There are no flies on us…

…but there are in the kitchen.

We have a slight problem with blue bottle flies in the kitchen at the moment.

We first noticed a couple of them on the kitchen window on Sunday afternoon but just put it down to the back door being open.

Then a few more appeared.

Monday morning, as John was going to work, there were three on the window. Just as I was about to head out to my mams an hour later I had to chase five outside.

When I came back home there were over a dozen on the window. Horrible !!!!!

I became research gal on the internet as we couldn’t figure out where they were coming from and, more importantly, how to get rid of them.

Couldn’t find anything on the internet so rang a pest control company in Washington as they offered free advice.

Spoke to a lovely little man, who after I explained our fly predicament, told us what the problem probably was. It would seem that the most likely cause of the flies is a dead bird in the kitchen chimney.

Although he works for a pest control company, he advised against calling them out as we would be wasting our money. They wouldn’t be able to gain access to the source of the problem so would bill us for over £50 of fly repellent, when we could get the same stuff for under £5 at a DIY store.

So the kitchen is pretty cool at the moment as we have both the window and the back door wide open (so glad it’s the summer and not the winter….) to let them out, and it smells a bit with the fly repellent stuff.

I’ve been assured, thankfully, that the problem will only last for a few days.

I feel unclean!!!!

Marie

Doctors

This morning I had a doctors appointment. The cocktail of painkillers I’m taking are making me bunged up in the loo department…

No sooner had I sat myself down when she said ‘you look rather pale. Are you ok’.

If I was then I wouldn’t be visiting you ! ! !

Marie

Square eyed

For the next five weeks the television viewing in the BOGOF household will be in overdrive.

Wimbledon started today so for two weeks it’s non-stop tennis.

Then it’s three weeks of the Tour De France.

The summer has definitely started…

Marie

Still no further forward

Yesterday I was back at the hospital for my six week follow up after my local in April.

I should have been there on 27th May but thanks to a NHS admin cock-up, someone somewhere forgot to update my medical records so they had no record of me having my op. Wonderful ! ! !

I still never got to see The Man Himself. I did at least see a consultant who actually has his own patients and not some sidekick registrar. I did hear a rumor a few months ago that The Man Himself had left. Maybe it’s true and the NHS aren’t letting on to his patients. Knowing the NHS I wouldn’t put it past them.

Anyway the little consultant man (he was little by the way…) asked if the local had worked. I told him no it hadn’t.

“You mean you didn’t get any pain relief”, he asked.
“No”, I replied, “not a bit”.
“Not even a little bit. A tiny bit maybe”, he pleaded.
“Sorry, but it was just the same as before”.

I got the impression that they had been building up their hopes that the local would work. Sadly I rained on their parade…

Seeing as the local didn’t make any difference, they’ve now decided that I need to have a MRI scan done on my knee. Then it’s looking like they’re going to have to do some keyhole surgery on my knee before they’ll commit to replacing my hip and knee.

I just wish they’d make up their minds what they want to do…

Marie

They're Back

Yes – it’s that time of year again. The Seagulls are back. Regular readers will know that we’ve had a family of seagulls nesting on a rooftop near us for the past four years.



This year there are only the two chicks instead of the three we had last year, but judging from their size, the food supply has not been reduced accordingly.

Goodness knows how big they will be when they leave the nest in August.

John

More motherisms

Last Friday while at my mam’s we watched the tennis from Queens.

One of the commentators mentioned about players having superstitions to which my mam said, “there’s no more so than Evon”.
“I didn’t think Evonne Goolagong was superstitious”, I replied.
“Not her”, she said, “Evon”.
“Do you mean Ivan Lendal”, I asked.
“No”, she said getting a little agitated.

As I couldn’t think who she was one about I had to resort to 20 questions. Eventually I hit on the right person – Goran Ivoniservic…

The topic of tennis continued and we discussed Borg and Federer. She commented that they both had respect for each because they came from Norway and Denmark.

“Mam”, I replied, “Borg is Swedish and Federer is Swiss”.
“What does it matter”, she said, “they’re all Scantinavian”…

Marie

Still here

Just a quick blog to say we’re both still here…

Sorry it’s been a while since we blogged but there hasn’t really been anything exiting to blog about.

Hopefully normal service will resume shortly.

Marie

Wii-bay

When we were at Chris and Jenny’s for New Year, Jan and Andy had brought with them their Wii. After playing tennis and bowling, we were both hooked !!!

Two weeks later, after Argos had finally got the Wii’s back in stock, we bought one.

