Nuts to it....

So, here I am, perched on the edge of the sofa with the baby laptop (which runs as fast as the average slug), on my knee. Why you may ask when I have a perfectly good desk with a nice shiny new(ish) desktop just waiting to be switched on and used. Wrong! Those of you with good memories will know just how new the desktop is so may be surprised to know that it isn't working quite the way it should.

Now I know I shouldn't name and shame, but I am seriously p'd off with Packard Bell (ooops, did I just mention their name?). A few days ago hubby turned on the PC to be met with the ominous message "config.sys is missing"! Now why this should make a hap'orth of difference I have no idea since that file isn't even used by XP, but it did and the damn machine refused to start.

I came up with the brilliant idea of using the recovery disc that came with the machine and in a foolish, fey and reckless moment stuck it in the drive and headed for the repair console. Within moments, my hard drive was being reformatted and then came a soothing message which was something like:

"Don't worry about a thing - you are just the moron who operates the machine. You know nothing but we do so we will put everything back to normal for you by transferring a few files" - actually it may have just said "copying files now", but you get the idea...

After an hour of reading this message and no lights flashing on the machine I turned it off, gave up and went to bed. In the morning in a much better mood (not) I loaded up my own version of XP but discovered it didn't have all the drivers I needed so it was back to the recovery disc to load them.. Guess what? It reformatted my hard drive again for me (so helpful...). At least this time after the soothing message ("Don't worry - we know best") it did actually copy some files. I then got anther message (hurrah!) saying "restoring operating system...this may take some time...... I was really good, I waited patiently, I resisted the temptation to throw the machine across the room, I didn't strangle anyone with the cables, I didn't even kick the cat with frustration probably 'cos I would've fallen over) - and eventually the message went, the screen went blank and then I got a dos prompt. I rebooted (thinking that XP would then start) and got...a dos prompt. I checked the contents of the hard drive....wow...an operating system...a dos one that is....

I am going back to the shop......I may be some time.....so if I don't blog for a while, you know why........

I’m hooo-ome…..!

Well, here I am, back in Blighty and wondering when my jet lag is going to creep up and smack me in the face. I feel remarkably chirpy for someone who has just been travelling for 26 hours straight up. OK OK so I have some aches and pains and stuff but I’m in a good mood all the same.

The trip went, ummm well, it went, shall we just say that? I have to say that I have had better ones, but it wasn’t an unmitigated disaster so there you go. I did at least get a suntan even if it wasn’t the best way to do it.

You see, on the first day I looked at my suntan cream and thought I ought to have something stronger (having gone from a British almost winter) to the desert state sun. Now I don’t use a huge factor sunscreen, its not that I’m exactly olive, but I just don’t burn that easy so I though that rather than opting for my normal 8, I’d push the boat out and go for some 20 that I found lurking in the bottom of my case. I lathered it on and sat out all day (I have no choice in this given the nature of my sport) and by the end of the day was looking exceedingly pink on the arms. This is like the first time I have burned since well, I can’t remember when and everyone was there trying to tell me how hot it was and how I shouldn’t be surprised.

Well, I was surprised and the next day decided to try the factor 8 just in case there was a problem with the ole lurking bottle. What happened? Well, I was fine, no more burning for me. So then I fished out the bottle of factor 20 and turned it upside down. Expiry 08/02. Oh dear…..I think that explains that then…..

Moi?

I feel stressed….. I am trying to prepare for a major trip away and before I go we are trying to get the bathroom finished. On top of that I have promised to get a coat sewn for someone before I go; the ironing pile is as tall as me; I have several family commitments that cannot be broken (unless of course I can get my brother to shift his 50th birthday); my mother is due home from Australia (and I am supposed to be picking her up from the station at silly o’clock on Thursday night^*1) and I am trying to do all this with my wrist in a splint. Do you get the idea that I am trying to do too much? Moi? Would I? Surely not?

…Of course, there will be those of you who say I should be getting on with all those things rather than writing my blog, but I need a break from it all godmammit (Janet…^*2)

Anyway, just in case I can’t slope away and update y’all^*3 again then I shall be back in 10 days time. After a full 36 hours sleep (which I anticipate needing as a very minimum) I shall come back and tell you all about my adventures and you never know, if the bathroom has come on a bit, I may even be able to do it clean too!

