Peke out!

Rarely have I been so amused as I was this afternoon. Whatever your affections for dogs this has to be one of the funniest and most unbelievable sights I have had the fortune to see for a while.

The store in which I work sells many very heavy items and as a consequence we offer a 'carry to car' service. This is not always as straight forward as it would seem, we frequently don't have a suitably strong member of staff available and it is amazing just how many apparently young, able bodied men will happily let a woman of my diminutive stature lug massive items to their car while they look on. .....did I forget to tell you that shop staff are generally considered to be a lower form of life by many? It is usual for our annoyance amusement to be centered around these types of incidents but today's hilarity came from a very different kind of customer.

The customer in question was a very nice and proper middle ages lady who entered the store carrying a Pekenese dog. We don't allow dogs to comply with health and safety law but it is not unusual for customers to think that by carrying the creature, they somehow circumnavigate the rules....it does not but we tend to turn a blind eye.

Anyhow, said dog carrying customer made a bee line for me and having attended to her purchases asked could I possibly carry them to her car for her. They were not heavy items but with her arms full of a dog so fluffy the back couldn't be distinguished from the front, she required help.

I duly complied and followed her to her car (parked at about the furthest possible point from the store) and was firstly slightly surprised to see this very proper lady driving a massive SUV. I loaded her purchases into the back of the vehicle and then went around the side to put one or two other items on the rear seat as I was asked. It was here that I became almost completely helpless with laughter, I tried, I honestly tried not to laugh but I failed dismally.....and what caused this hilarity? In the rear seat of the car was a baby seat, the full hit, the keep your baby completely and utterly strapped in safe kind of seat. Nothing too strange there perhaps.....but for the fact that snuggled down nice and safely in said seat was the dog! Thankfully my customer knew it was funny and laughed with me.....she explained the seat was theoretically for her grandchild though in reality it was the dogs seat! Well, she reasoned, the car sides are very high, he cannot see outside on his frequent journeys from the normal 'adult seating position'!

Maybe you had to see it, it was just such a funny sight.....I so wish I'd had my camera with me, or at least my phone, but sadly I didn't so you will just have to try and imagine the scene! :o)

Heavens above.......

.....it really isn't a natural state of affairs to be up and off to work at 05.40, happy Saturday........

Ugh!

Friday's feast (45)

Appetizer
Which keys do you have on your key chain?
House key, my parents house key, car key, 'stop lock' key and two that I have no idea what they are for any longer!

Soup
What is the most spontaneous thing you've ever done?
Moving to Scotland.

Salad
Who is the best cook in your family?
My mother.

Main Course
If you were to write a "how-to" book, what would the title be?
'How to give Liz Taylor a run for her money'!

Dessert
Name a recent fad you've tried.
The 'Crazy Frog' debacle. Gah!

A taste of things to come?

It is suggested, by those who forecast our weather, that we in the UK are in for a warm and sun filled Bank holiday weekend. Given this picture, taken at dusk yesterday evening, may I add a very large question mark to that for this little patch?

(Click to enlarge)

Dusk ~ 28.04.05

A small, spooky world!

A few weeks back I blogged on how late one evening I decided to search for other bloggers in my area. My search came up with just one result, a guy called John who lives just a few miles away, and from that point on he and I began mailing and visiting one another's blogs.

John's blog was private but he kindly gave me the URL, more recently it became not private and I added him to my blogroll....yup, it's 'John's web journal', down there on the right, which incidentally if you haven't done so already, is worth a read.

Anyways all that aside, we have been mailing since I first landed uninvited in his inbox but we have never met. This morning for no real reason, as I drove into work I considered that one day, surely we must run into one another or at the very least drive past one another, navigational options in this small corner of Scotland are not many.

Imagine my amazement then this afternoon on my drive home when I came up upon the rear of a vehicle that I knew to be the same model as his. Closer inspection revealed it to be the correct year of registration, what I thought was the correct colour, it carried inhabitants fitting his and his wife's descriptions. Everything matched, even down to the appropriate breed of dog peering out from the back! Nah....surely not I thought, too spooky, I continued on his tail trying to get a better look and then overtook....still I was not sure.

Immediately I got home I mailed him with the "were you on this road at this time and what colour is your car" questions, "yes" came his reply...."woman in a blue car"? Yes, I said!!!

It may not be too unlikely that eventually we would come across one another in such a small and unpopulated area eventually... but on the very same day I was thinking of it??

Spooky, very spooky!

'The Kiss'

It's odd how a small train of events can suddenly catapult one back in time, ok, so in this case only maybe 15-20 years but the unexpected sighting of a picture in the sidebar of Toasted Crumpet reminded me of a news item I heard yesterday and the two things together took me back those years.

There was a time, when I did a 'real' job, a job I loved and with responsibility, a job where I was able to make my own decisions and success or failure was in my own hands. Unfortunately the job didn't like me and after a number of years I had to leave, but that is another story.

