Well, what a surprise. Steve didn't think to tell me that I now have this little beauty to play with! I have a very basic sewing machine, a real cheapy, but nothing like this one.
It's a 1936 Singer. Rosanne tells me it's a Featherweight. It's in perfect condition, perfect. It has the original manual, all the bobbins, the spare feet for different types of stitches and it gleams! Even the box is just a little dusty and is complete with lock and key etc.
It does need a new "pedal" but after that, maybe a little oil here and there to ease it but we know that it does still work!!!
Just take a look.

My sweet old Grandmother is/was 99 years old today.
My plan was that after Steve finished work today, we would visit her at the Care Home where she now lives.
I thought it best to phone ahead and see how she was and if she would be up to receiving visitors as she really isn't very well at all.
She has such hideous dementia that she barely knows anyone now but, even though she doesn't look or sound like my Nana any more, it is her birthday and I really should bite the bullet and visit. Mum and Dad are away this week so one of us has to be there for her.

So, I get on the phone. The Home co-ordinator tells me that my Nana has a hospital appointment this afternoon and patient transport has been booked for the trip. They will call me when she gets back to let me know if she is "fit" to have visitors.
So, I plan my afternoon accordingly. Just after 4pm, the Home calls me back. Patient transport didn't turn up. They have called the hospital who say they have no record at all of the appointment even though the Home has a letter from them confirming the appointment booking.
So, it was a fasting bloods and other tests appointment. My Nana hasn't eaten all day. She has no memory of not having eaten but as she is wasting away and is skin and bones, every meal is essential. The Home are furious.
Anyhow, we carry on chatting and I find out all the things that Mum is either totally in denial about or hasn't thought to tell me.
My sweet little Nana has a stomach filled with cancer. It's bad. She smells like a rotting corpse. Everything is going straight through her and she's not keeping any nutrition in at all. You can see each week how she's losing weight. The Home tells me that she is now deteriorating rapidly. It's bad...really bad now.
So we didn't visit today. The Home planned to feed her and then clean her up and put her to bed. What a sad way to spend your 99th birthday. No cake, no cards, no visitors, nothing.
So that's my tale for today. A rather sad one at that.
I then had to phone my parents on their holiday and tell them what the Home had said to me. I also had to call my cousin who lost her Mother at the end of February and tell her that the last living relative of "that" generation is close to death...I had a horrible afternoon.
I'm always pragmatic and practical about these things but this, hell, I hope she at least hangs on until my parents get home from their break in the Lakes at my favourite hotel.

Apparently, I am now a Whale...not sure what type, but I'll take Beluga or Blue for fun.
When I blow my nose now, there is a "whoosh" of air out of the lower tear duct hole in my eye. It has been christened a "blowhole" by one of my knitting buddies. She's still a buddy as I find it so funny!
Really not an after effect which I would have expected at all.
I do plan to call the surgeon to check that it's normal, but today was not that day.
This...above...is what they removed from my eye and nose just to gross you all out. Yes, it has been cleaned since it was taken out. Imagine the two long ends joined together (they were cut in the middle yesterday) and then sitting in the eye going through the two tear duct holes and into the top of the nose...yes, I had that in there for six weeks. Heaven only knows how Sam did those knots...a very dexterous surgeon!!

So, I haven't tried the "acid test" yet...i.e. cross stitching.
I will do, but let me have a couple of days for the eye to settle back to normal and then give it a go.
So far, now that the tube is out, it seems that all tears are back to draining where they should do and are running down the back of my throat quite nicely.
I think for once, this surgery is one of those where the result is exactly what it should be!

Tear Duct Surgery is finally happening tomorrow, Wednesday 21st July.
I am a little nervous, but mainly because I'll be going to the hospital on my own without Steve to calm my nerves.
It's a local hospital this time. Steve had his back surgeries there 12yrs ago but I've never been anything more than an outpatient there.

Feels like it was in a galaxy far, far away, but no, it was in Valentine's Park a mile away from here.
Must have been 1982 which makes me 16. I now feel remarkably old after being sent the link to this today.
My dress style has not changed in the slightest. Long skirts, no sleeves and I believe those old sandals are stashed away somewhere too. But, I would never wear yellow now. My skin tone would make me look ill.
Freaky.
So, that was me with Dione, my then best friend, and Ray Scott who I knew from school also.

