They say a watched pot won't ever boil

Progress on the wardrobes has been slower today, mainly cos I’ve been doing it on my own. Chris managed to find work things to do, so I got on with putting the internal drawer unit together. He did have to help me at one stage, as I couldn’t get one of the drawers square & it needed someone to hold it and another person to screw it. We’ve got it all assembled except the last bit of putting the runners on the drawers which will require drilling. So that, and putting the doors on is scheduled for tomorrow.

I realise that yesterday I forgot to post a photo I took of Jez and Max lying patiently on the bed while Chris and I got on with the business of putting the wardrobes together.



At the same time as we bought the wardrobes we also bought 2 bookcases and 2 bedside cabinets for the same room. They were due to be delivered separately, but as we still hadn’t heard anything I phoned the shop yesterday. It turns out there is a problem with supplying one of the bookcases. So I’ve been round there this afternoon and managed to get them to agree to let me have the one on display. Of course, they still have to arrange delivery.

It’s been a lovely sunny day here today, although with a bit of a frost, so the dogs & I went over Upton Heath this morning. This is just as we walked onto the Heath. The people walking towards us are some of Jez’s favourite people – or more correctly, their dog, Traff the Rotweiller, is one of Jez’s favourite dogs. She is very partial to his owner too, though, so she was really happy once she spotted them.



I took my new camera and took some photos. The first couple are of the little boardwalk that skirts around a big muddy patch. I really liked the sun, shadows and frost on the wood.





And this one is of a pine cone on a tree…



The rest were macro shots (in keeping with this month’s Guardian Camera Club theme).

Fungus…



A frosted leaf…



An old post…



Gorse…





And some more fungi…



On the subject of the camera, this is a new small camera. My old one (which I’d had just under 2 years) went wrong – the shutter jammed, and that in turn jammed the lens. This is a common problem with this type of camera. The new one is a Canon Ixus 200 IS, which is the one most photography magazines are recommending at the moment. I seem to be having problems with it. The magazines all say the picture quality is excellent, but I have loads of photos where it is very poor. But having seen the ones I have taken today, I suspect the quality suffers in poor light & with the flash. It seems really good if the light is good. Given that this is my little snappy camera though, I’m not too happy. Plus, the shutter jammed twice while I was out today. I’ll have to see how it goes, but at this rate we’ll be trying to get it changed. At least as it’s only a month old it’s still under guarantee.

Of course, I’d like a nice macro lens for the big Canon, but the one I’ve seen that I really like is nearly £1,000, so in my dreams. Or maybe if Lloyds TSB starts paying dividends again at some point I could afford it.

I don’t think there’s much else to say today. I’m boiling a joint of gammon for our dinner tonight, and Chris is watching the footie. Max is asleep and Jez is upstairs constantly grumble guttsing about something – don’t know what.

Tried to shift it, couldn't even lift it

We have finally got round to starting to assemble the new wardrobes that we bought for the 3rd bedroom. I decorated the room & we laid new carpet last summer. We had an old wardrobe & chest of drawers in there that we bought over 27 years ago when we first got married. They were cheap flatpack but were still ok. In fact, at the moment we’ve kept the chest of drawers and have donated the wardrobe to a local recycling charity. We had seen the wardrobes we wanted at B&Q but they were very expensive, so we waited knowing they would be on offer at some point. Sure enough between Christmas & New Year there was 40% off them, so we bought the, along with a couple of bookcases for the same room.

We thought we were going to have a lot of trouble with the wardrobes (you know what flat pack can be like), but we’ve been pleasantly surprised. Once we’d sorted out what all the bits were we got the carcases together really quickly.

This is the first one, awaiting it’s doors (that will come once we’ve got everything else together & the wardbrobes in place.



And here are the doors & the sides of the second one waiting to be unwrapped.



Max tries to help Chris put the second wardrobe together…



While Jez looks on…



Tomorrow we have to put together an internal drawer unit for one of the wardrobes. After that we’ll try and fix the doors.

Friday is normally cleaning day for me, but as the upstairs is covered in bits of packaging & stuff from the room at the moment, I limited myself to downstairs today until we’ve got stuff back together.

