You can do it.....if you _ and _ it!

Buying a washing machine is usually a fairly innocuous pastime I would have thought.You go into the store....you pick your machine....you pay and you leave....simple!
Hummmm.......not quite!
Today we went to the superstore, loaded our machine on a spare flat trolley, took it through the self service tills, (past two chattering female sales girls) and then preceded to leave the store.
One of the female managers dashed forward as we slid through the automatic doors and suddenly asked to see our receipt, something that Chris took great exception to! Bless him, I think he thinks that we still live in an age when customers were wined and dined by attentive and slightly obsequious sales staff that wore carnations in their lapels and the prospect of a woman dressing all in orange basically challenging his honesty was all a bit much!
"Did you think I was stealing this washing machine?" he asked her shortly
The woman reddened and said "no!"
"Then why did you want to see my receipt?"
The woman babbled on for a second about only wanting to check on something but Chris was incensed and with great aplomb told the saleswoman that he had never been thought of as a thief in his 40  years on this planet, How upset he was at the inference that he had done so, and would not be returning to her store,! He turned on his heel, leaving her speechless and me smiling weakly at no one in particular...
This altercation was not even amusing unless you read on about what happened when we got the said washing machine home.
After a great deal of muttering and arguing we manhandled it into the kitchen where I plumbed it in and with a flourish, switched it on!
Immediately water burst out of the top of the machine, soaking the floor and a line of watching dogs, and amid a great deal of shouting and hysteria we managed to stem the flow somewhat with a half dozen pet blankets and 6 rolls of kitchen tissue.
I rang the store and told them I would bring back the faulty machine and swap it for another and after dragging it through the kitchen yet again ( this time ripping the lino) then back up the garden ( arguing as we did so) we were back to square one!
This time Chris left me to do the honours with the store staff ( he stayed in the car) and I might have known that the female manager that he had been so indignant to, met me at the door!
"I didn't expect to see you BACK so soon" she victoriously crooned with smile.......so I offered her my best Yorkshire terrier grimace again and resorted to my usual and rather ineffectual "hey ho"
In these situations it is best to plan dumb and smile a lot 

Ok nothing to do with the washing machine fiasco but it made me smile

gladys

Now you have heard me mention the 90 year old power house that is known locally to all as "auntie Gladys". Well during a particularly stormy dog walk I was ushered over to her front door to collect a surreptitious parcel of scones which she baked herself this morning.
I just so happened to have the trusty camera in my pocket, so snapped a quick video of her before the weather drove her back inside.
I had to laugh at myself, as I can almost hear me talking in a bloody strange Welsh accent!
A little piece of social history me thinks
The storm, at least woke me up somewhat after an hours sleep

Spaghetti Frenzy

I enjoyed writing yesterday's blog entry. It brought back a lot of nice memories and , of course, one or two bad ones. I seldom re read some of my older posts, but I know they are there, waiting in the wings so to speak, to be dug up and experienced when needed.....little snapshots of memories.

My blog about Finlay's death still hurt a little when I re read it last night, but that's the down side of owning dogs, they are never with you for very long.....and  Kipling  got it right when he wrote in his poem Power of the Dog.......that "you give your heart to a dog to tear!"

Chris was working away last night and is away until late tonight...I am working tonight, so today feels like a bit of a non day.

Egg production has now picked up after the cold snap. The ten St Trinians are all laying quite nicely which is a testament to the power of layers pellets and a bit of TLC. And all of the young hens that arrived late last year are producing small baby sized eggs.

A good tip to help with egg production , especially in the winter months, is to give hens pasta. Cheap spaghetti is their favourite, and they and the runner ducks go absolutely bonkers when they see the old enamel pan of pasta , tucked underneath my arm.

Yesterday I bought six packets of spaghetti from one of the "common" bargain shops in town and the cashier "quipped" "I bet you love your spaghetti bolognese don't you?"

"Not really" I replied " but my hens go hysterical over it"

She laughed weakly

How it all started

A couple of days ago I received a chatty email from Jessica down in the West Country. She said that she had looked through the blog archives to my very first post hoping to find a sort of "how it all began" entry!
Unfortunately all she found was a rather underwhelming entry about a walk on the beach.

So today I will tell Jess and you,  just how and why we got here!

At forty I was enjoying the bittersweet challenges of ward management in a busy Sheffield teaching hospital where as Chris was consolidating his career at the city's University. We had a busy city life. We worked hard ( too hard!) played too hard (Oh how I remember those boozy Saturday  wine bottled afternoons in All Bar One) and we didn't stop once to question a city lifestyle that kept us burning the candle at both ends.

Chris had always maintained a fantasy of us living in the country at some "future" stage; a wish that I poo pooed at every discussion. Why would I possibly want to live in the sticks? , I would say ,when after all I had everything I wanted in Sheffield.
But things changed.
and they changed subtly

I could waffle on about how increased managerial pressures from a pushed health care system made a career nurse like myself , a disillusioned burnt out middle aged old fart, and that is why a new life in the country was so important but I must say that just didn't happen. Ok, the daily pull of managerial duties versus patient contact did have a part to play in my wish to leave The Spinal Injury Unit, but I think that basically I had "seen it and worn the T shirt" and the time was right to move on to something new.

