Cupcakes and Cadenzas

This morning I woke up with a pain in my left shoulder. It was a dull ache and there was a band of tightness right round my arm just below the shoulder. When I sat up I realised I couldn't lift my arm more than a few inches. My first thought was that I had been lying on it during the night. My OH at this point had different ideas and was making unhelpful comments such as 'Maybe you're having a heart attack...or a stroke! It can happen at any age you know!' I gave him one of my withering looks as slowly it began to dawn on me just what had happened. I have had the same pain twice in the past and the cause of it was...my handbag. The first time I had it was several years ago. I went to see the doctor and, once I had described my symptoms to him, he leant over, picked up - no - struggled to lift my overflowing hand bag from the floor and told me he was pretty sure he knew what the problem was. The same thing happened again a few years later with a different handbag.

I thought today I would give you a quick update on how I'm doing with my '2012 Reading Challenge'. My aim was to read 50 books this year and so far I have managed...a pathetic...14. According to Goodreads that means that I am at 26% of my challenge when, at this point I should be at 56%. Ooops! So from today I'm really getting my reading head on. My problem is that I do all my reading in my bed at night but I have to confess to being a bit of a night owl and I usually stay up into the wee, small hours tweeting on Twitter or catching up with my two favourite soaps, Emmerdale and Coronation Street, which I never seem to manage to see at the scheduled times. Then of course, when I do get to bed, I'm too tired to read. It's not as if there's a shortage of reading material either. I currently have...wait for it...57 books on my Kindle and 12 'paper' books all waiting to be read. I've even started carrying my Kindle everywhere with me in the ho

I have been on a quest to find my 'mojo' because, for the last few months, I seem to have lost it. ( To be honest I had no idea what 'losing your mojo' meant and I had to look it up but now that I know what it is, it sounds about right). Since just after Christmas I have found everything to be a bit of a struggle and I have really lacked motivation. I have been cutting back on my teaching and coaching to allow me to get on with other projects but, despite having more time, I have struggled to do anything with it. I haven't done anything with my craft business since March, I'm almost at a standstill with my blogging and I feel all Twittered and Facebooked out. The other thing I have done less and less of is exercise and that's primarily what this post is about. I used to be very active. I danced, ran, cycled, competed on my horses, took my dogs for long, long walks and went to the gym 5 times a week but gradually, really since moving to the North East o

Earlier today the unthinkable happened and, to be honest, I never expected this day to come although I'm sure many have wished for it for a long time, especially my long-suffering OH. Someone has managed to temporarily silence me. I can't speak and, even worse, I can hardly eat although I have been assured that it is only temporary and things should be back to normal within a couple of days. Phew! So, who managed to succeed where others have tried and failed?  MY DENTIST! Somehow, whilst preparing a back tooth for a crown, he...wait for it...managed to...drill my tongue!! I didn't actually feel it happening because of the anaesthetic but I knew something was wrong when it went quiet and then I saw him and the nurse looking at each other over their masks. He then started to apologise and explain how there had been a bit of a problem and how occasionally dentists can catch their patients' tongues with the drill... Then he began to pack my mouth with gau