Insert title here,

With less than twenty four hours until we take to our sleeping bags for a night under canvas, I am quite looking forward to sitting round a camp fire sipping port and noshing on bananas with chocolate buttons melted in them. All manner of silliness will ensue, hopefully we’ll have clear skies for a spot of naked eye astronomy and satellite spotting, and then over to the pond for a bit of bait drowning, otherwise known as fishing.

NEWSFLASH.......

Just entered the bad books because I refused to despatch a rather large arachnid.

Anyway, I digress. The last time I slept in a tent was my last visit to Lyme Regis, which is also when I broke my toe. It did smart and there were some choice words, none of which can be written here.

When we return home on Sunday we will have the company of an old friend who’s visiting from Northshire, there are also plans to do a bit of shopping on Monday, if Trudes has the strength I shall treat her to the fancy coffee doodad that she likes; I shall have an iced vanilla milkshake thing.

I should think that treats will be unlikely as I shall no doubt be having a few too many whilst camping, when we get back to sillyvisation I shall be back on tub watch. The current status is another kilo lost and 0.4% total body fat has been dropped, I do hope nobody slips over on it. The next big milestone is Trudes return to the hospital for, what is hoped to be, the last instalment of lump watch. If all has gone well we shall be celebrating, I don’t yet know how, and then we can concentrate on getting my brave wife to be strong and healthy and getting our wedding plans off the ground.

I think we’re both agreed on a quiet affair with just a few close friends and family, suits me as long as it’s what Trudes wants.

I saw my boy for the first time in months on Wednesday, he asked if he could come up for a visit, I explained that he doesn’t need to ask, he just needs to let us know that he’s on his way. Even if he only gives us a couple of hour’s notice of his imminent arrival, I’m sure Trudes will have no objections. It will be brilliant to spend some quality time with him, he’s grown so much. He’s six foot two and stick thin, the sod! But his character hasn’t changed a bit. I’m sure him and Trudes will get on like a house on fire, no doubt at my expense. He’ll probably give her loads of ammo with to have a giggle at me with, and I don’t doubt that by the time he leaves we will have very sore side from the jokes and silly stories. This is the main reason I’m trying my hardest to keep Trudes and one of my oldest friends separate. If laughter is the best medicine, then Stu can cure Trudes of anything. Of course it comes with a price, namely my total humiliation, light hearted of course, but if anyone person can reduce me to a babbling wreck with tales from the days of my roguish youth, Mr Green is the man, and oh lord does he have some tales. I expect that some of the guys that we’ll be spending the weekend with will all have an embarrassing tale about me to share with T. Should be a laugh though.

So, until Monday when I report back from camping, I bid you farewell.

Camping, Chrimbo and consoles!

I can’t believe it’s only Wednesday, this week seems to be dragging. I guess it’s because it’s so close to payday, the last week of the month always seems to be the longest. It may also be due to the fact that I’m looking forward to the weekend. I’m at the shop on Saturday, not supervising the gaming, although I shall take a rule book, some dice and some blast templates as the sprogs either don’t have them or regularly forget them. I won’t be taking any models. I’m running the shop for the day so that my friend can have time with family. After the shop we head to a friends for a spot of camping, I haven’t camped (ooer) for a few years and I’m really looking forward to kicking back and having a few beers. Some Doom Bar has been sent ahead for the evening. I hope to get a spot of fishing in on Sunday, also something I haven’t done for some time.

We’re taking Little Miss Molly Pops, and she getting a special outfit made to keep her (not quite so) baldy bum warm, as usual pics will be on my FB page after the event.

With it being a bank holiday, I think the plan is to do very little on Monday, Trudes has hinted that there’s a pair of shoes she quite likes so they may have to be put aside for Christmas. I’ve mentioned two potential pressies to herself, the first being the eagerly awaited, well for the gaming geeks amongst us, Isle of Blood. This is a new boxed set from Games Workshop. It features the new 8^th edition rules and two armies of finely detailed models. The other pressie is slightly more expensive than the game. I would like a new, more powerful telescope. I’ve got my eye on one, it’s made by Skywatcher and has a motorised equatorial mount. I suspect I may have to count it as a Chrimbo and birthday pressie, but I think I can live with that.

Trudes has reciprocated the start of pressie lists, only hers consists primarily of shoes and handbags. Well, she is a girl! I expect that non footwear related gift ideas will arise closer to the time, and I shall endeavour to get her some of the goodies that she requests, plus a few surprises.

I’ve never been great at buying for others, at the opposite end of that scale I think I’m relatively easy to buy for. Pretty much anything that goes beep will do for me. Speaking of things that go beep, I really must dust off my 360. It must be over a year since I last used it, and longer for the PS2. If any of my readers happen to have a spare copy of Hogs of War floating about, please get in touch. Apparently it’s one of the few computer gamey majigs that Trudes actually likes. I wonder what it would take to turn from geek-girl to gamer chick. Although technically, they’re not that different.

What I need to find is a game that is very immersive, the down side is that if I manage to find her a game that she likes, I won’t get a look in. Tee hee, I’ll get a slap for that.

There’s two games forth coming that are on my “I’d like that” list, the first is Fable 3 and the second is Star Wars, the Force Unleashed 2. These are just up my street for gaming; they have elements of the old style platform, the shoot ‘em up and a good amount of puzzle solving. Although if mindless blowing things up is what floats your boat, I don’t think you can go far wrong with any of the halo or Call of Duty games.

On facebook I’ve made a photo gallery of cars I like, just for fun more than anything else. I plan to add to it now and then, if you get a chance take a look and see if you agree with my choices.

Well that’s about all for now

Excelsior!

moaning is something old people do.

Since Sunday my left shoulder has become very sore, probably as result of hoiking myself in and out of holes, I have to say that it was worth it. I haven’t had that much fun for a long while and I can’t wait to do it again.

I’m currently supporting the gym run at work, no I don’t make use of the amenities, that’s a concept that is totally alien to me, I have been making use of a very accurate set of weighing scales. Over the last months, I’m not entirely sure how long really, I’ve lost over two stone. Currently I’m losing about two pounds a week. I’m not absolutely certain what I’m doing, but whatever it is it’s working. A lot of my friends have told me that the weight loss is showing, plus I’m having to put new holes in my belt. By my reckoning, if I maintain the trend I stand to lose around four stone over the next four months. I may put a few pounds back on in December, but at least I have a target. I’m hoping to lose at least half of that by Christmas. Wish me luck on that.

Now for a bit of a moan, TV, with particular reference to weekend programmes, they’re rubbish! People say how rubbish things like Doctor Who, Merlin and Primeval are, but really look at the forthcoming season. This weekend will see the broadcasting of two programmes that centre around second rate pop stars that have been given video cameras so that they can film their day to day living. We also get the return of x factor, also known as talentless chavs who have been told by their nans that they sing well in the shower. Sadly the nan omitted to tell them that they’re deaf from all the raves they attended when they were younger. We also have the pleasure of less than minor “celebrities” throwing themselves around a dance floor, only to be told how rubbish they are at dancing. Well duh! These people aren’t professional dancers, so of course they’re going to be rubbish. At least we say goodbye to the mind numbing trite that is Big Brother. What’s happened to all the writers? Surely there’s a few good ideas floating around out there, or do we have to suffer East Coronation Dale and celebrity dog walking for the next eight months?

