A 6 month (ish) celebration!

Posted on June 28, 2013 by thepogblog

I can’t work out where the half year mark is.  Is it midsummers day?  Or the last day in June?  Or the first day in July?  Whatever the answer, we’re kind of there, which means….

 <drum roll please>

…I have not pulled one hair out of my head for six months :o)  To celebrate, today I had a haircut :o) :o) :o)  My lovely friend-of-the-family-hairdresser informed me she would do what she could to change my hair from ‘helmet’ to ‘styled’.  Being a bit of a genius, I think she managed it and I am feeling rather proud of myself, I have to say.

For anyone reading this who has trichotillomania, I am not for one minute suggesting that shaving your head and buying a Bradley (the name of my wig) will solve your problem, or that you should try it.  All I am saying is that after 23 years of trying just about everything, this worked for me.  It’s not been easy.  I have had to fight urges to pull (an alien concept I guess, if this is all new to you but it’s a bit like biting your nails, just weirder.  You can read about the weirdness here).  And I’ve have had to find other things to get into the habit of – I am now obsessive about crochet.  But hopefully it is the end of my trich for good, but just to keep the pressure on a little, I’ll update you at the end of the year.

Thank you to all the lovely people who have supported me and especially to those who didn’t bat an eyelid when I removed Bradley while out for a drink, coped with me developing a passion for hats and not shied away when I have just looked daft due to patchy bum fluff on my head.  On that last one, thank you especially to Sisters 1 and 2 who have ALWAYS supported me and my bald patches and my amazing colleagues who really could have reacted differently, but who never made me feel conspicuous…even though I was!

There is only one person who cancelled meeting up when I told him Bradley had gone into retirement and I haven’t heard from since.  He’s off the Christmas card list now.  One out of a lot of lovely people isn’t bad I guess.

And now, here’s a little journey using some (pretty awful) pictures that take you from 6 months ago to today.  Be warned – they are all those taken-in-the-mirror pictures (Norman is rubbish with a camera) and some I have no make up on which is never a good look!

hair 3

hair 712345

7

This is when I stopped wearing Bradley

8910There is a bit of a gap in my photos here.  The one above was the start of May.  The one below was yesterday (and I admit, I may have made it a bit more pokey-outy than usual…)

11

And this is how much hair I had cut off today:

(ok, it's not that much, but in the Pog scheme of things, it is!)

(ok, it’s not that much, but in the Pog scheme of things, it is!)

TA-DAAAAA!

TA-DAAAAA! (look at those crows feet – this has clearly aged me!)

Thank you, all you lovelies.  I couldn’t have done it without all the support :o)x

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Unexpectedness

Posted on June 26, 2013 by thepogblog

In the last two days I’ve had a few unexpected moments.

Walking to a training course early yesterday I discovered I rather like London before 7am and the crowds arrive.

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

From Tower Bridge (that tall building is the Shard)

From Tower Bridge (that tall building is the Shard)

Then on the way home I bumped into a friend from school I’ve not seen for almost 20 years.  My usual response to seeing someone at the train station, when I am on my way home from work is to hide.  I’m not great at small talk at the best of times but after 10 hours and 170 PowerPoint slides….  But anyway, I didn’t hide and I am so pleased.  It was lovely to catch up and remind myself of yet another lovely friend I had back then.  (She also has a fantabulous dog who I small talked with which made it even better!)

And then today I worked from home and sneakily hung out my washing first thing.  While out there my neighbour went into his back garden and started chatting.  I felt a little awkward as I hung out my underwear under his direct gaze and more so when he felt the need to tell me he is ‘now 24 stone’ and demonstrated this achievement by wobbling his tummy for me.  How is a girl supposed to react to that while grasping a pair of knickers?!

Happily Norman caused a distraction by appearing with a cooked fish in his mouth.  The combination of fish, knickers and neighbours belly was certainly an unexpected start to today.

Norman and fish

Norman and fish

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?  :o)

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Test post

Posted on June 23, 2013 by thepogblog

Sorry…I just want to see if I can post from my phone. If this works, you do get a picture of my giant poppies though :o)

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Makingness and a bit of drivel

Posted on June 21, 2013 by thepogblog

Well it’s midsummer’s day and lovely and we’re basking in fantastic temperatures….only we’re not, because this is the UK and I think Mother Nature must be going through the menopause or something as it’s mostly average with the occasional hot flush thrown in.

