Water Fluoridation

So Southampton City Primary Care Trust have voted unamously to allow fluoride to be put into the water supply of Southampton and the sourrounding areas (including where we live). I am disgusted with the decision. Like many other people I wrote to the papers and took part in the 'consulation' stating my opposition to the proposal. 72% of repondees agreed with me and they still pushed it through. My reasons for objecting are as follows:-

Many countries who have had fluoridation are now stopping it because of health concerns

Why put something in the water supply that has an unproven benefit to a small percentage of the populas (ie young children's dental heath). Parents are responsible for making sure their children clean their teeth properly - so provide better education and offer flouride tablets - if parents want to take this risk then at least they have a choice!

There are plently of studies to show that there may be detrimental affects to health partiularly for elderly people with their bone health

Some people will find their teeth will discolour if fluoride is added to the supply -Nice!

Finally, I believe that clean untampered with water (an essential element of life after all) should be the right of everyone in this country. How dare the PCT ignore the vast majority of public opinion.

In this household I will be buying bottled water which will be expensive and totally unenvironmentally friendly.

This is one of the many comments on the web concerning this issue (extracted from a response to an article in the Telegraph):-

"Ok. First things first. Sodium Fluoride is toxic waste scraped from factory chimneys after a process involving Aluminium.

True it was used in WW2 prison camps to keep the prisoners docile (New Labour will love that). Also used in gulags in soviet Russia for the same reasons. It is the prime ingredient of Prozac.

It is a soporific. The population drinking this water will likely be quite docile.

If that hasn't put anyone off Fluoridation, here are some more facts.

Tests have been conducted in the US. Sodium Fluoride was found to cause Brittle bones. Too, in two out of three tests conducted teeth fared badly in cases where fluoride was used. So much for the governments excuses. It is also postulated that Sodium fluoride is carcinogenic, and likely to cause dementia. Perhaps the decision to use this toxic waste as a means of control was taken by politicians with shares in bottled water plants.

The answer is to buy and fit a reverse osmosis filter. Not cheap at around £250.00 but better than being dopey and drugged. Caveat. Only this type of filter will remove sodium fluoride. Ordinary filters will not remove it."

Better Day but Hungry Day

Well,it has to be said today was a better day than yesterday although I am dog tired. Yawn...............

The tension from yesterday was present at work for the first few hours but after that myself and the other party (both without saying anything about yesterday) started to relax and act as we normally would. I think we both realised that keeping up the 'miffed' attitude we were both displaying was just going to make for a horrid day and life's too short...... I still haven't forgotten it but being angry is so damn draining and it's just not worth it.

Saying that, I'm so glad to be home and after doing a bit of housework I'm chilling out whilst watching the latest episode of Damages and trying to take my mind off of food. I started a new diet regime yesterday (one of Rosemary Conley's 28 day plans which I've done before with some success). Yesterday I sailed through the day and wasn't really hungry but today I'm starving - I know it's just my body adjusting but the first few days are pretty hard. Lunch was one salad sandwich and, believe me, by 4.00pm I could have eaten a horse! I haven't cheated yet though and can't wait for Peter to get home so I can have my evening meal - hurry up Peter!

A day of good and bad things....

Absolutely crappy drive into work this morning, got stuck behind every slow moving vehicle possible and the garage I went to for petrol has not only changed hands (so unable to use the money off voucher I had) but is also half being dug up so only 4 cars at a time could use the pumps which delayed me even further.

Work was also terrible - I'm doing several quite tricky things at the moment which involve lots of input from others so what I don't need is someone criticising what I am doing and saying they were 'annoyed' I hadn't delayed what I was doing to get their opinion first, when I am being pressurised from all sides to get things finished. I don't need it, it was uncalled for, and it has made me seethe for the rest of the day. I don't often let things get to me but when they do, boy do they get to me and I know I will brood on it for ages and I won't forget it in a hurry.

Anyway, the end of the day was much better. I met two lovely friends in Costa Coffee and we had an uplifting chat (and I avoided talking about work altogether). Friend number one is going to be a grandmother and friend number two is filling her life with lots of socialising and bought me a lovely hyacinth plant which was a lovely thought. It did me loads of good to see them both.

This evening I will catch up with some Internet stuff and have a rejuvenating early night.

Frogs and Millionaires

Wow what a beautiful weekend it's been, so spring like and yesterday I even sat outside for a bit and read my book. The frogs in our garden seem to thinks it's spring anyway and are doing rude things in our pond.

