That's better!

Last night I cleared out my clothes cupboards. Three black bagfuls were discarded. One for rubbish and two for jumble/charity. And I've still got all the bits and pieces that can be e-bayed!

Damn but it felt good!

Ouch

Today I stabbed myself in the hand.

I didn't intend to stab myself, I had intended to skewer the stone in the middle of the avocado I was cutting up. Instead the blade slid off the stone, through the avocado flesh and then through my flesh. Cue lots of blood and one very sore hand.

Damn stupid thing to do really and, on the whole, not something I would recommend.

I still haven't quite given up smoking but I'm not giving up on giving up. I have cut down though and only had four cigarettes over the weekend and three today. That's a definite step in the right direction.

Ahhh....mmm

Well, I lasted all of 20 hours this time. And for 8 of those I was asleep. Methinks I'm not going to be able to do this without help this time and I might need to look into getting some patches.

In other news, I had to go and see the nurse at my Dr's surgery last night. Nothing dramatic, just one of those regular check ups. Got on the scales and weighed in at 72Kgs. It was late in the day and I was full clothed so knock a couple of kilos off and round it down to 70kgs puts me at 11 stone. I was quite pleased with that considering what I have weighed in the past. According to the nurse, I'm 10kgs overweight and I should try and lose that. That's 1.5 stone. I haven't been that 9.5 stone since I was a teenager for heaven's sake! Now, I know that I'm not a skinny bint and I never will be, I'm Welsh for heaven's sake, we breed proper women in Wales - good solid bones and proper curves - and yes, I could do with losing another 1/2 stone or so bu if I go down to that weight I am going to look anorexic.

Having picked myself up off the floor laughing, the nurse told me it must be right because that's what the computer says. Cue me falling of the chair laughing again! What irritates me about all this is that no account is taken of my build (heavy-boned!) nor the fact that I don't have a thyroid gland (even if I do take replacement hormones, it's not entirely as efficient as the real thing). If I was not the sane, rational person that I am, I could have walked out of there convinced I was "fat" put myself on a ridicoulous diet to lose that amount of weight and possibly start on the way down a very slippery slope. That might sound a bit dramatic but it happens to people.

So WHY are health professionals encouraging the idea that thin is good when the media gets villified for exactly the same thing?

The last day

Today is the last day that I smoke.

There, I've said it.

Trouble is, everytime I decide to give up something goes wrong, I get stressed and reach for the tobacco again. Let's see how long I can last this time. Surely I can go longer than 6 hours?

I am so tired today, I can barely think straight. There's no reason for me to be tired, I seem to have done nothing but sleep this weekend. The Royal Marsden took what felt like the best part of 1/2 a pint of blood out of me this morning at the hospital, but that shouldn't make me feel this dozy. Early night tonight.

Saturday didn't get off to the best of starts, firstly I gave up smoking. Then, Lurcher no. 2 cut his pad and bled everywhere. Again. I've only just got the blood out of the sofa cover from the last time he cut himself. Then I couldn't shut the electric driver's window on my car. With rain imminent and nowhere to park the car but on the road, I started to panic somewhat. OH took the door panel off and fiddled with this and fiddled with that, to no avail. Then 1/2 hour later I just tried it again, because you just never know and you know what? It closed! Go figure, I don't understand it. 6 hours after I gave up smoking, I started again. I haven't dared open the window again in case it does the same thing although I was later told it's probably a dry connection in the switch. Oh. OK then.

Wet and camping

It's raining. And that's about all I have to say about today.

However, I have completely forgotten to blog about the weekend before last. So as it was lovely and sunny then, I'll blog about that instead.

When OH and his siblings were growing up, they used to go off camping every summer to a field in West Sussex with a group of people from their local church (OH's parents being of good Catholic stock). The fathers (of the kids, not the religious "Fathers") would go down the weekend before they were due to leave to put up the big marquees and dig the holes for the toilets, and take down all the cooking equipment. Then off they would all troop in cars, for those that had them, and a removal lorry, for those that didn't.

