Holidays – week one

John’s on holiday from work for two weeks, and for once, it’s not been spent doing major DIY projects.

Saturday and Sunday were quiet days not doing very much.

Monday saw John trying to fix a persistence leak in the bathroom. So far, no water….

Tuesday I had an appointment to see the Hand (Wo)Man at the hospital. She has advised me to have surgery on my hand as it’ll only get worse. Full details will appear in the Joint Journal, when I eventually get round to typing it up…..

We then went to the Wessington Pub for lunch – two x three sausages, two fried eggs, chips and peas, followed by apple pie (no custard for me).

After that it was some retail therapy – five huge balls of wool, five pieces of fabric, two cardigans, one top, two irons and some headphones.

Wednesday we went to Alnwick to visit one of the biggest second-hand bookshops in the UK. John had been wanting to visit it for ages but we never had the time – until now. What a place it was !!!!

No sooner had John left me at ‘Cookery’ I had my eye on a 1954 four volume set on catering and a 1953 edition on ‘Good Housekeeping Complete Cookery’. John found a 1938 army manual on driving and maintaining motor vehicles – it smells like the inside of a classic car…..

After spending a fortune on those we then headed to the Metro Centre to do yet more retail therapy.

Thursday was meant to be a DIY day in the loft for John, however Wicks forgot to order his bits and pieces…. The Customer from Hell also made an appearance. Yet another problem with my prescription from Lloyds the chemist. Again full details will appear in the Joint Journal.

Friday was my birthday. The Birthday Bunny was extremely generous so I got loads of presents from him – mainly books and a two CD set of Showadywaddy, which I’m playing constantly (sorry John….).

I’m afraid there isn’t much left of my birthday cake.



Blowing my own trumpet time here as I made it – it’s yummy !!!!!

Saturday and today are more quite days.

So here’s to week two….

Marie

Keeping busy – part 1

As I’m stuck at home pretty much all of the time, stopping myself from being bored can be a little difficult. There are always things on the go.

Currently there’s:

• Two large cross stitch patterns of a tigers eye and a tiger cub
  
• A crochet blanket
• A knitted cable blanket
• Two needlepoint cushions
• Three small needlepoint scissors bags (which I picked up at the needlework class on our cruise)
• One shirt to finish off sewing, another one to to make
• Writing my second novel
• Several books to finish off reading
• Learning to play the piano and the clarinet

I’ve also been trying my hand at making bags and making models (photos of which will appear in ‘Keeping busy – part 2’).

This was my first attempt at bag making. It’s mainly scraps of material from John’s old work shirts.

I made this make-up bag from an old camisole top.

This one was my first attempt a making a patchwork bag. Again it’s made up of scraps of material. It has two flaps so you can wear it different ways.

After making three bags, and with help from my mam who’s very much into patchwork/quilting, I felt confident enough to make a proper one, using bought fabric.

It was a birthday present for Jenny (I hope she liked it !!!!!). Just for a bit of fun I quilted paw prints going up and down the bag and attached a keyring coin purse to one of the straps.

As I’ve got a huge box full of scrap bits of fabric it’s my plan to make as many bags as I can, just by using up the scraps. Thankfully a woman can never have too many bags…..

Marie

Medically speaking

Things have been very quiet in the BOGOF household – as usual – so I thought I’d briefly keep you up-to-date with all things medical (a full various of events will appear in the Joint Journal – when I eventually get them written up !!!!)

Not content with being on Kermit’s, the Man Himself and the Back Man’s consulting books, I’ve now on another two - with one more to be added later….

The first one is a pain consultant – other wise known as the Pain Man. My GP referred me to see him as my painkillers weren’t working and she’d ran out of idea’s as to what to give me. He upped the doze of one lot of the painkillers and changed the one’s I take on a night time. I go back to see him sometime in October.

The second consultant is a neurologist – other wise known as the Hand Man (even though she’s a woman. I named her that before I knew she was a female ….). Back in October I began experiencing problems with my left wrist. My GP thought it might be Carpal Tunnel Syndrome so referred me to see the Hand Man.

After performing various tests on my wrist she confirmed it was CTS. I was then sent for a further test to determine how bad it was. The test showed that I had ‘moderately severe’ CTS and the only cure is surgery.

I am now waiting on a mobile physiotherapist to come and fit me with a wrist splint to wear in bed, with an appointment to see a Hand Surgeon to be made once the splint is in place.

I finally got to see the Back Man, having waited a year to see him since my last appointment. When I saw the Pain Man he kindly explained what had happened to my back so I was pre-warned as to what the Back Man was going to tell me. He showed me my MRI scan and no wonder I am in so much pain - the vertebra had moved a huge distance away from my spine….

The only surgery that can be done is to have rods put in my spine and to try and fuse the vertebra together. However it’s a very risky operation (paralysis, loss of wee and poo functions, etc) so I’ve got to think about it and see him at the end of this month. The answer will still be the same as the one I gave him in June – no way !!!!

My ‘count to ten and smile’ attitude to life is getting harder to do. My GP isn’t sure if it’s the cocktail of 31 tablets I take each day that’s causing it or it’s everything just catching up with me. Counselling is out so I’ve got two months to see if things settle down, then I have to go on the happy pills…..

Marie

A chip off the old block

My good friend Janice comes over every week to see me. She broke her leg in January and is still in a bit of pain from it.

“I must nip to the loo”, she said.

As she was climbing the stairs I shouted up to her, “if you can’t manage, I’ll send Gordon up to you…”.

“Marie !!!!!!”, she shouted, “just wait until I tell my husband what you said”.

What I should have said was “if you need any help getting up or down the stairs, I’ll send the stairlift up to you”.

Good bye motherisms, hello marieisms….

Marie

PS more entries from the Joint Journal will be up soon. Watch this space for more details.

The end of an era

I’m afraid I won’t be publishing anymore of my mam’s motherisms on the blog from now on.

She has become a silver surfer and is now reading the blog….

At first she was a bit hesitant about using the internet, but using our spare dongle for a few months, she became so hooked on it, that she decided to get broadband installed.

The annoying thing is she’s got fast broadband speed than us !!!!!

