Autumnal Chills

I know i've said this before and I know i'll say it every year, I love autumn. Autumn is my second spring - a season of rejuvenation, awakening, and ironically because of the disgusting amount of spiders and their cobwebby detritus littering my room, clearing the cobwebs and dusty boring corners of my life! I totally adore the crisp air and the changing colours and slightly pink nose turning weather. Of course twinned with the sunshine that seems so much more cosy and sparkly than any other season.

Exciting things always happen in autumn; last year I got my first internship at Penguin, which provided me with a year of working in publishing which I couldn't have loved more. This year, I just started my other dream job - I am now working at the Oxfam bookshop in Bloomsbury! Most exciting of all, I can now use a till *thumbs up*.  I've never worked in retail before, and am excited to finally be able to get some experience in that area, whilst working with books, and my colleagues all seem ace. It transpires my manager's best mate has CF, so from the start stipulated that any time off is totally cool, I don't have to carry a shit tonne of books up and down stairs, and just to yell if anything isn't right. He's basically the perfect manager. I wish more managers could so be accommodating and understanding! I'm so excited to be there. I am quite a happy bunny.

I've also just booked flights to Berlin for halloween! Never been, very very excited. There's a group of us going, including my other half (Laura has a second half! omg omg omg omg), and I can't wait to explore, party, drink, discover, pseudo-hipster (to hipster must be a verb. Must be), eat, smooch, dance and stumble around a whole new city; A pretty fucking brilliant one at that if all the stories are true. Every one says they never return home before 8am, and I'm sure one of the days i'll be almost able to manage that with a whole day of extensive preparation beforehand (ie SLEEP and copious amounts of coffee and pizza (sausage and sauerkraut?)). I can't wait to get me some german sausage.

Remember my pain from the previous post? Well after even more testing, A&E visits, stints on acute assessment ward, CT scans, ultrasounds, X-rays and last minute MRI scans, they found nothing. Nada. Zilch. Nufin. Mystery pain has yet again remained a mystery. The pain magically disappeared last weekend at Chelsea and westminster hospital after 2 bags of fluids and 3 lots of IV paracetamol (which is, by the way, the most amazing pain killer!), and hasn't returned since. Very odd! But thank god it's gone. It got so excruciating towards the end, it was utterly unbearable. The fact I had no idea what was causing such agony seemed to make it worse - the unknown is always the worst. I think I had 2 pains - chest pain (mucus plugging / infection) which was quite mild, and what seemed to be kidney pain (very low down at the back underneath my ribs). That was the pain that rendered moving, sneezing, laughing, hiccuping, yawning, getting out of bed, doing lung function and even walking an impossible task. But they suddenly both disappeared within a day of each other, and haven't come back. I get a slight twinge every now and then, especially turning over during the night, but the improvement is crazy. Bodies are weird and a bit of a mare. Mine is definitely in that 'can't live with it, can't live without it' category. Docs thought it might be residual shingles pain, but I knew it wasn't nerve pain, and I flat out refused to take the nerve pain killers they suggested. Last year (when I actually had shingles) it took me 4 months to wean off the painkillers, which also double up as anti-depressants / anti-neurosis / anti-seizure drugs. They're fucking hardcore pieces of crap with extreme withdrawal symptoms, and I'm not taking them on the off-chance (and without any evidence) that it may be viral related pain. I'm super thankful it went away by itself!

HOSP SNAPCHATs because hospital is boring

After finishing The Guest Cat, i've just started reading The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem. I popped into the sexy Daunt Books on Fulham road and worked my way over to the dystopian fiction shelf. I LOVE that they have a dystopian shelf! I knew Lem wrote Solaris which is a badass film, so before I attempt the novel I thought i'd start on his short stories. Love a good short story. I love short things. Mostly short things. This Daunt visit seems to be my new ritual when i'm working my way from Chelsea and West to the Brompton - a long lazy browse, a buy (I can't help it! I would like to buy the whole shop one day), and then a visit to the pretty Cafe Nero next door for a coffee and a munch and a read of my new purchase in the sun. I feel like i'm adulting very well these days.

I seem to have finally found a perfect balance of being busy at work and in day to day tasks, and chilling. I feel energised and very very content. My Tai Chi has nearly finished, but tomorrow I start a drumming course which is totally random but i'm bloody excited. I think drumming might be a good form of physio. Vibrations right? Vibrations rock!

Now i'm off to chill with Marcy and tea #veryadult