tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53025062008-07-27T00:23:04.518+01:00Barbnoreply@blogger.comBlogger359125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-31843156766812498642008-07-27T00:20:00.002+01:002008-07-27T00:23:04.531+01:00

Slowly, slowly my eye is healing and recovering from surgery. Vision is still fuzzy. I'll know more when I see the consultant on Tuesday. I have a list of questions for him. But, so far, so good. In other news it's miserably hot and humid here. So oppressive one wants to do nothing at all. Perhaps sip iced tea, take a shower but that's the limit of ambition.

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-75352748951735441112008-07-21T18:05:00.002+01:002008-07-21T18:14:03.588+01:00

Give credit where credit is due - the NHS has a few (miniscule but they are there) things right - the Moorfield Vitroretinal Emergency Clinic is one of them. It's absolutely no-frills, low comfort, no amenities BUT, and here is the diamond, the consultants are brilliant, the nurses are top notch, they actually have reasonably up-to-date equipment, and they class ALL retinal detachments are

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-84568844875231891122008-07-17T08:01:00.002+01:002008-07-17T08:16:03.476+01:00

Tuesday I had surgery for a detached retina. Totally unexpected, unplanned. Had some fuzziness in my right eye on Monday, went right to my optician after work. She spotted the problem immediately and made arrangements for me to be seen by a specialist that night. She insisted on my going then and there - well done! I would have waited till morning normally or gone to the local hospital which is

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-4144028898018755592008-07-17T07:54:00.000+01:002008-07-17T07:55:20.592+01:00

(Native American cop is arresting a black man) Black man: Fuckin' discrimination, man! Leave me the fuck alone! I ain't done nothin wrong! Native American Cop: Fuck you! We were oppressed first! Black man: Apache motherfucker! (Overheard in New York ---82nd St, Queens)

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-60298936975129560332008-07-10T20:20:00.002+01:002008-07-10T20:24:39.401+01:00

I passed the "Life in the UK" test today. Yes, ladies and gents, that is a real, official UK gov't required test you must pass to get a resident visa/citizenship here. They made me swear to secrecy about the questions. really. ( To protect the guilty, I suppose - I could have played Vegas with these questions and had them rolling in the aisles)

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-57409454156385889242008-07-10T06:57:00.001+01:002008-07-10T06:57:49.125+01:00

Conductor: This is 81st street. Get off here for the big museum of dead stuff. --Uptown C Train

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-38051553152062158272008-07-09T00:00:00.002+01:002008-07-09T00:04:14.451+01:00

Just got an email that an old friend of Alan's has died. Funeral next week. We'll go to the memorial afterwards at the pub to toast her memory. I remember her as a rather nice, funny old woman. She was a local Councillor and stood for the environment in a very practical and sensible manner. She was a smoker, a fellow exile. (No she didn't die from smoking!)

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-50475535800197071862008-07-08T21:41:00.002+01:002008-07-08T21:49:49.944+01:00

Update on the burn. I've never had a burn like this before. Usually the skin gets a bit red or at worst, I get blisters, which usually break) and then it gets scabby and starts to heal. This time, no visible blisters. The skin is a dark reddish brown and swollen where it was burned and I suspect the blisters are deep below. It hurts. It hurts a hell of a lot. So, deciding to take advantage of

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-75982860347316349652008-07-06T21:30:00.002+01:002008-07-06T21:32:11.240+01:00

It took over 5 hours of iced wraps and painkiller tablets to bring the burn pain down to function level. It's 9:30 pm now and the hand still hurts and is stiff. There aren't blisters yet but the skin is swollen in the pattern of the boiling water inpact.

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-12839960580966592462008-07-06T11:29:00.002+01:002008-07-06T11:32:39.131+01:00

damn, damn, damn! I burned my right hand this morning making coffee. Splashed boiling water all over the top of my hand. I stayed calm and grabbed for the "cooling burn spray" we keep handy on the kitchen counter. What garbage! Useless and didn't work. I turned on the cold water and stuck my hand under the running water as fast as I could. Now that is relief. I don't know why the spray didn't

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-19347477802477507292008-07-01T00:01:00.002+01:002008-07-01T00:28:56.320+01:00

And so tomorrow my little "vacation" comes to an end. Wednesday morning at 9am will find me at my new job. That's the good news. The bad news is that my agency has a monthly pay schedule. I know that a monthly pay cycle is the general rule in the UK, especially for higher level jobs, but I've been lucky in that, up till now my jobs paid on a weekly basis. The money is obviously exactly the same

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-46896699213156245192008-06-27T16:51:00.002+01:002008-06-27T16:53:04.773+01:00

I start a new job on Wednesday as a project manager in Disaster Recovery at GlaxoSmithKline. The offices are a 5 minute drive from my house - astounding!

