It was March, it snowed, books were read....

Well I hope this works as I am posting using the scheduling option as I am off researching...... and no, not doing anything that might get myself arrested this time!

So, March books..... well I feel quite proud of myself as apart from the two challenges I managed not to buy any books this month (okay so there was one pre-ordered) until after pay day..... when, erm, I may have splurged a bit!

Favourites this month were The Good Boy by Lisa Henry & J A Rock and Fettered by Lyn Gala 

1. Laying Ghosts – James Buchanan
2. Fettered – Lynn Gala
3. Fire on the Mountain – P.D. Singer - I am not sure why it took me so long to get round to reading this as it was on the Kindle for ages...... I'm glad I did read it as I thoroughly enjoyed it.
   
4. A Vintage Affair – Josh Lanyon
5. Taking the Gardner – T.J. Masters - erm yes, well, no, *shakes head* just don't go there!
   
6. Tanny & the Cage – Sean Michael
7. 72 Hours – Clare London
8. By Chance (Courtland Chronicles) – Cat Grant
9. Ethan, Who Loved Carter – Ryan Loveless (PIFM Challenge book) - this was a very well written story about two less than stereotypically perfect main characters, the portrayal of someone with an acquired brain injury was particularly well done.
   
10. Home Again – C. Cardeno
11. The Red King – Rosemary O’Malley
12. Caught – A.B. Gayle
13. See Right Through – Sara Winters
14. Brook Street Thief – Ava March
15. Brook Street Fortune Hunter – Ava March
16. Brook Street Rogues – Ava March
17. Journal of a Lycanthrophile – Fierce Dolan
18. One Boy’s Shadow – Ross McCoubrey (YA GLBT Group book of the month)
19. Equilibrium – Meredith Shane
20. Obedience Training – Mya (r)
21. The Actor and the Earl – Rebecca Cohen
22. City of Whispers – Marcia Muller (not M/M – possibly one of my favourite female PI Series of books)
23. Don’t... – Jack L. Pyke
24. A Limited Engagement – Josh Lanyon
25. Falls Chance Ranch – Rolf & Ranger (r) – why yes, comfort reading...
26. Three Traders – Rolf & Ranger (r)
27. Treat – Sean Michael
28. Claimings, Tails & other Alien Artifacts – Lyn Gala  - I have to admit I seem to have a weakness for stories with alien/human couples... this one I really enjoyed as it dealt with the cultural differences and physical differences between the two main characters.
    
29. The Fight Within – Andrew Grey - not quite as good as the first book, but not bad as far as sequel's go
    
30. The Good Boy – Lisa Henry & J A Rock
31. Covet Thy Neighbour – L.A. Witt - I was kind of disappointed with this one - certainly for me the weakest in the series.

Updating by numbers...

1. It's the longest bank holiday weekend in the year... yay... 4 days with no work.... which promptly meant that I started with a cold.... sometimes I swear my body hates me!  I am mainlining hot lemon cold cures in the hope that it will go away very quickly!

2. Despite the cold I went down to Hertfordshire yesterday to meet the grand-puppies... this is them at lunch time

I also got to meet their naked kitten - who is very cute and extremely demanding!

I do also remember now why driving for 5 hours in one day is not really a good plan - I could barely move my head and ended up with a heat pack on my shoulders yesterday evening.

3. Today there has been reading, writing, laundry and shopping........ which is quite adventurous considering how rubbish I feel....

4. Tomorrow I have writing plans... though part of me is tempted to wait to really get stuck into my story as my sister let slip that the family have clubbed together and bought me a new lap top for my birthday present...... I have to look surprised when I am given it next weekend!

5. I need to buy Easter presents for my mum, sister and her partner..... now we don't do "normal" Easter gifts, oh no, there will be no chocolate.... mum will buy us all books, she always does.... I noticed mum needs a new hand blender when I was round there earlier so I think I shall get that for her, I might get some chunky jewellery for my sister...... but her other half erm... nope not got a clue what to get him!

6. I have made flapjacks today.... and in contravention of all the health and safety rules ..... I have cut them into triangles....cos some schools are bonkers...

A day in which I am unimpressed.....

