Caring – Well Eye Never

July 2026 Favourites

Hello again, hope you’re doing well. I know it’s lovely to have sunshine in the summer, but this exceptional period of hot and dry weather is getting a bit much now isn’t it? If you or someone you know is affected by wildfires, droughts or the heat in general at the moment, I hope you’re staying safe and comfortable as best you can.

Naturally it’s been having an impact on my mother, so even though after my foot injury I’m feeling well enough to go out a bit more again, I’ve still had to stick around at home a lot of the time to make sure she’s ok. I’ll be giving a little update about my caring situation in this post.

So again there’s nothing for me to write about in London just yet, but I’m hopeful that will finally change during August, particularly with a booking I have for my birthday that I’m very much looking forward to.

However, there is plenty of entertainment for me to review from July, including a couple of crime dramas I discussed on Radio 4’s In Touch, along with some audio and TV comedies, and I’ve even tried getting back into playing video games. And, as ever, none of it’s sponsored or gifted. So I hope you enjoy!

May 2026 Favourites

Hello there, I hope you’ve had a good month. Thanks to my foot injury I haven’t been out much for a while, but I am doing fine, as it has been feeling a lot better. And my mother is doing well too, although she did struggle in the heatwave we just had. I’ve included a little update on my caring situation in this post for those who are interested.

For the most part, however, my focus here will be on entertainment. And on that front the most significant thing is that I’ve been on the radio! I was very kindly invited to join in a discussion about audio description, and it’s already had some excellent feedback. Then beyond that, my mother and I have been celebrating David Attenborough’s 100th birthday, and I’ve been watching Doctor Who and some comedies.

So there’s plenty to get through in this roundup as usual, and I hope you enjoy!

Carer & Career Updates – April 2026

It’s now been a month since I left my job as a support worker in order to focus more on caring for my mother, as I explained in my Easter post. And things are still going well on the whole, apart from both of us getting little injuries that have knocked us back a bit. But we are on the mend and there has been positive progress in other regards too. So here’s a little update on how things have been going lately.

Carer & Career Updates – Easter 2026 (New Beginnings)

Happy Easter! This is a time that traditionally marks new beginnings, and for my mother and I that’s certainly true this season.

After a difficult year in which Mum’s care needs increased and my income was slashed, I’ve now left my job as a support worker to focus more on her and myself. I’ve also entered a new freelance zero-hours contract to generate a little bit of income on the side, so I’m not out of work entirely and can still gain some useful experience. But ultimately I can be much more flexible with my time now, to focus on what matters most.

So, following on from my post in January about how things were going at the start of the year, here’s a fresh update on how we’re starting a new chapter in our lives.

January 2026 Favourites

Hello again, I hope your year’s got off to a good start. For me, as noted in my recent update about my career and being a carer, my circumstances are set to change due to my mother’s ongoing support needs and funding cuts for my current job role. But Mum is much better than she was last year, I’ve already secured a new freelance position, and I have other financial support, so there’s good reason to be positive and hopeful about the year ahead.

I’m also celebrating 10 years of blogging and YouTubing, and that decade has really flown by! Thank you so much if you’ve played any part in that, whether it’s quietly reading my posts or interacting with me in some way, I really appreciate it!

But to focus on January, I have started going out and about more again, now that my mother’s situation has eased a bit. So I’ve met a couple of friends, eaten some delicious food and taken a few nice walks. Meanwhile at home, alongside my usual favourite TV programmes, I’ve been having a stand-up comedy binge by watching several specials and finishing an autobiography. So there’s quite a bit to mention as usual, none of which is sponsored to appear here, and I hope you enjoy!

Carer & Career Updates – January 2026

After everything Mum and I went through last year, it’s fair to say that 2026 has had mixed beginnings for us. But ultimately there are signs of hope and potential for the 12 months ahead. So I wanted to give an update about caring for Mum and have a little rant about my work situation, so you know where we stand at the moment, before I do my Favourites post about the month soon.

Caring For Mum – Part 5 – Reflections

What a year this has been. It was always going to be the case that Mum’s health would decline in some way at some point, given her age and disability, but neither she nor I had bargained on the spiral that took hold during the past 12 months, especially during the spring and summer. That’s why I started writing my carer’s journal posts – partly as a cry for help and a bit of therapy for myself early on, but mainly to raise awareness of what it’s been like for me as a carer, as it’s the sort of thing that goes unnoticed behind closed doors.

I’ve always been my mother’s carer to some extent, ever since I was old enough to help her out with things. But it’s only in this past year that it’s really felt like it, given how much more attention I’ve had to give to her, at the expense of my leisure time and wellbeing, because of the mental and physical consequences of her sight loss and all the falls she’s been having.

However, I’m pleased to say that we’ve actually ended the year in a much better position than when we started it. Things aren’t exactly the way they were before, and never will be, but given all the support we’ve received, Mum is in a much better frame of mind and we’re on a much more stable footing for the year ahead, and therefore we feel like we can get on with our lives in a similar way to how we used to.

So as a bumper post to finish the year, I want to reflect on the events of the past 12 months and bring things right up to date, and I hope you find it interesting.

Carer’s Journal – December 2025

Here’s another set of journal entries on my life as a carer, to bring things up to date before Christmas. Then I’ll do another post to cover the Christmas period, which will take us into the new year.

The month didn’t start off well in terms of my career, as my support work role is now looking untenable, despite the government claiming it wants disabled people in work. So do excuse my rant in the first journal entry!

But at home things have been a lot better, in terms of Mum’s health and medical appointments, coupled with our preparations for Christmas. I was even able to meet a friend for a festive meal, which was lovely, and look at some of the decorations in the city.

So here’s what’s been going on so far this month, which I hope you find interesting as always.

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.

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