I didn't see that one coming

I have felt much better today, thank you all for your well wishes.
Back at work I still had an annoying cough but otherwise felt almost back to normal at last.

Tonight I had a long chat with ET or rather several chats wth him. The upshot which I really didn't see coming was that he has been thinking about his future career. He started off by asking me what I thought he should do for his two weeks work experience which is part of his college course. He then proceeded to tell me what he had been thinking about. He showed me a website, we looked at the different possibilities, the locations, the different specialist options. He went through a mock situation test, he looked at the info about training.

He is thinking about a career that I would never in a million years have predicted that he would opt for.

He wants to join the RAF !!!

D is for Date

Ok so here is the latest news.

Last night I was feeling really quite poorly so when I woke up this morning with a sore throat and upset tummy I text PB to say I was unwell. It seems that I am not the only one as JA was feeling sick. I later discovered that ET had not gone to college he had woken with a sore throat. He has been at college for 3 days and now hes ill !! But he will have to go in tomorrow as next monday hes off on a week of activites at a residential centre in New Forest. He will need to find out all the details about what he needs to take etc. He does seem to be enjoying his course so far which is good, I am only sorry that it will only last 12 weeks.

Anyway back to me being ill, I have slept a lot, read some of chopper's book, had a phone call from Paulo who had rung the office and found I wasn't there so rang me at home to see if I'm ok. The Man text me at 9.30am I didn't reply until 10.30am he text again at 13.36 after a meeting at which time I told him I was home ill. 15.25 another text asking if I fancy a chat. we chatted for 22 minutes while he was driving (using his hands free so I couldn't catch everything he said). But apart from general chat, he asked about Monday night, we also talked about my cancer and me being ill now. He told me I need to get better soon because we need to meet. So we are going to meet next weekend. He will be away for a few days next week but hopefully by the time he gets back I will be well enough to meet. within 5 minutes of putting down the phone he had text me again.

I did think it was funny during our chat he said he had not been on laptop for a few days so he probably owes me a few emails ............I said I hadn't written any. (I only reply to the ones he sends lmao.........I didn't tell him that bit though)

Men and books

It has mostly been a good day for me.

After a manic few weeks work has finally slowed down giving us a little breathing space although there is still plenty to keep us busy. Not that the lemon chewer can see that. She now thinks that there is not enough work for all three of us and she will be out of a job in 2 weeks. she doesn't understand that the work we have been doing for the 4 months since she joined us is in reality only the tip of the iceberg for us. There is so much more to our work that we just have not had time to do in recent months. I, for one, am looking forward to getting a chance to get down to the real work.

Anyway, I digress, as it was more my intention to describe my morning, or to be more precise, the activity of my mobile phone. First there was the joke which arrived at 10.07am . Then there was the observation of the weather together with a comment about being on a train twiddling thumbs. It was 10.16am by then, this time as it was quiet I replied. Possibly a mistake as that was the start, 5 more text messages before 11am. Including a comment about it being time for a coffee, to which I replied that mine is tea, white no sugar (predictable I know). I then sent him a picture of my mug on my desk. He liked the red lipstick print on the white enamel. After this exchange it all went quiet for an hour, I am guessing that was when he was making his way to his destination (Earls Court).

The afternoon was quiet, but when I arrived home I found that I had received a photo (bottle of red wine and glass) two hours earlier and I hadn't noticed. Then at 8.30pm the text started again until 10pm when he said goodnight. to which I said .................goodnite x. Much to my suprise at 10.33pm I got ..............

thank you for my 'x' LiR. xx

Hmmm I wonder how much longer this will continue, will he eventually ask me out or is he waiting for me to ask him out right.

I have not been feeling very well this evening, my throat is sore again and I feel generally unwell, but I was cheered up by a phone call from my mum. She wanted to tell me that she has been reading DJ's book and although she finds the story of DJ's life fascinating it is the way it is writen that had my mum excited. I have never heard her this excited about reading a book (she is always reading 3 or 4 books at any one time.) DJ my mum says your book is beautifully written. There are many authors ie Wilbur Smith whose books are written so well that you feel as though you were there, but she has never written anything so beautifully written as this book. For those of you who don't know the book I am talking about is ................. From Zaftig to Aspie. I am looking forward to reading it myself once mother has finished with it. In the mean time I have Chopper's book to read.

A grand night out

On Sunday I did a practice run in the daylight to find the venue for tonight's celebrations. It was only because I had to stop at the traffic lights that I found it as I was stopped right by the door.



