Cat Sitting

This week I have been Cat sitting for Sioned and Anna whilst they are sunnying in Spain. They have two striped cats; Jake who is 4 and Dizzy who is 10 months.

Last night I got in from work and the cats were waiting for me as usual but little Dizzy had lost her collar. I fed her and she greedily finished the lot. A few minutes later Jake wanted to come in so I put "Dizzy" in the lounge and shut the door so that she wouldn't escape back out again.

I let Jake in and started to feed him, when I noticed in the corner of my eye that Dizzy also was hovering around. At first I was amazed that she had managed to escape out of the lounge but then I noticed that her collar was back on.

Yes, you guessed it! I had only gone and fed the wrong cat, Ooops!

Torquay

Wow, what a great time I had. The travel down was quick and troublefree. The weather was good for the time of year and got better as the week went on. The apartment was great; very clean and roomy and the was company was fantastic.

On Friday night we went for a fantastic meal at a fish restaurant. On Sunday we went to the local pub and bought a lottery ticket which won us a try in "play your cards right" game. I was lucky and got further than anyone else so I won £50 in vouchers to use either in the pub or in a couple of restaurants.

On Wednesday night we went for a meal in "Ella" and it was perfect. For starters I had a prawn cocktail, followed by a blue steak with salad and it was absolutely scrumptious. For dessert I had a banoffee cheescake with devonshire clotted cream. I really did feel like a cat that night, miouw.

The next day we went back again and had a cream tea in the afternoon followed by a few drinks and then we saw someone else eating scampi and decided that we wanted that too. Yet again it was delicious.

We did get the time to do some sight seeing as well and on the way back we stopped at Bristol and walked along the famous suspension bridge at Clifton.

It was very sad to come home, especially as it was the last holiday this season, sniff.

Last holiday this year, What happened to summer?

Well, it's nearly October and tomorrow I'm going on the last holiday this year. We have been deceived yet again as, the so called heatvawe never arrived. This has got to have been the worst 'summer' for a long time.

This week in particular, it has been very cold and last night it was almost frost. And the say we are suffering from global warming!!!

I feel a little guilty going away for a week as the office is inundated with work. We have an awful lot of new developments and voids at this moment and there is as much overtime available as anyone would want.

Anyway, I can't wait. I have never been to Torquay before so it will be nice regardless of the weather. Speak to you again in the middle of next month. Cherio.

Is this the end of summer?

Blackpool was fantastic as ever. We bought a fcouple of five-day tram tickets, so there was very little driving. We went all over the place on the trams and buses instead.

On the friday when the illuminations were due to start; there was a huge open air consert. David Tennent and the Daleks from Doctor Who lit the illuminations. It was a fabulous night.

Ever since we got back the weather has been going downbank. At one time we were promised that we were having a heatwave this month but so far there has been no sign of it. This week I had to put the heating back on (just for mornings) and that is disappointing for this time of year.

Trailer

Aren't we the luckiest people around? Over the years our demand for luxury camping has vastly increased the amount of camping accessories we take with us when we go away. It has got to the point where Chris' car is fully loaded inside, on the boot rack and also high on top of the roof rack and still we struggle.

Last month he had a towbar fitted and the intention was to get a trailer to make it easier to pack the heaviest of stuff. However, this isn't the ideal time of the year to buy a trailer as obviously now is the time that everyone wants one.

I really didn't want to go to Blackpool for the week without a trailer now that we got the facility tow one. Luckily Dave from work said we could borrow his trailer for this time and then get one before easter next year. That way we have all winter to buy one at the right price.

Dave didn't manage to get his trailer out of the garage but he asked his brother on our behalf to lend us his trailer which we picked up last weekend. It's not quite as big as the one we were planning to buy but it's ideal for trying out the towbar and electrics and ofcourse towing itself which Chris has never done yet.

We have got as far as buying a number plate for our own trailer so Chris has fastened that on to the borrowed trailer and is currently in progress of loading it up ready for Blackpool tomorrow.

Gosh it seems a long time since we went camping in June so it will be so nice to go away for over a week and in Blackpool of all places. The illuminations start on Friday so we will get the chance to see them as well as doing the usual things that we like about Britain's most popular seaside resort.

Exam Results returned.

I forgot to mention that on Friday when I returned from work there was this nice, big, long avaited for envelope with the words "DO NOT BEND" written accross the top left on the coffee table. This time Chris didn't bother to tell me that the exam results had arrived just in case something went wrong again. But ye, I did pass it for sure and now it's just a case of waiting for the results from the assignments to see if I have passed the NVQ.

Fish update

This morning there was yet another dead koi in the tank. This time it was Ghost who managed to survive the finrot so we have already had it for a while. For no apparent reason they keep dying so I thought that maybe they should not be in a tank all-be-it a large one. Because of this I decided to take out Bluey the remaining koi out of the tank and put him in the pond. I know that he is likely to get eaten by the pond fish but bearing in mind the survival rate in the tank; he would have slightly better chance in there. There are lots of nooks and crannies that he could hide in away from big teeth but it was possibly the last time we saw him.

