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Bolero
14/02/09 22:09 Filed in: Jessica
You know I love ice dancing. I have
always loved watching it and I really enjoy Dancing on
Ice on a Sunday night. Fairly often we watch this as a
family. For those of you with no television, this is
where a pro skater teams up with a celebrity and, to be
honest, the celebrities normally end up being quite
good at the whole “not falling over” malarkey. Usually
the person who wins the show is told they COULD be
professional if they put their mind to it.
I well remember the early 80s when Torvill and Dean were on their way to the 1984 Olympics and their perfect score. This evening I made a big issue out of making sure I was in front of a tv at 9pm for the program about how they went from childhood skating lessons to picking the famous music which we all can hum along to now because of them.
Every now and then I feel it is important the children are introduced to the things I like so I tied Jessica down to watch this with me. It was quite interesting - yes I knew he was a policeman and yes I knew they weren’t married but no - I didn’t know they knelt on the ice at the beginning because their music was 25 seconds too long and the judges started their stopwatches once the skates were on the ice.
When they showed most of Bolero I MADE Jessica pay attention to it too. We got to the end and Jessica asked me “Which one of them is the pro and which one is the famous person?”
Ho hum.
I well remember the early 80s when Torvill and Dean were on their way to the 1984 Olympics and their perfect score. This evening I made a big issue out of making sure I was in front of a tv at 9pm for the program about how they went from childhood skating lessons to picking the famous music which we all can hum along to now because of them.
Every now and then I feel it is important the children are introduced to the things I like so I tied Jessica down to watch this with me. It was quite interesting - yes I knew he was a policeman and yes I knew they weren’t married but no - I didn’t know they knelt on the ice at the beginning because their music was 25 seconds too long and the judges started their stopwatches once the skates were on the ice.
When they showed most of Bolero I MADE Jessica pay attention to it too. We got to the end and Jessica asked me “Which one of them is the pro and which one is the famous person?”
Ho hum.
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New Chicken Blog
20/08/08 22:10 Filed in: General
The chickens have
taken over my life so much I have devoted a new blog to them. It is
now up and running and filling up with all sorts of
silly chickenalia which I don’t want to bore you all
with here. Also, I actually did want to share this
new project with my mum and couldn’t bring myself to
explain to her that I have been blogging for years
here but she wasn’t invited - much easier to start
fresh!
I have jumped ship - technically - though. I’m not
using RapidWeaver for it, have gone for Expression
Engine which allows me to be update a. from anywhere
and b. quickly. The whole slow uploading thing with RW
was holding me back and somehow I was lucky enough to
have everything installed for me and to receive
on-going tutorials which is helping with the
transistion to a new system.
Have to say though, I like it so much it is unlikely I
will go back to RW for anything new from now on. . .
The end of an era! Of course, I
wouldn’t be able to do what I CAN do now without
all the things I learned from RW so I will always
think fondly of it.
Let me know what you think of the new blog. Marvel at
how wonderful the chooks are. Leave a comment.
(Am now going to click the upload button, wait for the
upload to go through and then hope I don’t notice any
spelling mistakes or errors to edit later. . . oh how I
love my new blog and how simple it all is!)
Nanna Update And Other Things . . .
06/08/08 22:20 Filed in: Family
Good news on the Nanna front. She
managed to convince them to let her home today. She
wasn’t going to get any better than she was already in
hospital - she wasn’t getting any sleep and the food
there didn’t suit her so she was becoming more and more
depressed and thin. Someone went out to the house on
Monday to assess it and gave it the thumbs up. A bed
was brought downstairs to the living room and she is
now at home a lot happier and looking a lot better
already.
Long may it continue. She isn’t all quite right yet - her concentration, eyesight and memory are all a bit meh but she looks a lot better so that is the main thing.
Iain and I finally finished the chicken run and last night I went to the local Chook Man and picked out 6 chickens. There are 5 different types and they settled in to their wee shed very nicely last night and early this morning Jessica (who is now my shadow and chook assistant) let them out in to their run for the first time at 7.45am and watched them for ages. We are trying to pick names for them as we go along but I am not liking some of them. There is NO way Iain is getting his favourite “Henrietta” and yet Jessica seems to have gone off “Cauliflower” which I DID quite like. I’ll let you know what names they end up with once they are sorted.
We saw some different personalities coming through and one going in and out of the shed and on to the nesting box about 4 times but not performing for her audience. About 9am we left to go and get ready for work.
Just as we were about to leave the house Iain
told me they had started making a lot of noise and
hopeful one of them was laying Jessica and I went back
out to see. Sure enough, one of them was in the nest
box again. She looked at us terribly indignantly mid
push but when she realised we were going to watch AND
photograph our first egg being laid, she got on with
the job and squeezed it out.
