Purple Dragon

Feeling a bit out of sorts this evening.

I feel disappointed, but I don't know why. I'm not even sure the emotion I am feeling just now is disappointment. It just feels that way.

I keep reading about road fuels prices, oil gas and electricity prices, food prices. They seem to be spiralling out of control. I am not ashamed to say that I am very worried about the whole oil price thing. We heat our house and water with oil. I am thinking about spending some of the decorating money on a wood burning stove, but this house wasn't built with a chimney. I would have to put one in, and that would mean major construction work! We have an electric heater in the living room, and a false mantelpiece. I could put a stove in there, and install a chimney in the room behind it - the snooker room. The living room has my bedroom above it, but the snooker room only has a loft. Worth thinking about.

We found out today that our Head Teacher is quitting and going to another school. I was in a meeting with him the other day, and he mentioned he is looking for a holiday home on the west coast. I misheard him, and though he was moving to the west coast, and told him he wasn't allowed to move. Seems it was rather prophetic. Pity I can't prophecy the lottery numbers, eh?

Angus had his dressing changed today. The vet says his foot is healing up very nicely and there is no sign of infection. He can put his (not inconsiderable) weight on it now, but not for a long time. He puked twice in the car on the way there. Nice.

We have my nephew coming to stay this weekend. He is a really nice bloke. Softly spoken, and polite, but I've never seen him with a beer in him LOL I enjoy having him to stay, unless he calls me 'auntie Carol'.

We are supposed to have a decorator come tomorrow to quote us for the external painting. My windows are a mess. I've had folk come before now to give us quotes, but we never hear from them again. Fingers crossed this one wants to work.

I am in a similar condition to Meno just now, and I feel shite. Ah, the joys of being a woman.

So, I'm sitting blethering to a pal this afternoon when I hear a massive commotion in the back garden and much yelping.

I ran outside to find that my labradoodle, Angus, had impaled his foot and what appeared to be his leg on a garden fork. Not a hand fork, mind you, but a great big one - a proper size one for digging. I could hardly see what he had done because he is so hairy.

I rang the vets and they told me to bring him in, without removing the fork, and they would take a look at him.

Angus weighs about 28kg and fortunately my pal was able to take the fork while I carried him, or I don't know what I would have done. I sat with him in the boot while my pal drove, to comfort him, as the poor thing was both in pain and scared to death.

The vets thought he had just stabbed himself with a hand fork, and were pretty shocked when they saw the state of him. They gave him an injection to sedate him, but he didn't fancy that, so they put him to sleep; then they got him on a trolley and then got him out of the car and into the surgery.

The happy news is that he is home and fine, although when the anaesthetic wears off, he will be right sore. He got the tine thru the fleshy bit between two pads, which they they cut open in order to remove the tine and flush out the wound, before sewing. He has a big bandage and a sad face, and he is right tired.

Me? I'm a mess. I'm still shaky, and I feel like I've been wrung out. I have never seen anything like that in my life, and I'm not in a hurry to see it again!

He goes back Friday to see if his toe is broken, check he isn't getting infected, and get re-bandaged.

Oh, and you know, he never fussed, snarled, bared his teeth or even growled the whole time. We lifted and carried him to the car with this great big fork hanging out of him foot and he is SUCH a good natured dog that he never said a word.

So - how was your day?

Okay, I just logged on to type up a wee moan, and I am met with a subtitle and summary option. Wassat all about then?

Hmm

Anyway, (trying not to look at screen), I was thinking to myself this afternoon, "WHY am I so desperate to hit the biccie tin?" and then a little later "WHY are my kids being so bloody irritating today?"

Well, my poor kids are no more irritating than they normally are.

It's is that fun time that half the population (give or take) suffers on a regular basis (actually, that is probably the whole population who suffer, come to think of it) - the wonderful PMT.

Sugar craving? Tick
Crabbit old besom? Tick.

That'll be that, then.

For god's sakes - no one give me a weapon.

Gosh, I've been busy this weekend! And it's Tuesday now LOL

We had one of the boy's pals to stay Friday night and he ended up staying Saturday night as well. He's a really nice lad, and I like having him over.

