Twelfth Night. The decorations, such as they are, come down today. I’m going to miss my little Christmas tree. It lights up a dark corner on the dank, miserable days.
It rained virtually the whole of yesterday. Chris did at least manage to get Jez out for a 20 minute walk (or, rather, a 20 minute Staffy stomp) round the block last night. Otherwise she wouldn’t have been out all day. As it was she slept virtually the whole day. We awoke to heavy rain again today, which persisted until just after lunch. Jez was going stir crazy: poor Max was getting beaten up every 10 minutes. So when the rain eased I grabbed my chance, wrapped myself up well in waterproof clothes, and set off over Upton Heath.
For the first half of our walk we didn’t see anyone. The Heath was sodden. Little streams had sprung up everywhere and were cascading across the paths, and the centre of the Heath was underwater. The dogs loved it, though, and so I put in an extra loop to give them a bit better run out. Then about three-quarters of the way into our walk we met Jess, a young and very lively black Labrador that we know. So the dogs ran round together until we bumped into Wilbur, another black Lab, when all four of them had a good game of chase. Poor old Wilbur kept getting well and truly beaten up by Jess and Jez though. But it’s worn them out, which is a good thing.
What I was not happy about was the fact that one of my expensive, Gore-Tex lined walking boots that I bought earlier in the summer has sprung a leak. I’ll have to dig out the receipt and see about taking them back to the shop.
Back onto the subject of the new TV: I wasn’t very happy with it last night. I had watched Best in Show late in the afternoon (I just love that film, especially the commentary of the dog show by Buck Laughlin and Trevor Beckwith), and was intending to catch up some programmes on BBC iPlayer in the evening while Chris watched the football. But the TV lost the internet content (although it still had the wi-fi connection) and couldn’t find it again. I suppose it’s possible it had something to do with Chris streaming Sky to my iPhone, but we have 16-17Mb actual broadband speed, so it should have coped. In the end I had to watch Indiana Jones and the Raider of the Lost Ark (again!).
I’ve been getting on with my reading of teenage fiction. The first book I read was ‘Underworld’ by Cathy Macphail. I have to say that at first I wasn’t very keen on it. It’s about a group of schoolchildren and their teacher who get trapped in some caves in Scotland which supposedly house a giant worm. The story was ok, but the dialogue and characterisation were not good. I was particularly annoyed by her continual use of the euphemisms ‘zonk’ and ‘zonking’. The least she could have done was go with the American ‘freaking’. I persisted though, and once I got into it found the story line quite gripping. I finished it this morning and am now reading Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. I have the film on DVD, but thought it would be nice to read the book. I also picked up a couple of the books on my reading list at Tesco yesterday as they were on one of their BOGOF offers. And then, I found that Kindle (which I have on the iPhone) are doing some books for £1, including one of the books I was looking for, so I bought a further 3 from there. I’ve certainly got a lot of reading to do.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
The colours of a rainbow, so pretty in the sky
I’ll apologise in advance if this update seems a bit disjointed: I am watching Polar Bear: A Spy on the Ice before it disappears off BBC iPlayer. I’m streaming it in high quality, and the picture quality on this new TV is superb. For those Dr Who fans out there, it’s narrated by David Tennant. It is a documentary about polar bears, filmed with remote cameras, the ingenuity of which is amazing.
While I’m on the subject of the TV I’ve wasted more hours on trying to sort it out. I’m still not sure about this Love Film thing – the films available for streaming appear to be more limited than I thought, and we are having trouble with the TV losing the network. When it does I have to go back into the settings and set it all up again to get it to work, which is a real pain. We were also not at all sure about the picture set up. It was quite uncomfortable to watch while we had a DVD playing, although I found that if I adjust the contrast and backlight it’s much easier on the eyes. It seems to be ok with a digital signal, however.
Today I have ordered a Blu-Ray player: Tesco have a basic Sony model in their sale at £99.97, £20 less than anyone else has it in their sale. And I used some of my Tesco reward vouchers, so only had to pay £57 in the end. I would have bought one, but they were out of stock in the shop, so I had to order it from Tesco Direct. It should be there on Friday. Chris was not keen on getting a Blu-ray player due to the cost of the discs, and we don’t think we’re interested in any of the fancy features they advertise, like pausing a film to look up information on it. But the DVD rental companies no longer charge extra for Blu-ray DVDs so we might as well have the better picture quality since we have an HD TV.
Last night we watched Mars Attacks again on ITV4. Jack Nicholson was good, as ever, but I was surprised by how good I thought Pierce Brosnan was. Glen Close was also very good as the First Lady, but I think I was most surprised by SJP as the air-headed reporter, mainly because I don’t normally have a very high opinion of SJP.
This morning I had to go to have a mammogram at the Breast Screening Unit at Poole Hospital. It was a good job I left early: I had allowed for parking, but had not allowed for the fact that the Unit was almost impossible to find. It’s not a nice process, but I’m happy to go along once every 3 years. And the Unit is in fairly new premises, so it was comfy and warm in there. On the way home I topped up with dog treats and Bonios at Pets at Home, and went and looked in the remnants of the Next sale. There was nothing for me, but I managed to get Chris a pair of cargo pants, which he likes for walking the dogs in, for £15.
I haven’t done very much else today though. It’s another grey, miserable day, this time with cold wind and occasional rain thrown into the mix. Max has been for a swim and a walk, courtesy of Chris, but Jez has hardly stirred all day. She came and greeted me enthusiastically when I came in from the hospital, jumping up and licking my face as I knelt down to her. She is slowly becoming more and more accepting of us, and more and more affectionate. It’s odd, she was a very friendly little puppy, then cooled. We have always put it down to her treatment when she had her first two leg operations at her original vets. As I write she’s moved sleeping from my bed upstairs, to sleeping on her bed downstairs. She is showing no inclination to go for a walk.
