willows

Thanks guys , the problems with the marquee was that it was SO hot when the sun came out hence the fan on one of the units , and I was so very tired after putting all that stuff up early in the morning and had to take some drugs during the day to help speed my heart up as by 1 pm I was feeling really tired and strange . We couldnt put the items in on the evening before as it poured and poured with rain , so much so that the other tents around me flooded and some fell down with the weight of the water. Anyhow soon I will not have to worry about tents, vans or marquees as I am to have my own castle.............I am at this time drawing it all out and will be sorting the wood from the company that Dave my friend who is going to build it for me , gets his normal wood from , the hope is that this wood company will sponsor Hogwarts for me . My hospice launched its bid for the 3 rd children's hospice in the south west this week , so its all excitment for the official launch in September of the fundraising events , Dave is so eager that he is doing a 'bangers' event in Cornwall on Sunday and my husband ( who's' now the official photographer for us on the committee) Mike , one of his mates , plus yours truly are all getting dressed up in our Children's Hospice tee-shirts and going down to 'rally' him on , Dave's going to pull a huge car all the way around the whole of the track ! ! ! So I've finished Fawkes today , his big 2-3 foot tail feathers arrived at 9 am this morning and he now looks 'rather cute' ............thats if a phoenix can look cute Well I think I need to rest a bit now as I'm actually feeling tired and getting some of those 'nips and heavy feelings ' around the old upper chest area ...................mmmmmm GTN spray ready tonight I feel been over doing it and also had to tell someone something today that wasn't to pleasant , so I got a bit 'worked up and upset ' , never mind , new day tomorrow more things to do , places to see and people to try and get things out of ..............for the kids . Bye , bye guys , sleep well ...............Willows.

Hello guys , well at long last I manged to get my husband to put the photo's on the site I use for my stuff, he has taken off all the other stuff on there now and all thats on is ; The cages with , the waz-zat bird in , large toad , and 12 mad pixies. A couple of pre -feathered owls ...........naked and plastic ! Loads of photo's of the owls I make including 'Lark' who sits on my shoulder and looks so real people back away from her .........poor love The large Rainbow bird that I was asked to make by a couple of people in my road , the dragon picture which is made out of old hardboard and ceiling coveing painted and covered in kids plastic jewels, then I cut up a very boring book I was given and made this crazy picture for the children , its quite big and the dragons head has eye's that can be seen through from the back ! The group of lads are my 'Magic Crew' from the Hoe show , my son Mike is event manager , there are just 2 photo's of the event , which are not that good and do not show what I have in the marquee at all but husband has said he just didnt remember on the day The two strange photo's are also not very good of the fabric scenery I made for the mid-summer-nights dream show , husband again didnt take photo's on the night when it was light correctly and all the beautiful fairies where on stage .....never mind! I am working on painting the new Fawkes face at the minute , I will when finished post a photo of the new Fawkes and his son Sparks for you all to see , and hopefully one of 'Hegwig' when her pure white body feathers arrive from cornwall at the weekend . I hope my next show will be on the 24th August in Oakhampton .............but.............of ............dear............ooooops. Clever one here went upstairs to get a book from off the bed and completely forgot I put my left hands knuckles on the bed ............and lent on them......................OMG ...............CRACK ! ! ! ! ! ! the whole wrist gave way and my hand went right under with the palm of my hand pressing against my inner arm , towards the elbow . And I feel forward with my hand underneath my body face down on the bed with a wallop , the pain was so bad that I fought off I being be sick . So I'm back in the black metal wrist strap again with pain down all my four fingers , in my wrist and up my inner arm all the way to a couple of inches from my shoulder.......... I just forgot , after years of remembering that if I have to lean on my hands or like when you try to pull yourself up at night , use the flat of the hand ............I just forgot . Now good , so stupid and just so careless of me having kept sort of well this summer now I will have this to contend with for weeks if not months again until I can use it to lift anything with . Here's the link ,anyway have a good look and say hello to my babies ; Lark, Topaz, Lord V, Rusty, Ringo , Jaffee and molly. http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i318/ban.../miscellaneous/ Willows XXXXX

I must ask hubby to put some onto my link when he is next on here ..............ha, thats every minute in the day he possibly can ! yet if I ask ' can you put some photo's on for me , dearest ' its ............oh ! just off to get some , this that or the other , whatever the other is by the way ! So today under fear of me sewing all the legs of his knickers up with fishing line ................. he will put some on ............men , what would we do with out you ? Be on the computer all the time that's what ! ...........here who said that ? Ami

Just thought I would fill you all in on whats going on this October regarding the schools Halloween event . Well things have moved on rather with the show I do , Clair a really lovely girl , who's about the same age as my oldest daughter is now coming to work along side me now , we will run the show between us both , sort of the terrible twins ! Dave , Claire's husband runs his own company making individual designed wooden shed's , garden furniture, swimming pool rooms and wooden gym rooms in fact anything you can draw up he will make from scratch .........blooming brilliant man , so clever . Well nice Dave has offered to make us , That's Clair and I as we will both work in it , Hogwarts Castle ( once I have drawn the plan ) it will have to be 'somewhat smaller in size ' or we wouldnt be able to move the thing ! ! ! So somewhere around 30 x 30 or 20 x 30 with leaded windows and that up and down roof ledge that castles have , er , battlements I think they are called ? So because of this I have had to send the school a nice email saying that I could no longer do the Halloween event this year , but that the other group who ran the section in the school halls auditorium probably would be capable and willing to do something for them instead , after all I was called in as an extra by my area manager when the event was already set in the school press. So its all go here at this time , I'm building Fawkes , he's looking rather .............strange at this time all white like he's got humongous anemia with two little stiff legs in the air like he's dead ( he's laying on his back ) I've made him from the body section of a large stork , the head is the back end of a lemonade bottle and top end of a blackcurrant bottle , legs are 6 kebab sticks bound with florists wire then that green waxed florists tape , more wire and then more tape , this way the claws will bend and he will 'hang on ' to things . I have 250 bright red and bright orange ostrich feathers here to stick onto him , so with any luck given a couple of more days moulding his face ,...............if you look at Fawkes face in photo's you will see its black and has ridges on it , well when this is finished its feather sticking time again. After this its Hegwig , unfortunately the company I sent for his first lot of feathers from , let me down BIG TIME , they are so appalling that I have had to send the first 100 back , and no way will I ever use these people again , so much for so called hand selected first class feathers. Unless .............. ..............of course they where selected by a blind frog , who then fed them to a starving rat , then had them washed by a slim covered octopus who put under a 500 ton steam rollers wheels .................yes , oh course it all makes perfect sense now , thats why they looked like they did , why didn't they tell me in the first place .............honestly some companys just dont like to let people know they are saving us all money by employing 4 or 8 legged staff to prepare their much needed feathers , I'll remember this in future Well bye for now AMI

