Life's pretty good at 112!

Click to enlarge pictures


You wanted something?


Ok...so how many teeth will you have at 112?

I don't think I have ever formally introduced Poppy, so loyal readers, this is Poppy. Poppy meet my loyal readers.

Formalities over I will furnish you with a little Poppy history.

Poppy was a rescue cat. On a dark October night in 1988 I visited the Cats Protection League in Manchester on the hunt for a kitten. I already had 'gemmak' and wanted a friend for her. They never did become friends but after much vying for superiority they did at least learn to tolerate each other!

Poppy was huddled in a rabbit hutch, both her ears held flat to her head, making meowing actions but emitting no sound. The proprietor of the establishment told me she was too ill to be of interest, she had no idea what was wrong with her but she thought it likely she would be put to sleep the following day.

Hmmmmm....I thought not!! I made a good case for taking her home with me and 15 minutes later left with 'nameless kitten' huddled in my jacket. The CPL are not normally given to allowing this sort of kidnap but I was known to this branch and I figure they felt if I was prepared to make the effort, then it was worth a try.

'Mother' and kitten hot-footed it to the vets, where it was decided that what ailed her was unknown, she was given antibiotics and I took her home. For two days she rallied and did kitten things, she played and she aggravated the life out of an un-amused gemmak..... but suddenly on her 3rd night she became desperately ill. I won't bore you with the day to day detail, suffice to say she stopped eating, became incontinent, dehydrated and extremely underweight. The vet ran all the tests known to him could and could draw no conclusion.


Just a beginner

Late one very cold and frosty night she appeared to have given up the struggle and myself and a friend took her to the surgery, heavy hearted, to be put to sleep on the advice of the now much involved vet. Upon arrival she came too and began to take some slight interest in what was going on. The vet put it down to the cold night air, gave her some drugs and said it was worth trying again, given she had shown further fight.

Home we went with instructions yet again, to feed her a saline solution through a syringe every half hour and to keep her body temperature up. My husband of the time, a fireman, worked shifts and so my friend stayed for a few nights and we took it in turns to stay awake and administer the saline. It was a cold house and at night all we could do to keep her temperature up was put her in bed with one or other of us. I of course could not sleep for fear of rolling over and squashing her.

Tests had returned to the vets from a veterinary hospital indicating a massive and unusual infection and different drugs where prescribed. The vet was wonderful, I was far from well off but he deemed that given the efforts we had made he would charge me only for the cost price of the drugs for what was to become a long course of medication. It did however still cost me in excess of £500.

Very gradually her strength returned. My husband had read somewhere that cats hate being dirty and while I was at work bathed her gently and dried her............I came home to a new cat! Still poorly but clean, tidy and trotting about carefully, obviously over the moon at feeling sweet smelling and presentable.

And that was that, she made steady progress and over a few weeks returned to a healthy full of life cat, she even mastered the art of meowing at last. The infection left her with one side effect, slight brain damage which manifests itself in slightly non-cat behavior. She is clumsy for a cat, her balance isn't quite what it could be and she gets 'lost' in the house now and then. Her idiosyncrasies only serve to make her more special.

I didn't ever think she would make it to 3 months old let alone her current 16 years. She has been through two husbands, 6 homes and travelled everywhere with me since her difficult start. She always had an understandable predisposition to nervousness and took time to settle in somewhere new. The first time I had to make the 400 mile drive to visit PG she was my sole companion. On arrival, in the wee small hours, she gave the place a quick once over,showed absolutely no signs of her usual nervousness, marched into the bedroom, jumped on the bed, settled down to sleep and decided this was the place she was going to 'retire'............her retirement is well deserved!


Oi! .....Talk to me while you drive.


Sunbathing is good for arthritis.

Are you a geek?

Find out at 'Innergeek'.

Take the test here

I scored 17.15976% which seemingly categorises me as an ordinary geek!

I'm not sure if that's good or bad!

Paranoia is setting in!

Fer pity's sake..........this whole damnable thing is falling into a shambolic state of disrepair despite my having spent hours working on it and having some, if limited, insight into how it works!

I seem to have no problems sorting other peoples difficulties but my own??? Pah! No chance.

My ongoing 'delete comments' issue was consigned to the 'deal with it another time' pile in an effort to maintain my sanity, Shoutbox managed to get their act together and all was looking unusually hunky dory...............for half a day as it turned out!