It is getting warmer though.  I know this because for the last two nights I’ve only had the one hot water bottle in bed (two is the usual for me).  I still have the duvet and all three blankets on top, but this is progress, however small.  You can see why mum calls me a toad can’t you?  Although I think it’s mostly her fault…she subscribed to the ‘put them outside in the pram all day for fresh air’ method of parenting.  That would have been fine, but I was born in March.  Still, it could have been worse, my sisters were given the same treatment and they were born in February.  (I should point out here, whenever we complain to mum about this, she is very clear that we were wrapped up very warmly and we all liked it.  Maybe that’s why my bed is piled high with blankets…)

Anyway, that wasn’t what this post was about.  Although I have discovered a new word this week:  Logomania.  It has two definitions: 1) Obsessive interest in words, 2) Excessive and often incoherent talking.  2) seems to apply a lot to me at the moment.  I was trying to work out why I am tired, grumpy and talking even more rubbish than usual, then realised I’ve had five days off work so far this year.  One day I phoned in sick as, having spent the previous day doing teleconferences from my bathroom floor, putting the phone on mute to be sick I thought I should probably try to have a days rest to get better.  I e-mailed the people at work you e-mail when you are feeling bleugh at 6.30am.  And by 9am was at the laptop doing a full day as the panic of e-mails and work building up was the complete opposite to restful. I think that could be contributing to the chaos of Pog Life at the moment.  Happily, it’s not very long before I escape somewhere warm for a while and I wont need any hot water bottles there.  :o)

Sorry, I’ve done it again.  I’ll stick to pictures now to save you reading any more drivel.  I have been making things.

Norman doesn’t like me making things as it stops him getting attention:

n2

But I still managed to make this bag for my brother in law to carry all his tattoo stuff to work:

n5

And Dad wanted a home made card for Fathers day so I crocheted this:

n4

Not very Fathers day ish, but he does like flowers and worms so I thought it was acceptable. Note:  Using superglue to crochet a worm to a card results in a lot of mess….and a short panic when he is actually superglued to your fingers.

And I decided all my family needed some colourful key rings, so I made these:

n3

(a slight variation on this pattern I found on another blog)

And to try to calm down a little I spent last Sunday on my day bed in the West Wing (ok, the conservatory) crocheting my next ‘thing’, listening to Radio 4.  (Sister 1 : ‘How old are you?!)  It was so relaxing, even Norman fell asleep, so I think we’d better do some more of the same this weekend before I go pop! :o)

n1

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Just daftness (I couldn’t think of a title, sorry)

Posted on June 17, 2013 by thepogblog

Last week was a daft week.  I think the best way to summarise it is to tell you that on Tuesday I went to yoga and got confused.  Really confused.  I spent most of the hour and 15 minutes trying to work out how to ‘release my sacrum’ as I kept being instructed.  It wasn’t until I was driving home it dawned on me that whenever the teacher said ‘sacrum’, I heard ‘scrotum’, and that they are two very different things.  Very different.

It all kind of went downhill from there.

This week will be better though.  I know this because even though it’s only Monday and so far:

1)      I have just informed a group of managers in St Louis that Eagan is ‘almost next door isn’t it?’ (It’s 550.5 miles away according to Google which only now I thought to check with).

And

2)     I just found my glasses in the freezer compartment of my fridge (I am defrosting it, in my defence – it wasn’t a complete senile moment)

And

3)     I have just spent possibly more than my car is worth to get it through its MOT.  There is a reason behind this.  Not a good one, I admit, but a reason none the less.

Despite those things, I know it will be better because this morning I had to get the hairdryer out of the box I hid it in on 31st December :o)  (If that means nothing to you, you might want to take a look at what I did on New Years Eve).

I might not have long locks, and I might still have a slightly visible go faster stripe, but I now have a head of hair so full, that it drips even after I have towel dried it.  And that will keep me smiling for the rest of the week :o)

Now, I must just resist the urge to use the hairdryer on the freezer bit of the fridge to speed up the defrosting.  Last time I did that I melted quite a lot of the plastic… :o)

Unrelated, but a lovely Bumpkinsville field :o)

Unrelated, but a lovely Bumpkinsville field :o)

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Three simple questions

Posted on June 7, 2013 by thepogblog

When I started this blogging thing ages ago, it was just intended to entertain a few friends.  I didn’t read other people’s blogs much, I just wrote, enjoyed it a lot if people ‘liked’ or commented and that was that.