^*1 I guess that’s actually Friday morning in fact.
^*2Just gotta love that show….
^*3 This could be a clue to where I am going…

Oh no…it’s tiny!

So the bathroom is coming on gradually. The new wall is up, plastered and tiled. We are ready to get the plumber in to fit the new radiator – yippee! At this point I should mention that we picked the radiator out of a catalogue as we had a particular style in mind (well, I did anyway and hubby went along with it) and they didn’t have one in stock in the shop. So, it was ordered and delivered with the rest of the bathroom (which is sitting in the study behind me as I type) – this is where it has been for the last month! Anyway, the radiator came in a great big box which we opened at one end, checked the fixing pack was inside (i.e. make sure contents were complete) and then promptly taped shut again as the cats had decided that it was nothing more than a large cardboard play tunnel and were desperate to get inside.

Actually, on a bit of an aside, what is it about cats that they feel compelled to sit in cardboard boxes? Bugalugs is, at this moment, sat inside a box (which incidentally has no bottom) looking very smug and blinking up at me^*1. Why? He was in it within 20 seconds of me dropping it on the floor and will only leave it if I manage to find another box for him to try out.

Anyway, back to the radiator – we were ready for the plumber to fit it so unpacked it from its enormous box, removed all the polystyrene packing which was needed to fill such a big box and took it upstairs to the bathroom. It was at this point that we noticed that we have 9ft ceilings - well in fact we did know this before, but there’s nothing like a too-small radiator to show these things up! It looked tiny in the room – weedy I think was the expression hubby used. Worse than that – one of the legs was bent! So, that was it, I had to get on the phone and sit in an automated system listening to canned music for 20 minutes^*2. Finally I got through to someone who told me that the earliest they could get a replacement to me would be at least a month as they had none in stock but if I wanted I could take it back to the shop and see if I could swap it for another model. Result!

So, that was what we did – took it back and found something else. The something else which was what hubby had fancied in the very beginning so it's alls well that ends well!

^*1 All cat owners will know exactly what I mean by this blinking business…
^*2 This is my personal hate, hate, hate! If they are busy, why don’t we get an engaged signal. If they are not there why don’t they just not answer? I hate having to pay to listen to their choice of, muzak and press buttons which never get me anywhere. I have taken to doing nothing when they say “if you have a touch tone phone press the star key now”. Normally it at least gets you through to a person …who will then put you on hold and make you listen to their choice of muzak….grrrrr!!! Do you sense how much I hate these things yet?

More on major splatter.

Writing my last blog entry reminded me of a couple of major splatter incidents that have happened to us over the years and somehow the memory of them is much funnier than they seemed at the time….

Firstly, many years ago, I dropped a pyrex bowl full of spaghetti sauce in the kitchen and the base of the bowl hit the floor and bounced back up (amazingly the bowl stayed intact). The contents of that bowl flew out so far that they hit the ceiling and the walls either side of the room and we ended up having to redecorate just to cover up what looked horribly like dried blood splattered all over the place.

What made matters worse, was that having redecorated (in a colour that actually looked much, much nicer on the paint chart than it ever did on the walls), we had another little mishap. We had friends down for the weekend (the BUF and her VNSO in fact) and hubby went out to the kitchen to open (another) bottle of red wine. Just as the cork came out, the bottle slipped, hit the floor and (unlike the glass bowl), exploded. Red wine went absolutely everywhere, including halfway up the nearest (newly painted) wall. That did make a mess and we wiped off the worst of it before opening (another) bottle of red wine and getting back to wherever we were in the conversation.

The next day we noticed that the wall wasn’t really very clean and tried to wash off the rest of the wine. Well, it seems that Cabernet Merlot is quite a good dye and it wouldn’t scrub off. Never mind we thought, newish paint - we’ve still got paint in the tin – we’ll just give it another coat – job done! Well, the paint went on, the wine stain bled though. Another coat of paint – it bled though again. Stain proof paint? – Nope – bled though….and in the end we half panelled the walls just to hide it.

I just hate to think what the new owners thought when they bought the house and (probably) stripped off the panelling. They’re probably looking for bodies buried in the garden as I write this….

How to rebuild your wall – the messy way….

