Wednesday, April 05, 2006
The Endeavour - or, What I Did on My Holidays Part 2
We went around the Endeavour, which is a replica of the ship was Captain Cook was sailing when he discovered Australia. This replica was made for our Bicentenary in 1987. It is a very faithful reproduction and it is a rare treat for it to be docked in Melbourne, so it was great fun to see it. We spent a couple of hours crawling around it - quite literally in the part where the clearance was only 4'!!! George took a couple of most unflattering pictures of me getting down to crawl through that bit. They are NOT in this picture collage!!!
The Buddy System - or, What I Did In My Holidays Part 1
It's nearly two weeks since the end of the school holidays and I have pictures still to post. The Buddy System was an interesting interactive art happening where we became part of the exhibition. Participants crocheted a flower, which was then pinned to the wall. The flowers are then posted on to your nominated Loved One at the end of the exhibition, extending the reach of lovingly made craft pieces into the outer world. Non-crocheters were taught to do chains in green wool that became the connecting pieces. I had Baby Bear (12) and her friend C (13), who is a crafty male who already knits rather well. They were both very enthusiastic about learning to do the chains. It was a fun half hour and C found himself the centre of attention as EVERONE wanted to see a 13 year old boy crocheting!! It was fun, though admittedly the crochet lessons were a bit sketchy and all the yarn was the most disgusting plastic acrylic - I understand why, as they were supplying it, but I HATE using the stuff! I also felt a bit incompetent as I could only remember one flower pattern, but the wall was full of gorgeous flowers made off site by other people who obviously had access to patterns. I could have done a great one with a pattern! I really liked the interactive approach and it will look very pretty when it is finished - and I like the ephemeral feelings about flowers and about this exhibition - but there was something about the atmosphere that I still can't my finger on that I did not enjoy. A later note - George read this entry and said that every time he wandered into the room (he was keeping Wombat entertained elsewhere in the gallery) he felt completely frozen out and very unwelcome. And he is someone who schmoozes with women of all ages/sizes/shapes/nationalities to an almost embarassing extent. He and I are both very sensitive to atmospheres and the 'auras', for want of a better word, of people, and it's interesting that we both apparently had similar feelings. And no, we hadn't discussed it at the time.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
My Beautiful International Scarf Exchange Scarf
A little late, but no less beautiful, this is my International Scarf Exchange Scarf from Tina. Tina has no blog or website and barely posted to the ISE blog, so I know almost nothing about her, but she sure knows how to pick the most beautiful colours. This is a gorgeous thick and thin yarn, fairly coarse but I just adore the way the colours meld into each other. I have emailed her to thank her and to ask what the yarn is, but I haven't heard back. Whatever it is, I just love it!
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
G is for Green
Green is one of my all time favorite colours! (The others being pink, blue and purple - in no particular order). Green is the colour of nature and it soothes me and makes me feel at peace. I've made a collage of sundry green images that I liked and I feel good just looking at it. Most of the plants are in my garden; the skeins of yarn are from Lorna's Laces and will become lacey scarves or shawls one day; and the tub full of yarn is my Green box and it is overflowing!
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Project Spectrum - March - Red/Pink
Sirius says that her collar is in honour of Project Spectrum this month!! Notice her pink nose and lips - Pharoah hounds blush when they are happy!
School Holidays
We are slowly reaching the end of these unseasonably early school holidays here at Chez Sheep Rustler. They were brought forward by four weeks to coincide with the Commonwealth Games. This meant that first term was a headlong, breathless rush, and everyone has to cope with a 12 week term starting next week. Easter will at least give us a long weekend soonish, but we think we may take the kids out of school for a couple of days mid term and give them another long weekend, just so that they can make it to the end of term!
Wombat came down with an ear infection three days before the end of last term and so started his holidays earlier than I really wanted him to. It meant I had to miss my TAFE Classes on the last Friday as George was in Sydney. George's mum did offer to come down but as I have to leave at 8.30am she would have had to have caught a train at 6.30am and that would have been just too cruel! Besides which she then got caught up in a real family drama which has resulted in her having to hare off to Broken Hill for a month to care for her sister-in-law.
Poor Wombat took a good ten days to get over the ear problem, including three visits to the doctor, antibiotic eardrops, oral antibiotics and an ear washing out session. It left him very clingy and I am, I;m afraid, looking forward to some time without him following me from room to room all day. Yes, he gets plenty of attention from me, but it would be nice not to have to be in the same room as him all the time.
Baby Bear usually spends a week in Moe during school holidays, but that hasn't been able to happen this time. So she and Wombat have been at each other's throats half the time. And because she is used to having that week of one-on-one attention during the holidays, which I just can't give her with Wombat around, she is getting clingy too and I have trouble getting any time to myself at all. All of this plus the fact that George, despite repeated promises to sort things out and stop doing it, is still going up to Sydney at least every second week and the people in the Sydney office are now treating him as a Sydney employee who should be there whenever they say Jump. (Not that they have given him an office, or a desk, or a computer, or a phone line...) And whenever I complain he says he will talk to such-and-such and it will stop - and they have the conversation and he tells me that it will stop, then nothing happens and he tells me I don't understand the politics of it. What I do understand is that it is wearing him out to the extent that I am afraid he is going to have a heart attack, and driving me into a depression that eventually I won't be able to climb out of.
