I've been a bit busy the last few days.

It seems when I wrote my last post I was already in labour, but didn't realise. I woke up at 4:30am on Friday 20th with a sharp pain, I was half asleep so thought I was just desperate for the loo. When I crawled back into bed 7 minutes again and got another sharp pain I realised what was happening.

I woke Porl and told him to get the last few things for the hospital bag pack while I phoned the labour ward. Even though my contractions were only 7 minutes apart I was concerned because for the past couple of days I'd been leaking, I suspected it was my waters, but because I had no contractions I thought it might also have been that the fall had ruined my pelvic floor muscle and the babies head pushing on my bladder was making me wee all the time. (So embarrassing I felt like an old women!) Thankfully (sort of) it was my waters.

Anyhow the hospital said to come in immediately as if my waters had broken 2 days earlier they'd have to induce me come the morning anyway.

Its a good job we hurried. We were at the hospital by 5am my contractions had gone down to 4-5 minutes apart, and I was 4 cm dilated.

I was using the gas & air, but I'd only had 1.5 hours sleep so they gave me some pethedine too. Unfortunatly I had to be hooked up to monitors the whole time as baby wasn't moving much. At 11:30 they decided that if I hadn't delivered by midday they'd try forceps or ventouse.

I work well with deadlines.

At the stroke of midday I gave birth to a 7lb 1oz baby girl who we have named Bryher, after this place
.

She was whipped away as she had been in a bit of distress due to a knot in her cord, but a bit of suction and she was fine. I had a quick cuddle, then passed her onto Porl while they sorted me out, I was bleeding quite heavily. I got to hold her again at 12:15 and by 12:20 she was breastfeeding.

It feels like she's been feeding ever since. When babies are weighed on their 3rd day they are expected to have lost 10% of their birth weight, she had put on 3ozs!

She's very contented, in the hospital I thought it was due to the pethidine, but she's been the same since she came home, she's feeding brilliantly, sleeping for relatively long periods, and if I manage to shut my brain off a little I might sleep too.

I'm quite sore, and very tired, but that's to be expected.

I've still not quite got over the shock of having a little girl. For 9 months I've been convinced she was a boy.

P.S. It's so good having a friend who's a professional photographer :)

I had an activity pencilled in my diary for today.
It doesn't seem to have come about though... yet.

So in lieu of other news, here's what a very pregnant lady might do in the last couple of weeks of pregnancy to stop herself twiddling her thumbs.

She may decide to knit a toy sheepie. (Which looks very cute from the front but slightly alien like from the side.)

She could spend a day sanding down an old blanket box.

Then spend another day staining and putting several layers of wax polish on it.

Or she could spend a few hours cutting out lots and lots of circles, then many more hours sewing them up with the eventual intention of making a mobile.

I highly recommend this last one as an ongoing project. It takes very little thought, can be picked up and put down easily, and will hopefully replace my need for "magazines" in my hospital bag. Most magazines drive me nuts, and when the time comes I don't think I'll have the ability to concentrate for long enough to read a book.

My top tip for late pregnancy... Don't fall off chairs.

Yesterday afternoon I leant back on my computer chair and the back snapped. I just managed to keep upright but by the end of the day I was in a lot of pain. A decent nights sleep hasn't made it any better. I feel like I've got whiplash. Add that to the pain and discomfort of being 39+6 days pregnant and it makes for one particularly uncomfortable Celeste.
Twitch was very active after my little incident, and I hoped it might prompt it to put in a slightly early appearance. No such luck, and I'm now hoping the back and neck pain disappear before I go into labour.

So that now makes 1 chair, and 1 bed I've broken whilst pregnant... the bed was not my fault though, it hadn't been put together properly so could have fallen apart when anyone sat/slept on it. It was just unfortunate it was me.

We saw the midwife yesterday, (before I fell off the chair) Twitch's head is 2/5ths engaged again and she doesn't expect me to need the hospital appointment on the 26th. I pointed out I hadn't been expected to make this midwife appointment when it was booked a fortnight ago. :/
I'm wondering whether this baby knows that tomorrow (its due date) is also the date its cousin was meant to have been born last year. She decided to hold on for another week until the 26th, which is the date I have to go to the hospital, so maybe this little one is holding out for a shared birthday.
Right now that seems like a good idea. My back should have recovered by then... and I'll have finished reading Harry Potter :)

Does batch cooking count as part of the nesting instinct?
We have 5 Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni's, (made with pancakes instead of pasta.)
6 Vegetable Lasagnes
3 Meat Lasagnes.

Porl and I have made these over the past couple of days. They would have been all made in one day were it not for the fact I had a disaster with the pasta sheets for the cannelloni, which resulted in running out of pasta for the lasagne.
Thankfully Mum reminded me that cannelloni is delicious with pancakes instead of pasta. Although I think she came up with that idea because on the few occasions she's had lasagne she thinks the pasta tastes like pancakes. (?!)

I've spent the last week trying to relax a lot, when I haven't been relaxing Porl has usually been telling me to sit down and relax.
Monday we had our last parent craft class one of the topics which came up was what happens when you get induced. I'm now even more certain I don't want inducing on my 30th.
When we got back on Monday night I started getting period like pains, and back ache. No contractions though.
Tuesday we had a Midwife appointment, I told her about the pains and she seemed quite excited and told me it all sounded good, and she suspected I might not make it to the 19th. She was even confident enough about it that she double booked my next appointment which will be on the 17th.

