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August
1 - Woken by insistant Sally just before 7am . . . fed LBs cats and rabbits . . . walked around 7:45am. Cool morning but warming up for a real hot sunny day already. Carried on walking, down through Fishponds, Vassals, along the Frome Valley and eventually back up through Eastville. Paused at one point and managed to drag a shopping cart out of the river. Couldn't be bothered to return it to the store, cause that would have meant a detour of a couple of miles. Left it parked near the path. No doubt back in the river by now. Some big fish in that river, clearly visible, 'cruising' in the sun!. . . ate PS donated cake then lettuce, corned beef, mayo, onion and tomato sandwiches . . .PCd briefly and surfed to check up on how to get to Heathrow Terminal 4. Jotted down the flight details and such . . . slept until around 5pm - woken by an awful noise!! Sounded as though somone somewhere was doing a karaoke thing and was trying to 'wail' House of the Rising Sun! He won't make a career out of it! . . . touched base with BB and wished her luck on her long trip . . . trimmed my hair . . .LB called to say she was home and thnks for feeding the zoo . . . walked around 7:30pm - still VERY warm out! . . . coffee in the garden and drenched everything with the hose pipe, to make that nice cool damp atmosphere the herds of snails and frogs like - and me. . . PCd this. LB called offering to buy me a kebab because she was going to get herself one. I protested about the expense, but she said it was a thankyou for feeding the animals, so - hell, yes please!! :o) .LB dropped a kebab AND chips in!!! Ate more than I should have, and still had plenty left for Sally . . . sat in the garden until late, amusing myself with more scribbles. Oh dear - really ought to be tidying up and getting ready for BBs arrival - but I'm just too full and scribbly! . . . typed in some more scribbly nonsense until gone midnight. :o) . . . couldn't sleep!! Tossed and turned and tossed and turned until I ended up getting back up around 1:30am for a cup of Horlicks! Didn't get to sleep until gone 3am!!! p
2 - Woken by Sally around 7am . . . . PCd and scanned in a copy of the completed hospital letter, so I have a record of the phone numbers and such. Think I’m gonna phone, as well as return the letter, just in case it does go missing! . . . walked and found 2p. Walked past the post box twice but forgot to post the letter – had to walk all the way back round again to post it. . . checked that the car started ok . . . PCd and checked that BBs flight was due in as scheduled . . . pottered around getting ready to go. Funny how just a little thing like the prospect of driving up to Heathrow really got me all sweaty and stressed and headachey!! . . . left Sally at home and set off for Heathrow around 10:45am. Stopped for petrol (6.25ltrs @ £5 ). Stopped at the services about midday and ate three of the sausage rolls I’d brought and drank the tin of red bull. Took my time driving up, not too fast, trying not to arrive too early and have to pay loads of parking fees! Arrived at Heathrow terminal four a little after 1pm. Had some cigarettes and wasted time sitting around and such until the screens confirmed the flight had landed. Occurred to me what a dangerous place an airport terminal could be these days! Kinda like being in the ‘front line’ of the terrorists war!! At LONG last, around 2:15pm, BB appeared out of the gate. She’d apparently had a bit of hassle with immigration!!! They seemed suspicious she was planning to stay for so long with so little spending money – and made it clear to her that if they’d wanted to, they could have sent her straight back home!!! . . paid the extortionate £5:30 parking fee and got straight on the road in the sweltering heat. A brief stop at services on the way home (BB seemed pretty ‘out of it’ with jet lag – somehow painfully crushed her thumb in the car door!!?) . . home around 4:30pm to be welcomed by Sally, who seemed to take BBs reappearance in her stride. . . BB lay down to nap pretty soon . . .left BB sleeping and walked. Found two pennies. They've started work on putting a fence up round the rugby club to stop the vandalism . . . touched base with Mum to see how her new bed delivery went. Oh dear - not sure she sounds too pleased with the new bed! . . . SO very hot, headachey and tired - almost feel asleep in the chair in front the TV! Sat in the garden for a bit . . . TVd . . . ate bowls of cornflakes . . . to bed around midnight but so VERY hot! Didn't get to sleep until getting on for 2am! Disturbed sleep and woken in the early hours by the sound of heavy rain and some thunder! paaa
3 - Woken by Sally around 7am!! That's no where near enough sleep - again! . . .walked in the damp cool . . .PCd this. Oh no!!!! Discovered some sort of pressure crack and damage to the view screen on my digital camera!!! :o( Must have crushed it when it was in my belt pouch in the car yesterday! :o( . . .ate muesli . . . lay down to nap but couldn't . . .left BB all tired and jetlagged and walked with Sally to the local shop for a lettuce and a couple of things to keep us going. . .ate garlic sausage, grated cheese, mayo, lettuce, tomato sandwiches with crisps . . .big rain storms outside. . napped until around 5pm. . . scribbled briefly in the garden. . .the blood service unexpectedly called. I think their computers have kinda highlighted I haven't attended a session recently and they were calling to encourage me back. I mentioned my hernia and just not feeling up to it and they seemed to immediately accept that as a good reason not to attend and altered their computer records so I wouldn't be 'invited' to a session for six months. . . walked . . . TVd . . .touched base with Mum to check that she'd slept ok on her new bed. . . BB made toasted sandwiches . . . TVd . . .bad hernia day! Painful, bulging and having to be held in place pretty much non stop. . . just a little cooler than of late . . to sleep around 1:30am. pa