Lastly, I feel I cannot let this update pass without commenting on today’s news that the University of Pennsylvania believe they have found the cause of male pattern baldness. They are saying that if they are right, they should be able to develop a cream to reverse it. Chris was not impressed. He says he would not take a cure: it’s bad enough looking after what little hair he has, that he would not want to have to cope with a full head of hair again. We both agreed, however, that any real cure for male baldness would be a licence to print money.
Whoo! I’ve just seen an ice rainbow on this programme. I didn’t know such a think existed. It was very beautiful. I never cease to be amazed at the beauty of this world. I may complain about grey days like today, but there really is so much beauty all around us. This may sound very corny, but it’s not unusual for me to be out walking the dogs, looking around and singing ‘What a Wonderful World’ softly to myself.
So now my programme has finished. And for the next hour and a half I plan to treat myself to a viewing of Best in Show (assuming I can get Love Film to work, that is).
While I’m on the subject of the TV I’ve wasted more hours on trying to sort it out. I’m still not sure about this Love Film thing – the films available for streaming appear to be more limited than I thought, and we are having trouble with the TV losing the network. When it does I have to go back into the settings and set it all up again to get it to work, which is a real pain. We were also not at all sure about the picture set up. It was quite uncomfortable to watch while we had a DVD playing, although I found that if I adjust the contrast and backlight it’s much easier on the eyes. It seems to be ok with a digital signal, however.
Today I have ordered a Blu-Ray player: Tesco have a basic Sony model in their sale at £99.97, £20 less than anyone else has it in their sale. And I used some of my Tesco reward vouchers, so only had to pay £57 in the end. I would have bought one, but they were out of stock in the shop, so I had to order it from Tesco Direct. It should be there on Friday. Chris was not keen on getting a Blu-ray player due to the cost of the discs, and we don’t think we’re interested in any of the fancy features they advertise, like pausing a film to look up information on it. But the DVD rental companies no longer charge extra for Blu-ray DVDs so we might as well have the better picture quality since we have an HD TV.
Last night we watched Mars Attacks again on ITV4. Jack Nicholson was good, as ever, but I was surprised by how good I thought Pierce Brosnan was. Glen Close was also very good as the First Lady, but I think I was most surprised by SJP as the air-headed reporter, mainly because I don’t normally have a very high opinion of SJP.
This morning I had to go to have a mammogram at the Breast Screening Unit at Poole Hospital. It was a good job I left early: I had allowed for parking, but had not allowed for the fact that the Unit was almost impossible to find. It’s not a nice process, but I’m happy to go along once every 3 years. And the Unit is in fairly new premises, so it was comfy and warm in there. On the way home I topped up with dog treats and Bonios at Pets at Home, and went and looked in the remnants of the Next sale. There was nothing for me, but I managed to get Chris a pair of cargo pants, which he likes for walking the dogs in, for £15.
I haven’t done very much else today though. It’s another grey, miserable day, this time with cold wind and occasional rain thrown into the mix. Max has been for a swim and a walk, courtesy of Chris, but Jez has hardly stirred all day. She came and greeted me enthusiastically when I came in from the hospital, jumping up and licking my face as I knelt down to her. She is slowly becoming more and more accepting of us, and more and more affectionate. It’s odd, she was a very friendly little puppy, then cooled. We have always put it down to her treatment when she had her first two leg operations at her original vets. As I write she’s moved sleeping from my bed upstairs, to sleeping on her bed downstairs. She is showing no inclination to go for a walk.
Lastly, I feel I cannot let this update pass without commenting on today’s news that the University of Pennsylvania believe they have found the cause of male pattern baldness. They are saying that if they are right, they should be able to develop a cream to reverse it. Chris was not impressed. He says he would not take a cure: it’s bad enough looking after what little hair he has, that he would not want to have to cope with a full head of hair again. We both agreed, however, that any real cure for male baldness would be a licence to print money.
Whoo! I’ve just seen an ice rainbow on this programme. I didn’t know such a think existed. It was very beautiful. I never cease to be amazed at the beauty of this world. I may complain about grey days like today, but there really is so much beauty all around us. This may sound very corny, but it’s not unusual for me to be out walking the dogs, looking around and singing ‘What a Wonderful World’ softly to myself.
So now my programme has finished. And for the next hour and a half I plan to treat myself to a viewing of Best in Show (assuming I can get Love Film to work, that is).
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
I give my complete attention to a very good friend of mine
VAT went up by 2.5% to 20% today, as if things aren’t expensive enough these days. But prices seem to be all arse about face. Some things that we used to think of as expensive, such as music, dvds, or clothes are relatively cheap. Food and fuel, meanwhile, is now becoming astronomically expensive. As is postage. It is shortly going to cost us just under 10 shillings to send a letter first class! It’s outrageous. If I’m not careful, or if interest rates don’t start to go up soon, I’m going to have to rethink my whole budgeting strategy. ‘Luxuries’ appear to be fairly safe as they are relatively inexpensive, but we may have to starve, shiver and walk everywhere in the future. If nothing else it will help with the Christmas weight gain.
Talking of luxuries, we finally bought a new TV yesterday. We’ve been looking seriously since about last May, but there are so many to choose from, and so many different things to take into account (half of which we don’t understand), that we just kept wandering out of the shops in a daze, having spent around 30 minutes talking to an assistant. Choice is not necessarily a good thing. It’s a bit like information overload. Too much, or in this case, too many, and your brain just can’t take it all in. Who knows what the differences are between leading brands and their different technologies. And brands that were reliable in the past aren’t necessarily reliable now. Chris and I decided that in the end, you pays your money and you takes your choice. We opted for a Sony Bravia with internet connection. It was expensive, but at least there was £400 off in the sale. And we’ve found that the built in Freeview works absolutely fine (rendering our cable virtually useless).