So we'll see. I'm still getting a lot of period type pains and back ache, but no contractions, I haven't even noticed any Braxton-Hicks contractions (practice ones for those not clued up on pregnancy lingo) but then not all first time Mums notice them.

Twitch is fidgeting a lot, but then it always fidgets a lot so I'm not sure if it's more than normal. For weeks it's been laid sort of sideways, with it's spine towards my right side, so the legs and arms are on my left hand side, bum and feet under my ribs. Every so often it does a big stretch, sticking it's bum out, and trying to straighten its legs and arms at the same time.
My bump isn't very big, (people think I look about 6 months pregnant, not 8.5) but these stretches make my bump go square, and it grows sideways by about a 3rd.

Also... It flipping hurts!

If Twitch does this when Porl is around it gets a telling off, and instructed that the way out is down, not up through my ribs. :)
I've tried poking it to make it stop, but it pokes back. :/

You do crafts dear, which are inherently messy things to do.

As Porl once said to me about my inability to keep my desk tidy.
This is my excuse for not having taken any pictures of my lovely new craft space. I moved all things up there, and got everything organised, then I started making cards, so the craft corner is a working mess.

I'm not generally a card making person, however I hate giving money to Hallmark etc, so I do try to make my own cards for Christmas, birthdays and other Hallmark holidays. The current lot of cards are just blank notelets as I'm sure they'll be useful at some point very soon.

For friends wanting baby related news, we went for our 36 week scan on Thursday. The news was very good. I'm all set for the natural birth with gas, air and a big bouncy ball that I want. Thankfully my placenta has shifted, and I won't be needing a caesarean. It's a huge relief, I really, really didn't want surgery. They are still being serious about the (very mild) latex allergy though, so in between screaming for pain relief I've also got to remember to scream at them to put on their blue gloves.
I wonder if I'll remember? Or be bothered?

It was nice to see bump again, we didn't get any pictures as it was laid awkwardly, and it's far too big to fit on one image now, but the sonographer was able to give us a pretty good look at the face by manoeuvring the scanner cleverly. Only about 3.5 weeks till we see the real thing.
All the measurements were done again, and even though everyone keeps telling me I'm looking very small (which I admit I'm relishing, I've never been thought of as small before, I'm short and plump,) but the baby is smack bang in the middle of all the growth charts. I'm hoping the fact I haven't put on much weight means I'll lose it again fairly easily, and maybe even lose some of the excess I had before too. If that turns out to be the case then I wish I'd got pregnant years ago, and I might have to consider having several more babies so I can end up waif like :)
Or maybe not...

Typical! Yesterday I finally got the urge to post, and I couldn't get onto blogger. Better luck today I hope.

It's just under 5 weeks to go until the big day, not that I'm expecting this baby to be punctual, its mother never is.
I did my last shift at work yesterday, and my maternity leave officially starts tomorrow. Just in time, I do actually feel pregnant now, I've been feeling great most of the time, but this past week I've been feeling achy and tired again, I also have a tendency to waddle when I walk. At 35 weeks pregnant it's to be expected though, I'm just pleased I've had it so easy so far. I've finally got my head around the fact that in the next few weeks I'll have a baby to look after, but it's not quite sunk in yet that I don't have to go to work for the next 9 months.
9 months! That's aaages!
I bet I'll not be thinking that next March.

My hospital bag is all packed and other than buying nappies (we're going to get reuseables) and getting a baby monitor we have everything ready for this baby. I'd quite like it to arrive early as I'm getting impatient to meet it now, and I'd like to be feeling vaguely settled before my 30th birthday comes around 12 days later. I've also forgotten what it feels like to be able to sit for 5 minutes or eat something without my belly moving. I thought babies were supposed to move less towards the end of pregnancy as they ran out of space. This one is proving the exception to the rule.

If the baby is early though it'll rule out going to my old school reunion in a fortnight. I would really like to go, but I'm already getting to the stage where the idea of straying far from home, and more importantly, the hospital, is a bit daunting.

We've been busy sorting out the house. Well, our parents have. My Mum and Dad have created a gorgeous new bedroom with a crafty corner for me, and the nursery although still waiting for a few finishing touches (cushion covers and pictures) looks fantastic. Porls Dad has been working on solving the leaky shower problem, and in the next few weeks he's offered to repair the kitchen lights (we've been cooking in semi darkness for months) and also to put us in an outside tap, my pots and baskets have had to be severely limited this year because I'm not up to carrying watering cans. Here's pictures of half our new bedroom, but I'll have to tidy the crafty corner and the nursery up before taking pictures of them.

Wow another post in April!
I'm hoping the nesting instinct has started to kick in. Today I cleared my desk, and for the first time in months I can actually see the top of it. Other cleaning has also happened in the past week or so too, we've Freecycled the surplus furniture from our spare room, and we're ready to start decorating and building wardrobes next week.