I took them to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Sunday. Ger took the girls to the beach and fair. The movie was excellent. Harrison Ford sure is yummy still Very good film, although rather predictable, but then Indiana Jones movies aren't supposed to be mentally stimulating, are they?

Had parents 'evening' yesterday afternoon with the kids teachers. My son could have written his own report, his was that good; but Lala's leaves something to be desired. Her acamedic achievement is now on par with her peers, which is excellent considering how badly she started, but her behaviour is dreadful. Little sod.

Had a really bad dream about Himself last night. Woke up this morning and told him off. LOL For some stupid reason, I am still a bit upset about it. Isn't that silly?

I am selling loads of books on eBay and I have started listing them.

If you are interested in taking a peek, my user id is
cmulraney

I will be listing lots of others over the next week or so, so keep dropping back!

Wednesdays are a bit mad for me. I seem to get out of bed and tear about the place until bedtime comes back round, and I fall into my kip, grateful

Yesterday was no different. Rachel was at school in the morning, so I went to the gym. Did 1.5 hours workout, which I felt really good about, and then came back, got changed and picked her up.

Drove thru to Fraserburgh to buy a breadmaker for Laura. It turns out that I am poisoning her with her (supposed) gluten free bread, which actually has gluten in it, but at 'acceptable' levels. You shouldn't eat too much of it, because if you do, you get a build up of gluten, and then get sick. Ho hum. Tricksy little bugger, this gluten. So I'm going to make my own GF bread, and then I know exactly what I am giving my daughter.

On the way to Fraserburgh, I picked up my pal K, and we stopped in Tesco for a cuppa and a bun. Tesco being Tesco, it wasn't exactly a gourmet lunch, but there you go.

On the way back, we decided to visit The Barn, which I misunderstood to be a large second hand furniture warehouse, but turns out to be half massive charity shop/half 2nd hnd furniture. I picked up a couple of pictures for Rachel's room, and a couple I fell in love with as well, and a new egg collection basket because the last one we had, died. Rachel chose the basket

We got lost on the way there, and left a bit later than we thought we should, so it was Sterling Moss all the way to the village to collect Laura from school, drop her at the hairdresser, drop K back at her house, back to the hairdresser to get Rachel done, round the corner to drop Laura at dance class, back to the hairdresser to get my hair cut (I look fabulous!! ), and then loiter to wait for the boy to get his hair cut. Collect Laura from dance class, have a great big fight over whose pictures they are, back home, get the boy changed for gymnastics, jump in the car, drive to Turriff and help set up the gymnastics. Sit for an hour blethering to a few girlfriends while trying to control several small children, then back home for tea.

Whew!

I was in my kip at 9.30 - totally cream crackered, and ready for sleep. Had a wee keek at The Last Empress (my current read), some Reiki, then off to sleep.

Darn puppy woke me at 3.40 this morning wanting a pee, which I guess was fair enough because I made them go to bed early, but I wasn't chuffed that he then continued to whine and bark, wanting to play.

Thursdays are calmer

Today, as the weather was nice but not hot, I decided to potter a bit in the garden.

The gardener was here yesterday, and he leaves the grass in piles around the garden, on top of the weed perimeter. My plan is to continually rake these grass piles down over the top of the weeds, eventually killing them off. So, that was today's plan.

Wandered up to the polytunnel to get the rake, and saw the state of the veggie plot - the weeds were about a foot tall, and as a pal of mine had given me a carpet to lay there, I decided to bring it up and lay it over the weeds, thus (hopefully) eliminating them. Trouble is, I forgot how heavy carpet can be, particularly when it has been outside for a number of weeks and is quite damp. Nearly ruptured myself getting the carpet out of the trailer and onto the wheelbarrow. Believe me, if the car with the trailer hook-up had been here, I would have just driven it up the garden! Nearly got a double rupture pulling the barrow up the garden (up being the operative word, as we live on a hill) and laying it out in the plot. Anyway, that is that job done. God, it was manky! Yeuch, Bugs and allsorts in there.

