I don't understand, I don't understand

[venta]

Inexplicable things from my life...

1. At the beginning of the year, out of curiosity, I started weighing myself every day to see how much my weight fluctuates. I have electronic scales which weigh to a quarter of a pound[*] and I put the results on a little graph. The line is surprisingly wiggly, showing localised ups and downs (fairly spurious) and overall ups and downs (probably at least representative of some change).

However, between Saturday morning and Sunday morning this weekend I gained nearly a stone. I don't remember eating lead butties, or anything. I did try resetting the scales and moving them to a different patch of floor a few times, but they were (and still are) adamant. I am assuming that scale malfunction is the most likely explanation - although of course I have no way of knowing if they've been underweighing for a while and have just corrected, or are now suddenly overweighing[**]. Or indeed if very sudden weight gain is in fact a perfectly normal thing to happen but that I've never noticed before. Or if I am now in possession of a slightly-awkward-to-use random number generator.

It's playing hell with my nice graph, though :(

2. Flashback to Christmas 1980: some friends of my parents give me an enormous present. The enormous box, when unwrapped, turns out to contain an enormous teddy bear[***]. A few months earlier, the papers had been full of stories of a trained bear, Hercules, who escaped in the Outer Hebrides during filming. I call my bear Hercules. He and another enormous bear, Charlie, given to me a few years later by my aunt and uncle, sit either side of my bed as I am growing up.

A year or so ago I realised that my parents' attempts to shuffle all the possessions I'd hidden in their house onto me were doomed to failure: I owned far, far too many cuddly animals. They were pre EU-regulations, so charity shops wouldn't take them as they're not considered safe. I didn't have space to keep them all, but the only option seemed to be landfill which - even for a relentlessly practical person like me - was unthinkable. I eventually located a charity which was willing to take my toxic teddies and re-home them in Africa, and thus shipped off all but a few favourites. Both Herc and Charlie survived the cull.

Mum asked a few weeks ago: should they bring Charlie down when they came to visit, or send him to the jumble? Bring him, I said, and Herc. Oh no, they replied, Herc isn't here. He's not in my old bedroom, he's not anywhere in their house or attic. Well, he's not in my flat in London. And I personally delivered the bears who were taking ship for Africa, I know he wasn't with them. He has, it would seem, escaped again. I hope he's having adventures.

In presumably independent incidents, my leather jacket and my sleeping bag have also vanished in the past few months.

3. Around mid-September, I had a cold. Then it rumbled on, and broke out into hideous proportions while I was in Whitby. Then it more or less went away, and came back horrendously again the following weekend.

Now, this summer wasn't much of a summer as far as these things go, and I got through it largely without taking much in the way of the prescription hayfever medication I usually motor through. However, it seems that this ongoing cold is in fact allergies - I am now, in November, firmly back on the allergy drugs and much better for it. Who the hell gets hayfever in November? What am I allergic to? Bonfire and firework pollen? Fog?

This also means that all the people blaming me for the Whitby lurgy: it wasn't my fault!

4. Yesterday, our office acquired a mysterious black cube (which shows that my boss doesn't watch Doctor Who). No one actually seemed to be sure really what it was, as it didn't seem to do much even when plugged in.

I suggested that it would probably go zip when it moved and bop when it stopped and thus far no one has had the least idea what I'm talking about. Honestly, what are they all playing at? Does no one remember The Marvellous Toy?

Actually, our black cube is now working, and is rather boringly a TV set-top box.

[*] Actually, I'm pretty confident they do nothing of the sort, but they give readings which claim to be accurate to a quarter of a pound.
[**] Yes, this could of course be resolved by visiting some sort of reputable scales somewhere. I think a state of mystery is more exciting.
[***] Enormous if you're four years old, anyway.

Comments

[lathany.livejournal.com]

However, it seems that this ongoing cold is in fact allergies - I am now, in November, firmly back on the allergy drugs and much better for it. Who the hell gets hayfever in November? What am I allergic to? Bonfire and firework pollen? Fog?

I was diagnosed with hayfever this summer for the first time in my life (I suspect I first got it last year, but didn't realise what it was then). Apparently it's not unusual to get it late (much to my surprise). However, I also found myself unable to come off antihistamines this autumn. So it isn't just you. (I'd also like to know what's causing it.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I took delivery of my full complement of allergies (pollen, cats, dogs, dust, perfume) rather abruptly in the summer of my first year at university. Apparently this might have been triggered by my moving out of a house with a cat - but I presume you haven't had any sudden change in circumstances?

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Hmm. We got Reeve in the spring of 2010 and he is something of an allergy cat (most guests with cat allergies have found him worse than the Ems). Which would mean that I picked it up two years before diagnosis and one year before I was aware that I had some sort of problem.

So possible but unlikely.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Who the hell gets hayfever in November? What am I allergic to?

Fungal spores and mould.

Welcome to my personal hell :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

So why was it worst in Whitby? I usually find hayfever to be much less noticeable when on the coast. Are you saying goths are all mouldy!?

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

No, but coastal areas have a tendency to be quite damp, which encourages mould growth. Also, rented houses can be either damp or dusty; I've learned to make sure I have a full packet of antihistamines before I go anywhere near one these days :)

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

and fern spores. Lots of fern spores.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Who the hell gets hayfever in November?

Um, me if I'm not being careful? Which I obviously am, always, at all times. Ahem.

