Journal Entries
H'mm
Posted Oct 24, 2005
I have just tried to susbscribe to the penis thread - I am, if nothing else an inveterate lurker, after all.
It appears I have a choice -
Subscribe...and have the post repeated ad nausium on the left hand side of my PS, thus removing all the other threads I'm subscribed to
OR
Click ONE of the ad nausium penis thread convos to unsubscribe...and end up not being subscribed atall.
I mean, for godsakes, I only want to follow the thread - I have no intention of discussing my own joys and preferences, but I do admit to being curious about others', and if they're willing to discuss it in an adult manner, then fine. I may learn something, after all. Not that I have, *so* far, but you never know.
What is this? What is going pear shaped with this site?
I'm quite aware there is absolutely no point in looking at the menu when you're on a diet - after all, why torment oneself for something in which one isn't currently participating? (As Ronnie Barker said, What? With these feet?)
But.... taking a healthy interest (honest guv) shouldn't be as complicated as this.
I bet if I tried subscribing to one of the awful god debating threads that seem to be so damned prevelent lately I wouldn't have any problems subscribing!
It's a sign
But what it's a sign *of* I really couldn't say
Discuss this Journal entry [38]
Latest reply: Oct 24, 2005
I've joined the 21st Century
Posted Sep 7, 2005
Today is a red letter day.
I have bought my very first television
That's right. I've parted with money and achieved ownership
And... for me, that's bloody remarkable. Don't get me wrong, I have had a TV before... but either rented (and repossessed frequently because the lads' father kept forgetting to pay the rentals due to pressing appointments with the pub) or I've bought second hand ones... and a couple of years ago a boyfriend arrived impromptu with a whacking great TV he'd acquired from somewhere.
I have not been TV less.
But... after spending years sorting out debts and finaces, I have finally become solvent - not hugely so, but nevertheless, the credit card is clear, the bank loan is repaid and unless I hiccup, the bank account stays in the black each month. I have even been able to start a modest saving each month which is a thing I never thought to see
So to celebrate this, last month I acquired a DVD player. After all, its a new century, and I read somewhere videos are eventually going to be obsolete, so I thought a DVD was in order.
Smashing thing it is, too. It's silver.
HOWEVER
The TV I had doesn't have something called RGB (I don't know what that stands for, either) which roughly translated means that it doesn't have the necessary internal doohickiy that accepts whathaveyous from a DVD... which was a bit of a bugger, really.
So I called in Wendy the Witch... who is a bit of a wizard when it comes to techology proper, and absolute magic when it comes to helping people spend money.
With her help, we whizzled through the Net, and found a 28" Panasonic Telly with inbuilt Freeserve, RGB thingummbob and probably does packed lunches once you've figured out a way of asking it to do so.
It also - wait for this - has a rather classy frame/stand. Which is also silver
This was on Monday. Today - unless my calender is teeling fibs, it's Wednesday. The TV arrived today.
IT IS ENORMOUS!
It is so wide that we had to dismantle the packaging before the delivery man could get it into the hall
It has enough bubblewrap stuffed into the box that I don't have to worry about packaging up my E Bay sales for the next 5 years
And yes... the TV is silver
I shall be back later once we've figured out to asemble the stand.....
Discuss this Journal entry [8]
Latest reply: Sep 7, 2005
Belt and Braces
Posted Jul 2, 2005
With a bit of luck, this won't actually apply.... but just in case
I am getting Broardband on Monday 4th July.
Now, to the techies, this will appear to be a piece of cake, but to klutzes like what I am, it is a gargantuan task, because it seems that every time I do anything ambitious with my PC - like turning the damned thing on, for example - it has a propensity to cough, splutter and crash.
And no matter how much the lads tell me Broard Band is easy, I am at a bit of a loss as to how in hell I'll GET Broardband, because, so far anyway, I haven't received my free magic modem to hammer into the guts of the machine (see? I know ALL the technical terms
).