Well, this evening, I should be relaxing safe in the knowledge that I am finished with work for an extended bank holiday weekend........should be that is because in fact I will be going to work not only tomorrow but Tuesday, days which I originally booked off back in January.

Work is chaotic, I have a big important hearing in a couple of weeks, and it's the final push towards the financial year end..... when I looked at my list of things to do yesterday I realised that I was not going to be able to take the long weekend I wanted, so I cancelled Tuesday's day off.... then today I realised that there is so much to do I can't take tomorrow off either as I need to be in the office *sigh*.... I've not actually had a proper holiday since before my team leader went off on her honeymoon last November and I really, really need a break..... and looking at the calendar between cases running to Court hearings and other people in the team having booked time off I am looking at July before I can get a proper break.... seriously not happy.

I was wavering between throwing a tantrum over this or sulking, but after ranting to a friend for a while was reminded that (a) I am not 8 years old and so a tantrum isn't acceptable, and (b) sulking is not a good thing for a nearly 40 year old professional....... I am beginning to glare malevolently at that professional qualification I got... I knew no good would come of it....

Cancelling tomorrow's day off has also meant letting down a friend, whose litter of puppies and naked cat I was meant to go and see tomorrow has had to be put off.  As she needs me to view the litter and help her pick the one she's keeping before the prospective puppy buyers arrive rather than a leisurely drive down I will have to leave at silly o'clock on Friday to get there in time..... though I shall get puppy snuggles, and they are very special puppies as they are my "grand puppies" (I bred their grandmother)....... the kitten is related to Hugo and Gina.... it's a hooligan..... no surprises there then.....

This evening I've had to go sort out my prescriptions for new bondage stockings.... the wonderful MacMillan nurse sent through all the details - including measurements and order forms - to my doctors, who wrote the prescription and completely forgot to attach these bits to it..... the chemist picked up the script over a week ago... and only phoned me yesterday to ask me how they go about ordering what I need as the correct paperwork wasn't provided....... thankfully I got sent a copy so I ran this to the pharmacy this evening.... It will be another week to ten days before I get them

I wondered round the pharmacy looking longingly at the shower gel but was good and bought some hypo-allergenic for very sensitive skin containing no flavourings, scents, colours, chemicals stuff....... it's very boring!

And to round off my evening... Hope appears to be having an allergic reaction to something and is chewing her back foot to bits and I've just tripped over the cat and smacked my knee into the wooden knobbly bit at the corner of the spare bed.... and the cat stuck her claws in my foot....... I think it must be bed time.... hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Snowbound!

My weekend was snowed off!

I haven't left the house since Friday and I am going slightly insane...... well okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it feels like it..... I've even started talking to the dogs...... erm, well, more in a conversation way than the usual talking to them in terms of "pack it in" and "shut up Gretchen".

I did manage to get out earlier, and made it as far as the rubbish bin at the end of the drive..... though yesterday one of my neighbours cleared a patch of snow at the end of my drive so I also cleaned off the car and shovelled some more snow in the road so I should have a clear run at getting out to work tomorrow (unlike the bloke who lives opposite who span his big shiny silver car round a few times before sliding it into my hedge this morning).

The worst thing about being stuck in the house was actually driving myself crazy wanting to get out..... well that and realising half way through Saturday that I would run out of dog food at breakfast on Sunday (they've had rice, eggs, yoghurt and veggies for tea......... goodness only knows what they'll get for breakfast!)

It's odd, most weekends I am not bothered about going out and sometimes have to drag myself out to do shopping and laundry....... but knowing I can't go out, all I want to do is not be in the house! Maybe it's an independence thing? Who knows, I just feel trapped........ it's a good job I don't live anywhere that has "serious" snow!

I've spent my time reading, writing and looking at the carpets thinking about hoovering (though that thought never got any further) so it wasn't a totally wasted weekend......it just feels like it.

Fingers crossed I can make the great escape tomorrow morning........oh and that I've enough petrol to get me as far as the garage to fill the car up!

The mating what?

At present I have all three bitches here in full season.......... and Ivan spending most of his time rolling his eyes or pretending to be very firmly asleep

Apart for some reason just after breakfast at about 5.30 am where for the last couple of mornings I've had to spend at least 20 minutes on my knees holding him and Hope up and the silly sod got carried away and they ended up tied..... thankfully he's too scared of Gretchen and Kammi to try it ... well that and they aren't having any of it!  That said, the three girls flirt like mad and hump each other .... I daren't have visitors till it's all over!

