Doctor, doctor, I think I've dislocated my knee!

Yesterday I dislocated my knee cap. And yes that is about as painful as it sounds! Thus far I have learned two things from this experience, I am in equal parts impressed and infuriated with the NHS.

When I dislocated my knee, all I did was stand up. Not a particularly dramatic reason for displacing ones knee cap I know, but there you go. I stood up, there was an almighty crack and suddenly I was on the floor. And screaming. I do remember screaming a lot. Unfortunately I was on my own in the flat at this point and quickly realised that screaming was not going to get me anywhere. Luckily considering that I couldn't move I had my mobile on me and managed to call an ambulance, so enter irritation number one. I had to repeat my details about 3 times because I live in a new build flat and the address didn’t seem to be easily found on their system. Secondly, despite telling them that I was on my own and unable to move it took nearly an hour for the ambulance to get to me. As I understand it this was because the first crew on their way to me got diverted to a ‘life threatening’ emergency, reasonable I know, but still an hour seems a little excessive to me. Now in the intervening time I did what any girl does when they are panicking and alone, I called James and my Mum. Mum managed to get to be in about 20mins and James about 40mins later because he was working out of town. Life is a lot less scary when you have people around you that love you.

So when the first ambulance crew arrives it is one ‘first responder’. Now these are paramedics who travel in cars instead of actual ambulances and, who as their job title might imply, try and get to an accident scene first to keep the patient stable until a full crew can arrive. This lady was lovely, she gave me some blessed Entonox (gas and air) for the pain quickly ascertained that she was going to have to radio for an actual ambulance to take me to hospital. To cut a long story short, the other crew got to me and after finding that between the two ambulance crews neither of them had a leg split, jimmied one up, relocated my knee cap (which was more painful than dislocating it in the first place funnily enough) and got me to hospital. With copious more quantities of Entonox. By this point the world was decidedly fuzzy.

Once at the hospital I can’t fault them for finding me a bed in a private room, assessing my knee and sending me for an x-ray which I got with almost no wait time. (Has anyone else ever had an x-ray, I hadn’t before and my my that was one impressive funky machine. It was attached to the ceiling on runner and they could move it and swing it around to take x-rays of different parts of the body without moving the patient. I was very impressed.)


(The funniest part about this photo is the flatline!)

Thankfully I haven’t chipped any of my bones, just torn the ligaments. The hospital gave me this snazzy looking blue split, some crutches and booked me an appointment to see the specialist joint clinic on Monday morning to work out how long my rehabilitation will take. Current estimates are anywhere up to six weeks off my feet.


(Me in hospital looking decidedly un impressed with my knees lack of ability to be a knee)

So here is what I am thankful for, I cannot fault the paramedics and hospital staff for being friendly, caring, professional and knowledgeable. I cannot fault the hospital facilities, they were clean and modern. I got seen quickly and my treatment was effective. I am thankful that I live in a country where universal health care is a right not a privilege. I am thankful that I got all of this treatment, and on going out patients care for free. I am grateful that both of my employers will give me paid sick leave until I am able to return, which could be a considerable period.

I looked up on the internet what this may have cost me if I lived in America and I would have been looking at a bill along the lines of:

$1000 Non-surgical treatment- ie. putting my knee cap back in to place
$200 X-ray of my knee
$200 Doctors fee
$500 Emergency Room fee
$750 Ambulance ride
$100 Forearm crutches
$50 Knee brace

Grand Total: $2800


(My fancy blue splint)

And thats just so far, not counting all the outpatients clinics and physical therapy that I am likely to need and receive. So I guess that most of all I am thankful to live in the UK today. I know some of my readers come from across the pond. What are your experiences of health care? Have you ever been to hospital and been charged for it? The concept of charging the sick for care is unthinkable here so I would be really interested to hear what it is like to live in a country with such a system.


(Me walking out of hospital, no I haven't gotten any better at walking on crutches!)

