Had propababally the worst January EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SORRY.........TO SOUND SO DEPRESSIVE!!!

Firstly, boxing day I started to the worst bout of Gastric Flu EVER!! (so much so for my cooking *sulks*) and spent the most of the new year with my head down the loo being sick. Mum came to look after me and tucked me up on the couch with my trusty bucket nearby and I went through both seasons of the "Tudors" to take me mind of it! The first thing I managed to eat in two weeks was Mums steak stew and dumplins! Fortunatly I feel fine now, but lets just say I dident have much fun seeing in the new year as I couldent even drink my port!...secondly I was conned BADLY on ebay by, buying a Troika mask that I paid £900 for and turned out to be fake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I even emailed the artist, Simone Kilburn, to confirm it was fake, which she did, and now, surprize, surprize, the seller, Zigmatrade, has vanished and wont ansewer any emails, which I have sent dozens. Now for this kind of thing I am supposed to be covered by paypal as I paid with my credit card, and I have filed a dispute and have heard nothing from them either. I am going to phone them later and see what is happeneing....but on the upside this fakery has happened to dozens of collectors of Troika as the complaints are everywhere on ebay...Apparently the police are now aware of this fraud, and several buyers have banged off nasty emails to ebay but again, have heard nothing. Th rouge seller has at least 4 different ebay accounts but is mainly known as "Mr Phluffy" and it appears he bought a consignment of unpainted, buscuit, unfinished Troika when the went bust in 1983 and decided it would be great fun to paint it himself and sell it as "genuine" Troika!!...so now I am stuck with a rather ugly mask vase, if genuine would be worth somthing in the region of £3,000, and its actually worth nothing!!!.....
Oh..........and then I lost my credit card............
Anyway had a lovely day out with Mum and Derek to Aldebrough yesterday, so that cheered me up a bit, but it was freezing cold!!!

Hope everyone had a better new year than me!!
.........this January I would rather forget, and just hope the rest of the year gets better!

love Vix x

FLUE!!!!!!!!!!!

To be honest its been coming for a few days now, with coughing sneezing and an itching at the back of my nose...but yesterday I saterted being violently sick, felt all hot and cold all over and was sweating like I had been locked in a sauna!! Every single muscle aches in my body, so I guess this is my punishment for going out into the sales and taking bus rides with loads of people coughing and sneezing!...Anyway I ph oned NHS Direct ( and dispite what folks say about them they are brilliant) and give thm my details and then they phone you back in 15 mins for a chat with a specilist nurse! I told her my symptoms and because of the aching muscles and the vomiting she said it was flue and I should check with my Doctor...No a chance!!! I 'aint siting about my Doctors surgery collecting even more germs from strangers, but I have had flue before so I am self medicating with Asprin, gallons of fluid, and Barocca for my lost vitimins, but how to stop being sick I have just no idea!
You see, flue is a virius so it constantly changes, hence ther is no known cure! The only helpfull thing is t drink tons of water, juice, cordial, tea,....back soo, but I realy do feel terrible..........