Bee Orchid's articles

No, it’s not a recipe for a French delicacy. This year my pots have been under siege from snails. I’ve planted 2 pots of peas, twice, only to have the snails devour them. They’ve eaten the tops of the potatoes, and even the onion tops. I’ve never known a year like it. In the past, I’ve put down large pieces of egg shell and this has worked well, but not this year. One of my sisters told me about garlic spray, so I googled it, got the recipe, and made some up. The kitchen stank of garlic for days…

It’s always the same; I make plans for time off, or the weekend, and they go all to pot. Some rumour was going around work, and it looked like my week off would be cancelled. In the event that didn’t happen and I am, at least, off from work. I had planned to do quite a bit of DIY this week off. I need to paint and varnish the stairs, and grout the bathroom tiles. All time consuming, and jobs that mean there can’t be too much traffic in the house. My son has had a painful or aching leg for qui…

This morning I had the results of my blood tests, and all the things they were testing for have come back as ‘Normal.’ This is, of course, good news, however it doesn’t explain the tiredness, breathlessness, and bruising. I can only assume these are leftover from the virus I’ve had and hopefully I’ll perk up soon. In the meantime I’m going to give myself a pep talk and buck up my ideas lol. I’ve lost a little more weight which I’m pleased with. I’m setting myself realistic targets and so far…

You’ll probably gather from the title that we’ve had some rain at last. It’s been very sunny here with an average temperature of 24C which is low compared to some I know, but pretty hot for us in Wales. On Sunday it topped out at 26C and I actually felt a little faint. I was lying awake at 4am this morning (Friday) with the window open listening to the gentle rain fall. At least the garden has had a much needed drink, and the half inch we had overnight will have settled the pollen a little; we’v…

This is an expression that my son has recently been using to denote someone who is a bit up themselves. I love it! A colleague of mine is a Special Snowflake; everyone else has to use a centralised printer, sometimes on a different floor, but they’re special so have their own printer on their desk. How special is that? Speaking of my son, he’s been a pain this week. He’s now completed his final exam and is anxiously waiting for the results in August. I could be dead by then from his stress…

As mentioned on Summer’s page, I didn’t realise that Oz has a different date for Father’s Day. To be honest, it didn’t even occur to me, so I posted off a card from my son to his Dad a little while ago; no idea how long the mail takes. Anyway, my ex called Sunday morning to say thanks. I rang my Stepdad to wish him happy Father’s Day (local call), and had sent a card, but I’m not ringing Oz! They chatted for quite a while and when he’d hung up he came downstairs and said he was so bored by what…

The fact that I haven’t heard from my ex has been making me a bit cross, so I sent a rather terse (never rude) email asking if he’d read my email and seen the photos of the damp, and just hadn’t bothered to reply, and that I did think that he might have said thanks. Apparently he replied the same day that I sent the photos but I never got that. He re-sent the (alleged) email, and mentioned that he’s already asked someone to repaint the wall; I’ve no idea if they have a key. I said thanks for the…

This week I was asked, without much notice, to assist with exams. Last year it was quite fraught but I said Yes anyway because that’s what I do. Last year we had tears, not mine, and so many problems that an extra ‘body’ is no bad thing. The morning session went quite well apart from a network failure due to a student turning off a modem with her feet. You have to laugh... In the afternoon I had to sit for 2 and a half hours, in an area away from the exams, and just be available as a gofer (go f…

On Thursday I received a panicky email from my ex stating that his estate agent has advised them that water was running down the inside wall of their house. He asked if I would go and check the damage and report back to them. Like the mug that I am I emailed that I would, but the earliest I could go was Saturday. So I rearranged my schedule, and armed with a mop and bucket I went to their house dreading what I might find. The ceilings are clean and dry, and all the floors are dry too though ther…

On Tuesday I had to go back to the hospital and have further blood tests to ensure that my platelet levels were improving. If not, they were going to keep me in and run further tests including a bone marrow test. I had the blood tests done and had to wait for the results. They must have put a rush on them, as less than an hour later, I was called in to see the consultant. Thankfully my platelet levels have shown a marked improvement, and although not as high as they should be, they’re so much hi…

I’m back! For now at least... Firstly, apologies for missing blogs etc however I’ve been poorly. I’ve not been feeling well for about a week and over the weekend started to feel quite ill. I went to work on the Monday morning, walked up two floors and felt so ill I was sick. I saw my GP just after 2pm, and by 3.30pm I was in a hospital bed. I got out late Thursday afternoon. Apparently I’ve had a viral illness, made worse by a rare reaction to a very popular antacid whereby my body has stopped…

This morning we had one of our increasingly infrequent emails from my ex saying that he’d sent some Birthday money for our son. It’s quite a considerable amount and I’m afraid I won’t even come close to matching it. He’s also been depositing some money every month into a savings account for our son, every month for the past 2 years, and this matures on his 18th Birthday. The bank has already disclosed how much the final amount will be, and again, it’s quite considerable. Whilst we both appreciat…

As part of my role in work, I invigilate exams. Recently we had some candidates for exams, and I couldn’t find one of them on my list. It transpired the person I couldn’t find was a friend of one of the candidates who asked if they could sit the exam too. Hell no! There were also 2 older people in the room, one of whom was wandering around telling candidates how to sign on. When challenged, it transpired she was a teacher, but more importantly, a candidates Mum! There were 2 Mums in the room. I…

Is it weird to envy your dog the food he’s eating? This isn’t about money; it’s about ease and lack of effort. Don’t get me wrong; I like cooking, and I like to eat however it gets tedious, cooking every single day and there are days when I envy my dog being able to have a bowl of kibble. He doesn’t have to think about a balanced diet, it’s all in his kibble. I alternate the flavour of his kibble, and of course he has a clean bowl each time and fresh water, but that’s it. No sinks full of dishes…

Something Jenny wrote made me think about the things we used to do when we were younger that now seem like such hard work. When I was younger my partner and I used to camp, a lot. We had quite a large tent because we had our baby with us. When the baby was just a few weeks old, we went away with the tent and camped down in Cornwall. Because I’d had my first child in my 30’s, the midwife used to visit every day. She meant well, however visiting every day felt very intrusive. Family and friends po…

Sunshine that is. So far we’ve had lovely sunny days and quite cool nights here; great for getting gardening done. Ok, I need to get something off my chest so to speak regarding my son. Like many parents, I would literally die to protect him, and I would literally kill to protect him; think grizzly bear protecting her cub; that’s me. He was planned, and very much wanted. He was wanted by both me and his Father. Things didn’t work out and we parted ways when he was about 10. His Father never p…

Remember my complaint about the Park and Ride? Well I emailed them 9 working days ago, and had an automated reply stating that they will try and reply within 5 working days. 9 working days later and I got nada, zilch, a big fat nothing. It just goes to show the contempt that they have for their paying customers. I had one of my child benefits this week and was disappointed to see that the amount has been reduced by a little over £12. The other has been increased by a whole, whopping 20 pence.…

‘The IBM mainframe is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The first System 360 mainframe was unveiled on 7 April 1964’ I noticed this news story this morning on the BBC news page. I used to be a mainframe operator, back in the 1980’s and used an IBM 360/135, then we had a 145. Those numbers are probably meaningless to most; model numbers. The mainframe took up a huge room, with lots of what looked like metal cupboards with doors, and it even had flashing lights back then. We worked a 3 week shif…