4 - Up around 7am . . .coffee and cigarettes in the cool damp garden . . . Uh oh - PC troubles? I'm not getting the normal e-mail notifications when an entry is put in my guest book!! Since that company changed hands and moved its staff to India it seems like everything has gone from bad to worse!! I wonder how many other e-mails I'm maybe not getting!!?? On top of that, the damn PC froze when I tried to shut down windows!!. . . walked and found a penny . . toast for breakfast. . . did some laundry and managed to get it out on the line in the sun, dried and back in, all pretty quick. . . corned beef sandwiches for lunch. . . slept until 7pm!!! . . . . walked and found 13p . . . sat in the cool of the garden and tried to keep the scribbly nonsense going, but largely failed - rather tired - it's hard work, even the silly ones! . . . TVd . . .too hot and hernia related stomach achey for anything else - just ate bowls of cornflakes . . . Tvd till bed in the early hours. pas
5 - Woken by Sally around 7am!! Damp, cool foggy misty out . . . walked and found a penny . . . balanced my accounts . . . BB cooked up cheese and onion omlette with toast for breakfast . . .left Sally at home around midday and shopped with BB for supplies until mid afternoon. Stocked up on dog food. . . corned beef sandwich for a late lunch . . .napped until around 6pm . . walked . . . BB cooked up a meatloaf . . . ate meatloaf and salad and bread and butter around 10pm . . . uncomfortably hot - sat in the cool of the garden for a bit . . . TVd and chats until gone 3am! Looks like I've slipped into Arizona time rather than easing BB into British Summer Time!!! pas
6 - Woken by the noise of the bin men emptying the bins not long after 7am. Oh dear - guess I'll be sleeping much of today away - again!. . . walked and did some 'litter duty' - two carrier bags full! . . . sat around feeling ready for more sleep as BB did laundry chores . . . damn! A postcard from the mobile library service telling me three of the library books I have out are overdue!! Well if they'd stamped a return date in them (like 'normal' libraries do) I would have known wouldn't I!! Dunno when the hell the lorry is back up the street!? Humphhh! . . . PCd this. . . slept for ages . . . walked . . .ate meatloaf and chips . . .TVd until the early hours. pa
7 - Wokearound 7:30am . . .walked and found 5p . . .grabbed a banana for breakfast and then joined BB for some toast . . .slept the rest of the morning away and woke around 3:30pm. . .fended off hunger with handfulls of biscuits with coffee. IHB rang asking advice on bricklaying cause he was gonna build a bar-b-q!!! Aside from anything else - I thought it advisable to suggest he wears rubber gloves - a lesson learned of frequent sore experience! . . .walked with BB and Sally down to the river Frome at Eastville and along the river just a bit. Lots of police action in the area as we set off - helicopter circling right nearby and cars with sirens sounding dashing about! BB found 2p. Difficulty keeping up with BB!! Too hot for comfort - sat here and there in the shade by the river and boating lake but eventually ended up heading back home the way we'd come, after briefly stopping off at a store for dehydrated BB to buy water. . back home after 8:30pm . . . watered the garden and sat around out there cooling off a little watching slugs and snails and frogs . . . ate ham, mayo, grated cheese, lettuce, onion and tomato sandwiches with bags of crisps . . .TVd . . . to bed around midnight but some looking out at noisy passing drunks later. Another uncomfortable muggy night. p
8 - Up before 7am . . .walked and found an unopened can of cider! . . . did some laundry . . . TVd . . . ate garlic sausage, mayo, grated cheese, lettuce, onion and tomato sandwiches with two bags of crisps . . . lay down to nap but almost immediately roused by IHB popping in asking for help with his virus infected, work supplied laptop!! Said he should leave it with me for a few hours and I'd have a go at it, but definitely NO promises! BB took the opportunity to get out on her own and go for a walk - in search of a can of coca-cola! She always seems to suffer coca cola withdraw symptoms when shes here!! lol Messed around with the laptop but spent ages getting nowhere. No suprises there then! PCd this while I ran a virus checker over it (god its slow!) even though the virus definitions are at least four months out of date, and I can't get on line to update them!! I have serious doubts it'll be working at all when I hand it back to him! . .messed around for hours and succeeded in getting nowhere . . . walked in the rain. FAR too hot for the rubber raincoat! Got as wet from sweating, as I would have done if I hadn't worn it! . . called IHB and gave him the bad news about his virus. . . IHB popped in and picked up his machine . . . ate a huge roast chicken, potatoes, stuffing, gravy feast cooked by BB. You just can't beat a meal like that - fantastic - ate too much and loads left over for another go or two! . . . TVd until I developed a bad headache and then earlyish to bed around midnight. Disturbed nights sleep - far too humid - very uncomfortable! :o( ps
