Showery Saturday

Well, here we are at the start of a Bank Holiday weekend so you know that the weather just has to be wet!  Only showery at the moment but plenty of dark clouds and it is suppose to deterioriate even more during the weekend. I feel sorry for all those organisations who have things planned for the Bank Holiday.

You might have been wondering where I have been.  Well, I never learn.  I had been spending far too much time on the computer and have started my neck off so I am in quite a bit of pain at the moment.  Also, I have begun the increase in my medication with some rather unpleasant side effects, the sort you do not talk of in polite society. I was warned about them but that does not make them any easier to take. At the moment my relaxed attitude to having my diabetic check at the end of next week has disappeared and I am quite uptight about it due to the way I feel right now.  Well, I can only hope that things improve in the next few days and that by next Friday I will feel a lot better and all will go well.  I could do without any more stress at the moment.

On a brighter note, we did look after Daniel yesterday or rather Mike did, bless him - he had to see to the little man because I was lying on the sofa most of the time.  Daniel was not in a smiley mood but here is the latest picture of him.  His hair looks red in this shot but it is not. He is blonde although quite a bit darker than Nathan.

Our new tree arrived yesterday afternoon and is now safely planted. A Mountain Ash that will have white blossom in the Spring (probably next year) and red berries in the Autumn. I did get a couple of shots of Mike planting it.  He did a lot of work out there yesterday, not only putting the tree in place but a good deal of weeding as well because it has been neglected so far this year due to the weather.

 

These were taken before he tackled the weeding.  The tree is a healthy looking specimen so hope it does well. When it was standing in our hall it look quite large but now outside it barely looks like a tree at all, more a large stick with a few leaves on it but it has got good soil, a couple of handfuls of fertiliser and gets plenty of sun (when it shines) so hopefully it will soon grow sturdy and I look forward to the day when birds will be singing in its branches.

I hope you will all forgive me if I do not get around to commenting on all your journals every day for a little while. I need to get my neck better and to feel generally better than I do.  I will tackle as many as I can.  It will also probably be a couple of days before I post again.  I hate missing out on you but with my medical appointment not far off now I really have to be careful and not make my neck any worse.

Well, poor old Mike has just had to dash down the garden to retrieve the washing as it has started to rain yet again.  Looks like we will be drying it inside.

Hope you all have a good weekend and I promise to read all your journals soon.

So, in keeping with the weather I will sign off with this graphic by the lovely Donna.

 

Wednesday Witterings

The first thing I want to do today is to thank Donna of  D's Designs who yesterday made a sparkly frame for my picture on All About Me and also for the stained glass window graphic that appears there.  You can find her link under my favourite sites on the right of this journal.  Big hugs to you Donna, your graphics are wonderful.

I got my blood test results back yesterday. I phoned in early afternoon only to be told to phone back in two hours as I needed to ask the nurse about them.  Full blood count fine.  Thyroid - no problems.  As suspected it did show that my blood sugars have been holding higher than they should be for the last four months despite sticking to my diet and being as active as I can.  They have decided that this means an increase in medication which I had hoped to avoid but, I suppose is a small price to pay, considering that no other problems were found.

I actually spoke to the nurse at our surgery who will be doing the diabetic check in May.  She is going to speak to the doctor about the amount of increase and whether I should take it in the morning or the evening and get back to me.  I was able to chat for about ten minutes and she has promised not to give me a hard time when I go to see her, particularly about my weight.  She knows that this is a big issue with me and that I am very sensitive about it.  She also accepted that with my agoraphobia and my age, it is not possible for me to get the exercise I used to or , indeed, that other people are able to get, but that I do my best.  So, because I hate all medical appointments, I am not exactly looking forward to it,  but I do feel more relaxed about it than I did.  I would like to thank everyone who sent me good wishes and who offered up prayers for me.  Hopefully the increase in medication will do the trick and I will start to feel much better than I have.

