Mood dip from yesterday
Not as bad as Monday
Physically not as good so energy levels not as good. No point beating myself up.
Onwards and Upwards.

AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not a violent cat. I am actually quite placid and don't let Things get to me. But my goodness, I have just come very, VERY close to LOSING IT!!!!!!!!!



Seethe-Bag x

So sorry to hear that, Bagpuss. Hope you get your feline serenity back soon.

*spit* *hissssssss* *hackles UP*

B x

Oh dear - does this help?

Oh, that always helps !

When our cat gets to feel like that, she Does Something in a corner. Would that help?

Whenever my oldest cat does something like that, I call it a 'Sophie Special', in fact I've been greeted by many a Sophie Special just after I bring my dinner into the dining room. My little Sarah Jane's not like that..she buries hers.

I would like to thank the kind person who PMed me with a book recommendation.
That was very kind.
Moodscope score and improvement on yesterday
Still not the highest score this week.
Was physically quite poorly through the night and lacking in energy.

No I don't want a glass of wine.

There's a wasp in my office. It's the other side of the room, above an extractor fan and behind a solid blind. I can't get to it with the spray and none of my office mates are in at the moment.

This is something I can really sympathise with.

As, due to my Ant Venom anaphylaxis, the potential for Wasp stings to produce a similar level of response is high, I hate the little blighters with a passion.

If there is any way for you to temporarily vacate the office and 'grab a coffee' I would do it. Otherwise sit poised with the spray and a rolled up newspaper.

(

Aww leave the poor thing alone !

I have a busy weekend of music-making planned

... so I planned to leave work at 4pm today.

Unusually, no meetings scheduled this afternoon....

On Fridays, I go home via my mum's to help with any shopping she may need.

So, I ended up with meetings at 3pm and 4pm.... left eventually at 5.45...

So I got home at 8pm.....

Somewhat grumpy old Hector aka Tenor Viol....

Bad migraine last night
Triptans kicked in.
Moodscope score on the other hand the best yet and now above 50%

Feeling a lot more self-confident.
Had a good night sleep without resorting to sleeping tablets.
Onwards and Upwards.

I now have the Paul Harris 'Improve your sight reading' for grades 2 and 3 and I'm reading the back cover. The first sentence should be filed under famous last words:

Does the thought of sight reading make you groan?

No Paul, at best it sends me into a mild state of shock. At worst it makes me want to slash my wrists.

Hopefully that'll change soon.

I became a good sight reader without ever trying a sight-reading test. I wasn't having lessons between the ages of 10 and 15, and I got from sub-g1 to g6 in that time. I sight-read music. Lots of real music. And I allowed myself to make mistakes and thump and play the same note three or four times, and go back on myself, but eventually it got a lot more fluent

(Yes, I was doing theory and cello and singing in a church choir, so it wasn't quite isolated)

Well, as my PM to you Linda indicates, I have taken my first tentative steps along sight reading to Grade 3 standard with Mister 'Arris. I think I can see a little glimmer of the sunrays of fun now.

I've been on holiday this week and go back to teaching tomorrow. I've just checked the train times as I've had a few nasty surprises over the last couple of months when a train has suddenly been cancelled and there is a notice up saying that there is work on the line for the next three weeks which means all the trains will be arriving between 5 and 15 minutes late There is no further detail about which trains will be 5 minutes late and which 15 minutes late so I take it we are supposed to assume that any train can be (but might not be) up to 15 minutes late. 5 minutes I can cope with but 15 minutes means I miss my 2nd train and/or my bus ...

Sorry to hear that Roseau.

Train woes used to be the bane of my life when I commuted to London, so I can feel for you there.

Having had a mood-crisis last monday, and started to use a website called moodscope to check how I am I have noticed a distinct improvement over the week with my highest score to date today.

The only downer was loosing some sleep due to some back pain that was bad enough to wake me and prevent me from drifting off.

As from yesterday I am offically mother of a teen.

I think I've just had one of the (if not THE) worst week of my life!
Monday: My driving instructor made me do reversing round the corner for the first time and I'm not very good at that one, particularly as it was a horrible corner with lots of stuff coming from everywhere and a car parked on the opposite corner to the one I was reversing around! My poor nerves, took me the whole rest of the lesson to even stop shaking! So that left me rather rattled.