We went to work, leaving them out in the run hoping there would be another one or two by the time we got back. It is now a race between Jessica and me to see who gets to the shed first. Actually, I get quite cross that she makes it there before me. Doesn’t she KNOW THE CHICKENS ARE MINE???? When we looked this evening there was another egg waiting for us - this time in the poo tray! Don’t worry - there wasn’t any poo in it - but we need to encourage them to use the nest box - we may not be se lucky the next time!
Excitement all round then here at the chicken run. More updates to follow, both for Nanna and the chooks.
Long may it continue. She isn’t all quite right yet - her concentration, eyesight and memory are all a bit meh but she looks a lot better so that is the main thing.
Iain and I finally finished the chicken run and last night I went to the local Chook Man and picked out 6 chickens. There are 5 different types and they settled in to their wee shed very nicely last night and early this morning Jessica (who is now my shadow and chook assistant) let them out in to their run for the first time at 7.45am and watched them for ages. We are trying to pick names for them as we go along but I am not liking some of them. There is NO way Iain is getting his favourite “Henrietta” and yet Jessica seems to have gone off “Cauliflower” which I DID quite like. I’ll let you know what names they end up with once they are sorted.
We saw some different personalities coming through and one going in and out of the shed and on to the nesting box about 4 times but not performing for her audience. About 9am we left to go and get ready for work.
We went to work, leaving them out in the run hoping there would be another one or two by the time we got back. It is now a race between Jessica and me to see who gets to the shed first. Actually, I get quite cross that she makes it there before me. Doesn’t she KNOW THE CHICKENS ARE MINE???? When we looked this evening there was another egg waiting for us - this time in the poo tray! Don’t worry - there wasn’t any poo in it - but we need to encourage them to use the nest box - we may not be se lucky the next time!
Excitement all round then here at the chicken run. More updates to follow, both for Nanna and the chooks.
Home We Be . . .
We got home on Saturday afternoon. We
were away for a week - did you not notice? Did you miss
me as much as I missed you?
We had a great time - more details will have to follow later as I am far too tired to start updating now but I know a couple of people will be waiting to hear news of Nanna so this is just a quickie to keep you going.
Nanna has had her plaster casts taken off her wrists this afternoon, has had more scans over the past couple of days and has been told she is nearly ready to be downgraded to our more local hospital. This is good news, especially for Papa who is driving twice a day to the big hospital in Belfast and that starts to take its toll on on even the youngest of people. It is also better to have her in her own home town - even for her own *head*.
While we were away we had a call from Lesley saying that Nanna had had a very bad night - I think it was Saturday last week. She had had a heart attack and was now smitten with pneumonia and had been wheeked away off to the high dependancy ward. That actually was a good thing - she had one-to-one care there and was put on to a higher dose of antibiotics etc and got much better much quicker there. We were almost sorry when she was well enough to leave that ward a couple of days later.
They now reckon there is a possibility that she had some level of heart attack that made her fall down the stairs in the first place. That kinda fits doesn’t it?
Some of you will remember the events of this time last year - it is a the anniversary of Denis’ death today, although he had his *attack* on the 17th and most of us think of that date as when he actually left us. Nanna seemed aware of the date tonight when we were there but thankfully she didn’t seem as upset about it as we have been fearing for the last few months. Funny old world huh?
In other news: the shed is built and painted and ready for kitting out for TEH CHICKENZ YAY!!! Can you WAIT? OMG I CAN’T!!!!
We had a great time - more details will have to follow later as I am far too tired to start updating now but I know a couple of people will be waiting to hear news of Nanna so this is just a quickie to keep you going.
Nanna has had her plaster casts taken off her wrists this afternoon, has had more scans over the past couple of days and has been told she is nearly ready to be downgraded to our more local hospital. This is good news, especially for Papa who is driving twice a day to the big hospital in Belfast and that starts to take its toll on on even the youngest of people. It is also better to have her in her own home town - even for her own *head*.
While we were away we had a call from Lesley saying that Nanna had had a very bad night - I think it was Saturday last week. She had had a heart attack and was now smitten with pneumonia and had been wheeked away off to the high dependancy ward. That actually was a good thing - she had one-to-one care there and was put on to a higher dose of antibiotics etc and got much better much quicker there. We were almost sorry when she was well enough to leave that ward a couple of days later.
They now reckon there is a possibility that she had some level of heart attack that made her fall down the stairs in the first place. That kinda fits doesn’t it?
Some of you will remember the events of this time last year - it is a the anniversary of Denis’ death today, although he had his *attack* on the 17th and most of us think of that date as when he actually left us. Nanna seemed aware of the date tonight when we were there but thankfully she didn’t seem as upset about it as we have been fearing for the last few months. Funny old world huh?
In other news: the shed is built and painted and ready for kitting out for TEH CHICKENZ YAY!!! Can you WAIT? OMG I CAN’T!!!!
More Confusion . . .