Despite all this we have had some nice times over the holidays. George took a day off on Monday and we went into the city and went to the Museum to see the props used during the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. Only unfortunately instead of going to see them straight away (it being the supposed reason for out visit) George insisted on us going round most of the Museum first, until Wombat was on a verge of a wobbly, and then we had to race around the exhibition in five minutes flat. It;s a great museum (I hadn't been to it since it moved into the new building) and I really enjoyed it, but I think we should have done things the other way round. We took three boys who are friends of ours and it worked really well, as everyone had someone to keep them company without fighting. The alarming thing is that these kids (they have a little sister too, who we didn't take as the car only has seven seats) and our kids look sufficiently alike to pass for siblings, and the various heights (more so than the actual ages) made them look as though they could just be all the one family. Scary thought!!
Knittingwise - I am three quarters of the way through a second sock; I have been working on my Project Spectrum project for March, the pink Kid Silk Haze Trinket scarf; the Diamond Patch jumper has not been touched for about four weeks; I am making a hat for Beyond Blue, or rather the Blue Hat Project, which is an exhibition and then charity auction for our deperession charity; and I have made a turquoise curly whirly for Baby Bear which i must photograph. I probably won't finish Trinket by the end of March because we are having a late burst of hot weather and KSH is horrible to use in hot weather - and I can't even use it sitting in front of a fan because it is so featherweight that it blows around and annoys me!! But I have vowed to start and mostly work on a project for each month of Project Spectrum in the relevant colour/s.
And now to get the pizza dough out of the breadmaker and make pizza!!
Wombat came down with an ear infection three days before the end of last term and so started his holidays earlier than I really wanted him to. It meant I had to miss my TAFE Classes on the last Friday as George was in Sydney. George's mum did offer to come down but as I have to leave at 8.30am she would have had to have caught a train at 6.30am and that would have been just too cruel! Besides which she then got caught up in a real family drama which has resulted in her having to hare off to Broken Hill for a month to care for her sister-in-law.
Poor Wombat took a good ten days to get over the ear problem, including three visits to the doctor, antibiotic eardrops, oral antibiotics and an ear washing out session. It left him very clingy and I am, I;m afraid, looking forward to some time without him following me from room to room all day. Yes, he gets plenty of attention from me, but it would be nice not to have to be in the same room as him all the time.
Baby Bear usually spends a week in Moe during school holidays, but that hasn't been able to happen this time. So she and Wombat have been at each other's throats half the time. And because she is used to having that week of one-on-one attention during the holidays, which I just can't give her with Wombat around, she is getting clingy too and I have trouble getting any time to myself at all. All of this plus the fact that George, despite repeated promises to sort things out and stop doing it, is still going up to Sydney at least every second week and the people in the Sydney office are now treating him as a Sydney employee who should be there whenever they say Jump. (Not that they have given him an office, or a desk, or a computer, or a phone line...) And whenever I complain he says he will talk to such-and-such and it will stop - and they have the conversation and he tells me that it will stop, then nothing happens and he tells me I don't understand the politics of it. What I do understand is that it is wearing him out to the extent that I am afraid he is going to have a heart attack, and driving me into a depression that eventually I won't be able to climb out of.
Despite all this we have had some nice times over the holidays. George took a day off on Monday and we went into the city and went to the Museum to see the props used during the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. Only unfortunately instead of going to see them straight away (it being the supposed reason for out visit) George insisted on us going round most of the Museum first, until Wombat was on a verge of a wobbly, and then we had to race around the exhibition in five minutes flat. It;s a great museum (I hadn't been to it since it moved into the new building) and I really enjoyed it, but I think we should have done things the other way round. We took three boys who are friends of ours and it worked really well, as everyone had someone to keep them company without fighting. The alarming thing is that these kids (they have a little sister too, who we didn't take as the car only has seven seats) and our kids look sufficiently alike to pass for siblings, and the various heights (more so than the actual ages) made them look as though they could just be all the one family. Scary thought!!
Knittingwise - I am three quarters of the way through a second sock; I have been working on my Project Spectrum project for March, the pink Kid Silk Haze Trinket scarf; the Diamond Patch jumper has not been touched for about four weeks; I am making a hat for Beyond Blue, or rather the Blue Hat Project, which is an exhibition and then charity auction for our deperession charity; and I have made a turquoise curly whirly for Baby Bear which i must photograph. I probably won't finish Trinket by the end of March because we are having a late burst of hot weather and KSH is horrible to use in hot weather - and I can't even use it sitting in front of a fan because it is so featherweight that it blows around and annoys me!! But I have vowed to start and mostly work on a project for each month of Project Spectrum in the relevant colour/s.