On a brighter note for those who enjoy being entertained by the idiot box when it has a proper programme on, Mark Gatiss, He of League of Gentlemen, Doctor Who scriptwriter and co-writer of this years, rather good, adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, is working on a new adaptation of H G Wells’ The First Men in the Moon. I reckon that’s something to look forward to. Wells is considered, by many, to be the creator of modern science fiction, some would argue that Jules Verne holds that title; maybe we could do a TV documentary on it! I remember the Lionel Jeffries version from 1964, it wasn’t a bad film, and because Wells lived in the area, Dymchurch gets a mention.

So there you have today’s blog, a bit of a rant, and a bit of good news on a personal level.

Oh happy days

Sunday last saw me and a group of my very close friends return to Lydden Spout to further explore the area. We all met at the bottom of Folkestone Hill, I’m a Dover lad so it’s always been the hill into Folkestone rather than up to Dover. Two of us got the bus up, as there wasn’t room in the car. Dave and I got a bit lost so we called into a local tavern to ask for directions, the barman, for some unknown reason served us to pints of ale whilst we studied the map. Once we had our bearings we set off in search of the rest of our party. They were lost too, well, I say lost, they’d parked the other side of the pub. They’d also sent one of their number in the pub to ask if anyone fitting our description had been in, we’d been rumbled. Having regrouped we set off for our destination. The walk wasn’t as pleasant as the last time we were there. We had a force 10 gale blowing and no sun. However, we didn’t let that deter us, and we made headway to the holes. I was confident that the entrance to the deep shelter was somewhere down the cliff face, so myself and the rear admiral had a bit of a scramble down the cliff in an endeavour to locate it. We had no luck and realizing that we were in the wrong place we scrambled back up. I’m not as fit as I use to be, after that ascent I was quite knackered. We moved on to hole #1. A bit of a tight squeeze but I managed to get in and the exploring commenced. These holes have been there for over 60 years, they show many signs of neglect and abandonment, but they’re still impressive. They were excavated by the royal engineer corps to accommodate the crews for the large guns that defended that section of the coast. This battery, along with two others in Dover and another three between Guston and St Margaret’s were pivotal to defending the channel from the German war machine. Sadly history hasn’t been kind to these amazing places. In fact none of the fortifications have survived well, except for the installation beneath Dover castle. It seems to me that rather than preserving these places, it’s quite the opposite, and they are being allowed to fade away in the hope that what they stood for, and against, will eventually be forgotten. This is a great shame as both the wars are an important part of history, not just ours, but the whole of Europe’s. Anyway, I digress, after the first hole, or to give it its correct designation, Magazine store #1, we headed back to the cliff face in another attempt to find the deep shelter. This was the equivalent of an air raid shelter for the gun crews. We found some steps heading down the cliff and, again two of us climbed down. A third body went down a path that was slightly to the west of the steps where he stood on top of a well constructed wall. We didn’t find the entrance, but I have since learnt that body three was very close, it’s at the base of the wall just to the left of where he was stood. I also have it on good authority that the entrance is very close to total collapse, so maybe it was a good thing we didn’t find it. I just hope that when nature does finally have its way and seals the entrance permanently, no one is in there. Returning to the top we headed over to the hole we first explored on the walk a few weeks ago. Not much had changed, apart from a few more spider egg sacks. As we started to walk back I noticed what appeared to be a large, rusted, hatch lid. It was too heavy for me to lift it on my own, but it was clear that it could be lifted. So Dave and I took the initiative and lifted the hatch. Beneath it was a shaft with a ladder going down one of the side walls. After a brief discussion it was agreed that some of us were prepared to climb down the ladder and see what was down there. We had found the emergency escape shaft to the plotting rooms; this was the control room for the guns and also housed the Battery Command Post. The larger room was the plotting room itself and doors lead off it into smaller rooms which housed the ventilation plant and probably mess rooms. Something that we all thought was a very touching tribute to the men that manned these positions was a visitors book that someone had left there, along with some photos and letters from, I think, former servicemen and women. Again the area is well preserved, to the point where some of the light switches and power outlet switches work as well as they would have sixty years ago. Flicking the switches made a resounding click. I’m certain that if there was still power to the facility, some time and effort could easily restore this place to its former glory. We were about to head home when we found centre battery point and more holes. The magazine tunnel was the hardest to enter, there was virtually no foot purchase and the access hole was quite deep. We managed to get in and explore what may be the longest of the three tunnels. Getting out was even more difficult than getting in. Dave had to be yanked out, sheer bloody mindedness made me determined to get out unaided, if only to prove to myself that I could. Finally we ended our day’s adventure and walked back to the pub. As we sat, partaking of our refreshments, Dave and I started thinking about the visitor’s book. It’s been left on the floor and is likely to get damage through moisture. Initially we thought about installing a shelf for it to rest on, but that would involve drilling into the walls. The more I think about it the more I feel that it would be better to put a table of sorts in there, that way the book would be off the floor and may last a little longer. The annoying thing is the idiots who have nothing better to write than offensive comments. Which is ridiculous when you consider the efforts they went through to get down there in the first place? I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that these places are being allowed to decay, or the idiots who have no respect for the history they are helping to destroy.

For our next adventure I’m hoping we can visit some of the fortifications on the western heights, if the guys were impressed with Lydden Spout, the Detached Bastion will certainly have the same effect at the least.

Some pictures from the day can be found on my facebook page.

feeling the love

It’s been a while since my last post, up until last Friday not much has happened to write about, and then the proverbial hit the fan. For those who aren’t aware, Tea and I fostered a little Yorkshire terrier, she’s called Molly and she’s a very special but very poorly little lass. She has a medical condition called Cushing’s disease, she also has diabetes, she’s blind, baldish and on top of all that she’s 12 years old. But despite all those things she’s a tough little cookie. She never complains or whimpers and she gives the most amazing greetings in the morning. On Friday evening I came home from work and decided to give Molly Pops a bath, so far so good. Whilst we were in the bathroom, Trudes went off to collect her friends that were coming to stay. Molly was dried and brushed and all fluffy and cute. I took her downstairs and she settled on the sofa beside me. About twenty minutes later she was sick on the sofa, I cleaned up and whilst doing so she was sick again. Within an hour she was extremely hot to the touch and her breathing was shallow and wheezy. Trudes decided that she was going to spend the night with her as she continued to be sick and was refusing food and drink. Trudes was having to use a syringe to get water into her. At about 4 in the morning Trudes woke me to tell me that Molly had had some kind of seizure, she stood up, went rigid then flopped over all twitchy and foaming at the mouth. There was more vomiting and a nasty case of the runs so Trudes made an emergency vet appointment.

We got to the vets and Molly was taken in to see the nice lady who took her temperature, 108 apparently that’s not good for any dog, let alone one with Molly Pop’s problems. The vet advised us to get her to the dog hospital, so with the agreement of Tea’s dad, off we sped. We arrived at the hospital in Ashford and were promptly taken in to see another vet. He listened to her heart and said “you’re aware of her heart murmur!” “NO!” we both replied. Anyway since she was now severely dehydrated and clearly very ill, we were told that she would need to stay in for a couple of days. Walking out of the hospital without my little Molly Popples was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do for a long time. We headed home; the journey was very quiet and solemn. About 2pm that same day the phone rang and it was the vet, I passed him over to Tea who was told that Molly’s kidneys were failing, her liver levels were elevated and her white blood cells were very high. Once Trudes told me this I almost resigned to the fact that our girl would not be coming home, and I began to prepare myself for the inevitable. The rest of Saturday remained solemn, although we went into town with our guests, Molly wasn’t out of my thoughts for very long and I’m fairly sure it was the same for Trudes.

