Sarah's Blog

Swings and Roundabouts

Well hello there :)

Another update for you - stuff has happened of recent days so here goes.

First, regular readers may well remember me mentioning a mole on my face (ooo! back in about November of last year). At the time, I'd been to see a cosmetic surgeon with a view to getting it removed but, being an absolute wimp when it comes to needles/blades/blood/doctors-in-general, I decided to try a more natural approach first. I'd been recommended castor oil as a way of getting rid of moles (even the fabulous lady I get my essential oils from recommended it). So, I got some and started religiously applying .... did it work? Well, yes and no. Initially, it really, really did! Within a couple of days it had started (yuk, sorry) crusting over and flaked off! Wow! I thought, this is going to be easy! Only it wasn't because it just refused to budge after that no matter how much stuff I put on. Oh drat!

So, after Christmas, I admitted defeat and made an appointment with the lovely Mr Tiernan at New Hall Hospital (Salisbury) and then fretted and chewed my nails off until the day of the appointment which was this Tuesday just gone. I can honestly say that even childbirth wasn't this scarey - the thought of having something cut off ANYWHERE is terrifying enough, but my face .....?! Yikes!

To cut a long story short, it's gone :) Mr Tiernan was fab and kind and reassuring. It was all numbed up with a local and then he shaved it off level with the skin and then burnt out the roots. Admittedly the sound/smell effects were pretty awful but other than that it was fine. After it was done, he said "do you want to look at it before I dress it?" To which I replied "no!" Uuurggh! I can just imagine it being like that scene out of Batman where Jack Nicholson becomes the Joker ... looking in the mirror and bursting into manic laughter while the poor surgeon frets "... but these instruments I have to work with ....!"

*Bursts into manic laughter*

Anyway, I can take the dressing off on Saturday then it's just a case of waiting for it to heal which can take a while.

What else? A silly little thing - April wrapped Floyd in a blanket when he was asleep on her bed - aaah! :)

My lovely, wonderful hubby brought me some new nature table stuff namely, a house, silks and fairies (there is 1 silk and 1 fairy for each season). I also made some little Valentines decorations for it - here are some piccies - still wintery at the moment - can't wait to change it for the spring one :)

The spring, summer and autumn fairies/silks that are not in use yet

Anything else ... hmmm, let me think .... hmmm .... oh yeah ....

Oh. Dear.

Tim got smashed into in Sainsbury's carpark (while he wasn't even moving!). The car is gone - at the assessors .... being assessed ..... probably won't get it back as it's getting a bit old. He, fortunately, was ok and not injured which is the main thing. However, since he had only VERY recently spent about £300 getting it serviced and having new tyres etc, his was the best example of "contained anger" I've seen in a long time.

He WAS angry but, if the car is written off then, he just said "oh well, it was getting on, might be good to get something newer". How he can shrug these things off so easily is beyond me ... I just explode *shrugs*. His self control is masterful :)

Oh, and finally, we've booked our holiday! Yay! There was a bit of hoo-haa when Tim found out he couldn't have the time off from work that he originally wanted, but we got there in the end. We're going to Centerparc again only staying in a posher villa this time *laughs* - with safe (which I was determined to have this time because I was always worried about leaving our valuables lying about) and en-suites and maid service. Nice :)

in which we discuss Christmas shopping and sick

Christmas shopping oh dear. This year I had SUCH expectations. I WAS going to do it EARLY (i.e pretty much done by the end of November). I always, always end up with loads of stuff still to buy come a couple of days before Christmas and it makes me feel not at all jolly ... more baa-humbug.

I can't say I've stuck to my resolution though :( Up until yesterday, I had only brought ONE present. Today, I've tried to make up for it and gone online and picked up a few items (including one of my lovely friend Nats BEAUTIFUL floppy bunnies!) I'm still deliberating between a Kinderkram or Ostheimer castle set for April (the child wants a castle quite desperately) and I'm still frantically searching for a Meta Knight toy. I'm also trying to get birthday items for April and Tim. I've got stuff coming in the post and I've TOTALLY lost track. Bad me.

