Spooky Tales from Wales..

I get Halloween before you guys....

It's 7:15pm and so far I've had

3 witches
7 monsters
A cute dracula complete with dummy (pacifier)
4 faries
and numerous angels

Unfortunately both my girls are away so I havent dressed up anyone this year. Sadness

However, if you don't want Treak or Treaters this year, try this

Peaks and Troughs

Someone once said I should blog a typical day at work as my job sounds fascinating.
Kinda hard to do - there is no typical day. It depends if Im in charge or if I have patients, if its busy with sick patients or we are full of weaners and patients waiting for ward beds. It can change in days, hours, minutes even

Take this weekend..

Friday, we started off at 7am with 2 empty beds - by 8 we'd had 2 admissions. A woman bleeding out and a woman who'd fallen down the stairs, pneumothorax from broken ribs and ? spinal fractures. We also had a post op guy with pneumonia with hardly any lung space left who was struggling and a lady whose recently inserted stent in her right bronchus had moved. She kept coughing, we didnt like that - one enthusiastic cough and that stent could move two ways, up to block her airway or down straight into her heart..Finally we had 2 trachae weaners needing constant suctioning.

We didnt stop all day - by the end of the 12 hours we'd

Cleaned up gallons of blood, took her to endoscopy, prepped her for theatre then withdrew treatment on her when she refused to go.
Suctioned gallons of sputum - forgetting one time to put my visor on I deftly dodged a flying plug of thick green goo...
Blue lighted stent woman to Cardiff to have her chest opened
Took the post op guy to ITU for tubing (tubed and shipped - can't do a work blog without that!), just in the nick of time, he crashed as I got him through the doors.
I also dealt with a relly who fainted. Her mother had a chest drain inserted and she insisted on staying - bad idea. Mother was triple immobilised in bed so couldn't move or see. Good job really as Im bent over her unconscious daughter pissing myself laughing.

I had lunch at 4pm and 2 cold cups of tea



Today(Sunday)..

4 patients - 2 weaners still there, now wardable but ward wont take them as "they cant cope with trachaes". Bleeding lady miraculously still alive, stopped bleeding and sat up like queen mother - did I mention she's 92? And a chronic chest guy who could breathe better if he shut up for 5 minutes. So 4 wardable patients. I was in charge so no patients to look after.

So, we watched TV, drank gallons of tea and ate cake


Peaks and troughs, all or nothing, thats my job - and also the reason I have nothing else to blog about, working all weekend sucks

Guilty Pleasures

I have a need. It's like an itch I can't scratch. It consumes my everyday thoughts and I need more. It's a guilty pleasure that some understand but some frown on, it's even banned in some places.

It's been a while since the last time. I started late but after my first time I was hooked and quickly caught up. I know the whole having a baby thing put a stop to it for a while but it's no excuse, it's time to get going again. I need to have it hard in my hands, caressing it lovingly before I spend hours with it, gasping and squirming until the final crescendo

I need it,..
I want it...
I'm gagging for it...

I have to have it and soon.....

The last Harry Potter book!

Come on, I'm dying here. J.K must be nearly finished by now. I need to know if Harry survives. I need to discover if Snape is evil or good. I want to watch Malfoy and his twisted daddy get their come uppance. Is Dumbledore really dead? (I think not..)

And most of all, I need to know if Ron and Hermione get it together and make lots of little witches and wizards. They have to, I will be gutted if they don't...

Im not bothered by the movies, I can wait for them although I realise they have to churn them out at an alarming rate before Daniel and Rupert grow facial hair and Emma is deflowered by Brian

So please Ms Rowling, do us all a favour, get a nanny, sit down, and get on with it

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad Dream..

Im not a morning person. I stay up till the wee hours on a regular basis. I believe shift work has a lot to do with it.
But now I do days as well, I have to get up at 530am. I make myself go to bed earlier than usual but sleep fitfully and check the clock every half hour it seems.

Last night I had a dream. One of those half awake, half asleep dreams that seem so real.