I have a funny feeling that during the transision period the computor will throw a tantrum and I'll be grappling with the complexities of bump starting it back into action for a few days
So if I'm not around for the next few days, it's nothing personal, it's simply that I'll be fighting a losing battle with technology for a bit, that's all.
Bring back barter, is all I can say!
Discuss this Journal entry [62]
Latest reply: Jul 2, 2005
Belly Good
Posted Jun 15, 2005
I have been wanting to go to Belly Dancing classes for around 3 years now... but despite all the old buck and psuedo confidence that is offered, I am, on the quiet, rather reserved - shy even (stop spluttering into your tea,over there, please, it's true and I'm sticking by it) - and sadly lacking in confidence. And I'm good at putting things off, too.
Plenty of front tho... both metaphorically AND literally, which is another reasen to put off going to Belly Dancing.
I mean... it draws attention to one's belly for starters, doesn't it?
And since the op, I have noticed the muscle tone that I have so carefully and assidiously worked for in the pool was beginning to slacken a little, so currently, although I'm delighted my body is... 
in a different sort of (hopefully healing) pain and I can now lurch with reasenable confidence, I'm not generally comfortable with my appearance. The Body Image is shot. I used to be able to look in the mirror and approve of what I saw. Currently I am avoiding mirrors big time.
GET ON WITH IT!
I was NOT, by the end of yesterday afternoon looking forward to it. Had I not rung Granny and wailed down the phone"I don't wanna go!" and had a pep talk from her saying basically I'd GOT to go because the following day's entry "here" would be worth reading (for once) I think I would have bottled out. So thankyou Granny
Suitable bludgeoned I packed my bag with loose skirt, scarf for hips, (considered a hip flask of V&T but decided in the end on some Evian) and.. being brave, decided NOT to take the stick... it's a 50yd lurch to the bus stop either end of the journey, and frankly, I think its about time I stopped using the stick like a dummy all the time. I CAN walk without it, it's a comfort blanket. OK, MOST of the time I can walk without it, Stop waffling woman.
I got to the next town and booked into the class early. Its in the new, very very pretentious Art Centre shaped like an upturned boat...
and the classes are held... wait for it... on the third floor.
I hauled myself up the stairs, and sat quietly in the "gym" whilst the kiddies Self Defense Class finished kicking several shades of whathaveyou out of each other in the name of self control......
All the other girls for the class were outside the gym; you could tell it was the belly dancing girls because they all had bits of string tied round their foreheads, sequins sewn onto their crop tops, and were weraing long diapherous baggy skirts that clanked when they walked. And lots and lots of kohl. I felt rather underdressed - I was wearing a black vest and a full black skirt - whenever I've gone for dance classes before the idea was to keep the limbs free so A) you could see what you were doing with them and B) You didn't get snarled up in your gear. I've always left the dressing up till I knew the routine inside out and then dressed up for stage work....
And the various shapes and sizes and ages! It was refreshing to feel unremarkable - I wasn't the fattest, or the thinnest, the oldest or the youngst... but I was the stiffest!
So much for "Specially for the disabled"... apart from me, who hasn't been made offically so yet, there wasn't an Orange Badge between them!
Apparently its "Good, especially if you're disabled"
Bit of a subtle difference there, right?
So after the other 2 newbies and I had been shown how to tie our hip scarves, we began the warm up ..... well... THEY did the warm up... and I sort of stared aghast and did my best. I am APPAULED at how very very unsupple I have become, even in 2 months. I never realised just how important it was for me to continually move to be even remotely supple.
THAT SETTLED IT
I'm going to do these damned classes and out shimmy those supple birds if I have to have physiotherapy for a fortnight after every weekly class. I am NOT going to let a bloody gang of muscles and tendons and bones stop ME from making a pratt of myself in a Belly Dancing Class. Or anywhere else, for that matter! My body thinks it can rule ME, does it? H'mmm. This means war, I think!