Now all of this canine hormonal overload has kind of coincided with me discovering there was a list of "Gay shifter books featuring the mating knot".... which of course I had to go read a couple of (yes even knowing how wolf shifter books wind me up)... and this has made me laugh quite a lot.... because seriously... so not sexy at all......

Well not if you've ever had to stand for 40 minutes in a muddy field in the pouring rain when the two labradors you were trying to mate finally tied........... or when you have to kneel for around an hour on a concrete patio with your hand bleeding from a bite - because the small dogs you were trying get to mate finally decided they'd tie... but the bitch wants to eat the dog at the same time...... or you have to hold up the adolescent Alaskan Malamute dog who got so overexcited at his first mating that he passed out when he tied and you have to stop him crushing the bitch......

Then there is the other side of it.... the dog that was too eager to mate and ended up injuring himself and bleeding all over the floor...... or the idiot dog that was humping his blanket and managed to retract part of it into the sheath and you've got to tease it back out...... or my favourite... where the over amorous male develops "fifth leg syndrome" and you ended up dipping him in a glass of cold water till his glans go down enough for him to retract before he dries out....

These things will happen with wolves too - okay not so much the blanket, and I am not following a randy wolf around with a glass of cold water....... but in the books the tie ... sorry "mating knot" seems to be this uber wonderfully sexy thing.... oh and it hits the prostate every time... which makes for me envisioning interesting positioning as the glans are on either side not all the way round...... of course there is the ultimate killer...... it's the bitch that actually completes the tie, not the dog, so erm, two males... yep, not sure how that works...

Thinking positively.....

Today has felt like I've been in limbo.....

One of my "friends who live in the computer".... in fact one of my closest of these friends who helps maintain my sanity, particularly during the working day ..... has in real life been undergoing a fairly serious surgery today.  She signed off on line on Sunday night and unfortunately I won't know till she's well enough to be back on line that it's all gone well and that she's recovering

So as much as I can do is think very positive and healing thoughts in her direction and keep everything crossed that she's back to full strength very, very soon.

I did however send her a little something, which I hope she got before she went into hospital.....

Meet Malachai...... newly hatched pocket demon and personal protector against germs and all other forms of nasties....... Hopefully he's doing a good job watching over her whilst she recovers.

Love Has No Boundaries.... yep is writing time again...

Well, I spent last night looking through the prompts, but couldn't see any of the pictures as I was using my phone - well it was somewhere around 1 am and, erm, then about 4.30 am... I couldn't sleep

I'd been taken with the lyrics on this one anyway, but when I got into work and say the photo that went with it I was sold...... and found myself grabbing the prompt to write...

So, for the next few weeks, these are my guys....... yes, they already have names, there is even a tentative title, and some plot...... I am going for a contemporary, friends to lovers with probably GFY/OFY depending on how it pans out....

Dear Author,

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve,
And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground,
Dig them up, let's finish what we've started,
Dig them up, so nothing's left unturned,

All of your flaws and all of my flaws,
are laid out one by one,
Look at the wonderful mess that we made,
We pick ourselves undone.

Please take inspiration from the song Flaws by Bastille. I hope it's okay to be so vague, but I would thoroughly enjoy a piece that embodies the heart of the song. Bonus points for any scenes involving dancing at a club or sports. Additionally, I would love to see some of these flaws perhaps being one of the characters denial, perhaps even involving the fact that he may have a girlfriend/wife when he feels attraction to the other? HFN/HEA preferred.

This is the song, as played live....

Complete lyrics for those that need to know...... erm, like me.....

When all of your flaws and all of my flaws
Are laid out one by one
A wonderful part of the mess that we made
We pick ourselves undone

All of your flaws and all of my flaws
They lie there hand in hand
Ones we've inherited, ones that we learned
They pass from man to man

There's a hole in my soul
I can't fill it I can't fill it
There's a hole in my soul
Can you fill it? Can you fill it?

