electricians at play! (by sarah)

When the electrician was about I took some photographs - here they are showing glourious wires dangling out of things and big tools that go wizz!

Earthquake (by sarah)

Last night at 0:57 according to my alarm clock there was an earthquake. It woke me up - at first I thought my back was spasming but there was a marked abscense of pain so I thought the cat must be cleaning herself vigourously on the bed next to me except something didn't seem quiet right with that either.

Then I realised it was the building shaking, it was like being inside a bell, ting ting ting, high pitched and full of harmonics - all the vases and trinket boxes not to mention the glass door cabernates where resonating, chinking and ringing with a sort of strange music. Perplexed I still lay in my bed scrabling for my glasses, then the light switch clicked but alas the shaking had dimished so that I could not rate it on the ....... scale. The motion had been decidedly sideways and I had heared no plane or anything plus the motion was... sustained.

However I know sufficiently large explosions can cuase tremors so I phoned AL to make sure he was ok and too try and convince him to twitter and blog the event but he wouldn't. I phoned my mum whilst doing the rounds to check that Jean etc... was ok - no one else had awoken and I begian to doubt myself especially when Mum said 'you sure you didn't have a dizzy spell.' I answered that no it couldnt have been as there was the sounds I had heared.

Al had asked if there was any other sound and this was a hard question for me to answer as due to having spent my early years almost completely deaf (untill 4 when I had an op) I 'hear' sound with motion such as thumping floor boards - the reason I loved my dads heavy metal initially and not the more melodic sweet music of my mum - I could feel the music. To me the undulation motion was a sort of noise but I don't think there was an actual audiable noise.

Alaric was suprised I was so excited but I was like - its a geological phonominon and I never thought I'd experience my first earthquake in a bed in Gloucestershire! I had sort of assumed that that honour would occure when we finially got to visit places like Japan!

On the news this morning they reported the quake to be 5 on the rictor scale and occuring at 1 in the morning - did anyone else feel this? Which fualt? What depth etc.... more info greatly appricieted!

Medieval Machines (by sarah)

On Saturday me, Al and Jean went to the Cheltenham Museum and looked at the Medieval Machines they currently have there!

Jean loved it!

They also had a medieval loom which I have used for a blog post. We also had a little look around some of the rest of the museum including the special exhibate which is currently a lot of prints showing the Alphabet of trees - which I have also written up on Salaric!

It was lots of fun 🙂 And very very interactive - though JEan didn't like the jousting horse cos it moved too much. I personally feel that Al got more out of the bridge building excersise than she did but never mind! There was also a water wheel which she really liked and I felt was highly appropriate considering where we live! Unfortunatly she did become abit obsessed with the giant hour glass that she made Al turn over repeatedly for her 🙂

Chicken Pox – Again (by sarah)

Yesturday as well as my physio appointment we had an appointment for Jean as she has had a perminate cold for about six weeks and it had esculated in the last few days. The result of the appointment was that she was fine and it is just a string of colds etc... but its good for her immune system. If the cough becomes weezy come back etc... becuase there is a slight chance that she could have asthma.

I asked about glue ear and he said it was borderline at the moment but that they now avoid putting gromets in as it tends to clear its self up and they have less invasive techniques now - I had gromets twice so I am obviously on edge about Jeans hearing.

Again we now have a list of things to look out for - she is still abit young for a hearing test to be reliable but shes responding to sound so hopefully she'll be ok.

Anyway, we sent her into nursery and at 2pm we get a phone call saying that she is covered in spots and has chicken pox and could we come and get her - sigh - that will be why she was suddenly worse with the cold stuff. How many times is she going to get this particular thing?

Again she doesn't even reaklly seem ill - no temperature just getting tired quickly and being abit naughty really.

More Physio (by sarah)

Yesturday saw more physio for me including some light massage to try and get the muscles out of spasm - apparently the muscles in my back have been in continous spasm for at least four months which is supposed to be absolutly exhusting :/ I have two weeks of the current excersises and gentle massage and if the muscles haven't started to ease up its back to the doctors for muscle relaxents.

Also though previously they couldn't find any nerve damage apparently there is but its on a different set of nerves to those that do the reflexes which is why it wasnt showing up. This is why I have descensatized skin and why I sometimes loose control of legs and stuff. However the nerve issue is probably from inflamation in the opening in the vertibrea where the nurve comes out and it is sort of putting pressure on it so that the signals are all just dulled rather than having complete lose - this is actually a bit of a pain as it means its alot harder to pin point exactly where the trouble is.

I have to say that I am very very sore after this session and am not looking forward to more indefinate pain. On top of that my pain killers give me headaches so I am a mega grump at the moment.