Having decided that I went for it with a vengence.
The Teacher is of the "Let it all go and sorta Feel ya way inta the groove babe" type teacher.. and when asked "HOW do you do that, again>" the replies were of the "Look (waggles hip) "Boom-bum, yeah? and then Bum-boom" type reply. In the end I got her to come over and let her PUT my hips into the right position so I could feel which muscles I ought to be using.
Its a fallacy that one uses the belly to dance with... most of the moves, from what I learnt involve using the thigh muscles, and either lifting or dropping the hips in time to the music. I cannot, for the life of me see how ANYONE can shuffle their breasts from one side of their torso to the other without twitching their shoulders (or cheating by using either their own hands, or better yet, someone elses') but I saw it done, and reckon it'll be a good party trick once I've found some working muscles to use in that particular area.
The only move that actually uses ALL the stomach muscles is (I think) called The Camel, and isn't used a lot - not surprised really. Lets say its a challenge, and leave it at that, eh?
All in all, it was good fun. We learnt to veil dance last night (DON'T ask....it's supposed to be seductive, apparently. You're supposed to SMILE whilst you're waving this bit of gauze around and undulate into it. With a group of total strangers... some of whom have interesting tattoo that have a life of their own in this particular class? I don't THINK so!)
I found it more painful to hold my arms up to hold the veil taught than I did to hip waggle (and altho I don't know what the muscular difference actually IS yet, between the 2 apparently I can do both moves fine). Its the suppleness I painfully lack.
I don't think it helped that I also got an awful fit of the giggles, because I don't know my left from my right and if the teacher yelled "Left turn" I immediately did the opposite.... it was so bad it was good, and the more I tried to do it correctly, the worse it became!
But like I said, it was good fun. I ache like no one business today, but its "good" pain rather than miserable, and I'm swimming tonight anyway to get the knots out. It has also brough home to me just how much catching up I have to do, once I get the feet sorted out, by re educating different muscles to carry me around. I always thought I had good musculature - and I do. Unfortunately, I've been using the "wrong" muscles due to postural probs caused by the back always being out of kilter, and now the pain referring nerves have been cut I am, for the first time in 47 years able to "stand" almost correctly. And "walk" correctly, too. And that means the muscles you lot have got and use are all new(ish) to me.
Anyway, I think I have rabbited quite enough for one entry.
The main problem is... next week, if I wear a string around my forehead, do you think it will enable me to dance better???
Discuss this Journal entry [232]
Latest reply: Jun 15, 2005
By the Time you are Reading this.....
Posted Apr 10, 2005
Unless of course, I get lurked on before 7.30am Monday 11th April.
Not very likely, I'd have thought.
I will be having my Spinal Denervation.
Its been a v-e-r-y- long week for me this week... and a v-e-r-y long wait in total. In pain for over 20 years, out of work because of the pain for the last three. A pretty long time, I reckon.
Bag of useful Stuff packed. (Bottle of water, some reasonably wholesome nibbly food, and a large tome entitled "A Brief History to Almost Everything" by Bill Bryson. Oh yes; and a pair of slippers.)
They like you to wear slippers in Day Surgury, for some reason - I presume it prevents the doctors from becoming too damaged if you involuntarilly kick them when they examine you and it hurts.
(Shame about my involuntary right hook, I suppose. No doubt I ought to pack some mittens as well! But since it hasn't been requested I think I'll not bother to do that)
This time tomorrow it'll all be over - and for the better, I hope.
I'm going to be rather disappointed if it isn't. Because if this op. is not successful, then I'm looking forward to the rest of my natural span in a considerable amount of pain. And further slow degeneration.
Of course, a large bottle of brandy and the carefully hoarded stash of painkillers would permanently solve that problem.... but it all seems a little dramatic and final, so I'd prefer it not to come to that.
Fingers crossed and all that.
Discuss this Journal entry [587]
Latest reply: Apr 10, 2005
Moving On
Researcher U226093
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