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve
And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground
Dig them up; let's finish what we've started
Dig them up, so nothing's left unturned

All of your flaws and all of my flaws,
When they have been exhumed
We'll see that we need them to be who we are
Without them we'd be doomed

There's a hole in my soul
I can't fill it I can't fill it
There's a hole in my soul
Can you fill it? Can you fill it?

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve
And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground
Dig them up; let's finish what we've started
Dig them up, so nothing's left unturned

Oooooh
Oooooh

When all of your flaws
And all of my flaws are counted
When all of your flaws
And all of my flaws are counted

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve
And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground
Dig them up. Let's finish what we've started
Dig them up. So nothing's left unturned

Oooooh
Oooooh

All of your flaws and all of my flaws
Are laid out one by one
Look at the wonderful mess that we made
We pick ourselves undone

Weekend waffling.... again...

Well, mum's coffee & cake charity thing went very well yesterday.... she raised over £300.... and I successfully managed the provision of tea and coffee for nearly 5 hours without managing to explode the kettle, break a mug or anything else dramatic (though I made up for it this evening when trying to get the wok out the cupboard by sending one of my pyrex mixing bowls flying across the kitchen floor where it shattered into pieces and I then sliced my thumb clearing it up).

A good time was had by all, though I did spend the first hour of the event hiding in the kitchen with my Kindle whilst the only visitors were about 15 ladies who go to the gym with mum....very scary they are!.... but luckily mum's cleaner turned up and he and I sat and nattered about just about everything... though the conversation about body piercing and what I was reading had to stop and start as people came into the kitchen....(the terribly upper class gym ladies would not have approved!)

It was more fun when some of our long term family friends came with their kids and grand-kids which livened things up.... particularly when a couple were crawling about pretending to be snakes.... not so much fun was when one woman started on about how her son was finally going to make her and grandmother and that at her age it was about time (she's five year's younger than mum - who announced she wasn't old enough to be a grandmother yet!)..... thing is, this woman's son was one of the small group that bullied me quite badly at school and personally, I don't think he should be allowed to reproduce!

Today was family time, my sister and I took mum out to lunch.  She'd been busy baking and organising since about Wednesday and we knew she'd crash pretty hard once it was over so we wanted to take her mind off things.

In between all this I have been watching the prompts for the Love Has No Boundaries event........I did have quite a lot of indecisive thoughts about writing again this year, but after some persuasion I think I am going for it.... that said, a couple of prompts I've thought "ooh yes, I can write that", only to have them snatched up before I could grab them ..... hopefully there will be a prompt for me before 31st March!!

Right, well, that just about sums up the weekend...... must go wrestle with the cats to get the clean duvet cover on before bed time!

Sugar overload....

There has been way too much chocolate and sugar in my life this evening....... and I have not eaten any of it!

It's odd, but I don't actually seem to get cravings for sweet things, sure I like chocolate (preferably dark, bitter chocolate, the stuff that one small piece is enough), cakes, and such like.... but that wouldn't be my number one choice of either comfort food or what my body craves on a hormonal basis (unlike my sister whose other half has been sent out on middle of the night chocolate buying emergencies)..... My hormones are screwed, they know damn well I'm a vegetarian, but what do they want each month..... yup, roast chicken!  

10 months after giving up caffeine, I still get cravings for coffee. Though I am not even sure it's the caffeine I want or just the coffee flavour - I allow myself an occasional cup of decaffeinated coffee, particularly after a nice meal, but I don't seem to miss any sort of buzz from it.... and I definitely don't miss the inability to fall asleep!  I am learning to adapt to caffeine free diet coke rather than Pepsi Max but that has been a slower and more painful process!

Right now, with the fairly recent yeast exclusion, I am craving crusty bread.....and as I am trying to eat healthily and cheese has been more or less of the menu for the last three months, a nice bit of brie to go with it......failing that toast and Marmite (yep about as yeasty as you can get!) would do!

Anyway, after work tonight I turned my kitchen into a production line for the Comic Relief coffee and cake afternoon Mum is hosting on Saturday.... I have made chocolate cup cakes, flapjack and brownies.......and as I baked the air in the kitchen got sweeter and felt stickier (which I put down to the heating syrup for the flapjack).....by the time the brownies came out the oven I was totally over the whole thing... and made myself a very savoury tea of veggie sausages, potato wedges and broccoli.  