I was led in a field and it was dark. And there were sheep. They were getting closer and closer but I couldn't move. Then one stood on top of me and I was scared shitless....

I woke up absolutely petrified to move, convinced there was a sheep stood on top of me and if I moved it would bite me. Gradually I came to and thought

"Silly cow, you're in bed, how is there a sheep stood on top of you?"

But still I was reluctant to move, just in case...

After about 15 minutes I plucked the courage up to move myself. And you know what? There wasn't a bloody sheep anywhere...

Im days again tomorrow and Im too scared to sheep, I mean sleep

What if it comes back?!?

1 Tequila, 2 tequila, 3 tequila, Floor..

I loathe country music so this is the only country record you will ever see on here, but I love tequila and maybe it just makes me lose my clothes..

Newport Wales

Ive been creative..

After watching Brian's Portland Video I decided to go look for any for my home town. There was nothing except some kids at the Skate Park. So, I made my own. This is the second version if you watched it earlier, I got rid of the blurry pics. The music is from a Newport band who take the mick out of rappers.

I Love my Computer because my Friends are in it...

I'm a internet addict, I admit it. But my argument that no-one says anything if you sit in front of the TV all evening usually shuts my critics up. Non internet sassy friends are fascinated with my on-line life. They ask about my friends now like I ask about their offline friends. Its part of me and who I am.

A new American survey suggests internet addiction is increasing.

More than one in eight adults in the US show signs of being addicted to the internet,

"Addicts" showed signs of compulsive internet use, habitually checking e-mail, websites and chat rooms.

They compare internet addiction to alcoholism and as a result, internet addiction clinics have sprung up around the world to try to wean people off their cyberspace fix. Last year, China opened its first clinic in Beijing

Bullshit...

It's entertainment. It's educational. It's a way of conversing with friends - it's progress. Sitting in
front of a monitor on IM with a webcam and headphones/mic allows you to converse with someone thousands of miles away - I mean, come on, how cool is that??
Years ago people had penpals, then they used the telephone, now we have Instant Messenger - and it's free!!
I also use mine for music, education, helping with kid's homework - it's endless but I admit my friends are the primary reason I come online

Anyway, in reading the article, I'm not classed as addicted because I don't hide my online time. So I'm ok. But what cracked me up was the profile of the typical internet addicted American...

A typical addict is a single, white college-educated male in his 30s, who spends more than 30 hours a week on "non-essential" computer use, it found.

And then I looked at my Myspace friends' list - hmmmm.....

Crocodiles and Cute Boys

My workmates hate me when it comes to drug calculating in work. I usually do the maths quickly in my head then say the answer. I usually can't explain how I did it or if I do, they don't understand. They then sit with pen, paper and calculator and take half an hour to come up with the answer I said

Its a talent..

However, neither Jessica or Bethan inherited my mathematical brain so maths' homework in our house is a nightmare. It usually ends up with tears, arguments and me pulling my hair out trying to explain things. It doesn't help that they seem to have changed the ways of doing things since I was in school. And yeah, I know that was a while ago

Earlier Bethan and I sat down to comparing and ordering decimals to two decimal places. She was working out less than and more than. I was trying to explain I remembered the <> by looking at the < and seeing it was like an L for less than. I drew pictures and everything.


But she just looked at me and said

No mummy, crocodiles

Crocodiles?

The crocodiles like to eat the big juicy numbers so his mouth opens wide to the big number

Ok.....Crocodiles. But crocodiles worked, she flew through them.

Double whammy night - Jess had maths as well. Simple revision she should have known, grids and mapping. But no, she sat there looking "bored" as only a 13 year old can. Knowing she knew it and just wanted me to do it for her so she could go on MSN, I tried to instill interest. I likened it to a treasure map.

Big sigh....

Then inspiration hit. If crocodiles can work for a 10 year old, what can work for a 13 year old?

BOYS - CUTE BOYS....

Ok, I said, the grid is a map of school, each co-ordinate is a cute boy - Go find the boys!!

I'm a bloody genius sometimes...

