Hamster in hiding!

Yesterday was our six monthly 'inspection'. By that I mean the day the letting agents who manage this flat come snooping around to check that we aren't wrecking the place, housing forty seven illegal immigrants or using it as a bordello.

It's always a pain, in the main of our own making I have to admit, because we smoke and the lease forbids such heinous activity, so inspection day always requires much rushing around with all the doors and windows open and cans of sweetly smelling air fresheners pressed into heavy service.

This time though there was one extra problem...Hammy! We aren't allowed pets either and whilst maybe we would get away with a hamster I wasn't going to test the theory, so the crack of dawn yesterday saw me racing around hatching a cunning plan to make her disappear temporarily!

This was no mean feat, given that her 'house' begins to resemble NASA and wouldn't fit in it's entirety in the designated hiding place, which from very limited options was the wardrobe! The whole kit and caboodle just wasn't going to fit and so I had to dismantle the whole issue and re-design a more compact pied a terre....all with one very stubborn and grumpy hamster still 'in situ'.


Eventually the task was complete, Hammy was installed in the bottom of the wardrobe and the multitude of spare parts were hidden away in cupboards...we were ready for inspection.

Oh no we weren't!

The inside of the wardrobe of course is dark, hamsters are nocturnal, her body clock was almost instantly thrown into confusion and she just wouldn't go to sleep, instead choosing to race around her (supposedly silent) wheel making a god-awful racket and scratching like merry hell trying to burrow her way out! Much faffing and many treats later she settled down some but as I was about to go out to the dentist and leave her to the inspector alone, should he arrive in my absence, she started up again!! Arghhhh.

I could think of no other option than to pretend (waddya mean 'pretend') I was a half-wit and turn on the bedroom radio, loud, in the hope that it would drown out her noise making antics and Mr Inspector man would assume I had left in a hurry and forgotten to turn it off!

In the event of course he didn't arrive until long after I had returned, so instead I steered him in and out of the bedroom poste haste and hammy remained safely undiscovered...then of course came the re-building NASA process and this time around an even more seriously disgruntled little hamster, who was by now completely fed up with all the disturbance and has very sharp teeth!

What a performance!

Commitment!

Just one memory

I got this little game from Karen's blog.

The rules are simple;

1. As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! And if we've never met in real life, leave me a comment of your favorite post I wrote and why it was your favorite.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually quite funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

How did he do that?!

As previously mentioned, next week we are driving to Positano for a family wedding, this is all good, save for one aspect....wedding's require a suitable outfit, this aspect is not good!

Firstly I don't 'do' posh clothes, it's just not my style, I don't like frocks and stuff of the flowery and flouncy persuasion and secondly and more importantly, it's almost impossible to buy 'grown up' attire for someone my size.

Years of trailing around shops getting hot and frustrated has taught me to dislike the whole dressing up carry on, because if you're a size 6-8 and only just five foot tall it just isn't happening...... and childrens size shoes are never what you could call elegant!

But, Fletch insisted that in 35-40 degree heat I just couldn't be dressed in anything I already have (the suit and boot kind of stuff) and consequently yesterday morning decided he was going to 'deal with' the issue.

I was far from convinced that in a village with only one clothes shop catering for the under 70's he was going to achieve anything other than failure but I humoured him and trailed without hope, into the aforementioned store.

I kid you not, literally within 5 minutes he had selected a dress he considered suitable and thought would fit and I was dispatched into the changing rooms, convinced I would re-appear looking ridiculous. I just don't suit dresses, they never fit, why wouldn't he be told!

Wrong....I scrambled into the provided item and looked in the mirror, it fitted like it was made for me!!! There was someone one staring back at me from the mirror who looked like a girl, with flowers!!! Bloody hell fire, where were my leathers? Much to my amazement it actually looked good, despite the fact I wouldn't ever have imagined myself in a flowery dress. Really, the last time I wore a dress I was still at junior school.

So I crept out of the changing room (as you do in that horrible self conscious way) for himself to assess the situation.... thinking only that I could still save the day because there wasn't a hope in hell of finding shoes to go with it.

