Geraldine's musings

We've recently returned from an abortive brunch at the Café Royal in Newcastle. Well, the other two had brunch, I had a regular mocha coffee (despite ordering a large one) and a citrus juice drink.

Of course we ordered a meal for me, it just didn't arrived and when we finally asked where it was, they brought us a till roll showing that it hadn't been charged for, except for the extra £1.50 they charged for extra bacon. The waiter implied that this demonstrated that we hadn't ordered another meal and said, rather dismissively, that we could, if we liked, re-order it. Since by this time Charles had already finished his and John had almost finished his and since I didn't want to go downstairs and join a by now rather long queue to re-order, then eat alone, I replied that I wouldn't bother to order now and that in view of his attitude we wouldn't be eating there again. His reply was along the lines of "OK, Fine!".

When I examined the copy till receipt he brought us and noticed the extra charge of £1.50, I called him back and asked for it to be refunded. He didn't return to our table but sent one of the girls with the refund. Normally we would have ordered some kind of pastry or dessert and had some more of their extremely expensive, though delicious, coffee, but since Charles was showing signs of wanting to punch the young man in the snoot, we deemed it best to leave.

When we got home, I realised that we had inadvertently paid a service charge of 15%, which we would never have paid under the circumstances, but which was added to the bill at the time Charles paid for it, before we had even sat down or experienced any service and that we hadn't had a refund of the 15% VAT on the £1.50, which is relatively trivial, but still annoying under the circumstances.

What is really annoying is that this was our absolutely favourite place for Sunday brunch in Newcastle and we normally go there maybe four times a year for brunch, on top of the occasions Charles and I go there for lunch during shopping trips. I would add that it isn't cheap, either. Charles did say that it had cost less than he expected, but we've found that lots of places have reduced their prices recently, so thought no more of it.

What is even more upsetting for me and John is that this is the first time for years that Charles has suggested we go out for a meal somewhere, although he sometimes does pay, when he can afford it. But he hasn't made a suggestion like this for over 10 years. It represented a massive leap forward in his mental health and now that is utterly ruined. He's stated that not only is he never going there again, but he intends never to eat in a restaurant again. He's fulminating against life and people in general, but particularly the citizens of the north, in terms I wouldn't care to repeat. It's been a disaster for his mental health and his father and I feel really upset about it.

Needless to say, I have written a polite but extremely detailed letter of complaint to the Managing Director of the group. I'm not, however, holding my breath for a reply or an apology.

I've now had a bowl of Covent Garden chicken soup, which has filled me up, but not mended my temper!

I was devastated when I got back from the Lit & Phil this afternoon to find that almost all of the work I'd done today had disappeared, just as happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I'd written 1239 words in 2 hours, and I was rather pleased about it until I discovered what had happened.

My kind son examined the files on my netbook and discovered that the work was still there, only now in text invisible until selected and highlighted. I was sooo pleased, but have since discovered that no matter how many times I change the text to black, it still disappears when it's saved. I'm rather puzzled about this as I'm not sure how I can transfer it to my PC from my netbook in order to print it out. I suppose I could try e-mailing it. Or if the worst comes to the worst, try transferring it to Microsoft Works and sending that by e-mail. Any suggestions gladly received.

Sigh....................why do these things only happen to me?

I'm using Rough Draft and I posted some of this to the iwrislomo LJ community as I wondered whether any other users had discovered similar glitches. I shall have to wait and see what transpires, but I'm not holding my breath.

I discovered that this is also what happened to the work which vanished two weeks ago and that that is also still there, but in invisible print. I'm delighted that it isn't lost, particularly as I haven't yet attempted to re-write it, but am at a loss to know quite how to proceed from here.

Lucy has developed what has been diagnosed as an intermittent solenoid fault which means that whenever she feels cross, she won't start in spite of having a full battery. It's making me rather nervous about driving anywhere until Keith can have her on Tuesday, but I really need to go to Costco tomorrow and I have an podiatrist's appointment on Monday. What's the betting she shows off in Costco car park in the pouring rain?