Tuesday - Thursday: lots and lots of work for Thursday deadline (two actually!) for two reports that I really struggled with the word count for (I'm not much a rambler at all!) then lost an important sheet of paper for the lab report which I really struggled with. Only to have my boyfriend find it back in Brighton AFTER I'd submitted the report that I know's going to fail anyway so that MAJORLY stressed me out

The the you-know-who guy from my flat is being a right (insert rudest word you can think of here) again and has filled my rice cooker with two teabags, an onion, curry sauce and cream which he's refused to admit to or clean up even though I have plenty of proof it was him.. he has a thing against me then put used teabags and coffee outside my door! So now I'm going to have to clean that up as it's getting unbearably mouldy! So majr hissyfit complaint going in tomorrow with pictures. The most insulting thin is that apparently we're as bad as each other! I refuse to have my name dragged down to that level! all I did was put a few teabags back in his cupboard (and we talked about why; he leaves them all over the kitchen!) and he just calls it 'banter'.

Friday: spilt my lunch all over me and the floor and then in clearing that up, knocked a glass onto the floor which promptly shattered.

So totally wasn't my week sorry for the rant, it seems I can only write loads when I'm tired/angry!

. Sounds like a horrible week. I can also empathise with the driving - when I was learning I got so stressed out about it. I don't think I've reversed round a corner since I passed a few years ago!

I nearly came to blows with my first driving teacher about that manoevre! He taught it by having two black squares stuck to the lower edge of the rear windscreen and you had to keep the kerb, in your vision, touching one of them and then you turned, and when it reached the other one you had to straighten up. He asked me once "where is the kerb realtive to the dot?" and I said it depended which eye I was looking out of, since with 3D vision you would see either two dots and one kerb or two kerbs and one dot. He would have none of this, and said he'd been a professional photographer so he ought to know, and even took two pencils out of his pocket and passed one behind the other and said there mut be a point even with both eyes open when the second pencil was entirely hidden.

I lost faith in him after that, and when I got into his car for the test, I had to restrain an urge to drive it into a wall! I changed after that, got a lovely new young guy rom BSM, failed a second time because after a decent run I crashed into the final bollard in my parking place in the test centre - at very low speed, but it was bent into a dog-leg, and I could only see the top of it: automatic failure as I hit something - and passed easily the third time. He told me I would make a smashing driver. I hoped he didn't mean it literally (don't drive at all now, my eyes aren't up to it, particularly when it's not good light)

I failed first and second time for being too defensive and 'polite', i e turning the other cheek to other road users in the interests of safety. I did pass third time, however I can actually sight read to Grade 2 level a million times better than I can park a car. My wife is perfect at parking but she will not drive on the jam packed streets of Birmingham and the a38m Aston Distressway is out of the equation.

LOL must admit to finding driving in Birmingham MUCH less polite than in Derbyshire...!

I said I'd make a cheesecake for a friend, using a recipe that I've used lots before.

I am currently rescuing a cheesecake.

I am currently writing a set of notes in French for my Grade 6 pupils to help them with their aural tests. I have been at it all afternoon and am beginning to wonder if they will be any the wiser when they have read them. It is so hard to do this in a foreign language. I'm getting quite fed up! Not a very big aaaaggh but it is beginning to feel very tedious. I think I'll go and watch TV.

Can you collaborate with some of your G6 pupils on refining the language? I used to find it difficult to write short technical documents in German for work clients - in fact I usually ended up talking to them through things on the phone (in German) to try and explain what I meant and then they would tell me how I should have written it! Just a thought...

I really didn't want to post in this thread... but it's the kind of situation where I don't feel like I can do anything so I might as well vent anonymously. It's mostly an aargh by proxy: a close friend of mine is currently going through hel! due to personal circumstances she can't control. She's apprehensive about seeking professional counseling/advice for various valid reasons, but I'm really worried about her mental well-being and I don't know how I can help her

I think sometimes venting anonymously is a great way to get it off your chest

Often GPs have access to practice counsellors, perhaps you could suggest she asks her GP for a referral? In the meantime I'm sure having you to talk to is helpful - people often don't need answers, just space to talk. Hope things improve.

Thanks The issue with counseling is not availability, but that she thinks the circumstances she is dealing with might force anyone she tells to contact social services, which she isn't sure the other people involved want I really don't have any experience with anything remotely similar, and it bothers me that I can't offer useful advice, but I'll try to remember that being a good friend isn't always about providing answers.