Marie

Bootifull

On Saturday we had to go into the Metro Centre, primarily to visit Boots. John’s eye test was due and I need to speak to the manager about a complaint.

Normally every two years when John has his eyes tested, he has to have new glasses.

He has ‘seven to 10 day eyes’ so a fortnight, all inclusive, holiday to Spain is cheaper than his spectacles….

I nearly fell out of Wizzy when John came out of his examination to say his eyes were fine and no new glasses were required. Yippee !!!!

We then went to find a manager as I needed to become ‘the customer from Hell’.

Before we went on our cruise we bought, as always, their own brand factor 50 sunscreen. I have an allergy to the sun (by the wonderful name of Polymorphic Light Eruptions), plus I burn really easy, so need to have a high sun factor.

After washing our holiday clothes we found that the sunscreen had badly stained several garments – one of John’s shirt and six of mine.

I rang Boots Head Office and explained what had happened. No problem, said customer service, just go into any Boots store with the receipts for the garments and we’ll give you a refund.

“I don’t have the receipt for John’s shirt”, I explained, “as it’s a couple of years old, and I’m a dressmaker, so made all my shirts”.

“Oh”, she said, rather slowly, then several seconds later said, “they’ll sort something….”.

We spoke to a manager who too went ‘Oh’, when we explained about my shirts. She went off for a few minutes then came back to say she’d had a chat with the General Manager and they were prepared to offer me cash for the garments.

“So”, she said, “it’s bartering time. How much do you think it’ll cost to replace your garments”.

That really was a tough one because it’s not that simple to put a price on a handmade garment.

“I’ve been told I can go up £50. Will that do….”, she asked.

So before our next cruise I’ve got to go fabric hunting to make six shirts. It’s a hard life !!!!!!!

Marie

Rant

Some of you may know that cycling is a sport that is perceived to have a drugs problem. I choose my words carefully here, not because there is no drugs problem – there is a drugs problem – but because there is a perception problem. If you believe all you read, cycling is awash with illegal drug taking, but other sports are not. Anyone over the age of 50 will probably bring up the tale of Tommy Simpson, who asphyxiated on Mt Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France. It turns out that the amphetamines he took were standard issue to United States Air Force pilots to keep them awake on long flights. It’s all a matter of perception.

The winner of last years Tour de France, Alberto Condador was banned recently for testing positive to a minute amount of clenbuterol, an anabolic steroid. That the amount was too small to have affected performance, and that he was tested on a rest day would add some credence to his assertion that it came from infected meat. This is possible, and has been documented in medical publications. I’m not making any comment on the rights and wrongs here. If the man used banned substances then he needs to be punished.

The Spanish authorities (who have a quite lax interpretation of drug offences) banned him for one year, then reduced the ban still further. At this point, WADA (the World Anti Drug Agency) who oversee drug policies and who maintain the list of banned substances and practices took exception and appealed against the decision. They were determined that Alberto would not get away with it.

Then, a few weeks ago, their stance softened, and they decided to wait until August to hold a hearing, thereby allowing Alberto to compete in this years Tour de France, which is held in July. Many other cyclists were either angry that they were going to have to compete against a cheat, or unhappy that the matter could not be decided quickly.

This week, WADA announced that maybe the rules regarding clenbuterol need revising because of the (rather remote) possibility of ingesting the substance from contaminated meat.

Of course this has nothing to do with the fact that currently there are five football players who have tested positive and are claiming the same defence.

As I said at the beginning it’s all a matter of perception.

Lounging Around

OK, by now you’ve probably guessed that we are home. The last day of the cruise was a bit odd. We got to Portofino and the ship anchored a mile or two off shore. As you can see, we had company.

We were going to get the tender ashore, but the sea had other ideas. It was a bit rough, in fact so rough that the ships crew were confined to the ship, in case it got worse and they couldn’t get back. In truth it was probably a bit to rough for Marie to get on and off the tender but I was going to give it a try. That is until we saw people coming back from the tender embarkation deck. Soaked to the skin. It was that bad.

So we stayed aboard and minded out own business. The ship left at about 7 pm and ran into a storm with winds of 45-50 mph. Quite an interesting day.

So we headed home the next morning. Now as has already been said, we had business class tickets, so at Rome airport we got to use the business lounge. Very nice. Comfortable seats, tea, coffee, wine and spirits plus snacks free of charge. But nothing compared to the business lounge at Heathrow Terminal Five. First of all it’s massive, and has every kind of seating arrangement, plus free wi-fi. Then there’s the food. You want a salad. No problem, or would you prefer pasta, or maybe soup and a roll, or breakfast cereal, or biscuits, or crisps. All there, and all free. Then there’s an entire wall laid out with bottles of wine, and fridges full of beer and soft drinks. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it.

But now we’re home. Our luggage made it without losing anything, three suitcases and a wheelchair on four flights, which is something of a miracle. That’s all for now, but there will be more to come, plus maybe a few more pictures.

Catching Up

We're in Livorno, and I'm sitting in the Panorama Lounge, up on deck eight. This is at the rear of the ship and has large windows giving views on three sides.



I won't burden you with the outside views as Livorno is an industrial port, with containers, ferries and ship repair facilities. It's not what you would call pretty, but it's the nearest port to Florence, Pisa and Tuscany in general. We're staying on board, because although Florence is a lovely city, it's also a two hour bus ride away.

But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. We spent the first half of yesterday at sea, en route to Ajaccio, the principal city of Corsica. The morning was misty, so the Veranda view shows less than usual.



The mist cleared as we reached port, then caught up with us as we docked. We were between two enormous ferries, the one on the left, being in Corsica, had the only name possible.



The other, with a refreshing originality, was called the “Mega Express”.

This is the Captain, on the left, as we docked.



We found Ajaccio to be the usual tourist trap, with the usual gift shops (no, we didn't buy anything this time). It was also a bit scruffy, in that southern French way. I suppose you could call it local colour. Sometimes I'm glad we take these cruises for the experience and not the destinations. Still, tomorrow is Portofino which promises to be much better. Last night for example was about as good as it gets. We were in the restaurant and the sun was setting. There was a slight mist on the horizon, which gave the sky a sort of pinkish hue, which in turn made the sea a very very light blue with splashes of gold, punctuated by dolphins leaping out of the water right beside the windows.

