New Short Story Collection

I've finally got round to putting another collection of stories on Kindle.

There are twenty stories included and all have been published in The People's Friend. 

In the title story Margaret thinks a mouse is pinching her cakes. Meanwhile, out in the garden, something is eating husband Gordon's chrysanthemums - or so he thinks!

There are also stories of romance, new babies, friendships and weddings, all with love at their heart.

Margaret's Mouse & Other Stories is available for Kindle from AmazonUK and Amazon.

The Perils of Forgetting Your Camera

Phone cameras are great. But there are times when you need the Real Thing.

We went to the 70^th Anniversary of VE Day Open Day at the Harwich Redoubt Fort. It’s always a great place to visit with the kids. Then we had a stroll round Old Harwich and ended up sitting on the Ha’penny Pier with drinks from the café.

We then went down onto the pontoon and watched a very nice man and his lovely little boy (and beautiful dog) crabbing. He let the children hold the crabs and pull in the lines, then we all watched as they released the crabs to race back into the sea.

We thought we’d missed the flypast by the P-51 Mustang, but as we were heading for home, it zoomed overhead. We watched all the wonderful manoeuvres, hearts in mouths as the pilot flew low over the trees before soaring upwards.

I took some photos with my phone.

Brilliant isn’t it? It was there - you'll have to take my word for it. Just out of shot.

Here it is again.

And another.

Yes, I know - it's a seagull.

You wouldn’t believe how many photos of the sky I had to delete. But I did manage to get a couple – more by accident than design.

I particularly like the one above of the plane flying over the Dubs.

Seagull and plane! They're both there, honestly.

I feel very lucky that I did not have to live through the times my parents did. Very lucky.

Naughty, Very Naughty

I can’t believe it’s been such a long time since I visited my blog. Naughty, very naughty as Pompidou would say. Has anyone else watched Pompidou? I loved it – the kids did too, particularly the first episode.

I was going to say it must be warming up. My little Harleybird planted herself in the pot with the rhododendron and stayed there all afternoon soaking up the sun. Meanwhile, I put my winter boots and my warm dog-walking jacket away. So yes, you can blame me for the temperature plunge.

I recently read Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey’s debut novel (recommended to me by my friend Jan – thank you, Jan). It is the first time for a while I haven’t been able to put a book down and I read it over about four days.

The Terrible Twosome like to keep an eye on what’s going on outside. They wag at the postman even when he brings me big brown envelopes and they wag at most dogs, but if they see someone/thing they don’t like (escaped carrier bag/cat-who-beats-Harley-up/threatening looking leaf), the tails go rigid and there’s barking. Lots of barking. Fortunately they seem to like most people/dogs/cats/birds so there isn't a lot of noise - thank goodness.

Hibernating!

It’s been a while since I was here and I’ve neglected the poor old blog a bit. I haven’t been about in Blogland much at all. It feels almost as if I’ve been hibernating.

I think because I decided to stop visiting Facebook (well, I do still pop in now and then, but I’ve probably missed a lot) I’ve tended to stay away generally from the internet.

When I took Dusty for his post-op check in Newmarket between Christmas and New Year, he’d had a flare up of the infection which they said was “disappointing”. I was given a choice of waiting to see if the antibiotics worked or having another scan. I decided to give the antibiotics a chance.

But I came away worried. If the infection came back, the vet I saw said it would mean another scan, an operation and the possibility of removing part of his jaw. “They manage very well after such surgery,” the vet told me. The problem is when an infection gets into the bone, it is hard for the antibiotics to get to the site.

It played on my mind so much that I made an appointment to see our own vet Tom in January, but an emergency came in and I saw Neil instead. He was very kind and reassuring and took plenty of time to talk me through what might happen. I know the infection could come back at any time so I can’t say he’s better, but we’re taking one day at a time.

At the same time he gave Harley her annual check-up and boosters and found her teeth absolutely thick with tartar and her gums all red and sore. What a shock!

So she was booked in to have her teeth cleaned, given an antibiotic shot and had cultures taken to send to the University of Glasgow just in case there was some underlying cause of the gingivitis.

In the meantime, my lovely friend Pat (thank you, Pat) recommended Plaque-off for Harley, so I got some and she loves it on her food.

The results came back clear. No obvious cause. The only thing I can think is that it had something to do with her poor start in life – she was thrown over the sea wall with her brother as a kitten and luckily someone saw it happen and saved them.

So she now has her Plaque-off and special dental food which I mix in with her normal food, plus any treats she has are dental ones, like Toothies. Her gums look fine at the moment and she’s going back for a check-up in a month or so. In the meantime, Dusty is keeping a close eye on her!

Every day after his walk Dusty has a bath. I make sure there is no sand or dirt or grit left for him to lick off. He only goes out in the garden on a lead so there’s no chance of him rooting round and picking anything up such as cat poo, bugs, thorny branches or stones.