Here I am again, trying to post via Semagic.

The test post I did yesterday turned out fine except for the inserted picture which was enormous and which showed Charles who I'm absolutely forbidden to show on the Internet.

So the only thing to test now is embedding a picture from my LJ galleries. Hmmmm! Not so easy!

It will use a photo* from my own C drive, though.

I have no idea how large that will turn out, so apologies if it's huge!

Edit: *It was huge, so I've edited it for friends' lists.

I had another good night's sleep last night and actually woke up early for me. However, I felt thoroughly fed up for some reason, and rather than do all the things I planned, I've sat around feeling grumpy and reading. I wonder whether it's the grim weather and the dark sky which is affecting me? I know Charles gets SAD and I suspect the John has it too, but I don't usually get it, and now I'm disgusted with myself for not doing all the things which need doing, just because I'm feeling grumpy.

I haven't even thought about tonight's dinner, so I suppose it will have to be omelette again because I haven't defrosted anything; at least I bought some eggs on Saturday!

Something else which is bugging me is LJ. Why can't I get my blog to accept a larger font as default? Every time I delete something, the text reverts to micro-minute and it's really irritating. Sometimes it happens when I just start a new paragraph. I've searched all the options and can't find any way of setting a default text size

See? This what I mean!!!

I really wish a kind fairy would come along and wave a wand and get rid off all my rubbish in an ecologically friendly way, then clean my room thoroughly. I've been waiting for someone to vacuum it for weeks, since vacuuming is a job I find difficult nowadays, but I shouldn't criticise others, since my desk is a disaster area again! I wish people would stop sending me stuff that needs either filing or recycling, it completely stifles my creativity, but I can't force myself to cope with it. The pile of stuff which needs shredding is getting higher and higher and the $%£&*)£" shredder keeps playing up. See? Why did that happen? it wasn't even a new paragraph!

Oh! This damned thing is driving me nuts! I have to go away and have a G&T I think.

I'm very grateful that we're not, so far, having the awful storms that people have been having elsewhere in the country. It hardly rained at all yesterday and was really nice in the morning. Today it's mild and overcast, although fairly bright.

I've had a couple of days of excruciating knee pain but after a good night's sleep (finally) and a long lie-in with the curtains drawn listening to The Archers, I'm feeling much better. It was such a lovely lie-in because I felt completely relaxed and comfortable; that happens to me comparatively rarely nowadays, even in bed.

I've had quite a busy week; Monday morning was devoted to a meeting with the Regional Manager of "my" charity, giving a statement over an ongoing serious misconduct investigation, which was exhausting, specially since I know the person quite well and really like him. Still,...........them's the responsibilities that go with being a Trustee I suppose.

Tuesday was given over to a Board meeting of the charity; for a change it was in Newcastle and less than 300 yards from my house, so, for once I didn't have to get up at 5.30 and spend hours on the motorway. I trundled along in Libby and then had to spend ages waiting for someone to let me in to the disabled "access" door. To be fair it's an old church building which must have been hard to bring up to the specifications, but it wasn't helped by the person who should have answered my ringing the bell with a short conversation over the intercom, actually physically coming out from wherever she was hidden away round the back to see who was at the door and then going back inside and making her way round to open the door and help me with the quaint little lift. So I, who live the nearest of all, was late for the meeting...... so embarrassing!

So that was another challenging day, because the meetings almost always last at least three hours with an interval for a sandwich lunch. I made a point of congratulating the committee clerk on her choice of caterer, because there were a couple of plates stacked high with crudités and dips and another of fruit cut into convenient wedges. There were none of my bugbears from most of the various committees I've attended in recent years such as the ubiquitous cold mini-samosas, or the equally ubiquitous tiny cold spring rolls, both of which are meant to be eaten warm, for Heaven's sake! No crisps, no mini pork pies, no nuts, just lots of really nice sarnies with all the lovely vegetables and fruit.

