So very tired *yawns* I was woken up early this morning by the combined sound of my dad yelling at my brother to get his arse in gear and get off to college and my mum trying to jump-start my brother's car because he left his side lights on and it drained the battery (for the second time).

Chris is also a bit under the weather, which always makes me feel down too so I'll probably end up having a sleep this afternoon. I might be able to persuade Chris to join me for a nice bit of nuggling :D

I uploaded the few pics my mum took of Evie yesterday to my pooter so if anyone wants to see the little babba, leave a comment and I'll see if her mum will let me post one on here.

I got to see the little baby today and she is amazingly cute. Her mum looked tired but then she kept them up last night wanting feeding every hour. This afternoon she slept most of the time although she did rouse a little when she was being passed around for a cuddle but she fells asleep again when I was holding her. Every now and then she makes little squeaking noises like a little guinea pig and it's sooo cute. I am smitten :D

We didn't get to see baby Evie today, or the new parents for that matter, cos mum's still out of it from her travel sickness pills LOL I even had to drive home from the supermarket this afternoon cos she couldn't manage it, thankfully we went in my car so we didn't have to swap them around on the drive before going shopping. We should now be going visiting sometime tomorrow. This kid's gonna be walking before we get to see her :D

On Friday, Chris and me decided to go for a walk round Castle Eden Dene, a nature reserve not far from here. We set off in the car but couldn't find the place anywhere so ended up at Blackhall Rocks where we walked along the coastal path for a bit, looking for a way down to the beach. Turns out that you can't get down to the beach from the rocks so we went back to the car park and had out picnic lunch on one of the tables there before making a second attempt at finding Castle Eden Dene. We ended up in Hartlepool this time *rolls eyes* I was sure though that I'd seen a sign for this place the last time I was in Peterlee so we went back through Blackhall and on to Peterlee but were still unsuccessful. It was getting on a bit by this time so I said we should give it up as a bad job and just go for half an hour on the beach at Crimdon Dene. We did manage to get there and had a nice bit sit on the pebbles and Chris chucked a load of rocks into the sea, but on the way there we actually saw a sign for Castle Eden Dene so we decided to go there on Saturday.

However, soon after we go home that day my aunt phone to say that my cousin had given birth to a little girl at quarter past six that evening. I said we'd come and visit her after I'd finished work on Saturday afternoon but we ended up not going because the hospital said they were going to discharge her. By the time this had happened the sky had clouded over so we ended up not going to see the new baby or going to Castle Eden Dene. Never mind :)

Last night was a bit mad... actually it was a lot mad. Jamie tried to smuggle his girlfriend, who is persona non grata, into the house but me and Chris could hear them talking and turfed them out into the living room to give them a damn good talking to. That lasted an hour before Jamie finally agreed to take her home and then when he got her there he rang to ask if she could stay anyway cos she couldn't get in to her house. I was livid that he was willing to wake us up to ask something he knew wouldn't happen (not that we'd got to sleep by then anyway) but not willing to wake Polly's family up to let her in the house (apparently the doorkey was in the lock on the inside so she couldn't open the door). So we ended up not getting to sleep until well after five this morning.

That meant that I ended up not getting out of bed until way later than I wanted to. I had most of the house to clean before going to get my parents from the airport this evening so it's just as well that their flight was delayed leaving Larnaca or I wouldn't have managed to get it done. As it was, I had to get Chris to do most of the dusting and then forced Jamie to do some hoovering for me. I also asked him to some tidying for me and bring all the crockery down out of his room but that obviously proved too difficult for him. I also didn't manage to get any ironing done so I had to come clean to mum about wearing one of her tops to go out last Saturday :D I did manage to clean both bathrooms and all of the kitchen from top to bottom, which is one less job for my mum this week. Mum also commented on how clean and tidy the house was looking when she got in and apologised for promptly messing up the dining room table with all her post and camera bits and pieces.

Tomorrow, we should be going to visit my cousin and her new little baby so until then, tata!

Another Thursday evening, another Main Library shift. This time I've actually had some work to do; it took me and hour and a half to get all the returned books checked and shelved onto the right trolleys. Here's a question; does the plural of 'trolley' take '-ies' or just '-s'? Despite my linguistic background, I can't remember for the life of me. I also appear to have lost the ability to type *doh*

I got a call from my Aunty Barbara yesterday to tell me that my cousin should be giving birth to her first child sometime today. She said she'd ring and let me know whether Vickie's been deemed ready to be induced and if little Evie's made an appearance yet. Vickie's currently two weeks past her due date so she's getting a bit edgy and wants to get everything over with. Good luck to her, rather her than me LOL I'm not saying that I don't want to have children but I am so not ready to have them yet.

Today I have been mostly eating Pralines and Cream ice cream... well this evening I have at least.

Mum and dad have been away in Cyprus for a week now and apparently it has been unbearably hot. Completely different to here then cos it's pissed it down almost every day so far. Hopefully it'll brighten a bit for the rest of the week so that me and Chris can get out and about. We did manage to get out to Crook Hall and gardens on Saturday but it rained there too so we had to have a cream tea inside :D

Other than that I've been interviewing some people for my dissertation but unfortunately one of the people I need has been very elusive so I may have problems finishing the third level for analysis unless she checks her email as soon as she gets back from holiday. Thankfully, the people I've interviewed so far have given me some other useful names so I should at least me able to ask them some questions via email. That'll bulk up the methodology as well I imagine. I still have to write the damn thing so I'm gonna have to lock myself away for a week or so to get it all down and then send as much as I can off to my supervisor for her to look over.

Until next time, nanu nanu!

So I'm back at work again *yawns* I've only got one more hour until my shift is over though. It's been fairly uneventful thus far, other than learning where the 005 books have been moved to on level 3 and finding that one of the self-issue machines has decided to stop printing out reciepts. I have, however, managed to read about three chapters of my book. Oh the heady world of the librarian LOL!

So then, I'm finally back. After a lovely week at Chris' mum's I was only in the house 15 minutes before receiving a call from the hospital to ask me to come in. I was admitted before 5pm that day and only just came out. Thankfully the treatment worked so the methotrexate should see me right for a while and I may even be clear for a bit.

Contrary to my original reason for starting this blog, I am not going to give a day-by-day account of my stay in hospital as most of the days were fairly uneventful. I will say though that I met some lovely people in there and took great comfort from them. Having people around you that have the same illness as you and understand everything you're going through from their own perspective is definitely a bonus. I just hope that when it comes to the crunch our voices will be heard and we'll get to keep our dermatology ward. We're not bothered about being left in the old part of the hospital because although it sets us apart (I believe the powers that be see us as the lepers of modern society) it also gives us a level of independence that the other departments / wards don't have. Unfortunately, it also means that the pharmacy don't seem to give us much importance, which is why I had to wait hours and hours for my prescriptions before being allowed to go home. I waited that long I could have had another day's treatment.

Anyway, I'm home now and crossing my fingers that my skin will not go back to how it was. I'm also hoping that the other patients are keeping well and that their treatments are working. I know that it's the consultant's rounds tomorrow afternoon so I'll ring and find out how they're all doing and who's been let out etc. It's very saddening to see people who think they're skin is improving to be told that they've got another three weeks stay ahead of them, especially for one particular person who has been in there for nine weeks already.