A good counsellor listens non-judgmentally. Your friend has to find her own solution to her difficulties (which may or may not turn out to involve Social Services), and the value of counselling is having someone who will allow her to do this. It's often difficult to open up to someone (like a friend or relative) who already knows some of your circumstances and the people involved, so a professional counsellor is often the best bet. In general what you reveal to a counsellor is confidential, but in the UK they do reserve the right to involve social services in certain cases, and I expect it's similar in the US.

Like so many things in life, there is no obviously right or wrong thing for your friend to do here. I'm sure it will help her to know that you care about her and are there for her if she needs to talk.

Just fluffed up my two (Grade 2) sight read tests for the day. The first one I could play after two attempts. The second one took me slightly longer...around five times I tried it and still the dynamics weren't correct. But so glad I can identify room for improvement with my scales and pieces....and act upon them. I'm rather enjoying doing those.

But I shall NOT allow the fact that I can't sight read mar my enjoyment of playing!

But if the bulk of the notes/rhythm were there or thereabouts, then at grade 2 that wouldn't be a bad sight read at all

I've started the Paul Harris green book and so far that's going okay but it's really basic stuff. Where I am on stage 1 is way behind the 55 exercises in the purple AB book. I can play to Grade 3 standard, but as far as sight reading goes I'm only just about at grade 2 and only if the wind is blowing in my direction. Perseverance....keeping calm and carrying on. Rule, Britannia. Britannia rules the waves. Brits will never never never fear staves.

I've done something to my fingers

They're very sore and I can't straighten them - it's the middle two on my right hand.

I'm due to take a plane carrying a bag, spend a day taking photographs while mostly carrying said bag, then fly home. Ouch

Should I bother the Doctor? Seems so trivial

If you're concerned, see your doctor

If it is interfering with your everyday life, then it's not trivial.
Obviously, if you'd started this post with 'I dropped a metal toolbox full of metal tools on my hand and now it's not right', then you might not want to visit the doctor. But if it has happened with no real cause that you can work out, then I don't think a doctor will have any problem with taking a look, even if all they can say is 'rest it for a bit and come back if it doesn't get better in X days'

I've just got back from my Keep Fit. I am the youngest there by far but I'm always the most tired one and I ache for days after. Just had a hot bath and covered my femur areas in Deep Heat so at least I'll be able to get put of my armchair. But since I've been going there I've burnt off almost a stone's worth of fatty deposit. No aches so far but its early days.

Isn't it frustrating. I have a fantastic clip of (Piano g3) Tastenritt for my Youtube channel but I can't upload it till the 21st when my data allowance is reset.

My Prelude in C is on Youtube and I want to see how long it has 'no views'. Must be a world record for a YT clip going for a specific length of time without one single viewing. Its a pity Norris McWhirter's snuffed it, I'd ring and ask him.

Bleurgh... can't breathe at all through my nose or speak in anything other than a croak. Why do colds make you feel so miserable, when really they're not that serious?

For some reason, anything that's commonly endured by many people is supposed to be "not that serious". In fact, things like a bad cold or period pains cause a great deal of anguish, but we feel we have to make light of them.

I'm sorry that you're feeling so poorly, and hope the wretched cold takes itself off very soon - just don't send it in my direction, please!

I know what you mean, a week on and I'm finally feeling human again - mostly
HOpe you are feeling better soon x

A lot of people round here seem to have been under the weather in the last few days. Hope you all get well soon.

I've just got one starting, I think. I have the typical sore back-of-nose/throat thing going on, which I wouldn't mind so much if I didn't also have a not insignificant headache and feeling like I'm about to throw up.
And three meetings to get through, one of which I'm meant to lead and the other of which I'm meant to learn stuff at

Aaagghh! Some more month to sit in the office with a guy using words all day that would all be caught up by the system in this forum.
I hoped to move to a different office pretty soon and know I still have to wait minimum two or three month.
The worst thing is, it is affecting me and I thought I could handle it.

Good grief, at 3am I had a slight sore throat, at 7.30am I had the headache with it, now I have earache, a snotty nose, a horrific cough and my eyes are streaming. I hope it doesn't keep on worsening at this rate, or I won't last until tea-time!
I've ducked out of the three meetings and am going to go and lay down and do nothing all day

Maizie