Recently though, I’ve started to read lots of other people’s blogs and love finding out about their lives and I’ve realised that when I read, I need context.  I want to know where people are in the world, what sort of life they have, and if I can see what they look like, all the better.

When I started blogging, it never occurred to me that people I don’t know would take the time to read my rambling, yet according to the power of technology, my admin view tells me that in the last 16 months, people from 73 countries have read some of what I have written.  I don’t even know people in seven countries!  So it’s made me wonder if I should put a bit of information on the main blog page about me like most people do.  Nothing that could actually identify me, but, something.

While I was pondering this, in the way that these things happen, I was asked to provide some detail for a big meeting coming up at work.  We were asked three simple questions:

1)     How long had you worked at the company?

2)     A fact most people don’t know about me is…

3)     Provide your favourite quote

Simple they might be, but 2 and 3 actually caused me a few issues.  I wanted to be me, but still look a bit professional.  I read through other responses as they came in and they were good.  Quotes came from Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, Groucho Marx and Leonardo di Vinci.  I looked through a couple of quotes books I have.  I looked on line.  I gave up with caring what other people thought and quoted Winnie the Pooh.

My actual answer was:  “When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”  – Winnie the Pooh.  (Winnie the Pooh has been my hero since I was read the books repeatedly as a child, so it’s good to know that when that thingish thing happens to me I am in good company.)

Next it was the fact most people don’t know about me.  There is usually a reason that people at work don’t know the things they don’t know (read that slowly, it does make sense, honest).

My options were:

  • I don’t eat yellow sweets as I think they are ‘bad’.  Except smarties and m&m’s as the chocolate cancels out the badness. – Even I know that would have probably resulted in a trip to occupational health to check my mental stability.
  • When I was two my goal in life was to be a bin lady when I grew up.  – I’m not known for being career driven.  Probably best not to emphasise the point.
  • When I was at primary school I won the needlework cup for making a rag doll.  My mum had done 90% of the sewing. – This still makes me cringe years later, so possibly not one to admit in public.
  • At university I won the only award in my year.  When I told the head of my course there was clearly a mistake she said no, I had won it for ‘asking more questions than anyone else consistently over three years’.  I’m pretty sure she rolled her eyes too.  – Again, maybe that wasn’t something to share with a group of around 80 colleagues.

I obviously needed to come up with something else.  So I decided on this:

‘I have a tendency to panic.  At my first driving test I got in such a panic when I was told to get in the car that got in the passenger side.  I failed.  I’m also related (in a dim and distant way) to the captain of the Titanic.  When you combine those things I guess it’s not surprising that I rarely have passengers in my car.’

Unfortunately, this is 100% accurate.

To my surprise, the man who is running the meeting, and is my boss’s, boss’s boss ‘liked’ my response (our Intranet let’s you do things like that in the same way as Facebook), so maybe it is ok to just be yourself rather than trying to be clever.  I’m still glad I didn’t use the yellow sweets one though :o)

PS:  I shared my ‘fact most people don’t know about me.’  Do you fancy sharing yours?

This is the picture I provide when asked for a head shot. I think I will use this on the blog :o)

This is the picture I provide when asked for a head shot. I think I will use this on the blog :o)

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Anxiety Girl tries yoga

Posted on June 5, 2013 by thepogblog

A few years ago I saw this and kept a copy:

ag

I wondered if was actually about me, which probably demonstrates how accurately it describes me.

Anyway, a few posts back I said I was going to try to join a weekly yoga class.  I thought the yoga might help de-stress me a little and help with the Anxiety Girl business.  Yesterday I had my first lesson.