It's turned out to be rubbish timing though as within days of getting rid of the spare double bed I started with what I thought was hayfever (it probably was a bit) but turned out to be a stinking cold. At night I've been sniffling, snoring, & coughing. I can't get comfy because of either my bump, achy ribs, achy hips, or heartburn, and poor Porl hasn't been able to escape to a spare bed. For the record, he snores too, and hopefully mine will stop when the cold goes... or maybe not :/

The nesting instinct might also have triggered my craftyness again too. All I've done craft wise for months is cross-stitch, but Net posted about some badges she'd made and they inspired me to get my badge machine out. I've only made 3, but it's a start, and it's not cross-stitch.
Now I just need someone to inspire me to take photos of things. Maybe next post.

We've also had cat antics this week.
Saturday night Gonzo hobbled in on 3 legs. He'd done something to his left back paw, we checked it thoroughly but couldn't see any wounds and it looked and felt normal, he was also putting it on the floor but was obviously painful. We didn't have much option but to wait and see how he was on Monday before deciding whether he needed to see the vet.
By Sunday morning his paw and lower leg were swollen to about twice their normal size, he wasn't putting it down, and he was very very quiet (but still eating of course.) By Monday he was much more like himself, he still wasn't putting his paw down, but the swelling was going down so we decided we'd get away without the expense of the vets, or trauma of a car journey.
The last time the cats went in the car was when we moved house, it was a traumatic, loud and smelly couple of hours for both them and us.
Wednesday morning the swelling was almost gone and Gonzo was walking pretty much normally. He was also able to escape from the garden on his supervised toilet trips. He got away from me briefly in the morning, then had a longer adventure in the afternoon when he escaped from Porl but a neighbour managed to lure him back to our house.
Then Wednesday night Porl phoned me at work to say we had to get Gonzo to the vets as he had a wound on the top of his paw about the size of a penny piece.
The soonest anyone could see us was Thursday afternoon. Thankfully although he was loud in the car there were no unpleasant accidents. The vet was lovely, and Gonzo was very good. (Terrified into submission by all the dogs he could smell and hear, even though we went to a different waiting room.)
We think Gonzo had probably had a small wound which got infected causing the swelling, but the swelling got so bad that it ruptured the skin causing wounds on both the top and bottom of his paw *eurgh* So the swelling went down very quickly, but left nasty wounds. He's got a couple of types of tablets and orders to stay inside for a few days.
Hopefully we've sussed out how to get the tablets down him without argument (the technique vets show you about prising the jaws open and rubbing the throat till they swallow doesn't work with Gonzo, he's big, strong, and has claws.) I bought some potted meat, I cover the tablet with it, and Gonzo eats them... so far anyway.
Now we just have to suss out how to keep Gonzo from miaowing constantly because he wants to go outside.
His foot better heal soon!

Hi, still here, honest. My life at the moment seems to revolve around work, and getting ready for the blips arrival and I didn't really want to bore everyone with the little day to day details this involves. So just one update instead, and I haven't a clue when the next will be.

Blip and myself are both doing well. We're 24 weeks and 5 days today. We had another visit to see the midwife today to check me out and listen to the heartbeat again. No problems with either of us. Blip seems to have inherited its fathers twitchy leg (for those who don't know Porl he has a habit of playing an imaginary drum kit if he has to sit for very long). The Blip also seems to be constantly fidgeting and kicking, which is a lovely reassuring sensation, except when I'm trying to go to sleep.
If only I could swaddle it now.

I'm getting quite big, well I feel quite big, but people have said I'm still relatively small for 5 months. That's fine by me, hopefully blip is using up some of the surplus weight I had before getting pregnant. Also I'm guessing that while my bump stays small I'm likely to have more energy, and I've got lots still to do (decorating etc.) so I need energy.
Not that the bump isn't getting a bit unwieldy. I keep walking into things, and I have think first before bending over. I suspect in a few weeks I'll be having to get the guys I look after to fasten my shoe laces instead of me fastening theirs.

As well as seeing the midwife today we also had a visit to see an anaesthetist. When I had my 20 week anomaly scan they told me the placenta was low, hopefully it's nothing to worry about, the midwife described it as "like drawing a dot on a balloon", so as I get bigger the placenta should move. I'm not concerned, especially as all my medically qualified friends have shrugged it off as nothing to worry about, I'm just looking forward to having an extra scan at 36 weeks.
But if the placenta doesn't move, then it means I may have no option but to have a c-section (which I really really really don't want.) This slight chance of surgery made the hospital think a little more carefully about my possible latex allergy, hence the trip today to see the anaesthetist.
I had RAST (general allergy) tests and latex allergy tests done a few years ago because of my job. I never saw the results but I was told the RAST tests were very high, (I'm allergic to lots of things, no surprise there.) The latex tests were apparently inconclusive, but it was probably best to avoid it.
Great, it meant I get to wear funky blue or purple gloves at work, but it didn't actually tell me whether I was allergic to latex, which makes me look a bit of a fool when talking to doctors about the possible implications of surgery. "I think I'm allergy to latex." "Have you ever had a reaction?" "Erm... no, but I had some tests done which didn't say much but the hospital told me to wear special gloves."
Thankfully I managed to get copies of the old test results and it turns out I am allergic to latex, but only slightly. At least I know now, and the hospital can get to work writing "LATEX ALLERGY" all over my notes.