So this means one of two things for this blog. Either because I am forced off of my feet and will be sitting on my sofa for a considerable period of time I will be posting a lot more, or because i’ll be so doped up on pain meds it won’t be worth me posting much of anything! We will see how it goes.

Stay safe

Lindy xxxx

(And yes I have spared you the pictures James took whilst my knee cap was still out of place!)

Makeup and such like...

So I was thinking whilst I got dressed this morning- yeah I know, a pretty miraculous activity for 6:30 in the morning. I'm right there with you on the insanity of that one. So as I was getting dressed, sorting my hair, finding my make up I was struck by the thought that it is so much more difficult for me to get dressed than it is for James.

Women's clothes are infinitely more uncomfortable and impractical than men’s. You name it, skirts, tights, heels, funny blouses that mean you have to suck your tummy in- all far more hassle and time consuming than their male counterparts. And then one item in that list struck me more than the others- make up. Why do we religiously apply this to our selves? I know that there are some women who cannot go out without it. That see it as so integral to what makes them an attractive woman that they can't even let their significant others see them without it on. In reality I think that a society where women have to wear makeup and traditionally men do not is telling us something quite scary about ourselves. It’s telling us that we do not think women are enough. We look at our faces, and society tells us that they are not good enough. Not beautiful enough, that they need more. In order to be attractive we have to add to ourselves. That a woman, in all her glory, intricacies and yes flaws, is not enough without a mask. That their face is not what we want to see and deal with. Just a side point, I'm not saying that men don't wear makeup I'm just saying that it's not acceptable in out society for a man to turn up at his office suit and mascara.

Then do you know what worried me further? We sell make up to children. On the market at the moment there are a whole variety of different make up products aimed solely at little girls. Designed to show girls that this is what they can aspire to when they grow up. We, as a society are teaching our little girls that they are not enough, and that their brothers are. This is sad.

Margaret Cho (an American comedian) once said that, ‘Ugly. Is irrelevant. It is an immeasurable insult to a woman, and then supposedly the worst crime you can commit as a woman. But ugly, as beautiful, is an illusion.’

Yet convexly I guess makeup can be construed as a tool of feminine empowerment. Allowing us to present ourselves as we see fit, for ourselves. Whilst beauty is undoubtedly ephemeral we are all guilty of wanting to be seen as attractive and desirable.

So I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this subject. Do you think that makeup is a mask or a tool of empowerment? This is something that came to me one morning whilst getting dressed, so feel free to weigh in.

I look forward to hearing your views.

Happy Wednesday,

Lindy xxx

Ahhhh here you are!

Sorry about the lack of presence in the last few days. For the first time in ages I missed 7 Good Things on a Monday, and thats because levels of world suck have increased round here recently. Nothing that is life threatening but definably enough to make me go in to survival mode. Unfortunately this blog is the one thing which I can give up doing and still function in the world; and people like my boss and my mortgage company do rather enjoy me functioning in the world.

(BTW: 'mort': stems from the word death, and gage sounds a lot like cage...) No I joke, I love my house but every time we had a meeting with the mortgage company to get it, that was all I could think!

Anyhoo, I have needed the reminder that this picture give me each morning everyday this week...



Hopefully things are calming down and I will be back later in the week!

Lindy xxx

Grey...

Today has been a grey kind of day, not in a wholly kind of bad terrible this life is no good way, but certainly in an arrrg damn it pah kind of way.

My tumble dryer has broken. It has decided that it will no longer dry clothes. That spreading heat is now a function below it and it is now on strike. Its official, my tumble dryer is an employee of British Airways. Gosh darn it. But now, my tumble dyer is in combination with my washing machine. So if my tumble dryer is on strike, does this mean my washing machine has also gone on strike? I hope not. However, I am currently running it on a washing cycle to see if it will still clean my clothes for me. I am holding out hope on this one because it would be expensive to replace, and y’know lack of funds would be prohibitive.

