Lately I have been dreaming about onion rings...

 ... and I've realised that my body may have been misleading me.

For years I thought I was intolerant to many different fruits and vegetables, but now I'm wondering if that is actually the case?

A few years ago, maybe three or four, I started to have terrible digestion problems; bloating, cramps, flatulence, constipation, diarrhoea, and sometimes stomach pains so intense they would send me to bed, where I would curl up into the smallest ball possible and have to try and sleep (sleep was the only thing that used to help). It got so bad that I turned to Google and discovered IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) which seemed to list everything I suffered from. Knowing that my doctors rarely take me seriously, I decided to do an elimination test to see if I could find the “trigger” foods myself. I started to keep a food diary where I wrote down, without fail, every single thing that I ate or drank (although I didn't weigh food, that's just too much hassle lol). Not only did I write down what I ate, I also wrote down how it made me feel, and also how it effected my toilet habits. By doing this, over many months (and much pain) I found numerous triggers... the whole allium family (onions, garlic, shallots, leeks, chives and all granules, dried forms, salts and extracts containing them), peppers, sweetcorn, mushrooms, beetroot, swede, broccoli, cabbage, grapes, bananas, all squashes and pumpkin, spinach, courgettes, cauliflower, white flour products (bread, cakes, pasta, cous cous, etc), green peas, green beans... in short any veg that wasn't potatoes, sweet potatoes or carrots would give me trouble. Fruit was better, as long as I stayed away from grapes and bananas. Bakery products had to be brown, wholemeal, wholewheat, etc.

As you can imagine I wasn't a happy bunny, although my digestion was happier when I cut all of them out of my diet. The up side was I lost about four stone because I just couldn't eat most junk food, ready meals, pre-packaged foods or takeaways.

Oh, as well as the fruit and veg intolerances I also discovered that lactose caused me nasty trouble, so that meant most milk, cheese, yoghurt, cream , ice cream and anything else dairy was off limits (until I found a brand called Lactofree that I was ok with).  Plus I had trouble with chicken eggs... although I was ok with duck eggs (apart from the high price and even higher cholesterol content!)

Fast forward to about June 2015...

June 15th 2015 I decided to be a vegetarian... I forget now what prompted that decision... I may have written the reasons down in an old diary somewhere, but anyway.  People thought I was mad as I had so many bad reactions to so much veg, how could I possibly be a vegetarian? I admit I wondered myself, but I was determined to try.

After suffering bad headaches and sinus problems I discovered that dairy can cause that sort of thing. I decided to do a two week dairy elimination test to see if that was the cause of my pain. After about a week my sinuses felt a lot better and my headaches had decreased to almost nothing. Then, ten days into the two week test my sister had her birthday. Her fiancé got her a cake that was egg free but that contained cream... I took some lactase capsules (they used to help me digest the lactose so I didn't have a really bad time on the rare occasions I wanted something I shouldn't really have had lol). Within an hour of eating the cake my nose was blocked and I had a headache. It showed me that dairy and I were no longer friends and I decided to cut it out of my life completely... for good!
At about the same time I had been reading more and more about veganism, and all it entailed, and after a rocky start became a vegan on 15th July 2015.

As you can imagine those around me were worried as there were just so many foods I couldn't eat... what the hell does a vegan with so many intolerances to vegetables actually eat?! Luckily I didn't starve to death as I'm fine with wholewheat bread products, rice, wholewheat pasta and had grown used to making my own food from scratch.

I'm also one of those people that is always dumb enough to try things I know I probably shouldn't... and yes, I'm often surprised when I get bad reactions hahaha. However, in this case it proved to be a good thing as I was able to gradually reintroduce a lot of foods back into my diet... mushrooms, sweetcorn, broccoli, spinach, green beans, courgettes, and cabbage (including Brussels sprouts). I also discovered kale and avocados didn't hate me.

The one group that always made me really sad were the alliums as they are in so much food, the basis for so many amazing dishes, and also hard to avoid in vegan “junk food” and sauces (be they cooking sauces, pasta sauces, even stuff like ketchup). The sheer amount of onion powder, garlic powder, onion salt, garlic extract, onion granules, chives, and any combination of the above is astounding... I never knew just how much food contained one or many of them. It was a total shopping nightmare. Either products contained them, or were reformulated without any warning once I had already started using them (like Asda did once with some bbq sauce, lucky for me I'm a habitual paranoid label checker lol).

