Taking my finger off the self-destruct button

Horace

Wordsmith - you are a big softy.

I need someone to be stern with me, I need to tidy up, do washing up and stuff and the more I look at it the more depressed I get:(

I have a lurgy too which isnt helping - seem to have a permanent headache, keep being dizzy and my nose is sniffly...I do not have time to be ill:mad:

Loving the tales of the menagerie - cute face or not kitten should have gone to a new home, I am sure the pensioner would have loved a little companion..:D

Wordsmith

Horace wrote: »

Wordsmith - you are a big softy.

Am not, so.

Wordsmith

I’ve been AWOL for a couple of weeks, although I’ve been dipping in to other people’s diaries. Thanks for checking up, lionheartedgirl. Here’s a round-up of what’s been happening, which is not very much.

Animals
All well. Well, I think mama cat is OK – she’s taken to spending nights away, the tart. I don’t know where. Finn is eating enough for a family of six – I’ve wormed him, but his appetite is enormous. He and Brian get on really well, but when Brian isn’t around Finn is very demanding of attention. He knows how to get it, too – his claws and teeth are excruciatingly sharp. The tart (the original one) is well, although suddenly a bit more old-ladyish than she was.

There was a stray dog around the place a week ago. A lovely, friendly terrier cross. She was particularly taken with Charlie, so my tart’s nose was severely put out of joint as the stray became Charlie’s new girlfriend. The stray spent the night in my house, but the tart wouldn’t let her in the bedroom. Our morning walk was fun – three dogs and two cats. We managed to reunite her with her delighted owner, which was heartwarming, especially since hundreds of healthy dogs get put down in my county every year (I can’t remember the exact number, but it runs into thousands) – dogs are regularly dumped or go missing and the pound will keep them only for a week. County Clare has the worst rate of stray dogs in the whole of Europe, I seem to remember reading. The lucky few get rescued by dedicated individuals and shipped over to Wales and England for rehoming.

Health
OK, except for an infection in my eye, which has made reading and therefore working very difficult. It was a bit red one evening, then very red the next day and I just happened to be in my office (when really I should have been somewhere else) and one of the partners in the shop came in – he’s a GP and comes to the shop once a week so that he can do non-GP things. I kept quiet (I will never ask him for advice because he’s here on his day off) but the other partner sent him in to me and he took one look at my eye and sent me off to A&E with a letter of referral. They’ve closed what was the nearest A&E so one of the domestic goddesses drove me to Limerick. Ye gods. Limerick A&E is bad enough on a Wednesday afternoon (although, to be fair, security had to be called just the once), I dread to think what it would be like on a Friday or Saturday night. For some reason a nurse took my blood pressure, told me it was high and then no one referred to it again. When I finally got to see an eye doctor, he wasn’t very communicative, just gave me four lots of cream and drops, didn’t really tell me what to do with them, and told me to come back this Thursday. I am rather squeamish about eyes (and most other body parts). Still, the eye is much improved, but I have no idea whether there is an underlying problem. And I don’t know whether I am going to get a bill from the hospital – I suspect I will. I am eating fairly healthily, but am now worried about high blood pressure so I might have to do some serious thinking about lifestyle changes.

House
This is probably the reason for the high blood pressure. It should have been so simple – tenants of four years want to buy house, price agreed, no chain … it is a long story that I won’t bore you with, but we have now had two dates for exchange that have come and gone. The buyers had a mortgage offer but off their own back decided to get a building report done on some work that was done on the house about ten years ago – fair enough, I can’t blame them for wanting to be sure about it, but I think their main reason was to try to get me to knock some money off the price at the last minute. This has somewhat backfired because they sent the report (which says that the building works could be dangerous and will need remedial work – oh, and by the way, was written by a friend of theirs) to the solicitor, who was then legally bound to send it to the mortgage provider (who, don’t forget, had already offered the mortgage) and so now there is a chance they might withhold some of the monies. I am not going to drop the price (which we agreed last January), and so we are just waiting … and waiting.

