Garden Design

When we were in Edinburgh in March I saw a great idea for a patio arrangement when we finally get round to sorting the garden out.

I think it could start a trend!  Don’t you?

Driving and Iron Men

Blogging hell, I can’t sleep! I’m so tired I’ve got a headache but I can’t nod off. I think I may be over tired. Normally I try to keep the same bedtime and similar wake up times. So I got to bed between 23:30 and midnight and get up when I wake up generally between 7:30 and 8:00.

Tonight after B had gone to work I finished watching Mrs Minevar and then started watching The Last House on the Left, I know not much difference. By 22:00 I was nodding off. I knew if I snuggled down on the settee I would be asleep in about two minutes but with B at work who was going to wake me up and remind me to take my tablets before I staggered upstairs to bed, so I took my tablets and went to bed and now over two hours later I’m still awake. So I’m blogging and waiting for the glass of milk to kick in.

Okay, so maybe putting the rest of The Last House on the Left on upstairs was a bit of a mistake, it was quite brutal and gory but had a satisfactory ending. I hate the ones where the baddies don’t get there comeuppance. I had been going a bit stir crazy last week with B going back to work. I missed him! So at weekend I suggested that I felt capable of driving again. Now we know what B is like with the car and that he asked for a medical opinion of competency not once but twice while I was on my holiday with regard to when I could drive. I must be appearing more compos mentis as he said okay, but declined my invitation to accompany me. So off I went on a short trip and everything was fine.

Yesterday with this freedom and the weather picking up, I went to Croxeth Park, had a little walk round and a little sit down knitting. Oh and I did the elastic band exercises again for good measure.

Today I went to Crosby Beach to see Anthony Gormley’s iron men. This involved a little distance on a motorway, my first time, but it is apparently the quietest in the country and fortunately was today and is the furthest I’ve driven so far. However after getting there I realised why B can get a little fraught occasionally when he is driving somewhere he doesn’t know and the signs aren’t very good and you don’t know which lane you should be in and there’s a bus right at the side of you and that’s where you think you should be, there’s a lorry up your backside and a van in front so you can’t see the signs – oh no, wait that was me.

When I had to turn round because I missed the extremely well sign posted car park, hah, I thought oh no, I have to get home yet, I should have brought B then he could have drive while I knitted and looked at the nice houses.

Anyway I had a nice walk along the beach and timed it quite well because the tide was coming in but there was still beach when I got there.

No bathing…

No wonder…

Jellyfish

And finally some iron men (frontal views have not been released as they had ‘bits’, well not so much ‘bits’ in some cases)

On the way home I missed the turn off for the motorway so ended up more or less in the city centre, and at one point having to turn round completely.  Fortunately I normally navigate and so am a firm believer that you can’t really got lost just mislaid however I’m staying in tomorrow or rather today, knitting, there’s such a thing as too much excitement!

The World Cup

I didn’t think it was possible for football to become less appealing and then the world cup started.  I can be ‘watching’ football whilst knitting, and possibly reading, and not notice if someone scores, unless of course it’s a side B is routing for and then although I didn’t see it I hear it.  It’s like the swirly pattern you can get on windows media player – a series of random actions that just don’t gel into a meaningful whole.

And now this world cup is accompanied by an auditory assault in the form of the vuvuzelas, so for the whole of the match it sounds like you’re about to be attacked by extremely irate hornets or you start thinking you might have tinnitus.  I don’t think there was so much buzzing in those B-movie killer bee films!

Fortunately I can retreat to the laptop and complain about it here when B gets fed up of me saying things like…

‘That noise is really annoying.’

‘Why’s that player got long sleeves?’

‘Why’s that player got a blue band on his arm?’ – I  actually remembered that from last time I asked and stopped myself

‘It’s no wonder there’s always extra time the amount of time they spend on the ground, can’t they just walk it off?’

‘That noise is REALLY getting on my nerves.’

And then Monday I got a detailed explanation, accompanied by finger pointing in mid air to show the player positions, of the off side rule because it had changed since last time I asked.  I think B may have been getting his own back!

Elastic Band Exercises

I exercised on Saturday with an elastic band.