I've another batch of gluten free cupcakes to do tomorrow....... oh and then they need icing.....by Saturday afternoon I am not going to want to look at a cake, let alone eat one..... Lets just hope lots of people come and generously donate money.... and take the cakes away!

My own Death....

Now I am sure everyone is familiar with Death By Chocolate..... but today I received Death by Post......

and here he is.....my own Death!

Cute isn't he!!

He's to come to work with me to protect me from the dangers of the office... like paper clips... and elastic bands... and nasty work colleagues :)

The friend who made him for me is a complete star! :)

Random and stray thoughts....

(because my brain is apparently off line for the evening)

Yesterday was a much better day.... lots of it spent with my sister as we cooked mum a nice lunch for mother's day...... both of us bought mum flowers, my sister got a huge bunch of tulips and I bought a grow your own mini sunflower kit..... mum seemed quite pleased, but she'd been out the night before to friends for dinner and we think she might have been a little the worse for wear as she was somewhat quiet and grumpy.

I finished my current knitting project whilst at my sister's...... photos will follow eventually...... which means I am down to just two outstanding items....... I may find some motivation to do something about them at some point.....

Overnight, winter returned.  The temperature dropped rather suddenly and there was a very thin layer of ice on my glass of water by the bed when I woke up....... which is a miracle, no not the ice, the fact that the cats hadn't knocked over the cup or drank the water...... They were obviously too cold to come out from under the duvet.  There were flurries of sideways and whirling snow throughout the day and it's not got above freezing.  I was obviously a tad optimistic last weekend when I posted the spring flowers pictures..... I shall have to find a weather Goddess to petition if this keeps up as I really am fed up of winter now.  Though as I was reminded by my father, it snowed the day I was born and on my 18th, 21st and 30th birthdays..... he reckons we will get snow in mid April this year too..... I did remind him that he wasn't a weather God...

Towards the end of last week I thought I'd finally found my first ever DNF M/M book!  But, being the scrooge that I am I came to the conclusion of, I paid for it I will damn well read it....... (my scrooge like characteristics only just won out over the theory of life is to short for really bad books)..... if it had been a freebie it would have been ditched by about 30% in.

Now, whilst a myriad of things about this annoyed me (as does the plethora of badly written, badly edited, somewhat plot-less M/M books that seem to be out there at the moment) it is this sort of thing that starts me thinking that I could in fact write better and why don't I have another go....... I might, I have ideas, trouble is, I spend all day sitting at a computer drafting documents the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of a computer doing anything at all.  Maybe I should write at work instead........ hmmm... can't think my bosses would be happy with that......

Well, as it's no warmer tonight, best go try persuade the hot naked cats to warm up the bed for me so my feet don't freeze!

One of "those" days

Well just about nothing today has gone to plan, and it's turned out to be a rather expensive day!

This morning I traipsed into town to pick up my parcel from the sorting office.... where unfortunately there is no car parking, so everyone parks on the yellow line, nips in and out and this is all fine.  However, the bloke behind the counter could not find my parcel!  He searched high and low but no, it was not there.  Which made me a little angry as the card they put through the door quite clearly said it would be.  I got handed the number of the complaints department and told to come back in a couple of days!

When I got to my car, the traffic warden had just finished writing me up for a parking ticket.  Bless him he'd waited for 5 minutes to see if I came out to the car before he started writing, but because of the ejits in the sorting office it was too late.... so no parcel and unexpected £70 fine.

I went to mum's house to beg coffee and to have someone to rant at and as I went to go in her neighbour stuck her head out the door to tell me the hairdresser was coming in 20 minutes to do her and her daughter's hair and did I want mine done......... erm yes! It's been needing doing for a couple of months .... queue more unexpected expense as my hair was chopped from somewhere around my shoulders back up into a chin length bob where it was meant to be.  It had better warm up soon, my neck is cold!

The supermarket trip was boring, predictable and at least an expected expense.

