Under the Knife

So, on Wednesday I had an op. on my eye.

I knew it was coming, although I had been told it would probably be towards the end of March. So I was quite surprised to get  a letter on 12th Jan to say that it would be the 21st. I was torn between being upset at  not having enough time to psych myself up for it, and being pleased that my waiting and worrying time had been cut by a couple of months.

 

In the event what is billed as a routine operation turned out, due to an equipment failure half way through, to be fairly traumatic. Still in two minds about whether or not I'm glad I had it, but there again, my eye still hurts, it's still swollen and bloodshot and I can't see properly again yet. Once its all recovered I hope I'll be delighted.

 

As looking at a computer screen isn't the best thing for me to be doing just now, it will be a wee while before I'm back on the blog properly. But I will be back as soon as I can. 

 

Can't blog, can't knit, can't read - life's a bit hidebound just now. So frustrating, I was all ready to rant about Thomas Brodie Sangster too, but that will keep. I don't suppose I'll feel any more kindly towards him with the passing of time.

Here's a Question

I did some work on my thesis today. I'm currently fighting my way through a draft of the first chapter, which is OK most days. It sort of depends on which particular bit of my poet's biography I'm covering, and my personal level of interest in it. Recently I've been trying to cover  the publishing history of his work in book form. This is not the sort of thing that sets me alight, so it's slow work. Thank goodness (in a way) that he only had three books published in his lifetime. Anyway, I had to get up relatively early because we were expecting the joiners, so I was in my study well before nine and it's now nearly seven. I have managed to get to the end of the publishing summary bit, which is the good thing, but how come my total word count for a fairly long day, is only 606 words? That's not much for ten hours work, is it?*

 

* OK, I wrote a letter and did some e-mailing connected with my work as well. Other than that it's a victory for the distracting power of Facebook, Ravelry and Jo's Dream Organic Café Deluxe 2.

Colours and Carpets

The OH and I had a conversation the other day about decorating the hall once the joiners and electricians have finally finished in there. It went like this.


Me :-  how do you feel about a plum carpet in here when all the work's done?

Him:- ha, ha, very funny.

Me:-  (perplexed) what do you mean?

Him:- well, that's a joke isn't it?

Me:- Er - no! what makes you think it's a joke? Plum carpet. I think it'll look great.

Him: - It's a joke because we already have a plum carpet in here, don't we?

Me:- No!

Him:- (pointing at current carpet)  Well what colour is this then?

Me: - Raspberry.

The New Room - Are We Nearly There Yet?

And the answer is yes, we are nearly there. The electrician came and wired in the controls for the underfloor heating. Sadly the instructions for the options on this are, I am told, difficult to understand. This is what the OH said. Well he may have described them as difficult to get your head round, but either way we have, after several days of having it switched on, on a timer, switched it off. As I said, there is no point in having it on if we are not actually using the room and we're not. Not yet, anyway. So we flicked a switch and hopefully before we push it back the other way again one or other of us, probably him, will have got their head round the intricacies of minimum room temperature versus minimum floor temperature and default settings and why, if you tell the controls that you are away, they carry on switching on the floor regardless.

 

We have moved in some furniture, I have begun the long process that is transferring a lot of my stuff into the purpose built storage and the decorator has been back on several occasion to do the repaint. I think he's finishing today. I am pleased to report that he was fairly sanguine about this. 'Do you remember that old Morecambe and Wise sketch?' he said. 'You know the one where he said he was playing all the right notes, just not necessarily in the right order? It's a bit like that with your walls and the colours isn't it?' Well I can't deny it. I'm also pleased to say that, now the colours are the right way round, I feel totally justified in getting him to come back. It makes a lot of difference. (Well it makes a lot of difference to me).

 

The cats love it and are thrilled that we have spent all this money building them a huge suntrap which they have all to themselves. They are in for such a shock.

 

So we should be ready to take possession and spend loads of time in there now, right? Well no, actually massively wrong as we have the builders in the house doing stuff in the hall, and in due course in the living room, and they are bringing all their stuff in through the new room. So it's not very convenient for using just now.

 

But in a couple of months when all the work is finished and the days are getting longer and, hopefully, warmer, and the quagmire that had developed from what was the top end of the lawn has dried out somewhat, we'll be in and enjoying it and telling each other how great it is. Roll on the day.

Project 60 - Number 5

Here are six words I never thought I would say or type.

Today I joined a political party.

I'm not a political person. Politicians in general bore, or irritate or nauseate me. I'm afraid I'm one of those people politicians deplore because I genuinely do think that these days they are all more or less the same and all more or less in it for themselves.

This doesn't mean I don't vote. Very brave women suffered, some even died, to get me the vote, and not to vote would be a callous betrayal of their sacrifice. So ever since I was old enough I have voted.

When we lived in England I was a  bit of a floating voter and voted for different parties at different times. Quite what I would do this coming May, were I still living in England, I have no idea. I have every sympathy for friends facing that dilemma.