Perils of my Job

Wow, this happened a year ago but I still get ribbed about it. I have been atacked by crazy patients since, but this was one of the, uh, funnier ones....
It's ok to giggle,laugh even, because after all the piss-taking in work I can handle it.

At 5am I was bleeped by Sarah. This is not unusual for Sarah who is so loathe to make any decisions for herself that I'm surprised she can get up in the morning without bleeping me for permission. So when she frantically told me a patient had gone doolally and was wrecking the ward, I laughed and finished my tea. My colleague was as intrigued as me so decided to join me "for a laugh" - remember this - for a laugh

We entered the ward to find 2 burly security guards cowering by the door. Again I was not surprised because if there's any trouble, hospital security will always be seen to make a hasty exit in the other direction.

As we turned the corner I was met with the sight of a tiny lady, who barely reached my chest, in the corridor with 4 nurses surrounding her.

"Hello Mrs Jones" I said, confidently assuming that on seeing the navy Sister's uniform she would back down. It usually works - the older generation respect the good old sister.

"Who the fuck are you?" she replied. Great start.

She then started screaming at the top of her voice:
"Are you dead? - you lot - are you dead? - Wheres my son - get me out of this fucking place!"

So 5 minutes of exchange followed with me assuring her that I would phone her son as soon as she sat by her bed quietly - all the while she continued screaming at the other patients who at this point had begun screaming back.

Him: "Shut up, you silly old cow - it's 5 Oclock"
Her: "fuck off or I'll kill you"
Him: "Come and try"

Eventually I persuaded her to come back to her bed for a cup of tea while we waited for her son.
I got her back to her bed and everybody disappeared. My colleague had gone to phone the doc for some sedation and the ward staff - well they ALL found other things to do to run off and hide.

Just as I went to sit her down she flew at the bed next to her, grabbing the poor unconscious soul in there.

"Hey you - wake up before they kill you. Are you asleep, I say, are you asleep?"

Enoughs enough, I grabbed her by the shoulders and "guided" her back to bed. As I let her go, I thought as she leant over the bed that she was getting in. When..........CRACK!!!!
She swung round like a whippet and smacked me clean across the face - a full Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman slap. I honestly did not see it coming - my hands were still by my side - defence reflexes didn't even have chance to kick in.

My HDU instincts kicked in and I picked her up and threw her on the bed pinning her down under the blankets. All the while my face was throbbing like you wouldn't believe. She screamed and kicked and loudly exclaimed I was hurting her!

The NA then turned up with her tea. That calmed her down and she sat up like a lamb to drink it. Then just as I said "No!, not a china....."Crash! the tea went flying, china cup following.

Well the doc turned up - late as usual -and a nice heavy dose of Lorazepam followed leaving her well out of it. However it took 6, count em, 6 of us to hold her down to give it.

Meanwhile my colleague has been talking to her son who reveals Mother doesn't like hospitals and sometimes gets a little upset. Ok, I dont want to see her when she's very upset!

I can laugh now but bloody hell it hurt and now everyone knows I got beat by a tiny little old granny. My colleague tried to be sympathetic - she did - but the tears rolling down her face gave it away.

This will take months to live down.

You Don't have to be Mad to Work here, but it Helps!

Again, an archived blog, but people are always asking for funny or gross stories about my job. I find it difficult to tell stories about work because its just all too normal for me but I did do a selection of funny tales so here it is. I'll try and think of some more soon for those that have seen this before

Nurses have a black sense of humour that few non-medical people understand - non nurses that come on a nurses' night out are horrified by our witty stories so I 'll have to be careful here not to spoil the "nurses are angels" theory (which we all hate by the way).

Gross stories - What you would call gross is probably normal to me which is probably why I can't think of any. Ten minutes ago, an ileostomy bag burst all over my arm - is that gross?. Bodily fluids landing about my person is probably as gross as it gets although when it hits your face that is pretty disgusting.