And he doesn’t have any of his chewy toys any more, just his treat ball. It sounds as if I’ve taken all the fun out of his life doesn’t it, but he’s just as happy and even happier when Poppy is round to play. He runs for miles along the shore and over the marshes so he gets plenty of exercise. So does Poppy. And she sleeps a lot!

As for me, the sinus infection came back. I had another course of antibiotics which caused all the usual nasty side effects – and didn’t work anyway. I tried the steroid nasal spray which made me feel a lot worse. Then I got myself a neti pot which I found unpleasant – it’s like a little teapot and you pour water up one nostril and it comes down the other one. I react badly to decongestants, so I can’t take those – sigh. Never happy am I?

Pat suggested Homeopathy (thank you again, Pat), so I’m giving that a go now along with a saline nasal spray, but I’ll go back to the doctor if it doesn’t clear up.

Honestly this blog is starting to read more like a list of ailments and moans. I’ll try to think of something more interesting and uplifting next time.

Almost everyone I know has been ill one way or another this winter, but there are snowdrops out and the daffs are in bud and the days are getting longer. Spring will soon be here! What a lovely thought.

January Giggle Blog - Welcome to Ditzville

It’s 6.50 am and cold. I get in the car, switch on the engine and start adjusting my seat and mirrors. I’m due at my daughter’s to pick up the kids and dog at 7, but it only takes 5 minutes at this time of the morning.

But my interior light won’t go off. I turn on my headlights and put the car in gear (hoping to make it realise I intend to drive off), but the light remains stubbornly on. So I check that I’ve shut my door properly. I have. I fiddle with the switches. The light stays on.

There’s no way I can drive with it dazzling me, so I fetch useful (if somewhat disbelieving) husband. He has a fiddle. Light stays on. “We’ll have to think of some way to cover it up,” I say.

He goes in the house and comes out with some tape and a piece of card which he tapes over the light. He goes back indoors and the card drops off. I stick it back. It falls off. I stick it back. It falls off. The air turns slightly blue.

I’ll have to drive round there holding it in place. Useful husband reappears to find out why I’m still sitting on the drive at 6.58. I’m panicking. I hate being late.

“You’ll have to come with me,” I say. “You can hold the cardboard over the light.”

He jumps in and I reverse off the drive and a dashboard light flashes and an alarm says, “Beep, beep, beep, beep!” A door is open (why couldn't it have said so sooner?). He jumps out, checks all the doors and finds the rear passenger side door isn’t shut properly. He closes it. Interior light goes off.

Absolutely everyone who has been told this tale says right at the beginning, “Did you have a door open?” Well I did check MY door. I just didn’t expect one of the rear doors not to have been shut properly the night before. Sigh. I’ll know better next time.

 *

Here’s Harley enjoying her cosy new bed. It's actually a carrier, but she liked it so much I left it up and she even prefers it to sleeping on the printer. Little does she know she’ll be travelling in it to the vet this afternoon for her annual check-up.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year – I can’t believe we’re in 2015!  By now we were all supposed to be walking round in silver jumpsuits, eating pills instead of food and travelling everywhere in flying cars. My mum even made silver jumpsuits for my Sindy and Paul dolls as a nod to the future. 

Did you have any expectations as to what life would be like now?

Thank you for all your support my lovely blog friends. I hope the New Year is kind and brings you happiness, good health and peace.

Sinus Toothache!

This is a break from my normal posts (if there is such a thing). I am posting this in case it is of help to someone out there if I share my experience.

Back in the summer, I started to notice a sharp, shooting pain in my teeth whenever I bent down to pick up the ball. Just that. Nothing else. Ah ha, those in the know will be saying, I know what that is.

Well, I didn’t. I put up with it and tried to ignore the thought that I had something very wrong with my teeth. I hoped it would get better. It didn’t. It got worse. Soon the toothache was constant and I was taking paracetamol every four hours. I had earache and jaw ache. The whole side of my face hurt and my teeth were super-sensitive.

So I did the sensible thing and made an appointment with my dentist. “Which tooth?” she asked. “I don’t know – all of them on that side at the top.” “Oh, so I have to guess do I?” she said and I felt like an idiot. I mean who doesn’t know which of their teeth hurts?

“It hurts most when I bend over forwards,” I said helpfully (it seemed relevant) and she looked exasperated as if that bit of information didn’t help at all.

She tapped all my teeth along the top on the left side. They all hurt. A lot. She did that thing where they spray something icy on your teeth. I nearly hit the roof. She took x rays. At last, I thought, she’ll find out what’s wrong.

“Hm, there’s nothing on your x rays.”

The nurse smiled kindly and said the problem is that the same nerve serves all the teeth so it can be difficult to find which one is causing the trouble.

