The Adventure Continues

We have some exciting news we wanted to share with you. 

 

As you know, ten years ago we took a leap of faith and set out together for a new life in a new country with only six suitcases.

 

Well……we thought we’d have a go at another country so we’re moving to Wales --this time with way more than six suitcases!

 

Spiderman has just gotten the most amazingly interesting position with the University of Wales as an archivist for the Alister Hardy Religious Research Centre on the Lampeter campus of Trinity St David as well as some reference work (like he did when he worked at the LC Library) on the sister campus in the neighbouring town of Carmarthen . We’ll be moving end of August so he can take up his new post in September! I’ll be looking for work once we get there--just like I did when we moved to Hitchin. I’m confident there will be something inspiring out there for me as well.

 Some features of interest:

 

Carmarthen has a ruined castle.

 

Merlin the magician of Arthurian legends was supposedly born in a cave outside Carmarthen.

statue of Merlin in town shopping centre

The Welsh Quilt Centre is in Lampeter.

 

The last ten years in England have been wonderful. We could not have asked for a better place to live, but Wales is so lovely and green and full of wildlife. There‘s a Puffin reserve fairly close by!!!!

Do you remember that children’s poem?

 

.There once was a puffin

Just the shape of a muffin

And he lived on an island in the

                Bright

                              Blue

                                             Sea.

 

Read the whole poem here: http://www.puffinpalooza.com/there-once-was-a-puffin/

 

Going to Wales will give us a chance for new adventures and experiences and a new language! Yes, we will be learning Welsh! Wales is a bilingual country --everything is labelled in both Welsh and English the same way Quebec is in French and English.  Most people speak a mixture of both languages so we‘re trying to learn some basic phrases now and then we‘ll take a class at the University to learn more when we get there.

 

We have thought about this prayerfully and deeply with some tears, lots of hugs and many  late night talks, but this just feels right. Like moving to England felt right. Terrifying, but exhilarating.

 

Quaker Advices and Queries 27 says:

  

Live adventurously. When choices arise, do you take the way that offers the fullest opportunity for the use of your gifts in the service of God and the community? Let your life speak. When decisions have to be made, are you ready to join in with others in seeking clearness, asking for God’s guidance and offering counsel to one another?

 

So the adventure continues!

 

A balanced equation

Thursday was a special day for us.

Our anniversary.

We had been married for 22 years.

I was 22 years old the day we were married and now that has magically turned into 22 years.

22=22

 

A balanced equation.

 

That's what our marriage is.

 

Whenever I have been ill or hurt (recently with my back or four years ago when I had the horrible hysterectomy) he is there to take up the slack. He does the jobs I cannot do--the lifting, the bending, the shopping and the carrying heavy loads. After my surgery, he lovingly washed my hair as it was too painful to raise my hands above my head.

 

He cares for me and I care for him.

 

When I am sad or anxious, he wraps his arms around me and infuses me with warmth and love and strength. When my moods dip, one touch of his hand raises me up and we are balanced again.

 

He cares for me and I care him.

 

When I am tempted to be impatient, unkind, thoughtless or rude he looks me in the eye and reminds me to be a better person.

 

He cares for me and I care for him.

 

He listens to my dreams and takes me seriously. He believes in me like no one else. He has helped make my fondest wish come true--to have a life full of adventure--to live in the United Kingdom. To live our lives the way we want no matter *what* others think.

 

He cares for me and I care for him.

 

His love makes me beautiful.

 

I hope that I give the same to him. I try to give him the gifts he gives me through the depth of my love.

 

We are the most fantastic team.

 

Thank you Spiderman.

 

You really are amazing.



Back with a Vengeance

Hello my faithful peeps, I’m sorry I’ve been away for an entire month. I wish I could say that I had been swanning about somewhere, enjoying the high life--but alas  I can not. I’ve been “out of action.”

