Tuesday 24 November 2015

Boobs and Fairy Lights!

Good morning! I bet the title of this post grabbed your attention didn't it? No, I haven't been adorning my chest in preparation for the festive season, I have merely bought some fairy lights to brighten up the dismal afternoons that we seem to be having at the moment .........................oh, and I have been summoned for my first ever mammogram.  
Here are my twinkly lights:
I am defiantly classifying them as winter lights, as opposed to Christmas ones. Despite the fact that our neighbours put their Christmas decorations up at the weekend - it's NOVEMBER for pity's sake! I'm not a great fan of Christmas decorations. Truth be told, if left to my own devices I think I would probably go to the other extreme, putting them up on Christmas Eve and taking them down again on Boxing Day. My birthday is December 28th and, believe me, it's a sucky time to be born! Stamped all over by Christmas, ("this is for Christmas and your birthday dear" being the phrase that every child longs to hear!) and then nothing to look forward to for a whole year. My mother even used to take the 'Merry Christmas' sign off the cake and replace it with a 'Happy Birthday' one - despite the fact that it was half eaten! Bitter, me?! Anyway, we now compromise, getting the tree (which I do actually like) after E's school breaks up, usually around the 10th, and taking the whole lot down on the 3rd January in time for E's birthday on the 4th. Yes, I know, I timed that badly too!
There is tension every year over the tinsel - beloved by everyone else in the family but considered the work of the devil by me. I can't stand the stuff and would happily jettison it to Room 101, along with whistling (it makes my brain itch!) and people who festoon the town with sheets declaring 'Happy Birthday Kylie' or some such nonsense. It's not the putting them up that annoys me so much - it's the failure to take the wretched things down again after the big day. There they flap, filthy and progressively more tattered for the next 2 months; a hideous blot on the landscape.
Oh my, I do seem to be having a bit of a rant this morning! Moving swiftly on .......
This afternoon, I'm booked for my first mammogram. Perfectly routine, but I'm not exactly looking forward to it. Let's face it, it's not exactly going to be afternoon tea at The Ritz is it? Stripping off in a mobile unit (mammovan?!) in a hospital car park and having your breasts squashed between 2 X-Ray plates until they resemble an anatomical version of pitta bread isn't my idea of a good time. Embarrassment and discomfort aside though, I never doubted for a nanosecond that I would do it. Having lost a good friend to breast cancer just over a year ago, I would happily strip off in said car park, even without the van, if it meant that I didn't have to go through what C did. Check your boobs, ladies!

Aside from my WINTER lights, other happies this week have included:
Butterfly cakes and squash soup for lunch:
 My beautiful irises - I just love that combination of purple and yellow:
 A new garden mobile - bought for a mere £2.99 from a Christmas Fair at our local theatre:
 Loving the bountiful crabapples on our little tree:
Joining a new gym. My old one closed down at the beginning of the summer when the council sold the land for new housing. Since then, I have attended a pilates class and forced myself to go swimming at the local pool. Sadly, said pool is a bit on the grim side - it's not the cleanest and it smells of rancid mop. So, a membership to another gym is going to be my Christmas and birthday present (count them!) from R this year. It's heaven to have clean changing rooms once more and swimming has become a pleasure again, rather than a keep fit chore.
 A cup of tea and a magazine:
Crocheting some snowflakes. Initially I tried some from a book but found I was struggling somewhat, so I did what a lot of us do when we have a crochet problem and headed to Attic24. Lucy's easy to follow tutorial made them quick and simple. It was the first time I had tried blocking too. I bought this pad last year, thinking it might come in useful for blocking. Unfortunately, E then borrowed it for one of her archaeological digs, so it's now a bit on the bent and grubby side. It still did the trick though, along with a can of spray starch.
Since the weather is colder, the ducks have started coming up to the patio to be fed. This one can get a little impatient and often taps his beak on the glass to hurry me along.

