No voice at all. Can barely whisper. Very frustrating. It’s a regular feature of my life, so I should be used to it by now. And of course I’ve had a cold, which is the reason. But I can’t answer the phone, except to my daughters or husband, can’t ask for anything in a shop, and I feel sort of lonely and sad when I can’t communicate.

To the physio today, hubby took me in case I had any more nasty injections. But I didn’t. She sent me off for an x-ray of both thumbs to see what’s going on. It could be arthritis, or carpal tunnel syndrome. Possibly surgery in either case, or maybe x-ray directed injections (that made hubby shudder!) Shoulder x-ray came back fine, so I just have to not lie on it at night and see if that helps.

Yesterday spent a fruitless two hours trying to make BBC Radio 3’s best quality broadcast (320 kbps or something) stream via hubby’s computer onto his Linn DS. Not successful. Felt very stupid, as one guy on the forum spent half an hour setting it up and it worked easily. Hmph. The thing is, although I’m quite geeky computer-wise, I have absolutely no idea what I was doing. I followed the instructions and did absolutely everything, in exactly the right order, but had no clue why or what I was doing. Normally when I fiddle about with computers I do learn something, but not this time. Ah well. Maybe some day soon the BBC will broadcast their Radio 3 stuff in the best quality anyway. Currently they just stream it over the internet, and you can’t get it directly onto the DS, even though you can get most internet radio stations direct. Hmph.

Hubby is currently making beefburgers. Why are they called hamburgers in the US? they’re not made of ham, they’re made of beef. But then there are a number of anomalies between the two sets of English. Pissed in England means drunk, in the US it means angry. Fanny means backside in the US, but something quite different in the UK. Nobody in the UK would ever, ever be called Randy except as an insult (though possibly an admiring sort of insult). Pronounciation is an issue too, I think. Schedule is pronounced “shedule” in the UK, but “skedule” in the US. And don’t get me started on the spelling differences. Why? why? evolution of the language(s) I guess.  Bill Bryson is very eloquent and interesting on the subject, and he should know, as an American who spends large amounts of his life living here.

Just ordering the shopping on line. I’ve done my very best, next stage is to get hubby to make sure everything we actually need is on order. After dinner, maybe, over coffee (or in my case, a cup of honey and lemon).

Can’t wait till the next episodes of “The Killing”. God, it’s good. It’s a Danish crime thriller and we are absolutely hooked. Also love The Tudors, despite the somewhat optimistic portrayal of Henry VIII as handsome, slim and debonair in his late forties! when he was actually grossly overweight, foul-tempered and had a smelly horrible bone infection in his leg which suppurated all the damn time (lucky Catherine Parr . . .), and of course Nurse Jackie (2nd series), with the fabulous Edie Falco. Saturday nights are currently jam-packed with good viewing. Thank goodness for the technology enabling us to record and watch it when we’re actually awake.

Have scattered hundreds of annual poppy seeds today, given to me by my friend Maggie with whom I worked at Coventry Council. It will be interesting to see if/how they grow. They’re all over the front and back gardens, and I’ve saved some for the daughters. I have lots of perennial poppies too, some white with a purple heart (Victoria Louise), some purple (Patty’s Plum), and one beautiful coral one which I think has sort of invented itself.

I grew several red ones from seed last year, so they haven’t flowered yet, but are looking strong and healthy. They’re supposed to be red. Love red poppies, they’re so cheerful. Fingers crossed. I thought today would be a good day to plant them because the sun has been trying to shine and it rained a bit too, ideal conditions for hardy annual seeds, in my head anyway.