celebration time...

Phoned Phil (pharmacy) to give him an update on the saga of prescriptions, changes, GP et al.

Soon afterwards the phone rang...Pam from the pharmacy, "Your local pharmacy here, just want to let you know we have the prescription. Looking forward to seeing you soon.".

OH took me round, but before I went in, I called in at a local corner shop to buy some chocolates as a 'Thank You' for the pharmacy staff. I won't bore you with details of the happy, joking repartee at the pharmacy, suffice it to say...

• OH has the right medication (1.25mg) and won't run out of tablets for another month. 

• The pharmacy staff were all beaming smiles when I left and looking forward to sharing the chocolates.

200!

My 200th post! 
Who'd 'ave thowt it?
Coincidentally, Wikipedia celebrates its 10th anniversary today. Until I visited the site today, I hadn't realized how many and varied sister projects the site has.
Wikibooks, Wikinews, Wikiversity, Wikiquote and Wikisource to name a few...
Yes, I joined Wikipedia a while ago and have even ventured to add a bit to it when doing OU SD226 course and found an article asking for references.

Thankfully, OH has his meds and I've bought him a BP monitor (blood pressure) similar to the one at the surgery. Also it has a memory so he could store recordings but (precious Luddite) that part of tech eludes him.

Time for a laugh...
BP as in British Petroleum has made headline news today as it has made a deal with Rosfnet...Russian state giant oil company. What's so amusing?
 a quote from...
Edward Markey, a senior Democrat in the House of Representatives, said: "BP once stood for British Petroleum. With this deal, it now stands for Bolshoi Petroleum..."
Now to me Boshoi is the Bolshoi Ballet, theatre and opera Company! Also, the word 'Bolshoi' means 'Grand'.

between a rock and a hard place!

Went to the chemists yesterday to pick up prescriptions, and that's when the difficulties began. All the staff at the chemists are lovely, but the surgery across the road...is a nightmare.
On arrival home, OH noticed that instead of 1.25mg the tablets said 5mg! So, we headed straight back and the chemist said  it was a mistake on the prescription and needed the surgery to sort it out.
Went to see reception who informed me that 'it says 5mg on the screen'. Biting back the obvious reply Gingo Garbage In Garbage Out...I asked when the new prescription would be ready. 'Come back about 5pm''??? She would not see the GP until end of surgery!
Went back to the chemist, gave them my number and they said they'd chase up the prescription.
So 1 day later, still no prescription! Chemist still trying to get the revised version from the surgery!
Then things went from Bad to Worse...apologetic  phone-call from chemist...surgery now said unable to give out script until middle next week!
So thanked chemist for his help and phoned surgery asked to speak with Practice manager but voice on end of phone offered to 'help'.
Being in no mood to 'take prisoners' as the saying goes, I told her to listen...
She made mistake of trying to blame pharmacist...compounded error by saying 'the screen said'...
But I am computer literate! So told her about gingo Garbage in Garbage out and that when I visited surgery...the excuse was 'the screen says'...5mg. Eventually she said GP would phone and asked who'd answer...I said 'me' but would pass phone to OH.
GP phoned and light dawned...letter from Broadgreen Hospital had arrived to say up dosage to 5mg... A N Other GP at surgery duly amended records...without any knowledge of OH or situation...
Hence 5mg script! GP said 1.25mg script would be issued asap he was doing it Now. And would tell reception to phone to make appt for GP to see OH.
I phoned pharmacist to tell him how surgery had tried to bad mouth him and that new script was being issued. Needless to say no-one from reception called OH...
Tomorrow is another day...here's hoping against hope that pharmacist receives 1.25mg script to fill for OH.

meeting up at long last

Spent a couple of hours with my dear friend in Delamere, chatting and catching up.

Coriander and garlic naan, chickpea, olive, tomato salad, butternut squash risotto with Parmesan shavings...mmm

Friend is a talented artist and does lovely things with glass...

African inspired Window

 Kilimanjaro scene hand-made from sketch drawn when she visited the area.

I love it that she's named individual fish in her tropical tank .

La belle dame Hobbes - moggy tiger in residence...

.

kindnesses

How delightful to receive comments to postings, reading them this morning really brightened my day!
More accurately, they were the 'icing on the cake'.
Let me explain...