As you might expect, the food has been as good as ever. We've dined on venison, wild boar and sea bass, but we gave the frogs legs and the eels a miss last night. For the rally adventurous (and rich) there is a premium dining experience which provides seven or eight courses, which a vintage wine matched to each. Yours for $200. The venison and wild board etc. is good enough for us.

So today we are in Livorno, and on getting up and looking out of the veranda we found a water tender alongside. Not sure if we are taking on fresh water, or unloading waste, or both. Just as long as they don't get the hoses mixed up ..
.

So So Busy

Sorry there was no blog yesterday, but there was just SO much to do. What with wandering round Palma, sitting out by the pool, and all that eating and drinking, the time just flew by.

We didn't arrive until 9 am so the veranda view was taken as we were still entering the port.



Today we are in Mahon, and sadly we're on the wrong side of the ship so the view isn't the best on the Island, but it's not so bad. It shows the old governors residence from the days when Mahon was British.



We spent the morning along the waterfront, looking at adverts in yacht dealer windows, for yachts from £80K to £3M. The we made our way into town for a little light shopping before returning to the ship for lunch. It's getting quite hot now. This afternoon it was 85 farenheit (which is about 28 or 29 celsius),



Tomorrow we're in Ajaccio, somewhere we've never been before. And finally, we've booked another cruise for next year. End of June from Barcelona to Venice, taking in Lipari and Dubrovnik on the way.

All At Sea

Today is a “day at sea” day. We left Cadiz at 11pm last night and we are due to arrive at Palma de Mallorca around 8 am tomorrow morning, We passed through the Straits of Gibraltar at 4:20 this morning so today's veranda view is somewhere south of Malaga.



It's a pleasant 20-22 degrees (70 Fahrenheit in old money) so most people are sitting by the pool at the moment. We're there at present, blogging and drinking Pimms.





The cruise is as good as it has ever been, and the staff just get better and better. On the first night when we arrived at the restaurant the Maitre 'D stepped out from behind his lectern, held out his hand and said “Hello Mr & Mrs Harper. Lovely to see you again”. It's been three years since our last cruise. What kind of memory do these people have. We've seventy two hours in and just about every member of staff is calling us by our names. That's service.

Really the only difficulty we're having to trying to decide which cruise to book for next year.

And finally, if you want to see where we've been …

Y Viva Espana

Today we are in Cadiz.

We're moored in a cruise and container terminal so today's veranda view isn't very inspiring, but the view from the stern is much better, showing the gold dome of the cathedral.





This morning we took a stroll round the town, which is mainly narrow streets, little more than alleyways, connecting small squares. Very nice to look at but hard to photograph as all you can see are walls.

Since you asked, last nights meal with the shore program manager was excellent. There was us, a dentist from Australia and his wife, and a dealer in commodities and his wife from Stow on the Wold. It must have been a good night because we spent three hours at the table and missed the show in the theatre.

It's a day at sea tomorrow so we'll need to get down to the pool deck early if we want a seat.

A tale of three airports

In which Marie and John leave home at an unearthly hour, experience the best and the worst of air travel and START THEIR HOLIDAY CRUISE.

We set off yesterday morning at 4:30 am (don't ask what time we got up) and headed for Newcastle airport. As this is the first time we have traveled with a wheelchair it was always going to be an interesting experience. The staff at Newcastle were very good. We were allowed to use the fast track security lane and the security staff were helpful. We were given assistance from the gate to the flight but sadly Whizzy, Marie's wheelchair had to go in the hold. This meant we were unable to make our own way through Heathrow. The flight was uneventful, except we shared it with one of the Milliband brothers. I can never remember which, but it was the uglier of the two.

Then we got to Heathrow. We were taken off the aeroplane on one of Heathrow's wheelchairs, and left. Now we had no more then ninety minutes to go from terminal five to terminal three to board a flight to Lisbon. We waited. And waited. Eventually I went to look for help and found a BA customer service desk. They were apologetic and promised help. It finally arrived and we were on out way to terminal three. This took more then half an hour. Worse was to come. The person assigned to escort us to the gate was late. Then he stood doing something with his computer while his colleague screamed at him that we were running out of time. Eventually I had to take the boarding passes from him head for security myself, pushing Marie and dragging the hand baggage. This got our man motivated and we reached the gate with less than ten minutes to spare.

Now we get to see the best of air travel. As part of the cruise deal we got business class seats. What an experience. Instead of three by three seats it was two by two, with lots of legroom. Then they brought round the drinks, and we got a glass of wine, in a real glass, made of actual glass. Lunch was amazing. Real china plates and a china teacup. Proper metal knives and forks, and excellent food too. Marie's coffee was a bit too strong for her (if you know Marie you will understand this) so they actually made her another, exactly the way she wanted.

And so we reached Lisbon. Here the assistance staff were very good (and spoke better English than the Heathrow staff). All three bags arrived which we regarded as something of a miracle, and we were reunited with Whizzy, Some minor damage but easily fixed.

The the holiday could begin. We are on the Silver Cloud, sister ship the the Silver Wind, venue for out 2006 holiday (See “Holiday Pictures” in the sidebar). This is the view from our veranda in Lisbon.



And this is our suite, looking in from the Veranda.



Today we are in Portimao in the Algarve. The Veranda view isn't exactly inspiring, but the view on the other side, overlooking the port and lots of timeshare villas is better.



Tomorrow we are in Cadiz but tonight we are dining with one of the officers. This came totally out of the blue as those in “normal” suites don't normally get this. And finally, I packed to pair of decent black shoes to wear with my dinner suit on formal nights, such as tonight. When we returned after our suite had been serviced, we found that my shoes had been taken away, polished within an inch of their life, and returned wrapped in tissue. Amazing.

Sew busy

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household since we last blogged.

At the end of March, we, along with my mam, went away for a few days. We set off on the Thursday to our hotel in Hockley Heath.

Thanks to the glorious weather on the Friday, we had a change of plan. Instead of going to the NEC, we went to the Black Country Living Museum.

We’ve been there several times before but it was a first for my mam and a first for me in Wizzy. I’m pleased to report that their Wizzy faculties are really good.