But on a happier grey theme I made this earlier in the week.



My Mums parter is sick at the moment and I thought hey a gift is called for and bought him a book and made him said book mark up above.... and actually down below as well.



It was incredibly simple to make yet looks quite impressive, the pattern is also below (indeed is you can call its that its so simple!)

CO 15
1st row: k5, p5, k5
2nd row:p5, k5, p5
3rd row: k5, p5, k5
4th row:p5, k5, p5
5th row: k5, p5, k5

Rows 6-10, repeat rows 1-5 in reverse (5 through 1). And then, continue repeating for the length of a book.

There you go. One book mark. Easy peasy.

Oh and because we all know how much I like taking photos of the sunrise, here is yesterdays, it was a good’un!


Have a good Wednesday, and please send washing vibes to my washing machine. I like not smelling!

Lindy xxx

100th Post!

(The photos in this post are snapshots from my day based on the ‘Picture Winter’ prompt- ‘Looking Out’)

Today is my 100th blog post and this feels like a good place to stop and take stock and give thanks. I would like to give thanks to you the reader for sticking with me through 100 bumbling snap shots in to my life. To see that people are reading my writing a sharing my life is a great pleasure and comfort to me.


This is probably also a good place to answer the question, why I write a blog. Why I feel its necessary to share with the world what I had for tea or what I think of a particular book. Mostly I think it comes from my own love of blogs. I read some fantastic ones and I adore finding out how people are living their lives on the other side of the world; what people thousands of miles away from me ate for dinner or did last night. The world and the universe can seem unimaginably vast and intimidating to me, and blogs can make me feel closer to people I have never met, and likely never will.

I also think its about the process of telling a story. I’m a relatively shy person by nature and I find it hard to make new friends. I love that I can include new people in the story of my life, that I can share with people outside of my tight knit world; that I get other perspectives and other opinions that I might not hear.


I also love that it gives me an opportunity to practice my writing skills, indeed since leaving university I treasure this all the more. I enjoy the process of writing, I love thinking about what I’m going to write about during the day and I love sitting down and expressing myself though words in the evening. It is of great comfort to me to set things out, and to share my triumphs and failures with others (did anyone see last nights dinner!)

But to echo what I said at the beginning of this post I mostly love hearing everyone else's stories. To hear of peoples joys and triumphs. but also of their heartbreaks and their sorrow. I laugh, cry and rejoice along with people that I only know though the hollow tap of the keyboard and the eerie glow of the monitor. Blogs have broken my heart and picked me up at the end of a long week. They can be a window in to someone else’s soul and that is a precious thing.



You might not need to know that whilst writing this I drank a cup of camomile tea because I had a cruddy day at work and that particular herb is meant to induce calm. I also ate some left over christmas chocolates and listened to country music on itunes because it was a very bad day and these things made me feel better. But don’t you feel better for knowing it? Because I feel better for telling you. Whilst you sit there this morning or evening and drink tea, you can know that I thought of you whilst I drank mine.

Thank you for listening to me for 100 posts dear reader, heres to the next 100!

Happy Friday

Lindy xxxx

The Big Picture...

One of my New Years resolutions was to take more time on doing creative things. In order to further this I decided to sign up for an online class. I think I've mentioned that back in October I won a giveaway on the wonderful blog A Beautiful Mess, and part of this was a gift certificate to 'Big Picture Classes', a site which offers online classes in things such as scrap booking and photography; and thus I signed up for a photography class called Picture Winter.

Everyday you get a prompt which gives you an idea with which to take a picture, and there is also an online class room where you can upload your pictures too.

Because of work commitments and other things I haven't quite managed to take a picture every day, but below are some of the ones I have done already.

Looking Out

A Little Sunshine (Orange)


Cracked Open


Warm Your Heart

Intended for Every Day Use

Bundle Up

Seeking Balance

Although work constraints mean that most of the photos I take are done inside because the light has gone by the time I get home, I'm finding this an excellent way to at least try to do more artistic things every day, even if it is just as simple as taking a photo.

