This is a mildly momentus day for me. It's the last Friday I intend to work for a while - at least for the next year. From 1st October I've cut my working hours down so that I can have some extra time to do all the things I need and want to do, some of which will be research and work related, some pleasure, without running myself into the ground anymore.
It is a nice feeling, especially if the autumn days stay as nice as they are today. However, at the back of my mind I keep thinking that for me to do this I'm voluntarily cutting my salary by 1/5, whereas if I was something like an academic I could call it a research day and still get paid for it. Somethings in life are just a little unfair, but on the whole I'm not grumbling. Money isn't everything. My materialistic streak has already been severely curtailed by having children, so I should be used to the odd monetary sacrifice. The only thing worrying me a little is that all the things I want/need to do cost money!!!!! Ah well, you can't have everything......for me happiness is worth much much more and this is actually one of the few things I remember doing in my life which really count as "my choice" and I am grateful to all the people who have helped me let it happen.
posted by Red Writer
Thursday, September 25
Just when you feel you are getting better, you go about your daily things as normal, resort to your normal cheery self, then have to leave your favourite class in the middle because the floor has just come up to meet you unexpectedly - it's a bummer.
This one is doing the rounds at the moment - and is kind of how I'm feeling about the words on my screen today:
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. dman amzanig huh?
I like that :-)
posted by Red Writer
Tuesday, September 23
Things sent to cheer a person up: New cd's from Amazon....more later
posted by Red Writer
Sunday, September 21
Last week was one to write off as a bad week....more posted by Red Writer
Friday, September 19
Thoughts this morning are with M and K in West Virginia - hoping you are safe from hurricane Isobel.
posted by Red Writer
Thursday, September 18
"Three down….. Only one left standing….. Not sure how long rations or medication will last…. Strength comes in waves with periods of bed rest interspersed with bursts of energy, enough to forage and communicate for thirty minutes maximum…. If we work a rota system, it might just be possible to survive…
We've sent the fittest out to fend for himself…. The virus seems to be gender specific, attacking only the female of the species…. Does this indicate a pre-disposition to satisfy the age-old claim of the role of the "weaker sex", or just more physical contact between the affected? I'm not sure…. Frequent observations of vital signs are required on the young…. Morale boosting essential…. Not sure how long I can keep it up….
Brain still functioning wildly, between periods of lucidity and warped humour but body failing…. Monitoring progress of the first down does not encourage me to think this will be over soon…. Two failed attempts to carry on her daily life have left her weak and dejected…. Hope for the rest of us is fading….
Relying on the unaffected one but concerns are rising as I see the first signs…. Shortness of temper, intollerance of others… But perhaps that's just his lack of nicotine…. Is there no end to this….. this…. hell?
posted by Red Writer
"A giant hand pressed hard down onto the top of her skull. It's fingers crushing the bone and the soft tissue of her brain. The other hand squeezed the back of her neck so that even the slightest of movement caused her immense pain. Something hot clamped down across the bridge of her nose, spreading outwards beneath her eyes and across her cheeks. The sensation was unpleasant and heavy, causing her skin to tingle and prickle as if thousands of tiny ants with hot, sharp needles for feet, were crawling rapidly over her face.
The blood which normally pulsed silently, flowing freely through her veins, was now interspersed with air bubbles. It felt like the dregs in the bottom of a glass being sucked noisily through a gigantic but intricate network of straws, making her whole body shake and tremble as it tried to circulate the blood to her arms and legs. Outwardly she lay motionless, unable to move. Inside, her body vibrated and shook with the tremors and the pain.
She managed to break away from the sweat soaked sheets and crawled into the bathroom where the cold floor stuck to her damp, clamy skin. The urge to vomit was curtailed only by the uncertainty of whether she was going to pass out or not. The room swam in disconcerting waves before her eyes………."
An extract from the new gorey block-buster I'm reading? No, afraid not. Just a virus! Even in the throws of feverish delusion the mad monkey within my head leaps and throws itself at the bars of the cage which is my mind. Now I am, despite contrary evidence above, rational enough to know that this is not meningitis - a case of which has currently been reported and treated (successfully) in the kid's school - but if there was ever a mild form, disguising itself as a horrible virus, then this is it. And I apparently have "it". I don't want it. And it would seem that as I am here typing in the wee small hours and not lying aching from head to foot in my bed, that I am feeling slightly better. Or Maybe it is either that I have been in bed all afternoon and am rested, or just that as a totally devoted and dedicated blogger I feel it is my duty to rise from my sick bed and bring you the demented thoughts which have been passing through my mind over the last few hours. Come to think of it, now I'm here and sitting upright the letters are still swimming…..perhaps more rest is called for. But having exorcised the thoughts and committed them to blogger perhaps the mad monkey will now rest. Be still mad monkey. Be still.
posted by Red Writer
Monday, September 15
There are times some people shouldn't watch television. Sometimes there are programmes that make you cry. Seemingly innocuous programmes but you know that the underlying story lines have/are/will be affecting someone somewhere. Sometimes the crying makes you feel better. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it makes you remember all the crying you haven't been doing and all the crying your body seems to want to make up for despite what you tell it. Sometimes that's not good. Not when you've been feeling ok and trying really really hard to keep cheerful. And you know the juggling has been difficult but the balls have been staying in the air for a while now. And then you try to remember all the good things you've got going for you and that makes you feel worse because you know you shouldn't be feeling like this. But you just do. And it stinks.
posted by Red Writer
Saturday, September 13
And if you do get back to the kitchen, but are getting fed up of the garden slugs eating their way through your lettuce or cabbage, resort to garlic to keep them at bay. Apparently it doesn't just work on the vampires
posted by Red Writer
God help us if Krispy Kreme ever makes it over here......the NHS is struggling already from the Burger King and KFC culture and consequent health problems. Don't these people know how ill they are going to be soon? And this woman is a nurse!!!! Ok, so she was raising money for a good cause but why not try a sponsored swim/walk/run/fast!! Life's not just about doing good deeds for other people. Charity begins at home and surely that includes ensuring you are educating your own family on how to look after their own health and happiness as well as nurturing all the good traits we should be encouraging. I know only too well that no parent ever gets it right (especially if you ask the kids!) but as our basic survival is based on food and water, surely we need to try to get that bit right first! I propose a world ban an all fast-food outlets.........let's get back to the kitchens.
Had a strange night last night, when all my thoughts were translated in my head as writing for the blog........except I just didn't get the time to put it all in writing. Maybe over the weekend.
posted by Red Writer
Wednesday, September 10
Been sooooo busy lately. But I'm really glad the comments are back up........so say something :-)
posted by Red Writer
Tuesday, September 2
A friend sent me this today.
WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS - New York Times 1-22-03 Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting dead at his desk for FIVE DAYS before anyone asked if he was feeling okay.
George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proof-reader at a New York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open-plan office he shared with 23 other workers. He quietly passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed until Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was still working during the weekend.
His boss Elliot Wachiaski said: "George was always the first guy in each morning and the last to leave at night, so no one found it unusual that he was in the same position all that time and didn't say anything. He was always absorbed in his work and kept much to himself." A post mortem examination revealed that he had been dead for five days after suffering a coronary.
Ironically, George was proofreading manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died.
Moral of the story: Don't work too hard, nobody notices anyway!
posted by Red Writer
Stresses and strains, autumn colds and flu? Fight them all with a massage. And no, for those in any doubt this report does not mean you should aim to drink 20 glasses of wine or more a day.