Sunday morning arrived, I’d not had a great deal of sleep and I think Trudes had had even less. I went downstairs and pottered about, chatting with our guests, then I phoned the vet to see how my girl was doing. Good news, she’d brightened a bit but wasn’t out of the woods yet. The vet phoned again later in the day telling Trudes that she’d managed to eat something and keep it down, this was also good news. I went to work as usual on Monday morning, whilst there I got a text from Tea simply saying “call me!” My first thought was oh dear it’s bad. I rang her and she said that the vet was happy with molly progress and pending the results of a second set of tests she would be able to come home on Tuesday. By the end of the day Trudes had heard from the vets and Molly’s condition was vastly improved and she would be home soon.

It’s Tuesday now and I came home to be greeted by the best Yorkshire terrier in the world and had to fight to contain the urge to blub. She has to see the vet again on Friday for a blood test and she has more pills to take but she well and her appetite has returned.

It surprises me how much she’s worked her way in to our hearts, I know she as a limited time but it’s down to me and Trudes to ensure that for as long as she has, she’s loved. I also know that when I do say goodbye to my Little Miss Molly for the last time, it will break my heart.

Still the good thing is that for the time being she well and back to her normal self. The vet did say that he was impressed with how much of a fighter she is and that she didn’t complain once about the jabs and the prodding and poking she’s had to go through over the last few days. In fact to look at her now, you’d never know that we probably came very close to losing her.

over the last few days Molly’s blog has had in excess of 500 hits and well wishes from all sorts of places, she’s once seriously loved up pup.

Believe in the power of the paws!

The Tunnel Rats reborn?

In order to aid the growth of new feet after yesterdays hike I’ve had the day off, not done much but I nipped into town to sort a few things out and did a bit of shopping, one thing I was looking for was a decent pair of walking boots. I really enjoyed yesterdays walk, and would love to do more, but the boots I wore were totally wrong for the job. They were bought so that I had some smartish black footwear for formal occasions, they do shine up really nice. So boots are the order of the day. I need to talk to someone in the know, someone outdoorsy and clever where that sort of thing’s concerned, so that’ll be Jim at work. Another area where he’s going to come in useful is sorting out some odds and ends for the return to Lydden Spout on the 15^th of August, oh such plans.

I’ve also received some info on gaining access to the North Entrance lower levels, I just hope that the info is correct and we can get in. I’m fairly confident that the Detached Bastion is still easily accessible, although we may have to play at Indiana Jones to get through the undergrowth, but that should be fun.

It’s going to be great to be a tunnel rat again; it’s been so long since the last time I spent any length of time crawling into holes and disused forts and buildings. Yesterday bought back so many great memories. In my younger days I spent most weekends and the majority of the school holidays underground. I broke an ankle in part of the Northern Entrance; I bet that hole’s nowhere near as deep as it used to be. I expect that many of the holes I used to crawl through are much smaller now, I doubt I’d fit in the Western Outworks drainage pipe but at least I can say I did once, and if the weight loss keeps going as it is I may be able to again. So we have a return visit to Lydden Spout, the detached Centre Bastion and the possibility of getting into the lower levels of the North Entrance. I’m fairly sure that if I can find enough places I may be able to spark up and interest in tunnel ratting with more than a few of the guys that came out on the hike. I’m sure that they’ll get the bug fairly easily as most of them are completely bonkers and up for anything.

There was talk yesterday of a walk from Rye to Hastings in the not too distant future, whilst I’m not sure I’m fit enough to manage the walk, Trudes and myself could jump on a bus and meet the guys in Hastings. It would mean a bit of a trek for Trudes, but she’s going to need some outings and time out of the house when she finishes her hospital appointments and if we stay on the lower deck of the bus the journey won’t be too bouncy. If I can get Trudes to come up to Lydden Spout it would be fantastic. I’m not expecting her to crawl around the tunnels, but she can sit in the sun taking in the views and Little Molly Pops can have a mooch about on an extendable lead. I could probably rustle up tea brewing kit, there’s always a need for tea. This is the problem with not driving, it would be great to meet up with the gang when they do cycle rides and stuff. Sometimes travelling by bus makes it difficult to get to some places or you have leave at the crack of sparrow fart to meet people anywhere. One of the benefits is the fact that you can take in the view as the world passes by.

Well that’s about it for now, I’m off to bed with a head full of dreams of summer days on the heights and excitement over August 15^th.

Sleep well world.

Sore feets and tasty treats

Sunday morning arrived and I arose to tend to the needs of Little Miss Molly, as I sorted missy out the kettle went on for the morning cuppa. Once all had been tended to I set about sorting out for the day ahead. 3 minutes later on went the telly for some mindless trite. Three members of the adventuring party arrived and we head over the road to await our omnibus, I went home again as I’d forgotten my bottle of squash. Back over the road for the bus which arrived promptly, that’s a novelty! I think the best way of getting to the top of a steep hill is on a bus, it’s so easy and not at all tiring. On arrival at the valiant Sailor, which was closed, we waited for Smiffy; He was nearer to the Battle of  Britain Memorial than us so we set off to meet up with him since the memorial was our first port of call. I’ve wanted to visit the memorial for many years, but I’ve only ever gone screaming past it in a car or on a bus. I must say that it’s a fitting tribute to the brave men who defended our skies. It’s also very serene, a quiet seems to surround the whole site. We left the memorial and head toward Dover, however we were a bit peckish, that bus ride must have taken it out of us. Fortunately the cliff top cafe was open so we purchased tea and sarnies, yummo! After taking in the view it was time to head off properly and start our trek to Dover.

It didn’t take too long to find the path along the cliff top and some spectacular views across the channel and over to Dungeness. We passed through huge bushes that arched over the path making natural tunnels and in some places the cliff edge couldn’t have been more than two feet from us. The first historical building we came to was the sound mirror, a forerunner of radar. There are much larger examples of sound mirrors located at Dengemarsh but this one is a fine example, although I’m not sure that it’s as old as the Dengemarsh mirrors, I’m fairly certain it’s only been there for about ten or fifteen years. As we left the mirror we were on a tarmac pathway, this turned out to be a cycle route, we did notice some information points on the ground, one was in the style of a large open book and the other looked like a drain cover, apparently there are more of these things, but if most of them look like drain covers I think they don’t get noticed much. Continuing our trek eastward we headed down a path that was very close to the cliff edge and the girly types were thankful for the railing that had been installed.

We then arrived at a disused rifle range, apparently metal detectors will find used shells and bullets even after all these years, and a point on the walk known as Lydden Spout, this was a military installation that had three large guns and served as part of the coastal defences during WWII. We found a hole that may be just wide enough for me to squeeze into but decided against any exploration and pulled the girly type out of said hole and continued walking. The girly type then wanted to have a look around the building that are still standing. However, given the fact that the building are now used to keep cows in  and didn’t smell too nice we chose not to explore them and returned to the path. Just before reaching the buildings Dave had a call from Batty asking where we were, he was told how to find us and then headed off in the opposite direction. Whilst we waited for him to back track we found another hole. This one had slightly better access, and remembering the stand on this sort of thing I had when I was younger, we had to go in! We had to trip down the hole, the second when Batty finally caught up with us so that he could have a look see. After the hole we headed on to Dover with short stops to investigate various look out posts and gun emplacements. Like me, Dave seemed quite shocked that places that were vital to the nation’s defence are simply being forgotten, vandalised and left to rot. I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but I feel there’s more to remembering the people who served king and country than wheeling out a few veterans every November. Whilst many of the buildings are beyond saving there a quite a few that could easily be restored to their former glory with just a little effort and help from the national trust. Like the veterans, when these places have gone there’ll be nothing to show how hard these people worked. But maybe that’s what the people who have a say in these things want. If the buildings are gone then we can forget it all ever happened.