The only "gross" story I can think of is last christmas. We had a huge lady in and I mean huge. We needed to get a tube into her bladder. Sounds easy enough, but we couldnt actually find the anatomy that was hiding somewhere under a huge stomach. So, ever ingenious souls that we are, we took a sheet, put it under her stomach and when the lucky nurse had the tube ready, we pulled her stomach up. It took 2 nurses each side of the sheet to hold it. Deb could have done with a pit lamp and a peg as there were bits of flesh down there that hadn't seen water or the light of day for a long time, but all credit to her she managed to get the tube in.

Funny Stories - Well you all loved the granny slapping me but I wont bore you with all the injuries I've sustained in the line of fire.

There are many stories about people that come into hospital with objects where they shouldn't be. You wouldn't actually believe how often it happens or the damage they can do.

We had a guy from theatre who had bowel surgery and a formation of a stoma. The reason? - His mistress had been a bit enthusiastic whilst shoving a aerosol can up his jacksy and when she pulled it out, the lid stayed put and eventually perforated his bowel. Now, to me, the funniest thing is imagining the scene in the hotel room. They must have tried for hours to get that baby out before they admitted defeat and came into hospital. His poor wife arrived distraught, thinking he was on a business trip but he lied through his teeth and concocted a story about a bowel illness - what a jerk!

There was also the time when we had a lady die that was too big for the mortuary trolley. Strangely, the mortuary is situated right next to the cafe and it was a busy afternoon with people everywhere. So we left her in bed, put an oxygen mask on her, propped her up in the bed and just went for it. The porter kept knocking the side of the bed and after a few times I asked him why. His reply? - when he hit the side of the bed her fat wobbled and it looked like she was breathing!

And lastly, we had a man admitted following a stabbing. He was coming to us before he went to theatre. He arrived, sat up, wide awake with a 8" knife handle sticking out of his chest!. He had done it himself and began telling all the aghast relatives around the unit that the voices in his head told him to do it. Cleared the place in minutes - must have him in again.....

Which reminds me of a tale one of my consultants tells of when he was a junior dr in Cardiothoracics. A guy was repeatedly admitted with self inflicted stabbings to the chest, but he always managed to miss vital organs and systems. So one day, pissed off with him coming in yet again, a dr took a felt tip pen and drew a big cross over his heart. There he said, next time get it right. Two weeks later, the guy came in DOA - with a knife right in the middle of the cross.
I'll leave it there.......

What I Dont Understand about Americans

I'm going to be posting some of my favourite and most popular blogs from my previous blogs for the readers I have now that I didn't then. It will kind of introduce you to me and the way my mind works. It will also fill in the "blogged out time" I'm having....

I love my american mates - really I do - but there are things I just dont understand about you and your country

1. Your language - you guys speak English right?? So what happened!! When Christopher Columbus left did you think "nice bloke but geez he talks funny??Why didnt you like the u in so many words? Color, valor, favor you guys spell em all wrongYou call jam jelly - for years I thought you ate peanut and jelly (as in jello) sandwiches - ewwww!Biscuits are cookies, pavement is side walk, sweets are candy I could go on forever. Funniest of course, in a schoolboy humour (notice the u in humour??) way is fanny. Say you like a womans fanny over here and you're likely to get a smack in the face!!

2 Sport - I dont get your sports
American Football - what is going on there. Whilst I do appreciate the sight of mens thighs in lycra I just dont get the rules. You have 2 teams in one - one lot go on, the others come off. From what I understand you get the ball, throw it to the quarterback who runs across the line whilst all the others jump on each other - is that all the others are doing there - to just hit other players down?? And the padding - what a bunch of pansies - come to Wales and play Rugby - a real mans' game without the padding. This sums it right up for me

A guy took his blonde girlfriend to her first football game. They had great seats right behind their team's bench. After the game, he asked her how she liked the experience.
"Oh, I really liked it," she replied, "especially the tight pants and all the big muscles, but I just couldn't understand why they were killing each other over 25 cents."
Dumbfounded, her date asked, "What do you mean?"
"Well, they flipped a coin, one team got it and then for the rest of the game, all they kept screaming was: 'Get the quarterback! Get the quarterback!' I'm like...Helloooooo? It's only 25 cents!!!!