On the Saturday we went to the Hobby Craft exhibition at the NEC. Other than possibly buying some fabric, I wasn’t expecting to purchase anything. However the lure of the sewing machine stands were too much, so after a couple of demonstrations, I bought myself a new overlocker and John very kindly bought me a computerised sewing machine.

Before we went into the craft exhibition, my mam wanted to buy a bottle of water, so whilst we were waiting for her, someone came over to say ‘hello’.



There was a memorabilia exhibition also taking place that day and several characters (Darth Vader, Spiderman, Storm Troupers etc) were wandering around the NEC saying hello to people.

My new sewing machine and overlocker really came in handy as my sewing for our cruise is well underway. So far I’ve altered nine summer tops, made four skirts, two shirts and one dress. Another dress is nearly finished and there’s still three more to make. With only four weeks to go before our cruise I’m hoping to have them made in time.

Marie

A stitch in time

My hands are going to be pretty busy for the next few weeks making clothes for our cruise – 10 weeks and counting !!!!!

I’ve got two formal and three cocktail dresses to make, along with three skirts and a couple of shirts.

I’ve also got to alter several of my sun tops. They need a bit more fabric adding to the sides as the style of them isn’t Wizzy friendly.

One your marks, get set, sew….

Marie

Pluming the depths

Yesterday morning, shortly after John had left for work, I went into the bathroom and noticed that the water in the loo was higher than it should normally be.

I gave the loo a long flush to see if that would clear what ever blockage there was. That only made the water level rise even more.

Taking the loo brush I gave the loo a couple of good pokes. The water instantly turned chocolate brown and bits of poo started to float to the surface. Yuck !!!!!!!!

I gave the loo another couple more pokes. More poo appeared. Double Yuck !!!!!!

I rang my mam to see if she knew how to unblock a loo. Her suggestion, other than what I had already done, was to try and get some wire to see if that would unblock it.

As wire was John’s department I said I’d have to phone him at work to see where it was kept.

“Until I can get the blockage clear, when you come through this morning you’re going to have to use a bucket when you need a wee”, I told her.
“I’m not using any bucket”, she exclaimed, “I’ll just use the loo as normal”.
“What!! Pee in that gunge”, I replied.
“Yes. What’s wrong with that”.
“Mam, you’re disgusting!!!!”, I said, shuddering at that the thought.

John was still on his way into work so I rang his office and left a message for him to give me a ring when he arrived.

He rang back about 10 minutes later.
“The wire’s in the shed”, he said, “but I don’t think that will work. Why don’t you try putting a freezer bag round the loo brush, as that will give it a good seal, then give it some really vigorous plunges”.
“How vigorous”, I asked.
“As hard as you can, and then some”.

For a person with a bad back and only one good leg, that wasn’t going to be easy….

Donning my rubber gloves again, and praying that they didn’t have any holes in it, I wrapped two freezer bags around the no longer white loo brush, then immersed my hand into the brown water and plunged, plunged, plunged.

Success !!!!!!

Alive and kicking

Just a quick blog to say we're still here....

Things have been very quiet in the BOGOF household so there hasn't been anything exciting to report.

Normal service will be back shortly - especially as we're getting close to our cruise !!!!!

Marie

Burns Night

An Englishman is being shown around a Scottish hospital. At the end of his visit, he is shown into a ward with a number of patients who show no obvious signs of injury. He goes to examine the first man he sees, and the man proclaims: "Fair fa' yer honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain e' the puddin' race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, painch tripe or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o' a grace as lang's my arm." The Englishman, somewhat taken aback, goes to the next patient, and immediately the patient launches into: "Some hae meat, and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit." This continues with the next patient: "Wee sleekit cow'rin tim'rous beastie, O what a panic's in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, Wi bickering brattle. I wad be laith to run and chase thee, Wi murdering prattle!" "Well," the Englishman mutters to his Scottish colleague, "I see you saved the psychiatric ward for the last." "Nay, nay," the Scottish doctor corrected him, "this is the Serious Burns unit."

Belated Happy New Year

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household. Not a great deal I’m afraid.

We had a wonderful Christmas. Santa was extremely good to us so we got lots of lovely presents. As we had my Mam on Boxing day (she went to my sisters for Christmas day) we had to give her the full turkey and all the trimmings. My sister doesn’t ‘do’ a tradition festive lunch so it’s a hard life having to have two Christmas feeds in two days !!!

New Year was celebrated with some good friends who were able to make the journey ‘up north’ to Sunderland. The sticky sausages, cornbeef pie and New Years day chocolate (forget about the calories…) fondant went down really well.

Thanks to Jan, I bought myself a Kindle with some of my Christmas money. I’d been interested in the e-book readers for a while but hadn’t been able to have a good look at them. Jan had just bought herself a Kindle and had it with her so gave me a full guided tour of what it can do. 24 hours later I bought one…

I’ve managed to put my entire classic book collection on the Kindle (as they are out of copyright, most, if not all, of the books are free to download either from Amazon or other ebook sites). This is brilliant as I can now put the classic books in the loft, get three book shelves back, and fill with books that I don’t want to go on the Kindle. Marvellous !!!

Marie

Days Of Thunder

We were just finishing breakfast this morning when the ground shook and there was an almighty bang. There's been a lot of noise lately with melting snow falling off rooftops but nothing quite like this. A quick check round the house revealed that all the ceilings were intact but looking out of the bedroom window it was clear where the noise came from.



Across the back lane a wall had collapsed. We had noticed first thing that it looked to be bowing a little and I think that water had got between the inner and outer wall and frozen causing catastrophic wall-tie failure. At present we're waiting to see if the council send round the highways people to seal off the road as it's impassible, and the inner wall looks like it could go at any moment.

On a less exciting note, Christmas was good, and Santa was very generous. It's back to work tomorrow then looking forward to seeing friends from afar on Friday night.

Pies galore

Following the mincemeat we made a couple of weeks ago, here are seven dozen mince pies we recently made.

We’ve still got six jars of mincemeat left. So it’ll be mincemeat sandwiches, mincemeat curry, mincemeat casserole….

