13 on the 13th (and a new Pope)

Well, Frank visited yesterday – 13 seizures in one day. Things had been going better but I think I have caught something, as apparently I was burning up to the touch, but felt freezing. Was quite funny looking back having “words” with Bert over duvet ownership! I was adamant that I wanted it, when I genuinely needed cooling down. Oh the joys of epilepsy and a fever!

I must admit, as a lapsed (and when I say lapsed, I mean REALLY lapsed) Catholic, I saw something last night I though I would never see in my lifetime. I have seen 4 Popes elected by the Conclave of Cardinals. Pope John Paul I, Pope John Paul II (who I had the pleasure of actually seeing in The Vatican when I was 16. He laid his hands on my head and I was really moved by it), Pope Benedict XVI, and now Pope Francis I. I was living in Malta when both Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II were elected by the Conclave, and it was a HUGE deal. I must admit, I was quite sad when he passed as even though he lays hands on so many people, he had laid his hands on MY head.

I never really though much about Pope Benedict XVI, but am actually looking forwards to what Pope Francis I can bring to the Catholic Church. Some of his thoughts go totally against my personal beliefs, but hey, were would we be in this world if everyone agreed?

He is happy for single Catholic mothers to have their babies baptised into the faith, a bold step for a Cardinal. He eschews all the pomp and circumstance for a simpler, more modest life and encourages his faithful to do the same. Although against gay marriage, he says that gay people should be treated with respect (thank YOU! – I am pretty sure Jesus would have done the same!). Should be an interesting few years to see what he can do with the mess the Church is in. Sorry about that, didn’t mean to go off on a religious tangent there!

Well, one of my “new” Uncles has arrived on the Isle of Man – I was supposed to go and meet them last night off the boat but was in no fit state, so Lizzy went with my Mum. Can’t wait to meet him and his wife today. Am beyond excited. Well, that is after the more mudane shopping etc that has to be done. I might feel like **** but I am going to get out and get some fresh air.

Cathy is doing really well. I have found a really lovely guy who has been holding my hand via email and she is a little under weight, so we have broken all the rules, and she has had a feed and not brought it back up (known in the snake keeping community as a regurge) and seems quite a happy little girl. I am going to up her feeding schedule from once every 7 days to once ever 5 days. She fed 6 days after her last feed before she came to me, and wolfed it down, so I want to get her to every 5 days asap, that is for sure!

Joshua, Lizzie and Myles have all had a hold of her now (before she was fed, as you have to leave them 48 hours to digest their dinner) so just for a laugh, here is a picture of Joshua looking at Cathy – think he would kill me if he knew I was doing this!

Yes, my delightful 20 year old son giving Cathy the eye! (and yes, that is a Latin tattoo around my wrist)

So, onwards and upwards to the day – I am so excited about meeting my Uncle (after shopping and a supervised bath as I genuinely look like I have been dragged through a hedge backwards. Twice).

Hope everyone has a great day,

Sarah

I have taken the plunge..

And set up a different blog for my photography, for anyone who has enjoyed my pictures, but doesn’t want to trawl through my waffle in between. It can be found here, at wheelynotwhatiwantedphotograpy.com . I would love it if you would take some time out and pop on by – will be updating quite heavily over the next few days, but explained how I am going to be using it specifically for my photographs.

Sarah

An afternoon photography post…

As a treat, Bert took me out with my trusty little Fujifilm FinePix S4400 bridge camera. Now, I am going to be bold and post my pictures as they came out. No saturation fiddling, no cropping, no anything. Just raw off the memory card.

When we left the house it had just started to snow, and quite a squall it was

                                                                      

It had been snowing on and off all day, but hadn’t stuck so we took the chance and went out to see what we could find. All the pictures are taken in the Isle of Man, more specifically the North, Ramsey to start with and ending up at Guthrie’s Memorial. We were quite hopeful for a few decent snaps, so Bert saddled up too with his Cannon DSLR.