Today the Shoutbox has done the off again, blogger are sending me email notifications of comments left days and days ago or alternatively up to 12 notifications of one comment. The dash board functions are all operating at the speed of an ageing snail on a heavy dose of vallium, Blogroll has ceased all effort at showing 'updates, and 'Hello' is showing a distinct lack of enthusiasm in uploading even the smallest jpeg!

I'm going to adopt a new approach..........ignore it all and just blog, the odds and sods can do as they please!

Hmmmmmm......

Spammed

Point of entry.

As someone who has spent a large proportion of her life online over the last five years I have sometimes mused over the fact that I have never received so much as one piece of spam!!

I have the obligatory stupid number of email addresses, I am connected to the internet 24/7, I am not remotely careful where I surf, I shop online, I am on various mailing lists,etc. etc. etc. and still never have I been on the receiving end of those un-delightfully phrased emails we know and love as spam. Not once, not on one single occasion have I been offered a penis enlargement or a ready supply of viagra! PG has a similar record, zip, zilch a big fat zero.

My father on the other hand, like the majority it seems, spends the first part of his morning sifting wearily through his mailbox trying to find anything even remotely pertaining to a real email. Conversely he is very careful where he goes and what he does online, as is the way perhaps of silver surfers.

Very peculiar.

I have joked often on the subject that I feel left out. Why does no one see fit to regale my inbox with these offers of various delights? What is it I did to be so completely disregarded by the spammers? who knows.... but my self satisfied amusement at the misfortune of others inboxes being weighed down with the offending communications has come to an abrupt and shuddering end this morning. My very first spam arrived sometime overnight in the expected shape of an offer of a 'non surgical penis enlargement' and 'impressive erection rigidity'.......no surprise there then. The words pride and fall come swiftly to mind!

Ho hum.... one would think that these spammers might at least get their target audience sorted!

Policemen and funerals

Earlier this evening, before I gave up the unequal fight with the bugs that seem to have invaded my body and parked myself with abject self pity infront of the TV, I was on one of my regular 'new blog' searches.

Every now and then I take a little detour from my usual blog reading routine and attempt to uncover new gems that so far have evaded me. On this forray into the unknown I discovered two very different but very interesting and quite unusual blogs.

The first, 'A policeman's Blog' is just that, the thoughts and sometimes acerbic opinions of a serving officer in a large town somewhere in the UK. It makes very good, if slightly concerning reading.

The second is 'Real E Fun' and is the musings of a non religious funeral celebrant, Zinnia Cyclamen. I am always fascinated to to see an unusual profession from an insiders view, as opposed to the only access we usually have via the media.

There is a link on Real E fun to a service I have always wondered about. As a lifelong biker (or now ex-biker) the thought of ones own demise caused by some unfortunate accident can't help but enter into the mind from time to time. It is not a morbid thought, more an acceptance that it happens and hopefully being aware makes one ride with a little more care. As ever bikers do, I attended a few 'biker funerals' and on occasion I felt that the 'normal' funeral service was somehow not quite fitting. I recall saying to my brother that should the worst happen I wanted him to make sure my 'last ride' was in/on something appropriate!

Well it seems that the service I wondered about in the past exists. 'Motorcycle funerals' offer just that, biker funerals complete with Motorcycle hearse! I'm not sure that in the event my parents and some members of my family would have approved but I sure would have.

Having said that, let's hope myself nor anyone else needs the service in the foreseeable future!

Special Sunday

Meadowhall, Sheffield.

Brrrrrrr....last nights beautiful sunset came at a price. This morning we have a beautiful, clear, sun filled sky but a temperature of only 5 degrees C! I was tired last night and didn't check the weather forecast,consequently we didn't put the heating on and as a result its 'a bit chilly' in these parts right now. I have also woken with the beginnings of some noxious 'cold' bug.

Who cares......I have an unexpected Sunday off!

There will always be something special about a Sunday. This one is particularly special for me merely because today I'm not at work but all my life I have felt Sunday's are different to other days of the week.

In my childhood Sunday tended to be the day we got together with other family members or enjoyed days out. My father, by virtue of the fact he worked in television, always worked odd shifts and so I should be used to Sunday just being another day.... but somehow it isn't.

Despite the fact that we now all live in a 24/7 culture, motivated by economics, or in my opinion greed,I have had a long held belief that Sunday should remain the one day of the week where families and friends can relax together or individuals can do as they please. It is patently not the case in today's western society which I find sad.

I am of course biased, I have to work Sundays and it maybe unrealistic in today's world to expect not to, after all, the dedicated people who work in hospitals, for the emergency services or in a field such as that PG does, have no choice. The members of the public who require the services of these people do so on a 24/7 basis.