10/07/08 23:00 Filed in: Family
While I continued with the garden this evening,
Iain went to the hospital on his own. I
managed to throw loads of seeds in to both seed trays
in the greenhouse and into The Allotment after
sectioning off a narrow path to where the shed is going
to be if it ever gets built. This means that I am able
to use a small triangular piece of dirt (technical
term) which would otherwise be unused and have put in
lettuce, radish, another row of carrots, rocket, and a
couple of other things. The packets are still in my
cardigan pocket which is less than 8 feet from where I
am now but I am so bloody tired after all that AND some
weeding and general tidying up that I can’t be arsed to
get up to find out what else was put in.
OH! And I raked in grass seed to the 10’ by 8’ area which the chicken run is going to cover in the hope that somehow this will help with the soaking wet quagmire which is there at the moment. . . Can but hope! Been a busy girl huh?
The news from the hospital is less than comforting though. Not only is Nanna more and more confused rather than less and less as would be expected as the days wear on but after another x-ray this afternoon it has been discovered that she has a fractured JAW as well as her fractured skull and two broken wrists.
She had two x-rays taken at the first hospital as well as cat-scans and at least one MRI that I know of. Not only was this small detail missed but the way the family was informed was by accident - while Lesley was busy feeding her an orange a nurse came over and pointed out that it would be hard for her to eat with her fractured jaw ‘n’ all. WTF?
I DID notice a slight drooping of one side of her mouth last night while I was there. Just when she was speaking, with hindsight, perhaps that was a sign that her jaw wasn’t aligned correctly.
This is not looking good at all. It is hard to know what is going on when Iain and I only manage an hour a day at the hospital and daily 8am phone calls from Papa. We don’t really get a good chance to catch up with the gen on what is happening and I think the family need to sit down, away from the hospital and think things through. We will have to organise this soon.
The *confusion-going-backwards* thing is most disconcerting and has upset Iain this evening.
Some weeks ago, Iain started mentioning the possibility of taking some time off and heading away. Nothing spectacular - staying in Northern Ireland so *if anything happens we don’t have as far to travel to get home* like the 7 hour drive we had last year. I was not keen on the idea. I held up the decision making because I was not keen and finally, after Iain pushed several print-offs from the internet of self-catering premises we could have for various amounts of money I caved in because I felt I was keeping him from his down time.
He sent a cheque off for a deposit on one place and received a cheery reply from the owner. It is booked.
Last week it looked like it was going to have to be cancelled but after consulting with Papa and Lesley last night it was all back on again. I was kinda hoping for it to not be. I would rather have my time off in my house with my things round me and being able to relax and catch up with the tings I can’t do because I run out of energy. Going on holiday is not relaxing as far as I can see. I’m feeling very hard done by. Can you tell?
Tonight. Who knows now? Will I get my wish at the expense of someone else’s unhappiness?
OH! And I raked in grass seed to the 10’ by 8’ area which the chicken run is going to cover in the hope that somehow this will help with the soaking wet quagmire which is there at the moment. . . Can but hope! Been a busy girl huh?
The news from the hospital is less than comforting though. Not only is Nanna more and more confused rather than less and less as would be expected as the days wear on but after another x-ray this afternoon it has been discovered that she has a fractured JAW as well as her fractured skull and two broken wrists.
She had two x-rays taken at the first hospital as well as cat-scans and at least one MRI that I know of. Not only was this small detail missed but the way the family was informed was by accident - while Lesley was busy feeding her an orange a nurse came over and pointed out that it would be hard for her to eat with her fractured jaw ‘n’ all. WTF?
I DID notice a slight drooping of one side of her mouth last night while I was there. Just when she was speaking, with hindsight, perhaps that was a sign that her jaw wasn’t aligned correctly.
This is not looking good at all. It is hard to know what is going on when Iain and I only manage an hour a day at the hospital and daily 8am phone calls from Papa. We don’t really get a good chance to catch up with the gen on what is happening and I think the family need to sit down, away from the hospital and think things through. We will have to organise this soon.
The *confusion-going-backwards* thing is most disconcerting and has upset Iain this evening.
Some weeks ago, Iain started mentioning the possibility of taking some time off and heading away. Nothing spectacular - staying in Northern Ireland so *if anything happens we don’t have as far to travel to get home* like the 7 hour drive we had last year. I was not keen on the idea. I held up the decision making because I was not keen and finally, after Iain pushed several print-offs from the internet of self-catering premises we could have for various amounts of money I caved in because I felt I was keeping him from his down time.
He sent a cheque off for a deposit on one place and received a cheery reply from the owner. It is booked.
Last week it looked like it was going to have to be cancelled but after consulting with Papa and Lesley last night it was all back on again. I was kinda hoping for it to not be. I would rather have my time off in my house with my things round me and being able to relax and catch up with the tings I can’t do because I run out of energy. Going on holiday is not relaxing as far as I can see. I’m feeling very hard done by. Can you tell?
Tonight. Who knows now? Will I get my wish at the expense of someone else’s unhappiness?