Loads to report....

Got Virgin media plumbed in last week by two young boys who looked as if they should have parental permission to be out alone. Still haven't got the wireless router sorted, told Mark I would do it (?!) and then found we haven't got a wireless adaptor. Couldn't get the cables to fit the appropriate sockets either and rang up Virgin to have a go at some poor hapless chap called Danesh saying that Virgin had not supplied the right ones, blah blah and he kept banging on about the cable modem. I kept on telling him I couldn't see one, getting more irritated by the second, when I realised that he was referring to the modem attached to the TV in the other room... I promptly informed him that THAT was why I was having problems and thank you and goodbye. Sometimes you just have to get out quick.


I applied for a job with NHS Direct, at a band higher than my current job with the NHS, got an interview and then found that there was a Sunday shift going at my place. It's double time, and therefore infinitely more attractive, so I have applied for that too.... meanwhile I have put off the NHS Direct interview because I would prefer to stay where I am really. I like the work, and I like the hours and the people. Not many jobs around like that..... AND then I find out that the Child Tax Credit people have increased my weekly payments (fairly substantially I have to say) because of the drop in my earnings since I left Lloyds. Really, I am in two minds whether to even take this extra shift if I am offered it, or not. No wonder some women are faced with the dilemma of not working at all.

Recently, I have tried to get arty with ATCs. (Artists Trading Cards). I have tried to get going with these before, as I like the idea of trading little cards with people and having a collection of individual art, but as usual, I find my creativity stunted. I have come up with this one with one of my favourite Shakespeare quotes:



And I have tried to get Oliver into them too, as I feel it would be something we could do together, and I think he would like to send and receive these too. With some assistance he made these two, the theme is the Riverbank, and it is a children's ATC swap: (photos are out of focus, my fault)


And finally, I have recently purchased an old PS1 console with a few games, and have re-visited the world of Tomb Raider 2. I played this around 15 years ago fairly extensively and am quite shocked to find how much I can remember of it. I like this sort of game since not only does it involve a great deal of hand-eye co-ordination, you have to think about where you are going, been and how things might happen around the corner. I make Oliver play it with me - he has a fantastic sense of direction with it although he is too scared to take the controls. I have to say there are times that I absolutely shit myself when the spooky music kicks in and I round the corner to be savaged by a pack of Dobermans..... is this good for one's heart I ask myself.....

Oh - and I MUST say about my experience with the Osteopath - I had a headache which went on for about three days, unheard of for me, so I assumed something to be strained, pulled, 'out' whatever, and booked in to see an Osteo I had not heard of before, Susan Farwell. Anyway, she does this cranial-sacral stuff, you know, the very light touching/pressing method and it was FAB. My headache went instantly and she released alot of tension in my ribcage and pelvis too. I saw her again this week and she says my body is 'recovering well'. She reckons I have an accumulation of stress on the body since having Oliver (by horrible emergency caesarian) 6 years ago. AND she cited the operation and recovery from it as a major cause of stress too...

I asked her how it worked and this is a rough explanation, how I understood it. She applies (the right amount of) pressure to the muscle where it crosses over the bones and nervous system. The idea is that her taking the strain off of that muscle will tell the nervous system that the amount of tension there is not necessary, and the nervous system will then re-programme that muscle to be less tense and it will relax itself. When she feels that happening, she releases the pressure that she has been applying, as the muscle has 'got the message' and tension is released by itself. Voila! How very clever. The whole theory of Osteopathy is that if the body is correctly physically aligned, it will self heal. So interesting.

And that's all I've got to say about that...