In the news Chris and I were both horrified to see that Ashley Cole had only been given a 4 month ban for driving at 104mph in a 50mph limit in South London. How disgraceful is that? Does he think that just because he is a famous footballer the law doesn’t apply to him. Well obviously he does.

I don’t think there’s much else to say today. Max’s leg continues to get better & is almost completely healed. As you could see in the photo above, though, he’s still wearing his buster collar as he will insist on licking it. And Max can’t content himself with one or two licks. No, he has to get obsessive about it and will just go on and on. Talking of the Super Pooper, that bone yesterday took it’s toll today: 4 poos before 10.30am and another 2 this afternoon! As for Jez, we still don’t like the look of that thing on her side. I think she’s going to end up at the vet next week at this rate.

Finally, I can’t really go without commenting on the iPad, which as everyone has said, sounds like a feminine hygiene product. It looks like a large iPod touch to me. I can’t see that it will replace a laptop – who would want to type a lot on it? But, unlike Chris, I can see that it will have its uses. IF you had the money, it would be a great coffee table item, for playing games & browsing the internet etc. And they are talking about newspapers, magazines & books on it. Now I like reading The Guardian on my iPhone, so I can get the newspaper/magazine bit. But books are another matter. I thought I’d try Kindle on my iPhone, but was actually more interested in the Sony eReader. Until I realised that you are paying full price for a book which you can’t then share with anyone else. The books I buy tend to get passed round before returning to me, so they work out quite cheap. But you can’t do that with these eBooks. I was saying to Chris this morning that it would make more sense if you could rent them cheaply (and go for volume sales like the iPhone apps). People might be much more interested in them. As for who would want one, other than people who must have the latest gadget, well it would be useful for someone like my Dad. He is nearly 83 and keeps going on about a PC so that he can access the internet. You may not have noticed, but there are so many things nowadays you can’t do or get if you haven’t got internet access. But he’d never cope with a PC. He loves my iPhone though, and I think would get on well with this iPad thing. But it is way too pricey. You’d really want the G3 version, and that comes in at $699, plus the cost of a separate G3 contract. Just cos Steve Jobs is made of money doesn’t mean everyone else is.

Chris thinks the iPad will fail. I think it will succeed, but only because people have more money than sense. Mind you, I thought that about the iPhone, and I love mine, so you never can tell. Without apps though, I’d never have bothered.

Oh, and if you are wondering where the title lyric comes from (if you are Keith Bell you will know), its from Right Said Fred by Bernard Cribbins. If you don’t know it here is a link to a vintage 1960s animated cartoon of it (which I actually recall!). You Tube Link

You are the one to remember

Bit of a problem when we started our walk this morning. I was just seeing to Max’s poo (he really is the world’s biggest poopster), when Jez ran off to see a young Ridgeback. As I walked over the two women said to me, “Is her leg fixed like that permanently?”. And sure enough, Jez was jumping all over the Ridgeback and her left hind leg was bent up – she wasn’t putting it down at all. Panic set in – I was sure that she had finally torn the ligament. I rushed over and put her on the lead, only for her to decide to put it back down again all the while continuing to jump around with the other dog. After a minute you’d never have thought there was anything wrong with her, so it did not appear to be the ligament after all.

We continued on our walk, playing chase the pine cone as we went. And then at the furthest point from the car she started limping again. So I massaged her leg a little bit and stopped throwing the cones for a while and just let her walk and stretch it out. She was ok for the rest of her walk, and on her walk this afternoon, but I gave her a full dose of anti-inflamatory at lunchtime.

Meanwhile I went up to Broadstone as the butcher had some local free-range pork in. It’s supposed to be very good. I’ve bought a joint to put in the freezer for my birthday. While I was in there I got a couple of bones for the dogs. As they only had pork bones I roasted them before I let them have them. They were large bones – they lasted less than half an hour!

I didn’t get to watch that programme on the Great Rift Valley last night as it wasn’t on catch-up on cable, and I didn’t want to nick Chris’ bandwidth while he was trying to watch the football. I gave NCIS a go instead, which seemed ok. I’ve never been keen on CSI, but this seemed better. Bones is our favourite of this genre, though. We are making our way through Season 4.

