Monday, 19 June 2006

Why is it....

Why is it that men will do things that no woman with even half a brain cell would contemplate?

OH has had toothache for the last couple of weeks and it reached a high point on Friday when he could hardly eat. He then proceeded to get very, very drunk, wrapped some fabric around the tooth and then knocked it out with a lump hammer. I'm so glad I slept through it all.

Thursday, 15 June 2006

Arggghhhhhhh

It's been a busy week this week. As well as normal work there was a Board meeting on Monday night and work's Annual Open Meeting last night. All my normal work has had to pile up whilst we got everything ready for the meetings. Plus our Open Day is coming up so the Senior Keeper keeps on at me to get stuff sorted out for that as well.

I got in about 10pm last night and apart from checking e-mail and a brief visit to a few weebsites I pretty much went straight to bed. So I was not hugely impressed to get up this morning and walk into the kitchen to a sink load of greasy unwashed dishes, with greasy unwashed saucepans on the side. Nice. And had someone thought to get The Lurchers breakfast bones out to defrost? No. And why, when someone has ages to "ablute" whilst I'm getting all the trough boxes ready, does someone choose to go the minute I need to? And does someone think to stop and say, don't rush, I'll walk The Lurchers this morning. No, they don't do that either.

I know OH is working full time as well and has a busy job on at the moment but so the *^%$* do I and a litte help would be really nice.

Today did not get off to a flying start.

Friday, 9 June 2006

Tog time again

Writing a shopping list so that you remember everything you need when you are in the supermarket is all very well, assuming you remember to take the list with you of course. But when you forget to put the things that you really need on the shopping list in the first place.......

*Public Service announcement*
That blog replaces the really interesting blog that I would like to have blogged but can't because I'd probably get sacked.

Wednesday, 7 June 2006

Dreams

Last night I had a nightmare. I suspect it was brought on by Lost being on the TV when I went to sleep but I, and a lot of other people, were in a ruined building in what seemed to be a jungle-like place. In the background was a terrifying drum beat making a boom boom, boom boom noise, and we were all cowering waiting for it to stop. When it did, we all got up to run to safety, but no sooner had we got up than it started again. So we all ran back to our cover and started cowering again....I guess with that very childlike concept that ifyou can't see whatever it is then it won't see you.

At that point I woke up, but in that split second of realising I was awake, I also realised that I could still hear that drum beat, boom boom, boom boom. I was absolutely terrified. It was only when I lifted the pillow off my head (don't ask, I just sometimes sleep that way), I realised that the beat was actually OH gently snoring and with the pillow over my head, it was reverberating through the bed. It still took a while for my heartrate to slow down and I've felt out of sorts all day.

I had another vivid dream last week. So vivid in fact that it is still with me. In the dream I was with my cousins and we were visiting a house that, I knew well in my dream, although awake it meant nothing to me. There were some friends of theirs there and one chap I seemingly knew well and it appeared that he loved me and cared for me a great deal. It was a very pleasant dream and when I awoke I was left with the feeling that, in my dream at least, I knew what it felt like to be loved unconditionally by another human being. It's a feeling I cling to still.

Saturday, 3 June 2006

Productive

We've had a very productive day today.

The beans and tomatoes got planted





I'm not big on flowers but I do love fuschias and geraniums so a few plants I bought at a village fete last weekend got potted up too. As did a sad looking Thyme and an even sadder looking Rosemary, both of which I've had for a few years but have never done very well. Added to the pot were a new Marjoram and Lovage.




With Lurcher No.1 acting as Foreman.




I've also cut a load of Lemon Balm and Feverew and have hung them up to dry. And washed the kitchen down with an infusion of Rosemary and Thyme - both natural antibacterial. Very necessary as we seem to have been invaded by fruit flies.

All in all a very satisfying day (apart from the fruit flies that is)!

Please excuse the odd layout and text not matching up with pictures - Blogger won't play properly.

Wednesday, 31 May 2006

Growing pains

I've decided to grow some food in my garden again this year. I always start full of enthusiasm but somehow I can never keep it up. OH and I fall into the "stick it in a pot and if it grows it grows and if it doesn't, oh well" school of gardening, which is fine for shrubby type things because you cn pretty much stick them in a pot and they grow without requireing too much attention. However, tomatoes and French Beans, which are this years' chosen plants, require a little more care and attention. I am determined to see it through this year and reap the rewards of a bountiful crop of both.

Time will tell.

Saturday, 20 May 2006

Chicken Little

Well, whatever was wrong with the chicken won't be bothering it any more. To borrow a phrase, it's now an ex-chicken. Owners have been informed and the response was "what colour chicken was it?". As you do.

And it appears to have stopped raining.

Friday, 19 May 2006

Holeedayz

On holiday I might be but today is one of those days for curling up on the sofa with a good book...or as we have Sky here, curling up on the sofa watching Star Trek! It is absolutely persisting down here and it's in for the day so seemed as good a time as any to catch up on the blogging.

We're house sitting for some friends who have a small-holding so we have horses, rabbits, chickens and sheep to look after as well. We would have a cat but The Lurchers seem to have scared her off and she hasn't been seen since Monday, which is starting to worry me a bit now. But cats are resourceful creatures so with any luck she's holed up in the hay barn.

My days are pretty much the same, get up and get dressed. Put on wellies and go out and let the chickens out, feed them and collect the eggs. Prepare a little feed for two of the horses and go out to the paddock to feed them, give cuddles and make sure rugs are all on straight. Count the sheep in the next paddock. Come back, grabbing a handful of grass and leaves on the way, and go see to the rabbits. Lunchtime, go check on the horses and go see if there are any more eggs to collect. Evening, feed chickens, check on horses, count the sheep, then at dusk, put the chickens away. In between, walk the Lurchers, either round the "grounds" or somewhere local for a change, then laze about reading the paper, doping the crossword or reading.

Sounds idyllic? Oh it is! Most of the time. The weather so far has been pretty foul, with bouts of nice sunshine in between although I don't think we'll see any sunshine today. It gets a little less idyllic when you have to worry about a cantakerous old mare that won't let you put a rug on her when it's peeing down and today, we have a poorly chicken. Cantakerous old mare finally let herself be rugged, but I'm not sure what's wrong with the chicken. She sort of stood up and then sank slowly back down again with a bit of a slant to the right. FIngers crossed it's nothing serious - maybe she's just a bit dazed from falling off a perch or something....hopefully.

Monday, 15 May 2006

I'm off!

Off on my hols to deepest Gloucestershire for 10 days. Catch you later!