For years I have been regaled with stories of the kids all running riot around the field and in the surrounding woods, of lying in the middle of the road to watch the stars, of freewheeling their bikes down the hills and a bell to call everyone for dinner. And so we went back. 20 of us packed up our tents and headed off to the same field for the weekend so that OH, his siblings and their mum could re-live their holidays of 40 years ago.

This can often turn out to be a disaster as things are often never as you remember them. But, apart from the old chapel now being a bunkhouse and everything seeming to be smaller than it was, a great time was had by all. The facilities were basic but there was a functional kitchen and just about functional toilets and showers. But it was private and the children could all run around free as birds, as could The Lurchers. We played silly games and had scary walks in the forest and we even had the bell to call us all to dinner.

No computers, no TVs, no childrens' playgound, nothing but ourselves to entertain ourselves. And we had the best time ever!

Inspired!

It's not often that I'm inspired to do something that I've seen on the internet but inspired I was by Stu's "A Photo Per Day. So, hoping that Stu will see imitation as the sincerest form of flattery, my photographic endeavours can be found here!

I've lived in these counties

I've lived in these counties

I've visited the counties in yellow. Which counties have you visited? made by marnanel map reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data by permission of the Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright 2001.

I've visited these counties

I've visited the counties in yellow. Which counties have you visited? made by marnanel map reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data by permission of the Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright 2001.

Blimey.....

....it really has been a long time since I've blogged. So long, in fact, that I can't remember what it was that was so exciting that I felt the need to mention it, without mentioning it.....if you see what I mean.

It was probably something to do with the major fund-raising effort we had for Greyhound Gap. One of our foster dogs, walking along quite happily, suddenly collapsed with a broken leg. That sort of thing doesn't really happen very often and an anxious few hours were spent waiting for the vet's opinion. Luckily, the vet deemed it repairable and £2,500 squids later we have a dog back in one piece, thanks to 17 pins and staples. We launched the fundraising appeal and within days people had pledged what was needed. Everyone pulled out all the stops and faith in human nature was well and truly restored and overflowing.

The only downside was that, as Treasurer, I was deluged everyday with sacks of envelopes containing cheques and my e-mail nearly exploded with the amount of Paypal notifications....and they're still coming in!!

On the bad news front, my car is broken. Some would say that I broke my car by letting the oil run low but I would refute that. Not only because it's such a silly, girlie thing to do and, one thing I'm not, is a silly girlie, but also because it hadn't actually run out of oil. True, it was at the "Add oil now or your car will break" line but it wasn't below it. Anyhow, the upshot was that the Turbo thingie whatsit broke. So whilst the car still goes, it sounds like a jet engine whenever I put my foot on the accelerator. As it's an old car, repairing it simply not financially viable....it would cost more than the car is worth. Sooooo....this meant I had to go and find a new car.

Whilst being quite excited at the prospect of buying a new car, the whole process actually fills me with dread. What to get? Where to get it from? What colour shall it be? And all those important things. People who sell cars seem to have this in-built radar which spots a woman at 300 paces and automatically assume they have "mug" stamped across their foreheads. I've spent hours on Autotrader trying to find something I might like, and find lots of things I liked I did but a 3 litre engine is not entirely economic for London driving. My only requirements were something big enough to take The Lurchers and all their gear (so an estate or an MPV) and air conditioning.

I got myself all geared up for a weekend spent car-hunting when I found a really lovely salesman who works from home, not a couple of miles from me. And he had a lovely shiny 5 year old Peugeot 406 estate with the required air con. Actually, it has climate control, which is just a tad swankier than air con. It also has a CD player and lots of other flashing thing that I need to figure out what they do. I have just emptied my piggy bank of all it's pennies and shall be picking up said shiny car this evening.

I'm terribly excited....again!