|
|
Wednesday, October 21st, 2020
| |
9:12 pm - Hymenectomy? Read This!
|
Hello
If you are contacting me about a hymenectomy then that's cool, and I'm happy to give you all the advice I can, although it's been a while since my surgery.
However if you want to send me an LJ email about it then please, for the love of small fluffy things, turn your privacy settings off so I can respond. It's really horrible when I get emails from people who desperately want help, but have set their LJ up so I can't reply to them. It makes me feel sad, and then I have to go and cuddle my dog to cheer myself up.
Failing that, leave a comment here and I'll answer you. Non friend comments are screened so it's totally private.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Sunday, December 20th, 2009
| |
9:06 am - Yay!
|
Had a lovely day yesterday, starting with the Stitch and Bitch Secret Santa, continuing through lunch at Morrisons (we live the high life, me and the Mister) and an afternoon making truffles, and culminating in Thai Mussaman curry and Team Cola winning Strictly.
I don;t know whether anyone else on here is a fan of Strictly Come Dancing? I've been following it fairly rabidly all season, and was utterly elated when Chris and Ola finally lifted the trophy. They may not have been the most technically accomplished couple, but they were by far the most entertaining.
And then, just as the credits were rolling, it began to snow like it meant it. I took Thomas outside, as he's never seen snow before, and he absolutely loved it. Rolling in it, chasing snowflakes, running round in circles... absolutely magic to watch.
This morning the snow is mostly gone, the truffles haven't set and the house smells of old curry. But I'm still cruising on good vibes. Hopefully Yule tomorrow will be as good, even if I am at work!
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, December 6th, 2009
| |
5:37 pm - Roll Call
|
I finally caved and got myself onto Twitter. (@drachenfach if you're wondering)
Now I'm there, who should I be following? I've found Pete Wentz and Stephen Fry so far- I suck at using the search function and there seems to be so many copcat profiles out there. I don't want to add a celebrity I like if they're gonna turn out to be some 14 year old girl from Ohio!
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
| |
8:17 pm - Ooops
|
I thought I'd dealt with my poor relationship with food.
The screaming fit I just threw at James after he commented on how much salt I'd put on my dinner suggests this is not the case.
Better work on that one.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
| |
2:18 pm - Yawn
|
First weekend off in a while- no parents round, not social events planned. James is off downhill mountain biking with some fellow nutters from work, and I am halfheartedly tidying the spare room, writing my NaNo, crocheting a new doll and sorting stuff out to go down the tip.
Technically then, that's quarter-heartedly. Although I'm mainly fucking around on the internet rather than doing anything actually useful, so I guess it's 5%-heartedly- my maths is not good enough to work out the fractions for that!
The house is a total tip at the moment; bedroom floor invisible under a mountain of clothes, both spare rooms full to the brim with shit. James swore blind he was going to help me blitz them, as most of the big stuff is his. As yet this has not occurred. Unimpressed wife is unimpressed.
Both mothers are coming up next weekend for shopping, socialising and a chance to scrutinise Drach's inadequate housekeeping. If these rooms aren;t sorted by Wednesday I'm going in with a can of deodorant and a lighter.
Also, on a totally different tangent, we had about four powercuts last night (mention of the lighter reminded me). Every time I'd got all the candles lit and settled down with an activity that didn't require electricity or much use of eyes (crochet for the win!), the bloody power came back on and every house alarm in the street went mental.
My town seems to be particularly bad for powercuts; we live in a fairly urban area, close to a large city, and we get at least two a month. Anyone else get them regularly?
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
| |
9:19 pm - Motherfucker
|
So Fall Out Boy have called it a day for the foreseeable, and frankly, I'm quite upset about it, if only because their music has played a fairly sizeable role in getting me out of bed and into the wide world every morning. When it's four boys and a record player standing between you and mental breakdown, I think you can't help but take it a little personally. If I'm honest,I think valiantly holding back sobs in WHSmith while you stare in horror at the front cover of Kerrang! goes past 'personally' and into the realms of 'needs more meds' but anyway, that's basically how today panned out.
Anyone who finds this amusing feel free to stop reading now and go fuck yourself with a mustard coated dildo. Lovely.
Right, for those of you still left, I also found out this week that my Dad has been suffering severe exertion induced breathlessness (can't climb stairs, can't walk dog, can't play golf, can't sail) for over threee months now, and has an all-day appointment at the hospital tomorrow while they try and figure out what's wrong with him. Fortunately he's a non-smoker, which rules out a lot of the nastiest possibilities, but I can tell my mother is bricking it.
