Films, TV, books etc

I have now had 3 sessions at the physio where she has done ultrasound on my little finger. Results? No change. I have one more session before I go for my assessment at the ortho's. But the physio seems to think I will have to have the op on both my thumb and finger. They don't do both at the same time though. I'm hoping they don't do it the last week in August cos I'm doing my Reiki Master level on 1st September and it wouldn't really do to turn up with one hand swathed in bandages.

Charley is OUT!!!! Hurrah!!! Trouble is the house has gone a bit quiet now. Maybe she should have stayed in. Ah we are so fickle. New housemates not really floating my boat either.

Something very rare happened in our house on Saturday. I did some tidying!!! Major tidying of the bedroom. All the dusty shoes came out from under the bed, all the old bags came out from where they had been stuffed in the wardrobe. All the cr*p on top of the drawers is gone (apart from the 50 or so books that constitute my "to be read" pile.) So after that we decided to get a new bed. Our current one is an IKEA bigger than kingsize and is rather big. We are going for a normal double so we will have a bit more room around the bed rather than in it. We are getting it from the same place we got our other bedroom furniture so it will match. They make them up from scratch and stain them too. Just have to find a good mattress now.

My alliums came out finally, and the bees absolutely love them. They are very tall though and all the rain has mostly flattened them to the ground, which is a shame.





Harry Potter now seems like a distant memory. I've just got the the middle of Salem's Lot and it is getting a bit scary. The vampires in it are the nasty type, not the suave, sophisticated types from the Anne Rice books. The book was written in 1975, and it is good not to have the presence of computers and mobile phones. However, it seems every single character smokes!

Talking of spooky things, I have become a recent convert to Supernatural.



I started watching part way through Series 2 but didn't really know the backstory, so I bought the full set of series 1 DVDs which I am trying to plough through. I like it because it is a bit X-file-y which was my favourite programme for the whole of its 9 series. I think Dean Winchester may replace Fox Mulder in my affections. (Wink to Colin who is convinced I only watch TV programmes where I fancy one of the characters - and he's probably right, but that doesn't explain why I watch Corrie!!) There are some great in-jokes like the episode which stars Linda Blair. At the end, Dean says to Sam, "Did she look familiar? I really fancy some pea soup right now."

Last week there was a lot of hype about Heroes so we watched it. Can't say it really grabbed me, it was a bit of a cross between X-men and 4400, both of which I like. I'm not sure if it is going to draw me in but I'll give it another episode or two. Watched The DaVinci Code on Saturday night and it was okay but the book was better.

I sound like a complete TV addict - probably true, but look at the weather!!!

Daemons

A friend just pointed me towards the website for The Golden Compass film based on the His Dark Materials books by Phillip Pullman. I can't wait for this film. On the site you can find out what your daemon is like. I can't seem to get it to embed in this blog, but mine is an osprey. Have a go!

Addiction

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Hmm, that's a bit worrying!!

Quick thumb update

I have an appointment for a pre-op assessment on 9th August, eek! A day after my birthday :o(

HP, art, thumb, floods

Last Wednesday we took advantage of Orange Wednesdays and went off to see Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix. Hopefully I am not spoiling anything as I am assuming that most poeople have now read this book (although that is a huge assumption to make!). The film was good, and the 2 hours 10 minutes flew past, but I'm afraid there were some omissions which just brought back "Winkiegate" all over again. By "Winkiegate" I am referring to the fact that although the house-elf Winkie was an integral part of the book HP & the Goblet of Fire, she was completely omitted from the corresponding film! So, some of the omissions from this film included:

Tonks' hair was not pink and didn't change colour; Although only Luna and Harry could see the Thestrals, no one mentioned this fact when they all jumped on them to fly to the Ministry of magic; There was no portrait of Mrs Black in the hallway of Grimauld Place screaming abuse; and although Kreacher was there, his part in the book wasn't covered in the film. There were others which I can't remember now, because I've read the new HP since.

So, go and see the film, but be prepared to come out saying "Where was the bit where.....?"

(I currently have Radio 2 on in work, and they have been trailing a programme about the songs of Noel Coward. I think a much funnier and popular programme would be "the Songs of Noel Fielding" - "crouton, crouton, crunchy friends in a liquid broth", "I am electro boy, I am electro girl"!! Genius!)