Marie

Winter

When icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail
And Tom bears logs into the hall
And milk comes frozen home in pail.

From From Love's Labours Lost, Act V. Sc. II by William Shakespeare



Well, I don't know about Dick the shepherd, or Tom bearing logs, but we've certainly go icicles by the dozen at the moment. These ones are about 20 feet above ground, precariously hanging over our back door. We try not to slam the door too hard.

They're there because on Friday morning on my way to work I saw a temperature of minus eight degrees. A colleague saw minus eleven on his way to work. Brrr.

Snow Joke

This global warming is getting beyond a joke. The snow began on Wednesday, and began falling really hard on Friday. This is the view from the front of our house



And this is the view from the back.




And the shed roof shows how deep the snow is.



Meanwhile one of out neighbours wins the prize for the biggest icicle.

All minced out

I’ve been wanting to do make some homemade mincemeat for years but, for one reason or another, never got round to it.

This year I (with the help of John) decided to give it a go. It was a toss up between Delia’s or the Hairy’s mincemeat recipe. Delia’s took too long to do, so the Hairy’s won.




I slightly adapted the recipe as we don’t like ginger and didn’t have any brandy or sherry, so just used rum instead.

Anyone for a mince pie….

Marie

The Unknown Warrier

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart;
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget.

From "Recessional" by Rudyard Kipling



You have probably never heard of David Railton, but his idea touched the hearts of many.

In 1920 he was a vicar in Margate and when the Cenotaph in Whitehall was unveiled he was reminded of a time, back in 1916 when he was an army chaplain. He had been conducting a burial service somewhere near Armentieres and in the back garden of his billet, very close to the house, was a grave marked by a rough, white cross. On the cross was inscribed in black pencilled letters: 'An Unknown British Soldier'.

The scene at the Cenotaph spurred him to put his thoughts into action. He wrote to the Dean of Westminster, Bishop Ryle, asking whether he would permit the body of an unknown soldier to be buried in Westminster Abbey. The Dean responded warmly to the suggestion and wrote to the King. Initially the King was not responsive to the idea, perhaps thinking that two years after the end of the war it may reopen the war wound which time is gradually healing.

But the Dean was undismayed. He now wrote to the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, and to the C.I.G.S. (Chief of Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson). They took up the idea with enthusiasm and reluctantly the King gave his assent. An announcement was made in the House of Commons and Lord Curzon, the Foreign Secretary, was appointed chairman of the cabinet committee responsible for the ceremony.

In October 1920, the G.O.C. in France & Flanders was Brigadier-General L.J. Wyatt. As such, it was he who issued the necessary instructions and it was he who selected the body.

According to the Brigadier he gave orders for four unidentified bodies of British soldiers to be brought in, one from each of the main battle areas: Ypres. the Somme, Arras and the Aisne (some reports say six bodies). They were brought in on the night of 7th November and placed in the hut which served as the chapel for the garrison. The parties that brought the remains in. returned immediately to their respective areas so they had no way of knowing which body had been chosen.

At midnight, accompanied by a senior member of his staff, he entered the chapel and selected one of the bodies which lay on stretchers covered by Union Jacks. The other bodies were taken out and buried in the nearby British military cemetery of St. Pol-sur-Ternoise.

The remains were placed in the casket brought over from Britain, bearing the inscription:

'A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914-1918'

The next day the Unknown Warrior began the last stage of his journey home, beginning with speeches from prominent French politicians before travelling with an escort of British and French cavalry to the quayside to board HMS Verdun At 3.30 pm H.M.S. Verdun came alongside at the Admiralty Pier, Dover and as she did so a nineteen gun salute was fired from Dover Castle and the band played 'Land of Hope and Glory'. Six warrant officers representing the various services carried the coffin off the ship and handed it over to six senior officers who acted as pall bearers.

Three hours later the train drew into Victoria station where a guard of honour from the 1st Grenadier Guards waited. The body remained in the station in the funeral coach that night, watched over by a guard from the Grenadiers.

Just before 10 o'clock on November 11th the procession started from Victoria led by massed bands, the drums muffled and encased in black. On either side of the coffin marched four Admirals, four Field marshals, three Generals and an Air Marshal.

At 10.40 am the King came out from the Home Office accompanied by the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, Prince Henry (later to become Duke of Gloucester) and the Duke of Connaught. He took up his place with his back to the Cenotaph, still shrouded with Union Jacks. Queen Mary, Queen Alexandra the Queen Mother and Queen Ena of Spain watched from the Home Office balcony. As Big Ben sounded quarter to the hour the head of the procession passed the Cenotaph and gun carriage swung round across the road and stopped immediately in front of the King with the pall bearers drawn up in line behind it. The King stepped forward and laid a wreath on the coffin, bearing a card with the following inscription in the King's handwriting:

'In proud memory of those Warriors who died unknown in the Great War. Unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and beheld they live.'
George. R.I.

The last note of eleven o'clock died away and everything was still. Throughout the capital, throughout the land, across the Empire and on the seas all stood in silence. The Cornish Riviera express halted near Taplow; the Irish Mail came to a stop near Crewe. The stillness was total, the silence complete.

Then came the clear, haunting sound of the Last Post and as the notes died away the King stepped forward and laid his wreath against the Cenotaph, followed by the Prince of Wales, the Prime Minister (Lloyd George) and representatives of the Empire.
The procession now began to move towards the Abbey with the King and the Princes marching behind the gun carriage. As the bearer party entered the Abbey with the coffin they passed between two ranks of a guard of honour made up of ninety-six men decorated for gallantry, seventy four of them holders of the Victoria Cross.

The King stood at the head of the grave facing the Archbishop of Canterbury. the Dean and the Bishop of London; the pall bearers stood on either side while Lloyd George with Asquith and the members of the Cabinet were grouped in rows behind the King. During the singing the bearer party came forward, removed the wreath, side arms and helmet and the Union flag and lowered the coffin into the grave. The service continued, and at the words "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes . . ." the King sprinkled French earth onto the coffin. The grave was later filled in with earth brought over from France.

Still Off

As of yesterday we have been without our broadband for Seven weeks.

Last weekend we thought it was fixed. It came on at 4:30 on Friday and lasted until Sunday evening.