So we bought our new TV, then we had to queue at the collection point to pick it up. Once we got it home the fun began. Connecting things like TVs, DVDs, cable and games consoles falls to me: Chris has got no idea, and wouldn’t even know where to start. So while he prepared dinner, I set about setting the thing up. It took some time. The cable and DVD recorder only have scart outlets: the set was supposed to have two scart compatible inputs, but it turned out it only has one. Oh, and neither the cable nor the DVD player have component or HDMI outputs, which is what the TV requires. Even the Wii, which is less than a year old, only comes with a composite cable, and there is no composite input on the TV. Apparently you can buy component cables for the Wii (at around £18) but no shops seem to stock them – I can only find them via the internet. Modern technology is not downwardly compatible: a ploy by the manufacturers to ensure that we have to upgrade our equipment every few years, even though the old model is perfectly serviceable.
I managed to eventually get to the TV working last night, although I still had not got everything connected properly, and while we had dinner we watched an old Morecambe and Wise from the 1970s – as Chris pointed out, it was somewhat ironic that we chose an old show as the first thing to watch on our new TV. After dinner, and after Chris had taken the dogs for a quick walk, we sat down to watch the Christmas edition of Doctor Who, which we had not yet got round to watching. We were pleased with the picture we got, as we were taking high quality streaming from BBC iPlayer. We enjoyed the programme as well: I thought the fish were very imaginative. And at least this year it wasn’t some sort of Christmas disaster set on Earth.
Today has been another grey, miserable day, where everything appears drained of all colour. After I took Max for his morning swim in the smaller of the two Creekmoor ponds, a ploy to help reduce his weight and help repair his injured shoulder, I went back to sorting out the TV. I’ve concluded that I cannot plug both the DVD recorder and the cable box into the TV, but now we have a decent Freeview decoder on the TV I don’t think it’s important. I can use the cable box to provide a signal to the DVD recorder, whilst we watch something else on Freeview on the TV. Eventually we will most probably get a Freeview recorder, but as our old one is working fine at the moment we don’t see the point. We’re also hoping that they will come down in price. I sorted out the Wii, at least temporarily. I worked out which component sockets to use for the composite lead, such that I get a picture and sound. That means at least I can go on playing my new game (the original Mario Galaxy). I’ve also set up my Flickr account on there, so that I can view photos from Flickr on the TV, and I’ve set it up to go to my You Tube account. The TV comes with a connection to the Love Film dvd hire service, which now offers streaming of many titles. Currently we are with Tesco DVD rental, which is run by Love Film anyway, but which doesn’t provide streaming. So I’ve signed up for a free trial of Love Film and we have 14 days to decide whether we want to swap. I’ve noticed that most of the newer films, which are mainly the ones we watch, and the US TV series we tend to hire, are not available for streaming. Also, although streaming of over 4,000 films is free, they charge for many popular titles: this is in addition to your monthly membership fee. Oh, and one last thing I didn’t mention, is that as I am using a Wi-fi internet connection for the TV it has found my PC, so I can play any photos, videos or music that are on the PC on the TV without having to go to all the trouble of connecting the two.
Sorting out the TV and doing a bit of cleaning took all of the morning. This afternoon I went to Wimborne to do some shopping, but was not wholly successful. The cook shop didn’t really have a sale on, and I tried to get some new wellies in the outdoor shop, but they were so busy and only had one person serving, that I gave up. Even in Waitrose I had to queue for the Quick Check checkout, and then had to have all of my shopping re-scanned, which is a real pain. I came home via Broadstone where I called into the library. I was armed with a long list of teenage reading (part of my writing project) but could not find a single book on my list. And when I did find one of the authors, they only had the book that was second in the series. So I picked books at random. I did bring home a couple of Neil Gaiman books to read though: Stardust (I really enjoy the film) and Anansi Boys.
Well, that pretty much brings me up to date: time to think about getting dinner. Tonight we’re having Gordon Ramsay’s Bengali Prawn Curry, something I’ve made before which is fairly quick and easy and definitely very tasty. I’ve bought some baby Pak Choy to go with it.
Talking of luxuries, we finally bought a new TV yesterday. We’ve been looking seriously since about last May, but there are so many to choose from, and so many different things to take into account (half of which we don’t understand), that we just kept wandering out of the shops in a daze, having spent around 30 minutes talking to an assistant. Choice is not necessarily a good thing. It’s a bit like information overload. Too much, or in this case, too many, and your brain just can’t take it all in. Who knows what the differences are between leading brands and their different technologies. And brands that were reliable in the past aren’t necessarily reliable now. Chris and I decided that in the end, you pays your money and you takes your choice. We opted for a Sony Bravia with internet connection. It was expensive, but at least there was £400 off in the sale. And we’ve found that the built in Freeview works absolutely fine (rendering our cable virtually useless).
So we bought our new TV, then we had to queue at the collection point to pick it up. Once we got it home the fun began. Connecting things like TVs, DVDs, cable and games consoles falls to me: Chris has got no idea, and wouldn’t even know where to start. So while he prepared dinner, I set about setting the thing up. It took some time. The cable and DVD recorder only have scart outlets: the set was supposed to have two scart compatible inputs, but it turned out it only has one. Oh, and neither the cable nor the DVD player have component or HDMI outputs, which is what the TV requires. Even the Wii, which is less than a year old, only comes with a composite cable, and there is no composite input on the TV. Apparently you can buy component cables for the Wii (at around £18) but no shops seem to stock them – I can only find them via the internet. Modern technology is not downwardly compatible: a ploy by the manufacturers to ensure that we have to upgrade our equipment every few years, even though the old model is perfectly serviceable.
