Musical Me (by sarah)

I've been practicing the guitar like a demon - well there's this little gap in the day when Mary is awake but not feeding and it coincides with Jean being around so I tend to spend then practicing the guitar. With a dose of nursery rhymes.

I am also learning the Firefly theme The Ballad of Serenity and the Hero of Canton just to be geeky and music mistro at the same time 🙂

Now I'm not really what I would call naturally musical, I can't read music, have little technical knowledge of the subject and spent a chunk of my early life with hearing problems, but I love music and I want to play it - I know I'm not really any good at it but I know that this also doesn't really matter.

I am making leaps and bounds with the guitar playing (still know 13 year olds that would make me look like a beginner because though I have had a guitar since I was 15 that is what I am!). Little things are clicking in my head - like I never could do strumming patterns - I still don't look at what they are supposed to be I just play but I noticed that I am hitting the right strings automatically some of which I always concidered impossible.

I have finially broken the back of reading tabs though I still end up with furrowed brow and pauses as I try and position both hands with multiple fingers for plucking. I am also attempting to combine strumming and plucking - again something I never thought I'd be able to do.

I know this all basic stuff but believe me it took me along time just to get rhythm - I'm not what you'd call a natural. Also the guitar music I was trying to play was far to advanced for me and getting the Nursery Rhyme and Christmas Carol book as helped so much - they are aimed at kids and so are my level.

The ability to tune the guitar is coming back too though I am still a slave to the tuner - when we first moved here I tried tuning from the piano at Barbara's but it never sounded right (mainly it turned out because the piano was out of tune).

I have also found things much easier since I stopped trying to completely mimic songs - I need to know what the song is supposed to sound like in order to start playing it but then I alter it to fit with how my voice wants to sing it. I'm sure half of you are cringing at that and Mum has apoplexy that I don't play the right tunes but sometimes the tunes are boring or it's too low for me.

Issues I still have is that my hands are being a little bit rubbery at the moment but I swear playing the guitar helps prevent the complete collapses that I've had in the past but I still have to restrict practice and incorporate it into the 'pacing' for pain management. On that note I can't currently play my new guitar due to it being too heavy for me to lift and swore joints make the extra push down on the metal strings painful.

I still fail at bar cords and those that I can make 'ring' (not sure the technical terms for half of this) I can't change into quickly and changing from one to another just is not even on the horizon. This is a shame as alot of my favorite songs use them :/ On the other hand I have found that I can work out simpler/easier for me to play cords that with me singing soprano works - though I again can see people throttling me as I sing heavy metal in a choir voice!

And this leads me into the singing thing - I really miss singing - I miss it so much - I sing to the girls all the time but though that is lovely it is not the same. I've hunted around for choirs but they do tend to be either just choral stuff - Latin etc... or they are naff and they cost a fortune!

But in desperation I had a little look around on the internets again and found there is a group that sounds vaguelly like MT Soc (Op Soc to the oldies) that I belonged to at college and they put shows on at the Everyman Theater and the Playhouse in Cheltenham. I really want to join this group though I need to learn to drive first really - the only down side is they do focus almost entirely on Gilbert and Sullivan - this only makes me sad as I feel there is so much more to musical theater and light opera.

I really enjoyed being in things like The Little Shop of Horrors at college but from memory just the right to perform the modern stuff is sky high. But The Cotswold Savoyards definatly sounds more up my street - I tend to prefer it if there is some acting involved plus you get outfits!!!! Droool.

But as I said joining this group would be in the future once I learn to drive and more importantly am back off of crutches.

Part of me is kicking myself for not having claimed domestic space for the music stuff before - I always hide the guitar away and had trouble keeping tuner, plectrums, guitar and music all in the same place and then the flood happened - mixed in with the issues with my hands and it's makes for poor neglected guitar. I'm sort of thinking - wow if I'd spent all the time form 15 until now playing guitar with daily practice I might actually be ok at it rather than at the - well I can play some nursery rhymes stage :/

Mirror Baby and Baby Sign (by sarah)

On Wednesday Mary discovered Mirror Baby - this is the baby in the mirror - when Jean used to be sad we would show her mirror baby and point out the sad baby and that if she smiled it would cheer up!

Mary like Jean has locked onto the image of another human and like she is doing with everybody - smiling her little head off 🙂

Then we come to baby sign and something that I'm sure can not be happening yet but even one keeps commenting on it and I thought it myself. If Mary is not wailing but hungry she makes little mah noises and then once you pick her up does what appears to be the milk sign in baby sign. I assume it is just because it is the sort of movement babies make anyway. Jean is very excited about this but then according to Jean Mary pulled all the cloths off the side in her bedroom and has conversations with her :/

Either way I respond to it as if it is baby sign in the hope that she will notice - when I do this I get milk - hmm it's the same thing everyone does when talking about 'food'.

