Its later than you think

In honour of the wonderful Ms Being_Here being certifed HEALTHY and NOT DYING (note, not SANE) we have decided to jointly create ART for our beloved nephew, Thipe, to cheer up his working day (since BH is off all day and I made an executive decison to take the afternoon off with her ;p)

So, ART FOR THIPE

( Matron Thipe's School for Wayward Boys )

Had a wonderful night in Dublin last night in Castle Thesmington with Thesme, Mr Thesme Lazy_hoor, mollydot and of course, Special Guest, Fragglechick! A fine evening of wine, women and song ;p That somehow went on til 8 am this morning. Which was great, until i woke up again at half 10 and couldn't get back to sleep...

So. Very. Tired. Will do proper post when can brane again (so, mabye by march?). Possibly also with photos ;p

So, it snowed. In Other News, AFV seems to have completely cleared up. The shattering exhaustion has gone too, which is nice!

This week I have mostly gone to work. Expect for Wed evening/thurs. morning which I spent with the young chap in the icon (First Nephew), who is over from Canada for a week or so with his mum. He is now 7 and Cool tho did very politely humour his Nana by mostly enjoying the trip to Santa. We spent the rest of the time fighing with remote control helicopters, playing LoTR top trumps (I even got to explain why some of the orcs had pointy ears like elves!), building lego spaceships and watching some Lord of the Rings. OOH and reading Roald Dahl.

And the...SNOWCOPOLYSE HIT!! OMG!!! etc!!!


Made it to work, actually got some xmas shopping done v. easily cos shops were all empty then, got sent home at half 2! Yay!
Except then I had to go sort the horses out, which meant ( returning to Narnia )

Got home, changed out of wet boots/jeans into cosy jammies, got snacks and ONLY THEN thought to check the fridge for cider. and oh. OH.

WAILY WAILY WAILY THERE WAS NONE OH NOES OH NOES OH NOES
But I was sure i could cope. I COULD COPE it would be FINE... til the internet STOPPED WORKING.

So. I donned Warm Clothes, Riding boots (long enough to forge through INCHES of snow) and not-quite-Yaktrax grippy things and womanfully forged a path down the Hill of Doom, the Ski Slopes of the Train Station (which you have to navigate to get through the Tunnel, or chance being mowed down by cars under the bridge) to make it to the Off Licence for precious cider and lovely fizzy wine. Then made it back UP same obstacles (grippy things quite good!) while carrying bag full of precious alcohol. JOY!!!
Have since enjoyed Wines, Popcorn and extended phone call with being_here while watching David Tennant... and now cider.

And one final snow picture, purely because the contrast between Fittingly Snow-covered Fir Tree with Less Fittingly snow covered Palm Trees amused me hugely this morning ;p

I THINK it's safe to say it now... but today has GONE WELL. NO mishaps. No disasters. No Random illnesses.

A lie in, a hot bath, lazing on the sofa, loong catch up phone calls, deflecting attempts by family to draw me out of the house. Didn't even have to go near the horse! Finally the day of Resting I have been aiming for since last weekend :)

Did get off to an Interesting start, when Gardner George called at 10 (on a saturday! is the man mad?) and somehow ended up standing out in the street in stripey pjs, fleece and ugg boots with Crazy Morning Frizz Hair & a hangover, being shown how the repair people messed up fixing his van after a bulldozer drove into it (!).
Even got invited *inside* the van to see the botched repair but declined, on the grounds that the chances of me stepping safely out of a van onto icy pavement would be low at the best of times, but this week, non-existant. Tho, as ms being_here kindly pointed out, the day may have ended up very differently if I had got in... (probably in A&E :p).

somehow it is 10pm and I have not left the house at all (van inspection aside) and I may go back to bed soon. Pure Bliss ;)

oh the fun i've had today!

get up, leave house at 9 to feed horses and put them out before going to work for the morning. Get to stables, SNOWCOPOLYSE starts (well, some snow), is also v. cold and all outdoor drinkers are frozen, so decide to leave horses in til lunchtime. Check stable drinkers, also frozen. Taps - all frozen. Hmm. there is a big bucket of water so divide between them and figure that will do for now.

Set off for work, still pretty much on time, thro SNOW. Traffic heavy. Heavy even for snow. Eventually crawling along, see flashing lights, perhaps accident?
Get closer. NO. they have chosen rush hour on a friday in the SNOW to do a tax disc check. YAY.
Realise with sudden sinking feeling that tax disc for new car has never arrived. I did MEAN to phone about it last week but, well, see previous posts...
Roll down window, try to explain lack of disc to v. cold, pissed off cop. He is Disbelieving and makes me pull over. Spend the next half an hour at the side of the road watching cars/lorries in front get clamped and get increasingly worried am about to get stranded IN THE BLOODY SNOW.
Ring car dealer, who are supposed to have sorted tax, they insist they posted it, but that as long as tax *book* arrived (which it did), all the cops will do is ring DVLA who will confirm.
Presumably this is what happened because eventually a bloke taps the windscreen and says 'you can go' and... that's that. Off i go. Not Amused At All.