Wrong again, while I was changing he had also found from somewhere the perfect pair of strappy, girly, heels which were handed to me with the instruction to 'put them on and stop faffing'. I did, they too fitted and were perfect with the dress!!! Done deal, he paid while I got out of the ensemble and home we went.

So, it looks like I'll be wearing a dress for the first time in forever, ok, it's a bit 'hippy' so I don't feel too much like a dogs dinner and it fits like a dream so I won't be uncomfortable but what I really want to know is....how did he do that??

Men aren't supposed to be able to shop for anything other than gadgetry, cars and bikes but from door to door the whole outing took twenty minutes and was a complete success!! Alone I would have spent three days scrambling into ill fitting items and still gone home empty handed!

I'm impressed, though I hate to admit it!

In the pink!

Two good things!

#1. Fletch comes home for the weekend tonight :o))

#2. Because he has been away all week I have had his nice big, new, comfortable, fast, shiny black, corners like it's on rails, all the bells and whistles, I don't have to pay for the fuel, car.

I'm off to my parents for the day and collecting himself from the airport on my way home tonight...it should all take about half the time it does in my old jalopy and be way more fun! ;o)



Note to self: *keep sharp eye for speed cameras.... yellow things on stalks old jalopy can't muster speed to activate*

Finish this sentence

I don't recall where I thieved this from but if it was you, I hope you don't mind!

1. My uncle once: won the world diamond design competition.

2. Never in my life: have I achieved my dream...yet.

3. When I was five: I pushed a peanut up my nose that required medical intervention for removal! Ack, kids.

4. High school was: all girls and boring!

5. I will never forget: the day Tilly had to go to her new home.

6. Once I met: (albeit briefly in most cases) David Bowie, Paul Mc Carney, David Essex, Liam Neeson, Terry Wogan, Simon and Yasmin LeBon, Jasper Carrott, Paul Daniels, Bob Geldof, Louis Malle, Paula Yeates, Nigel Lithgoe, David Seaman, Vinny Jones, yada, yada, yada....

7. There’s this girl I know: who races a Ducati with the best of the guys.

8. Once, at a bar: I was asked outright and with no preamble, by a complete stranger "do you f*ck"! Smooth line mate...not!

9. By noon, I’m usually: tired!

10. Last night: I was trying not to scratch my eczema ridden legs...attractive huh?

11. If only I had: Some antibiotics for this bloody tooth abscess.

12. Next time I go to church: will probably be a wedding or a funeral, it's the only time I ever go in a church.

13. What worries me most: Everything!

14. When I turn my head left I see: a white wall.

15. When I turn my head right I see: This....

(sorry, appallingly done but no time)
16. You know I’m lying when: I don't lie. I occasionally tell tiny fibs but I do that well!

17. What I miss most about the Eighties is: The [relative] naivety.

18. If I were a character in Shakespeare I’d be: Puck.

19. By this time next year: I hope life is a little simpler.

20. A better name for me would be: Hmmmmm, I have no idea.

21. I have a hard time understanding: Man's inhumanity to man.

22. If I ever go back to school, I’ll: make the absolute most of it this time.

23. You know I like you if: um......

24. If I ever won an award, the first person I would thank would be: Lol...doesn't that depend on the award?

25. Take my advice, never: count your chickens, because the buggers invariably do the off.

26. My ideal breakfast is: made for me!

27. A song I love but do not have is: I have what I like.

28. If you visit my hometown, I suggest you: call me and we'll go for a beer/coffee.

29. Why won’t people: make love not war.

30. If you spend a night at my house: please help yourself to stuff, I'm a crap hostess.

31. I’d stop my wedding for: which one?

32. The world could do without: The tabloid press.

33. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: see a spider, no contest!

34. My favourite blonde(s) is/are: I hope I'm not that shallow.

35. Paper clips are more useful than: Gordon Brown.

36. If I do anything well it’s: very unusual.

37. I can’t help but: watch Big Brother.

38. I usually cry: too easily.

39. My advice to my child/nephew/niece: Do it your way, not the way expected of you.

40. And by the way: I miss Fletch.

Tag - You're it..

