Jam but no Jerusalem

I just finished the marathon of making jam! Blueberry and Cranberry, probably the most expensive jam I make, this one had about a kg of each, so including lemon and sugar the ingredients came to around £40! It made about 3 litres of jam, which should see the through the year! If not I’ve still got 500g of cranberries in the freezer, for the next time blueberries are 2 for 1.

Making jam takes a while 4 or five hours in some cases, even longer for one batch of strawberry. But it is worth it, now the novelty has worn out I only make stuff I can’t buy, like my task today. Or stuff that tastes considerably better than shop bought, which I am informed the strawberry is, I don’t taste it but then I don’t like strawberries.

Apparently it tastes good on waffles, which was a discovery we made with the new waffle iron, which was a gift to us from Fuego (nice one you!)

So You Think You Can Dance?

I have a confession, I am a rubbish TV addict , today the EMB woke me up to watch “so you think you can dance” on challenge TV, challenge TV for goodness sake, I, sorry, we, watched 4 hours plus. I found myself caring about people viewed purely thought the edited highlights of the show, that’s the problem with reality TV. Anyway the second half is on tomorrow, starts at 0800, the things we do! (I’ve even resisted looking up who wins)

Am still splated by the W.ii

W.ii splat

Ow, now that hurts – boxing has broken me

The plan this morning was to stay in bed late, only Ulrick started whining at about 07.00 which woke me up, thought he was playing up but went down to check anyway, he’d managed to shut the door between him and the rest of the house, as such was trapped away from everyone else. He has abandonment issues, but on opened the door; all was well with the world again.

As I was up I fed them from their new bowls, “gifts to the granddogs”.

Undefeated: 148

You know who you are

Christmas Comes but Once a Year

We have a set of family traditions; the main one being opening gifts after lunch. It is I feel the best way to do it and no one will ever convince me otherwise. I received many wonderful, thoughtful gifts, thanks to you all!

Most notable information to the rest of the world being that my brothers got a W.ii each, how my father managed to get two is beyond me. After a little fiddling they got them to go and a thoroughly enjoyable time was had by all.

Played on boxing with EMB & Fuego which was cool but I’ll regret in the morning, all so played bowling with all sibs, but that’s covered in the next post. Today was a good day

A Gentleman Caller

TPG came round this evening, we drank wine and told tails of myth and legend, the wonder of age and sibs, talked of people not mentioned never mind seen for years, also how Birmingham will become the capital of England one day, but that is another story.

Think the nice wine may have helped, oh and the pizza! Also about visiting: KL baby

And Breathe

Ok it’s the night before the night before Christmas and all through the house lady’s having a bark so there are no mice, stirring or otherwise.

I’m maybe 2/3 through the bottle of wine opened yesterday, a nice pinot noir. I’m very relaxed, very very relaxed. One of my favourite films, coming to America, is on paramount comedy 2 which I am enjoying. James Earl Jones wearing Mufasa

I went to “guys and dolls” at the Alex today, with DuLa and others, they were obviously late; I think it may well be part of her genetic code. Bless.

The show was damn fine, it’s a fantastic ensemble piece, “Nicely Nicely Johnson” was of course the best but the assortment of soap stars weren’t bad.

Very relaxed, the holiday starts here

Who You Gonna Call ... The RAB

The truck is broken, this is bad.

The truck is the EMB’s range rover classic, with a few modifications. Modifications being a Mazda bus engine – which means it can pull a house if need be (Note from EMB – it’s 3.5 litre turbo diesel. Note from me – it’s still a bus engine). Police shocks, which mean it would be drivable if pulling a house. But my personal favourite is the stereo that plays MP3’s.

Anyway the (size of a breeze block) battery is flat and “the starter motor is sticking (?)” I have no idea of the meaning of this on any more than a surface level. I have no idea of the implications of this, but I know an uncle who does.

Sweet Dreams

Spoke to the GNL earlier on, see how she was doing. Told her of the EMB + sat nav combo & his antipodean concept of distance. Road trip may be in order.

Am in bed now, EMB is under strict instructions not to call before noon

On the Way to the Holiday

The alarm went of this morning & I thought I’d forgotten to turn it off.

It took about 10 minutes for me to realise it was Friday and there was one more day left that was a struggle, getting up I mean. EMB dropped me off at work then want off to bang his drum to welcome the dawn from the longest night.

Work is now over for many days, that’s all I have to say about that (in the words of forest) I had a trauma today, I started some new drug about 3 months ago, falling down has stopped, (good thing), but twitchy brain falling out of ears has increased, a lot, people in my team think it’s funny in a used to it don’t notice any more kind of way. The rest of work (& the world) thinks I’m a little weird as in “see the crazy lady”. It’s probably not as bad as that, but it’s noticeable (not so good thing)

So last week I saw the Lord High Dr King of the special people. he said that the old drug (all praise GSK) and the new drug can do that. Quick note – new drug doesn’t stop falling down but helps old drug work more effectively - better living through chemistry. Where was I? So proscribed drug three hopefully stops the “crazy lady” and makes falling down les likely, which is nice.

