health - fourth edition

Posts tagged health

Croak, Croak

By Karie on November 11, 2009

Health update: I think I’ll be okay as long as I a) do not talk, b) do not laugh and c) keep drinking rum toddies. It is a slightly flawed plan, so I have stocked up on Halls Soothers. We are also on our third day of curly kale soup – it is my first time cooking this soup which was one of my great-grandmother’s special dishes and I’m happy with the result although I’m going to tweak my recipe a tiny bit to make it a bit more like my nan’s – and hopefully all those fresh veg will also make a difference.

Knitting update: I have stalled on the first sleeve of Dave’s pullover and am seven rows away from finishing my shawl’s Chart B. Onwards, ever onwards. I am still pondering NaKnitSweMoDo (interNational Knit a Sweater a Month Dodecathon) for next year although both my knitting group and my beloved claim I will grow bored and whiny. We shall see. It depends upon the stash.

General update in the form of one link: These literary clutch bags make my heart go all a-flutter although I am most definitely not a clutch bag girl. They combine so many of my loves: books, paratextuality, craft, things handmade and geekdom. Be still my heart.

Also, I’m getting a bit nostalgic about the noughties almost being done and dusted, so expect wallowing entries in the near future.

This entry is filed under Craft, Knitting, Literature, Personal and tagged books, Crafty, fashion, food, health, paratextuality, personal stuff. | 3 Comments

Boredom Sets In

By Karie on November 7, 2009

A brief link today pilfered from elsewhere: Hey, Oscar Wilde!. It is “a personal art collection of various artists interpreting their favourite literary figure/author/character”. I really like this Winnie the Pooh.

Health update: I managed to get dressed and head outside today. Okay, I went across the road to the local supermarket and I went straight back to bed afterwards, but it’s progress!

Speaking of progress, I finished the yoke on David’s sweater tonight. He tried it on and we quickly agreed that the textured design on the yoke didn’t work. I ripped back the 40-ish rows and I’m back to the drawing board. I know some might complain, but I’m fine with it. after all, I’d rather have him liking the finished sweater than me finishing something quickly which will never get worn. My shawl is also progressing well (and the list of unlistened-to podcasts is dwindling fast)..

.. I just want to get better really, really soon. If you think my blog posts are dull, imagine how I feel.

This entry is filed under Literature, Personal, Popular Culture and tagged amusing, boo-hiss, Crafty, health, Literature, personal stuff. | 2 Comments

Mad, Bad & Orange To Know

By Karie on November 6, 2009

nov09 057 Being ill has its benefits. Last time I was stuck in bed for more than two days in a row, I ploughed through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell which I had previously failed to get into (the plot starts unfolding one-third through the novel). This time around I am knitting whilst listening to podcasts on John Milton (interesting) and Ezra Pound (dull and I even mouthed ‘WRONG’ at my ipod at one point).

I’m knitting with my bright orange 2-ply baby alpaca (yes, the colour is accurate in the photo). It is underspun, rather fragile and almost angora-like soft. And I’m knitting Percy, a pattern which I have previously attempted to knit. I’m now halfway through my second repeat of the dastardly Chart B and I might add in another repeat before doing the edging chart, just to make the shawl a bit bigger. It almost seems a shame to knit an intricate pattern in fuzzy yarn, but the process knitter in me actually Does Not Care. It’ll be a mad, colourful and warm shawl – and I will have conquered Chart B. That is all that matters.

I am still ill, alas, but I think today I will actually get dressed!

And here’s a little news story which may cheer you up:

Rumors of a city of 25,000 lesbians have led hordes of men to contact Swedish tourist authorities and swamp the nation’s Internet providers. Chinese media especially have spread the tale of “Chako Paul City,” supposedly founded in 1820 in northern Sweden by a man-hating widow who banned males, reports Australia’s Daily Telegraph. Inhabitants then turned to lesbianism “because they could not suppress their sexual needs,” goes one recent account in China’s Harbin News service. Swedish tourist authorities are baffled. “I’ve no idea where this came from, but it’s not true,” said a spokesman. “At 25,000 residents, the town would be one of the largest in northern Sweden, and I find it hard to believe that you could keep something like that a secret for more than 150 years.”

(I cannot remember how I came across it – if it’s via you, please let me know so I can credit)

This entry is filed under Craft, humour, News, Personal, Photography, yarn and tagged amusing, Crafty, health, personal stuff, Purls, reading.

Sniffle

By Karie on November 4, 2009

Yesterday’s protest made the BBC’s news frontpage. Of course the laughing knitters are not mentioned, but we are there between the lines. I can tell we are.

I have spent the day in bed with a hot water bottle and podcasts (currently these) with an occasional nap thrown in for good measure. I have been knackered for a few days, but today it just caught up with me. Hopefully a day’s rest coupled with cold meds will have sorted me out. Cross fingers.

