Category Archives: WTF

Dec4

Whatever.

Posted on by
Standard

I did take today off, and did not let my work know that my hospital appointment was cancelled. I slept in until the lazy-ass hour of 9:30, drank coffee until my smokes ran out, and then walked into town, even though hubby left me the car and biked to work. I’ve not had a walk into town by myself in months, and I’ve missed it. Used to go nearly every day with the dog…

So, icy rain, and a lot of it. I can deal with that. I do own a hat and boots. I bought my smokes and had a chat with the ladies at the paper shop where my mother in law works, and then met her, herself, on the street and had another chat. Then I bought popcorn, and my addiction: Snyder’s of Hanover Buffalo Wing Pretzel Bites. I’m drooling just typing that. American snacks are rare here, and plain pretzels are considered rather disgusting. But the Snyder’s ones have managed to stick around for at least a year. Cost €2 a small bag, too. They are a real day-off treat.

Had another long talk with a good friend at his workplace on the main street, and got home in time to put up most of the tree lights before hubby got home for lunch. After he went back to work, I finished the tree lights (but nothing else) and turned on the TV for 2002 reruns of CSI (great to nap to) and curled up on the couch with not only both cats, as usual, but the dog, too.

20121204-213722.jpg
Neko irritates the shit out of me, because if I ask her to come up on the couch, she runs and hides. But if I get my blankets sorted out and act like I’m going to lie down for a bit, she invites herself up. I do not get this behaviour. Sigh. I expect her to be happy to be invited, and obey. The couch is an invitation-only space for her. Or it’s meant to be, anyway. iDJ can ask her and she jumps right up with a smile. Did I kick her off for the presumption? No. She’s already terrified of me, why make it worse? I miss my previous dog. Not been able to talk about him here, yet.

Well. Anyway. I’m a bit sad as today is the one-year anniversary of the day I got the most hits on my blog. Not come close since, and with an hour left in my day, I’m at one of the lowest counts ever. Why do I even care, really? But I thought maybe today, as it was meant to go, might have been interesting: instead? the above. Yay for having a job again, hmmm? All I can do on a day off is be a slug. I can’t even say that I’m less stressed for having more money. I’m more stressed. Way, way, more stressed. I’m exhausted, I feel terrible all of the time, and I do nothing that is fun. If it might actually be fun, I get no joy of it.

Whatever. I have to go to bed. Got to get up and brave the icy roads in the morning.

Nov16

Savita Halappanavar, murdered.

Posted on by
Standard

My adopted country let a 31-year-old woman die recently. I haven’t talked about it as I’m just… boggled. I need to talk about it, but how, where; where do I start?

A dentist, at 17 weeks pregnant, had terrible back pain and had to visit the hospital – twice – to have it confirmed that she was having a miscarriage. A baby at that age can not live on its own – the lungs aren’t developed enough. Her cervix was very dilated; wide open to infection, too. The natural process of contraction and expulsion during a miscarriage did not happen. She needed medical help. People are naming this necessary procedure an ‘abortion.’ I thought it was called dilation and curettage – and clearly the dilation part wasn’t even needed.

This was a planned and wanted pregnancy, and it went wrong. It happens. It happened to my best friend, and many others I know. It happens a lot.

But this time it happened in County Galway, Ireland. The couple believed that Ireland was a good country to have a family in. Savita didn’t want to lose her child, but she knew there was nothing she could do to save it. She went to the hospital. They confirmed there was no hope for her fetus. This was October 21.

But…it was still alive. There was a heartbeat.

For three days.

And three days is the amount of time it took for Savita to develop septicaemia , because the doctors would not remove the fetus and let her body recover from the miscarriage. They would not do the D & C until the fetus died. Savita herself did not die for four more days, not until October 28.

Three days of begging the medical professionals to save her life, three days of suffering and pain. Three days of mental agony, knowing that she had a dying baby inside of her. Then four days of isolation from her husband in ICU while she was dying from the system-wide infection.

She was told that “this is a Catholic country.” Apparently that means one heartbeat supersedes another. A quote, from her husband, published in the UK newspaper the Daily Mail: ‘Doctors refused the termination on the grounds that the foetal heartbeat was still present and being a Catholic country it is not permitted.
‘I tried to plead with the doctors that I am not Irish or a Catholic, so please help and terminate her pregnancy.’

Maybe it was because she was Hindu that they felt the need to explain just why they were so willing to murder her. Yes, murder. Wilful, intentional taking of a human life. This was not malpractice. This was not ignorance or accident. They knew what could happen and denied a medically necessary surgery for no other reason than religion.

I…just can’t wrap my head around this.

