Too much to do and no time to do it in

Normal blogging will be resumed as soon as I get a minute. Everything is very busy, what with running the universe an' all (they wouldn't accept my resignation), so no time to blog. WHich is a shame because it's all been terribly exciting!

Zzzzzz

I am so damn tired I can't think straight. I won't bore you with the details as it will turn into a self-pitying ramble which no-one will find interesting. Suffice to say that whilst I appear to be sleeping all night, I certainly don't wake up in the mornning feeling like I've slept all night.



But, as this blog is as much as a diary for me as it is for anyone else to read, I shall note the details without emotion or comment.



2nd July - drive alone from London to Cornwall



2nd & 3rd July - get very little sleep and have a very emotional few days



4th July - drive alone back to London from Cornwall and try to catch up on some sleep



Rest of the week - try to get everything ready for the Stables

Open Day and get all the Board papers together.



9th July - Work in the morning and Greyhound Gap Stall at Battersea Old Windsor in the afternoon



10th July - Wimbledon Common Stables Open Day





10th July Evening - Staff bbq to unwind.



11th July evening - Board meeting



And it's not finished yet....

Rest now

Grampa passed away this morning.

I shall miss you Grampa. Sleep well now.

I have one of those little calendar things on my desk that has the date on tear-off pages that have little quotes on them.

I should take today's quote on-board "For peace of mind, resign as general manger of the universe". I always have to manage and organise everything, not because I'm a control freak (although there could be a little of that) but more because I want everyone to get the best out of whatever it is they are doing and, well, I think I know best how they should do that. I hate it and really wish I didn't do it but it's bevome almost compulsive so I'm going to chill and not do it any more. Which should be about as easy as trying not to breathe.

Bzzz...again

Boo Hiss. The bees didn't come back.



And in other news, I went to the gym tonight for the first time in...well, longer than I care to remember. We have some playing field facilities on the Common and a top flight rugby team have moved in there and have allowed me and my boss to use their gym. 15 minutes on the rowing machine and 10 minutes on the bike were more than enough for me tonight. We left the heavy weight (literally) equipment where it was. That's for the big boys. And, my, they are big boys!

Bzzzzzz

Our bees have buggered off.

We have an observation hive at work and this morning, half of the bees swarmed out, hung around for a bit and then took off across the Common, terrorising a group of school children on the way. We have no idea if they've swarmed off with a young queen to set up a new hive or if they've just decided to go for a sight-seeing trip and will come back plastered on unfamiliar nectar later this afternoon.

Weekend report

Such a hectic social whirl we live in.....this weekend started off quietly on Saturday with dog walking then very little else until the afternoon when we headed down to Sussex for a 50th Birthday party. We stopped off at frieds who were kindly looking after The Lurchers for us and leting us crash out at their place as well.

The party was for OH's cousin so there were loads of his extended family there that we have't seen for years...so that was nice! But given the weather we had last week, Saturday night was bloody freezing in comparison and they had to break out the jumpers for all of us in our summer gear!

Sunday we had a nice lazy morning with friends, walking The Lurchers and eating breakfast. Then we met the family again at the pub for a couple of hours and pootled home about 5pm.

Dropped OH's car off at the garage because last week he realised his MOT ran out last month.

Then home and crashed out in front of the TV for the rest of the evening.

The only problem with weekends is that they go to damn quickly.

It's too bloody hot!

At least, it was over the weekend.

Friday we travelled down to Gloucesesestershire to stay with some friends. As lots of other friends were also converging on said friends we decided to take our tent and put it up in their garden...well, not quite the garden but they have lots of lovely land and we were on a bit of it and I'm getting carried away with what after all is a very minor point so I shall stop. This was our brand new shiny tent and I'm very pleased to report that it went up in record time with nary a hitch.

Saturday we went to a local horse trials but as it was so hot we only stayed for just over an hour. We spent all of that time sitting next to the water jump so that we could dunk The Lurchers and their canine pals into the water in between the horses coming through. In the evening several more friends joined us and we enjoyed a very scrummy barbeque and catching up on all the news as we hadn't seen each other for a year.

Sunday started very early as we stupidly pitched the tent in full sun and by 7am The Lurchers were already suffering from the heat. The drive back was appalling although fortunately there was no traffic to hold us up...a three hour journey in the heat of the mid-day sun was not the best idea in the world.

I feel very privileged to have some wonderful friends...we may not see each other from one year to the next and speak only every few months but, despite that, we pick up where we left off and still remain the best of friends. Everyone should have such friends.

A new phrase

I discovered a new phrase today.... ipse dixit.

It's definition is: He himself has said it; a mere assertion

It's such a good, round and ripe phrase that it really ought to mean so much more than that.

Pictures

I've had two pictures accepted in the BBC's Digital Britain. Whilst that probably isn't a major achievement, it makes me happy, even if they are not the best photos I've ever taken. If you're interested, this is them: Windmill, Heath.

I have some more to enter but need to shrink them so that will have to wait until I get 5 minutes. Which is not likely this week.

Peace and quiet

I have had a fantastic weekend. For the first time in ages I have had a weekend where I didn't actually have anything that I had to do. Don't get me wrong, I love my family and it was great when they came to visit last weekend and of course I was going to go down to Wales and see my Grampa in hospital the weekend before that and of course I love doing stuff for Greyhound Gap most weekends but, just for once, it was lovely not to have to do anything.

So I did things I wanted to do. I nicked a horse from work on Saturday and pootled round the Common for an hour or so and Sunday we decided to get a bit domestic and went to look at new fridge/freezers and get a new pump for the fish pond, the existing pump having expired some months ago.

The rest of the time I caught up with some sleep and Star Trek.

Teeth again

OH has a dental appointment tomorrow to have a tooth out. His appointment is at two thirty. Getit? Tooth hurty?? Oh dear...sorry.

(It is actually at 2.30 as well...I didn't make that up in order to get a cheap laugh!)

Phew...they've all gone!

We had my parents come to stay for the weekend. Which was nice. They brought a tumble dryer with them, kindly donated by my grampa who doesn't use it. Which was very nice. Even though it's summer and we won't need it for a while!

Everyone had a jolly time getting roaring drunk on Saturday night, apart from me because I don't drink. Spending the evening stone cold sober when all around you are falling over tends to result in something of a sense of humour failure on my part. But I had the last laugh as I didn't have a hang over on Sunday morning. Ha!!

Given OH's recent escapades in the tooth department , he actually went to the dentist last week and had to have minor surgery to remove some bone growing in the wrong direction. So he now has four stitches in his mouth and is all very tender. I therfore had to plan the weekend's menu carefully as he wasn't able to chew terribly much. The answer, other than bread and gruel, was lots of things with mashed potato. So Saturday night we had bangers and mash and Sunday I did a Cottage Pie. Given that there were seven of us for Sunday lunch; I always cook twice as much as I need; and potatoes seem to evaporate into thin air when you mash them so you have to do lots and lots, it felt like I spent the whole weekend in boot camp peeling spuds.

Much fun was had as my brother, his girlfriend and my mother-in-law also joined us for lunch. But much as I love having people round to stay, I do so love it when they all go home and peace returns.

Pigeons

When we went camping a few weeks ago, we were discussing the annoying call of the pigeon...the one that goes coo coooo coooo coo coo. My sister-in-law has put words to it "youuu caaannn't gooo shopppping".

If you read this, and you have pigeons near you...you are going to hate me in a few days. Because I can't get that damn line out of my head now and it's driving me even pottier than hearing the call in the first place. I'm so glad to be able to share it!

Migraine up-date: it seems to have disappeared finally. The full frontal attack of the ibuprofen style didn't appear to be working so I launched a sneaky behind the lines assault with the paracetemol. That seems to have done the trick.

Ow

I'm fighting off a migraine this morning. It started yesterday afternoon and gradually got worse through the night. At 5am this morning I was in agony. Painkillers are keeping it at bay at the moment but one wrong move and I'll collapse in a heap again.

Home again home again jiggedy jig

I dashed home yesterday to see Grampa who, I am pleased to report, is looking well and should be let out of hospital by the end of the week. Yay! But although he's better, he's not "better", he has, as well as the emphasemia and the asthma, an acute heart condition and so we could have a repeat of this at any time. We just need to get him to call the doctor a little sooner than at the crucial life or death moment methinks.

I stayed with the folks in Barry (that's near Cardiff for the geographically challenged) last night which, if nothing else, makes for a change of scenery. They have two 12 week old kittens and although I'm much more a dog person, they are rather sweet and endearing with their antics! It will make the next visit with The Lurchers in tow very interesting!

The only worry last night was that I couldn't reach OH on the phone. I guessed, it being Sunday afternoon of a Bank Holiday weekend, that he'd had too much to drink and fallen into a drunken stupour but it didn't stop me worrying all the same, especially as The Lurchers are with him. but finally reached him this morning and my guess was correct. He told me that he'd saved himslef some money.....he was so drunk that he decided to pull out the tooth that has been giving him pain for the last couple of weeks. pah! Who needs a dentist when you have a drunk OH!!

Grampa has been rushed to hospital again this morning. His lungs are so crap and his heart is enlarged and all the drugs they've had him on are having an adverse effect on everything else. After his last hospital stay he came home fighting fit and feeling better than ever so for this to happen again is devastating. It was touch and go this morning he was struggling so hard to get his breath. Two doctors have told Mum that there is nothing more they can do for him and to prepare for the worst. His hospital stays are getting more and more frequent and his condition worse every time.

