Plasters

Sophie prompted this post with a small comparison she made about fungus on a tree being like scabs on her post about a walk here.    And then it made me think back to those primary school years:

Oh how often we fell over when we were young!  I always remember having to go to the medical room after having fallen over with a big bleeding cut/scratch on my knee.  Not one of those monumental long scabs which suggested a slalom-style skid on a patch of skin, but just the general fall over and scrape the asphalt which resulted in blood outpouring in the lesser or more degree.  They always stung like anything, some sort to disinfectant would then be applied (For the record, I really loathe the smell of TCP but I adore the smell of Dettol!) and then the worst bit....

THE PLASTERSSSSSSSSSSS. 
(Band-Aids or Adhesive bandages if you are from the US)

Urgh, school plasters were the WORST.  These square-shaped lolloping great things that were always saggy and failed to stay on properly.  I really would rather bleed then wear them.  They were always several tones too pale for my skin too.
At home, my Mum would then take off the offending inferior plaster and change it for the opposite, the 'cling to your skin no matter what', thick, textured adhesive as strong as super-glue variety which wouldn't come off for love, nor money.  These were several shades darker, almost a brick red shade and more rectangular (with curved edges_)

As the years went on, my utter emnity towards the offending items grew to the extent that the sight of them makes me shudder. I cannot, will not have a plaster unless I can absolutely not avoid it and if I do, it sets my teeth on edge and fills me with a disturbing sense of unease.

Why?

Well, let me enlighten you...

1.  Those really strong ones ALWAYS, left a really disgusting nasty dark outline from the plaster once you removed them.  You would see a shadow of the former plaster left on your skin like the mocking echo of school yard bullies from some school-based drama.  You'd try to scrape it off carefully, avoiding the wound, but it wouldn't come off and the feeling of fingernails against that gluey, sticky nasty dark matter made me wince.   You'd gingerly try to scrub the skin in the bath, striving to avoid contact with the scab/wound.
2.  The actual removal of the plaster. Remember I mentioned how strong the adhesive was?  The actual removal of the plaster was always traumatic. I am recoiling as I recall the feeling of trying to remove one. You'd grasp, scrabbling with fingernails at the edges, trying to find a weak spot to remove and then, begin the procedure. You know the old adage or saying about it being better to remove the plaster quickly or something of that ilk?   No.  I dispute that.  It hurts like hell and then you don't know if you've accidentally ripped something else off (like a bit of the scab which might have been unfortunately touched by the edge of the adhesive.  But, almost equally as bad is the slow progression of pulling the plaster.  Skin, hairs, anything that was below gets removed.  I'm not sure which is worse but I will always remove them slowly. I definitely remember several scabs accidentally being ripped off by a clumsily-placed plaster.
3. The unknown.  You never know exactly how it is healing underneath. This makes me uneasy.
4.  In regard to point 3, the feeling once it is removed upon discovering the wound is still not ready for the world, means another plaster!
5.  The colour! I mentioned the colour earlier. I HATED those nasty variations on flesh-coloured.  Equally though, I feel very ill-disposed towards those decorative plasters, especially kiddy ones with cartoon characters.  I flatly refused one of those once upon being a offered one. DON'T try to make them look pretty- they are not pretty, even if they have paisley on them or Mario!  Also, those catering ones that are bright blue are equally alarming.
6.  I also associate plasters with dirty boys!  I was not fond of the average boy when I was a girl. I only liked the clean, quiet ones. I did not like those ones who had scabs and scratches the size of cars.   They would always come into class with a plaster which they would promptly and nonchalantly peel off and discard.  The offending bloody-ball of puss would be beneath, festering like some sort of witch's boil.  Boy injuries were always so much worse than girl injuries. Even now when I see boys and girls with plasters, I shudder inwardly and find a reason to be elsewhere.
7.  Plasters at swimming pools: public pools inevitably end up with with the odd plaster floating in them and certainly they did more when I was growing up.  In my head, as I progressed and one loomed towards me, I would ruminate anxiously over whether it was an injury plaster, a jewellery plaster or worse, a verruca plaster!  Yes, at the swimming pool, I think of those when I see a plaster!
8. It's really hard to actually put them on straight and judge where they will go up to (well it is if you are me!)

