I've had a 'hand' epiphany

I suddenly had an epiphany today, I've always wanted to learn to play the guitar, but never seemed to 'get it' very easily, found my fingers don't reach how they possibly should. Well, today it suddenly hit me, afer all these years (I am now 37), I really do have quite small hands. It's funny how it can suddenly dawn on you just how small your hands are.

My hands are so important to me, as they are to most people, but I love crafting, I crochet, knit, cross stitch, make cards, I qualified as a hairdresser (and I do prefer small scissors so I have less chance of slicing large amounts of skin off my fingers and hands) I did learn to play saxophone (keys aren't too far apart on that instrument), I can touch type, I'm told I give a good massage and have also found I can draw (much to the contrary of what my art teacher used to tell me at school) and I quite enjoy cooking too.

But it never really dawned on me, until today, after reading a forum, that I have diddy hands. On a forum someone had written their hands were, from tip of middle finger to base of palm, around 7.25 inches in length, so I got a ruler out, my hands are 6.25 inches long, in that respect. My middle finger, which is my longest, is about 2.75 inches long. I have small hands, excuse me if I find this really amusing.

It is now making a lot more sense to me as to why I've had such trouble, I guess my next move, if I want to play a guitar, is to find a good one for small hands, or maybe a similar instrument that can be played with small hands. Possibly a ukulele, which was mentioned by a music teacher this week while on a school tour who suggested that for children to start on 'as they have smaller hands', again its all adding up and its amusing me no end.

Demise of my favourite denim jeans

I know most people who have ever had a favourite pair of jeans can relate to this, no matter if you're male, female, teenager or of advance years, you will relate to what is going on in my life right now.

I have 2 pairs of jeans, that I have had a few years now, and they are now reaching the point of demise, they are failing to hold together in certain areas and I fear patching them is not an option, or cutting them down. These jeans and I have gone through a lot together, including life on 2 continents. Many a time I've been told I look good in them, a few times I've put a few pound on and found it a struggle to get into them, but the pounds have shed off again and they have been put on again in triumph.

Both these pairs of jeans have a good lycra content in them so they don't go baggy at the knees and they hug the right places and hang where they're supposed to hang. I've looked high and low and cannot find 'the same jeans' to replace them, styles and fashion have changed and now skinny jeans are 'more the thing' which is not the 'thing' that suits me.

I have got a new pair of jeans, which fit fine, but they don't fit as nicely and I have another pair which, as they are a dark wash, look fine being dressed up if needed, but again, they just don't 'fit' as nicely. I shall keep looking and exasperating myself in changing rooms of clothes shops until I do find another 'favourite' pair, in time.

Its strange how you can find just the right fit of jeans if you search long enough, not all cuts suit all shapes. It took me ages to find these jeans and now I'm going to have to bid them farewell. I just hope, at some time, I can find equally well fitting jeans to suit my shape and height.

Keep sharp objects away from me!

Today has been 'one of those days' for me and sharp implements! I was getting my bread maker set up with the ingredients for Cranberry and orange bread, I get my 'Microplane' fine grater out to zest the orange and after a few strokes of the thing I take a nice lump of skin of my knuckle on my thumb on my right hand. So rinse it, and the microplane, wrap kitchen roll around it tightly while I run upstairs to get a plaster and antiseptic. After 'fixing' myself up I then decide to go from right handed zesting, as I am right handed, to left handed zesting, a couple strokes more and bugger me if I don't take a lump of nail off of my thumb on my left hand!! The nail actually stuck in one of the grater holes, so I had to retrieve that, and rinse it AGAIN, a bit of a trim of that nail and a filing and it was fine. Finally got the bread maker going and it came out fine, always smells good when that's cooking!

So rest of the day goes OK, bit sore on the right thumb but nothing that really stops me from doing anything. So I do roast pork for dinner and I usually try to remember to do homemade apple sauce to go with it. So there I am, really good sharp knife, did the shallot, celery (I make a slightly savoury apple sauce for Pork) then I get my two Bramley apples, cut them into four, take the core out, just start taking the skin off and 'here we go again' got a knife blade in my left thumb!!! Luckily for me the knife is super sharp, so it didn't hurt too much when I did it, but it showed quickly I needed yet another clean up and plaster on. So, I sit there for most the evening with a plaster on each thumb and had to use rubber gloves to do the washing up, WHICH I HATE!! All I can say is it's just as well I wasn't going to cut anyone's hair today, I might have lopped an earlobe off or more of my fingers.

So, I have two sore thumbs, 1 short nail and I still have my sense of humour intact. Hopefully tomorrow will be less accident prone!!