Sunset in St Ives

Saturday night, St. Ives, Cambridgeshire......I don't think I've seen one as good as this since I left Scotland.

Amazing!




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Oh no.......

....not another Friday the 13th!!!! :o/

Maybe I'll just stay put in bed today, my record on this date isn't good but hey, doesn't any Friday hold promise of the weekend to come....I think maybe I'll hold that thought instead! ;o)

Bright, shiny and new!

Finally, after five years in the dental wilderness I can see a light at the end of the tunnel! It's nearly all over and in a weeks time I can heave a big sigh of relief that for a while at least I don't have to psych myself up on a fortnightly basis to lie prostrate and terrified sit in the dreaded black chair.

This afternoon was my penultimate appointment (hurrahhhh), this one was to have the temporary crown removed and the real one fitted. The job was duly done, and I might add with minimal anaesthesia, despite having a problem with a touchy nerve in the tooth in question, believe me, I would rather suffer the 'ouch factor' than have one of the '10 seconds in the roof of the mouth' jabs that it would have usually entailed! They hurt like hell, even the dentist himself is only to happy to admit they are no fun at all.

And that was that, 20 minutes later I was sporting a bright shiny new tooth where for at least the last ten years there has been some shambles of temporary repairs.


It didn't come cheap, the NHS will only pay for a gold one (ugh) which at £200 is
hardly a bargain but I needed wanted a white one which comes in at £300. Luckily for me someone very kindly helped me out with the extra bit that I couldn't afford (thank you, you know who you are) and so now I don't have to feel like a character from a James Bond movie each time I smile! :o))

I'm actually quite proud of myself, I have a real serious problem with the dentist and it's taken me years to get this done but at last I did it and although the problems with my teeth are ongoing at least I've got over one big hurdle with them.

Walk? What do you mean walk!

I don't 'do' walking, I do cars and motorbikes but not feet!

Yet again yesterday afternoon my ever failing car was deposited in the garage, this time to have some bearings replaced. Now usually in these circumstances my father chauffeurs me to work but this morning he was feeling a little 'inclement' and so other arrangements had to be made.

Bear in mind here that I live almost two miles from my place of white van torture and I have the pleasure of having to start at the un-godly hour of 06.00 hrs.

So the options were considered....and they were few, just two in fact, take a cab or walk. Well I would be damned if was going to pay a cab, I don't really know why I won't take a cab other than they seem to border on a form of legal extortion and oft times have less than savoury characters at the wheel but a taxi for just two miles I didn't consider an option, so I was left with using my 'own steam' as my only other choice. There are no buses at that time in the morning.

I was up with the lark (or something) at 4.45, and ablutions and breakfast dealt with I hit the pavements at 5.30 and you know what.......I really enjoyed it! So much so in fact that I decided to take a somewhat convoluted route to avoid any kind workmate passing me and offering a lift!

Mornings are not my best time to put it mildly, if a day is going to be a crap day it will have been decided in my head within two hours of waking but very unexpectedly the 'walking business' set me up for a better day than many, it was really good, it kind of cleared my head, gave me something else to concentrate on other than my usual worryings and there were birds, lots of them fluttering and tweeting, cats returning from a night on the tiles I could pass the time of day with and even a fox to keep me amused as I pottered along humming to myself. As I passed through the town centre at that early hour the market traders were setting up for the day and as ever the cheery bunch they are they all greeted me as I walked by with various forms of 'good morning'..... as opposed to the usual 'head down and don't meet anyone's eye' attitude it seems people later in the day prefer.

I arrived at work 15 minutes early having also managed a little window shopping along the final stretch of my journey, and sat on a wall for a while watching the town gradually wake up to the sound of the nearby underground, the traffic slowly coming to life and people beginning to emerge from front doors...... yup, very surprisingly I quite like this early walking malarky, ok, so probably I won't be making a regular habit of it but now and again I think I might just leave the car behind on a nice morning!

The dead bat sketch

(The title might be a bit lost on those not familiar with Monty Python, see HERE.)

On one of my sandwich calls yesterday morning I was asked by the receptionist if I knew anything about bats! It seems that my predilection for all things furry had gone before me but that she hadn't realised cats, not bats are my forte!

However, I digress. "Bats"? I said curiously upon which she produced from below her desk a small black creature about the size of a 10p piece and plonked it unceremoniously into my hand.

"It's dead!" she said...... presumably trying to explain what already seemed to be staringly obvious, it's complete lack of movement had already suggested as much to me but I thought better of pointing it out, "I found it on the office stairs this morning" she carried on with. So there I am, in the posh

foyer of a world renowned institution, trying to sign into the visitors security log, my white van of wares running outside and with a tiny dead bat in my palm, it was all rather surreal and I was beginning to question quite what she expected me to do with it.