Tuesday, 2 May 2006

All over for another year

With the stressful build-up we had to the Greyhound Gap Annual Dog Show this year, it was quite a relief to reach the end of the day with everyone and everything in one piece. Things like half the rosettes not turning up, mounts for our special prints not turning up, programmes being printed with missing info and then, on the morning of the show, getting a phonecall from Lisa, Gap's Founder, to say that a circus had moved in where we were supposed to be and no-one had a clue what was going on. A few sharp words from Nettie, one of our Trustees and several other volunteers on site, had the poor man from the Counil quaking in his boots but get it sorted he did. In fact the site, despite being a long way from the loos, was much better.

Getting to the show necessitated an early start for us...I had no idea there were two 5 o'clocks on a Sunday. Left home at 7 with the aim of getting there for about 9.30am. We were on track until I took a wrong road and ended up on the M6 Toll Road and having to go miles out of our way before getting off and finding our way back into Walsall.

But come to an end it did and the show was a huge success, raising over £2,000, and lots of people either meeting for the first time having "chatted" forever on the Forum or old friends meeting up again. Considering how many hounds were in attendance, we had very few problems and all the hounds behaved impeccably!

Time to start planning next year's now.........

Thursday, 27 April 2006

Why is it....

...that it's only after printing off 300 programmes that someone points out a monumental mistake, despite a draft being shown to everyone 2 weeks ago and no comments made!? Hey ho, such is life! At least I'm in a frame of mind to laugh about it!

Wednesday, 26 April 2006

Tuesday, 25 April 2006

It never rains....

My car has been making some odd noises fo rthe last week or so. Called my mechanic but he's on holiday until last Sunday so kept the use of the car to a minimum. Spoke to mechanic and he would pop up Monday evening for a listen and a looksee. Yesterday I had to use it very briefly and it started making an even funnier noise. Mechanic didn't stand over the car, shaking his head, pursing his lips and inhaling through his teeth because he's not that kind of person, but if he was that kind of person then he would have been standing over the car shaking his head etc etc.

He suspects either a gear box or transmission problem, and something wrong with the engine as well. I haven't had any problems with the gear box so my money is on the transmission...not sure if that's the more expensive option or not. At the moment he can't tell me when I might get it back.

Which is all something of a bugger as we've got Greyhound Gap's annual show in Walsall on Sunday and as well as me, OH and The Lurchers, I have a load of boxes and two bloody great big gazebos to take with me. OH's car also has a problem with its engine management system so we can't take that either. My boss has offered me her Freelander but that just isn't going to be big enough. So it looks like on top of the expense of getting the car fixed, I'm going to have to hire a car as well. And it's a Bank Holiday Weekend which means a three day hire and not just the two I need it for.

*moving swiftly to a few hours later* and we might be back on with the Freelander again. Boss asked the very obvious question, why don't we put a roof rack on it? Oh, that's a good idea, so now off to hunt for a roofrack. Anyone know where I might be able to hire one!?

Monday, 24 April 2006

Doesn't time fly....

I've been meaning to blog for days but what with one thing and another I don't seem to have got round to it. Soe here's a synopsis of the last 10 days:

Good Friday - Persisted down all day with that drizzly but very wet rain. Yes, I know most rain is wet but drizzle normally sits on the surface rather than soaks you but this drizzle was ermmmm wet. Moving swiftly on. Anyway, I had managed, for the first time in about 8 months to grab one of the horses from work so I could take myself off for a ride. Got soaked just getting tacked up but one of the Keepers lent me his proper big army riding coat which sits across the back of the horse as well so we were all snug as a bug. Been out for about 10 minutes when across my walkie talkie radio came the call that the farrier had arrived and all horses were to return to the yard. Bugger! Still, better than nothing. Pootled for the rest of the afternoon and then headed on down to Sussex to stay with friends for the weekend.

Saturday in Sussex - walked the Lurchers and their friend Ms Teyha. Eat breakfast then spent the rest of the day playing Mah Jong and poker.

Sunday in Sussex - ditto the walking then card games - crib and Nom - lovely roast Sunday dinner and then drive home.

Monday to Wednesday - I'm on holiday for a few days with the intention of letting my brain and body catch up with each other. Mission almost accomplished.

And that's about it really, this weekend was pretty quiet although we trying to get everything organised for the Greyhound Gap Annual Dun Dog Show on 30th April. One of my tasks was to make up some ribbons to sell for the Justice for Rusty campaign, something we always mark at the show. I never thought getting a bit of ribbon to fold over and stick to itself would cause so much grief, although given I am not really an arty type, I shouldn't have been surprised. Now got to go and sort out some alternative rosettes as the silly company we've been dealing with didn't complete the order and have been so tardy in sending out the replacements that they haven't allowed enough time to deal with the inevitable "lost in the post" somewhere scenario, which of course is exactly what has happened.

Tuesday, 11 April 2006

Well that was a jolly weekend

I'm a bit late blogging about it as I was too pooped on Sunday evening when we got back and I had a Board meeting yesterday evening.

We departed for Dorset on Saturday lunchtime and arrived there about 3pm. Stopped off at the B&B we were staying at and then headed off to Swanage to give The Lurchers a run on the beach. Got back to the B&B, got changed and headed for the pub for 6pm to join in the celebrations for OH's younger sister's 40th birthday at this very fine establishment (very fine because they didn't utter a word at The Lurchers who were spreading themselves across the floor for a kip!).

On Sunday morning we all met up for a walk round Houns Tout and then down to Chapman's Pool. It's a bit of steep descent and my legs knew about it once we got to the bottom. Once on the beach we all dearched for fossils, drank mulled wine warmed on a campus stove and ate mini creme eggs. Just the fortification we needed to for the trek (albeit more gentle than the descent) back to Kingston.

I could have stayed longer, I love Dorset.

Wednesday, 5 April 2006

Embrokified

We seem to be experiencing a period of things being embrokified.

The DVD recorder thingie doesn't think that it needs to read DVDs anymore, which is a bit of a bugger because it won't record either and that's bordering on being devastating when there are two episodes of Star Trek Voyager on every day (and I don't care how sad you think it is that I love Star Trek!)

My alarm clock doesn't think it needs to alarm any more, resulting in me oversleeping two days in a row. Well, it seemed only natural that the batteries were going so I changed them. Only it doesn't appear to be the batteries, hence me oversleeping for the second day.

My mobile phone, whilst not completely embrokified just yet, is well on it's way. The charger won't plug in properly and required vast amounts of wiggling to get it happy enough to work. And the display screen keeps breaking up.

And finally, I seem to be a little embrokified too. The big boss finally flipped me over the edge yesterday and I told him so. Fortunately for me he admitted I was right. Things at home aren't as hunky as they should be and the combination of the two has left me in tears at the slightest thing today.

