Digging without drama

The young lady who comes to do the garden now comes on Tuesdays - she is a great asset as she has enough initiative to get on with it and enough sense to ask me first when necessary. She took some of the spinach her predecessor left as I don't like it (the slugs do!!). I now no longer have an apple tree that touches the ground (but buckets of apples - and no room in the freezer!!) and no longer get a faceful of buddleia when I go down the path (not pleasant if the buddleia is wet and potentially dangerous if there are bees on it). I didn't want to cut it back while there were still flowers on it for the bees and butterflies to enjoy: I was delighted to see both a week or so back. Now the balance has shifted to mostly brown decay - the downside of both it and lilac.

There is still plenty to be done in the garden but gradually it is getting tidier. So much of what I had intended to do this year remains undone, in part the result of my best mate having had cancer and therefore having been out of action for most of the year so far (and most of the rest too, I suspect) and also in part due to the miserable weather (my get up and go is so much more there when it's sunny, and I can make a pleasant day out of going to see bathroom fittings or whatever). I wouldn't be at all surprised to see GPs inundated not only with swine flu but also with depression - three non-summers on the trot must have affected others as well as me. Getting back to study will help.

Goodbye, twice over

I have finished the book on the July 20th plot (a slim volume).

Yesterday was somewhat traumatic. I had a big filling fall out when I was ill a couple of years ago, following which the tooth gradually broke leaving only a little spike. When I eventually got to the dentist it was beyond repair and she said it should best come out. From time to time I got toothache but not so often it was a problem, so I let sleeping dogs lie (the more so as I and the dentist thought it would be a right awkward job getting it out - I wasn't looking forward to that at all!!) However, I mentioned it to her when she repaired a tooth last week, thinking to have it done in September. She booked me in for this week, so yesterday saw me en route for the dentist after a large early lunch (eating and drinking banned for three hours after the event!). I had a short time in the waiting room (until then I was not particularly nervous, but I dread to think what my blood pressure was doing once I got there .. ).

It all went much better than expected - a minimum of pulling and tugging and no alarming cracking noises. Paracetamol and codeine took care of the ache that came on when the anaesthetic wore off and by the middle of the night it had settled down (though now there is a twinge - so paracetamol tonight, I think, just to be sure it doesn't keep me awake)

The best thing is, it won't now surprise me at an inconvenient moment by aching like fury (what is it about toothache that is so penetrating?). It's always had a tendency to grumble and I didn't want it to do so at the wrong moment (like on the morning of an exam!) so once rid all I have to worry about is the philosophy ....

Unfortunately I'm still short of sleep as I woke up early and didn't get back to sleep :( Can't make that one out! Have at last removed all the passe fruit and veg from the kitchen, so hope the fruit flies will now take flight elsewhere. How come we never got them in the kitchen at home? I need a closed container for compostables but all I can find is a family sized one.

Short and sweet today - I'm yawning my head off so an early night!

Awry?

Was planning an assault on the flab (yet again!) but got waylaid by eating at the local pub (half price food on Mondays ;) ) on my way to WHS for biros, where I picked up two books as well - one the book of the TV series by Lawrence Rees on the Allies and Stalin, the other written by the only surviving member of the July 20th plot to assassinate Hitler. Both I'm glad to have: the TV series had so much detail I would have liked to watch it again, and the other (bought on the anniversary of the plot) will be a fascinating short read (even if I did fall asleep reading it last night!!) Redeemed my sins somewhat as I did not need any supper.

Otherwise, for my next book Henri Daniel-Rops on the Reformation is calling loud and clear!

Have been chilling most of this week. Must get my application finished and posted (trust the PO to go on strike just at the right moment!) and start studying - it is becoming urgent and the more I can do the better chance I have of getting through. Besides which, NOT studying leaves me feeling as though I've done nothing worthwhile ... yes I could sort out the house from top to bottom, BUT it is slow, soul-destroying work and best done in small doses with plenty else to fill the rest of the day. It would be nice to have the kitchen free of washing-up and the sitting room more-or-less presentable, so I can study most of the time and just top up the domestic as and when (M+S do the cooking when the study gets urgent!!) The conservatory door must be done as it is just too cold in winter (and therefore unnecessarily costly to heat the rest of the house) and the same goes for the bathroom. After that we will pause. It's a shame my break from studying, and therefore the time when I am at a loose end, comes just when the people who do things go on holiday: August would be the right time to organise such things.

Half alive???

Not updated for some time. The relationship between my modem and the Ethernet cable which came into its life along with Windows Vista has never been easy (lots of persuasion needed to get modem to recognise the connection, usually involving plugging and unplugging and/or wiggling of leads)and on Saturday it finally broke down: no amount of wiggling, waggling, plugging or unplugging would persuade my Inernet connection to work :( :(

Contacted Virgin, who said I needed a new modem and they would send same. Same is now up and running (obviously, or I wouldn't be writing this!!!) One thing is for sure, giving up Internet access for Lent would be impossible - I'd be so bad-tempered it would be misery for all around!! And I do actually need it as a means of communication and, sometimes, to get around the mobility problem: where I cannot easily go in person I can easily go online.

Other than pacing the floor and wondering what is happening in my absence, I have been sorting out my application to study in September. I have dawdled so much in First Year that my original application has lapsed: a bit embarrassing to have to contact my referees again, but if my case is convincing enough it should not be a worry - just have to get it sorted.

Dentist is done - but more to come. I have to return to have a tooth out: NOT NICE, but better than it flaring up at some inconvenient time (like the morning of a philosophy exam!!) which it has done more than once (thank heavens for paracetamol and codeine!). So there is a potential problem there which is better out of the way (and once I've been brave, that will, hopefully be IT).

Cool!

The weather that is, not me! Haven't updated for some time, mainly because there's not much to report. The chicken salad lost its appeal (where have I heard 'must try harder' before?). In this case more accurately, must keep going long enough to get results! One thing I have noticed is that my ankles are not so flabby which has to be a good thing and means its easier to keep a check on the fluid retention.

Enough of the health problems - I am getting to sound like a little old lady swapping details with anyone in earshot ..... booooring! I have a slightly more unusual, though not uncommon, one at the moment: a filling gone AWOL :( Appointment with dentist organised, but have to wait till Monday to see if I will actually be able to get there - oh the joys of finding accessible transport!!). Still, the good news is that I will have to go to the dentist sooner rather than later, and so it will all be sorted by the time I next start at Brum in September.

More positively, I got myself a haircut and in the process of talking to the hairdresser about my wilting garden (how come that didn't include bindweed and ground elder???) discovered she has a daughter who is looking for work gardening to earn some money for uni. Daughter came on Wednesday,was polite, asked what I'd like done, and if I minded her using the strimmer on the sides, and got rid of the plants between me and the water tap. Hurrah! Her mum says she likes to be told what needs doing (so probably won't suit my mum) and so that suits me fine: there is so much bindweed and ground elder she only needs to know what they look like to be kept busy for weeks!! I don't need anyone with great knowledge at this stage (and her mum and mine both know what we don't if we get beyond that). The weather at the moment is too chilly for my liking, but just right for my carrots.