Sorry Ive been a bit conspicuous by my absence over the last couple of weeks. I haven�t written and I haven�t read much in the way of diaries since the beginning of the month so Im sorry if I missed something important that y'all said.
I hurt my back again a couple of weeks ago (not anything specific, it just started hurting�and then started hurting more) and Ive been trying to juggle way too many things: work is still so very busy and difficult. Several people have been off with Swine Flu and several others (despite not having children) have figured they still wanted to take holiday during the school break, meaning that I was left to pick up the slack somewhat. The meds I got for my back turned me into a bumbling zombie (not ideal when you're running training courses) so Id been cutting back on what I was taking so that I could still function as a human being. This meant I was pretty much in constant pain and not able to sit (or stand or drive or sleep or anything much) for long periods of time. In this context "long periods of time" was anything over about ten minutes.
My training course sessions last 3 hours. With nobody to cover for me (those who weren�t sick or on holiday all seemed to suddenly remember appointments they'd conveniently forgotten to put in their diaries) I just had to suck it up.
I have been paying Jooj to babysit Treacle during the day (its cheaper than a kids club!) but, of course, that means I have also had my days filled with Mum Angst and no way to relieve it by saying "Fuck it, I'll take a few days holiday". I don�t know that I would have been much fun even if I'd taken some time off as I've been hobbling around with an ash-grey pain face on, leaning on a stick which once belonged to my late grandmother and not being able to take more then ten steps or so.
The doctors were little help, just increasing the doses of painkillers and anti-inflammatories and telling me to 'rest it a bit'. Once I got to the stage where I was shovelling down cocktails of diazepam, cocodamol and diclofenac, in the processes rendering myself unable to do anything other than stare into space, I pretty much figured enough was enough. I managed to blag myself a half day holiday and went up to London with annanotbob to meet tstough and his lovely wife, who were visiting from the US as part of some kind of Grand Tour of Europe, as far as I can make out. They were such lovely people and I was so glad to have met them � girls, if you get the chance, make sure you get Tim to hug you. He gives Good Hug! I have photos of us but my camera is being a bastard and wont talk to the laptop. This is esacerbated by the laptop being a bitch and snubbing the camera. Eventually you will get to see us, in a pub, in London, doing the meet-and-greet thing and having a lovely time. In case you're wondering, I'll be the one looking like one of the glassy-eyed undead. Tim gave us presents, too! A t-shirt for L (which IS the right size � hoorah for Tim!) and a little carabiner cup which could easily clip onto the belt loop of, say, someone who was partial to a tot of whisky but doesn�t always want to swig it outta the bottle. I have photos of those things too but the camera�the laptop�yadda yadda yadda.
Anna and I had wandered around Portobello Market and she bought an astonishing patchwork blankie/coat/rug/artwork thingy which was SO Anna. She modelled it in the pub and we all admired it, glossing over the fact that she was wearing it with flipflops. As fashion trends go, Ive deffo seen worse. I hope I haven�t made that sound sneery. It really is a lovely coat. On Anna it looked cool and artsy and hippychic and bohemian. On me it would�ve looked like Id taken a shovel hit to the back of the head, had been rolled in a carpet offcut and was just awaiting my shallow grave to be dug. I hope she takes a picture cos you really DO need to see it. Its got elephants on and everything.
Tim had some other friends with him � friends that he knows via another cyberspace meeting place (like this one but�ummm�less about poo jokes and stupid things kids say and more about sciencey type grown up stuff). At one point, the conversation veered so far out of my comfort zone (ie whiskey/bouncing on the bed in my bra and knickers/cake/how long the smell of a smelly gel pen lingers on the page after you've written with it etc etc etc) and so far into a whole big bucketload of stuff that I knew nothing about that I really found myself believing I was acting out an episode of Big Bang Theory, with me playing Penny and everyone else playing all the other characters. In rotation, so I couldn�t even tell who was who. Anna was joining in with loads of it too, especially all the literary stuff. The only book I could ever even remember reading was "Where Oh Where is Kipper's Bear". This could be because I was taking lots and lots of painkillers at the time (and drinking whisky), or it might be because I am as stupid as mud.
At one point I said "Coooooool" so many times to stuff I was being told that I was even starting to find myself moronic. I wanted to make a good impression but I think they probably thought I was a twerp. I noticed a couple of big spikes in my stats just after we got back from London so maybe one of the everso nice and kind and clever and welcoming friends-of-Tim was checking out why he hangs around in cyber space with cretinous junkie airheads.
Tim leant me his iPod so I could listen to some tracks of a band he used to be in. That was cool (see! I said it again!) and I had a little rock-out by myself while the grown ups were talking. I need to send some stuff back across the pond once Tim and Mrs Tim are back home � its kind of rubbish receiving a gift and having nothing to give back � I have some recordings of L and stuff that he might like.
So, when I haven�t been meds-juggling and struggling with work and meeting new people Ive also been planning a HUGE party for my parents Golden Wedding Anniversary this weekend. Parties are easy-peasy in this household, as you know, but not when the guests must include everyone from the original 1959 wedding who isn�t actually�umm� dead plus enormous amounts of friends-who-havent-been seen-for twenty-years and stuff like that. Mater and Pater left the guest list to me and Sis so we've gone for a carpetbombing approach � inviting EVERYONE. If you live on the south coast and have ever met my parents and have yet to be invited, do let me know, wont you. It was an OVERSIGHT, I tell you!!!!
Needless to say, we are having the party here at the Palace of Many Sins � the one house that has had NO housework done in it since Moses was a lad, on account of having builders in for a month (fitting the new bathroom) and the lady of the house being indisposed (ie cant push a hoover and lean on a stick at the same time, especially whilst wasted on prescription drugs.)
In a bizarre twist of fate, L has actually been really busy in the studio, otherwise I would have just made him do the housework, but I do hate to stand in the way of his work�.especially as it happens so rarely!
I now have 5 days to clean the house from top to bottom (Jooj and Treacle cant help, they've gone on holiday with Shagnasty!), make floral arrangements, cook enough food for 30,000 old-age pensioners, learn half a dozen songs to perform as caberet items, work full time, deliver two more training course sessions and "get something nice for the bridesmaids. Oh and some flowers for your mother. You can write the card, Im rubbish at that". Yeh. Thanks, dad.
So. I guess I shouldn�t really be here doing this. I should be doing�ummm�something else.
Aaaaaarrrrgh!
later
S
x
.
Oh, I forgot to say, if you are the lurky lurker making my stats page look like a map of the Himalayas, do leave me a note or a comment of something, wont you? Im not scary or anything, and when Im not taking mind-altering substances Im actually kind of OK.
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