This morning we went to Southampton and saw the earliest performance of the day of 'Slumdog Millionaire'. It was great, I really enjoyed it and it was much 'darker' than I'd been led to believe. Peter was a bit concerned that I'd not only smuggled in our popcorn but also a couple of cans of coke; in my defence, if cinemas priced their products more reasonably I'd be more than happy to purchase in-house but when you can buy a bag of Revels in Tesco for about 90p and cinemas charge £2.50 it's just crazy pricing and makes people feel ripped off.

The cinema is situated right opposite a brand new IKEA which has only been open for about a week (previously the nearest to us would have been Bristol). People are going mad for it and at 10.45am (given that the store opened at 11.00am) their 900 space car park was almost full. We decided to have a look around when things have calmed down a bit.

This afternoon I've been reading and generally relaxing.

This evening we'll be catching up with Nature's Great Events (David Attenborough's new programme) and watching the Canadian salmon fishing bears which are a feature this week.

Bad Heads & Plenty of Zzzzzz's

Had a lovely drive into work this morning - I set off half an earlier than normal and the roads were beautifully quiet and there was quite a bit of fog - just enough to make everything look mysterious. My music of choice in the car at the moment is the album 'Raising Sand' by Robert Plant (he of Lead Zeppelin) and Diana Krass (American bluegrass country singer). A more unlikely pairing you couldn't dream up but it's one of those slow 'grown on you' albums and had I listened to it at 18 I would have called it 'dad music' but hey ho I suppose I've hit the middle age taste in music zone now.

Yesterday I had another blasting headache (I seem to get at least one a week at the moment). I went to see a friend after work, which I had been looking forward to, and sat on her sofa feeling worse and worse - I know when I start feeling nauseous as well as the headache it's time to get home and lie in a darkened room so I left a bit earlier than intended and did just that. I went to bed at 6.00pm and didn't get up until 12 hours later. Peter is off on a trip today so had to set the alarm for 3.30am so that was a bit of a jolt but I did manage to drop off to sleep again after a bit. This morning I am feeling better but not quite 100% - there's still lots of tension in my shoulders and neck and I can almost feel the headache in the background waiting to come back. I'm craving carbohydrates like mad too - don't know if that's linked or not.

Today at work is the big tidy up so I have dressed like a scruff bag (which is my clothing of choice at home) in readiness for my colleague to come in so we can start moving stuff around and throwing lots of paper out hopefully. We were joking that we would bring in throws for our guest chair and introduce mood lighting but I think that might be a step too far......

This is my favourite joke of the week:-

Question: What is the most common owl in the UK?
Answer - The Teet Owl
(T-Towel) - get it?

I Love a Good Drama

It's like a ghost ship at work this week, with it being half term. The roads are clear getting to and from work, there is loads of room in the car park each morning and the phones are as quiet as a mouse, oh if only it was like that every day.

I watched the last episode of 'Whitechapel'last night, it was brilliant; at the very end (when the Police had ended up in wrong flat whilst the victim was being attacked nearby), I found I was actually holding my breath - what a sign of a good drama - such a shame there isn't more like it around. Although the wonderful 'Damages' is back on BBC1 so that's something - Glen Close is excellent and it's so utterly cut throat and wicked and I love her new hair cut (not that that's relevant!).

Talking of hair, the few grey hairs that have been in my fringe for a while now are turning into a bit of a clump - arhhhhhh (pass the hair dye!). Not really, can't stand the stuff I think I'd rather go grey gracefully.....

This evening I have an evening of reading planned and trying to get warm - I've had cold hands and feet all day even thought the temperature has gone up - weird.

Family Day

We had a lovely day today. We went over to my parents (my brother and his family were also visiting) and took my mum to lunch in celebration of her birthday yesterday. We are not a family that eats out a lot so it was a real treat and the food was delicious. Much to my surprise the place was packed out, I really thought that we might be the only ones there because of these recessionary times but, no, it appears there is still some money sloshing around in Hampshire after all.

After lunch we went back to my parents' place, which is within walking distance, and watched a film with the kids.

My dad is selling off some of his old tools from his shed so myself and my borther are going to try and sell them for him on Ebay.

Coincidentally both myself and my brother's wife had made a cake for tea so of course most of us sampled both :-).

Oh and a funny thing happened involving Peter and a sock but I'll let him blog about that.

Then it was home to flop in front of Dancing on Ice (not so much fun now that Todd has been voted out) and I had hoped to watch 'Being Human' but my eyes just wouldn't stay open for that long and Monday morning's alarm went off way too soon.........

Valentines Day

Had a really nice valentine's gift from Peter this morning. It's a new card for my Nintendo DS and on this card are 100 complete novels ranging from Shakespeare to Moby Dick. It's just amazing what can be crammed onto a card the side of a postage stamp these days!