Living so far away and only speaking to him on the phone every week hasn't prepared me for this. He always sounds so well, apart from the wheezing. He's out and about doing his shopping and shopping for his "old ladies" as he calls them, who make him cakes in return. He still drives himself about and potters inthe garden and his greenhouse, living an active life.

I don't want to think about life without my Grampa in it. He's been my rock all my life and I don't want him to go.

Wet, wet, wet and windy

We went camping in Dorset last weekend. I suspect it was the wettest and windiest weekend in Dorset since records began. But then again, it may have just felt like it, what with being in a tent an' all.

It all started on Friday afternoon..the sun was shining but it was a bit blustery. Unforutnately, a "bit blustery" is all you need to turn your tent into a giant kite. After much cursting the tent was put up and I started to fix the guy ropes. Five of them were so badly frayed that they had started to snap, even though they were fine when we last put the tent away. I then discovered the reason why they were frayed and snapping.....wandering round the tent was Lurcher No.2 calmly chewing his way through each guy rope in turn. He received a stern talking to whichdidn't entirely stop the chewing over the weekend but that rapidly become the least of our worries.

It started to rain about 10pm on Friday night and it didn't stop for the next 14 hours. We woke to a stream running through the middle of the tent which, somehow, leaked into the supposedly waterproof sleeping area. The bottom half of our bedding and the Lurcher's beds were soaked. Having just walked the Lurchers and got soaking wet, I will admit that I sat down and cried. This was no longer fun and I wanted to go home. However, as this was a clan gathering with 22 family members present, going home was not an option. Fortunately the sun broke out and I was able to get all the bedding out and pegged to the car to blow in the breeze and dry out.

Saturday night it was the wind's turn and it felt like we were in the midst of a force 10 gale. Quite how we stayed attached to the ground is beyond me. The tent caught on something inside it and got ripped, which I actually wasn't sorry about as I've been angling for a new tent anyway!! Monday we went out and bought one of these, which I thought a bit of a bargain at 99 squids!

Poker

A few days ago I needed to download RealPlayer onto my peecee. Whilst messing about with it yesterday evening I discovered RealArcade. And in RealArcade I discovered a downloadable trial game of Texas Hold'em Poker. The trial game is only meant to last for 60 minutes but if you don't close it down, you can keep playing for as long as you like. Five hours later I was still at it.......I find I could become seriously addicted to poker, which is why I don't play it for real money.

It seems like an age since I blogged...actually, that's probably because it has been an age since I blogged. Ok quick catch up:

Greyhound Gap's second annual fun dog show was a brilliant success and raised us lots and lots of squids. 1500 of them in fact! Having spent the day running round like the proverbial blue-bottomed fly, we arrived home at 9pm, waved at my brother and his girlfriend who were staying with us, and headed straight for bed. The Lurchers surfaced at around 6pm the following evening, demanded to be fed and then went back to sleep again.

The following weekend (ie. weekend before last) was spent doing homechecks for afore-mentioned Greyhound Gap. It always tickles me that many people who have no experience of living in London don't quite get the rules of driving around here. I got a phonecall and the conversation went something like this:

Can you do a homecheck?
Yep, no problem. Where?
Leytonstone.
Leytonstone!? That's bloody miles away!
No it's not, according to the AA routefinder it's only 16 miles away.
Well, it might be if you go through central London.
So why don't you?
Because....you just don't. You go round the M25 and that's a 120 mile round-trip.
*sounds of falling of chair and a muttered oath*

I went by tube.

Second homecheck was down in Hampshire and me and Lurhcer No.2 had a lovely drive down in the sunshine. Two successful homechecks and two more hounds in their forever homes. We really do need more people trained up to be homecheckers as I seem to be covering the whole of the South East on my own and I'm getting spread a bit thin!

This weekend we made use of OH's birthday present...two tickets to the Zurich Premiership Final at Twickenham. I think I've mentioned before that going to Twickers is usually quite a pleasant experience, however, the powers that be now seem determined to make the day as difficult as possible with petty little things. Firstly, our tickets said to enter by Gate Q. Gate Q was closed so we went on to Gate R, getting further and further away from where our seats were. At Gate R there was a huge long queue for bag checking. As I only had a tiny bum bag, big enough for money and mobile phone, I thought I'd get away with it. Nope. Sorry madam, that is definitely a bag. Oh boo hiss.

Then we get in there and up to the bar to get a drink. I only want mineral water, in a bottle so that I can take it in with me. The chap behind the bar takes the lid off and throws it away. Why? Because you are not allowed to take plastic bottles in with the lids on. Umm....a plastic bottle of water without a lid seems an infinitley more dangerous weapon that one with a lid, but there you go. This pettiness was compounded by the fact that if you bought a bottle of water from the vendors outside the stadium (although still within the grounds), your bottle can keep its lid.

Greyhound Gap Dog Show

Greyhound Gap's 2nd Annual Fun Dog Show takes place on Sunday 1st May at the Walsall Arboretuem Annexe

Registration starts at 12 noon and the show commences at 1pm.

There are twelve fun Classes open to any breed of Dog they are.....
Prettiest bitch
Most Handsome Male
Best Senior (over 9)
Best Puppy (under 12mnths)
Waggiest Tail
Best Child Handler

Break - Dog Display Team

Best Black Dog
Dog the Judge would most like to take home
Best Rescue
Best Gap Rescue
Best Brace
Five minutes for them to get ready then:- Fancy Dress

Best In Show Rosettes on the day will be awarded to 5th place for each class with 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each class also receiving a prize bag full of goodies.

We also will be welcoming on the day local and national rescue organisations with their fundraising stalls. A dog training display and lots, lots more to see and do, food will be available at the location and toilets are also on site.

1st May is also Justice for Rusty Day more details here: Justice for Rusty We hope to encorporate into the day a 1 minute silence in respect of Rusty and all of Greyhound Gap's hounds will be turned out wearing purple ribbons as a mark of respect. We will also be offering ribbons for sale on the day for 50p with all proceeds from the sale being donated directly to the Justice for Rusty fund.

We have returned

We're all back from the sunny climes of Dorset. What a beautiul week it was....the sun shone every day and it was warm and glorious.

The lack of television and computer meant that I did as was intended and caught up with a few books: I managed to finish Terry Brooks' Tanequil that I seem to have been reading for an age; read Pratchett's Hat Full of Sky in 12 hours; Going Postal in not much longer. An inroad has also been made into The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. Hat Full of Sky and The Amazing Maurice are technically childrens' books, but to not read them because of that would mean missing out on Pratchett at his best. Perhaps not at his cleverest, his adult books are, after all, full of very cunning and complicated verbage, but his books for younger readers are simple in their humour and perhaps funnier because of that. You can enjoy their humour without wondering if you've missed a pun.

But I digress, the rest of the holiday not spent reading was spent walking The Lurchers - Durdle Door has to be seen to truly appreciate its beauty - and sleeping. I slept lots. And then a bit more. Although all that sleep was negated as we had friends staying for the weekend, who arrived about 4 hours after we got home on Friday. Two very late nights, a marathon session of Mah Jong lasting for 9 hours and a serious bang on the head which almost knocked me out cold, has done much to make me feel like I've not been on holiday at all.

Roll on the next one.

Pratchett Catch-up

OH is working down in Dorset at the moment so next week The Lurchers and I are joining him. He works, whilst I swan around doing not very much. Although "not very much" next week means walking The Lurchers and making sure OH has food in front of him when he needs it. Not much change there then. But at least there's no work involved and I can lie-in and catch up on some reading. I'm woefully behind on my Pratchett intake so I shall be immersing myself in A Hat Full of Sky and Going Postal.

I shall re-surface back into real life next Friday. Then again, I may just stay in Discworld.

Pretty picture!

In an auctin that we recently held to raise funds for Greyhound Gap, I won the chance to have a very talented artist paint a caricature of The Lurchers. She has e-mailed me the result today and I very nearly burst into tears....it is so brilliant!

By golly, I think she's got it!

As an only child, it falls on me to carry on our particular branch line of the family. My dearest Mother has never given up hope that one day I will produce the grandchildren she longs for. This is despite the fact that I have not wanted children since I was old enough to understand what it was all about.....since I was about 13 in fact.

But everytime we see my Mum she still makes litte comments and enquiries about it, wondering when we might produce. And I feel for her, I really do. The maternal gene simply passed me by and in all these years, I have never changed my mind. I don't want children and, fortunately, neither does my OH. We do dogs rather than children! But Mum longs to have a little grandchild to hold in her arms. She loves children and would have had more after me if medical complications surrounding my birth had not made it too dangerous for her to have another child. She has step-children and they have produced numerous grandchildren but as she says, it's not quite the same.

But I think she has finally accepted it. Chatting to her on the phone this weekend, she asked me "How are my grand-dogs"!? I love you Mum!!

TeeVee

TeeVee
I don't watch huge amounts of television, unless I'm feeling particularly lazy when I will curl up in bed and watch whatever dross happens to be on any of the numerous freeview channels we have.

