U.S. coverage of the paralympics

I am appalled!

One of my favorite and regular reads is Someone else's life. Blackrat, it's author, never fails to deliver something both well written and absorbing, Today is no exception. His latest posting concerns the U.S. broadcasting companies coverage of the imminent paralympics, or rather the lack of it!!

I am for once lost for words. I won't repeat here the content of his post, rather I urge you to read it for yourself HERE.

Indoor hunting!!

Blue Tit. Parus caeruleus

Ditto, having honed her hunting skills over this summer, to such a degree that we have bestowed proudly upon us at least one 'gift' a day seems to have turned her attentions to a less rugged form of sport.

We have tried our best to dissuade her from the attractions of live quarry, she has not one but two bells on her collar, a reflective 'tag' that the maufacturers assure the purchaser is noticed more readily by the unfortunate creature within her sights, though I have my doubts and wherever possible we are seen chasing her like madmen to extract small mammals from her jaws before serious harm is done. We are often successful in this endeavor and are the source of much amusement for our few neighbor's who call us to alert us when they see her 'with prey' and then watch us scooting about after her in a most ungainly manner!

With winter approaching and her dislike of the cold on her paws she has, it seems begun training for a new winter 'game'! Our living room window is very narrow and hinged at the top. It has installed a lock, which enables it to only be open approximately 2 inches, purposely so, in an attempt, as we live on the first floor, to prevent her skydiving in moments of over excitement. Yesterday however she managed somehow to circumnavigate this security measure to some degree. Just as I exited the shower, dripping wet, there was an unearthly commotion from somewhere close by. On investigation, still dripping wet, I came upon Ditto, beside herself with glee, chasing a blue tit around the living room! She had it seems managed to catch it through the 2 inch opening in the window....heaven knows how. The window is recessed from the outside preventing birds flying close to it, we have never seen one land on the sill and even if that was the case the design is such that I just cannot see how she would get any part of her body in such a position as to reach! We are still scratching our heads on that one.

Suffice to say, a scene followed that I am sure to any onlooker would have been hilarious. A most undignified battle began between a naked an wet me, a terrified bird and a much thrilled Ditto!

I am pleased to say that ultimately I was victorious, bird and cat where separated, cat was confined to another room and bird was captured unharmed, if somewhat alarmed, and released safely. I was left with an extremely miffed cat, a living room scattered with small feathers and an array of scratches on my unprotected flesh!

Said cat is now most confused, she can obviously smell 'bird' in 'her house' and is still monitoring the area closely in the hope of further sightings and possible opportunities for indoor hunting!!

...and on a lighter note

Can we have some manners please!!!

At the eleventh hour

Today didn't work out as planned.....at the 'eleventh hour', circumstances beyond our control dictated it better that we go to visit PG'a father tomorrow. Half of me heaved a sigh of relief the other half knows we have to key ourselves up for it allover again in the morning.

Consequently I have found myself at a bit of a loss as to what to do with my day, having made plans to be busy all day today I had caught up with everything I needed to do last night and what I was going to do tomorrow will have to wait, that aspect of the re-arrangements I'm not sorry about!

Tomorrows planned job was to be to endeavor to lay a laminate floor myself.
I will no doubt rue my decision to take matters into my own hands later this week. Ok guys I know this isn't quite on the scale of house building or foundation digging but believe me, that stuff is damn heavy when you're small!

I'm not even convinced I like the stuff but the carpet is crying out to be replaced and laminate flooring is cheap, this is a rented property and I'm not paying a fortune to carpet someone else's floor! Laminate is also considerably more forgiving where cat vomit is an issue!

So I'm off to gather together a jigsaw, mitre block and other sundry items. PG has promised to assist but I wont hold my breath, particularly if there is an upturn in the weather and golf becomes an option! DIY is neither his passion nor his forte.

Expect there to be expletives of exasperation here later this week ....these
'simple' jobs fail ever to be simple in practice!

Hospital visit

The weekend at work with it's sadness' overwith and this morning we are off to visit PG's father in hospital. This is our first visit, his parents live a considerable distance away and visiting restrictions combined with work made it impossible sooner.

It's one of those difficult decisions, one's gut reaction is to immediately 'be there' but employers are 'less emotional' and common sense and hospital advice advise a less 'knee jerk' reaction.

His father is slightly improved since yesterday, he remains ventilated and critical but is awake at times and recognises those around him.

I have to admit to being one that watches medical drama and reality shows from time to time but events such as those this weekend bring home that it is perhaps not 'drama' to be watched for entertainment, rather it is other people's real lives and trauma and I should question the ethics of such shows and of my viewing them. When it happens in your own life or that of someone close to you it is a whole different story. In reality I am not a fan of hospitals, I doubt that many are. The selfish part of me anticipates this visit with some trepidation. Outwardly I cope well with these situations but inwardly, so much raw emotion and intensity I find hard to deal with at times. But today is not about me, it is about the others involved, PG and his family. So it's time to put my strong head on, brace myself and get on with the matter in hand of hopefully offering some support where I can.

