wagwaan?

Before I went on holiday I stopped off at Waterstones and got me some "Buy 3 for the price of 2" paperbacks. The first one I got stuck into was unputdownable so I finished it in double-quick time. Luckily, this is one that my mum didn't have already, so she started it after me and it was wonderful to see her laugh out loud while reading...

Yes, it was Dawn French's autobiography, "Dear Fatty"

It's written in the form of letters to loved ones (both in real life and fantasy) and "Fatty" actually refers to her partner-in-crime Jennifer Saunders.  If you want to get a flavour of the book, click on that link and check out the "Look inside" feature. It's well worth the read.   More anon.

 

Riots are nothing new

I've been thinking about this cartoon since the rioting began, and just had to find it for you. It's the cartoon in the Sunday paper that my dad used as an excuse to talk to the beautiful young girl sitting opposite him in the Paris Metro carriage. Yes, that's how my parents met. 

 

source

So you see, there is nothing new under the sun, is there? In fact, when I went to see if there were indeed riots in Paris in 1952, I found this list on Wikipedia, dating back to the year 44 BC!   (strangely, no mention of those Paris riots I was looking for....)

Another trip down memory lane

I thought I'd go back and have a look at my old blogspot blog. Here's an entry from 2005, especially for Claire:

Monday, October 03, 2005

Ever heard of McFly?

 

Claire and her friends Roisin and Krystal went to Wembley last night to see their fave band of the moment, McFly. Oh the excitement! Claire couldn't wait. The tickets had been booked since March and she had been counting down the days.Their seats were in row 20 so they got a pretty good view :) They met up at our house, got a taxi to Watford met station, and then the underground to Wembley Park. I called at about 7.15pm and Claire was already inside, with screaming girls all around. There were two supporting acts, and then a break, and the boys came on at 8.45pm. It seems they put on a great show, and many photos were taken (there were even boys in the audience, apparently....). Claire phoned me on her mobile when they played "Obviously, she's out of my league, la la la" but all I could hear was screaming. Just like the Beatles!! Krystal's mum, my friend and colleague Leslie, picked them up at the Tube station and they got home around 11.45pm. Roisin stayed over, but they were too excited to sleep much I expect. I got up around 7am and they were already up, so I went back to bed and put the alarm on for 8am, so when I got up they had gone to school. Wonder how tired they'll be?

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I have to say, I never imagined that McFly would still be going strong in 2011, did you?

Why the face?

This is specially for those of you who were shocked by my previous post..... See below (16 second) clip of Phil Dunphy from Modern Family explaining text speak.

 

  

 

Ha ha Caro!!  

Silly pusscat

It's official - Lyle is the softest, soppiest, scarediest cat of them all.  To avoid the other cats of the neighbourhood coming in through the catflap we've had to make it one-way only so he can get out to do his business, but can't get back in. Except he got a bit fed-up of waiting for us to let him in so he found out a way of lifting the flap by digging his claws into the rubber seal round the flap and pulling it up enough to get his nose under, and then he pushes his way in. Oh he's clever, I'll give him that. The OH reckons that if he can learn that, then so can the other cats, but that's where he's wrong: Lyle has the advantage that we've held the flap up for him from the inside, so he's learned how to do it. Naturally, the other cats will push and push at the flap and it won't open inwards, so I hope they'll get bored and go away.

However, this hasn't stopped other cats coming into his territory. In particular a very sweet looking black and white cat. The first time I looked out and saw him (her?) staring straight at me through the window, I "shooed" and knocked on the glass and he didn't budge. I opened the window and waved my arms at him, still to no avail. I had to go out into the garden to shoo him away.  Meanwhile, Lyle was sitting by the back door looking terrified.   

Since then, it's happened time and time again. Lyle sits near the house, and B&W cat sits in the garden facing him. They have a staring competition - it's a stand-off. But Lyle doesn't chase him away, oh no. He holds his ground, but I reckon if B&W cat made a move, Lyle would come running back into the house full-tilt. 

I even wondered if maybe B&W cat was trying to say "I want to play with Lyle", so I went out to see if I could interact with him. He gets wary when I come close, and runs away, so I'm no nearer finding out if my hunch is correct.  He doesn't seem aggressive, as I would expect with a cat who wants to muscle in on someone else's territory. I reckon he knows there's lots of love and cuddles and food in this house, and he wants to join the party!

I'll get a photo up asap so you can see what I mean.....

Sweet Sunday

I do love Sundays. Even now I'm not working there is something especially laid back about the Sabbath. For once, Claire had the day off, so we were all home at the same time which was nice.  Claire was terribly energetic and went out for a power walk, stopping by the small Tesco on her way home to bring us fruit. As for me, the most energetic I got was cooking dinner. I had ordered a large chicken last time we had a grocery shop, and I had defrosted it for today's lunch. In the end, though, we didn't have it till tonight, and the boy suggested I cut it up so that I could use the George Foreman instead of roasting it in the oven. He's a clever one :)    I "flung" in some spices and seasoning and left it marinading in a bowl until this evening, and the grill cooked it all to perfection. There's plenty left for tomorrow's lunches too.  

Otherwise, it was a nice lazy day, spent reading and listening to music, and staying in the warm instead of going out in the intense drizzle that came down all day. The only downside to that is that there are no pictures to spice up the blog. Well, you can't have everything.

