Purple Dragon

Actually quite a good read, once you get past the totally bizarre concept

There are a whole series of them - I think he's up to book 4 or something now. I shall certainly carry on reading these

I don't know if anyone else has blogged this, but I'm gonna blog it anyway

Biometric scans served up with school meals
KEVIN SCHOFIELD
EDUCATION CORRESPONDENT (kschofield@scotsman.com)

PUPILS at a Scots primary school have become the first in the world to pay for their lunches by having their palms scanned rather than by handing over cash.

Biometric technology which allows them to be identified through their hands' unique vein patterns has been introduced at Todholm Primary in Paisley.

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1588142006

Today we went to collect some small square bales (£2 each in case you're interested) and on the way there we passed a field with some sheep in it.

Yeah, okay, we passed LOADS of fields with sheep in them, but this field had a farmer in it as well. Said farmer was closing his gate having just driven thru them in his truck.

Farmer's dog was long gone over the field, tucking into a second breakfast of dead sheep belly.

Nice.

Lake in the Clouds, Sara Donati

This is the third in the Into the Wilderness series, and it is a really enjoyable read. The first time I read these books, I had just finished the Diana Gabaldon books, and it didn't give these books the benefit they deserve. They are a brilliant series and well worth looking out and reading.

Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman

I saw this in the telly when it was on the BBC many moons ago, and enjoyed it, but I never watched the whoele mini-series so i didn't know what was going to happen. When I came across the book in the library, I grabbed it up, and I am very glad I did. I hadn't realised it was Gaiman who wrote it, and I enjoy his work. This was no disappointment, so I remain a fan A bit bizarre and yeuch in places, but well worth it. A nice read, not challenging.

Rachel started pulling at her ear this afternoon, and poking inside it, and when I had a look, it was quite red, so I whipped her down the Dr, along with Laura who was up most of last night coughing.

Well, Rachel has an infection in her right ear, tonsillitis and a wee rash on the back of her neck, and her back (which was vaguely alarming because a friend of mine is getting over a very minor viral meningitis).

Laura has a bad infection in her right ear, not so bad in the left, and tonsillitis. The cough is just glop building up during the day.

So, they are both on penicillin.

Rachel started pulling at her ear this afternoon, and poking inside it, and when I had a look, it was quite red, so I whipped her down the Dr, along with Laura who was up most of last night coughing.

Well, Rachel has an infection in her right ear, tonsillitis and a wee rash on the back of her neck, and her back (which was vaguely alarming because a friend of mine is getting on a very minor viral meningitis).

Laura has a bad infection in her right ear, not so bad in the left, and tonsillitis. The cough is just glop building up during the day.

So, they are both on penicillin.

Mum had her quarterly meeting with Sue's carers yesterday. She has a new home matron and a new social worker, which makes it a bit harder because they need to get to know Sue, and also Mum, and we need to build up trust again.

Her neurologist says that her deterioration is marked since 3 months ago.
The reason she is struggling to speak to much is that the disease has hit her vocal cords and they are wasting away.
Her weight loss has nothing to do with body fat loss - her BMI remains much the same, but the weight loss is muscle wastage.
She can't stand loud noises, and this is proving itself when they put her in the lounge with the other folk because she gets aggressive and swears at folk.
They have gotten her one of these motorised wheelchairs that she can control with one hand, but they have had to put stabilisers on the back, because otherwise she tips it up.
She has these sort of spasms where her legs push her up and backwards, and this tips the chair.
They are still encouraging her to try and feed herself, and drink tea herself, but this won't be for much longer - soon she won't be able to manage to bring the food/drink to her mouth, and they will have to feed her.
Mum had a go at them because they don't maintain her personal grooming. Mum has to shave her legs and so on when she visits because the staff don't do it. Honestly - you'd think with the oney that they get ...! They have agreed to take this on themselves now.
She has had toothache for a while, and they are waiting for a dental apppointment. I think the tooth needs to come out - they filled it recently and the filling has come out again.