Fast forward again to about a month ago...

I have bouts of “bravery” regarding food. If my digestion has been doing ok I feel courageous enough to try foods that I normally avoid (that must be the masochist in me). I wanted to see if my intolerance to alliums was still bad, so got some Linda McCartney vegan sausage rolls that contain onion powder (I think) but no garlic so I thought it would let me know if onions still hated me (some people are affected by one, either or both... I was effected by both). I ate two sausage rolls and waited for the problems. None came. No pain, no bloating... nothing. I was pleasantly surprised. One more food to add to the plate. Then it got me thinking... if I could have onion powder, could I have garlic? (Not that I like garlic much, I just had to know). I found a Chinese BBQ sauce that had garlic but no onions and tried it. It wasn't very nice taste wise (although there was some slight discomfort). Then I thought, if onion powder was ok, maybe try something like dried chives. I used some as a garnish on some soup and again, no reaction!

Fast forward to today and so far I have had, onion powder, onion granules, onion extract, garlic powder, garlic extract, dried chives... and a large bowl of home-made leek and potato soup... with no comeback at all! I've had spicy burgers with onions, garlic and peppers... no comeback. I had some green peas the other day... with no comeback! To say I'm stunned is an understatement. I've been avoiding all these foods for years because of problems and now I don't have the problems (at least I don't think I do anyway... my next “try” is actual onion, I've bought onion rings and also red onions as well).

So what could have happened to suddenly make my stomach not hate most of the foods it used to (bananas still constipate me, but I was never much of a fan of theirs anyway lol).

It made me think... why now? What have I changed that could have such a drastic impact on my digestive system? And then one day it hit me... could it be because I'm vegan? Could the meat I ate for years have actually been the trigger for my problems and not the veg? I always had trouble digesting pork, it never liked me much. Steak often made me constipated. Any fish used to repeat on me so much I would want to vomit just to get the taste of it out of my mouth! Lamb would bloat me, and to a lesser extent so would chicken and turkey (although I never realised it). It made me wonder if I had been blaming the veg I would have with the meat for the trouble whereas I should have been blaming the meat! It just seems weird that I can now eat a lot of the things that gave me the worst reactions with no reactions at all... surely if something was so hard on the digestion that it would send you to bed that would never fully go away, regardless of how long between exposures.

Could nearly 16 months without meat have helped my digestive system to heal itself enough so that the “evil veg” doesn't cause any problems? Could the meat have been causing irritation and then the veg merely exacerbating a reaction already there?

Could I actually have been intolerant to meat the whole time and just never knew it?

Honestly I don't have a definite answer to any of those questions. All I can say is that I know how I feel, and that is fine. Maybe a little flatulence (who never has that?) but farts don't give me pain.

I guess that even if I hadn't become vegan for moral and ethical reasons, my body was screaming out for me to become one for health reasons. I just never knew it until now.

I'm going to take it slowly, I don't want to get my hopes fully up only to have them crushed by pain (which has happened many times before, when I've tried things in the past by jumping in head first instead of gently testing the waters with a toe at a time).

It has made me wonder if I should share my experiences with an allium intolerance group I'm in at Facebook? Obviously those with an allergy wouldn't benefit from reading it, allergies can be medically tested for whereas intolerances cannot, it is simply trial and error on the part of the intolerant person that discovers the triggers. But if meat could be behind my problems, couldn't it also be the same for others that might not even realise it?

{Sent to me by my brother... shared for sheer brilliance}

What is Paganism?By Nimue Brown

Paganism is an umbrella term covering an array of beliefs and practices, some of which are heavily informed by older civilisations, others of which are largely modern innovations. The trouble with the label is as soon as you say ‘this is Pagan’ there’s an implication of not-Pagan, which can be used to hurt and exclude. All too often what I see is people saying ‘I do this and I am Pagan and you do something different so you aren’t a proper Pagan’. And then we get bogged down in arguments, sucking up time and energy.