The first three should be relatively easy to fix. It remains to be seen if I can get myself back on track.

Monday, 3 April 2006

Driving. Slowly.

I had to do two homevisits for Greyhound Gap this weekend. The first was in Croydon, just the right side of Croydon for me, and less than 10 miles away. Took me an hour each way. The second was in Fulham on Sunday. Now that's less than 3 miles away and it took me half hour to get there.

That's fairly normal for driving around South West London. It doesn't matter what time of day you travel, it takes you an age to go even the smallest distance. But you would have thought it would have been quieter on a Sunday. It was only when I was almost at my destination when it suddenly occurred to me what day it was. Choosing to drive through Putney on Boat Race day was perhaps not the best of ideas.

Thursday, 30 March 2006

Bang!

Two incidents involving The Lurchers.

Incident 1
Last night I clipped The Lurchers' nails. Something I do every few weeks without incident. Except last night I clipped one of Lurcher No.1's nails an incy bit too short. Damn but overclipped nails can spew blood like the best of cut arteries! Lots of blood everywhere. Fortunately we managed to stop it bleeding fairly quickly and she seems to be fine this morning.

Incident 2
Because of incident 1, after being out on the walk for 10 minutes this morning I stopped to check Lurcher No.1's nail to make sure the exercise hadn't set the bleeding off again (it hadn't). As I was bending down, Lurcher No.2 came bounding up to us and brought himself to a stop by crashing into my nose. Damn but can a nose spew blood like the best of cut arteries! Lots of blood everywhere! I saw stars, birds tweeting around my head and very nearly saw the ground a lot quicker than I would have liked. The shock and immediate pain reduced me to tears and poor Lurcher No.2 was distraught because he knew something had happened and wasn't sure if it was his fault or not ('cos he's like that).

A few hours later and my fear that my nose was broken seem to be unfounded and the swelling has gone down although it still feels a bit battered and sore.

Sunday, 26 March 2006

Happy Mother's Day and other stuff

Hope all you Mum's out there have a fantastic Mother's Day! My Mum is currently somewhere of the coast of North Africa (hopefully) enjoying her first ever cruise with my step-father. I can't speak to her today but I hope she knows I'm thinking of her and how much I love her. We tend not to express emotions in our family very much so saying "I do love you, Mum" is not something that happens very often. I do try to show it in other ways though.

I did something incredibly stupid this morning. I've started shopping at our local Sunday market for meat and vegetables because it is so much cheaper than the supermarket and we're on a bit of an economy drive at the moment. I asked the butcher if he had anything on the bone that I could give to The Lurchers. "here you are, love" he said, "you can have this box of chicken legs for £6". 20 of them! Deal! These aren't just chicken legs, their quarter of a flippin' chicken! And that was the silly thing....I had a dog food delivery last week and there's no room in the freezer. I put it down to the fact that we had a late night last night and I was still asleep. Fortunately I have a friend down the road that also feeds raw food to her Lurchers and a quick phone call found a new home for most of the chicken legs!

Now I'm off to make soup out of all the vegetables I bought last week and haven't used yet.

Thursday, 23 March 2006

Silly spats

We have a bit of a family situation going on at the moment. One of those silly things that really make no sense but everyone has lost sight of the original issue. It's taking up far more of my time than it really ought to but, hey ho, it will get sorted out.

It's OH's birthday today so I am cooking him his favourite dinner tonight: sirloin steak with chips, mushrooms, peas and fried onion rings. A timeless classic!

Monday, 20 March 2006

Right....

..onwards and upwards! Too much to be doing to be wallowing.

My poor boss....his wife of three months has just walked out on him. Again. Seems everytime she can't get her way she walks out in a strop. It just seems so silly when it's a marriage at stake. But then, I suppose I only get to hear one side of the story.

I'm really pleased with how the diet is going...see the old Slimgraph over there on the right. This last 1/2 stone is proving a bit of a bugger to move but OH fixed my bike this weekend so I can start cycling again. I now need to get Lurcher No.2 used to running alongside the bike so I can do the first part of his morning walk on the bike rather than driving to the car park.

Sunday, 19 March 2006

An odd day

Today has been an emotional sort of day. It comes as something of a shock to find out that someone doesn't think you are the the kind of person that you thought you were. Whether they are right or wrong, and whether everyone else agrees with them or not, it is still a shock.

Friday, 17 March 2006

Oooo err

Someone just told me that when I answer the phone, I have THE sexiest voice. That's nice isn't it!?

Well, as it's been so liong since I blogged I suppose I'd better do a catch-up. Crufts was a hoot.....and flippin' expensive. I somehow spent 200 squids without batting an eyelid. Ho hum......dry biscuits to eat for the rest of the month. The morning we left I got confirmation that Greyhound Gap had been granted Registered Charity status...yee hah! Here we go! Oh and I've just had to pay OH's tax bill. £7,500. Gulp.

And that's about it really.....not a terribly exciting time at all.

Wednesday, 1 March 2006

Leeks, Daffodils and confusing men

Happy St David's Day!!

OH has been driving me bananas for the last few weeks and I've been getting very fed up with it. Nothing in particular, just lots of little things that, to me, seemed to show that he just didn't care about me or our relationship. Then I get home lunchtime and there waiting for me is a bunch of daffodils with the message

"A bunch of daffs for my favourite Taff"

Perhaps he does care after all.

Monday, 27 February 2006

A sad day

I went into work this morning to be told that Bisto, the German Shepherd belonging to our Senior Keeper, had been put to sleep on Saturday. More than a few tears were shed.

Bisto was six years old and just over a year ago it was discovered that he had cancer in his nose. The vet operated but tests later showed that he had not been able to remove all the cancer and Bisto's time would be limited, perhaps a year or so. It was a true diagnosis. A few months ago the cancer returned and Bisto has been going down hill since. He seemed happy enough and he was always pleased to see everyone and still loved to play with Lurcher No.2, but over the last few days, the nosebleeds had become almost constant and he was having difficuly breathing. It became obvious to Bill that his quality of life was compromised to such an extent that his suffering had to end.


We will miss you Bisto, as will everyone on Wimbledon Common, both staff and the regular walkers who all knew you as Bill's constant companion. Wherever he was, you were never far from his side. You sometimes came for walks with me and the Lurchers and we were proud to have you with us.

Run free my sweet boy.

