A nice mention for Maloney, stroppy characters and a hospital trip

Was really pleased to see that Maloney’s Law received a brief but nice mention on Scott Pack’s blog of 8 September – for which I’m very grateful indeed. Heck, with my sales record, I need all the mentions I can get. I also rather like being described as “genre-busting” – I now have a vision of myself sporting a brace of pistols, a whip and a determined expression leaping into action as I clatter away on the keyboard. Hmm, that’s probably enough to make everyone run to the hills indeed …

Anyway, today I have risen with the dawn and got into work at 8am (8am!! Lord preserve us!) so I can make up the hours for my hospital appointment this afternoon. Really, it’s astonishing that I remembered to brush my hair and look relatively normal. I hope no-one here is expecting intellectual rigour. I have none. At least not until 11am. And even then it only lasts five minutes.

And talking of time, the Dean suggests that we should build a time storage machine so we can squirrel away pockets of time until we need them. Sounds like a great idea to me – in fact I feel a novel coming on based on that wonderful premise, but I will endeavour to suppress it for the sake of world sanity.

Oh and this week’s heroes are Piers Brosnan (for singing in Mamma Mia even though he can’t sing – thus giving all of us permission to do things we enjoy but aren’t good at, hurrah!), Eleanor Simmonds (for getting a gold medal at the Paralympics at 13 years old), Charley Boorman (as Ruth and Carol have a soft spot for him) and my friend Pauline from Kent (for being herself).

This afternoon, I went to the Deaf Awareness seminar hosted by our Additional Learning Support office. Very interesting indeed, and highly useful, especially as we do have a fair amount of deaf students across campus. It took me back to my first round of university days, where I took notes for a deaf student on our English course. Funny how I’d all but forgotten that – though as it’s over twenty years ago now, I suppose I cannot be blamed. My, how the years fly by …

I had to slip away at the end of the course though in order to go to my hospital appointment at 4pm. I’m probably overestimating the time spent getting there, but I do soooo hate being late and having to rush to these places. Once there, I then have to find the gynaecological department, which if it’s anything like its name and function will be hidden away in a dark corner in the recesses of the hospital and almost impossible to find. I’ll take a torch and a compass and hope for the best, as they say. UPDATE: actually it's almost the first department you come to beyond the foyer so more fool me then. All in all, I was there for about two hours so at least they're thorough. The upshot is that (a) I'm now on stronger HRT - oestrogen patches as well as the gel - though they won't be delivered for the next couple of days so I have time to prepare; (b) they've put me on Metformin - the strong insulin drug - which apparently cures all ills and may even stop the onset of insulin-based dementia when I'm old. Something to look forward to then - though Lord preserve us but they probably think I'm pretty mad now ...; (c) I have to have a Laparoscopy with optional Oblation (which sounds charmingly Catholic but ... um ... isn't) sometime over the next two months. Always good to have something to look forward to in the run-up to Christmas, and now my diary is chock-a-block, m'dears!

Anyway, after that small series of traumas, I will be collapsing at home in front of the TV and looking forward to the next rollercoaster instalment of “Mutual Friends”. That Marc Warren is very good, I must say. I might also look briefly at Hallsfoot’s Battle, if only to ponder on the character of the stroppy cook, Jemelda, in Ralph’s fortified manor, whom I’ve just created. I think she’s what can be described as “tradition-busting” and even there I’m probably putting it mildly.

Today’s nice things:

1. Scott Pack’s mention of Maloney
2. Deaf awareness seminar
3. This week’s heroes
4. TV
5. Pondering on Hallsfoot’s stroppy new character.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website