If you could increase your intelligence dramatically, or become loads more conventionally good-looking, which would you choose?

Neither, I already have both good looks and intelligence. Alas no humility.

Ask me anything

What will your wedding day be like?

Awesome! It will involve hot chocolate instead of champagne and none of this silly "wedding breakfast" stuff. Plus there will be a hog roast, jacket potatoes, mashed potatoes, chili, french sticks, salmon, gammon and no namby pamby finger food or fancy stuff, vegetarians and vegans will just have to put up with bread and potatoes. Plus lots of classical music and the Beatles music, maybe a bit of rock and metal. I will be pleasing myself and hopefully whoever decides to marry me and no one else! I also will not be wearing white.

Ask me anything

When you had red hair, how did you get it that colour? It's lush!

Hmm, which shade of red? I've had many. The pinkier reds are from Directions hair dye in either Rose Red, Tulip, Cerise or Crazy Colour in Cyclamen. The more red/auburn/ginger colours are from Henna and sometimes Directions dye in Poppy Red.

Ask me anything

Three Fold Utopian Dream.... still

It's now been 2 years and I still feel this way:- Three Fold Utopian Dream Feb 2009

If you must Google me...

So I've decided to update this seeing as it's one of the first things that comes up when you Google my name. It seems that whenever you meet lots of new people everyone Googles each other. I may be guilty of this to some extent. So I'd best give my new acquaintances and would be stalkers something up to date to read.


First off, I finished my Fine Art degree. I gritted my teeth and got through it. Despite despising the subject, contending with chronic pain after my appendectomy (Did I ever mention that?) and also partially rupturing my achilles tendon (boy did that hurt) I managed to achieve a 2:1 with honours and had a successful degree show at the end of it all. I will upload pictures to my neglected DeviantArt account in due course.
Here's one to look at in the meantime.

Secondly I got my motorbike up and running after dismantling it, cleaning it, upgrading parts and treating and respraying the frame. I also replaced the seat and added extra padding to make it that little bit comfier. Once all the work was done I was happily riding round the countryside, up and down the motorways and dual carriage ways at not so sensible speeds and bombing it up to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales. Sephi of course did a lot of the work and also accompanied me on my ride outs.

Here is my pretty, I named her Flip as she's flipping temperamental! Sephi's VFR800 VTEC is behind.
Unfortunately sometime during the middle of August I had my first spill. It was bucketing down with rain and I came off on a diesel spill on a roundabout not too far from my house. I was riding much slower than usual, but the police said it's just one of those things, I didn't stand much of a chance once I'd hit the diesel. So my poor Flip has been written off essentially. It'd cost what I paid for her and all the subsequent upgrades and tidying up again to fix her. So it's not worth it especially as I was due to shell out several hundred on replacing the suspension soon anyway. As for how I faired, I was rushed off to A&E with a suspected fractured pelvis and stuck on a morphine drip. They then decided it was just soft tissue damage but I had a fractured elbow, which they then later decided was also soft tissue damage. I'm fine now though. So I'm currently bike less, or rather I just have a push bike. Ah well I can save myself some money now I no longer have a car or motorbike as I won't have the rising price of petrol to contend with. Hopefully next year when I move in with Sephi I can look at getting another bike.

Thirdly, I got accepted onto a Nursing degree course at LJMU! I'm currently in my 7th week of the course and loving it. I've moved into halls of residence in Liverpool city centre, which is a little odd as I'm living with a bunch of girls all 4 years my junior. I didn't realise what a difference 4 years can make. Ah well, they're all lovely girls so I get along with them just fine. I love living in Liverpool. I get my uniform tomorrow which is exciting, and I start my first placement in November.

Onto the whole appendix situation. For some reason I never mentioned the whole getting my my appendix removed ordeal, started off with crippling pain in the night, which got worse on a day trip to Malvern, met an ignorant Primary Care doctors who classed me as an attention seeking insomniac with bad wind, the following morning I was needing "emergency surgery" and later suffering from dehydration from being on "Nil by Mouth" for 36 hours without a drip and nearly not being able to go into theatre. It was dramatic, though I only remember bits as I was either in shock from the pain or doolally on morphine.
Anyway following the surgery I looked pregnant (swollen abdomen and trapped air) and walked slower than an elderly person with 2 sticks. I also fell down the stairs and managed to tear my abdominal muscles. Clever girl. Once I was sort of mobile again I dyed my hair bright pink, pierced my nipples and bought a motorbike. Inappropriate yes I know. So that was all last August.
Speed up to current day, I'm still in pain. After months of doctors saying take some pain killers and shut up it'll sort itself I've finally been referred to a consultant. Magically around the 12 month mark of non abating pain they started to take me seriously. So I've been diagnosed with a Neuroma; a growth or tumour of nerve tissue. It's developed at the incision site along with lots of nasty scar tissue. Fun fun fun. I'm currently awaiting a referral from the "Pain Team" to have steroid injections to kill it. If that doesn't work, then I'm in for day surgery apparently to cut the damned thing out. I can't wait to be pain free. 14 months now and I hate it!

