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January 28 supersize me!I have been into Newcastle, and in the Grainger Market there is a 'weigh house'. The dad and I had 10p worth each and the results were nothing short of shocking! Both he and me are now supersizers. So, it was straight to the fruit and veg stalls and 4 carrier bags later we are home. Gone are the mince and dumplings, the roast beef and yorkshire puds, the cheese and the biscuits and replacing them are salads, and salads, and salads! Can I do 2 stone in 8 weeks? Doubt it, but I will have a damned good try. The 8 weeks is until 25th March when he and me fly off to Rome for 6 days, I really don't want to have to buy a load of new fat clothes because the fact is, that everything I have has suddenly become tight everywhere.
So it's more walking for the dogs and no nibbles while I am doing stuff like this!
I will keep you posted.
January 22 Soggy tale. All this rain we have ben having is awful, and it put me in mind of John's muddy adventure last November when we took our usual cottage in the Highlands, and managed to pick the one week in November that it rained every single day almost without stopping. We were only a spit away from The Crinan Canal which is very beautiful, dead flat and has a canal path all 9 miles. Not that we walked the 9 miles at one go! Both dogs loved it as there were plenty of smells and the occasional other dog. We have noticed poor old Betsy getting a bit forgetful of late, she is 14, so it was good to be able to let her off the leash on the tow path and know she was safe. Ha! So much for what we thought. It was tipping it down on the Tuesday, and we drove to the canal, parked and as it was so bad, John volunteered to take the dogs himself, so off he went leaving me in the car, I got my book out and turned on the radio. It was ages, and I was just starting to get a bit concerned especially as his last words were 10 minutes there and 10 back, when eventually they turned up, all 3 soaked to the skin, and after getting the dogs into the back, he shed his waterproofs - which were thick with mud - straight into a black bin bag in the back of the car.
This was the tale: Betsy was happily trotting along when suddenly for absolutely no reason she took off and leaving the canal on her left she headed down the other side of the tow path, a slippy and mud covered embankment, into a boggy field. John called her, but she had other ideas and headed straight for the road across which were a few cottages in a horse shoe formation. The road she was headed for is very quiet, the main road being on the far side of the canal, this one probably only leads to the cottages, BUT…..that day, the only van which happened to be on the b****y road was that of SPCA (Scotland’s answer to the RSPCA). Needless to say, he stopped and as John (after scrambling down the mud complete with other dog) approached he proceeded to give him a lecture about dogs being on leads etc. While he was doing this, Betsy had taken a fancy to the open door of one of the cottages and disappeared inside. The SPCA feller obviously thought that was where they lived and drove off. John approached the cottage and called to Betsy…nothing. He knocked at the door…nothing. He called again…nothing. So in desperation he peered round the door to see Betsy curled up on the rug in front of a lovely fire! No sign of an occupier, he quickly leashed her up and legged it back over the road, the boggy field and with considerable difficulty, up the muddy embankment! I needn’t tell you after a few expletives from John, we both saw the funny side of it and could hardly drive for laughing. I just hope he didn’t leave too much mud on the poor soul’s carpet. January 17 If you are called John you may not want to know thisSince Christmas I have been updating and and putting onto the PC the 'Anniversaries' list since 1950 at my parish church. First of all the handwriting of some of the preists is akin to some doctors, and some poor dead souls are recorded with my best possible guesses on the spelling of their names. Then there is the Ann and Anne guess and the Mc and Mac, not to mentionthe Rourke's Rouke and O'Rourke. I could go on with Wear, Wears & Weir and many others but I think you now have the picture.
The one thing that has stood out more than anything is the number of Johns who have died in the month of May, similarly, Margarets seem to have a preference for November as their month to shuffle off. We have 58 deceased for May, 31 of these are women and of the 27 men remaining 18 are named John which compared to other months is huge. Watch this space for the pie charts!!!! Only kidding, I mean about the pie charts!