And James and I found out what happens when your Grandad stops taking his Parkinsons meds. It was like watching someone act out the entire Wikipedia article on the condition. Not pretty
All things considered, maybe I should thank Patrick Stump and co for calling it a day. It gives me something nice and trivial to be emo about whilst pushing the rest of the shit into a nice dark corner of my head. And hey, at least now Mr Stump has a chance to clean his sink, according to the Kerrang! interview. Excellent. Now he's got nothing better to do, maybe he can come and clean mine too.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, November 16th, 2009
| |
8:42 pm - Still not dead
|
Wrists are fucked, so am limiting myself to vital typing only, as the home computer is such a cunt to work on
Feel free to debate whether NaNoWriMo counts as vital (kidding, for that I use the husband's laptop, which is ergonomically perfect and has no internet)
I'm still here and still reading, just unable to comment much
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Saturday, October 31st, 2009
| |
8:05 am - Yay!
|
Happy Halloween everyone.
Me and the Mister are off dahn sarf for a week to celebrate our wedding anniversary and generally be all gooey and insular.
See you next Sunday!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Thursday, October 29th, 2009
| |
9:11 pm - Curses
|
Today the dog ate my dinner. I'd brought two plates of steak, chips and mushrooms into the living room where James was sitting, then went out to get the cutlery. Cretinous husband followed me out to get a glass of water.
Came back in to find my steak travelling at speed across the table with a very excited Irish setter hanging on to one end.
Wrestling match ensued.
Technically I won, but as the steak by then was fit only for the bin, there was little glory to be had.
I'm reluctantly impressed by the fact the dog could get the whole thing in his mouth though- it took some serious gullet-diving to retrieve it.
Wedding anniversary on Sunday, and a week on the south coast to celebrate. Sadly the dog is coming with us.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Saturday, October 24th, 2009
| |
8:34 pm - So much for that
|
Just deleted my account on Pagan Central.
My 'fellow' mod posted a lovely link on FaceBook promoting the bigoted bunch of illiterate pond-scum usually known as the BNP and currently masquerading as the English Defence League.
On the way to meeting at a coffee shop today one of the ladies that usually comes was spat at because she was wearing a hijab (she's white) and told she was shaming her country.
I can't share webspace with anyone that espouses or condones that sort of behaviour. The best I can hope for is that he's stupid enough to actually believe the dross on their website, rather than seeing them for what they are- nasty, bigoted, hateful racist cunts, who are doing their best to whip the country into a fear of anyone with brown skin.
So uh, yes, that's about it really. Of all the things that could have ended my chequered career as a moderator, racism from another mod was not top of my list, but there we go. Sometimes even the nicest people turn out to be rotten at the core.
current mood:  sad
|
|
(10 comments | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, October 18th, 2009
| |
5:25 pm - Update
|
Interview on Tuesday for teaching English as a Foreign Language. Got my lesson plan all ready, but still struggling with the task they set- despite studying it at uni for three years, English language is not my strong point!
Also popped to the doctors last week and got diagnosed with RSI in my left wrist. It's been playing me up for years and since starting to crochet it's got progressively worse. Yay. The future holds ugly beige wrist splints, a ban on crochet and a shit-ton of ibuprofen. Lucky old me, eh?
One of the things that really aggravates it is typing. I guess signing up for NaNoWriMo was a really stupid idea, but I've done it anyway. Who else is NaNoing this year? I'm on the forum as Drachenfach- find me and friend me!
Today I made a batch of crabapple jelly. I feel all thrifty and economical. The fact I also went to a bead fair and spent £20 is by the by.
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
| |
10:03 pm - Note to Husband
|
We are not poor. We may be strangulated by negative equity, lumbered with a big mortgage, rubbish at budgeting and hampered in our attempts to earn more by the fact I have all the career ambitions of a frankfurter, but we are not poor.
We have a house. I know you think it's in a shitty area and our neighbours are all chavs, but it's still a house. A big one. With a garage. Next door turns his music off by 10, there are no druggies down our street, the kids go joyriding in wheelie-bins rather than my car and the only people wanted by the police are the people who sold us the house!
I have a job. You have a job. I have a car, you have three. And a motorbike. Average household income for 2007/2008 was about £30 000, putting us in the top 2 fifths.
WHAT PART OF THIS DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND, YOU SPOILT BRAT?