I was back home, thoroughly worn out, by 4.00 pm.

On Wednesday Charles and I went to Asda for the first time ever, in search of the new "Genius" gluten free bread, but they didn't have any yet. We bought their own "wholemeal" GF bread, though, unsliced, and Charles is very pleased with it. It doesn't crumble even when you slice it, it doesn't fall apart in the toaster, and the slices are indistinguishable in appearance from ordinary wholemeal bread. Better still, from Charles' point of view is their ability to stand up to the toastie maker. I always find shopping tiring, even in Libby, but Asda was fairly quiet at the time we went and we thought it was at least on a par with prices at Morrisons, if not a little cheaper.

Sainsbury's have completely lost my custom because a few weeks back they sent me a £10 off e-voucher for my next online shop, presumably because I hadn't used them for a while. After I'd laboriously ordered a large quantity of shopping and went to enter my money-off voucher, the automated cashier refused to accept it. Since it was about five days before I'd requested delivery, I confirmed the order and immediately e-mailed the department which had sent me the e-voucher. When they didn't even bother to reply, I e-mailed them again, with the same result. I eventually cancelled my order at the very last moment it was possible to do so. I've still not had a reply to my e-mail, nor anyone enquiring why I'd cancelled such a large order at the last moment. So sod 'em! As someone who increasingly relies on online shopping of all kinds, I have no time for shoddy service like that; there are plenty of other places willing to take my money.

On Thursday my knees were already giving me heaps. so I had a quiet day at home and on Friday I went to the Lit & Phil, at the same time taking Charles to his voluntary job at the Mining Institute which is next door to the L&P and whose staff entrance is actually via the L&P ground floor. I hate having to use the chairlift, it takes ages to come down from the floor above and ages to ascend with me in it. I find it the most embarrassing thing about being disabled because it's somehow so public and there's almost always a couple of fit young persons bouncing up and down stairs while it grinds slowly upwards. I keep wanting to shout "Make the most of it! I could do that three years ago!". Even more frequently there's a bent-over elderly person with a stick climbing slowly and steadfastly upwards and then I want to say "I really have to use this you know. I know I'm younger than you and I look healthier, but I have heart failure and while I could climb the stairs, it would take me half an hour to recover."

Charles came into the library to meet me at about 4.30 and by 5.00 we were ready to leave, but Lucy let me down and refused to start complaining that she had a flat battery. Fortunately the details of our new, insurance company funded, roadside service were in the glove box and a Very Nice Young Man from a local company came along in about half an hour to start her up. John took her out for a longish drive to try to put enough juice back into the battery so that she would start next day and this afternoon I plan to take her for a longish drive in daylight, to top up the battery.

I had a good afternoon on Friday and wrote over 1000 words, editing as I went along; I'm very pleased with it. Losing so much work the previous week had dented my confidence and I still don't feel able to rewrite that, so I enjoyed myself by starting to write a pivotal chapter, which won't actually come along chronologically for several chapters after the place I'd lost my work. As I'd been thinking about this quite a lot, it almost seemed to write itself and turned out rather more solid than I'd feared.

Yesterday we had a quick visit to Lidl for various odds and ends we needed and I made the mistake of leaving Libby behind and trying to manage with just the stick. I stupidly thought that the exercise might help the knee pain! It slowly got worse and worse and I really only just managed to hold on long enough to make it through the till.

Last evening John went to The Sage with D to see a brass band concert. Sadly they had to leave early as D was shaking so much with Parkinson's that the whole row of seats were shaking. I don't suppose he'll go again.....it's so sad! I wish to God they'd hurry up with this cure they've found; I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people like him, who would rather act as guinea pigs than wait for all the testing. At this rate the bloody drug won't be ready till it's too late to help him.

