Luck sprites

Things are quite good at the moment (crazy and busy, but good). My theory – the god/angel/sprite in charge of our luck was off sick or on holiday...just before they left our bad luck gauge was set on high, whoever took over forgot us (and maybe some other poor sods who were looked after in the same area). A couple of weeks ago the god/angel/sprite came back, looked at our lives/my last journal entry, and went, “oh shit.” The day I wrote the last entry, things were still pretty crappy – more slaps in the face... but slowly things have been improving - we’ve had some really good pieces of luck. We’re definitely not taking things for granted, but if our luck gauge can just be set to evens, that’d be good!

You’ll all be glad to know that we’ve not got Swine Flu, and we survived the great Earth Quake of 2009... 10 seconds or so of movement in North West England, that registered at 3.7 on the Richter Scale – big stuff...for us. It moved the Reading Room (in the library) pretty substantially, which is saying something – it’s a massive structure. I’ve never felt an earth tremor before. It was very strange, the room’s for silent work, so we all just looked around, not saying anything. I figured it may well be an earth tremor, since I couldn’t think what else would move something that big, but no one was talking, and we all went back to work – very British. Turns out it was a tremor, the centre of the quake was in the Lake District...My Supervisor thinks the gods were unhappy with the Kadampa Buddhists, since the centre of the Quake was under Ulverston – the home of the Kadampa mothership.

We tried to have a BBQ at the weekend. It was all going well - we had a few friends over, the sun was shining, the beach was nearly empty...then we heard cries for ‘Help’... Raine and I ran over, an 80 year old women had been taken off her feet by a Labrador (I’m so pissed off with the dog people, it went after Joyce’s walking stick because it thought it was something to play with... Yeah - great reason an 80 year old to end up with broken bones – they really didn’t seem to think they were at fault, the dog people). We tried to get her up, but she was screaming in agony. We called an ambulance, and they had to put her on a Spinal Board and carry her to the ambulance. She was terrified, and in immense pain. I told Raine she should go to the hospital with her – Raine’d been drinking, I hadn’t, so I could follow her up in the car. Raine stayed with her in A&E until I managed to get hold of her son. Joyce – the injured lady is a really fascinating woman. Turns out she’s a retired Methodist Minister, she prayed for us all as Raine was leaving. Her friend called us to let us know she’s doing ok (she had half her hip replaced on Sunday night), and we were told she’d like us to visit. I have to say, I would have liked not to go near the hospital again for a very long time (I went there at least once a day when my dad was in), but we went along to visit her, and it was good – she’s a brilliant woman. She was in really good spirits.

I joined the gym – well, Blackpool Council’s fitness scheme. You pay a surprisingly small monthly fee, and you can use any of the Council’s facilities, all inclusive, and attend any classes. There are 80 classes to choose from, two fitness suites, and two 25m pools. The fitness suites have just been done up, and they have the most state of the art equipment imaginable – they know who you are, and warm you up and down, and so much more. I’m on a diet too, and I’m packing in my 5+ a day. Feeling good for it all - trying to chart my moods, as well as weight and everything.