Bah!

Threatening

Bah! it's back to work for me today and tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday, bah! bah! bah!........I get so used to my not working routine that to have to go to work is most disruptive! I mean hey, I have emails to type, a blog to fiddle with and friends to talk to, oh for a job with internet access!

I'm not complaining of course, (would I?) and the financial remuneration will certainly not go amiss this side of Christmas, or any side of Christmas in fact, I just have my little life all plotted and sorted here at home! :o)

Hey ho, off I go. The weather this morning is somewhat 'inclement' a howling wind and yet more stair rods of rain. PG is most disgruntled, it is his day off and the golf course is flooded, well not just the one he belongs too, all those in the vicinity so it looks like it's Tiger Woods and virtual golf for him today! At least there won't be issues about who utilises the pc with me out of the way! Apparently the laptop, which as a rule I don't use because all my 'stuff' is on here and I never get to update it there, doesn't have enough ram for old Tiger! Make note to self to sort that.....what's the going rate for 256 these days Jenny?

The only other news in the gemmak household is Poppy, who appears to be in the process of losing another tooth, she only has three remaining as it is poor thing but is none the less making a good improvement otherwise and eating like a horse again thank fully :o))

Back with you this evening, likely slightly tattered around the edges, post 8 hours with 'Joe Public'.....Heavens! 8 hours! Bah! I think this is where we came in................

Spiders and me......

....just don't 'do it' for each other, they terrify me and I kill them! Well rather I get PG or any other available brave soul to kill them or at the very least dispatch them to some far off place.

Despite my love of things living, I just cannot tolerate the eight legged species. Snakes, cockroaches, in fact anything else that lives and breathes I have no problem with but spiders.............sorry, no way!

My life is dictated by this irrational fear, I have tried and tried to overcome it but to no avail. I never get into bed without checking that something untoward is not lurking, I check the shower curtain, the bath, I don't venture into the dark recesses of cupboards etc. without some trepidation and normally i don't consider using a towel without careful inspection.

And thereby hangs the tale. Last night, relaxed, fed and almost ready for sleep I decided a shower was in order, I duly showered and began drying myself off. I didn't check the towel for inhabitants, I was feeling quite chilled. At one point in the drying process I thought I saw 'something' but as is my way I told myself not to be silly!

Big mistake...........seconds later the most enormous, ekkkkk, I can't say the word but you know the creature I mean, jumped out of my nice warm, soft towel and into the bath!!!!!! This thing was like a bloody saucer, I kid you not.

Now despite my normal predilection for behaving in at least a reasonably 'seemly manner' my reaction was swift and very unseemly. I screamed, somewhat alarmingly and fled the wet bath naked, at such speed that enroute I of course slipped. I righted myself almost instantly, caring not for a now sore knee, my only goal to escape this monster!

So there I was, dripping, naked and shaking in the hallway with PG desperately trying to discover my woe.......probably not the most aesthetic of sights!!

He duly 'dealt with' my tormenter and proffered for my use a clean, well checked towel, I most certainly could not have used the one that had so recently been home to the you know what!

Don't tell me this is irrational, that they don't hurt etc.etc.etc.......I know that but it doesn't help. Don't recommend to me hypnosis or some form of aversion therapy, it has been considered and found wanting in my case! I can't even kill or deal with them myself, I can't look at one long enough without becoming incoherent!

The psychology of this fear is interesting I suppose, any other situation in life I am presented with I deal with at least with an appearance of calm.....but spiders, no way, no chance, no rational thought, just instantaneous panic that appears before I am able to get a grip of my wits!!!! Arghhhhhhhh.

From 6 weeks to 16 years

Brand new ~ December 1988


Birthday cat ~ 19.10.2004

*Guest contributor* ~ Blogging Debut ~ 'Retroguy'

I've been asked to make a guest appearance in the wonderful world of blogging. Given that if you ask my 11 year old daughter she will say I often make a fool of myself I'm sure I'm going to just that in some shape or form now, so be prepared.

My experience of blogging stems from my friendship with gemmak. We have been friends for a long time now, have never met, but I certainly list her in a select few people in my life I share personal things with and who's opinions and friendship I value. I'm sorry to say we don't share the love of cats. I have a particular dislike for the ones that crap in my garden. I admit to admiring the fact that they recognise that if I appear they are likely receiving a soaking via a cup of water or be converted over the fence via my right foot...(the common England problem of having no left foot!)

