot of falls, one of which had fractured her collarbone. And that in turn was impacting my own wellbeing, as I had to devote a lot more time and energy to her needs.

We were in a bad way at the time, with no certainty as to if, how or when things would get better, so that we could get back to some sense of a normal life. Several people have said they’ve found those posts very moving, and my friends have kept in close contact to ensure that I’m ok, for which I’m very grateful.

Shortly after making that trilogy of posts, things took a further turn for the worse, as Mum fell and broke her wrist. My big fear of things spiralling even more out of control appeared to have been realised.

However, alongside the stressful and lengthy recovery process, the incident also triggered a chain of events that have resulted in Mum receiving a lot more help and support than either of us expected, to such an extent that she’s now in a much more relaxed and positive state than I’ve seen her in for ages. It’s a shame that it took an accident to be the catalyst for all that support, but so far it seems to have been a bit of a blessing in disguise.

We’re not out of the woods yet, as she is still finding some things difficult, and I’m still having to spend a lot of time looking after her. So it is still tiring and stressful sometimes, there’s still a lot of stuff we need to sort out, and there will always be the risk of further setbacks. But we are getting through the days much more easily now, and we have greater hope and optimism for the weeks and months ahead, and all being well there should be more big developments by the end of the year.

So I want to reflect on our journey in the last few months, to bring things up to date. I have been writing extensive journal posts as well, but this is a good opportunity to summarise what’s been happening, and I hope you find it interesting.

Carer’s Journal – October 2025 – Part 2

Now we’re getting somewhere. In the last couple of weeks, there have been some huge leaps forward in my mother’s situation, giving us a welcome sense of relief and optimism after such a long, hard summer. So in this latest instalment of my carer journal posts, I’m happy to share some very positive developments that, fingers crossed, bode well for the remainder of the year.

Carer’s Journal – October 2025 – Part 1

Welcome to the next part of my carers journal, in what is set to be an important transitional month for us, as my mother is hopefully coming out of her cast in the second half of October. We’ve also had some very significant news this month that will greatly enhance her ability to get out and about again, and we’re still looking into her long-term care options as well. So there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel if everything works out. Here’s what’s been happening during the last few weeks.

Top Of The Bucket List – Farewell Patricia Routledge

On Friday we sadly lost Patricia Routledge at the age of 96. She loved her acting career and charity work, focusing on it throughout her life, not even getting married or having children. She was happy as she was, and exceptionally good at what she did in her many roles on stage and screen, including the title character in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and her recitals of monologues by Alan Bennett.

But she will forever be remembered most fondly for playing the snobbish, candlelight supper-serving, ‘Lady of the House’ Hyacinth Bucket – pronounced ‘bouquet’ – in the wonderful sitcom Keeping Up Appearances during the 90s, written by Roy Clarke. Patricia was perfectly cast and in 1996, the year after it ended, she was voted the UK’s most popular actress at an awards ceremony for the BBC’s 60th anniversary. By that point she had already been honoured with an OBE 3 years earlier, she was granted a CBE in 2004, and ultimately became a Dame in the 2017 New Year Honours list, for her services to theatre and charity work.

September 2025 Favourites

Welcome to my latest monthly roundup, I hope you’re doing well.

In terms of my caring responsibilities towards my mother, who is still recovering from her broken wrist, I’ve continued posting separate journal updates about everything that’s been going on, split into Part 1 and Part 2 for this month. So do read those posts if you want to be kept informed about that side of my life. Suffice to say that while we are still finding things difficult in some ways, she is continuing to get various forms of help, and we are now starting to consider the support required for her longer term care needs. Plus we’ve already had a very positive development at the start of October, perhaps the most significant to date, that has the potential to make a huge difference long-term. I’ll tell you about that in my October journal posts in the weeks ahead, and it’s going to be an important transitional month if all goes to plan.

Apart from all that though, I have kept myself entertained in various ways as well, with music, TV shows and an audiobook. So here are the main things I’ve been enjoying, and I hope you find them interesting to read about as always.

Carer’s Journal – September 2025 – Part 2

Welcome to the next part of my caring journal, which I know has been getting quite a bit of attention recently, and thank you to all those who are taking the time to read it.

The second half of this month has continued to have positive developments overall, with thoughts turning to long term home care for Mum, as well as ongoing help with things like her sleep and mobility. But there have still been difficult moments as well, with Mum having occasional restless nights, sometimes due to sleep-induced confusion as to who I am or where she is, along with moments of general anxiety or panic, as has become the norm in recent months.

Generally though we’re doing ok, as we can see light at the end of the tunnel in terms of Mum’s wrist cast coming off later in October, and we’re looking forward to arranging proper care for her.

So here’s what’s been going on over the last couple of weeks, which I hope you find interesting.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: