15 June 2007 June 15, 2007

News, news, news: I have a job! I start on July 10th as a library assistant for the City Council. I’m not quite sure where I’ll be based. It could be a bit of a roving position or it could be in the Central Library’s Reference Department. I’d prefer the latter, but the former would be fine, it’s a job after all. It’s just a temporary job for the summer, but it will be a good way to ease myself into work and get a bit more practical experience. I’m excited and scared.

Mum took me out for lunch in Alford. We also did a bit of shopping. There’s a shop there called Parade, it used to be part of Annie Mo’s, but went solo a while back. It has the most beautiful furniture, gifts, toys and jewellery. Mum was buying a big pink agate pendant for herself and bought me some very pretty silver earrings with milky white and yellow gemstones. I’d like to know what the gemstones are, it would be nice to know a bit more about them.

Dolly is still a total sleepy-heid. She has the odd burst of energy when she’ll play, but mostly she sleeps. I dug out some old cat toys. She shows little interest in balls with bells, but likes a strange, bright orange mouse toy. She also likes to chase a bit of wool. A few days ago I cut some holes in a big cardboard box and she seems to quite like hiding and playing in that, the problem: it’s a bit of an eyesore. We had a wee look to see if we could find one of those climbing/scratching/sleeping activity centre things for her, but couldn’t see anything suitable. Mum bought the local weekly newspaper - Dolly isn’t in there. I am completely baffled about why no one is looking for her. She is a lovely cat and has been looked after. She is beautiful, litter-trained, well behaved, friendly and doesn’t seem to be at all traumatised. The only possibility that occurs to me is that maybe she is ill and some <insert rude word> thought it would be better to ditch her rather than pay vet’s bills or give her to the CPL (or ‘Cats Protection’ as it now prefers to be called).

Mum and I just had a bit of a barney about anorexics. She was watching a programme about skinny celebrities. She’s a bit obsessed with weight, her own and other people’s. All day she has been commenting on people’s weight and it frustrates me. I wouldn’t want people commenting on my weight, so I try not to be critical of others (obviously there are times when I fail miserably!). I tend to assume that people who are very thin or very fat (myself included) have eating disorders and are ill and therefore deserve my sympathy/empathy and understanding rather than my criticism and judgement. Anything in between very thin and very fat, well who cares!? Being healthy is far more important. I really do try not to be hypocritical when it comes to weight and appearance, I, after all, am no oil painting. The Western world’s obsession with the very fat and the very thin saddens me, especially when it is all concerned with aesthetics.

This reminds me, while in Parade today I spotted (and sneakily read) a book called The Lady Who Was Beautiful Inside by Edward Monkton. It’s a wee book and it’s lovely. It has a very simple, very positive message - I think the title probably gives it away! I foresee me having to buy it for people for birthdays/Christmases/etc.

Finally, after asking around how other people had found doing yoga I have been convinced to give it a try. I opted for Yoga: Just my size with Megan Garcia and ordered it today.

6 June 2007 June 6, 2007

 

Excuse for having a random picture of cherries: I have been gorging myself on cherries. I think I might be going overboard on the cherries and pineapple at the moment, but I am making the most of summer.  I have such a sweet tooth.

I’m a member of a support group for people with pemphigus and someone on the group was asking about just how rare a disease it is. It’s something I’ve wondered too, with regard to pemphigus foliaceus. I know that PF is rarer than pemphigus vulgaris, and there is consequently far more information out there about PV than PF. Anyway, I got down to a little bit of research and found that there are approximately 0.5 - 1 new cases of PF per million people each year in Western Europe. Now Scotland has a population of 5,116,900 (GRO Scotland 2006 estimate), so there should be 2.5 - 5 new cases of PF each year in Scotland. In 2006 I was one of those people, and the same month and in the same city there was another new case of PF (a man about the same age as me).

With regards to all the new toiletries I’ve been trying: I am an absolute convert to homemade skin toner. I’ve been using witch hazel and rose hydrolats and they’re marvellous. So much nicer and seemingly far gentler than toners I have previously used (Simple, Clinique, Avene …).

