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!

This is what weekends are for

Ahhh, I just love Sundays, ones that I don't have to work that is!  And today was the perfect example of that.  Nice lazy lie in, then laze in bed until I started to feel guilty about being such a sloth!  My landlord and his wife popped in, so I had a bit of a catch up with them, they've just got back from a holiday in Dubai, visiting their daughter.  And now they're getting ready to go on a month long cruise.  Ahhh, nice to see where my rent cheque is going!  They're such sweeties and I do so enjoy chatting with them!

Today was another one of those can't be bothered to do much on account of the crappy, crappy weather.  So slouched around the house for most of the morning and afternoon.  I finished Connor's sweater, so kindly modelled by my teddy bear!

Then had a little tidy up and whilst giving the polystyrene yet another coat of paint, I started thinking about how Mary sounded quite enthused about my homemade attempts at Christmas decorations.  So I thought I'd invite her round for mulled wine (I love this aspect of winter nights, a nice warm cup of mulled wine to snuggle up with), takeaway and decoration making.  I got the flat looking fairly tidy and got everything ready on my table to make the decorations.

We managed to drink copious amounts of wine (and I for one certainly felt a little tipsy!) and had a lovely Indian takeaway from this great little vegetarian deli just down the road.  Then we never really got round to making stuff.  We watched a bit of telly, and chatted a bit.  And then made snowflakes.  We were mainly experimenting with different patterns, but I think I will have to think of some way to use them.  I think that most of them will be too big to look proportional on the tree, but I'm pretty happy with the results.  May try get some nice coloured paper and adapt some of the designs for the tree.

 

And that was about it.  Lovely, relaxed, weekend day.  And now it's time to get ready for the new week.  Back to the boring routine!  And on that note, need to get on with washing hair and getting ready for the week.  Night night, y'all!

Just a quickie tonight thanks, I have a headache

Today was pretty uneventful, at least in terms of stuff that may be of vague interest to the rest of the world.  I had a lovely lie in, then finished off the last sleeve of Connor's sweater and made a start of the neck borders.  Then it was off to work.  I've been a bit lazy about work recently, haven't worked for about a month, since before term started.  I did have a shift booked, but I was ill, so couldn't go.  Mainly just been struggling to get shifts.  So with a heavy heart I headed off to work.  Usually when I haven't worked for a while, I hate going back, but it's never as bad as I think.  Today, whilst not enthused or excited, I felt fairly indifferent.  And, well, it was awful.  I was working on the oncology ward.  But it wasn't the patient's and the big C-word that got me down.  It was the fact that I was the only NA working and the ward was all but at it's 32 patient capacity.  The nurses weren't horrible or anything, they were just totally unsupportive and kept on piling on the jobs, and never offered to help me.  I just spent the whole shift feeling like I wasn't getting on top of anything.  And then I end up getting grumpy and then that's not really fair on the patients and I end up feeling really guilty for being such a miserable sod! 

And that was about it for today.  Came home, had some dinner, watched some telly, finished the neck borders on the sweater and then started writing this blog.  Feel absolutely exhausted and I have a stiff neck and a bit of a headache.  So I think it maybe time to head to bed, and sew the sweater together tomorrow and make some more progress on the Christmas decorations.  Sleep tight everybody!