Exhaust Blues

There is a serious thought in this somewhat general blog moan, but I will leave that to the final sentence!
You will have to wade through another waddle through John's mundane life to get to it though!

17.00 yesterday: 
I take Albert to the vets. Vet patronises me, talks over me when I try to give him a history and states that although Albert does have a low grade pyrexia he is perfectly healthy, happy  and despite being nervous -- NERVOUS?!!!! (Albert has coped with four bottom licking dogs for the past 4 years with some good humour and confidence that would put Liza Minelli to shame!)
he didn't see anything wrong with him...
I am still not convinced, even though the little bastard did indeed look perfectly well when liberated from the cat carrier.
I will give it until Thursday, re assess Albert's lack of eating then and will change our vet practice


17.20
As I was driving to the beach to wait for Chris to arrive in Prestatyn by train. The bloody exhaust falls off the Berlingo


17.30
Covered with oil, my brother in law and I wire up the exhaust


17.40
scattering sheep in panic the berlingo ROARS back to Trelawnyd


0800 am this morning
The Berlingo ROARS out of Trelawnyd heading for QUIK FIT in Rhyl 5 miles towards the coast


0815
The wired exhaust partly falls off as we go round Rhuddlan roundabout. Sparks on road!


08.20
Covered in dirt and oil and risking life and limb I reattach exhaust with a dog lead and a rolled up sock


0823
Exhaust falls off again outside Dewi Sant School, Rhyl much to the hilarity of 5 scruffy children on bikes
I "fix" it again


08.24
Stopped by a police car
13 year old policeman is very polite but is not moved by a 50 year old gay scruff bag flirting with him, allows me to proceed on to garage


08.30
Arrive at Quick Fit....lots of sucking of teeth ( by foreman) Exhaust will cost 360£ but they will have it ready by 12 noon!


08.45
Walk into Rhyl. Buy Coffee. Watch awful common people wandering aimlessly around like The Walking Dead. Read Paper....


09.30
Phone call from Quickfit Part has been damaged in transit. Work will not be done until 3pm
I start crying


10.00
I walk back to Quick Fit, collect house keys. Get a 10 quid Taxi back to Trelawnyd, clean up Bulldog shit in kitchen.


And thank goodness I am not in full time employment...how do people cope with the bollocks of everyday life like this when they are?
Anyhow back to the serious part of the post....as a "county" dweller, today's fiasco has underlined to me just how reliant we are on the bloody car and to bloody fuel!
Without both, we are effective "trapped" in a location that has no shop, no food and very few services that can be accessed immediately! and with the fuel tanker drivers going on strike very soon, the sight of panic buyer queues already forming at the  Sainsbury's petrol station today is somewhat sobering to say the least....


A generation or so ago, Trelawnyd had a thriving grocery shop which sold EVERYTHING... now, we all drive the 10 mile round trip to the supermarket just in order to keep going.........what will happen to us all if, ( God Forbid) the fuel stops dead.....
answers on a postcard eh?

Pants And T Shirt!

I was only posting a comment this morning about being caught  in my underpants in the kitchen by a lady looking through our kitchen window from her overly large 4 x 4 and BINGO a couple of hours later what happened?

Yes I was caught parading around in my underpants by a lady who was this time, riding her horse in the lane!

The kitchen window that used to be a door

The reason for me showing off my budgie smugglers was the fact that Bingley had flexed his testosterone muscles as I was lifting the Blind Rooster Cogburn out of his pen and kararte kicked me from behind!

Within a second he had clawed through the fabric of my combat trousers and as I tried to kung fu him back , he managed to give me a sideward peck and actually RIPPED my Walking Dead T shirt RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE!

Pants!

T shirt!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was livid!......After putting Rooster C ( who was crowing lustily with the drama of it all) back into his run, I ran after the rapidly retreating Bingley and gave him a quick boot up the arse before retiring to the kitchen to check my injuries!

This is when I was caught by a lady rider standing in my undies in front of the kitchen window!

Cheap Thrills for her!

Irritation and resignation for me!

hey ho

********************************************************************************

Weight Watchers weigh in this morning 14 stone 5 lbs

Weight Loss last week 2lbs

Total weight Loss since Jan 1st 1 stone 9 lbs

"It's the end of the world as we know it"

Extras?........ or Rhyl on a Saturday night?

Well The Walking Dead series 2 came to an end with an appropriate amount of zombies munching their way through the more minor characters of the cast as the Farm burned and the small group of survivors (a cross section of American society) realise that they are indeed just grown up versions of the boys out of The Lord Of The Flies. 

And then there were 10?

The series has become a dark, dark exploration of how quickly humanity and the psychological norms of our  society can be de-constructed into their more basic of components when faced with an apocalypse, and it is these aspects of the series that I have found so interesting..... the zombies are almost incidental
All of us would like to think that we would never lose the more compassionate and intellectual sides of ourselves when disaster rears it's ugly head....

Norman Reedus is a bit of a draw too!!

I can't believe I turned down a night's overtime to watch the finale..... how geeky am I?

Observations

2.45pm Trelawnyd this afternoon
The weather was glorious. The temperature was 18 degrees.
It is still warm and sunny now.
The sun had brought out a good congregation as the Church bell rang out
Auntie Glad, Mrs Trelice, Desmond and Eirlys were already on the way down to St Michaels and I could see Daphne, Audrey Jones and  Chris not too far behind them, Rowenna from Erw Wen had already waved as she entered the Lych Gate
The Ice Cream van was pulling up high street playing its Dysney tunes.