Talking of TV, I bought Chris series 1 + the specials of The Thick of It for Christmas, so we’ve been watching that. I don’t suppose the Americans amongst you know it, and I’m not sure it would be a particularly successful export. But Malcolm Tucker rocks! In the series he’s No. 10’s ‘enforcer’/press secretary, and was supposedly based on Alistair Campbell, Tony Blair’s Director of Communications. And whereas I cannot believe that Alistair Campbell was ever like that that, the script is just pure genius. Her are a few Malcolm Tucker quotes from Series 1.

Responding to knock at his door: "Come the fuck in or fuck the fuck off."

Moaning about minister on the phone: "He's about as much use as a marzipan dildo."

To a pair of rival advisors: "Laurel and fucking Hardy! Glad you could join us. Did you manage to get that piano up the stairs OK?"

Dressing down MP, Geoff Holhurst: "You're so back-bench, you've actually fucking fallen off. You're out by the fucking bins where I put you."

Advising minister Hugh Abbot to keep up with the zeitgeist: "You've got 24 hours to sort out your policy on EastEnders, right? Or you're for the halal butchers."

Note passed to assistant Jamie during meeting with blue-sky thinker Julius Nicholson: "Please could you take this note, ram it up his hairy inbox and pin it to his fucking prostate."

“Sam? Can you get me Terri Coverley and Glenn Cullen? Make them an appointment to come over? I think I got to shout at somebody, you know? Oh, actually, get me John at Culture on the phone, I think I’ll have a bit of a shout now.”

“Tomorrow – from broadsheets to wank rags – I want pages one, two and three to be a profile of Tom looking like a fucking political colossus, you know – Tom meeting the Pope, Tom in a NHS hospital chatting to little, baldie kiddies. I want pages four and five to be a timeline of British politics with me at the center, looking fucking indispensable and fucking benign, and I want page six to be fucking Israel or some bullshit, not a fucking DoSAC deepshit legacy-distracting cockup!” (Trying to control a news story)

“Within your ‘purview’? Where do you think you are, some fucking regency costume drama? This is a government department, not some fucking Jane fucking Austen novel! Allow me to pop a jaunty little bonnet on your purview and ram it up your shitter with a lubricated horse cock!”

And the one that cracked Chris up recently, on telling the minister that a colleague, Neil, had been paralysed: “Have you not heard? He's paralised. Neil's on wheels”.

Imdb has absolutely masses of Malcolm Tucker quotes in context. You can find them here.

And here, on You Tube, is Mr Tucker explaining Tucker’s Law (note, it mainly consists of 4 letter words so if you are easily offended then best not to watch it).



The associated feature film is In the Loop, so if you can’t get to watch The Thick of It, you might want to try that.

Nyway, it’s that time where I need to post this and then go and get dinner – spaghetti carbonnara tonight.

I look into your eyes and I know you won't kill me

I noticed in the news yesterday that France had voted to ban the burka in public buildings and on public transport. Then today the BBC is running a piece saying should it be banned over here. My initial reaction was that this is wrong. I like to respect other people’s religious views. But then I started thinking about it a little bit more. If the issue was female circumcision then I would be wholly against it since it has less to do with religion and more to do with male dominance over and subjugation of women. So should I feel the same about the burka?

Since I decided to write about this issue, I thought I’d better read the pieces on the BBC website about it. And I immediately learnt that there is a difference between what I think of when I think of the burka and what is actually worn. The covering of the whole body except the hands and face is known as hijab, whereas the cloth covering the face is a niqab. I have no issue with what people wear, but any issues I may have are with the niqab. Interestingly, the BBC piece explains that the majority of scholars argue that the Qur’an does not indicate that the wearing of the niqab is obligatory, although there are a handful that point to one or two verses that they say support their argument. These, however, appear to be ambiguous. In particular the case for it not being obligatory is that one hadith (a narration on the Qur’an) says that covering the face is prohibited during daily prayers.

So in summary most people believe that the niqab is not obligatory. However, some believe it is, and if that is the case I am back to whether we should prevent them wearing it. To my mind, I feel it depends why they are wearing it. If it is their own free choice then I believe they should be allowed to. However, although I suspect that in some cases it is not of their own free choice, the problem is that we cannot tell one from the other.

On balance, therefore, I am tending against a ban based on freedom of choice.

If you want to see the BBC’s explanation then it is here.

