Dr Who?.....................

 

As many of my blog readers are aware, I am Jo........................the daughter, sister, friend, colleague....................and I also have Bipolar Affective Disorder. Many of you will know the word Bipolar, but many of you will not fully understand the repercussions of this illness, not only for me, my family and friends, but for the millions of other sufferers out there.

Sometimes my life is like this...................................

but I want it to feel like this .........................................


My journey began about 12 years ago, and you can read more on my separate page if you wish. It has been a rocky journey, full of many ups and downs, many downs I might add. I have been on medication all that time but it is only in the past 8 months that I have been prescribed Lithium, a drug which has significantly altered my moods. In fact it has been a life saver. I have been very fortunate to have support from my psychiatrist and Psychiatric nurse along the way and over the past 4 months I have also been having Cognitive Behavioural therapy, which has been an amazing experience.

My reasons for writing this little post are that sometimes I feel still that there is little understanding of my disorder and depression as a whole. I am not alone. 1in 4 people suffer from a mental health condition and many suffer in silence and fear, because they feel their life will never be the same if they tell anyone. I am often told by people to not disclose my health problem, however I do not wish to be ashamed of it, I want it to be part of who I am not to run my life. However I am only too aware that when I have a depressive episode I am run by my Bipolar.

Having had CBT, I have worked really well together. I have felt listened for the first time in my life and that she actually got me. I am a complex person and have many issues I won't divulge here, but I am also someone who just wants to share her experiences and gain understanding of how that has led me here today. Yesterday we said goodbye. It was a positive goodbye. I know I can build on what I have learned and I am more aware of myself than I have ever been. I now feel I can move forward in a different way and I hope deal with my next depressive episode, because it will come, in a more proactive way.

Thank you for reading and have a great day...........................

10 things on the tenth............

So I am still full of this horrid virus. This morning I left the flat to see the Dr. Now I am on Lithium for the Bipolar I can't take alot of drugs so all she was able to give me was a decongestant. So lets hope it starts working cos being sickly is making me tired.

Anyway on a lighter and less mucousy note, today is the 10th of the month and so we join the rather glittery Shimelle to share ten random things with you. I wasn't sure what to share today, bearing in mind the sickness so I have been really pathetic and decided to share 10 TV shows I love.............
They are in no order of preference so here goes.............

Being Human.................the best horror/comedy show on BBC3 ever. I have watched it since series one and the most recent season saw alot of changes of the key actors had moved on or were in the process of moving on. Surfice to say, there was some fan concern but the new cast members and the stories have been strong and so this series was as great as the last 3.

Homeland.......................I am still on catch-up but this US drama starring our own Damian Lewis and the lovely Claire Danes is a cool thriller on Channel 4. It charts the story of a US POW rescued after 8 years in Iraqi captivity returning to the USA. Claire Danes plays a CIA operative who thinks he has been turned into a Sleeper agent for Al Queida. It is clever and twists faster than a Z-bend around Snowdon.

CSI Las VEGAS.....................by far the superior of the three shows in the CSI family.

CSI- New York..................ok,ok but it has Gary Sinise...................what more can you ask for in a TV programme.

Bones..................I love this programme about the early life of Temperence Brennan. Kathy Reichs is her creator and I love bother her novels and the series. The stories are quirky and the detail exceptional.

Dr Who.......................... oh come on do you really have to ask why? I mean Daleks, River Song and The Dr. Cool or what?

 The Big Bang Theory....................... the funniest group of science nerds ever. I love Sheldon who is so off the world but super clever. The comedy is really funny and the stories never tire. I could watch the episode with Sheldon's million and one cats again and again.

The Mentalist...................... another crime drama from the US but with a different slant. The main character uses his psychological dexterity and showmanship to figure out who done it. The main badly Red John remains at large and we await his next dastardly deed.

Silent Witness................................I've watched this since Amanda Redman led the cast but I do enjoy the trio of Leo, Harry and Nikki. Each week there is a new story and ok they get over involved in the case and annoy the police but it's a drama.

Sherlock........................well Benedict Cumberbatch is very pretty and the scripts are so clever. Being as how the writers are also the writers for Dr Who it couldn't fail. We're all dying for Benedict and Martin to stop at playing at being Hobbits and dragons and get back to telling us how Sherlock didn't die in his Reichenbach Fall. I've got my ideas. How about you?

Anyway do you have time to watch any of these shows or do you have some of your own faves to share with me? Do tell.

Easter Blessings.

Today being Easter Sunday I am sending you Easter blessings. Perhaps you will have been doing some of this today.............

Also I am sure many of you will be doing this..............

As for me I am still battling this awful virus so I am keeping away from family/friends to prevent cross-contamination.

Anyway I am expecting some choccies and perhaps a meal on a plate to be passed through my window later today.......................

Sian's photo questions answered.

Just wanted to say a GREAT BIG THANK YOU for taking part in Operation Speak Out yesterday. I spent about an hour or so commenting on as many blogs as I could and I hope you all received lots of comments too.

Yesterday, the rather clever Sian had two blogposts, one on her own blog and one on Leo's for Quirky Kits. Hopefully she got twice as many comments too, hee hee. Anyway she was presenting a LO using a kit from Leo's shop called Photo Op  and posed the following questions which I thought would be fun to answer:

 So you could think about other photo-related musings:-

- If you could only save one photo from all the hundreds you have, if everything else disappeared, which photo would that be?
I would save the one taken when I started nurse training at The London Hospital back in 1984. I loved how I was photographed as I'm not that photogenic and I looooooved the uniform and that no longer exists I'm sad to say. 

 

 - If you could go back in time and take a photo you didn't have, what photo would that be?

