Tummy issues

Dear Reader,

I've got some kind of tummy issue which means I've been unable to eat properly yesterday and today. I did try eating some soup last night but it brought on a bit more pain when I ate the one that the Cowboy made because it actually had vegetables in it, whereas the 'cuppa soup' one was fairly harmless. And this morning I tried eating some porridge but then had a sharp pain in my tummy while sitting on the metro, which I had to disguise all the way to I.P.Pavlova. Thankfully, Paul's bakery do do peppermint tea so I was able to start sipping that before I started my meeting.

The Cowboy got angry with me last night that this kind of tummy ache isn't normal and I should do something about it. But sadly, I think he's wrong. This is what happens from time to time when you've got IBS. It's irritating for sure, but there's not a lot you can do about it except go on a fast and drink peppermint tea. And have naps with a hot water bottle and a good book. Maybe this is my body's way of giving me an excuse to stop pushing myself so hard. Maybe it just wants some cuddly time of watching House episodes and reading in bed, as I'd've loved to have had all on my own over Christmas and New Year, but couldn't because I was in a studio flat with nowhere to go while the Cowboy watched TV. I suppose the up side is I'll finally lose some weight after the gluttonous festive period... 

Maybe I'll even look more ballerina-like for the ballet photoshoot that a Mexican photographer wants me to do this weekend. (She cancelled last weekend due to having lost or had stolen her wallet.) I only have to sit in pointe shoes wearing a tight-fitting dress, so it's not like I have to be able to hold a difficult pose, which would certainly be impossible in my current state. It's funny how you've no idea how much you use your tummy muscles until you can't. Then you realise that even standing on the tube carrying a heavy bag requires tummy strength. Damn.

Still, at least I can take it easy a bit. Not too many meet-ees today and none yesterday in the end, so apart from a whole pile of admin to do, I can feasibly take it a bit easier today than I otherwise would. I had an article to write yesterday and a client survey response to draw up (which took hours) so I did have to get that done, but I can have a break today until the afternoon when I have to go back to Pankrác again. And tomorrow is a bit full-on really, unfortunately, so I'd better clear out my system today and stick to just peppermint tea again and hope that by tomorrow I might be back to normal. (Tummy-wise.)

I'm feeling quite tired now actually, so maybe I should call it a day now. I hope, dear reader, that your start to the new year has been pain-free and that the glooms of January haven't descended on you too heavily.

Love,

Your friend from the Edge of the Platform.X

A dull, damp day

It's one of those gloomy, damp days today in Prague and I seem to have developed a similarly glum, dull ache that would come from being left out in the damp.  Except I haven't even been out.  (Too much to do.)  I'm not managing to get anything done today though, partly due to persistent tummy ache, partly due to perpetual brain ache.  The brain ache is down to trying to do too much in one go.  Things like my accounts (major brain ache contributor) and organising my plans for a website and co-ordinating social network use to present my work with in the meantime take up too much head space.  I think I've had enough of business webinars and online tutorials.  

So I'm pulling back for a little while and getting some rest.  I might even read a book.  Eye-soreness permitting.   I have a list of books I'd like to get, but at the moment, things like travel insurance for our planned road trip and website investment have to come first.  I can't quite believe that either will become a reality, but I suppose they must somehow.  Flights are booked, the front page of my website is designed and a tender has been put out to recent new contacts in the Prague arts world to get me a suitable web designer to work with.  So it's all 'in the offing' as they say.  (Whoever 'they' are.)

There's just a pervasive sense of dullness on a day like today.  The sounds of the road are suddenly dreary and irritating.  The car horns actually offend my ears.  The  gentle shuffling sound of car wheels going over damp roads in sequences of short shifts allowed by the traffic lights infiltrate my softly throbbing head and I have to contemplate taking an aspirin.  I hate days like this.  I don't even know where it comes from, but I find myself having gone from an optimistic, "getting things done" kind of energy in recent days to a possibly hormonal sense of self-loathing and sheer boredom with who I am.  

I'm tired of being complicated.  I'm tired of never having a holiday in the sun.  I'm tired of struggling to afford things to enjoy and above all I'm tired of my repetitive thoughts and apparent shortcomings.  I wonder if everyone has this, or if this is a self-indulgent phase only ex-musicians and artists go through?

The only answer, I have concluded, is to listen to my inner child, pick up the spare duvet, wrap myself up in it and curl up to watch House re-runs with a sugary yoghurt and dark chocolate.  It might be nicer to snuggle up with someone else, but I am alone here, and the architect might not be feeling much love towards me today, because he doesn't always, and I might be better off enjoying the non-judgment that comes with doing this on my own.  And I'm not in the mood for sharing the chocolate anyhow.

Fantasy wish list and poverty monsters

I know it's terrible to just 'want' things.  Things you can survive without, but if you go without all of them all of the time, it's a bloody miserable existence.  Perhaps I should see this kind of need, the result of bankrupting myself due to music for so many long, pointless years, as some kind of entity.  Maybe if I call that entity 'Malcolm' or something 'totally made up by a 5 year-old'-sounding, such as 'muftystuffenslop' or 'megahoopylops' or 'stoneybrokasaurus', I could feel better about it.  I could just see it as a mass of horrible monster-ness that has no real power.

So here we go; in a bid to cast a spell over 'Malcolm' or 'Stoneybrokasaurus', I shall write my most tantalising, silly but nice and/or urgently needed wish list thoughts and hope that somehow at least one of them might simply appear in my life one day: 

1) A pair of jeans that actually fit well and look good on me.  (May as well put the most impossible thing first, eh?!)

2) A simple, red summer dress.  Something like a 50s shift dress made of cotton.

3) An electric guitar.  (I'm too furious with the world to play a keyboard and I can't have the Yamaha U2 I used to have, let alone the Yamaha C3 I'd love to have, let alone the Bösendorfer any-size-at-all I'd KILL to have, which would be preferable, but actually louder, causing me to be evicted forthwith.)

4) Some citrus-smelling shower gel (because small things make a difference too)

5) A tub of chocolate ice-cream (hell, even a magnum would do)

6) A flight to New York and a flat I could do a swap with for a few weeks

7) A new pair of black canvas ballet shoes (because the ones I do aerobics in are falling apart)

8) A good camera (or even just a good camera phone)

9) An external hard drive to back-up work to (boring, but could avert a major crisis one day)

10) A copy of the latest series of House on DVD (or in the meantime, the last series of ER that I never got to see before I left Blighty)*

I did almost put 'a three hour booking in a piano practice room' but I know that this would only break my heart, as I would wonder when I would EVER get to play a real piano again and I might have to kill myself there and then for having had to sell mine to try out a life that stood a chance of not finishing me off for good.

*(Note to FaerieGodmotherTrainee: this is NOT your job to fulfill, ok?!  I just needed to write a wish list.  I know you know how important little fantasy wish lists are.)

P.S. Does writing two posts in one day partially make-up for such a long absence and lack of regular posting lately?  Maybe just a little bit?