When I was forty, Chris bought me the best Birthday gift I ever received. He bought me a spoilt,emotionally needy, lovable and demanding Welsh terrier puppy called Finlay and he totally changed my life

Finlay in normal "Christmas" pose

I had never had a dog of my own before. and so was hardly prepared for just how much a "baby" of my own ( and in retrospect I realised that he WAS my baby) would change my life.
In a matter of a year Maddie joined our family and my focus continued to change from a workaholic lifestyle towards a doggy lifestyle, where something else than me and Chris needed priority.....Over a period of months, more and more time was spent up at the green and isolated Redmires and Rivelin, walking the dogs and enjoying the countryside.and less and less time was spent around the table in All Bar One!

Weekends for us changed. We spent more and more time at our tiny "weekend" cottage in Meliden ( a cottage that my sister used to live in) and less time city slicking........The pace of the weekend slowed us down, and relaxed us, until for me, the pull of  adrenaline from being a Charge Nurse was lost altogether.

And so we moved.
Two dogs increased to four and two chickens were housed in a tiny run in the garden and that was the start of a lifestyle I never believed we would ever have or indeed originally wanted
I would have laughed if you would have told me I would be the Chairman of a village Flower Show Committee...and I would have scoffed if you would have told me that the life of a single  rescue Ghost hen, or bad tempered turkey would literally take over my life.....
But take over they indeed did


How things do change

Trelawnyd the word

Its a lazy blog day.
In response to Kate, I have left this video outlining the correct pronunciation of the word "Trelawnyd"
I hope you find it useful!
As I walked up through the village, small knots of people slowly made their way down to the Church for a funeral. I didn't know the chap who had died but I realised he must have been a resident for a long time as many of the older villagers like Auntie Gladys and Olwena were amongst the mourners.

When there is a funeral, I try to keep out of the field until after the interment as a mark of respect (the field for those that don't know lies right next door to the new Graveyard)
I just hope that Boris behaved himself.
Sometimes when there is a lot of mourners around a grave he will "gobble" his head off at the fence in order to challenge the strangers.
As you can appreciate an irate and noisy turkey can potentially change the solemnity of a such an occasion !

Day Dreaming

I am usually out with the dogs four times a day. ( The above riveting video was taken this morning as we descended into the village from the Marian Walk)Their morning walk is the longest, and apart from enjoying the view and listening to my Ipod, I often play "mind games" with myself to pass away the time.
Today I mentally answered a questionnaire that fellow blogger Maria posted in her latest post at Just Eat Your Cupcake
I don't usually find these kind of questionnaires interesting (I prefer the factual movie questions posed by someone like Alex Ramon (Boycotting Trends) but Maria was so interesting and honest in her responses, I thought I would give it a go!
Here are the questions:-

1) A book you've read that changed your views on something.
That's a difficult question, as most literature will prick your attitude to one subject or another from time to time. It's an old chestnut, but I remember picking apart Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird in school.
It was the first time that I really realised what injustice and racism truly meant and all this was was set against the background of middle class Wales in the 1970's where a black face was never actually seen from one year to another!
I think Atticus Finch was my first major hero in literature.

2) Your views on gay marriage.
I am supportive ( of course) because I feel that gay couples should have the legal rights within partnership that straight couples do. Of course gay "marriage" is not the same as the hetero version but it's a start!

3) What do you think of religion?
I will keep this one short.
Its OK, when it works for good

4) What do you think of politics?
I will keep this one short too!
Its OK, when it works for good

5) Your views on drugs and alcohol.
I drink and enjoy a drink, but I have been on the receiving end of a Mother who abused alcohol in a way of self medicating an anxiety problem. As a child, I experienced that dreadful guilt, shame and secrecy that the family of an alcoholic are forced to go through.........its not nice!
As for drugs...I have very little experience....apart from eating a pot "cake" which only hit home after I had gone to bed......(I had scoffed far too much as the cake was really yummy!)

6) Something people seem to compliment you the most on:
Me, me,me,me me,ME! lol
I get complemented on my blog (of course) and also I know I am a good bedside nurse.....
as Judge Judy says..."they don't keep me here because I'm gorgeous!"

7) A band or artist who has gotten you through some rough days.
I am not much of a musical person but We walk the Same Line by Everything But The Girl is a particular song that mirrors those awful middle-of-the-night worries we have all experienced when dealing with a death in the family

8) Something you hope that you never have to do.
Bloody hell that's cheerful
Hummm well perhaps the worst thing would be outliving all of my family

9) Someone who has made your life worth living for.
Chris of course

10) Someone who made your life hell or treated you like shit.
Although I did not know then, many years ago I was in a relationship that I initially thought was the bees knees. In retrospect I realised that I was constantly disrespected , controlled and undermined by a person who was never able to deal with his own demons and to this day , I can not still quite believe I wasted several years on this inadequate and damaged person

11) Someone you didn't want to let go, but just drifted.
I had a very good friend in Sheffield called Vicky who suddenly decieded that our friendship was no longer important to her. To this day I still do not understand why she needed to change it as drastically as she did and I still retain some of the hurt I experienced then, when she refused to tell me why.
Some friends come and go quite naturally over the years, when you are not upset when it happens, it generally is for the best.