The logic of saying ‘you aren’t a true believer’ goes with recruiting religions based around authoritarian structures. These are, for the greater part not set up to be about spiritual experience, but designed to give power to a few. Most religions have aspects that are all about serving an elite, and every religion has spiritual people who aren’t primarily motivated by power. If you aren’t interested in controlling and manipulating people, why would it matter if what they do is not what you do? Historical Paganism was as much guilty of power wielding to herd the masses as any other set up, but we don’t need to recreate that aspect.There are reasons we might want other people to agree with us. We may feel threatened by difference, and more comfortable when our beliefs and habits are reflected back by those around us. We may want to be in charge and so must get everyone onboard for our way of doing things. We may have bought into the idea of one true way – perhaps a legacy from the faith we were raised in. We may be so excited about our personal truth that we think it’s bound to work for everyone. While sharing ideas and experiences is good, dogma is suffocating, and if we feel the need to say ‘you’re not a proper Pagan’ it’s worth asking what our problem is, not theirs.

What is Paganism? It isn’t in books, it isn’t a single coherent tradition, it does not have rules. There’s no racial or cultural barrier to membership, there’s nothing to swear, nothing to sign. Dedications are a personal thing. There are no specific gods you have to worship. You don’t even have to believe in gods to be Pagan. What does that leave? How can we make sense of the term when there’s nothing familiar to pin it to?

Let me suggest a thing. Paganism is a human response to the experience of being alive that finds sacredness in being alive. It’s a response to the seasons, life changes, the moon and tides, the agricultural year, the land, the weather. It’s a response to living and dying and to the constant cycles of life and death in this world. Anything that comes from a human response to life, is inherently Pagan. So the urge to make light and festivity at the darkest time of the year – that’s a Pagan urge. The urge to dance and party in the summer evenings, that’s a Pagan urge too. Celebrating the harvest, singing about the dear departed, honouring relationships, respecting the land we live on – no one needs telling how to do this. Every last one of us could come up with a way of being Pagan in response to life with no reference to anyone else.  Solstices, equinoxes, shifts in the season – these things are self evident.How can we get this wrong? Because if we’re inspired by other people to celebrate our human experience of being alive, that’s fine. We can find inspiration in each other for sacred expression. If we get it from a book, that’s fine too. If we make it up, it’s still humanity responding in a spiritual way to life.

Look at it this way, and the only thing a person could do that could be readily labelled as non-Pagan is telling another Pagan that they’re doing it wrong. Perhaps we could all be a bit gentler with each other.

44 Accidentally Vegan Snack Foods | PETA UK

44 Accidentally Vegan Snack Foods | PETA UK

Had a rather severe haircut today...

... and I'm sending the ten or so inches of hair to a charity that makes wigs for kids suffering from cancer. It's something I've been thinking about doing for a while, and I finally decided to take the plunge earlier on. My hair has gone from the middle of my back to about two inches below my ears!

I've been trying to see just how long my hair can grow for a few years now, and the longer it seems to get the more I dislike it... it seems to look thinner, drier and as it gets greasy so easily I've never been able to do anything with it - brushing, combing or handling it means I have to wash it daily (which I hate doing). I also seem to be shedding an awful lot lately and as mad as it sounds, I cannot stand finding hair about the house! I find so much shed hair in the plughole after washing, and also when I brush, that it makes me a bit sad as nothing I do seems to stop it from happening. As someone that never had long hair as a kid it was totally new to me taking care of it and I found it mostly incredibly annoying and time consuming. I never did anything with it, just scraped it back into a ponytail or into a bun, so I probably won't miss it all that much. I can console myself with the thought that my donation will hopefully give a child the confidence to go outside and play with their friends as no one will make fun of them, or laugh at them, for being bald.

My biggest regret is that I now can't use any of the hair sticks I made (or bought), at least for a couple of years anyway :0(

Oh well, as long as I'm alive it will grow lol.

**The picture is of the ponytail in a bag, which is now in a small padded envelope and will be winging its way to The Little Princess Trust charity tomorrow**

Woodland Herbs shop and clinic offers herbal remedies, natural remedies and skincare.