I always thought they were for fluffy females who didn’t want to lift real weights.  So I was sitting watching B play one of the match 3 games that I  got a bit stuck on previously as this wasn’t ‘really’ exercising and was doing various things with the band.  Whilst doing some bicep curls the end shot out from under my foot and pinged into the air somewhat near B.  Fortunately because he was concentrating so much on the game, and trying to show that he could do it if I couldn’t, he didn’t notice how close it came to whacking him in the kisser.

After one set of 20 reps of curls, triceps extensions, pec flyes, lateral raises and back pulls I was pooped and breathing heavily.  After lunch I had a kip.  I wouldn’t mind but it was the easier of the two bands and it’s made my muscles ache – which is good – but it’s an elastic band!

Maybe I should have started off with a regular elastic band and maybe I should consider selling the six foot 20kg Olympic barbell that’s in the garage!

Bone Pain

When I was having my melphalan, Maggie the nurse administering it, was asking about bone pain and did I get any.  Apparently after SCT Myeloma patients had reported that they got less pain.  Now I was down to a bit of a niggle from my collapsed vertebra (L3) apart from when I sat on our settee, and first thing in a morning, none really from my damaged ribs and none from the lytic lesion in my right thigh.  Although my acupuncturist says I have a high pain threshold.

Now for the woe is me bit – I only impart this information for loads of sympathy, er no, I mean to show how much things have improved.

Prior to diagnosis in April 09 I couldn’t walk very far, was in more or less constant pain, not so much from the location of the vertebra itself but it was pressing on a nerve so it was mainly down my buttock and thigh (some of which was numb).  I couldn’t sleep through a night with the pain.  I couldn’t sit upright in a chair without it really kicking off.  Sometimes it felt like my knee cap was being pulled up my thigh.  B had to help sometimes with my shoes.   I didn’t think I would ever be as mobile and pain free as I am now and would just have been grateful for any improvement.

At one point if I was lying down with my knees bent I couldn’t lift my bum up off the floor (a test by the first physio the previous November).  Apparently when the big muscles are in pain for a long time the little muscles take over but because they are not designed for this type of work they give out quickly.  At this point my feet may as well have been on the moon unless I lay down and brought my knees to my chest – which let’s face it isn’t the position to be putting shoes on in, although did work for socks in a morning.  Here’s a tip you don’t get told medically – if you’re having trouble bending put your trousers on first and then your socks otherwise your socks stick on the way down the leg and it takes even longer to get dressed or wear a loose skirt but obviously that’s not for everyone!

However since my SCT the discomfort I had been getting has lessened even more, it’s more like stiffness.   I have yoga-ed twice and am still limited in flexibility for any move that requires me to bend forward in a seated position (if that makes sense) but where that had caused me noticeable discomfort before it doesn’t now.  I can feel it but it’s certainly not painful.  I know it’s really soon after my SCT and it may ‘just’ be the continuing improvements.  When I saw the prof last November at the start of the SCT process he did say that the discomfort I felt then would probably remain the same but it has got easier.

I do get the occasional odd sensation in my feet in certain positions but nothing to write home about.

A good few years ago I decided that I always wanted to be able to do a handstand as a kind of test of youthfulness I guess.  So on Thursday I suddenly remembered this and gave it a go (as you do when you have a collapsed vertebra and a dodgy area of bone in your right femur that shouldn’t be jarred or subjected to a fall).  I could feel it a bit on the way down, which was controlled, I fortunately did not end up in a heap on the floor, but I think this was more a protest from the inflexible bit.  B was in bed at the time and because I tell him everything (even finally confessing that I’d left the car unlocked on a public car park) I informed him of my handstanding prowess when he woke up.

B:  ‘Was that wise?’

Me:  ‘Probably not, but I can still do it!’

Myeloma Buddies Update

Firstly if you haven’t already seen it you need to check out Dorothy Buddy ‘on location’ in Chicago.

Secondly, but no less important than Dorothy Buddy getting a trip to Chicago, all profits from all future sales of Myeloma Buddies will go to Phil Brabbs’s new Cancer Kicker Foundation.

You can see Phil’s kiddo’s with their Buddies, Karen & WCK’s buddies and Lorna  & Mike’s buddies on the Myeloma Buddies tab at the top left-ish of the page.

From the ones I have sold so far this amounted to 74% of all monies received (including postage).  I tried to check on the web to see how this compared to other charitable donations but I can’t find figures.  Anyhoo, I worked out that if I make the heads four rows shorter I can push this up to 80% and the Buddies only look slightly odd.  Just kidding!