The diversity of the blogs are incredible and shows that the wonderful world of cyberspace isn't just filled with individuals wishing to discover what one is wearing! A read through daily blogs will furnish one with a more accurate view of the world and what's happening than relying on the Super Soaraway Sun. Although I would say that you do need to read the Sun in order to keep up with the latest goings on with "George and Lynne" alas Striker is sadly missed,who knows someday Nick Jarvis may have a cameo role in George and Lynne! Having got into the habit of reading blogs most days ( I do actually get some work done here ) I must admit to being a fan of "My Boyfriends a Twat"

Nothing really rattling my cage right now apart from trivial issues regarding my daughters football team that I manage...so i'll comment on gemmak's blog "Channel 4 rebuked". I have been a great fan of BB but have to say it was became obvious from before the last series had begun it had been manufactured to be a staged punch up / shag fest. Late night television is an animal in it's own right and let's be fair most people who are up at these hours are fully aware that there's likely to be a tadge more flesh and blood and an increased frequency of graphic language than is likely to be heard around the time of Emmerdale. I really get sick and tired of reading about how many calls BBC/ITV/Channel 4/ Channel 5 has received complaining about content. There is such a simple and complete solution to this..the off button. I can't remember there being any thing that makes it mandatory to have the TV on at all.....unless something has been slid through Parliament while the Men in Tights were tackling the invaders! There are programmes that if I miss means I have the large hump but how many people get down the library these days and read about something they know nothing about. How about learning to cook, grow some vegetables, or get fit or fitter. The last sentence will give you a clue about as gemmak would say the things that "Do it for Me"

I think I'll leave it there for now, I'm struggling to get into flow due to the fact that my employers, here in the City of London, actually expect me to do some work when I turn up here.

Hopefully I may be invited back.

~Posted by 'Retroguy'~ (Yes I was there!)

Channel 4 is 'rebuked'

Emma

Big brother 5 is in the news again. This time because it's makers and broadcasters Channel 4 have been 'rebuked' by Ofcom for allowing the live screening of a fight that occurred in the house to continue to be broadcast.

Apparently Ofcom received a number of complaints that the broadcast should have been cut and that security should have intervened sooner....... some viewers even went so far as to call the police!

I am not entirely sure if I am amused or annoyed by the decision to take to task Channel 4 for their handling of the situation, a little of both I think.

My greatest feeling is of disbelief that viewers should react in this way in the first place. Come on, this incident was broadcast well after the watershed and I cannot believe that anyone who watched Big brother wasn't either expecting or hoping for some confrontation. It was not rocket science to see that it was coming well before it happened and on the scale of Television and film violence it was but a mere spat. It was the behaviour of drunken fools maybe but not the stuff of serious complaint.

Yes it was live and I don't necessarily say I approve whole heartedly of the behavior of the housemates but did those viewers who complained really think that a company the size of this would have no security in place to deal with such circumstances or that Channel 4 would miss out on what, from a viewing statistics point of view, was going to be a winner. Get real.

Some may not agree with the format of the programme or violence on television in general but it never ceases to amaze me how others want to censor our viewing or complain about it's content when after all there is an off button. If you don't like the content of something on TV, turn the damn thing off!! Again, it does not require genius to make this happen.

No one, certainly in the UK, can not be aware that there is a watershed at 21.00 hrs in place or that Channel 4, as one of the forerunners of 'pushing the boundaries' in British broadcasting, may indeed show content that 'some viewers may find offensive'.

I agree with the watershed principle, I agree that some items broadcast are in poor taste, maybe even damaging,I agree that our children should be protected in a responsible way from overt sex and violence on our screens what I do not agree with is small minded people with nothing better to do wasting the time of the police and other authorities over something that by comparison to many, many movies and other broadcasts was insignificant.

Come on guys, you of the Mary Whitehouse brigade, live and let live and if you don't like it don't damn well watch something that by it's very nature is likely to be confrontational.

An amazing thing has happened

How many teeth?