There but for the grace of god, as they say ...

... as the day goes on, so I can shove one big blog entry under today's event.

The weather today is pretty rubbish. It is very misty, and the mist comes and goes, getting softer and then thicker, but never completely going off. There is a slight mizzle as well, leaving everything damp and chilly. A slight breeze tops off the general chill, cutting thru your clothes somehow worse than a wind seems to. Now, at the back of 3pm, the mist is coming down thickly again, and it won't rise again today. I can barely see the other side of the valley.

Today was a day of monumental migraine. It isn't even 3pm and I'm clock watching for putting the kids so bed, so I can hit the sack as well. I ended up phoning the Dr because my vision shattered and I had prism zigzags as well. A bit scary. Luckily that happened at home, so it could have been worse as we were planning to go out and rescue a rabbit, and I could have been driving!

After my vision got its act back together, we jumped in the car and went to Rosehearty to choose a new rabbit. Obviously, we have Waffle and Noodle, but I saw this on FreeCycle - 25 rabbits looking for new homes - and I just couldn't let those poor buns lanquish.

We drove to her house and - good grief! - talk about a menagerie. Three dogs of her own - great dane, labrador and scottie. Three horses - big, medium and diddy. A garden FULL of hens of all breeds and cages upon cages of rabbits. Also, she breeds and shows siamese cats - one of whom had the most stunning blue eyes!

The kids helped her capture an escapee rabbit, which was satisfying. Hard luck Mr Fox

We chose a wee grey netherland dwarf, which suits me better than the full size rabbits. I already have the two dutch rabbits, which are billed as dwarfs as well. The new one is called Silver (obviously) and he is as cute as can be. When I find my camera, I shall take a pic.

Seeing set-ups like her makes me realise just how much we waste our land. We have 2 acres of grass just sitting there waiting for us to DO SOMETHING with it. Laura wants a pig and a horse. I want sheep. Anthony wants a skateboard park. Gerry wants to build one of those iron age roundhouse type things (and so do I, if I admit it).

Someone I know has half a lamb for sale. I really want to buy it, but I have to wait for Himself to appear - he's in a meeting - before I can commit to it. I really hope we can, because the meat will be de-LISH! I've seen a pic of the lambs on their way to slaughter and they look fine healthy beasts. YUM! Mum has offered to give us the money for them, but I feel bad taking it, you know?

Oh, she has also offered to pay for my tattoo for my Christmas. I just have to find a reputable tattoo-er and get it sorted She's so cool, my Mum!

Well, tonight we had sausage casserole and mashed potato for our tea. It was really yummy.

I have managed to agree with a person on one of the forums I am a member of to take half a lamb from him. I'm really lloking forward to it. It will be back from the butcher next Tuesday. I will take the kids along with me - they can check out his piggies.

Don't forget folks - today is world blog day. I did a thing here the other day about it if you don't know what I'm on about, but still havent worked out how to link back to it, so you'll have to go hunt it down yourself.

Please leave an entry in my comments section if you do blog anything today, because I would be very interested in following up what folk have written

17th October is One Day in History Day - and History matters want YOU to record a blog diary of this one day, which will eventually be stored by the British Library as a permanent historical record of national life.

see www.historymatters.org.uk for more details

So I went on 21st September to the gynaecology clinic at the Infirmary and had unspeakable acts committed against my nether regions. I was told everything looked hunkydory, given a pat on the head, and sent upon my way.

So this morning, I get a letter from my GP, telling me that they had received a letter from the Infirmary and inviting me to attend for an appointment to discuss "my condition" at 10am tomorrow morning.

I didn't know I had a condition. I thought everything was hunky-flippin-dory.

Bugger.

Well, this afternoon Rachel fell off a piece of toy furniture and smacked her head a good'un on the corner of the football table. I thought she'd just had a bump, till I rubbed it and my hand came away all blood. Whipped her down the hospital (6 miles away), was seen immediately and 20 minutes later was on my way home.