Lastly, a beautiful bunch of flowers from my lovely neighbour (not the one with the premature decorations!) as a thank you for cat sitting at the weekend whilst they went to Centre Parcs:
Anyway, that's all for now. Enjoy the rest of the week and have a fun weekend.
Toodle Pip. x

12 comments:

  1. Oh what a sad and sorry picture that is, little you with your recycled birthday cake. I hope you get a nice new one this year. I hate tinsel and whistling as well. This was a tinsel-free house until last year, when the children miraculously discovered some huge strands of almost new tinsel on a bush in the middle of a nearby common (basically in the middle of nowhere). The littlest boy insisted on bringing it home with him (better than leaving it cluttering up the wild I suppose) and now it is his own personal Christmas decoration for his room. Who puts tinsel in the countryside??! CJ xx

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    1. And I meant to add, good luck with the mammogram, and well done for going. Hope it's not too chilly. CJ xx

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  2. Alfie's birthday is on 27th December, and I try very hard to make it distinct from Christmas. Sadly my family usually forget it, or give him a present that has afterthought stamped all over it. This year he's having a sleep over and going go kart arcing with his Dad and brother. I mean, it's not his fault that I got frisky on my birthday ;)) Oh and I'm with you with the Xmas decs; I'd happily take them down on Boxing Day.. Good luck with the mammogram.
    Leanne xx

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  3. Love those lights. We have some that stay out all year, wrapped around some twigs. My birthday is in December too so I know what you mean about not being a great time. I did always have a proper cake though as my birthday is before Christmas. Hope the mammogram was ok. I had my first one last year and it wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought! Your irises look beautiful, they are one of my favourite flowers.

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  4. Oh that's so sad about the cake the rest of your rant made me laugh. My decs go up at the beginning of December (I adore the run up to Christmas) but I'd happily take them down on the 26th & do start to! Hope your mammogran went well for you xx

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  5. I did enjoy your rant, mostly because I agreed with you!!! I really dislike having decorations up for too long, they're dust traps and clutter and get old VERY quickly! I also hate tinsel!!! And my birthday is the 2nd of January....I had a similar childhood....everyone was broke and christmased out by the time my birthday came around, including me, I don't really enjoy having one any more....
    I had my first mammogram a few weeks ago, now you've had yours I'm sure you'd agree how much it hurts...but as you say it's well worth it!
    I love that garden mobile and cheeky duck....I would happily have your snowflakes as deccies too!!!xxx

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  6. I really enjoyed reading your ranting! I hope your mammogram went ok, cold and all. Your post title did get me ;)

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  7. Sympathising on the festive birthdays - my son's is 2nd week of January and even that seems dangerously close to Christmas. Hope the boob thing went okay. I am not well endowed, and it hurts like heck. A nurse told me that it hurts more the less you have. Ah well.
    Gyms - clean changing rooms are a human right. I go to my workplace gym (a large university) and I tell you, if you can survive a university gym female changing room you can survive anything.

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  8. I thought having a birthday a month before Xmas was bad enough. As for xmas decs, we have been known to put them up on xmas day morning! Hope the mammogram went well, I always worry that the machine doesn't stop and keeps squeezing until they pop. We used to have a chicken who tapped on the window to be fed :)

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  9. I love irises, such a luxurious flower.
    Amalia
    xo

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  10. What a varied and interesting post! It can't be much fun having a Christmas birthday, especially if the Christmas cake is recycled into a birthday one! Hope the mammogram goes well - that's a delight I have to look forward to. I like your snowflakes - Lucy's pattern is so quick to make, in't it? I have joined my local gym and it's less than a 5-minute walk away, so I have no excuse not to go. Your flowers do cheer up a dull day, such a bright splash of colour.
    Cathy x

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  11. Enjoyed reading this post. You really made me laugh! We don't do Christmas but I can well imagine that the decorations - and tinsel - get annoying after a while. The mammogram is not in the least bit embarrassing. The staff are so used to it. It hurt like hell the fist time I had it done, but new machinery since has made it a piece of cake. Be brave.

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