Happy Wednesday

Lindy xxx

Perfect Day...

Or perhaps I should title this post perfect week, because thus far it has been just that! Today has been particularly amazing as James brought me a body wrap and facial treatment at the Centreparcs Spa for Christmas. I couldn't recommend this more highly. I'm currently all soft and relaxed sitting in our villa with a cup of tea. Perfection.

We're just about to go out of a evening swim before heading home to watch a movie and have some tea. On the subject of movies we've seen some pretty amazing ones this week. My favourite thus far being Scott Pilgrim vs The World. One of the most random film, yet one of the more entertaining I have seen in a long while. Is everying Micheal Cera does that good? And yes I know most people managed to see this in the cinema, but I am just not that organized. Plus the cinema where I live is pretty crappy and very expensive, I just feel cheated!

So the purpose of this post, which I will agree is a little hidden, is just to check in and hope that everyone else is having an amazing start to 2011 too. I promise, back with many photos next week!

Love Lindy xxx

2010

I have to say that 2010 has been a bit of an up and down year for me. Obviously there have been some great highs- James and I brought our first home together, I finished my degree, I got a proper job; these are all good and exciting things. Yet amid all of this I have struggled with unemployment for a time, I mostly hated the last semester of my degree and I have over stressed and worried about just about every decision that I’ve made. Grown up life is scary. And after writing that it sounds to me like it was the process of this year that I have struggled with whilst I enjoyed the outcomes, which is possibly a good description.

All over the blog sphere there are plenty of inspirational posts from amazing women who are reveling in the goals which they achieved in 2010 and setting themselves new ones for 2011. This is a laudable process and I truly, truly admire people who have the self discipline and will to make these things happen for themselves on their own. I am not that girl. I struggle with motivation and general all round laziness. I need a good kick up the butt from our old friend motivation to get me doing things.

Thus I have decided to make myself small goals. Achievable goals. But goals which I think will be beneficial to me none the less. Goals where I will have help getting there. A hand to hold on my way. I am guilty of not taking the time to care enough for myself, I get too wrapped up in working, stressing and letting tiredness overcome me, so my goals are designed to help me overcome these traits.

With this in mind my aims for 2011 are centered round the idea of happiness. I want to be happier. Less worried and more accepting of ‘what will be will be’. Not complacent. But to get a greater appreciation of the idea that there are things in this world which I cannot change and that worrying about them will not help. To be generally more at peace with the world.


Photo Credit

So without further ado in 2011....

1. I want to take the time to nurture my artistic side. I love drawing, taking photos and creating things. But this often takes a back seat. I want this to change for me and spend more time making myself happier by letting myself feel free to do this sort of thing.
2. I want to create myself some ‘downtime’ one evening a week. Some time just to relax and not worry about achieving anything.
3. I want to drink more water and exercise more.
4. I want to create myself a regular posting schedule on this blog and be more disciplined in my writing.

There we go. No where near as far reaching as some of the goals I have seen people try to attempt, but these are goals which I really think will help me be happier and more focused in 2011.

I hope everyone has a relaxing and safe New Years Celebration planned. As I am working tomorrow I don’t think James and I will get much further than a bottle of wine and some time on the sofa, but still, sometimes those evenings are the best!

Its been a pleasure to write for you in 2010 and I look forward to continuing this conversation in 2011.

Stay safe, Lindy xxxx

Christmas Spirit

Hi guys.

If you want to be simultaneously heartbroken, gladdened, saddened, angered by the injustice in the world and have your faith in the ultimate goodness of humanity restored please go and read this post and ensuing comments by the incomparable Jenny at The Bloggess.

I think what struck me most when I was done crying my eyes out (on a train no less) was the amount of people who were struggling because of medical bills or lack of medical insurance. Living in a country with universal healthcare has made me complacent when it comes to the great gift which Clement Attlee's government gave me in 1946. Complacency is dangerous, and reading all of those stories in the comments has made me far more grateful for what I do have this Christmas season.

