A&E Wasn’t On My To Do List Today…

I’ve known about my heart issues for a couple of years, and am used to the frequent palpitations, so when my ticker started feeling ‘unusual‘ at lunchtime I was a little concerned. I’m a firm believer in the adage ‘you know your own body’, and mine was decidedly not right, so when I also started feeling hot and cold and then giddy and faint I figured I needed to get myself seen asap.

Within 10 minutes I was getting into a taxi and 10 minutes after that I was in A&E, struggling to remember my address, shaking like a leaf and clearly looking like hell. All credit to the doctors and nurses at the hospital because I was fast-tracked through, having all manner of tests done until I finally conked out. Luckily, a nearby paramedic helped the nurse get me onto a trolley so I could be swiftly moved to a more appropriate examination area. Once hooked up to the machines I was eventually lucid enough to ring a friend, who spent the next 7 hours by my side.

After constant monitoring, endless blood pressure tests, an xray, and two extremely painful blood tests I was finally given the good news that I hadn’t had a heart attack and was given antibiotics for an infection before being allowed home. I’m very, very grateful to all of the doctors and nurses who, despite being busy, made sure that I was well looked after throughout. I’m also very thankful that I have such wonderful friends…

Keeping Up With New Trends…

It never ceases to amaze me how fast social media trends come and go. Long gone are the Myspace days and even Friends Reunited fell by the wayside, however, I’m trying my best to remain ‘in the loop’ as social media skills are highly transferable in the workplace nowadays.

I must admit, that conversations with my tech-savvy daughters about what’s currently in or out of favour is a bit like navigating your way around a foreign country with an extremely limited knowledge of the language, but I’m doing my best to keep up.

Alongside the essential Facebook and Twitter accounts, plus LinkedIn, Google+, Youtube, WordPress and Blogger, I recently found myself signing up for Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr. It’s now becoming so time-consuming updating everything that I’m having to use a social media management tool! On the bright side, that’s another new ability to add to my technical expertise…

Tumblr

Instagram

Pinterest

Indoor Gardening…

Since re-vamping my home over the last couple of years, including installing dozens of new house-plants, I’ve inadvertently created a lovely hobby for myself; indoor gardening. It’s amazing how these things can escalate, but if you buy a couple of spider plants here and some peace lilies there, before you know it you’re living in a fabulous jungle. What’s more, there’s something quite cathartic in snipping off the odd dead leaf here and there, and keeping everything looking luscious.

I used to have house-plants many years ago but life, family, work and so on got in the way of tending to them, and inevitably, as each one bit the dust I just didn’t bother to replace it. Now I have fewer distractions and have more disposable income to spend on the things I really enjoy, which means that not only does the house look green and fresh inside, thanks to the purifying qualities of plants the air I breathe is better too. It seems that the more I look after them, the more they look after me!