I am.....

...still alive and in one piece but very very busy, hence lack of recent bloggage. However, as I have now reached my target weight I am considering, just considering mind you, my first ever HNT featuring....drum roll please....the Playboy knickers!

Just don't hold your breath.

Oh, and Lurcher No.2 is broken again. He caught his first rabbit last night and as he twisted to catch it he hurt his leg. He opened his mouth to squeal and said bunny made a hasty departure quite unbelieving at his luck in being caught by the wimpiest lurcher around.

And for those of you easily offended, I don't usually allow The Lurchers to chase and terrorise small cute furry little bunnies but this one took the kamikaze decision to run out right in front of Lurcher No.2's nose as we cycled home. Game on I'm afraid.

It rained. Lots

So, Sunday was Greyhound Gap's Annual Fun Dog Show in Walsall.

It's our biggest fund-raising event of the year and Gap's supporters come from all over the country.

At 7am, the weather as we left London was atrocious. And it got worse as we headed up country.

At 9am Lisa, Gap's founder, called me and said we had to make a decision. Do we go ahead or do we cancel. I arrived there at 9.30am and, as most of the stalls had already set up, we decided to take a chance and go ahead.

At 11am, there was hardly anyone there and, with class registration about to start, things were looking dire.

At mid-day, the hundreds of complete and utter nutters wonderful people that support Gap had turned up in force and the day was in full swing! It did not stop raining all day and the occasional gusts of wind that blew across the ground resulted in several gazeebos being destroyed. And no-one seemed to care! Once everyone was wet, they couldn't get any wetter so just resigned themselves to it and got on and enjoyed themselves!

Gap could not do the work it does without the support of these people and we take our hats off to all of them for turning up regardless of the elements and helping us raise a staggering £3,000. Almost a £1,000 more than last year when the weather was reasonable!

We're thinking of ordering some "I was there" t-shirts!

Why do I do it?

Why do I buy myself new gadgets when I know I will never use them to their full potential and a cheaper, basic option would have done the job I need it to just as well? I'm sure it stems back to that time in life when you naively believe that "more expensive" must equal "better".

Take the other week. I spilt coffee all over my keyboard at work and, once it digested the coffee, it stopped working. So I head over to PC World's website and order myself a lovely shiny Microsoft Wireless Laser Keyboard 6000. Complete with a wireless Laser Mouse 6000.

It arrives and it's lovely. Except the ergonomically shaped keyboard seems to hinder my typing and I make far more spelling mistakes than usual. My fingers can't seem to move to the new key locations. Neither could I remove the "Reverse Slope Palm". So desperate did I become that I took my life in my hands and placed a call into Microsoft Support. It pains me to say that I was actually quite impressed with their help. Particularly as they didn't get totally exasperated with my seeming inability to understand American English and they resorted to sending me step by step photographs. Above and beyond I thought.

The keyboard has lots of buttons for you can store your favourite websites, access and use e-mail, Windows Live and order a large Latte with Double Espresso from your local Starbucks. And here I am two weeks later having reverted back to using Alt Tab and using the mouse and shortcuts on the screen, just like a I did before.

But as I thought I liked the keyboard so much I bought it's younger sister to use at home. I don't seem to have found the time to figure what all its buttons do, and I rather expect that I shall never quite get round to finding the time either. Neither do I like the mouse that came with that one so I have reverted to using my Wireless Trackball again. This leaves me with two wireless receivers that I know one day very soon are going to get into a fight with each other and leave me stranded keyboardless and mouseless.

Habit is an expensive habit.

Greyhound Gap Annual Fun Dog Show

It's the annual Greyhound Gap Fun Dog Show this coming Sunday at the Walsall Arboretum Annexe. That's in Walsall funnily enough.

So if you fancy a day out at a dog show, and help us raise some funds at the same time, it would be lovely to see you!

Found it!

The formicophilia reference was in this blog over two years ago.

You didn't really need to know that but, not unnaturally, I'd forgotten I'd posted that and re-reading it I had quite a chuckle. It's worth going on over for a look.

Eh!?

One of the widgets I have on my blog is Blog Patrol which gives me some stats about my blog and where people link into it from. It's not really important but I'm nosy and I like to know these things. One of the other things it gives me are the keywords that have led people to my blog from search engines.

Blog Patrol has been off-line for the last few months but has still been quietly beavering away in the background collecting the stats. It came back on line today so I logged in for a catch-up. Two of the three keyword searches might have been expected "common illnesses in lurchers" and "lurchers in need".

The third one threw me a bit.

"Formicophilia photographs"

Having no idea what Formicophilia was, I pootled over to Google. Well, that was an eye-opener. WHY would ANYONE get off on having snails, frogs and ants crawling on, and nibbling at, their genitals?

Just the thought is making my blood run cold.

And now I'm off to search my blog to find out what could possibly have led the search engines to my blog for that one.

Dream Dream Dream

This morning I had a rather *ahem* intimate dream about Robert Redford.

No idea where it came from or why it was him. He's not someone I've ever found remotely attractive, despite his film star looks. Obviously my sub-conscious knows something I don't.

She did...what!!??

It's been something of a week. And not just the fact that seven days have passed.

Lily the Lurcher has had one or two settling-in issues, for which Lurcher No.2 is still bearing the scars. Having been an only dog for almost 9 years, she's had a little trouble adapting to having two other lurchers around the place. If one of them so much as dared go past her at anything more than a sedate walk, she nailed them to the floor with her teeth. She's a feisty old boot! But she has gradually settled in and learnt to live with them in harmony or, at least, what passes for harmony in a three-lurcher household.

And then she surpassed herself.

The completion of the move from the flat to the cottage on the Bank Holiday Monday meant that the goldfish had finally arrived at Chez Lurcher. Unforunately, OH managed to drop the fishpond as he was moving it, leaving a crack down the side of it. Whilst it awaited repair, Fsh (for that was her name), was living in a temporary pond made out of a large enamel bowl with plants and bits and pieces in it to create hideaways for her. Except they weren't hideaway enough.

Lily had been showing way too much interest in Fsh for my liking - sticking her head straight in the pond up to her eyes with no thought for breathing and her ears perked forward rather too keenly keenly definitely falls into the "way too much interest" category. So I barricaded up the pond and surrounded it with plants and bits of wood and anything else I could lay my hands on, including my bike.

Thursday night I came home from work to find wood and pot plants everywhere but where they should be. And no Fsh in the pond.

Lily had eaten her.

Alive.

Expecting some sympathy from my fellow Gap colleagues, I was greeted with howling, hysterical laughter,with a little bit of sympathy chucked in for good measure. And a surfeit of fish jokes. And one clever person, who knows who she is because she reads this blog, with whom I had the following conversation:

"Cod that's awful. It's hake-ing the pee a bit that a floundering foster would do that. She probably only did it for the halibut, I mean everyone knows it's sole food, but even so it's better not to get into a roe about it and keep carping on like an old trout, so sprat'll do." Said she.