You may recall on Saturday I made mention in my post that as I fell asleep a thought struck me that I would blog about later. This is later! I didn't want to blog it until I had confirmation that what had happened was correct.....and now I have!

Firstly I must apologise, I feel somewhat of a fraud, you will understand as you read.

Late on Saturday night as I fell asleep thinking of Poppy's predicament and how I could help her, a memory almost lost, of something Maggie had said to me suddenly returned to my conscious thoughts and things started to fall into place. She had said to me earlier in the day that I should check in Poppy's mouth for obstructions but having spoken to the vet and got his sad prognosis I forgot in my state of upset.

So in the middle of the night we got back up, propelled a rather confused cat into a suitable examination position and against her protestations managed to open her little mouth. It is not easy for the un-practiced to know quite what to look for in the mouth of a cat who is struggling madly but I noticed a kind of 'hole' on her gum. I first thought it was, as the vet had suggested, an ulcer, caused as a result of her failing kidneys but it was not angry looking like an ulcer, then it struck me.............she had lost a canine tooth! I was still unsure but as luck would have it I had taken the above photograph a few weeks earlier so we quickly checked the picture and sure enough there had been a tooth where there was now not one. This set off a chain of thought.......I recalled a few days previously that she had been 'fussing' with that side of her mouth but satisfied at the time that she was not choking I had forgotten it. Now it made sense.

And so this was what had lifted my spirits on Saturday night, the possibility that Poppy's symptoms of slavering and drinking may not be her advancing kidney failure but rather a dental problem.

This evening we made our way to keep an appointment with our favorite vet, still not really allowing ourselves to hope too much.

She was duly inspected, listened too and gently prodded, she had a little basic dental care (she has very few teeth anyway, having had some extracted a few years ago) and a shot of antibiotic.

And the prognosis?.....she lost a tooth, she has a sore slightly infected gum and that is the cause of her symptoms. Yes, she does still have kidney problems but not as as advanced as was first thought, in fact the vet finished by saying she is in the general health of a ten year old cat, not bad for a cat who is 16 tomorrow!!
Yes, we could lose her at any time at her age but if nothing changes it will not be as soon as we had feared....she may even have a year or two left if we are lucky!!

Some birthday present :o)

I feel like someone has taken something very heavy from my mind. You will understand now why I feel somewhat of a fraud, all the kind thoughts and comments at the sad news and now it seems thankfully that my sadness was unwarranted. I did, I know take the advice of the professionals and they made the best judgement with the information available.... but still I feel a fraud!

And Maggie, well I have thanked her personally of course but now I will do it publicly, without her special gift I would never have known..... and how long Poppy might have suffered I don't know. She said to me in a mail this evening "I looked closely at her face in yer picture, she told me she was irritated, NOT dying". Where animals are concerned there is something Maggie has that most of us don't.

Thank you Magz, the biggest most chocolate covered thank you ever...... and thank you also to all of you who left me so many caring comments or mailed me. The time will come when I lose Poppy but hopefully and with a little luck her demise will not be quite so soon!!!

I am happy tonight......and Poppy has tuna :o)

Guest blogger?

I have invited a long time friend to guest blog here, who knows...... there might be a temporary respite from my constant ramblings before too long! Let's see if he takes up the challenge! :o)

A little Blogger trick

Those of you who use Blogger will be only too familiar with the annoyance of losing a post. We all know the situation, it's one of Bloggers little reminders that we are not actually in charge of our destiny. You spend precious time typing a post only to hit 'publish' and find the Blogger gremlins kill it before your very eyes!! Well just maybe all is not lost, I discovered a possible rescue plan on Saturday night.

Having suffered this aggravation a few times in the past I normally type up my post in notepad and paste it into Blogger. On Saturday evening, feeling tired and with lack of concentration I typed directly into Blogger, hit publish and..... horror, the publish status gave up and 'stuck' at 18%. Grrrrrr, thought I, as I uttered some rather unpleasant expletives. I sat for a moment and considered, there must be a way to rescue my post. I sure as hell wasn't gonna re-type it!

There was it transpired a way and you might like to try it next time the gremlins get your hard work.