Sorry I've been so long getting back to you all , but things are very hectic here at this time . The event went really well , I had 9 lads aged between 15-16 working for me on the show , sort of security come helpers , and they did look really good and work hard , even in the incredible heat we had. The local radio station came round and I just nattered on as per usual in my own happy fashion about the show, why I do it and just how hard it is at times trying to build things when I'm tired , sore and stiff fingered , but as they could see I still do it . The young lady who interviewed me was struck by the amount of magical things I had in my marquee and said that she thought at nighttime with all the lights down low it must look really good , which of course it does. So , I eventually shut up shop at 5 pm and then tried to pack up the show but for the hours I had been playing the owl and shop keeper my adrenaline must have been running fast and full , when I stopped for a couple of minutes to rest . OMG it was like being hit by a solid plank of pain , exhaustion and heart beats that kept going up and down with waves of sickness. Luckily a couple of the guys saw me suddenly take a nose dive and I was quickly propelled and half dragged onto a chair whilst the crew , some other shop helpers , hubby , my boss Judy ,Dave and his wife Claire ( who are now working with me on the show full time ) packed everything up and took the marquee down etc. The out come of this was .................. Dave is now about to build me a small size ( to my own specifications ) Hogwarts Castle that we can put up and take down at any event we want to go to , about 30 foot x 30 foot in size with leaded high shaped windows and doors that have those huge metal hinges on and metal work all over , turrets on 2 of the corners which will be about 5 feet high with windows cut into them and of course an owl looking out of a couple of them , along with a high roof so I can have a cross beam inside with a largish chandelier hanging down . It has taken some imagination and drawing on my part I can tell you, so when Dave has made it and the crew have painted it black inside with sort of wall tiles on , and then what looks like stone outside with assorted plants and stuff growing up a couple of sides I'm hoping that it will look rather good and be so much better than a flimsy white marquee ! Next year because of all the charity work I have done for so many large charities in the past 30 odd years I am to be chairman of the 2008 Plymouth Hoe charity challenge and as we speak I'm sorting out the teams letter which is to go out about the new committee I have formed . So its all go here guys, I keep getting calls from people who are working for me now , saying dont do to much Ami as we need you , and why are you emailing me at 3 am in the morning GO TO BED.............ha , that would be nice , sleep at night would be wonderful , but then , we all cant have everything we wish for in life can we, so I'm happy to trundling along cat napping when I can get a few hours without pain and working on my charity things when I'm awake and feeling rather .....blur ..............I'm building Fawkes the phoenix at the minute , next its Hegwig and then some other bits and bobs of stuff. On the 24th I will be at Oakhampton museum doing a charity event with my show for the hospice , so if your about come and say hello . Well bye for now as my neck, shoulders and arms are killing me for some reason and we have Dave and Claire coming for tea soon , so I'd better have a rest until then as I made a huge iced lemon drizzles cake with lemon curd & cream filling , a whole load of individual strawberry and raspberry tart-lets and a pile of ( my home made bread ) egg mayo and ham sandwiches for tea ................tea's at 5.30 see you here then shall I ????? Lots of love to all AMI .

Thank you for your kind words , I am told I do have a somewhat interesting out look on life , but then living with a raving lunatic like my hubby what can you expect . Hubby has just mixed up a magical potion .............called 'cauliflower cheese ' I say mixed up because he follows no recipe and like to add things that are 'unusual' like the time he made his now infamous .............pork and coconut casserole....... Take a tender pork fillet, sliced and browned in a pan, add baby onions, mushrooms and cook well. Then add some creamed coconut from one of those cans you can buy ..............the word is SOME , being about 1/4 or possibly a 1/3 of a can , add to this stock and milk plus cornflour and some other bits I cannot remember at this time and ...........yummy , yummy a delicious 'pork and coconut casserole ' to have with a wild rice and some quick fried veggies . Now that sounds nice , edible and something different to have at dinnertime............but oh , NO hubby decided that the SOME creamed coconut must mean .............lots and lots this lots was 2 CANS that he 'found' in my store cupboards and decided well 'if its there I'll use it '............. That night son , hubby and I sat down to what we where promised by 'the clever chef ' to be an extraordinary experience...........we each took a mouthful ............each started to chew ..............each looked at one another ...........and all three ran to get to the waste disposal fighting over who will be first lucky one to spit it out ..............yuck ! OMG ...............words cannot describe the taste ................I have honestly never had anything so , so , disgustingly , yucky in the 50+ years I've been eating food So think of me tonight for in a few minutes time this girl here is to sample the delights of the ' left footed mans' cooking again ...................I just hope we have enough indigestion stuff in the house , 2 X 1 litre bottle enough do you think , well at least he's up and about and happy with his foot at this time, just hope he feels the same after he's eaten his concoction . Willows.

Corina.............. I shall bake you a birthday cake .......................XXXXX grab a bottle of champagne.................XXXXX some roses ....................XXXXXXX And meet you and your family on the beach sometime near your birthday So how many candles do I put on it 18 , 21 or 25 ? OMG am I so excited , cant wait to see you all , dont over do it before then , wrap yourself in cotton wool roll yourself up in cling film and sit still with the last Harry Potter book to read . Ohhhhh , you wait until I tell my husband your coming , he just won't believe me . Bye for now only 17 days until the UK beaches Ami XXXXX

Thanks Flop , I must say he is far more happier than he has been in the past months , he was getting a right old grouch' and the falling down all over the place was getting him down no end Today .............you know as husbands do , well he sat on the settee with a huge magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers and pulled out a stitch from his foot that he recons has been sticking out of his foot for all those months , but until now he hasn't been able to pull out because of the pain . Blimey imagine walking around with a stitch end catching on your sox's , shoe or even the other foot when you lay down at night that must have driven him mad , well after a couple of unprintable words and a ohhhhh, ahhhhh and noise somewhat likened to a strangled parrot .............not that I've ever strangled parrot before ! but anyhow he pulled it out , holding it he stood up to show me and dropped the thing , No, I did not rush to find it on the carpet .............I'm not that daft ..............yet . So in another week or so hubby will be off to have his foot injected , not something I would want done without a couple of stiff drinks inside of me , but then given the fact I'm tea-total and not allowed alcohol at all , the only stiff drinks I'm likely to get would be a thick milk shake or a frozen Ribena OMG don't make me laugh my left hip has slipped again and it hurts . So, I'm now going to hobble ( should be wobble with the excess pounds I have around the waist at this time ) off to bed and listen to the melodic sounds of a rusty saw being pulled over a piece of scrap iron every 10 seconds ................mmmmmm isn't married life just wonderful , mmmmmmm its was our 5th wedding anniversary today , blimey thats a lot of sawing up scrap iron , he must have cut something up the size of the Titanic by now ................ wonder where he's hidden it , he does spend a lot of time in the garden Willows .

OMG someone is helping the hubby and believe it or not they think they know why he's in so much pain and keeps falling down Well apparently when the foot was sewn up a nerve was sewn into the stitching , so everytime the physio or he has tried to bend the foot or even walk normally this nerve has been tugged at . The consequences of this is that the nerve has now thicken and become somewhat 'over sensitive' hubby said something else about what it has become but its not printable So he's now got three weeks of each 24 hours putting on a large ( about 4 inches X 4 inches) anaesthetic pad , which after a few minutes of first wearing started to make his foot tingle ............... Then the next day it tingled and went cool...................... And now this is the end of the first week and lo and behold ............... no pain . Hubby has said he feels like his foot is reborn ..............mmmmmm looks the same to me dear , may be you should get your eye's tested as well . But honestly and truthfully am I pleased for him , you bet I am , no more falling down with a bang and scaring me or not being able to drive , so he's so much happier with his trundling about the place , mmmmmmmmm. yep , we trundle about here us to like a couple of weebles, but we do fall down ( if you remember the song ) In two weeks time Hubby's going back to see this wonderful consultant and is ...............er..............well ............this is not pleasant..................they are going to trace the nerve and inject right down along and into it , with a lot of anesthetic to hopefully kill it off for good or...........and this is the big or ..................mess up his foot for good . . So its fingers , feet ( not legs as you'll get problems ) cross and a case of wait and see what happens next , I will let you all know . Bye for now from me down here on the pooter (ami) and from him up there snoring like a large saw going through a massive hard tree stump ( Mark) ta, ta and sleep well . XXXXX

Hello all.....................I've just heard that I am to be interviewed on PLYMOUTH SOUND RADIO on this Saturday 14th July at my show for children. I cannot say what time , but its between 10 am and 5.30pm GMT , the radio station is on the net so you can log into it and possible if you put in the words A Magical Place interview it should come up . Now , you know me ................... and I'm not going to do a 'this is my show , its for the children , I collect money for them '............................oh, definitely no. I will be the shopkeeper and all others unless they prove otherwise everyone else is a muggle...................be prepared to muggles to see what fun I can do Marks just called me from the back garden to say the trailer has arrived to take my show stuff for me tomorrow ...........I expected a small metal thing with a cover on it ................NOPE a huge white sort of half caravan trailer is now sitting behind our wall in the back field....................OMG ....................its going to happen ...............must keep calm as I know I'll flip again ................send calming thoughts to me guys as I'm about to hit the Hoe on Saturday and bring magic to life. Oh, yes.................I'm to have my own A Magical Place web site in the next year and .............wait for this one .............there is talk of me making a DVD of myself reading the story of my show ( how it came to be with me ) with an owl on my shoulder a cat on my lap and a dragon sitting with his head on my lap listening ..............while the show ,all set up is brought into the DVD when I talk about the birds, animals and other things within it .............for small muggles to buy for the charity . This was talked about last night at a meeting of one of my biggest fan's ....................yes , I've got fan's .................... So , calm am I ( NO ) excited am I ..............you bet . Bye for now willows ( ami or whoever I am at this time as I've forgotten