" 'eel be singing another tuna when I knock you off your perch!" I retorted

"I did think I was skate-ing on thin ice." She responded

And on it went in that tone.

Saturday morning, my vet telephoned me (Ms Vet adopted Lurcher No. 2's littermate so we're kind of family). Now you'd certainly expect some sympathy from your vet wouldn't you? Trying to hold back the laughter, she said:

"I know we recommend a balanced raw-food diet Angela, but it really should be dead first"

*Sighs*

Other things that have made this week a week of weeks:

We lost Apollo Gemini Valentine who curled up in his hamster cage and went to sleep forever.

The parents arrived for the weekend. Four people and four hounds in one very small cottage when it's persisting with rain has all the makings of being a very fraught time. But it passed in a pleasant haze of hot tea, the Telegraph General Knowledge crossword and the Sunday Times.

Lily won't get in the car. And I'll leave that saga for the next blog because it's worthy of one all by itself.

That's that then

We finally cleared the flat and handed the keys over today. I was glad to be out of there but OH had a momentary pang The end of a 15 year era.

Lily is here and we're having a few settling in problems which will hopefully pass. She is not used to being with other dogs and keeps nailing The Lurchers to the floor for no apparent reason. But, she has been uprooted from the only home she has known for almost 9 years and where she has been an only dog so it's not surprising she is feeling somewhat out of sorts. She's nervous and scared and reacting accordingly. The Lurchers are giving her a wide berth and avoiding her at all possible cost. We'll give it some time to see how she adjusts and take it from there. I really do hope we can work through these problems as I would hate for her to have to go through this all over again, but if we still have three miserable dogs in a few months time we might have to rethink.

Picture will follow once Blogger lets me upload them!

What could I say?

Or more to the point, what could OH say?

Please say hello to Lily.

















Lily is coming to stay with us as a foster dog for Greyhound Gap. I rather suspect we have joined the Failed Fosterer's Club before she even arrives. In which case, please say hello to Lily, from here on in known as Lurcher No.3!

As it happens.......

....it wasn't a problem with the washing machine. It was a problem with the operator. Ahem.

You see, the other night, our water pressure dropped quite dramatically just as the washing machine was about to go into its rinse and spin cycle. This resulted in the machine having a minor hissy fit and flashing all its lights at me. Once the pressure came back later that evening, I turned the dial to a rinse and spin cycle to finish off the wash. You can see where this is going can't you? You see, the dial looked like it was pointing to the normal wash cycle that I use, when it fact, it was still pointing to the rinse and spin cycle, which just happens to be directly opposite the normal cycle.

Yes, Togdom strikes again.

In other news, back to the Royal Marsden for another check-up this morning. They were quite happy that I had increased my Thyroxin dosage back to where it was before they dropped it two months ago. They accepted without argument that, despite what the blood tests showed, I felt like crap. Which was very good of them and did surprise me a bit!

More tests loom though. This "illness", for want of a better word, does make one more susceptible to osteoporosis so I have to have a bone scan to make sure everything is OK with my bones.

Oh dear

Today I blew up my keyboard by spilling coffee all over it. It was fine for a while then the bottom row of keys stopped working. It took a while for the circuits to go into caffeine overload.

Tonight my washing machine seems to think that it is not necessary to actually wash the clothes before going into the rinse cycle.

I've just switched on the dishwasher......my breathe is bated.

ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

Why are people so f**king stupid today!?

Freecycle Ups and Downs

I like Freecycle. At least, today I like Freecycle. Last week I didn't like Freecycle very much at all.

I like Freecycle today because I have just been to pick up a lawn-mower from a lovely lady who lives just down the road. It's apparently four years old but it looks brand-spanking new. Huzzah!

I didn't like Freecycle last week because I seemed to choose nearly all the wrong people to give the items to. It went something like this:

Mini hi-fi - lovely single mum with autistic daughter turned up to collect. A bit late but she at least had the courtesy to ring and let me know. So far so good.

Sony Stereo system & Double ring gas camping stove - two items, lots of interest but one chap wanted them both so I went with him. I had specified that they must be collected on the Sunday in the ad because we were clearing out the flat and would be there to hand them over. Not a problem he said. Then he e-mailed to say he would be there in the evening so I packed them up and left them outside the door for him. Monday morning, another e-mail to say he would now be there Monday evening. Monday evening, another e-mail to say he would be there Tuesday. By Wednesday I gave up. Re-advertised the stereo and contacted another chap who had been very keen on the stove and arrived to pick it up on Thursday morning as arranged.

Sony Stereo System take 2 - a lady who'd missed out the first time contacted me again and we arranged for her to pick it up on Thursday evening. No show. She rang on Friday to say she hadn't been able to make it and OH told her it would be there until 10am on Saturday morning. By 2pm on Saturday no sign of her.

Scanner - a lady arranged to pick this up on Wednesday evening. On Thursday I had an e-mail to say her brother was in the area and would pick it up for her. No-show. I e-mailed her and she promised it would be picked up Friday. By Saturday still no sign.

Printer - picked up as agreed on Thursday evening. Hoo bloody ray.

I was almost on the point of giving up on Freecycle completely but there are one or two people do restore your faith in the system. A local group wanted items for a fund-raising Spring Fayre. I offered them 10 boxes of books and five boxes of bric a brac and they turned up on Saturday afternoon and took the lot. Including the scanner and stereo that still hadn't been collected.

But now I have my lawn-mower I'm a very happy bunny. *sighs*

I'm NOT a girlie. Honest!

Yesterday I went to Ikea. We needed a TV table with a shelf underneath for the video and DVD. Shouldn't have been too much of a problem, even at Ikea. It had to be a certain depth as there isn't much room in the lounge. I knew the maximum depth it could be and after ruling out my first choice because it was too big, settled on a coffee table which would do the job instead.

The first problem came at the check-out. The Beech finish I had chosen was priced up in the showrooms at £29.90 but it rang up as £39.90 at the till. 20 minutes later and dash round the store with a supervisor revealed that that was a promotional price that should have finished last week and no-one had changed the price labels. Well, I know my rights and, fortunately, so did the supervisor and she agreed that they had to sell it to me at the reduced price.

Then came the second problem. Went to pay for everything and my debit card was declined. Three times. I was incensed. I knew there was more than enough money in my account to pay for it. Fortunately they took cheques. Several phone calls to my bank when I got home revealed why it was declined. Although my on-line statement showed sufficient funds, the two cheques I paid in recently hadn't cleared. So although I appeared to have lots of money, I didn't actually have very much at all. After having a bank account for nearly 30 years, you'd have thought I would have twigged that wouldn't you? I really do wish they wouldn't show the funds as being available when they're not.