To cut a long story short, she did a temporary filling in a small cavity she found and told me to come back in a fortnight. I wasn’t happy when I got home. I’d expected her to find something – anything – that was causing so much pain.

A few weeks later, after she’d replaced all my fillings on that upper side and put liners in to reduce sensitivity the pain settled – very slightly, so when I went back for my next appointment I was able to say, yes, I feel much better. I didn’t tell her I was still taking painkillers. I wasn’t taking so many, so assumed the teeth were settling down. “Good,” she said. “My next step was going to be root canal treatment.” Yikes!

Then it got bad again. I was in despair. I tried to wobble my teeth to relieve the pressure and considered raiding the toolbox for some pliers. I tried hot and cold compresses on my face, bags of ice, herbal remedies, clove oil, the TENS machine – I even tried ibuprofen although they give me indigestion (they didn’t help at all). The paracetamol took the edge off, but after about three hours I’d be watching the hands of the clock, desperately waiting for the time to be up so I could take more.

I woke four hours after going to bed and had to take more pills. I felt like banging my head against the wall.

I was grinding my teeth and waking myself up, causing more pain. The inside of my cheek ached. Some nights I'd be up at 3am, my night's sleep over.

Then at the beginning of December, I made a decision. I’d make an appointment and just tell her to pull the teeth out. That was my plan. I hit my teeth with a spoon trying to pinpoint the most painful one, but by then the bottom teeth were hurting too and I had pain all down my neck. The ringing in my ear that I’ve got used to over the years became loud and constant.

The hypochondriac in me was working overtime. If I wasn’t tossing and turning because of the pain, it was all the ridiculous thoughts whirling round in my head. I’ve had trouble on that side of my face before – when I was in my twenties – and I began to think it was something to do with the radiation treatment I had. Or maybe it was arthritis in my jaw. Once I started looking things up on the internet, I scared myself.

I couldn’t get in with my dentist and had to see one of the others. I sat in his chair and said, “It started off hurting in my tooth when I bent forwards. Now my whole face hurts – all the time.”

“That’s not toothache,” he said. “That is sinus pain. I’ll do an x ray to be sure.”

He did an x ray and showed it to me on his computer. All fine. Sinus, I thought, you mean I don’t need to have all my teeth pulled out to stop it? Really?

“You need antibiotics. I can prescribe them, but you should see your doctor as he’ll know the best one to prescribe.”

When I went to settle up, the receptionist said there was nothing to pay and asked if I had to make another appointment. I told her what he’d said. “Yes,” she said. “That’s very common.” I said I felt a fool for not going to the doctor first and she said, “Well you have to start with one or the other.”

So the next day I went to see my doctor. I told him the dentist had sent me! “I’ve got toothache,” I said. “It hurts a lot when I bend forward.”

“That’s not toothache,” he said. “That’s a sinus infection. How long have you had it?”

At least three months.

I picked my prescription up and went home in tears. The end was in sight.

Except the antibiotics didn’t work – not helped by the norovirus I got in the middle of the course. I couldn’t get in with my doctor and had to see a different one. I was beginning to think it wasn’t an infection at all and my inner hypochondriac reared her ugly head again.

The doctor took my temperature. “Over 100,” he said which was a surprise. He prescribed a different antibiotic and gave me a steroid nasal spray to use.

I’ve had sinus pain before, but it’s always been in my cheekbones and always after a cold. Never like this!

About three days into the antibiotics, I was down to four painkillers all day. By Christmas Eve which was the last day of them, I didn’t need any. It was bliss to sleep through the night.

Christmas day evening my face began to hurt - but not bad enough for painkillers. But I’ve caught a cold. I’m snuffly and stuffed up so it’s going to hurt isn’t it? If it gets worse, I'll be back to the doctor like a shot!

The reason I am writing this post is because there may be someone else out there with an unexplained toothache that cannot be pinpointed and pain when they lean forwards. Go and see your doctor!

I cannot believe how debilitating this sinus infection has been. Apart from the pain, my only symptom was intense fatigue – and weight loss (every cloud and all that). I even had to soak my cornflakes in soya milk until they were soft because eating anything remotely crunchy was so painful.

My husband, bless him, did all the Christmas food shopping (including buying stacks of paracetamol) because I have been in Completely Useless Mode for weeks. I’ve done very little writing apart from my blog posts; in fact this is probably the most I’ve written for ages.

So for anyone reading this that doubts that a sinus infection can cause toothache, earache, headache, face ache, jaw pain, neck ache and fatigue without any nasal symptoms – yes it can!

And just as an odd little aside, the second lot of antibiotics I was prescribed were the same as those Dusty is taking for the next month, Co-amoxiclav (Augmentin).

I really hope that this post will help someone!