Sunday Book Review - The English German Girl

This book intrigued me, having read various books, mainly non-fiction about the World War Two Holocaust, I realised that I hadn’t really read a book specifically about the Kindertransport.   Although this is fiction, it draws on many factual events and people and there has obviously been a lot of research put into the writing of this novel.  It follows the story of a 15 year old girl Rosa as she travels on the Kindertransport from Berlin to England and the trials and stress that lead up to the transport, the journey and her time in England.  The prejudices she and others faced, as well as the courageous people who put their own lives at risk to help.  It is a thoughtful and heartfelt read as you follow her journey. She writes of her struggles, love and heartbreak and also the challenges she faces as she works hard to learn the English language, a new way of life as well as her attempts to get work visas for her family.  You share in her preparations for the arrival of her younger sister, and the trauma of war breaking out and the closing of the boarders which meant her family were then unable to make it out of Berlin.  Rosie decides to undertake nursing training, something she had always hoped to do, as her father was a doctor and as such the book also gives insight into the nursing practices and training of the time which is very interesting.  Jake Wallis Simons writes sensitively with good insight into this subject and I really enjoyed his style of writing.  A book well worth a read.

Thursday Quilting - Badges on Blanket

I asked my older son if he would like me to make him a quilt, he said no, he just wanted his scout badges sewn onto his scouting blanket.  Fair enough.

Not planned, just randomly sewn.  Looks quite good I think.

Saturday Quilting

Today was our monthly Saturday quilting group.

I finished the top of my nine-square block quilt.  I just need to find some fabric for the boarders, binding and backing.

I also cut out all the butterflies, wavy lines, and blocks for my butterfly wall quilt.

Just the appliqué and sewing up to do now.

I can't remember if I showed this quilt top when I finished it just before Christmas.  It too is waiting on some fabric for the boarder, binding and backing.

So all in all a rather productive day.

Thursday Quilting

Thursday Girls Quilting Group yesterday and I continued working on my nine patch blocks.  I wasn't originally going to make this quilt with just nine patch blocks, but with a few um, shall we say, hiccups along the way, I decided that it would be just a simple blocking together of the blocks after all.

The blocks have now been sewn into strips ready for sewing together on Saturday.  Will have to find some backing and binding now, but that will have to wait.

Duloxetine & Lidocaine Infusion

Very quiet at the home of The Balancing Kiwi at the moment.  I cut my medication down on Friday by 50% as was just too tired and lethargic all the time.  The first couple of days I felt quite good, but things have been getting worse and now I am in lots of pain, (areas that I'd forgotten about are now hurting again), so I'm guessing it was making a difference after all so will be upping the dose back up again tomorrow morning and I will just have to put up with being dull, tired and boring, but at least pain free.  Just hope that eventually my body and brain will get used to the fog, and it will start to clear.

Obviously the Lidocaine Infusion I had on 6th January didn't do anything.

For some photos of a few things I have managed to do you can visit my Doll blog Sewing for Sasha.

As for my tidying and decluttering, I either don't feel like doing because I am tired and unmotivated, or I hurt too much to do it!  Still what's new?!

Sunday Book Review - War Horse

I'm probably one of the last to read this, although it has been on my to read list for a long time.  I think we have it in book form but it has been packed away so I downloaded it onto my kindle.  Just a short and simple review today.

Being both a book about horses, one in particular and the first World War which I have a particular interest in, having lost my great grandfather in it, this was a book I was looking forward to reading.  Plus the film is coming out/is out, so I definitely had to read it!

It didn't disappoint, was well written, through the eyes of the horse, observationally wise, but not in the way that the horse actually speaks which would belittle the subject and be rather silly.  It follows the adventures of  a horse called Joey from when he is first being sold as a foal at an auction, through to him being sold to the Cavalry for the war effort.  The journey takes the horse from Devon, to France and into enemy hands.  It is an easy read, being first and foremost a book for children, but this does not mean that it can't be enjoyed by adults as well.  Michael Morpurgo writes in a sensitive style, clearly writing about the atrocities of war, and brings awareness to the reader that it wasn't just the tragic human loss of life, but also animals as well, in particular horses.  However, we are also treated to the caring attitudes of both sides involved in the war as well as the stupidity and lunacy of it.  