It's mum's birthday today so this morning I made her a birthday cake - a strawberry sponge with butter cream icing on top and decorate with chocolate hearts. We are seeing her tomorrow with my brother and his family so I'll give it to her then.

I picked Peter up from the station after football and then we came home to have a Chinese followed by a GU cheesecake - delicious.

A good day.

Sounds of the Underground

Today my colleague and I went in search of the College's 'furniture store' a mythical place only a few have visited! First we had to get the keys and then were escorted to said store by a lady from Premises. The store is in the basement of one of our moderner buildings but that didn't make it any less spooky; after getting through the metal door we walked past a line of cages containing various tools(Hannibal Lecter would have felt at home in them I felt), then through another locked door and into a huge concrete lined room full of furniture - this room led to another huge room and off of the second room was a big hole in the wall - through the hole was another room which was filled 3/4's full with dirt, rubble and suchlike and there the underground system ended. Above the rubble room we could hear the sounds of people walking overhead - after we'd escaped (having chosen a bookcase) I thought what a great setting it would be for a crime novel, anything could happen down there!!!

Back to the real world and it's been an ok day at work generally, afterwards I called into the local Tesco garage to put the car through the car wash (taking care not to select the dry option as, as I've blogged before, the drier doesn't recognise our shape of car and just goes up and down in front of it!). I also bought a few foodie treats for valentines night in the form of chocolate. When Peter got home he also produced some foodie treats (great minds and all that!).

As Peter was home an hour earlier than usual, and it was still light, we sat in the conservatory and had our evening nosh looking out at the garden - maybe spring is coming after all........

Ice Cream Overdose

Watched a tape of the wonderful 'Whitechapel' this evening - I'm so enjoying it and I fear will come to an end all too soon.

As I forgot to take any lunch into work today I was ravenous when I got home and raided the fridge which meant that I didn't want to have any tea when Peter got home. However, I did manage a huge portion of Tate and Lyle treacle pudding ice cream which was divine but we both felt a bit sick afterwards.

I'm still ploughing through The Moonstone and I am enjoying but the text is so small I can be reading for an hour but hardly moving over any pages!

I paid a year of the dreaded road tax today - I usually just buy half a year but I'm sick of paying an extra £20 for that privilege so I've scraped together the whole amount this time.

I entered a few competitions today, one was to win a weekend away and the other £40k to pay part of the winner's mortgage - now that would be nice.....

Sunday Situations

We lounged around in bed this morning thinking to ourselves that there wasn't really anything to rush out of bed for.

I came downstairs and immediately noticed the damp smell that I detected yesterday was still around. After some exploration yesterday, I'd put it down to me probably sploshing too much water on the floor when I was doing the hand washing. Today though I decided to check around where the boiler pump is located (behind our fridge would you believe). Anyway, there it was a fast drip/trickle coming from one of the valves on one of the pipes.

My good old dad came out to help us with it during the afternoon as, although we had a wrench it wasn't large enough to undo the valves and dad, being an ex plumber, has everything. Mum came out too and so did my newly bereaved uncle, so it was nice to have a chat with him. I made a mental note to call in on him when we are in his area.

Dad fixed the pipe in no time and we had a cup of tea whilst our friendly neighbourhood squirrel did his best to entertain everyone. My uncle commented that he was fatter than the average squirrel - well, he would be, says Peter as he eats all our bird food.

We told my parents about the washing machine breaking down and they suggested we take the back off to see if the belt had slipped. Once my folks had departed Peter did so and, sure enough, it was the belt and he's now got it functioning - it's still on it's last legs I think but it may keep going for a while which will enable us to pay off the bill for the dish washer which is a relief. I've been on to the supplier and cancelled our order for a new machine; so sorry Hotpoint we won't be helping your company through these lean recession times just yet.

This evening we are going to chill in front of Dancing on Ice - we can't miss the hilarious Todd Carty after all.

It's raining here at the moment but I'm a bit concerned that we might get more snow next week as the forecast said they could be a 'snow storm' heading our way from Monday afternoon - yikes!

Much Hand Wringing

Peter got the chance of a bit of overtime today so he headed out of the house early and he's going to football afterwards.

As our washning machine is caput and it could take up to a week and a half for the new one to arrive (god knows why - I thought companies would have them stock piled high in this economic climate) I've been doing loads of hand washing. I'm glad I didn't live in the olden days, it's a little harder than just shoving it in the machine - especially trying to wring the stuff out to a dry enough state to hang up. Needless to say I approached P's socks at arms length and used a stick to stir then around the sink (only joking! I can already feel the punch in the arm I'm going to get later for that).