So, fast forward to this morning. I was awake early so decided I'd start assembling the table. Everything was going well until OH decided to get up and start overseeing what I was doing.

"You need to put that bit in first"

"No, I don't"

"Yes you do. It says so in the instructions"

"No it doesn't. It says you have to put this bit in first, then that bit"

"Oh, I suppose it does. But it would be easier if you put that bit before this bit"

"Do you want to do this? No? Then shut up and let me get on with it."

Because I'm not a girlie. I can handle a screw driver and a few screws and wooden dowels and it really isn't that difficult. First point to me then.

"Ummmmm" says OH. "Is that the size of it?"

"Yes"

"It's too big"

I sit back and look at it and had to concede he had a point. I get out the tape measure (because I'm not a girlie and I can handle one of those too) and measure the table and wander into the lounge to measure the space it's to fit in.

Ah.

So concerned was I with the depth that I failed to take into account the width. It's too big. I swore. A lot. Second and fairly important point to OH then.

I'm not a girlie. Really I'm not. I just seem to have had a momentary lapse.

Animal!?

This morning I've been down to the Royal Marsden Hospital for my regular post-cancer blood test.

Walking out of the car park towards the hospital I was passed by a silver Mercedes sports car driven by a 60-something, silver-haired, fake-tanned man. That in itself is worthy of a chuckle, but even more chuckle-inducing was the number plate. I haven't quite worked out what the letters actually were but they were manipulated so the number plate read "ANIMAL". How sad, I thought, laughing to myself, that this man still thinks he has something to prove at his age.

Then he followed me into the waiting room, clutching his blood test forms. I have no idea if he has cancer, has had cancer or is going through the ordeal of waiting to find out if he does have cancer. Whichever, I suddenly realised that, you know, what the hell? If he does have this illness looming over him, why the hell shouldn't he go out in a blaze of sports cars and naff number plates? Who am I to judge anyone dealing with cancer in whatever way works for them?

Books and covers spring to mind.

An update

I keep forgetting to mention that just over a month ago, I joined Weight Watchers. I am not grossly overweight but overweight enough for me to feel uncomfortable. My problem is finding the motivation to actually give up th things I know I shouldn't be eating so Weight Watchers seemed an ideal solution. I hoped that knowing I would have to weigh-in every week would focus my mind. And so it has proved. In four weeks I have lost 8.5lb and feel amazingly better already, just another 7lb to go and I reach my target weight.

The final push to move all our stuff from the flat to the cottage has begun in earnest. Our landlord has been great and we have no deadline to be out of the flat so we can take our time but it seems silly to continue paying rent unnecessarily and we are aiming to be out by the end of April. So on Tuesday evening, a colleague who doubles as a man with a van in his spare time is coming to help us move the big items and today we have been clearing out 13 years of accumulated stuff. We have three piles: Keep, Jumble Sale and Complete and Utter Rubbish. Luckily our local church hall has a jumble sale on 28th April and they are not going to know what's hit them when we arrive with two car fulls of boxes for them! If we were of a mind, I'm sure we could be a jumble sale all of our own.

I thought the hardest part would be sorting out the some 2000 books we have. I collect books like they are going out of fashion and as we had the space for them, it wasn't a problem. Unfortunately we don't have that space anymore so some of them had to go. But it's proved easier than I thought and I reckon at least half the books have been boxed up for the jumble sale. There are less coming to the cottage than I anticipated so I will have at least some room to go out and buy more. Huzzah!

Visual DNA

A few people have done this so thought I'd join in. And I'm too brain dead to think of anything else to write so lazy blog it is.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Enough already!!

I didn't sleep well last night. Having had four days off work and knowing that I had a manic schedule in the office today, my mind was working overtime at 4am this morning and positively refused to let me get back to sleep.

Being overtired has not prepared me well for what is going on at the office today. We are having building work done and they are now preparing the ground outside for new cobbled paving. Which means breaking up the concrete with a pneumatic drill and a mini-digger to scoop it all up. All of it within 10ft of my office window.

I'm not sure how much more I can stand.

Today I sang with a Legend

At least, the legend sang, when he knew the words, I just mumbled along singing in the way that only a person who cannot hold a tune in a bucket can sing when in public.......under one's breath. And there were a lot of other people there too. But, technically, I did sing alongside, if not actually with a legend.

Today was Steven's funeral. For someone who alleged that he didn't have many friends, the small crematorium was full and people were standing outside. It is difficult not to be trite when talking of a funeral, so I won't try. It was a lovely service, even if the vicar did insist on calling him Steve when he hated being called that. We saw a lot of people that we hadn't seem for many years - as it ever is at funerals. Funerals remind us of those loved ones we have lost and perhaps several tears are shed for them as well as the person we are there to mourn. Funerals also put us in mind of our own mortality, quickly forgotten once you drive away from the service.

The reading was from a Joyce Grenfell passage, perhaps not an uncommon one for a funeral but poignant nonetheless:

If I should go before the rest of you Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone, Nor when I'm gone speak in a Sunday voice But be the usual selves that I have known. Weep if you must, Parting is hell, But life goes on, So sing as well.

Oh, you want to know who the legend was? Dave Gilmour. Steven would have been in fits of laughter at how starstruck I was. A fitting way, then, to say goodbye.

Just by coincidence

Stu wrote an interesting blog last week about the fact that one in three adult Americans believe in creationism rather than evolution.

By sheer coincidence there was an article in Saturday's Telegraph magazine on almost the exact same subject. The article, however, focused on the rapid increase in home-schooling by American parents because of what is taught in science classes when children are about 13....evolution. The American religious Right are, according to the article, "increasingly turning to home-schooling, lest their children be exposed to the evils of sex, drugs or – heaven forbid – Darwin". Almost 70% of home-schoolers in Texas are apparently motivated by religious reasons.

This was a fascinating article and there were a few comments from interviewees that had my jaw dropping.

For example, in one household, TV for the children was strictly monitored: The Simpsons are not allowed - "too disrespectful"; nor Harry Potter - 'the Lord is in charge of your life, and in Harry Potter the characters are interested in gaining power for themselves'. Eh? And this comment related to dating had me falling about laughing until it hit me that people do really think like this and that laughing was probably not really an appropriate reaction on my part.... 'We want them to court, not date,' David says. 'Thomas will be ready to court when he is able to support a wife, and if he can't support a wife, he's not ready to look.'

'We don't want people teaching our children that they come from monkeys,' says one parent, "What happens in biology classrooms is 'a lie'". She firmly believes that the world is only 6,000 years old and that, consequently, man and dinosaurs (created on Day Six, along with Adam and Eve) once lived together quite happily.....which would go some way to proving Stu's thought that Americans don't believe in evolution because they can't imagine a timespan long enough.

