Prescription

Thanks to the tablets above I no longer have to put up with oedema in the feet. Well I've still got it but the symptoms have been dramatically reduced after 2 days after starting the medicine. Oedema can be caused by too much protein in the blood - liver or kidney failure or by heart failure I don't have any of the above three I had blood tests to make sure. It can also be caused by having high blood pressure or being pregnant again neither apply to me. Or it can be just one of these things that happen which I have a feeling is gonna be me.

I went to the doctors about it first of all because it was also making my feet hurt, I kept saying that I wouldn't have minded so much if it was just the cosmetic look. However now that I've finally got treatment that works and my ankles and feet no longer look so bad I've realised that I was lying to myself. It was beginning to get me down no end, it looked ugly and I couldn't hardly find shoes that were nice and fitted me.

It has cheered me up no end that this medicine is working. Loosing weight will also help, but the diet doesn't start til September. I gave up smoking on 6th September 2005, I've decided the diet to loose that weight and more shall start on the 6th.

Mrs Vokes Eats Many Jam Sandwiches Until...

They changed their minds: Pluto has been demoted.

Finally after last weeks slightly idiotic idea this makes sense and is quite logically thought out.

Singing In The Rain

It's been raining for the last few days, the grass has recovered everywhere is greening up nicely, any festivals happening this weekend are likely to be a bit quagmire like. Because of this Bex and I have decided to blow Pink out, it's hard to look fabulous when standing in a muddy park so we've decided to be fabulous elsewhere.

When I visit Becky I have to catch the train to Peterborough then to King's Lynn, changing at Ely. Yesterday at the first station there were loads of festival attending types milling about on the platform including one lass who was wearing a non descript fleece, incy-wincy denim hot pants, silver sparkly tights and bright purple wellies.

Due to the thunderstorms we had my train into Ely arrived three minutes after the Lynn train pulled out. I rang Bex to let her know I would be late, mad, romantic fool that she is she said "Hold still, I'll come and collect." So I sat down with a Stella and the Guardian and watched the rainbows come and go. (Ely has a very civilised railway station don't ya know)

Half an hour later just as the Lynn train was leaving my mobile buzzed again. "Can you get the train to Downham Market? The traffic is awful"

"Nope, train's just pulling out"

"Oh"

But these are things are part and parcel of being mad romantic fools and I did get to see Becky three minutes earlier than if I had caught the train. :-D

Shock As Rumours Of Ceres Being Promoted To The Big League Appear To Be Confirmed (To be read with a Motty style voice)

A draft proposal by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) if ratified will see Ceres, currently considered the largest asteroid, Charon, currently Pluto's moon and UB313, formally not yet named but known as Xena to her friends a large object in the Kuiper Belt all becoming planets in the solar system.

Which will sort of bugger up Holst's The Planets even more.

Radio 4's Front Row team commissioned Scanner to compose 4 suite-lets for the 3 soon to be planets and Pluto. As they are only minor planets Plutons the music took the form of jingles which was nice if very silly.

I can't get too worked up about it but I bet my old Astronomy Lecturer David Hughes will still be saying "Pluto is not a planet"

Monday

Well the weather wasn't completely awful over the weekend, Sunday was quite nice but today was miserable unseasonably grey and dreick. It was so depressing that all I wanted to do was snuggle up in a duvet so I rang my boss at Peterborough Railway Station and asked for the day off. She said yes, which was nice, so mainly today I've done bugger all of nothing and it's been bliss.

I do have to think about what I'm gonna wear to Pink (Picnic) next Saturday (if wet stay in Kings Lynn) Not because I want to make a huge impression, I've discovered over the last year the chances of doing that when out with a tranny are minimal even if I wanted to! 30 something women are a common sight in Cambridge, 30 something trannies are not so ;) I really enjoy standing back a little and watching people's reactions to Becky. I get plenty of chances to be the bright butterfly when we go out with Bex is in Bob mode. Nah it's the weather and what to wear on my feet.

