Today I went on a trip with mummy dearest to John Lewis’s Oxford street. It was quite a big deal as it was my first visit since I can remember. I wanted to check out their crafts department and oh my! They have quite a collection and not just quantity but quality items. I was impressed after finding my local department stores lacking. I hadn’t really gone to buy more for a day out with mom. I did however pick up some Sirdar Click for some more Mary Jane slippers. It’s a lovely warm tan and should hopefully not get quite so grubby looking so fast as my cream ones. Then again they are my only pair and they get alot of use. Mom also bought me a stitch holder as I don’t have one and I got some thin ribbon to decorate something I am going to make with the remainder of the purple wool I have but I need a larger size crochet hook which I forgot.

You may be wondering why I have no picture of my newly acquired items. Well… I was out with my sis when I ran out of batteries so I popped into one of those 99p stores and bought some Kodak batteries thinking oh those would be good seeing as it’s a camera they’re for. Wrong! I took 5 pictures and the camera was on for less than 5 mins and the low battery icon was flashing! I couldn’t believe it. That will teach me not to want to queue in Argos. Oh well such is life I will get some more tomorrow.

The pinwheel sweater is, well… it’s coming along slowly. Once I doubled up the stitches twice it’s hard work keeping the stitches on my circular needles. I still enjoy knitting it but I very often have to pick up dropped stitches.

Oh and on the way home I stopped in Somerfield for some juice and found they started doing a very nice 100% juice drink yum! I normally put my 250ml’s in a drinks bottle and top up with water not only do i 1 of my 5-a-day but I get half my recommended water in take too in one easy bottle. I need a new 1ltr bottle though as the cap has broken off on mine. I wonder if they sell similar type reusable ones must find out. I chose the tropical flavour but they also have pressed apple and squeezed orange and pineapple, not concentrate, to choose from. I really hate “juice drinks” They make you think you’re getting something healthy only to find it’s full of sugar! A lot of times it’s not even clear that it’s not 100% juice. They package them the same as the orange and apple juice. So I was glad to find a 100% juice tropical drink. It’s very nice, almost smoothie like. Humph Somerfield should pay me for selling it to you all haha! Really you should go try some.

I kinda forgot what else I wanted to say so I’ll sign off now lol.

Ok I got my Ravelry invite and I got way more excited than I should have done . Still it seems very interesting. I look forward to going into it more when I am feeling more lucid. I’ve got 4 different programs over and twice as many FF windows. I love to multi-task but this is taking the biscuit.

I wasn’t going to blog today I was feeling lazy but since I am here I may as well.

Really has been an uneventful few days…. Well maybe not! I rearranged my bedroom. Just thought now maybe I should have taken some pictures but maybe not as there’s no bedding in there at the moment. I’m camping out in the living room because the whole bedroom is damp and I didn’t notice. I opened one of my suitcase full of shoes and bags and it was full of mould! I was so shocked. I started investigating and found more stuff that was just mildewy all under the bed. Then I started getting chest pains like I’ve been having all week just after I got in bed and suddenly I realised. It’s been the mould/damp/mildew that’s been causing it! Funny thing is theres’ hardly anything on the walls. I moved the chest of drawers to see and though the wall is damp theres barely anything there considering the damage it’s done on my bags! The leather ones are salvageable but the fabric ones are being binned. Along with my fabric shoes . Someone is sposed to come this or next week to treat it and fit an extractor in the bedroom window. The agent came round and said it’s probably because the vent had been sealed off. I hadn’t really noticed until he said it but the vent has been covered and painted over by some silly sod. Yeah so now at least I know where this chest pain suddenly came from and my doctor just passed over and gave me Ibuprofen for it. Oh and on top of that I’ve got conjunctivitis. Nice! http://www.ravelry.com/people/starry

So I’ve been sleeping on the not very comfortable sofa. It’s not really long enough to get comfy on.

