Sep

30

Yup. Still sick. But excitement coming on Tuesday…

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 2 Comments

The ailment of the decade hasn’t lived up to it’s hype, thankfully, though last night’s headache put me into tears. That which began in my throat took refuge in my sinuses, and so now I battle a rather heavy feeling head and general exhaustion. I get energy in spurts, have coded CSS in blurbs and made myself a few respectable snacks when the mood takes me. Unfortunately, the majority of my time is still spent in an ugly state of lounging/snoozing, sprinkled with occasional whimpering thanks to my head pressure. Couple the wet weather we’ve been having (and it’s barometric tortures) with my sensitivity to such things, and a common sinus cold can be excruciating.

But, on the fortunate side, I feel fair and am taking care of myself as best as I can. Neil reminds me to take my vitamins (even fetches them when I can’t seem to move), and stocks my water and juice regularly.

I’ll be back in the saddle in no time.
Which is good, since we’ve got tickets to see Stomp next Tuesday! :) It’ll be our second time seeing the show, but the first time we’ll be seeing it together. It’s a surprise gift for his Dad’s birthday, and I need to make sure I shake this damn cold by then!

For now, I’m gonna wrap myself in blankies and get some rest…

smooches~
jEN

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Sep

28

Sick today, but looking fab

Filed Under expat, regular, tout le fromage | 5 Comments

I reluctantly gave in to the idea that I have a burgeoning illness of epic proportion last night. Well, ok– it’s a bit of a sore throat, tiredness and a dull ache from the chest up. Hardly the plague, but I still expect sympathy. :)
When I wasn’t tucked into bed today, I was away getting my hair coloured for unreasonable sums of dosh. My complex choice of colours, (total of four now), require some serious effort and expense. Problem is, I don’t think they charge for the difficulty– I think it’s purely a charge for services and is just plain highway robbery compared to what I was used to paying in the US. * sigh *

Anyway, I’m somewhat awake and about to embark on a short walk to the Spar shop (convenience store). I need juice. I need air. Then, though I’ve been up only an hour, I think I might need a nap upon my return…

smooches from a safe distance~
jEN

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Sep

27

I have the aerobic fitness of a plank of wood

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 8 Comments

No really. I do.
Last year (summer) I was in the best shape of my life. Trim, lean muscles formed feminine lines of subtle strength beneath my skin. Yoga was a part of my daily life. I fit into the smallest clothes I’ve ever managed and for the first time in my life I did not fear the dressing room mirror in my local department stores.

I’ve become a (rather voluptuous) shell of my former self. I’m curvy and still have a decent figure, (I’ve always been blessed with an even, all-over sort of weight gain), but I have betrayed myself. I promised I’d not let myself go again and well– I haven’t totally. I’m still nowhere near the size I was two years ago, (which wasn’t huge, just chubby), but it’s a slippery slope once you get into the opposing habit of ignoring your exercise. You see, working from home has it’s distinct advantages, however, going from bed to the desk for work is hardly a calorie burning effort. I have fallen out of yoga. I don’t fit into my bikini and it pisses me off.
(I need it for an upcoming holiday!!)

So, I moved here with my ’skinny’ clothes and have since bought a couple of items for my post-move-to-UK-fell-in-love-with-fish-n-chips body. I’m getting back into yoga and actually using the elliptical exercise thingy we’ve got in the spare room. I eat more healthily than most people and my portions are not out of control. What I need is movement. I need to get more activity between the horizontal sleeping position and the mostly ergonomic seated computer workstation in the living room.

I’m the only one who can change my shape, and I hate it. * sigh * Time to pin the bikini up with blue-tack for inspiration/humiliation. I’m a size medium now, I was a full large after recovering from cancer, and I maintained a svelte small for most of last year. It’s possible and I’m going to get that back.

Just a rant. Personal and human. But hey, isn’t that why we keep blogs? ;)
smooches~
jEN

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Sep

25

An evening at the Carter Steam Fair

Filed Under photos, regular, tout le fromage | 11 Comments

Note: I meant to post this last night, but I had a video chat and then was too tired to upload…

Bright lights, fresh chips and teenagers looking more stressed than stock brokers… it’s the Carter Steam Fair in Holyport! Why were the teens so stressed? Because clearly the place to be seen tonight was at the fair. Girls barely past playing with dolls were costumed in their best slut-wear and heavy eyeliner. Boys were mostly in sports gear and trainers. Chavs night out, to the extreme. Beyond them, there were plenty of families and children around, but the meat-market for the recently pubescent accounted for a healthy percentage of the crowd.

UncontrollablePenny arcade machines were perhaps the highlight of the evening and I lost many a shiny horsehead token in the slot machines and peepshow viewers. I seemed to do well with several steel marble-type games and Neil and I faced off with a sort of one-man hockey foos-ball challenge.

Two rides were indulged in: the carousel and ‘The Octopus.’ It’s been over an hour since we left the Carter Steam Fair and I have yet to still my churning guts after that second one… Evil carnival ride. Wonderful, evil carnival ride… (In hindsight, I believe the chips should’ve come after the slosh-o-rama.)