I thought back to what one of my Sixth Form philosophy teachers once told me. We were debating in class about the problem of evil, and one of my clearest memories is him calling me naive for believing that people were inherently good. I thought that the majority of people operated from the belief that they are doing 'good' (whatever it may be that they define as 'good'), and it is this act of striving for goodness which fuels most of what humanity does and aims for. (No matter how obscured these aims can become with other trivial matters such as materialism etc...) My teacher through this was an incredibly naive perspective and lambasted me as such.

I have thought about this difference in perspectives many times since that day. The fundamental difference that there is in thinking that we are born good and strive to fulfil this intrinsic aspect of our nature and believing that we are born with the taint of evil upon us and that we spend a lifetime struggling against this to achieve good against the odds.

Across the years I have been confronted with the unjustness and pain of the world, and the anger which comes from knowing that most of this pain is unnecessary and man made. I have oscillated between what I believed at 16 and what my teacher told me was the true nature of humanity.

But this little corner of the web has made me look at things afresh. Thank you Jenny, today I am returning to me at 16.

Love Lindy xxx

Geekery

I think the words are bad, bad Lindy.

And I had been so good at posting 7 good things on a Monday as well. Then something had to come and ruin it. But kind, generous and understanding reader. This is not my fault. A man. A man has bewitched me with his words. With his anger. With his humour. And with his insight. Yet mostly I also blame my sister. She introduced me to this bewitching site. Made it rule my life for the last week. Made me forgo such things as getting enough sleep, making myself dinner, and even, yes even getting cups of tea. This site made me happy that my trains were delayed and cancelled so that I had more reading time. Made me happy to sit in the cold waiting for replacement bus services. It is this good.

My 7 good things this week all revolve around these two site:

Mark Reads

and

Mark Watches

Mark is an American writer who writes hilarious reviews of all the things I like. Like literally. The geeky fan girl in me has been having a party all week. Harry Potter? Big massive check. Firefly? Epic check. Mocking Twilight? He's there. Making the Hunger Games sound like the books I wanted them to be? He is all over this. Doctor Who? He will be as of next week!

And yes I'm sitting here in my hand knit Slytherin scarf as I write. Why do you ask?



Excuse me I have to go and geek out in the corner...

Lindy xxx

Delight

I'm back!

James and I had a wonderful week relaxing and chilling out. It was exactly what we needed; we have come back feeling refreshed and ready to go. Just what you want from a holiday. Now I just have a mountain of washing to do before I go back to work next week!

I have a couple of book reviews and some art projects coming up next week. I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend, I'm going to sort out some governors stuff whilst James makes a delicious smelling dinner!

Lindy xxx

(Music once again courtesy of the Courtyard Hounds)

2-4-6-8 ain't never to late

Today I thought I would explore the novelty of blogging on the road! I have this fancy pants iPad with mobile Internet (something that is yet to cease amazing me) so I thought I would actually use it for something other than Facebook! So here I am sitting at a junction to get on to the M25 so that I can go on holiday- it's my birthday today and James and I seem to have a little bit of a tradition going where by we go away near my birthday.

However, this being a Monday morning, and this being near London, one of the most congested cities in the world, I am in a queue of traffic. Because, of course Monday morning is the best time to try an do road works. Not at say 3 in the morning when no one actually wants to use the road. Fun fact for the day, there are around 30 million people living in the South East of England, a large proportion of which are currently trying to use this road. (To give them their due they are trying to do carriage way widening to 12 lanes, but then these road works have been going on for years, so maybe that excuse is starting to wear a little thin!) It's a wonder that anyone ever gets to work round here.