And now to get the pizza dough out of the breadmaker and make pizza!!
Friday, March 17, 2006
Use What You Have
OK, this is going to be a hard one. Inspired by Simple Sparrow and Whip Up (see my side bar for URLs) I am going to endeavour to use the month of April to Use What I Have. No craft purchases FOR A WHOLE MONTH and to use things that I already have to make something. I will only buy stuff if I absolutely need it for the course (every week we are given a list of things to bring for next week, some of which I have and some of which I don't). I was momentarily worried about Project Spectrum for April, which is Yellow and Orange, becasue they are colours I don't normally use. But I will take photos of appropriate things around the place, and I do have some mostly orange sock wool that I was planning to use anyway.
What a challenge!!!
What a challenge!!!
F is for Fabric
Over the years I have accumulated quite a lot of fabric of one sort and another. I used to make most of my own clothes. I don't really now, because I have branched off in other directions and found that I was resenting the time it took me to do dressmaking. So now I buy most of my clothes and have pretty much decided to have a holiday from dressmaking.I used to dabble in patchwork. I have a goodly accumulation of patchwork fabrics. But I discovered that I hate, and am not good at, quilting, so I gave up on patchwork. That fabric won't be wasted though, there are lots of smaller projects that don't need proper quilting that I plan to do in good time.
And lots of that fabric can find other uses, too. I am now constantly on the lookout for interesting background fabrics for embroidery - which is what this lot of four is for.
The funny thing is, when I started the Studio Stitch course I went in there not really wanting to do embroidery - I wanted to use scrumbling as much as possible. But I have rapidly become quite obsessed with embroidery and keep reading books about it and even dreaming of projects I could do.
F is for Fleece
I have lots of greasy wool fleece stuffed away in the shed. My MIL has lots and lots and LOTS more greasy fleece waiting for me to use. I adore dyeing my own yarn. My spinning is not great but I like to use the results in scrumbling, whre it doesn't matter if they are even or perfect.This is the first dyed fleece that I have bought. I dom't know if I will spin it or use it for other things. I also bought a couple of needlefelting needles at the same time. I would like to try needlefelting, both to make 3D objects and to try putting down stuff on fabric to embroider over.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Project Spectrum - March - Red/Pink
I've decided that for each month of Project Spectrum I am going to take photos of things in the appropriate colours - as already posted - as I have found this to be a great way of starting to look at the things around me. (The course is starting to make me look at EVERYTHING differently!!)But I am also going to do at least one project per month that also corresponds with the relevant colour/s. This is Trinket by Kim Hargreaves, which is going to be so beautiful when it is finished! I lashed out and bought the kit, which is the only way you can get the pattern. I will probably use other yarns to knit it again and again as it is so pretty. It's easy to knit, too, and once you have memorised the pattern (quite quickly!) it is perfect TV knitting, but it looks so clever because it is on the diagonal! However, I have a confession to make. After lusting after Rowan Kid Silk Haze for the past couple of years, and taking out a second mortgage to buy this lot plus another three balls of a different colour, I am forced to admit that I don't think it is worth the money!! It is very nice, certainly, but when I put it against my neck it itches. A bit of a disadvantage with a scarf! But I can wear scarves so that they don't touch the skin on my neck (it doesn't get cold enough here to really need them wrapped tightly around for warmth). It is a sweet yarn and comes in delectable colours and looks cute knitted up - but I don't think I will be buying it again. I can just see this pattern knitted up in a lovely laceweight that doesn't have mohair in it. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I just can't wear mohair against my skin, no matter how expensive and desirable it is!!
Friday, March 10, 2006
My I Cord So-Called Scarf
I am feeling a bit embarrassed about my ISE scarf. After being so late in sending it off, I'm not even sure that the lovely recipient likes it! I suppose it was a bit left of centre. It was an experiment and I don't personally think it was a very successful one. I didn't even take a photo of it myself, as I had taken so long to organise to send it off, and at the last minute the camera battery was flat and I didn't dare miss the posting opportunity.
Just in case anyone else wants to reproduce my experiement and maybe make a better fist of it than me:
My I Cord So-Called Scarf
Choose a selection of yarns in a colour scheme that you like. I put ten I cords into this, each one in a different yarn. They can be all the colours of the rainbow, or harmonising, or complementary, or clashing - I made it a good mixture of colours and textures but some people (including, I fear, poor Marji!) would find it too busy that way.
Choose an approximate length for your scarf, erring on the generous side. You could make a short one, of course, buyt you won't be able to do as much with it afterwards.
Make ten I cords in approximately this length. Don't have them all identical. I used 5mm dpns (US size 8) and six stitches for each one, and as the yarns were not uniform this gave different thicknesses of I cord. You could use an I cord machine but I think they only take fine yarns - which would be lovely, too!