We ran out of building to explore and were soon on the final leg of the cliff top path, Shakespeare’s Cliff, so called because there’s mention of a high cliff in Dover in the play King Lear. As we climbed the path to the top I started to flag a bit and was thankful for a rest stop at the bottom. We headed over to the south military road to walk up to Saint Martin’s Battery which overlooks the western docks, after a few photo ops and a bit of a wander we walk down the site of the Grand Shaft Barracks and up to the Drop Redoubt Fort. We walk around the base of the fort, sadly access is impossible as the place is sealed and padlocked, and the only time that access is by special permission of the English Heritage or when the preservation society has one of the two annual open days. Finally we walk down from the fort and in to Dover town where we decided to hit the eight bells on Biggin Street for a well earned pint and a bit of scram. Steak and chips never tasted so good.

We ended the day on a bus back to Folkestone, my feet are very sore, they almost feel bruised, but not being one to sit around, I’m about to help out with some house work and then head into town to do some stuff and then into Hythe to see Sue to go through some last minute planning for Sunday.

There’s plans afoot to head back to the hole in August and possibly exploring the detached bastion, oh happy day. I think I shall be taking a camcorder for the second visit.

So there it is, I walked almost 7 miles with some very good mates, I had some lovely grub and I have very sore feet and aching legs, but it was worth it. Photos of the day can be found on Mankey Badgers and my facebook pages.

See y’all.

life, the universe and other things that conspire against us!

It’s Saturday night, well very early Sunday morning, and the end of an interesting week. Work has been, well, odd. I’m not exactly sure what my job title is any more and I don’t have a current job description. When I do get one, I think it will read something along the lines of “anything and everything we tell you to do!” I had myself weighed on Wednesday; surprisingly I’ve lost a few more kilos and if I continue to do so I may actually managed to rid myself of the diabetes and high blood pressure. My doctor told me that he’s only had one patient who managed to achieve that goal so I’m determined to give him a second. OK I may slip now and then, but whatever I’m doing I must be doing it right as I’ve now lost just under 2 stones since Christmas, yay me! Another piece of good news is that little Molly Pops has been to see a new vet after the abysmal treatment by her previous one; all seems to be going well with our little miss. Not only were the nursey types cooing over the divine one, but the vet was impressed with how well her fur is growing back. He mentioned to T that it’s very difficult to get a dog with Cushing’s to re-grow fur, so whatever we’re doing we should keep doing it. Yay us!

On Thursday I got home from work and herself said that the Virgin Media box had started misbehaving, oh poop! I switched it off and back on, no joy. A phone call to the customer services told what I already knew and a tech was arranged to call on Saturday between 12:00 and 16:00 to replace the box. Hang on a mo, I thought, that means that I’m paying for something I’m not getting and I will have lost everything I recorded. Another call to Virgin got me a 50% discount on this month’s bill. Today the tech arrived with a new box, he had a bit of a struggle getting it set up, once he had got the thing connected to the telly correctly he more or less just cleared off, saying it should be set up in about twenty minutes. Two hours later the box was still in its diagnostic mode. Yet another call, half an hour later the box was sorted and working properly. The lass on the help desk had me reading numbers out to her, which she repeated back to me completely wrong and then had me looking for numbers that were nonexistent. By this time yours truly had become more than a little miffed and asked said girly if Virgin Media were going to reimburse me for the cost of a call that should never have happened. Initially she avoided answering my question, but after some prompting she relented and said that my next bill will be further discounted for the inconvenience. It seems that the problem with my original box is not uncommon, and after a bit of web surfing I discovered that both Virgin Media and Samsung, the STBs manufacturer have been aware of the problem for some time, but neither were prepared to take blame for the fact that faulty boxes were being sent out to new customers. Still, it seems that the issue has been resolved and I can get back to watching tat on the telly box again.

On Tuesday I went out to the garden to see if i could spot the ISS going over, I did and I was rather chuffed. so I printed of times when it and other bright satellites could be observed, gathered up my binoculars, went into the garden Wednesday to be greeted by thick fog, on Thursday it was cloudy on Friday I missed it. I saw other satellites but they weren’t as bright as the ISS was. still it was good to get some naked eye observing done.

Not tonight though, there had been a plan afoot, before the death of my box, for T and myself to head to Hythe for an evening out, starting with dinner at Torbay, a rather fine chippy in Hythe, and then maybe a stroll along the canal. Sadly T wasn’t up to going out, so we spent the evening in with the prearranged dog sitters. We made up some nosh and then settled into a friendly game of trivial pursuit, which I won! We then watched 10000 BC not a bad film sort of along the lines of apocolypto but in English and considerably less gory. Friends then headed home to get plenty of rest before the walk to Dover tomorrow. I’ll post pics and a report on the event either Sunday evening or sometime on Monday.

Until then, goodnight all.

My tech isn’t techie enough!

Here’s something novel, I’m going to have a rant! Back in October, my orange contract was coming up for renewal. This meant that I could get a shiny new phone. Woo-hoo, so I phoned Orange and said “oi, my contracts up, I want to stay with orange, but I want a shiny new phone!” the blokey on the other end said “fair enough and did some tappity tapping on his computer. After a while he said asked what contract I would like. Initially I asked about the I-phone, it was due to be available with orange so I asked if it was worth hanging on until it was out. Oh no, he said, the I-phone won’t be out on any tariffs under £75. Stuff that thought I and said I’d get back to him. I wanted something flashy and comparable to the afore mentioned I-phone. I’ve had an I-pod touch for a while now and I like the idea of the apps that are available, particularly astronomy apps. I hit the orange web site and had a look through the phones that were available on the price plan I wanted. There was the Samsung i8910HD, 8 gig internal memory, touch screen, 8 megapixel camera plus GPS and loads of other interesting features. That’ll do, back on the phone and after a few minutes my shiny new phone was winging its way to me spit-spot. Huzzah. When it arrived I opened the box and drooled over the shiny blackness, then I went and bought an 8gig memory card for it. This is brilliant I thought, stuff the I-phone this is much better. Well here we are seven months on, and I have to admit that more than a bit miffed and more than slightly disappointed, not with the phone, that still black and shiny and fun to play with. The source of my disappointment is two pronged to be honest. Firstly, the plank at orange was entirely honest with me, the I-phone came out two weeks later available for free on the price plan I’d gone over to. The second is the support for the phone itself. Firstly Samsung release this all singing all dancing “I-phone buster” and then drop all support for it almost immediately. When I got the phone Samsung claimed it as their flagship phone, however, none of the Samsung apps are compatible with it, and as for orange, the apps available there are worse than useless. Unless your main interest in life is football and astrology forget it! And to be honest I’m not I’m not keen on paying £5 for something that’s going to tell me I’m going to meet a tall dark stranger every other day or for something that’s going give information that I could get for free on the interweb. So no apps worth shouting about and all the support of a bridge constructed from rice paper, I have a phone that will never unlock its full potential, and my next upgrade is about 18 months away, will I stick with orange? It depends on what they’re prepared to offer me to stay. Will I get another Samsung? Probably not. Since getting the phone I’ve looked into Samsung as a phone manufacturer, whilst they make some extremely good phones, there’s little or no support for them. Basically you get what’s in the box and hope that there’s enough to keep you entertained. Judging on the way mobile tech is advancing it wouldn’t surprise me if the HTC is the way to go. Still, time will tell. Well there ya go; I’m an unhappy technophile whose tech just isn’t what he hoped for. Why is hind sight always 20/20?

oooh I’m all off kilter!

