Tuesday 23 December 2008

Angry!

Sometimes I get frustrated by peoples attitudes.......rarely do I get truly angry.

Today just at the moment, I am really angry. I know it will blow over, but before it does, I thought you would like to share the cause of it!

Thanks a bunch Pope and a happy Christmas to you too.

Right - that's it for now.

But as 'er Indoors says "It's all very well - but we need 'straight' people to speak out against this."

Know any?

Saturday 20 December 2008

Rattus Flattus......Mus Musculus!

I am just so excited!
From my sick bed I write.....

Just read Chris Quigleys Rat post......of course, we all know Americans like to 'do it big' so I don't mind - Chris has Rats in her collection and so, of course, in little Britain, I have a small version..a flat mummified mouse.......Framed, I might add, in a red velvet victorian frame.

I found my mouse under the carpet at the bottom of the stairs, when I sneaked 1/2 an hour in this house before I bought it.

Having found the mouse, I named him Cedric and promised to rescue him if he was still there when the deal went through.....he was and I did! (The carpets were all chucked in a skip...and the many mouse nests sorted. Cedrics friends have not been back to see him - to my knowledge).

Yo ho ho Chris! Meet Cedric...I did contemplate sending him to you for Christmas - but I just couldn't part with him!

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Harrods


Harrods was bombed when in 1983 the IRA planted explosives in a car outside. The blast blew heavy parts up onto the roof of the building opposite... and it abruptly ended several unsuspecting lives.

Having spent an uncomfortable couple of days re-living my past, I thought I would share this with you - and I promise, I won't delete it!

I worked in Harrods myself for five years, doing all sorts of things - which I will tell you if you want - I was there from 1980. But then,.....on that particular day, I had taken time off, because my husband (yep!) had taken it into his head to have a concert at our home, starring all his piano pupils. My job he declared, was to feed them....In all we expected about 28 people to turn up and participate in the 'grand' production. The studio had been re-organised - chairs set up in the (thankfully) long room - a piano at each end and...(I have to say, this was not an unusual happening at the time; however, - I wonder if wife 2 has to do such impromptu event catering? I doubt it, I've tasted her cooking!!!!! (honest, it's truly awful).

when the bomb went off at work, I was in the kitchen, making soup for the masses...in Brentford - thankfully not in Knightsbridge.

Had I been at work, I might very well have been one of the unfortunate people, leaving or entering the staff entrance - and ka-boom, you wouldn't be reading this blog now.

However, I was at work when the IRA bombed Hyde-Park-Corner.

This was the lead up.....

I was standing by a big trestle table in the toy department idly chatting - it was covered in sheets of brown wrapping paper as we were using it as a temporary 'packing' area for parceling up anything that the customers cared to buy.....

Yep, you can ask me to wrap anything from a model car to a rocking horse in corrugated cardboard and brown paper and then to tie string round it....i'm your girl for the job.

I worked in the packing section of the toy department at the big store for years.....I am an expert - but just brown paper and string - parcel stuff, not that 'girly-gift-wrap' crap with tight corners and ribbons!

I had my back to the windows at the rear of the store. The picture here is of the front, on Old Brompton Road. We were on the 4th floor...(the department moved from the 3rd to the 4th floor around that time). Prior to that, the toy department packing room was on the front of the building I think the 4th window along from the curved corner - the row above the 'Harrods' Sign...which in those days had 3 Royal 'By Appointment' crests above it!!!!!!!!!!

There was a loud low, rumbling boom and we all stood still, mid sentence, looking at each other. I said "...that sounded like a bomb..." A couple of moments later,I couldn't tell you how long, we smelled it - acrid, smokey and a bit like bonfire night gone wrong.

That was quite a time for everyone and one of the very many memories I have of the great red palace. The tales I could tell you! Thankfully not all so devastating.

Tuesday 16 December 2008

Bedales: this just had to be gotten off my chest...sorry folks!

I was doing a comment on the blog four paws and whiskers...then I realised my ramble wasn't suitable for a little box!

I suggest before you read this that you check out Fi's post.....This is my story.

Actually - that's enough of that.....! Anyone who wants to hear it can ask....!
x
Thanks for those of you who provided an ear or a shoulder today....

Sunday 14 December 2008

looking for stuff......



Having been on a very bizzarre fossil hunt by moonlight for treasure to send to Christine Quigley for her 'Cabinet' - I finally decided that the weather probably wasn't conducive to wondering about and I would have to share something from my cabinet instead.....so a parcel will be winging its way tomorrow......

No clues.

Just sorry that the post will be later than Christmas!

AND for a change, it's nothing to do with Nichiren....hang on, how did those monks creep in up there?

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Hooray........feet over the threshold and into the swing...

