Cough, splutter, sniffle, sneeze

Can you guess the general theme here.  Yup, I am sick... again, or is it still?  After having the energy drained out of me last week, and then a day of feeling a better, but with a sore throat, and then a day with a mostly better throat, but a sore ear (yesterday when I went to work), I've got a cold.  And I'm so annoyed.  Last week was more or less a write off, and now it looks like the next couple of days are going to be too.  There's such divided opinions on going into the hospital when you're ill - some doctors, etc, get really annoyed about you coming in and potentially infecting already vulnerable people.  Others are like "it's only a cold, get on with it".  I tend to err on the side of the first one.  As I do genuinely fell guilty at the thought of getting frail old biddies ill, and I once got seriously told off after trekking all the way to Bath on the bus for a clinic (didn't feel well enough to drive without sneezing and veering off the road!) and then sent home.  So, I'll wait until I don't have to blow my nose every couple of minutes - can you imagine me trying to clerk "So Mr X *sneeze* why did you *sniffle* come into hospital?  Excuse me one moment *blows nose*, okay continue" - sooooo reassuring for the patients!

Thank goodness I had the day off today, so I slept till nearly 2pm.  This might have something to do with the fact that I was wide awake at about 5am, when the rain was pouring down creating a heck of a lot of noise.  I ended up reading for ages, then sleeping on and off all morning.  The only thing that made me get out of bed this afternoon was the sudden thought that the shops wouldn't be open late, so if I wanted to get some lemon juice, and something for dinner (craving fresh, filled pasta) I had better summon the energy.  So, was out for about 30mins, and then following making a bit of toast, straight back into bed, watching stuff/dozing.  Thank goodness for laptops!  Yay!  It's all I need in one easy package - staying snuggled up and able to doze, and entertainment and communication. Haven't even picked up a bit of wool!  Must be the first day in months!  My fingers are feeling a little restless, but don't think I could knit/crochet very well with a drowsy headache going on.  Writing this blog is pushing it somewhat.

So needless to say, I have nothing to say, beyond what has already been said.

Saturday musings

Hi!  (Hi Sam, now that I know you're reading this!)   So, today was a more typical sort of Saturday.  It started very lazy, as I was up reading till nearly 3.30am (when did it get so late?).  Didn't get out of bed till nearly 12 this morning.  Oh well.... win some, loose some.  I never get round to early nights.  This morning, once eventually up, I started to make some progress on my snowflakes - so weird to be crocheting.  The Just Soya wool is interesting to work with, it's quite soft, but the individual threads seem to seperate quite a lot, which is frustrating as I have to pay that slight bit more attention.  Don't think it's the best wool to be using, but the overall effect is okay.  I think I like the colour best, it's such a brilliant, pure white, that lives up to it's name "coconut"!

Four snowflakes so far, not sure how many the wool will allow.  Next to them, you can see my most ambitious project - my zig-zag strippy crochet blanket that I made about three years ago.  I really shouldn't be allowed to get bored!  It's about double bed sized - I just carried on going until spring got too hot to allow me to work under it.  You can also see to the left, my huge box of wool, currently over flowing!

Then it was off to work, thrill of thrills.  It wasn't too bad, again it was one of my less favourite wards, but it was at least a better shift than last weekend.  It was short staffed, but it was a smaller ward - only 20 patients so that helps.  Still felt like I perhaps didn't really have time to do everything.  Then one of the nurses had the cheek to get annoyed with me, when she tried to ask me to do something (menial as always, they always palm off the menial stuff on to Bank HCAs) when I tried to point out to her that I was already in the middle of doing something for one of the other nurses, when the third nurse had told me about two things she wanted me to do.  I mean, come on!  I've only got one pair of hands, and I feel like I'm letting down the patients enough as it is, without adding even more workload!

Then I had a very pleasant surprise when I got home - my SamSam phoned me.  Had a lovely catch up and chat.  Twas nice to have the company!  I'm really going to hold you to that Choc Orange pudding fest, yu-ummm-my!

Progress is being made on Chistmas decorations.  Since I'm still lacking a tree, I've been hanging most of my completed decorations up on my mobile - which is a present from my parents when they had visited family back in Zimbabwe a few years ago.  And a mini-Stieff bear that my mom gave me as a good luck pressie for my exams a few years back.  I think I'm going to get the tree tomorrow.  I'm too excited to put it off any longer!  Still have loads of decorations that I want to make, but at least they'll have somewhere to hang when they're ready!

I'm quite proud of this one - I sat and glued on loads of green seed beads on their side.  Great texture effect.

My growing collection, which now includes a couple of the polystyrene balls.

The mess that is my dining table, a.k.a. my craft table.  This pretty much sums up my life - the bright yellow paper is part of my uni timetable, there's lots of random experimentation remnants (e.g. the paper painted red), a nice smelly candle (winter berry, I think!) and part of my alcohol stash.