Well, after taking the wall down, we had to put one back up – it being a bathroom - privacy being an issue without a wall there^*1. We boarded out the new wall and then decided to mix up some plaster to skim the joints etc.

Hubby, being a trusting soul left the job of mixing the plaster to me while he went off to do something else. I tipped the water in the bucket and then added the plaster one dustpan worth at a time (I can’t do that thing where you lift the bag up and tip it – much too messy (and heavy)!). It is at this point I should tell you that rather that using the kitchen whisk (don’t laugh, it’s been done) I had attached our whirligig thing to the drill to make the job easy.

Now we’ve had our whirligig for a while and its getting a bit old, but over the years we’ve used it for all sorts from paint to cement to cake mix (well maybe not really cake mix – I’ve never actually needed to make a cake that big) and its coped admirably with everything so I really didn’t doubt it for one instance - even though its starting to get a bit rusty. Well, I should have doubted it, ‘cos as I stuck it in the bucket and turned it on, the whirlies came away from the gig (or at least the arms kinda parted company with the shaft) and as they flew out sideways, they produced a fountain of plaster, plaster powder and water which flew upwards and outwards at great velocity. I shrieked (well, anyone would have) and hubby came running. He came though the door (I think expecting to find me fallen over or electrocuted or something) and found me, the walls, the bath, the ceiling, the window and everything else, dripping with this gloopy mess. He laughed so much he nearly wet himself – sympathy – not a chance…..

^*1OK, OK there are two sides to a wall, I admit it!

Ummm, just how easily are walls supposed to fall down?

So, we are (finally) doing the bathroom. When we moved in (nearly 6 years ago) we decided it needed doing and have been putting off ever since. Well, a permanently dripping tap which turned into a running tap tipped me over the edge….”I’ve found a plumber”, I said “and here’s the bathroom catalogue – pick something!”

So, we settled down to lots of shopping, decided on suites and tiles and all sorts and finally made up our minds. So far, so good!

The next job was to start ripping out the old suite and generally make good before getting ready to re-tile and the get the new suite fitted. We live in an old house – its Victorian – which is very nice, but sometime means your floors and walls are a bit on the wonky and worn side. In fact, sometimes these things get patched up relatively unsuccessfully – usually by previous owners. One of my personal pet hates was the fact that we had Victorian 8” moulded skirting board on one wall and 1960’s 5” plain on another. It will all have to go we (I) decided and be replaced with new (Victorian style) skirtings. Well, we knew that the plaster on that one wall was a bit dodgy, and taking off the skirting would make a bit of a mess, but I’m OK at filling (I’ve had a lot of practice over the years on various walls, cars and of course the wrinkles on my face) so we thought we’d go for it. Well, after pulling it off, there was a bit of a mess and a bit higher up the wall a large chunk of plaster had fallen out. Never mind, we thought, we’d just hack back to a good bit and re-plaster the little hole as necessary.

Tap tap with hammer…..

Oops – umm, how did that happen (three feet away a 2ft by 1ft section of plaster lands on the floor)….

….never mind, we’ll just hack back to a good bit and re-plaster the 'little' hole as necessary.

Tap tap with hammer…..thud, crumble crumble…thud…oops…

“Umm, hubby – have you found a good bit of plaster yet?”

Well, finally we had hacked back to good plaster and we stood back and surveyed our work. There it was – a 2ft by 3 ft section up in one corner of the room and apart from that the whole wall lay in bits on the floor.

“So, that’ll be rebuilding the wall then, before we start the tiling?”

Good Ole US of A

So, I’ve been away for a couple of days and while hubby stayed at home and hacked all the tiles off the bathroom walls, I was off gadding about at important meetings and stuff. In addition there was also some preparation for the latest upcoming trip which is going to be 10 days in Arizona at a major event.

So our conversation over the dinner table turned to the forthcoming trip and it went something like this. EO^*1 was getting quite animated:

• EO: “It’s brilliant that we’re going to Arizona isn’t it...?”
• Me: “Well, yes, I’m really looking forward to it”.
• EO: “…and I was in touch with my friend TJ and he tells me that the Americans are going to be there….”
• Me: “Well, they would be - its Arizona…”
• EO (in a rather more excited tone): “…but the Americans are going to be there…”
• Me: “I think they’ll be a lot of Americans there…”
• EO: “…no, I mean the Americans”
• WW: “I still think there’ll be lots and lots of Americans there – you do know Arizona is in America don’t you?”