9 - Woken before 6am with the same excrutiating headache I went to bed with (but worse!!?)!! Actually a bit worrying - felt SO bad!! Swallowed one and chewed up another annadin tablet, and ended up having to lay back down. Woken by Sally around 9am thankfully feeling rather better . . .walked . . . hung around waiting for the visiting library lorry. Returned my overdue books and had to pay the postage of the reminder card they'd sent me. . .walked with BB and Sally up to Kingswood, with a ruc sack of library books. Drew some money out of the building society on the way up and took it in turns to stand outside charity shops with Sally as the other looked for bargains. Found a penny and a US penny? . . walked up to the library and handed back in ALL the books I've had out for ages, just to be free of the 'responsibility'. . . shopped. Busy up there what with people on holiday and all the school kids home. Sally seemed to attract LOADS of attention!? Almost everyone seemed to want to stop and ask how old she was and have a stroke. A real small young girl came up all cooing over her as I tied her up to leave her outside Sainsburys while I dashed in. When I came back out, Sally and the small girl were both sat on the floor next to each other having a nice chat and a stroke. lol :o) Sally dealt with all the attention (more than I've ever expereinced before - I actually started wanting to run away a bit!!) REALLy well, and seemed to take it all more or less in her stride. How she has changed and calmed down with people. I've been VERY lucky how she's turned out. She's very a good dog. :o) . . got caught out in a bit of a rain shower on the way home. . . ate garlic, lettuce, mayo and tomato sandwiches with crisps . . . napped for a couple of hours. While I was napping BB went out and retreived the fist sized lump of cement that had rolled down the tiles and fallen into the front garden from the roof!!!?? Somewhere in my sleep I HAD heard it! Went out into the street with my binoculars when I got back up, and had a look at the roof to try and see where it had come from. Couldn't see anything missing. I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed and assume it was a bit of unnecessary messy overlap onto the leadwork that has freed itself. Lucky it didn't hit anyone/thing!! :o( . . . walked . . . reheated roast chicken, stuffing and potatoes and feasted again with half a pint of gravy. . . TVd until early. paas
10 - Up around 7am . . . walked. A truck with a hot air balloon basket on a trailer was parked in the middle of the field!? According to another dog walker I'd missed all the action. There had been a mass ascent of balloons that morning to kinda start off the Bristol balloon fiesta week, and they'd all driffted over this side of town and more than one had actually landed in the local field!! Damn, damn, damn - missed another photo opportunity! . . . BB'd gone back to sleep so took the opportunity to do long overdue laundry and vacuuming chores (should have done it all before BB arrived!) until getting on for midday. VERY hot and sweaty work! . . . BB cooked up a big ham and mushroom omlette for lunch . . . napped the afternoon away until around 5:30pm . . .BB wanted the excercise but my hernia didn't feel up to it, so she headed off on the hour long walk down to St Georges park and back, and I said I'd meet her over the local field . . . walked. Sat on a boulder with a drink and smokes for ages and eventually met up with BB. . . ate bowls of cornflakes and mountains of biscuits . . . TVd until bed in the early hours. pas
11 - Up around 7am . . . walked and found a penny. LB left an ansaphone message to say her cats had caught yet another frog which needed relocating. Popped up and relocated it to my pond. . .drove with BB and Sally to the River Avon at Hanham intending to do some blackberry picking. Found a slightly battered but still quite useable stainless steel thermos - probably dropped by some fisherman returning to his car. Walked along the river and filled a large tupperware with blackberries. Both succeeded in getting plenty scratched by brambles and stung by stinging nettles! My right arm ended up 'buzzing' unpleasantly for the whole rest of the day! . . . stopped off at Lidl on the way hme for a couple of groceries . . . garlic sausage, lettuce, mayo and tomato sandwich with crisps for lunch. . . napped for a couple of hours. . . .walked with BB down to St Georges park and back. Found 3p. Caught out in a bit of a rain shower and sat under the graffitti covered shelter in the park for a while before the long uphill march back home. . . reheated roast chicken, stuffing and potatoes and feasted again with half a pint of gravy . . . TVd as heavy rain fell, and strangely ended up watching people playing poker (I don't understand the rules) in a world tournament until bed around 1am. p
12 - Woken by insistant Sally before 7am . . . left BB to go back to sleep and walked. Found a penny . . . dabbled in the garden a little and cleared away some of the 'mind your own business' that has grown over everything, to make the little dry stone walls I put in, visible again. Heavy showers stopped play . . . called the hospital just to make sure my confirmation letter had arrived and I wouldn't be suddenly removed from the surgery waiting list. They confirmed I was still on the list for a laparoscopy - day case - maybe early September. . . PCd this . . .rained lots! About as hard as it ever does. (Typical balloon fiesta weather!) Couldn't miss the 'test' opportunity, so had peek up in the attic and sure enough, rain was coming in around the front chimney stack again!!!! :o( . . .ate the last of the cold chicken in sandwiches . . .the weather cleared just a little so BB walked up to potter around the shops. I succumbed to a couple of hours of sleep . . . walked . . . BB cooked up a corned beef hash - unfortunately she threw in a bunch of chilli powder!!! Ouch!! . . .BB spent much of the evening slaving away in the kitchen making a blackberry pie and blackberry jam! Ate some of the pie around 12:30am - VERY nice. . . TVd until early. ps
13 - Up just before 7am . . . walked and found 10p . . . did laundry and dishwashing chores until mid morning . . . left Sally at home and drove with BB to tour some charity shops in Staple Hill, Downend and Fishponds. Ended up buying a pretty neat 'Trespass' waterproof coat that was a little too heavy and big for BB, for only £6. BB eventually found a cheaper, lighter weight one that would be ok for light showers when out walking . . . ate sandwiches and crisps for lunch . . . napped for a couple of hours until around 7pm . . . all walked . . . BB cooked up some bacon and a cheese and mushroom omlette for an evening meal. . . TVd . . ate blackberry pie . . . TVd till early. ps