Achoo.

This entry is filed under Personal and tagged health, personal stuff, Scotland, wtf. | 2 Comments

Calendar Confusion

By Karie on September 15, 2009

This is another week where I’m going “How can it only be Tuesday? It must be Friday! Thursday, late Thursday, then!” and then my Filofax pulls me aside and gently points out it is only Tuesday.

Oh my. Send me energy, adrenaline shots, copious amounts of coffee and a great deal of fortitude.

PS. Students are back. I can’t stand students (therefore I must be a grown-up, I guess). I have a serious problem with students telling me I’m a freak for being very tired after a very long day. Ah, your youth will end too, dear student, and it will end sooner rather than later.

This entry is filed under Personal and tagged boo-hiss, health, personal stuff. | 1 Comment

Zombies!

By Karie on August 18, 2009

“My understanding of zombie biology is that if you manage to decapitate a zombie then it’s dead forever. So perhaps they are being a little over-pessimistic when they conclude that zombies might take over a city in three or four days” – Professor Neil Ferguson, Imperial College London

Science ponders “Zombie attacks” (BBC). It sounds wacky but apparently it can help scientists understanding virus pandemics. I knew my good friend M. (an international expert on infectious diseases) would eventually come up with a really good explanation for his zombie film collection.

This entry is filed under Popular Culture, Science and tagged amusing, friends, geek, health, Science. | 4 Comments

Isn’t It Romantic?

By Karie on July 27, 2009

A few weeks ago my partner, David, came down with the flu and I succumbed a day later. I suspect it was the dreaded H1N1 flu, although we cannot be sure. I was cooped up in bed for a few days which obviously led to me devouring one book after another. That is, one Georgette Heyer regency romance after another. To be absolutely precise, fourteen Georgette Heyer books. I’m in withdrawal as we speak.

The curious thing is that I started to really get into the socio-economics described by Heyer. Usually she is praised for her knowledge of early 19th century fashion and her distinct language usage (la!), but as I was lying in bed reading one novel after one, I started paying attention to money. Who has money? Who hasn’t? What do they do with the money? How does money flow through the novels? How does money connect and separate people? Gosh, I almost feel like a Marxist literary critic..

A Civil Contract sees an impoverished aristocrat marrying a wealthy trader’s daughter and through the marriage attempt to improve his estate’s farming conditions. It is not a wildly romantic novel (no passionate embraces; no swooning) but a rather pragmatic look at class differences and social aspirations. While the book is far from being Great Literature, I found it convincing and interesting. I’m not sure I will read it again (unless I discover an hitherto unknown passion for early 19th C drainage problems) but it is certainly one of Heyer’s beefiest novels.

The Unknown Ajax is a straightforward read compared to A Civil Contract. The hero and heroine flirt, chase ghosts, encounter smugglers and fall in love. Lather, rinse, repeat. What I loved about the book, though, was the fact that the hero is a Yorkshire woollen mill owner(!) and Heyer devotes several passages to the discussion of fleeces, crimp, sheep breeds, and the economics thereof. Just the thing to read when you’re in bed and too weak to knit.

At the end of it all David pondered if I like reading Heyer because of a) the fashion discussions (I am a costume history devotee), b) the Yorkshire sheep or c) the many, many dogs with distinct personalities? I like to think it’s a combination of all three plus the sparkling wit, the often ludicrous language and the knowing use of literary references (like the Shakespeare, Pope and Byron quotations in Venetia, possibly my favourite Heyer novel).

Speaking of things Romantic, I have begun knitting the Percy (Bysshe Shelley) shawl in Old Maiden Aunt 2ply alpaca/merino in the Bracken colourway. I paged through my well-thumbed copy of Shelley’s Collected Poems earlier today and was amused by the doom and gloom I encountered. I had forgotten how Gothic he can be..

Ah, and the title? Enjoy Chet Baker’s version of it on YouTube..

This entry is filed under Books 2009, Craft, Knitting, Literature, Music, Reviewed and tagged bibliomania, Crafty, health, History, Literature, reading. | 4 Comments

Treasured

By Karie on July 14, 2009

When I talked about independent bookshops and Glasgow, I mentioned that my neighbourhood has several excellent secondhand bookshops. This is my favourite: Voltaire & Rousseau just off Otago Street. Sometimes I even think it is my favourite bookshop in the entire universe, full stop.

As someone whose idea of a good time is digging through piles of old books long out of print, unsurprisingly I once went on a date to Voltaire & Rousseau with David, now my live-in partner. But the bookshop is an acquired taste. On the photo you can just about make out its first room – the £1 room – and it is symptomatic for the entire shop. Books are vaguely sorted into categories and then shoved into ramshackled shelves or stacked on the floor. Last time I was there, I dug through an entire box of literary criticism hidden behind a ladder. The main room is similarly organised/disorganised. This is not a place you go if you want to find one specific book. This is a place you visit to find books you never knew you needed – and you go frequently to keep up with what is in (visible) stock. I think it’s a slice of heaven on earth.