…at this point EO nearly threw her dinner at me^*2 until she realised that I was deliberately misunderstanding her to wind her up…I knew all along that she meant the American team with whom she is quite friendly and who will also be at the same event.

^*1 Eeyore’s owner – well, not his real owner obviously ‘cos that would be Christopher Robin wouldn’t it?
^*2 There are worse things you can do with mass catering….like eat it!

Well, I did promise…

So I did promise to tell you the tale of the big bad cable tv man and the even bigger badder satellite man (or was it the other way round) so here it is.

Once upon a time, there was a hubby and his warped woman and they lived happily in a little house not too far from what used to be a coal mine. They liked watching television, especially science fiction programmes like Stargate and warped woman was also very, very keen on 24. 24 was halfway through the series and getting very exciting so she eagerly looked forward to Sunday nights when she would watch it and then phone ‘A’ and have a good chat about what had happened.

Time passed by happily until one Wednesday night when hubby and WW were watching the late news. It said that Virgin Media were dropping Sky channels at midnight. Well, hubby and WW were a bit mystified at this but since Virgin had only just taken over their cable channel they thought it couldn’t really apply to them and so went to bed and dreamed of spaceships and Jack Bauer.

In the morning hubby phoned WW from work – “Have you checked the TV today?” he asked, “Do we still have Sky?” When WW looked, Sky was gone from the channel line-up and there was just a message from Virgin saying that due to a rise in price they would no longer be supplying Sky Channels. There was much weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth over this – no more Stargate, no more Jack – what were they to do?

Well, as with many tales, this one too has a happy ending as WW phoned the Sky company and the nice men from Sky came and fitted a shiny dish to the back of the house. Since it points straight at the sky, it gets all the science fiction straight from the spaceships and Jack is back saving the universe from the bad guys. All the services seem to work better than the cable did and through some quirk (yet another mistake by the cable company in fact), its costing less too! WW and hubby are now very happy and think that every cloud has a silver lining.

The End!

Actually, this isn’t strictly the end, as I simply wish to add a comment. There has been a certain amount of name throwing via the press between Sky (the Rupert Murdoch Empire) and Virgin (the Richard Branson Empire). It seems that with the renewal of a contract Sky wanted to raise their prices – they think that since they have the best channels (well, they have apart from the BBC) then they should get a fair (or unfairly high depending on who you listen to) price. Virgin didn’t want to pay any more than they were already paying and so said that unless Sky asked for a more reasonable figure, they wouldn’t pay up and therefore wouldn’t continue to have the right to broadcast Sky channels. They also figured that people would stick with them having decided that Sky channels weren’t that good after all.

I might have agreed with them, or at least sympathised with them except for one thing. In their infinite wisdom they didn’t see that we, as customers, needed to know what was going on. They chopped our channels without bothering to tell us in advance and without apology afterwards. In my book this was inexcusable. They have my e-mail address (heck they supply it), my phone number and my address. One e-mail could have been sent to every customer at a pence cost to the company, but no, nothing, zilch, nada. So, we continue with the phone and broadband until they pull the next stunt and the TV comes from the sky (literally!) ….and yes, silver linings and all that, it has worked out cheaper – about £15 a month (no, I don’t know how either!)

Oooh the pain

I haven’t blogged anything for a whole week now. This is partly ‘cos:

1. hubby has had a week off (yay!)
   
2. we no longer have a bathroom (see note 1.)
3. I have a baddie wrist (tendonitis) – this means I am only typing with one hand and it’s a pain in the ….wrist actually (well, what did you think I was going to say?)

I fully intend catching up soon with Virgin Media and Sky One (please note, I’m not as mad as I was), tales from the plumber’s life (or at least why we no longer have a bathroom) and an amusing tale from (almost) over the pond as well as other such drivel just as soon as I can type with two hands.

Magnetism

So I was just in Tesco and I saw a "Magnetic Excercise Bicycle" for sale.
What's that about?
Does it mean that for storage you can just stick it to the fridge or what???

