I love words, and whilst I don’t confess to being verbose, I do like long words that require a little thought. From a young age, I would look up words that I didn’t know, and my Mum went out of her way to provide us with an encyclopaedia set. I know they’re old hat now, with easy access to the net, however as a child, I loved to sit with a book and look things up and I still do love words and books. Doing an English degree helped add fuel to that love and I thoroughly enjoyed essay writing, and research as part of the degree, and as part of my job too at that time. I often use the internet to explore words and their meaning, however I’m just as happy with my thesaurus and the multiple dictionary’s that grace my bookcases.

My ex used to like to use big words, though I suspect it was to make himself feel superior. Add to that fact that he used to walk around with his nose quite literally in the air, and that gives you an idea of the man. He particularly overused ‘enervated’ – drained of energy and vitality (why not simply say you’re tired?) and ‘discombobulated’ – confused and disconcerted. But hey, why use a small word when a big one will do lol. A previous boss was verbose – using more words than are needed. He would also draw pictures on the whiteboard to try and convey what he meant, as if he were a teacher. Privately, we would laugh at him. Fun times…

I like blogging for the reasons above; to use words to convey what’s going on in my life, and sometimes to just write a ‘silly’ blog with a pirate theme. Of late, these are harder to write though with more restful nights, and improvements in my short term memory, I hope to return to them soon. I have noticed that my son is finishing my sentences less frequently and I’m managing to complete crosswords more easily. I should point out that he has my permission to help me with words I can’t think of; unlike my kid sister I don’t want to struggle for too long looking for a word when the person I’m talking to knows the word that I want. I’m happy to accept help, though as mentioned, I do feel that the situation is improving.

On that note: when I need a prescription filled, I take the paperwork to the chemist. They probably hold onto it until they have a few, then they send them over to the GP surgery. They sign them, or not, and send them back to the chemist and I collect my meds from the chemist. This can take a week. With that in mind, Thursday last week I put in for my usual prescriptions however when I collected them a week later, on Thursday, the meds were missing. The chemist showed me the form whereby the GP stated I had asked for them too early. We’re told not to allow our meds to run out, and with these particular meds you can’t simply stop taking them without some unpleasant side-effects. I had only 5 days left. I popped along to the surgery and explained my plight. The receptionist looked up my records and stated the GP would be signing the form today, and that I could collect them on Friday. One day later. Am I the only one who thinks that’s petty? So now, I have to trek the half mile to the chemist, again, simply for meds one day later. This is, in the main, because my meds have been reclassified. I don’t like it, and I’ve already reduced the dosage. I’ll give it another month on the reduced dosage, then ask for them to be reduced again until I can stop taking them. If the symptoms return, they can give me something less contentious. Next month, I shall cut out the chemist and simply order them from the surgery directly.

As mentioned in my previous blog, we had temperatures here that topped out at 34C for one day. That’s far too hot for my liking and makes sleep hard to come by. Since then, we’ve been at least 10C cooler each day and have had copious amounts of rain. Admittedly we needed the rain however it’s been weird; one moment the sun is out, then it feels oppressive, a few drops of rain, then we have a deluge! Last week the amount of rain was ridiculous, and I’ve emptied numerous buckets into the water butt. This week, we’ve already had at least 2 inches of rain and some localised flooding, with rain coming in under the front door it was that fierce and heavy. In other places, a whole village has been evacuated due to safety concerns over a damn; why anyone would live below a damn is quite beyond me. There have numerous stories of people being rescued from flood waters, and at the same time, a story that the UK will run out of water in the not too distant future. We do live in interesting times…

Almost the weekend, have a good one.