I managed to eventually get to the TV working last night, although I still had not got everything connected properly, and while we had dinner we watched an old Morecambe and Wise from the 1970s – as Chris pointed out, it was somewhat ironic that we chose an old show as the first thing to watch on our new TV. After dinner, and after Chris had taken the dogs for a quick walk, we sat down to watch the Christmas edition of Doctor Who, which we had not yet got round to watching. We were pleased with the picture we got, as we were taking high quality streaming from BBC iPlayer. We enjoyed the programme as well: I thought the fish were very imaginative. And at least this year it wasn’t some sort of Christmas disaster set on Earth.
Today has been another grey, miserable day, where everything appears drained of all colour. After I took Max for his morning swim in the smaller of the two Creekmoor ponds, a ploy to help reduce his weight and help repair his injured shoulder, I went back to sorting out the TV. I’ve concluded that I cannot plug both the DVD recorder and the cable box into the TV, but now we have a decent Freeview decoder on the TV I don’t think it’s important. I can use the cable box to provide a signal to the DVD recorder, whilst we watch something else on Freeview on the TV. Eventually we will most probably get a Freeview recorder, but as our old one is working fine at the moment we don’t see the point. We’re also hoping that they will come down in price. I sorted out the Wii, at least temporarily. I worked out which component sockets to use for the composite lead, such that I get a picture and sound. That means at least I can go on playing my new game (the original Mario Galaxy). I’ve also set up my Flickr account on there, so that I can view photos from Flickr on the TV, and I’ve set it up to go to my You Tube account. The TV comes with a connection to the Love Film dvd hire service, which now offers streaming of many titles. Currently we are with Tesco DVD rental, which is run by Love Film anyway, but which doesn’t provide streaming. So I’ve signed up for a free trial of Love Film and we have 14 days to decide whether we want to swap. I’ve noticed that most of the newer films, which are mainly the ones we watch, and the US TV series we tend to hire, are not available for streaming. Also, although streaming of over 4,000 films is free, they charge for many popular titles: this is in addition to your monthly membership fee. Oh, and one last thing I didn’t mention, is that as I am using a Wi-fi internet connection for the TV it has found my PC, so I can play any photos, videos or music that are on the PC on the TV without having to go to all the trouble of connecting the two.
Sorting out the TV and doing a bit of cleaning took all of the morning. This afternoon I went to Wimborne to do some shopping, but was not wholly successful. The cook shop didn’t really have a sale on, and I tried to get some new wellies in the outdoor shop, but they were so busy and only had one person serving, that I gave up. Even in Waitrose I had to queue for the Quick Check checkout, and then had to have all of my shopping re-scanned, which is a real pain. I came home via Broadstone where I called into the library. I was armed with a long list of teenage reading (part of my writing project) but could not find a single book on my list. And when I did find one of the authors, they only had the book that was second in the series. So I picked books at random. I did bring home a couple of Neil Gaiman books to read though: Stardust (I really enjoy the film) and Anansi Boys.
Well, that pretty much brings me up to date: time to think about getting dinner. Tonight we’re having Gordon Ramsay’s Bengali Prawn Curry, something I’ve made before which is fairly quick and easy and definitely very tasty. I’ve bought some baby Pak Choy to go with it.
Monday, 3 January 2011
I'm back, I'm back!
So, here we are: another new year and another attempt at blogging. I don’t know why I feel I never have time to keep up either this or my photoblog, but it seems that the more time I have the less time I feel I have to write. A strange conundrum.
Take this past 7 weeks. I had corrective surgery on my foot. I say ‘corrective surgery’ as it sounds somewhat less mundane than ‘I had surgery to sort out my bunion’. It’s like there is some sort of stigma attached to having a bunion. Plus, people tend to think ‘Oh is that all’, whereas in fact it is quite a big deal. Ok, it was done under local anaesthetic, but I have a 4 inch scar and a chunk of bone was cut out of my foot and the bones pinned and re-set. So after having that done I had to rest with my foot up a lot of the time. I should have had hours and hours on my hands. I had planned to read all sorts of things, play games on the Wii, watch films, and I had a major photographic project to scan my old negatives and slides. And, of course, I could have blogged about it. But in the end I did hardly any of that. I think part of the reason was that I found I was not happy just sitting about and being waited on, so I tried to do as much as possible for myself as soon as possible. And although I couldn’t walk the dogs (or, in fact, walk anywhere much at all) it was not long before I was back to doing the cooking and cleaning so that at least all that poor Chris had to do was walk the dogs numerous times per day (since Jez was on her normal walks whilst Max was on 3 short lead walks only) and occasionally nip to the shops for things like bread, milk and orange juice (I had previously stacked the freezer with leftover meals, chips and vegetables, and had a mountain of tinned and dried goods in the garage). In between all of this housework- type stuff I tackled the photo project, which took absolutely hours – far longer than I had ever imagined. I am still nowhere near finished, but I have made a good start, sufficient, in fact, to be able to give my Dad a couple of CDs of old photos for Christmas.
The other advantage of being laid up for the end of November and the first half of December was that I missed out on all the snow and ice. I couldn’t really go out at all for the first snowfall at the beginning of December as I still had to wear my orthopaedic sandal all the time, and no way was I going out in deep snow in an open-toed sandal. That said, of course, one of my appointments with the nurse was on 2nd December when it first snowed, and we had to go down into Poole, so I had no choice. I managed to avoid getting too wet my pretty much walking on my heel with my toes stuck in the air – not very elegant, but effective.