And finally, I've uploaded photos of the hat that I made for Mary.  She wanted a slouchy hat, and choose the pattern.  I got my lovely teddy to model again, because lying the hat down on a flat surface didn't allow for the full effect.  Only problem is that Teddy has a smaller head than Mary, so he looks a little drowned by it!

 

Glitter. glitter, everywhere glitter!

Yay, it's the weekend.  Booo!  It's the weekend.  This is my typical response to Friday nights.  It's nice to have the week over and done with, but the weekend also brings work.  Boohoo.  But on a more positive note, work gives me money, which helps with the bills, and leftovers for buying new wool/enjoying myself!  Oh well... trying to look at the silver lining!

Today was more recovering.  I've definitely got over the exhausted achy phase, but for some unknown, but very annoying reason, the sore throat has come back with a vengence.  Yuk! 

I finished Mary's hat, haven't got round to uploading photos of it.  But I did get a chance to give it to her, and she loves it.  She says it's her new fave hat.  This is always such a relief.  When I'm making things, I always end up thinking about the things the intended person won't like about it, or concentrating on the bad things/mistakes, that I always feel very encouraged when I here positive reviews.  So, thanks Mary, very glad indeed that you like it!

I also got round to making some more Christmas decorations today, both at home and at Mary's.  I finally started adding more decoration to my polystyrene balls, I give up trying to paint them anymore!  They've come out quite nicely, so am eager to make more progress.  Again, haven't taken/uploaded photos yet, but I will get round to it at some point over the weekend.   Still haven't got a tree, having a big debate about what sort of tree to get and how much money I am prepared to spend/can afford to spend.  Part of me really likes the idea of a real tree, but it's a little more hassle, getting it, disposing of it.  And then there's living trees, I think my future is too indetermined for this, and they are much more expensive.  Then there's fake trees.  At this rate, this is the most likely option, but decent "bushy" ones are quite expensive.  Oh man!  Such debates!

This evening, I picked up Mary and we went to Hobbycraft to pick up some bits she wanted.  I kind of inspired her to have a go at homemade decorations.  She has gone down a completely different path to me, choosing to use pinecones (something that hadn't even crossed my mind, despite it being somewhat obvious!!).  She has decided to use a combination of silver spray paint, and various colours of glitter paint.  So she invited me round to do basically what we had planned for last Sunday and did less successfully, we had takeaway (Chinese this time, my fave takeaway, so yummy!) and made decorations.  No mulled wine this time... which was probably just as well!  It was really good fun, and as always interesting to see how different people interpret the things they have in front of them and come up with completely different concepts.  Mary had got a whole bunch of pinecones online, so she's going to let me have some... once they're dry.

And that's about it.  I'm home now, watching CSI that I Sky plused whilst out.  Or rather, CSI is watching me type my blog.  Good thing I can rewind it!  My next craft is something for me for a change, something that hopefully won't take long, then I can get back to Christmas pressies, since I've only made one present so far.  I'm going to crochet (fancied a change! and also the effect I want is better in crochet) a snowflake garland for my tree, in this very white wool I found in the wool shop earlier this week.  It is derived from soy fibres, so I'm quite curious to see how it is to work with.  I'll let you know. 

Right, full attention to CSI now!  Have a good weekend everyone.

Arrrgggh! I admit defeat for tonight!

It is just after two in the morning.  I have been determined to finish Mary's hat.  I have dreadfully underestimated how long it would take to finish.  Hats are great.  They're relatively small and after a while, you start decreasing, and then each row takes less time.  This time has not becoming less quickly enough for my liking!  I think that I will have to call it quits for tonight.  It can hardly be any wonder if I'm tired all the time if I stay up half the night stubbornly trying to finish.  I was really hoping to get this hat done in a couple of days, but it'll have to be three.  Simple as that.

I'm mostly better now, so I will have to work doubly hard over the next couple of weeks to ensure I make up for this disappointing week in terms of doing uni stuff.

Night night everyone! xxx

Being ill

I just feel blah.  I'm exhausted - despite getting a really good night sleep, I still couldn't drag myself out of bed for another hour and a half this morning, just kept on dozing off, waking up, dozing off.  And I ache.  I've been doping myself with plenty of cold relief tablets, but I still have real bad backache and a headache for most of the day.  I did manage to get myself in for my lecture today, but found it really hard to concentrate.  The actual typical cold symptoms of runny nose etc, haven't really been an issue, which is a relief, and the sore throat is resolving.  But I still just feel out of sorts.  I've been lying on my sofa, half-heartedly knitting, finishing my first Christmas pressie, and starting Mary's hat.  I have been drinking copious amount of tea - nothing new there, but I have been completely off dairy, so I've been using soya milk, which has been a life saver!  But really strange for me, I don't mind soya milk, just usually stick to the traditional!  And a thing which is completely a break from the norm for me is a total lack of appetite.  I've been managing about one half-hearted main meal a day and a couple of slices of toast.  Not that I'm at risk of fading away, I just normally love my food!  It's strange.  And I've been intolerant of loud noise - prob side effect of headache.  I usually love having my earphones in, blasting away, but just couldn't face it today.  But the hustle and bustle of the bus was worse, so I put on some very soft, mellow music instead, then glared at the insolent little such and such that kept on whistling behind me.  It just cut right through me, and I couldn't help but glare at her. 