Finally get to work, sort a couple of things out, then get v. apologetic call from car salesman who has FOUND THE FUCKING TAX DISC on his desk. Or somewhere. Damn world.
Then just pondering whether to go get lunch, do more work, or head off when power goes out in offce! yay! Leg it.

Go back to stables to check on horses. Now no water anywhere. Text M (who is still in hopsital) who says her husband is on his way back from work and will be there in 20 mins to unlock garage which has working tap. Yay! Shuffle about getting things done, turn horses out, muck out, fill nets etc. hour and a half later, no sign of husband. Sit in car and wait. He finally arrives, having also been caught in the tax check traffic jam joy for an hour. Start ferrying buckets of water down to stables in barrow to v. thirsty horses. Get all 4 stables sorted, bring all horses in, refill buckets after they all drink, realise I am v. cold, wet and DYING for the loo, and it is now nearly 4pm.
LEAVE

Tescos, tasty noms, tasty fizzy wines and home.

Am now ensconsed on sofa, with blankie, crisps, tiger rolls and BIG MUG of hot port. Do not intend to move til tomorrow. Re AFV, no idea, haven't even had time to look in mirror today, but mouth feels like it's moving more. Maybe if I actually get the REST tomorrow i've been aiming for all week, it will go away!

What you all up to this weekend then?

OMG THESME - SNOWTHUNDER! and GRAUPELLING! (is that how you spell it? i can't remember ;p)

Today I will mostly be at the mother's because she had an arthritis flare up in one knee and couldn't walk yesterday. Driving in COLD and DARK when you can't put the car heat on because one eye won't close and the blowers dry it out is FUN. Hurrah!

Things are looking better today, off work again due to combination of AFV and ill mother, am also TRAPPED OMG because she lives at the bottom of a steep hill and it is a bit slippy. Probably. I'll look later.

In AFV news, had Tingling and Twitching of eye & mouth yesterday, which is apparently Good Sign of things coming back, but also v. early days so trying to pin too much on it. Eye now flickers some but still doesn't close when blinking unless I concentrate.
Also, steroids make me hyper. So going to walk round to see sister and kids before that wears off and am zombified again.
Tho, have just discovered i cannot SAY Graupelling. P's and F's tricky with half working mouth. Which makes trying to explain you have a Fucking Frozen Face fun also ;p

In the recent tradition of contracting odd and rarely heard of conditions for no apparent
reason (see Thipe re. bacterial arthritis), it appear I (or rather my body, I was not consulted) have followed suit. Well, I never was one to miss a trend!

Obviously something painful and/or debilitating would be a bit extreme so I have instead gone for a mild dose of... Bell's Palsy! Which i thought was a disease from the Olden Days! but, apparently not. Or , not anymore! The Dr was quite surprised tho, I am his first case of it in a couple of years! Yay me!

As long as I remember to keep blinking, so far it's not too bad. Til I try to talk, laugh, eat or drink - it pretty much looks (and feels!) like I've been to the dentist and the numbness hasn't quite worn off. ALL THE TIME. It should get better in 10 days or so. Have lots of steroids to be going on with, and have to get an EYE PATCH. AAARRRRR!

I feel cider may help. Possibly drunk through a straw.

So, go me? How are you all doing?

helloooo! I have been just a bad bad lj-er i feel I should be slinking in with my head hung in SHAME. In fact i have pretty much failed at keeping in touch with people in any form lately. But I shall try to improve!


However, for now I am off to the land of coventry to visit the lovely Being_here for a weekend of refinement, cider, culture, cider and cider. In fact, given I have to leave in half an hour, I should really be packing. I did have More Things I was going to say, but as ever left it til the last minute. However, in general, things are good, just busy, mostly with horse.

Also this weekend have Unhurt returning briefly, which will be Nice (will give you a shout sunday evening when i get back).
See? busy.

Hope you lot are all doing well and not eaten by zombies, tentacled monters, crazy families or Other Menaces.

Right. Packing.

is something v. odd going on with LJ? i can only seem to get to some parts, can't read my friends page or my own journal (tho i can *edit* posts. and hopefully make new ones...)

My world has sunk into sudden confusion. This is not just due to the bottle of Katy and the nurofen plus (hmmm codine) due to Ankle Issues after standing around all day but but but... Homes under the hammer is on (ok, watching this IS mostly due to cider and codine ;p) and it is NOT the usual presenters with their toothy grins, oddly Big Hair and terrible puns. It is presented by ... other people - DIFFERENT people - who are, quite frankly, SHIT at presenting Homes under the Hammer. Which is an achievement.

WHAT IS GOING ON?


In other, better news, went to see Metallica last night and it was Most Excellent. Really fucking excellent. James Hetfield is a BEAST of a man. Great gig, even if it felt odd to be sitting in the Grown Up Seats not down with the looners jumping around and being close to James Hefield (damn them). Tho, given that 4 hours or so of standing/wandering about at the Balmoral Show today has reduced me to a hobbling, wincing wreck, sitting was probably the safer (if duller) option. Damn you ankle, you are meant to be better.

OMG THE WRONG PEOPLE ARE BACK (the ads were on) I don't understand!! I can not watch this, I must leave you now and find the remote.