Nov9

A very strange question

Posted on by
Standard

Not so long ago, I was chatting to my physiotherapist, and asked her something that left her stumped. I’m wondering – am I really that strange?

Sometimes when I scratch one part of my body, I feel an echo of the scratch. I feel it really, really far away from the source. Like just now, I was rubbing my feet together and felt a sensation in my right armpit. Or I could scratch an itch on my thigh, and feel it high up on my abdomen. It happens all the time. If I keep poking at the same place, the ‘echo’ is still there. The next day, the next hour – nope.

It doesn’t feel exactly the same – it’s not as if I feel fingers or toes touching me. But a nerve jumps, twitches, reacts.

This is one of those things that has gone on all my life but only after the conversation with my physio has it come to light that it might be…odd.

Anyone else experience this? If not, any friggin’ clue what is going on?

Oct25

€1.50 worth of dammed cleverness

Posted on by
Standard

Short fast and fun tonight – I have a phone call to make to the effervescent Socks!

Okay, so the other day I forgot my lunch. Luckily I remembered when I was in the garage (gas station for my American friends) and I bizarrely actually had a couple of Euro on me. This is very rare, normally I drive flat-broke. So I had a look to see if there was anything at all edible in the shop.

I found instant noodles, that’ll do! Good thing I’ve been off the diet.

20121025-194250.jpg
I knew I could just add hot water at work and grab a fork and al, would be well.
Imagine my surprise when I opened the lid and found this.

20121025-194350.jpg
The fork was included!

20121025-194445.jpg
The fork was a freakin’ Transformer!

20121025-194537.jpg
*cssh-ank-cha-choo-chug*
(That was me attempting to type the transform-y sound from the Transformers cartoons. Not the movies. They suck.)
So when hubby bought me another pot yesterday (because we didn’t have anything I could take to work for lunch) I ripped it open to show him The Transfork.

He was suitably astounded.

20121025-195014.jpg

Something I like about this brand nearly as much as The Transfork is that they put the ‘veg’ in a little packet instead of in the noodles. The carrots never rehydrate and are just disgusting, this saves me having to pick or spit them out.

Koka is Super-noodle!

Aug14

Random no. 3? 4? I’ve lost track…

Posted on by
Standard

I forgot about this last night. I knew I had something of real importance to talk about!

For some unknown godawful reason, the Irish think that having a bird shit on you is lucky. I learned this at a wedding we attended that was held in an ancient, re-consecrated church with no roof. It did have a lot of annoyed birds who wanted us to leave them alone, and they let us know this in the way birds do best.

I really hope the bride got the crap stains out of her dress, it was rather nice.

Anyhoo, this odd belief came to mind yesterday when I was sitting outside, reading or playing one of my ‘stupid games’, and a bird flew past and shit all over my iPad. It sounded like rocks landing on it from a height and looked like the bird had eaten something unpleasant.

I don’t feel very lucky, despite the fact none got in my hair.

Jun14

Brain-dump – Warning, rambling ahead…

Posted on by
Standard

Argh. I have nothing going on, yet a ton of things going on, and I don’t even know where to begin. So I haven’t begun, until now… this is feeling like one of those times I need to ramble and write, just because I need to write.

That said, I caught myself cleaning the fridge this evening in what I knew damn well was an avoidance ploy. What’s up with that? Who the hell would rather wash the beer vegetable drawers instead of write? Especially when the call is so clearly upon oneself? Like that third person stuff? Yeah, me neither.

Maybe it really is that I have too much in my head and couldn’t figure out where to start. I’m just free-writing here, a big ol’ brain-dump. I guess I’ll see how big it really is. Good thing I don’t actually use paper, I’d be clogging the jacks…

I still need to post about my garden, and about a dozen kinds of beer I’ve tried recently, and an ‘invasion of the flour-mites’ update (I’ve gotten so many Google hits about it I feel I should do a proper post with advice on getting rid of them – they are gone). I have a ton of photos I’d like to share… I’m worried about my job security, and about Socks (who still is waiting, and since she has her mum with her we aren’t having our weekly phone call tonight). I owe an old friend a serious response to a difficult email, I’m worried about an ex who I’ve only just realised might be having a hard time and I don’t know why, and I just realised that it’s friggin’ Thursday and I have no hope of even getting a card to my dad in time for Father’s Day. Sorry dad, I really have been meaning to send something. I’m a terrible kid. Love me anyway? (that’s an old family joke)

We are also meant to have 36 – yes, thirty-bleedin-six, hours of rain, which started today at about 11 am. Yay. 36 hours of wet dog and no garden and no sitting outside all weekend. And I just know it will clear and be beautiful just in time for me to be stuck behind a desk on Monday. I can’t even get close to explaining how very much a sunny day that I cannot enjoy distracts me. My brain just does not appreciate being confined indoors, and my body is screaming for sunshine and fresh air.