*le sigh*
I don't want to have a go at James. He's an only child from a privileged background (private prep school, public school, Dad working in city etc. etc.) and he doesn't feel like he's achieving the sort of lifestyle he should have. That gets him down. He's also convinced that where we live is some sort of den of iniquity and that if we even attempted to bring up kids (which we can't afford, duh) round here they'd be hooked on smack before they were even weaned.
Unfortunately I find it hard to sympathise. I had a pretty privileged upbringing as well. Horseriding, Scouts, school trips, exotic holidays, the whole hog. But I also remember wearing my cousin's hand-me-downs, buying school uniform at jumble sales, all living in one room while Mum rented the others out to lodgers. It wasn't all gravy all the time, and it seems unreasonable to expect it to be so in the middle of a fucking recession.
And then there's what I see at work. I don;t think James understands what poverty actually is. I wish I could log him in to the social services database to read an average day's entries. 8 kids in a two-bedroom house. Kids who can't go to school because their parents can't afford a change of uniform. Houses with empty cupboards. Rot. Damp. Infestations. Whole families living in cars. Single mums moving from bedsit to B&B to hostel to friend's sofa. Generations stuck in the cycle of poverty, violence and exploitation. Ugh.
I just wish he could see how fucking lucky we are.
|
|
(5 comments | comment on this)
|
| |
9:30 pm - Not Dead
|
The Evil Housemate is not dead yet, unless he's updating FaceBook from beyond the grave.
Perhaps now I have a hope of getting some nightmare-free sleep.
I guess this is why polyamory is so relatively uncommon- too many people to worry about! Does strike me as strange though; it's perfectly normal, even expected, to love your children equally and in the same way, or your grandparents, or your friends.
Why is romantic love different?
Drach- suffering an acute attack of her usual autumn weirdness
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, September 26th, 2009
| |
7:16 pm - Ulp
|
The evil ex-housemate is round tonight, which is nice.
What is not so nice is the news that his work are sending him out to the Cote d'Ivoire to fix some gadget on an oil platform.
As Dunc himself pointed out, this trip could include pirates and grenade launchers, as well as the more usual adjuncts of vaccintions, plane delays, lost luggage and shitty hotels.
Am I silly to be worried about him? He's not the most fortunate of people when it comes to inflicting injury upon himself, and I quite like having him around.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, September 17th, 2009
| |
7:06 pm - Fukkit
|
I'm getting really good at making do and mending this month. Both my 'good' bras have bitten the dust, and I'm running out of places to patch over where the underwires are sticking through. I also spent a large portion of this afternoon barefoot while I stitched up a suspiciously fang-shaped hole in my trainers. Managed to poke several holes in my fingers whilst doing so, which is making typing painful.
As I can't afford to replace any of my wardrobe, I'm getting damn good at repurposing and recycling stuff. Stained-beyond-redemption tops are in a pile waiting for some strategically placed embroidery, and I'm getting really good at darning socks. Thomas does his best to supply me with plenty of the latter. I found one of mine in the fishpond this morning.
He's a real pain in the arse at the moment, having developed a taste for post. He ate a parcel from my Nan the other day, and this evening I came in to find a pile of confetti that was once the local newspaper, and a very chewed catalogue. With which he was promptly and thoroughly spanked.
I suspect he may also know why the computer chair has suddenly collapsed, but at the moment it's a mystery.
Work sucks donkey dick as usual. the evil boss from hell is due back on Monday, allegedly, and none of us are looking forward to his return.
And finally, today one of the social workers followed me into the loo whilst jabbering on her mobile, and proceeded to go into the next cubicle and hold a very audible (both ends of the conversation) discussion with her friend. You may imagine to yourselves how this cramp-ridden IBS sufferer felt about such an audience.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, September 5th, 2009
| |
9:11 am - Ganked off MDM and Frightened
|
1. The illness I live with is: cyclical depression, self harm, anxiety
2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: 2004
3. But I had symptoms since: at least 2003
4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: accepting that it won't ever go away
5. Most people assume: I'll get cured
6. The hardest part about mornings are: walking the dog
7. My favorite medical TV show is: none of them
8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: MP3 player
9. The hardest part about nights are: noise!
10. Each day I take: 1 sertraline, 100mg
11. Regarding alternative treatments I: haven't tried any of them, despite myriad suggestions of everything from St John's Wort to Colonic Irrigation
12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: neither. Who the fuck picks their illnesses? What a fucking stupid thing to ask!