Swan-song

Eggs


Hatched

Talking of swans, which I wasn't, but I have been recently, and I am doing again, a friend of mine from 'the south' sent me these lovely photographs (thank you Pauline) after she read my last 'swan post'.

The pictures where taken on a canal bank behind her place of work. She was lucky enough to be able to follow the progress of the parents and their eggs from laying to hatching and managed to take some pictures along the way.

Sadly these delightful little creatures may not have had a happy ending to their story. A few days later they mysteriously disappeared with out trace and where never seen again. The circumstances surrounding their disappearance where never discovered but it is thought a predator took them.

Nature can be cruel at times.

Apologies, it's not been the best day.

My apologies if you have mailed me or left me a comment and I appear to have ignored it thus far.....I will get to it eventually I promise and if anyone asked for a Gmail invitation and hasn't got it yet please remind me!

Today was not good, I am just home from a particularly hard day at work, it was hot, very busy, under staffed (what's new) and customers from hell where out in force.

I shouldn't complain, my annoyances pale into absolute insignificance in comparison to problems affecting some of those around me, about who I care.

PG's father was re admitted to hospital again yesterday. He underwent heart surgery last week and seemed to be doing well until 36 hours ago. He has undergone further surgery and is now in ITU, ventilated and critical but stable.

I arrived at work this morning to hear tragic news of two colleagues. We employ a Downs syndrome man, a lovely guy and a real character, sadly he suffered a stroke last night, we have no further details.

The brother of another colleague, also last night, in a freak accident, fell down the stairs and died of his injuries.

What can I say, my thoughts and sympathies are with all those affected. Today was a difficult day but it sure makes you count your blessings and appreciate those you love..........

The small things in life make it worthwhile

Puffin © Laurie Campbell

It's a special pleasure when little things work out so unexpectedly well, when in this age of mistrust and corporate paranoia someone takes your word and treats you as a normal reasonable individual.

On Thursday when I posted the beautiful picture of the swans, I gave little thought at the time to any copyright that I might have violated. A while later it dawned on me that the picture must actually be someone's property and so set about tracking down it's owner.

Task complete I emailed the individual concerned explaining that it was rather a case of 'locking the stable door after the horse had bolted' but please would he be kind enough to permit me use of his photograph. In honesty I expected to either hear nothing back, or to be the shame faced recipient of a mail telling me to take the picture down and reminding me sternly of copyright laws.

Neither was the case. I received a reply this morning from the individual concerned, a professional natural history photographer of some note, Laurie Campbell, not only giving me permission to use his picture but offering me the use of others should I need them. He also included information about his current exhibition at Paxton House near Berwick.

This nice little story goes further. It transpires that Mr Campbell lives not more than 10 miles from me!!! What a small world it is. I had no idea when I looked for the copyright owner who or where he was!

And more still. A week or two ago at work an advertising display was erected for bird food. On this advertisement is the most beautiful picture of a robin on frozen twigs, I fell in love with it immediately. On perusing Laurie Campbells online gallery the night before last I discovered the 'robin' is one of his!! Not only that but he has a number of limited edition prints still available for sale.....one of them will be mine!

I just love it when little things work out so happily, yesterday was not a good day in the gemmak household (more on that another time) and this nice happening made my day and renewed my faith in human nature.

For anyone even remotely interested in natural history or photography, a visit to Laurie Campbells website is a must. This guys work is beautiful and breathtaking...... an absolute joy.

Anyone want Gmail?

I have five Gmail invitations to give away.

Should you fancy one leave me a comment with any old reason why and I'll do my best to oblige.

I am of course open to bribery :o)

The 'Ikea experience'.

Ikea Edinburgh

Well, as you see above we made it! PG was devoid of excuse number 89 or any other it seems, though in true 'man style' general rumblings about tiredness after a day at work, other things he needed to do with the time (golf no doubt) and general malaise, began at about half way there!

I am bound to say, though I hate to give him further fuel for any future fire, I wish we hadn't bothered! The place was in more than it's usual state of disarray due in the main because just about every display seemed to be in the process of a rebuild and the one or two things we could agree on were out of stock. Necessary items of purchase were bedroom furniture, blinds and a light. The bedroom furniture is a long running 'issue' in the gemmak and PG household and as yet an agreement on style and type still evades us. Having disagreed yet again on what is required we chose to differ once more and tolerate for a while longer the current installation.

Blinds? Don't go there. I did find a suitable light and of course the obligatory re stock of candles but having arrived at the checkout the queues were abnormally long even for Ikea and in a sudden loss of any further patience we ditched the said items and made our escape. Even I am not going to queue for an inordinate length of time to pay for just £20 worth of goods!

Each time we make this trip we promise ourselves we will not fall victim to the 'restaurant' ( I use the term very loosely here) but as ever hunger and a lack of anywhere else to eat in the locality forced us to weaken. The usual luke warm and slightly aged fare was on offer. We suffered bravely! Ok, at £10 to feed two one can hardly complain but haute cuisine it is definitely not!

