Time flies

Well it's the last day of March already and I realise I haven't posted about a single book this year yet. Shame on me. I haven't given up reading at all, in fact I've probably read more than I usually do but I just don't seem to have had time to write about them.

So here then is my potted list of a few I have read so far this year, in no particular order, just as I remember them:

A Redbird Christmas: Fanny Flagg

Gods in Alabama: Joshilyn Jackson
Little Altars Everywhere: Rebecca Wells
Narrow Dog to Carcassonne: Terry Darlington
Eleni: Nicholas Gage
North of Ithaka: Eleni Gage
Good in Bed: Jennifer Weiner
Amazing Disgrace: James Hamilton Patterson
The Betrayal of Grace Mulcahy: Collette Caddle
Past Secrets: Cathy Kelly
The Secret Life of Bees: Sue Monk Kidd

Kitchen Confidential; Anthony Bourdain
The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night-time: Mark Haddon
Left Bank: Kate Muir

ME Bloggers

Seeing as I am getting LOTS of traffic from the Invest in ME blog link I'd like to point you all in the direction of some other bloggers with ME.

First and foremost my good friend Di who got me into this in the first place. whatdoyoudo is a blog right at the cutting edge and Di's getting her name up there in lights, writing for the Guardian amongst her other many commissions.

Look on my side bar and you'll see a link to Foggy Bloggers a webring with a host of interesting sites.

Seats for Landing, Rosevibe and velo-gubbed-legs are some places I go sometimes along with Help with ME. The Help with ME message board is just full of friendly people.

Hope this has given you some places to investigate. Have fun reading.

I've been Invested

Reading the latest Invest in ME newsletter earlier today I was interested to see that that they now have a link to blogs written by people who have ME. I therefore clicked the link to see who was there. Imagine my surprise when I found that I was one of them!

So Hello to anyone who came from that direction and Hello too to anyone who came via the NHS Blog Doctor which seems to have sent a few people in this direction over the weekend, notably because I have been there banging on about Lyme.

Lobbying for Lyme Disease

No less a writer than NHS Blog Doctor today tackles the subject of Lyme disease. In the past he has said things I don't agree with, notably about ME, but 99% of the time he is telling it how it is in the NHS today. If he is now wondering about Lyme then maybe the rest of the medical profession are beggining to wonder too. He is quoted and read widely.

Let's hope some of his more influential readers take notice.

The past is now firmly in the past

Today marked the end of another particularly harrowing part of WH's and my life and a part which I have never mentioned on here.

Twelve months ago whilst working locally WH's labourer was arrested by armed police and carted off to the local nick for questioning. WH was asked to accompany them. It turned out that this chap was being accused of committing a murder whilst they had been working in another part of the country three weeks previously, at a time when WH had been elsewhere pricing another job.

And there WH's nightmare began. After 3 days in the nick 'helping with enquiries' being let out only to sleep he then became a witness for the prosecution. His van was confiscated along with all his tools so he couldn't work for over a week until they returned them. He also had no builder's mate so had to work alone for a while until he found someone else. Meanwhile I was given the task of sifting through numerous receipts and other paperwork and helping to build a profile of where they had been in connection with work for the best part of 3 months, who they met, where they ate and where they slept, where they bought materials and which shops they had visited. During one of my many calls to WH asking yet another question 'you remember that timber....? I discovered that WH had fallen off a beam in a stone barn. A trip to hospital later, a serious injury to his back, sides and shoulder was revealed. He lost a further couple of weeks off work. He had nightmares and flash backs, he couldn't work out what on earth had happened and how he could have prevented it. "If I wasn't working there, he wouldn't have been there etc etc"

In January WH had to attend a trial, miles away, stay over night and wait all day until 3pm to give evidence. I couldn't go to support him as my Mother had died 2 days previously. The following week there was a verdict, guilty of murder and guilty of rape then an adjournment for sentence.

Today WH had the last bit of news by mail, his former worker has started a double life sentence. We hope we can put it behind us and for WH it means twelve months of waiting and wondering is over. We will never know exactly what happened that day or what caused him to do it in the first place. Frightening to think they had more or less lived along side each other and WH had no inkling at all.

I hope we can now move on.

Half-way through

my first 3 months of antibiotic treatment and I'm still not used to it. It does seem to be working though. Many of the neuro symptoms are slowing down although the RA is worse than ever. Not that the arctic weather we are having right now helps. I have a frozen shoulder and trapped nerves in my left arm.