In terms of what has been happening here, the answer is not much. Yet another grey day. Both dogs were very good on their walk this morning, although Chris has taken them up the Delph so no doubt I’ll soon get a phone call saying Jez has done a runner. Max’s leg seems to be healing nicely, so fingers crossed. Jez though has had a small lump on her side that looks a bit like a bite for over a week now. She managed to knock it and make it bleed today. We’re not sure what it is, but are keeping an eye on it. If it gets worse we’ll have to get her to the vet (more expense).

Still on the subject of Jez, we don’t know what to do about her leg. She races around and jumps about and it doesn’t seem to bother her at all, until she stops: at which point she shifts her weight to the other leg and occasionally holds her bad leg up slightly. It’s been a lot worse since the vet tried manipulating it last week. She has a physio session next week, and I’m planning on ringing her orthopaedic vet as well. We’ve thought for a long time that it’s a muscular hangover from the cruciate strain, but it’s going on a long time. And her own vet through there was a very slight amount of tibial thrust (indicating there is still a problem with the cruciate). He’s been wrong before on that score though. And she’s sitting square on a lot more, which she wouldn’t do if she had cruciate problems as it puts pressure on the knee. However, we all agree that unless it’s imperative we do not want to put her through a major operation.

I’ve been doing my pilates. The reason I’ve taken it up again is because the doctor I saw at the hospital said I should. I’ve been having physio for my back and leg (the L5 nerve is pinched) since August and it hasn’t been getting any better. I think the Physio expected the hospital to give me an MRI scan. Instead the doctor asked me lots of questions, pushed and pulled me in all sorts of directions, and declared that I had a prolapsed (slipped) disc. Apparently I could have an injection but it’s only temporary. Strengthening my core muscles is the key, to hold it all in place. I don’t know what I did today though, but my back and leg really started to hurt in the middle of my routine. I had to stop doing some of my leg stretches. Let’s hope it’s nothing too permanent.

Well, Jez must have been good, Chris is back – and NO PHONE CALL!

Chris will be watching footie again tonight – big Manchester derby game. So I need to hunt round for something to watch. I want to see the first one of a series of 3 on Africa’s Great Rift Valley. As the Cradle of Man, it is somewhere that has always fascinated me. And, of course, I’ve been there. It’s only a short programme, so I’m not sure what else I’ll find to watch – TV has been total rubbish of late.

Tangled up in blue

Another grey day, although the sun did manage to break through again at lunchtime. But very cold again – the local reading is 2C. And its due to fall to -4C overnight.

Max was really happy to be allowed back out for a proper walk this morning. We went to Broadstone Rec. I bandaged his leg to keep it clean, but he was dashing around and bouncing about. Being a typical Springer. This was him on our walk hoping that I would throw a cone for him…



On the subject of dogs I forgot to mention yesterday that Chris managed to bring Jez home covered in fox poo. His attempts to clean her up weren’t very successful, so it fell to me to try and scrub round her neck and get it clean (by then it had dried into her fur in clumps). Needless to say after that she’s wanted nothing more to do with me. She was not impressed.

We watched Hell’s Kitchen USA last night and were very disappointed that Gordon didn’t get bopped after all. That contestant must be really stupid: firstly, he got himself thrown out of the competition for nothing, and secondly, I don’t fancy most people’s chances again Gordon as he is big and very fit.

Now seems a good time for one of my catch up subjects. Over the past year we’ve gradually been doing work on the house, or in most cases, having it done. Last summer I decorated the kitchen and 2 bedrooms; we’ve have the en suite bathroom replaced; 2 radiators have been removed which has meant we now have new kitchen flooring; one of the bedrooms now has new bedrooms and new wardrobes (which we still have to assemble); we’ve had our old TV aerial replaced; the fascias and guttering replaced; a new fuse box, kitchen lights replaced and other odds of electrical work done. I think that’s about it. Of course, we still have to replace the roof tiles on our front porch, as 2 old ones broke on the roof and you haven’t been able to buy any that will fit with them for years. We have the tiles – but it’s been too cold to attempt it.