Tonight I left home only a few minutes later than I had intended (I had to read all 7 of the emails from The Man). When I tried to turn out of our road I was confronted by a disturbing sight, a drunken young man stood in the road. The cars in all directions stopped, lights shining on this swaying statue for a few seconds that feel more like minutes. He raises his hand then staggers across the road in my direction. He walks in front of my car towards my passenger door, for a heart stopping moment I fear that he is going to try to open my door, I consider pressing the button that locks the doors, but instead I lurch my car forward and drive away as quickly as I can.



By the time I arrive at my mum's place to drag her out for the evening I have calmed down. It doesn't take long to arrive at our destination but after driving up and down several side roads without finding a place to park. I find myself at the traffic lights again so mother gets out whilst I continue my search for a space. Now I am on my own it doesn't matter if i have further to walk. But I found a space outside a pizza parlour not too far from the Bistro which was lucky. So off I go clip clopping along the uneven pavement. Pushing open the green door expecting to find the group of excited bloggers and a bemused mother, I am suprised to see just a few groups of people chatting quietly, no sign of the hosts or more worryingly my mother!



At the far end of the room I notice a girl in black heading down a short flight of stairs with a sign pointing the way to the wine bar. Quickly I make my way down the stairs. Is this some kind of joke, am I perhaps the guest at a suprise party, it is like The Marie Celeste down here in the room scattered with tables and chairs but no people. Even the girl in black has vanished. I did what I assume most people would do and returned to the bar above to ask if I was at the right place. It is the right place and I am shown the way back downstairs through the door at the end to the stairs leading to the conservatory outside.



Here I find a room buzzing with excitement. Mother waves to me from the far end of the room. Making my way towards her I met a very excited and lovely DJ Kirkby. Eat your hearts out people, I was priviledged to have met the reclusive DJ and even though she had warned us all that she is not tactile and doesn't like to be touched. DJ hugged me!.

DJ is as lovely as I knew she would be with a gorgeous smile. Chopper is just as I remember from those windswept days of another life except he now has his goatee. For two shy people both did a grand job of reading for us. DJ's talk about Autism was very interesting and not in a text book kind of way but real.

I also got to meet the lovely Casdoc who wrote the Shrek Rap which was performed for us by the talented Daren Callow. If you don't know what the Shrek Rap is you need to visit either DJ or Casdoc' blogs or even both. Casdoc and DJ have sons who are Autistic. Tonight's event apart from launching the books that DJ and Chopper have just had published, was to raise money for Portsmouth Autism Support Network.

Anyway I now have my signed copy of Chopper's book and my mum has a signed copy of DJ's book, we will swap once we have read them. Oh and I nearly forgot to mention that I also met Troy who has recently begun to read my blog, I know Trixie wil be jealous.

But then it was back to reality, wandering around a shop in my finery looking for the ingredients that are needed for tomorrow's food tech lesson. On arriving home I discovered the bathroom floor was flooded and the toilet blocked. Armed with an 18" rubber gauntlet it took me just a few seconds to dislodge the offending blockage before mopping up the floor with old towels.

Writing up tonight's events was interrupted by a trip across town at 12.20am yeee gods the temperature had dropped in the hour or so since I had got home. What was I doing going out at that time you are thinking. I had booked DC's car for its MOT early Tuesday, his car needed to be dropped off so I was giving him a lift home. BTW he has had a letter offering him 'An unconditional place' on the University course he had applied for.

Am I wicked?

Over the weekend I sent an email to The Man telling him I would have to stop chatting to him as I had found my perfect man then showed him the profile that I showed you in my previous post. with just the comment ........................as if!! after it. ( his response today was to call me a malteser and say its a good thing he read right to the end of the email).

Today the following text exchange occurred.



I've just remembered your off out 2nite. Have a good one. Going anywhere nice? xx

Couple of friends celebrating having their first books published. Rosie's Bistro . I intend to dress up as its ages since I've been anywhere. Don't care if my red velvet skirt with split and black lace top is over the top!

You've painted a lovely picture in my mind. Thank you LiR.......wish you were on my arm ...! xx

Awww thank you x x

Your very welcome LiR have a lovley evening & tell me all about it later. xx


Do you think there might be some progress here? It does seem that although I am letting him do most of the work it doesn't hurt to nudge the rudder in the right direction now and again.

Someone wants to meet you

A couple or three months ago I created a profile on a dating site that my hairdresser had recommended. I exchanged a emails with one man who lived not too far away but that fizzled out as we ran out of things to say to each other. There were not really any men on the site who caught my interest. So I have not really paid any attention for a while. However this particular site along with a couple of others has a feature where it shows you a set of profiles with an option to select YES, NO or MAYBE whether you would like to meet them. If someone says yes then the site tells you that someone wants to meet you. you then get a set of profiles to select from. If both parties secelt YES or MAYBE then that becomes a MUTUAL MATCH. Today I got a message .................someone wants to meet you.