This afternoon I've planted some snowdrops which were kindly donated by my parents. When my parents 'downsize' I fear they won't be acting as the freebie garden centre that they are at the moment,they have given us so many plants and cuttings.

As there was absolutely nothing on the box this evening (Midsomer Murders didn't start until almost 9pm and there's no way I can stay awake until 11) we read books and played computer games.

More Snow & Apology to Keith

The week ended, as it had started, with more snow. The drive in was fine and my colleague made it in from her direction too. The forecast was to expect a bit of sleet and that was about it.

However, by about 11 O'clock the white stuff had started to come down thick and fast and the student bus companies started to ring in to say they would have to collect the students straight away or risk not being able to get in. So it was all systems go and staff and students were allowed to 'evacuate' from 1.10pm.

I left at about 1.30pm and things were pretty hazardous in the immediate area but after that it was ok.

Once home I did a few hours housework and then worked online until around 6.30pm and got through the same amount of work that I would have done had I been in work so that was cool.

However, there was one casualty of the days' confusion. I had taken my 'brother in law to be's' birthday card into work to post and I've stupidly left it in the 'post out' tray, so sorry Keith you won't get it until Tuesday :-(. Hope you have a happy day on Monday anyway and hope you are doing something nice.

This weekend I have a quiet weekend of pottering planned.

Back At Work

What with the snow and the funeral this week, today was my first day at work this week so all day I was in 'Monday mode' and kept being surprised by non Monday things cropping up in the diary.

The drive into work was blissfully free of snow, ice and stress! How wonderful to feel safe on the journey in again. However, heavy snow is forecast for tonight so I am praying there isn't going to be hassle tomorrow.

At lunchtime today I surfed the net for somewhere to take my mum on her birthday next weekend. My brother is coming up again so it will be nice to drag her away from the kitchen and treat her and my dad to a meal out.

Late last night our washing machine gave up the ghost - waters going in but nothing's spinning which is sort of essential in the wash process I think. So that's a new dishwaster and washing machine purchase required already this year - oh dear.

This evening I 'made' pizza from scratch, mixed the dough, let it prove and put on the topping. God it was delicious - what a difference to shop bought - oh dear I fear I have made a rod for my own back and nothing else will do from now on.

My cold has really set in today - I don't think I've ever had such forceful sneezing fits - quite alarming but, touch wood, the on-off headache I've had since Monday finally seems to have lifted.

Sorry for rather 'random' fragmented blog - it's been that sort of week.

A Sad Day, A Coming Together Day

Today was my aunt's funeral. There was a thanksgiving service in church, followed by a cremation in the crematorium and then the wake. Peter, myself and my brother, and his family, just went to the church element and the wake. The church service was very moving and started with the Coldplay track 'The Scientist' which I've always felt to be one of the most moving songs ever.

Come Up To Meet You
Tell You I'm Sorry
You Don't Know How Lovely You Are
I Had To Find You
Tell You I Need You
Tell You I Set You Apart
Tell Me Your Secrets
And Ask Me Your Questions
Oh Let's Go Back To The Start
Running In Circles
Coming In Tails
Heads Are A Science Apart

Nobody Said It Was Easy
It's Such A Shame For Us To Part
Nobody Said It Was Easy
No One Ever Said It Would Be This Hard
Oh Take Me Back To The Start

I Was Just Guessing
At Numbers And Figures
Pulling The Puzzles Apart
Questions Of Science
Science And Progress
Could Not Speak As Loud As My Heart
Tell Me You Love Me
Come Back And Haunt Me
Oh When I Rush To The Start
Running In Circles
Chasing Tails
Coming Back As We Are

Nobody Said It Was Easy
Oh It's Such A Shame For Us To Part
Nobody Said It Was Easy
No One Ever Said It Would Be So Hard
I'm Going Back To The Start.

The hymns chosen by my uncle and family were uplifting, and ones that everyone knew.

Marion's sons gave a reading (how do people do that? I just know I wouldn't have the strength or control in their position).

Wakes are strange things aren't they? One feels that things should still be sombre but with family and friends around (that most people probably hasn't seen since the last funeral, wedding or christening) and with children running about, oblivious to the occasion, everyone does end up chatting and smiling and remembering past family things.

At the church service everyone was given a little card to complete to say they had been there and asked to write a message if they wished, I put that I had never seen Marion without a smile on her face - which was true; I know she would have heartelly approved of how her husband, sons and step daughters celebrated her life and bore their grief on the day.

Another Day of Home Working

This morning all staff were told to check their email at 6.00am to see if our place of work was open. I was up at 5.45am with my email account open and an email pinged in at about 6.15 am saying we were open as usual and the sub-text was everyone was expected to make the effort to get in.