Royal Mail put their postage up in April and neglected to send me a personal email informing me of this, so I’ve had to adjust slightly for that.   I’ve sent them a strongly worded letter.

The other surprise was packaging.  The plastic envelopes vary in price from post office to post office.  I didn’t think they could do that but obviously they can and/or do.   So I’ve worked out an, as waterproof, but cheaper alternative.

The fact that I was able to calculate, on Excel of course, what I’d received, fees, postage and material costs shows that I’m thinking more clearly although I did check it about 25 times to make sure as it seemed too easy, especially compared to the water filter jug!

Machine Embroidery

 

My second etsy mom from the baby shower was having a girl and said that her husband didn’t do pink or frilly and they liked bugs and nature.   I had originally thought having guidelines would have made it harder to decide what to do but it actually made it easier.

So I thought a fleece with machine embroidered bugs would be good however I decided to digitise a ladybird myself.  I don’t know why I even contemplated this.  Since getting my embroidery machine at least 10 years ago me and the software have never gelled.  I’m normally quite good with computer software but not this.   I once managed a paw print for a fleece for Auntie Ann’s dog Ben, that’s it in 10 years – a paw print.  However the software means that I can buy designs on-line, download to a card and pop it in the sewing machine.  This saves loads of money on the pre-programmed cards so although I can’t get to grips with it, the software was worth buying. 

The machine wasn’t exactly cheap even though it was reconditioned.  We were coming home from our first trip to Edinburgh and I’d found this sewing shop that was in the opposite direction, not by much, and persuaded B to take me there.  They were really good and gave demonstrations and ran me through how the machine worked.  The machine had been bought by a lady just before a newer model came out and she brought it back and part exchanged it for the new one, so it looked brand spanking new with all the manuals untouched.  This was also the day I realised that if I wanted to buy something in which B had absolutely no interest that all I needed to do was keep him in a shop long enough and price became the last thing on his mind.  ‘If you want it, you get it!’  looking longingly at the door.

One of the first designs I bought was from Vermillion Stitchery – these are really detailed cross stitch designs which do take a while to sew as they are very detailed and have loads of colour changes but they do look fantastic.

The site I got the bug designs (and the previous pencil toppers and bracelets) from is Embroidery Library and they are great.  The designs are available individually or in packs and they have tons of special offer $1.00 designs and free ones too. 

So after about five hours my heart shaped ladybird looked like a fly and who wants a fly on baby stuff?  (Although these pics do show the actual colour of the fleece perfectly.)

    

‘I know’ I thought ‘why don’t I just buy some and why didn’t I just do that in the first place?’ 

So here’s the finished fleece without a fly in sight…

I stitched the designs on seperate peices and then appliequed them onto the backing, with it being fleece there was no edge visible and the back side of it looked neat too, so I didn’t need to add another layer to hide the seams.

I’m feeling well, really I am!

I’m feeling really well. Still not as energetic as normal or I am considering I may be getting lazy, since I am still completely happy for B to get tea. However I did the ironing yesterday and a little the day before so we are both un-creased and B isn’t going to work in T-shirts that look like they’ve been slept in accompanied by screwed up hankies.

I really am feeling well. I felt the need to say it twice since one of our neighbours rang me this morning and when I said that he said that I’d say that even if I wasn’t. (I have no idea whether that should have a comma or not.) Then a friend called round and said that I looked well, good colour in my cheeks and bright eyed, and when I said I was feeling well too, she said the same thing.

Another two friends called round tonight and one had seen me last Monday and said I looked better than then – although whether the fact that I was dressed rather than in my jim-jams made any difference I don’t know. I also completely forgot to mention to the other friend that I’d got a new hair do – when she’d been to visit me on holiday I still had hair. Oops!

I haven’t been sick since last Thursday and can say that lasagne and oven chips – not the same on the return trip even if it is just after they made the outbound journey. Water is still iffy but otherwise food generally is more appetising. It’s not that I haven’t been hungry but when I sat down to eat, particularly breakfast, I just didn’t want it. However since Sunday that’s been much better other than I can’t now be doing with milk on my cereal. I can eat the dry cereal with a glass of milk but tried it again this morning with the milk poured on – it’s still a no, no! I think it’s the soggy texture even in the slightest way, shape or form.