I do apologise if I have inadvertently put you off your cup of tea that you were so blithely sipping as you advanced through this post, but this is 'one of those blog posts'.  And in conclusion, if I ever meet you, please don't be offended if you catch me looking at your plaster emblazoned body-part uneasily and shifting from foot to foot, if you are unfortunate enough to be sporting one upon our encounter.  I mean nothing personally, it is just some irrational fear that links me to a myriad childhood traumatic plaster-related memories.

Please note, I have included no accompanying image for this post, since unlike mushrooms (one of my other loathings), plasters are NEVER pretty and their visual manifestation has no place here on KezzieAG!

Over to you...
What are your memories of plasters in your childhood?  Did you have many injuries?  Do you abhor them like me? Do you have any associations like these?

x

October Scavenger hunt

Ahrgh, there was some definite tenuous scrambling and shifty conduct  involved in the completing of the task this month!  I HAD half term and yet here I am hunting through folders trying to see if something will match up!  Thanks to Greenthumb for another super list of items to look for! Can I strongly suggest you go and click the link to see some other versions of this. There are some seriously talented photographers in this challenge who wow me every month with their crisp, beautiful photos and their ingenuity!


October's List


O is for ?
"Ouch!" says the bee as it lands on the rather spiky plant!



It is also for 'opening'. I wanted to share this Dubrovnik view.



6pm
Though the photo itself was not taken at 6pm, this is generally what I used to do at 6pm before I moved away from my old house.  Now it is more likely to be 7.30pm since I have a long journey home from school and inevitably don't leave before 6.30pm!


Morning
I should append this with a sad addendum. This is NOT a typical morning in my life,but then you don't want to see a blurred picture of me scurrying across the park or sweating and panting on a train as I make it with one second to spare.  This was my Saturday morning in half term.  Blissful, reading a new charity shop purchase (dead chuffed to find another Inspector Colbeck book) drinking Earl Grey from CBC's Denby mug and eating resurrected porridge.  Yes, it was the scrapings of CBC's porridge pan which I added milk to, stirred lovingly and brought back to life.  It was tasty. I sat there for ages!



Something you bought:
Oh HOW SAD CBC and I are. We are totally excited about our new bins! We went to John Lewis on Friday night and spent some vouchers on two new bins.  Look, can you see the halos above them! Makes SUCH a difference to the hodge-podge of pink recycling bag and open bucket bin we have survived on for a year.


I'd really like to own anthropomorphic bins but CBC says no, something does not need eyes or a tash to be pretty. Ha, what does he know!?


Light



I enjoyed the light from these candles- the definite flames amidst a mishmash of melted wax!

Close up

Can you tell what it is yet?? I WILL be blogging about this soon, so stay tuned if you want to find out what it was! 



Favourite

My favourite walk in Northumberland will always be the first one I took, and one which I repeated this holiday.  I love the walk along Haltwhistle Burn and here is my favourite part of the walk: the rock face of faces....



And here is my favourite face, which I am pretty sure has featured in a Scavenger hunt long ago...



Isn't that a noble nose!?



Also, because I just don't think anyone noticed them in my Dubrovnik photo post,these are CLEARLY someone's favourite pants. FIVE pegs for one teensy-weensy pair of pants???




Lunch
Now before you get hoity-toity with me over this being my lunch, let me assure you, it was accompanied by a healthy jacket potato with plentiful salad. But you don't want to look at that, you want to look at the BEST chocolate milkshare ever! Mountain of cream: check,  flake on the side: check, flake on top: check, Not too sweet: check, Not fake syrup: Check. Parfait! 



Childhood

My grandad's garden was a place of wonder as a child. We spent SO much of our childhood wandering in those beautiful gardens and yet being nonchalant about the towering trees that formed the border of this garden. I took a walk in his garden recently, now overgrown and couldn't believe the size of this Sequoiya tree.  It has a preservation order on it, it is such a beautiful tree, towering majestically above th other trees.



Your Sky

I often encounter beautiful skies as I walk home from work. This was a GLORIOUS sky I glimpsed in the summer which deserved to be shared yet hadn't been.