14 - Up just before 7am . . .walked and did litter duty . . .letter in the post from the vet saying Sally's booster jabs were due. . . all walked up Kingswood. Banked the two £50 PSB wins that'd arrived in the post. BB mailed stuff in the post office. .shopped - Sally attracting plenty of admiring attention again. Both signed a couple of petitions that were being collected by a group of people campaigning against the abuse of greyhounds. Horrific pictures of skinned butchered greyhounds prepared for food in some foreign country! If your gonna eat a dog at all, you'da thought they'd pick a fatter breed! :o( . . . next door called at the door asking if I would be interested in having an old coffee table they'd been unable to sell. Popped next door and had a look and figured it'd be useful somewhere, despite not being in the best of condition. Was actually quite a nice looking thing with inlay of different woods making up a chessboard and backgammon board as the table top! . . . ate garlic suasages, cheese, lettuce, mayo etc sandwiches with crisps for lunch . . . napped all afternoon until around 6pm!! . . . all walked and sat around watching distant balloons until around 8:30pm. Sadly this year the wind hasn't been in the right direction for a good overhead show - only ever see them disappearing off in the distance. A couple of young (BB reckoned about forteen) uncomfortably 'provocatively' dressed girls were sat on the childrens swings drinking cans of beer!!! Piles of litter over by the field entrance turned out to be a torn up 'happy fifteen' birthday card and a 'baggie' containing considerable traces of cannabis. Must have been a good birthday celebration!! Blimey - I wasn't even smoking cigarettes at that age! . . .BB cooked up a delicious spaghetti bolognaise with coleslaw. Plenty left over for another go - excellent cheap meal :o) . . . TVd until early. pas
15 - Up just before 7am. Some glimpses of lots of hot air balloons drifting north in the distance . . . all set off around 7:45am and walked down through Fishponds to Vassals and along the Frome Valley to Eastville Park and back, cutting it a bit shorter than usual to spare BB the slippy muddy bits. Amusing when an old, rather strange dog walker (that I've bumped into before) started chatting and not knowing BB was American, launched into some bizarre tirade about how there are too many yanks and they brreed too much etc, etc!! BB was amused and kept quiet waiting to see how far he'd g, but I felt obliged to warn him she was american. lol Got caught out by what turned into a heavy shower and arrived back home, rather drenched by around 10:30am . . . did dishwashing chores . . .ate reheated spaghetti . . . watched Schummaker win YET another grand prix! . . . napped but only managed an hour or so before waking up overheating and feeling worse than before! . . . left BB having 'fun' doing weird and mysterious 'girly' stuff with strange sticky wax strips!!?? . . . walked and found 9p. Looked as though a hot air balloon was landing in a nearby local field so called BB on the mobile and suggested she walk there and have a look if she was interested. Ooops - turned out that it HAD landed, but it wasn't in the field I thought it was - was much further away. Intercepted BB on her way down the street and suggested it wasn't worth the walk cause it'd be likely gone by the time we got there. . .spent a little while 'fussing' with old rags and a bottle of white spirit trying to remove mysterious glue like wax from the bottom of the bath!! lololol . . . ate biscuits and the last big piece of the blackberry pie . . . TVd until bed after 1:30am. Bad hernia day - pretty sure it's gotten worse! :o( pas
16 - Up just before 7am again . . walked and found a penny . . .even though I feel awfully guilty about not taking BB to see the Balloon Fiesta, this mornings news seems to have confirmed my fears and reasons for not wanting to go - with the clifton suspension bridge closed, and with 400,00 people attending over the course of the weekend, much of bristol was gridlocked for hours as peple tried to make their way there and back - and on top of that, someone was killed in an assault!!. . . phoned the vet around 9:30am to arrange an appointment for Sally's booster jabs. I did my normal 'how soon can you fit me in' and they said 10:40am! Blimey. Rushed to balance my ccounts and transfer some savings over to cover the cost, and then all walked up Kingswood. BB headed for the Post Office to mail some stuff and left me to do the vet thing. Sally was a little nervous of the vet's attention but was rather well behaved nonetheless. Thankfully (what with my hernia and all) I wasn't required to lift Sally up on the table this time. A quick peek at her teeth and ears, a listen to her breathing, a quick discussion about the little cysts that she gets that I'm quite safe to give a squeeze to express the poison, and then the jabs and all done and out (after paying the £33.38!!) within five minutes. Good dog. . walked up to Kingswood and eventually met up with BB. Shopped for a little of this and that. Bumped into LB who was having a day off and who offered to give us all a lift back - I declined, I think to BBs disappointment. All walked back and waved as LB passed us in her car, just round the corner from home. Good timing - 'just' missed a rain shower. . . ate garlic suasages, cheese, lettuce, mayo etc sandwiches with crisps for lunch . . .slept until around 5pm when woken by the wind banging the not properly closed bedroom door back and forth! Grrr. . . PCd this . . . walked in the rain and found 2p. Some jokers had used superglue to stick 40p in silver coins to the pavement. Couldn't dislodge them by kicking. Felt like it was a 'challenge' I had to beat, so I ended up walking back home, picking up a hammer and chisel, and walking back and chiselling them off. Musta cost the jokers loads for the glue - quite happy if they play that joke again, every day thank you very much. lol :o). . .touched base with LB and told her about the floods in Boscastle, Cornwall and asked if any of her family were down that way. Turned out her Dad had been there on business not long before all the floods hit! . . . touched base with Mum . . . BB cooked up a fried steak, gravy, rice and peas feast . . . TVd until bed around 1am. pas