I went to visit my first patient today.......MY Patient.......not anyone elses - mine and all my equipment worked, and the routine went to plan. I took the right notes in the correct order and we were both pleased.....I looked very 'fetching' in my uniform and on the whole, I am delighted with the progress of the paperwork mountain........tho I MUST do my Diabetic foot health handout and my Verruca care sheet.


Tomorrow is after all another day - the day after that is a Golf Lesson.

Tomorrow however, also brings my presentation at University about my impending essay entitled:

Fast Track to Nirvana? Discuss the concept of Nichiren Buddhism and the attainment of Enlightenment in this Lifespan. and I need to print some handouts.......

Well - it's a simple enough concept... this enlightenment thing - like the man said, the hard part is sustaining it - I recon life is just like that in all areas....got to bloody well put the 'graft' in to get anywhere!!!

However, tomorrow, on the way to university, I get to pick up my new brand spanking buzzing whizzing Vascular Doppler......there won't be a foot pulse undetected on Portland If I get my way!!!

Monday 8 December 2008

Reality check....

This morning, I picked up the two packs of business cards from the local printers, for 'In Toe' my new foot healthcare business...I suppose it's real because I have that familiar sinking feeling in my stomach - you know the one - when you feel as though every last drop of confidence will seep out while you turn your head to look at something else and before you know it, the plan falls flat and remains just 'an idea'......well it was a bloody expensive idea, so I'll give it my best shot and force myself into action.

I am expecting a parcel of 'goodies' to wing through the ether in the next couple of days and have a bit of electronic kit to collect from the surgical suppliers this week and when it all gets here, I will be sorted enough to at least make a start.

The 'In Toe' Patient Charter has been honed and my 'Infection Control Policy' has been written - I have still got to write more Health & Safety at Work Policies, including the essential 'Risk Assessments' - then we're off with no excuses....to the dreaded meetings with local GP Practice Managers and suchlike scary official folk. In the back of my mind, I wonder if any of the rest of my class have gone into HASAW policy at all...I very much doubt it - however, my attitude is that if anyone says 'BOO' to me or complains about my business, at least I can show that I have thought about the wider picture and can look professional.....well - that's the idea.

I could be destroyed by harsh words even just the one word - so have to set my defences high!! It can't be too bad tho - other people have trodden this path, with less anatomical knowledge...and I loved clinical finals...the tutors were really pleased with my work...they were really encouraging.

So, what's my chosen logo? I know some of you were wanting to know!!



"..the blue one Basil..." of course.........That clever Ian Andrew did me proud... Now - I really do have to go out there and find patients... Don't I! Anyone got a corn - or like Sybil Fawlty, an ingrowing toenail?

Watch the first part of 'The Germans' on Utube - I have had terrible trouble uploading it!

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Foot feet and fish food...

Have a look at this link - it looks a wee bit fishy to me!
You can read what the man says yourself.....

"These silver-grey slithers are garra rufa, a tiny toothless carp that live in warm water. Also known as doctor fish, they nibble on dead skin cells while secreting an enzyme said to help prevent eczema and psoriasis".

Will they be on sale for Christmas? The latest 'beauty-have-to-have'...beats Botox in my book anyday!!!

DID YOU SEE THAT?

Hey - I did the 'linky-thingy' like a real blogger!!!
again

Still banging on about a poor Cardinal...heaven forbid that the Roman Catholic Church should have a potential Gay Saint on their hands...they haven't got to grips with the fact that several men have been deeply attracted to the camp outfits, the Ritual, flowery Rhetoric and general lack of women.

I am convinced that the Cardinal has had the last laugh...tehehe...well - I hope very much that he has!

Cardinal Newman

I can't help having been more than a little pleased that the Catholic Church couldn't find any remains when they tried to dig up Cardinal Newman...
here

He wanted to be buried with to his 'friend' Fr Ambrose St John....now who does that usually? It would be 'next to' or near....not WITH!

...The cardinal repeated on three occasions his desire to be buried with his friend, including shortly before his death in 1890.

"I wish, with all my heart, to be buried in Fr Ambrose St John's grave - and I give this as my last, my imperative will," he wrote, later adding: "This I confirm and insist on."

Newman wrote after the death of St John in 1875: "I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband's or a wife's, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or anyone's sorrow greater, than mine."...here

So - when I heard that the 'Vatican-grave-robbers' couldn't even find trace of his bones - I smiled - a lot in fact, and wondered if he had made a secret arrangement with the grave diggers before he died!

Monday 1 December 2008

art - and I loved it!

I have to say sorry for not being able to post a 'live' link onto my blog.......somehow I just can't figure it out. However, this is clearly a 'death-related' link, so I thought it needed sharing.

As a sometime artist, I am impressed - and it leads on to even more interesting sites!

http://www.sideshowworld.com/SSA-54.html

http://thehumanmarvels.com/