Yes, doctors (or near doctors) make for the best patients!

1st of December - one day, many meanings

I can't believe that today is the first of December, already!  Where has the year gone?  It feels like I've just got used to writing the date as 09, and now I've just got 30 short days of that left.  Arghhhh...  Scary stuff.

Today is "special" for many reasons.  The first, is that it's World AIDS Day. And of course, in this day and age it's so incredibly important to be aware of this and the global impact it has.  Whilst it may not always affect us as individuals, we have a social responsiblity and obligation to not forget.  Maybe it's because I'm a medic, maybe it's because I grew up in a country where it was so prevelant, maybe it's the nugget of social conscious that I have, but for me, AIDS is a huge issue.  Going on my elective last year to South Africa, to a rural(ish) hospital where HIV was the cause of a huge proportion of the work load, it was such an eye opener to the problems it causes.  And this isn't just the health issues, there's the stigma, the financial and the social aspects to the disease too.  The fight for getting anti-retrovirals to those who need them most is one of the biggest issues facing healthcare in the modern world.  And with their help, we can really help people fulfill the the catchphrase - Living with HIV.  And how people are HIV-positive in the truest sense, i.e. it's not an automatic negative thing.  And on top of getting meds to those who need it, we need to get education to those who need it, which is basically everyone!  So on this one day of the year, remember.  Remember the 80 000 people living with HIV in the UK alone, and the millions more who have lost thier lives due to this evil disease. 




And then the second significance to this day is that it is the start of Advent.  Well, that is according to Advent calenders.  This is something I don't usually do, probably because I never remember to get a calender in on time.  Of course, true Advent would have started on Sunday, being four Sundays before Christmas day.  There's a certain elegance and grace about lighting those four candles in preparation and contemplation for the day that is so special and significant to Christians everywhere.  So happy Advent everyone, regardless of it's meaning to you!

Anyhows, about my day.  I didn't have to productive day that I was originally aiming for.  Mainly because I seem to have come down with a bit of a cold, so I've had the whole sore, scratchy throat, sneezy, headachy, achy feeling going on.  Not dreadfully bad, just felt very lethargic.  So went into my teaching (bit of a waste of time, was boring as hell!) and then came straight home, bemoaning the short walk from the bus stop, as my limbs felt like they weighed a tonne!  So, aiming for a lovely early night, and hopefully get a good night sleep, following drugging myself up!

Mmmm, Mondays

Some days are barely worth documenting for prosperity!  And today was one of those.  Didn't end up going into uni, as my teaching was cancelled, and I didn't feel like going through the effort of trekking in for an hour just to clerk.  So, lazy me, and I do feel somewhat guilty about this, as I should be all about the clerking this year, and whilst, yes, it is early days, I can't just carry on saying that.  Before I know it, the year will be nearing the end and I will still be procrastinating!  I will definitely be going in tomorrow, I have teaching at 2pm, so tempted to go in earlier, clerk around 1-ish, go to teaching, them possibly clerk again after teaching, depending how long it goes on for.  Well, that's the plan at least, and it still allows me to have a relative lie-in - which is great, I'm really not much of a morning person!

So, what did I do today instead of going in?  Well, I did a bit of tidying this morning and then got thinking about what projects to knit next.  I've decided on a few things, which I mainly want to do as Christmas pressies, so I can't really talk about them, at least not yet!  I'm going to try and do lots of smaller things, which will be quick to knit, so I can get more pressies for more people made, and it will also hopefully be a good way to use up some of my wool stash.

Also, Mary picked out a hat pattern yesterday whilst she was here, so I went and got some wool for that.  Spent ages trying to decide what sort of wool to get.  The sort of wool that the pattern had used/recommended has been discontinued and the nearest equivilent was really expensive (about £7.50/ball, and I would have needed two balls!) and I wasn't entirely convinced the colour was what Mary wanted and it was really fuzzy, and I wasn't sure if this was the sort of thing Mary would like.  So after discussing it with the shop assistant, I settled on something else.  I'll let you know how it progesses.  Hope the wool works out ok.

I painted the silly polystyrene balls a few more coats.  I think I'm finally getting close to having nice solid, non-blotchy colour on them, then I can decorate them some more.

And finally, I thought about doing some reading to make up for not going in... never did quite get round to it.  Come to think of it, I really can't explain how I filled all the hours today.  This is not a good thing.  Must try and make tomorrow more productive!