I think I have been very quiet lately…

I think I’ve been quite quiet lately in my blog^*1. This is mostly ‘cos I have a completely utterly boring life and I didn’t want to write blah blah blah, blah blah blah and all that stuff.

Seriously, I don’t know if it’s true that I have a boring life, as I do get to zot off all over the place on trips and stuff, but my life is not exciting in a sky diving, roller coaster kind of way. I wonder sometimes about what is (or what seems to be) an exciting life to another person. F’rinstance, is my life exciting to someone else, or do you have to be Victoria Beckham (you will love how verbose she is on this, her very own blog), before your life gets exciting or do you maybe have to be Ellen McArthur ? Do you suppose that poor ole Ellen when she is halfway across the Atlantic, freezing her nuts off (or would be if she had any) suddenly sits down and goes, ‘Gosh, isn’t this exciting?’ – or do you suppose that she ties another knot (or whatever it is she does out there) and thinks - ‘Gosh, this is boring – wish I had a telly so I could watch Sky One^*2’. Maybe Victoria Beckham after doing her 3000th crunch before breakfast with her kid constantly interrupting her and wanting to know if he can have spaghetti hoops for breakfast – with marmalade – thinks ‘Gosh, this is boring – I wish I could do something different with my life.’

What I’m trying to get at here is that surely it’s all just a matter of perspective. As they say (whoever they are) one man’s meat is another man’s poison but I guess mostly people think that something (anything) different from what they do would be more exciting. Grass is greener and all that…

As for me, well, often I think that all this excitement stuff is overrated. Give me a boring old night in with my best friend and a bottle of red or a good book and a nice warm room and I can be happy. That’s not to say that I’d trade in the exciting stuff, but it’s nice to have a balance…

^*1 I had to add the term "in my blog" here as everyone who knows me knows that I cannot be quiet for any length of time at all. The term chatterbox was invented for people like me....
^*2 This is another blog entry and one that I am still too furious to blog about ….watch this space for ranting and raving soon….

Why do some things make you feel so guilty?

I just had one of those highly inspirational e-mails – you know the kind of thing I’m sure, but this one said:

“Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion”.

Now, it’s not the sentiment that I want to draw your attention to – even though I actually think that one is one of the best around. In fact, many of these messages have really good things to say or for us to think about, but I often don’t like to receive them. So why is this – it’s got nothing to do with the message, or the person who sent it to me – but everything to do with those horrid few sentences at the end. You know the bits I mean – the bits that say forward this to 5 of your friends or you will die of Dengue fever or forward this to 5 of your friends or suffer bad luck for a year or forward this to 5 of your friends and something good will happen or even forward this to 15 of your friends and you will win the lottery on Saturday! Why, why, why??? I am now taking to stripping out all of that and sending them on to the people to whom I think they will make a difference but secretly I fear that Dengue fever is just waiting around the corner. What is it about the power of words, that those delivered by total strangers are able to make me feel guilty about not forwarding them – and – I know I am not alone! It’s this whole guilt thing that leads to people forwarding chain letters around the world because they are too frightened not to ………

Well, I think I've found the solution to nasty tropical diseases for anything I get that I don't want to send on - it's Chain Letters Anonymous!

By golly it’s dark in the sticks….

So I went away (but as you can see I came back so that’s OK). I had a pretty good weekend (this is an understatement as things went very well and so I actually had a very good weekend) but as usual at these things I ended up absolutely pooped! ^*1

After a late meeting on the Friday night I finally got back to my room and decided to have a bit of a relax and read before going off to sleep. Now I should have realised that there was going to be a problem straight off, but I am optimistic little soul and just though it would be OK. You see, the light switch for the bedside light was mounted on the wall, kinda half behind the headboard. So, I propped a couple of pillows up against the headboard, turned on the light and picked up my book. I relaxed back against the pillows and the light went out! I leaned forward and it came back on! I shifted the pillows just a bit and discovered that the light when on off on off on off every time I breathed in and out which was really just plain annoying and not conducive to a nice relaxing read!

So I got up and got a pair of socks out of my suitcase and wedged them between the headboard and the wall, made myself a cup of hot chocolate (since I was up and halfway to the kettle anyway) and settled back down. The socks did it nicely and the light stayed on. So, there I was, just getting to a juicy bit in the book and I leaned forward to pick up my cup. Unbeknownst to me, the socks escaped and fell down the back of the headboard and when I leaned back against the pillows, yep, you’ve guessed it - the lights went out!