So if anyone asked me if I was influenced by television, I would like to be able to answer "no", except that wouldn't be strictly true. One of the prgrammes that I do like to watch is Gillian McKeith's "You are What You Eat", and I have been hugely influenced by Gillian and her nutritional advice. I've sat back, looked at our diet and changed a few things. We're not big time junk food eaters and I never buy ready meals, I always prefer to cook fresh food. But we did have a Chinese takeaway every week and an occasional McDonalds. But changing my diet by adding in a few things that we ddn't eat and listening to the hypnotherapy tape has resulted in me losing 1/2 stone in the last few weeks, something that pleases me immensely!!

Another programme I watch, and for the life of me I'm not sure why, is "Ten Years Younger". If you haven't seem it, the idea is to take a member of the public that looks much older than their years and make them look 10 years younger, by means of plastic surgery, dental work, hair styling and changing the clothes they wear.

I think I must have a morbid fascination with watching people having their faces chopped about and stuck with needles - except I have to turn away when that bit comes on because I'm really not terribly good with needles. What really fascinates me though is the clothes bit of the programme. The presenter, in my humble opinion, has the worst dress sense I have ever seen. The clothes she chooses for the poor hapless member of the public never suit them and they look awful in them. So this has influenced me in at least what not to wear!

The sun has got his hat on

Someone please bring the sunshine back. I thought I'd done with waterproofs and warm jackets for this winter and here I am, walking the Lurchers, and getting soaking wet again. Enough! I need sunshine!

Well!!

It's been a busy old weekend...and it's not over yet!

Friday I met up with a bunch of people for a major dog walk. 6 people and 14 dogs! It was a riot and The Lurchers had more fun than they've had in ages! The trip was only marred by getting caught up in the aftermath of an accident on the way home and having to sit in traffic for an hour when I was just 2 minutes from home.

More fun was had on Saturday when we went bowling again. I have to say that my form has much improved since the last time we went when I was absolutely crap. This time I was merely mediocre which pleased me no end. Bowling was followed by a slap up dinner in a local chinese restaurant where I stuffed my face and regretted it afterwards.

What is seriously unfair is that I've woken up this morning feeling like I have the hangover from hell. Which considering I don't drink, was still in bed by 11pm and had a good night's sleep is muchly not fair.

However, things have brightened considerably since discovering that we got 5 numbers on the lottery last night. OH and I are pondering what to blow our £2,056 windfall on! Big YAY!!

We shall go celebrate at the clan gathering that's planned for today. OH is from a big family, he's one of eight, so there should be about 28 of us for dinner!

Squeak

We have a new resident who has taken up, errrr, residence. And this is he:



Please meet Apollo Gemini. He is a 5 week old grey Syrian hamster and he moved in last Friday. I went to the petshop for some bits and pieces for The Lurchers and came home with a hamster. He is most definitely not for The Lurchers, much to Lurcher No.2's disgust, who thinks he would make an excellent toy.

Apollo Gemini is possibly a bit of a pretentious name for a hamster and I'm not 100% sure it will stick. But he hasn't told me his name yet. I named last but one hamster Egg, and he told me in no uncertain terms that his name was not Egg, but Bean.

Talk to hamsters? Has she gone raving? Quite possibly. A few years ago I studied animal communication and found that, just now and again, I could pick up on thoughts and feelings of animals. It sounds mad but when you have a bond with animals sometimes they will open up to you. You don't literally have a conversation of course, you just get pictures and feelings. Don't knock it 'til you try it!

Glory Days

I'm old enough to remember the glory days of Welsh rugby. Those days when the name "Wales" struck fear into the hearts of all the rugby playing nations. We were scared of no-one and there wasn't a team we could not, and did not, beat...not even the mighty All Blacks.

Then things started to go wrong. Very wrong.

We had such a stratospheric team that perhaps no-one thought about what would happen once they all started to retire. There was no-one waiting in the wings to replace them. How do you replace demi-gods? So began the rapid descent from the giddy heights to the rock bottom position we found ourselves in a few years ago when even Italy could beat us...and we were playing at home.

But through all that time we kept heart. Every year we thought "this is it, this year we can do it". It's what you think when you are Welsh and remember the glory days because you can't bring yourself to believe that the fire isn't still burning deep within the dragon. Yet year after year there was disappointment. But we still thought it was a momentary blip because that's what you think when you are Welsh. The pride of the nation rises and falls with the performance of your rugby team and we are a very proud nation indeed. So proud that we simply could not believe that we would not be back at the top again.

And now we are. Thanks to 15 men in their red jerseys. We kept heart and you have repaid us in full. Pride is restored and we salute every single one of you.

You take your rugby very seriously when you are Welsh you know!

Good news!

Grampa is out of hospital! He's feeling much, much better and Mother tells me he looks much, much better too! Many hurrahs!

Other good news: I've stopped buying on e-Bay. I've started selling instead. Mostly selling all the things I've bought there that don't fit.

Other other good news: Big Boss didn't gloat over the job title change that has been forced on me and which I am seriously not happy about. As he now has a "PA" rather than an "Assistant", I thought he'd go to town with the whole concept and I went to work this morning spoiling for a fight. I was pleasantly surprised that he was somewhat embarrassed about the whole thing. I therefore removed my boxing gloves and calmed down.

Boom!

So how many people watched Suprevolcano and pondered that stocking up on a few essential items for the store cupboard might not be such a bad idea!? I know I did! I shall probably forget all about the idea over the next day or two but it was definitley one of those programmes that makes you stop and think.

Other news: My Grampa is poorly in hospital. He's 85, of sound mind and generally fit as a flea but his early years were spent down the mines and they've taken their toll on his lungs. He now suffers from bronchitus and asthma and this recent bug that's been doing the rounds has knocked him a bit. A visit to the docs last week because he was having difficulty breathing resulted in them calling an ambulance and taking him to hospital there and then. He's doing OK but they are keeping him in until they can clear the infection. All a bit worrying nevertheless.

What really brings me up short is the fact that he has sorted out what he wants for his funeral and has "put his papers in order". All very sensible but knowing that your grandfather is facing up to his own mortality and preparing for the inevitable is more than I really want to contemplate.

But is it advertising?

Am I the only person to be moderately offended by the new Wanadoo TV commercial? The one with all the tongues at the end. OK, maybe not offended, I'm not that much of a prude, but is it really necessary to have all that sticking of tongues down throats? And what has it to do with broadband? Or am I missing the point?

Look into my eyes

I have a problem with food. Nothing so serious as anorexia or bulimia but an irritating problem nonetheless. I have days when I simply cannot stop eating. I can eat a good meal and be nicely full but my tastebuds are still insisting that they are not satisfied so I have to have something sweet. Then they decide that they need something savoury. Then back to sweet and so on it goes, yo-yoing between the two until it's time for bed. Even then, I can wake up in the middle of the night and my first thought will be "I need food". Fortunately, I've learned not to give in to these middle of the night tastebud demands.

Funnily enough, my boss has a similar problem and a few years ago she went to a hypnotherapist to help her deal with it. As part of the package she had a cassette tape given to her to listen to at home. She lent me the tape this week to see if it would help me. I've had hypnotherapy before and it was not a great success so I had my doubts but on the basis of nothing ventured nothing gained, I felt it was worth giving it a go. I got myself all settled and put the tape on. It starts with getting you to relax your body and takes you into a semi-trance like state. I was still completely aware of what was going on and really thought it wasn't working, until the time she suggested trying to open the eyelids to test how relaxed you are - if you are, you can't open them. I couldn't open them. Panic? You bet I did!

However, I persevered and fell asleep half way through. Which I think is part of the plan as she then makes suggestions that are supposed to sit themselves into your subconscious. Things like sweet things - all you're doing is putting a teaspoon of sugar in your mouth and greasy foods - a frying pan swimming with fat. Yeah, OK, whatever, it's going to take something fairly hard-hitting to wean me off my sweet tooth. When I finally woke up, I have to say that I felt very relaxed and had the best night's sleep I've had in a long time. If nothing else, that was a bonus.

But then the next day when I got my usual sweet craving and started to wonder what I could find in the cupboard to satisfy it, all I could picture was putting a teaspoon of sugar in my mouth, which, let's face it, is a pretty disgusting thought. So I'm happy to report that it seems to be working! The sweet cravings haven't disappeared but I seem to be able to dismiss them without caving in and not giving them another thought. Yay! Target weight of 10 stone here I come!!

Silly People

We had a blizzard this morning and everywhere on the Common was white. Not surprisingly I didn't see many people, only a few other hardy dog walkers like myself. Part of the Common is a golf course and I was gobsmacked to see a couple of golfers out playing. They were wandering about aimlessely looking for something. Funnily enough, it was their golf balls. You'd think they might have twigged at the start that playing golf in the snow might be a tad on the difficult side. Still, brought a smile to my face!

Talking of the weather, I think that whoever up there is in charge is having a laugh! Judging by the severity of the blizzards this morning, I really thought the snow was in for the day and we'd have at least 3ft drifts by the time this evening came. But it stopped and it all started to melt. Then at lunch time, I nearly fell out of my chair in shock when, right overhead, was the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard, followed by torrential rain and hailstones. We now have brilliant blue sky and sunshine. I wonder what's coming later!

Cop out

I do feel that I've been copping out on the old blog writing over the last week or so and either not writing one or taking an easy option.

There are several reasons for this...one, I seem to be constantly tired at the moment and find it difficult enough to focus in work let alone on anything that requires thought when I get home. Secondly, I've been somewhat down in the doldrums of late and didn't want to dump that on anyone who happened to be passing by and reading my blog. Which, thinking about it, I suppose that's what blogs are for, letting it all out but I've been fearful that if I let one thing out the whole wall is likely to collapse and I'd find myself drowning in emotions I'm really not sure I can cope with. It's easier to keep the brick wall intact and not feel anything.