So with all this work you’d think that would be enough spending, wouldn’t you. But we seem to be going through one of those periods where everything goes wrong or the work has a knock on effect. For example, when we had the fascias done we had to have the TV aerial guy back as the wiring had come undone. Then, as soon as the electrics had been fixed the central heating packed up. It was something really simple, but still cost over £60. Then Chris’ PC went wrong last week – or more precisely the graphics card started playing up, followed swiftly by the network card. So we had another £60 plus bill to get the PC tested & our suspicions confirmed, plus £90 for a new graphics card. Then last week my gas hob started playing up, although that seems to have righted itself now. But we’re waiting for the next thing to go. Oh, and I forgot that the oil filter on the car sprang a leak 2 days before Xmas.

I suppose it’s not surprising. The house and many of the things in it are at that age where they are due to go wrong or be replaced. A couple of weeks ago I finally bought a new microwave – I’ve been considering it for months. My old one was 23 years old and although it was still going I felt I needed to get a bit more up to date. I doubt if I’ll get 23 years out of my new one. No doubt the TVs will be next – the one in the living room is Mark & Katja’s old one. But then I have a small Sony portable upstairs which is 27 years old and still going strong. Sadly it does not have the right connections for modern equipment. Oh, and our CD player is playing up – every time you turn it on it automatically goes into repeat mode. I’m wondering what we are going to have to fork out on this year.

One thing we are thinking about is replacing the boiler. We are eligible for one of these £400 government grants given that age of the boiler. We’ve asked for a quote, but are in two minds about whether to go ahead. I’ve been told a couple of times that although our boiler is inefficient and is 28 years old, there is very little in it to go wrong. But new boilers have a nasty habit of only lasting a few years, can go wrong frequently, and cost a fortune to fix when they do go wrong. Plus we will have to have our hot water tank replaced at the same time and the boiler outlets moved. We may well actually be better to stick with what we have, even though it’s not very environmentally friendly.

At least I shouldn’t have much decorating to do this year. Only the main bedroom, and possibly Chris’ study, which is small, need doing. But at least I’ve decorated them both before and there is no more wallpaper to remove before we paint, so they should be quite quick. Perhaps this year I can get some work done in the garden, as the front garden is desperately in need of some sort of makeover.

Chris has taken the dogs over the Heath this afternoon. He said Max jumped in every muddy puddle he could find. When I took his bandage off the gauze underneath was filthy. So I’ve washed his leg off again and it looks nice & clean and seems to be healing well. He’s got his buster collar back on now.

I think that’s about it. We’ve got stir fry beef for dinner tonight (leftover from the Pot Roast). I’m not sure whether to cook noodles or rice with it. Then Chris is watching the footie. We’ve only got Sky Sports on my iPhone (too expensive otherwise), so he has to watch it on that. I think I’ll watch the last programme on Gordon Ramsey in India.

Easy now to find a breeze

What a miserable day it is today: cold and grey. The only slight redeeming feature was a few moments sun when I was out with Jez this morning. I took her over Upton Heath again, and took my camera. I am looking for subjects for this month’s Guardian Photo Competition. I don’t suppose I’ll enter, but I’m at least joining in in spirit. Anyway, the theme is Macro Photography. I’d normally prefer to use Chris DLSR, but I have a 2 foot minimum distance on the lens with that, so it only works with medium to large flowers & cones etc. Instead I took my new Canon Ixus with me. There was too much breeze for macro photography really, but I did get a couple of photos out of it (well, 3 to be precise).

The first two are of tree bark





And the third is of gorse.



As for the weather, well you can see what I mean by this shot of the little copse.



As for Jez, she was well behaved and I managed to get her back on the lead ok. But I’d walked her a different way round and it took her by surprise. That trick won’t work again for a while.

Meanwhile Max’s leg still looks very raw. I checked with one of the veterinary nurses this morning and I am doing the right thing by way of treatment, which is good to know. Unfortunately I took his buster collar off last night as he sleeps on my bed, and this morning I was woken by him licking it, which isn’t good. I did get Chris to take a photo of him having his leg soaked in salt water for you though.



After I bought Jez back I went shopping to Waitrose. Of course they didn’t have everything I wanted, so I needed to go back out to Tesco later.

Chris took Jez up to Delph Woods this afternoon. I’m not sure why – I thought he was planning to avoid it for a couple of day. And once again she did not want to come back at the end of the walk. At least this time he didn’t lose her though.

