Who knew?

So, fags cure a sore throat - good to know.

Shame it didn't work for me way back when, when I used to smoke 20 Marlboro red a day, and another 20 if we went out on an evening. I woke in the wee hours of one morning (well, I say wee hours, we'd been out until the wee hours and this was probably around 7am) unable to breathe. I woke the ex and tried to tell him, he told me to relax and go back to sleep, rolled over, farted and dozed off again. I rang my mum, hundreds of miles away, and somehow managed to convey this to her; she told me to pass the phone to him - I don't know what she said but he got off the phone and in 10 seconds flat was out of bed, phoning an ambulance and getting both of us dressed. I spent 3 days in hospital with a chest infection, on a ward with a load of pensioners, and then they let me home. I think I was 3 weeks or so off the fags, but as soon as the smoke going down my throat didn't cause me to cough up a lung, I was back at them. Silly girl.

It must be 11 years or so since I quit.

Anyway, it's been a beautiful day on the Isle of Wight today - sun crackin' the flags (I may have got a bit of colour!). I got a bit of an earlier start today and set off on the bus to Arreton Barns craft village. Had a lovely wander round and bought a few bits and pieces then sat in a bit of shade and had an iced latte and a slice of the tallest victoria sponge I've ever seen. Seriously, it must've been 15cm high. Tres impressive.

On another bus then into Ventnor - not really bothered about town centres but I'd looked up a couple of craft shops. I like to look when I'm on holiday and see if they've got anything different. I also found a photographer's shop and bought a beautiful limited edition photo of the beach huts on Shanklin beach - he said it was an autumn morning, about 5 minutes after the sun had exploded over the horizon. That's another one for my wall, along with an amazing picture from the craft village which is done in wax with an iron, and you'd swear it was intricately painted. The lady did it to show me how it was done and it is truly amazing.

I was going to head back to the hotel then, pretty tired. Got on the bus in Ventnor and started reading, and I looked up just as we were going through Godshill. It looked so pretty - thatched cottages and all - that I got off the bus. Did a bit more wandering around gift shops - I have to say, I think if I see another shabby chic heart I might just throw up - and then went to see the model village. It's fantastic, everything built to either 1/10 or 1/100 scale and then there's a 1/1000 scale model of the model village in the middle. They've even got a train track with running trains which has models of stations on the island, it's so cute!

After that I really was done in, so back to the hotel for a lie down. I've been out this evening for dinner (getting a bit of evening cabin fever) and a couple of glasses of wine (£4.50 each, I could only afford a couple) and a wander around the Christmas shop. I'll have to buy something!

Rain forecasted in the morning, so I might well go down for breakfast and then go back to bed!

x

ps I know it's a bit of a blurry shot, but I was standing next to a family with a screaming brat and it was putting me off!

pps a couple of my friends (non-subscribers) have mentioned that they can no longer view my blips at all - has Blip changed the settings?