The anaesthetist did wind me up a little by telling me I would be having surgery. I tried pointing out I was only seeing him as a precaution, he disagreed, and I decided to ignore him as he'd only just met me and only spent 2 minutes reading my notes. Porl spotted the look in my eyes and we had the "surgery, last resort" conversation as soon as we left the room.

So that's about it. I've got another week and a half of proper work, then I start doing part time hours to use up my annual leave. That means the clearout / decorating / re-organising will start in earnest. I've already Freecycled a few boxes of junk. Emmaus will get the bigger things like the bed and wardrobe, because they have a van and strong men who are probably used to carrying things up and downstairs. Once they are gone Dad will have space to start building our new built in wardrobes, and Mum and I can paint.

Now though I'm exhausted from all this typing so it's time for my nightly dose of Gaviscon, and off to bed.

What's the chances of me updating again before this baby arrives?

Still pottering along, life is still good, but I'm still finding it hard to get the motivation to update (sorry Ormskirk lurkers, I'd make sure you knew if there was any interesting news.)
I've been trying to redesign the site a bit, especially as I realised that my "about" page is terribly out of date (I haven't worked for that phone company for over a year now, and I'm 29) but even getting motivated to do this seems hard, and I've not published anything yet. I'm hoping a redesign will make me happier with the site and I'll want to write often.

I have been doing some things though. The other weekend I went along to a members day at the spinning guild and had a great day getting to grips with my wheel. With some advice from Ali I managed to spin a fair amount without the yarn breaking all the time. I think one of my problems was confidence, but also since I've got home I've realised the sofa is too low and I can't keep the wheel spinning, so a change of chair and everything seems to be working. When I've spun some more and tried out plying I'll take some pictures.
The next day I went off to the G-Mex to the knitting and stitching show. I managed to restrain myself and only bought a set of coloured Susan Bates crochet hooks. I can't resist pretty colours. I saw quite a lot of yarn I wanted to buy, but they only seems to have 1 hank of each left, so next time I know to go on the Friday instead of the Sunday.

The Blip is doing well, I've definitely got a bump now and I've been feeling it moving for about 2 weeks, very early for a first time Mum apparently, but that sensation is definitely not indigestion.
We had an appointment with the Midwife a couple of weeks ago and got to hear Blips heartbeat. Porl keeps walking round the house making the "woog woog woog" sound.
I however have read that it can probably hear us now so I've taken to singing more... Porl is not impressed :)

The les fun bits are that my energy levels are beyond erratic. Some days I feel great, others days I'm fit to drop 2 hours after getting up. I find the gibberish I talk when I'm tired very amusing though, Porl just tells me to go to bed. I just wish he'd ban me from cooking when I'm tired, I never want to tackle anything more challenging than toast, but I must have burnt about half a loaf of bread so far.

I've also started having problems with my back too. I knew it was bound to happen, I've a dodgy back anyway, but I thought I'd be okay for a few more months. I've had some very restless nights and by tea time yesterday every movement hurt. I've booked a doctors appointment and I'm going to beg for physio. Last time I had physio it took 14 weeks for an appointment (well it would have if work hadn't helped me queue jump,) so if I ask now I might get some before the end of my pregnancy. I'm doing the exercises I was given last time, but my body has changed so much these past few weeks that I'm worried I might be doing more harm than good. Also some of the exercises will become physically impossible as I get bigger.

We've also been making plans for the nursery (sorry, having a nursery seems so grown up.) We're going to swap the bedrooms around so that we are in the biggest room. This means the baby won't have to live with things like amps and boxes of material, it also means I'll have space in our room for a dedicated craft corner. There's a lot of sorting and decorating to be done first but I'm so excited! If I wasn't banned from lifting things I'd have been getting stuck into it already.

Apparently last week was National De-Lurking Week. In honour of this I feel it is only right to de-lurk from my own blog.

Life here is pottering along quietly and on the whole well. I had my first scan on Thursday, the little Blip is definitely a baby (the hospital even labelled the scan picture for me... just in case I wasn't sure.) Blip is doing well, it's now 7cm long from bum to head, which means I'm 13 weeks pregnant, and due on the 19th July, a week later than I thought.
This means that Blip is due to appear on exactly the same day my niece was due to appear last year... not that she did. Also the midwife told me that if Blip hasn't appeared 12 days after my due date they'll induce me... which would mean I'd be spending my 30th birthday giving birth.
I can't decide whether that would be good or bad. A baby will be The Best birthday present, there'd be lots of drugs available, (for me at least), but I suspect I'll not be handing out invites and party hats may be banned.

Here's the piccie anyway.

I couldn't believe how big a relief it was to get the scan done and to see the little heartbeat. I've been having a few problems, nothing too bad, but enough to make me worry, and to have the doctor/midwife/boss/family/everyone telling me to slow down. That's easy to say, but I've been feeling so lethargic that if I slow down much more I'll become indistinguishable from the sofa. Another thing which wasn't helping my panicky state of mind was that other than being exhausted I've had no other pregnancy side effects for about 3 weeks. The queasiness passed after about 2-3 weeks of suffering, and for 3 weeks except for being tired, and having an occasional stomach pain I felt fine, I didn't feel pregnant. Most normal people would be happy about that, but until the scan it was just something else to worry about.
Thankfully I hadn't been having bad dreams... until the night before the scan, and then it was so silly it didn't worry me anyway. I dreamt that I'd miscarried, nothing unusual for a pregnant woman there, but I wonder how many pregnant women dream that their miscarried child is made from some odd rubbery material with a magnetic backing?... probably only crafters.