A particularly touching part of the book is when Joey is stuck in no-man's land and both sides draw a truce to rescue the horse, with an English soldier and a German soldier discussing who was going to rescue the horse, decided by a simple toss of the coin.  They also discuss, how ludicrous it was that once the horse had reached safety they would again be trying to kill each other and the sheer waste of life.

Wonderful story well worth the read.  

Frosty

Today I am determined to do some sewing.  I have failed badly on my attempts listed last weekend, apart from Monday.  I have decided to decrease my medication after speaking to the doctor as it really is hopeless wanting to sleep all the time.  So I went down to my sewing studio earlier this morning and turned the heating on as it is sooo cold down there.  While outside I took some photographs of the frost on various plants etc...    I am just about to go and get the carrots, bran and ready grass for the guinea pigs and then I  can go and spend the rest of the morning blissfully sewing I hope.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

WIPs - Part One

Now for some of my WIPs that I hope to complete this year.

From this pattern book I began knitting this pattern:

In February last year!  I made quite good progress and then just stopped.

The back and part of one sleeve made, I will start with completing this jumper first.

Next up...I'm ashamed to say I started this pattern TWO years ago...

I bought it at the Alexander Palace Knitting Show and in my defence the wool is horrible to knit with as it keeps splitting so I think that is part the reason progress has been exceedingly slow. 

I thought I would work on this one once I'd finished the first.

Next up is a dishcloth I started knitting.  I am quite quick at knitting these, but for some reason must have stopped part the way through...trouble is I can't remember what pattern I was knitting on it, so I have to either find it, or just make something else up as I go along.

I do have a few other knitting WIPs but these are the three I am going to work on first.

Sunday Book Review - In the Midst of Life

I have read all by one of Jennifer Worth’s books and have found her to be an excellent writer, drawing on her own experiences as a nurse and midwife in the early 50s.  Fascinating reading with wonderful stories of the people she has met and nursed during her nursing career.  Her love and enthusiasm of nursing and compassion for people comes through in her writing, definitely an author in my mind worth reading.  My Dad and I have similar tastes in reading and although her books are quite different to a lot we read, Dad agreed with my thoughts on the books and has enjoyed them as much as me.

In the Midst of Life, wasn’t what I was expecting and I’m not sure I would have read the book if I had initially known what it was about as I didn’t read the blurb, I just bought it (downloaded it onto my new  Kindle), knowing that Jennifer Worth writes so well.  I tend to avoid subjects about death like the plague and have always had a fear of it.  Even as a child I would refuse to go into a cemetery, and would even hide in the foot well of the car if we drove past one, or certainly look the other way when I was older.  As an adult I have overcome this fear somewhat and have been known to visit the odd cemetery now and again, and have taken an interest in the history of graves etc…  However, I still don’t like to talk of such things, so it was quite unusual to find me actually reading a book on death and finding it interesting and dare I say possibly enjoyable.  Not sure if enjoyable is the right word, but it is certainly worth a read.

Jennifer draws on her own experiences of nursing people in their final days, from pre-World Wars, the fifties and sixties and also from interviews, letters, friendships and research up until when the book was published in 2010.  It broaches all sorts of subjects and the way in which people died then and now.  She writes about how these people are treated, the changes in approach to death, medication and intervention and the implications of these.  There is a lot to think about and challenge the reader that is for sure.  Much is written on how nowadays with the medical profession being so scared of litigation, the sometimes what seems to be completely unnecessary and quite often disturbing intervention.  (My husband and I have first hand experience of this when his grandmother died a couple of years ago and how the emergency services ‘had to attempt resuscitation’ despite the fact that she well over 90, and had been dead for at least 20 minutes before they arrived!)  Combine this with the general populations fear of death and wanting to prolong life as much as is possible, the ramifications that this causes for the patient as well as for family and those that nurse and treat the patient, really makes one think.

Included are four Appendices at the back of the book, and these too make fascinating reading and could certainly be worthy subjects to debate and think about.