Next fun fact for the day, using your mobile phone whilst driving is illegal in England on the grounds that it say distracts you from the rather important task of driving which you are attempting to complete. As we have established I am currently on one of the busiest roads in the world, in one of the most congested areas. The traffic is heavy, there are road works getting in the way and the volume of traffic is great. You would think at this would be a perfect time for people to start obeying this law in the spirit of safety (did I mention that it was also tipping it down with rain?!) but no. A man just drove past me in his huge Audi smirking as he texted. I glared. He did not look guilty.

On to our last point for today's musings the local radio station is BBC Radio Beds, Herts and Bucks. Is it just me or does this sound like a sleazy club to anyone else?! I sniggered for quite a while after the jingle!

Happy Monday

Lindy xxx

Ps: music credit here goes to the Tom Robinson Band (and yes I listen to motorway songs whilst on one!)

Pps: I am yet to work out how to upload photos on my iPad so we might be reverting to text only for a while!

Young at Heart...

Here is a picture of me grinning inanely...



Apart from this photo showing you that I have recently gone from having long blond hair to having short red hair, there is another reason which I am this happy.

Maybe this photo gives a better clue...



A little while ago I won a prize from the lovely Camille over at Archive of Our Lives, since I had never won a giveaway before I was ridiculously excited, and today it arrived! My very own handmade hair clip. I did the dance of joy. (And a bonus point to anyone who recognises that reference!)

Off of this delightful little gift I have come up with a new plan for world peace. Now I was very happy and over excited when my hair clip arrived, and it got me to thinking- if every one was this happy all at the same time, what would the cumulative effect of that amount of joy be? It would have serious world changing power. Wars would stop. Peace would reign, and cake would be free to all. Just simply by the happiness created by a hair clip. *Obviously* the next logical step would be to give everyone a hair clip I thought. This is simple. Why have I not been consulted before on the intricacies of the Middle East peace process? Or given free reign in Africa? Taken over Northern Ireland? Centuries of conflict would come to an end with the simple gift of a hair clip.

Its entirely possible, I thought, that I should be in charge. At the very least everyone would have snazzy, accessorised hair. Hey Camille, fancy revolutionising the world with hair clips?

Lindy xxx

EDIT: You can tell how tired was when I published this, as I totally forgot to give it a title. All credit here to The Bluebells and a slap on the wrist and an earlier bed time for me!

Edinburgh

Unfortunately drawing time has been a little restricted in the last few days, but hopefully I should have something to post later this evening.

One of the reasons that I've been a little lax is that James and I took a short trip to Edinburgh this week which was amazing! It was one of those days where everything just went right. Hands down the best place we visited was defiantly the Royal Botanic Gardens. The outside areas were free to wander about in, and the Glass houses were very reasonably priced to enter. I took hundreds of photos as you can see below! All in all it was an amazing day and the perfect antidote to a grey start to the week down here.

























Hope everyone is having as equally good middle of the week!

Lindy xxx

Sunday Morning...

No Saturday Steals this weekend I'm afraid as I just haven't had time. Which is unfortunate as I had a steal planned for this post. Yesterday was super busy, and today J is taking me somewhere as a surprise trip! Hence why I am posting so early in the morning! Which is so exciting!

I shall check back in on Monday and let you know where I went!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend! xxx

Canadian Booty

About two months ago or so, I suggested to a fellow blogger, the amazing Camille over at Archive of Our Lives, that we should have a swap. In return for sending her some cool British stuff she would send me some awesome Canadian stuff. She has written about what I sent her here.

So, guess what arrived in the post this week....

(My Mum received the parcel for me, and ripped off the customs tag so I could have a surprise!)

I was so excited when I finally got it J commented that my face looked as thought it was about to invert from smiling so much!

I think it would be fair to say that I am mildly obsessed with Canada and all things Canadian. I would love to go there one day, in fact I made J promise me that we could! So the fact I have some real live Canadian goodies sent to me from a real live Canadian has made me one very happy lady indeed! I’m still racking my brains to come up with a way to thank Camille sufficiently for all the awesome things that she sent me, so for the time being this post will have to do. Thank you Camille!

