A beet of greet

If you haven't got a friendly doctor on hand then there is an alternative.

It costs nothing, as long as you give it back to the owner. And I haven't gone loopy! honest.

What you need to do is borrow a gold ring. Rub the ring on your CLOSED eye and the cure is instant.

I haven't a clue why it works but it does.


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Pig, it's a stye

It only hurts when I blink.


The only treatment for a stye is application of warm compresses apparently according to three pharmacists. I thought I had left my teenage years long ago. (You did. Ed) So this is self-care at home, you cleanse the affected eyelid with tap water or with a mild, non-irritating soap or shampoo (such as baby shampoo) to help clean crusted discharge. Cleansing must be done gently and while the eyes are closed to prevent eye injuries. Why do I never read the whole thing? I've just burnt my eye ball. And here's the good news, if a stye bursts, care must be taken to cleanse the wound to prevent reinfection.

You are highly advised not to lance the stye, as serious infection can occur as a result. The infection could spread to the surrounding tissues and areas.

So I'll put away the lance.

Eye stye sufferers should avoid eye makeup (e.g., eyeliner), lotions, and wearing contact lenses, since these can aggravate and spread the infection (sometimes to the cornea).

I've got to throw away all my eye makeup. And I'm ignoring the next paragraph.

Surgery is the last resort in stye treatment. Styes that do not respond to any type of therapies are usually surgically removed. Stye surgery is performed by an ophthalmologist and generally under local anaesthesia. The procedure consists of making a small incision on the inner or outer surface of the eyelid, depending if the stye is pointing externally or not. After the incision is made, the pus is drained out of the gland, and very small and unnoticeable sutures are used to close the lesion. It is common for the removed stye to be sent for histopathological examination to rule out the possibility of skin cancer.

Who knew?




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£188.23

and the winner of the Macmillan great British bake off was Joy with her Nigella buns.

How appropriate.


Trevor and Alexa were just too busy eating...


Joy's Nigella buns on the left. And this was the calm before the noshing.


And Glynn was gambling his beans away just before he and Alexa fell out of the photo. We all had a great time and are now thinking of the next fundraiser.

Many thanks to all who came along, ate, drank and were merry and helped fund good old Macmillan.

9lbs lost so far.

Sometimes it seems like all good authors come from Brighton, they may well do, and here's another one, Mimi Spencer.

When Dr Michael Mosley (an overweight diabetic) filmed his ideas and experiences about fasting last year there was little idea about the impact the film would have. When I featured his findings on my blog, it turned out to be the most popular blog I had ever written. I promised myself I would try the fast diet but didn't. It was only when a very good (skinny) friend dropped his book through my letterbox a couple of months ago that I ran out of excuses.

I have unfortunately been mostly inactive for the last two years and as a result the weight has piled on, about a stone a year. It made no sense for my health or happiness to continue in this way. Cancer likes fat, MS likes fat, DVT's like fat and coating my internal organs with it also makes no sense. Although I swim twice a week and exercise as well, it's not enough to shift the pounds.

Then a couple of months ago I saw 'the fast diet recipe book' at my skinny friends house. It's a great book for the two days a week when you fast. You obviously can still eat something on those days (about 500 calories) it's just important to have nutritious food which is well balanced and the book includes recipes which are delicious. The old man took some convincing but when he could see that the weight loss was making me feel and look better, he started to look at the recipes and stopped scoffing.

Today is fast day and I'm having chicken Puttanesca for my supper.





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Fancy a cuppa?

...Or No Bake Chocolate Biscuit Cake or chocolate fairy cakes or white muffins with a cherry on top or a piece of Liz's enormous chocolate cake or James' gluten free orange cake or Harry's world famous brownies or Joy and Nigella's cake?

I could go on.

And you will be relieved to hear that not everything in the kitchen is rosy. My flapjacks are now granola and the first attempt at chocolate icing looks like something the dog left behind.


And if you are on a diet no problem, there are books for sale, DVDs, CDs, very on-trend vinyls (from the first time) and we are giving a spectacular prize for the best cake. All donations go to those amazing people at Macmillan, so it's a win win one.


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sloe, sloe quick quick sloe

After my perripato along the seafront, the old man was left to scale the South Downs for the sloes as tis the season for sloe gin. The brambles may make it to a crumble or they may just stay with the sloes for the acquired taste sloe bramble vodka. After two or three, this may be renamed SLOBKA.

We know a place on the Downs full of sloes, brambles, mushrooms and wild orchids, but if I told you where it was, and all my Russian readers will love this, then I would have to kill you.

My week ended with a wonderful visit from Granny Smith (Margi) (not to be confused with Granny Rae Smith) and her lovely family including:

Aoife (f)

EE fa; WEE fa

-

"beautiful; radiant"

and the first flash mob video of the wedding of the Century finally arrived, hurrah! And Rebecca, oh it's Beccy to us, deserves a special mention for the best and most fascinating fascinator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apfTikVJ6MAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apfTikVJ6MA

Male of Honour Wedding Surprise 'Say a little Prayer for you'

Autumn almanac

Up until lunch time, this was the front garden.

then came the autumnal prune.

Who knew there was a path?

And if it hadn't been for the prunus horribilus who would have known about the Himalayan Bramble? If there are not enough brambles for a crumble next year then it's going the same way as the echium.

I think I now own the phenomenal berry.

and thank you Liz for the fantastic Italian you sent me

as you would imagine, I love him!





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Gold Diggers

Went to see the old man's old mum today. At 90, she's doing well.







We went along the A23 and re-visited the everlasting road works. My boys, well OK not now, but quite a few years ago, would have loved it.















We even had to slow down to 20mph, just to admire them... ... it was digger heaven.















And there were not just one or two, we are talking hard hats and HI VIS jackets a-gogo, whilst they were all digging it.
















And I know cos I counted them out and I counted them back, there were forty four diggers.




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Happy Anniversary tit

Two years ago today I had two tits, now I celebrate the day only having one. But as my exasperated GP says "at least your alive." "Huh" I say.

The pert 'Softie' which I was given at the hospital to bulk out one empty side of my bra was obviously designed for a bright young thing, not a going south middle aged woman who has breast-fed three children. I find the front fastening bras are the easiest to cope with.  www.edenhouse-online.co.uk  have comfy bras. The free prosthetic is fine to wear when you have to look 'normal' but mine tends to go for a wander and the detachable nipple does just that, falls off. Maybe it too has past it's shelf life.

I do still feel weird and have been offered counselling, but what am I going to say to them? I don't expect them to grow me another one and cure cancer at the same time. I could not take reconstruction, the idea of having one tit that just stays there whilst the other continues on it's journey downhill would be dreadful. I'm taking anastrozole for years which is better than tamoxifen (for me) as that caused the blood clot which then caused the pulmonary embolism so currently I don't fancy any more surgery.

But it's a sunny day so I have been chopping things in the garden, just to continue the theme.