Recapping: fresh chips (fries) were delicious, the carousel is always a favourite for me, the self-important chavs made us giggle, the steam engines powering the the rides were fascinating, penny arcades are still loads of fun, and The Octopus is to be avoided at all cost… unless you like feeling queasy for several hours after you step out of the thing.
CarouselsteamFilename-1Octopus
PeepersLilcarsCarterfair
Hope you enjoy my photos from the evening!
smooches~
jEN

Note April 30 2007: I noticed the layout of this post went pretty wonky and so that’s why it’s updated.

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Sep

24

Let the girls get on with it

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 6 Comments

Most of you who have been round here for a while know that I’m a cancer survivor. For the newer readers or those who will appreciate a recap, I had cervical cancer, it was a 7mm tumour, they thought it spread into my lymph-vascular system, it didn’t, I had a ‘Radical Hysterectomy’ which involves removing the uterus as well as the cervix. I am, in essence, a darned sock* for sexual organs. My ovaries were spared and relocated to sunny new condos in my abdomen for their protection should I require additional treatment.

I am happy. I am unable to bear children and don’t find that difficult to deal with. I never wanted children. To me, the operation was as if they had taken out my appendix– it’s nothing I need for any specific purpose and I wouldn’t miss it if it was gone.
I don’t feel damaged.
I feel liberated.

So why bring it up if I don’t have a chip on my shoulder or some rant to indulge? (This is a blog after all and too often blogs get wrapped up in the negative experiences of a person’s life… hopefully, you don’t find much of that here.)

I saw an article on my RSS news feed this morning about helping women through the post-cancer sexual difficulties. I had them to a certain extent, even some amounts of depression surrounding it, but I ‘found myself’ again and am a well-adjusted ‘whole’ female in my eyes. This BBC article introduced a device (available through the NHS) to help women on the journey to sexual satisfaction after gynaecological cancer surgery. It’s an article about a device that cares about a woman’s enjoyment and involvement in sex again– not the typical women’s health stance of simply keeping her disease free.

Here’s the article link. I hope it helps someone out there.
You go girls!

smooches~
jEN

*For those who may be puzzled by this term: if you have a hole in your sock, you ‘darn’ it. That’s where you take a needle and thread to sew it up. Nearly unheard of in our throwaway society these days…

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Sep

23

It’s pizza and movie night

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 4 Comments

I’m finally seeing Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

The more vodka laced lemonades I have, the tougher it is to read subtitles.

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Sep

22

BT is off the hook with me…

Filed Under me so g33ky, regular, tout le fromage | 7 Comments

We are back to the land of broadband. A BT tech came out today to help narrow down and fix any problems. (What a really nice guy too!) Turns out, we had some faulty settings in the router. And faulty settings in a brand new, fresh out of the box router too. After the chap from BT left for his next appointment, Neil contacted our ISP only to find that two of the default settings needed changed. Hmmmm… settings that never needed changed in any way before suddenly went bad in the middle of the day during normal usage. We’re thinking the ISP changed some stuff on their end and sort of ‘forgot’ to tell us. I’ve had similar experiences with my US ISPs, and so we’re pretty sure they’re just covering their tracks now. Bastards.

No matter. They’ve lost us as a customer anyway thanks to Be*. I missed my call from Tania (at Be*) on Tuesday likely due to our need to be on the rip-off rate dial-up through our current ISP. Didn’t think to check the messages since we were so used to getting calls through with the DSL. Hopefully, when I ring her back in a few minutes she’ll have good news about how quickly she can get us upgraded and switched to their 24meg service. I still need to tell you what I did to win the contest, but that’ll have to wait for another post or so. Right now I need to call her back and wade through the loads of emails that have piled up over the past few days…
* sigh *

smooches~
jEN

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Sep

21

What I’m reading right now

Filed Under me so g33ky, regular, tout le fromage | 5 Comments

I read loads of things in spurts, mostly technically minded jibber-jabber in reference books regarding web usability, CSS, and other geeky stuff. Sometimes I indulge in books about grammar and language, though, to read my writing you must take into account that I don’t absorb nearly as much as I read… :)
For no good reason, this proficient, yet amateur-league ‘reader’ has decided to post the books she’s perusing and page turning currently. You’ll get some insight about me from my choices, but remember that I’m more than what I read– I’m also tattoos and a few punk rock cds. ;)

Nearly finished: Just finished:
The Wasp Factory, by Iain Banks

We’ve only just begun:
Mind Hacks, by Tom Stafford & Matt Webb, (O’Reilly publication)

You’d think I’d be done by now:
On Writing, by Stephen King

Indulgent dippings:
The New Well-Tempered Sentence, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon

Informative but not particularly pleasurable:
Writing Copy for the Web, by Nigel Temple
Stylin’ with CSS, by Charles Wyke-Smith

That’s most of it for now. I’ve always got more than half a dozen bookmarked and placed in optimal reading spots in the flat, but that’s the little bunch that comes to mind right now.

smooches~
jEN

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