On the crafting front there's been very very little going on. I've been feeling so lethargic that I just haven't had the energy or enthusiasm for anything. If I'm not in work you can usually find me sat on the sofa, watching some brain-destroying rubbish on telly while working away on my "Frederick the Literate" cross-stitch. The cross-stitch is coming on well, over half done now, but I can feel the telly making me stupider by the day.
My crafting mojo better return soon or I might end up watching Jeremy Kyle!

Hello!

Sorry for the apparent disappearance from the face of the earth, especially after all the lovely comments everyone left. I seem to have spent the past few weeks either working, sleeping, or in the den I've created on my sofa with a warm blanket, a good novel, (or baby related info), rubbish TV, occasionally some beads, and sometimes a cat or two.

So far I'm thinking myself quite lucky that I've not really had morning sickness. Tea-time and middle of the night queasiness, but nothing in the morning. I've also discovered that lashings of ginger ale and the odd ginger biscuit work wonders too. Although I've managed to keep the sickness at bay so far, I haven't managed to do the same with all the bugs going round. I seem to have had a constant cold for the past 4 weeks, it came to a head this week when it finally kicked off my asthma so I've had to have a couple of days off work. I'm feeling mostly better, still exhausted, and most of the time my brain feels like it's been replaced by mushy peas, but I'm back in work tomorrow, and just trying to focus on the fact I have 3.5 more shifts before I get a week off. It'll be a hectic week though as I've done absolutely nothing Christmas related, so they'll be shopping, decorating, visiting, and maybe some baking to do too... or maybe not.

I did have other things I wanted to say, but unfortunately my brain has wandered again, and the mushy peas are back, the rest will have to wait, though hopefully not as long.

I quickly want to say how grateful I am about how generous people are being, from particular friends who keep finding un-needed baby things for us. To how my parents are doing wonderful refurbishment jobs on 35 year old baby things which were used not only for me and my older brother, but also the numerous children my Mum looked after when she was a child minder. I always thought they were a bit nuts not getting rid of things like our cot and high chair, as well as all the toys we had, but now I think they were very savvy.

Shall I do the Good News or the Bad News first?

I'll get the bad news out of the way.

My neighbour died last Friday morning. I'm relieved for her families sake that it was relatively quick, when my Grandparents were ill it dragged on for months/years and it took its toll on even the toughest members of the family. It's still hard to deal with though. There are quite a lot of questions about her care that need answering, I hope things are sorted out quickly so that her family can move forward with their lives.

Now for the Good News.

The circle of life continues.
I'm pregnant!
I've never really kept track of my dates, but as we have been trying for a couple of months I've been good and written them down. Of course once I'd written them down I instantly forgot them.
I've been feeling a little queasy, but I've been upset, and I do tend to feel queasy when I'm stressed or upset. I've also had a sore stomach and boobs, but that's normal PMT for me.
On Saturday night I had a tough night at work. I didn't get much sleep, but did have a lot of time to think. I was getting cheesed off with these ongoing period pains, then something clicked in my brain. I did a bit of googling, and realised that instead of PMT it could be a sign of pregnancy. When I got home Sunday morning I dug out my bit of paper and realised I was 11 days late. *gulp*
Porl was still asleep when I got home, and I'd had no sleep so I went straight to bed. I woke up at about midday, told Porl my suspicions, then dissapeared off to Sheffield for the night as it was my Dads birthday, leaving Porl to pace the house and drink lots of rum. I broke the news to my family later in the afternoon, then on Monday I did a pregnancy test which my sister-in-law had which confirmed everything.

So that's the good news. I've been to see the doctor today, he didn't even bother doing another test, but gave me lots more information to read, and worked out that "Blob" (which is what is currently looks like) should be due about 11th July.

Apologies for the "Woe is Me" post, but things aren't so great around here. My neighbour who was in hospital the other week is seriously ill. She's back home now, with all her family around her and she's not expected to live much longer. We were told last week she had about 6 months to live, but the next day we were told it was actually a matter of days.

I think it's rare now to be so close to your neighbours, especially for someone of my generation, even more so as she's nearly 50 years older than me. But when we moved here 2 years ago we knew no one and very little about the area. I've got to know her well, chatting over the garden fence, she's become a great friend. She's taught me about the local area, treated me with plants for my garden, and left-over pasties from the cafe where she worked. In return I did some of the tougher jobs in her garden, sorted out her bins for her every week (the slope down from our house is dangerous even on a dry day) and gave her some company. Her family keep thanking me for everything I've done for her, but I think she's been a far better friend to me really.

I didn't see any of my Grandparents in the last couple of weeks before they died. Partly because I lived so far away and it was hard to get time off work, but also because as I'm the youngest of all the Grandchildren I was kept sheltered from it all (even though I was in my 20's when 3 of them died.) Seeing my neighbour as ill as she is has been harder to deal with than I realised, especially as we were chatting over the fence as normal 3 weeks ago.

I keep finding jobs to do round the back of the house in the hope one of her relatives will be outside because if I'm honest I'm too scared to go round and find out the latest.