A few links for your perusal:

The Human Genre Project: “..a collection of new writing in very short forms — short stories, flash fictions, reflections, poems — inspired by genes and genomics.” They are actively looking for contributors, so if you have a short story or a poem kicking about, do take a look.
Adipositivity (NSFW) “..aims to promote size acceptance (..) through a visual display of fat physicality. The sort that’s normally unseen. The hope is to widen definitions of physical beauty. Literally.“
From KnitWit: “..I love the reclamation of knitting from a largely private, domestic sphere and drafty community halls where it is too easy to ignore,to be a more visible social activity”
And from the Domestic Soundscape, an amazing post on the connections between earth, animals, spinners and knitters. I cannot choose which quote to pull because the entire post had me going “yes, yes!”
Finally, the last in a triptych of related knitting posts: the much-linked Golden Fleece? post by Needled/Kate in which she looks at the (rather absurd) notion that Scotland equals cashmere. Warning: this post will teach you things about EU law and textile history. She even suggests you read Walter Benjamin.

Meanwhile, I’m not quite sure if I have a cold, if I have the flu or whether my body is just playing tricks on me as per usual. I’m off to bed and I have a few Georgette Heyers (bought from Voltaire & Rousseau) to keep me company. Have fun, kiddos.

This entry is filed under Bibliophilia, Craft, Literature, Personal, shopping and tagged bibliomania, books, Crafty, Glasgow, health, personal stuff, politics, reading, Scotland.

Remembrance of Things Past

By Karie on June 1, 2009

When You Get Ticked – a blog entry by Lolly – made me stop in my tracks this morning.

It made me think back to October 14, 1996 when I woke up, went to brush my teeth and stared with horror at my reflection in the mirror. A partially paralysed face is not something you expect to stare back at you when you look in the mirror. The paralysis was the culmination of several months’ fatigue, cognitive confusion and persistent neck/ear pain. My best friend took me to see my doctor. Within two hours of waking up, I was in a hospital bed with brain scans and extensive blood work lined up.

Lyme Disease is a real bitch, boys and girls. It has been almost thirteen years and, although treated at the time, LD is still with me in tiny, unexpected ways. When I move my mouth, the weakened muscles around my left eye twitch. My body is slightly more susceptible to stress than most people. And I wear a lot of hats because an ear infection can affect the nerves controlling the facial muscles (ask me how I know).

So check your body for tiny black dots if you have been walking in the woods or through tall grass. Some get the famous bullseye rash after a few weeks of being bitten (I didn’t). If you start getting flu-like symptoms, a persistent neck/ear pain and what can best be described as “a cognitive fog”, then go see your doctor.

Thank you, Lolly, for reminding me about all this because some things need to be remembered, some things need to be shared.

This entry is filed under Personal and tagged health, Personal, personal stuff. | 1 Comment

Random Is the New Black

By Karie on April 28, 2009

april-272 We have found more clay pipes by the Forth and Clyde Canal – here is one of the nicest pipes, if not exactly the most intact..

Notice also the rather interesting shards of china in the background. We’ve identified one piece with the Willow Pattern but the rest remain elusive. Interestingly we’ve found tiny bits with lettering (be still my beating heart!) and other bits with what looks like fishing huts.

Swine flu has been confirmed around 12 miles from us. I’m expecting an outbreak of panic here which will involve people looting tissue paper, tinned soup, hand soap and cans of lager from our local supermarket. In other words, I’m not worried, although my mother might be once she realises how close I live to Monklands Hospital (i.e. not very close but in the same country). As a Dane I feel obliged to inform you that pork products are perfectly safe to eat. Mmmm, bacon.

Only one random link today: Vidders Talk Back to their Pop-Culture Muses.

“For decades, Americans sat in front of their televisions and watched — just watched — their favorite shows. (..) But one group of fans has interacted with their favorite television shows for more than three decades. Vidders, as they’re called, make unauthorized underground videos using clips from the shows. Each vid compiles dozens of clips from various episodes, all set to a song.”

To be perfectly honest, I’ve seen a handful of these fanmade vids and most of them are .. not very good. The formula goes something like this: one plaintative love song – say, Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love”. Then take the lyrics and pair with with your fandom of choice – so, when Leona bleats “Time starts to pass..” you insert pictures of Captain Kirk/the Doctor/Six looking at a watch. Lather, rinse, repeat .. But unsurprisingly there are some mindblowingly good vids out there. This is the best I’ve seen.

PS. Happy birthday to regular commentator and offline compadre, Darth Ken. I love you, man.