Well, this was just getting a tad annoying by this stage, but now I was missing my socks so I got back out of bed and got down on the floor and started fishing under the bed with my walking stick. I knew it was a bad idea to lean on the bed to do this, ‘cos just as I managed to hook them from the furthest corners under the bed (thankfully there was no monster^*2 under there) I pushed a bit too hard on the bed and the light went out again. This time, when I shifted my weight the light stayed off and so there I was in pitch blackness (this place is out in the boondocks so no street lights) in a strange room and with no socks to boot.

Well, finally I shuffled around and found the right switch and eventually got my socks back. It was sometime around this point that I realised that I had neglected to lock my door when I came in so anyone could have walked in and found me with my a*se stuck in the air and my head under the bed and the only explanation I would have for it was that the lights kept going out unexpectedly!

^*1In fact so much so that after I got home I started drifting off to sleep whilst watching CSI – and it was a good one! True it wasn’t the series with Gary Sinise (I have a soft spot) but all the same, there I was eyes slipping shut like some old lady in the corner…
^*2Which is good because I didn't have one of these handy.

That’s it – I’m off

Just thought I’d better stick a post up to tell you I’m not sticking a post up (am I making sense??). I shall be away for a few days so there will be no new entries until next week. Now I know you are all bitterly disappointed and wondering how you will fill your empty days, but I’m sure you can manage.

I shall be back after the weekend with tales of derring do, fun, excitement and really wild things (and if nothing exciting has happened I shall make some stuff up!).

In the meantime, take a deep breath – hit the big Google button and let me know if you find anything exciting…..

I have been nominated for an award

I have been nominated for an award, which has totally mystified me as I have no idea why they thought of me. Now don’t get me wrong, I know I’ve done a couple of unusual things in my life that are noteworthy (like having spinal surgery for one), but I didn’t expect to be nominated for anything, let alone this.

Let me explain – out of the blue I had an e-mail from a college tutor saying he wanted to see me. Now I resisted this initially ‘cos he’s not my type (OJ!) but was intrigued so toddled off to see him. He had decided to nominate me for an adult learner award – as a couple of years ago I decided (somewhat foolishly) to do a school exam in physics. Now in itself that doesn’t sound too mad, except that I had never done any science in school and was having some problems comprehending what an atom was, let alone trying to understand such alien concepts as pressure, torque, moments, magnetism, waves and quantum mechanics^*1

So, mad woman that I am, not only did I do a GCSE in the subject, but got persuaded to carry on and do an A level too. Funnily enough, I mostly enjoyed it (apart from the maths and apart from the aforementioned quantum mechanics….) and I thought that that was that. Having learnt why sticks look bent in water and how electricity gets down wires and also that neither of those things have anything to do with little green men was enough for me….

So, why nominate me for the award? He wouldn’t say, just that I was the first person he thought of. I’m thinking at this stage that there is an age limit associated with this and it’s none too flattering – still regardless of the reason I’m chuffed just the same!

^*1 Have I lost you yet?

Snow pictures

Well, I promised some, so here they are:

Well, above is proof that it was snowing alright....

...and on the left we have an idiot driver who thinks that it's just fine and dandy to whack a couple of cars as he slithers his way along. (This photo doesn't show just how steep our hill is, just how icy the road was and just how stupid he was to even think of doing what he tried to do).

Maybe I should give him a PWSBK award?







I love it though - it always looks so pretty - all that fairy dust on the trees - just like someone's been out with the sugar sifter!


Hope you like the photos.....

...I guess that'll be it for snow and excitement for another ten years so I thought I ought to post them now while I have the opportunity!

So sad...

Today I heard the very sad news that someone from one of the scoliosis forums died after complications from her scoliosis surgery. She was due to be fused from T6 to L3 through a posterior only incision which is supposed to be the most risk free way to do it. She had a very experienced surgeon but the anaesthetist made a mistake which meant that blood ended up being pumped into her lungs and she suffered a massive stroke which ultimately led to her death.

Her surgery took place exactly 12 months after my surgery and so I felt some kind of connection with this lady whose thoughts, concens and fears were the same as for us all. She was only 31 and will be missed by us all on the forum.