We all know that at this point if one hits the 'back' button there will only be a blank 'new post' page, the original post will have gone to the big blog in the sky. I left the 'stuck' page open and opened the 'edit posts' page in a new window. I had noticed before that providing the publish status gets past 1% and providing one doesn't hit 'back' the post is often still 'saved as draft' or on occasion even published.......and there it was, safe and sound in the new page!! I hurriedly pasted it into notepad,( I was NOT going to risk losing it again) closed the original window and published from the new window.

It worked! My post was rescued.

So, next time this annoying Blogger foible presents itself, you might like to attempt this trick. I can't promise it will always work, I have thus far only tried it this once but it's worth a bash. Anything is better than having to re-think and re-type a whole damn post!

A rainy day

It was back to work for me today after my almost two weeks off.

I went to bed last night with the sound of heavy rain beating against the window, seeming somehow to echo my mood, I woke again this morning to the rather inelegant screech of the alarm accompanying the sound of more heavy rain fall. My mood was different though from yesterday, lighter. Something struck me late last night as I fell asleep, a memory of something someone had said to me. I will blog on that at a later date, now is not the time.

So I hit the road at 6.30 am, the first time this Autumn that is has been dark for my journey. Still torrential rain fell, leaves blew all around and I saw no other vehicle for my entire journey. I saw a fox, a few rabbits scuttling around in a hurry to get back into their burrows and a slightly bedraggled looking pheasant. but no cars.....no people.

Sometimes I love living here and this morning was one of those times. I felt lucky to be in the middle of nowhere, to see foxes and rabbits on my drive, not buildings and traffic jams, to see the rain and hear the sound of the wind. I stopped in a lay-by to call PG to make sure he had got up for work and just sat there for a few minutes, ahead of me a horizon filled with a black sea, the warning light of the lighthouse flashing slowly, a few tiny lights from fishing boats twinkling and the sound of the rain hitting the roof.

I am lucky.

Talking of cats.

Poppy

Well ok we weren't but it seemed to follow on nicely from the very amusing picture I posted this morning......... and so talking of cats, I had some bad news today.

My old cat Poppy, who is 16 in four days time had for a while apparently been suffering the standard, old age cat complaint, of failing kidneys. She had visited the vet in July and was pronounced 'remarkable' for her age and holding her own on the kidney front. Sadly it seems no longer to be the case.

Having noticed some decline in her general state of health and the tell tale sign of a gradually increasing thirst I consulted the oracle in matter of cat, Maggie, she who knows almost all there is to know about animals and then subsequently the vet.

The outcome is a sad one and something anyone who is owned by a cat dreads, Poppy is unlikely to be for this world for too much longer, in fact if she is still gracing our bed and harassing us for food by Christmas we will be fortunate.

The decision has been made, I watched gemmak die of the same thing, fought the medical battles and subjected her to all that science had to offer. In the end it prolonged her life only a few weeks and in no way made those few weeks any easier for her. This time, and thankfully with the support and agreement of the vet, nature will be allowed to take it's course. Little is to be gained from putting her through the trauma of blood tests, medication and a special diet she will doubtless hate. She will have all that a cat could wish for, for as long as she lasts, and when the signs are that she has had enough, we will do the sad deed knowing she had a lovely cat life to the end.

My hope is that if it has to happen I will wake to find she has died in her sleep one night..... though I think that as is the way of things, it is unlikely to be the case.

Having lost gemmak I thought I was more prepared this time, I'm not so sure now. To some it may sound like a small trauma and on a world scale I know it is. Maybe it's the 'woman with no children thing' who knows, but Poppy has been with me and been my friend though thick and thin for 16 years and the prospect of not having her grace my life for much longer is something I have dreaded.

So it's off to get tins of tuna and fresh chicken, give her lots of attention and allow her permanent access to the human bed, this cat is gonna have fun to the end. Perhaps she will get a 'second wind', but I'm realistic.

I am sad today...... but happy that she chose to own me all those years ago.

I just had to....

...share this:



I know the feeling! :o)

A massive thankyou....

....to everyone who left a comment on my 'Another predicament' posting of yesterday.

I was flabbergasted this morning to log in and see so many of you caring about my wellbeing to such an extent..rarely do I smile so broadly or get a lump in my throat at such an early point in the day. I was genuinely, extremely touched and felt that I couldn't just thank you all at the bottom of the comments, rather that I must blog my thanks where anyone dropping in will see them.