It came back on Monday morning and went away on Monday evening and hasn't been seen since. As you can imagine we're not happy.

We fully intend to ditch our less than helpful ISP but as the fault is not in the hands of BT Openreach there's not a lot we can do until it's fixed.

I was shocked to read a survey in a magazine that ranked MinusNet as fifth best for customer service and support. Some mistake there. Presumably it was an internet survey and those without broadband couldn't take part.

John

Boredband

It’s been over six weeks now and we’re still no further forward in getting our broadband back. Lets just say that Minusnet and BT have both been worse than useless !!!!

After several weeks of getting nowhere with Minusnet, it was finally established that there is a problem at the telephone exchange, which is hardly surprising as the exchange was build before Moses was born…..

BT are trying to repair the fault, however things are being hampered by Minusnet not arranging for a BT engineer to go out, BT forgetting to attend and BT only allowing their engineers two hours per day to fix the fault.

Minusnet’s fault department have been pants so the Customer from Hell had a great time speaking to them.

Things have now escalated so their complaints team have now taken over dealing with the problem, as John completed a customer service fault repair survey and gave them 1 out of 10 for everything !!!!

We were fed up with using the antiquated dial-up connection that we bought a dongle. It’s not ideal as only one person can use it at a time, however it’s a thousand times better than the dial-up.

Minusnet have assured us that our broadband will be fixed today. Look out for flying pigs !!!!!

Marie

We’re back – part 3

What a nightmare we’ve had with our broadband !!!!

It’s been down for four weeks and it’s still not quite right. Our broadband provider (they’re from Yorkshire and are currently advertising their services on TV and radio at the moment…..) have been worse than useless. The Customer from Hell has been on the case and will be making another appearance soon…

BT have also been out at least twice to fix various faults on our phone line.

The Yorkshire broadband have provided us with a free phone number so we can use good old dial-up until the problem is rectified. I thought our broadband speed was slow until we went back to dial-up !!!! I sat and read while I’m waiting for a page to appear….

The lack of broadband was proving to be a right pain. You don’t realise how you rely on the internet and email until it’s taken away from you. I felt like a teenager who had their mobile phone taken away from them !!!!!

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household.

John finished the bathroom and he’s done a fabulous job. Pictures will appear very shortly.

We’ve gone from having a vanity unit and a small mirrored wall unit to three wall units (one of them double doored), a huge mirror with lights and a huge sink unit with two cupboards and four drawers.

The bath, although is slightly smaller than standard baths, is really deep. When I first got into it I thought I was going to sink into the kitchen !!!

Things didn’t run smoothly though with the company we bought the sink, loo and wall units from. We renamed them ‘bathroom for you if you don’t mind waiting’... I lost count on the number of times the ‘customer from Hell’ had to make an appearance. It got to the stage were the little man started trembling whenever he heard my voice.

Got my new car and it’s fabulous. Leather seats, satnav, rear parking sensors. It’s got so many toys it’ll take me three years to find them all !!!!

Saw Kermit about my hip. You can read the full story in the joint journals blog. However it’s not good news. I won’t be getting a new hip any time soon. As you might expect I’m not happy about that. However life must go on…

Marie

Here today, gone tomorrow

Sadly the joy of having our broadband back up and running has been short lived. It went down again on Sunday afternoon so we're back to using the good old dial-up....

I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a little longer for photos of our bathroom.

Marie

Yippee !!!! We're back

We're finally back in the wonderful world of broadband.

A round up of news about the bathroom, my new car, my visit to the hospital and everything else will appear very soon.

Marie

Still Here

Just a quick word about the lack of bloggery. Our broadband has been down for a week now, and being off work we've had no internet access. We'll be back just as soon as it's fixed.

John

New bathroom – part 8

Today John did tiling, tiling, some more tiling and finally a bit more tiling....

It’s only a small bathroom but there’s a lot of tiling to do!!!

Marie

New bathroom – part 7

John made really good progress with the bathroom today.

Out went the old vanity unit and the last lot of tiles and in came three new wall units and another row of tiles.

Marie

New bathroom – part 6

Today has been one of those days where little bitty jobs seem to take forever so I’m afraid there hasn’t been a lot of progress with the bathroom.

I’m pleased to report that John’s got the bath fully plumbed in and working.

His arms though looks like he’s been self harming himself as they are covered in lots of cuts.

Marie

Rest day

Because today is my birthday, we thought it would be an ideal time for John to have a day’s rest from working on the bathroom.

As usual the Birthday Bunny was extremely generous so I got lots of lovely presents. We went out for our usual birthday lunch at the Chinese restaurant which was yummy as always….

We’ve been getting requests for pictures of the new bathroom so here’s where we're up to at the moment.



The old radiator is out and tiles in for the new towel radiator




Pipework in




And so is the new radiator




This is where the bath used to be




And here is the new one being manhandled into the bathroom





And here it is, all ready to connect



Marie

PS To the person who sent me the tall birthday card, many thanks. You sent me a blank card so I don’t know who it’s from….

New bathroom – parts 4 & 5

Our internet connection was down last night so I wasn’t able to put up ‘part 4’.

Yesterday John finished the shower pluming and nearly all the tiling around where the shower/new bath are going.

Today the final bit of tiling and grouting around the shower/bath were completed and the new bath put into place.

Marie

New bathroom – part 3

John got some more tiling and the grouting done.

The electrical cabling and pipe work for the new shower is also sorted.

It’s coming along nicely…

Marie

New bathroom – part 2

John made quite a bit of progress on the bathroom today.

Because the shower is now going to be fitted on the wall which used to have the towel rail on, John had to remove ¾ of the wall for the pipes and the electrics to hidden by the new tiles.

Instead of using a mallet and a chisel, which is the normal way to remove a wall, he used a pair of scissors !!!! The wall wasn’t made of brick, it was plasterboard…

Once the wall was removed, John then set to work on some of the tiling. As that is my speciality, whilst I couldn’t physically help, I gave him my expert advice and words of wisdom…

And yes, we are still speaking to each other !!!!

Marie

New bathroom – part 1

Because our bathroom was getting a little past its best, and not really ‘Marie’ friendly, we decided it was time for out with the old and in with the new.