Got the rake, shaking my head sadly at the disgrace that is my polytunnel, and started raking. Didn't think to wear gloves so I bought myself a nice blister between thumb and forefinger. Ouch. Do you know, 2 acres of grass looks a lot, but it doesn't mulch very far!

Anyway, I have managed to kickstart my Tietze's again, and my chest feels like I've been punched.

And, oh my GOD I stink! Rotting grass stinks like the poo of some very sick animal, and that is how I smell just now. Lovely.

I have some straighteners and they are totally rubbish.

I have to hold them about half an inch away from my hair, or they burn it, which kinda defeats the point. You can feel your hair crisping.

What straighteners do you use? Are they any good?

I am torn between the GHD ones and the Wet2Dry ones.

Anyone?

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln .

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln , was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln , was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.
Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln ' made by 'Ford.'

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assasin ran and hid in a warehouse
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assasin ran and hid in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe , Maryland
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe

Last night, on a tip from a pal, Anthony and I went into Aberdeen to visit the Marishal Museum and the Zoology Museum. They were open from 7pm to midnight, with various shows and so on, and activities for the kids.

We went to the Marishal first, because they had a Mummy, and Anthony is into Egyptology in a big way. They had loads of local artefacts, from pictish stones, to stone axes and iron age axes, local pottery, an Inuit canoe, muskets and dirks from the '45, weaving spinning and milling stuff - gosh, the list goes on!

They area where the Mummy was kept was in darkness, and you were issued with torches to view everything, which (although it was aimed at the kids getting a scary thrill) was a bit annoying because I couldn't see the things in the detail I wanted. There was a Mummy of a grown woman, which was interesting; a small girl-child, which was creepy because she was Rachel's size; and a crocodile. Another interesting thing was a canopic jar that was open and on it's side so you could see the contents, which were a bit yucky.

We then went along to the Zoology Museum, with the first thing I saw being the skeleton of a sabre tooth tiger.

There was also a massive elephant - way bigger than anything I have ever seen in real life! Anthony was convinced it was a mammoth, but I don't think it was big enough for that.

There were lots of skeletons and stuffed animals. One of the interesting things they did was to present the skull of something and behind it, a stuffed or made up head of the same beast, so you could see what it looked like with it's skin on.

The staff had made up a life size model of a velociraptor skeleton, which was fully articulated and managed by a human inside it. As it was in ultra violet light, the white of the bones showed up brightly and the person inside was invisible because they were dressed in black. Unfortunately in the pix, the camera flash lit up the person. This creature was wandering around the place scaring the life out of people - lots of fun! There was also a man made up as a caveman, who gave me a wee fright!

Anthony made a lantern downstairs from a fizzy pop bottle, which he is very pleased with.

There were lots of creepy crawlies, stuffed birds and small wildlife (fox, badger and so on). There was also an underwater show. Some folk had made up models of sea creatures and painted them in fluorescent paints, so they would show up in ultra violet light, but the puppeteers couldnt be seen because of being dressed in black again. It was a really good show - very well done.

We went outside for the bat-watch. The folk had lots of bat listeners to pick up the clicking the bats make, and we saw several bats flying about. Anthony was very impressed with the stuffed fruit bat, which was enormous!

Thoroughly enjoyable evening, and we were both pretty cream-crackered when we got back home. Anthony was asleep within minutes!

Dropped the kids at school this morning, and had hardly been back when the phone went and it was the school telling me that Anthony had 'had an accident' and cut his face and his nose, and that they wanted me to come back down.

When I got down there, he was in the first aid room, cleaned of blood, and looking a very sorry sight. He had been sprinting up the steps (as is his wont) and tripped, and instead of catching himself on his hands, had landed on his face. His cheek was badly grazed and his nose also. His nose was swollen. I was a bit worried he might have broken it, but he said it didn't hurt enough to be broken. I'm half worried about it going septic and half worried about him scarring, it is bad enough. Himself wants me to take him to the pharmacy tomorrow to get it looked at, and see if there is any chance it will scar, and if so, what we can do to avoid that.