So without further ado, here are the groovy goodies that traveled their way across the Atlantic Ocean approximately 3000 miles to make there way to me.

I received these cool patriotic Canadian things, the keyring of which is already on my keys!


Some snazzy Canadian foodstuff. By the by those rice crackers are ‘No Name’ crackers, which just cracks (excuse the pun) me up! They also taste delicious, I have almost eaten the entire lot, and i’ve only had them a day! If you live in England, I guess the closest comparison would be cheese Snack-a- Jacks, but these are crispy-er.


Canadian lip stuff. Suffice to say the Burt’s Bees one is amazing and is now a permanent fixture in my handbag.


An amazingly generous amount of Canadian chocolate. Sorry about the blurry photo, I had already tucked in by the time I realised that this was out of focus! How I lived my life without Coffee Crisp bars before is a puzzle I will never know the answer to. As it stands, I think I may need therapy to get over the fact I will not be able to get another!


Possibly my favourite thing- mittens! How Camille knew that I am both obsessed with warm outerwear and watched these previous Olympics religiously I will never know! This women knows it all! Her mind telepathy can even stretch across the water. (Ha ha, just kidding.... I think!) So I reckon it is safe to say that I am smitten with my mittens. A shout out here to Camille’s Mother- in- law who had the sense to buy a spare pair on the off chance that there would be some crazy English lady who would be dying for cool Canadian things and would convince her daughter-in-law to send her some. Poor Kyle’s Mum- you rock!


And then we have my mug! I was ridiculously happy with this as I have a collection of motley, random mugs which I have built up over the years which I love. Since I spend an inordinate amount of my time drinking tea and coffee, I spend a lot of time with my mug, and now I can be reminded of both Canada and my friends generosity every time I do!


So here we have it. Thank you, Camille, from the bottom of my heart for all the wonderful gifts which you sent me! You are truly the coolest Canadian which I know, Poor Kyle should count himself a lucky man! (Don’t feel shortchanged by being the only Canadian which I know. This in no way detracts from your uber coolness!)


Thank you again, people feel free to go check out Camille’s also uber cool blog over at Archive of Our Lives.

Happy Thursday all xxx

Tea and Cake

Its a very grey day outside, with almost 100% cloud cover. The perfect kind of day to have green tea and homemade lemon cake. I'm also aiming to finish an embroidery project which I started months ago. Wish me luck!

Happy Wednesday xxx

Unemployment

Image from here

Just in case you were wondering, unemployment sucks. This might not seem like a revelation to the rest of the world, but it certainly is to me.

Sorry, I think this post needs some back story. I have a 12 hour a week contract as a junior manager at a local supermarket. This was perfect whilst I was university. It gave me a nice balance between having the time to do my university work and having a job to do, something to distract me from my degree (in a good way). Now when I finished my degree, I had assumed that I would either have another job to go to (more fool me), or that I could get some overtime at my current work place in order to keep me occupied.

Neither has happen. There is a complete overtime ban at work at the moment which I don’t see being lifted anytime soon. Hence why I feel unemployed. My 12 hours is spread over 2 evenings at weekend. So all day everyday I sit at home on a weekday and watch people go out and be productive members of society. This has become harder now that J has gone back to work. For the first few weeks of living in the flat, he had booked it off on holiday so we were both at home, and it felt like a nice relaxing holiday, albeit one with a multitude of boxes to lift in. You have no idea how guilty I feel siting in our beautiful new flat without a full time job, and without much to do.

I have naively thought that I would be okay with sitting at home and relaxing. It was the one thought that kept me battling through my degree- the idea that when it was all over the stress would end, and I could relax a little. Well i’ve relaxed enough now, and I need something to do! I don’t react well to having nothing to do. It makes me lethargic and un-motivated, a vicious cycle of doing not much.