Thursday, 23 February 2006

They don't miss a trick

The RMT don't miss a trick do they?
The most telling sentence in that article was in reference to the Sydney Olympics:
"What they had done was put an attendance bonus in place where it gave a benefit to people to come to work, to make sure the Games run smoothly and give the company flexibility on the running of the services"
So, let's see if I've got this right, the RMT employees are asking for a bonus to attend work during the 2012 Olympics. Isn't this what they are paid a salary for? To attend work?
And then this bit:
When asked what would happen if Transport for London (TfL) did not agree to it, Mr Crow said: "I imagine if our members don't get the same as other groups of workers have, we could have difficulties."
If that's not blackmail then I don't know what is. It's disgusting, appalling and any other "disgusted of Wimbledon" adjective you might like to insert.
What happened to having a pride in your country and thinking "Oooh the Olympics are coming, here's a chance to show how good we are".
Nope, all you get here is "Ooh the Olympics are coming, here's a chance to line our pockets boys!"
Makes me sick, it really does.

Wednesday, 22 February 2006

It seems..

...that quite some time has gone by since I last blogged. Nothing remotely interesting has happened in my life during that time so, fear not, you haven't missed much.

Alhtough that said, we did have a fantastic auction on Greyhound Gap where I spent silly amounts of money that I don't have and had to raid my piggy bank. So did everyone else I think because we raised a mammoth £1950 squiddles!

Monday, 13 February 2006

Another weekend goes by

...with not very much happening.

Saturday morning I rushed about, whilst OH walked the Lurchers, getting my glasses adjusted, again, and picking up a few bit of shopping. Went off to do a homevisit for potential adopters and came home to crash in front of the rugby. Except I seemed to end up crashing in front of the computer instead whilst listening to the TV which was in the next room.

Meanwhile we're all shivering because the heating has packed up. Again. And then, on Saturday night, disaster struck. Tucked up in bed with my hot water bottle behind my back, it all suddenly felt a lot hotter that it should have done. That was probably something to do with the fact that it had sprung a leak. My nightshirt and pillows were sodden and I narrowly missed a nasty scalding. No heating, no hot water bottle, I had no option but to call in the reserves and have The Lurchers snuggle up on either side of me. Warm as toast we all were then!

Sunday I ended up back in bed with the onset of a migraine caused, I have no doubt, by the glasses which were giving me some nasty eyestrain despite only being adjusted the day before. These glasses cost me over £300 squids so I'm not giving up on them yet...but their time is running out fast.

Oh and glory be, the Welsh rugby team pulled out all the stops and bashed the Scottish into the ground. Yay!!

Thursday, 9 February 2006

Positive!

Reading back through my recent blogs I've noticed a definite negative swing. Only yesterday I accused OH of being negative and bringing me down but you have to wonder if it's not the other way around. THat's something for me to ponder on. Anyway, I have decided that today's blog at least shall be more positive.

So, the good thing for today is I have booked my tickets for Crufts. A crowd of us from Greyhound Gap are going for two days and I'm leaving OH at home with the Lurchers. Thursday is dedicated to shopping and Friday will be for ogling the Hounds!

I've not been to Crufts before so I am really looking forward to it!

Tuesday, 7 February 2006

Deja Vu. Again

There are two recurring themes in my life at the moment.

The first is my glasses. Once again the frame seems to have adjusted itself and I can't see properly. Yet another trip to the optician this evening.

The second recurring theme is my central heating boiler. This one is becoming tedious now. We had three visits from our plumber before he finally threw in the towel. We've now had five, yes five, visits from the boiler manufacturers and despite changing just about every working part in it, it's still not working properly. There is just nothing consistent about it working, or not working, and now the manufacturers are starting to scratch their heads. One came out yesterday and said it must be "this" because it was the only thing that hadn't been changed. 2 hours after he left it stopped working again.

I'm just not quite sure where this saga is going to end.

Sunday, 5 February 2006

Am I feeling OK??

Today got off to a bit of an odd start. I got up at about 8am, not too unusual, but then I started cleaning the kitchen. I'm not entirely sure what came over me. My cupboards and cooker now sparkle!

That was followed later in the day by a call to say OH's brother and his wife were coming to drop of OH's new car. Now, these two live in a house to die for. It's only a three bed semi but, as they both have an artistic flair, they have made some wonderfully simple individual touches that make you green. Everything has a place and that place is just perfect. But they also manage to do it without the house being jsut a house, they still manage to retain a homely feel to it. And they were about to descend on our humble abode where, it has to be said, everything also has a place, it's just that neither OH nor I have worked out exactly where that place is so things just get "put" and stay looking "put". So another spurt of cleaning and tidying followed. Perhaps Spring is coming.

Saturday, 4 February 2006

Widowhood

Today I became a rugby widow again, and so it shall be for the next 6 weeks or however long the Six Nations is on for. Don't get me wrong, I always watch all the games along with OH but the difference is that he, being a man, has to have several beers whilst watching. At the end of an afternoon of matches he's three sheets to the wind and snoring by 7pm. Still, gives me a peaceful saturday evening!

And talking of which, I was absolutely appalled that when the band played the national anthems at Twickenham this afternoon, they didn't have the decency to play them properly. They play them way to fast and the crowd can't keep up. If they can't play them properly, don't play them at all and just let the crowd sing them unaccompanied. They'd do a far better job. And yes we lost and yes I've taken a lot of ribbing! Mind you, with a ref who might as well have been wearing an Engand jersey what do you expect?

In Lurcher news, Lurcher No.2 seems to be well on the mend. He's keeping his food down and enjoyed a short walk this morning.

Friday, 3 February 2006

Day 2

Lurcher No.2 is back at the vets this morning for more fluids. He's OK but the vet has diagnosed Haemorrhagic Gastroenteritis - which sounds bloody horrendous. His gut and intesting are inflamed and very sore and causing a little bleeding as well. Once whatever it is is out of his system and the inflammation has calmed down, all shoud be well again.

I'm worried senseless about him of course but confident my vet will do what is right for him. She does have his litter mate and brother Louis after all, so he is "family"!

Thursday, 2 February 2006

Update

Lurcher No.2 is home and feeling more than a tad sorry for himself. The vet suspects that he has scavenged something as his liver levels were raised, indicating toxins of some sort had passed through his system.

We're to starvehim tonight, which is not a problem as he isn't in the slightest bit interested in water let alone food. He's to have a small meal in the morning and then another visit to the vet for a check-up.

I've been on the edge of my seat all day today and the adrenalin hasn't dropped yet so how much sleep I'm going to get tonight I don't know, especially as I shall probably sleep on the sofa with Tyler. Probably about as much sleep as Lisa will get!

Arrggghhh!

These Lurchers, or Lurcher No.2 at least, is going to turn my hair grey before very long. Having only just recovered from a fractured and dislocated toe and numerous vet visits, I had to rush him in again this morning.

