Thursday, 25 September 2008

Let them eat cake :-D

I think I may have got a little carried away with the baking......

Clockwise from Top;
Dark chocolate-cherry cupcakes
Lemon Syrup loaf
Coconut Macaroons
Chocolate Banana Loaf
Marzipan Fruit Cake x2
Gingerbread x2

So tomorrow I will be packing James off to the Lancaster Macmillan coffee morning armed with cakes and also single-handedly filling the Robert Ogden Center cake stall. I am a cake-machine and that is my bible ;-D

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Let the baking commence!

This Friday is Macmillan's "Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning" and my local Robert Ogden centre is taking part. Obviously they will be having a cake stall (as well as a steel band!) and so this week I am going to be miss-domestic-goddess-extraordinaire and have some massive cake baking sessions. I will update the blog with how the baking turns out and how prolific I have managed to be (I have high hopes for reaching record levels of cake baking later this week). So if you are in Leeds on Friday and fancy coming over to the Robert Ogden Centre for coffee and cake to the sounds of a steel band I will be there at 11!

Cake number 1 is already complete; a marzipan fruit cake (care of Nigella) which needed wrapping up for a week (and potentially lacing with rum if I am feeling extravagent) so I thought it would be a good one to get in the bag.

Thursday, 18 September 2008

What a Wally!

Well, I can confirm that the lump I found was just a normal lymph node. Doh! silly me.

I went to the breast clinic today to get it checked out and the doctor at first couldn't find what I was talking about (as I expected!)..... but well it was his first day "on Breasts" as he is usually "a Liver man". But after checking with the man above they arranged to do an ultra sound and it looked like just a normal lymph node so they sent me off home. So I felt a bit of a wally, but well you never can tell. I guess that 2 week rule should stay in place for just such eventualities.

Wednesday, 10 September 2008

Thanks


I need to say a quick thanks to Moira (almost sister-in-law) who found me my great dress that I wore to the wedding this weekend just gone. I was quite chuffed with the £4.50 warehouse dress (care of RSPCA charity shop) and my matching scarf and high-high-high heeled red shoes. Someone I don't know even came up to me and said she loved my dress - don't you just love it when that happens.

Monday, 8 September 2008

lumps and bumps

I made a decision yesterday. I decided to call my breast care nurse. I have bent my 2 week rule (That’s the rule that if I have a strange symptom – I will not panic, I will wait 2 weeks and if it is still there then I will do something about it). Only I can't really be bothered to wait out 2 weeks, it’s on my mind and yesterday I decided I wanted to do something about it now. 1 week ago I felt a miniscule, tiny, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it lump in my neck by my collar bone. It’s soooooo tiny and I was going to give it 2 weeks to see if it was just a knot or random bit of grissle that will just move away. Sometimes it even needs a bit of hunting down when I go for a feel - so it’s probably nothing. But it’s playing on my mind so I thought I would make up a new rule; the Fast Track lump lane! (it’s like those 2+ lanes you get on motorways which by the way are great – we used one on Friday travelling to a wedding and I felt so naughty zooming by all the traffic standing still on the motorway – there should be more of those lanes). Anyway, I called my breast nurse and she is going to see if she could get me back into clinic and have me a little check over. I feel kinda better now I have done that. And now that I have flagged it up you can bet the lump will just go away and I will feel a bit silly about that one!

I have also been sticking my head in the sand a bit lately. I am a scientist so I should know what I am about to say is ridiculous, but such is the way my brain thinks…. The last time I went on a big, great adventure holiday was my honeymoon and when I got back from that things went a little pair shaped. So, I was a bit worried about going on another big holiday cos sod’s law suggests things might go pair shaped again. So in the run up to my holiday I must admit I was almost not opening post because I didn’t want any results coming in which might put pay to a lovely holiday. Now I am back, I am having to do some chasing up…. Blood test results from the Doctors (just checking anemia, liver and thyroid function – pretty straight forward, but the doc had just seemed a little surprised when I said I was still not up to full steam) and an MRI scan results. This is the scan I was supposed to have to find out why I have swollen optic nerves… this was supposed to be done last year, but the system is so poo I got dropped off and had to get my GP to chase up. Anyway about a month before my hols I went for a scan. No word since! But today I made the decision to also chase that up and everything has come back all fine so I can draw a line under that. I am sure the lump will be nothing much either and I bet the Doc won’t even be able to find it… but well to be honest it is 9 months since I had a check up and that seems much too long for my liking so a bit of a prod and poke might be in order anyway.

Monday, 1 September 2008

Top of the World





Well, who would have thought a little over a year ago I struggled to walk to the local shop. Now look at me. I've been to the Canadian Rockies and climbed glaciers and mountains. I've come all the way up from that lake down there. All in all that walk was 15Km! and what a view.


I have also walked up the plain of six glaciers trail from Lake Louise (again 15km return!)



like this.....

I've seen bears (from the car luckily, not out walking - although I had a bear bell and bear spray for just such an eventuality)


and chipmunks....


and stood on ice!



What a great holiday.

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