I'm fed up with hearing bad news.
I thought I'd cried enough over the past few months.
I want the bad things to stop. Now.

Can I have the happy things back please?

A rare meme which took my fancy, from Craftapalooza


1. Flip to page 18, paragraph 4 in the book closest to you right now, what does it say?

If you are incapable of resuming work: see Incapacity Benefit.

The only book on my desk at the moment is "Directory for Disabled People" which I bought for work (for 10p) but brought home when I suspected my boss was about to bin it.

2. If you stretch out your left arm - as far as possible, what are you touching?
A small version of my parents Wedding Album. It was my Nan-nans copy. Mum brought it round for me today.

3. What's the last program you watched on tv?
News 24 this morning before putting the radio on.

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.
5pm, not bad, 4:54pm

5. Except the computer, what can you hear right now?
Music from my PC, Pulp-A little Soul

6. When was the last time you were outside and what did you do?
About an hour ago doing the gardening (hopefully last grass cutting until spring)

7. What are you wearing?
Jeans which have paint on and holes in, a purple vest top, a blue fleecey jumper, a black zip up jumper (it was really cold outside, I had a coat on too) and orange, yellow and grey stripey socks.

8. Did you dream last night? If you did, what about?
Nope, I've slept really deeply for the past few nights, a pleasant change.

9. When was the last time you laughed?
Today when my parents were saying goodbye.

10. What's on the walls, in the room you're in right now?
My framed Mil-looney-um Tazos, a Da Vinci sketch and a 3D picture of a country kitchen. Very mish mash.

11. Have you seen anything strange lately?
A surprising amount of ghosts and ghoulies when I drove home the other night.

12. What do you think about this meme?
It's good.

13. What's the last film you saw?
Haven't the foggiest, I think I watched "About a Boy" on TV about 3 weeks ago.

14. If you became a multimillionaire, what would you do with the money?
Pay of quite a lot of mortgages for people, and buy myself a lovely big house in the middle of nowhere... maybe on some remote island, but with a helicopter for getting back to see family & friends.

15. Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know.
I think how I am in work and how I am around my friends and at home is very very different. At home and with friends I'm very laid back and disorganised. I think my normal friends would be quite surprised if they spent a day with me in work, and that applied to all the jobs I've done in the past few years, not just my current job.

16. If you could change ONE THING in this world, without regarding politics or bad guilt - what would it be?
I'd make people realise that if they want a decent world to live on in a few years time we've got to sort out our environmental issues.

17. Do you like dancing?
Ooh yes.

18. George Bush?
Please God No!

19. What do you want your children’s names to be, girl/boy?
At the moment, Matilda (but she would be called Tilly-Mint) and Seth

20. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Yes, depending on the country, there's a lot of countries I would hate to live in. I'm really happy living in this country though, I just want to move to one of our many little islands :)

21. What do you want God to tell you, when you come to heaven?
Too many assumptions there.

22. Who should do this meme?
Anyone who cares to.

Believe it or not there are actually some occasions when I make things. Quite a lot of things actually. The problem is I forget to take pictures, or they're sent off to another part of the world and by the time they get to their eventual destination the sense of achievement I felt about making them has been dulled by the fact the post office has taken 4 times longer to deliver them than they should have done, so I never get around to blogging about them.
So I will now do a bit of a catch up post.

Ages ago I took part in the Craftster "Foreign Exchange Swap". My parcel took the scenic 3 week route to Joanna in Germany, but at least it got there eventually.

Here's the group shot:

I would have been gutted had it got lost, not only because the crafted things marked a turning point in the relationship between my sewing machine and I, (we made friends while making those coasters.) But also because I had sent one of my precious bottles of Hendersons Relish which I have to import from Sheffield to Stalybridge.

As well as the Hendersons I sent some Yorkshire Tea, a CD of British music, a load of papers, tourist leaflets, takeout menu's. The crafted things were the little flower badge, also this fabric recipe box.

The recipes are all traditional and regional dishes, like Scouse, Black Pudding, Haggis, Eccles Cakes, Yorkshire Pudding (I did point out that unless she'd got some Yorkshire blood she's struggle with these), and also details on how to do a English Breakfast and a Sunday Lunch. I did a few cards on traditions like bonfire night too, with some Bonfire Night themed recipes, and a bit of information too on accents and dialects, as well as some other things.

Lastly I made these Union flag coasters which I have to admit I love! I was tempted to keep a couple and only send 4, but I was good and sent them all. I had to borrow a photo off Joanna, because I'm daft and forgot to take a photo of the reverse. I used blue fabric and different width ribbons for the flag, the reverse is some red, white and blue flowery fabric which in a previous life was a summer dress of mine. I only wore it briefly when I was 17 when for a few short weeks it was too hot to be a Goth, so I'm glad it's finally being used.

As usual this post has taken an age to write because I'm so easily distracted. I could use the extra hour I'll gain this evening by staying up late, but instead I'm going to use it by getting a much needed extra hour in bed. If I can avoid distractions I'll carry on catching up on Monday.

