Me (And My Head) Are Still Here

Pressure of work after a month’s holiday PLUS a downgrade of my internet connection to dial-up while we change ISP’s has kept me away from my blog.

I promise (threaten?) I’ll return with a vengeance when both problems are sorted.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a bit of personal information that I’ve never shared with you all before. My mother tells me that a recent episode of Doc Martin not yet shown in Oz (it’s a British drama also shown on Aussie television) touched on the subject of a disorder from which I suffer.

I’ve never heard mention of it before and I don’t normally go around talking about it for fear that people will think I’m mad (including some doctors I’ve spoken to).

Yes, I suffer from Exploding Head Syndrome. And yet, it’s a real disorder. The neurologist knew immediately what was wrong with me (as apparently did Doc Martin when faced with the same symptoms).

And before you laugh, do consider what the effect on someone (ie ME) is to feel and hear that you’ve been shot in the head as you drift off to sleep. There are peiods of weeks when nothing happens, then it comes back regularly and I dread going to bed. But apparently nobody really knows what causes it, no harm is done to me and my head is still sitting on top of my shoulders.

A Hefty Dose of Doctors

My first weekend in England, I drove down to Bristol to see Sue and Dudley, very old friends of David’s (ie he’s known them a long time. They’re NOT very old). And whose parents live just close by? Emily’s of course.

So I persuaded Emily and Claire to make a parental visit while I was there. Funnily enough, Claire wasn’t mad keen on visiting Get Knitted but Emily and I had a great time. Sue also kindly invited E & C, together with E’s parents, over for dinner.

Sue’s a retired doctor, Emily’s mother’s a retired doctor, E & C are doctors. And a lovelier groups of medics you couldn’t hope to meet.

Emily misses you all I think. With a new job and a new house requiring lots of work, she hasn’t had much time to make lots of friends yet. And now she actually has to go out and work for a living is rather missing spending her days drifting from knitting group to knitting group, with the odd lunch thrown in.

It was great to see you both. I’m hoping that on my next visit I’ll be able to take up your offer of a bed in your new home.

Correction/Apology

In my previous post about WWKIP Day and Expertise Events (the organisers of the Sydney Quilt and Craft Fair), I wrongly assumed that David, the Manager of the Bayside Lounge, had been asked by Expertise Events to call them should any teaching take place at our event.  Apparently, this was incorrect.  I have been informed by Expertise and I accept their advice that Expertise played no part in what occurred and apologise for any distress or embarrassment which this may have caused to Expertise and the Craft and Quilt Fair.

Dear PRESIDENT Obama

YOU ARE A STAR !!!

India Revisited

On my way to England, I stopped for 3 days in Bombay.  I’ve spent two month-long holidays in India – one in the late 70’s and one in 2001.  It doesn’t change much and I love it.

This time was probably the first I’ve watched any Indian TV.  You can learn a lot about a country from their television. 

1.   To become a TV presenter in India you have to be about as white as I am.

2.   Even when terrorist attacks are taking place all over the country, and thousands of people are losing their homes because of flooding,  the top item on the news will be about cricket and the arrival of the Aussie team in Bombay. 

3.   The Indian TV equivalent of Big Brother is “Bigg Boss”.   I presume that they’re probably not that familiar with Orwell, but I’ve no idea why the double ‘g’.

Next stop Finland.  But I’m writing this with limited time from a public library somewhere in Buckinghamshire.   Will write again soon

Marital Bliss

No blog posts for a while as my internet service providers, who shall remain nameless (but how about we refer to them as iPrimus just for clarity’s sake?) messed up our connection and swore blind it had nothing to do with them.  Must be the modem, which was only 4 months old, so we got a new one, under guarantee.  Still didn’t work.  So back to iPrimus.  They had no idea why we couldn’t get a connection but would give us ‘top priority’, refer the matter up the chain of experts and get back to us.  Lo and behold, 3 hours later, we had access! 

After 4 days of testing modems, hanging onto phone lines for hours at a time, scrambling around on the floor swapping cables, testing all equipment at a neighbour’s house and driving 20 minutes each way to swap over the modem.   I think they probably just flicked a switch somewhere.

This sort of modern catastrophe does nothing for marital relationships.  David has better things to do and was just getting incredibly frustrated and angry.  He’s not really a moody man but was starting to get really tetchy. 

However, I read a nice story today about marital bliss, written by a couple in England who are just celebrating their 80th Wedding Anniversary.  David and I have only been married 6 years but I don’t fancy our chances of survival if this couple’s advice is to be relied on.  According to them, the secrets to a happy marriage are “a little kiss before bed, trips to bingo and good plain English food”! 

What hope have we got?

100 Posts

This is the 100th post I’ve made to this blog – not a great number for a year’s blogging but I’m not in a competition. I blog when I want to blog.

So I’m going to give you a real treat:   I’m not going to say anything!

Just give you a really lovely and funny video.

Closed Draw

The draw is now closed for the knitting goodies which I promised to give away – one set for a reader in Australia and one for an overseas reader.  And I’ve had over 90 entries, which is wonderful. 

David is going to do the honours for me today by picking the two winners as his honesty is beyond reproach.   I may be tempted to have favourites!

That DOESN’T mean that you can stop leaving comments for me.  It just means that there’s nothing in it for you, except the satisfaction of knowing that you’re making me happy!

I’ll announce the results on Friday.