When we went to the Metro Centre to collect our glasses (as requested by Jan, a photo of me wearing them will appear shortly), we called into one of the computer game shops, just to see what games they had for the Wii. Two of them caught our eye, Sport Island and Job Island, but as they were £18 each, decided not to buy them.

As we were still interested in the games, I did a search on the interest to see if I could find them cheaper than £18, but couldn’t find anything.

Just out of interest I tried Ebay and sure enough both were there. We’ve never used Ebay before so it was all a bit alien to us. Having completed all the various registrations, we set a price which we were prepared to pay for it and placed our bid.

Having been outbid and beaten a couple of times, we eventually won Sport Island for 1p under what we were prepared to pay for it.

I think we might be using Ebay more often…

Marie

Plural, not singular

For as long as I can remember I’ve always been a plural person, never a singular.

I’ve nine needlework projects on the go at the moment; three cross stitch designs, three needlework cushions, two needlework glasses cases and a tapestry. I’m also making four skirts and three summer blouses. In the loft is three knitting machines.

I’m busy crocheting another blanket and have just bought some wool to start knitting a blanket.

I’m the same with books. I never just read one at a time. Currently I’m reading ‘1939 The Last Season’, ‘The Dastardly book for Dogs’, ‘How we lived then – A history of everyday life during the second world war’ and ‘Mansfield Park’ by Jane Austin.

I’ve got two PC’s - one is my main computer and the other is for games, plus two laptop computers.

I’ve also got two MP3 players. One is purely for music, while the other is for poetry which I listen to in bed when I can’t sleep. A third will be joining them later in the year which will be for audio books. In my work room I’ve got three radios - a CD radio, a DAB radio and an internet radio.

I do though have one thing which is singular – a husband!!!

Marie

How we discovered crusing

Six and a half years ago we decided to go to the Monaco Grand Prix. We looked through the various motor sport travel company brochures offering packages to the Grand Prix, but there were so many options to choose from.

We decided that we would prefer to stay in Monte Carlo as apposed to staying in Nice and travelling into Monaco for qualifying and the race.

Our next decision was where to stay. Monaco isn’t a cheap country so naturally all the hotels were expensive. Once we had chosen a hotel, we then had to think about the cost of the race tickets (£420 each for the full weekend), plus on top of that was the cost of eating and drinking in Monaco. We estimated that the total cost would be pretty eye watering….

While flicking through the brochures again something caught John’s eye. It was a five day Monaco Grand Prix cruise with the cruise line Silversea. As well as it being a six star cruise ship, all food and drinks were included, and no tipping was allowed. On the Friday night there was to be a special Grand Prix dinner party taking place at the Monte Carlo Grand Hotel, with the dress code being black tie for men and Bugatti Blue cocktail dress for ladies.



Also on board would be Sir Stirling Moss and Murray Walker. Plus race tickets for the entire weekend in a grandstand with a superb view thrown in.



As you can imagine we were drooling over this but expected it to be extremely expensive. To our complete surprise the cruise package was actually cheaper than doing it independently. So of course we just had to choose the cruise option ! ! !




While we were walking back to the ship after the race we both said that although we were having a fabulous time, the race actually got in the way of us enjoying the cruise experience. So we decided that the following year we would go on a Silversea cruise, just to see what it was like without the race. We’ve now done four….

Marie

Upgrade Included

Last year we bought a freeview receiver with built in hard disk recorder. The concept is excellent. No more worrying about video tape, watch the beginning of a programme while it’s still recording, and stop live television when the ‘phone rings.

There was just one problem. Back in July it decided to cry enough and had to be replaced. The original machine had an 80Gb hard disk and the replacement has 160Gb so we couldn’t grumble.

Except that just recently it locked up and nothing would get it going again. We called the helpline and were told to bring it in for replacement. You can guess where this is going. Yep, the second replacement had a 320Gb hard disk.

Now if only I can get back my lost recordings of last years Tour de France.

John

I can see clearly now….

….or I will shortly when I become a spectacle wearer.

This morning we both went for our two yearly eye test. As usual John needed a new pair, which sadly meant parting with over £400.

Normally I’m sent on my way being reassured that everything is fine. Not this time though. As soon as the little optician man dropped a lens in front of my eye, and the letters become sharper, I knew I was joining the ranks of spectacle wearers.

It’s not as bad as it could have been because I only need them for reading or other close up work if my eyes are tired.

Boots had a buy one get one free offer, so I now have a pair for upstairs and a pair for downstairs.

Marie

PS apologies to Sybil Baggins for pinching her title…

Not as easy as it sounds

I’m trying to train my new laptop to recognise my voice.

The speech recognition devise said the more you use it, the more it will become familiar with your voice and understand what you’re saying.

