And.....

Before I got carried away with my iSight camera (yes, I'm a Mac Poser and will quite likely bore you ridgid about it in future posts), I was going to post something lovely to listen to.

And EmmyLou is my idea of lovely. So, if you share that with me, then go ahead and click. I just love the dark sentimentallity of this song.

So, anyway, there I was in the doctor's surgery and we'd concluded the discussion about HRT with me pocketing a prescription. I knew the next bit might not be so straightforward.

"I've got something else to ask you about," I said, not knowing how what I was about to say might go down, "Do you see any reason why I shouldn't jump out of an airplane?" slight dramatic pause, then "With a parachute, of course, and strapped on to someone who knows what they're doing. And if not, then would you be willing to sign a piece of paper to that effect?" (I actually ad one ready typed, just in case she'd go for it straight away). She said something about tests and how she couldn't say for sure because she didn't know me very well, and then that it might cost something, and, oh yes, I'll need an ECG.  

Actually, I didn't think to ask why I need an ECG, unless I just do anyway. Do the other winners of this competition need an ECG? Or is it just me, I wonder? Still, another of my medications requires a regular ECG screening every few years and it's about due, so not actually a big deal. Just a bit strange. I know I'm getting older because I want to start a sentence with "In this day and age...", but really, in this day and age, when we actually do have legislation that is supposed to stop disabled people being treated differently to non-disabled people in the same circumstances, why is it still going on. Oh yes, silly me, the last bastion of the medical model of disability, is of course, the medical profession. Had I forgotten that or was it just that I'd become accustomed to dealing with the Nurse Practitioners instead a

nd being treated without judgement? 

So, anyway, I'll be back at the surgery next week to have the ECG, then 3 weeks later to see the doctor again re whether the HRT is working. And then I might get my doctor's not.

I also had my passport application form today. My last one expired 3 years ago. I haven't been anywhere out of the UK since 1998 when I went to the Michigan Women's Music Festival and also met some of the women I'd be talking to in a chat room  but that's another whole story. So now I have to go through that whole painful process of selecting a photograph to use, bearing in mind that it has to last me another 10 years so there's no point having a photo of me at 35.

So, maybe I'll use this one, I thought. I took it in 2006, which isn't so very long ago, when I first started working for DASH and had to have a picture for my ID badge.

Then again, maybe I should take a new one, and being as the Mac has the iSight camera and a great little application called Photo booth, then why not use it to get a new picture. Well, actually, the reason not to is that I'd need to either set up a white or cream background or get caught up in removing the background digitally. Which I can do, of course, but why bother when this one will do the trick? Well, one reason to bother is because it's quite fun, and you can even get into pretending like you're in a real photo booth, not just at home on the sofa with some very bad taste cushions in the background, and make silly faces, which I'm rather good at as it happens.