The decision was made that to rescue the day we would drive home on the coastal route rather than hit the A1 with it's inherent problems. This route is beautiful, along the Firth of Forth, toward North Berwick and Dunbar and as dusk was falling the colours and textures of the sea and sky where something to behold.


Firth of Forth

Relaxation began to melt away the 'Ikea experience', perhaps too much so. PG who was driving averted his forward gaze momentarily (well he claims momentarily, hmmmm) to take in the spectacle of Bass Rock and failed to notice we were hurtling toward a sharp right hand bend!! Amid impressive sounds of screeching, the smell and sight of burning rubber and a sudden feeling of things happening in slow motion we eventually came to a very abrupt halt, with perhaps 2cm between my car, various signage and the possibility of some serious 'off-roading'!

It was not good, PG who rarely admits error in driving and is as cool as a cucumber in most situations fell very quiet, uttered one loud expletive of relief, pulled the car back onto the road and sat quietly for a few moments! Not one excuse did he make!! The silence spoke volumes. When a guy doesn't offer excuses for a close call you just know it was bad! There was no need for the usual feminine lecture on the finer points of driving, he knew, we both knew! Credit where credit is due, he is one of the better drivers I have know usually, my car has no ABS and he controlled it well........I would have 'lost it' without doubt with consequences I don't wish to imagine. Had I been at the wheel things might have been very different. As it is I have a stiff neck this morning.....we were very lucky.


Bass Rock

You what??

I thought I had heard everything until I read this!!!

Is it for real or have I, as is my way, proved my gullibility yet again??

Just because.......

....they are beautiful.


Mute Swans © Laurie Campbell

"The Tweed estuary at Berwick is one of the largest herds of Mute Swans to be found in Britain, especially between late July and September.

Their numbers dwindle in the winter months but those that remain are then joined by Goldeneye, Red-Breasted Merganser, Pochard and other wildfowl."

© Northumberland County Council 2004

One of those days.

Yes, I'm having one of those days, bought about in this case, I suspect, by my predilection for not going to bed at any time my mother would deem remotely sensible.

I have sat here for the last hour surfing aimlessly, taking very little in, my mind is a complete blank. Last night, when I eventually did the horizontal thing, my head was full of ideas which seem to have shuffled off with my dreams to an obscure place and are not in any hurry to be dragged back to the vaguely operating part of my consciousness!

So that's it for now, I'm off to do some of the 'domestic goddess'stuff for a while, though I doubt that will inspire me. This afternoon we are off to Ikea, assuming of course that PG doesn't come up with 'tangible excuse number 89' in his much practiced, PG authenticated, list of '101 reasons not to go to Ikea' and I'll hopefully be back later slightly more compis mentis!!

Fish and chips.

Dusk toward Scotland. 31.08.04


Dusk toward England. 31.08.04

Yesterday evening PG and I had arranged to visit a colleague of mine to fix her computer. I add hastily here that in the main it is PG who does the hardware fixing, he is good at it, where as I fumble around in a none too confident manner. If only I could grasp the intricacies of the software aspect more fully we would make a good team! He should in my opinion and that of many others be working in the field but that's another story and I digress.

So having made this appointment we decided we would leave a little early and have fish and chips on the beach for supper. I wanted all my life to live by the sea and whilst we are in fact 12 miles away it is a damn sight closer than my previous places of residence, both of which were in the region of 80 miles from anything large and saline.

We duly made our way to the best fish and chip emporium in the town and then to the beach. I am, as they say here, a 'soft southerner' and so, the by then temperature of 6 degrees dictated that we sit in the car for this feast rather than actually venture onto the sand!

I could sit watching the waves, listening to the sound they make as they break onto the beach mingled with the call of seagulls overhead and looking into the massive expanse of horizon forever. Seagulls chattering away will always evoke in me an immediate feeling of happiness and of wonderful childhood holidays. They are considered vermin here, to the point that a professional bird handler is employed to fly his birds of prey among them on a daily basis. Apparently seagulls are fearful of hawks and it successfully keeps their numbers down!

Berwick upon Tweed is the northernmost town in England and has been variously 'owned' by Scotland and England over the centuries. In fact the most recent squabble for ownership was officially only resolved a few years ago though raging battles long since ceased! It still always amuses me as a newcomer that from where we where parked, in one direction is Scotland and in the other is England and that I 'cross the border' every day remains a source of strange fascination!

So, blissful reverie over we made tracks to the ailing computer. A pleasant evening of gossip, over cups of good coffee, was had by my colleague and myself and PG did his stuff over a bottle of wine.

Job done and it was home to a rather disgruntled Ditto who had been under house arrest all evening. We don't allow her out if we aren't in, she is not overly savvy and I fear for her taking on a badger or fox or some other inappropriate sparring partner and requiring rescue and medical attention, as has been the case on one or two occasions!

It was a good evening, made a nice change, I did of course park myself infront of this machine within minutes of arriving home and stayed put until the wee small hours. We had planned a visit to Ikea this afternoon but I feel a small siesta is now more likely and Ikea can wait until tomorrow! :o)