A Week Of #Pet Chaos, #Crafting, And Organizing + Medical Mutterings + A #Sale Reminder And #AmWriting

Somehow I have a lot to post about, even though it's mostly been a pretty quiet week, with only day to day chores, food shopping, and other such tasks to fill most days, which there really isn't anything to say about, since they were uneventful.  Not that I'm complaining... Uneventful is generally a good thing, especially when it comes to things like doing housework, getting food, making sure bills are paid, etc.

     

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Even the weather has been pretty quiet - or, it had been until Wednesday.  Most of the week it's been quite chilly (not incredibly cold, but there's definitely still a nip in the air) but with the sun trying to shine. Until Wednesday, when the rain decided to return, followed by some very strong gusts of wind. 

    

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Of course, there was the incident - technically last week, but I didn't mention it last Friday, since I'd already scheduled that post before it happened, so I'm counting it in this week's events - where Artemis' heat lamp bulb went before we'd had a chance to go get a replacement ready for when it would need changing, which meant an emergency trip out to fetch a new one fast - especially since the chilly weather meant her vivarium temperature was dropping steadily, which is a bad thing, especially for a tortoise as young as Artemis.

  

We'd have had the spare ready, only Kelly couldn't remember the wattage when he did last month's petshop run, and I forgot to ask Dad to pick one up when he took Wayne to get supplies for Gizmo a couple of weeks later (Gizmo is Wayne's Leopard Gecko... He also has a Staffie x Wippet named Maya).

 

This time I actually brought an extra spare bulb when I brought the replacement, and I think I will make a point of keeping a spare bulb on hand from now on.  Hopefully then we can avoid a repeat of that incident.

     

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While I was out, Logan was getting upset and under foot (this is normal for him... Logan really hates me leaving him, even if it's only for a short time) and Kelly managed to fall over him.

 

Logan is fine.  Kelly has a cut and some bruising on one leg, but is otherwise fine.  The shoe rack Kelly landed on... Yeah, that's now kindling (I'm only slightly exaggerating).  Needless to say, we had to buy a new shoe rack.  But at least Logan is fine, and Kelly is mostly fine, though it's going to be a while longer before the cut on his leg is fully healed.

     

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 On the subject of medical stuff: we're now finally registered with the local doctor.  Why it was so much hastle, especially considering we've been registered with them in the past, I have no idea.  But it was. 

 

For some reason - and nobody seems to understand why, apart from them, including the doctor I was with in Hastings - they decided I had to get hold of my NHS number for them if I wanted to get registered.  Having literally never needed it, I wasn't even aware I had one (I knew about the hospital X number, which you never need to look up yourself, since the hospital can find it using your name and date of birth, but this is a different one).  What followed was a lot of messing about, ending in me quite literally spending three hours solid trying to get to speak to someone at my old surgery so I could ask them for it.  Then another half an hour trying to get hold of the new surgery to give it to them.  Loads of fun... Not! 

 

At least we're registered now.  Got a letter confirming it and everything. 

 

Now, since I actually have a doctor again - the same one I had before moving away from the area, if you're interested in knowing that random fact - maybe I can get my inhalers refilled before the spares I luckily had on hand from when I was given new ones before the old ones needed to be thrown away (when they kept giving me inhaler refills every time I needed something else, such as my iron tablets, even though I hadn't asked for them and didn't yet need them) run out.  But, of course, they can't make things simple, can they? I have to show them the inhalers or proof I have them prescribed to me first, and even then I can't have them refilled until after I talk to their asthma nurse, who I can't talk to until March 24th.  So, I booked a telephone appointment with the asthma nurse for the morning of March 24th.  It's April I'm going to need new ones by, so in theory this will give me plenty of time to get new ones before my last set runs out.  Let's hope it works that way in practice too.

     

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I got an invitation to book my Covid vaccination... In Hastings. 

 

I guess they never got the memo I moved. 

 

When I called the new doctor to tell them about it, I discovered I'm also on the list and due to be contacted in the near future for the county I'm in.  So, apparently I've ended up on both areas' lists. 