Well it’s Tuesday evening and I’m sitting listening to a film called “The Bone Collector” not really taking much notice of it as I surf the web looking for interesting stuff. I’m sitting in my spot on the sofa and I’m covered in glitter. A friend known as penny, because she doesn’t know who Stan Lee is and she glazes over when I start babbling about all things sci-fi, has spent the last two days sitting on the sofa fixing her girly face, well, I say two days, it’s really only an hour or two, but where I’ve laid on the sofa the right side of my head is now covered with said glitter. So I’m off for a shower in a bit to clear the stuff off, I shall be having stern words later, so far as waggling a finger and saying “Penny, AAAH!” bless her! She is such a sweet little thing.

On Friday I’m giving my talk on Jupiter at the astronomy club, I’m more than a little nervous and I need to have a couple of practice runs just to make sure that it all runs smoothly.

After that I need to read through my notes for the Dover walk, looking forward to that.

The missus is doing OK, although I’m sure she feels she could be feeling better. I can’t even begin to imagine how she’s truly feeling, so all I can do is be there for her and bolster her when she needs me, easy really!

Some friends have just welcomed a baby boy into the world, and I wish them every happiness, Children are great, I miss my boy, particularly as he was such a good lad when he was little. I’ve missed out on so much with him. But I guess some things just come to a natural end.

Well that’s about it for now, I expect it’ll be a couple of days before my next post, I’ll probably have done the talk, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Nite all!

I must be totally radio!

Friday has arrived and I’ve never looked forward to the end of the week more, the last two weeks have been dire! Work has been awful, there’s been a definite Arctic feel to the atmosphere from the PTB’s, I’m sure things will improve but I would love to be able to point out their flaws, as there are times when they give the impression that they have none and are the perfect employers.

I’m off to the shop tomorrow; I’m going to try to take the lads through some simple objective missions, which should be fun.

I’m making progress on the talk on Jupiter for astronomy club on Friday, I just need to sort out timings and tidy the text up a little. Oh yeah, and two or three test runs, to make sure I don’t make a complete plum of myself on the night. Something else I’m really looking forward to is the walk to Dover on the fourth of July. One of the guys that is joining us has said he’s looking forward to the history snippets I’m preparing for the day. I think I’m just going to bore everyone to tears and they’ll be eager to keep going. Of course knowing how I view things, I’ll be completely wrong and they’ll really enjoy it. I hope as many people as possible turn up, including friends old and new. I think Smiffy’s going to come along which will be good. The one thing that’s worrying me about the day is that I’m nowhere near as fit as I used to be and it’s been a while since I’ve done a long walk, well I say a while, I did walk from Perranporth to St Agnes two years ago. It wasn’t bad aside from the blooming great hill we had to scale on the way back, but given the views of the Cornish coast and the fact that Cornwall is such a fantastic county, it was more than worth it. Fortunately the route we’re taking isn’t that hilly, only one major up and even that’s not too bad. The up on the walk will also be worth it as we’ll be heading to my favourite area in the whole of the south east. With regard to friends coming along, I may chat to uncle Manky about asking people at Astro club if any of them want to join.

Well I’m off to get some sleep so that I’m bright eyed and bushy tailed for the sprogs tomorrow.

Qap’la

I cant think of a title, maybe I’ll put one in later!

Hello, so far this week has been completely pants, I’m not having a good time at the moment. When I left work on Monday, I needed pain killers due to the stabbing pain between my shoulders. After I’d removed the daggers that were causing the pain, I gave my current place of employment some serious consideration. I came to the conclusion that it’s time I moved on. I’ve been in the same job for almost fourteen years now, and I think I’m done! It wouldn’t be so bad if I could get a better position in the job, but it’s a very small company with what, at times, seems like a 9 person management team. In fact rather than getting further up the promotional ladder, I’ve chosen to step off of it. To be honest I felt that my position was nothing more than a figurehead anyway. Any decision I made was either overturned or dismissed. It seemed that the only real way to get any of my ideas and suggestions considered was to get someone else to come up with them.

On a happier note there are plans in place for a walk along the cliff top path from Capel to Dover on the fourth of July. I’m really looking forward to this. It’s been many years since I last did that walk; I used to walk to all sorts of places in my younger days. Sadly I let the past time slip away from me. There’s some fantastic remnant of first and Second World War fortifications and military outposts, I do hope that the people that come along on the walk realise that I plan to bore them silly with short descriptions of some of the places we will visit. The good thing is that it doesn’t involve straying too far off the route as most, if not all, are part of the route. The exception to this is the plan to walk part of the Western Heights trail. Not much, just the area known as Saint Martin’s Battery, down the grand Shaft Barracks, now completely demolished with just the foundations remaining. We would then walk up the steps and head over to the drop Redoubt fort and walk around two thirds of the base of the building. I shall babble on about the history of the area, explaining how and why the defences were built. Finally we’ll head down to Cowgate Cemetery and eventually find something resembling a decent pub for a pint or two and maybe an ice cream on the sea front.

With luck, following on from the brief introduction to the Napoleonic Defences in Dover, I’m going to try and convince as many of my friends as possible to join me in a more in depth exploration of the area, culminating in a visit to the interior of the North Detached Bastion. In some respects I consider myself to have had a fantastic childhood; I had the heights and the Castle as my playground. Me and my mates could lose ourselves for days in the tunnels and buildings and we never got bored. We were always finding new places to clamber into and, with the exception of my broken ankle, we never got hurt. The ankle was totally my fault, I was in a new tunnel, new to us anyway, with my friend, as we were exploring the passage we were in I saw that at the south end of the passage it seemed to head down. So I headed off, with no torch, a promptly fell down a ten foot deep man hole. It took me about an hour to climb out and another two to walk the quarter of a mile to my mates’ house. When we got there his dad saw that something was wrong and immediately ran me to the hospital. He was the only other person who knew what really happened. The problem was that back then, I was about 13 or 14, it was a bit questionable as to if we should have been in there. Beside if the local rozzers had learned that someone had been hurt in there they would have had the MOD and the council seal our playground off, not to mention the prison service getting wind of it. Now consider if you will that one of your best mates has fallen down a deep hole, broken his ankle and is a bit worried about how he’s going to make his way out of the afore mentioned hole. How much support would you give to that friend by way of comfort and aid? Well, the mate in question, and you know who you are! Nearly wet himself he was laughing so much. I must admit that when I did finally get out of the pit, I was sort of half laughing half sobbing in pain. Still when my ankle had healed we were back in there and followed the stairway down, only to find that it lead to a twenty foot long passageway that ended in a vertical shaft heading up to ground level. It will be nice to revisit the NDB after all these years; I’m really keen to see how it’s faired over the passage of time. I’ll post some pics on here when we return; hopefully it won’t be too long after the Capel to Dover walk, which, of course, will have pictures and hopefully some video on YouTube. I’ll get some video of the Heights trip as well. Who knows we may even try our hand at a bit of ghost hunting whilst we’re there. I’m fairly sure Mankey could pull off an Yvette Fielding impersonation. :0)

Until next time

Toodles

insert expletive here!

