IntwothreefourOuttwothreefour........

So I'm sitting in front of the computer attempting to breathe at all, never mind deep, slow, calming breathes (sic). It is working somewhat. Hands are functioning, I can replace my jaw from the side-slanting, locked and rigid position to an approximation of the right alignment and with some hingeing possible.

And they are only delivering the scaffolding. Not yet ripping holes in my roof in the teeth of the tail-end of Hurricane Gordon, scheduled to come roaring through the country from across the Atlantic and likely to cause structural damagebreathebreathebreathe........

I HATE having even the most essential of work done on the house. I KNOW he roof tiles need replacing before they all crumble away to....crumbs...and the rain comes pouring in anyway. I suffer from the illusion that the workmen will now spend all their time peering in through the windows CRITICISING me ("Cor blimey, guv, look at 'er sitting there in front of the telly KNITTING!! and 'er 'aving only hoovered six times this week so far."

Dear Betula (I'm trying out new expletives, but want them to be meaningful, insert deity of choice) I'm trying!

And now, I find that the builders have disappeared. Which is worse, a roofless house, and chaos, or vanishing builders? Both, probably. Which will no doubt happen. I must try to stay positive........

As a distraction, and to prove that I am completely barking, I have just spent more time wrestling with my brand new, new generation iPod nano. It is all singing all dancing with bells and whistles, and as a consequence, I am having extreme difficulty fathoming it. The teeny booklet that comes with it is worse than useless, having been created with teenagers in mind. Fortunately, the online manual is written in passable English, so I have now successfully stopped the thing filling up with every item in my library (I hadn't realised just how much more capacity it has than the Shuffle!) and set it up with what I actually want to listen to.

In a while, I am going to make myself a nice strong cup of coffee and find a quiet corner (they are all quiet at the moment, what with the invisible builders) to lurk in with aforementioned nano+audiobook and knitting. I started the silk toe up sock last night, with no alarums and excursions - a little tricky picking up the two wraps on the descending half, but I think not too bad and I can but improve.

I also want to try out the freebie fleece, which is sitting on the spare bed glowering at me "I'm really quite nice - why not give me a whirl? Could be good for the soul.

But first coffee, and a bit more breathing. Oh, and I think the builders are back.