 

I asked them what to do about a concern I have regarding whether or not I should have it.  It's got nothing to do with the stuff you hear about the jabs, or being against them or anything, since I don't believe the rubbish about them, and I think they're a very good thing.  My concern is that I react badly to flu jabs - badly enough that it was agreed I'd be best not having them in future - and since flu-like symptoms are a common side-effect of this one, I worry about how ill I'm going to end up after it.  I get that there are benifits to having it, but I need to weigh the risks to myself here, and given my issue with flu jabs I'm incredibly reluctant to have the shot, despite the benifits.  Anyway, they said those doing the vaccinations would be able to answer the question of whether it's a good or bad idea for me to have the shot better, so I should book the shot, and ask them about it when I show up (before I let them actually stick the needle in me).  So, I guess that's what I'll do, since it's either that or just refuse to get the shot.  Initially that was my plan - I'm terrified of getting this shot, because how I react to flu jabs has me more than a little concerned having the Covid Vaccination will result  in me ending up ill enough to end upin hospital - so I was going to refuse the Covid vaccination, like I do the flu jab every year.  But I figure I should at least discuss it with them properly.  So, when I'm contacted by the right county, I will.

 

Oh, and both my parents are scheduled to have their first shots this month (Mam tomorrow, and Dad a week later).

    

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In other news: both my craft boxes for March are here.

 

This month it's a macrame feathery wall hanging kit for the Cosy Craft Club one, and a natural soapmaking kit for the Makerly Crafts one - just in case you're interested in knowing what they were.

     

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One of these days - I hope soon - I'll start working on the kits properly, and you'll get to see the finished products.  I definitely intend spending at least some time each week working on a larger variety of craft projects once the craft room is organized and I can do so, and those kits are among the things I want to work on.

  

Plus, Nan has a bunch of half finished projects among her craft stuff.  Once we've got everything organized, we're thinking we'll finish them for her.  Then we can frame or make use of them, depending on what the items are.  We think she'd like that, and it seems a shame to leave them unfinished.

 

Between those projects to finish for Nan, my craft kits, a selection of brand new craft kits Nan had among her stuff (which have been added to my kit collection) and some projects I've been thinking about myself in general, I'm definitely going to have plenty of projects to keep me busy.

  

In the meantime, I'm still working on sloly making that crochet scarf, and knitting the toy I'm making because I plan to gift it to someone.  The latter of which I would have finished by now, but I had less of the purple cotton yarn left after making my tea cosy than I thought, spacifically want it to all be in that colour, so had to wait for more to show up so I could finish it.  The extra yarn should be here by the time this goes live, so I might have that ready to show you next week though.  The person it's for doesn't read my blog, so I can go ahead and show you even before she has it.

     

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Speaking of the craft room, and Nan's supplies: Dad brought more of Nan's craft stuff over, so - between those things and the stuff I hadn't gotten to before, all of which needed to be sorted through and organized - I've been continuing to work on organizing the craft room.  Thankfully some of Nan's supplies came with a set of those drawers on wheels, and I brought another set of them to go with the ones I already had, so that's helping with finding places for the smaller and lighter items, which then ckeeps the shelves available for the larger or heavier items, as well as my collection of kits waiting to be done (which take up a few shelves by themselves, despite being in small boxes). 

  

We've also been working in the computer room, since we got the rest of the shelves for in there.  We're going to need to properly organize the books later - and not just the boxes of audiobooks Dad also gave me from Nan's stuff - since we're concentrating more on getting them on the shelves that are for them than making sure they're in the right order at the moment.  On the one hand, organizing them properly as we put them on the shelves would save some time later.  On the other hand, I'd love to stop falling over boxes.  So, we decided when it came to the books we'd just focus on getting them on their shelves, only making sure each book is shelved in the correct area for now, and go back and organize them properly later.  Well, apart from a spacific large set of graphic novels Kelly has, which he had to organize, because the spines form an image when they're in the right order, and it bothered him that the image didn't look right, so he insisted on taking the time to put those in the right order... All 152 of them (at least, I think that's how many are in the collection).  I don't mind though, since they needed to be organized sooner or later anyhow, and it's one less thing to do later.

 

Books are the one exception to my proper organization of the craft room right now too, since all craft related books and magazines are going in there, but I'm not worrying about organizing those properly right now, just putting them on the shelves.  The rest of the craft stuff, however - what was originally mine, and what I've inherited from Nan - is being properly organized as I unpack it.