Baseball - again, sorry but I dont understand the rules or the scoring.Why do you have to make everything so complicated?

3 Your humour - you lot are funny, you really are, but why dont you get the british humour? None of our sit-coms are understood over there. An example is "the office" - bloody hysterical, a classic but you just didnt get it. You take everything so literally - you dont get sarcasm or dry wit at all

4 Americas obsession with looks - Okay i admit I'd love to be skinny and beautiful but would I spend shedloads of money on surgery to look like Barbie - no way!! Perhaps this is a bit unfair, Im sure you're not all obsessed - its probably the way the media portrays it over here but it is kinda funny

And finally, what exactly is Salt water taffy - Im asked if I like it all the time!!

Oh and one more thing - Mariah carey - I dont get her either

Best Laid Plans....

I've just been talking to my matey Lex on IM. He and his wife are expecting their first child in about a week. He mentioned he hopes that she doesn't have to be induced as they've heard it's more painful. I helped by agreeing it does.

But what was funny was he said that THEY are going for a pain med free labour......

Hahaha, rookies, I give Lauren 2 hours before she's screaming for meds.

I gave birth in the hospital I worked in. I refused an epidural on the grounds that I worked with anaesthetists every day and I didn't want to meet them six months later when I knew they'd seen my bits.

But I had everything else - that Entinox gas is goooooood....

And I had to swipe these off my favourite doctor's blog in case Lex and Lauren need some post pregnancy contraceptive advice. And I love this lubricant Ad...

Living Doll

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Legal Monkeys

For my legal eagles.......

A tourist walked into a pet shop and was looking at the animals on display.
While he was there, another customer walked in and said to the shopkeeper, "I'll have a trainee solicitor monkey please." The shopkeeper nodded, went over to a cage full of monkeys and took out a monkey. He fit a collar and leash, handed it to the customer, saying, "That'll be £1,000." The customer paid and walked out with his monkey.

Startled, the tourist went over to the shopkeeper and said, "That was a very expensive monkey. Most of them are only a few hundred pounds.Why did it cost so much?" The shopkeeper
answered, "Ah, that monkey can do legal research and draft documents very fast, no mistakes, well worth the money."

The tourist looked at the monkeys in another cage. "they're even more expensive! £10,000! What do they do?" "Oh, they're fee earner monkeys; they can answer all legal questions, draft complicated documents from
scratch, mark-up agreements, write letters and bill
clients. All the difficult, really useful stuff," said the shopkeeper.

The tourist looked around for a little longer and saw a third monkey all by itself in a cage of its own, eating a banana. The price tag around its neck
read £100,000. He gasped to the shopkeeper, "That one costs more than all the others put together! What on earth does it do?" The shopkeeper replied, "Well, I haven't actually seen it do anything yet, but it says it's a partner."

Stripping...

It's true that videos are becoming the lazy bloggers way to fill space - but sometimes they are just too funny to not share

Plus, the title made you look...






and on the same day, the news reports a litle lawyer moon-lighting


A US worker has allegedly been spotted on his firm's security cameras walking around naked after business hours.

Security cameras spotted a nude man in two different areas of the building in Hamilton, Ohio. The accused, Scott Blauvelt, 35, works as a city prosecutor there.

Blauvelt has been charged with indecency and if convicted faces a possible sentence of up to a month in jail and a £135 fine.

Theres just something about American lawyers....

How to Spot a Cylon

So I bowed down to the pressure and bought the Battlestar Galactica Miniseries to see what exactly it was, besides porn of course, that was whipping Brian and lately Carl and Ryan into a frenzy.

I even read The Plan - Full of complicated theories of what the show means - man versus science, religion, politics, family, its all there.

And then today I read a reader's review of BG series 1

The americans created islamic fundamentalism. The islamists learned to think for themselves and mix in with society. Some of them believe themselves to be 'normal'. and they have a plan! so starts the modern day interpretation of battlestar galactica. not bad, but do the parallels have to be so obvious. are americans and american audiences so sacred and sanctimonious? Is anybody, who has a 'beef' with american middle eastern policy just a machine?