And the creationist have an answer for everything. One parent pointed out that it is Noah's flood that is responsible for the existence of fossils. "And as for the vexing question of how Noah got a brachiosaurus, an animal that could have weighed up to 33 tons and eaten 3,000lb of green plants a day on to the Ark – 'He took the young ones. That would make the most sense.'"

I don't have a science background, but my background is farming and if anything can show you how evolution works, farming is it. Perhaps the fact that I occasionally hover around agnosticism but then fall firmly on the side of atheism makes it difficult for me to understand where these people are coming from. There was a time I would have said they were complete fruitloops but, perhaps because age makes one more tolerant, I find myself intrigued by their stories, albeit not to the extent of shaking my beliefs, and amazed at what a diverse lot of people there are inhabiting this world. I'm not entirely sure who is the more naive. Them or me.

The whole article is here.

Warming to the theme

Thank you for your sympathies and helpful comments and I'm really sorry to keep harping on about my medical problems but things get quite interesting when you start digging deeper - if you pardon the pun - for information. And no, Stu, I am not getting passionate about the subject of haemorrhoids, but perhaps passionate about the state of my body. Yes, that sounds much better!

Anyway, apparently, you have an increased risk of getting piles if you:

• strain to empty your bowels when constipated - nope, not been a problem

• have chronic diarrhoea - ditto, not had that problem either

• Anal sex – NO NO NO! With all due respect to those that do, it’s not for me!

• are pregnant - as the weight of the fetus on your abdomen and the increased blood flow, as well as the effect of hormones on the blood vessels, can increase pressure - DEFNITELY not had that problem!

• have a family history of piles - piles can run in families and are potentially hereditary, perhaps because of weak veins in the anal area - Is that so? No-one else in my family has ever had piles as far as I'm aware. At least, it's never been mentioned and, OK, it's not necesarily a subject you bring up over Sunday lunch, I'm sure I would have heard an inkling if someone had been suffering.

• have varicose veins - many people with these also develop piles, although piles are not varicose veins - "varicose veins of the bum" is how my doctor described them but no, I don’t have varicose veins but the way things seem to be going it looks like it might not be long before I get them as well.

• have cancer or growths in the pelvis or bowel, which may exert pressure in a similar way to a pregnancy – pauses……….now there’s a good reason for not reading about medical problems on the internet. Not worried now. Not worried at all. *whimpers*

Andre mentioned diet, but I do eat well. Plenty of fruit and veg, brown rice and al that other "do you good" food and, as I'm on a diet at the moment, no pigging out on snacks and convenience foods either. Jut good allround healthy stuff in my diet.

And in case you believed that old wives' tale, heamorrhoids are not caused by sitting on cold hard surfaces, prolonged standing or sedentary work. So there.

It didn't work

Lying down with my legs elevated and applying ice, that is. It didn't work at all. Doctors can be so rubbish with their suggestions so I shall open this up to you all for your suggestions. Apparently half the UK population has suffered from piles (there, I've said it) at some point in their lives, so someone out there reading this blog must have a good suggestion for dealing with them? Please?

It's very uncomfortable and it's all very well the doctor saying that ice will shrink them so you can pop them back in but it doesn't work. If you do manage to pop them back in they very soon, under pressure from natural forces, pop back out again.

So once you've stopped laughing, please help!

Tonight's activities

Tonight's activities involve lying down, with my legs elevated and putting ice where no sane person should ever have to put ice.

And don't think I'm about to tell you why, because I'm not.

Disappearing tricks and operations

Lurcher No.1 has had me with my heart in my mouth twice today.

Firstly, she pulled a disappearing trick on our morning walk. She's too damn clever by half this dog and, if she sees me taking a particular path, she'll sometimes take either a parallel path or cut diagonally across and meet me further down the path I'm on. This morning she was right behind me and, when my attention was on Lurcher No. 2 and some labradors up ahead (he doesn't like labradors much and has a tendency to launch himself at them), took herself off through the woods to meet me further on down the path. But I didn't see her go and went from having a lovely walk to flat out panic in about 60 seconds when she didn't respond to my call. After 10 minutes and still no sign of her, I hysterically called OH to come and help me find her.

Fortunately I met another dog walker coming up the path who had seen her further down in the woods where she was completely unfazed and was apparently just carrying on enjoying her walk! 10 minutes later she decided she didn't want to be on her own anymore and came running back to my frantic calls wondering what all the fuss was about.

As my mate Lisa had to point out to me, it was all my fault because Lurcher No. 1 wasn't lost at all, she knew exactly where she was going and if I'd just stuck to my planned walk, there wouldn't have been a problem. Lisa's such a good pal!

The second reason for worry was that Lurcher No.1 had to go into the vet for an operation this morning. If you have dogs, or any pets, with perhaps the exception of goldfish, you'll know that having them go under a general anaesthetic is always worrying. She had to have a small lump removed from her neck which we think is just a histio cytoma, because the gals at Greyhound Gap know these things, whereas my vet wasn't diagnosing anything until the lump was off and biopsies done.

At 1pm came the usual phone call "She's fine but could you come and get her, PLEASE!!?" As soon as she comes round she starts rooing and barking, disturbing all the other patients in recovery and driving them generally round the wall! So she's home now and lying on her bed gently whimpering and feeling sorry for herself. She really doesn't do poorly terribly well.

Memememe!

Tagged by Dakota (sorry it's taken me a while to get to it!)

A- Available or Single? – Ummm...neither actually!
B- Best Friends? – Lots but Niki, Ali and Ginny immediately spring to mind.
C- Cake or Pie? – Pie
D- Drink of Choice? – Water, coffee or herbal tea
E- Essential item? – PC
F- Favourite Colour? – Black
G- Gummi Bears or Worms? – Neither
H- Hometown? – Born in Cardiff, South Wales. Live in London
I- Indulgence? – Hmmm......sleeping in
J- January or February? – January, my birthday!
K- Kids and Names? – None of those!
L- Life is incomplete without? – Living
M- Marriage Date? – No way not never
N- Number of Siblings? – Two younger step-brothers
O- Oranges or Apples? – Oranges
P- Phobias/Fears? – Ladders
Q- Favourite Quote? – A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most
R- Reasons to smile? – The sun is shining!
S- Season? – Assuming this means a favourite one....Autumn
T- Tag 3 People? – Nah, go ahead and do it if you feel like it!
U- Unknown Fact About Me? – If I told you it wouldn't be unknown anymore would it!?
V- Vegetable You Hate? – Broad beans
W- Worst Habit? – Thinking I know the right way to do everything when I don't.
X- X-rays You've Had? – Dental and chest
Y- Your Favourite Foods? – Thai, Chinese
Z- Zodiac? – Aquarius

You may hear the screams from wherever you are.

