Moon unhappy in Pisces 1...


Today is a sad day for Llandudno. Conwy Council met to discuss the fate of Penmorfa, the magical old house where Alice Liddell and her family spent their summers ( indeed as much time as possible ) and Lewis Carroll may have visited, gaining much of his inspiration for Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass. Need I say that the developers won, the Liddell home will be bulldozed, and flats will take its place at the foot of the Great Orme on Llandudno's stunning West Shore.

At 9 am the BBC had phoned me to ask if I would do a short piece to camera about Penmorfa, for Wales Today; I told them how we all felt, what a unique attraction would be lost to this holiday town, how the developers had torn down the extensions two years ago and left the historic heart of the building open to the weather, ensuring that by 2008 it would no longer be viable, and they could demolish it unopposed. I told them how Gerard and I chose to celebrate there 6 years ago when it was a thriving, welcoming hotel; the owner made our evening so special, and even presented me with a gorgeous red rose. I still have the petals. But all the press and TV coverage, all the demonstrations, all the celebrity support have been in vain. All we have left are our memories, and poignant photographs.


Moon unhappy in Pisces 2...


... And it's official - every healthy adult between the ages of 40 and 70 will be encouraged to take Statins daily to prevent heart attacks. The drug will be Simvastatin because it is now extremely cheap and will make a minimal hole in the NHS budget.

I was put on Simvastatin by my GP nearly two years ago because my blood pressure was deemed too high. The fact that when you are a migraineur (-se?) it goes up and down like a yo-yo was not taken into account. By last autumn I thought my life was pretty well over - I struggled to get up and down stairs; everything hurt; I was profoundly depressed; I had horrible shooting pains all over my body but especially in my limbs. I felt old.

Then I had another look at the prescription leaflet, at side-effects. The light dawned. This was not me having yet another horrible variant of the migraines that have messed up my life since 1983 - this was the downside of Statins!

Radio 4 ran a couple of very helpful programmes on these drugs over the following few weeks, where I learned that I was far from alone in suffering such a debilitating reaction. This was confirmed over and over again online, on a number of medical/journalistic websites. So, my friends, if you decide to take the doctor's advice and embark on a life of daily Simvastatin, please read the leaflet and take the side-effects section seriously, because if you have pain or weakness in your legs and leave it too long to tell the GP and either change or come off the drug, the damage to your muscular system may be long-lasting, even permanent.

I think I have just got away with it, ditching the damn things at last in late 2007, but it has affected my swallowing so that I have to be especially careful - ironically - with pills. I have my life back, God be thanked, and will let Him and nature decide when it is time to shed this body and go home.