      

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Speaking of books: don't forget there's still time to grab some eBook bargains in the Smashwords Read An EBook Week sale.  If you missed hearing about it, check out my post from Sunday for details. 

     

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     Oh, and I have one more thing to share:

 

Though I didn't end up entering the Carrot Ranch Rodeo writing contest last month - which you may remember me posting about just before it started - since I wasn't feeling inspired and didn't manage to write anything I could submit for it, I did write and enter a poem for the Eros Open Mic contest I found out about from someone else.  And, guess what? Turns out I won.  YAY! 

 

I got some badge thingys I can display on my blog and website, bragging rights, and a year's free subscription to their Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores magazine.  Here are my badges:

We Now Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

As the title says: we now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Well, we sort of do, since I'm still quite sore, get worse when I sit up for too long, and am still WAY behind on pretty much everything. But posting will now be closer to normal than it has been anyhow, and I am making progress on getting caught up. Slow progress, but any progress is good progress, right? Plus, at least I've now reached the point where I'm only quite sore, and not in so much pain I feel like I'm being tortured, which is a wonderful improvement. I'll be glad when I heal enough to not be hurting at all though, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Yes. Technically I could speed up the catching up process by skipping some of the stuff I've missed. But I don't want to do that. I might miss something I'll later wish I took the time to read, after all. So I'm randomly picking certain things to catch up on each time, whether a spacific type of eMail, or posts from a spacific blog, or whatever. Yes, randomly, depending on what I feel like tackling each time. My method is obviously working, since I'm seeing progress. Slow progress, like I said. But progress never-the-less.

Luckily, thanks to Kelly, I don't have to worry about catching up with offline things, since he's been doing all the household chores, including the ones I usually do, and keeping up with them reasonably well too. So that gives me less to worry about, and makes it easier for me to focus on trying to catch up with the stuff he can't do in my place.

By the way, both of the photos at the top of this post are photos of our ocean view on the rather foggy morning of February 6th 2019 (the day before I went in to hospital). I just thought you might like to see those... Kelly took them for me when we realized it was a foggy morning, but we didn't have time to get them posted before I went in to hospital. We apparently had some pinkish fog one morning a couple of weeks later, but I didn't get any photos of that for you. Sorry.

Speaking of weather: my snow still hasn't shown up properly. There have been tiny snow flurries, and a lot of the UK has had a good amount of snow. But here it's been rain and hail, along with a lot of wind. Plus fog, as I mentioned above. It's been pretty cold most of the time, as I expected it would be after last year's hot Summer. Although, we have had a couple of unseasonably warm days... Days when we even had the windows open to let some air in. So, we've had rather a mixed bag when it comes to weather. But there's been almost nothing in the way of snow, despite places not far from us getting some, and regular promises we will too. As much as I wish we'd had some decent snow, in some ways I think it's probably a good thing, since I'm not sure how well I'd be able to get downstairs to play with it. Or, more to the point, get back up them again afterwards. I'm not really supposed to be doing the stairs yet unless it's important anyhow, but I know I'd want to if we got snow. So, for that reason only, I'm sort of glad our snow hasn't shown up. On the other hand, hearing about everyone else getting so much snow they're sick of it, when I've had no more than a light dusting that was slush and ice before I could enjoy it, is frustrating. Never mind. Hopefully it will make up for it next year, when I'm fit enough to easily race down and play with the snow when it arrives. In the meantime, I've had some storms to listen to, which is something. Plus, there's always the sound of the ocean, which I love listening to in any weather.

Anyway, I took two simple craft kits in to hospital with me. Spacifically two of my sewing kits. I figured I could do them if I felt like it, and not if I didn't feel up to it, but at least I'd have the option. I took one of my owl sewing kits, and the elephant one I got for Christmas. I didn't end up doing either while in hospital. I just felt too sore and unwell. I've been working on them since I've been home though, when propped up in bed is the closest to sitting up I can do without crying. I've finished the elephant, and have the owl about half done. I meant to have photos of the elephant to share with you here, but haven't had a chance to sort those. I'll try and get Kelly to help me sort photos of it in time for next week's post. Maybe I'll have finished the owl in time for it to be included too.

