Lucy's Blog

No... really.

I have been looking at Lolcats. They are pretty cute.  They have personality.  If you are a responsible pet owner, and don't let your cat out to eat birds and lizards, they are OK, right? 

And, if we are rich, we can have a cat sitter visit our house if we are ever away.  No problem.  Cat hassles sorted! 

The only real problem would be what we would do with Kitteh if we moved back to Australia.  You can't really take cats from England to Australia.  Not without torturing them with months in quarantine.  And, anyway, I imagine that the chances of your cute kitty wreaking havoc on the local wildlife are a little bit higher in Australia than they are in inner city London. 

*sigh*

(Click on the picture so that you can see it full-size.  This silly blog software won't let me mess with layout).

According to the BBC lots of people are not washing their hands after they go to the loo.  And they are spreading their disgusting fecal matter all over public transport.

Ewww. 

And the further North you go, the worse it gets.  Yuck yuck yuck.

Here I was thinking that there is nothing quite as gross as getting sneezed all over when you catch the tube in cold and flu season. 

I can now add 'Norovirus Season' to the list of reasons winter just doesn't work for me.

It must be nearly winter.  My germ phobia has returned. 

Argh.  Who knew weddings involved so much decision making.

Ben's mum has decided that we should have a high quality cake.  And she is the cake organiser... so I am happy to trust her judgment.

I am also right off the pink flowers.  Icky.  Pink.  Yuck - what was I thinking?

Anyway, we are, apparently, going with the previously mentioned 'House of Elegant Cakes'.  And I am supposed to be deciding which of the elegant cakes I would prefer.  Actually, they all look kind of like wedding cakes to me.  Wedding cakes with flowers.  And I don't feel much like having an opinion about wedding cakes today.  It is all reminding me of that 'Coupling' episode where the guy is expected to have an opinion about cushions. 

If anyone has a favorite, let me know. 

Really.  What has my life come to?

Today I got REALLY excited because I spoke to an IBD specialist nurse for the first time, ever.  I told her I was having a mini-flare, and she made USEFUL suggestions!!!

It’s a miracle, I'm telling you.  I didn't have to begin the conversation by explaining what UC is.  She KNEW WHAT IT WAS!!  She understands how to treat it!!  She didn't suggest steroids, or get annoyed with me for being stupid, or anything!

She has advised me to increase the dose of my current medication.  YAY!!  I can't explain how excited I am about this.  But, basically, it is the first time anyone has suggested that it might be possible to control my UC better without steroids.  I always thought I had two choices: put up with occasional flares and belly pain, or move up to the evil drugs.  And since the side effects of steroids are so serious, I had decided to settle for the 'not-so-perfect belly' option.  Since I was sick of doctors who had no idea how to treat me making stupid suggestions... I was also reasonably committed to avoiding medical professionals unless the alternative was actually death.

But now I have found a specialist IBD clinic, with smart doctors who know what they are doing and are nice!  And I can call or email the IBD nurses any time I like.

I am beginning to hope that.. just perhaps... I might not have to go through life constantly sore and tired and not-quite-well.

OK.  I will stop blogging about my belly now.  I do other things with my life, honest.  I just thought that this was worth getting excited about :-)

Ben's mum is in Australia, with Ben's sister - who has just had a very lovely baby.  And Ben and Lucy are still not sure whether they live in London, or Lymington, or somewhere in between - so we have been spending quite a lot of time helping Ben's dad use all of his spare bedrooms and bathrooms.  We are just being generous, really - making sure Ben's dad doesn't feel too guilty about having such a big house all for one person. 

BUT since we've been hanging around, we thought we might as well embrace the whole commune theme and take turns cooking dinner.  It got off to a bit of a slow start - Ben's dad doesn't appear to have cooked since he got married in the early 1970s (he claims that this isn't true... but we have our doubts).  BUT with a few cook books and some persistence, we have managed to get ourselves a little competition going.  The 'whose dinner tastes the nicest' competition.  Ben did baked trout stuffed with Mediterranean rice (and baked chili soy Salmon for himself - he's not a huge fan of trout) the other night.  And it was delicious.  Last night was my turn... so I did vegetarian Mexican: nachos followed by roast vegetable enchiladas.   It wasn't particularly difficult, but quite yummy, I thought.  And it settled the 'yeah, but the problem with not eating meat is that you never feel properly full' argument.  Tonight Ben's dad did Bouliabasse - which was a) really delicious; and b) perfect for me, because last night's Mexican gave me the stomach ache from hell.  Soup was about all I could handle eating.

:-)