OH is putting together a chest of drawers I bought in IKEA this afternoon.

I'm running for cover and not coming out until it's all finished.

The Party!

I was chastised by my friend Ali last Saturday for being so quiet of late but it's been a bit manic to say the least so my apologies for the lack of bloggedness.

Last Friday was OH's 50th Birthday. Despite his best efforts and his certainty from an early age that he would not get to the age of 50 (due to a mis-spent youth), he did manage to reach this milestone pretty much intact. OK, the teeth have almost gone, the lungs are probably shot to pieces and the body won't necessarily do what he wants it to without bits of it hurting but, all in all, he's in pretty good shape.

We didn't do too much celebrating on Friday as we were rushing around trying to get the cottage straight for the deluge of visitors we were expecting. So I cooked him a nice steak dinner and we had a relaxing evening instead.

Saturday morning and my parents arrived with Millie the Whippet and they were swiftly followed by my friend Niki, my aunt and my cousin and a couple of other friends, Mike and Ginny.

I'm going to digress here a bit. My aunt and cousin were staying in a local hotel. A very expensive local hotel. In fact, the poshest and most expensive hotel in the area. They were sharing a twin room and, on arrival, checked in under my aunt's name, Jones. It appeared that the staff akinned that to them checking in under the name "Smith", something they both found to be hugely amusing and didn't dispel because it was such a hoot!!

I served up a big chilli for a late lunch and then mad dash for us all to get into our glad rags for the party. I was nervous that no-one would turn up, worried about whether there would be enough food and whether anyone would dance to the disco. I needn't have. 85 people turned up, the food was delicious and plentiful and everyone boogied on down until the early hours! It was, if I say so myself, a complete and utter success and OH had the time of his life!

Some piccies

Him and me!



















Me and Him with the birthday cake, wot was made by OH's brother and, although you can't see it properly, had icing models of The Lurchers on it and it was brilliant (thank you Jim)!



















My Mum and Him - I have no idea why he was looking at her like that!



















Him and my cousin Rich, who got very drunk and talked to everyone, regardless of whether he knew them or not and, in his words "whether they wanted me to talk to them or not!". Rich was a one man riot and everyone loved him!
























At one point in the evening, Rich insisted that, as my shoes were killing me, I should try wearing his instead. And then, for reasons best known to herself, my aunt wanted a picture of my shoes! Hey, that's family for you!
























Our good mate Mr Howell boogying on down! He took the "Black Tie" dress code literally and looked like he was going to a funeral, but assured us that he had always wanted to look like something from "Men in Black". I worry about you Mr Howell, I really do!!
























OH dancing with his sister (excuse crap photo quality)
























Twas a fine night and one we shall remember for some time to come!

In memory of Steven

Steven is an old friend of ours that we haven't seen for a year or so. I had invited him to OH's birthday party but he was really sorry he couldn't come as he had plans to be away with friends that weekend. Unfortuantely, his plans didn't come off.

Steven had lung cancer and last Thursday he was taken into the Princess Alice Hospice for care. He rallied and on Friday evening was found to be sitting up in bed drinking his customary G&T and a glass of red wine with his dinner. During the night he fell unconscious and remained unconscious until he passed away at 4.30 this morning.

Steven was, well, unique! Camp as they come and self-confessed "queen", he would have us in fits at his comments about any good-looking men that walked into the pub and his ascerbic put-downs, said in a way that only a gay old queen can say, and get away with! He always drank bitter, which had to be in a glass with a handle, and his G&T before dinner. He loved steam trains and he once took me on an outing to Winchester on one. We had a complete hoot...travelling first class with smoked salmon for breakfast and full silver-service dinner on the way home. I don't think I have ever spent a day laughing so much. Oh and his books! How he loved to go to book fairs and tell us about his first edition finds.

He always wanted to move to the country and we'd all spend hours in the pub poring over house details with him but he never went. I think perhaps he would have missed his friends and cronies too much.

Thank you for the memories you have left us with, memories filled with fun, and sometimes tears, and for everything you did for us. Without your cunning intervention, Gerry and I would possibly have never got together.

We love you Steven and you take a piece of our hearts with you. Sleep well my friend.

Comic Relief?

I can't say I'm seeing the comic side of it at the moment.

Comic Relief are offering, on e-bay, a night at the greyhound races with a race named after the winner. The greyhound rescue world is not impressed.

The people working in rescue bust their guts every single day and Greyhound Gap, like most of the others, work on a shoestring budget that is infinitesimal compared to the sort of money that Comic Relief raises. These people work every hour in the day to make sure the dogs that are no longer any use to their owners, because they can't race anymore, are made safe and offered the chance of a decent life rather than being put to sleep or dumped and abandoned...or worse, killed in appalling circumstances. And believe me, it happens.

I have contacted Comic Relief expressing the dismay that they are showing what I feel is a complete lack of respect for their fellow charities and the work they do and that they are callously using whatever means possible to raise funds with a complete disregard to the associated issues.

I have received a standard reply stating that many organisations donate valuable gifts with they try to use in the most appropriate way possible and this gift was donated by the British Greyhound Racing Board. I have pointed out to Comic Relief that, given the recent publicity about the plight of racing greyounds is it not possible that the British Greyhound Racing Board are using this as a means of gaining "good" publicity rather than donating the item in a spirit of generosity?? Call me cynical if you will but my regular readers will know this is a subject close to my heart and something I feel very strongly about.

I will not be donating to Comic Relief this year and will donate more directly as I feel appropriate.

The Lurchers

In a recent blog, Andre asked if I had a dog and, if so, where were the pictures. I do have a dog Andre, in fact, I have two! And what better excuse does a girl need to show off her hounds!? So here they are in all their glory!

Lurcher No. 1



















Lurcher No 2

Exhausted and broke. But happy! And then not.

Back from Crufts, exhausted after the best part of two days walking round; broke after buying too much stuff that I probably didn't need; and happy for seeing lots of friends I don't get to see often enough. Even if one of them did threaten to de-bag me in the restaurant to see if I was wearing the Playboy knickers! (I wasn't!)

Crufts is very tiring, there's no two ways about it and the crowds on Saturday just got the better of me. By lunchtime I had to get out and escape the madness. Fortunately we got most of the shopping out of the way on Friday (faux fur throw for my bed, two new dog-beds for the Lurchers and a boxful of new toys for them too).

Today started off badly when I found that Lola the Hamster had passed away in her sleep last night. They might only be little but they do find their way into your heart.

A day off!

I'm actually taking a day off work tomorrow and heading off with a bunch of girlfriends for a couple of days. Any guesses where I'm going!?