And while they're at it, can they just hurry up with this new way they've discovered of growing one's own blood vessels? I would dearly like another one for my own tiny heart/lung problem which makes a disproportionately huge difference to my life and then I wouldn't let any old knee pain stop me from walking wherever I wanted or going up and down stairs. And I wouldn't bother about losing the DLA benefits, either, because I would be able to undertake more bookkeeping to compensate.

Oh dear! I must stop moaning!

Oh my God! Look at the time. I must go and put the beef into the slow cooker!

I couldn't bear to watch it!

I made it as far as The Minstrel Boy to the War Has Gone which reduced to me a soggy wreck and even remembering Grandma's rude words for Men of Harlech didn't help me recover my equilibrium, so I retreated to my room and listened to it on headphones.

Every year it seems to get worse and I don't know whether it's because the last of the WW1 veterans have died, or because there have been so many more deaths among our troops in Afghanistan this last year, specially recently, that it was just unbearable this time.

Or is it the old music?  I'm pretty certain that choirs of schoolgirls don't sing The Minstrel Boy with piano accompaniment any more.  Am I crying for those long-gone safe secure days when I was a child and any more war was unthinkable, although sadly not for long?  Is it just nostalgia?  I don't think so, nostalgia isn't so painful.

At the moment they're playing The Gay Gordons which I have as my mobile phone ring tone, and even that's making me weep.  Oh no!  Now they're interviewing a new recruit who has absolutely no idea what he's in for..............

I've  just finished listening to Garrison Keillor's Radio Show, The Prairie Home Companion, and have realised that it's a bit of a secret vice;  I listen to it wearing headphones and as far as I know, no-one else knows that I do so.  

I really love it, it takes me right back to the 50s and I wonder if anyone else among my friends listens to it.  Does anyone else listen to it? 

Or what other secret listening vices do you have?  Or a viewing one, even?

Crossposted to theladiesloos

I haven't posted for ages;  I don't seem to have much energy at the moment and there hasn't been a lot to say.  I'm a bit sick of myself because I have become so idle!

I managed to get both Libby and Netty repaired quite cheaply, so I'm feeling quite pleased about that, but in general I'm almost completely skint and earlier than is quite comfortable this month.  I can never work out why it always happens at this time of year, when Christmas looms, along with the winter fuel bills.  And gulp!  I've just realised Lucy's MOT is overdue!!

I'm afraid we're going to have a bit of an austere Christmas this year;  we'll still have a few treats, but not too many of them.  At least poor Charles won't feel deprived if we don't have biscuits.  All the cake and mince pies will have to be made with GF flour which makes them feel a bit joyless, to say the least.  I know that's silly, because they will almost certainly taste just as good as the ones I normally make, but it's the traditionalist in me - I've been using the same Christmas pudding and Christmas cake recipe for years and years and it's a lovely cheerful family thing to do, making the Christmas cake and the puddings;  Charles helps and even John gives the mixture a stir, and it makes us all feel pleasantly anticipatory.  The cake recipe was given me by Ma in the 70s when she was working for a wonderful bakery in Lee-on-the-Solent, and I've made it almost every year ever since, substituting butter for margarine and extra sultanas for currants which I loathe, I've made it every year since I-don't-know-when except 1975.  And the pudding recipe was given me by John's Ma.  Actually, come to think of it, I believe I made GF mince-pies last year and they weren't too bad, although the pastry wasn't so good............sigh!  It was crisp rather than crumbly.  I must remember to get extra GF bread for the breadcrumbs in the pudding..........although I think we may have a bag of GF breadcrumbs in the freezer because Morrison's GF bread is so awful it sometimes arrives as crumbs.  Never mind we should be able to get the new Genius bread soon when they start stocking it in Tesco and Asda.

I discovered last year, when we were given some unexpectedly, that John and Charles both love Roses and Heroes chocolates and you can buy a lot of them for the sort of price I usually spend on Bendick's Bittermints and other stuff, so I shan't buy any expensive Christmas chocolate treats and that will be good for me, too, because I have NO willpower, but I'm not very keen on cheap chocolate!  OK, so I'm a chocolate snob.........so shoot me!