In the meantime, I was told by two sources that we were definitely completing on 21 June and so I got a builder to look at my hovel in order to give me a quote. He is very passionate about old buildings and has got me enthused again after a lengthy period when I was disheartened about it. On 20 June I emailed the solicitor and asked what she was going to happen on completion (i.e. I wants me money) and at that point was told that exchange hadn’t actually taken place and no deposit had been paid. Seems like I was rather left out of the information loop on this one. Was I cross? No, I was hopping mad. Hopping mad. Then all the stuff about the report came out – and everybody is blaming everybody else for not passing on the information with the result that I was last to know anything about it, and then only because I asked.

Finance
Apart from house stuff, a couple of flights paid for, usual bills, a declined full and final, not quite so much work about. Short-fuse client has now paid up all he owes me (except for my June invoice, which in fairness I haven’t actually sent to him yet). I had to turn down a proofreading job because I was away, which hurt, but I have to remind myself that I am entitled to have a few days off now and again. I’ve been asked to do a quite big editing job over the winter though, so I am looking forward to that.

Social life
Not much of one. I went to the UK for a couple of days to go out with a friend (favoured friend’s mother) for her 80th birthday. Short but sweet. Favoured friend is coming over here for a week, flying in tomorrow. I was hoping to take Monday off to spend some time with him, but there is a lot of finishing up work to do for the restaurant (part of the business has been sold off), so I can’t take it. We might get to a couple of traditional music sessions in local pubs as it’s Willie Week (The Willie Clancy Music Festival). The problem with those is that nothing really kicks off until 10 p.m. and by that time all I am interested in – being a boring old fart – is a good book and me bed.

So, that's my two weeks. Hardly in a nutshell, but more brief than I could have made it.:D

miggy

Wordsmith wrote: »

Here’s a round-up of what’s been happening, which is not very much.

'Not very much' she says...

Probably plenty for you to be going on with! How is the eye? And sorry to hear about the house hassles. And you will have a massive influx of English visitors looking for stray dogs now, you will need to make plans to accommodate [STRIKE]us[/STRIKE] them all.

Thanks for keeping us up to date.

Wordsmith

Well, it's all very well worrying about the mutt getting a bit old-ladyish, but now I am more concerned about me. Suddenly I am getting like my mother (not the beautiful, gentle, mummy bits, but the doing daft things bits).

This morning has been a bit disastrous (not all my fault). First it was raining when we went for our walk (this is Ireland, I really can't be blamed for that), then I stood on mama cat in the lane (which wasn't entirely my fault because she put herself there), and in trying to not stand on her I stood on her some more and she shrieked and we got a bit tangled up and I ended up on my hands and knees in a puddle, and took a chunk out of one of my hands (and, if anyone cares, it still stings). Mama cat dived into the hedge and it took about ten minutes to persuade her to come out again - I was worried that having a hundred times her weight fall on her might have done some damage, but it seems that she is really quite springy and was just sulking (and probably still is - I wasn't allowed near her again). Then favoured friend (who arrived yesterday) drove me to the hospital for my eye appointment and the windscreen wiper fell off as we were travelling down the motorway in the rain (I could partly be blamed for this since it has happened before (on the same bit of motorway in the rain), but it wasn't me who fixed it, so I am not taking all the blame). Then I got lost in the hospital (which is so what my mother would have done) - but again this wasn't my fault as there were no signs - not a single one - pointing to the eye clinic or anything that could remotely be described as an eye clinic, and a cleaner directed me to the wards (why?), and a receptionist waved her arm about and then took a telephone call as I was asking for more precise instructions. Then I tripped over in the corridor and had to be saved from falling by an elderly man. I don't really think this was my fault either, as I tripped at exactly the same spot on the way out as well, so I think the floor must be uneven at that point. Then I tried to use the antiseptic gel stuff on my hands and it missed my hand entirely and went all over some files on the desk. I am not taking the blame for this either, since the nozzle obviously wasn't aligned properly. I will admit though that giggling like a school girl over the incident wasn't terribly grown up. Then I found the hospital had lost my records from last week and a nurse and then the (extremely young) doctor looked very accusingly at me for not knowing what medication I was taking - I explained in my best school marm voice that I hadn't realised it was necessary to bring the drops and ointments with me since I assumed they would have notes on what I was prescribed. And I am not taking the blame for them losing the notes. I had to see a nurse for a pre-check-up check-up, when she got me to read from chart on the opposite wall - this was very disconcerting as a young man was in the room at the same time reading from a chart on his opposite wall. I'm all for saving money where possible, but having two people in an examining room at the same time? Hm, not sure about that. (Thank God it was eyes they were testing.)

