A visit to Durham

The week before I took not well Gordon and I had a few days away together for his birthday, we visited Durham. We had a lovely time and visited the Cathedral and the shops (of course).

 This is the Bowes Museum, which is the home of this lovely silver swan automoton, unfortunately we arrived about half an hour too late to see it in action!

Thanks for your kind comments and wishes on my last post. I am beginning to feel a bit better and am gradually starting to do things again, although I still get tired very easily.

The Unexpected!

Life sometimes throws you a curve ball at you, something totally unexpected that stops you in your tracks. Well that happened to me just over a week ago. I had had a busy day, nothing unusual there, we went to an Information evening at the school about the new qualifications and then on the way home I got sudden and severe chest pains and breathlessness.  We got home, phoned NHS24, who duly dispatched an ambulance. Paramedics arrived, took ECG reading, then said looks like a possible heart attack! The next couple of readings said no and by this time I was feeling a bit better, but obviously had to go into A&E, where they took blood tests. We waited but as I was beginning to feel better just tired by this time we were not unduly worried - then the doctor came back with results. The blood tests showed a mild heart attack, so I was admitted and hooked up to monitors.

I was feeling rather stunned at this point as you can imagine. To cut a long story short as it was the weekend I had to wait till Monday to get an angiogram to find out the cause - I do not fit into any if the usual triggers for heart attacks.

Monday arrives and the angiogram test, which was rather painful actually. Thankfully the results were good and there is no sign of coronary heart disease and no blockage in the arteries. So what caused it? They are fairly sure it is TakoTsubo cardiomyopathy, which is stress related. There is a good explanation of it here. The stress builds up and causes your heart to be stunned and the effect is the same as that of a heart attack. The good news is that, after the initial period, there should be no lasting damage to the heart. I just need to work on my stress management!

So I am resting, off work for several weeks, no driving for a couple of weeks, taking it easy although starting to take short walks every day and doing my relaxation exercises.

Longer term I shall need to take stock and see what signs I have ignored re stress build up and do something about them.

The moral of this tale is - look after your octopus! (If you haven't already you really need to look up the link and read right down to the end of the page to understand the octopus)

Scavenger Hunt Finale

The Scavenger Hunt finishes this weekend so here are my final photos.

12. A cloud in the shape of something - after spending all summer looking at the clouds and not coming up with much, I have given in a bit and think this looks a bit like a rocket.

16. A windmill - this little windmill is on a thermometer that we brought back from our trip to Amsterdam.

4. An airplane - cheating a bit but took this photo of a book on how to make paper airplanes.

Bonus - a Sundial

 15. A police car

21. And finally - a photo of myself with a craft tool - my Big Shot

I am really pleased this year as I have managed to get all 21 items and the two bonus items. Roll on next year.

Thanks to Rinda for hosting this again this summer, it has been great fun!

A Birthday Celebration

At the weekend it was someone's special birthday - Gordon was ... can you guess! We had the family round for a meal on the Saturday, which was lovely. Some photos from the day.

I'm sure you've guessed by now - he was 50. The bonsai tree is a family joke as several years ago he got given a present of a bonsai (by someone who shall remain nameless!) and it was almost dead before he got it, and didn't last long, so we got him another one to see how long this one lasts.

As part of his birthday we are going away at the end of this week for a couple of nights to Durham.

Gone Girl

This was the second book I had to read over the summer for my Book Group. There has been a lot of hype about this book, but for me it did not meet its expectations. Nick's wife Amy disappears on their fifth wedding anniversary and what follows is a tale of deception, cheating and lies. I like neither of the main character and for me the ending was disappointing. This book would not encourage me to read any others by Gillian Flynn.

Have you read this one and what did you think of it?

Little Details

Its Thursday so it must be time for Little Details again with Carolyn. This week I wanted to share a photo I too at the zoo of some antlers.

Why not pop over to Carolyn's blog and see some more Little Details.

Learn Something New Week 1

I decided to be sensible and realistic - there was no way I was going to blog something new for every day for the whole month, so I decided to do a post once a week about some things I learned that week. This post was supposed to be done yesterday but ...

The first thing I learned this week I don't have a photo for - but I really need to get myself organised again - with up to date diary system and a to do list, and also to actually programme time into the week for crafting and not feel bad about it.

It was sunny again this past week, (well some days), so I went along to St Andrew Square for my lunch, which is where I took this photo. I learned that it is good to be able to get out and to sit in a nice place with flowers.

I reminded myself that I am lucky to have a job when so many don't. It might not the job I would like or that challenges me very much, but it is a job. So a photo of my desk.

This plant used to live in the study at home but just grew and grew until it got too big, so I have taken it into the office where it is thriving. The lesson - sometimes you have to move things or let them go to enable them to survive and grow.

These next two photos are along similar lines - we took John back to St Andrews for his second year at University. This year he is sharing a house with 3 other blokes. So the next step for him on his road through life. And me - well I didn't actually cry this year when we left him, but it still feels a bit strange leaving him, but I am more sure he will cope this year, after all he managed last year!

 This next photo was a lovely surprise - some lovely bits and pieces through the mail from Bernice. Just what I need to inspire me to get crafting again on my 12 months in view, now that we are in Autumn. Thanks Bernice.

This last one is a lovely prayer that I received as part of the Prayer Swap at HeArt and Soul forum. It is now hanging up on my pin board. It is good to have online friends.

So that's a few of the things I have learned this past week - have you learned anything you would like to share?