Houston, we have a problem – no way is my wheelchair going to go up there. Such a shame as there was some gorgeous icicles up there. Never mind, there was plenty of gorgeous stuff to photograph as it was.

                                                                     

The beauty in nature never ceases to take my breath away.

                                                                      

Bert was busy climbing up the hillside like a mountain goat getting some fantastic pictures as we have had quite a cold snap of all the icicles that had formed on the trees, and I was really looking forwards to seeing them, when he sprang the most romantic (and he would kill me for saying that!) gesture on me. Let me show you:-

                                                                      

He brought the icicle encrusted boughs that he found lying on the ground to me! I was absolutely blown away by the gesture, and may have leaked a couple of very happy tears.

I was so enthralled by what he had done, I had failed to noticed that it had stopped snowing, which brought different light to photograph in.

clear skies with new shadows                

So, we thought we would move up the Mountain Road to Guthrie’s Memorial to take some more photographs, the views were again, breathtaking, but on a different level…

                                                                      

With my back to the Irish Sea, I got up close and personal with some icicles of my very own. I took a lot more, but these are my favourite. I turned round to my favourite sight in the world. It doesn’t matter if I have only been to our main town Douglas, or have been on a 2 week holiday, this is the sight that takes my breath away every time I see it:-

and so does this one too……..                

Now this is just a small selection of my afternoon out that started off with a heavy snow squall and ended up with these final pictures. And all of it done in about three quarters of an hour too. I had a fantastic time, and I hope you enjoy my little offering today. Just photos, and not very good ones at that, but ones that I love and I hope you have too. If it wasn’t for the wheelchair, I could have got such different ones, but it is sometimes nice to be able to show you life from my perspective.

Sarah

I could merrily strangle Frank…

Frank Fitzgerald that is, my body when it goes into it’s alter ego when I am having a seizure. Most of yesterday’s plans had to be modified.

First up, as the fits hit about 2pm, Cathy is going to have to wait for her meal today. I didn’t wake up properly until about 6pm from them and it was only to have a lovely meal the children had done for Bert and I, but we still watched The Hunger Games (think Battle Royale on acid, then you will get my drift).

Lizzie was on her own with me when I had the seizures, and once I started head banging the wall, she leaped in with my midazolam and that was it, Frank disappeared, no more fits. She did regale me with a funny story of how she tried to lug me round the bed to get me comfy, but truth be told, as long as my head is on a pillow, I have what the kids lovingly refer to as my “stinky Beth bear” (a little teddy that Bert bought me when I was in hospital last June and who wears a wedding dress/nightie that Bert made her, and the duvet, I am fine. She did a fantastic job, and wrote the time and type of fits down for Bert to put on my chart when he came home which was literally 5 minutes later as he had been dropping my Mum at work.

I did change Cathy’s water (duh, can’t leave any kind of snake without fresh water for over 24 hours) and Myles asked if he could watch as he hasn’t even seen her properly yet. Well, Madame didn’t disappoint. I put my hand in to get her water dish (I have had advice not to just top it up as a lot of them like to relieve themselves in their water and we wouldn’t see it). Realizing she was in tip top form, I gave Myles a shout as Bert had collected her a lovely flat rock to sit on, and Lizzie had given me 2 HUGE pieces of flint so we sterilized them to go into her vivarium yesterday by boiling them and then baking them in the oven to 120 celcius to rid them of any bacteria. I will point out that Bert got some stones for his fish tank too – that is the bargain for me having Cathy – he is getting a large 480 litre fish tank for the living room for compatible plecs and sharks, with a stone background.

So, water dish disinfected and refilled, Myles came up to see Cathy. I had popped her in her RUB so I could get her dirty substrate out and put her new “toys” in her vivarium so as I was popping her in, Myles came to have a stroke of her. He was really surprised as she didn’t feel how he expected her to at all. He wanted to take a picture of her so may I present his offering (of my iPhone, which doesn’t do macro shots too well!)

