Jumble of Thoughts #001

I think in 2012 I’ll be going with “Jumble of Thoughts” as title for this random collection of thoughts and reviews and stuff from my life :-)

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I guess it was a good decision to not make a “write more blog posts” resolution on New Year’s Eve :-) How can it be 11th January already and not a single post written on this blog? Probably because I’m leading a boring, boring life at the moment. But on the other hand, when don’t I?

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At least I’m on a good track with some my “promises” so far. Yoga? Check. Mediation? Check. Thai massage? Check. I didn’t manage to go to the gym yet, which means I will have to do that next week and the week after that. I’ve got theatre plans scheduled for the 22nd or the 28th. I’ve got a lot scheduled for this month, mostly work-related unfortunately, so a visit to a museum most probably will have to be squeezed in somewhere and it will be a short visit. Besides the full schedule, the stupid weather with lots of rain seems to be the biggest obstacle for any geocaching this month. Let’s just hope that we will get some rain-free and more important nice days later this month.

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A few weeks ago I started to feel a bit off. I wasn’t sure if it was a too low bloodpressure or lack of sleep or just the usual stress, but every once in a while I had weird heart palpitations. I got some homoeopathic stuff from the pharmacy to help me calm down when I feel like my heart will be jumping out of my chest any minute now. I seemed to be doing better around the beginning of 2012 but this weekend the palpitations came back with a vengence.
I didn’t manage to ignore them any longer, especially as by now my hearbeat didn’t seem to be slowing down. Considering that my dad died of myocarditis over 20 years ago, that my mom not just suffers from arrhythmia, but also had a heart attack a few years back and thus a weak heart in general and that I tend to worry too much about everything, you can imagine why experiencing unusual heart palpitations turned me into a big anxious mess.
I saw my GP yesterday to have it checked and everything is in normal range and thus fine. Bloodpressure, pulse and even the EKG. On the EKG my heartbeat was a tiny bit irregular sometimes, but that doesn’t seem to be anything unusual, especially as I was and still am a bit anxious about it all. I was quite relieved yesterday after this exam at my GP. But still I experienced these palpitation again this evening. It’s a bit better now after I’ve tried to calm down and relax, but it still sucks.
My GP recommended magnesium/potassium supplements and if it won’t get better in a few weeks, she wants to do some bloodwork to check my thyroid. (I had my blood drawn for all other kinds of blood tests a few months ago and it all was fine, so she doesn’t think it might be any other kind of deficiency. It also just might be stress (or the lack of stress, as weird as that sounds). I’ll just have to wait and see…

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Entertainment-wise 2012 has been really wonderful so far. I kind of liked Grey’s 8.10, even though the patients’s storyline was rather depressing. It made me cry though and if that happens I feel like I can’t criticize the writing, because it obviously worked on me ;-) This evening I watched the last two Parenthood episodes and loved it. The Bravermans are such a wonderful, normal, crazy family and I recognize myself and my family in so many details. It’s always fun to watch. I have also enjoyed the two new Sherlock episodes and was impressed by Benedict Cumberbatch once again.

I’ve already seen three movies at the cinema this year as well. (And will be seeing another one next week… there are just too many great movies out there at the moment). The first movie was Jane Eyre. I love the story in general and thought this was a wonderful adapation. The day after that it was Ides of March, which I also liked a lot, because it was a great story and a great cast. Yesterday we’ve been to see a french dramatic comedy Intouchables (German title: Ziemlich beste Freunde) about the improbable friendship between Philippe, a wealthy tetraplegic, and Driss, a young offender of Senegalese descent, who is hired as a live-in carer. It’s based on a true story and it’s by all rights one of the most successful movies ever in France even though it only was released in November 2011.

With all the movies and TV series I watched in the last 11 days I also even managed to devour Believing the Lie, the latest novel from Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series. It’s been my favourite series for over 14 years now (she started writing over 20 years ago). I like some stories from this series more than others, but this one will definitely make it into my Top5 (of 17 novels so far).
It’s not a usual detective / whodunnit kind of story, (Lynley novels never are) but more a complex deconstruction of a family, who was mostly only held together by lies and deceit anyway. Parts of it were rather bleak and sad, but others also were uplifting and optimistic. The saddest part of it all probably was the realization that they all would have been much happier, if they hadn’t lied to each other and to themselves to begin with. But that’s part of human nature and mankind and to get exactly that aspect of human lifes and relationships on paper and to make the reader feel with and for those characters in this screwed up family, is one of the great qualities of Elizabeth George.

And of course there also is the life of the main characters: DI Thomas Lynley, who still mourns his wife and unborn child, but also can’t get out of the emotionally unhealthy sex-based relationship with his superior officer, Isabelle Ardery. Tommy’s friends Simon and Deborah, who are trying so hard to not let infertility ruin their marriage, Seargent Barbara Havers and her neighbour Azhar and his daughter Hadiyyah, and the complications that arise now that Azhar’s wife has come back (and I just knew she would leave again and would take Hadiyyah away :-( ).
After the last novel I expected the  “sex-only arrangement” between Tommy and Isabelle to continue, so this wasn’t a big surprise. The way Tommy reacted to it all came as a suprise to me at first though. But on second thought it didn’t surprise me all that much because Tommy’s motivation and feelings regarding this relationship are further explored in this story. And I never expected this relationship to last longer or to be more than booty calls after all. So I was happy how it all turned out.
I was even happier about the reappearance (even if just by mention and not in person) of a female character from one of the previous novels and if she is indeed intended to be the new love interest for Tommy in the future, I’m all on board. In fact I skimmed through the novel in which she is featured to get reaquainted with her character. Yes, I know that’s very very premature and “fan-girlish”, because it’s not even sure that she will be featured in novel #18 in a few years. But why re-introduce her now, if not for the fact that she might be playing a role in the next installment of this wonderful, wonderful series?

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I had actually also planned to vent about work, but I’m too tired to start with that now. And venting about it might even make it worse, because it might not calm me down in the “getting it all out” sense, but rather make me mad again, because parts of it are so frustrating. Right now I’m not sure if venting really would change anything for the better for me, so I’ll refrain from that for now…

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One Response to Jumble of Thoughts #001

  1. Hope says:

    Yikes about heart palpitations! I hope you feel better soon!

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