Initially, the snow itself was beautiful: crisp and even, if not deep. I can’t remember seeing it piled on the branches or leaves so much as it seemed to be this year. The black bamboo behind the pond was completely bent down, draping on the ice with the weight of the snow. The dogs loved it, although Max struggled as it turned to ice and kept falling over. I, meanwhile, was treated to silent movie displays of pure comedy as I watched Jez and Max racing down our ice-covered drive with Chris desperately clinging onto their leads, feet skidding around as he tried to stay upright whilst running to keep up with them and to keep upright.
The second batch of snow hung around for a lot longer, and it was this that provided the really icy paths. I went to Broadstone on Christmas Eve to pick up the meat from the butchers, and even though they had tried to grit the paths, the grit was lying on solid ice, and so it was still difficult to walk. It also meant that, although it didn’t snow on Christmas day, we had a white Christmas. I can’t remember the last time that happened.
Dad and Pat came over Christmas day. I cooked a small turkey crown and a large rib of pork on the bone for dinner. I thought it was going to be a disaster as I was following a Jamie Oliver recipe for slow-cooked pork which requires roasting for 6 hours, and after 5 hours my joint looked in danger of being well overcooked. So at that point I took it out of the oven and let it rest. Meanwhile I had only just put the turkey joint in! In the end all was well though, and everyone said it was the best Christmas dinner they could remember, which was gratifying.
So now it’s the New Year: I am back to walking the dogs most days and am full time of all other chores such as shopping, cooking, cleaning etc. The photo project is on hold for the time being, although I will need to pick it up again soon as I have all of the photos out of the loft and they are now cluttering up our guest room. And I feel I want to write. What I would actually like to do is write a book (quite a few people tell me I should having read my blogs), but if truth be told, much as I would like to I do not actually believe I am good enough. So my latest idea is that rather than dive in on any thoughts of a novel, I could set myself the task of regular blog writing, with a view to getting into the habit again, plus of trying to improve my writing skills, particularly in respect of descriptive prose. Time will tell how serious I really am about this, or the extent to which I will succeed.
Take this past 7 weeks. I had corrective surgery on my foot. I say ‘corrective surgery’ as it sounds somewhat less mundane than ‘I had surgery to sort out my bunion’. It’s like there is some sort of stigma attached to having a bunion. Plus, people tend to think ‘Oh is that all’, whereas in fact it is quite a big deal. Ok, it was done under local anaesthetic, but I have a 4 inch scar and a chunk of bone was cut out of my foot and the bones pinned and re-set. So after having that done I had to rest with my foot up a lot of the time. I should have had hours and hours on my hands. I had planned to read all sorts of things, play games on the Wii, watch films, and I had a major photographic project to scan my old negatives and slides. And, of course, I could have blogged about it. But in the end I did hardly any of that. I think part of the reason was that I found I was not happy just sitting about and being waited on, so I tried to do as much as possible for myself as soon as possible. And although I couldn’t walk the dogs (or, in fact, walk anywhere much at all) it was not long before I was back to doing the cooking and cleaning so that at least all that poor Chris had to do was walk the dogs numerous times per day (since Jez was on her normal walks whilst Max was on 3 short lead walks only) and occasionally nip to the shops for things like bread, milk and orange juice (I had previously stacked the freezer with leftover meals, chips and vegetables, and had a mountain of tinned and dried goods in the garage). In between all of this housework- type stuff I tackled the photo project, which took absolutely hours – far longer than I had ever imagined. I am still nowhere near finished, but I have made a good start, sufficient, in fact, to be able to give my Dad a couple of CDs of old photos for Christmas.
The other advantage of being laid up for the end of November and the first half of December was that I missed out on all the snow and ice. I couldn’t really go out at all for the first snowfall at the beginning of December as I still had to wear my orthopaedic sandal all the time, and no way was I going out in deep snow in an open-toed sandal. That said, of course, one of my appointments with the nurse was on 2nd December when it first snowed, and we had to go down into Poole, so I had no choice. I managed to avoid getting too wet my pretty much walking on my heel with my toes stuck in the air – not very elegant, but effective.
Initially, the snow itself was beautiful: crisp and even, if not deep. I can’t remember seeing it piled on the branches or leaves so much as it seemed to be this year. The black bamboo behind the pond was completely bent down, draping on the ice with the weight of the snow. The dogs loved it, although Max struggled as it turned to ice and kept falling over. I, meanwhile, was treated to silent movie displays of pure comedy as I watched Jez and Max racing down our ice-covered drive with Chris desperately clinging onto their leads, feet skidding around as he tried to stay upright whilst running to keep up with them and to keep upright.
The second batch of snow hung around for a lot longer, and it was this that provided the really icy paths. I went to Broadstone on Christmas Eve to pick up the meat from the butchers, and even though they had tried to grit the paths, the grit was lying on solid ice, and so it was still difficult to walk. It also meant that, although it didn’t snow on Christmas day, we had a white Christmas. I can’t remember the last time that happened.
Dad and Pat came over Christmas day. I cooked a small turkey crown and a large rib of pork on the bone for dinner. I thought it was going to be a disaster as I was following a Jamie Oliver recipe for slow-cooked pork which requires roasting for 6 hours, and after 5 hours my joint looked in danger of being well overcooked. So at that point I took it out of the oven and let it rest. Meanwhile I had only just put the turkey joint in! In the end all was well though, and everyone said it was the best Christmas dinner they could remember, which was gratifying.