P I C T U R E  P E R F E C T

...oOo...

THE RULES: Each week a new theme will be posted here on Friday morning. You are invited to put up your best picture on your own blog with that theme in mind, and you do have the whole weekend to post your picture, so there is no rush. Cutoff time is Sunday at midnight!

Remember it should be just  ONE and ORIGINAL, taken by YOU,and not off the internet,

Then come back and leave a comment on this page in the comment box so that everyone can link to your blog and see your photo.
I haven't been into blogging or PPF or anything for some months. I do feel a little guilty but when I have nothing to say, come on, what's the point.
But, I fell for the PP theme today and went for "a Rose Without Thorns"
This was taken at the end of May in Bibury, one of my favourite villages anywhere. They had an "Open Gardens" weekend and my favourite garden whose wall I always peer over was one of them. This is number 9 on the main road through Bibury. It looks spectacular every year but I have never had the privilege to do anything more than look over the wall before now. It's a perfect garden.

Week away Spring 2010 to the Lakes is booked. Cattery is booked. Roll on the 11th April. Am so excited, I could squeeeee all day.

Steve has a new camera. I'm hoping for a new lens by then, it's all mucho squeeworthy! and has vastly improved my mood.

It's been ages since I posted any photos, simply because it's so slow to upload to this site. I really had given up.
Anyhow, we had a superb afternoon at Kew Gardens last Sunday. They have a winter exhibit designed to showcase the glories of a tropical summer, wonderful.
358 photos for me and 567 for Steve....mine can be found in my new Photo Bucket album at the following link. Hope you enjoy them and if you can, relax and watch them through the slideshow, it's worth it.

Tropical Extravaganza

    It's been an odd week.
Everything I touch seems to crap out on me.
First, my air pillow got a puncture. That happens every couple of months, no big deal really until everything else starts to fail.
Then, next day, my cell phone. Nothing coming through the earpiece or a ring when a call comes in so I miss the hospital telling me that my appointment has been cancelled. Of course, we have already left for the place when they call me 15mins before the appointment.
So, deceased phone. Next is my laptop. Utterly dead. Possibly the memory or the hard drive. Nothing small then! Sigh.
Steve took it apart but has a live run at work this weekend so can't even attempt to fix it until after the weekend.
Anyhow, we popped to an O2 shop to take my phone in for repair. Turns out that on my 18month warranty, I get a loan phone and free repairs. Super methinks.
I get the loan phone home...neat little thing....it won't charge. Steve puts a multi meter over the pins on the charger, no voltage hence the lack of charging. I am now back on my old Razr which is luckily holding charge again. It's slow to respond but I'm getting used to it again.
Just now, I managed to get the ethernet connection to fail too...
And, I forgot to mention the blood pressure machine. The batteries in it were so corroded that I can't even get it to work with new ones to see if that's why Steve feels so ill....aaarrrggghhh!!! I forsee a lot of electronics stuffs being dropped from a first floor window in the next week to see if they bounce or split...am quite looking fwd to testing it all as it's so broken.
I am giving up on technology today...it sucks muchly.

Yeah, look away now if you're squeamish...well, not right now as there aren't any photos posted yet..but, there will be.

I had a cyst removed from my knee joint last Saturday.
It's been an irritant for a few years now and kept growing and changing. So, I did the sensible thing and had it whipped off. Here's the cyst all marked up for surgery...PMSL'd at the arrow he marked it with.
Job was done, via the NHS Choose & Book scheme, at our local private hospital. I don't like it there anywhere near as much as the London Clinic. The staff were ok, but you were left to your own devices and ignored mainly. I felt very uncomfortable there and would prefer to not have to go back.
Admission was 12 noon...expected time of discharge was 3pm...or so I had been told.
They finally took me to theatre at 7.40pm. Ten minutes later, back in my room, waiting for discharge to go home.
The "wound" area is right on the side of the knee joint and hurts like hell. It's now an evil shade of yellow and looks revolting....but, yellow means healing so hey ho...it's healing.
I have taken photos just so you can see the delightful colours of the bruising...will post them soon.
Thanks to all who sent me good wishes via Twitter and Facebook.