It's extra difficult because John's birthday is at the end of November and Charles' is a week before Christmas.  I know that John wants/desperately needs a new dressing gown and Charles needs/wants a new pair of boots, but it's all so...........utilitarian!  I'm a bit fed up with always giving them clothes............ I'd like to be able to get them something unexpected and delightful.

Never mind!  The office/workroom is gradually nearing completion so maybe next year I shall be able to make them nice things because I shall have another desk and two tables in there!  I see, however that in the confusion, someone has "acquired" my wheeled office chair from in there, presumably because they've broken their own, so I shall have to acquire a new-to-me and inferior one from somewhere.  I'm a bit cross because that chair was ideal for my back.  I might just buy a cheapo chair and make the culprit give mine back, except that he's probably ruined it by now.

I'm really looking forward to having a room again where I can do craft-work and leave it out because the cats can't get in and skitter through it, and if I have my sewing machine set up permanently, maybe I'll do more sewing and mending.  In fact, I shall!  There, that's an early New Year's Resolution!  I shall put the iron and ironing-board in there too;  since I hardly ever use them, I rather resent having them in my bedroom.

There!  I've written myself into a better mood, helped somewhat by Charles bringing me a lovely cup of coffee.

I must get back into the habit of spending a couple of afternoons a week writing at the Lit & Phil, because that always cheers me up.  Every Thursday now Charles has a volunteering job at the Mining Institute library which is next door to the Lit & Phil, so maybe we could go together on a Thursday;  he can go into the Mining Institute and I can pop into the library, then if he wants to leave early, he can come in and read a book in the Lit & Phil while waiting for me to drive him home.  I'm not sure exactly what he's doing but it involves proof-reading stuff on a PC by comparing it with the original documents which are very old and quite difficult to decipher.  He seems to quite like doing it, but his eyes get tired quite quickly.  I'm so glad the Mental Elves have found something for him to do that is interesting and reasonably challenging.

Austin said

"Let's see how honest LJ friends are...Leave a ONE WORD comment that you think describes me. It can only be one word. No more. Then copy and paste this on your wall so that I may leave a word about you." - Oh dear oh dear....who thought this was going to be a good idea? Eh? EH?!"

I don't have a wall on LJ, so I'm posting it here. 

My word for Austin was "Tall"

Oooer! I say!

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

On Monday John and I went for a walk/drive in the local park and when we were three quarters of the way round, Libby gave a sudden jolt and stopped dead, showing no power in the battery.  Fortunately we were right by the swimming pool car park so John walked home, got the car and came and picked us up.  We put the battery on charge and yesterday Charles and I tried again.  This time we took Libby in the car to another park and got her out of the boot, I got on and pressed the switch........and............nothing.

I spent several hours looking on eBay for a new battery;  sadly the man I bought the last one from is no longer on eBay and although I found several, I didn't order one because I wasn't completely convinced that the battery was the problem.

Today I found a disability scooter repair place on an Industrial estate in Throckley, on the western edge of the city and after speaking on the phone to the woman on reception who was very helpful, we took the scooter in with the battery charger for them to have a look at.  After a quick look the guy said that he wasn't convinced it was the battery at fault, so we left Libby with him and he is going to telephone me tomorrow.

Before I found this place, I phoned what is considered THE local company for disability stuff and had the following conversation.

Me:   I'm looking for an XYZ battery for my disability scooter.

Man:  Oh.....you'd have to speak to Brian about that.  He's out at the moment.

Me:   Of course he is!  Can you at least tell me whether you actually do sell scooter batteries?

Man:  Oh!.......you'd have to speak to Brian about that...............

Me:   Of course I would.  Thank you.  Goodbye.

Before that, when I had consulted the Yell pages, I found that the whole page was broken;  I couldn't access any of the further information or maps, and several companies I rang had nothing whatever to do with disability scooters.  One was a taxi company.

