Birthday weekend celebrations

After a very busy week and a half and feeling tired out by the end of last week, I was pleased to have the weekend to celebrate my birthday (which was yesterday). As said before, Saturday morning I went to So Organic shop in Greenwich and stocked up with organic skin and beauty products for myself and spent a whole lot of money in the process. It was my birthday weekend was my excuse. I asked the lady in the shop, who founded the company, about something for stubborn eczema patches and she recommended a body cream which I'd already picked out to use as my second body cream to try. I have actually started to use calendula balm again and I thnnk it's working although early days. One thing about it is that it's got a gorgeous lemony citrusy smell to it. Another thing I bought was first aid lotion for a small lump on my arm which itches in the evening. Now that has got a strong smell, I think it's lavender I can smell. The other things that have strong lovely smells are the calm spritzer and night remedy roll-on I use in the morning before I go out and at night, both of those have lavender in and smell wonderful. I don't know if it's psychological or not but I think since I started to use the night roll-on I get to sleep easier. That was the morning and in afternoon I typed amendments to chapters 3 and 4 of Bug. In the evening my mum and I went out for a meal and enjoyed it.

Sunday, in the morning it was to Sainsbury's as usual, after I'd opened all my presents. I got a few small presents from my mum and dad, but the main present was money from my mum towards the Spa Treatment. In the afternoon I made and baked some eats to take to work tomorrow (Nigella's recipes). They didn't look much when I first made them but look great now and taste nice too. I had half of one of each thing I made earlier. Not very healthy but yummy. I rested the rest of the day.

Today my mum and I went to the Spa Hotel in the morning and had a facial and manicure each which was very nice and relaxing. After being very busy and stressed at work it was so nice to be pampered. The therapist said the same thing the Simple therapist did, that my skin is dehydrated and sensitive. She recommended that I use a gentle exfoliator every 2-3 weeks, so I might see what I can buy from So Organic. Then this afternoon I went to the dr's to get the results of the blood test I had done before. All results were fine except the cortisol one, which I was most anxious about. That was slightly raised but not enough for the dr to be convinced it was the cause of all my problems, so she has got me to book in for another test (aargh) next week to see if it's still raised, then they might do something about it if it is. I also have a verruca on my right foot so bought some gel for that. I am now relaxing and will read a bit later on.

I am back to work tomorrow to see what work has been left on my desk to sort out. The time off was nice while it lasted.

Stressful times

It is becoming very stressful here at work. One of my colleagues is off sick this week and has been since last Wednesday and this week we have dental student elections happening, as well as a forthcoming deadline for a year of medical students to apply for our twinned universities to go on their electives. As it's usually both my colleague and I who do the letters and she's off sick, it's only me doing letters at the moment and it's hard going. I am doing my best to keep on top of everything but yesterday I stressed out and had to walk out the room in tears. A couple of students got too demanding about why their letters weren't ready and it got to me. Thankfully today it has been quieter and less stressful. I am so looking forward to the weekend, my birthday weekend. I have plans and will say more later.

The other thing I'm grateful for is my writing. At least when I do it at lunch it can take my mind away from work and the stress of it whilst I am working on it. Although, I have been puzzling as to what I've done with Chapters 3 and 4. The second half of chapter 3 I've printed out is basically the same as the Chapter 4 I've printed out, so today I tried to merge the part from Chapter 3 into Chapter 4. I will sort it all out on Saturday and get it right by next week so I can hopefully start work revising Chapter 5 next week.

As I was saying I am so looking forward to the weekend. Saturday morning is Organic morning when I'm going to So Organic in Greenwich to stock up on skin products. In the evening my mum and I are going out for a meal, which I always enjoy. Sunday is my b'day and we'll probably do our usual weekly shop and in the afternoon I plan to make some eats to bring to work next Tuesday. Monday I have the day off work and in the morning my mum and I have booked a facial and manicure each in the spa hotel we went to last year. In the afternoon I've got a dr's appointment to get the results of the blood test I had done 3 weeks ago. I really hope that the results show something up that can explain everything that's been happening to me this year - the getting up during the night, the tiredness, the exhaustion, the stress from too much sugar. I will let you know what the dr says.

Well, almost time to go home now and thank goodness for that.

Writing Bug 2

Well, I am now revising Chapter 3 of Bug, which I will read to myself today at lunch time, then from tomorrow will work on Chapter 4. Yesterday at home I finished typing up Chapter 13 and started Chapter 14. I did a word count and so far I have done just over 40,000 words, which for a children's book is the ideal amount I believe. I am definitely aiming to finish it all by the end of the year so that in the new year I will print it all out and send it on to a critique service for feedback. Then I will start working on Forgotten Memories, which I have decided will try to get e-published. I have an e-publisher in mind. I think Iwill try to get all my RS books I write e-published because apart from the US it will be hard to get them published here in the UK. We shall see.