So now it’s the New Year: I am back to walking the dogs most days and am full time of all other chores such as shopping, cooking, cleaning etc. The photo project is on hold for the time being, although I will need to pick it up again soon as I have all of the photos out of the loft and they are now cluttering up our guest room. And I feel I want to write. What I would actually like to do is write a book (quite a few people tell me I should having read my blogs), but if truth be told, much as I would like to I do not actually believe I am good enough. So my latest idea is that rather than dive in on any thoughts of a novel, I could set myself the task of regular blog writing, with a view to getting into the habit again, plus of trying to improve my writing skills, particularly in respect of descriptive prose. Time will tell how serious I really am about this, or the extent to which I will succeed.
Sunday, 26 September 2010
It's been so Long
So much for my regular blogging again. I keep thinking about it, then can’t be arsed. Which shows I must be much happier or much lazier. I like to think it’s the former. And, of course, I have my photo blog, which covers quite a few day to day things. I’m even getting behind in that, though.
I’m not going to try and do a catch up, but I will just detail a few current bits. Jez is better – both legs are fine and she can happily walk for 2 ½ hours. Max, on the other hand, has some sort of soft tissue injury in his shoulder, which has been hanging around for nearly a year now. The vet recently X-rayed him and confirmed that there isn’t anything wrong with his joints, so we just have to rest him – 20 minute or so lead walks for 3 months. We’re only 2 weeks in and already it seems to be dragging on. I thought we’d got over all this. So now the dogs have to be walked separately.
As for me, I’ve been having more and more trouble with the big toe on my left foot. It, and my other toes hurt a lot at times, especially after about an hour’s walking. I saw a consultant in June and he confirmed it’s a bunion. It won’t get better and will only get worse. So I’ve made the decision to have it operated on. I go for my pre-med on Thursday. I’m told the operation is likely to be 4-5 weeks after that. It will be day surgery, most probably just under a local, even though they are going to cut out chunks of bone from my big toe in order to straighten it. Then I have to rest for another 6-8 weeks – no dog walking from what I can make out.
Recently I’ve been watching a programme on the BBC called The Great British Bake Off, which was a baking competition. It’s inspired me to start baking again, and I’ve bought the book from the series. I’ve had some successes (like the stem ginger biscuits which are simply yummy), and some failures (my rock cakes went flat like cookies the other day for some reason). But I’m quite enjoying it.
I’m thinking of volunteering to help out with a charity – someone must have need of my skills. As usual though, I’m scared of the commitment. But as Chris says, if I don’t like it I can always stop since I’m simply volunteering. There are two branches of Save the Children locally so I’m thinking of applying to them. They do a lot of good work and now I can’t donate as much money it would be good to think that I could at least do something to help.
I’m going to leave it there for now. I need to decide where to post this - I’m running the same blog on 3 different sites at the moment. I may just limit myself to Bowienet and Wordpress and drop Blogspot, but I’ll see. It’s posting the photos in this blog that are the pain. If I can just cross refer to my photo blog then that will make life a lot easier. But it may make this blog a lot more boring.
Time to drink my coffee now. I’m waiting for Chris to bring Jez back from her morning walk so that I can take Max out.
I’m not going to try and do a catch up, but I will just detail a few current bits. Jez is better – both legs are fine and she can happily walk for 2 ½ hours. Max, on the other hand, has some sort of soft tissue injury in his shoulder, which has been hanging around for nearly a year now. The vet recently X-rayed him and confirmed that there isn’t anything wrong with his joints, so we just have to rest him – 20 minute or so lead walks for 3 months. We’re only 2 weeks in and already it seems to be dragging on. I thought we’d got over all this. So now the dogs have to be walked separately.
As for me, I’ve been having more and more trouble with the big toe on my left foot. It, and my other toes hurt a lot at times, especially after about an hour’s walking. I saw a consultant in June and he confirmed it’s a bunion. It won’t get better and will only get worse. So I’ve made the decision to have it operated on. I go for my pre-med on Thursday. I’m told the operation is likely to be 4-5 weeks after that. It will be day surgery, most probably just under a local, even though they are going to cut out chunks of bone from my big toe in order to straighten it. Then I have to rest for another 6-8 weeks – no dog walking from what I can make out.
Recently I’ve been watching a programme on the BBC called The Great British Bake Off, which was a baking competition. It’s inspired me to start baking again, and I’ve bought the book from the series. I’ve had some successes (like the stem ginger biscuits which are simply yummy), and some failures (my rock cakes went flat like cookies the other day for some reason). But I’m quite enjoying it.
I’m thinking of volunteering to help out with a charity – someone must have need of my skills. As usual though, I’m scared of the commitment. But as Chris says, if I don’t like it I can always stop since I’m simply volunteering. There are two branches of Save the Children locally so I’m thinking of applying to them. They do a lot of good work and now I can’t donate as much money it would be good to think that I could at least do something to help.
I’m going to leave it there for now. I need to decide where to post this - I’m running the same blog on 3 different sites at the moment. I may just limit myself to Bowienet and Wordpress and drop Blogspot, but I’ll see. It’s posting the photos in this blog that are the pain. If I can just cross refer to my photo blog then that will make life a lot easier. But it may make this blog a lot more boring.
Time to drink my coffee now. I’m waiting for Chris to bring Jez back from her morning walk so that I can take Max out.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Down on my knees in suburbia
So much for my regular blogging! This morning Chris has taken the dogs out as there is footie on this afternoon. I was planning to sit and read The Guardian Magazine from yesterday, but then remembered that I hadn’t written anything in ages, so here I am sitting at the table writing.
We’ve been having another spell of fine weather these past few days (after even more heavy rain for a couple of weeks). It’s been lovely walking the dogs in the sun. I’m in short sleeved T-shirts. Max gets very hot very quickly. In fact, he woke me up at 1.30am this morning panting heavily. I had the window shut as Jez was on the bed with us, but had to open it. Which meant she woke up and started barking. But at least Max stopped panting!