12) Someone you need to let go of or wish you didn't know.
No, I cannot think of anyone......which is pretty lucky I suppose

13) Something you hate about yourself.
I am far too sensitive and can be overly dramatic!

14) Something you love about yourself.
tee hee......
I like being mom!.......

15) Something you have to forgive yourself for.
I have already done this..... I forgave myself a long time ago for disliking my mother and father for their shortcommings as parents.

16) Something you have to forgive someone else for.
As in question 15!. I forgave my mother's alcoholism many years ago ( after I invested in a course of psychotherapy).....Maturity on my part led to a deeper understanding of my father's "more distant" behaviour and the two of us achieved some peace and resolution before his death in 1989

17) Something you hope to do in your life.
I would love a proper small holding....with two stables, a barn with a loft, all surrounded by a few acres of land we own!
I also want a group of goats and a cow called Mary

18) A hero who has let you down.
Perhaps it is my naive Shirley Temple outlook, but my all of my heros (My Grandfather,my first Nurse tutor-Leslie Brint and Matt Cardle) have always come up trumps!

Sleep apnoea ,Inbreeding and other bulldog updates

Through routine and hard work ,the training of a three year old bulldog seems to be working.
Everyday she goes for a walk with the other dogs and will walk to heel on a lead right next to the main road without her previous frozen awareness.
True the secret of this sudden improvement  can be put down to some simple mirroring of the pack's behaviour, but I think that "hiding" Constance away from the traffic next to the ever cheerful George has helped immeasurably!
Toilet training has improved tenfold too. OK accidents continue , especially when routine has been breached, but generally things seem a great deal better.
However, the very fact the bulldogs are undeniably inbred, means that Constance does suffer from obvious breathing problems.Sleep apnoea is her most common complaint ( for those that do not know, this is where the upper airways are effective closed by a physical deformity when the animal is asleep) and as in humans ( I am a sufferer) she suffers from broken sleep and I am sure over tiredness when awake.
Subsequently, when she does sleep, I suspect she occasionally sleeps very deeply and sometimes will actually wet her bedding without knowing it....Having said this...a strict bedtime routine has helped minimise "accidents"
(I have to say that although I suffer from sleep apnoea I have never wet myself in bed!)
Mind you I once peed on the radiator after taking two dihydrocodeine for a bad back!

Inbreeding in any animal species to achieve the "perfect" standard is wrong when it affects the physical well being of the animal concerned. Constance may have the typical look of a bulldog that ticks all the boxes, but she will be prone to entropean (ingrowing eyelashes), airway problems,tear staining, wrinkle infections and wetness and the more serious hip displacia,

I knew all this before we accepted her. I knew she would be more difficult to care for and to train compared to the others, but for me, her rambunctious  personality, her innate need to be fussed over and her "enjoyment" in being a part of something, all outweigh the odd pile of steaming poo in the kitchen

Albert giving Constance the "evil" eye

Having waxed lyrically over the virtues of bullsdogs, there is someone in the cottage that has not quite been won over by a set of piggy little eyes and a somewhat musical length of bowel.
Albert still remains unsure of Constance and still makes a point of not rubbing his face against hers when he greets the pack after their walks........
There is time yet........

Gawd Bless 'em

The King's Speech was a welcome Sunday Evening film choice. A clever British period piece, this story of the "bromance" between the psychologically damaged Prince Albert/ King George VI (Colin Firth) and his speech therapist Lional Logue (Geoffrey Rush) truly catches the  imagination from the get-go and gives the audience a satisfying, old fashioned and hugely enjoyable story of friendship, amid yesterday's Royal Family.
Firth and Rush make for two cracking leads who leap into their roles with some power and gusto. The Prince (Bertie),  angry and unhappy in his public role because of a dreadful stammer is desperate for what indeed turned out to be psychotherapy by the bitingly funny,instinctive and self proclaimed speech specialist Logue. However Royal protocol, snobbery and fear hamper the one to one interaction between the two men until the sudden abdication of Edward VIII forces  Bertie to face his demons.

It is a story that is refreshingly new to most people and remains satisfying because we recognise the "smaller" characters within the story!     Helena Bonham Carter ( not an actress I like) is just perfect in the role of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother as she gives one of the most loved true life characters, a steely strength, an innate snobbery (which cleverly she never apologises for) and an ironic dry as toast sense of humour. You are instantly forced to like the character of the Queen Mum, It is a nice move as the strength of the movie lies with how she and indeed the King drop their guard to embrace the warmth, and friendship of  straight talking commoner Louge.
Having paying homage to Bonham Carter ( Oh and the wonderful cameo by Michael Gambon as the gruff then senile King George V) this movie IS Rush and Firth's baby.
The scene where Bertie finally opens up his heart to Louge about his unhappy childhood is immensely powerful and dreadfully moving to watch and by the time the two men work together to face the wartime Kings Speech, there was not a dry eye in the house.....
An excellent 9/10
Go see it.