When I posted pictures of Nathan yesterday, I remarked how he reminded me so much of myself at that age.  Several of you agreed that there was a likeness.  I decided to dig out and old photograph of me and compare the two.  I was slightly older than Nathan at the time the picture was taken but I am  in no doubt whatsoever now that he does resemble me.  The brows are almost identical and the face shape as well I think. 

             

I had to smile this morning when I drew back the curtains. Yesterday on this very journal I did say "Bring Me Sunshine" and today lo and behold

Not sure whether it will last because the sky is not blue, more of a grey colour and often, when the morning starts as bright as this it deteriorates later.  However, it is great to sit typing my entry with bright light streaming in, the back door open  and hearing the birds singing. If it does last I shall be dashing outside later with my sun cream to just sit there and enjoy it, the gardening can wait for a while whilst I have a bask!  The weeds are happy where they are for a few more days and it is far too early to put in summer bedding. Not that any is available at the moment as everything is so far behind here and I would not risk it until all danger of frost has gone anyway.  I did not plant any seeds up this year so bedding plants will have to be bought in.  I do wish my tree would come though.  That is something I would like to get done.

Well, dear readers, I have not even had my first cup of tea yet, very unsual for me.  So, I am now off to make a nice brew and go and drink it in the garden.

Hope you all have a lovely day.

P.S.  I would like to thank everyone who has signed my guestbook so far.  Not just people I know from journals but people I do not know who have left nice comments about my journal and my family.  So heartwarming.

Swings And Roundabouts

Bring me sunshine!  Another overcast and chilly day here today and now we read in the paper that the weather is predicted to stay like this for another month. The temperatures are going to struggle to reach the mid fifties and summer, when it does, arrive is not going to amount to much.  That gives us all something to look forward to doesn't it?  Looks like my sun cream will remain on the shelf.  I cannot help but wonder why the weather is so very unseasonable  this year.  We read and hear about global warming all the time but this seems to be going the other way.  Often when there have been disasters like the Tsunami and the Asian earthquake it does change the world weather so maybe that is the answer.

We had Nathan this morning whilst Daniel went swimming. Not that I saw much of him because Mike decided to take him to the local playground.  It turned out they were the only ones there which is a shame because Nathan loves playing with other children. It was probably due to the chilly weather but Nathan enjoyed himself apart from the slide and the seesaw which he does not like at the moment.

In this second picture he looks so much like I did at that age and I can also see a lot of my Father in him.

Close by the playground which is situated in one corner of the field, Mike snapped these bushes in bloom.  How pretty they look

When they came back from the playground, Nathan made straight for the slate and chalks we bought him last week.  He remembered exactly where they were and I spent a fun twenty minutes with him drawing pictures.  He likes me to draw for him and then he rubs out the sketches with a little sponge and laughs his head off.  It must seem like magic to him watching things disappear like that and then see me put them back on again.

Becky was unable to stay on her return, not even for a cup of tea as she had to take Daniel to the clinic for his eight month check up.  It is so hard to believe he is eight months already.  So we never got to see him at all as he was strapped into the car.  However, on Friday we are having Daniel whilst Nathan goes swimming so we are looking forward to that.  Both boys love the water and it is so important to teach children to swim at the earliest possible age.

No sign of my plants arriving yet.  Probably just as well, because it is a little chilly and damp to work out in the garden.  We had thick mist last night and again this morning and now a wind is getting up.

Well, time now to go and get something sorted out for lunch. Hoping you all have a pleasant and peaceful day.

Monday Mumblings (second attempt due to AOL)

The village of Stock in Essex is a delightful place with its duckpond, its village green and its pubs.  Only the ever increasing traffic is doing anything to mar it.