I’ve been busy in the garden this week. I’ve dug the two largest beds over and have put in a few new plants. I’ve got the two smaller beds left to do. I’ve also attempted to re-seed the lawn (or should I say large area of mud with patches of grass growing on it). A combination of a very wet winter, dogs and workmen have all conspired to ruin my lawn. I’m not sure how well the seed will grow, especially with dogs wandering all over it.
The big news from the last month is that we’ve booked a holiday (well, I’ve booked a holiday). We are off to South Devon, a place called Bolberry Down near Hope Cove, for a week at the beginning of May. You can see the details here. It will be interesting to see how the dogs cope – and how we cope with taking the dogs away. I can’t bring myself to put them in kennels (let alone afford to) though. I think they’ve both had enough of that from their RSPCA days. Of course, Jez was with her siblings and really too young for it to have any impact on her (she actually loves going back there). But they told me Max hated it. I’m trying to work out how we can actually fit everything in the car, as the dogs take up the whole boot area and Chris can fill a car when he goes away for a weekend, let alone a week. We need to fit in 2 big bags of our stuff, 2 throws for the furniture, 2 duvets for the dogs, dogs towels, our towels, laptop, Wii (yes, we’re taking that), cameras & tripod, dog food and bowls, leads, harnesses, at least some food for us… the list goes on. And we’ve only got a small hatchback. I want to buy a roofbox, but the only make that will fit our car is Thule, which is expensive (almost as much as the cost of the cottage for the week), and Chris is dead against it.
On Easter Sunday we went over to lunch at Dad’s. We had Roast Lamb, which I love but never cook as Chris doesn’t like it (Dad cooked Chris a pork chop).
We all had Easter Eggs, including the dogs.
And I really like this photo of Jez and my Dad.
The following day I walked to Upton Country Park as there was a craft show on there. I managed to get my cousin a birthday present for the end of this month (as was the plan), but also got a really nice freshwater pearl and amethyst necklace for Pat’s 90th birthday in September, as well as a necklace & earrings for me. It was the start of the nice weather, so I got a few nice shots of flowers in the gardens.
I’ve also been taking some photos of birds in the garden while I’ve been digging - well, mainly photos of the robin. I’m told that our European robins are different to the US robins, although they are all part of the same family. Ours are much smaller and look much cuter. I must remember to buy Christmas cards with robins on for my US friends this year!
And I mustn’t forget the blackbird.
Well, I think that will do for today. It will take me ages to resize and upload these photos and get them into this blog, so I’d better get started.
We’ve been having another spell of fine weather these past few days (after even more heavy rain for a couple of weeks). It’s been lovely walking the dogs in the sun. I’m in short sleeved T-shirts. Max gets very hot very quickly. In fact, he woke me up at 1.30am this morning panting heavily. I had the window shut as Jez was on the bed with us, but had to open it. Which meant she woke up and started barking. But at least Max stopped panting!
I’ve been busy in the garden this week. I’ve dug the two largest beds over and have put in a few new plants. I’ve got the two smaller beds left to do. I’ve also attempted to re-seed the lawn (or should I say large area of mud with patches of grass growing on it). A combination of a very wet winter, dogs and workmen have all conspired to ruin my lawn. I’m not sure how well the seed will grow, especially with dogs wandering all over it.
The big news from the last month is that we’ve booked a holiday (well, I’ve booked a holiday). We are off to South Devon, a place called Bolberry Down near Hope Cove, for a week at the beginning of May. You can see the details here. It will be interesting to see how the dogs cope – and how we cope with taking the dogs away. I can’t bring myself to put them in kennels (let alone afford to) though. I think they’ve both had enough of that from their RSPCA days. Of course, Jez was with her siblings and really too young for it to have any impact on her (she actually loves going back there). But they told me Max hated it. I’m trying to work out how we can actually fit everything in the car, as the dogs take up the whole boot area and Chris can fill a car when he goes away for a weekend, let alone a week. We need to fit in 2 big bags of our stuff, 2 throws for the furniture, 2 duvets for the dogs, dogs towels, our towels, laptop, Wii (yes, we’re taking that), cameras & tripod, dog food and bowls, leads, harnesses, at least some food for us… the list goes on. And we’ve only got a small hatchback. I want to buy a roofbox, but the only make that will fit our car is Thule, which is expensive (almost as much as the cost of the cottage for the week), and Chris is dead against it.
On Easter Sunday we went over to lunch at Dad’s. We had Roast Lamb, which I love but never cook as Chris doesn’t like it (Dad cooked Chris a pork chop).
We all had Easter Eggs, including the dogs.
And I really like this photo of Jez and my Dad.
The following day I walked to Upton Country Park as there was a craft show on there. I managed to get my cousin a birthday present for the end of this month (as was the plan), but also got a really nice freshwater pearl and amethyst necklace for Pat’s 90th birthday in September, as well as a necklace & earrings for me. It was the start of the nice weather, so I got a few nice shots of flowers in the gardens.
I’ve also been taking some photos of birds in the garden while I’ve been digging - well, mainly photos of the robin. I’m told that our European robins are different to the US robins, although they are all part of the same family. Ours are much smaller and look much cuter. I must remember to buy Christmas cards with robins on for my US friends this year!
And I mustn’t forget the blackbird.
Well, I think that will do for today. It will take me ages to resize and upload these photos and get them into this blog, so I’d better get started.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
I was going round and round the hotel garage
Well so much for my regular blogging! Too many distractions at the moment, I think. I’ll try and fill in most of the key bits of the past couple of weeks since I last posted, although I think I’ll leave the saga of my falling out with B&Q until I’ve got a bit more time.