Here is the profile I was greeted with, I am not showing you the photograph but I would like your honest opinions should I meet this guy?



Interests: snooker, 10-pin, horse-ridding, swimming, saunda/steamroom, eatingout RESTAURANTS (only) chinnesse/indian, chess, tv-music chanels, 80's dude
WELL LIKE ME U GET 2 CERTAIN AGE & THERE IT ALL IS BLACKBAGS (UNDERTHEEYES) MORE WRINGLES THEN SPAGGETTIJUNCTION MORE GRAYAREAS THAN EVER & 2 TOP IT ALL OFF NO WORK THROUGH L/T ILLNESS & LOTS MORE BAGGAGE THAN ANY AIRWAYS WILL EXCEPT 4 ONE PERSON BUT FOR ME THE LATTER IS NOT A PROBLEM LET ME TAKE CARE OF THOSE & EVEN UR BAGGAGE & IF U CAN C UR WAY 2 LIVING WITH THE REST THEN CALL ME & U WILL BE PRESENTLY SURPRISED & MY FINER QUALITIES OF HONESTY & OPEN COMMUNICATION & MY SLAPSTICK S.O.H (WITH OR WITHOUT THE CLOWN/VENTRILIQUEST IMPRESSIONS) WILL EVENTUALLY WIN U OVER

ps prepared 2 move 4 the right girl oiutside of the new forest to weymouth & croyon

Profession: out of work food-retailing

Chocolate

All week I have been good. There has been no bread, pastry, no sweet things.

All week I have had my bowl of cereal in the morning. For two days I have allowed myself one single snack a jack cake (didn't realise they were cakes) during the long morning between breakfast at 6.30 and lunch at close on 2pm.

Lunch this week has consisted of 3 x crackers with low fat cottage cheese followed by a snack size low fat yoghurt.

Dinner this week has consisted of jacket potato and cauliflower cheese on monday. cottage pie on tuesday and on wednesday jacket potato, cheese and beans.

Today though has been different.

Today I had my early morning cereal then nothing until I got home at 2.15 and treated myself to a wholemeal cheese and onion sandwich followed by 3 squares (if you can call them squares) of galaxy chocolate.

After the last few days I deserve chocolate and after all I did buy it for medicinal purposes. Slowly sucking a square of milk chocolate coats and soothes my throat, which in turn eases my coughing so that I can catch up on some much needed sleep.

A quiet day!

It started out a quiet day.
Arriving at work I could hardly talk. This made talking on the telephone difficult.
An unexpected outburst by the lemon chewer meant that we were both left stewing in mute animosity. Where we would normally take it in turns to answer the phone I would have appreciated a little co-operation with the phones whilst I was struggling. Instead I was facing a stoney silence from across our desks. It was becoming increasingly obvious that she was not just not helping me out she was actively avoiding answering the phone unless I was already on the phone.

The day continued in relative silence. Punctuated only with phone calls and my coughs as I barked and retched my way through the day sometimes with tears streaming down my face. It would seem that todays plate of lemons was laced with crushed razor blades.

I understand that a case is being put together to remove the lemons from our day. Meetings have taken place and letters delivered. Time will tell.

Chewing lemons

On the whole I consider myself to be a cheerful soul. I am a glass half full type person even though it might not always seem that way on here.



Anyone who knows me also knows that I love my job. I have gained so much confidence in the year I have been doing this job. But recently I have found it difficult to enjoy my work to quite the same extent that I had been.



Has my work changed? in some small ways it has but essentially it is the same.



Is my job at risk? In as much as no one is totally safe in their job these days, I know my job is fairly safe.



Have my working conditions changed in anyway? No



So what is making my work less enjoyable?



The answer is the mood swings and negativity of the one person I work closest with. Increasingly she is becoming bitter and sour, it is as though she has been living on a diet of.................... lemons.

I won't go into details but she is making life difficult for those of us who work with her. The egg shells we walk on are becoming more delicate with each passing day.



Today I got an email from from Wild Catz that I want to share with you ...........pay particular notice to number 1.





Staff Warning - Swearing at Work



Dear Employees



It has been brought to the management's attention that some individuals throughout the company have been using foul language during the course of normal conversation with their colleagues. Due to complaints received from some employees who may be easily offended, this type of language will no longer be tolerated. We do, however, realise the critical importance of being able to accurately express your feelings when communicating with colleagues. Therefore, a list of 13 New and Innovative 'TRY SAYING' phrases have been provided so that proper exchange of ideas and information can continue in an effective manner.