 

My name is Spidergrrl and I have Coccydynia. For those of you who don’t know this means I have a broken tailbone.

 

Basically, I am a pain in the arse.

This is not a new occurrence. I originally bruised it (possibly fractured it) falling off a mini trampoline onto our wood floor when I was about eight years old. Round about 1998, I was running down our hallway and fell (on the newly polished wood floor) during a commercial break of Law and Order because I was trying to hurry up and get a drink before the show started again.

 

Reader, I broke it.

 

Personally, I blame the wooden floors.

 

But since then I have had trouble with a capital T (that rhymes with C and stands for Coccydynia) . Sitting was the worst--there was always a nagging ache that became a screaming pain the longer I sat. I developed ways of compensating that put pressure on my hips and knees when I stood up, walked and tried to sleep.

 

I never, ever could get comfortable. 

 

Moving to England and being car free helped to a certain extent--all that walking meant that I didn’t hurt when I stood up, walked or slept.

 

But sitting was another matter.

 

Four weeks ago on Sunday I had a bit of a tumble--I didn’t fall but I did a funny little twisty thing to catch myself and my back started to complain.

 

Loudly.

 

What started off as just a “bad back” took a turn for the worse on Thursday when I (against my better judgement) lifted a box of art smocks at school. This resulted in a spasm that brought tears to my eyes and forced a colleague to gift me a lift home at break time.

 

It only got worse from there.

By Monday I was in agony. Nothing I did helped to stop the pain. It was like someone jamming a red hot poker into my tailbone as the searing hot pain radiated outwards from my coccyx. It felt like someone pulling my pelvis apart. 

I was immediately signed off of work for a week as I could barely move without tears. I was given a prescription for Co-codamol --how I love you codeine! This along with a combination of ice and heat applied to my back as well as rest did seem to help.

 

The unfortunate side effect of codeine for me is I become loopy as all get out. I am told that I always sounded drunk or high and would say some really weird stuff in the middle of a conversation, which I (thankfully) have no memory of.

 

A week passed and the pain was different. Instead of just being  a pain in the coccyx I was experiencing something far worse that I had ever experienced before.

 

I honestly  thought there was *nothing* worse than coccydynia. But there is.

 

It’s called Sciatica.

Sciatica, in case you don’t know, is the inflammation of the sciatic nerve which means that horrible, fiery shooting pains now whooshed down my right leg every time I moved. I suffered pins and needles constantly and was having to drag my leg behind me as it was always asleep.

 

Needless to say I was signed off for another week of school and told to increase my dose of codeine. The extra codeine made me several of the Seven Dwarves--Dopey and Sleepy and occasionally Grumpy (when I needed more pain relief and still had an hour to go before my next dose.) I was advised to take ibuprofen in the intervals between Co-codamol  so I would never be without some form of pain relief.

 

After two weeks of school missed it was half term--a week’s holiday from school--and so I had another week to rest and recuperate before having to try to go back to work. 

 

I was feeling better now, there were periods of the day where I was relatively pain free-- when standing and sleeping. Sitting caused the dull ache in my lower back to sharpen up and start to travel down my leg but the moment I stood up it retreated.

 

We bought a lumbar roll which is a special cushion that helps maintain good posture when sitting as slumping in any way puts pressure on the coccyx and the whole thing starts all over. I can’t believe how much it helps. Sitting is still uncomfortable--but only that. Not painful, just uncomfortable. But I still can only sit for about 20 minutes at a time.

My GP helped me to lower my dose of codeine, but still take it along with ibuprofen, and increase my activity since walking felt really good. When I am walking I have no pain at all so for the last few days  I have taken a brisk 30 minute walk in a lovely nature trail near here.

 

It has raised my spirits and helped tremendously with the pain in sitting. Previously I had only done a strolling type of walk (or an Igor type of walk when my leg was dragging behind me) but a brisk walk has done me wonders.