I decided to wait until it was a least light and set off even though there had been another 2 inches of snow lying on top of the icy slush. Once on the motorway, things got scary and all three lanes were starting to get snow packed down on them. I crawled along, fully intending to carry on, only to see a car a few lengths ahead of me spin out of control and land on the verge - still intact thank goodness. That was enough for me and I crept up to the next junction, came off the motorway and turned around and headed home.

My colleague soldiered in from her home, coming in the opposite direction to me, and emailed me to see it had been a terrible journey and she was shaking and in tears by the time she got to work as it had been so traumatic and she had been so relieved to get there with her car and herself in one piece.

Anyway, here at home, the weather has done everything today; there's been thick snow, hailstones, sleat, periods of sunshine and now rain - very very changeable. Peter and I have been homeworking again today as his trains still weren't functioning today either(wherever they were abadoned yesterday means they are envariably in the wrong place for today so it takes a day for them to get fully sorted out again).

I've been feeling a bit 'off' all week and can't seem to shake a background headache and a wheezy chest - nothing serious and I can still function but I just don't feel right.

It's my aunts funeral tomorrow so I'm hoping the journey to a rather outlying village will be ok, that my brother will be able to travel down from Bristol safely and that I'll be feeling a bit more like 'me'.

Not much I fancy on box this evening I fear, I did catch the wonderful 'Whitechapel' from last night which was right up my street - wonderful stuff.

Im enjoying my latest book, Wilkie Collins the Moonstone but haven't really picked it up the last couple of days as the font size is tiny and it wouldn't help my headache - can't wait to get another good read in though.

The More It Snows Tiddley Pom

We were both awake early this morning, I guess because we were both apprehensive about having to travel into work in the snow. At 5.30am it was clear that there was about 5inches of snow outside and it was still falling. Peter could find nothing on the web, TV or on the text messenging service about whether his train was running (typical, when you really need accurate and up to date information it's not available). So off he went on foot to the station whilst I got ready for work and checked my emails to make sure there was nothing about the College being closed.

Just as I was about to leave I got a text from Peter to say his train was cancelled so he was heading home.

I turned on the local radio station and decided to take the motorway route as far as I could towards work as at least that would be gritted. The M3 was nose to tail and I inched along for about an hour - all the while listening to the radio for the list of school and college closures - no mention of my place of work. Came off the motorway and immediately the roads were lethal - had three 'hairy' moments as I approached junctions, and felt the car sliding under me, but finally made it to the road leading to work at about 9 O'clock - 1 hr and 15 minutes late!

At the entrance to the road two employees were stopping people and advising that the College was closed. So having risked life and limb, and our car, to get into work I had to turn around and drive home again - I was NOT a happy bunny.

Once I got home safely I calmed down but lesson learnt for future occasions 'Don't Bravely Attempt to Go In' - plenty of people didn't even attempt it and I was a fool for even trying.

Anyway, luckily we are both able to log into our work emails and documents from home so all was not lost and it was pleasent being able to work and look out at the birds feeding in our snow covered garden.

Cauliflower Cheese and the Case of the Mysterious Moving Bowl

Well, I've finally finished reading 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher' which was a brilliant read. Although it's actually a factual account rather than a novel, it's very cleverly constructed so you feel like you are reading a story. Anyway, the murder case, upon which is is based,is riveting and had more suspects than you could shake a stick at.

My next book is 'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins; throughout 'Mr Whicher' there are references to Collins and Dickens who apparently drew on the murder case (which was hugely followed by the public at the time) when writing their novels - in particular, 'The Moonstone' and 'Bleak House'.

As it was so cold yesterday, and continues to be so, I put a china dish out on the grass which contained a tasty mix of lard and bird seed. This was to help out our friendly blackbird who we have been watching pitifully trying to act like a humming bird to feed from our hanging fat log. Anyway, this morning the quite heavy dish had moved quite a few metres across the grass. Hmmm, so what moved it? My bet is the fox we have seen a few times recently, otherwise it was a group effort by the local squirrels (I can just picture them grabbing a corner each and carrying it aloft').

This morning I made 18 portions of cauliflower cheese (a bit excessive I guess but they were for the freezer) I costed it out and they came out at about 90p a portion and the cheapest Asda sell them for is £1.58 so that's a pretty good saving I guess.

I caught the farming weather forecast this morning and although it looks like our area will avoid snow today, tomorrow it will be pretty much countrywide and we are on the cusp for Tuesday and Wednesday of where the weather map showed it sweeping in. Oh god, I just hate driving in snow.....