My poor boy has spent the night throwing up nasty mucusy bile and was obviously still not feeling very well this morning - standing rigid, shaking and panting. Took him straight to the vet and they've kept him in to give him fluids and treat him for gastroenteritis. They've had a few similar cases this week and the dogs they've had in have responded best to being treated in this way. Vet has assured me it's not serious and I'm not to worry (yeah right) and he should be right as rain with some fluids, electrolytes and potassium in him.

I need to phone at lunchtime and lunchtime is not coming quick enough.

In other news, Lurcher No.1 had a birthday yesterday. I can hardly believe she's 6!

Happy Birthday PG!

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We were woefully remiss in celebrating so shall make up for it on Saturday (it's what you do for your dogs when you don't have kids!)

Wednesday, 1 February 2006

I don't like people today

I spent some of today having to defend myself whilst other people tried to pass the buck onto me for their own inadequacies.

Fortunately one person of note defended me and showed said person that I had done my job properly, could not possibly be blamed and what was he thinking about trying to blame me in the first place.

Unfortunately, another person of note, who should have been the first person to back me up, sat there with their mouths firmly closed. As long as the buck didn't stop with them they weren't going to say a word.

I took myself and Lurcher No.2 off for a nice long walk to calm down.

In other news, my glasses have been adjusted and all is well.

In even more news, the central heating has packed up again and it's bloody freezing. Engineers are coming for their fifth visit in as many weeks on Monday.

By Sunday, this blog will be sent to you with icicles hanging off my nose.

Monday, 30 January 2006

Not happy

I bought some new glasses (as in "spectacles") in early December and they finally turned up before Christmas. Complete with a chip on one of the lenses. So back they went and I finally picked them up last Tuesday.

I'm not happy with them...they are varifocals and I was warned they'd take some getting used to but I'm getting eyestrain when I wear them outside and have to look at long distances. And watching TV is hopeless, I can't see any better than I could with my scratched old ones. I think another visit to the opticians is called for.

Thursday, 26 January 2006

Eeeewwww....

...something in my fridge smells. In fact, it smells a lot and, if OH doesn't eat it soon, it's going in the bin. It's cheese of course. Epoisses to be exact. I bought it by mistake when I was rushing around Tesco shopping the other day. It was, confusingly, in the same little round container as one of my more favourite cheeses, Pie d'Angloys.

The write up for Epoisses says "The pungent, spicy aroma is matched by the strong and meaty taste". For that, I can assure you, you can read "an aromatic mixture of six week old socks, ten week old unwashed armpits and a year old Rocquefort that tastes exactly as it smells".

It is, dear reader, disgusting. Cheese never tastes like it smells but this one does. Avoid like the plague!

Monday, 23 January 2006

ughh

I do hate Monday mornings that hit the ground running at 90 mph. My brain struggles to catch up.

Saturday, 14 January 2006

Petals around the rose

http://crux.baker.edu/cdavis09/roses.html

Apparently, the more intelligent you are the longer it will take you to work out!

Thursday, 12 January 2006

Slap!

I had my wrist well and truly slapped yesterday. Slapped for not keeping my mouth shut during the Board meetings. I am there to take minutes and that's it. So there. That's me told.

Me keeping my mouth shut....that is not going to be easy.

Sunday, 8 January 2006

Here they are!

In all their glory! Seven beautiful little greyhound puppies..

Saturday, 7 January 2006

Edge of our seats

It's 1am on Friday night/Saturday morning and a vigil on MSN is going on for Greyhound Gap's founder who is currently whelping a Greyhound bitch who only came into our care yesterday. Up to 4 puppies so far and still a few to go by the sound of it!

Tuesday, 3 January 2006

Been and gone

Well, that's that all over with for another year.

Christmas went OK and New Year was OK to. Not a lot more to be said really.

Monday, 19 December 2005

And just to add insult to injury...

....OH's car blew up yesterday morning. I'm hoping that's the end of our run of bad luck.

Friday, 16 December 2005

Roll on tomorrow

Today has most certainly been one of the crappiest for a long time. OK, maybe not in the grand scheme of things but as my personal crappy days go, this one is right up there.

Firstly, we have been having problems with our central heating boiler for a few months. Actually, we've been having problems with it since it was installed 3 years ago but this latest problem has been going on for a few months. The heating bit of it only works when it chooses. It might work fine for weeks then we'll go a few weeks with it not, usually on the coldest nights. Our regular plumber had thrown in the towel so our landlord decided to call in the manufacturer's engineer. Appointment (and I use that term loosely) was made for this morning between 8am and noon. As luck would have it, I'd already booked the day off to finish my Christmas shopping. No problem, I'd just rearrange my day so that I could do all the things I'd planned to do at home in the afternoon in the morning, and go shopping in the afternoon.

The engineer duly called me at 10am and said he'd be there between 11 and 12. OK, I'd hoped for earlier but at least he'd been kind enough to ring. "Between 11 and 12" came and went, along with my sense of humour. 1.30pm he decided to arrive. Spent an hour or so faffing about doing engineery type things to the boiler then declared it working....something wrong with the presure valve (tell me about it). He finally left about 2.45 with everything working ticketyboo.

So off I toddled to do my shopping. No point in going into town at that point on a Friday afternoon so I went to the local retail park. Got most of what I wanted then decided that I really couldn't deal with Tesco at that point so stopped at a convenient Waitrose to get something for dinner.

All goingly swimmingly so far and I still had time to go and get my new glasses from the optician (what have taken two weeks to arrive). Get the glasses fitted and am given full operating instructions as these new glasses are varifocals and I've not had those before. Then we discover that the snazzy magnetic sunglasses that clip onto them don't fit. A little judicious fiddling by the optician gets them almost there and he promises me he will order another pair that should fit properly. Don't wear the glasses to drive jsut yet, he suggests, give yourself time to get used to them at home first. OK. So get home, take them out of the case to clean them and before I can put cloth to glass, I notice a flippin' big chip in one lense. After paying out £400 squids I was not best pleased. So amongst all the other things I have to do tomorrow, I have to take them back.

Having got over that annoyance, I realise that it's a bit bloody cold in the flat. Ahhhh....I turned the heating down before I went out so it didn't get too hot for the Lurchers. Turn the thermostat up expecting the nice sound of the boiler firing up and heat blasting form the radiators. Except that doesn't happen. It's not working again.

I'm not best pleased, landlord isn't best pleased when I told him and I suspect the manufacturers won't be best pleased at the abuse he'll give them tomorrow morning.

And on that note I'm going to bed before anything else goes wrong.

Thursday, 15 December 2005

Uh Oh!