What am I allergic to? Bonfire and firework pollen? Fog?

If you have a dustmite allergy, you get it All Year Round. If so, make sure the vacuuming is done more often, by someone who isn't you.

If you have a food allergy (especially dairy allergy, which is notorious for giving perennial allergic rhinitis), it's not going to care that it is November

If your abode is too humid (e.g. getting condensation on the windows), look out for damp/mould (allergen/irritant). Find someone that can still smell to sniff and touch all the soft furnishings (carpets, sofas, cushions, bedding, mattress, clothes etc) looking for things that are damp to the touch or smell musty. Look for black on the walls, especially behind wardrobes and in corners.

As well as allergens, you may have an irritant reaction, which from your POV is practically the same as an allergy. Cold, smoke, perfumes etc are potent irritants and can give hayfever symptoms and asthma if you're really lucky. So can cleaning products, which makes life that bit more hilarious (allergies if you do clean, allergies if you don't).


If I were a gambling person, I'd go for your bedding as the most likely culprit. Unless you boil pillows and duvets every month and replace it every couple of years like you're supposed to (so says my allergist anyway. Seriously, though, who does this?).

[venta.livejournal.com]

If so, make sure the vacuuming is done more often, by someone who isn't you.

This would be lovely. Remind me next time to choose someone to live with who isn't also allergic to dust :) (Yes, we probably should get a cleaner.)

I know all the logical stuff about allergies. I just don't see it working in practice. Allergies (or irritations) seem to flare up and go away abruptly, regardless of location/surroundings. If bedding were a problem (which it might be - as you say, who boils stuff and replaces it that often) surely it would be a constant low-level thing, not something that comes and goes dramatically. Ditto environmental mould, etc.

In that way a food allergy would make more sense, but I've never managed to spot a pattern. Admittedly, I haven't looked too hard, in case I find one.

Incidentally, I define "hayfever" as "allergic rhinitis caused by pollen", so I stick to my guns that you shouldn't bloody get hayfever in November :)

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

If your abode is too humid (e.g. getting condensation on the windows), look out for damp/mould (allergen/irritant).

...and then nuke it from orbit. I have no sensible way of getting an effective dehumidifier into the dampest parts of my bedroom (all the power points are wrong!), but opening the window on dry days and wiping down the condensation in the morning helps keep damp at bay. As long as you remember to take whatever you wiped the window with out of the room, otherwise it's a highly pointless undertaking :)

Also, there are appropriately perilous spray products that you can use, though I normally only do so if I'm going to be spending the night somewhere else :)

Unless you boil pillows and duvets every month and replace it every couple of years like you're supposed to (so says my allergist anyway. Seriously, though, who does this?)

Somebody who isn't me, for starters :)

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I only know The Marvellous Toy due to my interest in the folk and protest genre, which led me to Tom Paxton. It wasn't a song of my childhood, though his Goin' To The Zoo, Zoo, Zoo (sung by someone else on one of those kiddie 45s) certainly was.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Maybe I only know it from folk festivals. The song about the zoo was certainly something we sang at school, it never occurred to me it might be a song with a known writer!

<looks up Tom Paxton on Wikipedia>

Blimey! He wrote everything :)

[rapperaddict.livejournal.com]

Obviously somewhere out there, Hercules is looking really cool during the day and sleeping warmly at night...

[venta.livejournal.com]

I do hope so :)

(Though he's going to look a little strange... his arms were way shorter than mine...)

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I know about The Marvellous Toy! It goes zip when it moves and bop when it stops and whirr when it stands still!

if you're really worried about your scales being broken, ask your doctor to weigh you next time you have an appointment. Or pay 50p or whatever to use one of those machines they have in big branches of Boots.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think you can have a kudo for knowing about the Marvellous Toy.

I'm not worried about my scales, just a little bewildered and faintly annoyed. It's a slightly weird way for them to fail. Maybe I'll buy them some new batteries to see if they behave.

[ladylizbet.livejournal.com]

November tends to be mould spore allergy time. I suffer with that in addition to pollen.

What fun!

x

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

Wild Hills o' Wannie. Billy Pigg.

[marjory.livejournal.com]

We were taught 'The Marvellous Toy', along with gazillions of weird folk songs in Infant School. The teacher was, of course, Chris Taylor, who it turned out was in various folk bands. Scarred for life, I tell'ee!

I particularly remember said song because it was the engine of me and Andrew Prest acting up one singing session. Being all of 6 and terribly witty with it, we couldn't resist sticking in 'rude' noises instead of the zips and bops. Teacher did not share our amusement, although he really should have seen it coming, methinks.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

When you say hayfever, is it mostly sneezing and runny nose or headachey and short of breath? I just saw a thing about carbon monoxide on TV and thought of you.

[venta.livejournal.com]

It is entirely explosive sneezing and very runny nose - also we have a CO detector in our house and it hasn't emitted any sort of beep. So I don't think it's CO, but thank you for mentioning it!

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

Chris Taylow, now retired, is still singing in folk clubs locally.

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

Taylor (cold hands after choir practice in freezing room)

[marjory.livejournal.com]

I imagined he might be! He was also an active member of the local Labour party :D

[(Anonymous)]

I get smoke allergies in November, due to it getting cold and everyone lighting their wood fires.

re: damp. Kitty litter can absorb the moisture, and is cheap.

Adrian