My New Toy

My mum always says she regrets not encouraging my Dad to get a big bike. He humbly commuted to work everyday on little 250s, he'd have been much better off with a 600cc or bigger engine. But he stuck with the smaller engined more economical motorbikes. I always loved my Dad's bike, as far as I can remember they were huge amazing machines, and always a deep red. And my Dad would always buy Shoei Helmets. It was always my dream to ride a motorbike just like him. Though I wouldn't have a red motorbike, I'd have a white one, and white leathers and a Shoei helmet. I think I watched too much Captain Scarlet as a kid, probably took my influences from the Angels.

Skip forward 15 years ish and my dream is about to be realised, much to my mother's concern (so much for her regrets). I passed my motorcycle test back in April, before the new test came in and whilst my family was in Mexico so they couldn't object. Now it's September of the same year, I'm very rusty obviously having not ridden for 6 months, and I'm still in the process of recovering from surgery (I intend to blog about that one soon). But regardless of all that, I needed cheering up so I bought myself my first ever motorbike.

It's a white (my 6 year old self would be so happy) and purple 1989 Honda CB-1, also known as the NC27, CB400F and CB400/4. Why so many names I have no idea. It's the Japanese version. Needs a damn good clean, and the earth on the indicators can play up at times. But apart from that it's mechanically sound with a fair bit of powerful behind the throttle and has plenty of torque. It's essentially a naked sports bike. If it weren't for poor marketing it would have been considered the first Hornet. But it only had a 2 year run in the States and Japan as faired sports bikes, the "baby blades", were far more popular at the time. But considering it's nearly as old as me, the bike is damn good, especially as I paid very little for it.

Anyway, I can't ride at the moment as recovery from surgery has rendered me physically incapable of doing anything requiring strength. It'll take a while to build my muscles back up. So in the mean time, the boyfriend and I will be scrubbing and polishing away to get it as clean as possible. We'll fix the indicators, probably respray it, re-upholster the seat and give it a major service. I'm so excited. I've also taken to sitting on and making pretend revving noises like I did when I was a little girl. Brummm brummm. So much fun, and better than nothing when you can't do the real thing!

It's been probably about 12 years since there's been a bike in the garage, Dad got rid of his last one as he had a 100 mile a day commute and the bike wasn't ideal. Numb bum and arms I'm guessing. Instead he got a Skoda. His bear used to sit in the back seat, and he kept boxes of Twix's in the boot. But it was never as cool as a motorbike. He passed away not long after. I imagine if he was still alive he might have bought another bike. I hope he'd be proud his daughter followed in his footsteps. A little concerned for my safety but still enthusiastic about sharing a hobby. Oh and of course, it almost goes without saying, but I bought a Shoei helmet too. I trust my Dad's judgement, I wasn't going to skimp on the helmet.

Anyway, she arrived home today. She's sat safe in the garage under a dust sheet. I'm wondering how long it'll take before my mother discovers her. So far one little boy has discovered it, but promises to keep schtum given it's "beastly and cool". We'll see.

Update

So, developments in the world of Izzy?
I've succumbed to wonders of Twitter... http://twitter.com/bellebot

Also I've decided I'm definitely going to learn to ride, hopefully April, I'm pencilled in for my DAS along with Sephi pending theory and CBT go to plan. I imagine they will. I'm so excited. The motorcycle gear collection has already started.

• Bright pink leather jacket by Wolf, apparently custom made for Jodie Marsh before the boob op. It's epic! You'll see me coming a mile off.
• Leather trousers, AGV, fairly standard black and armoured, brand new and very cheap as a result of the Wyder group going into administration.
• Fly motocross boots, I'm aware I'm not actually going to be involved in motocross, but they look great and were only £18 second hand
• Black leather armoured gloves, my hands are notoriously odd, so finding a pair to fit wasn't an easy task, managed it in the end, think they're RSR Daytonas.

So by no means complete, missing a lid for a start, but it's well on the way.

In other news, I'm recovering from what my mum reckons was flu. Except I didn't have the cold like symptoms as such, just the lethargy, aching, general zombie feeling, vomiting, nausea and apparently looking like death. Lasted around a week or so, most of it spent in bed trying to muster the energy to grab a bottle of lucozade. Not flu in my books, that is at least 2 weeks in bed.
Also to coincide with my bed ridden state, I fell down the stairs, bashing my back on most of them as I went down. Back pain and the snapping crunching noise and then swelling of my ankle definitely kept me in bed. Though they seemed to sort themselves out pretty quickly. It was enough to keep me off work. I don't like being off sick much; can't exactly afford it.

Overall I'm fairly chirpy. Ridiculously excited about learning to ride and getting all my gear. Especially as I get to do it at the same time as Sephi. I've wanted to ride ever since I was little as my Dad used to ride. Can't wait!
Though mainly, the dark days are over. I love winter, however my body doesn't so I get a bit dreary, lethargic and glum. I counteract it by pointing blue LEDs at my eyes in the morning. It works wonders, when I remember to switch my light box on that is!
March is here however, and just like every year, the sunny days and the financial struggles of januray and febuary are in the past, so I feel much happier. They joys of SAD, though I refuse to believe I'm depressed during winter, despite the fact my doctor, mother and boyfriend all say I come across as depressed, withdrawn and angsty. I just have a dip in self esteem and the chemicals in my brain don't work quite as well. Just one of those things in life, it happens, nothing to worry about really. I'm on the up now anyway, and soon I'll have a bright pink motorcycle jacket to match my mood! :-D