Shopping away I was sitting at the kitchen table peeling apples for crumble when Ivan suddenly squeaked, scrambled across the floor on his stomach, went rigid and started shaking.  I fended off the three girls and held him down till he seemed to come out of it, but he couldn't balance and was knuckling over on his front paw.  Eventually got him calmed down and happy, to the extent he was bouncing up at me on his hind legs, so I thought, no problem, he probably just slipped on the wet floor and freaked a bit.  Ten minutes later he was getting up out of his bed and the same thing happened.  Phoned the vet, who thankfully was open still, and got told to come straight down.  Quick exam later and I was told he was fine, nothing obviously wrong with him, that will be £45.00......  the vet's final diagnosis as I was leaving was, he's a lovely dog, but a bit of a drama queen.... tell me something I don't know!

I'm safely back home this evening and I think I shall stay here and knit, and possibly read, and do things that are definitely not going to cost me any more money today!!

And relax......

For it is the weekend..... this is probably going to ramble as I am rather tired (you've been warned, read at your own risk)

We will start with the stocking of doom....... I have managed to wear it all day at work for the last three days.... it feels kind of odd, not really painful, but like someone is hugging your leg, so just, well weird.  On the plus side it seems to be working.... on the down side... I really must shave every last hair off my leg as even the shortest bits keep catching in the elastic and, well, ouch!!  Trouble is I've been told because of how sensitive the skin is on that leg no blades, no waxing, no sugaring, no chemicals........ so apparently I have to go buy an electric shaver....... and any guesses how long it will take me to kill that?

The other downside to the leg is when I first take the stocking back off again the skin that has been under it is shockingly sensitive to touch.... I mean, the cat winds round my ankle and it's all I can do not to scream and kick out.  I've queried this with my MacMillan nurse and hopefully she'll have some suggestions before the cats take pre-emptive action and get in first!  I've also ordered a back up stocking for the bad leg and am waiting to be measured up for the good leg to have it's own stocking.... cos it looks odd only wearing one!

In other news, work is a bitch........ this time of year always is as we are in the last couple of months before financial year end......the new computer system went live this week and they expect us to all be up to speed right away and then add to that we have a whole new raft of changes to the legal system that affect the work I do in particular come into force on 1st April and, well, it's just madness.... and two hours of very boring and dry seminar on the subject on a Friday afternoon was not a good plan... my brain felt like I'd been swimming in treacle by the time I got out of work.

On the plus side.... highlight of the week.... talking about the changes and a colleague said that being young it should be no problem for me.... I kind of looked at him and asked how old he thought I was, to which he said, a couple of years older than him, and he turns 30 in August...... he looked genuinely shocked when I told him I turned 40 next month :)

Tomorrow I shall have an early start as the postal fairies tried to deliver a parcel today whilst I was out but as it wouldn't fit through the door I will have to go and fetch it from the sorting office.  I think I know what it is, which is very exciting... and if it is what I think it is, there will be photos tomorrow!  After that in intend to strenuously ignore the housework and finish knitting something, and possibly read...... I really do need to switch off and have some me time.

Finally for now, I've been watching Crufts on the TV the last couple of nights with very mixed feelings.  For over 10 years it was a focal point of part of my life.....the big show that you have to qualify to enter, and which I did exhibit at every year during that time......  even this year I got tweets and e-mails asking if I was going, just to watch, I haven't shown any of the dogs for about 4 years now.... but no, whilst I miss a few people, those I do miss I speak to out of that environment and don't need to see ... and yes whilst I'd like to go back one day I am not sure how the wide spread the poison the ex spread about me is these days, though I am sure that it is there.... and of course I don't really want to run into her..... unless it's with a car, at speed.......so for at least the next few years it is strictly watching from the sofa with the mob.

Bondage, kind of, but not in a fun way...

Well today started in one heck of a rush, but thankfully it got a lot calmer this afternoon!

After the normal round of trying to persuade the dogs to stay in bed till at least 5.30 - it didn't work, they had a short walk and breakfast and we were back on the sofa for another hour by that time.... I got ready for work - with obligatory 5 minute cat cuddling - and headed off for work.  I actually start at 8.30  but I had a telephone appointment with my MacMillan nurse at 8 am - which I ended up doing from one of the small interview rooms.

Now I love my MacMillan nurse, she actually does know what she's talking about and knows how to treat the defective lymph system in my left leg... unlike my doctor who hasn't got a frickin clue. So we started off with twenty questions, I confirmed I felt fine, I'd given up yeast products (which is harder than I realised as they sneak the damn stuff in everywhere), I'd had no new outbreaks on my leg and the last lot of manky bits were clearing up - yes good great... then the dreaded question... and how are you getting on with the pressure stocking....... erm...... I hedged by saying I wasn't sure my skin was healed enough yet.

