Birthday Fun & not so fun dizziness
So, I somehow managed to make my birthday last all week last week, which was nice.
The Sunday before my birthday my sister came over to help us do cleaning & tidying, and also bakd me a cake and cookies. Very yummy. We managed to clear the office out so I could finally set my massage equipment up again... very out of practice!
Then on the Tuesday Paul Gravett was visiting Leicester to give a talk on graphic novels at the central library. We grabbed a bite to eat with him before the talk, and as usual he manged to give an interesting, well attended & well received talk. Looking forward to some of the new graphic novels he highlighted like the forthcoming work from David Mazzucchelli.
My actual birthday on the wednesday was pretty quiet, with a nice meal of cauliflower cheese as a small treat. In the way of pressies I got money, Hunter wellies, a wrap coat, Escape to/Return to Witch Mountain DVDS, Swallows & Amazons DVD, Essential Dykes to Watch Out For book, Conjugal Rites by Paul Magrs, Kin (Bk 1 of the Good Neighbours) by Holly Black & Ted Naifeh, chocolates, wine and jellybaby mugs.
Thursday was manic, but very enjoyable as my friend Dawn visited with her three daughters: Eve (11), Heather (9) and Rosie (2). We went along to a drawing workshop with Al Davison at a local library, which was fab. The older girls loved it, especially when he went into manga drawing techniques and drew a manga angel for Heather. Dawn & I also enjoyed joining in with the drawing and learning how to turn simple cartoon expressions into more realistic faces. Rosie enjoyed running all over the library, cleaning things with wet wipes! We got back to ours and devoured a chinese take-away before they left - Heather & Eve having borrowed several manga books from me (Fruits Basket & Ranma 1/2). They had also baked me cakes, made me cards (which explained why Rosie was covered in red food dye!) and sang me Happy Birthday, which was lovely of them.
Then Saturday saw us at a Terror Scribes meet, where we saw a few friends form Fantasycon ( Mark West, Ally Bryd) and met lots of new faces in the world of small press horror writing. A pleasant afternoon in the pub listening to short story readings (some very theatrically dramatic!), followed by a fab curry at Agra with fab company.
And finally this sunday saw us at my parents for a laid back sunday lunch and family visit. Overall, a lovely, celebratory week.
Unfortunately the end of the week and the beginning of this wek was marred by anti-depressant withdrawal symptoms kicking in. I've been cutting down my dosage for the last few months and finally came off them a couple of weeks ago (after 3 years!). Despite the careful planning the most commonc withdrawal symptoms (severe dizziness & nausea) kicked in. Ended up off work Monday & Tuesday this week but they're abating now and starting to feel much better again.