I have to say, getting ready for the class was stressful in itself – I had to buy new tracksuit bottoms (the ones I had are not suitable to be seen outside the four walls of Pog Towers, they are so old).  First I accidentally bought a ‘short pair’.  These are now shorts and the cut off parts are being turned into a bag.  I then bought a ‘long’ pair and had to make turn-ups so I could walk without the risk if getting tangled in the trailing legs.  Then it was the dilemma last night over sports bra (good for cycling over potholes without giving yourself a black eye but not great for breathing) or normal bra (not a whole heap of support, but breathing not so much of an issue)?  Then, water bottle or no water bottle?  Does yoga make you thirsty?  Would I look daft wandering in with my bottle if nobody else did?  Make up:  It’s not a full on exercise class so it’s unlikely to be sweated off but would it look silly to wear it?  Would not wearing it scare other class members too much?  By this stage I needed more than a yoga class to get over the panic that was starting to develop so I just got my act together and left.  (If you’re interested, I selected normal bra, water bottle and with minimal makeup.  It turns out that all were good options)

I’ve done around 20 minutes of yoga before –I mentioned it a few weeks back on here.  I wasn’t good.  I wasn’t even ok.  I was working on the basis though, that I really could only get better.  So it was a huge surprise to me to discover that the time flew by and I loved every minute of focusing on the positions and my breathing (rather than whether that e-mail I was waiting for had come in and how the hell I was going to get through my to do list at work).

I did have a few issues.  Every time the teacher reminded us to ‘inhale then move as you exhale’ I was reminded that I had stopped breathing in my attempt to be in the correct position.  I was wobbly at all times, forgot my left and right (nice lady next to me had to remind me it was ‘the other left’), and I actually managed to fall over while kneeling (how is that even possible?!).

The best bit though? (Apart from the fact that I felt more relaxed last night than I have in a long time.) That was at the end when the teacher said I was a bit of a natural when it comes to yoga. Yes, me!  I’ve never been a natural at anything.  I have a feeling that she may take it back when balancing comes into the class (happily there was none of that last night), but for now and until the then, I will be ‘Pog, a bit of a natural when it comes to yoga’. Bet you never expected that, did you? :o)

I know I used a bluebell picture the other day, but I took so many and am not sure which is favourite. Probably this one. I think.

I know I used a bluebell picture the other day, but I took so many and am not sure which is favourite. Probably this one. I think.

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The Weird and the Wonderful

Posted on May 28, 2013 by thepogblog

There’s been lots of weirdness and wonderfulness recently so I thought I’d share a few bits with you.

My last post was about a bikini I made for Sister 2 after her hearing about Mum’s from the 70’s.  Well, the next day I saw Sister 1 and she actually had the picture that started off some of Sister 2’s requirements.  This is Mum in her (much better made) crocheted bikini back in the day:

ww6

She didn’t usually pose like that – her friend was a practicing photographer (and for the record – not that sort of photographer, she is fully dressed in all the other pictures!)  Mum is still gorgeous, but we all think she was particularly gorgeous back them.  Unfortunately the genes I inherited go back a generation to her mum.  A lady who was a lovely grandma, but at best could be described as ‘stout’…

Which takes us to a bit of weirdness.  Last week the switch on my storage heater stopped…well, switching.  Even with all my stoutness on it, the light flickered a bit to start with, then it stuck firm, in off mode.  This is not great when, despite being Spring, it’s still mostly soggy and cold in the UK at the moment.  I looked up how to fix it on the internet.  And was informed by a number of people not to be so daft (my diy leaves a lot to be desired and this would have involved playing with power and things).  So I called in a man.  Who presented me with this:

ww3

The switch had caught fire.  Nothing had tripped.  I didn’t smell anything.  It went out on its own.  I think someone was looking after me.

teeny tiny horse in the background

teeny tiny horse in the background

On Sunday Mum, Sister 1, Little Pea and I went to see the local donkey and teeny tiny horse.  All went swimmingly – we took carrots, we posed for a photo, and…the blimin’ donkey bit my fingers.  And it’s not the first time either – when I was about 7 a donkey bit me and I broke out in a rash that required a trip to A&E.  Happily this time I just swore at it and no hospital visits were required.

naughty donkey

On the way home Mum visited the local flower festival, where we saw this.

ww7

Weirdly wonderful, and only in Bumpkinsville, I imagine :o)

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Crochet and Colouring

Posted on May 24, 2013 by thepogblog

This morning I stepped out of the shower and my right arm stopped working properly.  I think I have a nerve trapped in my shoulder blade or something.  I will call this annoying affliction ‘Crochet Shoulder’.  Because I have been crocheting for England, you know.  I think mum taught me the basics about 8 weeks ago and since then I have become a bit obsessed…

I always worry that the things I make to give away might not actually be wanted, and that I end up putting people in that awful situation where they feel they have to put something on show when I’m due to arrive at their house.  So when someone expresses an interest in something, I get all over enthusiastic.