One concern is drug three has some potential, but hopefully transient, unpleasant side affects. Going to wait till after Christmas before I start taking it. Think that I’ll try to stick with base level grumpy avoiding any chemical enhancements. Should avoid alcohol for a while after as well, so I am enjoying a glass of pinot noir, watching the TV, fun and games.

Oh, I could be the only person in the world on this combination of medication, proof I’m special.

Let sleeping dogs lie

Dogs woke me up with barking at 07.15; think there was a vicious squirrel or something. Anyway, it took me a few seconds to remember the emb was away, so I got up, checked we weren’t being invaded by anything obvious. (they were barking at the roof of Camelot) then having checked the safety of the house I fed them both, & the chickens (cold!), I’m back in bed now, before 08.00 & the bed’s still warm, bonus!

Adwyth epa bachgen i mewn Borth

EMB’s gone away for a bit, for some space & sleep, he just called, in a gone midnight “I love you” kind of way.

He arrived at 22.00; it’s now 00:30.

So far he’s had to much to drink, gone to a lock in, had fun with a harlequin(!) great dane bitch & arranged a play date for Ulrick. Now those would be puppies worth seeing.

Anyway, now going home to a bacon and egg sandwich, which was prepared earlier.

--------------------------------

Ulrick watching me at the computer

sorry mammy - so what does it say?

Public Service Announcement

I had a bit of a shock of late, people are actually reading this, which I find unexpected. Which is a bit silly as that is the whole point, my sibs and some friends. I got my very first comment ….

** Dance scene from knight’s tail, such a good film **

… ok, back with you now, it’s on to adverts. So to the public service bit, if you want to post a comment you can, (Click where it says comments, not the envelope) if you choose other you can put your own identifier in! However there are a few “Safety features” in place after the whole “MySpace – porn cam” debacle
One – you have to type in the letters for the screen to prove you’re not a bot. quite cool is the fact that if you cant read the letters you can get then read out and you just have to type the sounds

Two – I get to read it first, just so I can check you’re not some one about to catch their death from cold!

Check Up

I seem to be a little fixated on my dogs, so here is another post on them, well him to be precise.

He had his first annual check up with the vet today, which was nice. He’s in near perfect health. His lungs, hips and teeth are good and he’s in the middle of the recommended weight range, but now to the purpose of the post, his weight

Which is: 45 kg = 99 lb = 7 st 1 lb = 1 heavy dog!

Hero Quest

It rained all day, it’s cold and wet. It took me two hours to get home, a 100% increase in time taken, rubbish

First Day at School

Not quite school, more training, dog training in fact. EMB and I took Ulrick to a training class. He was so excited! To be technically correct it’s the second class he’s been to, but the first one they were mean to Ulrick, not letting him join in. It was a GSD class and they called him a devil dog (which to be fair is a name sometime applied to Akitas), after which he was home schooled for a while, EMB was quite upset by the whole thing to be honest.

Anyway they let him join in; although they did spray him with water when he started to bark (normal for training) he did enjoy it, licking the hand of the lady who sprayed him. There was also the most barking I’ve ever heard from him, which was a lot. He only went seriously off track once, when he was let off the lead, he ran towards EMB, and then veered towards everyone else, & their dogs. Sniffed some bottoms and then EMB got him back.

Made me anxious but we ended up ok. Going back in the New Year, paid up front. It’s something to make a Sunday afternoon.

The Morning After The Night Before

Ok, so last night I went out with work which leads to 3 points of note

I got I.D.’d!

Bartender asked me for ID, I laughed said I was 30 & didn’t have any. He then settled for having a credit card waived at him. I think this is worth mentioning, as a (probably) never to be repeated event.

I danced like an idiot

Ok probably not shocking news but it was much fun and as such worth mentioning

I got a taxi home at twenty to 3

I shared a taxi back with two friends, it took a long time for me to comprehend that it was that stupid time in the morning, we didn’t quite get to a big hand little hand description, but we were close.

All in all a superior works party - now I'm going to bed

Work Christmas Party

I just got in.

I'm tired, my ears are ringing & I smell bad.

A result of a night; I'm going to die at work!

Insurance

We just got the years insurance premium request for the dogs, which we’ve now paid £665.99, the retail number of the beast (apologies Mr Fry). This is, I grant you, a lot of money. But we’ve already had £2k worth of treatment for lady, and this means that what ever happens, and I’ve heard a lot of horror stories, involving rat poison and cars to name but two.

Sorry, digressed, what ever happens we will never have to say we can’t afford treatment. We may choose not to take treatment, as with lady and chemo, but we’ll have the option. Which is, if not nice, at least reassuring.

Taxi

I got a taxi again to day from work, phoned to book it, chap remembered my name, and where I live. On the way home we talked about the Egyptians and listened to radio 4

MasterCard Moment

Saving 40% on wine - £75

Being able to tell your friends about online viral marketing first – priceless

BBC Radio 4

Got a taxi from the new people today, they were there waiting for me at 07.00. The same driver came so he could check I was ok. Bless.

He was listening to Radio 4, which after 3 days of galaxy’s inarticulate djs and noise presented as music was a joy.

And they were cheaper.

Good start to the day.