When you are done, lay them out flat on a large flat surface like a bed. Play with them, arrange them, intertwine them, until you like the arrangement. Then catch them together carefully in quite a lot of places with a few stitches using sewing thread, and make some of those intersections with beads or buttons, if you like. You want it to hold together, but to have plenty of gaps left over.
Now you can wear it as you will. Wrap it around, pull one end through a hole, pull the other end through another hole, wrap it around your head - decorate it more, scrumble all over it, whatever!
I am going to be making myself one, so when that is done I will take photos and demonstrate some of the ways it can be worn. In the meantime, look at Marji's picture and imagine!!
Just in case anyone else wants to reproduce my experiement and maybe make a better fist of it than me:
My I Cord So-Called Scarf
Choose a selection of yarns in a colour scheme that you like. I put ten I cords into this, each one in a different yarn. They can be all the colours of the rainbow, or harmonising, or complementary, or clashing - I made it a good mixture of colours and textures but some people (including, I fear, poor Marji!) would find it too busy that way.
Choose an approximate length for your scarf, erring on the generous side. You could make a short one, of course, buyt you won't be able to do as much with it afterwards.
Make ten I cords in approximately this length. Don't have them all identical. I used 5mm dpns (US size 8) and six stitches for each one, and as the yarns were not uniform this gave different thicknesses of I cord. You could use an I cord machine but I think they only take fine yarns - which would be lovely, too!
When you are done, lay them out flat on a large flat surface like a bed. Play with them, arrange them, intertwine them, until you like the arrangement. Then catch them together carefully in quite a lot of places with a few stitches using sewing thread, and make some of those intersections with beads or buttons, if you like. You want it to hold together, but to have plenty of gaps left over.
Now you can wear it as you will. Wrap it around, pull one end through a hole, pull the other end through another hole, wrap it around your head - decorate it more, scrumble all over it, whatever!
I am going to be making myself one, so when that is done I will take photos and demonstrate some of the ways it can be worn. In the meantime, look at Marji's picture and imagine!!
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Playing with Picasa 2
This is the four photos that went into the spooky montage.I feel a desire to play with photo software coming on!!!
Playing with Picasa 1
I thought I would experiment a bit with Picasa's collage functions. I really like this result, it looks a bit spooky!
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
E is for Embroidery
This is the first stitched piece I did for my course, a couple of weeks ago. It is the first time I have ever done this type of embroidery - I have done squillions of cross stitch and woolwork pieces, and know how to do most embroidery stitches, but I had never done this sort of 'free' embroidery before. I am actually quite pleased with it and I'm glad to say that my tutor was too! We are now doing a stitched piece every week - the next one is appliqued, as is the one I have to finish off this week. And I think the next assignment is an applique too. Can you tell I am having fun!!!
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Books!
I'm obsessed with books. We are drowning under the weight of our book collection. So when I saw this meme somewhere I had to do it!
Meme instructions : Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of. (I'm having a fight with Blogger and can't get it to underline, so I will mark them as GOT instead of underlining)
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - GOT
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger -GOT
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams - GOT
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald - GOT
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - GOT
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling - GOT
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell - GOT
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller - GOT
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien - GOT
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - GOT
Lord of the Flies - William Golding - GOT
1984 - George Orwell - GOT
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling - GOT
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - GOT
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut - GOT
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown - GOT
(Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk)
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt - GOT
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess - GOT
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - GOT
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - GOT
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis - GOT
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien - GOT
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - GOT
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman - GOT
Atonement - Ian McEwan
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood - GOT
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath - GOT
Dune - Frank Herbert - GOT
That was an interesting exercise - go ahead, do it, you know you want to!
Meme instructions : Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of. (I'm having a fight with Blogger and can't get it to underline, so I will mark them as GOT instead of underlining)
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - GOT
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger -GOT
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams - GOT
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald - GOT
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - GOT
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling - GOT
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell - GOT
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller - GOT
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien - GOT
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - GOT
Lord of the Flies - William Golding - GOT
1984 - George Orwell - GOT
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling - GOT
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - GOT
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut - GOT
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown - GOT
(Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk)
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt - GOT
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess - GOT
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - GOT
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - GOT
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis - GOT
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien - GOT
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - GOT
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman - GOT
Atonement - Ian McEwan
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood - GOT
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath - GOT
Dune - Frank Herbert - GOT
That was an interesting exercise - go ahead, do it, you know you want to!
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
D is for Dolman
Another Jersey photo from the same holiday. This is a dolman, an Iron Age burial site. Jersey had a number of fantastic dolmans and other standing stones - I love visiting these and it is something that Australia rather sadly lacks! Nothing beats the feeling of walking along that path and standing under the stones - unless it is going underground to see them, which I was able to do in some of the other sites. (Which got interesting as I was six months pregnant at the time!)