I really feel like I'm turning a corner now. No, really, I do - AT LAST!  I feel like my cognitive issues are fading, and I seem to have more energy (although I won't say that tooooo loud because that's usually when I come crashing down again).  I still forget stuff, but then who doesn't?  And I say silly things sometimes, but then Claire, who was reading through an old blog of hers, tells me that I said "oh look - it's written in blind" (instead of braille) a full year before my aneurysm :)   I also said something about making a Valentine's banner when it was Hallowe'en, so you see - crazy is normal for me.  Oh, and I distinctly remember this exchange from when Claire was a tween, shouted up the stairs at her:

Me - If you don't tidy your room you'll get no homework!

Claire - Cool!

Me - What did I say? 

Claire - You said homework!

Me - I meant POCKET MONEY!!

See? I would say I'm pretty much back to normal if those exchanges are anything to go by...

To celebrate this good news, I'm finally re-organising that special birthday party that got cancelled last year. You know, the one with a "0" in it.  I've booked the hall over at the Community Centre and started getting the word out, and it's a "bring a dish" party, to celebrate what will be one year post-SAH. I'm not a party person but I'm really looking forward to it. Just need to get my ass in gear and print out some invites. After that, there's no looking back - it's onwards and upwards and maybe, just maybe, I'll stop mentioning the SAH on here. Well, I still fully intend to run a support group for other people who've been through the same thing, so I'll no doubt mention that, but I really want to turn the page and move on and "forget" it ever happened to me.  Sounds like a plan.

Right, that's enough waffle. I'll sign off now. Have a great week everyone!

Come on Spring!

Don't know about you, but all this grey is getting me down. I usually quite like winter - but the winter I like is frosty with clear blue skies, not all dismal and dark. Plus, it's really hard to get any decent light to take pictures at the moment.  Not that I'm complaining, you understand, I just wish I had some pretty photos to put on this here blog...

To cheer myself up, when I went into town with Claire the other day we stopped by the Oxfam shop because she needs to find a proper hanging wardrobe. Anyway, I was browsing the shelves and came across some pretty blue plates - four side plates and two soup bowls. At first I thought they were from a set, but actually the smaller ones are "lupin petal" by Grindley and the larger are "Greydawn" by Johnson Bros.  From the marks on the base, I've dated the Grindley ones to the fifties, but I can't see when Greydawn was made.  I love them... and they only cost a few pence!   

I just snapped them with the iPhone because I can't find the cable to upload from the SLR. Much as I like the iPhone for convenience, the camera on it really isn't any great shakes.  

Changing the subject, we've been having a great laugh by reading the funnies on damnyouautocorrect dot com. If you have an iPhone you'll understand!   Although Claire and I both said we read our texts before pressing send, this is an exchange that happened yesterday morning. Claire was feeling frustrated by the frequency of the company conference calls she has to attend (like, EVERY. DAY. sometimes several times a day!)

Well, it made me laugh anyway. Especially as I credit Jack Canfield for boosting my self-esteem when I was a young woman :D

Right, I can't sit here all day yapping. Got things to do. Hope you are keeping well where you are! 

 

 

Lolcat

Here's my very own "lolcat".  He could be saying "I can has cheezburger?" but as it was breakfast it's more "I can has coffee too?" (says Claire).  Love him to bits!!

Isn't it typical? I was totally exhausted this afternoon, but having stayed up to watch Medium, I'm now fully awake :(   As I have a translation to finish proofing, I've decided to do it now in the hope it makes me sleepy again, hence I'm at the computer at this late hour.  So, off I go. Nite nite all :)

Coming to terms with things

Today I had a very interesting chat with the psychologist at the neuro-rehab place. She had planned to start doing the assessment tests for memory, concentration etc, but first she wanted to revisit my problems with fatigue. It was so reassuring to hear that what I'm going through is text book after brain trauma - I'm not imagining it, I'm not a wimp. She says I'm too hard on myself, and puts me in the category of "high achiever, perfectionist", which allegedly makes it even harder to come to terms with the fact that I simply can't do what I used to be able to do. She reassured me that this is TEMPORARY, which is a relief!  I know I've always been extremely hard on myself, and now I compare myself to others who are worse off and think "come on girl, get on with it".  I must remember, though, that this is not an either/or situation: it's not because I didn't end up with outward neurological problems (hemiplegia for example) that I'm completely ok. There is a long way to go yet, and in the same way that no one was able to tell us how my mum would be or how long it would take, no one can tell how long it will take me. 

So there you have it: I have to be GENTLE on myself. I must stop thinking I can do two activities in one day (i.e. yesterday, the gym AND Slimming World), because if I continue to do so I'll have more and more days where I spend the morning in bed recovering, like I did this morning. And that's only going to push back my recovery.

I think the most frustrating aspect of this is that there seems to be no warning sign, no way of telling when you've done too much. One minute you are fine and coping, and the next you are felled like a tree. 

Anyway, I don't want to turn this into a whiny blog, so here's a funny picture to cheer everyone up. Claire and me, Christmas 1991. She calls it her "chipmunk face"!

   

Aww!

And one of my favourite adverts. Have I posted this before? Excuse me if I have. It features one of the guys who was in Band of Brothers, and it's like a war movie, with all the pilots getting ready to go off on a raid. I love it, it's so tongue in cheek!

 

Best stuff on TV

Just a quick post to show you a couple of things that are making me smile these days. First, an excellent excerpt of House MD which had me in hysterics the other day. Can you say karaoke? Can you even IMAGINE Dr  House singing karaoke??  I can't remember the storyline (you know, me and my short-term memory loss), but just watch this. And enjoy.

And then my absolute fave advert at the moment. Watch till the end and just listen to that cute kid....

 

If you Google "oreo advert" you can see the same advert with Chinese kids and Filipino kids. Sweet!