Thursday, June 28, 2007

Clumsy and Grace

So, there we were (hubby and I) in bed lazing around one morning with Clumsy and Grace both on the bed with us (I know, I know, its horrible unhygienic to let your cats get on the bed, but its not so easy to keep them off…)

Anyway, Clumsy looks furtively at Grace, hoists his rear end off the bed and did that wiggly thing with it (cat owners will know exactly what I am talking about here) Cat 5 and made ready to pounce. Grace, peering out from under her eyelids took rapid stock of the situation and did a quick but cool assessment. As Clumsy leapt up, she swiftly grabbed hold of him, twisted him round and over in a real WWF move, pinned him down on the bed and proceeded to thoroughly wash his head.

“Ah”, said hubby proudly. “That’s my girl – she’s got a black belt in personal hygiene and has had special training in combat ablutions…"
Cat 2

There’s no answer to that really, is there?

Friday, June 22, 2007

Shakin' it all about....

That's me at the moment....in out, in out and whilst not shaking it about too much (the metalwork is not conducive to too much shaking) I seem to have had very little time to actually sit down and blog.

Last weekend I was away in Belgium with a large group of my best friends and a good time was had by all...apparently even whilst some people were lurking underground and exploring strange places. Me, I just sat in the sun, drank the BUF's cherry beer and spent time catching up with her which was fab (we've not caught up in ages). So, we brought back chocolate and beer (what else from Belgium?) and have already made mutterings about next year...

In the meantime I am off again but this time only about 2 hours drive away from home. Hubby shall be cat sitting whilst I get on with 'my other life'. I know, I know, more excuses for not updating the blog, but hey, I'll get round to it..... I promise!

Finally, to finish with the theme that I started, I saw this on J the B's t-shirt last weekend:
"what if the Hokey Cokey*1 really is what it's all about?"
...and if you want to know the answer to that, you could try looking here or here or hey - just try Googling it.....(and yes, I know Google is trying to make it illegal to use their name as a verb...)
Dancing
*1Umm, that'll be the Hokey Pokey to all you Yanks out there....same language indeed....both speak English do we?

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

There’s catching up to do....and I'm being slow about it....

So, I came back from the US of A to find hubby was quite excited. My first thought was that he was pleased to have me home but it wasn’t that at all…..the drain man had really been. I mean he had really, really been. He had really been here, had really lifted the cover and had really cleared the drain of all its debris. D’you know, you can see water in the bottom of it! And when it started raining (which it did for about two weeks solid) the water ran down the hill and into the drain. OMG, I cannot believe how excited I am that it’s been done and how disappointed that I can’t bake it a cake.

Now of course all I have to do is make sure I don’t drop my keys down it…*1


*1…and don’t tell me that I am the only person in the world who gets a death grip on their keys when they find that they have parked over an drain and have to unlock the car? *2
Twitch

*2OK OK, so you are one of those posh people with a ‘hoofer doofer’ for your car when you just press a button and the doors unlock and the lights flash – well, you have to remember that my car is 24…. I think hoofer doofers were something else entirely then.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Not fair...

So you know I went away and you know I flew and you’re all itching to know if my metalwork sets off the arch in the airport. Right? Well, I still don’t know and that’s the truth of it. Yet again, lost in the miles and miles of passageways that are Heathrow airport, I was using my wheelchair to get around and believe me, a big lump of metal like that is bound to set of those detectors, without the added complication of any screws and stuff inside your back. In Heathrow I get waved though with just a cursory body search (which means that that there were no rubber gloves Waving Hand or little rooms involved) and that was that.

Coming home from the States, homeland security are a bit more involved, making you take your shoes off and everything so I felt certain that I’d find out something. Well, as expected the arch went off so I went for the pat down. The poor bored lady was telling me I’m going to touch you here and I’m gonna use the back of my hand here and so on and I tried to engage her in polite conversation. I asked her if she was bored with saying the same thing day in day out. I asked her if she was having a nice day and if she liked the hot weather. I really, really tried to be nice to her and then just as she told me I could go I hit her with the whammy question “ can I have the wand thingie?” and she said there was no need. No need? What about my curiosity - isn't that need enough? That is so not fair! - and I still don‘t know if I’m going to set the detectors off. Anyone got a 'Bounty Hunter'??

As an aside to all this, I had to take my shoes off. All my belongings, including my cardigan had to go through the x-ray machine. My wheelchair and cushion were swabbed for explosives and I was thoroughly patted down. Did they discover the pouch that is built into the underside of my wheelchair (and is part of the standard fittings)? The pouch that contains a small tool kit, puncture repair kit and a pump which looks remarkably like the barrel of a gun (when viewed through a steamed up window without your glasses on obviously). Did they heck…..
D'oh

One last thing, for those of you who have been holding their breath and keeping their fingers crossed for the FIL. He is improving - still ventilated (although with much less support) and we had the news today that he has been able to get out of bed and into a chair for a while. This is a real step forward and we feel much less worried about the future. Thanks for all the support folks...

Friday, June 01, 2007

Spooky goings on…..

D’you know, there’s some spooky stuff goes on in the world and sometimes it can happen to you too. I have had 3 things happen in quick succession (well they say things always happen in threes, don’t they? *1) and so I thought I’d blog about them.

The first happened when I was away. There I was, sat on my bed in the middle of the afternoon, having a little rest before the rigors of the evening. I heard a knock at the door, so got up and went to answer it. Outside was my SPF who wanted to rearrange a meeting that we had made earlier. The only thing was, that she hadn’t yet knocked the door, having only just arrived! Somehow, I had ‘heard’ a knock, got off the bed and walked to the door (not the fastest process in the world for me) just in time to coincide with her arrival……oooo!

Then I got home and did a report for the BMB. I emailed it to him and in the ‘send and receive process’ got an email from him asking me to send the report. Scarier still, was the fact that both e-mails had been sent at the same time to the minute*2 ….wow!

Two days later, I phoned A&T to speak to A. I was on my mobile because I had free minutes that I wanted to use up and T answered the phone telling me that A was out. Within seconds of him answering, my house phone rang and I juggled the two phones (one to each ear – don’t you do it that way?) so I could answer it – it was A! Actually, I have to say at this point that I briefly entertained the idea that I could get them to talk to each other, but couldn’t figure out which way up the respective phones should be!

Anyway, all of this was very spooky and as yet I have no idea if it all means anything. In the meantime…..di dee di dee do dee di dee do ......
Hiding
*1I never know who “they” are though….
*2 - I didn’t check the seconds – just how sad do you think I am??