17 - Up around 7am . . walked and found 2p . . .weather forecast is dire for days! Did dishwashing, laundry and vacuuming chores all morning until early afternoon. . . BB cooked up some huge bacon, lettuce, tomato, cheese, mayo etc sandwiches for lunch . . . ML called to say he'll be stopping by later . . . napped for a couple of hours until woken by the alarm just before ML popped in for chats and coffee . . . walked in the rain . . . ate reheated fried steak in gravy with chips . . .ate biscuits . . . TVd until bed around midnight. paas
18 - Up around 7:30am . . . walked . . .BB was intending to do her circular keep fit route march down to St George and back so I suggested she should take Sally with her. The first time I've 'allowed' her to take 'my baby' out without me!!! Worry, worry, worry. . ate a banana and then a couple of BBs scone like 'biscuits' with butter. . PCd this as HEAVY showers poured!!! They're gonna get VERY wet!! :o| . . pottered around and moved things around in the living room a bit. Moved one of the chairs up into the computer room and pushed the coffee table next door had given me, back into the alcove to clear the floor space and give Sally back her 'sprawling about' floor area. Moved the ottoman full of books, out of the computer room and put it into the bedroom so I could get the chair into the computer room. Found my 'British wildlife' book that I'd mislayed. :o) vacuumed around a little. Drilled a small hole in the cupped hands of my big sandstone Buddha in the fireplace, to hold a joss stick. Finally, after putting it off for over a year, got round to replacing all the strings on my accoustic guitar. I HATE doing that job! Gonna take a while for it to stretch and all settle down and keep in tune again. . .a very wet BB and Sally eventually arrived safely back home ok. :o) . .BB headed off to do a little shopping up Kingswood. 'Necessities' - like hair dye!!? lol . . . ate garlic sausage and grated cheese sandwiches with crisps for lunch. . . managed to stay awake until BB returned then succumbed to napping. . woke around 5pm feeling rather unwell and a bit sick!?. . . walked and found a penny . . . LB called asking me to feed the cats again on the weekend . . .felt a 'little' better but not very hungry so just heated up a pizza in the oven and shared it with BB . . . TVd but felt SO exhausted, ended up going to bed before 11pm!! paaa
19 - Up around 7am all headachey, still not feeling quite right and so very, VERY tired! . . . walked and found a fluffy toy hedgehog for Sally to play with . . .PCd this . . .BB went out walking and heading for a couple of local stores so I ended up laying down for a while. BB returned and started cooking as I ended up sleeping for a couple of hours. Woke early afternoon feeling a little better and rather hungry. Ate a large bowl of the stew like soup BB'd cooked up, together with the last of her bread like 'biscuits'. BB cooked up one of her delicious tripple layer frosted chocolate cakes, but something went a bit awry in the tipping out and the whole thing collapsed all over the counter tops!!! Managed to scoop it all up into suitable containers. Still tastes ok despite what it looks like. lol . . . walked. A house down the road is up for sale! It's the house of the young couple who've had their car damaged and their wing mirror smashed off and such on several occasions - the poor young couple I'd overheard saying how awful it now was living round here. Looks like they've had enough. :o( I suspect the last straw was the house next door to theirs - the one that has been bought up by some housing association or other. Inevitably so it seems, such houses end up having 'less than pleasant' and often down right anti social tenants living in them! The young girl in there at the moment seems to think nothing of playing really loud rap music across the neighbourhood. Too loud for me and I'm several doors away! She has at least on child - a baby who seems to scream and cry all the time. What I assume is the childs father occasionally turns up in his car, and his music is even louder than hers!!! I heard her out in the street the other day - she had her screaming baby in a push chair. It's frenzied crying was what drew my attention to it. She was pushing the push chair down the road and shouting at the baby - "Shut UP! SHUT THE F*** UP!". I think I'd probably have to move if I lived next door to that! :o( . . . ate more soup with bread and butter. . Mum called and left an ansaphone message about a TV show that was on all about parkinsons disease (like Uncle R has apparantly got)! . . watched the second half of the TV show mum had mentioned (complete with brain surgery which of course got me thinking about Dad. Seems pretty obvious from such shows and from the experience with Dad, that ANY brain surgery, WILL result in a subtly different personality after the event. :o( ) . . touched base with Mum . . . ate chocolate cake . . . TVd until bed after midnight. pas
20 - Woken by Sally around 7am . . . walked. Uh oh - Sally seems to have gotten something in her ear! She keeps walking along with her head all on one side and keeps shaking her head!! Had a good rummage in her ear but couldn't find anything. Gonna wait and see what happens before worrying 'too' much . . .BB cooked up a big bacon and eggs and toast breakfast . . . left Sally at home and drove with BB to shop. Finally got rid of the Argos gift vouchers I've had hanging around for months (left over from the returned ionizer/vaccuum deal) - BB bought some hair curler things and insisted on buying a huge great stainless steel 'crock pot' with a glass lid, which apparantly I need for something or other!? . shopped some more in Sainsburys for groceries before heading back home feeling all exhausted early afternoon. My hernia and shopping, is a strangely painful mix! :o( . . . coffee and lots of biscuits for 'lunch' . . . LB called and reminded me about feeding the cats tomorrow . . . had to lay down and nap for a couple of hours . . .walked. Sally's ear problem thankfully seems to be getting better. Lots of 'kids' all out on their way to pubs - probably celebrating their 'A' level results. Wouldn't be surprised if there's trouble in the streets later. . . ate BBs soup . . . TVd . . . ate cornflakes and chocolate cake . . . TVd until bed around 1am. pas