Woodland Herbs shop and clinic offers herbal remedies, natural remedies and skincare.:

Brilliant site sent to me by my big brother (thank you).

'via Blog this'

Violet soap

http://www.sweetviolets.co.uk/products.php?cat=8

I adore the smell of violets, to me it is one of the most beautiful scents around and I'm always on the lookout for a soap that carries the fragrance. My usual soap is made by Yardley, but it can be quite expensive as they sell them in packs of three and the price varies from £5 to over £20 depending on who sells them! This site has soap for under £4 (although that is per soap). Something to consider for the future anyway :0)

Solid perfume

http://www.humblebeeandme.com/solid-lavender-lemon-perfume/

Love the idea of this and it seems so simple, too :0)

Why I thoroughly dislike Christmas

It isn't the over commercialization of the holiday. Or the fact that shops will try and beat you into submission by taking one day and throwing it at you in a barrage that lasts for six weeks before it arrives. It is because of an event that happened the day after it occurs.

My beloved maternal grandmother died on December 26th 2006. I adored her and she had lived with my parents and me for over 23 years. It was the first time I had ever lost someone in my family that I was close to, and that I loved deeply. It had, and still has, a profound effect on me. I've been in a state of mourning since that day and I probably always will be. The regrets of all the things I didn't ask or say haunt me and part of me cannot forgive myself for not being there when she died (Mum and I were on our way to collect more clothes and toiletries when we got a call telling us to come back to the hospital as soon as possible... by the time we got back she had slipped away).

The onset of the colder months fills me with dread. The rest of the year I'm ok, I can remember and not get weepy... but the closer it gets to December the more I can feel myself tensing up somehow. I know she wouldn't want me to be sad, but I just can't help it. Believe it or not the new year is the worst. We all used to stay up late to see it in together and a lady up the road always rings a bell to see the old year out and the new year in - Mum and I go outside to listen and when I wish Nana a happy new year I always cry, then I set Mum off and we end up hugging each other and listening to the bell, standing outside in the cold. I just can't seem to help it. It only lasts a minute or two, but losing her still hurts so much. When people say that time heals, it doesn't. Time just moves forward and carries you along with it. You can either allow it to push you forwards or you can fight it and try to cling on to the past for as long as you can... eventually it will sweep you forwards whether you like it or not. We never get over losing people... we just become more and more used to them not being there anymore :0(

As memories fade, the feelings seem to lessen as well and that allows us to cope with everyday life. But the loss is still there, it may be buried deep inside, but it is still there. Maybe not as raw, maybe not as shocking, but still there, waiting for something to trigger it off... a smell, a sound, a look, a time of year... one day it will happen and the grief washes over you again in massive choking waves of pain and heartbreak. Tears flow and nothing you can do will stop them, they have to come out or they will drown you and burst forth when you least expect them to. It makes you want to crawl into bed and squeeze yourself into a tiny ball and you wish for sleep so that for a few short hours you can forget. Upon waking you have a few seconds of exquisite happiness when you are not awake enough to remember... but then you do, and sorrow smashes down upon you like a ton weight and you drag yourself out of bed and try and face the day with a brain full of sadness and a heart full of misery.

I still cling to the few precious things I have that belong to Nana. I cannot let them go as then my final grasp on the physical her will be gone as well. I need them to remind me of happy times; reading her recipes and remembering her baking a cake, seeing her handwriting and recalling watching her write cards and notes to people she loved, wearing her jewellery and feeling as if I have a small piece of her against my skin. I had to dispose of her perfume as it just triggered too much, too often... I was inundated with memories from just one sniff, it was unbearable. I smelled it the other day, whilst packing up the weekly shop in a crowded supermarket and I was momentarily unable to move as I thought she was there, mad I know, but for a nanosecond I had hope that she was, even though I knew she wasn't.

