Hospital Trip (by sarah)

So I went to the hospital to see what the surgon had to say and after being pulled around, x-rayed, hit with hammers (reflex testing ones) and being questioned for several hours the answer is - there is nothing they can do.

And there is still no diagnosis :( I ask - so whats cuasing the pain - the weakness - they just shrug and say they'll contact my GP and its back to pain management :'(

So in other words I'm still screwed - nothings going to change its going to be like this forever.

I cried as soon as I left the office.

I tried not to get my hopes up that something would happen but part of me couldn't help it :(

Silly Sarah (by sarah)

I think maybe I have been watching too many horror movies lately.

Last night I had miss placed my phone - this is quiet a normal occurance and as the BT guy had fixed the landline I thought I'd use that to phone my mobile.

So this is what I did and there in the distance upstairs was the jingle of my ring tone. Now I was doing this becuase I was slightly spooked - Al wasn't here nor was dad and it was dark and there had been a strange sound that was a cat and there had been a huge spider fall on me from the rafters and was currently sitting on the bedroom wall looking at me.

I picked the phone up and looked at the screen - Oh my God! Someone from the village is calling me! At this time of night something must be wrong! So I answered the phone whilst heading downstairs to put the landline back on the hook.

And there was an opressive silence that then begain to echo back my own voice. I went still with panic and then realised... I'd phoned myself! I laughed and hung up both phones feeling really quiet stupid. But I was still feeling spooked so I phoned Al and we set up a skype call.

He has a camera on his laptop so his image came up but it was distorting in a way that made him look like some pale alien - I screamed :/ And woke Jean up and Alaric was non plussed to here why I'd screamed.

I also think perhapse my pain killers are making thought processes a bit harder than normal to honest :/

It sounds really silly and I have no idea why I got so spooked at all but it really was a horror movie moment and then it was a spoof moment and yes as alwasys I'm a silly Sarah :/

Earshot Poetry Night (by sarah)

For anyone who's are Cheltenham this evening I'm going to be reading some of my poems at Slaks Comedy Bar on the Bath Street.

The Headliners of the evening are top poetry dudes from Bristol Byron Vincent and Angie Belcher.

I've seen Byron perform before and lets put it this way - its the only time I've ever seen Alaric truelly engaged whilst listening to poetry.

I am a bit nervous as I haven't read anything since like Febuary so feel a bit rusty!

I have selected four poems as requested:

The Break-Up

Summer Sales

Ana

The Markov Chains of Literature

Out of these only The Markov Chains of Literature has been read out at an event by me namely Tech Adventure earlier this year.

Not entirely sure what the secedule is for the night or how many of the four will be read but I will have on my nice red boots (I was going to wear my glittery heels but walking Jean to school has resulted in hurting shins and clicky pelvis so thought better of it - the boots are flat no heels!).

1000th Blog Post!!! (by sarah)

Yes that's right this is our 1000th blog post on this blog!

Imagine streamers and balloons and glasses of fizzy stuff and cake!

To the first 10 people to comment on the this post there will be a 1000th blog post limited edition Wiggly Pet! The only condition is that you actually have to come and visit us to pick the Wiggly Pet up though there is no time limit on this ;)

The Wiggly Pet will of course be glittery!

(@ndy you still need to claim the Wiggly Pet you won from me ages ago over Percival the mouse)

The blog is of course 5 years old as well so there will be a further 5 purple and blue sparkly Wiggly Pets with 5yrs of Snell-Pym on them :) (tacky I know but hey its me!)

We origonally started this blog up as a notice board to say how the wedding went as we got frustrated having to keep typing the same stuff over and over again in emails then Al made it so it was easy for me to add photos and from here my blog empire has arisen! :)

I hope we are still an interesting read - it was actually a bit of a shock to us when we found that lots of random people read the blog but they do and it has provided useful information for them and sometimes they give us useful information about a problem or crisis we are having which is all good.