I have a air bed but it’s HUGE! Seriously takes up more space than a double bed lol. Takes so long to inflate too. I should get one of those 60 second ones instead but I rarely have more than one visitor any way and they have no qualms over sharing my double.

Sleeping in the living room is always a bad idea for me as I’m reluctant then to turn off the computer. I miss the hum once I turn it off. I had some downloading to do so it kinda served a purpose.

Besides all that I watched Bridge to Terabithia yesterday. It wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I did enjoy it though and cried at parts it was so sad (or maybe I’m hormonal ) I give it 7 out of 10.

Oh and also I’ve been trying to decide on whether to make cupcakes for halloween or make goody bags. Cos last year my sweetie tin was raided by teens and I don’t fancy that again but I do want to give to the kids who bothered to dress up. I have a few cupcake recipes in mind but how to protect them from being squished by other candy/ small hands/jealous siblings and the like lol before they get home. We’ll see.

I have some recipes to share next time as I just realised that when I moved blogs I never added them back. So yes some yummy baking recipes and tips coming soon.

I’m off to bed now
Night!

About 2 years ago something momentous happened in my life that’s basically changed it forever. I had a mini stroke or in other words, a brain attack or clot on the brain. They’re still not sure what caused it but think it may have something to do with the contraceptive pill. Today I received my two year end of recovery appointment which reminded me.

I don’t think I will ever forget the experience. Confusion mixed with fear seemed to make the time whiz past and slow down at the same time. I still remember exactly what I said to my mom as I felt my left side seizing up. The moment I simply fell out of the chair and couldn’t get up. Some things seemed like a dream. Like I’d gotten an itch and went to scratch it and was surprised to see my arm laying limp on the ground still. I remember asking my sister if both eyes still blinked amusingly enough. It’s funny the things you think of at those times. I also remember the ride in the ambulance and thinking this isn’t how I expected an ambulance to be like. It was like the back of a transit van! I remember the hospital smell as I was wheeled in to A&E, being embarrrassed when the cut off my t-shirt and having an x-ray taken right there in the middle of the room. All this took several hours but it seemed like only a few minutes. Then I noticed I could wiggle my fingers just lightly but there was movement. A huge wave of relief washed over me. I remember asking for a glass of water too only to find I couldn’t drink it. Much to the amusement of my mother and sister. They also found it amusing when I was given an allergy tag that read “Nuts”. They obviously knew who I was lol. I still have that tag incase I ever feel I should warn people .

I don’t know if any of you have ever had an MRI scan but that is the scariest thing ever. First off it didn’t help when the doctor came and asked if I wanted to be sedated! I said no then started to panic. Why would he have said that? Should I have said yes? So they take me down for this MRI and basically they strap you down onto a sliding bed and they stick you in this horrid noisy tube for what seems like ages. I wish I had of been sedated. They gave me a little head dress with a mirror so I could see out but all I could see was my own boobs and the wall so didn’t help much. I didn’t even get to see my brain scans .

I stayed in the ESSU for the first 3 days of my stay. The emergency short stay unit. They were lovely there and I met some nice people. I had my first meal there and it was amusing to learn how to chew all over again. I knew what I was sposed to do but putting it into action didn’t seem quite so easy. I ended up with many a bitten cheek and lip but I didn’t care because I could feel it. The vampire came everyday to steal my blood and though we tried to hide from her (Very nice lady actually) she always got us. I seriously felt like a pin cushion by the time I left 5 vials of blood every day for like 2 weeks. Ick!

I’m still some what of a novelty every time I go to the hospital. Everyone wants to see the 22 year old who had a stroke. Sometimes I get quite an audience.

I guess the lasting effects are minimal. Lower immune system, slight weakness on the left hand side and no longer being able to navigate so well. I can climb stairs reasonably well now. I try not to limit myself. I won’t do something only after trying and failing and that doesn’t mean I won’t try again later.

Here’s to a wonderful year after recovery!