It is very sad and I want to join in with so many other people in sending warm thoughts and sympathy to her family....

Ah, snow. Don’t you just love it?

So we had snow. We don’t do this very often in the Southern half of Britain, let alone where I live so it is always the cause of much excitement and confusion. Me, I think it’s great to look at but here’s the rub, it’s cold stuff and even before someone shoved a yard of metal in my back I didn’t like the cold. Now I have my own personal inbuilt cooling rod, I like it even less – except through the window when it is very pretty and sometimes fun and always great to take pictures of (I shall stick some up for you in a few days…).

We haven’t had significant snow since we moved in here 6 years ago and they forecast that Thursday was to be the exception to that. They closed the schools in preparation – the news reporters all took up heir allotted posts at the areas worst (potential) accident black-spots and we all looked to the skies. Well, when the snow started falling you could just see the country’s weather forecasters all smiling glibly and patting each other on the back for having got it right (remembering at all times that this is the country where Michael Fish famously said that there was no hurricane on the way). In fact, they forecast that it would snow from the wee small hours until lunchtime and this is exactly what it did. Hardy souls like hubby went to work and the rest of us just decided to stay in and do things Friday instead as the forecast for then was for nothing more than a bit of rain….

So, Friday, hubby goes to work as normal and a bit later I looked out the window to find that it was snowing again – completely un-forecast! It looked bad too – I couldn’t see the hill behind the house but figured that it would all be over soon and pretty much ignored it. An hour or so later I looked out the front window to discover that the hill outside was covered in snow and was freezing fast. People had started sliding sideways down the hill and we were gathering casualties by the hour as they bounced from one pavement to another hitting cars and walls as they went. Some seemed to think the best thing to do was to accelerate all the way down the hill (presumably with their eyes closed) and others seemed to think that just locking up the wheels and wiggling the steering wheel from side to side (also presumably with their eyes closed ) was the way to go. My car was protected for several hours by someone who missed it by about 2 inches but then got stuck diagonally in the road just ensuring that everyone had to go round him (and me)! I have to say that I spent a large part of the day in the window holding my breath…..but thankfully my little car survived the afternoon - safe but a bit frightened!

Occasionally someone decided that they could make it up the hill (presumably because they thought that they were a superb driver whose Renault Clio has better traction than anybody else’s) and a lot of people had to swallow their pride and reverse (or at least slide) back down again. I saw one guy impressively sail up the hill in a Subaru Impreza – reckon he must have had spiked tyres he did so well, but apart from the odd Jeep or Landrover (who are obviously experts as they plainly do not buy these vehicles just to do the school run...) he was the only one who made it. Actually, that’s a fib – a Rover made it earlier in the day, but he hit 3 cars that I could see – an almost new Rover – not a nice way to treat it….

Anyway, for quite some time I was able to judge how deep the snow was (about 6”) by the pile on the top of my car until some ‘orrible little oik decided to scrape some off for snowballs – OK so it gave me a measure of how much had fallen in the two hours (about 2”) until another equally ‘orrible little oik decided to do it again. I bet they are exactly the kind of children who grow up to write their name in the snow too….My my, that makes me sound like a grumpy old git myself, but I really do like the pristine-ness (is there such a word?) of fresh snow.

So, the forecasters were wrong again and the country ground to a halt for another 24 hours. I was just grateful that it cleared enough for us to get away to PTV and HLW for the weekend – I was horribly afraid that they would be eating posh food without us and that we would have to have beans on toast or whatever I could dig out of the freezer as the news had reported that the shelves in Tesco were empty after panic buying! Winter eh? Two days of snow and the world goes mad….

A comment on yesterday

So, a year and a day eh? (don’t worry, I shan’t do this every day- ergo- a year and a day, a year and two days, a year and….well, you get the picture!).

I just thought I’d leave a brief note on further updates on my back (for those of you mad enough to want to check up on me). I intend doing an update every 3 months for this first (second) year and then we’ll see if there’s any point in doing any more. In the meantime, there’s always space in my blog for more dribble - oops, sorry, that should have said drivel, I was just thinking about chocolate at the time and it sort of slipped out. No, don’t be so gross, I didn’t need to mop up the keyboard or anything…..