Puking for England
Posted: Mon 5 May, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Health 3 Comments »Well, what a Bank Holiday weekend it’s turned out to be.
On Friday night/Saturday morning I developed a dollop of what we think was food poisoning – it might’ve been something viral from somewhere, as Herself has also gone down with the same thing today, but we’re not sure – which led to explosive levels of fluids being expelled from the body. (No, I’m not going to go into details, I’m sure you’ll figure it out)
It meant that all our plans for Saturday went tits-up from the start, and the rest of the weekend followed suit. Herself knew I was feeling really bad, because I went back to bed and slept twice on Saturday – all told, about four hours. That’s just something I never do. Coupled with that, any time I stood up, Gravity took over, and caused a quick dash to the nearest toilet. Yes, for 24 hours I was Gravity’s Bitch.
Sunday wasn’t much better, although was better, and today’s been OK (so far) for me, although Herself picked up the same complaints last night and is currently crashed out in bed still.
About the only good thing that’s come out of it is that at least I’ve been ill on a weekend, and thus didn’t lose out on any money coming in. And that’s a pretty poor silver lining for any cloud.
Selling Seeds
Posted: Wed 23 April, 2008 Filed under: Getting Organised, Green, Green Garden, Health, News 4 Comments »It’s good to see that apparently more and more people are buying vegetable seeds, and growing their own veg, particularly in light of rising costs and growing awareness of the environmental impact of various imported fruit and veg.
We’re doing this more and more now that the garden is getting a bit more sorted – so far this year we’ve planted:
- Three rows of potatoes
- Leeks
- Carrots
- Onions
- Bell peppers
- Chilli peppers
- Runner beans
- Peas
- Rhubarb
- Tomatoes
and - Parsnips
We’ve still got plans for broccoli/calabrese, courgettes, pumpkins, cauliflower, more leeks and parsnips for over-winter, and a couple more tubs of potatoes as well as gooseberries, blackberries and (probably) strawberries on the fruit side. And even then, as we get more organised next year we’ll do even more.
It’s just good to see people doing more for themselves in this way – I suspect it’s something that’s going to keep on happening. I certainly hope so.
Water Shortage
Posted: Tue 22 April, 2008 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Health 7 Comments »Since last Thursday, we’ve been unable to use our mains water.
About a year ago (apparently) one of the people on our road had an oil delivery, and some amount of oil spilled/leaked into the ground. Since then, Anglian Water have occasionally been testing the water supply there, and the diesel has now leaked into the pipes. (Apparently, in a fit of genius, the blue plastic pipes used for the supply of clean mains water are permeable to diesel oil. Which fucking Mensa member came up with that one, particularly for an area where every house has oil central heating?) Therefore, it’s now contaminated for everyone on our road – which admittedly only runs to about eight houses. We can use it for washing and so on, but we can’t use it for drinking, cooking, giving to animals, etc. etc. In short, it’s unfit for consumption.
So since Thursday, Anglian Water have been keeping on checking the contamination levels, and supplying all the houses on our road with bottled water.
Yesterday (Monday) they confirmed that the entire of the water main for our road is going to need to be replaced, which might happen next week. And even then we can’t go back to using the mains water until it’s been repeatedly tested. And I bet they replace the pipe with another blue-plastic one that the diesel oil will eventually seep into as well.
So with luck, we’ll be back on mains water in a couple of weeks time. And until then, Anglian Water will keep on supplying us with bottled water.
Surely it would’ve made far more sense (financially, practically, and from the perspective of customer services) to replace the pipe with a non-permeable version a year ago when the leak/spillage originally occurred, spend a day or two doing it, and have no further issues, rather than the farce of sending someone out to check it every so often for a year, then have to supply eight houses with bottled water for a fortnight while they finally get round to repairing/replacing it?
Caffeine Free
Posted: Sun 20 April, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Health 3 Comments »It’s been more than a month now since I stopped drinking Diet Coke, and I’m pleased that I’ve managed to do it.
I wouldn’t necessarily say I feel any better for it, but well, at least I’ve cut out the addiction.
Losing Weight in 2008: Update
Posted: Wed 9 April, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Health Leave a comment »Well, to be honest so far I’ve done absolutely sod-all when it comes to increasing my levels of exercise or decreasing my weight this year. I know, I’m a slacker.
There’s been a whole bundle of reason, but they all really come down to one thing – I couldn’t be chuffed to do it. Now, with spring and summer coming up, I might just get round to it.
Way back, we did sign up with a leisure card thing for the nearest large(ish) gym in Dereham, but the experience we had there was so crap that neither of us has actually bothered to go back since. Maybe we should do, just to give them a fair crack of the whip. But well, maybe not.
However, I do plan to do a visit to the other big gym in the area (it’s on my way home from the current contract, and also close to the large Sainsbury’s store where we do most of our shopping, so it’s at least vaguely convenient) tonight, and see how that goes too.
Then, of course, I just need to build up the motivation to actually go, and/or do something else as well…
Cutting Out Caffeine
Posted: Thu 27 March, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Health 2 Comments »Regular readers will be amazed to know that while we’ve been away, I’ve completely stopped drinking Diet Coke. Coke and Diet Coke have always been my major addiction really, and over the years my intake has gone up and down, but never really cut out completely. I know I drink/drank way too much of it, and then a while back Herself issued me the challenge of cutting it out completely while we were away.
In light of knowing that I’d be foul if I went straight from my normal levels of Diet Coke to zero, I cut my intake way down in the month or so before we left for our break – and that was probably one of my smarter moves of late, if I’m honest. It meant that once we got here on Friday, I just cut it out completely, rather than needing to reduce the intake before dropping to zero – and it means that I’ve now not had any caffeine or Diet Coke for a week.
I’m not cured of the addiction, I’m sure – it wouldn’t take much at the moment for me to just go back to the pre-holiday intake, if not the pre-reduction intake. So it’s still something I’m going to keep on working on, and drinking other things rather than Diet Coke, and just seeing how it goes.
Along the way, it also means I’m drinking more water, and using fruit squashes and the like. No bad thing at all – I can’t deny, the range of fruit squashes and so on has increased massively since I were a lad, and that’s definitely a good thing. So it means that I’ve got a lot more variety in what I’m drinking, and hopefully increase the healthiness (to some degree) of my liquid intake as well.
Time will tell, obviously- but I think that with other thoughts and plans that have been started while we’ve been away, it makes sense to reduce both my intake of caffeine and artificial sweeteners (Aspartame in particular, having seen the reports that Pete linked to a while back) and the evidence of the last week or so that I don’t actually need that caffeine and Diet Coke in my life to keep me going (which I’ve occasionally thought I do) then that’s a good starting point, and a good motivation for the future.
Dental Plans
Posted: Sat 15 March, 2008 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Getting Organised, Health Leave a comment »Once we come back from our week away, there are a couple of things I need to get sorted. Nothing urgent, but still, needs to be done I think.
First among those is a visit to the dentist. It’s been a fair while since I last went (Probably coming up for two years ago now, if not three – UPDATED : Ah, a quick check tells me it was May 2005.) so I know that the odds are I’ll need some work doing again.
Which makes me think that it’s probably worth organising getting some dental insurance first, so I’m not massively out of pocket when it comes to getting the work done. I wonder what the insurers think if you buy the insurance, then a couple of months later get a load of work done…