The business I worked for retailed prints, both modern and fine art and was closely involved with publishers and in publication. One picture that we published at the time was 'The kiss', a Robert Doisneau picture taken many years before in 1950 in Paris. It had been published before but it's republish was a great success and tens of thousands of copies were sold. This image came to represent the essence of love and romance for at least one generation, many years after it was photographed.

Yesterday it was reported in the news that the female subject in the image had sold her original copy for a sum far in excess of what was expected, £105,000. What was disappointing was to learn that this picture, that had been such a representation of romance for so many was infact staged. Yes, she and her boyfriend of the time were a real couple and yes, Mr Doisneau came upon them by chance in the street but the actual shot used was staged......What's more, the couple only remained in each others company for a few months!

All that said, it remains one of my favourite images, reminds me of a good time in my life and given 105k, just how much would I love to own the original?!

Enjoy.

(Click to enlarge)

'The Kiss' ~ Robert Doisneau.

Counting the days

I am already counting the days until this damnable general election is history, over with, gone! The whole performance, for that is precisely what it seems to be, is driving me demented!

There was a time I would have classed myself as a political animal, in the heady days of Arthur Scargill, Tony Benn, Margaret Thatcher and the like, when I was young and naive enough to think I could actually make a difference, that if I voted, understood and persevered things might change......oh the idiocy of youth!

Every form of media is currently obsessed with the upcoming election, the TV constantly rings to the sound of Tony Blairs babble, the newspapers show pointless pictures of one or other politician 'playing the election game' and radio is bogged down by various political commentators saying his or her piece.

Good God! I could perhaps tolerate it all if just one of them uttered anything other than opposition mud-slinging, has anyone actually heard anything constructive from the mouths of these individuals yet, some of whom will ultimately hold our collective purse strings and decide how we live our lives....... thus far I sure as hell haven't.

So we tolerate these dire goings on, we trudge faithfully to the local school or community centre on the appointed day to place our cross in the box, like a flock of sheep...... and what for?

Five years more, a lifetime more of things remaining much the same, there is barely any distinction between those we can cast our vote for nowadays, they have all blended into one great grey mass, nothing will change worth a jot.

We will still pay our income tax at high rates to support those who can't be bothered to work. We will carry on supporting those who chose to give birth on at least three occasions, prior to the age of 16. We will still house them, give them beer money by the bucket load and provide them with grotesquely large plasma televisions, so they may be entertained while they plan their next Burberry purchase!

We will continue to allow all and sundry to enter the UK, regardless of their entitlement to do so, whilst making political points by removing one or two families, normally those who would appear to be model citizens, back to the country they fled in fear of their lives. I ask you, how many other countries would firstly allow 'everyone and his aunt' across their borders and then support them, provide them with medical care, a home and most other necessities of life as reward for illegally entering! But no....we must not say that for fear of being thought racist. Piffle, I am one of the least racist people you might imagine but it still gauls me that those who enter the UK legally get hauled over the coals and pulled from pillar to post and yet those that hang under trucks to get here are treated like kings.

Fuel will remain some of the most expensive in the Western world, consumer goods likewise, house prices will continue to soar, along with community tax, our police officers will carry on struggling against ever increasingly violent crime and farmers will continue to be paid vast sums, to produce precisely nothing at all!

I love my country, I honestly do, in many respects I feel lucky to live here but just sometimes, when I listen to the current political carryings of our merry band aiming for the top spot, I have to allow myself a little 'knee jerk' anger and frustration. In reality I know all these issues are more complicated than I paint them, nothing is straight forward and there are myriad reasons behind every situation..... but, just now and again I can't help but feel antagonism.

I will cast my vote, not too do so, particularly as a woman, is bordering on the criminal in my mind but there are times when I wonder why.

Gone!

It's gone....the template that caused pain in the eyes to some, was problematical for those opening it at work for others and had some straining their vision and physiology in an attempt to work it out, has been replaced by a nice safe cat!

You will also be pleased to hear that you may get a chance to get used to this one....I am working for the next six days (pffttt) so CSS fiddling time will be at a minimum, it will be all I can do to manage to post.

Incidentally, for those of you, (would I mention names?) making the attempts to see what was being kissed, you can download the complete pic here.

Eye see: Part 2

As predicted today saw me heading into town again and making a bee line for the opticians. By lunch time I was thoroughly fed up with my inability to walk in a straight line and my seemingly new found ability to bounce off walls, doorways and random pieces of furniture at regular intervals.

Thankfully upon my arrival I noticed that the half-wit who fitted the offending eyewear was nowhere in evidence. I was not in the mood for trying politely to suggest I would rather see someone else but as luck would have it, optician 'par excellence' whom I have had in the past deal with me, was available.

A few tweaks, the strange measuring of eyes and nose that goes on in this business and hey presto.....I could see again! Yes, she told me, "they will take some getting used to" but you "must persevere...no going back to the old ones, give it a few days and all will be fine". This lady I trust, she knows her stuff and certainly just her tweaking improved the situation markedly. If I as a lay-woman can understand the vagaries of varifocal lenses why then could the half wit who is employed in the field not, I wonder!?

