The Witching Hour

Am currently on the paediatric ward at the Royal Oldham Hospital. Don't worry, this isn't dedication, it's avarice - I am well paid for my sleepless nights of blogging. The only problem is that I forgot my Vaseline tin. I wasn't too worried about this, thinking that I could always rely on my Pout lipgloss, but discovered that I'd left that at home too. In desperation, I have been using a tube of 'yellow soft paraffin' - as disgusting as this sounds, it happens to be a common ingredient in lip balm. However I have just read this, which puts me off a bit: Paraffin: This common ingredient comes in the form of a wax or a liquid, derived from the petroleum refining process. Paraffin wax is a grey sludge which needs to be bleached & processed before it is deemed suitable to work with. It forms the base of many creams. It is used to work as a lubricant & emulsifier.

Have nothing particular to say at this moment, except that I am currently reading a corking book by Khassan Baiev, called The Oath. It's an autobiographical novel by a Chechen surgeon who stayed during the war to treat the sick, in accordance with the Hippocratic oath as he understood it. Very interesting, especially for people like myself who were somehow oblivious to what happened there.