I’m going to be slightly less evangelical about Burt’s Bees products. I tried the Garden Tomato Toner, but it would take a lot to impress me now when it comes to toner. It was okay, but to be honest I wouldn’t bother - make your own instead! I love the smell of Burt’s Bees products, and I like that the company is so open and honest about its ingredients and it’s desire to use natural ones. Having said that a lot of the products seem fairly interchangeable … what is the different between the lip balms / glosses and the cuticle creme? They look and feel identical and smearing my lips with cuticle creme and my cuticles with lip gloss seems to work as well as doing it the ‘correct’ way round. Actually, the raspberry and cherry lip glosses smell okay in their pots, but they tasted of nothing when on - it was impossible for me to tell them apart. The Milk and Honey Body Lotion sounded nice, but it’s a pretty light weight lotion and doesn’t smell particularly ‘milk and honey’-ish, in fact it is the one item by Burt’s Bees that I’ve tried where the scent was a let down. The Citrus Spice Exfoliating Shower Soap smells very much of orange and cinnamon, but it’s quite a masculine smell. As an exfoliating soap it did its job and well - it was just scratchy enough. Overall, the range - or at least what I’ve tried of it - has left me distinctly underwhelmed.

I found my turquoise earrings.  Mum had them - I give her most of my earrings on ‘long-term loan’, so her jewellery box is the first place I tend to look for things.  I love the colour and they go well with my favourite pashmina, but my main reason for my sudden desire for turquoise jewellery is for its believed healing properties in crystal therapy (see The Skeptic’s Dictionary to see what a load of nonsense it probably is).

Last night, with my headache still lingering and while I was adding stuff to the online grocery shopping, I spotted 4head.  It’s a little stick thing a bit like a stubby chapstick that you rub on your temples to help get rid of headaches.  It’s something that has been around for decades in varying forms and under different names - Mum says she can remember it from when she was a child.  So, I added some to the trolley at about £6 … then I went and looked at its ingredients: 100% levomenthol.  As far as I can see, levomenthol is a form of menthol, which comes from … drum roll … peppermint oil!  I immediately took the 4head out of the virtual trolley and ordered some carrier oils via  eBay instead - much cheaper and I’ll have the satisfaction of having made my own headache relief.  I’m really beginning to believe that peppermint oil is a bit of a must-have essential oil.

I got my Disclosure Scotland enhanced disclosure certificate.  It’s official: I have no criminal record or cautions, nor does the government hold any ‘relevant information’ on me (in other less coy words: I’m not a sex-offender).  Of course, I knew all this already, but it’s good that it’s official and that I now know ‘They’ haven’t messed up and confused me with someone less well-behaved.  It also means that the city council have no reason not to officially offer me the library assistant job that I interviewed for back in April.  The council had written to me to tell me that I was their ‘preferred candidate’ (although I presume I wasn’t the only one to get that letter), but that I had to get clearance from Disclosure Scotland before any job offer could be made.  I just hope it’s not all too late and that someone else hasn’t beaten me to it.

23 May 2007 May 23, 2007

Once I go for something, I really go for it. Last night I purged my toiletries drawer of just about everything. This has forced me into buying lots of natural / SLS-free / paraben-free toiletries. I splurged on some essential oils and some bottles of flower water from Naturallythinking. I have also been totally sucked in by the look and descriptions of Burt’s Bees products.

I also spent a little bit of time looking at the supposed healing properties of crystals. I know that it’s garbage, but still I might dig out my turquoise earrings.

I’m slightly more persuaded by the argument for washable - and therefore reusable - sanitary towels. I hadn’t heard of them before, but they seem like quite a good - if slightly yucky - idea. I’d heard of mooncups before, but had immediately decided they weren’t for me as I prefer to use pads, so discovering that there was a pad option was an interesting revelation. If they were easily available in the Britain, for a decent price and they looked as nice as the ones from Sckoon (see left) then I think I might take the plunge. There would of course be the issue of washing and drying them in a house I share with my mum and dad - practically the definition of ‘awkward’.

(Daily 20 minutes exercise - done!)