We have a Board meeting once a month that I have to attend to take minutes. I spend a day typing them up and then drop them in with the Chairman who goes through them making numerous amendments. As he lives next door, he usually pops them through the letterbox when he's done.

Which is what he did last night.

It never occurred to me to mention that we were going out for a couple of hours and the hounds would be home alone. Neither did it occur to me to put the basket over the letterbox, which I usually do if The Lurchers have to stay at home during the day because Lurcher No. 2 tends to eat the post.......................you can see where this is leading can't you!!?

Yep, got home last night to find the amended minutes turned into confetti all over the hall floor. I've managed to salvage the bits and am in the process of working out what goes where and sticking them all together. It's a good job the Chairman has a sense of humour and I like jigsaws!

Lurcher No.2, of course, thought the whole thing was great fun and was most definitely not helping as I tried to pick the pieces of paper up!

Tuesday, 6 December 2005

Poorly puppies and washing machines

An eventful weekend on the quiet.

OH took The Lurchers out for a walk on Saturday morning whilst I went out and spent a lot of money. I need new glasses. My current lenses are scratched to bits and seeing out of them is getting more and more difficult. So off I toddled to the optician and ordered said glasses. £400 squids later and I'm sorted. *gulps*. Went to the Farmer's market and stocked up on various delicacies although no black pud for OH. Went to Tescos and bought some bits and pieces and came home.

Came home to find that OH had broken Lurcher No.2. Not unusual given Lurcher No.2's predilection for breaking himself. And as usual, it was his foot he hurt. As he still wasn't putting any weight on it by Monday morning we took a trip to the vet. In for sedation and x-rays which revealed a fractured toe. I know have a 2 year old lurcher on complete rest for the foreseeable future. Not sure who will be crawling thw walls first.

Rewinding slightly, on Sunday we went out and purchased a spanking new washing machine to replace the one that has been pissing water out on a regular basis over the last few months. All excited, OH plumbed it all in and switched it on. Came back an hour later to find it had pissed water all over the floor. In fact, lots more water than the old one was. Cue much swearing and scratching of heads. We think it may be a leaking supply pipe and the washing machine is now in the middle of the laundry floor, going through a cycle so we can figure out where it's leaking from and to see if our suspicions are correct. A little water does go an awfully long way when it's running across the floor.

Sunday, 27 November 2005

One of life's little ironies

The aforementioned pup duly arrived on Saturday afternoon, the tiniest, sweetest little bundle of Whirrier (Whippet x JRT) and this morning I've just done a 100 mile round trip to hand him over to the family who will be fostering him in Ipswich. Just as I got home, I received a phone call to say that there's a homecheck being carried out for him this afternoon....in Putney. Two miles down the road from where I live and from where said puppy departed this morning! Guess what I'll be doing next weekend!!

Friday, 25 November 2005

Getting busy, slowing down

Getting busy: Things are getting busy in the rescue world with dogs coming in through pre-Christmas dumping. I was on a transport run last weekend for a poor young greyhound bitch who had been used for flapping (illegal greyhound racing). She and one of her kennel mates came in together. Both full of worms, the heaviest flea investation I think I have ever seen in my life and, at five years old, rotten teeth and one with a mouth full of abcesses. They have never received an ounce of medical care but have been expected to run and earn their keep - the only way the owner said the only way he could afford to feed them was to race them. Go figure that one out.

It's a hard call but serial neglect like that is almost as bad as a one-off beating or dumping. Their bodies are put under so much stress with all the infestations it's a wonder they didn't have heart attacks.

We should be having a pupply come to stay this weekend before he moves on to his foster home. This one rescued from travellers. Unfortunately Wales seems to have been snowed in so we can't get him out. Keeping everything crossed for tomorrow. Although sometimes you know it's out of the frying pan and into the fire. This poor pup was rescued by a lady who then handed him into a rescue after being able to find homes for all his litter mates but not him. Unfortunately the rescue in question has a policy of neutering at 12 weeks of age. And that's not good which is why we need to get him to us asap. Sometimes I hate snow.

Slowing Down: Because we don't get many home offers during the pre-Christmas season.

Friday, 18 November 2005

urghhh

The cold has launched itself and I feel awful. Cotton wool head, raspy throat and a tight chest (yes, thank you, that's enough!).

Am I looking for sympathy? Damn right I am.

Thursday, 17 November 2005

Brrr.....

It's a bit chilly round the edges this morning. Actually, it's not just chilly around the edges but chilly through to the middle as well. Being so chilly has reminded me of a few things I should/shouldn't do now winter is here:

1. Do not leave your walking boots in the car overnight. They would be warm as toast if you took them back inside to sit by the radiator of an evening

2. Phone the mechanic because I don't know if my car has anti-freeze in it.

3. When you change to your warmer winter coat, remember to take your office keys out of the pockets of the jacket you have been wearing. This is especially important when no-one else is in the office to open the door.

Oh, and I've got a cold coming. I know this because I have gone off tea. For some reason when I have a cold coming I go off tea and start to drink coffee.

Friday, 11 November 2005

Go Google!!

1) Go to http://www.google.com/
2) Type in " failure "
3) Press the 'I'm feeling lucky' button (instead of the google search one)
4) Laugh
5) Forward to others before the Google folks fix this!

THEN TRY THE SAME FOR "french military victories"
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds

Wilfred Owenfirst published in 1921

Thursday, 10 November 2005

Gosh, blimey and other similar expressions of surprise

Some of my more long-standing readers may well remember this blog, and in particular the penulitmate paragraph which mentions that we got five numbers on the lottery that particular day and got rather a nice little windfall.

Well.....*ahem and coughs in a slightly embarrassed manner*.....it seems we've done it again! We got another five numbers last night and have another nice little windfall to add to it!

Tuesday, 8 November 2005

Ms Grumpy Knickers

That's me today...grumpy. Hormones are raging and I want to curl up on a ball and have a good cry.

Work is getting me down and that's not helping. I love my job and I'm not planning on leaving it any time soon but there are days when "certain people" make me want to spit. "Certain people" being those that are so selfish and self-centred but think they cover it in a gloss of niceness so that no-one can see what they're really up to. And everyone can.

Sunday, 6 November 2005

Hush my mouth

I do find it frustrating that there are often things I would like to blog about, if only to get it off my chest, but the problem is, you just never know who might be reading it. The intermaweb being the popular thing it is, all those I might be writing about could, at some point, stumble across my ramblings. At which point I could possibly lose my friends, get sacked, shunned by my family or put my relationship with OH on seriously rocky ground.

It's a dilemma isn't it?.

Saturday, 5 November 2005

We are very proud!!