M-J-M that's what one neighbour now calls the 3 of us who live next door to one another and have become close friends.
M the one with two GSDs, J also two GSDs and M the knitting neighbour and fundraiser/organizer. This week M (GSDs) is having new windows fitted, so she spent part of yesterday with M getting warm as she couldn't warm her own house for obvious reasons. Knowing she'd have to stay in this week until the glaziers finish I did a bit if shopping for her. She also comes here to 'use the facilities' whilst her bathroom has no window in it!

Thank you to Karisma for your kind comment about my lovely z_boy...

And, all being well, this is where I hope to go tomorrow...

Hoping my friend is well enough and looking forward to having lunch with her. She makes the most delicious vegetarian meals...

better late than...

Ari of aprawnoffate hosts another Fun Monday.
She asks...

What's your unfinished business?

 

To do one more course at level 3 with the Open University UK and hopefully be awarded my degree. Something that's been ongoing for years...

To complete more of my WIPs (works in progress) knits and crochet. There's one that I started in the 1980s lol I'm good at browsing to find new projects, and patterns, making a start and then...drifting away...

Meet up with some friends...

I'll be able to cross one off the list this Wednesday when I make my way to Delamere for the first time in over 6 months. Okay it's not far away, some 30 miles. But, my friend is often ill and this week is the first she's felt well enough since last summer.

Another friend n I were due to meet up last September, again poor health intervened. Since then she's had an op to remove her gall bladder and is on the road to recovery. It's at least 4 if not 5 years since we last met.

Visit some places connected with my family...Clitheroe, Lancs., Glossop, Hayfield and Little Hayfield in Derbyshire.

If you're interested why not look up geograph.uk (Hayfield and Little Hayfield.)

Here you'll find the OS (Ordnance Survey) grid square and links to photos of the area.

a time for...

reminiscence...
Awoke to find a bright sunny morning, birds singing and some visiting the feeder that hangs from the pear tree.
January has become a mixture of times past jostling for attention with the here and now.
Hopes and expectation prevalent in the first week of the year; now take a nose-dive. Two years ago now was the time to send birthday cards to two friends with birthdays in the second week of the month. Two years on and both are no more.
Next weekend is the birthday of a very cherished friend.
But that same weekend years ago brought my world crashing down...when a parent dies that memory burns into your very being.
So, I'm going to focus on those here and now, and lay painful memories to rest for another year.

8th Jan musings

I still find it mind boggling sharing thoughts with people far and wide. Have just been reading blogs written by two lovely people, Sayre in Florida and Joy in the UK.

Checklist

1. new phone upgrade Free and kept same low payments
2. car repaired under warranty - OH informed me the bill was £750 without labour charges!

What a relief not to have to find such a large amount of money...

But..the warranty runs out in a few months...

Quandary...to let it run out...or to renew...now that's a big question. Thank goodness it isn't one that needs answering just yet.

Now a more pleasant task...birthday cards to write and to send.
January is 'my' busiest month for birthdays..

1st (3 friends) 16th, 27th and 31st (3 friends).

mf 7th Jan 2011

The wait for the new phones is over, came 8.30 this morning. Inserted sim card, battery and charged my phone before having a play to look at new features. As OH had told them phone only, I'll need a memory card for the other functions.
Now the snow has returned, but luckily there's no need to go anywhere. Toyota mechanic phoned and had long chat with OH.
Car's to have new injector fitted to see if engine management will then return system to normal. But, if weather remains poor it might be after weekend before we collect it.


Opticians phoned, my other glasses are ready...they were ordered before Christmas, so I'm in no rush to collect them.

Local Authority sent guys round door-to-door to drum up business before 'Warm Front' grant runs out. Had assumed we weren't eligible, but we are! So OH is in charge of the arrangements. Loft has some areas (sides) which need more insulation.
 CERT, or Carbon Emissions Reduction Target, set by government to implemented by councils, hence the door-to-door campaign.

areas arrangements authority battery business campaign carbon card cert charge christmas collect door-to-door drum emissions engine fitted front functions glasses government guys implemented injector inserted insulation local luckily memory morning normal oh opticians ordered phone poor ready reduction remains return round sent sides sim system target told wait warm weather

created at TagCrowd.com

6th Jan...waiting

It's  time to wait and wait and wait..why?