D is for Daffodils
This field full of daffodils is in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands. I took this photo when we there on holiday in 1993. I loved the effect of the whole field full of them with the clouds and the castle in the background.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Diary of a Hypochondriac
This is going to be blather about my health, so I advise everyone to skip it :)
I went to the rheumatologist yesterday, who was fantastic. He took a full history, looked at my test results, and we talked.
I do have fibromyalgia, as suspected. I probably did all along, it's just that I first went to my GP I think I put fatigue first on the list of symptoms and pain second. That was three and a half years ago. Since then I have had most of the blood tests repeated, to cgeck that I really really don't have various things wrong with me. I had several sessions with a therapist last year who taught me some really useful stress management techniques that I use regularly and that have really helped a great deal. Over the last six months the fatigue has receded very slightly. But the pain has got worse .... and worse....
Basically I feel like I am in the first stages of flu - every day. Most of my major joints hurt all the time and most of my muscles are stiff and sore. I can no longer climb stairs (in either direction) with any degree of ease. Even getting on and off buses requires me to move sideways like a crab. I can't kneel or sit on the floor (not without requiring a block and tackle to get me up again). Anything more than a tiny bit of walking makes me hurt so much it is not worth it. I feel like an old lady, and probably walk like one. I am held together by painkillers. Every day is a litany of generalised aching plus specific pains (the places move around from day to day - this morning I am hurting in my left knee and my lower back, as well as all over - they are different types of pain).
Yet I test negative for all the arthritic conditions, my thyroid function is fine, I do not have diabetes, and although I have a little ostearthritis in my knees it is not bad enough to cause all the problems.
Fibromyalgia is probably the same thing as chronic fatigue syndrome, and they are both labels for a very real condition that can't be properly tested for. There is no test to prove that I do or do not have it. It has been described as arthritis of the soft tissues, only it isn't arthritis. It is most probably a neurological condition.
I;ve been referred to a fibromyalgia clinic, which are apparently almost unknown in Australia but my rheumatologist has a real interest in the condition and knows these people. Hopefully they will come up with strategies to help me manage this. He's also prescribed Naprosin and told me that it is better to take that, plus pain killers as required, than to live on Panadol. It will be tomorrow before I can fill the prescription - I am hoping that it helps.
So, that's my boring health problems. A chronic, incurable, semi crippling condition that no-one really understands. On the other hand it supposedly does not cause degeneration of the joints or the major organs, and won't actually kill me.
I went to the rheumatologist yesterday, who was fantastic. He took a full history, looked at my test results, and we talked.
I do have fibromyalgia, as suspected. I probably did all along, it's just that I first went to my GP I think I put fatigue first on the list of symptoms and pain second. That was three and a half years ago. Since then I have had most of the blood tests repeated, to cgeck that I really really don't have various things wrong with me. I had several sessions with a therapist last year who taught me some really useful stress management techniques that I use regularly and that have really helped a great deal. Over the last six months the fatigue has receded very slightly. But the pain has got worse .... and worse....
Basically I feel like I am in the first stages of flu - every day. Most of my major joints hurt all the time and most of my muscles are stiff and sore. I can no longer climb stairs (in either direction) with any degree of ease. Even getting on and off buses requires me to move sideways like a crab. I can't kneel or sit on the floor (not without requiring a block and tackle to get me up again). Anything more than a tiny bit of walking makes me hurt so much it is not worth it. I feel like an old lady, and probably walk like one. I am held together by painkillers. Every day is a litany of generalised aching plus specific pains (the places move around from day to day - this morning I am hurting in my left knee and my lower back, as well as all over - they are different types of pain).
Yet I test negative for all the arthritic conditions, my thyroid function is fine, I do not have diabetes, and although I have a little ostearthritis in my knees it is not bad enough to cause all the problems.
Fibromyalgia is probably the same thing as chronic fatigue syndrome, and they are both labels for a very real condition that can't be properly tested for. There is no test to prove that I do or do not have it. It has been described as arthritis of the soft tissues, only it isn't arthritis. It is most probably a neurological condition.
I;ve been referred to a fibromyalgia clinic, which are apparently almost unknown in Australia but my rheumatologist has a real interest in the condition and knows these people. Hopefully they will come up with strategies to help me manage this. He's also prescribed Naprosin and told me that it is better to take that, plus pain killers as required, than to live on Panadol. It will be tomorrow before I can fill the prescription - I am hoping that it helps.
So, that's my boring health problems. A chronic, incurable, semi crippling condition that no-one really understands. On the other hand it supposedly does not cause degeneration of the joints or the major organs, and won't actually kill me.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Four Things
I'm just procrastinating here, there are things I should be doing but I like this meme!
4 jobs I have had - temp typist, records indexer, librarian, MUM!