So today John started by removing the old bath and the tiles.

Sadly due to all things medical I’m having to watch from the sidelines. However I did have my uses – my stairlift came in very handy for getting the broken tiles down stairs….

Marie

Crash, bang, wallop

That’s what I did at 4am this morning…..

I got up out of bed to go to the loo and somehow lost my footing.

I stumbled into my bedside table and both me, the contents of the table and it ended up in a heap on the floor.

I sustained a bruised and sore hip from landing on stickies and a throbbing headache from hitting my face on the floor. My table sadly suffered a broken leg.

That’s the second time I’ve ‘kissed’ the bedroom carpet while going to the loo during the night. If I make it a hat trick I might be asking for a bedpan !!!!!

Marie

Every 'phone you'll ever need

We've bought a new telephone. The man in the shop said it was "every 'phone you'll ever need".

How do you solve a problem like Marie

Yesterday we had the builders in. Our friendly builder and his son were doing some repairs to our roof, ready for the winter, and also building two steps by the back door to make it easier for me to get out. They’re coming back in a couple of weeks to make the front of the house more ‘Marie’ friendly.

Earlier this morning the friendly builder called off for his ‘envelope’* and happened to ask if we knew anything about fruit. He’d got some fruit (not sure where from) but didn’t know what it was.

He had a couple in his pocket to show us and said they tasted a bit like a plum. Neither John or myself were sure what it was so I said I’d have a look through my cookery books to see what it was and give him a ring.

I went to one of my trusty cookery books and found the pages on fruit. Sure enough there was a picture of the friendly builders mystery fruit. It was a green gage and is a member of the plum family – hence why it tasted like one.

I rang the friendly builders wife and told her the good news as his wife had been concerned that they might have been inedible.

Problem solved…..

Marie


* his payment.

Newsround

Here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening in the BOGOF household since the last blog. Not a huge amount – hence the lack of blogs…

Went for my MRI scan and x-rays on my back (you can read all about it in the Joint Journal blog). Was told to contact the consultant’s secretary if I hadn’t received a follow up appointment two weeks after I’d had the scans.

As expected no appointment came so I rang the hospital. The scan still hadn’t been sent across to the consultant so until he’s looked at it an appointment can’t be made. Given that scans and x-rays are now on computer it’s inexcusable that it should take this long. All it needs is for the radiographer to press ‘send’….

For a while my mam has been saying it was a shame I wasn’t able to get out when she came to see me on a Friday as she could take me out for a walk in Wizzy. What she really meant was she was fed up of staying indoors and wanted to get out.

Last weekend was the airshow, (which meant that we would be prisoners in our own home due to over 1 million people descending on the area), plus it was John’s birthday on the Saturday. I asked my mam if she would take me to Sea Road on Friday to pay the newspapers and also to get a couple of items, which I couldn’t get from Morrisons the previous night, as I needed them for John’s birthday. You can read all about what happened shortly in the Joint Journal blog. All I will say is ‘never again’ !!!!!!!

In September John is spending some of his summer holidays putting in a new bathroom to make it more ‘Marie’ friendly. The new tiles have already arrived (the beauty of on-line shopping…..) and he’s already made a start on removing some of the old tiles.

So that’s about it.

Marie

Shake it all about

Last night when we went shopping at Morrisons John drove into one of the disabled car parking bays. He then got out of the car and opened the boot to get Wizzy out.

The driver of a van, which was parked next to us in the disabled bay, took his blue badge off the dashboard and shook it at John, indicating that only blue badge holders were allowed to park there.

The little van man was too busy telling off John that he didn’t notice me putting my blue badge on the dashboard.

John ignored the little van man, who was still shaking his badge, and unloaded Wizzy from the boot. He then turned Wizzy to face the van and shook it a couple of times.

As we walked/wheeled passed the van, I turned my head and gave him a big sarcastic grin.

Something to look forward to

Having not had a holiday last year (we thought I would be going into hospital because of my knee – we were partly right….) and are not having one this year (because things were up in the air about my hip and back), we decided it was time we had something to look forward to that wasn’t medical related.

Following my visit to see a back consultant last Thursday (the full story will appear in the Joint Journal shortly), surgery, (if it does happen) will be well into the future and there’s a strong possibility that I won’t be able to have a new hip put in.

This means that next year we’ll be hospital free. So yesterday I booked a cruise for next May.

We pick up the cruise at Lisbon, then it’s off to Portimao, Cadiz, Palma, Mahon, Corsica, Livorno, Portofino and finally Rome.

I won’t say we’re looking forward to it but we’ve already started the count down !!!!

Marie

Reporting in

So what’s been happening in the BOGOF household these past couple of weeks. Not a great deal I’m afraid.

We went to the Goodfood Summer Show in Birmingham, which was a really good. As expected there were loads of things freebees to taste and drink. We also saw the Hairy Bikers giving a cookery demonstration. They were so funny.

It was a little busier than I would have liked, and as usual, Wizzy was invisible which was a bit annoying. Still, we did get our own back by running over peoples toes when they wouldn’t move out of the way….

Took delivery of a new bath aid (you can read all about it in the Joint Journal), so getting in and out of the bath is a little easier.

The Customer from Hell made a couple of appearances over none receipt of some vitamins.

Had a bit of a run in with my dentist (full details will be appearing in the Joint Journal in the next couple of days).

So other than that there’s nothing else to report.

Marie

Opps

Last night John was making a batch of Pimms.

"One part Pimms", he said as he poured the Pimms into a measuring jug, "and three parts lemonade".
"Three parts lemonade", I replied, "don't you mean two parts lemonade".
"No", he said, "two parts would make it too strong".

So to those who read my comment on 'Summertime' and made some Pimms following my directions - sorry !!!!!

Marie

It’s French Jim but not as we know it

Last night an advert for Peugeot cars came on the TV and it announced that any new cars bought in June would received a free mobile phone with SatNav.

“Will I get one of those”, I asked John.
“One of what”, he replied, looking up from the book he had been reading.
“The free mobile phone from Peugeot for every new car bought in June”.
“No”, he said, getting back to his book.
“Why not”, I replied, getting a little annoyed, “even though I don’t take delivery of my new car until September, the paperwork will show that I bought it in June”.
John sighed, “because you’re buying a Renault….”.