It claims that if it misunderstands a word, you simply say ‘correct ‘X’’. It will then give a list of words which it thinks is the correct one, or you spell out the word. It will then remember it the next time. That’s the theory anyway…

John suggested I try using children’s learning to read books to help it understand my voice, so I found a couple of books on internet. The results weren’t that good…

“Carla and Mark have go carts” came out as “Calais and mark held court cards”. After correcting it, it came back with “Calais and mark hardcore carts”.

“Carla is number five. Mark is number seven” came out as “Colour is number fide. Market is number Severn”. Again after correcting it, it came back with “Carla is number five. Daughter Mark is number severn in”.

“Let’s race, says Mark” came out as “Let’s race, says Mark”. Whoopee it got it correct. Unfortunately the second time I tried it, it came back with “Next race, theatre mark in the”.

“Get ready, get set, go!” came out as “Get ready, yes set, go knew partly”

I think it’s going to take some time….

Marie

which Redman and

I decided to buy myself another laptop. My daughter one if the bit temperamental. The slightest movement can cottage to crash. Not a idea if I'm typing with it on my lap…

Given that it looks like an gone to the Indy sports are several weeks later this year, in reliable laptop will be really useful, especially if I not able to sit at my PC.

One of the features of my new laptop the speech recognition. Instead of typing away or using your mouse, you can dictate anything to the laptop and it will type it, all been an application, or simply using your boys.

In theory this would mean no more typing away at the keyboard when I'm working on my novel brackets nadir start a number two close brackets.

I dictator this log using the boys in recognition, and as you can see it still has some way to go by or in complete understands might not be so accent…

It'll really weird goal talking allowed to the computer and sing the words appear on the screen.




I'm offering a prize of a tube of Smarties to the first person who can submit a comment containing a corrected version of the above...

Marie

In the wrong job

Our window cleaners aren’t the brightest of people and one of them is usually sporting some kind of facial injury…

For some time now we’ve had our suspicions that the small one of the two appears to have a fear of heights as if it’s his turn to do the windows, he’ll only clean the living room bay window and nothing else.

He won’t even use the small ladder to clean the small top windows on the bay. He simply does what he can reach by standing on his tiptoes then calls it done…

Sometimes the taller one will come round and clean the front upstairs windows but only if he remembers. We still though have to pay the full amount even if just the bay window is cleaned.

We also have our suspicions that they’ll try and pull a fast one by asking for payment when you know fine well the windows haven’t been cleaned. As I’m at home most of the time I know when they have been, so usually challenge them to tell me when they were cleaned. It’s amazing how they simply can’t remember which day they came round…

On Monday the smaller one of the two knocked at the door asking for payment. I had heard the sound of ladders, and just assumed they were working their way down the street,so paid him.

It turned out that the ladders belonged to a roofing company who were inspecting one of our neighbours roof.

Yesterday I heard the sound of ladders again and saw that it was the taller of the two window cleaners cleaning the windows over the road from us. I watched as he then cleaned our next door neighbours windows and then their neighbours. He had missed us out.

I went out and asked when they had cleaned our windows as I knew the upstairs windows hadn’t been done, as some kind bird decided to relieve itself all over John’s workroom window sometime over Easter.

He said that he didn’t know when they had been cleaned as it had been the small one of the two’s turn to clean the windows. I replied they couldn’t have been cleaned due to the bird poo. He then explained that due to an accident, he was frightened of heights so would only have cleaned the bay window.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for equality, but surely to be a window cleaner, you have to be able to climb a ladder….

As a good will gesture he would clean our windows again. Wasn’t that kind of him ! ! !

Marie

No change

I’m afraid there hasn’t been any change in my knee following my ‘op’ last Thursday. It still hurts….

I was told it would take a couple of days for the local to take effect, if the pain in my knee was actually coming from the hip, which is what ‘the man himself’ suspected.

I stopped taking my painkillers on Saturday morning in the hope that the local had worked, but by Sunday afternoon I couldn’t bear the pain any longer so I’m back on the tablets again.

In an ideal world it would have been wonderful if the pain had vanished, never to return again, but sadly it’s not to be.

So it looks like I’ll have to have the full set replaced. I’ll think I’ll change my name to the ‘Bionic Woman’…

Marie

Done and dusted

I’ve had my ‘op’.

The little nurse man from the pre-op assessment clinic rang back on Tuesday to say he’d finally had a word with 'the man himself’ and that yes, the local can be done under a local anesthetic.

The lnm did stress that it would be uncomfortable which is why they always do the procedure under a general. I was to have think about it and get back to him on Wednesday morning.

