TUSAL01

Here's my first Totally Useless SAL piccie - it would have been a bit fuller but I stupidly threw away some yarn which I'd used to knit/sew up a dog jumper :-)

I'll be posting a few more photos of the pieces which caused these threads over the next few hours.

Yay! I'm back!

My faithful 8 year old Dell died a couple of days after Christmas so this is the first time I've been able to blog since. I've bought a nice shiny new Acer which is about a third of the size of the old Dell and which boots up in about a minute, unlike the Dell which was taking 10!

I had to order a wireless router from Virgin because they wouldn't be able to support any make of router which they didn't sell but unfortunately they lost my first order (well, I did place it on New Year's Eve!) It finally arrived today and I got the thing up and running fairly easily (though Virgin had somehow mixed up the password which I set up with them a couple of years ago.)

What bliss to be on the net and "meeting up" with friends again :-)

Not much news, otherwise. I ahven't seen Mam for over a week because of the weather though Kevin went to see her on Thursday and reported back that she was better than she'd been for quite a while. She's eating a lot better now... and asking for chocolates when we walk in, so that's a relief. We've got a family meeting with the medical team on Monday so we'll see what they say then.

A few stitchy things to post but that can wait until tomorrow. Ah, it's nice to be back :-)

2010 plans

I haven't sorted out any concrete plans yet... apart from one - I've joined the Totally Useless SAL :-) I'll have to find a nice glass container, might mean a visit to the charity shops next week!

The only other plans I have are to try and knit or stitch something every day, even if it's just a couple of rows or a couple of stitches. I also want to finish the Spanish Sampler (part 4 is nearing the end) and to make as many items as possible for Many Tears Animal Rescue so that they can be sold for funds. At the moment, anything else will be a bonus!

I'm still here... just!

Well, life has been pretty horrendous since the end of August. My Mum has suddenly developed mental health problems and after spending almost a month in hospital in September - which was a complete waste of time - and two months home with Kevin or me taking time off to be with her she's now, thankfully, in the local mental health unit.

I don't know what the future holds for us but Kevin and I were getting to the end of our endurance and it's such a relief that she's now being properly looked after in the right place. She's suffering from extreme anxiety - not dementia or Altzheimer's - so there is hope that she'll be able to get back to a certain level of normality, though whether she'll be able to come home we don't know yet.

I'm still waiting to hear the result of my full body scan - the fact that I haven't heard anything is optimistic but I'd rather know one way or the other if the tumour had spread.

With all this going on I've hardly done any stitching, knitting or reading though I do have a couple of things to show once I download them from the camera. Hopefully, I'll be in a better frame of mind over the next few weeks and actually start enjoying my hobbies again!

All I can say is, roll round 2010 - it can't be much worse than 2009... can it?

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do...

I'm really enjoying stitching this and got quite a bit done - for me - this last week.

Reflexology Part 2

Well, the cutting out of bread hasn't been too bad but I know that I'll fall back to it every now and again. Lunch is the worst because I always had a baguette/sandwich so now I've got to be organised and take a salad into work or have a baked potato (which will get very boring after a while.)

Caffeine is basically gone - just had to drink a couple of cans of diet coke that I had and that's it. Again, I'll fall back every now and again because very few places sell caffeine-free diet coke (and I'm addicted to the stuff!) but as long as I don't drink it every day, I should be OK.

I had my second session last week and although I didn't fall asleep it may have been the catalyst in me taking Tuesday to Friday off work :-) Funnily enough I didn't actually sleep that well but unfortunately made up for it by very long naps on the settee in the afternoons. I'll see how I feel Monday morning as to whether I have another day off...

Reflexology!

Had my first session with Andrea last Wednesday and it was very interesting - she suggested that I cut out bread (eek!), caffeine (much less of an eek) and cut down on red meat (not a problem).

She also said that I'd gone back to work far too early after the op and would like me to take another month off now!! Ummm... not going to happen, unless I get a paper from my GP! Mind you, as I had a blood test on Friday as well, due to the GP thinking that I'm fighting some infection, then that may be possible. We'll see...

Andrea was great - very easy to talk to and I have a feeling that when I have my first "proper" session Monday evening I'm going to fall fast asleep!

I'd never thought of reflexology before but as it had been highly recommended by two good friends I thought I'd give it a go - and I'm glad that I did.