There is an significant difference here to me. The caring services are dealing with the lives of others, they make a real and important difference, the retail, entertainment and services industries are in it soley for the economic gain. That of course does not detract from the fact that those employed in the emergency services etc. still lose their Sunday but it at least is being lost for a very worthwhile reason.

I am of course no economist and I do understand that if one's competitor trades on a Sunday then so must the competition or risk losing the ever important 'market share'. When I chose to go into retail, Sunday trading was illegal. Sadly the majority of the large UK retail chains flouted the laws to such an extent that ultimately legislation was passed to enable Sunday trading to be legal. Theoretically that was to be an improvement because into the legislation was built specifics regarding the hours one could open. Sundays still seemed special at that point. A store the size of the one I am employed in can only open for 6 hours, which at least meant we got a lie in and to escape home early.

No......a way around that was soon found, the law only dictates how long the store may be open, not how many hours an individual can work, aside of course from the normal boundaries. Consequently most retailers now require Sunday staff to work a normal full day, the only difference being that 3 hours of that day is without the public present. There is a provision in the legislation for one to choose to 'opt out' of working Sunday, on religious or other grounds. One is legally not allowed to be penalised for taking that choice but having tried it believe me, if you take that option it is not well met and does damn all to enhance progression up the career ladder!

I am not a religious person, in fact I would describe myself as agnostic, I am just saddened that the all powerful 'God money' has eroded what was and in my humble opinion should still be, a special day.

Dream on eh?.

Swimwear for men!

Swimwear!

My apologies for this...... I just couldn't resist! A friend emailed this to me yesterday with the caption 'The latest swimwear for men,' seen recently on Californian beaches.

Lol.....someone in California please tell me it isn't true!!!

A Scottish sunset

Sunset 21.08.04

Ok........so it's not the Aurora Borealis but it beats the evening rain and fog of the last few weeks!

A sigh of relief

Today turned out to be good and bad in equal measure.

I struggled my ailing vehicle to work very slowly at the crack of dawn this morning, to be greeted with the news that one of my colleagues had been involved in a serious road traffic accident earlier in the week. Thankfully both he and his young son, who had been with him, survived. My colleague has significant injuries but will recover and his son miraculously escaped with nothing more than bruising.

That was most definitely the bad part of the day. Life sometimes seems very unfair, this guy already has more than his fair share of lifes problems and now this to add to them! He doesn't read this but I wish him a speedy recovery none the less. It's the kind of news that makes me count my blessings and stop grumbling about things that are really of no importance.

The good part of the day was that I am needed to work next Sunday, a day I had booked as annual leave. I agreed to change.....this consequently means I am now off tomorrow and given the poor state of my car prompts me to heave a sigh of relief.

Doubtless next Sunday it won't seem such a good idea but for now it seems just fine! Somehow an unexpected day off, even when I hardly work in the first place, is so much more of a treat!

Another Friday

Well that's it, another week over and back to work for me, I wonder what delights there are instore this weekend. As we rush headlong toward another Bank holiday it will doubtless not be an easy ride. Impending holidays never cease to tempt the masses to part with their hard earned cash or to more likely increase the nations personal debt!

To be honest I'm quite looking forward to a change of scenery and escape from this infernally frustrating machine. Two days solid I have beaten my head against a virtual brick wall and got absolutely nowhere in my quest to locate the missing icon. Blogger appear to have abandoned the sinking ship and so I have given up......well for now at least! Who needs to delete comments anyway??. It seems, should you post a comment you wish for some reason you hadn't, it is still possible for you to delete it yourself, just don't ask me to!

My first hurdle tomorrow will be to get my ailing car to propel me to work, something I'm not convinced it will achieve in it's current state of ill health. I start at 7am so it's early to bed and early to rise for me....theoretically at least. There is of course the possibility that I will still be sat here at 2am as is my habit, in which case don't expect too much in the way of intelligent input here until Sunday! :o)

Oh....and if you're looking for the shoutbox it's in temporary storage, that's bust too and is what was stopping this page loading last night. It will be back once it's host gets it sorted!

Have a good weekend ya'll

Eu-bloody-reka!!!

I've got my comments back!.......... still no trash icon but at least I'm getting somewhere. Well, back to square one anyway! lol

An old bag

I've had enough frustration for one day so onto something lighter.

Kaptain Kobolds hilarious post concerning the contents of his work bag got me considering the contents of my own handbag. Scary stuff!!