There were still one or two late lunch diners in The Crown as I turned with the dogs up Byron Street, the drinkers were out on the back decking facing the sun and braving the odd smoker
11 year old Helen Williams and a rather bedraggled friend asked me if I had seen three boys with a bucket of water, both girls were "armed" with large  soaker water pistols, and were obviously looking for revenge.
Boris the turkey wasn't the only thing in the village with rampant hormones!


On one of the allotments at Bonc Terrace some wag had fashioned a wicker plant support frame into  the shape of a dalek (complete with a whisk and suction plunger as it's appendages) Already some of their spring planting had already been started.
London Road was busy with traffic, as we walked back home, people off to garden centres, supermarkets or just out for a drive in the country, I guessed. It took an age to cross the road!
Robert Cameron waved from his car, as did Arfon, who was off to see his mother in her bungalow  near Llys Mostyn and Barbara Parry called out to tell me that Stan Hopkins was home from hospital. I had taken Kit a few eggs earlier in the week.
It's amazing just how alive a sleepy village can become when the sun is shining.

My Best Friend's Wedding

 forgive me not posting the family lobster feast sing-a-long scene!
This is one of the sweetest scenes from My Best Friend's Wedding! ENJOY
It's a lovely day... off out to garden

Cross Over Friendships

I have always found interaction between animal species fascinating
As a rule it just does not occur as animals have a great ability to be able to ignore each other in everyday life, but just occasionally cross overs do occur and genuine "friendships" and bonding can flourish.


A few years ago Hughie was the only guinea fowl on the field. He was isolated and lonely and over a matter of days alone teamed up with a young cockerel called Rogo, who accepted the "relationship" with what seemed like a mutual affection and need.
Last year Camilla the orphaned Canada Goose teamed up with Badger the baby cockerel, and many moons ago our old cat Joan had a friendly, if not playful relationship with our first Welsh terrier, Finlay.
The exception always proves the rule, 
as with humans, the over riding thing of importance with animals is to have some closeness with another living thing

The Inseparable Hughie and Rogo

Early this morning, after I cooked some chicken in an attempt to tempt the more quiet -than-normal Albert into eating. I cut the meat into small chunks and took them up to the bedroom where Albert was sleeping on the bed, and as I walked into room I noticed William curled up with him, licking the cat's face and eye very, very gently.
It was a sweet little moment of pack solidarity, which kind of underlined to me that Albert is indeed not as well as he could be.
More shit shovelling today...but not as much as yesterday...I'm working tonight!

éclair

This is one of the best comedy lines I have heard
Spoken by Victoria Wood way back in the 1980s
She plays a nervous woman collecting information in a street survey

"Here's my ID. Yes, I do look rather startled.
It was taken in a photo booth and someone had just poked an éclair through the curtain"

Grab Bag

Just a few idle ideas grouped together over very early morning coffee.

It's going to be a lovely day, and I aim to spend the day spreading old pig manure over the allotment vegetable beds!

PRIDE
Now I must admit that I usually find Opera "nice girl" and ex of Gethin "oh be still my beating heart" Jones Katherine Jenkins to be all a bit suger sweet for my liking. but I must admit that I was kind of rooting for her , when I heard that she had schlepped over the pond to appear in the US version of Strictly Come Dancing.
Here is the Welsh crooner looking very Hollywood and acquitting herself very nicely indeed 

SHOCK
Now I know that I occasionally do bang on about the AMC tv horror/zombie blood feast The Walking Dead, but even I, as a dyed fast fan, do find the fact that Toys r' Us are bringing out Walking Dead minimate childs' toys,in the guise of the apocalypse survivors complete with zombie followers.
Now apparently here they are........






Rick Grimes and Dale with Zombie followers
Am I actually going mad?

INTEREST
The most interesting thing I watched on tv this week was the first episode of Talk At The BBC. This is a compilation piece where the most interesting parts of "interview style" talk shows from the 1950s,60s and 70s, many of which have only been aired the once, are repeated.
So on Tuesday we were offered fascinating clips of a fabulous looking Edith Sitwell, a combative Robert Mitchum,a reflective Sammy Davies Jnr, Bette Davis in full "All About Eve" mode and most movingly the infamous Face to Face interview of the tv journalist and broadcaster Gilbert Harding by John Freeman; where Freeman was trying to "out" the prickly celebrity by talking about being lonely and about death. The subsequent emotional outburst from Harding even by today's "heart on you sleeve" standards is upsetting to watch. In 1960 it must have been seen as terribly shocking.
If you can access iplayer, take a look at it, it is well worth a second look


The outwardly gruff Gilbert Harding

WORRY
Albert has recovered from his eye infection but is not back to his old self as yet. He remains somewhat listless and quiet and is not eating as well and as normally as usual. He looks bright eyed enough, so I hope it is only a case of post viral fatigue, but it bothers me that he may be seriously unwell



BABIES
The incubator in the kitchen is up and running once again, this time with amazingly large and beautiful goose eggs inside. A buxom light Sussex is the first hen to hit "broody" on the field and she is happily sat on an eclectic clutch of eggs in the first of four broody boxes. In three weeks, with a bit of luck the first chicks of the year will be here



Right, the coffee has been downed and some hard core shit shovelling is the order of the day....
oh btw
I am looking at the dogs on the kitchen sofa....Meg is happily curled up next to a snoring Mabel..."bitch wars" looks like a thing of the past!
here's hoping!