It's not even as if I'm going through any sort of crisis. Most of my life is sweet and all is well. It's just that lack of concentration and my inability to focus is leading to procrastination which means I'm getting behind on things that need doing and I feel terribly guilty about it. And if there's one emotion I hate feeling, guilt is at the top of the list. I just can't seem to make myself do anything about it.

Reading this back, it strikes me that all this is indicative that my thyroxin levels might be a bit up the spout. Mayhap a visit to the doc is in order. There, something useful has come out of blogging!

Oh and further to my recent blog about unreceived e-bay purchases, I received an e-mail from the offending seller this morning apologising for the delay and explaining it was due to the loss of their son and everything else, not unnaturally, took a back seat. Which made me feel a bit of a heel for launching a complaint against them. But then when I checked their recent feedback, over the three weeks since I purchased the item, they have bought or sold 15 other items. I can't help but feel a little suspicious, and that makes me feel even more of a heel.

Memo

To All Staff,

RE: SWEARING AT WORK

It has been brought to management's attention that some individuals throughout the company have been using foul language during the course of normal conversation with their co-workers.

Due to complaints received from some employees who may be easily offended, this type of language will no longer be tolerated.

We do however, realize the critical importance of being able to accurately express your feelings when communicating with co-workers.

Therefore, a list of 18 New and Innovative phrases have been provided so that proper exchange of ideas and information can continue in an effective manner.

1) TRY SAYING:I think you could use more training.
INSTEAD OF:You don't know what the f___ you're doing.

2) TRY SAYING:She's an aggressive go-getter.
INSTEAD OF:She's a ball-busting b__ch.

3) TRY SAYING:Perhaps I can work late.
INSTEAD OF:And when the f___ do you expect me to do this?

4) TRY SAYING:I'm certain that isn't feasible.
INSTEAD OF:No f___ing way.

5) TRY SAYING:Really?
INSTEAD OF:You've got to be sh__ing me!

6) TRY SAYING:Perhaps you should check with...
INSTEAD OF:Tell someone who gives a sh__.

7) TRY SAYING:I wasn't involved in the project.
INSTEAD OF:It's not my f____ing problem.

8) TRY SAYING:That's interesting.
INSTEAD OF:What the f___?

9) TRY SAYING:I'm not sure this can be implemented.
INSTEAD OF:This sh__ won't work.

10) TRY SAYING:I'll try to schedule that.
INSTEAD OF:Why the f___ing h _ll didn't you tell me sooner?

11) TRY SAYING:He's not familiar with the issues.
INSTEAD OF:He's got his head up his a__.

12) TRY SAYING:Excuse me, sir?
INSTEAD OF:Eat sh__ and die.

13) TRY SAYING:So you weren't happy with it?
INSTEAD OF:Kiss my a__.

14) TRY SAYING:I'm a bit overloaded at the moment.
INSTEAD OF:F___ it, I'm on salary.

15) TRY SAYING:I don't think you understand.
INSTEAD OF:Shove it up your a__.

16) TRY SAYING:I love a challenge.
INSTEAD OF:This job sucks.

17) TRY SAYING:You want me to take care of that?
INSTEAD OF:Who the h___ died and made you boss?

18 ) TRY SAYING:He's somewhat insensitive.
INSTEAD OF:He's a pr_ck.

Thank You,

Human Resources
*********************

Going, going.....

I have become something of an e-bay addict. There. I've said it.

It all started when I wanted to buy a USB Memory Stick and e-bay seemed a good place to get one at a reasonable price. Then a friend called up and asked for my opinion on something she was bidding on. We spent the next hour on the phone each surfing through the items for sale and imploring each other to go look at this bargain and that bargain. That was 2 weeks ago. Since then I have purchased not only the USB Memory Stick but:

a dog bed
a suit for me
a tennis ball chucker
a fleece
a pair of trousers
a couple of jumpers
another fleece
a travel water bowl
an in-car charger for my mobile
a talking pedometer
Terry Brooks' "Tanequil"
a sack of 50 pigs ears (for the Lurchers I hasten to add)
and a 5litre water carrier for camping.

Gosh, that all looks quite impressive written down! Especially when I tell you that that little lot came to under £70 squids! My only bad one was buying Going Postal. I've paid and the seller seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth and isn't responding to my e-mails. I feel a massive stamping of feet coming on tomorrow.

Some of the items were easily won, others involved a down to the last second, nail biting fight to the death. The adrenalin rush is quite something!

All of which leads me to conclude that I really do need to get out more.

Ponders the missing marbles

I've been pondering what to blog about. I have an unfinished lazyblog.org assignment to complete but, quite frankly, I think this cold weather has atrophied my brain and it's having problems operating.

Take this morning for example. I get up to take The Lurchers out for a walk before work. Something not quite snow and not quite rain was falling out of the sky but, regardless, it was wet so much dressing up in outer gear was required. Put on my walking boots and my coat. Could I find my hat and gloves? No I couldn't. Emptied out my bag that I'd just packed up with all the daily necessities thinking they might be in the bottom of that - given that just about everything else is - not there. Looked where they ought to be - in the dresser drawer - no, not there either. Not in the bedroom, bathroom or chucked on my desk. With much exasperereration I asked OH if he'd seen them. "What? Those ones there?" he said pointing at the gloves and hat I'd put on the radiator in the hall last night, right by the front door in plain view, so they'd be nice and warm in the morning.

Waterproof leggings are in the car though - that much I do know. I saw them there yesterday. Drive to where I'm going and look around car for waterproof leggings. They're not in the car at all. They're at home. So not quite sure what I thought I saw in the car yesterday. Fortunately I find some gaiters lurking under the passenger seat so at least the bottom of my legs will be dry. Then I look for the gloves that I'd had such trouble finding about 10 minutes earlier. No sign of them. Bugger, after all that I must have left them at home, so scrabble about for the spare pair that I know are also lurking under the passenger seat. Find those and put them on...cold and damp but hey ho, they'll soon warm up. Put hands in pocket to get keys...oh, there are my nice warm gloves! Hiding all the time!

At that point I gave up on the day.

Smarties

Last week Milk Monster's Mum blogged about the changes Nestle are making to Smarties packaging. I sent off a suitable "disgusted of Wimbledon" e-mail and I've had the following response:


Dear Angela

Thank you for your email regarding the new hexatube packaging for Smarties. As with any change to a long established and much loved product there are bound to be loyal users who feel upset.

Smarties have been available in markets throughout Europe for many years now, starting in the UK 67 years ago. We are, however, always looking at ways to improve our products to give more to the consumer in terms of both taste and value for money and we are obviously concerned to maintain the highest possible standards for our products. This is the first ever change to the traditional Smartie tube.

We are aware that people had a lot of fun with the tube and the plastic lids however, the new hexatube is a great development for Smarties, the flip-top lid is resealable and we will be placing quirky messages, stickers or images on the flip-top lid.

With regard to using the tubes for fundraising, we are aware of a great number of fund-raising schemes involving Smarties tubes as 'collection' boxes. Because of the need to ensure that tubes which have been partially filled are not mistaken as containing sweets, resulting in a coin being swallowed, we have always declined to offer support to such schemes.

I hope this explains some of the reasons for the change.

Kind regards

Karen Short

Consumer Services
www.nestle.co.uk
International Freephone 00800 63785385

Test your reflexes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/

Best I can manage is "Bouncing Bobcat"!

Thwarted

I am being thwarted at every turn. I'm probably not but it damn well feels like it at the moment.

Sometime ago I blogged that I'd bought a new peecee and bemoaned that I now had to work out how to transfer the data from my old one onto my new one. A dear friend was coming down to help me celebrate my birthday and was going to bring with him a USB memory stick. As the celebrations were cancelled, said transfer of data never happened. So this week I took a very daring plunge into the technermalogical world and purchased my own USB memory stick (£8 from e-bay :))

It duly arrived and I booted up the old peecee, inserted the stick and all seemed hunky dory....until I tried to install the driver. My cd-rom didn't want to work. So I took the base apart to try and find out why. No apparent reason and then I discovered that if I right-clicked on something or another I got an "eject" option. Hurrah! It ejected!

So CD duly inserted and lots of clicking and whirring ensued. However, it seems that the driver is not on the CD-rom that comes with it - you have to connect to the intermaweb to do that. Except I now have broadband and old peecee isn't set up for broadband. So, I thought I could connect it to the normal phone line and access it on a pay as you go basis. Nope. Old peecee only wants to connect via my old BTAnytime account which, of course, I don't have anymore.

So far and so bloody thwarted. Boo hiss.

And now I can't get the base unit back together. Boo bloody hiss again.

Stupid Guilt

One day a month I work at home so that I can have peace and quiet to write the Board minutes. Yesterday was that day.

I started about 7.45am, broke off to walk the Lurchers at 8.45am. Got back to it at 9.30am and then worked my butt off without a break (apart from making the odd cup of tea and grabbing some lunch to eat at my desk and well, OK..the odd quick flick around the intermaweb when I lacked inspiration) until 4.15pm when I finished. I delivered the draft to the Chairman (who also happens to be my next door neighbour and landlord) and then at 4.30pm departed in what was left of the wintry sunshine to walk the Lurchers again.