The Bear pub has stood for four hundred years and has changed little of its interior.  Oak beams, low ceilings and open fireplaces. where the flames crackle in winter warming  the drinkers.  It is these fireplaces and chimneys that hold a story, a story retold by generations, a story that is hung on the pub wall for all to read

Charlie Wilson was the Ostler , one who works in the stables looking after the horses, at this old inn during the closing years of the 19th century. He was a small man and had a peculiar sideways walk, something like a crab. This strange gait earned him the nickname “Spider”. Spider had a particular party piece. He had the peculiar habit, when drunk, of crawling up the tap-room chimney and emerging, soot covered, from the fireplace of the next bar. One Christmas Eve, he climbed the tap-room chimney as usual but never emerged again. He apparently decided not to come down and just sat in a bacon curing loft at the junction of the two chimneys. It could be that Spider was taken ill or had maybe died up there but nobody knows. All pleas from the Landlord and the other customer failed. Exasperated at his not answering they lit a small fire in the grate to try and drive him out. As nothing happened they assumed that the smoke had suffocated old “Spider”. It is said they never retrieved him and his well cured remains are supposedly still up there today! His ghost, though, often descends at night. Dressed in white breeches and shiny leather boots, he does no harm, and is content to flit about the nooks and shadowy recesses of this timeless and little changed old inn. Many people have seen him, often sitting in a chair by the fire or sometimes glimpsed as a fleeting shadow from the corner of the eye.

Mike and I have visited the Bear on several occasions and it certainly does have an atmosphere about it.

Well, another gloomy and dismal day today. When will the weather improve?  It is a sobering thought that we are nearly into May and once that comes it is only four months until Autumn again.  Roll on some sunshine.    It is so quiet around here even for a Monday. No people and hardly any cars. It seems as if everyone has hibernated.

I have ordered some plants and hope they arrive this week.  One of them is a tree for our front garden to replace the one that died last year. I so long to look out of my bedroom window and see a tree.  As long as the rain keeps off so that we can get them in I shall be happy.

Before I go here are the latest pictures of Jack. He is almost four months old now.  It seems like only yesterday he was just a tiny scrap, now he is all legs and growing apace.

Wishing you a happy week, dear readers.

Soggy Sunday

Hello dear readers, glad you enjoyed my hair raising story yesterday! Some have asked have I got pictures?  No, who would want a picture of  their hair broken off and discoloured lol. There were pictures taken a couple of months later in Spain but I have put them on my journal previously and they are black and white so do not show the unusual colour and it had also grown by then.

Today is St. George's Day (the patron saint of England) although we do not have a national holiday to celebrate it. No St. Paddy's Day type celebrations for us.  Happy St. George's Day England!

                                    

               

Well, what a difference in the weather.  Yesterday I was basking in the sunshine and my skin is still glowing from it and I already have a slight tan.  I was careful because I had no sun cream in the house.  I actually sent Mike out to buy some so you can blame me for tempting fate because today we have:-

It was wonderful to be outside.  I actually went out to do some gardening but instead I ended up sitting in a chair just relaxing and drinking in the warmth of the sun and the song of the birds.  Spring has suddenly sprung.  From nothing a couple of days ago, trees in our garden are in blossom.  Here is our plum tree

And this is our Amalanchier

The leaves on this tree are copper coloured when they first appear and look stunning against the white blossom.

We did take some of the covers off the pond and tidy up the pond plants.  The rest of the time I watched a beautiful bluetit going in and out of a nest box, so we will have baby birds soon.

I have the t.v. on whilst typing this and am watching and listening to the London Marathon.  I so admire all those that take part for all the different charities, they range through all age groups and how some of them manage to finish the course in the fancy costumes they wear I do not know. Many are running in memory of those they loved and lost. Good luck to them all.

Last night I enjoyed watching Dr. Who.  I must say I like David Tennant in the role.  It is more tongue-in-cheek than it used to be but am I alone in thinking that last night's episode would have been particularly scary to children?  They must be amongst the biggest fans and I know it would have frightened the life out of me seeing something like that werewolf when I was a youngster.  Then I watched "An Audience With Coronation Street" and enjoyed that as well.  Not so much the questions which seemed very staged but all the musical numbers.  It is amazing how many of them have good voices.

