Aching knee and very sore tooth.

Kevin had his operation on Monday - arthroscopy and both medial and lateral meniscectomy in the right knee. In at 0800 hrs and back home by 1245hrs, feeling woozy and nauseous. Poor lad, he had a bad night (typical reaction to a general anaesthetic) and so did I.

He is using ice packs four times a day to reduce the swelling and of course, can't drive until the knee is stable but he can (and indeed, must) put weight on it and do the recommended physiotherapy exercises as soon as he is able. The sobering thing is that even though they have operated, the meniscectomies are likely to lead to further joint deterioration and ultimately a replacement knee joint as arthritis sets in.

It's a bugger, getting older! Mind you, the alternative ain't so hot either.

My problem is painful but easily- if expensively - sorted. I have a Cerec attached to my top premolar - well, actually, I don't because the damned thing pinged off when I was using those dinky little TePe brushes as instructed by the dental hygienist! This will be the third time that it has to be put back and the second in under a year - so much for it staying in place for three years!

It was done when I was in full time employment and could afford a comprehensive dental plan; I can no longer afford the full plan and am even having to scrimp to save enough to get a filling done (no NHS dentists around here, sadly) which is going to cost the best part of £125.00. The tooth with the Cerec is on the top left of my mouth but the tooth that needs filling - because it is worn and there is an irritating gap where food gets painfully trapped - is on the bottom right. As a consequence, chewing on either side is currently difficult and painful.

The filling is one thing - but I think the Cerec should be put back FOC - it is supposed to stay put for three years and I don't chew bones, break nuts with my teeth or even eat toffees any more, so it isn't anything that \I have done, except to follow my prescribed oral hygiene routine.

Getting back to Kevin's knee, we changed the dressings today and so far the operation sites look very neat - he should have very little scarring. He goes in two weeks to have the practice nurse check the sutures but apart from that, he is left to his own devices as far as physio is concerned.

And my errant Cerec will be glued back in place at mid-day today, so I can at least eat on one side without pain!

Motivation regained!

As I explained in an earlier post, what with the house move and Kevin's looming knee operation, plus a nasty arthritis flare-up and the fact that I have not been happy with either my tutor or my progress on A230 this year, I had elected to defer my Open University studies until October.

I really DID try to continue reading The Romantics, but was getting nowhere, so I put all the books to one side and took a "holiday" away from them. In the meantime, I bought some books that have helped me to get my head round Wordsworth and Shelley, and a very useful book on Literary Criticism.

The house that we had hoped to buy has been sold - sadly not to us, but we have just had a firm offer on our house and everything is moving forward. We have also had our offer accepted on a cottage which is not in Devon after all, but in Somerset. It is smaller than "The One" in Devon, but actually ticks more boxes, so it is to be hoped that the very short chain (our buyers, us and the vendors) will remain firmly linked and we will be settled well before I start my two OU modules.

So now that (D.V.) we won't be spending time away house-hunting, I can get back to reading the A230 set texts and the module textbooks - never read any James Joyce, so I'm looking forward to The Dubliners, as well as tackling Wuthering Heights (again) and Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four. Still to come, Robert Louis Stevenson's  The Beach of Falesá, Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa, then The Emigrants and The Lonely Londoners along with poetry by Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac and Elizabeth Bishop

I have watched Metropolis, which is also part of the module materials.After rather childishly giggling at the hero's awful knickerbockers and the exaggerated facial expressions that were (of course) part and parcel of silent films, I concluded that this wonderfully distopian experience could well be left until I was in a more serious mood!

So all of this reading should distract me from the stresses of the house-selling and buying experience - I'll let you know how THAT is working out for me :)

Bye, bye wheat!

So on top of the arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome, it would appear that I have an intolerance to wheat!
This is a PITA, because I looove bread. I mean really, really love bread.

Crusty french bread, warm from the bakery; salt and pepper baguettes; wholegrain loaves; my own home-baked efforts; croissants and (goddess help me) Danish Pastries; rye bread.....need I say more?