Well we had an interesting time on Friday. We had arranged to go and visit a friend near Reading for the weekend. As he was going to be working all day Friday we thought we would take our time going down and take A-roads instead of just hurtling down the motorways. So off we went in the rain. After stopping for some lunch we headed on down towards Redditch and Stratford. Well, you know what the weather was like. The puddles got larger, the roads got wetter, the traffic got slower, and we ended up in a VERY slow moving queue, while watching the water outside the car getting higher. And we were heading downhill. Not good, when there are floods you really want to be going uphill. In the end we turned round, and abandoned the trip. I had visions of the car floating away and us wading through waist deep water with our bags over our heads. All I could think about was that there were no floods north of us so that was the direction to go in. So after a seven and a half hours round trip we ended up back where we started, at home. And what a good job we did, because all the places flooded on the news were exactly the places we were heading towards. I am very sorry for all the people who have been flooded but am also very relieved that we didn't get caught in it. It was a shame we didn't get to see Dave though.

Of course it did mean that we were home on Saturday morning so Colin went off to do the weekly shop as usual at 7am. He went to Tesco where you had to spend £50 to get Harry Potter for a fiver. So he got one. Then on his way back, he popped into Morrisons just to see how much they were selling it for, and it was £4.99 with no minimum spend so he got another copy so we wouldn't have to fight over it. We spent the weekend racing each other until we both finished it yesterday, with me winning by a couple of hours.

There was some time off of HP though. Sunday morning we decided to go out for breakfast because we would have if we'd been away. We went down to the Blue Moon cafe by the river in town, and had two cooked breakfasts. Phew, I didn't half enjoy it, I could have eaten another one straight after. Then we went to B&Q for some boards for the loft, and after went to a garden centre on the Wirral where the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art was on display. We bought these two.

They are very nicely framed too. We can't have them for a couple of weeks as they are still on display, but then they are ours. Ah, I wish I was that good at drawing.

Well yesterday I went off to physio. The physio I saw was very nice and easy to talk to. She didn't yank my thumb back but gently stretched it to its limit. She thinks that the little finger may respond to an injection but the thumb will probably need surgery. I have now been referred on , (although I do have to go back to see her a couple more times in the meantime,) to be assessed for the next stages. So another appointment to wait for.

Well I think that's everything caught up.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - done!

Phew, 600 pages in 3 days, what a marathon, but its all done and dusted now. I'll say no more, don't want to spoil anything!

Nothingness, books & swaparama

Do you have one of those phases where absolutely nothing happens, and you just plod along one day to the next? My mum phoned on Sunday and I had nothing to say about the previous week! The only things I had to say she already knew from reading this!

I finished The Cold Moon on Saturday and then hummed and haw-ed about my Harry Potter dilemma. I had a go at Fantastic Stories by Terry Jones but didn't think they were fantastic at all. A bit pointless actually. So I'm afraid I fell for the lure of Tunnels. During breaks for eating and a bit of "dropping off" I managed to get through half of it on Sunday and am now about two thirds through. Well on target for finishing before Saturday. I should get a bit of time to read it tomorrow as I am off work to wait for the cavity wall men to come and insulate us. They are going to do the loft too as apparently we have to have 26cm and we only have 6. Its all part of some council scheme to save energy. Hopefully it'll warm us up in the winter cos our bathroom is absolutely freezing.

So Tunnels is okay, not earth-shattering but an interesting concept, a whole other world beneath us that we don't know about.

I have also been swapping away on readitswapit. I have 3 swaps on the go at the moment. Its funny how it goes in waves, nothing for months and then 3 in one go. Just like buses!

Oh, my alliums are out now but I haven't been able to get out and take a picture in between downpours. Isn't it getting on your nerves?

And gawd help us, but Charley has escaped nominations AGAIN this week. Typical that we managed to get her out last week only to have her sent straight back in thinking the whole world loves her and that it was all done for her. I would really like to know how she developed her opinion of herself, its all like water off a duck's back. I thought last night's naked nominations were quite amusing though, and Brian just gets funnier every day. So, Jerry or Nicky, Jerry or Nicky, hhhmmmmmm????????

Literary Limbo!!

I am currently in a literary limbo. I have a book on the go, still The Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver. It is trundling along nicely, and I should get a bit more read this afternoon, as I am not at work (but then again, there IS ironing I could be doing, sigh!). But what do I do if I finish it? Is it worth starting another book, or do I wait for Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. It is still a week away, but if I get caught mid-book, Colin will jump in and read it first and then he'll know what happens before me!! It is going to be very difficult as it is, to not find out what happens before I read it, cos somewhere someone is going to mention it, aren't they?

