You never know...

One day last week The Wife & I were invited to "take tea" with The Daughter, who lives in a rural suburb some 13 miles away. All went well until we approached the last village of size before the main road that has to be crossed or otherwise negotiated en route. Police were evident in quantity, the road was closed and a diversion was in place. I should explain that the road is a single carriageway and at the time we were travelling (about 1.30 pm) most traffic flows north - our direction. Thus we were in a line of cars and one large (but not articulated) lorry.

We all turned left to follow the diversion, onto a farm track thick with mud. The track was riddled with pot holes, some filled with water, and was single file. We bumped and rattled round this course trying not to skid on the mud and narrowly avoiding by deft maneouvering the small amount of oncoming traffic. "Our" lorry was doing well on the bends until it came face to face with another of similar size in the opposite direction. Eventually the diversion spat us out onto a crossroads in a part of the village I had not previously seen with no indicaton of direction. I headed for the church, the tower of which I could just see above rooftops in the middle distance, and eventually arrived at The Daughter's for tea.
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The Daughter has two rescue cats. One is fit (should that be fat?) and healthy, the other is of great age, has multiple medical problems and is greatly emaciated. However, he is perfectly happy and eats like a horse. He is not in pain or distress but is slowly fading. When we arrived he was sitting by the front door in the sun.I'm sure he had no idea where he was or what day it was, but he was warm.

After arriving home we discovered that the police presence had been due to a fatal accident that morning. The victim was 30 years old. I'm sure that most of the drivers in the diverted traffic complained about the mud (now thick on my car, too) but that was nothing compared to the tragedy that had occured. Later still we heard that the other driver had been charged in connection with the death. The accident had happened at 8.20 am and we wait now to see if drink was a factor. How easily and quickly these things happen.

I Just Knew It!!

The New Year started off much too smoothly, something was bound to go wrong. Not only did my calm euphoric state not last, it was shattered in a variety of ways and just to make it more emphatic it happened on successive days.

It started quietly enough with the car warning me that the brake pads were worn down. No problem, book the car in for remedial work. An unexpected expense, but ok it is wear and tear and, to be honest, something to cope with where mechanical devices are concerned. Fine. I trust the garage who do the repairs, I've used them for years, and duly took the car to them on Friday.

Later that day, while surfing the Net, I picked up one of the nastiest viruses imaginable. It told me my computer had a multitude of problems and that I should pay money to a particular website for the key to unlock their removal tool. Then to underline the problems (which I did not previously have) it disabled my security software, prevented access to any program which might help to remove the offending virus and, over a few hours, progressively prevented access to other programs too. All the while it bombarded the screen with pop-ups and periodically connected me to websites that I'd rather not see. So, I switched off and rang the chap who in the past has ministered to our various computers and who seems really to know his stuff. Saturday was the day for salvation. To cheer up The Family I booked cinema seats to see The King's Speech on Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday lunchtime I loaded the defective computer into the newly repaired car and delivered it to the repair guy en route for the cinema. The cinema had no booking (for which I'd paid) and, worse, had no showing at the relevant time! There are two cinemas in our town, about two miles apart, one of which changed its name from Vue to Odeon a while ago, while the other is still Vue. I had apparently booked Vue when I should have booked Odeon, but now it was too late to make the booking on time! We ended by paying again. It's a good job the film was good and in some way made me feel that I didn't mind quite so much paying twice as much to see it!!!

I collected the computer on Sunday. The Guy had been up half the night removing the Offence, but it had left the computer so slow that reformatting was the only option. Now I have my car, and pleasant memories of a good film to ease my task in re-loading the computer with my software. Thank God I keep back-ups of my data!!

Happy New Year!

It's not too late, is it?
The Event passed off unremarkably, not even many fireworks down in the valley we overlook. Perhaps people were just so jaded after the Christmas thing, or perhaps a beginning to reigning in spendig, like the  government wants. Anyway, it suited our mood and we are all in this together!