Sometimes I have to marvel that I haven't gone insane. I wonder why I am not in a mental health unit when just typing this entry has me sat here with tears blinding me and loss threatening to overwhelm me again. Maybe it is because I cannot allow it to do that, I have people that depend on me and I can't let them down. My needs must be tempered by the fact they rely on me... if I fall apart who will be there for them then? I have to suck it up and only allow myself to let it out when everyone else is asleep... then I can put my needs first and just cry. Just release the pressure once in a while and allow myself to be sad and let my heart break again. Then I can fall into a hopefully restful sleep and maybe by morning my heart will have reassembled itself back together again... not perfect (like a broken vase, mended with glue, is never really the same as it was before it shattered) but passable to any but the most in depth of inspections.

All of this creeps towards me the nearer December comes.

That is why I dislike Christmas.

Quick test post using BlogIt!

It's been a long time since I updated here and I'm sorry, life just has a way of kicking you in the teeth sometimes. My paternal grandmother died and although we weren't close it still knocked me for six... most of the time it still seems unreal and it is almost three months since she passed. Anyway, I'll update in more detail later on... I just wanted to try out this new blogging app as my HP tablet doesn't support the dedicated Blogger app and this is compatible so I wanted to try it :0)

My grandmother died on Friday.

The summer Solstice will now forever be linked with sadness for me. She passed away peacefully in her sleep, although her death was sudden as she wasn't ill and had showed no signs of rapid decline.

My Dad cried like a baby and Mum was upset because Dad was upset... but I don't know how I feel. I'm sad, but not upset - I'm sad that my Dad has lost his Mum, and like my Mum is now legally an orphan. I've not cried and it is not because I didn't love her, I suppose deep down I did, but she wasn't affectionate or loving towards me and I honestly didn't know her. If I'm brutally honest I didn't like her much... she was rude, unthoughtful and sometimes downright nasty, she was also an unapologetic racist. She used to make comments about my weight and I had to just keep smiling and bite my tongue sometimes to keep from screaming. In the end I sort of stopped really listening, I was pleasant and did the things she asked, but I felt she didn't trust me and I was always sort of on edge whenever I was around her. I was never close to her as she never allowed me to get close to her. She kept me at a distance and as a result I became very ambivalent towards her while she was alive. I did all I could for my Dad's sake, rather than hers. I feel no guilt as I did all I was allowed to do, even then I often got the impression she just wanted me to go away :0(

How do you grieve for someone you didn't know? Is it even possible? Is there any point? Sorrow is something you can't force, either you feel it or you don't. I don't feel anything much. I remember when my Nana died I grieved for years, it took me months to be able to wake up in the morning and not feel heartache crash down on me. Even now I sometimes cry because I miss her, but she lived with us for over two decades and I saw her every day. She loved me and told me so, gave me hugs, kisses, made me clothes when I couldn't find any that fitted in the shops. I knew that she liked me and she respected me. Never did she make comments that made me sad and despondent. In short Nana was the total opposite to Nan. Which is why my reactions are the opposite ends of the spectrum. On one hand I deeply mourn the passing of a large part of my heart; a loving, warm, affectionate friend... on the other is a distant, aloof, hurtful, virtual stranger that is my father's mother. A part of me is sad we weren't closer - but I know it wasn't my doing... how can you try and get close to someone if they don't let you?

Finally did some gardening

As usual I forgot to take any before pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was very reminiscent of a wild jungle! I kept expecting to find a small tribe as yet undiscovered by civilization lol. Sadly all I found is slugs, snails and about a dozen worms in weird and wacky places!

Considering that the garden had been ignored for about 18 months it could have been much worse. We (Mum and I) were out there for about four hours yesterday, and we got quite a lot done. I lopped down some of the huge cherry tree next door (before the rapidly falling blossom turned into cherries); pruned some roses, a forsythia, a Japanese maple (which I also repotted after sawing through the roots that had burst through the bottom of the plastic pot it was in! The pot is now a heap of plastic pieces as I had to smash it to bits to get the plant out lol), pulled up about a thousand weeds, planted a sad looking pink camellia in the ground, emptied the ashes out of the incinerator from the Beltane bonfire, top-dressed another Japanese maple, chopped down and fought with some suckers on the roses, swept the small patio and struggled with Mum to put up our gazebo. There is still a lot to do, but we both felt too tired to carry on. Mum was suffering with her back and dodgy shoulder and my right ankle became too painful to stand on for very long... all signs to go indoors and rest.