Poor Fish

It has now gone a week since we bought the little baby koi. Sadly, Tango and Custard dind't make it. I couldn't actually see anything wrong with them but they still died. Tango went first and it made feel sad because it seemed a bit bigger than the others so I assumed it was quite strong, then a couple of days later Custard died too and since then I barely dare to look in the tank in case there are more. I am dreading getting fin rot again and lose them all. However, this morning, Bluey seemed fine. Fingers crossed that he makes it.

Portable Appliance Testing

I have been let out of the office, again. It is time for the annual PAT, which means I am to go around with an electrician to every property whilst he tests all the appliances. Some people think it's boring, but I love it, especially on a day like this. It is a fantastic summer's day again. Not too hot but very pleasant. All the tenants feel well so they are in a good mood, which makes the job easier. Three weeks of this I have ahead of me; lets hope the weather holds.

Long weekend cancelled!

Well, I'we just had an extra long weekend as I had Friday off as well as today. The plan was to go camping in Cheshire. The site was booked and everything but on Thursday morning we had some (fairly torrential) rain and the forecast wasn't good for the rest of the weekend. Chris got chickened out and decided that he didn't want to go, so that meant I couldn't either. The big tent is impossible to put up single-handedly.

The worst of it is, ever since Thursday afternoon the weather has been glorious. It has been a bit breezy but lovely, warm and sunny. perfect camping weather. Mrs Jarman, from the campsite, rang up on Saturday to find out why we hadn't turned up and I had to apologise on Chris' behalf. He claimed he couldn't ring and cancel the booking because he couldn't find the "big book" but when I looked, it was in the wooden box where it is supposed to be. Needless to say that someone was in the doghouse!

Anyway, the weekend didn't turn out to be too bad. We managed to get quite a few jobs out of the way and yesterday we went to Stapley and got a 3 more baby kois for the fish tank. They were named Tango, Bluey and Custard. Can anybody guess the colours??!

Fantastic news; it passed!

Yes, I did get the full traffic lights of forms but in the end; it was the green one that conts. The red one was only for the leaking CV boot, which I knew about from the summer health check. I had already bought a replacement which they fitted for me.

The amber form was for an oli leak from the filter. The mechanic said that it might only be what Chris didn't wipe off when he changed the oil and filter last weekend. We checked the oil and it hasn't gone down any and there is no evidence of any leaks neither on the drive nor at my parking space at work.

I feel a lot better about my trusty ol'Jap after all.

more Car problems!

Yesterday morning, just after seven, I got a text from Chris asking me to put his car on charge, using the camping lead. That sounded ominous as my car was parked behind it on the drive. I rushed up to have a look from the window. No his car wasn't on the drive but half-way up the street.

It appeared that he couldn't get it to start so he pushed it in order to jump start it but still no avail. Must have just dumped it there and taken the bike instead.

Muggins got the job of first searching through all the camping stuff to find the lead only to find it wasn't long enough. I started to push the car back towards the house with immense difficulty but one of our neighbours drove past and stopped to help me.

Eventually we got it close enough for the lead to reach the battery charger. By now the car was partly across the road as the back wheel had touched the kerb and refused to line up any better.

As you can imagine, by now I was fuming with the blooming thing. I had to go work so I left the keys with another neighbour who said he would push it into the drive later. That was very good of him. I am definitely ready to get shut of that thing now. No wonder I have always hated old bangers and this one doesn't behave any better.

Can't wait to see how mine will behave on Saturday; fingers crossed!

Cars

On Saturday we took both the cars in for a "Free summer health check". A year has passed by since my disastrous MOT last year, so I thought it might be a good idea to take advantage of this offer. We had to buy the local newspaper to collect tokens to get it and booked them in.

Whilst the cars were at the garage we walked around the surrounding are and came across a lovely Chinese supermarket which we didn't know existed. They sold all sorts of oriental food and a lot of stuff we had never seen before but it all looked very interesting. We bought a few bits and pieces but will definitely going back to buy more soon.

Went to collect the cars an hour later and got the verdicts. Mine has a CV boot leaking and needed an engine flush and oil + filter change.

Chris' car had all sorts of things wrong with it and at the bottom of the sheet of paper the mechanic had written "I think the driver of this vehicle should consider having it towed away". He had to sign a disclaimer form to be allowed to bring it home.

We proceeded to go to a different garage to book mine in for the MOT for next Saturday and ask them to fit the CV boot. Chris did the engine flush and changed the oil and filter himself despite of the horrible weather. I am now hoping that the car should be OK and I will get my green form.

Sunday afternoon we went to look at vans as one would be more useful and Chris' car is not worth spending any more money on. His nephew, who is a a mechanic, thinks that he ought to sell it whilst there is still some MOT left on it and use the money towards the deposit on a van.

There aren't that many places locally that sells vans but we came across some Vauxhall Combo diesels which we think would be just about perfect but Chris wasn't ready to commit himself yet.

Not too bad, overall

Well weekend has been and gone. Saturday stayed dry until about 7pm, but still managed to catch some of my washing, which was still out. Sunday was ok, but there were some showers throughout the day and in the end I had to tumble dry the last of my washing. Overall, it was much better than it has been but nowhere near the "fine weather" we were promised. When is summer coming?