I’m worried about my sister being lonely and having a tough time while her husband is away.

I started having graphic nightmares again, which try but fail to get my heart rate up, but still wake me and set my mind going. I can’t read myself to sleep on the iPad at those times: it will fall over and hit either me or iDJ in the face. I did, in one of those middle-of-the-night sessions, have an idea for a new blog; something I’d like to do that actually has a ‘theme’ but I can’t make the time for it unless I can think of a way it will make me some money. Which annoys me, because I’d much rather do it for the love of it, but ohmydog we are broke. Another worry…

And, suddenly, it’s 10pm and I have only an hour of me-time left before I have to sleep or be useless tomorrow. Hard as hell this time of year – even with the rain it is bright enough outside to read. It feels like 8, or even 7, but I have to finish making dinner, eat it, and go to sleep soon. Yes yes I know, we eat at crazy hours. iDJ has been on the air the last two hours and he has to wrap up some things still, and there’s no way we’d be able to make and eat a big meal in the hour of ‘free time’ we have between coming home from work and his show starting. Maybe if we didn’t cook from scratch and had something out of a bag or box it would be possible… Blecch.

I guess the last thing on my mind is my spine – I have to wait until July 4 for a consult to go over the results of my MRI. I have no idea what they are going to say. My physiotherapist says that pretty much only shots or surgery are going to be offered to me as options. I’m not keen on either, but will take the shots just to feel like a normal person again. Heh. Like that is possible…

Right, let me find a picture to cheer myself up… Oh yes, here we go.

20120614-221809.jpg
Okay maybe it’s too big. But I didn’t want you to miss the flailing kitty-arm! Neko and Spotty were having a big game that day, and I took a ton of photos I wanted to upload, and hubby took a video. I’ve just not gotten a round tuit yet for a real post, so I might put this shot up again later.

Right, need to go make a salad – one of these days I’ll share my dad’s dressing with you, it’s amazingly good and so easy!

Jun7

Must be smarter than the cup.

Posted on by
Standard

This is my coffee cup.

20120607-200016.jpg
I fill it at home and take it to work every day, where it gets cold but sipped on nonetheless. I never finish what’s in my ‘go-cup’. But I drink over half of it when I’m driving to work and it’s still warm.

The thing is… my cup is smarter than I am. See that little round hole? That’s there to let air in so the liquid inside can flow out of the big hole. Such a simple thing. Which defeats me several times a day.

Because the tip of my nose exactly touches right where that little hole is, and seals it up.

I can’t seem to remember to turn the cup a little, oh no. I’d rather think ‘what the..?’ several times in the space of a 15 minute drive.

Clearly the cup is the cleverest one around here.

May13

Invasion of the Flour Mites

Posted on by
Standard

I had plans to post a few times tonight. But something icky happened and iDJ and I are dealing with it the best way we know how: by getting drunk.

The icky thing is that we (I) found out we have been invaded, infested, by tiny-ass flour mites. Getting rid of them is so very labour intensive that we cleared the counter under the infested cabinet, took out the food sources, and just… started drinking.

We intended to drink anyway. Well, of course – its us. But… it was meant to be special drinking. American craft beers rarely found here, bought with excitement and chilled with impatience. Then, choosing a glass… oh, they recommend a tulip glass? We only have one, my precious Corsendonk glass. So, big wine glasses will do. But, despite being in the cabinet they looked dirty, cloudy. I said I’d wash them first.

One washed, no problem. Next one, had a closer look to see just why it looked so filthy. “Oh no. No. No. No! Nonono. NO! The fucking bugs are back!”

See, we’ve been through this before. And it was hellish. And now, the little cunts are back. Sigh.

Drinking seems an easier solution, when faced with what I’ll be doing over the next few weeks…

May12

Random 3

Posted on by
Standard

About seven years ago, I noticed that I had one really, really, long arm hair.

I named it Harvey.

And Harvey was my friend until he disappeared one day.

I just noticed that he is back, if not quite as long as he was back then. Still, he’s near about two inches long – which is pretty impressive for a fine blonde hair.

I might be starting to understand why old men let their ear hairs grow.

Wonder if they name them.

May9

Something else Completely Different.

Posted on by
Standard

I didn’t expect to have another ‘what the hell IS that?’ photo a week after my first one. But we had a mini adventure in the Mini today and I found this along the way – now, what IS it?

20120509-195304.jpg