For anyone interested in this subject, and looking for an interesting and challenging read, then I highly recommend this book and author.  You may want to read some of her other books first though!  These are:

Call the Midwife

Tales from the Workhouse

Farewell to the East End

Eczema and Food Allergy – The Hidden Cause?: My Story

Time for some Action & Achievement

I've been sleeping a lot of late, that and doing a bit of reading and knitting is about all I've been managing to do and of course this needs to change considerably if I am actually going to achieve anything.  So I've also been doing a little thinking, not a lot as I surely do not want to exert myself too much! ;-)  Having just booked my ticket Thursday evening  to go and visit my parents again end of February and through March, I realised I really only have six weeks before I go to get the house organised, neat and tidy for Mark and the boys.  Plus other things I would also like to achieve, one of which is completing my Open University Course and assignment before the end of the month!  So making myself comfortable pen and notebook in hand I started planning a timetable for myself, not a list as such, but an actual daily timetable.  Sounds rather rigid I know, but unless I actually do something like this, I can see myself still not achieving anything.  I think while I am feeling like I am, (a side effect of the medication I am sure), then I need a real kick start and something to guide me and to adhere to.

My motto is 'Without Challenge, there is no Achievement' so that is what I need to do, start challenging myself.

First of all I made a daily list of things to do,

A weekly list of activities and other things that need doing/completing.

A declutter/tidy/organise room list....I have six weeks, so broke this down into six key areas that need attention.

I then timetabled my day in hourly sections, starting at 6am and finishing at 10pm.  I am hoping by starting the day at 6 am again I will be able to sleep better at night as I am really struggling at the moment with sleep, and yet pre-medication which started in December I had established a really good sleep pattern at long last, so I'm rather disappointed this has been broken.

Activities and chores were broken down into half hourly and hourly 'chunks'.

Into these sections I hope to incorporate completing my WIP's of which I have rather a few!

I have timetabled in my physio exercises, walking the dogs and my daily rebounding which I haven't done since Christmas as there was no room with the Christmas tree to set my trampoline up each morning.

I have mixed pleasure with chores, so have included time to read, knit and sew as well as the time needed to study, do housework and of course the de-cluttering exercise I'm hoping to achieve.

I will be spending far less time on the computer as well as it has been eating into my time far too much, so I am limiting it considerably and planning my time more wisely.  I am hoping to do a weekly book review, on a Sunday for my blog and of course write about various things that interest me as usual.

I have written out my timetable now, just need to draw it up neatly and hey presto I will be ready to start bright and early Monday morning.

The early bird...as they say!

Most Used Appliances in my Kitchen

Two of the most used appliances in my kitchen are my juicer and blender.  They get used everyday to make a healthy and sustaining drink.

I really can't imagine being without them now, although it is still a faff to wash them up...but I have a routine now and I wash up before I drink my smoothie, and then I can sit and relax and drink it, knowing that I don't have the washing up to do afterwards.

I didn't use them daily over the Christmas period so it is good to be back into the daily juicing.

Today's juice consists of:

Three apples,

Three small carrots

Chunk of cucumber

Chunk of courgette

About a third of a pineapple,

Handful of Spinach

Stalk of a broccoli

I juice all these and then put them in the blender with:

Half an advocado

Two manky bananas

Blend!

Result:  A very tasty filling drink.

I've been working on a list of goals/challenges to do this year, but it is slow process as I think...

~*~

Health Update:  The next is for my benefit really, a diary of sorts of how I am getting on with the pain management.

I've been struggling with bad headaches/migraines for the last few weeks, and difficulty with focussing on any task on hand as a result of the new medication which seems to be plaguing me with side effects that don't want to wear off.  The headaches started when I started the medication on 25th November and have got progressively worse since increasing the dosage on 8th December.  The side effects include clenching of the jaw, tiredness, but not being able to sleep very well at night, no motivation, as well as my vision being blurry at times.  Is it helping the pain?  Difficult to say as I'm not really wanting to do much, sleeping a lot of the time, doing some reading and a little knitting.  My arm still hurts, but not as bad as sometimes, but then as I said I'm not really doing anything.  So time will tell.  I really want to come of the Cymbalta/Duloxetine, but suppose I ought to give it a bit longer yet.  I will speak to my consultant  at the Pain Management Clinic on Friday when I go for my Lidocaine Infusion to see what he says.