Well , I'm almost there now guys................................ So far touch wood , just 2 angina attacks , chronic leg contractions feeling very sick and a rather nasty headache ...........for all the work this week ( as well as my normal stuff ) so I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself Tiny , the man who is another fellow fundraiser and the man who is to single handed pull a double-decker bus to raise money for the hospice , yes, single handed ! Came round yesterday tea time with his wife to discus the last minute things and sort a van for me . Tiny by the way is the exact opposite to his name and fills my lounge door way , he is a giant of a man in size as well as love for the work he does for the hospice , we now think that we will be working together as we have plans for the show including a film of me reading the story I have written about how my show ' A magical place' came to be, I sat and read this to Tiny and his wife ( another Harry Potter mad fan ) and they both sat riveted to the chair listening . When I'd finished , glasses perched on the end of my nose ( as you do ) they looked at each other and said that if I was in a over sized red velvet chair , with my story in a gilded book , myself in my full costume , hair all up and falling down etc .............one of my owls on my shoulder , black cat on my lap and dragon sitting on the floor with his head also on my lap as if listening to me read ..............it would make the most wonderful little film to ( DVD ) to sell for the smaller children to have . So this is what we intend to do later this year or early next , another clever fundraising idea for the hospice ! I haven't really had many 'outsiders' see my work , you know the owls, birds and all the other things I've been slowly working on these past 10 months , so when they came in and stopped dead in their tracks .............looking at Lark my 2 foot baby fluffy owl sitting on her owl perch ( well actually its a broom handle stuck up her bottom , poor girl) which has been turned into a realistic bird perch some 3 foot high.................well , the look on their faces, they had to have a good long inspection of her .................then they caught site of all the rest of the stuff in my now full to over flowing conservatory ..........................OMG...........gobsmacked , stunned and quite unbelievable was all they could say . AM I OVER THE MOON ? well this girl has done a double whizz around the earth and back , is still as high as a kite and still sitting with a big grin on her face THEY LOVED IT ALL So much in fact that Tiny wants to buy me the life size 'Dobby the house elf' himself to add to the show !!!!!!!!! I could have cried I was so happy last night . So me being me , they stayed to tea and we all started nattering to 10 pm , this is the first time I've stayed up like this for so long ..............in real clothes and not my Pj's . So this is the last time I will be on here until the big event has been , come and gone. Tomorrow at 11 am we start the big set up , marquee first , then flooring , electrical leads , plugs and generator in place , lighting system on and all checked ............then shelf units for the owlery , small table and shelves for the 'sweet shop ' section of the show , main table for the cauldron, spells and such, with smaller shelf units and units around me to make a 20 foot section in a curved shape , a bit like a large banana shape in fact . Once this is done the props can all be put out , flying kettles, brooms, plasma ball, silver flying spheres , dragons, birds, elves .................I cannot wait to see it in place . So take care all , watch out for the event on the local news here in the UK as I think if you in the USA log into 'West country ' news you may see something of us all ............about evening time UK ( GMT 6-7 pm ) . Wish you could join me and see the children's faces , wish you could just be there to share my day with me , love AMI.............shop keeper of ' A Magical Place , The Hoe , Plymouth , Devon , UK.

The show was a great success and given the fact that I was told over 80 children would be in it and that batman and robin , Mr freeze a rock band and so many more strange and interesting characters also I was somewhat surprised ...........brilliant , is all I can say about the way the deputy head has been able to slip into the end of a William Shakespeare play all the normal things that are in a child's life , the parents , teachers and invited guests went mad with applause at the end . In all I collected ?250 ( about $ 125 ) in 2 nights . Now this is over ...................roll on the big day on the hoe. Willows.

Today is Thursday and in 2 days time will be the big event on The Hoe Plymouth and boy oh , boy are we all going mad with the excitement in this house. It will be the biggest show we have ever put on and the biggest crowd w have ever turned out for . All 12 lads are now signed in and sorted , each has black trousers, black t-shirt with white lettering on the front that reads SECURITY as well as a black baseball hat and sunglasses, Mike my 16 year old tried the outfit on and it looked really good, in fact I was amazed at how he looked , so imagine 12 lads all dressed like this ...........WOW I've just finished the last of my show owls and now have ready and waiting to be transported ; Smog the wise , Rusty, Topaz, Jaffe, Lark, Lord V, Arty, Molly , Ringo . As well as Little Sparks the Phoenix , Spot the toad, the 12 elves in a cage ( little horrors they are I can tell you ) the silly black rat who thinks he's a bird , 2 dragons ......................and about 80 other animals, birds and other things all to do with magic! Am I excited, well yes and no . If I get to worked up , as I did on Monday night then I stand to suffer the consequences .......2 angina attacks in 6 hours . So I'm trying to stay cool and calm and together , which I can assure you is very hard because at this time sitting here I'm surrounded by owls , birds, dragons and everything under the sun , feathers all over the place , mountains of sweets , lollies, sherbet sticks, candy necklaces , chewy sticks , chocolate mice................... a girl just doesn't know which way to look or turn. And another little problem I have is that I've started to talk out loud to the birds + animals around me , so my son and husband are never to sure if I'm talking to them or an owl mind you having spent all afternoon stuffing shingle into owls bottoms ( to make them heavy and more stable) I think they have now decided I am completely of my previable rocker , why ? .................. because everytime I shoved the shingle in ( according to husband and without me knowing I was doing it ) I apologised to the owl and said it wouldnt hurt and it was for its own good . Me thinks, me magic is getting to me ...............or is it just all the drugs I take ?????? Roll on Saturday so I can become the shop keeper again and not have to worry about talking to the props ! Regards to all you muggles out there................Ami keeper of a magical place .