Here's a clue: Woof!

*goes all warm and gooey at the thought of all those hounds to snog and the shopping to be done!*

Bleugh

Keep your distance. Unclean! Unclean!

I have the lurgy.

Oh, and happy St David's Day!

NEVER again

I am NEVER arranging a party for anyone or anything EVER again. It's all far too bloody stressful.

We went off to look at the local-ish pub tonight, as mentioned here. Fantastic room, nice little alcove for the DJ, a slightly seperate area near the bar for those that don't want to be in the thick of it but not too far away either. Sounds perfect doesn't?

Just a couple of minor problems. The bar only had lager and most of the people coming are bitter drinkers including, most importantly, the birthday boy himself. They thought they could bring up the bottled bitter but it's bottle-conditioned so has lots of sediment and, according to OH who knows about these things, wasn't the nicest bitter he'd ever tasted. And at 5.2%, serious falling down water. Oh, and it was £3.20 a bottle. EEK!!

Second problem. It is a no-smoking pub. Yes I know we're going to have to get used to that but we seem to know a disproportionately high number of smokers, including both of us, and we'd more than likely find most of the party taking place outside in the beer garden.

Edge of the planet, here I come.

There followed a series of telephone calls to all our local pubs with no joy. Until, out of sheer desperation, I tried the one pub I was convinced wouldn't have a function room. But they do so we shot over there to have a look and it's fab! A little smaller than I would have liked but at this stage of the game, beggars can't be choosers. The food looked great, the beer is more than adequate (it's a Young's pub with Bombardier as a guest ale, for those that like to know these things) and OH was very happy.

And now so am I.

But I'm still not ever doing this again.

Mmmmmm!

Dark chocolate KitKat. Scrummy!

Can't think why they didn't come up with that idea years ago!

I HATE SHOPPING!!

I particularly hate shopping for clothes. I find it the singularly most horrendous thing to do. Yet, for all the hype that that there is about women and shopping, I know I'm not alone because many of my female friends hate it too.

High-street clothes just don't sit right on me: I'm too long in the body and too short of the leg; I have no idea what suits me; and I go for comfort over fashion every single time. The shops are too hot; there's too many people and don't get me started on dressing-room mirrors. So when I am out and about doing other equally hated but essential shopping, and where there also happens to be clothes, and I see something I like, I buy it.

Take yesterday as a case in point. Wandered into Asda for some essentials and immediately spotted a lovely soft, knitted roll-neck jumper. Except they only had them in size 22. Now I like my jumpers baggy but not six sizes too big baggy. Yet when I held it up, it looked like it would fit me just on the right side of baggy. And it does. Which leads me to yet another moan about the clothes industry...why can they not have standard sizing? How difficult would it be to have one size 12 or 14, or whichever, right across the industry. If a person who normally wore a size 22 had bought that jumper, it would have looked ridiculous.

But at least I have a nice comfy jumper.

Then on my way to the fruit and veg I wandered down the jeans aisle. Now I normally avoid this aisle because ASDA jeans are usually paper thin. But they had some bog standard boot cut jeans for £3. £3!! Bargain I thought, even if they're just fit for walking the dogs in. But, you know what, they fit like a dream! Every woman will tell you that finding the perfect-fitting jeans is a nightmare and many pay hundreds of pounds to get the right pair...and I just found my right pair for 3 quid in Asda.

Did I mention I hate paying good money for clothes too!?

From bad to worse

That's how my day has gone today.

We had an appointment at 10am this morning with a rep from a window shutter company. She rang at 9.30 to say she was running late as she had only just left Swindon. OBviously there was no way she would get to London for 10am so would 11am be OK? No, actually, we had another appointment at 11am so could she please come at noon. Yes she could so that was that sorted.

Went to have a shower and half way through the hot water disappeared. And so did the heating. Great. The boiler had packed up. Not what I expect from something that was only installed three months ago. Rang the engineers and they could come later in the afternoon.

The appointment at 11am was with one of the local golf clubs where we had booked their function room for OH's 50th birthday party in March. We'd booked it through a friend who was a member which meant we got the room for free and they would just charge us for the buffet. Stupidly, we didn't go and see it, just took our friend's recommendation that it would be perfect for what we wanted. So off we toddle this morning for a look-see and to discuss food. Well, my face must have said it all - the place would barely hold 50 people and as we are inviting close to 140 it simply wasn't going to work. Great. On top of that, we were told that their chef is leaving wasn't interested in providing a buffet so it would be easier if we got the food ourselves, although he would prepare it for us. Thanks very much. The whole point was that it would be stress free for us and the thought of buying all that food sends me into cold shivers.

Wobbling a bit now.

So on the way home I rang our other local golf club. We hold all our work functions there and although the food is OK, it's not top notch but it would be sufficient. Nope, he had the club's AGM that night so no way he could fit us in.

Wobble has now escalated into panic.

Rang yet another golf club, this time a Very Posh Golf Club. Fortunately we work quite closely with them from time to time so although they don't normally hire out their function room to non-members, he would "as it's you". There would be a charge but again "as it's you", he'd reduce it by 50%. What a sweetheart! Made an appointment to meet him at 6pm.

Window shutter rep arrived and tried to steam-roller us into paying nearly £3,000 for shutters. That's one way of getting us to not buy them, beautiful as they were I will not be forced into making a split-second decision on that kind of money. Even if she has made a 160 mile round trip to see us, as she repeatedly pointed out. Goodbye.

Engineers arrived and fixed the boiler and showed us what to do if it happens again. Good. Water and heating working again. Sorted.

6pm. Made our way over to the Very Posh Golf Club. I've never been in there before and it was fantastic!! Well worth the room charge. Then we started discussing menus. They don't really do finger buffets, "we do have certain standards to maintain". Oh. Of course you do. He suggested a hot buffet and that sounded like a plan until we started to discuss costs. He was terribly apologetic but it would be in the region of £20 per head. At least 100 people. You can do the math I'm sure.

Panic is now escalating into minor hysteria.

Tried a local Very Posh Hotel. I'm not even going to tell you what they wanted to charge but it was about twice what the Very Posh Golf Club would have charged.

However, all is not lost. A local-ish pub has a big function room that can hold about 100 people and don't charge for the room, just the food. And they can do a finger buffet. Phew. It's a bit more expensive than the first golf club, but not unreasonable. So we're off there on Monday evening to have a look and I just hope it's OK or I'll be falling off the edge of the planet.

If you are in the slightest bit interested, watch this space.

What does this say about me?

Tagged by Dakota!

Look at the list of books below.
*Bold the ones you’ve read
*Italicize the ones you want to read
*leave blank the ones that you aren't interested in. If you are reading this, tag your it!