"I wondered if you might know why it died" Mrs Receptionist woman continued. Ok, so flattered I might be that she even considered my knowledge to include bat physiology but in reality I was at a complete and utter loss of course, to give her anything in reply other than a resounding "no". All I could tell her was it was a Pipistrelle bat and that it was a baby. The little thing was tiny, perfectly formed and so cute but sadly all the cuteness in the world hadn't saved it's little life.

Enter Mrs Receptionists colleague, a man apparently known for his knowledge on birds and who immediately became more help than I had been. He suggested she call the Bat Conservation Trust and see what they had to say.....she found the number, did just that and at the end of an animated conversation replaced the receiver triumphantly announcing they would send someone to collect it soon. It would appear that they too would be interested in how it met it's demise and wanted run some tests to discover if it's fatality was as the result of a strain of rabies carried and suffered by bats!

Hmmmm....that little snippet of information might have been appreciated before I carted it around in my hand inspecting it for 10 minutes!

I hasten to add at this point we are talking a different strain of rabies to that we usually think of, a strain with extremely low incidence.... but loathed though I am to say it, in retrospect there is a part of me that is slightly relieved it was 'beyond' biting me!

By today said dead bat had been duly collected, we await further information.

Hope

The green of summers leaves fresh from rainfall,
blooms, heads bobbing in a gentle breeze,
clouds scudding, white against an azure sky.

Birds soaring high on wing, movement fluid, calm,
leaves on stately trees, rustling, whispering,
boughs swaying in strange balletic unison.

Distant sounds of life, removed, ethereal,
delighted laughter, children playing,
barking dogs, caterwauling cats, larksong.

Detached, eyes not seeing,
sound lost in mists of thought,
another place, another time, another life.

Dark night falling, black surrounded skies,
moonshine, starshine, cloud eclipsed,
evening stillness, nigh time howling winds.

Thoughts tumbling, mind unknowing,
between star borne dreams and hard borne reality,
there is another...... there is hope.

Sunset after a storm

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Foxy lady!

THIS is just so cool....check out the pictures as well as the story...it made my day and if you feel inclined to get hold of a hard copy of todays Telegraph the pictures are even better! :o)

The bad and the good

Finally today the bitch from hell supervisor I have endured months of bullying, backbiting and sniping from pushed me too far. She rotates her choice of 'victim' regularly from those among us she considers herself to have power over but I seem to get alternate weeks, as opposed to the usual one in six my colleagues contend with.

The hierarchy wont sack her despite her blatantly illegal treatment of us, she has them over a barrel for one reason and another and they wont or can't bite the bullet!

So today, after yet another week or two of sustained hassle I lost the plot momentarily, uttered a few choice words and took a hike! Thankfully (for I need the income) I came to my senses before I had completely removed myself from the company premises, aware that once I had done so I could be fired for gross misconduct. I took about a thousand deep breaths, counted to somewhere in the region of 1000000, dried my tears of frustration and anger and went back....slightly heartened to hear the boss at least chastising bitch woman from hell. With any luck tomorrow she will have decided to blank me, her usual response to pushing it too far, and at least I wont have to listen to her constant crap for a day or two.

But all of this pales into insignificance today, for today, as you are no doubt aware by now Alan Johnston was finally released after 114 days in captivity! Some excellent news to celebrate for once and something to put our everyday troubles into perspective.

This is utterly crazy!

It seems that our judiciary think it a good idea to jail a 77 year old man, of previous good character and with a dependent wife, for taking blame for his sons speeding offence, whilst at the same time releasing more serious criminals early to solve the overcrowding situation in our jails!

Jeez...give me strength!

I do appreciate that the offence of which Robert Logue was found guilty was perverting the course of justice , a very serious charge carrying a maximum sentence of life, and that speeding can and does kill but really, given the specifics of the case (as far as I know them) and the climate of more serious crime in which we live today it seems more than a little ridiculous that this situation should arise at all.... in fact to me it seems utterly crazy and confounding.

Please, if you can defend this decision and offer a point of view I have missed let me know before I lose all faith and truly begin to believe that the world (or at least this part of it) has gone completely mad!

One word meme

I haven't done one of these for so long.... so when I found this on Lisa's blog I just had to 'borrow' it!

No 'nominations, if you want to join in just got for it but let me know so I can go read.