How brilliant Corina , I do hope the cottages are available as I so want to meet you all . I forgot to say , Mike my now very old and very tall 16 year old son has finished all his exams but we will not know the outcome until mid August , so keep your fingers crossed for him as he needs 6 c levels and above to be excepted into the 6th year courses. He is expected to get more than this , but with Mike being so ill and having had such a lot of time off , plus his hay fever kicked in over the spring , which in turn means he has had to be dosed up with vast amounts of stuff so he could actually sit the exams and be able to see the paperwork ( poor love ) ...............well , we just dont know now. The good thing is that his doctor has sent in a letter to the examination board explaining the drugs and the problems they can cause ( sleepiness) and the fact that Mike , through no fault of his own has been so unwell and missed so much college time. Apparently the examination board can and will look at Mikes work and if they feel , given the fact that what answers he has given to what questions he could or could not answer , if they feel that if he had of been at college full time he would have made the next grade UP , they will then award him this grade , without question , so fingers crossed again. I'm feeling so much better today , more like ME and less like a large wet lettuce on a hot summers day with slugs crawling all over it who are dressed in crispy tu-tus carrying jelly umbrellas ......mmmmm, imagine that if you can ................owwwwww! creepy ! I'm going to the Mid summer nights dream show tonight with Mike , this is the one I did the scenery for , if anyone at this time wants to see the photo's you will have to log in to my control panel and get my home email , then just drop me a line and I will send you the 3 back that I have at this time . Well I'd better go as the phones ringing , I know its the charity boss as I have just ordered 12 t-shirts and 12 black base ball hats for my crew to wear on the 14th ( all black coloured and the crew will also wear black sunglasses ) cool or what .......men in black eat you hats , here comes the magic crew ! Bye all for now ..............AMI XXXXX

Hi all , I just thought I'd let you know the out come of the operations after all this time . Well my husbands left foot has healed really well and the pain he had before the operation has gone , he is so pleased with this as he can now walk ( still with a stick ) in comfort . BUT , his right foot has not healed well at all and he is in far more pain than before the operation , today he saw another consultant as he has been passed from pain clinic to physio and back again in an effort to sort it .............the pain clinic said it shouldn't be painful and the physio said that it was not right and he needed to be seen again . When Mark first had the operation as he got up from his hospital bed he felt something 'GO' in his right ankle , the staff had a look and found a few stitches had come undone , so put steri strips on them , Mark did ask if this was a good idea , for if the stitches went on the outside ........ doesn't that mean they could of gone on the inside as well ? the staff just ignored his suggestion . HA ! well something did go on the inside and that something has now adhered itself to part of a muscle or nerve and poor old Marks foot is a stiff as a floor board and as sore as an open wound ...............he told the consultant unless he did something to help him he would 'do it himself ' what the 'do it' is my husband wouldnt tell me but he can hardly walk very far at this time , his foot is giving him so much pain and discomfort and he's so tired from taking twice the amount of time to do things ................. well all I could say to this was ' welcome to my world dear ' that shut him up So , hubby's now waiting for another appointment about this foot , I do hope its soon as he doesn't bare pain very well and quite honestly between you and I , me hearing hubby going on and on about this foot and what he wants to do to the consultant who did it , well its driving me nuts ! Ami , about to join the squirrels in the garden .

Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th of this week are the show nights, I am going to Wednesdays , first to help put the queens wings on and do her make up and also to do a collection for my charity CHSW . I do feel sometimes that it would be nice to collect for POTS , but having committed myself to raising money for the children's hospice , and with so many people not understanding just what POTS is in this country I feel that I would be fighting a losing battle trying to educate them in just what we all suffer from . The headmaster and his deputy are so pleased with the set and are still 'flabbergasted ' at the fact that I did it all for just ?50 , thats the 20 foot back drop , 3 decorated side panels , trims for these and the front stage cover + fairy queens huge wings and headdress! It was hard and did take me weeks , which is probably why I ended up in bed sick again , but knowing that each night I can make a collection for my charity , well it makes it all worthwhile in the end . AMI