Adrian Sudbury - Baldy's blog

Adrian very sadly died in his sleep this morning with his parents at his side. It was in the end inevitable but the news is no less shocking or sad for that knowledge.


I of course never met him, I only knew him through his blog but he was one of the most inspirational and courageous people I am ever likely to have the privilege 'knowing'.

My thoughts are with his much loved family and friends, he was a truly special man and one who leaves an amazing legacy that we now have the honour of continuing.

Rest in peace Adrian...you were one in many millions.

The secret....

.....is not a secret anymore! I can tell you now what it was that I was blethering on about the day before yesterday. I am sooo excited!


We all have, if we are very lucky, a friend or two in our lives who we can really really count on and I have been very lucky
to have always had good friends who have stood by me despite my not always being the er... the 'easiest' of people to deal with along the way sometimes, but I have one friend who probably knows me better than almost anyone else on this planet.

For almost five years now we have shared just about every aspect of our lives on a daily basis, the ups and downs of what have for both of us been a pretty turbulent period in our lives one way and another, I doubt we have any secrets from one another and no matter if it's 3 in the morning or a more civil hour, if I need her or just want to share something with her she is there!

We met via blogging, a chance in a million (or however many blogs there is out there in the blogosphere these days) when she posted something about a cat and I mailed her a response instead of commenting...and that was that, we became friends. I wouldn't like to hazard a guess at how many emails we have sent between us, on an average day it can run into tens, it has been literally a five year ongoing conversation, almost everyday about everything, no matter where we are one way or another the wonders of technology keep the 'conversation' up and running!

Anyone who knows me well knows who I am talking about, even the few individuals I know who can be pretty skeptical about the 'validity' of internet friendships, refer to her and enquire after her, as though she lived just down the street but she doesn't, she lives in Nebraska in the U.S and for those of you who don't know who I am talking about it is LISA, she of Lisa's Place....and what's all the excitement and secrecy about?

Well, circumstances and luck have conspired and worked in our favour...... and one very early morning at the beginning of October she will land on a flight from the U.S. at London Heathrow and finally we will meet!!!!

I am just sooooo excited! Ever since it began to look like it might actually happen I have been bouncing up and down like a small over-excited child, I can't believe it! We always planned to meet up but life being how it is we never imagined that it would happen anytime soon but it has, and much plotting and planning later it looks like we can finally have a conversation over a beer instead of over the internet and real American pancakes for breakfast!!!!

I'll be brief....

(I know that will make a nice change won't it!).....because I have to go sleep.

Last night's itinerary;

Out for early dinner and a beer, early night (no smut please) in readiness for a 4am start today to get Fletch on his flight.

Easy.

WRONG!!

The actuality;

Early dinner and a beer, very relaxing in readiness for the 4am start. Bed early....all went horribly wrong.

Bed collapsed, making big scary cracking noise (honestly we were sleeping), spend hour trying to fix in sleepy miffed state, couldn't fix, grumpy and very unrelaxed. Back to now very sloping and unstable bed, much rolling downhill, no sleep until 3.30am, up at 4.00am, drive to Luton, fight annoyingly happy Tenerife/Malaga hordes. Drop off very tired Fletch dragging bags through heavy rain to terminal, drive home in still very heavy rain, struggle to stay awake, miss last turning (bugger), do extra 20 miles, make it home, get tool box, mend bed (no mean feat)!

Moral of the story: Don't buy an Ikea bed!

Sleep, I need sleep........

*Update;

Fletch's flight delayed, missed connecting train, stuck in middle of nowhere waiting for next one...two hour wait. Total estimated travelling time Luton-Scotland: 10 hours!!! This week is starting well then I see.

Stuff and secrets

Well, I made it through the last week relatively unscathed, it had it's tough moments, it presented one or two extra problems along the way and the original issues that were concerning me on Monday are in some cases still ongoing and of great concern, but on a much happier note, one in particular is well on it's way to being resolved and with a much, much better outcome than I think anyone involved had dared to hope for.

So, it's onward and upward. Some of the issues may well be present for some time to come but there is nothing I can do to affect the outcome of most, there is something however I can do in one case and that one I am dealing with thus far successfully and in the knowledge that in two weeks time life will take a definite upturn for a while, the problems might not all disappear in a puff of magic but some pretty cool stuff is about to happen!!!