When I went into the repair place I recounted my experience on the telephone with THE local company, not mentioning the name, but she knew immediately who I was talking about and said she had just had Brian on the telephone trying to find jobs for his men who were all being laid off.

So now I'm flexing my poor credit card to get Libby repaired and I still have to find the money to get my Netbook repaired, not to mention the fact that Christmas is coming along too swiftly for my financial peace of mind.  I'm feeling a bit fed-up, to be honest.  I still haven't got the money together to get new carpet for my room, so will have to put up with cold feet for the winter as the wind whistles through the gaps in the floorboards.  I have a few hundred pounds saved, but I'm too terrified of the winter fuel bills to contemplate spending any of that!  There's still £500 plus to pay off the credit card for Bramble's vets' bills, too!

Last week we got the old paraffin stove and the portable gas heater out of the shed.  The paraffin heater still works and I'm pretty sure that the gas fire will be OK;  we still have to get a new calor gas cylinder for it.  If we find that they help keep a sufficient background warmth in the house, I may buy another gas heater, so that we can have the boiler on as little as possible and then I can thumb my nose at our rapacious greedy gas supplier and spend my money on other more pleasant things we need.

I've spent today with all the symptoms of a migraine except for the headache.  I had an appointment with the ophthalmologist this afternoon but I cancelled it;  I really didn't feel up to having horrid stinging eye drops and lights shone into my eyes.

Charles has been found a part-time voluntary job by his team of Mental Elves and he is going for an interview on Tuesday.  It's with the prestigious Mining Institute and I really hope they like him and offer him the job.  It would only be junior library duties, putting books back on shelves and similar stuff, but it would be wonderful if he got the job and liked it enough to stay with it.  If he does get it, it's right next-door to the Lit & Phil, so we could go and come back together.

Last Friday I took Bramble to the vet.  His PBC was up to 36 (it was 10 when we first took him in) and the vet thinks we may be able to get him off steroids completely, which would be wonderful.  Now that he's so much better and being his usual wicked self, we realise that he had probably been unwell for some time before we noticed and where we thought he was slowing down owing to the onset of responsible mature cathood, he was actually slowing down because he was ill.  I feel quite guilty for not noticing that he was ill until it was almost too late.

Last Friday week Charles and I went to our much-anticipated concert at the Sage and had a great time.  I would love to be able to afford to go more often.

I must go to bed.  I need to rest my poor migraine-bedevilled eyes.

I'm feeling much more cheerful, but now I'm just too exhausted to post anything.  I've spent almost all day dozing, I haven't even managed to finish the paper yet today.

I wonder if it's something to do with the equinox!  It's really irritating because I would rather have liked to go out again this afternoon, but I haven't been able to wake up long enough to formulate a plan!

Now it's time to cook some dinner!  What a waste of a nice day!

I'm feeling utterly fed-up today.  In fact, I'm far to fed up to write anything.

On Friday, kind Kirsty, one of the surgery nurses, syringed my ear and afterwards I could hear perfectly.  What was very odd was that the other ear didn't have enough stuff in it for her to syringe it, she could see  the entire ear drum and there was hardly any wax in there.  Isn't this rather unusual?  It seems very strange to me that one ear could be so full of wax that I was almost completely deaf in it, while the other one had no wax at all.

I have to say that I've been in a much better mood since  I could hear properly.

I'm broke again and it's all my own stupid fault.  I accidentally paid the water authority the amount I normally pay for council tax, and I can't really ask for a refund, so I've had to pay twice the amount I normally pay for council tax.  I was so angry and there wasn't anyone else to shout at!  It wouldn't  really matter so much, if  I hadn't had to transfer some money from my savings towards the next gas and electricity bills.  Sigh!

Never mind, my lovely lady solicitor wants me to do her books which are a bit behindhand owing to holidays and silly accountants, so I shall have some more money coming in from there.  I had it in mind to spend it on new floor covering for my room, but I shall probably have to save it towards fuel bills, buggrit!