Now, I don't tell you this for plaudits. I tell you because of what happened next. 5 minutes out on the walk I met a member of the Commons' staff (that's the trouble with walking the Lurchers where you work) who looked at me, looked at his watch, looked at me again and said something along the lines of "I thought you were working at home....this looks more like walking your dogs". Now, it doesn't matter how much you protest that you've already worked more hours than you do in a normal day in the office, no-one believes you and they automatically think you're skiving off.

I spent the rest of the walk keeping to the trees and I actually hid behind my car as one member of staff went past so he wouldn't see me. It's pathetic isn't it!? Why do we feel such guilt when we know we've done a good days' work?

Ohhh my daaarling

Lurcher No. 1 received a Valentine's card. I didn't.

Not that I expected one, mind you, as we don't "do" Valentine's in this house, what with it's true meaning being lost in the depths of time and the profits of greeting card companies. And the fact that OH is possibly the least romantic person I know. Although he did excel himself the first Valentine's Day of our then budding relationship. I worked in town in those days and parked my car at the station, whence I caught a train. On my return that evening I found a single daffodil, my favourite flower, under my windscreen wiper. Awww....

The fact that it had been nicked from someone's garden somehow seemed to make it even more romantic!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dressing up

We went to a fundraising dinner dance last night - our local rugby club are raising funds to send their under 16s team on a tour to the southern hemisphere. We rarely go to any of these dressing up type of events and, as is ever the way, I had nothing suitable in my wardrobe to wear. So last Saturday morning I went and bought myself a little black number. I have to say it was quite a racy little black number and very daring compared to my normal attire. Well, let's face it, anything is a little more racy than jeans and a jumper. It was a very close-fitting, halter-neck all-in-one trouser affair with no back (yes I know halter necks don't have a back, that's the whole point of them, but this really had no back as what there was at the back was cut very low), plunged at the front and barely covered my modesty. The question of what supportive under-garment I was going to wear under it didn't arise, there was no way said garment could be worn under it. No bopping around the dance floor for me then! But it was one of those outfits that made me feel good as soon as I put it on and it had to be had.

There were, however, two things I forgot to bear in mind.

Firstly, trying something on in the morning, before you have eaten, is very different to trying something on at the end of a day when breakfast and lunch have been consumed. Especially when it's a very snug fit. OH managed to zip me into it but any breathing out on my part was possibly going to result in disaster. I spent a very uncomfortable evening sitting bolt upright and moving as little as possible.

Secondly, I hadn't given a thought to what going to the loo might entail. I discovered that what it does entail is the total removal of said outfit. In a drafty rugby club loo, this was not fun. Neither was trying to zip myself back into it. My arms simply do not bend in that direction.

Talking of dressing-up, when we got home, OH turned the TV on and the Rocky Horror Picture Show was on. That has to be my all time favourite romp of a film although it does always leave me wondering how Tim Curry manages to look sexier in a basque than I ever could.

Ding dong..

So Charles and Camilla are getting married. Now is that ever creating heating debate! Personally I think good for them, they should have got married 30 years ago and a lot of unhappiness could have been avoided.



But people are getting so worked up about it....he had an unhappy marriage and did the dirty on his missus. So missus did the dirty back. Gosh, that puts them in a minority of one then doesn't it? How many other couples have been through exactly the same scenario then moved on and made a happier life for themselves? Lots I should think, including several of my own family. So why do people make such a fuss? Let them get on with their lives and be happy.

Karma

I never cease to be amazed about how the karma of the universe works.



The rescue I volunteer with has just taken on a lurcher bitch whom we suspect may have Laryngeal Paralysis. Treatment is a fairly straightforward operation but it doesn't come cheap...we're probably looking at close to £1,000 all in. We have the funds to pay for it although it will leave a rather large dent in our bank account. But we feel it's worth it because she is only 3 years old and will live a perfectly normal life afterwards....even if one well-known veterinary establishment, that shall remain nameless, feels that financially it isn't viable and we should just cut our losses and put her to sleep.



Then yesterday, we heard that a theatre group are closing down and want to donate the funds they have left to a deserving cause. And they chose us. £950 is what they are giving us. I can't thank these people enough for their generosity - how brilliant are they!?



It's a bit spooky though!

oooh!!

11-9!



Gavin Henson...we salute you!

Ups and downs

Down because we had to bury Chaz the Hamster today after she departed for hamster heaven last night. Little creatures that steal a big bit of your heart.



Up and down because I had to pull a greyhound from out of a home where he was not really wanted anylonger. His owner had to leave him on his own all day so thought it best to find a home where he would have company. Such a shame as he had been there for 4 years. He came away with nothing but his lead and didn't even glance backwards once. Loved but not really "loved". He's staying with me tonight and will be on towards his new home tomorrow.



And tomorrow the 6 Nations starts. England v Wales. I think this year that maybe Wales might have the edge and I shall be celebrating tomorrow night. Then again, I could be eating my words!

Some days are not so good

On Saturday afternoon, the police informed us of a missing person that they believed was last seen heading for the Common. We searched Saturday, Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday, we found his body. Some bits of my job are not so nice.

Food glorious food

My life seems to revolve around food.



A quick trip to Waitrose to buy a couple of things resulted in an embarrassing moment involving blueberries and me crawling around on my hands and knees. It also resulted in me managing to spend sixty squids. Quite how that happened I don't know but there is something about Waitrose that seems to make me spend a lot more squids than if I'd just popped into Tesco. That's why I only go to Waitrose when I've just been paid.



I made dinner (bolognaise) and some parsnip soup for lunch, whipped up from some home-made chicken stock I just happened to have to hand, of course. Then I made OH's trough box (that's a lunch box to the uninitiated). As we're both on a bit of a "watch what we eat" thing at the moment (Gillian McKeith has a lot to answer for), making his trough box isn't as simple as chucking a few bits of processed ham between to pasty looking bits of bread. Nope, it involves avacado salad (peel avocado and toss in lemon juice, chop lettuce, tomato and spring onion), fruit salad (peal and chop mango, peel and chop Kiwi, wash blueberries (dratted things) and raspberries) and freshly baked, home-made bread. Then once that's done I have to put The Lurcher's breakfast together. One box for me to take for Lurcher No.2 and one for OH to take for Lurcher No.1. That's before I even start to think about getting my food together.



Now, before you start to think I'm Martha Stewart out on bail, OH will be the first to tell you, and I will be the first to admit, that whilst I can cook a mean supper and provide a trough box extraordinaire, I have great difficulty in tidying up after myself. Consequently this feast-making few hours has resulted in my kitchen looking like a force 10 gale has blown through it, leaving a trail of debris in it's wake. Ho hum. Just as well I have OH to clean up after me. Worst of all, the whole process will have to be repeated tomorrow and every night this week. By Wednesday night I often find myself resorting to processed ham and pasty looking bits of bread.



Oh, and there is a new item at the top of the Devil's Food list. Avocado. The texture is awful, the taste is awful and it's...well, just awful.

Bang bang

Having seemingly been successful in accustomising Lurcher No.2 to fireworks - there was a very loud fireworks party next door last night and he didn't bat an eyelid - we thought we might try introducing him to the gun this morning.



OH goes clay-pigeon shooting several times a month and I like to go along from time to time, however, as dogs shouldn't be introduced to the gun until they are at least a year old, I haven't been for some time. It wasn't hugely successful as Lurcher No.2 stood there shaking like a leaf as soon as the guns started. So I took him off for a walk somewhere much quieter. But slowly slowly catchee monkey and we have made a start. We'll keep trying for five minutes at a time, every few weeks and see how we go. If he never becomes accustomed to them, then so be it and I shall enjoy having Sunday mornings lazing at home instead. Oh dear! ;o)

Nuggets of information

I was trawling the intermaweb the other day and came across these gems:





According to U.S. FDA standards, 1 cup of orange juice is allowed to contain 10 fruit fly eggs, but only 2 maggots. Thirsty!?



In Michigan, a woman isn't allowed to cut her own hair without her husband's permission.



On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.



Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.



American's are responsible for eating 75% of the world's daily chocolate intake.



The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.



Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously



Ingrown toenails are hereditary.



Only humans and horses have hymens.



A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to the production of Guinness beer. (As it should!)



The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, it's plural.



The longest place-name still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikim tungahoronukupokaiwhenuakita natahu, a New Zealand hill.



Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula" and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, "L.A."



Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave. No! Get away!



A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. A pig's penis is shaped like a corkscrew.



It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. There's a very good reason for that so please don't try - your eyes would pop out of your head!



Charles de Gaulle's final words were, "It hurts"



The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.



The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.



Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living.



When a giraffe's baby is born it falls from a height of six feet, normally without being hurt.



Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk.



It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again. (oooh,nice!)



Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka.



During menstruation, the sensitivity of a woman's middle finger is reduced. (It is also the most over used finger) Ummmmm......



The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it.



In the next seven days, 800 Americans will be injured by their jewelry.



In 2003, the U.S. Government spent about $2,000,000.00 on potato research. (40% of Americans eat french fries as their daily vegetable intake)



In Oblong, Illinois, it's punishable by law to make love while hunting or fishing on your wedding day.



The average American eats at McDonalds 1,811 times in their life.



Q-Tip Cotton Swabs were originally called Baby Gays.



In America in 1977, the punishment for smuggling marijiuana was 15 years less than the punishment for smuggling coffee!