4 movies I can watch over and over - Gone With the Wind, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Vertigo, Phantom of the Opera
4 places I have lived - Essendon, Melbourne, Australia; Chiswick, London, UK; Tetbury, Gloucestershire, UK; Glen Waverley, Mebourne, Australia
4 TV shows I love - Dr Who, Mythbusters, House, Taggart
4 places I;ve been on holiday - the Flinders Ranges, South Australia; Vancouver, Canada; Paris, France; the Lake District, UK.
4 favorite dishes - fried rice, chilli prawns, macaroni cheese, good pizza
4 websites I visit daily - ABC, my blog to read through my list of favorites, Bureau of Meteorology, The Age (a Melbourne newspaper)
4 places I would rather be - in bed; in France; in the V&A museum in London; actually I rather like being here too!
No tagging, this has been around everyone!
4 jobs I have had - temp typist, records indexer, librarian, MUM!
4 movies I can watch over and over - Gone With the Wind, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Vertigo, Phantom of the Opera
4 places I have lived - Essendon, Melbourne, Australia; Chiswick, London, UK; Tetbury, Gloucestershire, UK; Glen Waverley, Mebourne, Australia
4 TV shows I love - Dr Who, Mythbusters, House, Taggart
4 places I;ve been on holiday - the Flinders Ranges, South Australia; Vancouver, Canada; Paris, France; the Lake District, UK.
4 favorite dishes - fried rice, chilli prawns, macaroni cheese, good pizza
4 websites I visit daily - ABC, my blog to read through my list of favorites, Bureau of Meteorology, The Age (a Melbourne newspaper)
4 places I would rather be - in bed; in France; in the V&A museum in London; actually I rather like being here too!
No tagging, this has been around everyone!
Lurgy is Lifting
George is back at work, the kids are more or less OK apart from a minor sniffle from time to time, and I am still feeling like ****. A quietish day today before another two or three days of frantic running around. For a SAHM I seem to be spending too much time not staying at home!!
The trip to the Eye Hospital was time consuming but reassuring as they have decided that it was migraine and that everything else is fine. We hear too much complaining about our health system, often with justification, but I want to say publicly that I have been hugely impressed with everyone at the Eye Hospital, they have all been very courteous and efficient and pleasant and it was all free!!
On the down side, I didn;t realise that I would be getting the atropine drops again. I didn't even have my sunglasses with me and I had to get myself home on public transport looking like the Corpse Bride and unable to cope with the sunlight - of course it was a beautiful sunny day!
Tomorrow I am off to a rheumatologist - I test negative for all the arthritis conditions but have consistent symptoms, so I expect I will end up with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, which is just another way of saying chronic fatigue syndrome, but every now and then I feel I ought to pursue these avenues just in case someone actually finds something else wrong with me! I asked my lovely GP for a referral to someone nearby, which she did - but of course the appointment I was offered was in the city, actually opposite the Eye Hospital where I was on Monday!
Some knitting is happening. I am plugging away on the Diamond Patch jumper, plus occasionally picking up the purple socks that I was supposedly knitting for Baby Bear but which will probably go to George because she misled me about sizes!!
I have finished my Scarf Exchange scarf though it won;t be posted till Saturday. I am not very pleased with it, sadly, but I hope that Marji is OK with it. It didn't turn out quite like I had hoped, but I;m sure she can find a creative way to wear it. I still have to do one little extra thing to package up with it, and take photos of it. I think that if there is another scarf exchange I will not design my own next time, I have loads of scarf patterns that I fancy knitting and I might use one of them.
I was going to mumble something about resolutions once a month, wasn't I? Well, here goes:
1. Decluttering - well, a brief start was made, and then fell apart under the onslaught of constant heatwaves. But all the yarn stash is now neatly in boxes on shelves, and yesterday I started tacjling two large piles of stuff that have sat in their 'temporary' homes for about six months. I did say it would take all year! George has also streamlined the supplies in the study.
2. Food - well, let's draw a veil over that, some days I am good and some days I am bad!
3. Exercise - oddly, I did more in the hot weather (lots of swimming) than since it cooled down a bit. Sort of doing some exercise.
4. The course has only just started but it is so much FUN and I have so far thrown myself into it. I am definitely keeping up with this resolution.
5. Curb spending habits - um, not really, me bad.
The trip to the Eye Hospital was time consuming but reassuring as they have decided that it was migraine and that everything else is fine. We hear too much complaining about our health system, often with justification, but I want to say publicly that I have been hugely impressed with everyone at the Eye Hospital, they have all been very courteous and efficient and pleasant and it was all free!!
On the down side, I didn;t realise that I would be getting the atropine drops again. I didn't even have my sunglasses with me and I had to get myself home on public transport looking like the Corpse Bride and unable to cope with the sunlight - of course it was a beautiful sunny day!