I crossed the Penines this morning to visit Phil's latest update and chuckled at his quiet pleasure in finding that he had not been picked out as the butt of the day, instead some other poor suckers had fallen prey. He mentioned an ATM machine and strangely yesterday I also had an encounter with same.
To pay the central heating engineer for the systems yearly service I nipped to our hole in the wall, an elderly gent was busy with a transaction and as I waited a woman neighbour came by and we had a bit of a chin wag, I was aware that the chappie had finished and moved away and shortly the chat with the neighbour came to an end and I moved in to use the machine. On the machine was the startling words,'YOUR BALANCE IS £2,750', and beneath that, 'WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO NOW'? I stood there my card in hand, thinking WOW! What would I like to do now? 'Course I quickly shut down the system grabbed the card it spat out and hared off after the auld fella. I noted the name on the card and fortunatly because it was a foul sort of day there weren't many ancients to choose from and caught up with him. I asked would he mind telling me his name which he did and thankfully it was the one on the card which I returned to it's rightful owner. He said that it wasn't the first time he had done something similar and thanked me very much. I persuaded him that in future he should go into the bank and do any transaction over the counter with his card, he said he didn't know you could still do that and he as very relieved to know that that option was still possible. Poor old b****r could have been robbed blind.
So toodle oo for now, it's still pouring so keep your wellies to hand....probably to foot would be more appropriate.
January 14 Just another manic MondaySo, here’s a thing. I’m all geared up to start blogging again, so pleased to be back because I really missed you all, and what happens? Sunday the PC grinds to a shuddering halt, and I really mean Grrrrrinds! With a horrible noise it froze. So today I took me tower to Dr techi and I would like to say it’s good as new, however, it is in fact still making strange juddering noises and limping along. So I think a new Dr techi is called for. These things are so great ….when they work!
Christmas Nuts This is the true story of me and my recent experience with Christmas Nuts. We have yet another very elderly relative who we don’t see too often as she stays a lot with her family in the South of England. Knowing she was home again from one of her travels, we called round there just after New Year to give her our good wishes for 2008. She wandered off to the kitchen to put the kettle on and as she went she told us to help ourselves to some sweeties which were in a dish on the coffee table, alongside of the dish was a small dish of shelled brazil nuts, which I am very partial to. J helped himself to a couple of Roses chocolates but I opted for the brazils and ate 3 or 4. They were lovely and I was just about to help myself to another when there was a horse screech from the aged one…. ”No” she cried, “Not the nuts” I assured her they were fine, I’d already eaten some and they were good. “Oh dear” she said, “They were from a box of chocolate brazils, and I cant do the nuts anymore, so I sucked off all of the chocolate and thought I’d give the nuts to the birds”. We all ended up absolutely in stitches, but to be honest, I really wish she hadn’t told me! January 10 Hello!A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE, Hope 10th January isn’t too late to send my best wishes for 2008. Don’t quite know what happened at the end of Summer last year, but my life just sort of went onto hold for a while as I entered a bit of a black hole. Thankfully I am crawling my way out now, a bit bashed and bruised and clinging to the wreckage, but quite determined to be a little more careful of my mental health in future by recognising my limitations as a human being. As a Christian, I always thought that God would give me the strength to match all the need I saw about me that required ‘fixing’. Clearly, God is telling me to keep me nose out of some things that I aint up to fixing, and that’s been a very hard pill to swallow. So, I’m drifting now, taking a happy day at a time, and when I feel the urge to man the ‘people’s kitchen’ single handed, or dash off to volunteer for all the things I did before, I have to physically take a step back, pick up a book or worse, try again to get the last ‘hard’ game in ‘Bricks of the Atlantic’, Oh Big Fish games what have you done to me! Thank you for all the comments left I will call around and have a look at you all, and let you know I am alive. I can’t promise to update every day, but I’ll do me best. Meanwhile, here's a picture of me and the dad taken on New Year's Eve which happened to be our 30th wedding anniversary.
Toodle oo the noo. X |
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