To burn off one plain M&M candy, you need to walk the full length of a football field.



Queen Elizabeth II has a rubber duck in her private bath with an inflatable crown.



'Formicophilia' is the fetish for having small insects crawl on your genitals. Eeewwww

Because

I should have been writing this blog with a hangover. Although that would not have been indicative of me having a complete skinful last night because it only takes one drink to give me a hangover. But that's by the by because I don't have a hangover. And that's because I didn't have a drink. And that's because we didn't have a dinner party after all. And that's because all the people who were supposed to come to dinner, didn't. And that's because on Friday I took the decision to postpone all celebrations of the "oh no four oh". I had the lurgy and half the people that should have been coming had the lurgy and so wouldn't be coming after all. Not wanting to celebrate with only half my friends, I cancelled and we shall re-group in early March. Because.



This has left me and OH with a bit of a hole where the weekend should have been so we've been at a bit of a loss as to what to do with ourselves. The lurgy fizzled away without taking hold (hurrah!) so we've been twiddling thumbs a bit. Taking The Lurchers for nice long walks in the glorious winter sunshine - and not in the snow as the weatherman promised us. A trip to PetsAtHome resulted in a nice new cage for Chaz The Hamster and new feeders for the wild birds in the garden. Other than that, a quiet time has been had.



And I cried watching Stargate.

Uh-oh four oh

I've spent the years since my 30th birthday wondering what it woul feel like to wake up and be 40. I don't feel very different at all. Well, that's not strictly true, I do feel different. I've woken up with the lurgy. :0(

I don't want to be morbid but...

....OH and I had to go to a funeral this morning and it got us thinking about what we'd want to happen to us when we finally depart this earth. Neither of us are at all religious so don't think that the "usual" funeral would be appropriate for us. Many years ago I decided I really couldn't be doing with a funeral at all, mainly because I thought no-one would bother to turn up and how sad would that be? So I decided I wouldn't take the risk of being a billy no-mates and would leave my body to science. It won't be much use to me so someone might as well get some use out of it rather than just feeding the worms. I know worms have to eat as well but, well, there's plenty of other things they can find to munch on I'm sure.



I did a little research on the intermaweb (what did we ever do before the intermaweb I wonder?) and did you know that strictly speaking, one cannot legally own one's own dead body and, therefore, cannot legally bequeath or donate it? So who does own it then? It's up to those who survive you to carry out your wishes, or not, should they decide to be awkward.



It also leaves me with something of a dilemma. I have registered as a donor so that any bit of me that's needed can be used by someone more needy than I obviously will be at that particualr juncture. But, if you donate anything other than your eyes, you can't leave your body for research. There also seems to be a few other caveats about leaving your body for research; it can't be done if an inquest has been carried out and a coroner has got his hands on you, or if the particular establishment you want to leave your body to is short of storage space....or staff.



So regardless of what I might wish to happen to me, it seems I might have to make a back-up plan for a funeral after all.

ouch!

How could he not notice!!??



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4179877.stm





Breaking news: Hamster much improved this morning. Course of antibiotics from vet should hold a lung infection at bay. Yay!

Not just yet. Please, not just yet

Chaz, my hamster, is not well. As she is now two and a half, she is well into old age for a hamster. We'll be off to the vet in the morning but I'm steeling myself for the inevitable.



As my lazyblog.org assignment is "Harry Potter and the Hamster of Fire", perhaps you'll forgive me if there is a delay in blogging it.

ohhh I hurt!

I was totally led astray by the fact that I didn't hurt very much after I went riding on Christmas morning. So I went again today. And I hurt. A lot.



I think I know why. We have a new horse in the yard and everyone has been raving about how wonderful he is and the Senior Keeper offered to let me experience this myself. He's a big horse, 17hh, but not as wide as the hulking brute of a horse I rode on Christmas Day so I didn't think there'd be too much of a problem in the aching legs department. Unfortunately, I forgot to take into account the fact that he isn't a cavalry trained, push button horse, as the others in the yard are. He's an ex-hunter, from Ireland, whose idea of "push button" is "push the button and surge forwards, sideways, up and down all at the same time". That tends to have something of an "oh crap" effect on me. Consequently, my legs were glued to this horse for the whole 1.5 hours we were out and muscles were somewhat tense. But it was a fab ride all the same!



A hot bath when I got home might have helped soothe the hurt but there was no time. Get in, get changed and head straight out to Twickers for the Harlequins v Munster Heineken Cup match. Walking several miles to the ground followed by another 2 hours sitting on a hard seat and standing on hard concrete yelling at the Quins to get their butts into gear have taken their toll on my unfit body. And I hurt. Did I mention that?



The things we do in the name of fun!

We are sailing

I write to you through the wonders of Broadband! I can't believe I waited so long to sign up.... it's so damn fast! Having one or two teething problems accessing one of my e-mail accounts but I'm sure I'll get them ironed out. Especially now that I am brimming with confidence at managing to install it all by myself. For a complete technophobe I'm really quite proud of myself. Mind you, it's not that difficult given that BT give you step by step instructions that even a 2 year old couldn't fail to manage.



Other news....oh, there is no other news. Life is as exciting as it ever isn't!

The call of the waves

Wanted. One holiday cottage in Cornwall or West Wales that allows The Lurchers and smokers, is by the sea, isn't in a complex with other "cottages" and has a private garden. Not as easy as you might think. I may have to broaden my search.



You see, the sea is calling me. I grew up by the sea and I miss it, there not being much of it in South West London. Every so often I start to crave the sea. Not to be in it, but to be sitting by it, listening to the waves pounding on the beach or the rocks. Once the craving starts, it becomes an itch that I can't scratch and becomes intolerable until I get to sit by the sea.



The sea is the balm that soothes the irritation.

A dilemma

My day started very early. In fact, it started before the last one had properly finished. I was just dropping off to sleep last night and my mind was wandering through what I had done during the day. Not a lot as it happens as I had been working on the Board minutes, at home - so I could get some peace and quiet. Once I'd finished, I'd popped out to the bank to pay in a cheque. The bank was closed but I used the DepositPoint facility in the lobby, with a paying-in slip from my cheque-book.



As my mind reached this point in it's wanderings, it suddenly occurred to me that I couldn't remember picking up my chequebook off the counter. I shot out of bed and turned my bag out onto the floor and emptied my coat pockets...no chequebook. So 1am this morning found me on the phone to my bank cancelling the remaining cheques.



I don't write cheques very often and checking my last statement, I didn't think I'd written one since the middle of December so stopping the remaining cheques wouldn't be a problem. However, it has just occurred to me that I paid for my computer by cheque at the end of December and it hasn't come out of my account yet. And I've just stopped it. Oops! So now I have a dilemma....the bank have told me to re-issue the cheque rather than try to stop the errrmmm... stop, if you follow. But, a friend of mine seems to have this uncanny luck with clearing banks losing her cheques and the money not coming out of her account. So, do I do the decent hting as and upright an honest person and re-issue the cheque, or keep my head down in the hope that some of that luck has rubbed off on me and they've lost my cheque? Three weeks is a long time for a major company not to pay a cheque in, even with Christmas and New Year holidays. Isn't it?

Hot hot hot

Today our boiler was fixed and we have hot water again. Hurrah! For the last 6 weeks or so, having a shower in the morning had begun to resemble a military operation.



Go to bathroom and turn on taps in the shower.

Go to kitchen and turn on tap in sink.

Turn temperature gauge on boiler off and on again.

Wait for water from kitchen tap to run hot.

Return to bathroom to check water there is running hot.

Return to kitchen and turn off water.

Return to bathroom and have shower.



However, the gremlins moved in when we were away over the weekend and yesterday morning the water wouldn't run hot at all. Washing my hair in cold water first thing on a Monday morning is not my ideal way to start the week. Especially when I have to attend a Board meeting. Dearest Boss came to the rescue and let me use her shower. She has one of those shower heads the size of a dinner plate that sends water cascading down with such force that it's all you can do to stand under it.



I want one of those!

Good times

I have just had a fantastic weekend.



As reported in my last blog, we were heading down to Wales for my Mum' 60th Birthday party. En route we stopped to see my bestest friend in Brecon. Well, it's not quite "en route", quite a major detour actually but what the heck, it was the closest we've been to that part of the world in a long time so major detour notwithstanding, I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to see her. It was something of a blustery journey it has to be said and as she lives out in the wilds, there were one or two moments when we wondered if we'd actually get there in one piece. But get there we did and although we were only there few hours, I'm glad we made the effort. We haven't seen each other for over a year and she's had a crap year. Although we talk regularly on the phone, it doesn't make up for a hug in person!



Friday night turned into a mini-party with just 6 of us...my mum produced a box of old photographs, some of which were wonderful sepia pictures of my great-great grandparents. Some pictures were slightly more recent and there was much hilarity over those dating from the 70s. The clothes we wore!!



The party at my mum's on Saturday was supposed to be a quiet affair with people popping in as and when they could from 4pm on. By 7pm, a major party was in full swing! My whole family were there, including a few cousins that I grew up with who we hadn't expected. Several happy hours were spent reminiscing over childhood antics and forgotten memories. Also one cousin who is 14 months old and who I got to meet for the first time.



The Lurchers behaved themselves impeccably over the whole weekend and drew many admiring remarks from all the guests. Made me very proud they did!!