So the Wii arrived. I’m very pleased with it, and have been having lots of fun. I’m using the balance board to do some warm up type exercises and hoola hoop stuff, but am still doing my pilates. I’m useless at the balance games on it, but they’re still good fun. I seem to excess at the obstacle course in the Wii Fit Plus games for some reason.
At Katja’s recommendation I bought Mario Kart and Chris & I are now wasting many hours failing to win a race! That’s not strictly true, but there are some courses where I don’t seem to be able to come anywhere other than last. If I thought I was bad at driving in GTA IV then I’m hopeless in this. I also splashed out (well used my Tesco reward vouchers) to buy Band Hero (with the guitar, mic & drum kit) and the Beatles Band Hero game. We haven’t even attempted the drums yet, but are totally useless at the guitar. I don’t think I’ll ever be capable of progressing to using all 5 buttons. But then, in a way, who cares – we are having fun and enjoying ourselves. I think it’s rather surprised Chris – he didn’t think he’d use it, but is enjoying it. Then yesterday I bought the Dance routine game, as Maria said it was really good exercise and I enjoy dancing. But it’s odd. I always thought I had quite a good sense of rhythm, but either the game/remotes are playing up or my timing is crap.
This week Tiger Woods PGA tour golf arrived on loan from my DVD rental company. Chris was a bit miffed that I could hit the ball a lot further than him right from the start. And he found it really tiring (mainly cos he kept taking massive swings at balls which failed to go the distance in the tutorials – LOL!). I’ve told him it’s good exercise. I got a big groan when I asked if he, as he was playing as Tiger Woods, he got to shag the women in the crowd.
So, that’s the Wii.
Last Saturday was my Dad’s birthday, so I asked him and Pat over for Sunday lunch. I did the Caribbean Pot Roast again as it was so nice. It was a good choice. At 89 Pat doesn’t tend to eat a lot, but she kept taking more and said it was the nicest meal she’d had in years. I was really pleased. In the afternoon I introduced them to the Wii which was fun. They enjoyed it, and Pat did really well at the boxing! Anyway, here’s a couple of photos from Sunday for you.
I was beginning to think that we’d never see the last of the rain. I am sick of tired of muddy walks, muddy dogs and a muddy house. And I’m forever cleaning. But the weather looks as though it might finally have broken the past couple of days as we’ve been having quite a bit of sunshine. It’s making walks a lot more pleasant, as you can see from the photos I took at Hamworthy on Tuesday.
Also, since my last blog, cattle have been bought over to this side of Canford Heath as part of the heath maintenance programme. They keep back the gorse and trample in seeds etc, apparently. We managed to meet them last week – Jez and Max were most excited. There are about 8-10 of them, I think (they were in the trees when we met them). I was surprised how big they were – for some reason I had been expecting them to be slightly smaller (although it’s not as though I don’t know how big a cow is).
Better go now – Chris is on his way home with the dogs and I’ll be expected to towel Max off.
So the Wii arrived. I’m very pleased with it, and have been having lots of fun. I’m using the balance board to do some warm up type exercises and hoola hoop stuff, but am still doing my pilates. I’m useless at the balance games on it, but they’re still good fun. I seem to excess at the obstacle course in the Wii Fit Plus games for some reason.
At Katja’s recommendation I bought Mario Kart and Chris & I are now wasting many hours failing to win a race! That’s not strictly true, but there are some courses where I don’t seem to be able to come anywhere other than last. If I thought I was bad at driving in GTA IV then I’m hopeless in this. I also splashed out (well used my Tesco reward vouchers) to buy Band Hero (with the guitar, mic & drum kit) and the Beatles Band Hero game. We haven’t even attempted the drums yet, but are totally useless at the guitar. I don’t think I’ll ever be capable of progressing to using all 5 buttons. But then, in a way, who cares – we are having fun and enjoying ourselves. I think it’s rather surprised Chris – he didn’t think he’d use it, but is enjoying it. Then yesterday I bought the Dance routine game, as Maria said it was really good exercise and I enjoy dancing. But it’s odd. I always thought I had quite a good sense of rhythm, but either the game/remotes are playing up or my timing is crap.
This week Tiger Woods PGA tour golf arrived on loan from my DVD rental company. Chris was a bit miffed that I could hit the ball a lot further than him right from the start. And he found it really tiring (mainly cos he kept taking massive swings at balls which failed to go the distance in the tutorials – LOL!). I’ve told him it’s good exercise. I got a big groan when I asked if he, as he was playing as Tiger Woods, he got to shag the women in the crowd.
So, that’s the Wii.
Last Saturday was my Dad’s birthday, so I asked him and Pat over for Sunday lunch. I did the Caribbean Pot Roast again as it was so nice. It was a good choice. At 89 Pat doesn’t tend to eat a lot, but she kept taking more and said it was the nicest meal she’d had in years. I was really pleased. In the afternoon I introduced them to the Wii which was fun. They enjoyed it, and Pat did really well at the boxing! Anyway, here’s a couple of photos from Sunday for you.
I was beginning to think that we’d never see the last of the rain. I am sick of tired of muddy walks, muddy dogs and a muddy house. And I’m forever cleaning. But the weather looks as though it might finally have broken the past couple of days as we’ve been having quite a bit of sunshine. It’s making walks a lot more pleasant, as you can see from the photos I took at Hamworthy on Tuesday.
Also, since my last blog, cattle have been bought over to this side of Canford Heath as part of the heath maintenance programme. They keep back the gorse and trample in seeds etc, apparently. We managed to meet them last week – Jez and Max were most excited. There are about 8-10 of them, I think (they were in the trees when we met them). I was surprised how big they were – for some reason I had been expecting them to be slightly smaller (although it’s not as though I don’t know how big a cow is).
Better go now – Chris is on his way home with the dogs and I’ll be expected to towel Max off.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)