Along with all the kindness and concern there was much common sense and good advice and for that too I thank you. When I lived in a city I was more than aware of my personal safety, since I moved to 'the back of beyond' I kinda listened to the locals who said 'nothing ever happens here', silly really considering we had a murder in the village a few months back!

Suffice to say, I will take heed of the advice and put my 'personal security head' back on, I cannot avoid this guy, he lives so close he can see my every move from his home should he be inclined and I'm not sure mace is available in the UK let alone legal for a 'Jane Doe' such as me to carry but I will take reasonable precautions and begin by telling the owner of the dog where to get off....tho hopefully in more polite terms than that!

All that remains to be said is another MASSIVE THANK YOU for the concern and care shown to me by you all

A dictionary of terms

For those of you, like myself, in the U.K. who have ventured across the blogging pond frequently and found yourself bemused by some of the terms regularly used, we now have our own 'dictionary of terms' thanks to an hilarious favorite of mine, Wacky Southern Housewife :o)

Another predicament

I have an uncanny ability to find my way too frequently into somewhat difficult situations, my mother has long said that trouble and disaster seem to somehow find me with more frequency than is usual. I have blogged on this subject before and so won't repeat myself, suffice to say I have involved in more than my fair share of unpleasantness in my 40 something years.

My current predicament is not on the same scale as some of those I have previously found myself in but none the less a solution evades me for now.

This afternoon my neighbour visited me, the German lady who's disobedient dog I unwittingly inherited when she was taken ill during the summer. That is where the problem begins. Having made a good recovery I found myself still walking her dog four times a day, she seemed reticent to take back the task and so a protracted spell of my gradually excusing myself from the duty began. It met with some degree of protestation and various excuses as to why she couldn't now walk him herself but I dug my heels in despite having a tendency to saying 'yes' when I mean 'NO'. Hell.....why do I do that, and by a few weeks ago was only responsible for some of the evening walks.

And then something happened one night and I stopped altogether.

Despite arriving at my door apparently on different errand it was patently obvious that the reason for this visitation was to try and illicit from me a reason as to why I had abandoned all dog walking duties so suddenly.

That is where my predicament lies. I can't tell her the truth, if I tell her the truth, within hours it will be at four corners of the village and beyond and yet I can't think of a valid excuse to give her.....she is nobody's fool and I'm a crap liar!

So this 'something that happened'? The dog has to walked at 9.30 pm, it is not negotiable, that was fine in the summer, albeit it frequently messed up my evening and once the nights became dark by that hour I still had no worries. That changed on one of the regular 'dog drags' a few weeks ago when it became apparent that someone was hiding in a disused garage that it is unavoidable for me to go past. We have no street lights here, it is pitch black at night, I should have had a torch but I kept forgetting to buy one. The garage in question has no door and no light and as we approached it I heard the shuffling of feet, heavy feet, this was not a cat or a fox! The dog went instantly on red alert, I stopped and listened, I heard breathing, the shuffling stopped and for the first time I recall in my adult life I had to resist my natural fight or flight response and force myself to remain calm.

We walked on, I told myself not to be so silly, we got to the end of our route and turned back, on approaching the garage again, more shuffling, more breathing and dog on red alert again. I stood stock still for a moment, I could hear my own heart in my chest...that's it I thought and ran like hell!

It was PG who from then on forbade me to walk the dog at night. I'm not one generally given to allowing myself to be forbidden from anything but you may understand a little more and forgive our paranoia when I tell you we have a relocated sex offender living not 20 yards away who a while back took to calling at my door for no apparent reason, pulls his car infront of our flat looks and leaves and calls at my place of work with some frequency despite never buying a damn thing!

So my predicament is this, I have always believed in giving people a second chance and if I tell my neighbour my real reasons for quitting the dog rota she will doubtless broadcast the information. If I am wrong about this man his second chance will be gone. In my heart I know I am not wrong but I have no proof. My information regarding his past is of course not official but it comes from a reliable source and whether it was he in the garage that night I will never be able to prove.

Either way, I don't want to be the one to begin such terrible gossip, if I am wrong and it became common knowledge it would be terrible for him, if I am right should i not be warning my neighbour?

I just don't know.............