21 - Up around 7am. Cool sunny morning. . . left Sally at home and popped up with BB to feed LBs cats and rabbits. (The ferrets are supposed to be ok for the weekend without attention.) BB couldn't resist having a look in at the ferrets - oh my god! She can't have 'mucked' them out for weeks. Disgusting mess!! Oh those poor animals!!! And what am I gonna do - probably turn a blind eye to it!! That's SO wrong! :o( . . . walked with Sally and BB down to Eastville Park and along the Frome valley to Vassals and then back up through Fishponds, briefly stopping at a couple of charity shops for a rummage . . . BB finished off the soup as I had big garlic sausage, grated cheese, lettuce etc etc sandwiches with crisps . . . inevitably slept the rest of the afternoon away . . . woke feeling like I should still be asleep. Walked . .fed LBs cats and rabbits . . . BB cooked up lots of fried chicken and weird spicy potato stuff for a feast with enough left over for another go . . .briefly sat in the cool (almost cold) dark garden. Someone having a firework display somewhere!? . . .coffee and chocolate cake. . . TVd until bed around 1am. pas
22 - Woke around 8am . . . walked in the warm sun. I thought we were supposed to be getting the tail end weather of a hurricane today? Did 'litter duty' and filled a carrier bag. Sat on the seta by the swings, Sally suddenly spotted a cat in one of the narby gardens and took off after it, ignoring my frantic calls! She ended up climbing over two garden fences like a police dog in her pursuit, ran through the bottom of three peoples gardens and didn't come back to me until the cat was well up a tree!!! Grrrrr! :o( A short harsh leash and much growling from me all the way home. Found 2p but right next to a garden where a couple of young kids were playing so I pointed it out to them and they had it . . . fed LBs cats and rabbits . . .PCd this . . .BB cooked up fried eggs and hashbrowns for breakfast with four slices of bread and butter . . . walked with BB and Sally down to St Georges park and back. Pleasantly relatively cool and sunny. Found a penny and a slightly damaged small gold hoop earring to add to my strange 'back of a cupboard' collection of such things. . biscuits and coffee before sleeping the afternoon away. Woke just in time to see the last half an hour or so of the olympics marathon and Paula Radcliffe ending up in a tearful heap on the side of the road before the finish! That'll be a publicly difficult thing to have to live with and overcome! :o| . . . all walked. . . ate left over cold spicy potato stuff and fried chicken . . . TVd. Ended up watching a 'Snow White: A Tale of Terror' film with Sigourney Weaver as the wicked one. Impressive film - definitely NOT a cute and cuddley Disney version! . . . eventually to bed in the early hours. pas
23 - Very poor nights sleep. :o( . . up 'late' after 8am . . .walked and found an ornate silver hoop earring. . . real unpleasant painful, hernia related stomach ache! PCd this . . .left BB to do whatever she wanted and ended up pretty much sleeping the whole day away, as heavy showers and a bit of thunder rolled around the sky!! Woke occasionally to watch some TV and eat a couple of sandwiches!. . . walked . . . ate BB cooked salmon croquettes with chips . . .TVd till 'earlyish' to bed around midnight. . just after midnight some nutcase with a bunch of friends in a car was parked down a nearby street playing his car stereo REALLY loud! (got up and peeked out the window to see). Impossible to sleep with that much noise - but I really wasn't in the mood to go getting into an ugly scene, and the car WAS parked nearer other peoples houses. Seemed pretty likely there would be something happening as a result. Lay all quiet listening - suddenly at around 12:20am, some guy from one of those houses stormed out, threw open the car door and shouted at them about the noise they were making and how people were trying to sleep! :o) Seemed to do the trick and things quietened down, although I couldn't sleep and lay there half holding my breath listening out for any more noise, fully expecting some 'retaliation'. Thankfully there appeared to be none. Couldn't sleep and ended up getting back up and sitting around reading the teletext news and drinking horlicks until gone 2am! as
24 - Woken by Sally needing to use the garden around 5am! She isn't well at all!!! Got back to sleep but woke again at some horribly early time as Sally managed to wake BB and indicate to HER that she needed to use the garden again!! . . .walked between the showers. Wow - Sally really is unwell! . .the car that'd been making all the noise last night was still parked over there. As I walked past, I could see a really expensive looking mobile phone just left in full view on the back seat! If I was a different sort of person (like SO many are round here!), that would have been a real easy smash and grab. A packet of cigarettes next to a packet of extra large Rizla papers on the small shelf next to the steering wheel, pretty much confirmed my suspicion that they'd all been out there smoking their dope and listening to their music! . . .left the back door open all day for Sally to frequently go out and pooh and be sick all over the garden! Frequent hosing down. Poor dog - sickest I think I've seen her! <worry> :o( . . .sadly, BBs attempt at giving up smoking seems to have caved in completely - all the more difficult given that she didn't bring enough cigarettes to see her through her stay. Far