Living so far away from my family, it's too easy to not stay in touch and we seem to fall into that cliche of only meeting at weddings and funerals, with the funerals seeming to happen much more frequently than weddings these days. Once again we all agree to keep in touch....and with e-mail, we have no excuse not too. Yay for families!!

Gosh! The life I lead!

Today's major news? I've signed up to broadband. How much more exciting can life get?



Today's other major news? It's my mum's 60th birthday! Happy Birthday Mum!



There shall be a party at the weekend so tomorrow will find me wending my merry way down the M4 to Cardiff. I go via Brecon to see my bestest friend. Hurrah! I haven't seen her in way too long and it will be good to see her. I shall also be seeing all my family at said party and we haven't all met up since I can't remember when. That'll be nice too!



Big little step-brother called last night. Haven't spoken to him in ages either. He wants lift back on Sunday....I should have known he wanted something, that's usually the only reason he calls. But hey, I love him anyway and what are big step-sister's for?



I'm not very good at seeing my family and friends very often am I?

Some people

You know how it is that some people just seem to make you want to argue with them all the time? There's no reason for it at all. You know the ones that by simply walking into the room and saying something, anything at all, makes you just want to contradict and question what they say? I can't explain it but this is one person that I really can't afford to fall out with but I really just can't seem to help myself. The fact that I suspect their motives and that it concerns something very, very important to me is really besides the point. I really am going to have to learn to button it before I press the self-destruct switch.

Wash day blues

My washing machine has been busy today. Load number seven has just made its way out to be dried. How do we create so much washing? There's only two of us for heaven's sake. OK, The Lurchers tend to create a certain amount....actually, thinking about it, they probably create more than we do - throws on the bed and sofa, covers on their 4 beds (as we feed raw bones and they tend to take them to whichever bed they choose to eat them (although not ours or the sofa you understand - that's not allowed), fairly regular washing of bed covers is a necessity). But all the same.....seven loads created over the last 4 days does seem a little excessive.



I recalled to mind an article I read in a newspaper a while ago. It said that with the advent of the washing machine, society today tends to wear things once then put them in the washing basket, without really thinking too much about it. Or, more likely, not thinking about it at all. We've come to take for granted that we will have freshly laundered clothes to wear everyday. If we had to do the washing by hand as our grandmothers had to, we might stop to think about whether an item actually requires washing before chucking it in the wash basket.



I'm so guilty of this...although I don't actually throw things that I've worn once into the wash basket, this is only because I don't actualy possess a wash basket. Instead, things get thrown onto the bedroom chair and stay there for the foreseeable future. When the mood takes me to do something about the pile of clothes threatening to avalanche onto the floor, it all needs ironing before I can wear it again. I really don't understand ironing and as I feel that it is something to be avoided at all costs, the clothes don't get ironed - they get thrown into another metaphorical wash basket and transported to the washing machine whereby they are washed, shaken out and hung to dry so that no ironing is required.



The point of this ramble is that I have decided, in future, I am going to put my clothes away when I take them off and not leave them in a discarded heap (oh how my mother would weep tears of joy to hear me say that!). Less washing, less damage to the environment (which was the whole point about the newspaper article in the first place.

Happy Bunny

I have finally bought myself a new computer. It's only taken me a year to get around to it. The reason for this is that I find myself experiencing palpitations at the thought of spending such a vast sum of money. I panic that my reserves will be depleted and that there will be nothing put by for emergencies. However, I managed to overcome that by virtue of the fact that my dear mother is giving me a rather large sum of money for my birthday so on new Year's Eve I went out and did the deed.



Very nice it is to. All black and silver and shiny and with a whopping 17" flat screen....very sexy! The technical details somewhat elude me but it's very fast and has 256mb of RAM which, as I commented to the salesman, was a marked improvement on the 34mb of RAM on my old computer. After picking himself up off the floor at the shock of the thought that someone was still actually managing to survive on 34mb of RAM, he commented "that's not old, it's positively antique". Maybe, but it kept going....just. And I have sound! Something I haven't had since my last computer's hard drive decided to terminate itself 3 years ago and the new sound drivers simply refused to load.



However, the problem with getting a new computer is what to do with all the stuff on the old one. There's a lot of stuff on there that I obviously don't want to lose, especially photographs. Important documents are not a problem as I've just e-mailed them to myself so they can be easily retrieved but trying to do that with the best part of 500 photographs is difficult, to say the least. A very helpful chat with SimonG and MMM rapidly disabused me of the notion that simply joining the two computers together with a length of wire was all that would be needed. Apparently it's a little more complicated that that. Well it would be wouldn't it? However, assistance is at hand. A good pal is slightly more computer orientated than I am and a chat with him this morning solved the problem in an instant. He has a USB memory stick, will bring it with him when he comes down in a few weeks and will spend the evening transferring everything over for me. Hurrah!



Isn't it nice having lovely friends!?

2005

...is upon us and heralded, in London at least, by an astoundingly spectacular fireworks display. Perhaps I just wasn't getting into the spirit of things but as I watched, I kept wondering how much that display cost, and how better that money could have been spent.



But let's not start the New Year Blog on a downer, it is a time to look forward with hope and anticipation at what this year will bring. May it be a good one.



Happy New Year.

Resolute

I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions. I never keep to them so I never saw the point. But this year I have decided that I will make a few resolutions and I am going to stick to them. Honest I am.



Mind you, I have a feeling this might be more to do with the impending "significant" birthday. Any excuse for a crisis....mid-life will do just fine! Yay!

All over

A nice time was had by all....nearly.



I had a fab Christmas morning out riding with my boss. Big horse was a tad frightening to start with but we soon settled down and had a fantastic ride in the morning sunshine. My seat bones were a little tender for the rest of the day but I didn't ache as badly as I thought I would. The rest of the day passed in a haze of food, presents, more food and lots of silly card games....Newmarket, Chase the Ace, Pig and such things.



Boxing day morning didn't get off to a brilliant start when we heard about the earthquake and Tsunami that had hit Thailand. My sister-in-law and her husband were Christmassing in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, both of which had been badly hit. Mother-in-law was in tears as I tried to contact the hotel but it was impossible to get through and the emerency contact number was constantly engaged. I finally got through to the travel company they went with who were able to tell us they had spoken to their local office and all was well. Sister-in-law was finally able to call later in the day to tell us that they hadn't known a thing about what had been going on and were enjoying their holiday blissfully unaware of the chaos unfolding about them - they were up in the mountains rather than on the coast. Unfortunately we found out that they have to cut short the holiday by two weeks as they are unable to go on to the Maldives. But they're safe.



I also discovered that I ached. A lot.



Got home today to hear from my dog-walking pal that her husband had been taken into hospital on Christmas Eve because of a problem with a fistula in his arm. He's had a lot of problems over the years with kidney transplants and cancer so she is understandably worried. Then her oven decided not to work as she attempted to cook dinner.



So as far as Christmas catastrophes go, we got away with it, although there are a few people in my thoughts now.



Hope you all had a good one!

So this is Christmas

It's Christmas Eve and festive feelings have yet to arrive but I'm sure they will by morning. We don't have to do much by way of preparation as we're heading over to Mother-in-law's for a couple of days tomorrow morning. However, I have done my chores which are to make the stuffing (which is a bit of a contradiction as it won't actually be "stuffing" given that I'm cooking it here at home), I've made the cranberry jelly and the bread-maker is doing it's stuff as I type. So that just leaves The Lurcher's presents to be wrapped.



Tomorrow morning we shall open a couple of small presents and have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast before I head off to work where my boss and I are nicking the two horses and going out for a Christmas morning ride and OH shall walk The Lurchers alongside us. I have a feeling that this may be something I shall regret as I haven't ridden for three years and these are proper horses....17.2hh, ex-cavalry chargers. Ho hum. I think I may be a little saddle sore for the rest of the day!



So that just leaves me to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and to hope that it is as magical as you could wish for. Have a good one!

What's that!!?

I came home from work for lunch today and OH announced that there was a surprise in the fridge. How exciting! Has some nice person dropped us off a piece of beef or half a salmon or some other such nicety?



So I rushed to the kitchen, opened the fridge door and nearly passed out on the spot. Staring me in the face was a pig's snout. Closer inspection of the carrier bag revealed that the pig's snout was still attached to the pig's head. Not quite what I had expected.



OH had met one of our neighbours who had asked him if he knew anyone that wanted a fresh pig's head (Don't ask. We have some odd neighbours). OH agreed to take it off his hands because we feed The Lurchers on a raw food diet and he likes collecting animal skulls. Two birds. One stone. Except I don't feed The Lurchers on raw pork because of past scares about bacteria in the meat. So OH will have to deal with it so he can have the skull.



If there is a pan boiling on the cooker when I come home tonight, rest assured I will not be lifting the lid to see what's in it.

Oops!

I have never played computer games on my computer at work, it's just something I don't do. But I was on the phone this morning and was having to hang on and hang on so I started pottering around my computer and found all these computer games, you know the ones - solitaire, minesweeper etc, so I pulled one of them up and started playing whilst I was waiting on the phone. Eventually someone answered and I carried on with the conversation and when finished, went back to the paperwork I had been working on prior to the call. Completely forgot I had solitaire open.



About 1/2 hour later, one of our Board of Directors came in and he and my boss stood behind me and asked me to find something on the computer. As my screensaver disappeared, there in all it's glory, was solitaire. I was somewhat embrarrased but just for once I managed to not dig the hole any deeper and I just calmly closed it down and carried on without saying a word. That'll teach me!