I would have a photo taken of the first boy I kissed at school and had a huge crush on as he was very good looking and I could prove someone gorgeous actually fancied me back.

- Have you had a favourite camera over the years? Did your family take lots of pictures when you were growing up?

I haven't had a fave camera but I own three now. I have a Lomography camera which I haven't used much yet, my dad's old Pentax and the one I use everyday my Kodak digital point and shoot. And of course my phone..........

- How many photos do you take every month?

I sometimes take 100s but usually about 50-100 depending upon what's happening and some of those I'll use just for this blog and then delete.

- How do you feel about phone photos? (I think I'll be coming back to that one myself)

I like taking camera pictures especially unusual ones using different apps such as Hipstamatic and Photostitcher where you take 8-9 pictures and the app stitches them together to make a panorama style picture.

Or something even harder - what if photography hadn't been invented?

- We wouldn't see ourselves getting older

- We wouldn't be able to see if we had inherited any family likenesses

- But we'd remember anyway. Wouldn't we? What do you think? Could there be a layout in that?

I would hope I could find a creative means of remembering. I'd hope I had been given the gift or painting or perhaps make those silhouettes or cameos.


So now it's your turn. Could you answer these questions? And what would you do to remember if there were no photography?

Jo Jo xxx

Operation Speak Out.................

So unless you have been hiding your head in the sand or under a pillow, you will have seen some posts in blogland talking about today as ''Operation Speak Out''.

Now we are not expecting you all to go to Speaker's Corner in London and start declaring your personal thoughts on the state of the world in general, no all we are asking is that as people who love blogging and reading blogs, we engage in a day of trying to leave comments for every post we read. That's right EVERY post we read.

This is the brainchild of the very brainy Abi from Creating Paper Dreams so if you would like to read about her idea hop on over to this post from last week. It is a wonderful thing to be able to share your thoughts and ideas whether on crafting, life or whatever in blogland and even better to hear what other people think. So today if you can do leave even a short comment on all the blogposts you read and let's share the love of blogging to everyone. It will be lovely to hear some new voices out there who may not leave a comment. It would also be great to turn off that weird lil are you a robot confirmation box today too, just a thought, as if ur like me it can be a tad confusing working out the letters on the screen................ooh does that make me a robot?

And if u still haven't got the point here is some musical fun for you guys......





Actually don't reply to that, heehee. Happy blogging today and let's make those comment boxes heave with words

It's ''owl''related.....................

Thank you all so much for your feedback on yesterday's post both here and on Facebook. All very interesting reading.
So today I thought I would a little owl love. As the post title suggests and you may/may not know if you're a regular visitor I dooooooo love the owl. I love the pictures, softies, crocheted, washi taped lil critters and my favourite is the most famous owl of them all ''Wol'' from Pooh.

My fave blog for all tings owl related is The Owl Barn and it just so happens they are having a giveaway this weekend for a bundle of lovely owlie fat quarters and an owl stamp. I have left my comment and they have directed me to a rather fab new site for this company called ''modeS4u''. They have a wide array of all things quirky and unusual which they sell internationally. I am in love with their Washi tape already. Take a look at this roll of butterfly loveliness.......

this owl button......................

and some fetching owl fabric................

In my travels recently I have picked a few owl pieces as well. This lovely handmade tile is from a workshop here in Wells which Lizzie and I visited when she and the family came for the day.It's called Blackdog of Wells. This was actually purchased in the new Bishop's Palace shop and is The Owl and the Pussycat................

The other thing I recently sent away for is this book from Etsy which is called Owl Know How by Cat Rabbit and Isobel Knowles what cool names .............

I received a lovely email from Julie giving me a link to a website where they talked about this children's story and I found the book through abit more delving. Can't wait to see what the story is all about. It has a pattern for making your own owl so how could I refuse? I will tell more when it arrives.

So that's it for today, oh yes but don't forget tomorrow is Operation Speak Out day with Abi. Don't forget to leave comments on all the blogposts you read and let's show the love to our fellow bloggers out there,

Jo Jo xxxx

Changes at blogger.

So did anyone else think ''Oh no!!!'' when the message kept coming up on blogger saying ''In April we will be upgrading''? No, well I did. The last few times Blogger has done stuff the sites have kept crashing and it has caused problems with uploading posts and pictures for example. Anyway I have been pleasantly surprised by the changes, which initially appearing simple, have given a better insight into my blog traffic particularly.
Did anyone else take Shimelle's 2 classes on blogging? Well I did and in the second classes she went through the whole process of talking us through using our blog statistics using Google. It was fascinating to see where people were visiting from......................my visitors are primarily from America, Canada, UK and Australia, but there are the odd unusual countries like Russia and Asia too. Not that they are unusual countries per se but that I never thought I would have visitors from there. There are cool graphs of how many visitors you get each day, where from, and pretty piecharts.

So the changes to blogger have meant that you can now see all your statistics with your blog page and don't need to hop and skip across the blogosphere looking for another site. One place this has been really interesting is in the comments section. In the old days it just showed how many comments you had received, now there is also a lovely number showing you how many people have actually visited as well but not commented. Now I love a good comment and I do try to comment on each blog I visit cos I feel if you visit someone you should at least send a thank you card as it were. So it is lovely to see that a lot of people do come and visit even if they don't leave feedback.
Now this links very neatly into a little advert for the lovely Abi at ''Creating Paper Dreams''. She wrote last week on this subject specifically and about this Thursday having a bloghop of sorts where everyone makes a BIG commitment to commenting on the blogs they visit. She is calling it Operation Speak Out.......So here is a link to her post for you to read.