Firstly, in two weeks time Fletch and I will be in Positano on Italy's Amalfi coast, well in actual fact we won't have made it all the way there by the Sunday of that week, we will be en-route driving the 1500 miles or so from Calais, to attend a family wedding. After the wedding we plan to make the trip back by a more circuitous route and various camp sites. We have no fixed itinerary and Fletch has three weeks off work so we can stop and go as the fancy takes us. Sadly we won't be taking the bike, she's ill right now and time and money have conspired against us in getting her well again but hey, even in a car it's gonna be good, if a little tame!

But for all I am looking forward to the holiday it is not the thing that has me jumping up and down like an excitable child and wishing away the next few weeks at the moment. The real 'biggy' is something entirely different! Something I thought might never happen, something hoped for over years and finally, after much plotting and planning it is going to happen soon after we return from Europe.

Yes, I have a secret, a big fat super exciting secret........ ;o)

Big foot...little foot!

I took this while we were camping recently, I had no intention of doing anything with it but once I saw it I couldn't help but laugh....

it kinda sums up what an odd pair Fletch and I are, from an aesthetic point of view at least!It's something that hasn't gone unnoticed by those around us and had been commented on in mirth frequently, physically we are two extremes and the sight of us next to one another is I suppose quite amusing!

Why? Well, he is well over six foot tall while I barely scramble to five foot and am about level with his elbows, he has loooong flowing curly locks, I have short cropped very un-flowing hair, he is built like a strapping rugby player and over twice my body weight, (oopss, did I just say that in an out loud voice?) whilst I am pathetically small in build.... and he has feet the size of landing barges (no coarseness please) while mine still fit readily into children's shoes!

Yeah, ok, I can see why people laugh!

On a more serious note though it is quite a revelation to someone like myself who is small. Small people get used to being walked into on the pavement, to being overlooked in queues, to not being able to get served at a bar because the staff just don't see you there. We get used to being the one who has to move out of the way because passers by look straight over our heads and to feeling pretty vulnerable in a physical sense.

The revelation is this this and something we short people just don't imagine; None of that happens if I'm with Fletch. We get served at a bar in an instant, no-one walks into us, we can make it in a straight line along a street without being barged out of the way and no-one gives us any kind of aggravation! It's all pretty peculiar to me, who for instance if a drink is spilled onto me barely gets noticed let alone an apology, whereas if it happens when I'm with Fletch, profuse apologies are always forthcoming!

Being big it seems carries with it some degree of presence and respect, whilst being little makes one almost invisible.

Dodgy dentistry!

Yesterday was something of a harassing day one way and another and left me questioning what on earth has happened to professional integrity and customer service. What seems to be apparent is that they just don't figure any longer with any degree of importance in the worlds of corporate and economic gain!

I've split this into two posts, this and the one below.

After much research I eventually found a dentist yesterday that is taking on new NHS patients, so despite my fears I called them having been told by my doctor that I have to get the abscess situation sorted out properly. The conversation that ensued I find pretty concerning!

I was informed by the receptionist that before I can be considered for acceptance onto the dentists list I have to have a dental x-ray performed! Yes, I said 'before'. I queried why this was and the reply was somewhat vague and confusing I have to say. She seemed (I say seemed because she was so vague it was hard to decipher any real meaning in the conversation) to be suggesting that if the x-ray indicates I need much work I won't be accepted! Now forgive me here if you are a dentist reading this but it smacks yet again to me of dentistry in this country no longer being about care or integrity but being about making the buck! I know we all have to make a living and I appreciate many of the issues dentists have had over recent years with the government but at some point I wonder if they could stop in-fighting and consider us, the patient stuck in the middle!

But I digress. I questioned the receptionist further as to what I could do should I be denied treatment and was told I could visit the local emergency dental access service. I told her I had tried that but they could only deal with the initial presenting problem, i.e. prescribe more antibiotics in this case and along with my doctor had said I must have the underlying dental issue treated properly by a dentist!