Pain Flare (by sarah)

I have lots more cute pics and lots of things to write about but I am having to be very careful - I am in pain flare up mode - I don't mean the seperated pelvis I mean the muscle spasms and dull aching, the fire, shooting pains and being stuck by pins. Alot of the muscle pain has been muted during the pregnancy - spasms were less due to the pregnancy hormone but now they are crashing back.

So I am having to pace things and juggle various issues like sleep, breast feeding, anemia and pain management for things that need different treatments.

But bare with me and pics of baby will be forth coming!

A Perfect Me Day (by sarah)

Today I got up and between breast feds and also during breast feds I made and designed cards. Some of these were thankyou cards printing out my own art work to cut out and stick with glue, some were birthday cards and some invites. There were stickers involved too and card toppers 🙂 This was done to the accompanyment of U2.

Then it started hailing and rain so Jean and Alaric came in and domesticness happened including yummy lunch of cheese and chutney toasties. We then went out to Primrose Vale Farm Shop - this was actually my first outing were there was sunshine! It was golden and lovely and sureal - we listened to Red Hot Chilli Peppers and bought nice cheeses and lovely vegitables and some funky looking popping corn. We then went and got some dinner.

On the way back to the car there was a vivid rainbow arching across the storm clouds that had appeared dark and grey tinged with violet. On close inspection the rainbow appeared to be a double rainbow with a second fainter arch on the outside. We explained about rainbows to Jeany who asked more and more questions and then had to chase the rainbow to prove what we said was true. The sunlight made the trees appear to be glowing gold and copper against the dark clouds and we listened to Gary Numan.

Board of chasing rainbows we sat at a veiwing point wating a peach and Turkish delight sunset with Tori Amos playing in the back ground, Alaric and Jean went for a walk whilst the wind scouped out the clouds into a billowed sail which drove it's mullioned shape across a brooding sky until it darkened into a drizling twilight with dirty storm light yellow tinging the edges and the lights of Gloucester begain to glint below.

We drove home to the Stone Roses and I read Terry Pratchette whilst feeding Mary and Al and Jean played Rush Hour. Jean then went to bed with a Mystery story from Daddy whilst I played my purple sparkly electric guitar - remembering part of a song I'd written at 14-15 with such delightful lyrics as 'my bones are a battle field'. It sounded good after some mucking about with tone, pick-ups and over drive settings!

I also played Mary to sleep with Little Boy Blue played harshly and loud, then some mucking about just playing randomly (at which point Al says 'oh that sounds better' :/). Playing around with what I can do resulted in Al putting on a Pink Floyd song he thought I'd been trying to work out and I'm doing some writing now!

Also this was an outing were I got out of the car and actually went into places ie Farm Shop - it was physically exhorsting and I struggled abit with standing towards the end but I did it! I almost managed to get my legs into the car myself too which is a vast improvement over last week!

I have a few story concepts to write down and then hopefully sleep as Mary's just had a big feed 🙂

The Weight Plateu (by sarah)

Well when I came out of hospital I was 13 st, the following week I had lost 3 pounds, then by last week I was 12 and a half stone - today I am still 12 and a half 🙁 I have reached my first weight platue 🙁

But on the plus side this is weight loss with just breast feeding and shuffling around the house abit but mostly sitting breast feeding or sleeping. Come Monday I feel that my wound will be heeled enough for me to attempt walking with the crutches. I did another outing and this time did not see stars or go sideways with dizzyness on route to the car though I still got very very tired after a mere half an hour driving in the car. The wound is still weeping a little but feels much better so I really feel that I can tackle walking (with crutches) if the anemia will allow it.

I will start with our drive way and progress to going for coffees in Cheltenham. I am hoping that some walking everyday will not only help the seperated pelvis but also help me reach the next weight platoe.

In fact I have a things fixed in my head as a progress for the fitness and weight loss. First off in another two weeks I will be able to start physio. Depending on how my wound is by then I will be able to go swimming and start pilates. However I feel that starting all these things at once will take up too much time and money plus more importantly make me very tired having gone from nothing to everything so I am going to stagger it. I am going to wait to talk to the physio over what to do first.

Eventually I want to take up belly dancing but that I think needs to wait until the crutches are gone. It is also rather expensive so may have to be instead of pilates and swimming or something.

Anyway - expect more moaning about weight.