So I have come up with a few ways of combatting this whilst I look for a job. And believe me I am looking for a job like I have never looked for anything before, but there are only so many times a day I can fill in forms telling people that I am fantastic.

One of the things I am doing is NaNoWriMo, I wanted to get back in to writing and this seemed like the perfect structure that I needed to keep me on track. I’m writing complete balls, but just the practice of writing something is good for me I think. J’s Dad has also lent me one of his old guitars, so i’m learning, badly I may add, to play a few chords on that to give me something to occupy myself.

For some reason its hit me particularly hard having nothing to do. My normal response to boredom would be to go and do some volunteering, but whilst looking for a job I can’t give a long enough commitment to make it worth a charities while to train me. Its all rather depressing.

No one tells you this when your doing a degree. Perhaps i’m the aberration. Perhaps the rest of the world is good at doing nothing. But I certainly am not.

So this is why, ladies and gentlemen, unemployment sucks. I completely fail to understand how people can do this long term. (I don’t mean unemployed in the sense that your staying at home with children or something, but just staying at home and doing nothing.)

So okay. Rant over. Now I have to go find something else to do. Damn.

Happy Tuesday!

Today has indeed been a good day! Full of Doctor Who, crocheting and writing. But today was defiantly made great because J and I brought a piano! It was so much fun, we went in to this little piano shop and got to try out all the different models. Eventually we settled on the model that we went in thinking that we wanted in the first place! We are now the proud owners of a Roland F110 in white! (Or we will be when it gets here, hopefully by the end of the month.)




I feel quite decadent buying a piano, but hopefully we will get good use out of it. Both J and I played the piano as kids and its something that we both really want to go back to. Fun Ros fact alert. When I was 6 I won a poetry competition and got £50. When your 6 that seems like riches untold! My parents wanted me to buy something that I could keep for a long time so I brought my first keyboard. Lessons through my school cost 50p for half an hour and I was taught to bang out all the old favourites- When the Saints go Marching in was a particular favourite of my teacher I seem to recall. Then finally I graduated to playing with both hands, and the first song I learnt to play? Let it be by the Beatles. I remember that it was on the last page of the music book that we were playing through and I felt to proud that I had got there. So I love this song. Its one of my go to tunes. No matter what sort of mood I'm in I can listen to this song and feel better. So the first thing I'm teaching myself to play again? Definitely Let it Be!

Have a musical Tuesday and check this out!

Egg Drop Soup

So I thought I would be able to do a lovely little post today about my new house. I thought by Thursday I would have found my camera cable and photos would be forthcoming. Unfortunately I have now found my cable but lost my camera! My ineptitude strikes again!

So. No photos- thus no post! So instead you get a post on soup! J is away at the moment, he has gone sailing across the north sea with his Dad, so apart from this being a rather lonely state of affairs, there is an upside. I get to eat eggs! Now don’t laugh. J hates eggs, thus I don’t tend to cook things with them in for the both of us, but I love them. So a night on my own equals Chinese Egg Drop Soup!

This soup is comfort food extraordinaire!

So to make this bowl of loveliness you will need:

4 cups of chicken stock
2 chopped green/ spring onions
1 tablespoon of peeled and grated ginger
a pinch of white pepper
a pinch of chinese 5 spice
2 beaten eggs

Bring your chicken stock to the simmering point and add the chopped green onions, the grated ginger and the spices. Leave it to cook for a little bit whilst beating the eggs. Then carefully pour the eggs in to the soup, through a fork so that they separate nicely. The eggs should cook as soon as they hit the soup, if they don’t separate properly, stir the soup with a whisk for a while so that the eggs don’t clump.

And then your done! Serve this up and you have a bowl full of the quickest, easiest, nicest soup you will ever spend ten minutes making! Now because i’m on my own and just a little bit greedy I ate both portions, but this should make enough for two (non- greedy!) people!

Enjoy your Thursday evening, at some point this blog will resume with photos. (Promise!) xxx