This morning I forgot the capsules and took them after my breakfast and now I'm paying for it. Unfortunately the only real remedy is to eat. They are very caustic and make you feel nauseous without even trying.

Overal the improvement is noticeable if I disregard the RA, I'm getting strange rashes too which is a good indication the little spiros are being ousted.

All I can say just now is roll on the warmer weather and I'm going to feel Fab!!

We're Moving

Two little words that mean so much to me.

This year really is the start of the rest of my life. After 22 years in this house I'm moving to pastures new round the corner and WOWEE I'm buying it with WH; after 16 years of his and hers from here on in it will be 'ours'.

So bye bye to noisy neighbours and parking problems and barking dogs and all sorts of other annoyances. We will only have one set of neighbours and we know them. Stands a chance of being much more peaceful.

The countdown has begun, tomorrow I buy my wall planner and 'The project' begins in earnest.

If it all does go pear-shaped we will still have his and hers to retreat back too. Neat huh???

Shaggy Blog Stories

This is a brilliant idea for Red Nose Day which is on Friday this week, March 16th. Mike Troubled-Diva is compiling an anthology of the funniest posts from blogs written by UK bloggers. He hopes to put together a book in seven days which will then be published and sold by Lulu in honour of Comic Relief , all proceeds will then go to charity.

It's a great idea and such a good cause too, so all you visiting peeps get over there quick. Even if you can't submit a post of your own you can go there next week and buy the finished article. It's sure to be a hilarious read.

The merry-go-round

My life is like a merry-go-round right now. I need to stop it and get off but I can't seem to move. Events seem to have a life of their own and I just follow along.

1. It looks like I will be moving house this year. Fed up with noisy neighbours and the barking of 4 dogs in very close proximity, my patience finally snapped. I was rewarded by finding an eminently suitable house which WH and I could just about afford. We are still awaiting confirmation that it will be ours, but even if this one falls through then the decision has been made and we will move on to another one.

2. Having sold my mother's flat in 2 days, her estate is all but wound up. Just a million bits of paper to file and a few bills to pay. Must be a record for something legal in this country.

3. WH has a new labourer who lives a way away. I now find myself in the position of feeding the hired help every day for 2 weeks whilst they work locally.

4. My garage wall is subsiding rapidly. It has to be completely taken down and rebuilt. Fortunately we have some reliable favours to call in. It will, however, depend on me providing bacon sandwiches on tap for 2 days, but hey, it's not like I have anything else to do.

5. Goggins has gone senile and won't be on his own any more so wakes me at all hours, day and night, and demands a cuddle, food or preferably me to find WH immediately as he prefers to sleep on top of him. Not so easy last week when they were working 150 miles away.

6. Misty has learned to tap. Not just anything but me. He wants me, he taps my arm; he wants food in the night, he taps my face; he wants me to get off the phone, he taps my leg. It's a funny little tap, an outstretched right paw, claws well hidden and he just gives the tiniest of movements; it's like a feather tapped you as it floated past, barely perceivable but still there all the same. Still pretty annoying when you're doing something, like trying to sleep

maybe.

But my Lyme treatment is going well, a couple of Herxes and some strange effects but I am starting to feel some small improvements. I am very optimistic. In fact I think I deserve an extra holiday. I'm looking at Easter right now!

Just for the birds

Well I don't often refer to other people's blogs unless they're by people I know and love, yes that's you Di, but this one, Pewit hits the spot on a number of counts.

Firstly the page I hit on originally has my favourite ever birds, little pinky, long tailed tits, with their adorable little faces and fluffy white bibs. I just had to look further. Well this guy is a an expert par excellence, not just with the photography but his knowledge is outstanding. He also has a sense of humour too, if you read some of his comments and the jokey little names he calls things, you soon get the picture.

I spent over an hour last night just mesmerised by the sheer beauty of the birds and the photos themselves. And by the, way he does photo other things as well occasionally!

What I want to know is why WH can't take pics like that? after all, reading some of the technical blurb, we have a similar camera and the exact same lens.

Practice and talent and most of all time, thats why. Don't think WH and I are even on the same planet as Pewit, but we do know a master when we see one.

Go there now and prepare to get lost in time and birds. I can promise you it's well worth it.

Hanging in there / Foggy Blogging

Not much to report right now except to say that the treatment might be starting to work.

There is so much going on right now with emptying my Mother's flat and sorting that all out I just haven't time to stop here much.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. Promise.

Meanwhile I joined the Foggy Bloggers webring. Go there and read, you might something inspiring. I did.

Click that link in my sidebar NOW!!