I have a new cheapo PC game and I'm so stupid I can't do it.  I don't understand that, because I can still do the crossword.............

Good grief!  Neil Diamond dunnarf look old!

I can't believe I was so old-fashioned, arrogant and narrow minded as to think that an mp3 player would be irrelevant to me.

Now I finally have one, it's absolutely great, like my own personal teeny weeny jukebox with all my favourite tracks, and no one else's bad taste rubbish!  I don't even have to download much, because I have a large collection of CDs.

I know I'm a lot older than most of you, but I wouldn't be surprised if other people didn't share my luddite tendencies, so come on everyone, tell me what miracles of modern technology have you eschewed only to find out later how great they are?

Where else would you hear Brown Sugar straight after Una Furtiva Lacrima and immediately before We are the Village Green Preservation Society?

Cross posted to theladiesloos

I've been watching the BBC2 programmes about the Beatles and I realised that I not only have a CD of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but I also have my original vinyl album, with all the artwork and bits and pieces complete and undamaged.  It occurred to me that it might be worth a little, but I couldn't find anything on e-Bay and I wondered whether any of my fiends might know somewhere I could find out whether it's worth anything.

I don't like to sound grasping, but if it did turn out to be worth a few pounds, it would be very welcome because I've spent a lot of money on vets' bills for a poor sick pussy cat recently, although I wouldn't sell it unless I got a substantial payment for it, because it was the first birthday present John bought me after we were married.

Cross posted to theladiesloos

I'm totally fed-up.

I've been having a slightly blocked left ear for a couple of weeks and this week I've been treating it with Earex, which has had the opposite effect to that I had hoped for and my ear is now totally blocked and deaf.  It's driving me nuts!

I've tried to ring the surgery to make an appointment with a nurse to have my ear syringed, but because of swine flu (allegedly) appointments of any kind are in short supply and I can only speak to a nurse between 5.00 and 5.30, when the moon is in the ascendant and evening star is in Aquarius, and presumably, everyone else will be trying to telephone her too at that time.

I can't walk properly because I keep feeling as though I'm falling over and I have such raging tinnitus that I can't concentrate on anything.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Well I sorted out the filing cabinet and threw most of the stuff away, but I found two large files full of stuff from when Charles was little, school reports, loads of artwork, home-made cards and so forth, and the dearest little note which just says "I'm sorry I was horrible to you.  You are a lovely Mummy".

I also have a bag full of stuff which needs to be shredded;  John did say he would do it for me, but it feels mean to ask him to do it.  On the other hand, I find it the most stultifying job ever.

The filing took most of the morning and some of the afternoon, and I still have one file to go through, but probably most of it will be thrown away.  However, I did also make the basic sauce for the ice-cream and put it in the fridge.

This afternoon I churned the ice cream (Chocolate Ovaltine) and prepared the vegetables for tonight's dinner.  It took me ages to pod a huge bag of peas to produce quite a small amount of actual peas, and to be honest, I think frozen petit pois probably taste better and they're certainly cheaper, but I can't help myself, I always have to buy them fresh when I see them.  I have half a dozen or so runner beans ready to pick, but I'm leaving them for another day, hoping more may miraculously grow longer in the meantime.

Oh buggrit!  I have the vision thingies of a migraine coming.

As it happened Charles had had a bad night too, so he suggested that we leave it till tomorrow to get on with the office, although he has spent some time this afternoon moving a lot of the furniture up to the spare room for the time being to make more room while we do the office.  We threw out quite a bit of rubbish too.

So tomorrow I have to get up, and after I've made ice-cream, I have to go through my old filing cabinet chucking out as much as possible and putting some stuff aside for shredding.

Our liver and bacon was delicious, Charles' lovely mustardy mash was yummy and I found a quarter of a watermelon in the fridge which we had for dessert.  I shouldn't really eat it because it's like drinking sugared water as far as my blood glucose is concerned, but once won't be too bad..........I hope!