We are both absolutely thrilled as she has what looks like a smiley face on her head (Myles noticed it first) and she had a good old taste of the air around him too. I asked him if he would like  hold, but he said he was happy just to give her a stroke for now. He was more than confident doing that, so I don’t want to push him at all. Oh, and please excuse my nightie in the background and be grateful I cropped my head out of the picture too!

So, with help off the forum I signed up to, we have identified her as a possible strawberry snow morph (colour). I don’t know whether or not to be thrilled or bloody annoyed to be honest. I thought I was getting a plain snow which, if you are into genetics is a double trait, whereas a strawberry snow is a selectively bred reptile, and can come with all the problems that are associated with selectively bred anythings. Fingers crossed she is just a snow.

One thing is for sure and that is that she needs feeding up, so with advice and help, I am upping her feeding schedule from one pinkie every 7 days to one every 5 until she sits properly on the chart where she should for her age and length. Although she is still in the “healthy” range, she is on the very low end of the scale and unlike dogs or cats, she can’t tap against the glass asking for more food!

I have made a lovely friend on the forum I signed up to, and he has been fantastic this week – no problem or question to trivial for him to answer as we have exchanged email addresses. It was him suggesting that I move her home round  a little bit given how settled and inquisitive she is this week.

I have to admit, I laughed at Bert when he told me that she was watching TV, but last night, as we settled down, sure as eggs is eggs, her head popped out of her favourite hide and we have worked out she can see half of the TV screen and there she was, either watching the shadows the TV threw or the actual TV. The glow from the laptop screen has alerted her again, and she is watching me type (quite disconcerting to say the least – I am SURE she knows I am talking about her!)

Anyway, I hope Frank doesn’t pay a visit today, and on that note shall bid the adieu

Sarah

To any Mums reading this blog..

Happy Mother’s Day! (OK, I realize that this is only going to work for UK Mums, but to any Mums reading, have a great day too).

Well, so far having a great day. My (step) son Myles and daughter Lizzie bought me the most gorgeous little Boofles key ring (mine says “My Keys” on it) so now has pride of place on my keyring, along with my Marvel keyring (yes, I am a geek, and care not one jot!). At least it is now big enough that I can’t lose it in my bag.

Apparently today later on Myles, Lizzie and I are going to watch The Hunger Games on Netflix together – that is the film that they have chosen for me. I really am looking forwards to it very much.

Cathy is settling in very well, today is feeding day so (with some trepidation) I am looking forwards to doing that too. Myles is going to help me as I think for my first go it is going to be a 2 person job. I have the following things to do:-

1 – Get her dinner out of the freezer

2 – Clean and disinfect her RUB (really useful box, where she is going to eat)

3 – Once her dinner is defrosted, pop Cathy in her RUB, and dangle her dinner in front of her.

4 – If Cathy doesn’t take her dinner, I am going to have to brain the pinkie (her dinner) and leave her for an hour.

5 – No dice on her eating? Back into her vivarium she goes.

6 – Whilst she is eating (or not), Myles and I are going to clean her vivarium out and move it around a little for her, as she is one inquisitive girl.

Yep, just because it is Mother’s Day doesn’t mean I am going to renege on my responsibilities as a Mum to Cathy.

Oh, I took a couple of pictures of her the other day, I woke up at 9pm to find Bert the other side of the bedroom glaring at Cathy’s viv. I shall explain further, aided by pictures of course…

THIS is apparently Cathy eyeballing Bert. Oh yeah!

And THIS is her watching Wheeler Dealers. Honestly, they are verbatim the words that came out of Bert’s mouth!

Slight case of paranoia? Methinks so!

So, I am off to finish watching one of the Bring It On films with Lizzie. The things a Mum does!

Somebody that I would like to introduce you to…..

Miss Catherine Earnshaw has finally come home! I called at 12pm as requested, and yup – she was good to go.