 

Since coming to Orkney  however I have been able to vote consistently for one party. One of the good things about moving north of the border was the opportunity to vote for the SNP, and I have done that gladly at every election since we arrived.

 

I wasn't planning to join, despite the fact that I have agreed with their central policy, the independence of Scotland, since I was twelve. Like I said, I'm not a political person. But since the Referendum I have thought that perhaps I should put my money where my mouth is, and quietly nail my colours to the mast.

 

So I did.

NCIS - why do you watch it?

I am prompted to ask by the return of NCIS to British TV screens - well the screens of those of us who have satellite TV anyway.

The program was voted America’s favourite television show in 2011 and during 2012-13 its 10th  series  was the most-watched television series in the U.S. So it must be doing something right.

Forgive the stats but they make me feel better about watching the show. It's  highly formulaic, its politics frequently offend me deeply and at least two of the recurring characters irritate me to the nth degree.

The OH watches it too, in fact it's one of the very rare programs on TV that we both enjoy. I always used to assume that he watched it for Ziva, played by the extremely attractive, if somewhat oddly named, Cote de Pablo^. If you're unfamiliar with the cast, she's at the extreme right of the photo at the top of the post. 

 

^I know actors frequently have stage, or these days, screen names, but honestly if you were picking out a new name for yourself, would you choose one that put 50% of the audience in mind of an old fashioned fragrance house?

 

The OH always indignantly denied that Cote had anything to do with his watching the program. 'I watch it for Gibbs' was the burden of his song , to which my response was always a casual but amused 'Yeah, right. And the rest.'

 

Anyway last year I was at an academic conference and conversation turned, as it does in these circumstances, to TV watching. The group I was in all turned out to be NCIS watchers so  I asked  the guy on my left  'So, who do you watch it for, Abby or Ziva?'. And do you know what he said?

 

'I don't watch it for either. I watch it for Gibbs.'

Canada - The Non-Christmassy Bits.

We weren't actually in Canada  that long: courtesy of the OH's disinclination to go at all, I decided early on that I'd better keep the trip to the minimum possible sensible length, so in the event we were only out of the UK for ten days.

We arrived in Toronto in the evening and by the time we had cleared immigration it was quite late and we were very tired, so we crashed into bed the minute we got to the hotel. Next day we picked up our hire car and drove a wee bit out of Toronto where I spent a lovely day with a friend. She and I  started off as penpals many years ago and have managed to meet up on a few occasions. From sometimes bitter experience I am here to tell you that meeting penfriends can be disastrous, but luckily that doesn't apply to R. We all had lunch together and then the boys went off to do stuff, and R and I had a lovely girly time looking round the shops. I don't want to sound like a stereotype here, but where I live there really aren't that many shops to browse and although I have many and good friends they aren't shop browsing people really. So although I would never take it up as a hobby, or make it a general every Saturday thing, it is lovely to do it once in a while. We went to the Mall where I bought Son No 1 a tea infuser and some specialty teas for his upcoming birthday, and a pair of PJs and a top for myself. We went to Chapters, a wonderful bookstore where I bought some magazines for a friend back home.  And we went to a wool shop where I  bought, well yes, some wool. More of that at a later date. Of course I totally forgot about getting a photo of the two of us together (d'uh!) but here's a photo of the Mall decked out for Christmas.

 

 

and for good measure here's a couple of the Mall in Windsor where the family is.

 

I came to the conclusion that Canadians definitely take their Christmases seriously. Many of the houses had beautiful outside decorations and I wish I'd tried to take pictures of some of those. However they looked best after dark when they were all lit up and we were usually going past them in the car at that stage so conditions not ideal for snapping blow up penguins (yes really) or illuminated reindeer.

 

The weather was much milder than we had anticipated, in fact the temperatures were higher in Windsor than they were at home and out of all the days we were there we only wore our coats once. (Gather it's turned a fair bit colder since we left though) As proof, here is the daughter in law ready for a trip out

See? T-shirt weather.

We went for a drive up to Lake St Clair where there's a wetland bird reserve (just like home really) and had a walk there

It was beautiful and there were hundreds and hundreds of birds there, although too far away for my little camera to capture them

Another day we went to the historic township of Amherstburg. This was the day when we gave in and put on our coats, as it was a bit chilly.

 

former fur-trappers post

 

memorial to the men who kept the Americans out!

 

oh look, a black squirrel. Proud of myself for catching this one 'at rest'; they're very lively and very quick

 

My beautiful boys, all together for once. Hard to believe that in photos from when they were young it's difficult to decide which of the two sons it is. Practically indistinguishable then, totally different now.

 

 

And that was about it, apart from an all too brief lunch meeting with a fellow Raveller on our way to the airport to catch the plane home. Also a great  success, also an occasion when I forgot about taking photos.

 

We flew home in a 'Dreamliner' aka a Boeing 787. If you get the chance to fly in one of these, take my tip and don't. Cramped, uncomfortable and the 'click together' interior panelling showed a nasty tendency to unclip of its own accord, decanting panels onto the heads or feet of those below. Gives you a lot of  confidence in the plane as a whole (not).