After being incredibly remiss with this blog since breaking my arm in August, my muse has finally poked me to write up about the highlights of my year and attempt to catch up with you all. It’s one thing to play Runescape and type on Facebook (okay, so that’s two things!) one-handed, but quite another to write a coherent blog post about anything. Especially when you spend most of summer being out of your gourd on painkillers, thinking you’re dreaming when you’re awake or thinking you’re awake when you’re dreaming. Having said that, the latter part is typical of me, and I spend many hours of my life trying to convince D that we said or did or planned something when it’s all news to him because it never actually happened.
My brain; it is indeed a funny place. Only somebody with a sense of humour could cope with a brain like mine. Or, at least, I suppose so; because I need my sense of humour to cope with my brain.
That’s quite enough about my fizzled brainmeats. Moving on to the year that was!
For me, 2013 has been something of a roller-coaster, but thankfully the worst thing that really happened was Washburne’s rechargable battery finally giving out (so I have to buy a new one when I have some cash in the new year). Most of what I might have considered to be bad at the time (such as my son’s sectioning to a psychiatric unit) was actually exactly what needed to be done. My arm? Pfft; stay tuned for the next epilepsy-related injury that I can show off and joke about. Believe me, I’m used to it!
Nothing truly worthy of note happened until June, when my sister married her partner of ten years. My sister looked radiant and a wonderful day was had by all!
The happy couple!
Glug!
Both of these pictures were taken by yours truly, whilst still sober enough to do so.
Things were quite uneventful after that. Gardening happened, and I didn’t kill Yappy Dog Thing or its neglectful owner. Then, in August, a cheeky spider decided to hang out on the bedroom ceiling; I objected and this happened:
Mostly armless!
Remind me to get one of those bug catcher things some time. Not because spiders frighten me (they don’t any more, unless they surprise me) but because this happens if you try to reach too high and happen to have epilepsy! Or just if you’re really accident prone.
You may think, after this delightful incident, that I wanted nothing more to do with spiders, but oh no! While I was in recovery I made up my mind on something I’d been considering for years – and bought a Chile Red Rose (Grammastola rosea) Tarantula who I’ve named Nightshade. She is beautiful and was closely followed by a ridiculously adorable dwarf species named Chile Pink Burst (Paraphysa scrofa) who I decided to call Molly. I shan’t post photographs in case I have arachnophobic followers, but they’re easy enough to Google if you’re interested. A Curlyhair named Amelia Pond is joining my little arachnid family in the spring, when her current keeper feels happy about posting without a heat source.
In November it was my birthday, and the lovely Mason Kayne from Ashes To Ashes wrote me a letter and sent two signed promotion pictures from the show:
This is one of the pictures he sent me but – unlike this one here – he signed it himself rather than using reprinted stock
Due to my arm the year has been rather quiet for me, but it’s had some good points. I harvested – and pickled – my first ever home grown red cabbages, became published in an anthology (The Milk Of Female Kindness – Kasia James) and so I am now an official author, managed to get my crippled body back into size 12 jeans somehow and I still have the love of a good man.
I also visited the Christmas Market with my sister when D and I visited my hometown to see my family. We both bought exotic goodies (for me it was Zebra sausages, Springbok sausages and Kangaroo sausages) and S bought herself a delightfully silly hat (the photo of which I shan’t post here, but I’m definitely going to get one myself at some point).
On Wednesday D and I travelled to the psychiatric unit to see my son, and we found him to be remarkably well:
Loving his snuggly new dressing gown – and my hat, which I allowed him to keep
Mother and son!
So, this year, I’m older, have more silver birch than blonde in my hair and am slightly poorer financially. But I’m rich in so many other ways, in my family, my friends, my husband and – most importantly – my son.
Wishing everybody a wonderful Christmas and new year, just in case I can’t type again for a while!
