Got a real tree? CHECK IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhhh..........didn't it look nice?

-I write that in the past tense, because I've had to strip the tree and smother it with insecticide till it's dripping!

Apparently, aphids hibernate in the winter, and there is nothing they like better to have a snooze in than a nice bushy little tree. Not too big, close to the ground, snug.... erm.... just like this one, actually!

Well, after two days in our living room with the fire on, they woke up thinking it was summertime and therefore.......party-time!

I'd had cards around the foot of the tree and on Thursday morning, went to put another card there, newly arrived. It was then that I noticed something sticky on one of the cards....... sap. Wherever the little ba***rds had nibbled, the tree had produced sticky sap to try to defend itself. It drowns the bug in sticky yuckiness, leaving it immobile. But it doesn't stop it nibbling in the first place, and therefore didn't stop the needles falling. Neither does it do anything to prevent further wee baby aphids from hatching and joining in the fun fun fun.

Stroooof!

Just when I thought I had Christmas licked!

Everyone's coming to our house for Christmas... only had ten days notice of this, but hey! I can handle this! I CAN handle it! I keep telling myself I can. Bought food...........found bigger table in charity shop........... bought decorations in an early sale.......... all done, all OK. Didn't account for aphid invasion in the middle of winter. Silly me.

Hey ho!

So. Take this moral- if you have a real tree, go and examine it. NOW. Before it's too late.

Have a merry, bugless Christmas!

Whoooooooooooooaaaaah!

I don't really drink. Never got into the habit, or developed the taste.

Then came duloxetine, my latest anti-depressant, with bigger than the usual "do not drink while taking this medicine" warning. Why so big a warning this time? I looked it up on the net....

.....man! How do these things get licenses? This drug caused liver cancer in the rats it was tested on. If they put it to market even after that, what was the point of putting the animals through that?

Anyway. So I've been taking Milk Thistle (silmarin) all the time I've been on it, as this is meant to help your liver.

I got the results of a recent blood test the other day- liver tested normal. Hurray!

So................ feeling a little wound up tonight, I decided to have some wine. Why not? The one that had been opend X weeks ago was off (really?) so I opened another. We have afew bottles- presents, winnings from pub quizes my partner went to, etc. All look the same to me, except some are red and some are white. I can usually tell from the label which is which, so I can cook with the right one. Ha!

Mmmm................. this red wine is gooooooooooood...........sweet, tasty, yum! Sip sip.... pour more.......

Then my partner says, "Hey! Hold on! That's not wine! That's PORT!"

Oops.

Better put some paracetamol and water by my bed for the morning......

Teeeeeeeeehehehehehehehehe...........