Please don’t think I was squeezing her to death, my fingers are that colour permanently due to the wheelchair use. We have now established, with the help of the corn snake forum, that she is indeed a snow, and maybe a strawberry snow (apparently the markings on her head are unusual for a plain snow corn snake)

Getting her home was hillarious – if I didn’t know better I would swear she was like a dog, watching the world go by for about 10 minutes – then she got a little cold so we turned the heating up in the car and I put my hand in the corner of her RUB (really useful box – oh yeah, I am getting the lingo already) and she happily coiled up in there.

I have to leave her to settle in for a week without getting her out for playtime, but it is worth holding out on, as it will hopefully make for a happy girl, and much less likely to be skittish which is the last thing I need – a bloody snake that can grow up to 6′ in length that gets skittish on me!

She is *just* going into blue which is why we reckon she refused her food last Sunday, but she is more than making herself at home. She decided to rub her head against the glass of her vivarium which elicited a rather amusing response from Bert! Now, if you can imagine you are sat on the bed, I sleep on the left hand side and that is nearest the wall, Bert on the right nearest the door. Bert put a shelf up for me at the perfect height so that when I sit or prop myself up in bed, I can see her. Anyway, she rubbed her head against the glass and Bert nearly jumped out of his skin! He was sat at the dressing table on the other side of the room, but had spun round on the chair and had his legs up on the bed. I really wish I had had the sense to grab my phone and record his reaction!

So, in retaliation, he is now looking up stuff for the tropical fish tank that he is acquiring in the near future. Well, he already has one but apparently me getting Cathy means he can have another. Got to love husband logic! Well, he caved in on Cathy – I know damn well I will cave in on another fish tank. One thing though – no bloody guppies! They breed at an alarming rate, no matter how beautiful they are.

So, one Cathy home and settling in, one Bert now thinking letting me get her NOT his best idea, and I have just handed my debit card over for him to get something fish tank related off the internet. Yes, it is a fact – we are both insane!

Sarah

It was 5.30am yesterday, so just a little 5.15am post today!

Well, today is D Day. Actually, I was just thinking how that came to be used in our vernacular. I use it quite often, and genuinely mean no disrespect to those that fought. I think I should reign it in a little thinking about it.

Today, I can go and get Catherine Earnshaw (already shortened to Cathy). The shop sent me her feeding and shedding records last night, and the last time I visited her, they got me to rub some kitchen paper on my hands and face so they could put it in a sealed bag and give it to her 24 hours after she had fed and apparently she has chosen to digest on said crumpled piece of paper half in and half out of a loo roll instead of her coconut shell where she would normally digest.

I have to wait until 12pm to go and get her but that is no problem as we have a few jobs that we need to do first. You know, just the normal thing like sending elephant’s feet in the post (eew, eew and thrice eew – I hasten to add they are from when it was legal to do s0). Fortunately, we are also going to get Myles a new phone so he can keep in touch with Sophie as his contract is nearly up and a new pair of jeans. Also brain bleach for me for the elephant’s feet.

Oh, Sophie sounds like a total darling. She sent me a friend request on Facebook last night and we had a little natter via PM and she is a total doll. I told her that when she is ready, to come and see us and apparently she had been not dreading coming to meet us, but nervous and I had taken that away in one message. She is coming to see us this weekend. She has told me she is shy until she gets to know people but by the way we were nattering via PM, I think she might be over the shy bit already with me. I am so looking forwards to seeing her.

Bloody Frank paid a visit yesterday when we were round at my Mum’s house sorting the bloody feet out. All I remember is being really tired and asking if I could put my head down and next thing I remember is Bert waking me up. Apparently I had had a series of simple partial seizures, followed by 4 complex partial seizures. And do I remember any of them? Nope! I was actually quite surprised at the amount of people who do have epilepsy in the public eye.