My mum was nominated for the "Welsh Carer of the Year" in the 2005 Care Forum for Wales Care Awards, in the category "Domiciliary/ Care Home- Care Practitioner Award". She was initially nominated by the care company she works for, was selected to go through to the next round and then made it to the final 7. She had to attend a big dinner in Cardiff last night for the announcement of the winners. And she won her category!!! She is officially a "Welsh Carer of the Year"!!

I'm so proud of her and so pleased to see what she does recognised. She looks after elderly housebound men and women in their own homes and as well as the routine bathing, cooking and cleaning, she goes the extra mile and does their shopping and runs errands for them. She treats her clients with respect, rather thanthem just being a job. They become friends and she genuinely cares for them.

I am so proud of her!!

Wednesday, 2 November 2005

Fireworks

I hate fireworks. I used to love them until I got a Lurcher that is terrified of them. Lurcher No.1 doesn't bat an eyelid but Lurcher No.2 becomes a quivering panting heart pumping like a steamtrain wreck at the first bang.

It's so bad that I took advice from my vet who has prescribed an anti-anxiety drug for him. So far they work well - as long as you get them down his neck in time. That's sometimes difficult around West London as you never know when the damn things are going to start going off. Just when you think they've quietened down for the evening, off we go again. They've now been going off every evening for the last 10 days and I'm betting we still have a way to go.

I'm fed up with the damn things already. Enough is enough. Why can't they be limited to 5th November, or the closest Saturday and leave it at that?

Wednesday, 19 October 2005

My back has gone into spasm. It started on Monday afternoon and by Tuesday morning I was walking like a cripple. I've spent the last 36 hours flat on my back. Visit from the osteo last night has improved things slightly...now only half my back is in spasm. It still hurts like hell and this blog is necessarily short because I can't sit here for very long.

Monday, 10 October 2005

Games, games, games

Stayed with friends in Sussex this weekend. We played lots of games and ate lots of food, pretty much what we usually do when we meet them! The weekend always follow the same routine and we've yet to tire of it.

Friday night - crib (me and Mike always win!)
Saturday monring, walk the lurchers and their furry friend, Teyha. Eat breakfast.
Saturday afternoon - Mah Jong - the highlight of the weekend!
Saturday evening - if we finish Mah Jong early enough, we follow it with a n other game. This weekend it was Texas Hold 'Em poker. I lost.
Sunday morning - walk the lutchers et al. Breakfast. Play Nom. Roast dinner. COme home and collapse in a heap.

The only differnce this weekend is that I woke up on Sunday morning streaming with cold. Not good as I have to attend a Board meeting tonight and stay alert enough to take minutes. This is not something I am looking forward to with a cotton wool head and a nost that thinks it's on my feet (running.....yes, I know, old joke).

Wednesday, 5 October 2005

The holiday that was....

...and has now disappeared into the dim and distant past already. We've been back a week already and I haven't stopped for a minute.

But it was a lovely holiday. Fantastic cottage, weather superb, everyday spent walking on a different beach with the Lurchers running around like loonies. Nothing exciting happened, which was just how I wanted it.

Can't wait for the next break.

Thursday, 15 September 2005

Bye Bye

Gone Away. Be back soon.

Wish you were here. Weather is lovely. I'll fetch you back a stick of rock.

There...consider that your postcard!

Friday, 9 September 2005

Half a Yay!

Had to go back to the Royal Marsden on Wednesday for my annual check-up. One blood test was able to tell them that the level of drugs I'm on is fine. The second, which should have told them if there are any nasties lurking, had gone missing. Ho hum. Another blood test and they'll let me know in a week or so if there are any problems.

I'll just keep hanging on to those tenterhooks for a while then.

Monday, 5 September 2005

Overkill

My de-cluttering continues apace...yesterday it was the linen cupboard. I have one bed. I seem to have 11 sheets, 4 duvets, 8 duvet covers and more pillowslips than I can count. OK, we do keep some spares for when we have guests sleeping on the airbed and OH and I have a duvet each (he gets too hot and I get too cold), but that still seems a little excessive. So some of them went into the charity bag. I now have 8 sheets and 4 duvet covers and not quite so may pillowslips. Which is a start......

Wednesday, 31 August 2005

That's better!

Last night I cleared out my clothes cupboards. Three black bagfuls were discarded. One for rubbish and two for jumble/charity. And I've still got all the bits and pieces that can be e-bayed!

Damn but it felt good!

Monday, 29 August 2005

Ouch

Today I stabbed myself in the hand.

I didn't intend to stab myself, I had intended to skewer the stone in the middle of the avocado I was cutting up. Instead the blade slid off the stone, through the avocado flesh and then through my flesh. Cue lots of blood and one very sore hand.

Damn stupid thing to do really and, on the whole, not something I would recommend.

I still haven't quite given up smoking but I'm not giving up on giving up. I have cut down though and only had four cigarettes over the weekend and three today. That's a definite step in the right direction.

Thursday, 25 August 2005

Ahhh....mmm

Well, I lasted all of 20 hours this time. And for 8 of those I was asleep. Methinks I'm not going to be able to do this without help this time and I might need to look into getting some patches.

In other news, I had to go and see the nurse at my Dr's surgery last night. Nothing dramatic, just one of those regular check ups. Got on the scales and weighed in at 72Kgs. It was late in the day and I was full clothed so knock a couple of kilos off and round it down to 70kgs puts me at 11 stone. I was quite pleased with that considering what I have weighed in the past. According to the nurse, I'm 10kgs overweight and I should try and lose that. That's 1.5 stone. I haven't been that 9.5 stone since I was a teenager for heaven's sake! Now, I know that I'm not a skinny bint and I never will be, I'm Welsh for heaven's sake, we breed proper women in Wales - good solid bones and proper curves - and yes, I could do with losing another 1/2 stone or so bu if I go down to that weight I am going to look anorexic.

Having picked myself up off the floor laughing, the nurse told me it must be right because that's what the computer says. Cue me falling of the chair laughing again! What irritates me about all this is that no account is taken of my build (heavy-boned!) nor the fact that I don't have a thyroid gland (even if I do take replacement hormones, it's not entirely as efficient as the real thing). If I was not the sane, rational person that I am, I could have walked out of there convinced I was "fat" put myself on a ridicoulous diet to lose that amount of weight and possibly start on the way down a very slippery slope. That might sound a bit dramatic but it happens to people.

So WHY are health professionals encouraging the idea that thin is good when the media gets villified for exactly the same thing?

Tuesday, 23 August 2005

The last day

Today is the last day that I smoke.

There, I've said it.

Trouble is, everytime I decide to give up something goes wrong, I get stressed and reach for the tobacco again. Let's see how long I can last this time. Surely I can go longer than 6 hours?

