Shame on me/ Shame on her

Let's start with her. Her is Poussey, and as Pheebs and I were breakfasting yesterday morning, I saw Poussey scuttling across the decking with a small brown ball in her mouth. Pheebs immediately identified it as a sparrow, so we both tried to chase Poussey to retrieve it, but she was having none of it and shot back under the decking to do unpleasant things to poor little thing.

Stone-faced killer

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Why shame on me? Because it's taken rather longer than it should to work out why I've not been sleeping well the last few nights.

I've found that I've been waking about once an hour, maybe an hour and a half, with a right hot flush, and lungs full of menthol.

A few days ago I thought I'd try Deep Heat to try and calm my back, and have had Gel and Pheebs rub it in just before bed. What does deep heat do? It heats you up. What triggers my flushes? Being hot. Duh.

It also has upset my stomach breathing in clouds of menthol vapour. I've felt quite queasy for most of the time I've been rubbed down.

I feel so stupid for not realising earlier what it was that was upsetting my sleep. Duh.

My ribs and back are still sore and stiff, but I sense that there is an improvement. I'm now treading a fine line between not doing anything, and doing something that will set the pain off again. I'm trying to be less tentative in my posture. Less stiff, more natural. I think some of the time I've been "holding" myself in a position for fear of setting it off again.

Hopefully this isn't a false dawn, and the pain really is on the wane.

Deep heat makes you hot
Dick. That's why you're not sleeping
I hope this sorts it.