… but don’t have the time?

I’ve just discovered Daily Lit, a website where you can choose what you want to read (currently 165 books listed, all out of copyright – although they hope to convince some publishers to let them use copyrighted material at some point in the future) and sign up for a daily email portioning up the book into bitesized chunks.

You can vary the frequency (to exclude weekends, or only have it delivered three times a week, for example) and timing of the email and there’s a pretty good selection there already. Makes a change from all the spam!

I’ve signed up to read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne… what do you fancy?

Now normally, I loathe graffiti. It angers me: the mindless destruction of other people’s property, the cost of clean up, the perception that the neighbourhood is a much more dangerous place as a result. However, the idea of Clean Graffiti really made me smile.

For those too lazy to click through, a “street artist” (obviously the politically correct term these days for “vandal”) called Moose has been creating his artwork around his hometown of Leeds by cleaning the dirt off buildings and tunnel walls. Apparently authorities are unsure what to do about him – after all, he’s cleaning not destroying – washing off the dirt and grime (albeit in an interesting pattern) can’t be classed as defacing public property, surely?

Let’s hope it’s a new graffiti trend that sweeps the nation (sweeps… geddit?… oh never mind).

I’ve been blog faffing again.

There should now be a tick box option of subscribing to replies to a particular post via email when you submit a comment on that post.

As always, if it becomes borked, please let me know either here or via Pewari [at] may [dot] be.

I know, two days late in posting, but I’ve only managed to get around to watching it myself.

7 Days in September is a collaberation of footage and interviews from people who experienced 9/11 and the days that followed. It’s highly moving, thought-provoking, and refreshingly non-political. Emotions are raw (so expect some bad language – it seems some christian conservative groups prefer their murder of innocents to be a little more sanitized) and honest.

Scenes which had the most impact for me were images of how dark it was just after one of the towers collapsed and the resulting “moonscape” of dust, and when a group of New Yorkers have an outpouring of anger with major argument in the streets and end it hugging and crying.

A very moving documentary, I’m glad it was made available on the internet for all to see.

A few random thoughts from the visit with the homoeopath last Friday:

• It was unbelievably thorough. I had a suspicion it might be (seeing as how I was warned it was going to be an hour and a half long), but didn’t really appreciate how much detail she would go through. Pretty much every condition and illness in my life was gone through in meticulous detail (from the mysterious coughing up dried blood incident as a baby, childhood asthma and attacks, allergies, headaches, throat infections, migraine, pregnancy complications) all with exact symptoms and a load of other incidents I didn’t expect to bring up (what my childhood was like, the death of my father and how I dealt with the aftermath, my relationship with my mother, character traits, how I deal with change, the move three years ago). I felt physically and mentally DRAINED and exposed at the end of it all.
• At the same time, she was very good at putting me at my ease. She freely gave information about her own life which in turn helped me open up more. I feel like I had an hour and a half of therapy thrown in free.
• A few things gave me pause for thought. In particular, she’s not keen on the Mirena (“women are meant to be cyclical beings”) and feels that it could well be a major factor in my declining health since having it inserted just over two years ago. I’m reluctant to have it removed quite yet (for one, we’ll need to re-evaluate our contraceptive options – another child really ISN’T in our plans).
• She didn’t just dole out a treatment at the end, which I found quite impressive. She wants to give it a few days deliberation before prescribing. She noted that I like to be in control and in a position of knowledge, so she has already advised that any remedy will be given in liquid form to more easily control the dose as per the effects.
• Next appointment due in 6 weeks.

Yes, yet ANOTHER weekend away – we’re finally getting the hang of this camping lark. Unfortunately, this was probably our last hoorah of the season, and the camper is sadly now packed away for the winter.

We picked a good campsite for our final outing, though. Christchurch is another Forestry Commission site linked to the excellent Bracelands we visited earlier in the year. As a result, we now have a new favourite.

Benefits to Christchurch is that it is a dog-free site (great for a dog phobic Akra Jr, and a fearless Li’l Bhaji whose idea of fun is to run up to dog, squeal loudly then run away just as the dog lunges), is much closer to the shop (there’s something extra special about strolling up for your fresh pain au chocolats for breakfast!), the same high standard of facilities as Bracelands and the on site children’s playground is superb. Added bonus that the Forest of Dean is very close to my mother’s house, so we all get to spend Sunday lunch with Nana!

Was a nice relaxing weekend and we lucked out with the weather. Was a bit nippier in the evenings than we were used to, but we cheated and brought a convection heater with us so ran that off the site’s electric after sundown.