1. Try Saying: I think you could do with more training

Instead Of: You don't have a fucking clue, do you?



2. Try Saying: She's an aggressive go-getter.

Instead Of: She's a fucking power-crazy bitch



3. Try Saying: Perhaps I can work late

Instead Of: And when the fuck do you expect me to do this?



4. Try Saying: I'm certain that isn't feasible

Instead Of: Fuck off arse- hole



5. Try Saying: Really?

Instead Of: Well fuck me backwards with a telegraph pole



6. Try Saying: Perhaps you should check with...

Instead Of: Tell someone who gives a fuck.



7. Try Saying: I wasn't involved in the project.

Instead Of: Not my fucking problem.



8. Try Saying: That's interesting.

Instead Of: What the fuck?



9. Try Saying: I'm not sure this can be implemented within the given timescale.

Instead Of: No fucking chance mate.



10. Try Saying: It will be tight, but I'll try to schedule it in

Instead Of: Why the fuck didn't you tell me that yesterday?



11. Try Saying: He's not familiar with the issues

Instead Of: He's got his head up his fucking arse.



12. Try Saying: Excuse me, sir?

Instead Of: Oi, fuck face.



13. Try Saying: Of course, I was only going to be at home anyway

Instead Of: Yeah, who needs fucking holidays anyway



Enjoy the rest of your day

it only hurts when I cough

On Friday I woke up with a slightly sore throat, as the day progressed it got worse. Each phone call was agony trying not to cough in the caller's ear. Glass of water to hand was essential, a pack of maltesers helped too. I do crave chocolate when I have a sore throat as it eases the pain and it was clear that nothing else in the vending machine was going to be much help. By lunchtime I was begining to feel a little better (must have been the sinus capsules I had taken) but by the time I was ready to go home I didn't just feel crap but was told I looked crap too. Thanks I needed that!

Driving home I was thinking about an earlier email from The Man asking what I had planed for the weekend. I was contemplating suggesting we meet as the laugh would do me good. But by the time he called me I was feeling far too crap to consider going anywhere other than bed. I had treated myself to a tub of rum and raisin ice cream to sooth my throat. that worked but soon had me feeling sleepy ......................I think I overdosed on the rum flavouring.

Saturday I woke aching all over and feeling terrible but I forced myself to go out once I had taken more sinus capsules. I had to go to the local sorting office to retrieve the last of my recent batch of packages from ebay. Instead of going out and buying a coat from my mum I used the money to buy several. I now have 5 new jackets including one sheepskin and one leather and a watch for the money I would have got one coat for in the shops.

Visiting my mum I declined the obligatory cup of tea for a glass of water and more capsules. Finally the pain in my face began to subside but before I left to do my shopping I made a big mistake. When I say big I mean really BIG!!

'Mum I don't like your bathrom'

'lol why'

'I just stood on your scales ............they say that I am nearly as heavy now as I was at my biggest!!'

'which ones? there are two sets'

'the white ones by the radiator'

'try the blue ones under the wash basin'

I jog (notice I jog not walk) back up the stairs, find the old blue scales that I remember from the year dot. heave a big sigh of relief.

'thats better I lost a stone in 2 minutes'

still not good and I definitely need to get to the gym pronto but at least it isn't as bad as it had first seemed.

So now I am determined to do something about this added weight. It is a long time since I weighed myself but I knew I was putting on weight by how I feel oh and my clothes cutting me in half................I simply refuse to buy bigger clothes as that would be giving myself permission to be bigger.

I need to be more active.


Today I am feeling fitter than yesterday in that I don't ache but the pile of tissues by my side is growing as I cough and sneeze my way through the morning.


UPDATE

Perhaps it wasn't such a great idea to attack the remaing half of the divan that has resided outside my backdoor for the last 6 months. I need to get it removed and taken to the amenity tip, but it is too big for my car so needs to be broken up. I have given up asking the offspring who are not man enough for the job!

So this afternoon I set about attacking it with my heavy mallet. Although I didn't quite complete the job I did manage most of it before I became too weak to even lift the mallet. I was left shattered but then so was the bed. Perhaps now that I have done the majority of it ET can be persauded to finish it for me. Next is the old sofa that has been sitting there rotting for far too long. By the start of the spring I intend to have my patio clear of all the old tat that has been sitting there.

It wasn't long before I was asleep again. I am still feeling weak but pleased I did it. My stepper has also been pulled out from under the table.