It’s been a relatively quiet week, I watched most of season 2 of Sanctuary on Monday, the last two episodes were recorded due to other viewing needs and the fact that herself had also sat through the episodes and not enjoyed one of them. Tuesday was the penultimate episode of fringe; I’m looking forward to the final episode. Friday sees the start of the world cup, oh joy! Apparently it will be compulsory viewing in the house. I think that I’ll remove my eyes and ears for the next four weeks. Although it may be longer as the final series of big brother starts next week. So either way the telly box will centre on vacuous idiots with a high sense of entitlement. Where BB is concerned, I can just about manage the entrance night, as for the football, it hurts my finger just typing the word! No doubt there’ll be delays in stuff that’s worth watching and cancellation due to the overpaid numpties not being able to do their job done. They get paid a squillion quid per game and they can’t even do that right. I wonder if they get paid over time. Ninety minutes gets the more money than the national debt, they go ten minutes over and probably get time and half.

Today was a very special friend’s birthday, to celebrate the day we decided that we’d get take out. It was agreed that KFC was in order so myself and a comrade set off to town to gather the meal. Dear god it was like pulling teeth. On entering the establishment we knew it was going to be difficult. The first order wasn’t made by me and took a bit of time getting through to the fella working the till, then I was served, after being overlooked twice, the chap was ready to take my order. It was a painful experience. As I placed the order, he repeated it back to me; I confirmed each part as he did, he then repeated it back to me again. The problem was that the order comprised of around 8 different things. So having it all repeated to you four times gets a bit tedious after a while. Upon returning home after our hunter gathering session I found that, despite confirming the order 8 thousand times and watching blokey read the order from a till print out, he’d got it completely wrong. About the only thing that was in the bag that I had actually ordered were the chips. He’s obviously been trained to serve food by the same bloke who teaches the England footballists to play the game. It would explain the reason for complete ineptitude. Next time I’m going to suggest MacDonald’s! Folkestone KFC was almost worse than le MacDonald’s at Euro-disney, when they stuffed our order up they acted like it was our fault and refused to serve us. It was quite impressive to watch. It was the first time I’d been to a French Macdees, and the person giving the order was speaking French like a native, but as the situation deteriorated he became more English. He explained to la girlie that she was getting it wrong, not happy with him pointing out le tragedie she snatched the remainder of the order from him and told him to leave la shop and never returné. Oh how we laughed.

Off to Astronomy club on Friday night, the weather looks promising and now that my scope is fixed it should be a good night, the problem is that I have just over three weeks to finish and commit to memory my talk on Jupiter. Best get on with it then.

Bye for now all.

X

Gorram it read the signs!

This morning I woke up with a pounding headache, I didn’t sleep too well. I think I was a bit restless due to the disruptions with the household. Still normal service has been resumed and a certain little chap has headed off to stay with a friend and tomorrow he heads off to what will, hopefully, be his forever home. I have to admit that I’m missing the little fella; he’s such a playful and happy pup that he will bring a lot of joy in his new home. Fortunately we’ll get regular updates on how he’s doing so it won’t be too bad.

At the shop today, two victories to the Necrons, woo hoo! I’m starting to think that I should have concentrated on them as a primary army as opposed to the Space Marines. Although I don’t think we were as busy today numbers wise, we were very busy.

Anyway, on with todays rant! Oh no here we go again I hear you cry with despair, but yup there’s a rant coming, and this one’s about law breakers.

For those who don’t know, Hythe high street is a pedestrian area between 11 am and 3 pm. There’s usually a gate that gets closed by the local rozzer, but recently he’s been a bit lapse in his duty and the gate hasn’t been closed on Saturday. Despite the fact that there’s something like three signs clearly explaining that there’s no access for vehicles between these time people seem to think that if the gates open then it’s ok for them to drive along the high street and sound their horn and hurl obscenities and the people who are walking in the middle of the road. Oddly enough the majority of the offenders seem to be the older road user driving Jags, BMWs and high end Mercs. The other type are people driving MPVs, whilst I acknowledge that not all MPV drivers are complete twonks who think they’re above the law, there’s a few who give the decent road users a bad rep. Sometimes I find the whole situation on the high street amusing, there have been times when old folk have almost come to blows over who can and can’t drive along the high street. The best one yet was when a fella, of quite mature years, took it upon himself to run over a sign that was blocking the entrance to the road. When the owner of the sign had a bit of a rant at him he started threatening all manner of things, including fetching his son down to have “words” with the signs owner. Then there was the fella who, realising that he couldn’t drive along the high street, decided to turn his car around and drive the wrong way along the road. When he discovered the gate shut and locked he was going to drive onto the pavement with the intention of squeezing a four and a half feet wide car through a four feet wide gap. When I explained to him that what he was attempting was not only physically impossible but also illegal, he questioned my parental lineage and suggested that I may be an unintelligent copulating habitual masturbator. I was shocked; I never expected to hear such things from a man of the cloth!

After club 40k, ooh that makes it sound a bit saucy, I headed home for tea and Doctor Who, though not in that order, without giving too much away, it’s a bit of a shock ending.

So there you have it, a rant has ranted and I sign off for the night.

Fair thee well all.

I’m totally sonic me!

Yesterday I took a trip to Dover, headed to Argos to acquire an eleventh Doctors sonic screwdriver. Being successful in my quest I waited at the bus stop for a bus home, I did my usual thing of gazing into the river Dour, watching the brown trout doing its own thing. It’s quite relaxing and I like the Dour, Ok it’s not the tidal estuary it once was but it’s nice to know that the river’s recovering from the pollution of the last century. I’m going to go to Dover again and walk the river from Kearsney to the docks. It’s been many years since I’ve done that, I may even stop off on the way for an ice cream.

I got back home and put the batteries in my new toy and waved it about a bit. It’s well made and seems quite sturdy, considering the target user I guess it should be. Anyway it occurred to me that as I now have replicas of the last three doctors’ screwdrivers, River Song future sonic and the Masters laser screwdriver, I need some sort of display stand for them. So when I arrived at work this morning I set about designing one. The early stages were simple, I have access to a fully kitted out wood work shop. So putting the thing together was no problem. I then had the rather clever idea of making the stand appear to be made from coral, just like the interior of the TARDIS, with the help of one of my colleagues and a couple of scoops of something called bonding coat, which was slapped liberally over the wood and then patted into a roughened finish with a dustpan brush. When it’s painted it should look rather good.