Her response was that "I would be ok with more tablets"! I pointed out again that was contrary to all other information I had been given and that even those of us not medically qualified are now only too well aware of the problems of resistance in the over prescribing of antibiotics. I was met with silence...which I suggest says it all!

So, let me get this straight. The dental and medical professions say I have to have this dental problem dealt with by a dentist properly. The doctor says I can't have more antibiotics I have to see a dentist. The one dentist I can find wants to take the very odd step of x-raying before they accept me with a view to not accepting me if I need much treatment and has referred me to the emergency access center..... and the emergency centre tells me I have to see a dentist!

Where does that leave me....up the bloody dental creek without a paddle is where it leaves me and still with an underlying problem that isn't going to just fix itself! The doctor won't (and rightly) just keep prescribing willy-nilly, the access centre can't help and the dental profession is yet again sitting in it's ivory tower while our teeth rot and we suffer the pain.

I am so f*cking angry and fed up with all this.! I've had this hassle with dental treatment now for over six years on and off and it is part (though to be fair not all) of the reason I am now likely to lose my teeth before time. Come on guys, we are a nation who were lucky enough to have the education and facilities to have healthy teeth, this is not a third world country and it would be kinda cool if you could all start showing some integrity and stop trying to turn it into one dentally!

I've had enough now of the excuses and of understanding how hard done by our dental professionals are, we all have to live within the constraints our laws and governments decisions inflict on us but we don't all have the power to inflict continuing pain and discomfort on the poor sods caught in the middle! Where's the pride, integrity or professionalism in that?

If dentists still have an issue with their 'terms and conditions' take it up with those who impose those terms by all means but stop using the likes of me as a bargaining chip because it's unfair, inappropriate and does absolutely nothing to help the cause...which I have to say, when all this began years ago I supported.

I don't any longer.

Just sort it out and start behaving with at least some degree of care and integrity please!

Oh...was that naive of me? Sorry.

Virgin on the ridiculous!

And yesterday's other 'delight' in customer issues....

After much fobbing off and mis-information, Virgin Media, my ISP finally admitted that my lack of connection when I awoke yesterday was a fault at their end. This admission alone had not been an easy thing to achieve and in fact I only discovered it when having visited my local computer shop in an effort to buy the part I was told I needed the proprietor said that he had had over twenty customers during the morning all with the same problem and all with Virgin as their ISP!

Of course, Virgin's half-witted helpline staff didn't bother to inform me of the problem at any point in the proceedings and despite having promised on five occasions to call me back, not one call back did I receive. The last time I spoke to them a guy who appeared to have less technical knowledge than even I do told me it was my modem at fault and by the afternoon the helpline had 'conveniently' switched to a recorded message telling me that the fault would be rectified by 15.00 hours. In fact it wasn't up and running until gone 18.00 hrs but that I can accept, we all know that fixing this stuff is a pain, what I can't accept is Virgin's inability to take responsibility for the problem at the front end and to just be honest with the customer. It's not that hard is it to just adhere to a few basic principles of customer service??

Whilst I was wasting my money on their expensive phone lines I decided to also tackle the long standing 'phone line' issue we have. When Virgin originally installed our cable facility 18 months ago, it was to include TV, broadband and a phone line but they had problems installing the phone. They promised to return and complete the job....but despite numerous calls and much beating of one's head against a brick wall they never did. Yup....for 18 months we have been paying line rental for a phone line that doesn't work!!!! My patience already worn thin finally snapped and I made my feelings on the subject of the whole debacle of an operation abundantly clear....the result, in theory at least someone will be here Tuesday to at last connect our land line and the process has been set in motion to recoup the line rental over the time it hasn't been operational. However, if their thus far apparent 'form' and speed of service continue, by the time we actually receive a refund it will probably be worth pennies at current inflation rates!

No wonder Mr Branson is so well off! He (and those like him) have us by the proverbial balls, we can't migrate our custom elsewhere because they make it so damn difficult to do so and even if we have the fortitude to fight that fight it seems that none of the big providers are much better. In a corporate world where the benchmark is so low and where we have no real choices there is little to motivate these companies to behave with any real integrity!