Now I am reading: The Crystal Gorge by David and Leigh Eddings - Eddings is one of my favourite authors and although this book is part of a series written for teenagers, it is still required reading for me!

This list actually says little about me and you would not surmise from the ones I've highlighted that I read almost exclusively Science Fantasy. The other books I read will be of the Dan Brown ilk, almost adventure novels if you like. I have no time for the classics and refuse to read a book just because it must be read. If I had to single out one book on this list that I would recommend to anyone, it would be The Time Traveller's Wife. Almost, but not quite, without exception that is the best book I have ever read. It's second on my all time favourites list. Top of that list is The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop

1.The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2.Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3.To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10.A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12.Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16.Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True(Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth(Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100.Ulysses (James Joyce)

SAND & STONE

My bestest friend sent me this. Something we should all live by.

Two friends were walking through the desert.

During some point of the journey, they had an argument; and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:

"Today my best friend slapped me in the face."

They kept on walking, until t hey found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath.

The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.

After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:

"Today my best friend saved my li fe ".

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?"

The friend replied "when someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone.

(Oh, and Dogga, the picture of the knickers is on its way!)

.

Valentine's Day

I had really hoped to let this day pass without mentioning the word "Valentine".

Unfortunately, Himself scuppered that plan by surprising me with a huge bunch of daffodils!

I really couldn't let that event go by without mention.

Underwear

I wouldn't normally blog about my underwear, I mean, you don't really know who's reading and what they might get off on and I'm not sure my regular readers, some of whom I would like to meet one day really need, or want, to know, but today I make an exception.

I'm the comfy kind of knicker type person. No skimpy lace or cheek-baring g-strings for me, they either irritate or chafe, neither of which is comfortable. Being somewhat broader round the beam than I would really like to be and not anywhere near your average figure ("low-slung bum" as a friend of mine used to describe me, I prefer "long-bodied/short-legged" myself), I stick to the well-fitting, white cotton, cover it all up type of knicker. I'm your regular Marks & Spencer kind of girl.

But yesterday I had a bit of a brainstorm. Walking around my local market, I spied some black, short-type knickers, emblazoned with the Playboy Bunny Girl logo. In pink. I don't do logos and I most certainly don't do pink, so I'm not quite sure what I was thinking when I just upped and bought them.

They're very comfy though.

Bloggedness

I have quite a number of Blogs bookmarked. All of them are by people whom I have never met and, although I don't read them all everyday, I try to catch up a few times a week. Some Blogs I do try to read every day and comment if my addled brain can think of a suitable response. But most of these Blogs, like mine, receive perhaps a handful of comments, sometimes none at all.

Some of the Blogs I read are hugely popular and seem to receive anywhere between 50 and 100 comments to every entry. They are written by people who, by virtue of their Blog, are offered book deals and can give up their 9 to 5 (or in some cases be pushed from their job) to concentrate on writing the book of their Blog. One or two are quite notorious and I imagine the subsequent books make for some good reading but the rest are just detailing the general day to day humdrumness (is that a word!?) of the writer's life.

What is it that makes these Blogs so interesting to read? If I wrote a blog about the comings and goings of my day it would read something like:

Got up and showered. Walked the Lurchers. Went to work. Worked. Went home for lunch. Went back to work again. Went home for tea. Surfed a bit. REad for a bit. Went to bed. Went to sleep.

There's obviously an art to making a Blog scintillating reading. And I don't have it.

Dogs. Snow

"Look out...here I come!!



















This is how we play!














Cooling off!

Gah!

Today is turning out to be a very frustrating day.

My e-mail isn't working and the private message forum I use to keep in contact with some close chummingtons won't let me login. Thinking I might have got my password wrong, I asked for an e-mail reminder. Which of course I'm not getting because my e-mail is't working! Arrggghhhh!

Spots!

I'm 42 years old so why, for heaven's sake, do I still get spots!!??

I can show you now

You remember I mentioned here that I had done something I was incredibly proud of? Well, I can tell you what it is now. Or rather, I can show you. It was taking this photograph:





















OK, I realise that in the grand scheme of things it doesn't measure up to achieving world peace or finding a cure for cancer but, in my little world, this was a major achievement. I take a lot of photographs and 80% are crap, 15% are mediocre and the rest are OK. Sometimes I set out to take a particular photograph but the reality of what I shoot never matches up to what I am picturing in my mind's eye. But for once, I achieved what I set out to achieve. And I'm very proud of that!

It was taken for a photo competition at Pixalo and the theme was "Silhouette"..which I think I managed to achieve!

Edited to add.....the other members voted me into first place!! I am so excited!!

She's home!

OH popped back to the flat last night for some bits and pieces reported Lola's return to her nest! Huzzah!

I've been working this weekend which meant I WAS IN CHARGE! The days were fairly quiet but it was once home and ensconced in the cottage that the weight of responsibility started to, well, weigh heavy. I have no idea why but suddenly realising that you are responsible for the whole of the Common and for dealing with anything that may happen was quite daunting. Fortunately there were no incidents apart from a wrong number at midnight. I suspect the summer months will prove to be busier but at least I will have got the hang of it by then.

OH took himself off to a 50th birthday gathering on Saturday night and got very, very drunk. As I discovered at 2.30am when he decided to ring me to tell me there was a "drunk incoming". Because the cottage is so remote, getting taxis to go there is nigh on impossible so he had the taxi drop him at the nearest road and walked through the Common to get home. Judging by the state of his DJ the next morning, he crawled most of the way rather than walked.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

That pretty much sums up how I feel at the moment.

Last night I accidentally left the door open on Lola the Hamster's cage. Not unexpectedly, she's made a bid for freedom and there's no sign of her. She could be absolutely anywhere as there are so many hidey-holes in the flat. I've left her cage on the floor with some smelly treats inside to try and tempt her in but she's probably holed up sleeping now. What worries me is that I am working this weekend so I will be staying at the cottage for the next three days. Hopefully OH will be able to pop back and check on her for me.

Lots of "come on home Lola" thoughts would be appreciated.

And there it was gone

Like most people, I woke up to a winter wonderland and here we are, a few hours later, no more snow. Oh well, it was fun whilst it lasted.

There goes another one....

..so that's the birthday all over for another year. I've always let Christmas come and go without too much fuss but I always think birthdays should be special so it was quite sad that this year, for the first time, it didn't feel such a special day. Don't get me wrong, I had some super presents and the friends we were staying with made it a really lovely day for me and I had a really good time but perhaps as you get older the whole birthday thing just isn't quite so important.

I do hope not and maybe it was just down to the fact that I'm still not feeling too well. The room spinning has stopped but I feel like I have constant sea-sickness. So you'll be pleased to hear that I have an appointment with the doctor this morning. I shall report back later*.