Monday, 22 August 2005

I am so tired today, I can barely think straight. There's no reason for me to be tired, I seem to have done nothing but sleep this weekend. The Royal Marsden took what felt like the best part of 1/2 a pint of blood out of me this morning at the hospital, but that shouldn't make me feel this dozy. Early night tonight.

Saturday didn't get off to the best of starts, firstly I gave up smoking. Then, Lurcher no. 2 cut his pad and bled everywhere. Again. I've only just got the blood out of the sofa cover from the last time he cut himself. Then I couldn't shut the electric driver's window on my car. With rain imminent and nowhere to park the car but on the road, I started to panic somewhat. OH took the door panel off and fiddled with this and fiddled with that, to no avail. Then 1/2 hour later I just tried it again, because you just never know and you know what? It closed! Go figure, I don't understand it. 6 hours after I gave up smoking, I started again. I haven't dared open the window again in case it does the same thing although I was later told it's probably a dry connection in the switch. Oh. OK then.

Friday, 19 August 2005

Wet and camping

It's raining. And that's about all I have to say about today.

However, I have completely forgotten to blog about the weekend before last. So as it was lovely and sunny then, I'll blog about that instead.

When OH and his siblings were growing up, they used to go off camping every summer to a field in West Sussex with a group of people from their local church (OH's parents being of good Catholic stock). The fathers (of the kids, not the religious "Fathers") would go down the weekend before they were due to leave to put up the big marquees and dig the holes for the toilets, and take down all the cooking equipment. Then off they would all troop in cars, for those that had them, and a removal lorry, for those that didn't.

For years I have been regaled with stories of the kids all running riot around the field and in the surrounding woods, of lying in the middle of the road to watch the stars, of freewheeling their bikes down the hills and a bell to call everyone for dinner. And so we went back. 20 of us packed up our tents and headed off to the same field for the weekend so that OH, his siblings and their mum could re-live their holidays of 40 years ago.

This can often turn out to be a disaster as things are often never as you remember them. But, apart from the old chapel now being a bunkhouse and everything seeming to be smaller than it was, a great time was had by all. The facilities were basic but there was a functional kitchen and just about functional toilets and showers. But it was private and the children could all run around free as birds, as could The Lurchers. We played silly games and had scary walks in the forest and we even had the bell to call us all to dinner.

No computers, no TVs, no childrens' playgound, nothing but ourselves to entertain ourselves. And we had the best time ever!

Wednesday, 17 August 2005

Inspired!

It's not often that I'm inspired to do something that I've seen on the internet but inspired I was by Stu's "A Photo Per Day. So, hoping that Stu will see imitation as the sincerest form of flattery, my photographic endeavours can be found here!

Monday, 15 August 2005

I've lived in these counties

I've lived in these counties



County map
I've visited the counties in yellow.
Which counties have you visited?

made by marnanel
map reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data
by permission of the Ordnance Survey.
© Crown copyright 2001.




I've visited these counties



County map
I've visited the counties in yellow.
Which counties have you visited?

made by marnanel
map reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data
by permission of the Ordnance Survey.
© Crown copyright 2001.

Wednesday, 10 August 2005

Blimey.....

....it really has been a long time since I've blogged. So long, in fact, that I can't remember what it was that was so exciting that I felt the need to mention it, without mentioning it.....if you see what I mean.

It was probably something to do with the major fund-raising effort we had for Greyhound Gap. One of our foster dogs, walking along quite happily, suddenly collapsed with a broken leg. That sort of thing doesn't really happen very often and an anxious few hours were spent waiting for the vet's opinion. Luckily, the vet deemed it repairable and £2,500 squids later we have a dog back in one piece, thanks to 17 pins and staples. We launched the fundraising appeal and within days people had pledged what was needed. Everyone pulled out all the stops and faith in human nature was well and truly restored and overflowing.

The only downside was that, as Treasurer, I was deluged everyday with sacks of envelopes containing cheques and my e-mail nearly exploded with the amount of Paypal notifications....and they're still coming in!!

On the bad news front, my car is broken. Some would say that I broke my car by letting the oil run low but I would refute that. Not only because it's such a silly, girlie thing to do and, one thing I'm not, is a silly girlie, but also because it hadn't actually run out of oil. True, it was at the "Add oil now or your car will break" line but it wasn't below it. Anyhow, the upshot was that the Turbo thingie whatsit broke. So whilst the car still goes, it sounds like a jet engine whenever I put my foot on the accelerator. As it's an old car, repairing it simply not financially viable....it would cost more than the car is worth. Sooooo....this meant I had to go and find a new car.

Whilst being quite excited at the prospect of buying a new car, the whole process actually fills me with dread. What to get? Where to get it from? What colour shall it be? And all those important things. People who sell cars seem to have this in-built radar which spots a woman at 300 paces and automatically assume they have "mug" stamped across their foreheads. I've spent hours on Autotrader trying to find something I might like, and find lots of things I liked I did but a 3 litre engine is not entirely economic for London driving. My only requirements were something big enough to take The Lurchers and all their gear (so an estate or an MPV) and air conditioning.

I got myself all geared up for a weekend spent car-hunting when I found a really lovely salesman who works from home, not a couple of miles from me. And he had a lovely shiny 5 year old Peugeot 406 estate with the required air con. Actually, it has climate control, which is just a tad swankier than air con. It also has a CD player and lots of other flashing thing that I need to figure out what they do. I have just emptied my piggy bank of all it's pennies and shall be picking up said shiny car this evening.

I'm terribly excited....again!

Tuesday, 26 July 2005

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!

Monday, 11 July 2005

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....

Saturday, 2 July 2005

Rest now

Grampa passed away this morning.

I shall miss you Grampa. Sleep well now.

Thursday, 30 June 2005

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.

Wednesday, 29 June 2005

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!

Tuesday, 28 June 2005

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.

Monday, 27 June 2005

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.

Tuesday, 21 June 2005

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.

Thursday, 16 June 2005

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.

Wednesday, 15 June 2005

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.

Monday, 13 June 2005

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.

Wednesday, 8 June 2005

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!)

Tuesday, 7 June 2005

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.

Thursday, 2 June 2005

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.

Wednesday, 1 June 2005

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.

Monday, 30 May 2005

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!!

Friday, 27 May 2005

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.

Wednesday, 25 May 2005

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!

Wednesday, 18 May 2005

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.

Monday, 16 May 2005

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.

Wednesday, 27 April 2005

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.

Monday, 25 April 2005

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.

Saturday, 16 April 2005

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.

Wednesday, 13 April 2005

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!

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Monday, 11 April 2005

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!!

Monday, 4 April 2005

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!