All told, though, I feel very happy with the progress we've made :0) Fingers crossed we both feel well enough to go out again later today and do some more.

Fruit trees for a small garden!

New Mini Orchard Collection With Free Secateurs - Plants, Seeds & Bulbs - Trees - Fruit Trees - Garden Centre Online
Very interested in these... now to find the money haha.

An interesting blog

A Beginner's Diary into Herbalism

Link to a brief herbalism article

http://www.ladyoftheearth.com/herbs/beginner.txt
I'm determined to do some kind of herb garden this year. I've neglected the garden for about a year and I have to sort it out. My main reason for not going out there is that I have to be so wary of the cats escaping. They're both indoor cats and it is now too easy for them to access the main road at the front of the house (and we have three separate bus routes running up this hill!!)
Anyway... I'm definitely going to attempt to finish the herb garden I started... while I have the money to do so.

I accidentally visited an old forum earlier...

... and the stupid place signed me in automatically *sigh*

I noticed I had a pm there (I forgot I'd received an email telling me over a month ago!) and when I tried to send my reply it told me I couldn't send it.

I've decided to save it here just in case I need it in the future, and it was also one of those messages that made me think about a few things regarding myself.

Oh, it was a Christian forum, by the way (hence the stuff about God).

Me - Sorry my reply has taken so long (I don't come here much these days... this is the first time since late last year).
To answer your message.

Dizdot - hey i saw you were asexual, I'm also super liberal but want to be asexual. I know they say its something "you cant change" but I also hear you can "train your brain" to think and feel like an asexual. 

Me - Being asexual has nothing to do with being liberal that I'm aware of. It just means that sex is unimportant... to some it means that attraction to another is unimportant.
I've never heard of anyone wanting to be asexual before... most people fail to understand that we don't see sex and relationships the same way they do. I've also never heard of anyone "training their brain" to be asexual.

Dizdot - Basically I don't believe God wants me to find a girl in this life, but deep down I want one so bad, and it causes me grief.

Me - Why do you feel that God doesn't want you to have a girlfriend? Is it because you are too shy or lack the confidence to get one... or is it really that you feel God is telling you no? If the feeling is as strong as you say I would think that God was telling you that you do need one in order to be the person He wants you to be.
If you want a girlfriend in this life there is nothing wrong with that. You don't have to have a sexual relationship in order to be in a relationship. Many asexuals marry and never have sex (unless they wish to have children or feel the urge to try it).

Dizdot - Can you give me any advice?
Right now I am just focusing on thinking about sex and girls less, and "turning my mind away" when I see things that trigger it. Not easy though :sigh:
thanks

Me - if you have to do those things then you are not asexual... an asexual would look at those things and either feel nothing much or be indifferent to them. It sounds to me as if you feel for some reason that you need to be a celibate, which is totally different from being asexual. An asexual doesn't care about sex... a celibate does care yet chooses not to act out those feelings. Big difference.
I'm sorry if my reply is not very helpful. I've always been this way and have never been asked for advice about it before. If I've sounded harsh I apologise, it wasn't my intention to be :)

I've never been asked about asexuality before... I'm probably not a very good person to ask either. I've never had a boyfriend (except when I was seven years old and I doubt if the odd game of kiss chase counts as courtship lol). I do wonder sometimes what it would be like, I'd be lying if I said I didn't... but when I see the people around me and see sometimes just what hard work a relationship can be it makes me feel better about being single.

I also wonder about what my child would look like, but again the desire isn't strong enough to do anything about. Not that intense maternal feeling that some women have... I have never felt broody. I was always happy to hand the kids back and take the money for caring for them. The only part that causes me guilt is that my Dad will never be a grandfather, like his younger brother already is (and his sister is a three time granny). However the feeling is brief and then I go back to normal again lol.

Sissy is always chatting about weddings and I sit there when she waffles on about receptions and chair covers and think "what a shocking waste of money" and have made a vow to myself that if I ever do marry it will be the polar opposite of anything she would ever think of!

Don't get me wrong... I am a romantic person. I love the idea of moonlit walks and cheesy proposals. Of hugs and kisses... but that is where my interest ends. Anything romantic, yes. Anything sexual, no.