Free entrance to Goodrich Castle (a great ruin, safe for the kids and plenty of information boards even if you don’t rent the audio tour or buy the guide book) making the most of the Heritage Open Day last Saturday, was pretty much the icing on the cake to a fabulous weekend.

Can’t complain for a total cost of £29.90, can you?!

I hereby declare war on my own body (after all it seems to have declared war on me).

Ever since Li’l Bhaji was born, just over 2 years ago, my immune system has seemed to go haywire. I’ve had allergic dermatitis, influenza, cold after cold, headaches, migraine, increased asthma, repeat tonsilitis, itching (a combination of allergy and leftovers from obstetric cholestasis) and I’m STILL on the antihistamines I started in March because I’m STILL getting hayfever (I used to only be affected 2 weeks in February – i.e. tree pollen).

I also haven’t felt quite right for a very long time – the only way I can describe it is “out of balance”. It’s very rare for me to feel 100% well. However, the turning point was two nights ago after a trial period of coming off the antihistamines I found myself streaming with hayfever and ripping shreds out of the soles of my feet they were itching so much. To say I felt miserable is an understatement.

This is obviously not good. I have no idea whether this has been triggered by my pregnancy complications, the Mirena coil I had inserted shortly after Li’l Bhaji’s birth, just getting older, new viruses from having moved areas, over-reliance on antihistamines or even down to changes in washing powder (WHY do Sainsburys immediately stop selling whichever type I finally get on with, eh?).

I don’t hold out much hope of visiting the GP – I’ve been putting off going for ages, because I’m either going to get told off for not going earlier (this has been going on for years after all) or for wasting their time (nothing particularly specific or serious, just the combination is wearing me down). I don’t seem to do well with many mainstream medications either (for example, I don’t tolerate many antibiotics and I have gone through so many types of antihistamine just to find one which wasn’t side effect heavy and didn’t keep me awake all night).

So, I’ve booked an appointment with a homoeopath tomorrow morning. I’ve had good experiences with self-prescribed homoeopathy in the past and apparently hayfever/allergies are something that can be treated very successfully with homoeopathic constitutional treatments as long as I’m prepared for it to take a while and get worse before it gets better.

Quite honestly, I’m desperate.

Akra Jr’s return to school (now Year 1 … I’m feeling old) went smoothly – a pleasant surprise as it took him a little while to settle into school initially last year.

He seems to be enjoying seeing all his friends again, and came back sporting two well done / good work stickers so from what we can tell he seems to be enjoying the actual education bit too (not that he ever tells us anything).

Li’l Bhaji has started at his new term-time only sessional nursery and also seems completely unphased by the experience, happily saying “bye mummy” and barely looking up when I leave. In fact, the first visit (where I was expected to stay throughout) he seemed actively miffed that I was cramping his style. Nice to be needed, eh?

We’ve slipped back into old (and new) routines comfortably and life is good. It’s nice to get a bit more “adult” time after the long summer holiday and get a chance to catch up with all the things I should have done six weeks ago. However, wasn’t this the point where I was supposed to be less busy?

It was a genuine sense of shock that I heard on the radio this morning about the death of Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin. 44 is so young, and I really feel for the family that he leaves behind.

On the other hand, he died doing something he felt passionately about (and no-one who has ever seen one of Steve Irwin’s shows could ever deny his enthusiasm), you can’t say fairer than that really. Would it sound terribly crass and insensitive to say that it was with slight disappointment I saw that it was a stingray that did the deed and not a giant saltwater croc? It would have seemed more fitting somehow. Sorry.

RIP Steve Irwin. I think wildlife documentaries will be the poorer for your loss.

Crikey.

Thought I’d take the brief opportunity to be a smug mummy. I apologise to those who hate that aspect of saccharine mummy blogs. Best to look away now.

Here’s a picture of Akra Jr showing off his latest Knex build – a very complicated airplane using an elastic band to power the propellor.

He needed a little help interpreting how to attach the body of the plane to the wings, and to thread the elastic band through, but other than that it was all his own work – not bad considering our knex set states it’s suitable for 7-9 years and he’s only 5 years old! He also loves to create his own (rather impressionistic) models then painstakingly draw out his own “maps” (instructions) including a careful list of all the pieces required to make it. I suspect we might have an engineer on our hands.

If you have your own budding Knex engineer in the family, you can find the model and other great projects on the Knex Club Bonus Builds site – you do need to register, but the extra instructions are all free. A great way to make the most of already purchased sets.