I’m nearly out of ‘Little Miss Chatterbox Berry Gel Toothpaste’. My Auntie Ann got it for me as the natural mint one I took on holiday turned out to be a bit harsh at the time and I’ve been using the berry one up since. Well it would have been a waste to throw it away! I don’t understand why children won’t brush their teeth. It’s purple and sparkly and tastes great.

When I was on holiday I anticipated B having some sort of crisis, over sandwich bags, or some other minor thing but he coped admirably and saved it for the night I got home.

I said I wanted a clean towel everyday. B didn’t say anything. We have the newish towels, the colourful lightweight holiday towels and the older ‘may come in handy – not quite worn enough to put in the garage for an emergency’ towels but this request nearly tipped B over the edge. Apparently he stood in front of the dirty laundry drawer and had a panic attack. When was he supposed to get all this washing done? Where would he find the time? This was a request too far! Now he thinks it’s amusing and irrational but for about an hour after this was his crisis!

Being follically challenged

My Dad was bald, as were his brothers.  They all went bald in their 30s.  When I was a toddler they once lined up and apparently I couldn’t pick my Dad out, they did look similar apart from the baldness.   When I was in my teens he used to tease me about going bald and now that I find myself follically challenged these are the things I’ve discovered.

Getting showered is so much quicker

You only need one towel instead of two

The feel of the water from the shower on your head is soooooooooooo pleasant

There’s no messy hairs down the plug hole for B to clear out (that’s definitely not in my job description – it’s makes me gag at the best of times)

No conditioner is needed but it is advantageous to moisturiser to prevent dry skin, not dandruff

When using a shredder there’s no risk of getting scalped

Small children don’t have a problem with it

Young boys don’t have a problem with it

Young girls, roughly between 8 and 12, stare

That if you make a new dress and the back neckline is not sitting right you need to spend the five minutes it takes to correct it rather than thinking no-one will see it with your hair down

There’s no bad morning hair – it’s exactly the same style in the morning as when you went to bed

There’s no problem lying on it in bed and pulling a muscle (like a friend did, with her own hair – not mine)

It distracts the postman from noticing you’re still in your pyjamas

You find out what the weather is like faster – my head’s hot, my head’s cold, my head’s wet

And my favourite…

There’s no time spent pondering whether your hair goes with your clothes – it just does!

I don’t do poetry but

I have a friend who does.  So for Chris’s birthday I got her a clock with spaces round it instead of numbers for photos of her grandchildren.   I gave her the clock because she is always looking for new ways to display pics of the little ones – apparently the 300 she has on show already aren’t enough!  I’m getting to the poetry relevant bit.

 

Over the years I have bought her a few poetry books, all from Leakey’s book store in Inverness.  It’s a fantastic second hand book shop set in an old church and they do excellent soup.  I like old books and have a few myself that I acquired from an Uncle’s Aunt when I was 16.  I’ve never read them, they are just too ‘wordy’ but I just love them.  Some are over a 100 years old and I think it’s the attention to detail, like the marbled page edges and the tissue type paper that covers some of the illustrations that appeals.  This along with the sense of history that someone held the book when it was brand new and how many people must have held it over the years (which is maybe reason not to touch them for a while as I don’t know how many bacteria, I mean, people have touched them and where exactly they’ve been).  Mind you, it wouldn’t have been any of my ancestors that were holding the book since they were too busy working as coal merchants, raising numerous children, blowing glass, being illiterate, becoming nuns and then unbecoming nuns (possibly due to unbecoming behaviour), avoiding the work house  and in the case of one of my great, great grandmothers being a sempstress!  This is an old expression for seamstress, but judging by the children she had without fathers listed and the complete ‘untraceability’ of her first husband I think it may be more in line with the Disc World novels’ concept of Seamstresses Guild!

 

So previously I’ve bought Chris old poetry books on the basis that the poet kind of sounded familiar and the book was nice!  However this year the book was brand spanking new and was Susie Hemingway’s A Power Within – poems written about her husband Hamada and their experiences with myeloma.

 

Chris loved it.  I gave it her last Thursday and she finished it on Sunday which is good going considering as well as seeing the grand kids she had probably stuck up another 100 photos of them too!

 

What Chris actually said was…

 

‘It’s brilliant!  I enjoyed it, if enjoyed is the right word because it’s so sad, Susie writes what she’s feeling and it comes across so clearly.’