Speaking of craft kits: Kelly brought me a paint your own unicorn kit as a get well pressie. He knows he'll have to help me with paint colours, but figured I'd like it because it's a unicorn. He was right. Plus, I love doing craft kits in general, so there's that too. It's with the others, waiting for its turn to be completed. I've got an interesting selection of different kits waiting their turn to be done.

Also, I added another to the pile, since my February Makerly box arrived a couple of weeks ago. I always love when they come... It's so much fun getting the happy post, and then finding out what craft we'll be making this time. Anyway, February's box contained a kit to make some lavender bath bombs. I'm going to enjoy making those, and enjoy the bath with them afterwards too. I love the scent of lavender!

We didn't do anything for Valentine's Day. We mostly don't do much anyway, since we do plenty for and with each other through the year. Although, we do usually get each other a little something. But I was still really sick from the allergic reaction to the painkillers, not to mention in a lot of pain, which made me care even less about doing anything than normal. The week after Kelly when to Oscars though, and they wrapped up meals for him to bring home. They know I'm not allowed to go walking all that way just yet - not that I think I could do it right now, even if I was allowed that much exercise - and were happy to give me a way to get a jackfruit poorboy (sandwich) while still resting at home. They even wrapped it well enough that Kelly managed to get it home still warm. I thought that was really nice of them.

It's Pancake Day (AKA Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday) today. Do you like pancakes? What's your favourite topping? I love them with maple syrup, or lemon and sugar, or jam - in that order. I don't need the holiday as an excuse to have pancakes for dinner... I love pancakes, whether for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and don't need a special day to have them. But I'll take the excuse anyhow, because I can. So, guess what I'm having for dinner tonight. *wink*

OK... Before I end today's post, I would like to say that I apologize if the shutting down of Google+ causes you any problems with commenting on my blog. It shouldn't cause problems with the actual running of my blog... It hasn't yet anyhow. But it might cause problems for you if you've been commenting using Google+. Should that be the case, as I said, I apologize. But it's not my fault or idea. Anyway, if you have no other way to comment, either because you can't or don't want to use one of the other methods for commenting, feel free to comment below the posts when I share them on social media, or by sending me an eMail. If you use the eMail option, it would be helpful if you could include something in the subject that makes it clear you're responding to the comments of a particular post though, that way I won't mistake it for junk and delete it by accident, which I might do if I don't recognize the sender name.

Celebrating My Birthday 2017 (FD)

I had a birthday.

Well, actually, I've had several birthdays, what with being in my 30s and all. But I'm talking about the fact I had one recently. Two weeks ago, to be exact.

We'd planned on celebrating by going out for lunch at Oscar's (the new Southern style place that opened on the seafront earlier in the year). Unfortunately, it seems they've closed for the season, so that wasn't an option, and it was too cold to go to one of the places where we can sit outside with Lilie (Lilie is actually allowed in Oscar's, so it being cold wouldn't have been an issue). So we ordered pizza instead. Then we went in to town the next day so I could have a McDonalds milkshake. I'm not a fan of the food at McDonalds. They don't have much in the way of options for vegetarians, my choice is limited even more by the fact most of their vegetarian options are far more spicy than I like, and I don't think what they do actually do that I'll eat tastes all that great. However, I absolutely love their milkshakes. So Kelly grabbed us a milkshake each, and we sat and drank them somewhere else while enjoying burgers - or, in Lilie's case, a hot dog - from a place in the middle of town that does a veggie burger they call a "crunchy veg" that I really enjoy. It was still pretty cold out, but the outside tables in that area were more sheltered, so it wasn't quite so bad. Plus, McDonalds milkshake...

Anyway, I had absolutely loads of birthday messages, phonecalls, etc... Thanks for those, by the way. I had a few cards too.

These two are from my Dad and my Nan (Dad's Mother):

The one from Nan is the one with the stitched writing on it, and the butterfly one is the one from Dad. My Dad did both the writing and the butterfly on his card with a cool new toy he has. It's a special pen that works something like a combination between a 3D printer and a normal pen, so it makes tactile writing or shapes out of a sort of plastic stuff. Really cool in general, and very useful for him for making cards for me and my brother, Carl (since both of us are blind).

