Not A Creature Was Stiring, Just The Dogs Snoring Zzz

I told you I'd stop promising. 

Six months later & its 4am on the morning of a freezing cold 2nd December.

I am currently in the Grooms Lodge, Nottingham. Stef & the two girls are snoring away & I am once again on the sofa not able to get a wink.

The little ex stabes is cosy though, small & warm enough for a 2 night stay, with just about everything you could need for a dog friendly accommodation.  

Why are we here ? I'm not going to go into a rant about our Government & their fucking backward fucktwated move to ban all XL bully 'type' dogs from the end of this month, but as you can imagine, I am enraged & disgusted. 

Bear & I are here,  today, to mainly chill in the warm, watch Christmas movies & snack!! Whilst Stef & North do the hard work on a two day workshop starting from this morning.  We'll have dinner together tonight & when he sets off for their second day, Bear & I will take a slow & steady drive back home in the morning. 

The surroundings are beautiful & they really enjoyed a canal walk yesterday, but it's baltic outside! So I do feel for my husband & younger pup as they'll feel the elements all day. However, we are doing ALL we can for North. To make her life the most comfortable & best it can be so hopefully she'll have the best two days showing everyone just how beautifully loyal & trusting she is.

The countdown to Christmas has officially begun & although I think it'll be a reasonably quiet one this year, I have to admit I am bloody busy leading upto it! 

Helping with Glowild at the zoo, Paignton's first ever illumination experience, the evenings are running through to the 2nd January & I have offered my help on about 8 shifts. I have also, volunteered as Santa's Elf for our local Marldon Christmas Tree Farm, running Santa's Grotto for Rowcroft Hospice & giving all proceedings to the charity & will give more of my time if I can up until the big day. 

I hope everyone, no matter how or who you are spending it with this year, has a calming time, less pressured, making memories.  

It doesn't matter that the turkeys over done. You don't need to light up the street instead of putting food on the table, & don't think you'll be judged if you can't send a gift this year.

We are all struggling. Demons come in various shapes & sizes, & I won't lie, truth be told, I've had my moments, especially over the last two months. But.

I turned 40 in the Summer, I celebrated 11 years with these iron lungs that have somehow avaded me from any form of Hospital admission in the last, what, 5 years??!! Its fucking incredible, & if there's anything I need to be grateful for this Christmas.... 

It's being alive today & living for the moment. 

Merry Christmas 🎅 🎄 

Enjoy, stay safe & be kind. 

Your, Kimmy x x x 

Calling All 1983 Babies

Keeping up with the tradition of promising you all more regular blogs posts, & then not actually writing for six months... 

Life has been hectic, and being the time of year it is, it's about to get crazy. So I'll keep it very short for now. 

Since the New Year, we lost our son. Kaos. My four legged Gruffalo who I whole heartedly adored. I've never felt pain like it & to this second, I would do anything to have him back. Before he left us, he passed the batten onto North, our female (now six months old) XL bully. She has kept me busy & given Bear some much needed love & affection after her big brother passed. 

I have been to 3 concerts seeing my absolute idols & created many memories with friends & family, new & old. 

I have celebrated 5 years at Paignton Zoo & this weekend will be 12 years to the day I said 'I do' to my husband.  

Next week. I will turn 40. I have surpassed my 12th birthday, they said I wouldn't. 

I survived a double lung transplant almost (26th July) 11 years ago. I recovered from heart failure & Sepsis. I'm living through kidney failure & severe dehydration, & just about coping with Steve, my permanent stoma. 

All I can say is, I am super grateful.  

I am incredibly emotional. 

To hit such a huge milestone. I remember when my parents turned 40, I thought it was ancient! Yet I'm here, counting down the last few days of my 30's & about to start a new chapter. 

Thank you so much to everyone who has been in my corner, routing for me, whether it be silently or otherwise.  

I will be in touch again soon.

No promises this time. 

xxx 

For my boy,  Kaos 28th February 2023

New Dawn, New Day 2023

Seriously how the fuck has it been over two years since I last wrote a blog? Life has changed. So much has happened & I don't think I need to remind you that lives were stolen from us since Covid 19 hit back in March 2020. Back in March 2020? How am I even typing that? 

