Still Ill

Monday 30 November 2009

Had to take a Family Care Day to look after Flick who has been doing a fair impression of Fungus the Bogeyman over the weekend. Took her to the doctor on Friday and found him to be ever so slightly patronising. I wasn’t sure if he was talking to Flick or the Good Lady Wife but I didn’t like his tone. He seemed to think we’d taken Flick to the doctors too early!

In between wiping the greenest snot I’ve ever seen from Flick’s nose I built a Nativity scene from a Press-Out set. I started it at 10am and finished it at 3pm. There was a couple of occasions when I’d have gladly have put a match to it but I persevered, as the picture below shows.


At one point I was struggling with Mary’s head and as she passed by, Flick stopped, suggested I save her until the end and carried on back to CBeebies! 5 going on 25!

Tuesday 1 December 2009

I’m not saying it was cold this morning but there were three brass monkeys crying their eyes out when I went to defrost the car.

Whenever Flick gets ill, she invariably and very kindly passes the germs on to me. Today I’m not feeling too hot and have decided to skip the gym. I used to beat myself up about missing a day without the weights or the cycle but no more. Instead I’m going to take a brisk walk at lunchtime to get my daily “fix” and to have a look around Boots. We have a Secret Santa draw at work, with each participant spending up to £10 on the person they picked out of the hat/chosen receptacle. Boots is always good for gifts so I’ll be headed along there at lunchtime.

Bought three gifts (for the price of 2) and a Boots Meal Deal (saving £1.86) and I was a happy shopper. Who said Christmas shopping is stressful?

All our Christmas cards have now been sent and it’ll be interesting to see who we’ve missed and if the mysterious “Karen and Andy” send us a card for the third year running.

Find out from Flick that a child of an ex-neighbour has being asking Flick for a share of her school snack and not just once or twice either. She’s now been told to say, “No, get your own” if she tries it again. The offender is the middle of three sisters, with a butter-wouldn’t-melt appearance, unlike her sleekit, mouthy big sister. Flick has a caring, thoughtful nature and I don’t like the idea of people/kids taking advantage of her.

After an hour spent doing Advent competitions on the net I caught up with Sunday’s House and Monday’s University Challenge.

Wednesday 2 December 2009

Why don’t people indicate anymore? Roundabouts, lane changes, turning corners, drivers just don’t do it anymore. Everyone else is supposed to be a mind reader. And at this time of year it becomes even more apparent the number of one-eye monsters on the road. And, no, I’m not referring to the PM; I’m talking about cars with only one headlight or one brake light. Do people not check their vehicles anymore? End of rant. For now.

Our first overseas Christmas card has arrived. I posted cards to Spain and the USA last Thursday, after my audition, and the first has arrived, in Long Beach.

Thursday 3 December 2009

I could've put money on it. Just as I thought I'd got away with catching Flick's infection it hit me, like a juggernaut! I woke up feeling a bit groggy and put it down to a bad night's sleep and the usual waking up in the middle of the night feeling.

I drove to work only to feel even worse when I got there. I stayed for an hour before doing the sensible thing and coming home. (As I drove home between 7.30 and 8.15 I noticed the tailbacks going the other way. I'm so glad I leave for work before 6am.)

I managed to get a doctor's appointment for 9.40 am and she confirmed I had indeed picked up Flick's infection and she prescribed Penicillin V, with an Ibuprofen chaser. I was back in bed by 11.30 am and slept, on and off, until 3pm. I made sure I had enough time to come round before heading off to pick up the girls, only for K to phone and say she'll collect Flick herself. The rest of the afternoon was spent in front of the Alibi channel watching Diagnosis Murder and Murder, She Wrote.

Flick cheered me up with a reindeer she had made at Kids' Club. She's very creative.

Fingers crossed I feel better over the weekend as (a) I hate being ill and (b) I've got the first of my Christmas shows to prepare.

I've asked all my Friends on Facebook and Followers on Twitter for their Best and Worst Christmas records so feel free to add your choices in the Comments box below. Time for some more pills...

Knicker Conspiracy

Saturday 3 October 2009

Inexplicably, I wake up at 6am. Maybe my Monday to Friday 5am body clock is taking effect and my weekend lie-ins are no more.