With these next two, the one with the birds on it is from our friends, Lorna and Andy, and the other one is from my Grandma (Mam's Mother) and her Yorkshire Terrier, Jayde Bramblerose:

As for these last two, one is from my Mam, the other is from Rita and her kitty, Annie:

As for what I had for my birthday...

I mostly got books and DVDs, as well as some money I used to buy more books and DVDs. Because you can never have too many of either in my opinion. But I also got these soap flowers from my Mam:

And these soaps and bath salts that Nan made when she tried out soapmaking in a craft group she was involved in for a while:

Plus, I was meant to get this cutting board last Christmas. It's made from recycled wood, and has the word "Bara" on it. Bara, for those who don't know, is the Welsh word for bread. Anyway, it was made by a friend of Dad's girlfriend at the time, but left with Dad to give to me. Except it arrived too late for last Christmas, so he sent it to me for my birthday instead. So, here it is:

He also sent me this cute little seahorse, complete with a shell for it to go in, and a starfish and dolphin to keep it company. This was one of those "I saw it and thought of you" type presents, and he thought of me because it combines my love of horses with my love of the ocean. Plus, it's cool because I like having things to play with while thinking when writing, or while listening to things; my hands sometimes get bored if I'm listening to something and don't have something to fiddle with. Anyhow, here's the seahorse and the bits that came with it:

There was cake too, of corse. Kelly picked me up one of the lemon drizzle cakes our local bakery does, which I really love. That cake is becoming my traditional birthday cake. Not that I'm complaining. Haha!

So, that was my birthday. Perhaps not the most exciting of birthdays, but I enjoyed it, and that's all that matters, right?

Oh, and... No. I don't feel any older. But then, that's hardly surprising, since I feel physically older than my actual age most of the time - we won't go in to details about my mental age. *wink*

Thank you again to those who sent me anything. Whether it was a card, a present, a birthday message, or some combination of those things. I appreciate all gestures - great or small.

Candles and soaps

I have a new respect for soapmakers.

I'd assumed that soapmaking would be similar to candlemaking. You heat up the ingredients, mix them together, pour them in to a mould of some sort, leave them to set, and if things go wrong then you just have a funny looking candle or bar of soap.

I was sort of right. Only, there's one very important difference (which I learned about while reading the lessons for the "Handmade Soapmaking" course); if you go wrong with the soaps, they could potentially be dangerous to use.

Unfortunately for me, the signs are only visible signs, and you need to be able to read ph test strips, which you use to determine the degree of alkalinity (7 to 14) or acidity (1 to 7) of a substance, and doing this is how you will know if the soap is safe to use. If the soap's ph level is too high or low, the soap could be harmful.

So, I guess I wont be making any soap; it's too much of a visual process.

I'll just have to stick to candles.

Courses and catch-up attempts

Other than the last 2 lessons for the "Fantasy Novel Writing" course, all the courses I'd signed up for before are finished, and I have all the lessons for them. When all but that one and another that was 15 lessons long were finished, I decided I'd sign up to get a few more courses. It's lucky they're courses you can do at your leisure, because I ended up signing up for:

Handmade Soapmaking
Herb Gardening
Historical Novel Writing
Horror Writing
Maths For Everyday Life
Numerology Principles
Opening Hooks
Pen Names And Pseudonyms
Penny Dreadfuls - A Litarary Tour
Permissions
Play Review Writing
Play Writing As An Art Form
Play Writing For Beginners
Play Writing - Script Process Introduction
Poetry As Health Therapy
Poetry For Beginners
Publishing The E-Way
Pulp Fiction Era

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The "Herb Gardening" and "Poetry As Health Therapy" courses are already finished.

Many of them I'll probably never use, but - as I've said before, and probably will again - since they're free, and you can do them whenever, I'm grabbing any of the ones where I have even a vague interest in the subject. At least that way, should I change my mind in the future, I have them. Especially since we saw recently how easily the site could disappear, so who knows if it will be around should I decide in the future that I want to grab the courses after all, right?

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OK, well... I've just spent a few hours catching up on blog posts from the last couple of days, so now I need to get to other things that I let myself get behind on somehow. I don't suppose you know what happened to the last couple of days? I lost them; I think the clock was on fast forward on Friday and Saturday or something!