 I didn't think I'd blog again. Life took over, as it does. I wasn't sure if people would be as interested. They didn't need me to tell them the world is fucked, our Government curupt & our usual easy going lives would be made all the more harder by fucktards decisions.

 Time has passed, & as I lie here on the Dawn of New Years Day 2023 I have been reflecting, good & bad, what's occurred over the last few years in my life. Do you want to read ? 

I made the really hard decision to cease Kims Critters. My Facebook page & hobby. People were sucking the life out of me & the passion. I didnt want it to become something I loathed, so I sold up all my snakes & now only have 1 that keeps me smiling whenever I see his little blippy tongue! 

My beautiful baby Skunks both passed throughout the Covid stage. First Cookie, suddenly & unexpected which absolutely broke me & then Crumble, a short year after as I watched him age. They were both seven when they passed but I have them home with me along with their old tyme sister, Bodacia. 

Stefan surprised me with Blue, for my birthday, a black & white Argentinean Tegu. He will becoming up to three years old this June & he's a magnificent beastie. I still have the odd few scorpions & tarantulas, but as the months have flittered by, so has my collection. Most devastatingly losing my massive girl, Maleficent, my Salmon Pink Tarantula who was the most amazing arachnid I can say I have ever owned. 

My kids are still here thank god. I would have been a complete wreck without them throughout isolating & times of loss. Kaos will be 9 this month & is showing his age bless him. Whereas the princess, who is the most perfect little Frenchie, Bear, will turn 6 in May. 

I have lost friends. Old & young. It has been traumatic, especially when they have been on the journey I have been on & lost their lives to the pandemic. I feel incredible guilt that I am still here & they aren't. Yet I've contracted it twice & couldn't thank the NHS for looking after me so well & surviving. Its a fucked up mind matter that I suppose I will always carry around with me. 

This is starting to sound like a really depressing read so I need to change the tone a little. 

It's obviously not been all doom & gloom. I have had some incredible times making memories with both friends & family. I am still at the zoo in Paignton. Volunteering on Mondays & Thursday's as engagement which basically means I can educate you further with your trip & hope to improve your day with exciting facts or just a friendly smile. I will have been there five years come the end of February! Can also say, I've made some dearest friends for life. 

I have been to concerts & fine dining⁹ restaurants, all of which are on my bucket list that I have been lucky enough to tick off. Stefan will have been in my life for thirteen years in just four days... 

Celebrating twelve years marriage in July! & well, July, last July I had the best time hitting a milestone of ten whole years with my transplanted lungs. Despite covid, despite sepsis & heart failure & the kidney failure I am living through now. 

So, as a huge lover of Christmas,as you well know ... It wasnt that big of a deal to me this year. We didn't have much planned, we didn't commit to presents. It's been so hard for people in 2022 to just get by with the cost of living that we took a step back & let it be for what it was. 

It was quiet, but pleasant & we saw & spent time with people we love. Everyone thought it would be the Christmas to begin all Christmasses after Covid restrictions, but unfortunately there is so much illness around at the moment, I think everyone has felt so deflated & let down. 

I am now poorly. As I finish this verbal diarrhoea which I hope you've in some way enjoyed, after so long. I am hauled up in bed with the Flu. My chest is really rubbish but I am doing all I can to avade a hospital admission. 

We didn't see the New Year in, I was far too tired & off the planet on decongestants... But I didn't care. I don't need to try & have a good time to bring in what I hope will be more achievements, more milestones. Pretty sure more heart break, but it's what we expect. We're only human after all.... 

I myself have been doing really well. I'm battling quietly on the inside at home, you wouldn't believe what I have to do on the daily to avoid a hospital stay but I'm fucking well doing it & its got me this far. Who knows I may even get to celebrate hitting 40 in the Summer ! 

I know alot of you are struggling. You've lost loved ones, financial worries are dragging you down. But please remember you are not alone. Reach out & open up. 2023 might not be YOUR year, but you could have fun & a dam good try at living it. 

Love & peace 

InvincibleInked xxx

P.s. maybe you could leave me a comment & let me know if this is something you'd like me to carry on with again.... ? Happy New Year xxx