As you can see I am waffling because I really do not have a lot to talk about.  Have not seen the family this weekend and it has been very quiet so I think I will disappear and have a nice

I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday.

Hair today...............

Well, you wanted to hear my hair disaster story so here goes. It is going to be a pretty long read although I have condensed it as much as I can. As I mentioned previously I started colouring my hair immediately I left school. By the time I was nineteen I had been platinum for two years. Now, I must explain, I have always had poker straight hair. I was not blessed with the waves that adorned the heads of my two older brothers. I think this annoyed my mother because by the age of ten years of age I had my first perm!

At the time the disaster happened my hair was completely straight and of medium length. I was sick of it. My friend Cathy and I had booked to go on holiday to Spain and I wanted to look different and more glamorous. Well, I certainly ended up looking different.

I decided to perm my bleached hair. Yes, I can hear all you ladies sharply drawing in your breath. Remember, I was nineteen at the time and at that age you never consider the consequences of your actions. I tried to be as careful as I could, money was tight and I was saving for the holiday, so I decided to do it myself or rather ask Cathy to do it. I scoured the shops for a perm that would be suitable for bleached hair and I found one that said it was.

One Saturday morning, my Mother being out shopping and my Father busy with work he had brought home from the office, Cathy came around and agreed to assist.

                                 

Considering she had never done hair before she was quite adept at putting in all the perm curlers. The lotion went on and we waited being careful not to overdo the time. We were chatting about the holiday and I was eagerly awaiting my new look.. The moment came and Cathy began unwinding the curlers. She went very quiet and suddenly stopped. I think she was struck speechless. I looked into the sink and saw the curlers she had removed lying there - with my hair wrapped around them! Panic is not the word. She had no choice but to remove the rest and my hair with it. What was  left was a nightmare. I looked into the mirror and saw my hair had broken off at various lengths ranging from about four inches to half an inch and not evenly. Not only that but most of it and especially the ends were a strange pinky/mauve.

I stood and cried, Cathy stood and cried, she keep apologizing as though it was her fault. I knew it was not. She had done it all by the book. By this time it was lunchtime and I heard my Mother’s key in the door. How was I going to face her? I wrapped a towel around my head and went downstairs. Our faces said it all. My mother asked me to remove the towel. She took one look, stood and screamed, that made me scream, Lord knows why and then Cathy screamed and fled without even grabbing her jacket.

We had no phone in the house in those days. Saturday afternoon, could we find a hairdresser to help in any way? My mother ran to the local phone box and made endless calls. All were fully booked except one -  a twenty minute bus journey away. I had to approach my Dad for some money. He took one look at my head and did not know whether to laugh or cry but could not say much as Mum was always doing things with her hair as well. He handed over the cash. Mum refused to come with me, taking the stance that I had got myself into this mess, I could get myself out. Maybe it would teach me a lesson.

Well, I set out on the very long walk up our road to the bus stop looking like Mata Hari. I had a scarf wound tightly around my head, dark glasses (wonder why I thought they would help?). I  had and often wore a trench coat in those days and I had the collar turned right up although it was a warm day. I must have looked very furtive standing out from all those around me who were wearing light clothing and bareheaded.  I felt the whole world was watching me.

The wait for the bus seemed endless . On the journey to the hairdresser all I could think about was what if they could not help me. I was working in the legal office in Whitehall, London. How could I face them on Monday? It would take weeks to grow out. I would be fired if I appeared like that.

The salon was above a shop and I climbed the stairs with shaking knees. Of course my mother had given them rough details but I do not think even they expected the apparition that appeared before them when I divested myself of my disguise. The place was packed and all eyes fixed on me. Some were obviously suppressing giggles and that included the stylists.