Anthony doesn't want to go to school, or swimming, or gymnastics until he is completely healed because he looks such a mess. I reckon he will have two black eyes, at the least!

In other news, Lala went to the gastroenterologist this afternoon.

He asked a few questions, but did no tests. He thinks that her continuing skin problems might be a reaction to maize products, and he will do an allergy test with the bloods he takes in January, to check her gluten levels are within what should be expected from a GF diet.

I have to keep a food diary and take notice of the state of her skin, and see if we can pinpoint what the problem food is. The dietician was there, and when the Dr suggested an exclusion diet, she put a stop to it because Lala is also lactose intolerant and the dietician reckoned she wouldn't have anything else to eat LOL

Just what she needs - another food intolerance.

I sub to a gluten free cooking thing and recently they posted this fools guide to making risotto. My mouth was watering, so I thought I would drop the link in here

http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/how-to-make-risotto/#more-366

I was walking up the lane this morning, after dropping the kids off, and I thought about how, 100 years ago, the majority of people wouldn't go out of their immediate environs for their whole lives.

A trip to the beach would have been an adventure, planned for and looked forward to. People bought their food locally, grew some of their own if they had the chance, all their friends were people they had known all their lives, they probably married someone they had known since childhood.

One wonders about the benefit of war. Frankly, I don't see the point, myself, but if one was looking for a benefit, then perhaps people might consider faster flight a benefit; the emancipation of women (land girls in the 2nd world war for example); the mixing of cultures during occupations. Computer advances are another benefit. We try to get better and faster systems than the enemy, so advances are made, and we benefit with things like the internet and laptop pcs.

Imagine we didn't have flight. Blogmeets would be out because I'm fairly sure that Mr Meno wouldn't fancy having Mrs Memo away for the time it would take to sail across the pond. Sminch wouldn't be able to see her family so often, and her move to Europe would have entiled a much different decision - one to affect her life, not just a (potential) period of life.

The internet - would any of us have met any others? I've never met any of you IRL - but I know you nevertheless.

We all have cars, now, and the money to travel about where the fancy takes us. Sweeping statement, yes, but how many of us stay in one village all our lives?

I have found myself becoming more insular. I love the place I live, which I think is why. I don't feel the need to go gallivanting around the countryside or the world, because I am happy here. I feel a deep contentment in my days and my way of life. I have joy in walking down the lane in the morning to drop my kids at school, the quiet lane, the birds singing, the kids anticipating their day. I love my house and garden, the view from the front of the house. There are inconveniences, yes, but they are far outweighed by the good stuff.

Perhaps wanting to stay in one place is a bad thing. There are places in the world that interest me - Egypt, Peru, I would like to see Australia again, I want to go to Ireland and visit our namesake village. I want to go back to Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Bucks. I have no desire to go to London or any other big cities ... perhaps Oxford.

Contentment.

Is it just me, but does everyone get depressed reading PostSecret?
I feel so sad for these folks, that they don't have someone to actually tell these secrets to IRL.
AND that they have these things eating away at them.
What a bloody shame.

This is excellent!

I am reading "The Road Less Travelled" just now, and I haven't long started it.

However, there is a chapter there on truth. Obviously everyone's truth is different, but basically he is extolling us all to speak our truth. He talks about how even lies of omission damage us, and that we shouldn't do that.

Harder to say than to do.

How many times have we thought "Yes, that dress is stunning, but on a size smaller than you"; or "Yes, your living room looks amazing, but Ye Gods what inspired you to paint it that colour?".

Do you all tell the truth, all the time? Do you tell lies of omission? Do you think it damages us? Or would telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth damage the recipient of that truth more? Who is more important? The person who bends the truth not to hurt, or the person whose ego is preserved for another day?

I think I would rather massage the truth and suffer the consequences myself. But then, surely, to preserve someone else from hurt is better than wantonly going about speaking the truth and damaging friendships, egos, and hearts?

I'm finding this book quite hard going. So far I have disagreed quite a bit with the things he is saying. I kinda expected to agree with everything (or most everything) he said because of the reviews. They made the book sound like something that would adhere to my current belief system. I shall continue with it, even in disagreement, because we can't just discard a point of view because we disagree. That would be stupid. How can we grow and learn with a closed mind?

