Swine Flu? Phooey!

On Sunday evening Paul started to shiver, now to put this into context it was in excess of 32 degrees that day so by no means cold. Now he did not just shiver, he dithered, shaking the whole bed as his teeth chattered.

I was stripped off trying to catch a breath of air from the breeze free open window and he was under a sheet, and a duvet. I got a second duvet and still he shivered, so I then wrapped the other half of our duvet over the top of him (we are now up to 1 sheet and 3 duvets!).

Still he shivered!

I forced a good old Beechams Powder down him and made sure he had plenty of water. By 3am he was too hot! Time for another Beechams I thought.

Then the coughing and sneezing started.

On Monday night, whilst waiting to go into our Pilates session, I was chatting with Sally-Ann and Avril about it. Avril got very concerned. Being a practice Nurse she pointed out that flu season was over and that this was very unusual. She then suggested I call NHS Direct to seek advise.

Well.... when I got home from class, Paul was on the phone with a friend gassing away like an old fishwife, coughing and sneezing, but otherwise a typical bloke.

I told him what Avril has suggested and we went onto the NHS swine flu website. We followed the symptom checker for further advise. We answered No to the first 2 questions and Yes to the last one. The next page told us CALL 999 EMERGENCY!

Stupid blooming website - good job we have a small modicum of brain between us or else we would have wasted vital resources needed for the really sick.

And the moral of the story - Ignore stupid government websites and just use common sense, you will have a much better outcome.

By the way it's now Tuesday and Paul seems OK!

Many thanks to Avril though, at least I was on the alert for anything untoward should it occur.

A 21st Century take on a 50's Hairstyle...

Right then..... I did promise the antics of my attempt at doing pin curls to create a 40's/50's pageboy hairstyle....

Well if nothing else this will give you a good laugh!

And so, last night it all began...

Having watched Aya's video on her blog Strawberry Koi, I had some idea as to the principles to follow, and so after parting my hair and sectioning it off I began to curl sections into coils and, using bobby pins, holding each section in place...

the first side went quite well, I found it all rather therapeutic actually, curling away whilst watching the TV, and fending off silly comments and laughter from Paul!

Once both sides had been completed and I had pin curls everywhere, I followed Aya's next tip, cover your hair in a scarf and go to bed like that!

OK - Paul really fell apart at that one!

Anyway it worked, as, after I got up this morning and had my shower, I took of the scarf and discovered it was all still in place and had stayed quite well...

I began to remove the pins one at a time, not expecting much. As you can see my hair has quite a frizzy curl to it anyway, so it's all in the lap of the gods as to what it will look like.

I was amazed to see beautifully defined curls in the place of the pins - and they stayed put amazingly!


It then all started to go horribly wrong once I brushed it out - BAD IDEA - I should have left the curls there I think, and so after all that what does my hair look like.....



Pretty much the same I'm afraid!

Needless to say - This was not an unpleasant task to do, and it was not at all uncomfortable to sleep in, which was a surprise, so I shall definitely do it again, but this time keep the curls....

What do you reckon?

A Very Surreal Morning...

My alarm clock sprang into life at 5.55am to herald a new day and warn me that only a couple of pages of my book could be read before I have to jump in the shower and get ready for work.

The music came to an end and the early morning news began. Michael Jackson is dead. We both snapped awake as we listened to the news recording of Jermaine speaking to the press about how wonderful the doctors were that were attempting to save Michael's life.

An incredible contribution to the music world, has now been lost, but his music will live on.

Not content with leaving the news with this sad information the newscaster then proceeded to tell us of how Farah Fawcett had also lost her battle against cancer. Rest with the Angels Farrah, you are now free of this awful decease.

An awful day for the family's and friends of these two amazing people, and my heart goes out to them.

And the Best Follower Award Goes to.....

Thank you so much to Sage for giving me this award and to whoever it was for starting this award off in the first instance. I am overwhealmed that so many of us connect though words on a PC or Laptop, and feel that I can count each and every one of you as a friend.

I understand that there are some simple rules that need to be followed when an award is received. Here they are:

1. Put this award on your blog.
2. Invite 10 people to take this award.
3. Don't forget to link back to the person who gave you this award.
4. Let them know that they have received this award.
5. Share the love to those who get this award.

And so, after much consideration, here is the list of my winners (in no particular order), please don't feel offended if I have not included you in this list, it does not mean that I love you or your comments any less...

