Wind her away, keep turnin'

A quick advert: a few times, people have said to me that they'd love to try rapper dancing, but that they're a bit scared because they're never done anything like it and they'll be crap. At the moment we have a few new people starting with Mabel Gubbins, and at least one of them has never even seen rapper dancing before. So, if you're female[*], and in Oxfordshire-ish, and you've ever thought you might like to give it a try, now would be a really great time - we'll[**] be teaching everything from the absolute basics.

http://mabelgubbins.co.uk

Practices are Tuesday evenings 8pm - 9pm for beginners (hardcore Mabels stay til 10pm), in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.


[*] If you're male, and in Londonish, try Thrales. They're very welcoming of beginners. I can try and offer suggestions of other teams if neither of these suits.
[**] Where by "we" I apparently mean "I" - think I blinked at a critical moment at the AGM :(

Bright eyes and breathless; this is how love feels

Well. That was unnecessarily exciting.

I, and a couple of colleagues, went shopping at lunchtime. And hjalfi bought some cobnuts, to find out what they were like.

So after my lunch, I ate a couple of cobnuts[*]. We hadn't realised that they were solid enough to require nutcrackers, so I cracked mine open with my teeth. And they're quite nice - interesting crunchy, juicy texture and a very mild flavour. I decided I quite liked them.

And then I noticed that the roof of my mouth was tingling. And the insides of my ears. And I thought, gosh. That's not ideal. I won't eat any more.

And a few minutes later I could feel a distinct lump-in-the-throat sensation that hadn't been there before. And was feeling a little breathless, and rather tight and wheezy about the lungs. And a bit dizzy.

Which wasn't great. I had told my colleagues this, so they'd have some idea what was going on if I toppled off my chair. As one of the work first aiders, I know perfectly well that allergic reactions weren't covered in our first aid course ;)

Anyway, about 90 minutes later and I'm back to normal (modulo a residual slightly sore throat, and the generally bizarre feelings you get from trying to over-analyse whether you feel ok or not). So, no harm done.

Using the absolutely-100%-reliable diagnosis-by-internet, I'm considering oral allergy syndrome and have filched an anti-histamine from a colleague. However, I suspect the best course of action from now on is "don't eat cobnuts".


[*] Which the internet tells me are the same as hazelnuts. Except these were the fresh kind, with green leaves still wrapping them.