1. Where is your mobile phone? Pocket.
2. Relationship? Special.
3. Your hair? Short.
4. Work? Yes.
5. Your sister(s)? Lovely.
6. Your favourite thing? Laptop.
7. Your dream last night? Scary.
8. Your favourite drink? Coffee.
9. Your dream car? Bike??.
10. The room you're in? Dining room.
11. Your shoes? Timberland.
12. Your fears? Spiders.
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? Content.
14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? Family.
15. What are you not good at? Lots.
16. Muffin? Please!
17. Wish list item? Phone.
18. Where you grew up? London-ish.
19. The last thing you did? Shower.
20. What are you wearing? Fleece.
21. What are you not wearing? Gloves!.
22. Your pet? :o(
23. Your computer? Toshiba.
24. Your life? Turbulent.
25. Your mood? Quiet.
26. Missing? Someone.
27. What are you thinking about? Life.
28. Your car? Saxo.
29. Your kitchen? Blue.
30. Your summer? Wet.
31. Your favourite colour? Pink.
32. Last time you laughed? Yesterday.
33. Last time you cried? Today.
34. School? Done.
35. Love? Precious.

Crowned!

Jeez....for someone who is truly terrified of anything remotely associated with dentists and dentistry I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time glued upside down in one of their confounded chairs of late!

Today again it was my nightmare privilege to be subjected to more toothy torture. Lately I have been diagnosed as having a specific problem, the result of which is that I will likely loose most of my teeth sooner than I would like, this in turn causes other 'delightful' problems to present themselves...one of which is a tooth needing crowning that may or may not last more than a few weeks/months!

Oh joy, so I have two choices, have it removed (fat chance!) or have the crown fitted at a cost of £300 and hope that the underlying problem doesn't mean that it will only last a few weeks a few weeks!....I opted for the latter having been told that having a crown is 'childs play', ok, so the actual phrase used might have been slightly less polite but you get my drift!

So off I went to the dentist, this on it's own is no mean feat, it takes a week of no sleep, a degree of badgering by those nearest and dearest to me and for my father to accompany me (yes I know I'm 40 something) to get me there at all. But get there I did and surprisingly in somewhat less of a 'tizzy' than is the usually the case....and into the chair I went.

And it is at this point I would like to take issue with those who mentioned the phrase 'childs play'. Ok, so dentistry isn't my forte, accepted, but I fail to see who on earth would find this experience even remotely easy.

For forty minutes I endured continuous drilling, lumps of choking plasticine stuff jammed in my mouth and six (at the last count) injections, at least two of which were the the particularly painful 'twenty second (seems like an hour) roof of the mouth jobs' during which you can't help but scream murmur an indication of pain!

I think as I re-emerged into the waiting room looking for all the world like a stroke victim and as white as a sheet I probably didn't do much for the confidence of those waiting still to be seen by the torturer....but hey, I have a temporary crown in place now and they promise me the next part isn't anything like as unpleasant.

Yeah right, didn't they tell me that about this visit?!!

.....and 7 hours later the large amounts of anaesthetic it seemed to take to deaden half (literally) of my head is only just wearing off....no dribbling jokes please!

Catwalk!

Eekkk! I can hardly bear to watch this....

Ride your world ~ part 2

For me the weekend was invaluable, not only was it fun to be back under canvas (or in this case rip-stop),amazingly well catered, sometimes in torrential rain, courtesy of the 'Fletch school of haute camping cuisine'


and the evenings highly amusing (I'm even learning the alcohol thing after 20 or so years tee total) but to meet and mix with so many like minded individuals touched some kind of chord in me. People who in the first instance don't assume you must be a hells angel or a thug if you are dressed in leather and sporting a very fetching 'helmet hair-do' and who secondly don't assume you must have completely lost every vestige of sanity to even consider ditching your life (what life? I hear you say in my case) and leg it to some distant parts on two wheels for a time. Like minded individuals who maybe just want to perhaps experience another kind of life and who in many cases have done it.

I suppose up until now, despite having some loose plans to travel, the whole issue seemed in some ways rather freakin' scary big and unwieldy, maybe too awe inspiring to really believe it might happen or that I would be able to cope with all it's demands but one session in particular dispelled all of that for me. I attended a 'women only' presentation which whilst it spent a degree of time on information regarding 'womens things' in in the back of beyond, also provided information on woman specific safety and the various traditions that one needs to respect in different parts of the world, Muslim countries in particular.

But most of all it was an opportunity to talk to women who have acually done it, not only with a companion or in groups but entirely alone and to hear their stories and experiences and to realise that they are just flesh and blood like me, not superwoman, was a real eye-opener. One in particular was an amazing inspiration, Lois Pryce. Lois rode over 20000 miles across the Americas completely alone!. She has a great deal of grit, courage and tenacity, way more than I could ever muster but the fact that she was so approachable and 'normal' gave me some confidence that it really is possible.

But hey...let's not get carried away here, first stop Europe in August, as many countries as we can hit in 16 days....it's a start! :o)

(Can I go now please?....I can't wait!)

*For Fletch's take on it all go HERE.