First, I want to thank a couple of well-meaning readers who suggested my headache issues are henna related. I may have posted about it all in one entry, but that’s because I’ve simply not had time to write much lately, not because there was any relation other than my love of alliteration.

I’ve been suffering from nausea-inducing headaches on and off since last summer. I thought they were sinus related, but lately they’ve been getting worse, so I’ve been analyzing, and consulting, and have concluded that a) they’re not sinus; b) they’re migraine; and c)they’re worse whenever I’ve ingested anything with aspartame or MSG. I’ve been really careful about avoiding both substances, since coming to this conclusion, and am having fewer headaches. Within the next week or two, I’ll be doing a seven-day quasi macrobiotic diet (I’m not cutting out coffee because that would be too cruel to the people I have to interact with), just to really detox, and I’ll take it from there. While I know that there are migraine drugs available, I’m really not that keen on being dependent on any chemical (except caffeine).

(In truth, even my caffeine addiction is a bit of an exaggeration. I CAN go without coffee if I have to, I just don’t like to.)

The only reaction I had due to the henna paste was the psychological need to wash my hands as soon as it was on. And a lot of cool reactions to the seahorse, which is now fading.

In other news, I’m enjoying the first half of series five of My Family on BBC America, as part of a lazy day of lounging and reading.