Whilst they were out I did a bit of exercise. I’ve been trying to get back into Pilates on the hospital’s recommendation (I have a prolapsed (or slipped) disc that won’t heal). As I need to strengthen the Core muscles I bought a new Gym Ball last week (my old one is a bit small). I’ve been getting on well combining my normal Pilates with the Gym Ball. But I did not think it was a good idea to attempt Pilates today with Max around. As soon as I lie on the floor he’s there trying to snuffle round me. So I just did the Gym Ball stuff. That was bad enough. Max thought it was a game and was either trying to jump up, or push his head in between my legs or under the gym ball to see what was underneath it. He seemed convinced there was something underneath it. But as he is wearing his buster collar all it meant was that he kept crashing into me.

After that I took Max out. We went to the chemist to get some gauze dressings for his leg (to keep it clean on walks) and then walked around the estate a bit, keeping to the footpaths wherever possible. We must have been out about 40 minutes in total.

Tonight I’m cooking an Oriental Noodle soup with pork balls for dinner. Fortunately I made the pork balls previously so have just had to take them out of the freezer. The soup is based on this recipe but I add chopped chilli, shitake mushrooms and beansprouts and make it with noodles. It’s really tasty.

There were things I was planning to talk about as I haven’t written for ages, but I don’t want these entries to get too long – people can’t be bothered to read them if they’re too long. I think I’d better make a list and try and catch up gradually. Oh well, time to try and get this lot posted, then get dinner, then look at the Radio Times in order to confirm that there’s sweet FA on TV tonight. Oh, no – I think I’m wrong. I have a feeling Monday’s are now the one night where everything is on at once. We’ve got The Hustle on BBC1 and Hell’s Kitchen USA on ITV2 (and it was left where Gordon was about to get bopped!). Not sure I can stand all the excitement.

Take a look it's on display

The butter chicken last night was excellent. It is a Gordon Ramsey recipe and you can find it here http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes/chefs/gordon-ramsay/butter-chicken-recipe_p_1.html. I can thoroughly recommend it. But please note you need to start it around 4-5 hours in advance in order to let the chicken marinate.

Today was supposed to be a day to relax a bit, but I seem to have been busy all day. The first job has been to wash all the bedding, including the dogs’ bedding. Then I’ve been tending to Max. I checked his leg first thing this morning and tweezered & cut away some fur that had matted & dried into the wound. I’ve also sorted out how to give it a salt water bath, so that I can leave it in there for a few minutes. I’m using a 2 litre plastic drink container. I’ll get Chris to take a photo – poor Max has to stand there with his leg in it. Chris says it’s humiliating. But I noticed this afternoon that it’s nevertheless a bit weepy. I think it’s where he occasionally licks it, so I’ve put his buster collar on him.

The other thing I’ve been occupied with today is getting my blog on WordPress. So now it’s in 3 places: Bowienet, Blogspot and WordPress. The reason is that I’m planning to lapse my B’net subscription in April, and I’m not at all keen on Blogspot. Mind you, I’m struggling with WordPress. At the moment it won’t link to photos on Flickr (within the text of the blog). It will link to Photobucket though. And I can’t work out how to get links to other blogs (like Jez’s) on the side of the page. Otherwise it seems ok. I’m sure I can do a lot more with it, although first I need to understand it all. Most of it is a load of gobbledygook to me. Somehow I think I’m getting past it.

Chris took Jez out this morning, and she behaved well. I’ve taken her over Upton Heath this afternoon and she was good, although she did have an attempt at not coming to me when I wanted to get her lead on – until she went in the wrong direction and then had to come running to catch up with me, which gave me my chance.
Since I’ve come back in I’ve been getting dinner. I’m doing a Jamaican pot roast from the Levi Roots book. It’s a good meal for tonight as I can leave it cooking while I go and have a bath.

Well that’s the bath over with. Just waiting for Chris to finish now then I can cook us a Yorkshire pud each to go with the pot roast. Ok I know it doesn’t exactly fit with the Caribbean theme, but Chris loves Yorkshire pud with his beef & veg. Unfortunately, since getting out of the bath I’ve noticed that Max’s leg has been bleeding again – I think it must be where he was racing around playing with Jez.