 

There were a few other things I have done to help my back, but that’s for another day. It has taken me two hours to type this as I have to keep stopping to take breaks.

 

I start back to work this week. I have a letter from my GP that says I am to have amended duties--no lifting or bending and I am to be allowed regular stretch breaks--for the next two weeks.

 

We‘ll see how it goes.

 

 I’m back, baby. 

Upwardly Mobile

Our friends Iain and Rachel are having a baby. I am not normally a pee-pee baby sort of person. As the comedian Bec Hill said, “Why do people want you to hold their babies? There is nothing else that you could give someone to hold that came out of your vagina that is socially acceptable.” 

 

Only one other time have I been this excited about a baby and that was when my friend Cereal was pregnant with Zoria. I showed up at the hospital dressed as a Pilgrim (I came straight from school) and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

I am that sort of excited again because I love Iain and Rachel. They were kind enough to let me make their wedding invitations and do a reading at their wedding and so I was keen to do something special for the Bebé . I know in several years time I’ll be “Auntie Spidergrrl” and the child will come round and see the spiders and we’ll have a craft day or do some cooking together, but in the mean time I wanted to make something nice.

 

So I made a mobile to hang over the crib. Which would be pronounced Mow-Bull in the US, but is apparently pronounced Mow-Bile in the UK. Whatever. I can completely see the appeal of one of these. They are mesmerising to watch. This from the woman who could spent hours entranced watching a cement mixer at work. But I digress. 

 

The nursery  is yellow as we don’t know if the  Bebé is a girl person or a boy person yet. The theme is Winnie the Pooh and so we decided on a rain cloud mobile. You know…I’m just a little black rain cloud and Tut tut! It looks like rain and all that.

 

Iain says the child needs to look at rain clouds as that is the predominant weather here in the UK.

So here it is. Some lovely Krishna coloured rain clouds (they are a beautiful grey with a hint of purple) and some sparkly drip drops as well as a friendly rainbow in the middle just to brighten things up.

We don’t want the poor kid to get Seasonal Affective Disorder too soon.

 

In six weeks (give or take) we will welcome you to the world. Every time your tiny eyes look up you will see something made with lots of love and care and you will feel safe and happy knowing you are loved so very, very deeply.

 

Welcome to the world. 

In Honour of My Dad

Obey. Submit. Consume. Watch TV.

Do not question authority. Money is your God.

No independent thought. No imagination.

They live. We sleep.

 

It came. Last night when we got back from the comedy club it was here waiting for us. Spiderman, knowing I was feeling a bit down about my dad, surprised me with a DVD of John Carpenter’s They Live. It is the *perfect* film to watch and think of my dad as we watched it several times together. He debated about getting C.H.U.D. (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers) which tried to be serious or its sequel  C.H.U.D. II (Bud the CHUD) which did not try in any way, shape or form to be serious, but he finally settled on They Live.

 

Perfect choice.

 

Do you know this film? The blurb on the back of the DVD reads:

 

Professional WWF wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper plays John Nada, a homeless, unemployed, construction worker who discovers a pair of sunglasses that when worn reveal a world run by upwardly mobile, capitalist yuppie aliens intent on keeping the human race sedate and brainwashed with subliminal messages fed through advertising and the media. Luckily for us, all John Nada wants to do now is chew gum and kick ass, and he’s all out of  gum. 

 

They Live is one of John Carpenter’s most accomplished films. An action packed, satirical, sci-fi adventure and socio-cultural critique on the decline of spiritual values and the rise of consumerism within modern society. It also included one of the longest fist fights in cinema history.

 

You see what I mean?

 

Perfect.

 

We’ll watch it every year from now on in honour of my Dad.

 

Thanks Spiderman.

actually a picture of George W Bush--I always suspected he was an alien

 

Edited to add: the plot for They Live is actually based on a (very) short story called Eight O’clock In The Morning by Ray Nelson and you can read it here:  http://www.whale.to/b/eight_o.html