So this is one of the things which went wrong today.
The oven had been on for about 45 minutes 180C, there was a *pop*, not even a loud one, and the glass on the outside of the oven door had shattered.
It looks very pretty though, and I liked the crackling sound it made as it cooled and shattered more, it sounded a bit like Rice Crispies. It’s not very practical for an oven. There go any plans for nice biscuits for Porl’s birthday party, ad it’s a good job his Mum is buying a cake.
What confuses me most is that the glass inside is fine, it’s just the outside which is broken.

Other not-so-great news received today is that my Dad has an appointment at the hospital on Thursday. We knew this was coming as he has to have an operation on his heart soon so he’s going in for tests are in preparation. He'll be having a tube down his throat so they can put a camera down, it’s supposed to be routine, a 15 minute procedure. However last time he had it done it took an hour and a half, 4 nurses to hold him down, 2 consultants to get the tube in, and they even asked my Mum in, in the hope her voice would calm him. He fought them all the way, and this is all while he was sedated. He remembers none of it, Dad is as gentle as a pussy cat usually, he just really doesn’t like hospitals.
Hopefully Thursday will be better. I was going over to take them to the hospital, but the weather is due to be lousy and they've told me not to go.

After that news my neighbour phoned and asked if I’d go round. She's been sent to hospital tonight for some tests too, she's an old lady who I get on with really well, they're not sure what's wrong so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed. While she's in I'm looking after her psycho cat Frankie. This cat is unlike any I've ever met, certainly not the afore mentioned gentle pussy cat. He attacks anything & anyone, everyone leaves there covered in scratches and bite marks. When she first got him as a kitten I thought it would calm down but he hasn't. Even the vets refer to him as “Frankie the kitten from hell”.
My neighbour takes him out on a lead, with his temperament she daren’t let him out alone. Duke tries to befriend him, but Frankie just attacks him, Gonzo makes no pretence of friendship. I suspect a good thrashing from another cat would do Frankie good, but if I brought him round here I’m not sure who’d survive the fight.
I’ll be wearing my thick jumpers and gardening gloves when I go to feed him.

The last thing that happened today to cause problems occurred after an unsuccessful shopping trip to get Porl a birthday present. Somehow as I was getting back into the car I managed to thump the back of my head. I hit it so hard I actually felt my brain hit the front of my head and I wasn’t sure whether the front of back hurt most.
I spent a good couple of minutes sat in the car laughing/crying as the world span.
Several hours later and I’ve a lump on the back of my head, I’ve still got a headache, and my neck and back are really stiff.

So today hasn’t been the most successful day ever. I did manage to finish knitting a scarf though, I’ll take some photos of it tomorrow in daylight.
Right now I’m going to bed, there's not much of the day left, but I've had enough of this one anyway.

The bathroom has been painted... again.

I tried living with the colour for a week, I even put the cupboards back up, and put all the decorative things back, hoping that it might just be the bareness of the room that was putting me off the colour.

But no, it was the colour putting me off the colour.

I learnt my lesson and bought some tester pots on the way home last night, so the bathroom is now the pale bluey-grey colour that I had first imagined. Mum & Dad have been up for the day, so while Dad put some shelves up in our bedroom, Mum and I got the painting done, thankfully it only needed one coat. After dinner Dad "rested his eyes" for a couple of hours while we got the glossing done. I still need to do some touching up, and another coat of gloss, but I can now go in the bathroom without getting a horrible restless feeling.

Next weekend we paint the hall/stairs/landing.
It is going to be white.

We're quite proud of our Sunday Lunches at this house. We don't have them every Sunday as I'm often working, but they're certainly a treat to look forward to. We also know they're good because Porl's parents ask to come round to eat them.
One of the best things about a Sunday Lunch for us, is that it will also feed us for Monday teatime, and as I'm vegetarian Porl get's a whole chicken to himself, which means chicken butties until Wednesday. The cats also get the odd treat too. I like meals that last for a few days.

Our standard Sunday Lunch consists of; a roast chicken for Porl, roast potatoes, roast sweet potaotes, roast parsnips - which have been coated in parmesan, sprouts, 'special' mash - made up of normal potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and plenty of butter, stuffing, and Yorkshire puddings with sage and onion in. Also can't forget the gravy, I have Bisto onion gravy, Porl has his made with all the juices from the chicken. I also have mint sauce, the joy of being a veggie is you don't have to follow rules like mint with lamb etc etc.

It's a lot, but we don't have breakfast, we just eat this somewhere better 3 and 6 in the afternoon, then sometimes about 9pm we might be able to manage dessert.

We will always make a large saucepan full of 'special' mash, so that on Monday we can eat the leftovers. We often fry up the mash add some slices of fried aubergine and haloumi, then fry some red onion, baby tomatoes add lots of balsamic vinegar and serve with some salad. Porl will also have some of the chicken.
Another way of using the mash is to put it around some goats cheese before frying it up.
Whatever we do it's always delicious.

Yesterday however Porl cooked lamb.
Lamb is nicer for Sunday Lunch, but it isn't so good in sandwiches, and it's very expensive, so it's a treat he doesn't often have.
So he cooked the lamb and it was delicious (apparently).

I went to bed very early last night, as I was starting with a migraine, I woke at about 3am, couldn't get back to sleep, so laid there thinking of nice things to do with the lamb. I was still feeling ill, and craving comfort food, so I decided in the morning I would turn the rest of the lamb into a stew, I'd have a veggie stew and we could have dumplings.
Yum yum yum, fell back to sleep thinking happy thoughts.