All very interesting Im sure....

But it seems to me, everyone is missing an important point. Granted I have only watched the miniseries and am 3 series behind, but one thing that struck me was they needed to know how to detect a cylon. As fans will know, the new versions of Cylons can now present themselves in human form. These Cylons think, act, and communicate like humans, and some of them don’t even realize that they’re Cylons (they’re sleepers, you see).

The cylons that look like this are obviously very easy to spot

However when they look like this, its a little harder



The new look sexy cylons are very difficult to spot. Dr Gaius Baltar squirms his way out of admitting how he knew the reporter was a cylon by making up a story about synthetic hair. But its RIGHT THERE, under everyones noses, and they just don't get it.

THE GLOWING SPINE...

Sex will tell them. Number 6 reveals she and the good doctor have been at it for two years. She's a woman using her sex to get what she wants, he's a philanderer who cant keep it in his pants. We're led to believe they're hot in the sack. Obviously not that adventurous - doggy style didnt come into their repartee....

See, the one thing that all of these humanoid cylons have in common is that their spines light up when they’re having sex. Thats what will tell the cylons apart from the others.

So, I give you my very own Cylon detection tool - The Cylon Detecting Scoop Wedge

Who knew being a geek was so much fun..

Brian is Wrong

This is the best music video..

Surveys

No, not the surveys my friends seem intent on filling their MySpace blogs with, proper research.

One thing I learnt on my Research course recently was that research had to have a meaning and that people won't pay for research that won't make or save money. So Im baffled by the surveys coming up in the news lately....



There's the Mexican Survey.

Old people. Yep, we try to ignore the urine smelling, gummy people but they're there and aging gracefully. What did the Mexican over 100's put their longevity down to? No alcohol but plenty of cigars, coffee and sex - Eww, old people and sex.....




Good news for ageing hippies:

Smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer's disease.
New research shows that the active ingredient in marijuana may prevent the progression of the disease by preserving levels of an important neurotransmitter that allows the brain to function. This in turn allows them to have sex - see above survey....



More than two thirds of people do not believe nurses have enough time and resources to do their job properly, according to a survey.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) study of more than 1,500 people across the UK found that 69% did not think nurses had enough time.
And less than a fifth (18%) agreed that nurses were paid well compared to other public sector workers such as police, teachers and firefighters.
Half of those surveyed said nurses were not treated fairly by their employers but 87% thought they were valued by the public.
And 81% said nurses were trusted by members of the public.


Pregnant teenagers are deliberately smoking in the hope of having smaller babies:
To make giving birth easier, it has been reported.
I had small babies. If the obviously male researcher who said smaller babies hurt less would like to visit me, I'll shove a "small" melon up his ass and allow him to pass it. Then he can tell me it hurt less..




A survey of 1,505 American adults, conducted by market research firm Harris Interactive, found that over half of the respondents admitted to "re-gifting" with passing on gifts becoming a far more common and acceptable phenomenon. You tight bastards, I ain't sending you anything for Christmas..

Motorists think about sex when driving:

Over a million motorists think about sex rather than the road ahead and millions more who don't indulge in intimate thoughts are worrying about work or thinking about their families, a survey said on Thursday.
Research from car insurer More Than found one in five drivers admit to concentrating behind the wheel less than 75 percent of the time, with 1.2 million thinking mostly about sex.



So, what does this tell us?

Researchers are pervs who think about nothing but sex, nurses are undervalued and underpaid but men like to associate sex with them and Americans are tight asses (insert own sex joke here)

Boob Job

If you live in Cologne and are big breasted, expect the police to ask you to get your tits out....