I shall also be bumping HP up the TBR pile, and recklessly discarding everything else once it is here in my hot little hands. This is my list of books "to be read", and not all of them are registered on here either. And what did I go and do last night? I suggested we go to Borders "just for a Starbucks" but of course it didn't end there. I came home with a "buy one get one half price".

The first one was "Tunnels", which is rumoured to be the Next Big Thing in kid's fiction. I almost didn't buy it because I don't want to be disappointed if I don't enjoy it after all the hype. The other one was "Grave Doubts" by Elizabeth Corley which sounds good. I don't read a lot of UK set thrillers, but I was drawn to this one.

I'm getting fed up with Simply Knitting magazine. I have sent a couple of emails now about my competition socks and have had no reply, and I want them back!! I can't seem to get any response. I did have an email at least 6 weeks ago saying they were all being returned, but I haven't had mine, and Sweet Camden Lass hasn't had hers either. Gggrrrrrr!

I want doesn't get!

I want to KNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!

I haven't really been that bothered for the last few weeks, but all of a sudden I want to knit, badly. I want something to do while I'm watching TV. I want the satisfaction of making something with my own hands and wearing it. I want to buy lovely yarn but I can't justify buying it if I can't do anything with it. My two boxes of yarn sit mocking me in the corner of the spare bedroom. The cats on my knitting bag are grinning at me maliciously.

How much longer am I going to have to wait????????? Sigh!!!

Oooo, gotta tell you this! Spoke to my mum yesterday and she told me that when I'd been writing the entry about our adventure on the rocks in Cornwall, they had been out with friends telling them exactly the same story, at almost exactly the same time. She said they hadn't even thought about what happened for years. Spooky!!! (Cue doo-doo doo-doo music!!)

SURPRISE!!!!

My ex-boss from the hospital lab, Gilbert, has been retiring for the past fortnight. Let me explain. Two weeks ago, I went to the lunch in Llangollen which he had organised as a do for his retirement. I posted about that before. A week ago, on the Friday afternoon, was his actual retirement day and there was a buffet and speeches and presents at the lab, which I went down to in Wrexham. Then last night there was another party, hence the fact that he has been retiring for a whole two weeks!!

Last night was really great because he didn't know it was happening. He thought he was going to an engagement party for someone his wife works with. When he walked in the door, everyone stood up and started clapping and it took him a while to work out we were clapping him!! He was absolutely made up!! He said it was the kind of do he’d wanted but thought that the time had passed to organise something. Little did he know that all his staff had been organising it for months!

Most of the microbiology staff were there and some people form the other pathology departments. And some ex-members of staff and other friends of his. There was a speech from Dai and then Danny Williams, from Wrexham Football Club came and presented Gilbert with a football signed by all the players which he was well chuffed with, being a huge Wrexham fan. There was also a painting of Snowdonia from all the micro staff.



Here is a pic of me and my friend Becky. Like my new hair colour?


And I couldn't believe it when Gilbert arrived and his wife Mary was wearing the same dress as me!!! Hahahah.

It was funnier because when I was getting ready I'd said to Colin, does this look a bit mumsy? Ah well, shows we both have good taste. This is the second time this has happened to me at a microbiology do. A couple of Christmas's ago, I went to the staff party and someone else was wearing the same skirt as me. They weren't from our department though, somewhere completely different.

On a sadder note, we had to leave just as the dancing was getting started because Colin had to get up at 5am to fly to Ireland. One of his uncles, Peter, died on Friday and the funeral is today. (They certainly are on the ball when it comes to these things in Ireland!) So he flew out from Liverpool at 7.15am and is due back later this evening.

So I have a day of pottering, food shopping and ironing ahead of me. The supermarket should be just about opening now, so I'd better get that out of the way first.

Dangerous waters

We are all moaning about the rain, and how it is unusual, and is it climate change? etc. Don't get me wrong, climate change is very real and I totally believe it is happening. But to have rain in July isn't unusual. After all, it is Wimbledon fortnight and it is very rare that there is no rain during Wimbledon. And two years ago I was on holiday in Cornwall for the first week in July and it rained every day, so it's nothing new.

I do feel terribly sorry for all the people affected by the floods. Seeing your house up to the windows in water must be so upsetting, or seeing your car swept away. In a slightly related subject I got to thinking about the time I could have been swept away by water.