New year, new beginnings. The Daughter and The Boyfriend came for dinner and games on the 2nd. It went ok from our end, but things may have been a bit fraught at theirs Anyway their stay was pleasant enough. The rest of that week passed off quietly and we were glad of it. No 2 Son returned to work, and the Wife and I returned the house largely to order, but we still have all that drink...

This (2nd) week has been occupied. I suddenly had a warning light on the dashboard telling me the brake pads are clapped, so the car is booked in for Friday for remedial work. Vauxhall attended to the recall work within 20 minutes on Monday but I haven't noticed any difference yet. No 1 Cat went to the vet for a blood pressure test on Tuesday and was found to be OK. That visit and one the previous week for routine jabs cost me £64. Wednesday I had off (!) and today I was at the quacks for a minor routine check; all is well.I really don't know what I shall do next week as normally the demands of this week would be spread over a month! Still, the car goes in tomorrow for the brakes, but who knows what else they may find...?

Is It all Over?

Well, its Thursday, the day before New Year's Eve, and I'm pooped. Just like last year, when the fun was over, the FUN was over. On the plus side, the snow has gone because of the rain (c'mon people, that's a good thing) and number one cat is back to her normal habits of patrolling outside and eating & sleeping inside. Our sleep has largely disappeared due to late nights. By the time bedtime comes I am past sleep and lie awake for hours. By the time sleep arrives it is near time to rise again. Still, the eating is and has been good, and also the drinking. Exercise has been taken, but now its time to kick off the slippers and sit back.
Tomorrow night will be quiet enough here, just the  wife, number two son and I and our feline friend. But we do have all that drink...   The piccie is of the Daughter's moggie. Old & chronically ill he is a tribute to veterinary science and TLC
Number one son became engaged over the holiday. We have not met the intended and probably won't until the summer. Nuptials are not imminent. The daughter's boyfriend spent the holiday north of the border, but is expected to make a recovery for New Year. Normally the UK family eat together formally on New Year's Day and the Boyfriend should be joining us. More party atmosphere and booze; I don't know where the strength comes from but hey! I'm not complaining.
Happy New Year

Number One Cat (2)

Our favourite feline friend visited the vet last week. She had been coughing, sneezing, and throwing up at intervals. The crunch came when she sneezed all over the wife's duvet! Anyway, we saw a new (to us) vet who appeared to be very thorough. She spent ages examining Portia's tummy so that I wondered if she'd found anything nasty. Likewise her temperature and heartbeat. Oh, God we thought. It turns out to be an upper respiratory infection (phew!) and is treated with anti-biotics. Portia doesn't do pills (we have too much respect for our fingers!) but a 2 week long lasting injection is now available instead, so she had that. Within a couple of days the coughing and sneezing had stopped and the throwing up was back to normal. She is also brighter in herself. Next month the annual booster jabs...
With all this snow Portia is reluctant to venture out. She sleeps a lot, plays daily (good for exercise) and eats for England, but she wants to go out!!!

The End of the Saga?

Our dratted conservatory continues its malign behaviour. Now one of the door handles has packed up. It will rotate a complete circle but does not engage the mechanism. I have managed to shut the door, good for security and temperature control, but the installer had to be called. Of course it is several days before they can attend and in the meantime we have to  walk all round the house to access the garage. Migthty inconvenient with armsful of washing and in the rain. Anyway, the man came eventually and within 30 minutes he fixed the problem and relieved me of £70. We now have a new door-lock mechanism. what's next with this installation?

More Health news

I just wish our wonderful NHS would make up its mind. After a lengthy blood test session (2 hours, no less) and a 10 day wait for results, it seems the wife DOES have diabetes. She is diagnosed as type 2 and the condition can be managed by diet, at least at this stage, which is a blessing. All the usual advice, lose weight, eat fruit & veg, watch the quantity etc. etc.  An appointment is to be made for retinal examination (which sounds awful), but the good news is that H's pulses in her feet are the best the Doc has known. The rest maybe falling apart, but her feet are just fine!