However, I don't think bread (or rather, wheat) loves me *sob*!

The trouble is that every time I eat bread, I get the most awful stomach cramp. My tum bloats like I'm six months pregnant and I also get awful wind and indigestion. Doesn't matter whether the bread is fresh from the oven or a couple of days old. I get the same with biscuits, scones, cake.......you name it, if it has wheat in it, I eat, I bloat!

Having done a little reading around the subject, I am now wondering whether my arthritis, as well as the bloating and 'digestive discomfort' might be alleviated by going gluten-free for a trial period. Then a Facebook friend directed me to the Doves Farm website  www.dovesfarm.co.uk and the recipes contained therein.

I have a breadmaker, so when I found a recipe for a gluten-free breadmaker loaf, I went out on Saturday and bought the gluten-free bread flour, yeast and xanthan gum specified, came home and mixed up a loaf.

I was a bit concerned after I mixed everything together as per the instructions - it was more of a batter than a dough, but I left the breadmaker to get on with it while Kevin and I made Whisky Marmalade.

Half an hour later, we had six jars of orange yumminess.

The bread took another two and a half hours.

It has an 'interesting' texture - more 'cakey' than bread-like and it tastes OK.  Also, it toasts well.

So on Sunday, I had gluten-free toast at breakfast and a sandwich at lunchtime.No other wheat-containing products at all, all day.

This morning, I had a gluten and wheat-free muesli for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch.

I have to report......zero bloating, zero - *cough* - digestive discomfort.

Hmmm - I may be on to something here.Will keep you posted!

Sometimes older is better!

I have an all-singing, all-dancing sewing machine. It is computer-driven, has umpteen squillion stitches built into its clever little brain and nearly sixteen years ago, it cost more than my first car!

I haven't had much time to sew in recent years, but today I got the machine out to make arm-covers to hide the mess that the cats have made of the arms of our sofa. I made up the pattern, cut the fabric and toddled upstairs to start creating.

My Bernina Artista 180 clearly had other ideas as it snarled at me and snapped the needle.

On close inspection, it was evident that the needle was hitting the bobbin case - meaning that somehow the timing was out.

I'd love to know how THAT happened. I mean, has the machine been taking itself off to sewing-fests? Getting down and dirty with overlockers and embroidery machines?

So I rang the Bernina people, who gave me a main dealer's number and THEY gave me the joyous news that the machine would cost £96.00 (incl. VAT) to fix and take 10 days. Humph!

I then found a mechanic who will do home visits - £89.00

Being somewhat short on funds (and wanting to get this job done asap), I considered my alternatives.

Then I remembered The Singer.

Some years ago, a friend kindly gave me an old, hand-operated Singer in the iconic bentwood case. I intended for it to be a fun objet d'art, so had put it away in a cupboard to await the right place and time to bring it out on display.

I rootled in the cupboard and emerged with the machine. It looked in lovely condition, complete with all sorts of feet and the original instruction manual, so I pushed the Bernina to the back of the table and began to set up the 'antique'. I worked out how to fill the bobbin and thread the machine up and then gave it a trial crank.

BRILLIANT!! Beautiful straight, even stitches. This machine is AWESOME. I didn't even need to alter the tension!

I finished my arm-covers and proudly fitted them to the sofa, then decided to check out my Singer's history.

My neat little Singer Model 99 was made in Clydebank, Scotland in 1916 - yes, you did read that right! I have just sewn with a machine that is 98 years old, that has not been serviced in heaven-knows-how-long. O.K., it doesn't have any fancy stitches, it just does straight stitch, but it does it well.

I wonder what things have been made on it over the years - the childrens' clothes, the shirts made and mended, the pretty party dresses. I wonder when it was put away, in favour of the electric version. And I am really grateful that my friend thought to give it to me, instead of throwing it out. The repairs to the Bernina can wait, while I reconnect with sewing as my grandmother would have done!

Here it is, with the Bernina in the background.