So, I'm interested to know - do you always tell the truth? Do you occasionally massage it? Do you bite your tongue sometimes?

I don't know if any of you do PAYE for the company you work for. I do. I hate it - it stresses me out beyond belief because it is too easy. They send you a CDROM with all the information on it, and all the calculations. You put in the month, the tax code and the net pay, and it tells you the deductions. I'm always convinced I have it wrong and men in black sunglasses and suits will be at my door to whip me off to debtors prison or something.

Anyway, I digress.

Each year, the HM Revenue & Customs issue you with a wee yellow booklet. Each month, you fill in the deductions bit, write out a cheque and give them loads of dosh. You have 13 payslips in the book. 12 for the months and a spare for the one you bugger up. They send you one every year.

Except - this year I didn't get mine. So I phoned them up this morning and the bloke said "Yeah, no one in the country has them yet. They didn't get printed on time. Here's the number to call, but you won't get thru because everyone is phoning to get their booklet. Oh, and if you have passed your payment date, you will need to speak to these folk, and make an arrangement for payment, so you don't get penalised."

Excuse me?

Right, they print these books every fucking year and they haven't gotten them printed in time this year? What - did they forget they needed them or something? Did they think we wouldn't notice?

Penalise ME. It was them who have let me down. I don't fucking think so!

But the best quote has to be "Here's the number to call, but you won't get thru". So - give me an email address or take a goddamn message you pillock!

This really is the government at it's best.

I'm going daft trying to find something.

If you google 'om' you will see what looks like a western figure '3' with a sort of circle to the right of it and a squiggle above that.

Now, imagine just the '3' symbol, but the bottom half is bigger and doesn't curve up so much, and within each curve is a dot.

Anyone know what that means??

Well, I spent the weekend in Aberdeen, having my Usui Reiki I attunement and some training.

It was a very powerful weekend, and I feel like the Carol who left here Saturday morning isn't the Carol who is sitting here just now. You probably wouldn't notice the difference, but it is there, and it is profound.

I know there is a lot of scepticism about these sort of things, but some things I experienced this past weekend were deeply personal and ... hmm, traumatic isn't the right word, but - I guess - cleansing?

I know there have been some things I have been stifling and refusing to look at first hand, putting on a brave face and pretending everything is okay, but I have been shown that it is time to turn my face and look things straight on, and deal with them.

Anyone remember that I have a Toyota Estima Lucida import?

And that said TELi broke down a few months ago?

What happened was - I was driving down the road and the engine management light came on, and the engine started losing power. Nipped into the local garage who had a wee look-see and changed something. Drove about 20feet, and on came the wee light again. The garage said to take it back to the folk I bought it from, as they couldn't fix it.

Their problem had been that, as it was an import, they couldn't plug it into their computer - wrong plug.

Took it back to the bloke I bought it from, who also has no plug, and he took it away for a couple of weeks. He changed something, brought it back, it lasted a day or maybe two, then on came the light again.

Toyota in Aberdeen don't have the right connection, and don't want to buy it.

Husband asked around down the road and a mechanic he knows offered to take a look. He reckoned he knew a man with the right connection. Husband drove it down the road, and it sits at his Dad's for a few weeks. Eventually, the man with the connection decided he actually didn't have the connection after all, so mechanic takes it to a proper Toyota garage.

Proper Toyota garage charges us three figures to plug it into their machine to diagnose the fault.

A couple of days ago, they told us what they (think) is wrong with it, which they will replace, for substantial amounts of dosh, and hope that it works. In the meantime, my tax and MOT have run out.

Mechanic goes along today to take car to MOT centre. Gets into car, starts it up, drives 5 feet and is sprayed liberally with oil from something they have omitted to replace in the engine when they were looking at it.

The car is now totally undriveable, the interior is covered in oil, the mechanic is royally pi**ed off, I am substantially out of pocket, and my fricking car is still in the frickin garage 200 frickin miles away.

I'm not a happy bunny.