Tomorrow I am off to a rheumatologist - I test negative for all the arthritis conditions but have consistent symptoms, so I expect I will end up with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, which is just another way of saying chronic fatigue syndrome, but every now and then I feel I ought to pursue these avenues just in case someone actually finds something else wrong with me! I asked my lovely GP for a referral to someone nearby, which she did - but of course the appointment I was offered was in the city, actually opposite the Eye Hospital where I was on Monday!
Some knitting is happening. I am plugging away on the Diamond Patch jumper, plus occasionally picking up the purple socks that I was supposedly knitting for Baby Bear but which will probably go to George because she misled me about sizes!!
I have finished my Scarf Exchange scarf though it won;t be posted till Saturday. I am not very pleased with it, sadly, but I hope that Marji is OK with it. It didn't turn out quite like I had hoped, but I;m sure she can find a creative way to wear it. I still have to do one little extra thing to package up with it, and take photos of it. I think that if there is another scarf exchange I will not design my own next time, I have loads of scarf patterns that I fancy knitting and I might use one of them.
I was going to mumble something about resolutions once a month, wasn't I? Well, here goes:
1. Decluttering - well, a brief start was made, and then fell apart under the onslaught of constant heatwaves. But all the yarn stash is now neatly in boxes on shelves, and yesterday I started tacjling two large piles of stuff that have sat in their 'temporary' homes for about six months. I did say it would take all year! George has also streamlined the supplies in the study.
2. Food - well, let's draw a veil over that, some days I am good and some days I am bad!
3. Exercise - oddly, I did more in the hot weather (lots of swimming) than since it cooled down a bit. Sort of doing some exercise.
4. The course has only just started but it is so much FUN and I have so far thrown myself into it. I am definitely keeping up with this resolution.
5. Curb spending habits - um, not really, me bad.
Monday, February 13, 2006
C Is For Curly-Whirly
Meet my Curly-Whirly, alongside Snakey who just happens to match. I used some leftover acrylic, as mentioned in a previous post - it was a Lincraft own brand but I am pretty sure it was one of their relabelling of well-known European yarns that happened last year - very good value too as they were identical but much cheaper. I think it was the same as Filatura Di Crosa's Hopla. I also used another Lincraft branded yarn that was another fancy European yarn rebranded, but can't remember a thing about it!
This was crocheted - much easier than having millions of stitches on the needle - but boy did it eat up yarn! That's why I added the extra yarn, as i ran out of the first yarn too soon and the scarf was still too narrow. Unfortunately the only yarn I had which looked right with it is a bit scratchy and I am going to have to be careful not to let actually touch my neck - a pity because the original yarn is nice and soft, like a cloud!
I am keen to do another, wider one of these, with beads. I really liked the one Yarnivorous did and I;m thinking of something like that.
Friday, February 10, 2006
5 Weird Things About Me!
I wrote this post several days ago but since then we have all been coping with the Lurgy. The kids had it first and weren't too sick, then they gave it to me, and now George is a quivering lump in bed. I dragged myself to my first day at TAFE (subject of another post sometime soon) on Friday with a zig-zagging temperature, spent Saturday morning running errands, the afternoon in bed and the evening drinking too much with friends, and yesterday hanging around the house feeling like ****. Now it is Monday and I feel even worse but I have to go into the Eye Hospital for my final checkup - I am hoping to stir the quivering lump to drive me to the station on the promise that he then gets the rest of the day in TOTAL PEACE as I will be out till late afternoon (I have two appointments, one to do a final test on my eyes and then a final checkup three hours later when those results will be ready along with everything else).
Well, I;ve been tagged by Cathy with this meme, so here goes!
Groundrules: The first player of this game starts with the Topic"5 weird habits of yours" and people who get tagged need to write a blog entry about their 5 quirky habits as well as state this rule clearly.In the end you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged and list their names.
1. I cannot watch television, or indeed sit in a chair at all, without doing something with my hands. Mostly, I knit (or do bead embroidery, or crochet). Sometimes I read (well, turning the pages is doing something with my hands!) Sometimes I play Snood on my daughter's Gameboy (actually sometimes I do that FAR TOO MUCH!!) But I just CANNOT have my hands unoccupied.
2. My DH is going to hate this one - I cannot share a bed with anyone. I snore, thrash around, steal the covers, generally make myself unloveable, and then complain if my companion so much as twitches or even breathes. So we have come to a happy compromise - we sleep in seperate rooms now. Secretly I think he is relieved!
3. I have a real phone phobia. I find it incredibly hard to make phone calls. Not so much the making appointment type of call - I have no problems ringing the doctor or whatever - but ringing actual people to have an actual conversation is really hard for me. I can ring DH, that's fine, but that's about it! On the other hand I do not mind talking to people when they ring me, it;s just that actual making of the call that's hard. I like to email people, though I am also horrible at returning emails! (Several people are waiting on emails from me right now, so if you have commented on my blog or emailed me recently, or even not so recently, I will reply to you!)