13. Regarding working and career: I'm managing very well, actually
14. People would be surprised to know: how much I talk to my goldfish
15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been: the way that the downs are matched by the ups, and the realisation I don't ever want to lose the highs
16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was: use a steak knife on something that wasn't my arm
17. The commercials about my illness: there are commercials?
18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is: getting drunk
19. It was really hard to have to give up: alcohol!
20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is: crochet, beading, spinning, clothes-making...
21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would: I have plenty, thanks to the drugs
22. My illness has taught me: to be more understanding of others with mental illness
23. Want to know a secret? No thanks
24. But I love it when people: buy me wool
25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is: Medication gets me through tough times, not words
26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: forget about the stigma and take the fucking meds
27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is: how quickly it becomes routine
28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was: stuck with me throughout
29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: I am?
30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel: that you may need a hobby
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Friday, September 4th, 2009
| |
6:58 pm - Still kicking
|
Not dead, just very busy at home and at work.
This morning was glorious, a brisk, breezy morning with that crisp chill in the air that suggests the season is turning.
We haven't had much of a summer this year, so I'm hoping we get a good autumn to make up for it. And a bit more sunshine, so my pumpkins ripen nicely.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Monday, August 24th, 2009
| |
8:32 pm - Arse
|
I may be about to lose my job.
Apparently they've been planning to merge all our marketing and PR departments (about 150 people) into one big marketing and PR department (about 90 people).
This has been in the pipeline since April. First us peons on the frontline heard about it? Thursday. And I didn't hear about it until today, and that was secondhand, from an extremely irate colleague who is less than impressed at the prospect of having to reapply for a job she's been doing for 10 years.
Either this means my job is safe, or the powers that be have been blinded by the massive amounts of admin work and front desk guarding that I do, and have forgotten I'm technically on the marketing payroll, even though I work for them once in a blue moon.
Being a cynical soul, I suspect the latter. I also suspect, knowing my employers as I do, that they will totally ignore the fact that we are already two down in the admin department and working our arses off, fire me because they no longer have a budget to assign me to, and then hire a temp at great expense to do approximately half the work I was doing, and with considerably more spelling mistakes.
Fuuuuck.
|
|
(9 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, August 17th, 2009
| |
10:50 pm - Blue
|
The living room, that is, not my mood.
We've been cracking on with the exorcism of the swirly terracotta vinyl wallpaper, and now more than half the room is a gorgeous muted teal colour. I like muchly. I even like the fiddly job of painting the edges and under the radiator, much to James's delight.
Once this room is done, that will make four whole rooms from which the spectres of polysterene ceiling tiles and lurid wallpaper are forever banished. Next job will be the kitchen, where we also have to do battle with fake wood panelling. I intend to build a bonfire of the stuff and dance round it naked.
Out in the garden, the triffids have thrown out three fat pumpkins, with possibly a couple more to come. The sunflowers have just opened, and the runner bean is flowering madly. All the carrots are ready for picking, and the pepper plants have finally woken up and started fruiting. One of them appears to have black fruits- they look healthy and shiny, but they're midnight black. Weird. And the onions made a lovely dinner... for the slugs.
Back indoors again, and the crochet craze still holds me in an iron grasp. I've already polished off James's Christmas presents, and am working on a hip scarf for me, another Christmas present for someone who will not be named on here, and a road cone and a yorkshire pudding. It's true, you can crochet just about anything!
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
| |
10:37 pm - Tired
|
And in a really bad mood for reasons I can't entirely identify.
This weather makes me hot and irritable. I wilt easily in hot weather anyway, and this sticky, muggy, stuffy weather has left me itching with temper and feeling shitty. It's not helped by the fact that one of our social workers has broken her internal thermostat and insisted on sitting in the office with all the doors and windows closed, the fan off and her rain coat on 'because there was a nasty draught'. Suspect the draft was actually my colleague and I panting. Small stuffy rooms full of electronic equipment are not nice places to be.
Neither is my house at the moment. The usual clutter and crap is currently augmented tenfold by decorating paraphenalia and there is plaster dust everywhere, my husband being the type of person who decorates round stuff rather than put it away. Thus there is a film of dust over most of my belongings.
Also the dog got into my yarn stash and ate a brand new ball of red bamboo silk. That shit was expensive! I'm hoping I can salvage most of it, but damn it, there wasn't a fat lot of it in the first place.
So I'm hot, grumpy, tired, sunburnt (Sunday, helping Duncan move house) and chronically short of cash. Gah, I hate August!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|