So, today is going to consist of embracing some form of personal hygiene, getting rid of the bloody feet (I have made Bert keep them in the car – over my dead body were they coming in the house), popping into town to get Myles some jeans and a couple of other bits and bobs,  and finally, after a whole 5 days that seemed like 5 months wait – getting Cathy and bringing her home. Oh ffs, here I go with the Wuthering Heights quotes agian! I suppose I have asked for it calling her Catherine Earnshaw.

I joined a very welcoming and informative forum on corn snakes and they have told me that although she is going to need a week to settle in, it is perfectly permissible to take some photographs of her when I am putting her in her new home as long as the flash on my camera is off – yay for buying bridge!

So, with what is possibly the weirdest list of things to do today (post elephant’s feet and get snake), I shall say farewell.

Sarah

Imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth…

Well, considering I have called my corn snake Catherine Earnshaw – Cathy for short, there should be no other title for this entry! I am SO going to be having unquiet slumbers tonight – I called Cathy’s breeder today and she has kept her pinkie down and, come 11.30am I can call to double check she is OK, and then it is off to go and bring her home! I have had a little more information on her morph, she is a snow lavender hypo morph.

I haven’t got any pictures of her yet, but have trawled the internet and found the nearest I can now I have a bit more information. This is what she looks like now:-

When she is grown up, she is going to look like this, but only with red eyes:-

It is ridiculous how excited I am!

Fortunately today had had some mundane distractions, I enjoyed my pampering session, we went and did the weekly shop, posted Myles’ Mother’s Day card to his Mum, bought my Mum her present – a door stop, and then went and got me a Radar key for using disabled rest rooms whilst I am out. Now, I rang the Government department where I live to ask them about acquiring one and they told me to go to my local authority Town Hall, present my Blue Badge and I would be issued with one. At the price of £6 which they forgot to tell me! So, I also have one of those should I need whilst I am out. I was stunned to find out that you can buy them off Amazon for 66p! I was a tad miffed, but am glad I went through the proper channels to get mine. It is abuse of these things that are causing the disabled facilities to be shut down at an alarming rate.

Right, I have more of the mundane to do – like going and wrapping elephant’s feet (if I can keep my food down) for shipping. I hasten to add, they are NOT ours, we are merely doing it as a favour for someone. I can promise, no pictures of that for sure!

Sarah

Just a little 5.30am post..

Ok, seeings as how I have been showing off a little with my new found ability to both add links and put pictures in a post, this is just going to be a plain old boring one, a quick catch up on what has been going on.

The carbamazapine is building up in my system at an alarming rate, so much so that typing is not the easiest (due to a slight case of double vision) so thank you safari for you in line spell check!

Myles has his first official girlfriend! It is “FaceBook” official, and she put it up, not him. I have to say, she is stunningly gorgeous – he has done so well there. He is going to bring her round to meet us in the next couple of weeks – I can’t wait as she sounds like a lovely young lady.

On the subject of Myles’ girlfriend, bless her, she thought that she had upset Myles last weekend. They were all at another friends’ house discussing what they were getting their Mums for Mothering Sunday (for us, it is this Sunday).

Now I know what I am getting – I asked Myles and Lottie to pick a film for me and we would watch it together downstairs (this might sound odd, but I spend most of my spare time in bed as it is safest for me), so he was telling Sophie (his new girlfriend) this. I don’t want cards or flowers, the fact that they want to spend time with me is enough. Then Myles made an off the cuff remark that he would just get his real Mum a card and shove it in the post (she lives in another country to us). Well, poor Sophie thought she had upset Myles. This is all Myles relaying the story to me yesterday morning by the way.

She thought she had upset him and bless him, he started laughing (I did tell him he was a tinkerbell for doing that!). He explained that he had practically no relationship with his real Mum and that he and I are very close. I was a *tad* confused as to why poor Sophie would make not the mistake, but not understand the set up. Apparently, although Myles calls me Sarah to my face, when he is out of the house, he and all his friends call me Mum, i.e. he says that he had better call Mum and Dad just to let us know what is going on – you get the idea.