1. Cornwall Beside the Sea

2. Acting Like Mama

3. Gingeyginge

4. Mama Syder

5. Jordiegirl

6. Brilliant Farm Girls Beauty Secrets

7. Cuteluc

8. Pilates Portreath

9. Wise Herbs Random Jottings - Sorry Sage - you gotta get this one back x

10. Paul L

Fathers Day and 25th Anniversary

Along with it being Fathers Day today, it is also Paul's Dad's 25th Wedding Anniversary to Dee.

The plan was that 22 of us would all meet at the Flaming Wok between Porthtowan and Portreath for a banquet buffet lunch of scrummy Chinese food.

Barb and Les posed well for the camera...

but unfortunately Mel was very elusive whenever it made an appearance!

Daddy Bear...

Happy Fathers Day, Daddy Bear

I miss you so much, and sometimes just long for one last phone call about something stupid like -

"Did you see what that Cain did in Emmerdale"

or

"What about poor Tony in Hollyoaks"

or

"How do you make pastry again?"

I don't know how many times I told you that one Dad - Half fat to flour!

The days and months and years have moved on but my love for you has not diminished. I am, and will always be your little girl x

A converted chapel hunt...

One of the girls at work mentioned a lovely old chapel they had found on their travels, that had been converted into a coffee shop, and did rather good cakes...

Mmmmmm we thought sounds good. Now all we knew was that it was near St Anthony in Meneage and Helford and there was a foot ferry crossing nearby and the car park had picnic benches and overlooked the Helford river.

and so, after Sally-Ann and Mike arrived with OS map in hand, we headed off in the general direction of where we thought it may be.


after a false start once we had reached St Anthony, and found that it was not the right place, we headed off to Helford for a visit and a walk with the dogs

The streets are beautiful, narrow and winding and the ford crosses the river that leads down to the main estuary that joins the sea

we crossed the ford and wandered up the far lane towards the walk that leads to the quay where the foot passengers can meet the ferry

the scenery was beautiful...

we rested at the quay and had a wander on the rocks

Fred and Hamish enjoyed themselves down by the waters edge.

Then we had a slow wander back to the car..... Fred wondered what Hamish was doing up there when there was a perfectly good puddle to wander through..

passing some beautiful flowers on the way

and then we were back at the car park - and yes it was the right one - we had found our Nirvana for that day - the converted chapel.

and the car park with the picnic benches and view

we stopped and had our picnics and allowed Fred and Hamish to get a fuss off of a passing dog lover

and then started driving back towards the lizard

clicking away from the car as we drove past some interesting spots for visiting on future jaunts

Sally-Ann and Mike brought along their national trust passes and we parked up at Kynance Cove to walk the dogs once more and enjoy the beautiful scenery. We have been here for a little over two years now and we still cannot believe there are place like this on our doorstep within a 40 minute drive from home!

We walked along the high tide coastal path and looked down on the coffee shop 300 feet below us - well of course we went down - tea and scones were calling our names!

YUM!

and Fred asked so nicely he got a bit too!

after taking pictures of the view from ground level so to speak

then it was the long climb back up to the car and a photo opportunity and chance to update our MX-5 owners club profile picture

we had a wonderful day and our faces were certainly glowing from all of the sunshine by the time we got in tonight.

Timeline Confusion

I have always been behind the times, felt out of place in the current age, and even when I was 10 or 11 used to say I should have been a child in the 40's and 50's.

I know this is all very confusing, what with my likes of forensic anthropology and digital cameras and all things 21st century, but put a Deanna Durbin movie on the TV, or just mention the name Audrey Hepburn, or Fred and Ginger and I'm there glued to the box.

Is it the glamour and chicness of the women (and even men) that I love, or the general apparent naivety of people in those decades that I love - Who knows! Maybe is is because everything seemed to be so much easier then - there were no grey areas.

When I was just 10 or 11 I decide that Gene Kelly was the man of my dreams and that If I could dance like that, with him, I would die and go to heaven the happiest little girl in the world! Is that right for a child of that age living in 1978? Well if you know me, dear readers, you would just accept it and say - it's OK it's only Jo!

and while Gene, Fred and Ginge wowed me with their dancing, Audrey showed me what it was to possess incredible charm and poise

now I'm not sure that I actually manage to achieve any of that myself - in fact family and friends would laugh at this, but she is my ultimate hero!

PS - Sorry to confuse you - Yes I have changed the music on my tunes list!