Whist working on my masterpiece I was called out to the courtyard, I found a workmate chatting to a lady from the RSPCA. He mumbled something about a complaint about the goldfish we keep at work, then started chatting to girly about sparrows. At this point I figured that a sparrow had been injured and somebody had called the RSPCA to rescue it, so I went back to what I was doing. A few minutes later I was asked to go speak to the lady about the fish. It turned out my colleague wasn’t joking and there had been a complaint made about them. I was advised to get the two largest fish into a larger tank of their own or get them re-homed to a pond or similar environment. Simple enough, unfortunately when said lady arrived I was preparing to carry out the weekly maintenance on the tank, so it wasn’t looking as pristine as usual which is a shame as the tank is well maintained and the fish look, and are, healthy. The brightness of their colours is a bit of a good indication, and the fact that one of them lost all of its fins through rot only to grow them all back except the tail flukes. Whilst I’m aware that they need a bigger tank, the two larger ones are living in much better conditions than they were. The thing that puzzles me the most is who made the complaint in the first place? It’s obviously someone with more time on their hands than they need, if the only things they have to worry about are a few fish. Well I hope that they’re happy now, the fish bring a great deal of pleasure to the guys, some sit watching them for ages, now they won’t have that little moment. Well done you miserable git! After speaking with the PTB’s it has been decided to re-home the fish completely, I may have convinced the missus to let me have them at her place, and the two big boys may have a pond they can go to, Here’s hoping. Otherwise if any of my readers know of someone who would be up for caring for some well looked after goldfish, contact by leaving your email and I’ll get in touch, or you can email me at the usual address. I’ll post a pic of the tank either tomorrow or Sunday.

Until then, glug, glug, glug.

Oh for humps sake SMILE!

I set off for work this morning, a little later than I should, and missed the bus I should be on in order to get there before 9. Oops! I stood waiting for the next one and pondered various things like the weather, what to do about lunch, and whether fringe was recorded last night. The bus arrived and I stepped aboard with my usual joviality, only to be greeted by the most miserable bus driver in the multiverse. I swear if this man had even attempted to point the corners of his mouth upwards, his face really would have broken. He glanced at my pass with the absolute indifference, I’m not even sure he noticed if it was in date. We moved on to the next stop where a lass who was quite easy on the eye got on, told misery guts where she wanted to go, she put her dosh in the tray next to him, he picked it up then virtually threw her change at her. This was more or less repeated for everyone who got on the bus. When I get off the bus I make a point of thanking the driver. Where this chap was concerned, I was half tempted to offer him a handful of my antidepressants and a bottle of vodka. Fortunately they’re not all unpleasant, most of the local drivers are quite amiable and usually have a jolly greeting themselves. I’m sure it’s a taxing job and doubtless it must get quite monotonous, particularly on the local services. They just drive around in a huge circle all day. Captain Grumpy however was coming back from Dover; you’d think that was reason enough to be a bit cheerful. But no, I’m fairly convinced that he spent the rest of the day being his morose old self. If you’re not the sort of person who interacts well with people, why on earth are you doing a job that means you’re doing just that, he probably doesn’t like driving large vehicles either, or handling cash.

In a complete change of rant, I wonder how many people are aware that when they buy a game for their mobile, if they upgrade the phone and they want that game on the new phone, you have to buy the game again. Does this not seem a little unfair? Surely this is a bit like buying a game for an x-box, wanting to play the exact same game on another x-box, but having to buy another copy of the game. It’s a bit of a con really; you buy something but sort of don’t actually own it. Surely these mobile phone companies make enough money from monthly fees and the PAYG services to be able to allow you to transfer a game, you spent good money on, to a phone with the same OS? Yes, I know I’m being a ranty thing but sometimes things infuriate me so much that I feel I have to let off steam, after all isn’t that the point of having a blog?

When I arrived home today I settled down in front the telly for a couple of hours, at about 7ish my phone started going bonkers, the missus was, apparently, desperate to contact me. When I finally got to talk to her she babbled something about someone being on there way up and I was needed there ASAP, oh it’s nice to be wanted. It transpired that the someone who was in Hythe was Eileen from TLDR, this meant only one of two things, A: something was drastically wrong with Molly or B: we were about to have extra canine company. Given the fact that Tea wasn’t blubbing like a blubby thing, it was clear that Molly was OK. I guess the arrival of a dog was imminent. Oh joy, I headed up this hill, and less than ten minutes after I got home², Eileen arrived with Harry, a wire haired Jack Russell, he’s staying for a day or two until a permanent foster can be found. Harry is about 18 months old, very cute and, I suspect, part Tigger. Bouncy isn’t the word for it, he went into the garden for a, well what dogs tend to do in the garden, and was up and down like a mad thing. At one point he jumped sideways over the low wall onto the grass. He needs a lot of exercise but he’s very sociable and affectionate. There’s a pic on this blog to show his royal cuteness off. So if any of my readers know of anyone who can offer a loving home to a very friendly young pup, please get in touch and let me know and I’ll put them in touch with TLDR.

Fringe didn’t record by the way, I think it got replaced by the final episode of lost, something I plan to watch, even if only to see how it all ends.

That’s about all for now, thank you for reading.

TTFN

Could Uma thurman be the new Winona?

Time flies and blogs get overlooked; it’s been some time since my last entry, oh well such is the order of things. I’ve had a pretty crap time at work and feel very unappreciated by the powers that be. But they own the company I work for so I guess I’ll have to grin and bear it. I’ve worked there for almost 14 years now and whilst most of the time I really enjoy it, every now and then I get very down hearted and wonder what the point is. Fortunately I know it won’t last and I’ll be back in the swing of things soon.

This month sees the final astro club before I give my talk on Jupiter, so I really need to get on and finish it. Fortunately the planet has been in the news recently, I won’t say why, it’ll spoil the surprise for the people who go to astro club.

Something else I need to get on with is the work I need to do for the 40k tournament in July that should be fun. I really need to get to work on my buildings for the display table.

Trudes has got 2 more treatments to go, so far it’s all going well, and at least that’s what she tells me. Chemo should be done in a month and Tea can head down the road to recovery. It will so good to have her back to full health. Then we can start our wedding plans and, hopefully, sort out some sort of break. We do have a provisional plan for a trip to the Isle of Wight next year. This will give me the chance to visit a couple of good fossil sites on the island. Something I’m really starting to look forward to. We also have the plan to visit Alton Towers later in the year, oh I do like a good fun fair and it’s almost two years since I went to Euro Disney.

We’ve had the virgin TV installed, I think Trudes is adjusting well to the service, she’s recording all sorts of stuff, and all we need now is a new TV to match.

I’m still enjoying the current run of doctor who, although I think that the vampires of Venice was, for me the weakest of the episodes so far. Ashes to Ashes finished on Friday, I’m going to miss gene Hunt and, if I’m honest, not seeing Keeley Hawes on Friday nights is going to be a bit dull. The confusion that is Lost ends on Monday, whilst I gave up on it halfway through season three, I’ll probably watch the end just to see what it was all about.

Well that’s about it for now, as soon as something exciting happens in my wacky world, I’ll let you know

Ta ta!

I wish I could regenerate!

I’ve spent the last week or so worrying about something, I just wish I knew what it is I’m worrying about. Those in the know are aware of the fact that I have problems with paranoia, but I’m not sure if that’s the problem! I can’t put my finger on it; something is really stirring up a bad feeling about something. To be honest I fell like having a really good rant with lots of colourful metaphors included. Not that it’ll solve the problem, in fact I suspect it may have quite opposite result.

The misses is suffering at the mo, she’s aching from her toes up. She has a chemo session tomorrow so that will knock her for six for a few days and by the time she starts to pick up, she off for more. Including tomorrows treatment she has four to go, then we can start focussing on getting back to the wedding plans. They’ve been put on hold since the treatment started so it’ll be nice to be able to get back on track with that. It may even help with the lack of happy that’s sitting on my shoulders.