Sorry I've not been around again but been very unwell and stuck in bed . My stitches became infected and I was put onto 4000 mg a day of antibiotic , this caused my POTS to go into hyper drive and all I wanted to do was sleep , sleep , sleep and sleep , I couldn't eat or want to or drink much and I just felt so ill . After 4 days of this I just decided that I had to stop the antibiotics and within another day I was up again , but when the stitches came out ..............the wound came open . So steri strips were put onto it .........which came off at the first big sweat I had ............and the wound came open So I just keep sticking it together as best I can with the steri strips now and little by little it has almost healed but in this process I think I have now found out what is wrong with my thumb joint ( was in plaster for this remember) . I was rubbing in some cream to my hands , rubbed the cream down my left thumb to the base .............then my right thumb to the base and thought ' hang on a minute , this isn't the same as the other one ' on closer inspection and much to the shock of my husband .............I was so right At the base of my right thumb , this is the one I have so much pain with still and cannot hold heavy items with or turn things with etc .........well there is this big bony lump ! Yes , I know you will say , hang on a minute I have a bony lump at the base of each of my thumbs ( have a look , and feel and you will find it in time ) but the one on the right thumb base is so big that it sticks out about an inch to an inch and a half and is about 2 inches round .................the other side is hardly noticeable . So its off to see my doc again and now hopefully a surgeon . Did any of you find the site about 'Sophie' coming to our hospice , next week end the 14th July 2007 if I am 'upright ...breathing right ...and mobile ' I will be going to The Hoe at Plymouth to join the CHSW BUS PULL ( no not pulling the bus !) its a HUGE fundraising event with lots of things to do and my show 'A magical place' which I do for the children's hospice is going to be there , if I am up to it . We are expecting over 25,000 people to attend the day ! and the local TV , radio and press will all be there , so if any of you are in PLYMOUTH , DEVON , ENGLAND on the 14th July come to the HOE event ............... and then please come and see me and make yourselves know to me ( comfy chair and drinks always available to a fellow pots person ) I will be there in the big marquee with my husband , son and an army of my sons college friends ( as security and crew) doing what this girl does best ................helping to raise money for the sick and suffering children of Devon and Cornwall , my owls , birds , phoenix will be there as well as all my elves and so much more of my 'Magic' stuff from my show . So if your about look for the sign on a marquee and tell the security on the gates you are a fellow pots ( they all know what this is ) then you can walk straight in ................I would really love to see you OR any member of your family who's in England , it would be so great , as it was when I met Corina's parents in Cornwall Well its 2.30 am here in lovely rainy Devon and I'm up again because of my best friend and companion called 'Pain ' he's such an annoyance , keeps waking me up to come down for coffee and a go on the net after about 1 hours sleep . Anyhow its been so nice to come on here again having been off site for so long , thanks Corina for the email. As soon as I can get hubby to , he will stick those other photo's on my site for you all ...............OH , and the 14th photo's as well ( once thats been and gone of course ) Have a nice summer all and I hope that this last month or so of laying in bed watching Harry potter all the time has now come to an end for me , boy do I hate not being able to do things like arts and crafts . Love to all , keep smiling and keep asking your doctors for help , one day a cure will be found , soon I hope . Love , hugs , kisses and big grins to all AMI XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Well I'm back again , thanks for the kind words Rachel . If admin will allow, if you put in on your web search ................Children's Hospice South West Royal opening June 2007 , it should lead you to the Weston Mercury newspapers front page , they covered the Royal event , it tells you a bit about the hospice I work for and what went on at the opening etc. My stitches are not good at the minute, every time I have to have them I get nothing but trouble , its as if my skin just doesn't like having them in at all . Still with another two days to go before they come out at the earliest ( as the wound was so deep ) and the skin around them is bright red and angry , the area is getting 'hot' and my arm is swelling so it looks like yet another dose of antibiotics when I do get them out , but from the looks of them they really should come out today as they seem to be cutting back into the skin and its extremely sore again ....................... I dont know , my body , why cant I just for once have a nice normal day with no tiredness, no plaster casts, stitches, headaches, sore bits here there and everywhere....................as well as the 'oh, lets eat out , then when the meal arrives its either throat contractions, sweats or just plain 2 mouthfuls and 'thats it' .............................yep, I'm having a moan and a feel sorry for myself day today , I'm tired , sore and a bit fed up , still its my Mid - Summer -Nights -Dream show ( I've done all the scenery for it ) next Wednesday and Thursday and now my hubby's camera has been sorted today when I go to do the last bits on it he's going to take photos so I can put them on my photo sit for you all . I'll get him to photo my poor sore arm as well so you can see what fun (Ha ........humbug ) I've been having down here in glorious ( where, have I missed it , did I blink to slowly ) wonderful Devon by the sea ( as well as all the water thats falling from the skies and sitting around our ankles ) Bye all for now ................its 6 .30 am and I'm going to bed as I've been up all night with pain ...............my, my how unusual for me love and smiles Ami XXXXX

Hello all , yes it is me back from the land of bed rest ............... I did go to the event , but half an hour before her Royal Highness Sophie of Wessex was due to arrive I started feeling unwell , yes I know , but I knew it was coming as I'd tried to put my make up on 5 times that morning at the hotel and my clothes where marked with sweat from me getting those uncontrollable bouts of really bad POTS waving over me again. So , I took the decision not to meet her , crazy you will think , BUT I was thinking about it from my point of view and how I would feel if I was asked to shake hands and talk to someone who was dripping sweat and it was running down their face ! how I would feel if this person was looking pale and grey and was about to pass out .................yep ..............I did , but outside of the big marquee away from all the VIP's and HRH with just staff to help me . I will be having some photo's to put onto my site later , but at this time I'm resting still as I have another worry to contend with at the minute . When the plaster cast was taken off about a week ago now , the doctor noticed a mark on my forearm about 8-9 inches from the wrist , he asked what it was and how long I'd had this . I explained that I had some sort of bite or lump there , that I'd been trying to get it to heal for about a year now and that at one point I thought a maggot was coming out of it as it kept coming up to a head with a strange long lump of matter tryig to come out ............yuck ( no , not a spot ) it started out as a small mark , grew into a lump about the size of an English 1/2 pence piece and is now the size of a 1 penny piece and was black in colour on my skin , I had over this year , cut it off, burnt it with wart acid and still it came back ...............doc took one look at it and said I had to see a dermatologist ASAP. I saw this skin cancer person who has cut it out ...............when she froze the area and said she would just cut the mark away , but as she cut it , it became apparent it was not a mark and she had to cut down into the tissue ( yes I was watching it all ) and she took out a lump of tissue about the size of a marble from my arm , it looked like a whole bunch of eggs !!!!! She's sent it off for testing , then she looked all over me and found two more smaller ones , if this comes back with anything 'strange ' at all they come out as well .............so having just had my plaster off ( 4 days) I now have 7 ..............yes , 7 stitches in my forearm which are due to come out on Friday , I'm now having physio on the hand /wrist and arm and my lump removal site is ' very sore ' and the muscles have been 'twanged' somewhat . As soon as I get any photo's from head office concerning HRH's visit to us I will send them on , but I'm sure if I look hard enough I can find you all a site lead in to a newspaper about us all , I'll have a look in a minute. Well , things are never quite what we expect , but this mark on the arm was quite a shock for me and passing out at the event , well , you know yourselves , you have to expect the unexpected and think of it as normal when POTS are concerned . Best to all AMI