When I first looked at her head, it looked like a cut about 3" long - some great gaping wound that was gushing blood. When they cleaned it up at the hospital, it was about 1cm and there was just a trickle. It *had* been bleeding quite badly, but she wasn't bleeding to death like I thought. Head wounds, eh.

Isn't it funny how you over-react when it is your baby that is bleeding everywhere? I was in a complete controlled panic. I realised as I was driving down the lane that the other two were due out of school fairly shortly, so I stopped, got them out of school at triple-time, and we all trogged off to the hospital. The school folk must think I'm bonkers - or they will when they find out that it is just a wee cut.

She is sore though. Poor baby.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news - I am really low on petrol, so I walked the boy to school, and then walked home again; then I walked the girls to toddler group, then home again; then I walked Laura to nursery, and walked home again. Obviously I used the car to go to the hospital and used £3 of my remaining £5 to put in diesel, but I had planned on walking down again to pick up the two older ones. It is half a mile down, and another half mile back (uphill) so no wonder I'm feeling weary. Between the 3 mile walk, and the major stress attack, I've had a busy day!

The more I think onthe childminding idea, the more enthusiastic I become. I shall be on the phone to the council first thing in the morning.

So today? I've been outside all day

I started off lifting the rest of the carrots (well, that was yesterday actually, but I finished clearing the area). Then I lifted the last of the tatties. What a job! Rubbish. I really enjoyed the digging but the tatties were pathetic. I didn't get ONE that was any bigger than Himself's thumb. So disappointed. There is enough there for one meal, maybe one and a half, and they are all scrubbers - if you peeled them, there would be no tattie left. Was glad I dug that area over though. Get some weather into it.

I lifted the canes from everything, and took out the dead plants - dead pea plants for example. I shall need to give them a rinse and also rinse off the cut up juice bottles that I used to try and keep the slugs off.

All that is left in the plot now are weeds and sweetcorn. Ha! Sweetcorn. Yeah, right. That will go in the poly next year. Way too cold and scottish outside for them, thats for sure!

I took down the temporary fence that sectioned off the poultry run, and moved the Truckman top out of where it was sitting because I think there were some rats using it as home. I've put it in the middle of the run because it was too heavy to get thru the gate. That will have to wait till the weekend, when I get another set of muscles to help.

Tried to build a rabbit run, with no success. My nails were too short, my wood was too thick and I don't have a saw. I gave up on that in disgust.

So - now I'm off to the sauna to have a wee rest of the back (which started getting knackered yesterday with the carrots, and was finished off completely after todays efforts) and then a bath.

Gosh - I'm so environmentally friendly, aren't I?

Well, it looks like I am either gonna have to go out and get a job, which involves putting the wee ones with a childminder. I could sit down and cry thinking that I would have to do that. I don't think I could bear to part with them - it has been hard enough letting them go to school, even though I know that school is in their best interest.

The other alternative is to become a childminder myself. I need to contact the council and find out if there is a requirement, if so - how many children I would be allowed to take, and then find out whether I would earn enough to cover what is needed.

Ho hum

This makes me SO bloody mad! This money could have been used for something useful and sensible.

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=609&id=1483802006

Pockets. Huh!

I have been thinking about how humans are attracted to one another in a physical way, while I have been vacuuming.

Men are often attracted to women because of long legs, big breasts, small waists, tight buns, and so on. Described as 'leg men' 'breast men'.

But I've been thinking of the opposite side of the coin - female attraction to males. Now, I know what doesn't attract me - big belly, flabby, poor personal hygiene, bad teeth/breath. But what does? Well, therein lies the question.

I like Sean Connerry and wouldn't kick him out of bed for practically anyone else. But he's as old as my Dad, and bald. What is it attracts? His money? His acting ability? No - I would say his eyes. He has a sparkle about him.

Mick Jagger - not your normal attraction, and I am loathe to admit it, but if I met him down the pub, I wouldn't go home with him if it weren't for his 'wildman' reputation and, yes - probably - his money.