too expensive for her to buy supplies in the shops here. Seemed like the most acceptable option for the time being was for her to smoke roll ups from my stores of duty free. Strangely, her method of smoking seems somehow different to mine and she immediately ended up with a nasty mark on her lip!!? Walked round the local newsagent and bought a box of hand rolling filters and a 'swan' rolling machine for her to use, rather than see her struggle on trying to roll them by hand and then end up with a bad lip. Couldn't resist bagging the bedhead part of a thrown away single pine bed from the house doing all the work, the same one I got the PC chair from. With a bit of work it'll make a rather better headboard than the one I have I think. Declined the offer of a small computer table they were also eager to get rid of. A nice enough table but far too small for my liking. . Back at home, turned out the damned swan rolling machine was absolute rubbish. I couldn't live with that - ended up walking back round the shop and going through every machine they had on the shelf, only to find they were all as a badly made and some were even worse! Got a refund and then walked the long way back home in the drizzle via three other stores looking for an old faithful Rizla rolling machine. Incredibly no one had one!!? Found 3p . . .did dishwashing, laundry and vacuuming chores as BB walked her keep fit route down to St George, managing to buy a Rizla machine on the way. That's the smoking 'emergency' all sorted then . . . ate garlic sausage, lettuce cheese etc sandwiches and crisps for a late lunch . . . napped for a couple of hours . . . walked and found 2p . . . ate biscuits, left over reheated salmon croquettes and crisps . . . TVd till early. . .an unpleasant period of feeling horribly nauseus immediatley before sleep! Hernia related I think. :o( . . .woken around 3am by lots of shouting and noise out in the street! SO tired, and because the mayhem sounded a little way off, I tried to just lay there and ignore it. A bang amongst the shouting saw me leap out of bed and run to look through the window, to see what car had made the noise. Turned out a taxi was stopped in the middle of the street and noise and nonsense, down the road outside the 'housing association' house that has the unpleasant young girl and baby in it - couldn't see but overheard a male voice maybe trying to get away without paying for the taxi fare!! The taxi soon drove off! Went back to bed but more noise in the street saw me leaping back to the window at 3:20am. The nasty noisy young woman from that house was walking up the road away from her house pushing her baby in its pushchair!! Yet another nights sleep, ruined by selfish 'low grade' antisocial behaviour. :o( pas
25 - Woken by insistant Sally around 8am . . . walked. Sally seems MUCH better - pretty much back to her usual self thank goodness - even up for playing ball a fair bit. :o) . . . PCd this . . . BB cooked up a bacon, mushroom and cheese omlette for a big mid morning breakfast with four pieces of bread and butter . . .all walked down to St Georges park but via the doctors surgery so I could drop in my repeat fluoxetine perscription form. Wandered up and down a few of the shops in St George. Sat in the park for a while in the hot sunny spells and saw a kid catch a very respectable sized fish in the lake. Overcast and threatening heavy rain showers but a very hot walk back. Home around 2pm, luckily just before a heavy downpour . . . coffee and biscuits before inevitably laying down to nap. . . woke around 6:30pm!! . . . walked and found 5p. Detoured to the store and bought a tin of tomatoes for BB to use in the pasta mince meal she was cooking . . . ate pasta mince stuff , and jolly nice it was too . . .TVd until bed in the early hours. pas
26 - Woken by Sally around 7am. . . walked . . .balanced my accounts . . . left sally at home and drove with BB to shop. Stopped off in Kingswood and drew some money out of the building society. Drove on to Emersons Green and shopped - lots! . . . gave Sally her worming tablets wrapped up in a lump of corned beef. . . ate left over pasta mince stuff for lunch with lots of bread and butter . . . napped for a few hours . . . walked . . . ate a whole bunch of barbeque sausages and chicken etc etc with mushrooms. Very indulgent meaty feast. :o) . . . TVd . . . 'early' to bed around midnight. pa
27 - Woke around 4am and then back to sleep until after 8:30am!!! . . . walked Sally late in the rain. Found a 'stash' tin over the field under a tree with a leafy cannabis design painted on it. Excitedly held my breath as I opened it, after having heard something knocking around inside! SO disappointed to only find some roach cardboard inside! lol . . . TVd . . .introduced BB to the delights of butter and cheese covered toasted crumpets . . . sat around . . . trimmed my hair and even let BB have a go!! lolol Oh the excitement of our days. . . ate the rest of yesterdays barbequed meat . . . walked . . . ate biscuits and more biscuits and TVd the day away. Actually watched a bit of the olympics. Paula Radcliffe was running in the 10,000 meters and I just had to see if she was gonna 'crack' again. Sadly she dropped out again. Hardly surprising really - SUCH a brutal distance to have to run! . . . to bed around 1am. pas
28 - Up around 7:30am . . . a huge 'Bristol Balloons' hot air balloon drifted right over the house real low. First time Sally has ever barked at a balloon - but it was REAL big and low and full of many people. By the time I called BB out to see and then thought to go get the camera, it was too late to get the really neat, right on top of the house shot. . . walked and found 18p . . .BB wasn't feeling so good and went back to bed . . . did laundry and defrosted the overfilled freezer which has become SO full of ice, the door is threatening not to close properly!! Put all the frozen food in the bath wrapped in a sleeping bag while I boiled kettles of water and put steaming bowls of boiled water in the bottom of the freezer to speed things along . . . pottered around doing a little dishwashing and then ended up clearing out a kitchen drawer, which seems to be mostly full of dust and my collection of little used, many 'found while out walking', sunglasses!? Moved a couple of things around from cupboard to cupboard making a little more room . . . TVd . . . ate big BB prepared corned beef, salad etc sandwiches with crisps for lunch, followed by coffee and biscuits . . . napped for several hours! . . .walked and found a penny . . . ate BB cooked meatloaf and mash :o) . . . TVd watching 'Terminator II' YET again! . . coffee and far too many biscuits for comfort, before bed around 2am. ps