When mum taught me and Sister 1 crochet (Sister 2 opted to just sit and laugh at us) she told us about things she’d crocheted in the 60’s and 70’s.  Skirts, a top, a fully lined suit (!) and….a bikini.  And that was it.  Sister 2 became obsessed about having her own crocheted bikini.

I looked up patterns on line and found one published in a magazine in 1971.  I printed it so that mum could make it for Sister 2, but then decided that I might be able to just about manage it.

It feels like I have spent months on this – it’s actually just a few weeks.  It would have been less, but I’ve unpicked huge amounts of it repeatedly and had to edit the pattern (it seems 1970’s bottoms were smaller than todays…or I read the pattern entirely wrong).  But today I can reveal the outcome!  Sister 2 has kindly said I can post these pictures:

sal1 sal2

I‘m not sure that Sister 2 is so keen on having a crochet bikini anymore.  It’s a long way from perfect.  But it’s the thought that counts, right?  :o)

And in other news I just dyed my hair for the first time EVER.  Whoever decided that the dye I used was ‘blackcurrant’ clearly needs a test for colour blindness.  I look like a traffic light.  In fact, I  looked in the mirror at Sister 1’s house (where the transformation took place) and decided that I now look like one of those slightly mad aunties who wear long cardigans, and do handicraft stuff.  Then realised I am all of those things.  Bugger.  Oh well, I have a ‘statement head’.  I don’t particularly like the statement it’s currently making, but on the positive side, there are absolutely no more grey hairs  :o)

before

before…

and after. Gulp!

…and after. Gulp!

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Relaxing. ish.

Posted on May 21, 2013 by thepogblog

As some of you are probably aware, I could be classed as ‘highly strung’.  I’m a lot better than I used to be, but there’s always room for improvement so a few weeks ago I went on a Mindfulness and Meditation workshop.

It turns out that I’m pretty rubbish when it comes to meditation.  What I am worse at though, is knowing when to be quiet.  After the first meditation thingy, the teacher asked how we felt it had gone.  Everyone looked at their shoes.  I felt  bad for the teacher because she was so lovely and clearly wanted some sort of participation.  So I informed the class that I got distracted by the purple pandas that had appeared behind my eyelids when I had closed them.  Top Tip: When asked how mediation thingy has gone, that’s probably not the information that you’re being asked for.

On the second meditation all I could think about was the fact that the biscuits in the tea break had contained both raisins and chocolate chips.  In the same biscuit.  What kind of person would do that?  The two things are good in individual biscuits, but put them in the same one and your mouth just can’t work out where it’s at.  Happily, I thought about it before sharing this with the group and finally managed to keep my mouth shut.

Anyway, not to be beaten, I decided to try a slight variation on the workshop and last Saturday Lovely Friend and I went to a Mindfulness, Meditation and Yoga class.  I’m not sure who was more daft:  the teacher for letting me come back or Lovely Friend for coming with me.  The good news is that there were no purple pandas this time.  In fact, I got quite into the meditation.  The yoga though, that was a different matter.  The one and only time I had ever been to a class before I’d been asked to leave as my giggling was distracting the rest of the class (it was back in my uni days though, I’m obviously a lot more sensible these days….)  I managed to keep most of my giggles inside this time and all was going well.  I liked the names of the poses…the dog, happy cat, angry cat….but then we did one where you stand on one leg with the foot of the other leg on the inner thigh of your balancing leg.  Then you’re supposed to lift your arms in the air.  As I fell over sideways it was suggested that I just try the leg part and hang on to the wall.  I was the only one in the class who had to cling to plaster to stay vertical… :o/

Despite that, I really enjoyed it – even the stiff legs that lasted until yesterday – so rather than avoiding yoga, I’ve contacted the teacher to see if I can join the weekly groups.  Now I just have to see if she is daft enough to take me on.  And if she has sufficient wall space so I can stay upright :o)

From a lovely bluebell walk on Sunday :o)

From a lovely bluebell walk on Sunday :o)

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