I am eventually getting there with being all organic on my skin. The weekend before last I chucked some more stuff out because I believed it aggravated my skin making it bright red, a couple of other things I brought here to work for the others to use up. I started using a new body wash last night but not sure about it because I don't know if it was the water or the stuff but my skin down below went red again but after a whie it calmed down, whether because I used some special organic repair lotion which I've read helps eczema I don't know. I will try it again next Sunday (my birthday) to see what happens. If it happens again then I will use it as hand wash. I am going to buy some other body washes next Saturday anyway when I go back to So Organic in Greenwich to stock up on all organic skin care products for my new healthy regime next year.

Well, this is all for now. Must get on with some work.

Bread, organic and writing

I started to fancy toast now and then, but because I didn't want to eat white bread which is refind carb's I decided to look for wholemeal breads. Could I find one that I could eat. No and why? Because all the breads I picked up this morning had soya flour in and I can't eat soya because it brings on my eczema and rhinitis. That idea went out the window. I just fancied something other than ryvitas. Oh well. I might have a look at other breads when I go to Greenwich next as there's a shop there that sells different breads.

I couldn't believe my eyes in Superdrug yesterday. I was doing some Christmas shopping for presents for my mum and dad and got to the aisle where the lip balms are, and what do I see. Balmbalm lipbalms. Just what I'd seen in my Natural Collection booklet and wanted to get my dad, and there it was in front of me. Of course, I bought one for dad. I applaud Superdrug for stocking something completely organic, and can see that a lot of the stores are now getting the message about organic products. I still like the So Organic (SoOrganic.com) shop at Greenwich. It's like a haven of organics for my eyes to feast on. Can't wait to go there again in 2 weeks time when I will be shopping mainly for myself this time. I will be stocking up on organic products for my new organic self in 2008. One other thing that I have to say I don't like is that on lots of household products such as washing-up liquid, it doesn't list all the ingredients and tells you you have to visit their website to get them. In my opinion that is wrong and companies should be made to list all ingredients on their products. Going organic with skin care products is so much easier than foods. Lots of the fruit that my mum and I bought this morning came from overseas, all except the strawberries. Radishes came from Holland. What sort of amuses me or rather annoys me is that the punnets that have the fruit from overseas in are usually recycleable but the punnets which have the UK fruits in aren't. Why?

That's enough on organics now about writing. I have now revised Chapter 2 of Bug and all I have to do now is to read through it one more time and make sure that the girls that fall ill in that chapter are in the right classes as Rosie my heroine. If they aren't then it will have to change. That I will do tomorrow then onto Chapter 3. Once I've finished it all then I will definitely send it on to a critique service for feedback, as it's my first children's book. I have decided that with my romantic suspense books I will write I might/probably try to submit to e-publishers cos I think it could be for me. We shall see. Watch this space.

Being brave and organic

Being brave for me is having another blood test when I hate needles. Last Friday I ended up being so worn out here at work that I went home early (after lunch) and decided that I couldn't carry on the way I have been, being so tired a lot of the time. So, on Monday I went to the dr's and she said to have a blood test. (I had a theory that it could all be down to my adrenal glands. I read in my Diet Doctors book that these glands are responsible for the balance of stress, water and minerals, and my stress and water levels aren't balanced, otherwise I wouldn't be getting so tired a lot and woudn't be having to get up during the night to wee most of the time. We shall see.) I usually have it done at my local clinic but I would've had to wait 2 weeks and as I hate needles, I wanted it done out of the way. I had it done the next day but at another clinic, where I have to get a bus to and from it. I was brave and managed to get a bus back home, whereas before we've got a mini-cab. My nerves managed to hold out until my mum left for shopping then they hit my stomach and I felt ill and had to rest. Once I was rested after that, I seemed to be fine apart from weak. Then in the afternoon I rested some more but when I got up I came over faint and sick and had to lie down again on my bed, where I stayed for most of the afternoon. I bucked up in the evening after dinner and watching tv. Thankfully I had booked the day off as leave and was back here working yesterday, despite feeling queasy. I had to miss the SCBWI talk last night because I didn't feel up to it.

This made me even more determined to go organic and last night I was emptying a few bottles of things down the sink, they only had a bit left in and I will use up what I have left of anything else until the end of the year. What is left in the new year will either be binned, recycled, or given away. So come 2008 I shall hopefully being going completely organic. I started using one of my new organic soaps this morning, a seaweed soap which seemed to be ok to use. Mum started using hers a couple of weeks ago and there's still a lot of it left, she says that it will last for ages as it's a solid bar.

Well, this is my news for today. Must get on with some work now.