Things are going well with little miss Molly, she all better after a weekend of lack of appetite, the runs and a rather noxious wind problem, it’s good to see her picking up again. She’s a cheerful little lass who is starting to wag her tail at me and has just taken to jumping on the sofa and sitting beside me for a few minutes, Much to Doogie’s dislike. As if that hasn’t miffed him a bit, the little madam managed to clamber up the stairs to the bedroom this morning. She may be blind but she’s not stupid. I think she’s going to assert herself a bit quicker than we first thought. I have noticed a little change in Doogie, he seems a little quieter than usual and he doesn’t seem to get so shouty when I say goodnight to Trudes.

The weekend’s nearly here and I’m quite looking forward to it, if I can manage to get up early enough on Sunday morning I can give Trudes a bit of a lay in, I am happy to give Molly her insulin jab so she won’t need to get up for that. She’s on half dosages at the moment as it’s possible, apparently that the symptoms of Cushing’s disease can appear similar to diabetes, so there may be a chance that she can come of the insulin all together or at least be on lower amounts, this is a good thing because if they can get her meds just right, she may grow some of her fur back. This will mean that she’ll become a fluffy pup again, I think Trudes is a bit worried that if she takes Molly out and people she the condition she’s in, they may think that it’s a result of the way she’s been treated, and that’s not fair on Trudes as she’s not responsible for the way Molly looks or her ill health. In fact if Molly had been Trudy’s dog from the start or at least with someone who provided the proper care she needed, Molly nay not have ended up in such a poor state. But then I am being a bit bias as I don’t really know a great deal about her before we fostered her. What I do know is that she hasn’t been treated at all well over the last few years, so it’s down to Tea, Doogie and me to ensure that the our little old lady’s treated right for the time she has left.

So dear reader, at some point I’ll be adding a link to an e-bay page that has been set up to take donations for Molly, so far as I know a very high proportion of raised funds will go towards Molly health care and other needs. If ever you find yourself with a quid or two that you don’t what to do with it, spare a thought for a rather gorgeous 12 year old Yorkshire Terrier who will appreciate every single penny that’s raised for her. I case you have any doubts; I’ve added a couple of pics of her, so that you’ll feel guilty if you don’t donate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is probably my favourite picture of Molly, what a cute grin.

If that doesn’t melt your heart, nothing will.

 

Nite all

XX

Presented in glorious technicolour and now in HD

I’m on a long weekend as of today, so this morning I spent a few hours with DTWP whilst Tea took little Miss Molly along to the vet. She needed blood tests and general checkups to ensure that the meds for Cushing’s disease is right for her and that she is having the right amount of insulin. We’ll know for sure tomorrow. Tea has to ring them in the morning to see if the tablets are in and to get the results of the tests. Molly’s been with us just under a week now and so far so good. DTWP has been absolutely brilliant with her. There’s been no aggression from him and he’s even attempted to encourage her to play. When they go in the garden he runs around like the mad pup he is, come to a dead stop watching Molly then he runs away from her, stops, looks for her and tries to get her to chase him. To no avail! Bless him, he hasn’t figured out that she can’t see him, he drops toys for her to play with, which she just walks over, and Doogs looks all downtrodden because she won’t play. But I’m really pleased that the whole thing’s gone down so well. Despite the views of certain people who think that Doogie’s going to be treated differently, quite the opposite in fact. If anything Tea and myself are showing more affection than normal to him to ensure that he doesn’t feel left out. He’s still the best pup in the world and nothing will ever change that.

There’s been a development on the home entertainment front at home, after much discussion and negotiation; Tea’s given me the OK to get a few more TV channels in. To be honest 4 stations is rubbish especially at the moment when every single blooming channel is covering the bloody election, YAWN! The only problem is that it isn’t being installed until May 12^th, by then the election tat will be long done. Oh well, at least it’ll be in before the world cup. Although Tea has said that she will be watching the England matches. I’m sorry but no matter how hard I try I just can’t get enthusiastic about football. I never have liked it and I never will. I get told that as a patriot and someone who’s passionate about England I should get behind the “team” but I don’t think I should. 15 seriously overpaid idiots kicking a ball doesn’t rouse my sense of national pride, and I doubt they’re doing it for their love of the country, more for their love of small portraits of the Queen.

Friday is astronomy club, we’re off to Cranbrook tomorrow night, apparently they have a large ‘scope and are desperate to show it off. So I’ve taken tomorrow off work, in the morning I think I’m pup sitting if Trudes has to go to the vets, then I’m off into town to pay bills, oh joy! Then I shall drop into Hythe to have a quick cuppa at the shop before jumping on the bus to Ashford. I could go on a train but I like the bus journey, it takes about an hour and a half and uses a lot of back roads and goes through the countryside. You don’t get to enjoy that on a train. Once I get to Ashford I get a connection to Cranbrook. I say connection, I mean meet up with a couple of friends from AAS who’re also going.

Then Saturday I’m down the shop for the day and then home to settle down to Doctor Who and hopefully some form of take away, Yummo. I’m certain I’m supposed to be doing something on Sunday but I can’t remember. I expect it’ll come to me, hopefully before Sunday.

TTFN peeps, I hope you have a good, if somewhat damp, bank holiday weekend. Yes it’s a bank holiday and it’s going to rain for most of it.

PS. It’s Virgin HDTV I’m getting; now all I need is a HDTV 1080p with a minimum of 2 HDMI slots. It’ll work without a HDTV but I won’t benefit from having the HD channels until I get a compatible telly box.

Night all

I want that one!

We have a new member of the household! On Friday we welcomed Molly to the Wolery, she’s a 12 year old Yorkshire terrier, bless her it shows. The first problem this poor little lady has is that her right eye is completely covered with a cataract; this means that she has no sight in that eye. Her left eye was injured at some point in her long life, so she’s blind in that one too. She’s also diabetic and has to have insulin shots every 12 hours. Finally, she has something called Cushing’s disease, and no. I don’t know what it is. What I do know is that she has to have a pill for it every morning at 7. So this means that she’s going to be hard work, but I’m sure we’ll manage. The biggest concern is DTWP, he’s so used to being the only pet in the house, he may take some time getting used to her being around. We do have an understanding that if DTWP hasn’t settled with her after a week or so then Molly will have to be returned to her previous foster care. It will be a shame as the poor old lass has been shunted from pillar to post recently. What with her being a bit tatty, there’s major hair loss on her hind quarters, and the eye’s are a bit off putting. But she has a strong character and something about her which does make her quite loveable. I’m certain that with a little time the two mutts will grow use to each other and there won’t be any issues, they just need to find a common ground. Doogs will, no doubt, assert himself as the alpha again and Molly, being an older dog, will let him think that’s how it is. Every so often she’ll remind him that he is a youngster and needs snapping down a bit.

Work has been absolutely bonkers this week, not so much the guys, more the actual work side of things. It has seemed that no sooner have I finished a task and achieved a goal, I get another one. So although I’ve got an awful lot done this last week, because there’s been so much to do I don’t feel as though I’ve done anything.

The shop has been good this last couple of weeks, regular readers can keep up to date, well sort of, by visiting the Hythe tyrant blog. We’ve had two sessions for older players and the dad’s of the lads that come. The first was a bit of a letdown, the second was a roaring success. I had six players turn up, not including me. I’ve set another session for the 16^th of May, and I can’t wait. I have also solved the problem with my gaming table. Two pasting tables are in the offing, they’re £9.99 each as opposed to four A type legs which would set me back about £50. So now all I need to do is get to work on the blooming buildings.

That’s about it for now, more as and when something exciting happens.