1. Although the website opened for my latest course, the course itself doesn't open until 5th Feb.
2. Nor have the tutors been allocated students.
3. Had to take my car in for a dose of looking at and hopefully to be repaired...still awaiting the phone-call to tell me the wherefores, estimates of time and what's gone wrong.
4. Waiting in tomorrow for promised delivery by courier some time between 8am and 6pm - no they 'can't' be more precise.

Now for some good news, the wait tomorrow is for arrival of new cell phones (one apiece). OH stressed to the sales guy that

• we do not need phones with all the modern gimickry and bells n whistles
• we do not want to 'upgrade'
• Yes, we want phones that will enable us to Make phone calls and Text.
• we want to retain the same contract (pay monthly)

Or as the cute Meerkat on a well-known advert would say, 'Simples'
Well the car repair people phoned and they are mystified, so the car will stay with them for a while...
Diagnostic - fault on 5th injector - is it a single or multiple fault? ECU and traction and stability controls interlinked, so ECU shuts down those controls when a fault is registered...
not so 'simples' after all!...

5th Jan 2011

Now the Spring term begins and folk return to work. Our journey to the supermarket took longer than it has for the past few weeks because of a greater volume of traffic. It can take quite a while to have a break in the traffic long enough to let us get out of the driveway.
At least the supermarket was quiet (fewer shoppers).
Then OH surprised me during the return journey by saying we were going to a nearby town...why? Because he'd decided the halogen oven is such a useful bit of kit...why not get another? Reason being he'd decided it would be good to use in the caravan...

Afternoon - we took neighbour to a nearby garden centre. She took her 'pogo' stick with her - that's what she calls her long folding cane that has a ball on the end. By rolling it to and fro she can navigate her way around.

But although my car decided to give problems, we managed to get to the garden centre and back home. Now it's been booked in to be 'looked at' tomorrow. We'll go on our shopping trip but in two cars...so the poorly one can be left to be assessed. (Only when OH described the problems over the phone, did I realize it had begun to go wrong a few days earlier!)

4th Jan 2011

Knitting neighbour is focused on Easter!
She's busy knitting small novelty chicks which will take a chocolate creme egg inside.

Talking with another knitting friend they've decided it would be good to knit more animals. Hence a request to me, 'can you find patterns for bunnies and sheep/lambs please?'
Turning on-line to the much-loved wealth of knitting inspiration/ideas and patterns that is Ravelry, I've come across some patterns. Now I need to 'translate' US abbreviations into English ones, as both ladies only know the latter.

Lucy lamb 
Pattern link and photo can be found here

Woolie the Ewe

Bunny rabbit patterns

Chocolate coloured Easter bunny

and my favourite...

Honey bunny

If my neighbour makes Honey Bunny I'll probably make the dress and bow. 

Fun Monday

January's gracious host is Ari
She says
"I live in a climate with a long, cold winters. Over the years, I've built up a supply of clothing and items to keep warm and dry. I think of them as my arsenal for winter combat. What's in your winter weather arsenal? Or, if you don't have tough winters where you live, tell us about something you own that you wouldn't want to be without."

As I have Raynauds, winter is a particularly trying time, my hands and feet are icy, they go white/blue with cold. I wear gloves, even when to some people the weather doesn't warrant it. Hence, I have recently bought a circulation booster and am hoping things will improve. Am using it for 10 minutes a time, it has tens type accessories but I'm not trying them yet. A weird sensation, as it cycles thro' rhythmically. Difficult to describe but I am hoping that with perseverance I can build up the time to the recommended 30 minutes. 

My friend's husband went to Canada on business and bought this lovely top for his wife.

Unfortunately, he came home with one of the wrong size...

so, as I'm (lets put it politely) broader than her, he kindly agreed to her giving to me.

and today's experiment is...

to investigate and use for the first time the halogen oven bought for me by OH.
Luckily, it came with not only an instruction book, but also a selection of recipes. So I've dared myself to cook with it later today.
He dug a joint of beef out of the freezer and it's been defrosting over night. I'm hoping it'll cook okay.
and...it did!

Not only the beef, but the roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings!
Not as quickly as the microwave, but faster than my fan oven...more frugal with electricity. I might be 'on a winner'.

 Roast beef worked a treat and so did the roast potatoes and Yorkshire puds.

May we All...

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend
Happy new year
Happy new year
(Abba)

Thank you to my click of a mouse friends for companionship across the ether!

