12/01/2008 by Aileen.

Friday means Creative Writing in Hedon. I travel over 15 miles to get there but it’s worth it. Most people wrote about the New Year, and it went from bad to worse (in mood, not in talent) The offerings included autobiographical pieces, poems about the uncertainty of the future, wars and tragedies. Someone read out about his thirteen year old son dying suddenly from a brain hemmorrage. Even Val, who always writes feel-good stories, had a tragedy where a mother and two children are drowned at sea! I didn’t get around to writing about anything. Naughty girl. Luckily we finished on a high, with Jim’s witty offering. It sounds as if it’s a miserable group, but we have great fun. We have trusted one another with very personal writings, and it’s a great group.

Went to Mass at Hessle at lunch time. Father Michael says it beautifully and never fails to inspire with his homilies.

Had my hair cut at Tony and Guy’s in the afternoon. A good hair cut and good shoes are my only real extravagances. (Apart from photography I suppose, which is an expensive hobby.) Got Photoshop 6 on Wednesay and used my Student Card for a discount. The assistant didn’t turn a hair!

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12/01/2008 by Aileen.

Don’t know what to say about Tursdays. J and I try to keep them free so we can ‘do things’ together, but in this weather we don’t do too much. Anyway J had a 2 hour dental appt. this Thurs. so I had the afternoon on my own. Think I ‘wasted’ it. Can’t remember what I did, so I must have wasted it.

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10/01/2008 by Aileen.

Wednesdays in term time means I go birding. We had a gentle start this wed. with a walk round East Park, Hull. Saw greater spotted woodpecker, several gooosander, red-breasted pochard, as well as the usual suspects. Lots of captive birds in the ‘zoo’ section, but no labels. What a shame. It was good seeing everyone after the Christmas break. Tony sent us a text from Majorca. Was he gloating or wishing he was with us???

Joined Slimming World in the evening, and we had a take-away curry with wine after, as I won’t start diet until today. Then Teresa from OU rang. We are going to meet soon. Can’t wait. We seem to have so much in common.

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08/01/2008 by Aileen.

Well, they usually are. Just finishing off any housework left over from the Monday, and watering the houseplants. However, twice to the vets today with three cats, for their annual booster. Ironing. Made a curry. Then went to Scripture Group in Hessle, neighbouring parish.

I’ve enrolled for a ten-pointer OU course on web design. The foundation course seems to be going well. I have had 88%, 76% and 85% for the three TMAs so far.

Tomorrow I’m thinking of going to Slimming World in the evening, as I don’t seem to have the motivation to lose weight on my own. It’s daft to actually pay money for not eating, when people are starving, but I really could do with losing a stone or two. I weigh 11st6

But best of all, tomorrow is BIRDING. I wonder what we’ll see.

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07/01/2008 by Aileen.

Actually I love Mondays. Something to do with the whole week stretching before me with its glorious promises. On Sunday evenings I plan my week in Outlook Calendar. I put in regular appointments. Yippee, Birdwatching and Creative Writing are starting up again. Then I add John’s counselling appts. (and he has the dentist this week) Then I add other things I intend to do, including exercise and study. We try to keep a day free so we can go out somewhere together. Tuesdays or Thursdays if it actually happens.

I am sad enough to have been influenced by www.flylady.net which is a very sexist American site about household organisation. Get past the sexism and maternalism and there are some good things. I don’t follow it properly, but it’s basically about decluttering. Then there are sayings such as ‘you can do anything for 15 minutes.’ This helps motivate me to do boring jobs.

Because of Flylady I spend Monday mornings doing housework. Dust, hoover, mop, clean a window or two. Then the house is downhill all week, but at least it’s been done.

This afternoon I am going to York to buy a new bike. My old one is rusty, though serviceable, so I shall offer it on Freecycle -a really good idea for keeping stuff out of landfill sites.

Tonight I think I’ll get on with studying.

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06/01/2008 by Aileen.

Had lovely morning. I was doing Children’s Liturgy and didn’t want to get out of bed this morning - tired and very comfortable - but forced myself. Kids were lovely and as it was the Epiphany it was a nice liturgy to do. Brought along gold (bracelet) frankincense (incense stick) and myrrh (pot of vit.e cream with neroli and other essential oils)

Then J and I went for cycle along canal path. Lots of anglers out as it was sunny. Almost springlike. Salad for lunch as we’re eating main meal tonight.

Everything went well at the Royal Marsden the other day. I arrived at 9.30 for a 10.30 appt. and got seen at 12.05 There was a fire in the Fulham branch so maybe there were repercussions in Surrey.

Anyway, I could feel a lump, my GP could feel a lump, the specialist could feet a lump and the lady doing the ultrasound could feel a lump - but it wouldn’t show up. It was too high for a mammogram but the sadistic doctor said I might as well have one as I was there! Oh well. At least I didn’t have to have a needle biopsy. Having said that, I’ve had one before and it’s just like an injection. Only thing is, injections and jelly fish are my pet hates.

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02/01/2008 by Aileen.

This website really is a work on progress, which is not, apparently, very professional. I’ve added a Form Book on someone’s suggestion, and experimented with a photo album this morning. Don’t like the look of it though.

I spent yesterday afternoon organising my photos on the main computer.Put them onto external drive to use on the laptop in the evening so I could upload them onto website - and they’re all in NEF , not JPG, so it wouldn’t work. My photoshop on the laptop won’t recognise NEF and Nikon Capture was taking forever, so this morning I just uploaded a few JPGs I found.

Off to Surrey today, to stay with Kevin and Mag prior to Royal Marsden appointment tomorrow. Will take minimum clothes, but laptop, camera gear, books, magazines, binoculars.

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01/01/2008 by Aileen.

A wet wet day. 11st5 this morning, but no way am I going out cycling or running. No motivation for gym. I’ll just have to eat a bit less. Think I’ll cut out sugar and fat today.

Reolutions? No. Targets? Weigh umder 11st. by Easter, get website photos up and running. (Not a SMART target, but hey! I’ve retired!)

Oh yes, finish my kids book by Easter, and send off some photos for publication in magasines.

Heck! What’ll I do after Easter?

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