This morning I woke up, came downstairs and noticed Porl had forgotten to put the lamb in the fridge. Now he might not have a Food Hygiene qualification, but experience of living with 2 cats has taught him to cover food that he wants to save. Our normally extremely well behaved cats know that the kitchen work surfaces are STRICTLY out of bounds. But the temptation of a juicey chicken, or joint of lamb has been known to tempt them so we ALWAYS cover the meat as soon as it comes out of the oven.

After making a brew and opening the door to let the cats out I went back upstairs to have a shower. I told Porl about my idea for stew which he thought was great, and we came downstairs to start making it.

I bet you can guess what we found...
The carefully covered piece of meat was no longer covered, in fact it was no longer there. Also mysteriously absent was Gonzo.
I couldn't help but laugh.
He had resisted the temptation all night until the door was opened and he was able to smuggle the meat out of the house. He returned several hours later without the meat, but looking as innocent as ever.

We still had stew and dumplings, but we had to go shopping for some more meat. Tomorrow we'll be having the remains of the stew in pancakes.

Both cats are being punished for Gonzo's behaviour, as we forgot to buy their tinned food when we were out. They're on rations of dry food and water.

I'm feeling very 'meh' tonight.
I've had a busy few days, and I'm back in work tomorrow. I don't want to go, I just want to relax. So 'meh'.

On Tuesday my parents came up and we got the last bit of the decking and garden done. For over a year my parents have been coming up and putting in hours of hard graft building the deck, putting on the railing, clearing the grass off the garden, cutting down the privet, and putting in a lot of plants. I've been there doing it too, but I have to admit my parents have worked far harder than I have. I don't know how many days it's taken in total, but it was a lot. It's been worth it though.

(This isn't the finished one, it's just to give you an idea, it's too dark to take pictures now. I'll update with a proper picture soon. I sometime wish that this picture was a true representation... there are 2 of me.)

Wednesday I decided to paint the bathroom. It was quite a dark blue colour, I loved the colour, but the window is so small, and the neighbours privet is really tall (look at the picture above) meaning we needed a light colour to brighten it up. It's also a problem because we have no windows on the landing and it's really dingy.

I got back from buying the paint to find that the Law of Sod had kicked in, and the neighbours were busy in the garden cutting the privet down. It was about 14ft tall, it's now down to ground level and our house is so much lighter. If only it was still summer, I'd have a sunny garden all day instead of just 1 hour in the morning and 2 at tea time. *sigh*
But I'd bought the paint so decided to carry on.
Except for the glossing, which will have to wait till Sunday, it's all finished...The only problem is, I'm not sure I like the colour. It's a pale blue, but not pale enough, I was wanting something a bit greyer, it's a bit icey. Porl thought I was joking when I told him... I wish I was.

So lesson learnt ALWAYS get tester pots. I'll either learn to live with it, or I'll be buying some tester pots in the next few weeks.

The other thing which happened on Tuesday is that my Dad gave me his camera (for the record, I do know I'm spoilt rotten.) He'd left it here accidentally a few weeks ago, so I'd played with it until the batteries died. It's far better than mine for many reasons, but the most important one for me is that it takes a lithium battery which stayed charged for ages, weeks if you don't use it. My old one took standard AA batteries which didn't last very long when you were using it, and still drained the power when it was turned off. Every time I wanted to take a photo of anything I'd have to go hunting for new batteries. Too much hassle for me, and the reason that most of these blog entries are dull and pictureless. Hopefully things will change now.

Lastly, thanks to my new camera, I have finally got around to taking photos of my charity shop finds from the past couple of weeks. I wish I'd taken part in the $99 thrift challenge
My first lot was from my new favourite shop Emmaus. This was my second visit there, to pick up the things I found on my first trip but could pay for because of a power cut. I skipped the furniture this time (well maybe a brief look) and spent over an hour going through all the books and bric-a-brac.
I got these books,

From the top down "Pope: Poems & Prose", "The Origin of Species", "The Divine Comedy", "The Faerie Queen", "An Inspector Calls", "Little Women" & "Course in General Linguistics".
What I love most is that a lot of these books are quite old editions. I hate new hardback books which are over sized, but I love old hardbacks which are easy to hold, and often have titbits of information about their previous owners.

I also got these great embroidery folders. It looks like a monthly subscription thing. 1 file has all the techniques and a lot of patterns for every time of embroidery you could imagine. The other file is transfers. Lots of transfers. There are 24 parts, each one made up of 2 A2 sheets of paper. I've been getting ideas for embroidery for a while but my drawing skills aren't what they were and new transfers are cheap. I'm a happy bunny.

I picked up some silver leaf shaped decorating transfers too. I won't be decorating with them, they're good for making cards.

All this lot, books, embroidery stuff, and transfers cost me the grand sum of £3.50! I love Emmaus.

Then on Thursday I was on a course in Hyde so during my lunch hour I found these materials.

Total price £2.00

I love the bumble bee fabric. Infact I bought some a few weeks ago in a different colourway which had been made up into covers for patio chairs.

Not very useful as they are, originally I thought of cutting them into patches. Now I have a big piece too I'll have to get my brain working.