There is of course a down side, it seems I am likely to need a second pair of specs exclusively for use with the pc.....more money, hey ho.

All I want to be able to do is see in comfort......nothing is ever simple!

Phew!

At last I have beaten Firefox and persuaded it to display my template correctly (I think!? notice the confidence here), I have even un-muddled the spacing in the sidebar for the main part....if anyone knows how to get the blasted FF to recognize a "ul" tag, please let me know ....it is all I have left to fix!!

Eye see

Last week, not before time, I at last took the proverbial bull by it's horns, braced myself, or rather my credit card, for the inevitable onslaught and visited an optician.

There was no question that this would be routine and that I would be sent packing with the result of an examination being 'no change'.....my eyes have been on stalks for months, I have tried every manoeuvre physically possible to find a tiny part of my current lenses through which to see adequately and all attempts have failed miserably.

And so it was, having had air puffed into my eyes, I hate that part and they do it three times nowadays, each time I jump like a fool, having read and re-read the same line of letters and had one light after another shone into my eyeball I emerged, watery eyed to a bill of almost £400. This apparently is not excessive according to the optician. After all she informs me, my choice is for state of the art, super lightweight, titanium frameless frames (is that not a contradiction?) and my lens prescription is complicated, wouldn't you know it. These frames I might add are identical to the one's I have been wearing for the last three years but apparently, despite the advertised strength of titanium, they dare not reglaze them for fear of breakage. Furthermore they will not insure them should they be reglazed. Gah, they have you every which way.

I accepted my fate, paid up and looked happy(ish) and today was summoned to collect this new eyewear.

How is it that something identical can be so different. My old glasses where kind of moulded to me, I didn't know they were there, the new ones of course feel like I am wearing someone else's shoes. I was er...'lucky' enough to receive the attentions of the one member of staff who appeared not to know what he was doing and I think a revisit tomorrow will be necessary to fit them properly! Then of course there is the aggravation that always occurs......I can't actually see out of these new lenses. I hate it, I know it's because my eyes are used to compensating for the wrong lens and they have to adjust to the new but that knowledge is no help right now, as I stumble around tripping over invisible things in my path and sit typing this with my head bobbing up and down trying to see the monitor! Heh.

I hardly dare say this.

Shhhh....come closer, I have to say this very quietly, if I dare say it at all, for fear of tempting the Gods of fate and of Blogger bestowing it's worst upon us once more!

Ok, that's close enough.....*whisper*....... Has anyone noticed just how efficient Blogger has become since the half hours planned downtime on Friday? Pages have been opening at the speed of light (well maybe I exaggerate a little but in comparison to the norm), template previews have appeared without the customary 10 minute built in break for coffee, publication has been almost instant and not a post, not one single post have I had to rescue from notepad!

Long may it continue!

No such thing as magic?

I disagree, I have proof, I am convinced, converted, a believer....there is magic!

A day or two ago I posted with reference to the fact that in Firefox my template doesn't bear inspection. To be more specific, the header was centered, the content floating left. No amount of fiddling with CSS or HTML would seem to fix it and even DKG didn't have the answer......he who always has the answer, the font of all knowledge on matters such as this, was scratching his head along with myself.

A few posted comments to say it looked fine in their browsers but for some of us it was a sorry sight. Late last night I threw in the towel and gave up, my minimal coding skills tested beyond endurance.

I promise you faithfully I changed nothing more, did nothing, abandoned it and went to bed.....and then, sometime as I slept, in the black of the night, unnoticed and silently the magic happened, for on waking this morning, still bemused I looked again......... and it was fixed, mended, all in straight lines, not a pixel out of place!

This has to be magic, there is no other explanation. The only person other than myself who has full access to my code, has no access to a computer right now and let's face it, no one is gonna try to hack or crack my account just to fix it!

See...magic!! Real, live, amazing magic happens, it's real, it exists and I won't be persuaded otherwise....DKG saw it too, it was not just me!

;o)

Happy happenings

This week the blogosphere seems to have been full of good news, well the bit I inhabit anyways.

Firstly earlier in the week, the happy end to a tale that had been on my mind for a while. Sque's 17 year old, indoor cat Tia, who had been missing for 19 days was sighted. The sightee sent Sque an email, which she almost didn't read in the belief that it was spam. However, the God's must have been keeping an eye on her because she did, and after further investigation Tia was found stuck in a building. After 19 days of very little food (if any) and water she is a bit on the thin side but is extremely happy to be home, as is her 'mother' to have her home.

So Tia's rescue was the first happy news and then his evening on my arrival home from a hard day at work, I flopped down infront of my pc (no great surprise there), pottered around the blogosphere for a few minutes and found news of the second happy happening.......here!

Neither of these things may change the outcome of the forthcoming election, neither may make it onto the front pages of tomorrows broadsheets, but both are far more interesting and have a much greater feel good factor than anything the mainstream media had to offer this week!