Early to blog

When I returned home yesterday afternoon with the foster puppy who was spending the night with us, OH informed me that "friends who are coming to dinner" were unable to get a babysitter and so would be bringing their 2 year old toddler with them. Oh, OK. I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with The Lurchers, a 6 month old, not entirely house-trained Lurcher puppy and a 2 year old, not entirely house-trained child. No problem. I am woman, I can cope. Ummm...said OH. They're also going to stay the night. Oh. I am woman, I am allowed to collapse into a gibbering wreck in my one-bedroomed flat.



But cope we did and a fine time was had by all. 2 year old toddler was hugely entertained by Christmas crackers, a torch and a portable crib which we turned into a tent for her. 'Twas most amusing when 1/2 hour after arriving she announced "Daddy, I need to go home now". Much food was consumed and to my delight, the Beef Wellington turned out absolutely perfectly - nicely pink in the middle and cooked at the thin end just for me. Beef should be well-cooked in my opinion, not just shown the oven and served mooing on the plate. "Friends who were coming to dinner" provided the cheese, purchased from a local cheese shop. When opened, the bag of cheese smelled like the inside of a rank, 5 day old, black rubbish sack....mmmmmmm just how cheese should be!



After an evening of playing very stupid charades, we took to our beds at 2.30am. Lurcher No 1 decided she wanted to go out at 4.30am and foster puppy wanted to go out at 6.30am. Had to get up at 8am to get foster puppy sorted for the next leg of her journey. So after not much sleep, I am going to tidy up the wreck that is my kitchen and disappear under the duvet...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Busy, busy

This week has passed in such a blur I dont know my a**e from my elbow at the moment.



After having the parents for the weekend, Monday was our monthly Board meeting and the powers that be had decided that I should join the meeting to take the minutes. Oh joy. That started at 5pm and finished at 7pm and that was followed by "drinks and nibbles" in the boss's house.



Tuesday was spent at home writing said minutes and going to the hospital. Wednesday was what passes for our Christmas Party at work. Chinese Karaoke Restaurant. Do I need to say more? Actually, cheesy though it sounds it is a complete riot and for the first time in ages I spent the whole evening laughing like a drain!



Thursday was a mad dash into Kingston to do some more Christmas shopping. I still haven't finished which is a bit of a bugger. Completely stumped as to what to buy mother in law and Goth niece.



Tonight was another mad dash to Tesco to stock up on supplies for tomorrow night's dinner party with good friends. Red pepper and butternut squash soup, Beef Wellington layered with mushroom pate and cranberries, and mango pie. I've made the soup, the pate and cranberry jelly stuff so that's the fiddly stuff out of the way. Will be making the pie later.



Tomorrow it's up early to walk The Lurchers, get my hair cut and go pick up a rescue dog who is staying with us overnight tomorrow, en route to her new home in France. Then finish off the preparations for dinner, wrap presents for friends and make myself presentable for dinner.



Sunday I have to drop said dog with a friend who is taking her on the next leg of the journey to Folkestone.



Sunday afternoon I am going to collapse in a heap and not surface until the alarm goes off on Monday morning.

Sound the All Clear

Just about this time two years ago I was diagnosed with Follicular Thyroid cancer. Not the best Christmas present ever.



Today I've been to the hospital again and they don't want to see me again for a year. I don't have cancer any more. The best Christmas present ever!

That went better than expected.

Had the parents up for the weekend. This event is usually fairly fraught as my step-father has quite high standards when it comes to a house being spotless. And mine isn't. I could make lots of excuses as to why it isn't...and here are a few of them: It's an old property; we have 14ft ceilings; we have two dogs; no carpets to hide the dust and dog-hair, just waxed floorboards; 2ft underneath the floorboards is earth...creates dust. etc etc. So although I have what I feel are valid excuses for my flat not being spotless, they are, of course, not in the slightest bit valid and the main reason is that I'm just bone idle and hate housework with a passion. There's always something more important to do.



Don't get me wrong, we're not complete slobs living in a filthy hovel. I do just enough housework to keep the place ticking over and I do insist on a spotless toilet. I just don't seem to get round to doing the "extra" stuff, such as getting rid of the cobwebs high up in the ceilings or pulling out the bed and hoovering behind it, or cleaning the tops of the cupboards. Everything in our flat never seems to have a permanent place to live and so get moved around a lot without actually being put away. It is such things that my step-father always seems to spot and just has to mention. So these visits are preceded by a major spring clean and a certain amount of trepidation. One such visit had me in my bedroom in tears and vowing that he would never ever be welcome in my home again...he hated the music we played, the card games we played, the flat was a mess - there was dust on a pipe 14ft foot up a wall in OH's workshop.



However, he seems to be very relaxed and chilled out at the moment so the weekend passed with not one sarky comment - although I don't know what was said in private mind you! We had fun, played silly games, lots of nice music and my cooking was praised. Only two small things...I took the turkey out of the oven to rest, only to find just before serving that, contrary to all outward appearances,it wasn't actually cooked. Oh, and I made a sherry trifle and forgot to put the sherry in it. Cest la...I can cope with such things!

A Little Magic

On Sunday, evening I watched a film on the TV. It was Miracle on 34th Street with Richard Attenborough. A bit of a schmaltzy film but perfect for the mood I happened to be in at the time. If you don't know the gist of the film, it is basically about proving that Santa Clause does exist. The "real" Santa Claus appears in a department store and has to convince a little girl, as well as a court room, that he is the real Santa Claus and that he does really exist. Of course, this being filmland, the world is convinced and the little girl does get what she most desires for Christmas - a father, a baby brother and a lovely family house in the country.



Maybe it was because of the mood I was in at the time but I began pondering how wonderful it would be to have something to believe in. Something with a little magic to take us away from our humdrum everyday lives. How nice would it be to know that Santa really does exist? I long for something to believe in, a little magic to look forward to.



My melancholy mood deepened a little further today. On the Common we have a memorial that commemorates those that lost their lives in World War 1. Over the years the names have been worn away and we have been trying to find that list of names so that we can reinstate them on the memorial. We have finally succeded and found a handwritten list of names in a local museum's archives. Today I had to type out the list so that we have a permanent computer record. The list includes their names, rank, decorations and how and where they died. Seeing the names of these boys, for that is what most of them are, and the places they died - Killed in action at Ypres, Killed in action at the Somme etc, brought home to me the reality and the sadness of the war so much more than any television programme has ever done.



I wonder if they believed in anything? Was there any magic for them in their short lives? I think probably not.

The day out that nearly wasn't

Big day out today. We had tickets to see the All Blacks v The Barbarians at Twickenham, so much excitement at home this morning. As we were walking up to the ground, OH gave me my ticket and put his back into his pocket. He threw away the ticket-size confirmation stub that comes with the tickets. We push on through the crowds and as we approach the gate, OH gets his ticket out and swears. Very loudly. He was holding in his hand the ticket-size confirmation stub. His ticket is languishing in a bin some 1/2 mile away from the ground. So we turn around and fight our way back through the hordes to try and find the right plastic bag out of the hundreds that they hang up on the route. Do you know, we found it! Stuck to a container that had once held mushy peas so it was a bit green but at £53 a ticket, he didn't really care!



So in we go and find our seats and get settled. Now the seats at Twickenham are tiny and leg room is fine for a five year old but not so much fun for adults. Especially the 6'6" man behind me who had to keep apologising for kneeing me in the head. And the 6', 16st man sitting next to me who had the pockets of his coat stuffed to the brim with stuff that kept digging in my leg. I hate being that close to strangers.



One of the things you can buy on the way to the ground is a "ref-link". It's a small personal radio thingy that links you directly to the ref's microphone so you can hear what he is saying and the game consequently makes much more sense. These ref-links are only meant to last for the duration of one match but you can usually use them for 2 or 3 if you're lucky. So being the cheapskates that we are (they cost a fiver a time) we took along one that we bought last time we went to Twickers about 18 months ago. Except that the powers that be seem to have twigged onto this and they've changed the frequency so our ref-link didn't work. Not that that seemed to matter too much because the two guys sitting behind us gave us quite a good running commentary. Until it became obvious that they didn't have a clue what they were talking about and weren't exactly paying too much attention to the game as they were talking too much. Still, they redeemed themselves somewhat when the they said they quite fancied Wales for the 6 Nations this year. I forgave them much after that.



The nice thing about rugby matches is that there is rarely any violence in the crowds. It doesn't matter which teams are playing or who has won, there's always a friendly atmosphere. Once the game is over and you've made your way down the zillion steps, you can pootle out of the ground out of whichever gate takes your fancy with very little hassle. People spread out so there's never a queue to get out. However, some bright spark somewhere has decided that the crowds need controlling. So having descended the steps tonight, we're met with a solid wall of people trying to get out of the same gate. I wouldn't have minded but the gate not 10 yards from the one we were being shoe-horned out of was completely empty! I asked one of the policeman why we couldn't go out of that gate and was told that "we have to keep the crowds separated". Why? "Beacuse that's what we've been told to do". Oh, OK. The consequence of course is that those of us who have ground to a halt are starting to get somewhat peeved. You can easily see how tempers could flare and violence break out. Smart move bright spark.

Who's Bill!?

We received our first Christmas Card today. It was addressed to Angela and Bill. Gerry and I are still trying to work out who Bill is.