Backwards In High Heels

Too Darn Hot...

Right I am bored of the hot weather now, turn down the bloody thermostat weather gods!

It has confirmed if, sorry when, I win the lottery I am not moving my lock, stock and barrel fat cats to a hot country. I can’t do sunbathing any more either, boredom and rigor mortis sets in after five minutes and I only go a darker shade of white anyhow.

I like winter, I like the cold, I like huge jumpers that cover my lumps and bumps. I have reverse SAD!

And it is true we are weather obsessed in the UK. We have so many Old Wive’s Tales and sayings about such things.

Swallows high, staying dry. Swallows low, wet will blow.

Red Sky in the morning, Shepherd’s warning.

Red sky at night, Pallet Yard’s alight.

Back to our big fire…there is a rumour it may have been arson. I wondered if it was a confused terrorist thinking he was targeting Palletstine.

I Got The Needle

So for the past few weeks I have eluded to being short of energy as my excuse for not blogging as regularly as I’d like. Actually it was a little more than feeling a bit run down and for the past few weeks I have been back and forwards to the doctors getting all manner of tests. We now think we have an answer (looks like I could be coeliac) but I decided not to blog about it all till we had an answer as I didn’t want to bother relatives etc with the saga.

So yes, the energy level problems got to an unworkable level. Wake up. Feel tired. Do an hours work then close my eyes for a short nap. Wake up three hours later! And then other problems raised their head. Of late my muscles have ached so much, especially my legs, I’ve had problems just walking up stairs. At 32 I shouldn’t be coveting a Stannah Stairlift!

I won’t give you the bowel symptoms suffice to say there are two bowel speeds – glacial or volcanic.

So off I went to the Dr and a round of blood tests were set in place.

Thursday morning, after fasting from the night before, and I went in to see Needlewoman the phleabotomist.

Me: "I have rubbish veins so I hope your aim is good this morning!"

Needlewoman: "Oh there’s always one but they are never as bad as you think"

Needlewoman takes one look at my arm and her face drops. My veins are like vascular Bin Ladens. She looked at the envelope I’d been sent in with, face dropped further as she needed to take six tubes.

She stabbed me, the vein collapsed like a soap star at an aftershow party.

Needlewoman: "I’m going to go and get the other nurse, sometimes two heads are better than one and if all else fails one can needle you whilst the other prays"

So Needlewoman #2 came in and looked frightfully young and was very breezy for a woman who brandishes sharp things. And then she put the tourniquet on using one hand in a motion that surely isn’t taught on the NHS but more akin to the crack houses of Glasgow. And hence my hope that she would score a vein raised massively.

She prodded the armed whilst staring into space.

  Needlewoman #2: "Well it doesn’t really feel like a vein but shall we go for it anyway?"

As my arm was turning blue I couldn’t refuse. She dived in and hit red. Six tubes filled no bother.

Those tests came back with a lot of ‘weakly positives’. Things like iron are just straddling the bottom end of normal. The doc used usch encouraging words as ‘weird’ and ‘odd’. So then a second round was called for. This time a mere three tubes needed to be filled and at least we knew where we were best to aim for.

Supposedly I have deep veins, positively philosophical.

Those lot came back . Yadda yadda yadda, this is a blog not a Holby City script so let’s skip to the thinking I am coeliac (that blood test is in 10 days time, just fit a tap for Gawd’s sake) and regardless of what that comes back the Doc wants me to go gluten free and see if symptoms improve. Then in September a review and if those manky blood readings remain manky a visit to the haematologist for a deeper review. So I will keep you posted.

I would like something definite pinpointed rather than ‘syndrome Beks’ but it is interesting to see the bloods are a bit rubbish, so something is going on and I am not just lazy!!

Tech Tags: coeliac, blood+test, doctors, Holby+City

Orange Sky Watch

Well I shan't be going to sleep tonight.

At about 9pm'ish we noted it sounded like New York outside - a rash of sirens. Looks out the window and there was a huge plume of smoke climbing into the sky. Although I was fresh out of the shower I whipped some clothes on and went off to nose. It transpired most of the neighbours also have the nosey gene.

As I turned a corner towards the playing fields my breath was momentarily taken. On the industrial estate at the bottom of the hill on which our housing estate is perched, the pallet yard was ablaze. And there is plenty to burn. When we drove past the other day I even commented I had never seen so many pallets stacked tens of feet high.

I went down to the police cordon - you could feel the heat. The crackling noise chatted away, pierced now and then by the odd explosion which sent the flames a bit higher into the night sky. At this point the fascination moved to 'actually it is very big, isn't it?'

Back home over the top of my trees I can now see flames dancing let alone the smoke rising. Mmm, there are an awful lot of things next to that pallet yard which could go bang like a footballer in a brothel. So I shan't be going to bed. It now feels too close to be interesting!

Here's a little video clip:

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And a still if you can't get the video clip

Update:

The explosions went on until the wee small hours and it turned out to be the big electricity cable overhead melting and snapping. In all it took 150 firefighters the best part of a day to get it under control.

Factories around have been effected but it is the damaged electricity lines that are causing the most problems, but who would have thought that 70000 tinder dry pallets would be a fire hazard!