Ready, Set, Go

So what is there to talk about? Well perhaps a little catch up, starting with the dogs as they have been the problem today. In case there are any new B’netters out there reading this we have 2 dogs: Jezebel (Jez), a 2 year old Staffy bitch, and Max, an 18 month old English Springer dog. Max is generally well behaved – Jez is just a very wilful little dog who likes to explore and get her own way.

Take today for example. For reasons that I will explain shortly, I had to cut their afternoon walk short, so Chris took Jez back out to her favourite spot, Delph Woods. Once there she had a great time, as she met her old friend Lenny the Lurcher whom she hasn’t seen for simply ages. So they had a good old play for about 45 minutes. A bit later Chris headed to the car to bring her home. Jez didn’t want to come home though, so she slunk off in the opposite direction. 15 minutes later I got a call from Chris to say he might be a while as he hadn’t seen Jez since she disappeared. By now it was starting to get a bit dark. Luckily though, just after he rang off, my mobile rang. Once I’d tracked it down (it was still in my coat pocket) it turned out to be one of the dog walkers we meet. Had I lost Jez? Cos she had her. It took Chris another 15 minutes to finally meet up and get her back. So the short walk he’d planned dragged out to something of a marathon.

Yesterday was the same (well almost). It was pouring with rain yesterday morning, which Jez usually hates. I took the dogs over the Heath and normally get her back on the lead towards the end of the walk before she has a chance to run off and explore the woods that border the main road. Yesterday she was way ahead of me and, I thought, heading back to the car at great speed due to the increasingly heavy rain. But when I got there (I was pulled in just off the road), no Jez. No, she was off exploring the local housing estate!

She’s a little terror. We thought we’d cracked this running off business – she has been really good of late (well, apart from the odd incident), but this past week she’s been a real pain and it’s happening more frequently again. And it’s worrying. Not that she’s get into trouble as such, as she’s such a friendly little soul, and people look at her little face and say ‘Ah, isn’t she lovely’. We worry more about her running across a road and getting hit by a car.

Anyway, the reason I had to cut the dogs’ afternoon walk short was that about 10 minutes into it (mostly taken up with throwing pine cones for them to chase) I spotted quite a bit of blood on the top of Max’s left paw. We were aware one of them had been bleeding earlier at home, but couldn’t see where it was coming from. This time though, as I looked at Max, I realise the whole of the back of his right leg was soaked with blood, and that it was dripping along the path. So home we came. I’ve washed it off and clipped the fur back and it turns out he’s sliced through the pad that’s part way up his leg. Fortunately he doesn’t stand on it, but apparently pads can take ages to heal. And we can’t stop exercising Max as he’s already a bit of a tubs who is on a permanent diet.

I’d better go now. I’m in the middle of cooking dinner. Butter Chicken, Bombay Potatoes, Rice & Nan Bread.

It's been so Long

I feel a blog coming on. For some reason a wave of something has swept over me and I don’t know why. I just feel very down for no apparent reason all of a sudden. And that was always my trigger to blog, so here I am.

It’s an interesting question though: why I don’t blog any more? Is it that I keep up with everyone on Facebook so don’t feel I have anything to say now? Is it that my life is pretty much the same one day to the next? Is it that this used to be a Bowienet thing for me, and without Bowienet (where I hardly ever go and where very few of my old friends now seem to remain) there is no impetus? Or is it that this was always pretty cathartic for me, and I used it to share the highs and the very low lows of a period of my life that I have now left behind? Certainly, the writing as therapy was a great help and got me through some very difficult times. I have realised just how difficult they were in retrospect as I find out just how long it is taking me to break free of them. But perhaps more on that another time.

So what is the answer to the question? I think, actually, that it’s a combination of all four. It’s odd, cos I actually have the time to blog now. In fact, I have hours and hours each day in which to write, yet don’t see to feel the inclination. I’ve also tried moving my blog. So far I’ve had it on Blogspot, but I don’t think anyone sees it there and I’m not too impressed with Blogspot – so many things don’t seem to work. I’m wondering about trying Wordpress. I suppose part of the problem as well is that I used to write some things that I felt were very personal that I was happy to share with B’netters but not happy to share with the world at large. And that is still a problem for me, although I think less so than it used to be since I rarely feel the need to write about my feelings any more.

It’s interesting though. Now I’ve started the words just seem to flow as they always did. So perhaps I’ll just change what I write about. I don’t know. I’ll just have to see how it goes.