I at least am now addicted to blogging so will no doubt continue to bore you all with family events and Jean cuteness and musings and ramblings on philosophy, society, science and art, and I'm pretty sure Alaric will continue with all his technical posts.

I have the other blogs out of nessecity as I found I was creating too much content which could be split into various catagories plus I love setting up blogs and making/fiddling with themes making each blog look like its subject matter :)

As a chronic diary writer (thanks to Aunty Lizzy and a Christmas presant when I was like 12!) blogs are the perfect medium for me to whitter in and as for Al it is an over spill of his note books - somewhere he can share his ideas and the like :)

We hope to continue boring you for the fore seeable future.

Swine Flu? (by sarah)

Ok I have loads of nice happy posts half written and waiting to go live but I've been sick again :(

After Rob's 40th and Ulrike's birthday I was clearing stuff up when like a switch flipping I sudddeny got a runny noise, sneezes and coughing but most of all a damn great headache that felt like the mother of all storms was happening in my head.

Rob hadn't come up to set stuff for the party on Thursday as he was trying to make sure he hadn't could swine flu from work colleagues who are currently off work with it down in London.

But it turns out that the initial comments on incubation periods where wrong and are still unsure and could be more like 5 days than the 2 he was told.

I have to confess I did have a nightmare the night before people started to turn up that instead of it being the Masquerade of the Red Death written by Edgar Allen Poe, I was holding the Concert of the Swine Flu.

Not that it mattered holding a party for London people, and a nursey type person in a flu epidemic or pan demic or what ever it is, as all of this was negated by the fact that a grumpy, fevery Jean came home from pre-school brandishing a letter saying that one of the children in her group was down with suspected swine flu and here where the guidelines - they had the previous week sent out what the education board and health people were suggesting.

I also received a leaflet informing me I was a high risk category due to my general health stuff. Looking at Jean and feeling like a complete hypochondriac I went on the NHS website and there was a link through to the panflu site.

Al, it turned out, had already done their questionnaire and thought I should - he'd come out as fine so it's still his post-viral asthma from the last lot of flu he had acting up - poor thing's still on an inhaler.

I'd spent a lot of the day asleep in fevered dreams on Monday so Al was a bit concerned as he'd woken me up several times and I'd just gone straight back to sleep etc...

It was like being hit with a sledge hammer - I was clearing up and then wham! Sick - Monday night also saw me being sick sick in the tummy way of things and then the key thing my teeth started to hurt - this only ever happens when I have a viral infection.

Anyway I digress I did the questionnaire and it was - the patient appears to have complications contact your GP - sigh.

Jean was not in a good way Tuesday morning either so after some faffy medical stuff Alaric was dispatched to get us antivirals I'm on the 75 mg Tamiflu and Jean's on the 45gm Tamiflu along with instructions on how to make sure it gets into her.

Poor Jean keeps bursting into tears if you tell her off for the slightest things and she keeps having nightmares and doesn't want to be on her own - she reckons she's scared of everything which is a bit puzzling but, bizarrely, it was one of the symptoms asked about on the form.

Jean has a great way of describing things; she said she has fire in her bones and that she had shapes that hurt in her throat.

I suddenly had a back flare up but it turned out that its inflammation from the flu - I couldn't sit up by myself :(

Having said all this though - this is not bad flu for me - I only checked because I was concerned as I always get chest infections and stuff from flu and really don't want pneumonia again to be quiet honest and it coming from two sources and Jeany being sick meant I had to do something.

About the only thing I did when I came down sick was email high risk people from the party to tell them. I slept most of yesterday, too, and have only just woken up today, and - are ribs supposed to hurt?

I have had lots of people telling me I shouldn't be taking or giving the Tamiflu to Jean but I'm trusting the Drs with this one and am hoping they know what they are doing.

I was still quite surprised they where giving the antiviral out as I thought it was being rationed.