Having had a chat with John, I decided that nothing could be worse than throwing up for 12 hours following a general, so a local it shall be.

I rang the lnm back, told him my decision and stress to him again that if they changed their minds and it was to be a general, then I would be walking out the hospital.

Yesterday evening the Day Surgery Department rang and said I was to come in at 1pm instead of 8am as initially planned. On on the one hand I was happy as it meant I could have a lie in, plus I wouldn’t be waiting around for hours in the hospital.

However it did mean though I would be hanging around at home just waiting for the time to pass, plus we would have huge problems getting parked at the hospital.

Early this morning I got a phone call from the Day Surgery to say that they were bringing forward all that days surgery, so could I come in earlier. I asked how early, to which they replied, ‘how soon can you get here’…

I think my Guardian Angel must have been working overtime (thank you ! ! !) as we got parked practically outside the Day Surgery Department, which was a real stroke of luck, as John was just going to drop me off, then go hunting a space.

I didn’t have to wait long before I was called up to the ward. Had I known though that there would have been a couple of hours wait before going into surgery, I would have taken my needlework with me. However I passed the time by filing my nails. I always do them when I’m waiting on appointments at doctors or hospitals.

The ‘op’ was a piece of cake ! ! ! I didn’t feel or felt any discomfort or it being unpleasant. Whilst the op was taking place I spent the time talking to the Theatre Sister. One thing she did say was ‘I can see from the x-ray that your hip is shot to bits’. Not very comforting…

While I was taken back to the recovery ward I asked the anaesthetist why the op is normally done under a general, as to me, it didn’t warrant it. He replied that most people have a low pain threshold which is why they do it. Sorry, but they must be real wimps as other than a small scratch when the needle went it, there wasn’t anything to feel.

As I was told not to have anything to eat or drink that day (unnecessary apparently as I was having a local), they wouldn’t let me leave until I’d had a cup of tea and a sandwich.

They also wouldn’t let me go home until they were sure my leg had regained some feeling after it had been numbed.

It’ll take about two days for the local to start taking affect (if the pain is actually in the hip that is) so they packed me off home with a box of paracetamols as once all the numbness wares off, it could be painful.

Marie

A bit annoying

I gave an update on my knee recently, and mentioned that I was waiting on the little nurse man to get back to me on Monday to see what the next step would be regarding my ‘op’ next Thursday.

No surprises to learn that I’m still waiting…

As he didn’t phone me on Monday I rang him on Tuesday morning and got his answer machine. He rang back later that afternoon to say he hadn’t been able to speak with either my consultant or his side kick, but would try again the next day.

He rang back Wednesday to say that even after paging both of them, they still hadn’t contacted him. His next step was to send them both an urgent email asking them to contact him, and that he’d get back to me on Thursday. He asked was I prepared to have the ‘op’ if it had to be under a general anesthetic. I said no.

As I was at my mam’s on Thursday he left a message on our answer machine. He still hasn’t been able to contact them which is a bit annoying. My consultant’s side kick is on compassionate leave and the man himself is on his Easter break and won’t be back until Tuesday.

I’ve decided that if I don’t hear anything by Wednesday then I’m canceling my ‘op’. I am not prepared to arrive there at 8am, to sit around for several hours waiting for ‘my turn’, then be told that I’ve got to have a general. No way ! ! ! I would simply walk out of the hospital if that happens.

I’ve also decided that unless they come up with a cast iron medical reason why I can’t have a local for my ‘op’ and also for the various joint replacements, then I’m refusing to have them done. To be told it’s the consultant’s preference is simply no excuse as I know that joint replacements can be done under a local.

If that is the case then I’m prepared to put up with the pain and find a consultant who puts their patients first and not themselves.

Marie

In my younger days

When we were at Blackpool, the conversation somehow got round to clothing, and I confessed to once wearing a pair of blue pixie boots, blue legwarmers, blue culottes and a blue checked frilly shirt.

In my defense I was young at the time and it was in the early Eighties when these things were in fashion.

What’s worse a photo was taken of me wearing them ! ! ! Gottle asked that it be put on our blog. What a shame I don’t have the photo any more….

I later mentioned that I used to have long hair. I’ve had short hair for over fourteen years and none of our friends can either remember me with long hair or have only seen me with it short.

So I’ve dug out some photos of me in my ‘hippy days’.










Marie

Only something your mother would say III

Yesterday while at my mams I was looking though her photo albums as I was after a couple of photos of me for a forthcoming blog.

There was one photo in the album taken on my birthday (I think it was either my 12th or 13th).

She looked at the photo then said ‘who’d have thought that you would have grown up to be a fat as you are now’….

Marie