How I didn't learn to be ambidextrous NB: this is a bit yuck

I have learned two new hobbies 1) Bird watching - not just the four dudes at home) and 2) making tiny collages (as per picture that I made for Stuart's mum for Mothers' Day). I love doing them and while this one is all soft and pink and theme-based, others are more about nature and various things that occur to me as I go through some of these wonderful old books and trace and draw leaves and flowers for them, I find having a non-writing/reading hobby helps my deeply annoying and time-consuming anxiety/depression that comes and goes in my life (and has gone a lot more recently as I manage my life a lot better and learn to relax and find joy in small things - like writing to you, and collecting leaves - I know, but I can't help it, they're so beautiful - and playing with my small birds and caring for them and hoping to be able to rescue more animals when I finally buy a house).
So, things are pretty good right now. and my mum was accepted into the stem cell research program (sounds like she's going to be an astronaut for NASA) but it also means months of hard times too. She's very brave. Possibly the worst bit is that she has to share a four bed ward for five weeks in hopstial. As the family of a wonderfully kind and assertive father, we 're often able to wangle a decent room in hospital, so this is a bit of a downer. We'll figure out some ways to improve things, I hope. As she's like me in terms of loving reading and listening to the radio, she at least will be able to occupy herself in this difficult situation. Anyway, I'll neatly segue from one bastard medical condition to another...

How I didn't learn to be ambidextrous

Earlier this year I had two fingernails removed, they got smashed in a garage door and two got infected after not being cared for properly (or at all, and it seems I don't trim my fingernails properly). So this was the gross result... That gross red stuff is called 'proud flesh ' - yeah, I was REALLY proud of it... urgh. I think this is a great title for a crime novel 'Proud Flesh', only it suggests a tougher, grittier type of book than the ones I write. I hope someone else has better luck with this style and uses the phrase well.
And I couldn't do stuff for a couple days until I managed to get an emergency appointment with the very kind and generous Dr Sach, who flinched when he saw them (I know! I was ashamed) and that day he said he'd have to remove the nail plates. I was okay until I realised he meant fingerNAILS... Then I sort of fainted/threw up at the same time and went back to sit in the waiting room and stare into space for a few hours. Under local anaesethic he took them off and I, in turn, took a couple weeks off work, with huge bandaged hands as per picture. Once the excrutiating pain subsided I started feeling kind of good about having an enforced break from work. And then I had to change the dressings (and I fainted twice and ended up doing it while lying down so I didn't have so far to fall). But now they're perfect, and I realise how not being able to use my writing hand cramped my lifestyle. I learned a lot of sign language for the next book (tricky with only eight fingers) by using some great sites on the net as well as some really terrific docos about the cruel abuse and treatment of deaf people during WWII by the Nazi Party (I learned a lot of horrible words but it was incredible to watch a documentatry that had subtitles, a deaf sign language dude in the corner of the screen, and the voice over. Every TV show should do this, it sems obvious. You'd learn more languages and the world would be a much better place for people with sight and hearing difficulties. I'm slightly ashamed to realise how great it would be to do this for other people and yet, we just don't. Stupid.
People really suck sometimes. However, i HAVE loved seeing more and more use of signs that use braille.
Oh, and another, dopey but fun things was that I found the time to watche the first few seasons of Buffy again. Always a good thing.

Listening to: Splashes of Classic FM, I like the idiosyncratic option of not choreograpphing my music as I usually do, and mostly, it's great stuff.
Eating: Icecream. Stuart discovered Baskin Robbins. Oh dear...
Thinking about: The Tequila Bikini, I have a great plan for the next chapter and I'm very excited
Watching: Lost, Extras, The final season of Angel (so sad...) and my little honeyeater Charlie as he's still not growing feathers on his head
Wearing: Victoria Secret nighties. I bought a bunch a few weeks ago and find them so comfortable I wear them around the house because theyre 1) Modest 2) Warm, yet cool - magical I think 3) Could be mistaken for mini dress if the cops come around to arrest me for stealing flowers for the birds each day - they'll never get me for indecent exposure these days.
Reading: Anything by Helen Forrester. I read her when I was young and am trying to get some copies, but all avalable on order only, I found two in an opp shop which started this obssession. She's an excellent writer, and in my humble opinion did a better job then Frank McCourt dealing with extreme poverty and how people deal with life under difficult circumstances.