4. I do not drive. I took driving lessons 15 years ago and sat four driving tests. The first one was far too early and I was not ready, so I;m not surprised I failed (the instructor made me sit it too early, I then changed instructors). The next test, I did perfectly except for mucking up a three point turn - I just touched the kerb and was failed on that. The third test was on an absolutely freezing cold, icy morning and I kept stalling the car. By the time I took the fourth test I had decided that if I failed that, I was done with driving. And yes, I failed it, on something so trivial that I cannot even remember. I personally thought I drove better than half the lunatics on the road, but no, I failed on something so small that I don;t think anyone ever does it in real life. At that point I then gave up! I was going to take driving lessons again a few years ago but then came down with chronic fatigue syndrome and haven't had the energy since, which is a shame because using public transport is rather tiring...
5. I am painfully shy and worry about everything, all the time, yet most people (even good friends) see me as sociable and calm and capable. I am obviously a really good actress!
Now who to tag? Actually it now being some time since I wrote this post, and my brain having left home somewhere in the midst of all the disgusting hankies I have been using, i think I will leave it open to anyone reading this1 i know this a cop-out but it's either that or wait another several days.
Well, I;ve been tagged by Cathy with this meme, so here goes!
Groundrules: The first player of this game starts with the Topic"5 weird habits of yours" and people who get tagged need to write a blog entry about their 5 quirky habits as well as state this rule clearly.In the end you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged and list their names.
1. I cannot watch television, or indeed sit in a chair at all, without doing something with my hands. Mostly, I knit (or do bead embroidery, or crochet). Sometimes I read (well, turning the pages is doing something with my hands!) Sometimes I play Snood on my daughter's Gameboy (actually sometimes I do that FAR TOO MUCH!!) But I just CANNOT have my hands unoccupied.
2. My DH is going to hate this one - I cannot share a bed with anyone. I snore, thrash around, steal the covers, generally make myself unloveable, and then complain if my companion so much as twitches or even breathes. So we have come to a happy compromise - we sleep in seperate rooms now. Secretly I think he is relieved!
3. I have a real phone phobia. I find it incredibly hard to make phone calls. Not so much the making appointment type of call - I have no problems ringing the doctor or whatever - but ringing actual people to have an actual conversation is really hard for me. I can ring DH, that's fine, but that's about it! On the other hand I do not mind talking to people when they ring me, it;s just that actual making of the call that's hard. I like to email people, though I am also horrible at returning emails! (Several people are waiting on emails from me right now, so if you have commented on my blog or emailed me recently, or even not so recently, I will reply to you!)
4. I do not drive. I took driving lessons 15 years ago and sat four driving tests. The first one was far too early and I was not ready, so I;m not surprised I failed (the instructor made me sit it too early, I then changed instructors). The next test, I did perfectly except for mucking up a three point turn - I just touched the kerb and was failed on that. The third test was on an absolutely freezing cold, icy morning and I kept stalling the car. By the time I took the fourth test I had decided that if I failed that, I was done with driving. And yes, I failed it, on something so trivial that I cannot even remember. I personally thought I drove better than half the lunatics on the road, but no, I failed on something so small that I don;t think anyone ever does it in real life. At that point I then gave up! I was going to take driving lessons again a few years ago but then came down with chronic fatigue syndrome and haven't had the energy since, which is a shame because using public transport is rather tiring...
5. I am painfully shy and worry about everything, all the time, yet most people (even good friends) see me as sociable and calm and capable. I am obviously a really good actress!
Now who to tag? Actually it now being some time since I wrote this post, and my brain having left home somewhere in the midst of all the disgusting hankies I have been using, i think I will leave it open to anyone reading this1 i know this a cop-out but it's either that or wait another several days.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Just Because I can...
I am posting this cute picture of Sirius. If I shook out the polar fleece blanket you would see that it is quite lacey. She eats her blankets, so I don't spend a lot of money on them, just buy a length of polar fleece every winter which only costs a few dollars. She feels the cold a lot, because she is very skinny and has very short fur, but I only ever made her one coat because she ate THAT and it was quite a bit of work. On cold winter nights she oozes under the covers of the water bed to stay warm. Spoilt? Moi?
B is for Beaded Whimseys
I've already posted a picture of this bead embroidery thing I did some months ago, but I think it is a good B picture too so here it is again, slightly fiddled with.Beaded Whimseys is the name given to this sort of thing in Victorian times, and I believe Native Americans used to make them too. Mine is probably more heavily beaded than theirs were. I just love the name and it is such fun to make. It lives on the low bookcase with all our best ornaments and when people see it for the first time they tend to pick it up and look at it from different angles. My mum thought it was a horse's head and it does look like one from a certain angle! The best comment was from my 25 year old nephew N, however, who took one look at it and said 'Bloody Hell!' in tones of awe.
This is made using plastic and glass beads, sewn onto patchwork cotton with Nymo thread, and stuffed with polyester toy stuffing. It's almost as tall as a sheet of A4 paper (which I used for drafting the pattern).
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