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-74122875257188989052008-06-27T10:01:00.001+01:002008-06-27T10:01:34.360+01:00

The night too quickly passes And we are growing old, So let us fill our glasses And toast the Days of Gold; When finds of wondrous treasure Set all the South ablaze, And you and I were faithful mates all through the Roaring Days. Henry Lawson, "The Roaring Days"

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-59334195350317287822008-06-23T12:53:00.002+01:002008-06-23T13:15:12.218+01:00

How can they not have cottage cheese? So here I am trying to move to a healthier diet. More fruit and vegetables, less bread and pasta, you know the drill. So I was shopping at Tesco's and for crying out loud, they don't sell plain cottage cheese. They sell disgusting low-fat cottage cheese with it's plastic texture and taste. They sell plain low fat cottage cheese, low-fat cottage cheese with

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-25885582241984378142008-06-21T22:18:00.002+01:002008-06-21T22:23:38.145+01:00

Went to see Cabaret at the Lyric theatre with Asti today. Awesome, awesome, awesome production. The actress playing Sally Bowes was no Liza Minella, not in her dreams; she was adequate and passably good in a few bits. The rest of the cast was ok. The orchestra was great. And the MC, ah the MC...the MC -was- the show and he was fabulous. From the moment he peeked his head out of the dilated iris

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-45622873499157099122008-06-14T09:03:00.003+01:002008-06-14T09:22:34.368+01:00

In the middle of the night on Thursday (Friday morning at 3:30am) I woke up with terrible chest pain. It was as if someone wrapped a belt around my upper chest and was pulling it tight, along with that I had difficulty breathing. I felt clammy and slightly nauseous and light headed. So of course I thought to myself - is this angina/am I having a heart attack? I also considered, was it just a bad

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-17186072180199391212008-05-24T21:50:00.002+01:002008-05-24T21:58:38.278+01:00

Andrew - graduation day

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-24354789028777985382008-05-20T07:33:00.003+01:002008-05-20T07:54:42.064+01:00

Wow, long time since last posting. So much has happened. Adam and his partner Geri were here for a long Easter weekend visit. They managed to catch the most miserable weather of the year here - sleet, freezing cold, snow. Hopefully they enjoyed the holiday trip anyway. Then Andrew came over at end of April for a week or so during spring break. We had a ball - he lucked out with generally warm

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-39886894797509481062008-04-04T07:45:00.000+01:002008-04-04T07:44:40.016+01:00

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-87764709031121340132008-04-04T07:19:00.002+01:002008-04-04T07:21:50.140+01:00

Going off to Oxford tonight after work to meet Alan at the annual ACCU conference. Tonight's the "Speakers Dinner". As usual the food will be utterly horrible and generally inedible and offend meat-eaters sensibilities with their uncanny ability to turn protein into reinforced cardboard with extra carbon on top. And to add insult to injury its £50. Ouch.

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-12731537808538058062008-04-02T08:15:00.000+01:002008-04-02T08:14:11.817+01:00

Amazing, a gentleman on the Tube offered me his seat this morning. An almost unknown custom in the UK these days.

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-61033378128713210642008-03-18T11:01:00.000Z2008-03-18T10:59:31.914Z

I'm so sick of gray skies and winter. I need sun!

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-8047984832686703242008-03-17T20:39:00.002Z2008-03-17T20:47:49.707Z

So, sketching in the most recent void of silence, in no particular chronological order but more that of importance to me and interest: 1. Andrew will graduate from CCNY on May 30 2. Andrew was admitted to the CUNY PhD program 3. I'm working (yes, I know I mentioned this previously). So I'm still working - for an International law firm. Doing Disaster Recovery work - planning and testing. 4. Asti

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-67747852639029701612008-03-17T11:44:00.000Z2008-03-17T12:38:31.080Z

Finally made it to Vicomtesse Jeanne's home town!

Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5302506.post-43089429257164013432008-02-01T19:15:00.000Z2008-02-01T19:22:33.257Z

The end of week 1 at my new job. What a relief to successfully complete the first week. My timesheet is signed and ready to be sent to the agency and hopefully produce a salary deposited into my checking account next Friday. I really like this job and I think I'm settling in and producing some value for them already.

Barbnoreply@blogger.com