She suggested I take pictures of my leg on my phone and text them over to her and she'd be the judge on that one..... Have you ever tried taking a photograph of the back of your calf by yourself, in an office, as your work colleagues are starting to come in, without looking a complete pillock?  In the end I spied my team leader had come in and dragged her in to the interview room to take the photo.

Pictures sent I went off to start working and about ten minutes later judgement arrived by text.... I have to start wearing the pressure stocking......like today......

Now anyone who has flown long distance or had surgery probably has  some idea of what a pressure stocking is.... trust me, it's nothing like those at all..... for a start it's custom made, it's thick black elastic type material..... and it comes with it's own pressure reading in mm of mercury (mm Hg)

Now I like a little light bondage as much as the next person........ but I've never seen the appeal of the body suit type things that look like you've been shrunk wrapped into a bin bag.... which is kind of what I felt I was putting on my leg.  You can't put it on like a normal stocking, oh no, it has to be turned inside out then carefully rolled up your leg.  It sits in place with 5 rows of plastic type bobbles on the inside which grip your skin..... and it compresses... yep it definitely does that..... you can't pull the material away from your leg and you need a pair of rubber gloves to get it off again

I wore it for four hours this evening as a trial run.... tomorrow I will be being well behaved and putting it on when I dress in the morning and it will remain on all day...... it's a very odd feeling once it's on, a bit like being squashed, a little painful at first, but then that kind of goes, you can't really forget about it as you always know you are wearing it ...

My counsellor thought it was slightly kinky in my appointment this evening....... but then again he's a bit weird anyway!

Spring things.....

Some of my favourite early spring
flowers in mum's garden today

Erm, it's March.... already... how in the name of all that is good and even remotely holey did that happen?  I mean, new year was only last week wasn't it?

So, since Thursday when I last posted.... I spent nearly 2 days alternating between bed, bathroom and sofa ... sleeping for most of the time after the first 12 hours had passed thankfully.... the bug completely knocked me out and I didn't really feel fully functional till this morning.  Sadly one of the things about having an immune system that doesn't work properly means that when you aren't picking up all germs known to man the damn thing goes into overdrive at the most inappropriate moments to do particularly unhelpful things.... like send your lymph system loopy, or make your joints swell up.  When the medical powers that be next consider what transplants they'd like to do next, never mind doing a hand, or a face, a working immune system would be nice... erm, either that or possibly a spine transplant....

Actually, on the plus side with the whole being March thing it has got substantially warmer with temperatures reaching almost double figures in the last few days... fingers crossed this will hold (and we don't get too much rain)

On the minus side with the warming up.... the Hell Cats have suddenly got a lot more active.... to the extent where when I am downstairs it frequently sounds like rolls of thunder approaching as they race around.... they are also much louder and singing from the stairs regularly again.  I guess when your naked winter is best viewed from mainly under the duvet with regular forays out for food.  Sadly the evil capacity of these felines is also on the increase and Hugo is currently nicknamed "shark bait"........ as this is what I am threatening to use him as if he doesn't stop pulling down my clothes from their hangers as they are drying on the door frames.

baby daffodils....again from mum's
garden... mine has flowers... you just can't
see them for the weeds!

Today I did the weekend things that I'd not managed on Saturday.... laundry, the supermarket run and a quick clean of the house.... though the whole concept of a "spring clean" is something I am ignoring.

Mum was in a celebratory mood as the free-loader has moved out the attic.... big sighs of relief all round... and thankfully the stress levels have completely dropped straight away.  She was full of planning for the Comic Relief Tea Party she is holding on 16th March.... for which I am apparently in charge of cup cakes and cookies (and I have no doubt the kettle..... though for some reason Mum's kettle refuses to blow up!)

Next weekend in the UK it's Mothering Sunday (or Smothering Sunday as it used to be referred to when I was little) and my sister and I have arranged a posh Sunday dinner and a couple of small gifts .... I am also in charge of dessert, which will be crumble, because, after all, crumble solves everything ..... well, it helps anyway, in my world!