So - is it money or power? My guess is power. My DH has a senior position, but we haven't got a bean, and I still fancy him LOL

I think that male physique isn't all that attractive. Their willies shrink and grow without any mental assistance. They can have sex with someone even if they are so mad with them they don't even want to talk with them. Not a woman. She would stay dry as a bone. I like pecs, nice chests. I like men with chest hair (bare ones remind me of my son!) but I don't want to bed Harry Henderson either!

A hearty erection can be an impressive thing but if someone came up to you in the pub and say "hey, take a keek at this" you'd call the police! Not like a woman who can display a cleavage and be appreciated.

So - what do women find attractive? For me - it is the person (if they come in a reasonable looking package). I know men who I find fascinating because of their knowledge, experience, lifestyle.

Do you think attraction is grown from friendship and mutual interest? Only once have I been knocked off my feet when a stranger walked in a room, and to this day I could never tell you what happened.

Last night, I lifted a carrot. Wish I'd taken a pic of it now because I've never seen anything so ugly in my life!

This is the first carrot I've lifted and not fed straight to the rabbits, and I took it inside, washed it, and split it up from a whole bunch of twisted wrapped-around-each-other carrots into individuals. It ended up looking quite reasonable, apart from the centre sction which was too ugly to eat. The bunnies have that bit.

I left them sitting on the counter for a while, whilst I did other stuff, and when I went back into the kitche MY GOD what a smell! Fantastic! The kitchen smelled of carrot, which threw me straight back to my early teens - real carrots in the kitchen. I can't wait to cook them - probably tomorrow. See if they taste as good as they smell.

Anyway. Something that occurred to me. Am I a useless carrot grower or is this how real carrots come out of the ground? I'm used to buying my carrots from Tesco - mass produced, all look much the same and only vaguely taste of anything carrotty.

Ooohhhh carrot cake. Oh. My. Goodness!

As some of you know, Himself can be a bit forgetful - he is known for it, and his old secretary did a great big sign outside his office door on one of those flipchart pads saying "DON'T FORGET YOUR KEYS!"

Well, as some of you also know, we live right over on the north east coast of Scotland, and he lives in Inverness.

I just got a phone call saying he has lost his keys (car, flat, work) and has nowhere to stay, so we shall be taking a wee drive over to Fochabers tonight (half way between there and here) to collect him, bring him back here for the night, and then run him back to Inverness in the morning.

Men

I am having a strop because I am feeling hard-done-by

I want a black (or any colour) cocker spaniel but I haven't seen one for less than £250 and I just don't have that spare.

(stomping off, stamping feet and huffing away to myself)

Man, I feel rough today.

The cold I have has gone into my chest, and I think I have an infection, I'm not sure.
It hurts like mad when I cough, but not so bad today when I breathe as it was yesterday.
My face aches so bad, especially if I bend over. I think my sinuses are blocked.

Rachel fell over backwards this morning and bashed the back of her head on the coffee table. She is okay, but when she was on my lap getting comforted, this black bug scuttled across her forehead and down into her eyelashes, where I grabbed it. I took it and looked thru the 'scope, and it isn't a headlouse, but I didn't recognise it. I think it was one of those wee black stormflies - do you know the ones I mean?

However, I'm itching like bonkers now. I checked Anthony's hair (again) before he went to school - clear. Checked Rachel as much as she would let me - clear. Checked my hair and apart from needing a wash - clear. Isn't it funny what suggestion can do?

Anthony Dr Who trading card collection stuff arrived this morning. He is going to be SO chuffed. He has lots of new cards, a wee folder for keeping the cards in, and a Tardis for keeping cards in as well. I think he gets a folder to keep the magazines in as well with the next edition.

I never said - on my birthday. Mum managed to get Sue to write her name on a card for me! It is very shaky but she managed it

However, this was tempered by the card signed only from Mum - the first one I have received since Dad died.