29 - Woken by Sally around 8am. . . walked doing 'litter duty' and found a T shirt, that with a wash will do for a charity shop. . . left BB sleeping until late morning. Ate the last of the crumpets . . .topped up the pond which appears to be leaking again :o( . . . PCd this . . .pottered around and ended up sorting through my nut and bolt collection looking for some bolts to hold the top on the pine table I recently got for nothing. Turned out the bolts I'd saved from that coffee table I'd recently broken up and thrown away were the right thread. Spent a while sawing them off to the correct length. Worked out perfectly. :o) . . . watched the Belgian grand prix. Blimey - Schumaker didn't win!!! - although he WAS second and has therefore clinched YET another world championships. He IS rather special. . . ate BB prepared corned beef and salad sandwiches . . . napped for a couple of hours . . . walked and found a penny . . . ate reheated meatloaf and mash . . . TVd. . . coffee and biscuits before bed around 1am. ps
30 - Up around 7am. . .walked and found a drinks glass and another dog ball on a rope . . .Mum called to touch base and tell me Sis2s good news about having finally received the cash settlement from her car accident - and Sis1s bad news about her tennant not paying his rent on time!!! . . . all headed off in the car for a drive, just to get out of the house and have a change of scenery for a bit. Stopped for petrol (25.35 ltrs @ £20). . stayed off the motorways because of the likley Bank Holiday queues and drove up the A38 towards Gloucester. Stopped in at the Berkley Castle car park intending to maybe have a look around, but signs indictaed dogs weren't allowed in, so that was that! Drove along fairly aimlessly before ending up at a small park like area on the Severn Estuary at the entrance to the Sharpness docks and canal. Rather breezey and showery. Eventually drove on and headed for the little village of Purton, on the canal and banks of the Severn. Wandered down the canal a little to show BB the weird 'ships graveyard' on the banks of the Severn. A strange atmospheric place I think - where huge old concrete and steel barges (and even some wooden ones) had been deliberately beached years ago (after the war I think), to reinforce the estuary bank and side of the canal. I climbed up on one of the 'half submerged in the mud' barges and ended up posing for BB to take a photo. The idea was that I was doing that bow of the ship pose thing they did in the 'Titanic' film. Turned out it was really breezy and my shirt tails were all blowing in the breeze and somehow it ended up being a rather - um - err - embarassing (if perhaps rather flattering) picture! lol . . rain showers and BB not having appropriate footwear soon called a halt to our breif walk and we returned to the car. Decided to walk the short distance to the small pub at the end of the lane and have a drink. I enquired what food they had, and the answer was 'only bread and cheese', so I figured it wasn't worth bothering. I took the half pint of cider for BB and my half pint of orange squash and returned to the outside table I'd tied Sally to. BB paused inside and ended up ordering bread and cheese for us both. Ok - it WAS a big piece of cheese, and it did come with pickled onions, a spring onion, pickle and a bread roll and butter, and it was quite nice but it absolutely was NOT worth the £4 each it cost!!!!! Extortionate! . . drove back via country lanes and the Cotswolds and eventually home around mid afternoon . . . napped for a couple of hours . . . walked and found a penny . . . ate reheated meatloaf and mash with gravy . . . TVd . . . PCd . . .TVd till bed around midnight. pa
31 - Up at 6:20am . . . beautiful cool, dewy, cloudless, sunny morning. Left BB sleeping and walked Sally the long walk down through Eastville park, along the Frome Valley and up onto Purdown to stop and have a cigarette. At last - signs of work having been started on renovating the runined monument. Carried on along the river to Vassals and eventually back up through Fishponds. Found £1. Home around 10am . . . at Tuna salad sandwiches for an early lunch . . . left Sally at home and drove with BB to shop at Emersons Green and briefly in Kingswood to buy a huge chunk of special price beef in Somerfield. . . couldn't resist a quick bowl of Frosties - first time I've bought those in years - not enough sugar on them for my liking. . napped for a few hours until around 6pm . . . walked and found 5p. Uh oh - Sally suddenly seemed to develope a really bad limp!!! Had a real good look at her paw and leg but couldn't see anything wrong!? Maybe it's just cramp or a pulled muscle or something from all that running around and swimming and squirrel chasing earlier?. . . returned Mums ansaphone call to hear about the guy she'd got in to remove one of her big fir trees (the one she wouldn't let me have a go at for her!). He couldn't get the stump and root out so someone else is gonna have to do that tomorrow with some big machine or other!! More money!!. . . watered the garden. I just don't understand what is going on out there with that pond. It seems to be holding water ok again!?? . . . ate BB cooked roast beef with salad and bread and butter . . . TVd until bed around 1am. pas
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