Back In The Land of The Blog

Phew! It's very good to finally be back. Posts of substance will follow shortly, but in the meantime I'll ease myself back in with some ever-dependable Random Bullets of Crap:

• First and foremost, MASSIVE thanks to the lovely Clare for keeping the blog afloat in my absence. Not only is she a guest blogger extraordinare, she's also a wonderful friend.
• Notwithstanding this, Clare did spread some scurrilous rumours in my absence. These will have to be dispelled! ;)
• Just to confuse you all, for the next few weeks I'll be blogging both here and over at Ink and Incapability. Clare's got a few things going on, so she asked me to co-blog, and I'm delighted to have the opportunity to return the favour (read: spread equally scurrilous rumours about her!). So head on over to read my musings about Summertime in England and all the other stuff that we'll be blogging about, including...
• The 18th Carnival of Feminists which Clare will be hosting on 5th July.
• Thanks to everyone who sent their good wishes whilst I was away, I really appreciated your comments and emails enormously. Obsessive blog reading also helped to keep me sane. So if your site meter showed someone in the South of England clicking on your blog about 100 times in a day, it probably meant that I was about to go for a scan or an appointment with a doctor!
• On that note, after 12 months, 6 scans, 4 X-Rays, 1 ECG, 4 consultants, 2 general practioners, countless appointments and more test tubes of blood than I'd care to recall, I'm very pleased to say that although I still don't know exactly what's wrong with me, it's been narrowed down to several things that will hopefully either disappear in time or be fairly easily treated. As I've been generally feeling quite a bit better these past few months, my Rheumatologist is giving me a vacation from all things medical to see if I keep improving. If not, then he's going to run a few more detailed blood tests in September, to try to narrow things down.
• I'm massively relieved as I'd been getting so fraught, worried and downright sick of it all. I got to the point where the stress made me feel physically sick for days before going to an appointment or test, and then just as bad in the days after. I couldn't even telephone my doctor's receptionist without getting into a huge state. That's just not like me. I began to feel as though I wasn't living in the real world and I just couldn't see an end to it all. That's why I stopped blogging for a while.
• I'm now left feeling incredibly exhausted and disoriented. But in a good way that's oddly settling. I'm just starting to get my head around all the other aspects of my life (like dissertation writing!) that have been on the back burner for so long, but I do feel a bit like a little animal blinking its way out of hibernation. So far my only progress on the dissertation front has been list making and placing an Amazon order for Moleskine notebooks. But, it's a start, right? And, a girl can't be without good stationery. :)

Countdown

Pinky is damn close to her 20 000th page load! I don't know when it will be, but it should be over the next fews days I should think. I won't be able to tell who it is by her stat counter cos it's different to mine, but I'll tell her to keep an eye out and she'll let me know!

Updated: She did it! At 11.07 this morning she got her 20 000. I have no idea who it is mind....

Random Bullets of Ingerland

'Cake and I, being the good Britsh folk that we are, are taking a healthy interest in the World Cup (big fat lie, I couldn't care less, and I don't know about her, it's impossible to guess. If it doesn't interfere with her darts then perhaps she is).

• But really. Here, it is Unavoidable. You sit down to watch your favourite soap, and no, it was on half an hour ago. Fucking with the schedules, man, no. Wrong.
• What has amused me though is the Sun's guide to permissable behaviour in Germany. Eg. Singing "Two world wars and one world cup" (Two-world-wars-and one-world-cup! Doo dah! Doo dah!") is Wrong (and was incidently the song of choice during the Pope's address in my local). Chanting "Ingerland" is quite alright. Actually, have a read yourself.
• Apparently, it is also quite alright to drink cans of lager on the bus and sing Vindaloo at half seven in the evening (mind you, that's up here, it's probably white wine spritzers and Elgar down where she is).
• It is also fine for the whole of the North to wear ill fitting football strips that frankly flatter no one.
• It is also fine to walk around with a face like a smacked arse painted as an English flag (and confusing football fever with Christmas and accidently dressing up as santa as these chaps did a few years back).
• The whole country's gone to the bloody dogs.

No surprises here

Actually, when I did this quiz I did answer what I genuinely thought wor lass would put. And I'm sorry, Pinky.

So Just How Northern Are You? You're a Brummie Niether here nor there. Not really accepted in the North or the South. Lets be honest, you kind of fail at life.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

She knows I love her!

(Oh, and yes, I've done my quiz on my blog, and there are no surprises. I was saddened by my stereotype...)

Prove me right!

Because Pinky has more British readers than I do (I think), I thought I'd ask this question here rather than my own blog (plus, am painfully aware that I am THE WORST guest blogger EVA). Here's the story:

So Devon, my friend, reckons Milton Keynes is dead famous for .................. (fill in the blank/s).

If Milton Keynes is so fucking famous for this ......... then you all will know straight away and leave a comment telling me, thus proving DEVON right. But I know you won't have a clue and will leave no comment, thus proving ME right (do it, or Pink Cupcake gets it).