BERLIN (Reuters) - A German plastic surgeon cheated out of payment by women has handed pictures of their enlarged breasts to police, in the hope the photos will help trace them.
"The women registered under fake names," Michael Koenig, a surgeon in Cologne, told Bild newspaper. "After the operations, which lasted about an hour, they just ran away."
"Tanja" went out for "fresh air" after 8,000-euro (5,389 pounds) surgery to enlarge her breasts. "She never came back and never paid," Koenig said. He now plans to demand payment in advance.
Bild published a five-column picture of Tanja's naked breasts. "It's probably the most unusual wanted poster police ever had," the newspaper wrote.

And Brian, before you offer, I expect he already has a lawyer

Online to offline

After knowing the better of my "on-line" friends for a year or so, I finally get to meet one. Shaun is bringing his mum visiting an old neighbour who just happens to live by me.

So November 23rd, Shaun gets to visit Sheepland. Im sure there will be drinking involved somewhere and maybe I'll take him poledancing.....

Yes Helly, I'll have the camera at the ready.....

Ive just been informed this is Thanksgiving, so Shaun - reckon there will be Turkey curry going in Wetherspoons at the curry club?

This is going to be so weird

Friday the Thirteenth and All Things Silly

If anyone asked I'd say Im not superstitious.

My mother is. As a child I wasn't allowed to put new shoes on the table, to open an umberella in the house and when I accidently broke a mirror, I thought my mum was going to have a coronary. There was something abut doing laundry on a certain day as well but I cant quite remember which day it's supposed to be.

So I walk under ladders, tip salt without a backward glance and believe all cats are evil not just black ones.

The fact that my results are due on Friday the Thirteenth means nothing to me. But it seems it does to everyone else. I've had the following conversation numerous times

When do you get your results, it's soon isn't it?
Yep, the 13th, next Friday
Friday the 13th??
Uh huh
Oooh, wouldn't want mine then - thats unlucky
Not really, it's been marked already, the exam board meet Tuesday, I just get the letter Friday
Yeah, but Friday the 13th.....

Fear of Friday the 13th even has a name - paraskevidekatriaphobia. Or friggatriskaidekaphobia. Deep christian beliefs have us fearing Fridays and the number 13, put the 2 together and double whammey - lock the doors, stay in bed or you will die....

Thirteen is significant to Christians because it is the number of people who were present at the Last Supper (Jesus and his 12 apostles). Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th member of the party to arrive. Christians have traditionally been wary of Fridays because Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Additionally, some theologians hold that Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit on a Friday, and that the Great Flood began on a Friday. In the past, many Christians would never begin any new project or trip on a Friday, fearing they would be doomed from the start.
Some historians suggest the Christian distrust of Fridays is actually linked to the early Catholic Church's overall suppression of pagan religions and women. In the Roman calendar, Friday was devoted to Venus, the goddess of love. When Norsemen adapted the calendar, they named the day after Frigg, or Freya, Norse goddesses connected to love and sex. Both of these strong female figures once posed a threat to male-dominated Christianity, the theory goes, so the Christian church vilified the day named after them.
This characterization may also have played a part in the fear of the number 13. It was said that Frigg would often join a coven of witches, normally a group of 12, bringing the total to 13. A similar Christian legend holds that 13 is unholy because it signifies the gathering of 12 witches and the devil.

But ok, I will admit it, looking through the superstitions on the net, I realised I do sort of follow some. I did let strange women wiggle needles and wedding rings on cotton over my pregnant belly to tell me the sex. I do the magpie thing - If I see one, I look for another because one's unlucky. I count groups of them and recite the song

one for sorrow

2 for joy

3 for a girl

4 for a boy

5 for silver

6 for gold

7 for a story of love untold

and I do the ambulance/hearse thingy too

turn around

touch my toes

hope I never go in one of those...

But thats because Im silly

So Im curious, what strange unexplained superstitions do you follow. And don't say you don't cos I won't believe you. Think, you must do at least one silly thing...

Firefly

Im halfway through and I'm addicted. The storylines are good, the writing is clever and funny and the characters endear themselves to you slowly but surely. The rough, tough captain has a heart of gold and cares about his crew. And I never thought I'd say it but my Ewan is in danger of losing his number one slot in my heart

To him...

RAWR...