The official gold and green invites arrived at the begining of the week ..so posh I'm still in a full plaster cast , the pain is not to bad , I keep testing the thumb + wrist by trying to pick things up then wish I hadn't done so . I've now ( after about 4-5 different outfits coming and going ) found what to wear , nothing grand as I cannot get it over the cast ..............royal blue ( very bright ) chiffon 3/4 sleeved smock top ( no I;m not preggy ) one of the ones everyone is wearing now a days . Black elasticated long trousers ( cos , this girl cannot pull up tight fitting ones ) and black sandals plus of course an owl or phoenix on my shoulder Well come on guys , I'm know for my lunacy so why stop . We are not allowed to take photo's of the event ( mean things ) but I hope to get some official ones , soon as I get them I'll stick them on my site . Bye for now as I need to rest , no sleep last night at all again , dam pain ! AMI

Hi Elle , I've been taking 'the champagne drug ' or Domperidone as you call it for ages now Its the only thing I find works for me when I go into one of my 'sicking for the whole of the UK stages ' I also believe its given to cancer patients in the UK for anti-sickness so it cant be bad , I've never had any trouble with it and considering the amount of drugs and mixes I take , well thats brilliant in my books AMI .

thanks guys for your replies, excuse strange writing as i am not a happy bunny having spent another 4 .5 hours at hospital this evening and am in 75% pain again as the first plaster cast was not the correct sort ............... basically the thumb came away in my hand .............so had to go back only to be told that the nurse had not put on .the one you said flop , but a half open cast . when they took it off............... the back of my hand, palm , up my whole thumb to the last joint before the nail , my wrist and then a 1-2 inch section running down towards my elbow on the inside of my arm was ; black, yellow, green and had blood patches and bleeding in it , that shocked us all ................and then the doctor and nurse went to move it again without pain relief , well ...............i swore out loud , something i very rarely do at the best of times . pain, pain and more pain again now which is why I'm up at 4 am and have been for sometime and typing this so very slowly with my left index finger only , i now cannot use the four fingers on my right hand without pain to ..............cross or what . I've been able to sort my new outfit for the HRH thing , if you go to the Indian site called rupali , go to trouser suits and look at one called 'twinkle' its a white linen suit with a long jacket , which i got 2 sizes to big , the jacket has wonderful embroidery down the front . so i thought white trousers , a white sleeveless plain top , the jacket .one arm in , 1/2 done up and the other arm in my sling , a white hat and silver flat strappy sandals and shoulder bag .............which i have , it has to be cheap as i spent a lot on the extras for the other lot i cant wear and nothing else in my wardrobe will fit around the arm sling . blimey better go so sore and tired now , bye to all take care and thanks ...............ami xxxxx

well with just 2 weeks to go until the big day I've now tried on my outfit and because of the full arm plaster I cannot get the suit on as the jacket is one of those that you wear as the top it makes it totally unwearable . So I've been into both of my wardrobes and nothing is usable at this time . OMG what am I to do ?????? Never fear I went to the Indian site I got my caftans from and I've just ordred a white trouser suit ( not see though as its make of a linen mix) It has a long line jacket (almost to the knee) with a collar , the front and sleeve edge has the most wonderful heavy embroidery on it of flowers and leaves in red, pink, blue and green , I've slo ordered a white heavy beaded shoulder bag with silver chain shoulder strap , add to this my flat very strappy silver sandals and possibly a white hat or do something very 'arty' with my waist long hair ................... well its not the normal sort of thing you would wear to an event such as this , but then I'm known for my unusual event ........remember my show is all about Magic and mystery , so why go looking like a middle aged mummy dressed in a normal suit or dress and jacket like all the other ladys are going to wear ! I can have one side of the jacket over my shoulder and still wear the other half of the jacket , just have to put a sleeveless white cotton tee -shirt with the trousers , I'm send a picture once its arrived so you can judge if it looks OK , as long as i dont look like a gangsters moll I dont mind Bye for now AMI xxxxx

Honestly you guys I wrote an email to my area manager for my charity just now and at the end wrote .............Ami a little plastered in a none alcoholic way I went to see my own Doc today and she hugged me and gave me a kiss !!!!! explaining that in all the years she had been a doctor she had never seen anyone in so much pain and my colour .............well as she was calling the house every 2 hours to check up on me , it says it all she also said she was very worried and thought that hospital was my only answer , if your wondering why she didn't send me in first thing ????? well I hate hospitals for the simple reason that in the UK they have no idea what this condition is about , so in trying not to be ignored ( the nurses and doctors I might add ) they treat me really terrible , making out that I dont have things , like for instance; My heart was really slow one day and I was getting chest pains and arm pains again , heart beat taken by doc 43 bpm ........... I was sent in for monitoring + care + drugs , when my heart beat went to 40 all the alarms went off ..............so the nursing staff lowered the alarm warning number to under 40 bpm ................so then they went off again as now my heart beat was 38 bpm and I was looking even paler than beofre they had given me the drugs to help ...........so what did they do ???? they disconnected the monitor as it would disturb the other patients My husband went crazy and was shouting at the nurses saying that it was almost barbaric and possibly illegal to do such a thing to me , in the end I took myself home and had my doctor look after me again with extra drugs + oxygen and 2 hourly care from herself and her own nurses. I've also been shouted at my am Army doctor ( we have naval doctors in our hospital to ) who asked me why I was in a hospital bed one morning after I was admitted the day before with angina and a heart beat of 35bpm , grey skin , sweating , almost black nail beds and an oxygen content of just 89% !!!! he checked my chart at the bottom of the bed and said it was obvious that the staff had written there figures wrong ..............again my husband went mad and almost hit the man but I got my own back on the major as I pulled rank on him , having called me Mrs .................-..............he had to apologise and speak to me in a civil tongue and then suddenly disappeared , again I went home to my doctors care . It has now been discovered that my joints are all getting loose , which is why silly things like my thumb are causeing so much pain and trouble for me and why my hips keep moving out of alignment . But I tell you guys, the pain I had from that one steroid injection will stay with me for the rest of my life , it was excruciating , and I always thought I had felt the worst pain imaginable up until them , ha , wrong , so very wrong . Now my own doctor has said she will have to think very carefully before giving me anything out of the ordinary and definitely not another steroid ever , which is now written in red across my notes ! Well plastered or not I'd better go now as my necks killing me and my one finger typings getting harder and harder to do , look after yourselves , dont do anything I wouldn't do ( which means do what you like ) , bye to all Ami XXXXXX