This shot with the dressing on is the colourful design today [3rd December, '09]. It itches round the edges where the dressing is driving me nuts but otherwise, there's no pain unless I knock it.

So Neil's blog made me think, and then Jeff's comment in my guestbook made me think again LOL. So much thinking, a girl's head could just implode...oh wait, it usually does from Intra Cranial Pressure.

I'm wondering what this says about me.
Tonight, I started and finished a scarf. It was a one ball scarf and it took less than an hour and a half. Before that, I worked on the one and only Christmas present that I am making this year and get another 6 rows on the laceweight shawl. [The insane ball of yarn below is the stuff I used this evening for the scarf, Sirdar Snowball, limited to Winter 09/10 only.]

Someone explain to me why I pick projects which will take many weeks or even months and year to do when I can get the gratuitous high of knitting something from start to finish in one evening.
How does that work?
The multi coloured browns image above is the Snowball yarn I used a week or so ago for a scarf. So I now have two of them. Why do I want more??

Today, amidst the insane weather we've been having, we popped out briefly. Partly to see how far our local river had overflowed its banks and also to Epping to M&S for a food run.
Tomorrow, Steve has a Fungi Foray in the morning at our local nature reserve/park and then we are heading out to see some dear friends for the first time this year. It's November and the first time we've got around to seeing them all year..that's just so bad. Our schedules are only coinciding because he had to take time off of work for an operation...

Ah well, Film is almost finished which means time to head for bed but hello, aren't you just a little surprised to read a rambling blog from me?? It's just like the good old days...
Good night all...

Link

Another blog of the wonderful Annette's huge giveaway!
Naturally we are all hoping to win!!!

Hello all...Once again, my inbox is just showing up blank. If you convo me or try to invite me to anything, I can't get into it to see it, [pouts]. Hoping for normal service again someday soon.

And I'm making the most of it...I have not been able to get into my in-box on here for a couple of weeks now. I was just whining to Steve that I had no clue how to get it working and all of a sudden, here it is, working good as new..weird.
Anyhow, thought I'd take the chance and blog.
Been a quiet few weeks, busy weekends taking lots of photos, playing with kittens and having exhausting fun.
Been to Hyde Hall again and Steve took some fabulous photos. Almost all of mine were utter rubbish. My head pressure musta been way high that day as the photos are out of focus, over exposed or shaky....pah! hate head pressure. BICH sucks bigtime.
BBQ'd at the other Claire's last Sunday and it was a blast. Lots of good food and great company. Steve really is the BBQ king.
Today was another one of those milestones. We scattered Steve's Dad's ashes in the garden of Remembrance at the Crematorium. It's a beautiful place, lovely landscaped gardens and some beautiful trees. We chose an old old oak tree, perfect, and I picked an acorn to hopefully grow in the garden at the house.
Went out for lunch, did a little food shopping and then came home and chilled.
We have another BBQ to go to on Saturday and for once, Steve won't be the chief cook...or so we think. I bet it changes on the day LOL.
Missed you all but been trying to keep up through email, not easy when you can't see your in-box or post!!! Here's hoping I can get back in tomorrow as it's past midnight here...

Ladyharley's Challenge

"A Tribute to Gina Bean"

Gina Bean and I used to play together as kids. We shared a Great Grandmother and our Mum's are cousins.
Gina was a scrap of a thing, wiry, very slender and in hand me down clothes. But Gina's mind, now that was a world of imagination and beauty.
She had an unusual life and lived it to the full. Her Mum's sister acted as "Dad" and they shared a huge manor house from the 1400's.
We lost touch for a number of years and it wasn't until my Grandfather [her great-uncle] was dying that we managed to get back in touch.
We found that even though we had been apart for almost 20years, we still thought the same. We share a love of music, a love of science fiction and fantasy and many other things.
Gina Bean is a big part of my life and it's such a huge coincidence to have a piece to write on the same name. Gina often gets called "Beana" now:)
Anyhow...If your Gina Bean is half as special as mine, you are a very lucky person to have her in your life.
To link back to the challenge...click here and if you can't see the link, just click on the blank gap:-)