It's gonna be strange going to Pink with Becky because last year that's where I went to meet her I didn't really know her then, I do now.

Yep it's gonna be weird.

But in a good way.

Bring Me Sunshine

Being a contrary Brit who likes nothing better than a good whinge about the weather - What the bloody hell happened to August? Don't know about where you are but here in Kings Lynn it is anything but sunny and more than a tad chilly.

I did not come prepared all my clothes are suitable to summer, I had to borrow one of Becky's jackets, this is where going out with a tranny has its advantages, the jacket I borrowed buttoned up on the correct side rather than being some misshapen coat that screamed loudly of "Borrowed Off The Boyfriend."


Bex and I did a quick trip round town, including a wander round M&S, they have some rather nice shoes in their new collection I didn't buy but it will do next time and retired back home to the warmth and safety of Chez EnVérité.

We've tried to recreated to create the warmth of Old El Paso with Chilli and Long Island Iced Teas but the cicadas are not singing yet. The rain is still streaming down I can see the grass greening up through the gloom.

Lunchtime

It's lunchtime in my office. I'm always amazed how the noise levels drop as lunch progresses. Like everywhere else most people eat at their desks, read their papers or surf the internet unlike everywhere else some of my colleagues are doing a jigsaw puzzle on a spare desk in the room.

I was showing young Ady the clip of the Mighty Boosh that's embedded in this blog, it played fine but when he tried to watch another clip directly from YouTube it came up with the message "you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Macromedia's Flash Player" so what's that all about? I would love to know.

The Mighty Boosh

As part of my birthday present Simon got me The Mighty Boosh series 1 and 2 which is rather ace as think they are brill. They have been described as the Morcambe and Wise for our age which is perhaps rather strong, but they are very good. I feel more of a Reeves and Mortimer influence, they are silly and surreal, and there is an element of The Goodies too. I think they are great, far more inventive and funnier than Little Britain and not as snide.



If you've not heard of them check out this clip then get yourself down to Amazon and order copies of their DVDs now.

Here's one I made earlier.

I'm busy going through my photographs from the weekend but here is one to be getting on with.

Cardiff

Been location spotting today and bimbling round Cardiff. It's in the middle of regeneration I think, some very nice bits right next to run down scuzzy shops and empty properties. I think given a year or two it could be really nice but right now it feels a little bit too rough.

However we did find a nice pub/bar where we spent an hour or two over lunch and long island iced teas, a very pleasant thing on a hot and humid day.

There's Nice

Well my birthday has been and gone, I had a lovely day bimbling round Bristol on my own. It would have been even lovelier if Si had been able to bimble with me but he was on his course, so I had to make the best of it on my own.

I discovered there was a MAC concession in the Bristol Debenhams, £50 later I finished "just looking thank you, ooh do you have a makeup pencil sharper?"*

I walked walked along the river from the Castle Park to the SS Great Britain. The SS Great Britain is a superb museum I highly recommend it even if it does cost almost £9 (although that ticket lasts a year) it has some great hands on activities in the dockside museum which are guaranteed to absorb any surplice energy your average bored eight year old might have, good thinking there.

We are now in Cardiff, our hotel is between the Millennium Stadium and Cardiff Castle which is rather nice.

Tomorrow we do the touristy bit.


*they didn't

Update - But the Cardiff MAC did!

Bristol

It's my birthday tomorrow and I'm in Bristol with Si, he's on a course and I'm on holiday the attractions of the big city are at my mercy!

Once I've found a bus to get into town.

Beta Band

I'm watching a programme about the denial of oxygen for the IRA which happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was a stupid idea let idiots condemn themselves in their own words and voice. It didn't reduce violence it just gave the IRA and Sinn Féin an added romance. What caused a semblance of peace in the province was terrorists sitting down with government and negotiating.

But hush my mouth that idea is heresy to some.

Oooh forgot to say - this post is called Beta Band because throughout the programme they were using the bands music which struck me a very odd.