The Longsands , now and in its heyday

The picture on the left was taken August this year and the one on the right from a photograph exhibited in No 61 a cafe and guesthouse in Tynemouth Front Street .

I have seen the beach crowded but never anything like the scene above . Amazing .

The Plaza is still visible on the top left if the picture is enlarged . It burnt down some ten years ago .. Walking past with N in a buggy the day after , there were still charred papers and fragments of the building blowing in the wind .

Wake at 4am and Pearl is keeping watch from her vantage point on the chest , and Kitty sleeping quietly on the end of the bed , though doubtless spitting and hissing if any foot movement disturbs her .

I shift carefully to see if the headache has gone . There is still a knitting needle poking through my head behind my left eye , boring a track of fire . Hot waves wash through my head and I think again of the ice helmets or ice packs I have seen advertised and never understood previously when all I have wanted has been warmth to my neck where the pain starts .

Though trying to take as few painkillers as possible as they inevitably cause headaches in themselves , I need something to deal with this so I find Syndol and swallow a whole one knowing this will knock me out fairly fast . I lie there looking at Pearl and watching her as she watches me and think about pain relief in labour and breathing through the pain and conclude that I never understood it when I was in labour and I dont understand it now . But I watch my breathing and try to keep my head still and think ahead to half an hour's time when the medication will be working and I will float off leaving the pain behind me and I start to feel a little spaced out and once I can feel the effects and I know its going to happen the panic starts to lessen .

RedBubble

Another plug for RedBubble . Having posted some of my photos at the suggestion of Michelle who commented here , as otherwise I would never have thought my stuff was worthy , I am now seeing some great comments about my pictures which is amazing ... so any of you out there with photos to show , go for it . I'm glad I did .

Migraine Days

I've used this before as a visual image for my migraines so sorry if you've seen it before . But it seems to me to summarise perfectly how my head is spilling out all over , nothing makes sense , I can't make myself understood properly , or believe I can't . Sometimes I talk and I'm not making sense and I can see that in other people's faces , sometimes , like today , no one seems to notice that Im talking gibberish . Mostly no one knows as I don't see anyone outside the family . The cats are all used to my nonsense anyway , and they're delighted at the extra time I spend lying down trying to make my head disappear . It never does .

But maybe the throbbing and sensation of being on fire in my head ( which is new , now I understand those ads for ice helmets ) will recede by tomorrow .

I will be back , laptop permitting . It needs to go off somewhere but I have four reports to write next week and I'm hoping I can get them done before it finally waves goodbye ( literally ).

laptop and other crises

Picture from the Andy Warhol section at the Baltic .

Note reflection in bottom right hand corner.

Excursion to Yorkshire yesterday ended in disaster . Became ill after eating heavily spiced parsnip soup and had to be driven home at great speed with my head wrapped in my jacket to block out the light . Held it together long enough for CatCalls then driving away from the last one , my will power gave way and I powered down the window and projectile vomiting ensued across the road ( rather a nice one at that , tree lined ) , just as a young girl was approaching the car so to avoid her gaze I moved on and took up again around the corner . Later , after the car had been hosed down with a watering can ( D , not me , thank you ) and I was safely in bed , echoes of Little Britten and the garden fete ladies , only in my case an attack of parsnip soup not racism or homophobia .

Now my laptop is severely indisposed . There seems to be a bad connection between the lap and the top and the screen becomes wavy and vague ( like me , today ) every five minutes . Typing is sometimes possible with one hand , holding the lid in place with the other hand .

My cats are fed for the morning . I am going back to bed to try to fix my pounding head .

Reiki

I had the most amazing reiki session today with Nina Dawning. Incredible , and I will write more tomorrow .
The weather is forecasting Rain tomorrow but I cant quite believe it . After all the dark clouds coming to nothing these last days , I can't see that the Sun is gone yet .
Either way , there is a wet weather and a hot day holiday plan .

Elton or David ?

Fascination with Isabella Blow led me to read the article in the Sunday Times magazine about her recent demise after swallowing weedkiller ( at least I suppose that's what she did with it ) and spotting an obvious grammatical error in the card allegedly accompanying flowers at her funeral from Elton John and David Furnish ( let's hope I've spelled that right in view of my comments ), which reads : Darling Izzy the world will be a much less brighter place without you with love Elton and David .

They can be forgiven , grief being an awful thing, but I find myself noting such mistakes with irritation in a way which irks me . There are in fact grammatical errors everywhere today , and once (again allegedly) Grumpy Old Women like me ( though in fact I am actually quite Young ) have died out or ( perhaps better still , and less irksome ) Stopped Noticing , the world will be a different place .
I cringe every time I ring my daughter's school and hear the recorded message which contains a real clanger . I found myself unbearable to be around when I finally attended the school and found mistake after mistake on the walls and ( and this was the real killer ) in the teachers' handwriting . I hopped about a bit and muttered under my breath but looking round found it difficult to imagine finding anyone who would care really , and as I didn't want to cause any more embarassment ( to my long sufferening daughter ) than I already had simply by appearing at school at parent's evening , I sighed and went home . A lost cause .

And now this . Elton and David. In the Sunday Times .

PS spot the deliberate mistake in this post ?