Now this I find interesting ... I receive a copy of the letter from the neurologist ( about whom I was ranting last week ) to my GP , noting that I am much improved generally ( what ? ) and that May was a very good month for me though June has been unfortunately less good with three severe headaches . Three ? I sqwark , three ? I saw him write in his notes that immediately prior to my attendance I had had ten days of headaches , and that was just that bit of the month . You really aren't interested in hearing about the rest of the month ....What is going on here ?
Ah here is the reason .. he signs off that he is intending to discharge me due to my improvements blah blah . Would look a bit odd to say we do not appear able to assist this woman so are discharging her anyway . But why not , on reflection . Why not indeed ? What price honesty ? Failing does not sit easy ? Do I do this in my job ? This I need to think about .

However , I am on a bit of a high so I have no intention of letting any of that get me down . Since then I have had one or two minor setbacks but otherwise have been well .

I am officially now on holiday for several days . Despite the rain outside ( very heavy ) I cannot quite believe it will continue ) , and by Sat when we collect our hire camper van from York it will be sunshine all round and we will be exloring Bronte country and then further afield whilst Nat is on her school trip to Europe ( France Belgium Germany ). Those teachers deserve a medal .
Alice is psyching herself by sleeping at every possible opportunity , her head under the cushion .
She has particularly revelled in the practice runs on the local wine bar , and test drives of our bed ( the occasional afternoon snooze ) , and has even " done sharing " with the cats . Kitty is not amused .
Laura is moving in to take care of house and cats and has her own plans ( Mouth of the Tyne Festival this weekend ) .
PS . How do you spell sqwark ? Anybody ?

Canny dancer that Matt

If you need to smile ...YouTube - Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

Deacon Blue .... I get to go out yet again ....

Spurred on by the success of Elton John , despite the late night on Sat , when my phone wakes me at some unGodly hour ( it was certainly pre seven am ) asking do I want a ticket for the Sage and Deacon Blue that night , I turn over thinking No no please , I have to sleep , I have a cat to feed at seven thirty and I will definitely be brewing a headache by eight , and we are having brakfast at Lui's and there is the dog to walk and Laura is staying and I have ironing to do ( which is all pants as anyone who knows me knows I haven't ironed anything since 1994 ). But miracles by eight I am full of energy and I am arranging the ticket and after a light day dog walking , breakfasting , CatCalling , entertaining , and finally almost fainting at the amount that Nat forces me to spend at Silverlink on her holiday toiletries as the school trip to France and Germany looms large (£25 for a few holiday sizes of this and that , though there was a sun cream and an after sun which she is so going to be needing ... currrently we are lashing it down here ) . She realises I am failing fast and pushes me into Starbucks and orders me a tall caramel frappucino light something or other and sits me down whilst ascertaining that half her friendship group is also at the centre and thus can all rendez vous at our house in a few minutes time .....

I stagger into the house wondering how I will cope with another night out so set the alarm and fall into bed for an hour . Asleep in seconds , awake again in minutes ( 60 ) , I cram down a toastie whilst Nat and her pal look me up and down and re arrange my attire and hairstyle , declare me " cute " and push me out of the door with advice about my hometime .

Advising my friends that its well past my seven o clock watershed they are only too happy to give me clear driving instructions ( their plan had been to cycle to the venue ) so they tolerate my emergency stops and various other foibles well despite never having met me , and we arrive in one piece ( ish ) .

I'm going out more often . Its official .

Elton John comes to Darlington ...

...and I get to see him ......!! and you can too , click to enlarge ....I waited twenty five years for this , worth every minute .


A covered seat in the arena , very useful when the heavens opened , A rainbow over the proceedings just as he started to sing Yellow Brick Road , cheese pies , maltesers, a mad scramble for the shuttle buses at midnight . No headache . What more could I ask ?

Not Today Thank You

Cat spied at the end of our road this morning .

Long shot of the Erections

I'm beginning to get the erections .

Shot from the top of Collinwood monument and looking along the river mouth ( river Tyne ) on a brilliantly fine day , they do add something .

I love the photo of the Tynemouth dogwalkers trying not to look .

Cantankerous and Perimenopausal ?

Perusing my headache diary for light relief this evening , and pausing to colour in another few squares in light purple , the colour for " mild headache " , I note that I have not in fact been headache free for some ten days now . Neither wonder I feel like stuffing an old corgi down someone's throat and saying Oops sorry I can't let you have a pain killer ,they're restricted . Only five per month then better just to sleep it off , or you are sure to suffer rebound heads . So sorry .

Bitter and twisted ? Me ? Cantankerous and perimenopausal ( surely not ? ) more like . Either way I'm angry at the wrong person here , the consultant at the end of the day being the person who is trying to assist . But who am I supposed to be angry with ? It reminds me of that Buddhist story of the boat in the mist coming straight at you and you get really narked with it then as it crashes into you and you start mouthing off at it you realise the boat is empty . And your anger dissolves ..... the boat just hit you but .. so what .....

So , after a great start this morning , when after my rant of last night , I felt great , and my headache was less , and I felt like I could take on the world , and I photographed a few erections ( see my previous post ) and then I went to the dentist and didn't need a filling just had a scrape and polish ( oops scale and polish ) , and then after a fun meeting in town with a prospective work contact ( the head still banging ) , I started theorising again .
Why all these heads ?
Why ?
Why me ?
Why now ?
Why these last few months can I barely recall a head free week ?
What is going on ?

And as ever I look for new theories . We all do it ( I suppose ? ) .... one week its food intolerances . Next week its stress . Then it's my hormones . Next its the heat . Or the cold . Pollen . The sea . The city . Blah blah . Today Im on wifi , after reading a blog where someone casually mentioned a headache linked with their wireless network .
I'm on a mission now to get us switched off . But I know for a fact that even if we switch off ours , we can access about three of our neighbours' .... a thing we wouldn't of course do ( haha ) but if we in theory could, then in practice it means it is still whirring round my head at all hours of the night and day .
Proof ! No wonder I am a walking wrecklet .

I google "wireless networks and headaches" .

Whilst there I discover a new theory . This one is called "muscular convergence insufficiency of the eyes leading to diplopia ". I have made a note of it . By tomorrow ( when I have time to research it ) I will probably have this condition too .
It causes headaches so bad that people have been known to be admitted to hospital and is frequently misdiagnosed as migraine . I rest my case .