Summertime

Today is overcast and it’s been raining, but yesterday was one of the first days this year that could reasonably be described as summery. So yesterday in the BOGOF household we saw the arrival of the First Pimms Of Summer.



It would be nice to say that we drank it on the terrace overlooking the formal gardens, but sadly we have neither. It was however a welcome reminder that winter is past.

Power to the people

Yesterday I had a phone call from the hospital complaints department.

I had been given a new appointment of 1st July.

Nothing was mentioned about why I had been put back on the waiting list or even an apology for been given the wrong information.

However I was happy with the result.

The Patient from Hell 2 – the NHS 0

Marie

The Patient from Hell

Yesterday I received a letter from the hospital to say that my appointment to see a consultant about my back on the 15th July had been cancelled, but they had given me an alternative date and time of 22nd June at 2.20pm.

As I would have preferred a morning appointment I rang the clinic earlier today and asked if there were any available.

Before the little reception woman looked for another time she cancelled June’s appointment, then said the next appointment she could give me was 27th July at 2.20pm.

I said that wasn’t any good so could I have the June’s appointment back.

No was the answer...

Because I was a new patient for that consultant and had ‘refused’ their appointment of 22nd June, I had to go back on to his waiting list. An appointment will be sent out when I got to the front of the queue.

To say I was not happy was an understatement !!!!

I was straight on to the hospitals complaints department and the Patient from Hell made an appearance.

I told them I thought it was extremely unfair to be put back on the waiting list when it was them who cancelled my appointment in the first place. I also pointed out that it was a bit rich to put in the letter that if the new appointment time wasn’t convenient, I had to let them know and they would arrange a new one.

The complaints officer agreed and said she would look into it and get back to me in the next couple of days.

The Patient from Hell 1 - The NHS 0

Marie

Four months today….

…. And I’ll be the owner of a brand new Renault Clio.

Having started with a short list of four cars – Vauxhall Corsa, Peugeot 207, Ford Fiesta and Renault Clio, - it was whittled down to the 207 and the Clio.

This afternoon the Clio became the winner.

Roll on September 15th !!!!

Marie

Challenges update

Back in January I set myself some challenges - to read two books a month, finish off the blankets that I was crocheting and knitting and complete the two projects I was cross stitching.

So far this year I’ve managed to read:

Home in time for breakfast – a WW1 diary
MASH an army surgeon in Korea
Rescue me – my life with the Battersea dogs
Voices from the Home Front
Remember, Remember, the 5th November (history of Britain in bite size chunks)

Not quite the two a month I was hoping for, but considering I’m a slow reader, I don’t think that’s too bad.

As you can see I’ve finished my crochet blanket.



I also finished chart number three (out of nine) on one of my cross stitch projects.



Here’s to the next few months…

Marie

OT

Yesterday morning we had a visit from an Occupational Therapist.

When I was in hospital a referral was sent to Social Services for an OT to come and assess me at home. They had only just got round to dealing with it now…

He’s going to arrange for a bath lift so I’ll be able to get in/out of the bath easier than what I currently do - which is slid in, then on the count of three John helps to heave me out.

One of the biggest problems is getting in and out of the house, so he’s going to arrange for a surveyor to and see if a ramp can be built at the front and back.

It’s taken a while but it looks like things are finally moving so I can have a bit of my independency back. Yippee !!!!

Marie

The return of the Joint Journal

Just to let you know that the Joint Journal is back….

Marie

Goodfood leaves a nasty taste

Due to the problems with my back, and that I might have surgery on it later this year, we’ve decided to put our holidays on hold until we know what’s happening.

With nothing to look forward to (we were to be going on a cruise this year…) John suggested we go away for a few days sometime in early summer.

The Summer Goodfood Show is taking place at the NEC in June, and one of the chef’s theatre sessions will be the Hairy Bikers. I think the Hairy’s are brilliant so John suggested we incorporate the NEC in with our couple of days away.

I rang the NEC goodfood show ticket hotline to arrange the tickets. I gave ‘Barry’ (he sounded just like Barry from the Iceland adverts….) my Goodfood magazine’s subscribers code which entitled me to reduced costs. I then advised him that I would be in Wizzy*, which according to their website, gave wheelchair users ‘carer’s complementary free admission.

‘Barry’ explained I wasn’t entitled to any magazines subscribers reductions because I had already received a reduction due to the ‘wheelchair complementary free admission’.

I haven’t written a ‘customer from Hell’ letter for ages !!!!

Marie

* the name I’ve given to my wheelchair

Normal service has resumed

Now that conference is over for another year we can now get back to blogging again.

Having been constantly nagged at, we’ve finally brought ourselves into the 21st century and joined facebook. As one of our friends said, ‘about bloody time’… I’m still not that convinced about it so we’ll see what happens.

There’s been a few changes on the medical front since I last blogged. My back is still causing me problems. The strong painkillers my orthopaedic consultant prescribed for me weren’t doing anything, so my GP upped the dosage and gave me some slow releasing ones as well. They’re a Class B drug so there’s a mountain of paperwork to sign when I get them delivered*. The side-effects aren’t that good. They make me quite tired (I could sleep for England…) and quite spaced out, which is really weird. Still at least they seem to be dulling the pain a little.

I saw my orthopaedic consultant recently and he’s going to refer me to a spine specialist in the hope he can do something for my back.

The news on getting a replacement hip is still up in the air. The plastic surgeon, who I saw a few weeks ago, sent a long rambling letter to my consultant saying he wasn’t prepared to do a skin graft, yet in the final paragraph said if he (my consultant) wanted to go ahead with the hip replacement, he would do it.

Without the skin graft I can’t have a replacement hip, so my consultant is going to have a chat with the plastic man to see exactly what the score is.

I’m afraid my aim to read two books a month have fallen by the wayside a little. During February and March I only managed to read ‘Rescue me – my life at Battersea Dogs home’ and ‘The voices from the Home Front’. I did though manage to finish my crochet blanket.

Marie


*my local chemist arranges all my repeat and extra prescriptions with my GP surgery