The manager himself decided to take me on. He was outrageously camp, long before the days when you could be open about it and he was also very cockney. "Oh my Gawd, duckie, what 'ave you been and gawn and done. " He plonked me down on a chair in the middle of the room and proceeded to mince around me, arms folded but with his fingers to his chin making various exclamations.  He kept breaking off to pick up various strands of my hair. "Well, we aint gotta  lot ta work wiv duckie but I fink I can 'ave you lookin' better going aht than coming in, mind you, duckie,  I 'ave to cut it all orf first." Cut it off? It was only half an inch in some places already.

                                

 (You know, dear readers, it is making me laugh  as I write this because now I have my hair exactly half an inch long all over as you know but by choice and not by accident,  so the wheel has come full circle).

Well, he may have been outrageous and my heart was in my mouth as he snipped and trimmed all the time keeping up a running commentary about "er" and "she" (meaning me) to his assistants and customers and I found myself looking like Jean Seberg from Joan of Arc, but he did get shape back into it. Then there was a very long discussion about what sort of tints he could apply to hide the pink that remained.

                                 

I am not kidding you when I say that customers whose hair was long finished and who should have gone home all decided to stay and see the outcome. I sat there like a specimen in a laboratory.

It was an agonizing wait for the tint to take and tobe honest, when it was finished I had never seen a colour quite like it and have never seen it since. It was a sort of silvery, beige/mushroom. Quite striking. In fact, some of the women said it was lovely and asked if they could have their hair that colour. "Not unless yer wanna burn your bleedin' 'air off first" said Charles creasing himself with laughter.  In fact Charles was  delighted - he positively pranced. He had invented  a new colour by mixing several tints together and was happy with his handiwork. I could not thank him enough. At least I looked human again and not something out of a horror film.

Many people stared as I went home on the bus. Not only because of the unusual colour but women then simply did not wear their hair that short. However, I was much heartened when I got some flirting from a couple of young men.

So, on the Monday morning, I determined to hold my head high and set off to work as usual. Strangely it seemed to attract more glances from men than I had ever had  before. Luckily it grew a little before I went to Spain and I found the Spaniards loved it as well judging by the number of heads I turned. I found myself very popular on that holiday and not just with Spaniards.

Not long afterwards, very short hair for women became all the rage. See, I told you I used to be a trendsetter!

Had fun writing this, hope you have fun reading it.  Have a lovely weekend.

Please sign my guestbook if you have not already done so. Thank you.

Happy Birthday Your Majesty

Our gracious Queen celebrates her 80th Birthday today.  I wish her a day filled with happiness, love and laughter.  Long may she reign over us with her dignity and charm.

                

Happy Birthday Ma'am.

Celebrating the Queen's 80th Birthday > Send a birthday greeting to The Queen

As I Was

As you know, I posted up to date pictures of me on my entry yesterday (thank you so much for your kind comments).  This got me thinking about how I used to look.  Mike has, for some time,  been going through old slides and transferring them onto the computer and he came across two taken long before I met him, when I was still living at home with my parents.

I looked at them and could hardly believe it was me.  Yes, I remember them being taken, the wonderful warm sunny day and later sitting in the garden chatting to my Mother.  I stared and stared, could that young woman really have been me? Oh how I wish I had that figure nowadays.  How time and circumstances change us.  As I looked at them I remembered so much from my youth, it was a mixture of sadness and happiness.  It was hard to reconcile that this young woman and myself today are one and the same.I looked at those pictures and then the pictures I posted yesterday and it was a bit of a shock.  But, I am so glad Mike found them and transferred them for me nonetheless.

As you can see by my hair, I was into one of my "red" phases. The quality is not great but that is to be expected. With the passing of the years the slides have altered and deteriorated just as I have:-

Several of you have asked to hear about my hair disaster, none of you remember me writing about it before and I have spent some time this morning going back through my journal just in case.  But I could find no entry concerning it so that will be coming soon.

In the meantime here is a little something for you to try.  I know you will -  oh yes you will  -  if only out of curiosity and I am going to really enjoy imagining  you all sitting at your computers and doing it!

1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles with it.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction!!!

I told you so...

There is nothing you can do about it. Make sure you pass this on to your friends... They won't be able to believe it either!!!