Over the past few months I have somehow become very laid back about my condition , and have now suffered one of the worst experiences I have ever had . In the past when I injured myself or got a cough/cold or anything that most people without Pots would call normal , I on the other hand knowing how I can react to such mundane conditions was always on the alert for any 'subtle changes' or unexpected ' longer than normal healing times' but with all the excitment of the children's hospice I let my guard slip ..................and am now suffering the consequences of this , such a stupid thing to do , and one I will not forget in a longtime , especially the pain. Let me start at the begining ; A few weeks ago about 10-12 if fact , I was trying to come out of the bathroom and as I turned the handle I somehow managed to tear the muscle and damage the nerves etc at the base of my right thumb, this was painful at the time and very annoying because everytime I used the thumb I suffered pain shooting into the base and then after about a week or more this started to extend further up the wrist. Thinking ' I'll just rest it more' I merrily carried on , and so did the pain until just turning the key in the car's ignition had waves of pain and sickness sweeping over me , and me feeling like I was about to 'hit the proverbial floor' . So , after 6 weeks of struggling I went to see my own Doctor, he sent me for an xray ( which later confirmed I'd damaged the muscles etc) and at the time suggested I was put into a plaster cast so that I could completely rest the now thumb and wrist . I thought about this and decided that it would be such a hindrance for me so asked the Doctor if I could have it strapped instead? my doctor sort of agreed and having searched around for something to hold the area's injured firm and still , he then suggested that may be I should have it plastered as he could find nothing to use . Being me I said 'NO, dont be so daft , Mark and I will find something to make a flat base for me to be strapped to ' and so I've just spent 2-3 weeks being strapped to a small plastic reshaped ( to my hand ) chopping board, with the understanding that if the pain didn't easy off by this method I would have to have steroid injections into the thumb base and possible a cast after this for a short time ..................... now this is where the lesson is to be learnt. ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOUR DOCTOR AND NOT BEEN SO SURE YOU CAN FIX IT MYSELF..................this is now tattooed across my forehead. I went back to see my lady Doctor on Tuesday for a steroid injection as the pain had not eased and was getting worse at times. Neither my doctor or I had any idea what was to follow and certainly I having had steroid injections in the past ( about 18 years ago ) had never experienced anything like what followed. I had just one injection into my thumb base, felt fine and left for home , got home and suddenly felt very tired, extremely tired , so tired it shocked me and my hubby sent me looking very white to bed . An hour and a half later I awoke ........................with the most excruciating pain in my right hand, thumb joint , wrist and up my arm to my inner elbow, so extreme was the pain that I rolled around the bed and was crying ............something which shocked both my husband and my son to see me do. Hubby gave me a 40 mg Oxycontin tablet and my doctor was called , having listened to what was wrong she said she would be around in a couple of hours time when the painkiller had worked ............. but it didn't. My doctor was called and came out to me , I was given an injection of morphine and 10 mg of diazepam and was told that the pain would now go off.............. but it didn't, in fact it had now extended up to my upper arm and I was as white as a sheet , still crying with the pain and didn't know what to do with myself. After half an hour of trying to think of something my doctor gave me another 2 x 40 mg of Oxycontin to kill the pain ........... but it didn't and I was getting worse as the minutes passed , so much so that I was almost passing out with pain now. So off to the hospital I went at now 9 pm in the evening for help , my own doctor was worried and so upset by what had happened to me , poor woman kept calling every 2 hours to check on me . Once at the hospital I was given gas and air ...............thank goodness this helped a bit , and had a very nice unbelievably understanding doctor talk to me about what had happened , he thinks that my pots has spread into my joints and is somehow effecting them in some way that when the steroid was injected in instead of helping ...........it to attacked the joint which was why I was still some 9-10 hours after the injection rolling around in utter agony and still crying with such overwhelming pain like I'd never felt before , it was almost as if my arm was being torn off slowly a bit at a time .................I just cannot tell you what the pain was like , t was over the 10 score and all I wanted to do was hold my hand/arm to by body crying rocking back and forth ..............this was not a person my husband or son had ever seen before . So having had more morphine I'm now in a full plaster cast from tip of my thumb to my elbow and will be like this for about 4-6 weeks ( yep, all though the HRH thingy ) the pain had almost gone , but on coming home at some 6 am in the morning yesterday I suffered huge bouts of vomitting and then upset stomach that left me feeling like I'd lost the day before , last weeks and last years contents of my whole digestive system. I've now slept for some hours and am feeling more me ( whatever that is ) , my lady doctor was on the phone asking me to come into the surgery today , she is still feeling so guilty and upset by it all , but as I keep saying to her ' its not any one's fault , we dont know how my body will react to drugs now , its all just guess work ' . When I go later today I think I'll take her some flowers to cheer her up , If you had seen her face when she came out to me you'd know why. So moral of this is.................listen to your doctor, dont think you always know what's best for your body and like the boy scouts ' be prepared ' because anything can happen when you least expect it to , and I've just learnt it , the hard way . Willows .........never again will I say ' NO, I'll sort it '