I tune into Radio Scotland’s “Out of Doors”, which I haven’t heard for ages. I’m not really the outdoorsy, Munro-climbing, tree-hugging, shark-fishing type but this programme is really good and the credit must go to presenters Mark Stephen and Euan McIlwraith who are very funny indeed. After a quick shower it’s time for Brian Matthews and “Sound of the Sixties” on Radio 2. I normally miss the start due to a thing called sleep. Today I’m ready for him.

I get quite excited when Brian previews the week’s Three-In-A-Row selection from a listener. It’s The Searchers and he says he’s going to play two from them and one from ex-member Tony Jackson. Now, many months ago I sent in a Three-in-a-Row request for The Searchers (I think it might have been for “Popcorn Double Feature”), The Tony Jackson’s Group cover of “Fortune Teller” and “Aggravation” by another ex-member Chris Curtis. I rush around getting a blank tape and start taping the programme in anticipation of another radio appearance/name check. My excitement is brought down to earth with a crashing bump when the listener in question isn’t me but a lady from North Berwick! I’m tempted to turn off the show, in a fit of pique, but there isn’t long to go so I don’t bother. I reason he must get hundred of letters every week and I was just unlucky. I resort to plan B and to ensure he and his producer have plenty of notice I request three Christmas tracks for any December show, with another as a reserve. I’ve asked for Jackie DeShannon’s “Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown”, which features in the James Bond film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, “Mr Scrooge” by Coventry band The Orchids and “Christmas Calling” by Valerie Masters, a Joe Meek production. My stand-by is Marvin Gaye’s “Purple Snowflakes”. Fingers crossed.

After a quick shower, it’s on with the work. Every week on my radio show I play a track by an artist whose birthday falls on the day of my show. 11 October is one of the few dates where I don’t know of a musician born on that day. I won’t play just anyone; it has to be someone who fits into the mod/soul/alternative 60s genre. I decide instead to celebrate John Lennon’s birthday (born 9th October 1940) by having a Beatles tribute show. While it’ll contain a couple of Beatles tracks and a John Lennon solo effort for the “Birthday” feature, it’ll mostly be Beatles covers and tribute records, of which there are many. With only the script to do, that’s another show in the can.

The plan today was to continue/re-start writing my book but the study is such a tip I decide to give it a good clear out instead. A tidy mind and all that. I have a break, a spot of lunch and I watch “The Thick of It”.

After some more pottering I stop for prawns with basmati rice for tea, accompanied by “The Thick of It – Rise of the Nutters”, which we’ve kept on Sky+ because we never tire of watching it. I head back to the study. Study makes it sound like it’s a room just off the East Wing, beside the servants quarters, but it’s really just the smallest of the bedrooms decorated with IKEA shelving full of books, CDs and LPs. It’s my little home within a home.

A couple of hours later there’s still nothing on the telly so I see what else I’ve meaning to watch for months on Sky+. There is, thankfully, and I watched the beautiful and brilliant “Control”.

Sunday 4 October 2009

Another early rise, this time at 8am. I plump for fried eggs on toast and a coffee to kick start my day.

Normally I avoid the Rangers v Celtic match but I decide to chill for a while. The game is a decent one with all you would expect from such an encounter. It’s just all the Weedja Meedja saturation coverage and hype that I can’t stand. It’s one of the reasons I stopped going to football and stopped reading newspapers. There’s a world outside of Glasgow and there’s a football world outside the Old Firm.

I put up my radio show set list on the Jocknroll blog, The World of Misery Guts blog and my Facebook page and, after a brief hello and goodbye when the girls return from their travels, I head off up the A92.

Another 'okay' show and it’s back home for my microwaved tea and to hear the highlight of Flick’s weekend, which is learning a new song containing the word “knickers”!! It tickled me as well.

The new series of “House” starts tonight. I love House; he’s the anti-hero who says what he likes and doesn’t give a damn. This show has been good at keeping things fresh and this series the setting has moved to a psychiatric hospital that House has reluctantly checked himself into. The moment he gets there he’s making plans to get out.

P.S Why is it that when I type a document on Word and then cut and paste it into Blogger I have to go through the laborious task of removing all the Html and adding new Html before I can publish it? Answers on a postcard to Me, 14 Me Street, Meville, Meland ME1