Colour:
I have definitely used an oilslick for a scavenger hunt before but they are such a beautiful example of colour resulting from something not so nice.  Bizarrely, this was on the path by Haltwhistle Burn/



Your shoes:
My NEW shoes. I am really naughty to have bought these, particularly since I found some mighty fine boots in a charity shop recently plus other new shoes in the summer but when i saw these turquoise DMs, I kept thinking of how many occasions I had wet feet last winter when walking to school. The trouble is, I am attracted to impractical materials for boots (I don't mean knee-highs but you don't always want to wear those or indeed wellies) most of my boots are suede or somehow bizarrely let in stones. So I justified these by my long winter walks and the fact I lack turquoise shoes. Yes, I know. I don't believe me either.



So, any favourites?  Did you take part? Do let me know if you've done any scavenging...
xx

The Red trousers - the forgettable sequel to The Red shoes

The red trousers tells the tragic tale of a ballet dancer tormented by -
Hold on, hello there, this isn't what I thought it was!! It's not a film advert! Greetings!  It's Inspiration Monday with Les deux oiseaux!  We have a very nice colour combo from this celebrity to model ourselves upon!  I am happy, I have red trousers now!  Still finding myself a little uncomfortable with tight trousers but I like how they look and they are quite practical if it starts raining in this June weather, unlike my usual big trousers which trail in the mud!  They are from Dorothy Perkins and all day, I was driven mad by the combination of low-waisted trousers with vest-top that rolled into a sausage above my waist meaning there was bare-midriff (not seen under shirt!)  Does anyone else pear-shaped have that issue with tops?!

There are two things you should know about me:
I associate objects with memories and I am the type of person who will bore you senseless unexpectedly by reminiscing about some memory I have thought of all of a sudden.  Essentially, it's thinking out loud because it hits me suddenly but it's only after the glazed-expression that I suddenly think, "Hmmm, maybe they didn't need to know that!"  Well, in fact my blog is a little bit like that- streams of waffle!  Still, having an additional outlet for waffle was why I started this blog some 7 years ago!

Anyway, the point in my telling you this fact about myself is that this shirt I wear, below, provoked some memories.  It's from Mango and I bought it in the summer of 2002 when I was just about to go off to Bali to live for a year. It is one of the few items that was taken to Bali and also survived the luggage cull to come back to England!  It was the perfect shirt for Indonesian climates as it was light (cheese-cloth cotton) and it covered me up (in different degrees- you can tie all the seperate ties).  I remember when all the scholarship students arrived at Orientation in Yogyakarta, another student from Portugal, Andrea, who was also going to Bali as opposed to Java, had exactly the same shirt in Beige (Mango also).  I remember we struck up a friendship initially after commenting on each other's shirt!  It was one of the most useful items I own for summer holidays!

Worn with Peacocks ballet pumps and belt, Alice-in-Wonderland necklace (via ASOS) and Newlook heart earrings (gift).  Much as I always prefer the celeb look, today I prefer my own chilled look!

Oh, and the other thing you should know about me.  I really like doing well at school or in any sort of learnign situation!  We had a staff INSET on grammar tonight at school (because of the recently republished draft national curriculum which has a real onus on grammar) and we had a grammar test (purely so we can see the sort of things the new government expects us to know)  and I found I knew a lot of the answers, well most, and probably didn't give the rest of the table much of a chance!  Try this one:  Without cheating and looking at the net, what are the 4 types of sentences?  I, having answered most of the questions thus far in the meeting, named all 4 and was named 'the swot' for knowing all four.   I tend to find in staff meetings, that in most situations, no one says anything and I am keen to get on, so I always tend to answer the questions.  Anyway, I am sure I am quite annoying!  But who cares, I love grammar INSETS! 

Anyway enough waffling- go and check out the birds and their flock of following fabulouso outfits!
I'm also linking up to the lovely Patti's Visible Monday as these trousers made me feel very visible and conspicuous today!

*  Disclaimer: whilst I can teach grammar to children and talk about it, I am fully aware of the many deficiencies in my blogging grammar!  Ahrgh!