I was probably about 8 or 9 and was on holiday in Cornwall with my mum and step-dad. We were at a beach called Trebarwith Strand, which had rocks that you could climb onto and sit on. We sat on the same spot each day. When the tide was out you could climb down to the sandy beach and play in the rock pools, and as the tide gradually came in, you moved up and sat on the rocks again. On this particular day we were sat watching the tide coming up higher and higher, when all of a sudden there was a huge wave that crashed up and reached where we were sitting. Everyone jumped up and grabbed all their stuff as another wave came up even higher. We had to squeeze under an overhang to crawl along the rocks and around the corner. When the rocks get wet they get extremely slippy and someone actually started to slide. If anyone had gone into the water that would have been it. My step-dad was quite a hero that day because he caught hold of the woman who was sliding and dragged her back up. Thankfully there were no casualties and we all managed to get round the corner and off the rocks.

A bit later in the evening the tide had come up so high that the water was crashing up higher than where we had been sitting. We can only think that on that day it was a spring tide when the water goes out and comes in much higher. Something to do with the moon.

To answer a couple of recent comments......I do like vampire books, especially the Anne Rice ones. She makes being a vampire sound very attractive, I mean the immortality bit of it, not the having to drink blood on a nightly basis. I have tried the Reiki on my thumb a couple of times. I wonder whether it hasn't been effective because you need 2 hands to do it properly. Anyway, when I am trained, I could attune Colin as a level 1 and then he could do my hand for me!! No suggestions for Nina's blogname, come on get your thinking caps on.

Physio, reiki & books

It seems my thumb has been assessed by the orthopaedic triage system and they have decided to send me to see the physiotherapy department. They will then assess it and see if they can deal with it, but if they think I will still need to see the orthopaedic surgeons, then there is a 3 to 4 month wait!! Can I go that long without knitting?? That's nearly Christmas!! I'll see what they say at physio on 23rd July and then decide what to do. I hope they don't start pulling it about and bending it cos that is going to HURT!!

I have decided to spend some of my backpay on getting my Reiki Master level. I will then feel as if I am fully qualified and able to charge for my services. Not that I will probably do a lot, but at least I'll have it done. I have just spoken to Yvonne, my Reiki Master and I have booked for 1st September. One of the girls I did the level 2 with is going on the same day so that will be good. A couple of weeks after that one of Colin's colleagues is running a workshop called "How to Charge What You are Worth" which I'm going to be helping out on, so i can pick up some tips!

I finished reading The High Lord at the weekend. It is the final story about Sonea, a slum girl who discovers by accident that she has magical abilities, and is trained by the magician's guild. In this book she has to help save the city of Imardin from attackers and has to also work out where her loyalties lie with regard to the high lord, Akkarrin. There is a welcome return for many of the characters of the previous books and the storyline is good and partly left open if the author were to consider another sequel.

I have now moved onto the latest Lincoln Rhyme book by Jeffery Deaver, The Cold Moon. What fascinates me is all the forensic stuff that goes on in these books, and also how the author comes up with such interesting ways to murder his victims. I have read all the previous books in the series and from what I've read so far, this one is going to be just as good. I swapped a Patricia Cornwell on readitswapit last week and got Salem's Lot by Stephen King in return, which I didn't realise was a vampire story. If I'd known that I would have got a copy sooner. I think that will be next on my list to read, and I've also got 5 of the Anne Rice ones to read too. I do like a good vampire story.

Bloggers

This post is about fellow bloggers.

Since I've been doing this blog, I have met some lovely bloggers through them leaving comments on my blog and vice versa. So I was quite sad at the weekend when I had an email from one of them to say that she wasn't going to blog anymore. This is a shame, she is such a caring, genuine and entertaining person. I know that the internet can all get a bit mad and addictive, and I think she needs a break, but it can also be a great outlet and social place if you are a bit isolated. I just hope her withdrawal doesn't mean that she loses this function of it.

Another of my internet friends needs a bit of help too. She has joined blooger but has yet to create a blog, despite threatening it for months and months. I think it would be absolutely brilliant, because she is an absolute whirlwind and writes in the same way. Have a look at her profile for a start and you'll see what I mean. She claims that what is holding her back is finding a suitable name for her blog. Can anyone give her a hand on this because I'm useless at it. If we can come up with a great name, we can get her blogging sooner rather than later. Please help!!!

Apart from that, I'd just like to say hi to all the people who look at my blog and thanks for popping by. (And you lurkers, go ahead and leave a comment, you know who you are!!!)