Monthly Archives: January 2013

Jan 10 2013

Tough first week…

Hi everyone.

It has been a tough week and this has reflected on everything I’ve been doing.

Work is slow, which makes the day drag, I love my customers, love seeing them to chat even for a brief moment while they buy their lunch, but it’s a drag for them, and it’s the same for me. They’re all suffering with January blues and it makes me feel even worse too. 😦

Anyway, last night I went to a gent’s house to do a pond visit. He put a message up on the forum I help mod and seeing as he bought pond equipment off me last year, and lived local, I offered to take a look at his fish.

Paul took me up there, Liverpool isn’t too far away, but I don’t like new places in the dark. lol, we had dinner in a local pub which was really nice and then went to visit the pond.

Catching fish in the dark, wasn’t so easy for him, but we caught two.

When you first look into a strange pond. There are several tell tail signs which your looking for.

How the fish are reacting to you being there?

How are they swimming?

and when caught how docile are they?

what the mucus scrape looks like when you first take it?

to be fair his fish were quite responsive, they were for the most part swimming about okay, one or two were a little lopsided though so that was the first indicator.

The second to me was the mucus sample we took. It was grey and thick.

A healthy fish has an almost clear sample. This wasn’t.

So, really I knew I was looking for something under the scope, I just wasn’t so sure what I’d find.

The first sample was from a sanke, it had pinked shiro (white skin) and stress veins showing. Under the scope, it also had flukes…

First one done. Looking over the slide, probably around 20 flukes.

Second scrape came from a Magoi, much bigger than the first, and although it should have been a rich black, was greying with over producing mucus.

Again this had flukes on, (skin flukes I believe)

But I also found a few Chilodonella as well.

I carried on looking for about 30 mins, checking both slide again to make sure I wasn’t missing anything smaller, like Costia, but even though I thought I saw the odd, tiny movement, I couldn’t spot anything else.

Job done. And I left, at least knowing he could treat the pond correctly and his fish would soon be much happier. 🙂

—————————-

On the writing side of things this week.

I’ve read a lot, and I’ve edited a lot of the first three chapters of TSK – The beginning. I’ve also had some very good crits back from the nano website and from the OWWSFF which is a crit site specifically for sci fi, fanstasy and horror writers.

I finally think the first three chapters are getting there. Only another 26 to go… lol.

Looking forward to the weekend.

How are you all doing? Busy, slow, what’s your first full week back at work etc like?

Take care and speak soon.

Dawn

Jan 7 2013

Gutted!

After a wonderful weekend spent editing. I can to open my file today and realised in horror… I’ve been editing the wrong one 😦

I have had a much earlier file open and I’ve left it open, day in, day out.

‘cries’

I can only hope that I haven’t strayed from my goal ‘the first three chapters’ and that its easily fixed. Or, I might have to just start all over again.

I am more than gutted.

Tip to all writers. Make sure you’re in the correct file….

😦

Dawn xx

Jan 5 2013

Love Sat mornings :)

Been up and about really early. The other half is always in bed till after ten.

It gives me time to be out and about, clean the ponds, look over the fish and see how they’re all doing.

The weather today is lovely and dry and sunny 🙂 bonus, so the garden really looks nice and ready for spring.

However, I do think it won’t last long. Feb and March are usually our worst months. I guess we will have to see.

So, my goals for today are after finishing off the ponds to take a walk to the village and get some exercise and then to carry on with editing the first few chapters.

I’ve had a couple of days to think things through, so I have a plan…

I also want to post a blog later with all the editing tips I’ve found that are very useful. And some of my own which cross over from script writing.

Busy day, so I should get on with it.

Hope you all have a lovely morning.

Dawn x

Jan 4 2013

Friday :)

Finally, although it has been a very short week at work. It has felt like the longest week ever…

It is always so tough to get back into it after time off. But everyone is in the same boat and all my customers say the same.

So, Friday night, TV will be on, lamb chops for dinner and a couple of drinks. It will be a wonderful chilling evening.

What are you doing? Anything planned for the weekend?

I have some plotting to do. With my re-write notes. So, I’ll move forward into the second phase of editing. I am really looking forward to this, because it will make the story so much better and richer.

🙂

Have a blast everyone.

Dawn x

Jan 3 2013

Rough day… :(

It has been a difficult day, I won’t tell any lies. This may be triggering or upsetting for some, so please don’t read if you’re feeling vulnerable (like me)

I’ll post the good stuff first. The writing stuff.

Best Friends has had over 31,000 video views 🙂 that is awesome stuff.

On my novel TSK I got my feedback from my good friend and co writer Steven. So, now I am in the process of working though what he said, and working on what I need to do for the sake of the novel. 🙂

I’m excited about this, and I am excited to be working closer with my nice animator friend too.

I will work over all my processes at the weekend. 🙂

I am happy with this side of my life at the moment, its just the rest…

——————————–

So the real stuff. The in my head stuff.

Being recovered is good, but being totally recovered. Nope, it is sometimes a constant battle with your head. Especially at this time of year.

I am talking in the general ‘food and January sense’…

Most ‘normal people’ Who can eat everything and anything they want too and don’t worry about it, won’t quite understand me here, but Christmas and January are especially tough times for those of us who have had and do suffer with eating disorders.

I say this because of all the ‘start your diet now’ adds,

Also for me in my job, it’s every single customer who comes to buy their lunch from my van. ‘What have you got that’s healthy?’ ‘I’m on a diet, where’s the fruit?’ 😦 sucks…

The TV, the radio, everything is bad at this time of year. No wonder I hate it so much.

Yikes.

I think its affected me more this last week because hubby was weighed at his last check up and he’s put on 7lb, I was dreading seeing the nurse today for mine.

In one sense I really tried to eat ‘right’ before Xmas, and I had dropped a bit and was feeling okay. But over the hols, with all those Xmas dinners, I put on 1lb.

A 1lb isn’t a lot of weight I know this, I understand it totally. It’s a pint of water. A trip to the loo, anything… I shouldn’t be upset. Yet, here I am. uggggghhhhhhh

Since I was discharged from Cheadle hospital, I have yo yo’d a lot. I’ve been heavier than this, but it isn’t the heaviest I’ve been in my life either.

Both our problem’s aren’t so much the ‘junk food’ we eat, I don’t normally eat it period. (cept xmas) paul does like some chocolate and stuff. But I am pretty careful for the most part in what I will let past my lips.

It is lack of exercise that does us. We don’t do any.

(Well apart from this week, after Paul got his ticking off.) We have walked to the village and back three times this week. It’s a 15 min walk each way.

My nurse also told me my blood pressure is up again, and she wants to see me in 4 weeks anyway, so I’ve asked her to monitor my weight, and hopefully with a little more incentive and some backing. I won’t panic thinking that the ED will come back, I will be okay in trying to do the right thing for my body.

It’s flipping scary. Because, no matter how ‘big’ I am or how ‘small’ the visual in my head just isn’t right. I don’t ever want to go back to being anorexic, because it took so much to fight it and be better. I want to be able to lose the weight, healthy and not take a turn for the worse.

But, I can’t carry on putting weight on for health reasons. In two years, I’ve gained 5kg. Not a great deal, but enough…

I’m drawing a line here. I have too. I have to do something right for me, and not because of the time of year.

———————————-

Anyway, enough moaning, will speak soon.

Dawn x x