TTFN

Stressful Wednesday

Well, I have just come back from having my blood test.  It seemed an endless wait this morning and my stomach was churning.  The journey in the car was not too bad but when I got into the surgery, it was like a blast furnace, so unhealthy an environment and I could imagine all the germs having a grand old time multiplying in there.  When I was called in it was not the usual sister and she promptly announced that she had not taken blood for years!  You can imagine the effect this had on me.  She fiddled around trying to find a vein (nobody else has ever had any problems) and eventually managed to extract a couple of phials.  I pointed out they usually take three but she said it would have to do because that was all the bottles they had!  They rarely take blood at my surgery now. Everyone is sent off to a clinic elsewhere but I always panic when I get there because it is so crowded and you have to wait in a long queue.  My own doctor suggested that I had it done at the surgery instead.  Pity he did not know about their shortage of bottles.  I was pretty stressed out by it all and although I achieved it, when I got home, I promptly burst into tears.

I have to wait until next week for the results and if the sugars do show as being too high over a long period, will then have to see the doctor again about increased medication.  I have also been booked in for a full diabetic check in the first week of May so I have all that hanging over my head because I know they will go on about my weight.  There is not much I can do, I stick to my diabetic diet, try and do as much as I can around the house but being agoraphobic I cannot get out and do the walking exercise that everyone else can.  The trouble is they have never truly accepted this down at my surgery.  One of my doctors does not believe there is such a thing as agoraphobia and the other feels that I could do things if I really wanted to.  They should walk a mile in my shoes (no pun intended) that would soon change their minds.

Anyway, enough of that there is absolutely no use whining about something I can do little to change. I can only hope the blood tests results are not too bad and I can get through the half hour diabetic check.

At least going out gave me the opportunity to wear my lovely jacket that I bought over a year ago. This is only the second time I have worn it.

                    

I made a momentous decision (for me) a few weeks back.  No more peroxide on the hair, no more platinum blond! Two reasons really , the first being that they had stopped making the brand I used and secondly I always hated the smell of peroxide and the fumes getting in my eyes and nose.  Now, this is a big decision for me because I have been colouring my hair since I was sixteen years old!  I have never been my natural colour since then.  Name a colour  - I have been that colour, all shades of blond, all shades of red and all shades of brown including almost black.

I was a punk long before the word was ever invented.  At one time I worked near a lot of theatrical places in London and I used to go into the theatrical make-up establishments where I could buy silver, pink, green or blue sprays to go on my hair.  I used to regularly spray streaks at the front.  Hard to believe, as I am now, that I was once something of a rebel and a trendsetter.

I only ever had one real disaster with my hair.  Did I ever tell you about that?  I have done so many entries on here that it is hard to remember whether I have or have not.  It was something I will never forget!   Perhaps some of my long time readers will know whether I ever wrote that story.  If not, perhaps you would like to hear?

Becky clips my hair and I do mean clip.  For around five years no scissors have never been used on my barnet fair. No, for me it is clippers like they use on men.  My hair is really really short, much shorter now than in the picture up in All About Me. Half an inch all over except for the front. So, at the moment, I am sort of two-tone as my hair is white at the front (but still a little bleach left) and salt and pepper at the back. The only thing is that I feel that having very short hair draws more attention to my size  - we always wonder how others view us but I am getting to old to care what other people think.

Does it make me feel older?  Not really.  There is nothing to be ashamed of in age and experience.  Less glamorous maybe but who knows, I can always use a hair colourant again if I feel like it, maybe a semi-permanent.  At the moment I am just happy with it as it is.  I cannot turn back the years so I thought it was time for the real me (hair) to emerge.

This morning, before, we left home, Mike took a couple of snaps of me. I am not a great lover of having my picture taken but at least you can see my short hair and judge for yourselves.

Do not forget to remind me about my hair disaster story.

Now, dear readers,  I am off for a well deserved cup of tea!

Hope you all have a good day