Time for reflection and expectation

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

And he replied:

“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

(excerpt)Minnie Louise Haskins 1875 – 1957 God Knows, from a collection, The Desert, First published in 1908. Part of George VI broadcast 1939

These words sum up my feelings as another year ends and a new one approaches.

Dark days dwindle into the past; taking with them friends who are no more...
Each year Christmas and birthday cards become fewer...tempus fugit. But I shall not turn this post into maudlin memories. Far better to concentrate on new beginnings...

I finally summoned up the courage to attempt studies at level 3 with the Open University. 'In for a penny, in for a pound'! 60 points to be gained hopefully.

Unlike years ago I shall not party my way into the New Year...but treat myself to some Irish Whiskey whilst watching Jools Holland host his 18th annual special.

I'm hoping there won't be too many loud bangs from fireworks as the younger dog doesn't like them.

Day 30

If anyone had suggested to me I might blog for 30 consecutive days, I would not have believed them. Needless to say "here's day 30".

OH should have been going back to the GP tomorrow, until we had a phone-call from the surgery. Dear GP is in need of a doctor himself and has called in sick. No wonder, as when we saw him he sounded in a bad way. Result? OH admitted over the phone that he's okay on the lower dosage meds. Would he have ever told me that? No, he wouldn't have considered it to be necessary. So, no early get-up tomorrow morning and no trip to the surgery. Phew! But there's no way they'll let OH go another however many years without visiting the GP.

Next, am thinking of dubbing the postman Scarlet Pimpernel lol
"They seek him here,
they seek him there,
they seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven or is he in hell?
That damned elusive (postman) Pimpernel." why? because with Christmas falling at a weekend, Monday and Tuesday became Bank Holidays and therefore no post. In fact ti was today (Thursday) before we had sight of him. He delivered two errant Christmas cards. At least they weren't brown envelopes (bills).

Keeping with a theme (fiction) an online retailer's having  a sale so have ordered a DVD 'Oh what a glorious war'. Saw the film many years ago but never got my own copy. Next, having watched and thoroughly enjoyed a TV programme celebrating 'Les Miserables 25 years' I think I might look up the sale site and order a copy.

Varifocals

Before Christmas I visited the opticians. Having become fed-up with my regular place I went to one recommended by a friend. They were most welcoming and the optician was very thorough. I'd already promised myself I'd go for something new. When you've worn glasses for many years and recently 'needed' reading glasses as well as everyday ones...I decided it was time for varifocals. No need to take off to read, but three seamless areas to allow me to see

• distance
• middle distance (computer screen)
• reading

Not content with that (grin) I opted for lenses that react to changing light levels. So, today's the day and now to become accustomed to a new way (to me) to view my world.

wondering

what to post about today...taking my inspiration from Faye at Summit Summit Musings. In her post she mentioned decluttering! Shock! Horror! As an habitual magpie, collector and long-practiced clutterer (grin) the idea of decluttering is an anathema!
Yes, I'm a hoarder! What do I hoard? Anything useful?

• Yarns of many colours, weights and textures, crochet hooks and knitting needles. These range from fine to chunky. My latest acquisition - a set of bamboo knitting needles.
• Patterns - knit and crochet
• Technology - gadgets - 4 laptops of all ages with connectors, plugs and assorted wires. 2 tower pcs hooked-up and a couple of elderly ones in the attic.
• CDs and DVDs
• books and magazines

In fact the only thing that regularly gets decluttered is clothing. We have charity collections every so often. So I fill a large 'bin' bag with clothing, leave it outside the gate and it's collected. But I only for certain registered charities.

Fun Monday - reminiscence

As the end of December and 2010 approach, Jill's theme is:
"Give us a holiday update or an update on your year in general. Where does this year leave you, or where are you going? What do you look forward to, or look back on, with anticipation or joy?  This can take the form of your annual holiday letter, a letter to yourself this time next year, a comparison of last year to this, or whatever you feel comfortable with. Pictures encouraged!"

Reminiscences...of
Dublin's fair city

Where languages co-exist and names are lyrical

Where statues abound

Old and new side-by-side

Sailing ships, new bridges and a new port in the distance

Poignant memories

Fun sculptures

Skillful Irish dancers

Folk tales, 'craic' - Molly Malone (the tart with the cart)

 

and of course...

the magically beautiful 

River Liffey

Many thanks to Jill at Life is not bubble wrapped for hosting 

Fun Mondays December 2010