London in Colour During WW2 [14 Pics] | I Like To Waste My Time

London in Colour During WW2 [14 Pics] | I Like To Waste My Time:

'via Blog this'


Amazing!! Looking at black and white photos, it's so different to see pictures in colour. Black and white seems to make it less real somehow.

I've changed the background to something bright and cheerful...

... because I'm sick and tired of winter now. I'm fed up of being cold and I'm bored of grey skies and dreadful weather! Roll on spring, I say (and I don't like warmer weather in the main, but I'm a bit disheartened with it being so bleak and miserable all the time).

I quite like tulips, they aren't my favourite flower, but I love the myriad colours they come in and they certainly do have a knack of cheering up dullness.

I've finally got the results from the doctor. Turns out I have a severe vitamin D deficiency. I'm now on a super strength supplement tablet (which is vile, by the way... note to companies making these things - if a tablet has to be either sucked or chewed you could at least make it taste pleasant... is that too much to ask?) I've only taken two so far as they are one a day, so I haven't noticed any change yet as it's too early. I just hope that they work... I don't know what happens if I still feel like crap in a few months time. What if the vit D thing is just something they found and not the cause of the aches and pains I'm suffering from? I guess I shall have to cross that bridge if I ever come to it.

I wish that sciatica was as quick to abate as it is to arrive... it can take seconds for it to appear and you're in agony for days/weeks until it decides to pack it's painful bags and sod off again! Mine seems to have come to stay for longer than the weekend, though. I hope it's not going to be visiting for much longer... I've been in bed for two days and already I feel like I'm going mad lol. Unlike last time it is mainly in my left leg so sitting isn't too bad, it's walking and bending that leaves me gasping for air. As I can sit down I've been trying to get some writing done.

I like writing, when I'm in the mood (which isn't very often as my concentration span is minute at the moment... pain does that to me) - but I found a book I started writing almost two years ago. It's set in London during the Blitz and it follows the life and struggles of a young woman called Tilly. I'm thinking of making her under twenty, that way she won't be conscripted into war work and I can develop her character more fully. Of course she'll volunteer for something, probably the WVS as I have first hand diary accounts of that branch of the voluntary services I can draw information from. I had only written a basic 'chapter one' before I put it down the first time (yeah, I'm easily distracted!)
  I'm unsure as to how long the piece should be, a full novel, novella or short story? I'm leaning towards novella and see how I go... it can be edited down or padded out to become either of the others if I find the story grows or I run out of ideas hahaha. I like to keep my options open.
  Normally I write poetry... mostly short and they have to rhyme. I don't like poetry that doesn't rhyme, it makes no sense to me, it doesn't 'flow'. I'm not a natural novelist, and I envy those people that seem to have hundreds of pages of stuff floating about in their brains. Part of my problem is that I'm impatient to get it all written down... so many times I have good things in my head and by the time I come to write them down they have disappeared, never to return! So frustrating to me, and I begin to lose heart, and interest, so I just stop. I also struggle in being descriptive, of conveying the pictures I have in my head down for others to read about and absorb.
  Apart from poems I have only ever completed one novella, in my life. A murder mystery, all written in long hand, and probably not very good... but at least I can say I have written one book lol.

Anyway, it's late and my painkillers are starting to work so I should try and sleep. I've had a bad few nights as I just get comfy and something spasms in my back or legs and I wake up again. Not helpful, not at all *sigh*

First episode of Midsomer Murders

I adore this show... the early series are some of the best for me. I love the weird and twisted storylines that are set in some of the most beautiful villages on Earth!

http://youtu.be/n1XK3m1wf1Q

^^ The Killings at Badger's Drift, which is the pilot episode.

Victory rolls hairdo

Diary of a Vintage Girl | Vintage Fashion & Lifestyle: Victory Rolls in a jiffy!

I never knew it was so simple... and the lady showing how to is really nice as well (some people have really annoying voices, but she doesn't :0) ).

1940s hairstyles

1940s Hairstyles: Retro Hairstyles, 40s Hair, 1940's Rockabilly, Prom & 40's Wedding Hairstyles