Ah, it's helped writing it down, because now I know that I am not yet turning into my mother because all of the above really would have been her fault. (Ah, bless you Mum - only joking.) And clearly I am not to blame for any of it.

The good news is that the fifteen-year-old-doctor with no notes said that my eye seems to be fine. The fact that the sight in both eyes is blurry at the moment I am putting down to them both being orange - due to dye being put in them. I still have to keep putting the drops in for a few weeks more and I have a prescription for some more of what I might or might not already be taking, and have to phone someone (but, like my mother, I have forgotten who) if it turns out that they are not the right ones.

We stopped on the way back home for a cup of tea and a slice of chocolate biscuit cake as I needed to build up my strength before going back to work. It wasn't my fault that I nearly slipped as I got out of the car because favoured friend had parked right where there was a pile of slimy mud.

Best news of all, though, is that I found 10c under the car next to us. But parking cost €4. I don't know how much the prescription will be, but I might be able to eke out what I have already and avoid the cost. And I still don't know whether I will get a bill from the hospital.

The mutt is overjoyed - completely slap-in-my-face overjoyed - at favoured friend visiting. They have dropped me at work and gone off on some adventure that doesn't involve cats.

And still no news about whether or not my house is sold. I must be patient. I must be patient.

Horace

House - sell it to someone else instead of to timewaster tenants who want it at a knockdown price so they can maybe sell it for a profit (call me cynical). Tenants can then find somewhere else to live.

Sorry to hear about your trips and falls - having dodgy eyesight does that to you. I know it is yakky putting drops and gloop into your eyes young lady but these things have to be done to save our sight (wags finger). I have to take drops every single day and think I now have it down to a fine art..or I do most days until that one day when I poke myself in the eye with the tube:mad::eek:

You need to have a nap after the fluorescing drops have been put in - guaranteed that I always nod off because they make me a bit sleepy. As for registrars moaning at you about eye meds - if I had known that you were off to the horsepickle I would have said to take your meds with you. Sounds like it could be a touch of conjunctivitis - heaven forbid that it is uveitis because you will be stuck with that.

Hope your sore bits heal soon - must admit that I am starting to feel old, I went on the hike from hell and fell down a few times then - twisting knees in the process and for the past two weeks I have barely been able to walk and when I get up after sitting down I swear that my joints creak and I am as stiff as a board:( My right knee in particular has started to click and sometimes putting pressure on the ground with that foot causes my knee to wince with pain:(

I need to find another job - I have applied to be a freelance festival organiser so fingers crossed for that, my client has decided that he doesnt need me for the next two weeks so my income is going to be right down - any lower and I will have to apply for the female wrestlers job:eek:

Hope you have a good time with favoured friend, the menagerie and Wiliie:D

Wordsmith

Oh, please apply for the wrestler's job, Horace. Please.

RosaBernicia

Horace wrote: »

House - sell it to someone else instead of to timewaster tenants who want it at a knockdown price so they can maybe sell it for a profit (call me cynical). Tenants can then find somewhere else to live.

Seconded. If you've gone through all the trauma of deciding to sell, why extend it further by being messed about by tenants who clearly don't appreciate the house as much as they originally said they did.

Wordsmith wrote: »

Oh, please apply for the wrestler's job, Horace. Please.

Seconded too... we want to hear about the interview procedure :rotfl:


Sorry to hear about bumps and bruises Wordsmith. Have a break with favoured friend and hopefully being all relaxed will help. (I have been losing things ever since last week's complete stressball phase - I think after a while connections just get burnt out and distraction sets in.)

Rosa xx

Lula-Hula

Gosh what an eventful time of it.

I do hope your scabby knees recover soon & that the eye situation soon clears up.

Very bizarre about the shared exam room, very distracting.

As to tenants/purchasers ... I agree with Horace & Rosa.

Also agree re Horace becoming a wrestler .

moo2moo

Oooh go with the wrestling Horace!