Considering his poor relationship with his real Mum, I actually take is as a compliment that he calls me Sarah, as he has explained to me that he has NO happy memories with her.

He does, however, have bragging rights now. He is the only one of his friends whose “parents” are married. ALL of his friends have to choose between where they go home to at night – it really does make me sad. It does, however, make Myles rather smug in a good way!

Myles and I have what we call our “deep and meaningfuls” – our huge conversations that go on for hours. When I first started back in a relationship with his Dad, he dropped a bombshell on me. He told me that if he could have picked a girlfriend for his Dad, he would have picked me. I am not going to lie, I might have leaked some tears at that one – it was such an unexpected and beautiful thing to say for a young man who was 12 at the time. Gah! I can’t believe he is going to be 16 this year! He loves hearing stories about his Dad when he was younger, and I love telling them too! I think like any child or young adult, they forget that their parents had a life before they came along, so he loves plugging the gaps. I actually have known his Mum too since we were both 13. I didn’t like her then, and certainly don’t like her now but never bad mouth her to any of our children. Bert is the only person that gets any feedback on how I am feeling about how she treats Myles.

I asked him if he wanted to get his Mum a Mother’s Day card, and as we were going to town, he just asked me to pick one up for her. He was very specific that it wasn’t to be too over the top, just something simple and not slushy. So, at the grand price of 89p – one bought and put in the post.

So, today. I have a pile of washing I want to pop away, I have a pampering session and then Bert and I are going shopping, THEN I can come home and call the breeder to see if Cathy is happy and I can pick her up tomorrow!

Sarah

Last Sunday afternoon’s wheel in Douglas, because I can’t sleep

Well, it looks like the new drugs might have kicked in a little earlier than I could have dreamed for – I had a visit off Frank last night, but they were nowhere near as violent as they have been, and I came round a lot easier. Downside is, I can’t sleep and seem to have got a little confidence to post some more of my pictures up, so, for your perusal, a selection of pictures I took last Sunday. They were taken up Marine Drive and Douglas Head in the Isle of Man.

Taken on a Fujifilm FinePix S4400, run through Aviary and TitleFx, as per usual.

This is as far South as you can go by car on Marine Drive now, looking towards Keristal and Port Soderick.

You can see the remnants of a landslide we had recently – given how wet February was I was surprised it wasn’t worse.

Proper view of the landslide.

Quick peek North towards the Marine Drive archway at Douglas Head

This is the rock formation it its original rotation. Up Douglas Head and Marine Drive there is mainly slate, granite and limestone. It gives the most stunning natural patterns and formations is quite breathtaking.

Not particularly interesting, but it was to me.

Steps up to a long gone farm house.

Again, the rocks in their original orientation – no messing round from me on this front at all – nature did it all for me.

And that is 3 strikes for nature…

The top of the original Victorian archway to Marine Drive – I have cropped out all the road works and speed signs as I thought they spoiled it.

Sir William Hillary – founder of the RNLI.

I have enjoyed putting these up, it is Wednesday now isn’t it? 2 more sleeps to getting Cathy!! I am ridiculously excited about her arrival! I keep looking at her home, all ready for her and not with her in it. She had better chow down today or I will be having words with her when she gets home!

Lizzie had her ears pierced for the 3rd time yesterday, and now Myles wants his done, so guess were we are going when he goes on study leave – oh yeah, to get his left ear lobe done.

Joshua has got a new job – he starts today and I am thrilled. I think it is exactly what he needs. Even with everything that has been going on, it wasn’t his fault he was made redundant – cutbacks have that nasty side effect. So, he has got a job in a garage and I am over the moon for him.

Ok, not going to lie – I bought a Mac magazine yesterday and I am dying to read it so I shall bid thee adieu for now,

Sarah