*Later* I apparently have Viral Labyrinthitis. Doc has sent me away telling me to take Sudafed to clear the congestion in my head that is part of the problem and given me a prescription for tablets to take should the sickness/dizziness get too bad. I hasten to add that she has given me the type that dissolve in the mouth!

Thank you

Thank you for your get well wishes. I'm feeling much better today so hopefully whatever was causing the vertigo, probably a middle/inner ear infection, is losing it's grip abnd I can go and enjoy my birthday weekend with friends to the full! Yes, that was a blatant plug! *snigger*

Anyway, two days out of the office is a dangerous thing. I have come back to find my pathologically tidy boss has had a clear out in the office, including clearing my desk. OK, it was a tip but I knew where everything was and why it was in the particular pile it was in. Now I can't find anything. I dread to think what's been thrown away.....I know some packaging went and I had to go rooting through the rubbish sacks to find it because it was packaging for something that doesn't work and I have to return it. I'm going to put a big "Keep your hands off my stuff" sign up on my desk methinks.

A little under the weather

I have been a poorly bunny for the last few days. Poorly with room-spinning, loss of blance and nausea. It's not been fun as any abrupt movement brings on another attack and I'm reduced to a quivering wreck in the floor or, as I found myself yesterday morning, hanging for dear life onto the shower door to stop myself falling over. Some Googling this evening has led me to believe it's Vertigo.

I suppose I should go and see my GP but I'll see how it is in the morning. Isn't that just so British?

Smiling Smugly

I have done something that I am incredibly proud of.

Unfortunately I can't tell you what it is until the 1st of February.

Sorry about that but I am so pleased with myself I had to tell someone!

Isn't it just good manners?

I've been doing quite a lot with Freecycle just recently and am amazed at the number of people that just don't bother to reply to your e-mail enquring about whatever it is they're offering. Even a quick "sorry it's gone" would be fine but not to acknowledge your inquiry in any way is just bad manners to my mind.

Rant over.

We spent the weekend at the Cottage and it really does feel like home now. It was quite strange going back to the flat last night. Things are moving on - the fridge freezer arrived on Saturday so that room is nearly complete - just need the cupboard doors put on, a coat of paint and some blinds for the window. The bathroom just needs a coat of paint although OH has been tearing his hair out because the shower door kept leaking. Turns out it's a manky tube of silicon so he's had to strip it all out and start again. He's also been stripping the ceilings. We have two wooden ceilings, both of which need quite a bit of work to bring them to somewhere near decent. Once they're done, the wooden floors have to be stripped and sealed and then everything gets a coat of paint and we're done!

A wordy question. If you can be "inept", why can't you be "ept"? not quite sure why my mind thought of that as I was dropping off last night.

How exciting!

We spent our first night at the cottage last night. Everyone kept asking me if I was excited. Well, no, actually. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to moving in, despite the headaches about where we're going to put everything, but a few people are just being so bloody down about the whole issue of me having the cottage and what's going on there that they've really taken the edge of the whole thing.

For example, there was a kerfuffle about where we put the oil tank. It had to go outside the boundary of the cottage, practicalities dictated that. Someone complained and made things very difficult for a few weeks. Then someone else said they'd heard rumours about the amount of work going on at the cottage had exceeded what had been estimated. Yes it had. Often the way with renovations but we couldn't stop to ask the Directors for permission to carry on with basic work that had to be done, and to which they would have agreed anyway. Then one of them queried whether there actually was any dry rot. OH has only been doing property maintenance work for the last 30 years so he couldn't possibly know dry rot when he sees it could he? Then there are my colleagues who are trying to cause the boss hassle and using my move into the cottage to do it. "Oh", they say to me "you do realise it's not personal don't you?" No I bloody don't and it certainly feels like it's personal.

I'll be so glad when it's someone elses turn.

Ugly Betty

I watched the pilot episode of Ugly Betty this evening. It has the makings of being something to veg out in front of on a Sunday afternoon (when they show the repeat).

If you haven't heard about it, or seen it, its basic premise is that the young girl (Ugly Betty), who isn't the prettiest thing on the block, gets her first job as Assistant to the Editorial Director of a high-ranking fashion magazine. She's hired by the ED's boss, who is also his father, in an attempt to stop him sleeping with any of the pretty young things that want the job. In a world where how you look is all, you can see the irony of the story line and it's a bit of a swipe at the vainess of the fashion industry by the programme makers when ugly girl prevails over the fashionistas.

But even more ironic to me is that it's blindingly obvious that the actress playing the part of Ugly Betty, isn't ugly at all. She's just made to look that way. Because in television, where how you look is also all, a less than pretty actress is never going to make it as an actress in the first place.

The old adage "people in glasshouses" springs to mind. But hey, we all like a good "underdog makes good" story don't we!?

Last minute panic and other things

New Year's Eve went well, although it didn't get off to a flying start.

We were due to leave the house at about 7.30pm to get over to friends for the dinner at about 8-ish. I got out of the shower at about 6.45pm and, for once, had decided what I was going to wear in advance - wool skirt, black top and boots - dressier than usual but not over-dressed. So I got the iron out and ironed what I needed, looked up and noticed what OH was wearing. His DJ.

"Errr....is there something you've forgotten to tell me?"

"No, it's come-as-you-are but I thought it would be fun to wear my DJ as I haven't worn it for so long"

Immediate panic over, I think "that's a cool idea" and then think it would be fun for me to dress up in evening wear to! I have two evening wear outfits. One, I discover, is two sizes too big and the other, which only just fitted last time I wore it, was still a bit on the small side and I would have been in danger of losing my dignity all over my dinner plate if not careful. That prompted a minor strop and the "taking-clothes-out-of-the-wardrobe-and-discarding-them-in-a-pile-on -the-floor" scenario whilst I tried to find something else suitably eveningy to wear.

Half an hour later I admitted defeat and went back to wearing what I had originally decided to wear. Which was just as well as the other men were all in jeans and the women wearing the same as me - skirts and boots.

OH had the decency to apologise and, you have to admit, he does look rather fetching doesn't he?

















I have also decided to get rid of everything that I don't wear, or am never likely to wear, and start again. It means going shopping, which I find hugely depressing, but I will take a friend with me who will be brutally honest about what does and doesn't suit me. My aim is to make sure I have at least one something to wear for any given occasion. At the moment, as long as I can wear jeans and a t-shirt I'm covered but if it's anything else, I have nothing to wear!

And that leads me on to something I keep meaning to tell you about......I have discovered the joys of freecycling. It's absolutely brilliant! So far I have found a home for my exercise bike, some books and a bag of clothes I no longer needed (see above). I have also given a home to some cushions and a brand new pair of Ikea curtains. If you haven't tried it, go check it out. it will provide hours of endless, and mindless, entertainment!