Sick. You REALLY want to read this don't you?

Yesterday, my littlest girl woke up with a sore throat. She was a bit mis-moggy but managed to eat breakfast and lunch although she spent most of the morning on the sofa watching Kirby TV instead of charging about as she usually does - this SHOULD have been my warning that all was not as it should be. After lunch she went steadily downhill until, eventually, she took herself off to bed with a book (The Clumsies - just so you know). I checked on her periodically but, apart from looking very pale, she said she was "ok". Course, "ok" is a loose term. Tim got home from work and was, within literally MINUTES being confronted with vast quantities of sick. Lucky, lucky guy.

Tim and I were both in the lounge when I heard April coughing. I just KNEW it wasn't "just" a cough and I was right. On entering her bedroom ... well, let's just say it was one of those occasions when all you can do is stand and stare a bit uncomprehendingly for a second. There was (and I apologise if you're starting to feel a bit squiffy yourself at this point), puke on the bedsheet, on her pillow, down the bedframe, down her clothes, in her hair and all over the poor Clumsies (which had to be escorted to the bin at arms length). So anyway, I carted her off to the shower and hosed her down while Tim cleaned up the bed.

She lolloped on the sofa for the rest of the afternoon, ate some ice-cream for supper (which Tim had to make a special trip out for) and I gave her a massage on her chest and hands with lovely lavender essential oil to help her sleep. It did too - she got drowsy on the sofa and Tim had to carry her to bed!

Anyway, this morning she was fine again so, clearly, one of those odd day-long bug things. She is currently, as I write, perfectly ok and ramming a gingerbread Father Christmas into her gob :)

...in which Tim gets stuck on a roundabout

Poor old Timofee ..... coming home from work yesterday, going round very large, busy roundabout just by Christchurch .... ENORMOUS clunk! Um.... what the heck was that?! He came to a halt on the inside by the roundabout as the car simply was not going anywhere. He had to call the AA who eventually arrived (he had to sit on the roundabout for an hour!) and told him his driveshaft had broken (don't ask me ....) They towed him to the garage he uses which is, thankfully, near his work so he could pop in and borrow a van to come home in.

The work is going to cost ..... gulp .... £300 ..... HOWEVER, he has AA breakdown Repair Cover which will pay all but £25 of it. Thank goodness for eggs.

As his MOT is due very soon, they're doing that as well - let's keep all our bits and pieces crossed that it passes (or at least only fails on something small and CHEAP!)

Well...

What a sad week it's been here in Dorset. First the crazy flash floods in Bournemouth the other day and now, even worse, the terrible Red Arrow crash - really, only about 10 minutes drive from our house.

The whole thing was made even harder to take (if that's possible) because, literally a couple of minutes before the crash, the whole team flew over our house in formation. April rushed to the window and said "look mummy they're all together!". So they were, but not for long as it happened :( What on earth went wrong with that aircraft in such a short amount of time I guess will be revealed in due course but what has become apparent is the true bravery of the pilot. He could have ejected but it appears he stayed in the stricken plane, steered it over houses and the Castlepoint shopping centre and over fields nearby. It bounced over the River Stour and crashed in a field the other side and he was thrown out. Presumably he must have realised that if he bailed out the plane would, most likely, come down over the shopping center or housing estate. How incredibly brave ... makes me quite tearful.

All quiet here

No rioting here thanks heavens ..... all as it usually is ...... Thankfully (fingers crossed!) not likely to be an area that would/will be affected - quiet little mostly-retired people area.

I'm finding the images on the news really horribly disturbing though - the people I feel SO sorry for are the ones that live in these areas that are not getting involved in riots and are just trying to get on with their lives - look after their kids, go to work .... How bloody awful it must be to be trying to live in those circumstances :(

Course, what these moron rioters clearly haven't considered (actually, not convinced they have the brain-power to "consider" anything to be honest), is that all of this is going to do NOTHING for the British economy. The repair bills when all this finally dies down are going to be sky-high. Idiots, the lot of them.