Is it that time of year/her life already?

Easter is a couple of months away, but - having looked at a couple of holiday accommodation websites - it seems that a lot of well-organised folk have already decided where they are going for the long Easter weekend.

At first it was looking quite desperate (bringing to mind our last-ditch attempt to book a weekend by the beach last summer, only to end up in a place absolutely miles away and with a terribly uncomfortable bed - though everything else about the place was fine).

But then I realised that it's just the places on one particular website which are all going fast. If I picked a less popular site there seemed to be more availability. So there is hope for fun in the sun with our favourite family-to-holiday-with.

The other thing I've been busy thinking about is the retirement village which my mum wants to move into. She's probably got in mind one of those one-two bedroom independent apartments which pretty much leave the resident up to their own devices (possibly even cooking odorous foods). She was looking at those a couple of years ago and very nearly went ahead (until a chance remark by a total stranger put her off).

What my brother and I have in mind is a serviced bedsit or smaller one-bedroom place which provides main meals and some housework, and is much closer to the communal areas. But they are much, much smaller ( and because they only have a kitchenette, there's no overhead thingy to whisk away the scent of salted fish and other "interesting" smells.)

It doesn't take much, but my mind is all full up with the above...

Something I whipped up in the holidays

One of the first things I did when I took time off before Christmas was to let TLM spend all day on her computer.

This wasn't because she'd been particularly good, but because I had an urge to sew and knew it was going to take me all day.

And this is what I ended up with -

I used one of the boy's unwanted business shirts to make the front and back yoke and the centre front, some chambray for the sides and some scarlet bias binding to go around the neck, armholes and hem. I used a Vogue sewing pattern to make this, and modified it so that I could life my arms up without also lifting up the dress to disrespectful heights. Please excuse the batwings...

Happy Valentines Day!

The boy is such a romantic, even after ....(I'm thinking...)...12 years together.

Last night he brought home a dozen long-stemmed pinky-orange roses (though one promptly beheaded itself while I was trying to get them into the vase), and a mystery present which he put in the fridge.

So I realised I had very little time to get him something back (eeek!)

Then, the universe helped me out. When I got to my lunchtime hair appointment, I was told (very apologetically) that my stylist was running 15 minutes late. Would that be a problem?

You bet it would! Well not really, except that I'd be late back to work. But I seized the opportunity to re-book for tomorrow afternoon instead - which meant that my lunch break was now free for present and card shopping.

So I got the boy a card that has a picture of a Star Wars storm trooper on the front and the words "Super Trooper". And for a present I got him a Hello Kitty Frankenstein - that's a Hello Kitty doll which is puce green and has bolts on the sides of her head. Super-cute in a geeky sort of way. Which he loved.

Love and kisses everyone.

p.s. the present in the fridge turned out to be a box of individually chosen designer chocs.

The Chinese patient goes back to the drawing board

My mother's shingles (which sounds like an interesting title for a novel, don't you think?) has caused us all much anguish and stress over the last few weeks.

First there was the pain, which must have been excruciating (though of course I can only guess) - bad enough that at one point I think my mum believed she was going to die from it.

There were multiple visits to doctors - to her GP and to after-hours doctors. They variously prescribed her four different medications to treat the pain:

One acted as a muscle super-relaxant and nerve sensitiser, so that she felt as though she could hardly stand and walk - and it hurt her feet when she did.

The next two, prescribed in unison, gave her the shakes (like Parkinsons on the proverbial speed) and pushed her blood pressure to scary heights. (One of the meds is called Tramadol - a more appropriate name would be Tremor-dol.) This lot put her in hospital for a few days.

The last was a cream which apparently works by distracting the nerves with red hot chilli pepper. My mum had to wash this off quick-smart because it made her feel like her skin was on fire.

So she's back on the plain-Jane paracetamol, which probably does little more than shave a wafer-thin edge off the pain.

Boy, is she grumpy.