We women are notorious for the array of necessities we lug around with us on a daily basis and I'm no different. In fact, even at home my handbag is the centre of my life's organisation and contains everything I think I could possibly require both on a day to day basis and also in the event I should ever have to rush off at a moments notice! Many years I have been prepared thus but so far that moments has not materialised. None the less the bag remains in readiness and from it I seem to run my life.

And so I thought, we women bloggers, should for the amusement of others, divulge the contents of these infamous items and what we decree as indispensable items. You guys are not excluded. Should you be the proud possessor of a 'work bag' or some other receptacle you could not do without feel free to join in.

One rule: you have to be honest!

So here goes....the contents of gemmak's handbag laid bare:

Description: Surprisingly small black leather Tula bag, rectangular, short shoulder strap. No L.V. for me, I don't much care for then and if I did I couldn't possibly afford one!

Contents: Purple leather purse, driving licence, old pay slips,various receipts,a space pen (you never know when you're going to need to write underwater),car keys (two off), house keys,sundry 'feminine' items, hair wax,lip gloss,tweezers, nail file,another pen,ventolin inhaler, packet of cigarettes (should I have listed those together???) two lighters, (there is nothing worse than not having a light), emergency food (a chocolate biscuit and a tiny box of raisins), lip balm, a swiss army knife (used mostly to cut the top off packets of peanut M&M's)magnifying mirror, wrigley's extra thin ice, PDA (containing my life along with various photos, videos of my nieces and cats, MP3's and at least 10 ebooks should I ever be stranded). How I intend to recharge it on a desert island or in times of disaster I haven't yet worked out. A mobile phone and a USB memory stick.

Did I say 'a small bag'.....do I really carry all that around with me 24/7???

Your turn.

All change....NOT!

Envisage if you will dear friends, a small child livid in tantrum, arms and legs flailing wildly in all directions, jumping up and down and decidedly red in the face......there you have it, personification of my current state of mind and of how I would happily behave if only it were acceptable in a woman of a certain age!

No prizes for guessing what has caused this temporary regression into childhood......this damned infernal blog! What a bloody waste of time. I mused over the template options and liked none of them, presumably I didn't when I started this or I would have not chosen this one. Anyway, having decided to go for pretty and pink I pressed the button in anticipation, waited an inordinate length of time for my Heath Robinson dialup to present me with the result and what happened.......... I went pink alright but still with not a sign of the exasperating and neh' to be found delete icon I am missing!!!

So I tried six others...again nothing!

Bums and bugger and fuck!! My apologies for the use of such expletives, thus far I have resisted the use in this public forum but right now there are no other words in my vocabulary that suitably sum up my current level of frustration.....see it please, if you will, as my therapy and forgive me.

So as you see, I am back as I was, black and iconless.

Please....someone, anyone, HELP! There must be a techie out there somewhere who is giggling at my technical stupidity and knows what I am doing so wrong, just let me know and I will be indebted to you forever.

All change and another plea for help!

Rescue.

Before I bang on about my current woes I just couldn't resist sharing this picture from the Boscastle flood rescue. Of all the the images we have seen this one has to be one of the nicest and as one who worries what would happen to her cats if a disaster struck, it is a reassuring sight.

Ok......my woes, as ever are computer related. The long running, missing comments delete icon saga is still the bane of my virtual life. I have as instructed by the techies at Blogger cleared my cache, temp. files,history, cookies. I have checked every single letter and symbol on my template, have reduced the security settings to almost nil and set this infernal machine to happily accept so much in the way of cookies that it would glady take onboard Huntley and Palmers entire stock!

I have restored back to a time when I knew the delete function was working, I have logged in on four other computers, I have disabled my firewall and virus protection and checked for a picture place holder......there is none! Still this problem is not solved and Blogger seem to have washed their hands of it. They say they can see the offending item at thier end and so it must be an issue with my pc.

Add to that I also don't have a quick edit icon and I am now, even more annoyingly, getting reports that some of you can't access my comments at all to leave a message, I am completely confounded, confused, aggravated, annoyed, frustrated, perplexed and very slowly going demented!

In a last ditch attempt at restoring this blog to working order I am today going to change to a completley different template. If nothing else it will make life easier on the eyes of myself and Alan who both struggle in our dotage with the 'white on black' thing. I don't in all honesty know how a new template will help but at this stage anything is worth a try. Does the phrase clutching at straws come to mind here?

Failing that I may be forced to entertain Haloscan again..... or God forbid, take on the terrifying task that is Movabletype!

Suffice to say my friends, expect some disruption in this little corner of the virtual world today and if I fall of completely for a time don't be overly surprised. Your patience and any suggestions are much appreciated.

Oh, and it's still raining.................