Looking less hopeful

It is 16.30 on Friday afternoon and the sun is out this moment in time but it's still not looking very hopeful for us to get this fine weather, which was promised earlier in the week.

Throughout the day we have had showers and the sky is still looking bleak. :-(

Shocking News!

Tonight's weather forecast started with the sentence: "Prepare yourselves for some shocking news". That turned out to be the fact that there is 70% chance of fine weather for the weekend. Wow, can we even remember what that means anymore? With half of England suffering from flooding in various areas due to all the rain we have been having the last 4 weeks; it was truly "shocking news".

We are quite lucky ourselves as we live on top of a bank so flooding has not really been a problem here but some parts of the country has had devastating floods. It is hard to imagine what it must be like to lose absolutely everything you have and have your house soaked in mud, raw sewage and slime. Eyuk!

One woman in Sheffield lived in a bungalow, like us and she told the media how she saved all precious belongings and memories of her husband who died two years ago, only to be totally ruined by the floods that submerged her bungalow. When the national news broadcasted that; I cried and I daresay, so did many others too.

Anyway, at least I can look forward to the weekend, which does remain to see whether it indeed is fine. I'll let you know.

Hoar Cross Hall

Last weekend I spent at the luxuorious spa hotel, Hoar Cross Hall for Sioned and Anna's hen party. If you are interested here's the link to find out more http://www.hoarcross.co.uk/.

Here are some of my photos from the unforgettable event.

These photos are from my room called "Princess Florentina" with a king-size bed for myself.

This is us having a dinner in the Ball Room.

And here is the happy couple themselves.

Anna and Sioned

How lucky were we?

Anybody who watched any footage from Glastonbury 2007 will know that the conditions were horrendous. 42 people were injured due to slipping in the mud and one person died. The rain was relentless throughout the event. Even Shirley Bassey had to do an emergency landing.

I have just returned from a smashing camping holiday in Cheshire. The weather for us was also a total wash-out but, who cares? It didn't make any difference to the conditions on our site.

The holiday started with us going to Northwich to visit the Anderton Boat lift. We took a trip on a glass roofed river boat through the lift and along the river and back again. It was a faboulus trip despite the rain.

The next day we went to Joddrel Bank Communications Centre. It is somewhere we always wanted to go, but never got around to it. We booked in and Adam from the American Clubhouse shouted "Fancy seeing you here". It was amusing but somehow I managed to miss the the Brighter Futures minibus on the car park. They had taken some of the members for an outing.


The following day was spent at an Engine Rally. That was a great day browsing around 1000s of stalls and all kinds of steam engines.

At the rally we saw the biggest motorhome that could possibly run on British Roads. Obviously American, but still quite spectacular. Just check out the size in comparison to the car an caravan in front of it,

After that, we went to the famous market and car boot sale at Chelford. It was enormous. All kinds of stuff for sale, yet we didn't have the room in the car to buy much :-( .


Our last day, which we spent in Macclesfield, was very, very wet. Some of the day was spent in a fantastic, authentic Mexican restaurant that we came accross. It was quite pricey but we had a lunch-time special which was somewhat affordable. oooh, it was scrumptious though!!! Here is a sample of the menu, you'll see what I mean when I said pricey.



In between the showers, we also visited Knutsford and found this facinating cushion in the window of a shop. Can you believe it that it is all made of sheer thights, felt and wool and it cost £190.00. I'll get two of them, shall I?




On the day of leaving, we couldn't believe our luck. Glorious sunshine, warm, gentle wind and a totally dry tent and gazebo. What more could one ask for? Ou Carbon footprints for this holiday must have been quite close to zero as the car runs on cooking oil and everything else was recycled (ie bought second-hand). It is nice to know that apart from a pleasant holiday, we have done our little bit to save the world as well.

Re-take of Exam

Yesterday, was the time to re-take the exam that I failed last spring. It soon came around, didn't it? Almost half of the class failed one or the other of the two exams and sadly, some failed both. Majority of those couldn't face to re-take the exam, so there were only a handful of us who braved the task.

I suffered really badly with the nerves this time; didn't sleep all night. My colleague Carol was one of those unfortunate souls who failed both, so in order to support her, I went with her to the college and waited in the cafe whilst she did the first one.

When she returned, she and the others with her, unamously thought that the questions this time were much worse than the ones in March, which certainly didn't help me feel any better. They only had a half an hour break and then it was time to do the second one which I failed.

Something amuzing happened; I had taken my little black, nodding cat, Betty, with me to gives us luck, so I sat her on my desk, so that she could sit there nodding at me. One of the teachers got up an came along to my desk and picked up Betty and studied her as if she thought I had stuffed bits of cheating paper on her or sumat. Does a middle-aged woman really come across as a cheating sort of person?

I'm hoping that Betty brought us some luck as, in my opinion, the questions didn't seem as bad as they were before. I think I could understand what they were asking for, so that is a great help. Doesn't mean that I passed though. I now have to wait for the results, which I'm predicting to come around middle of August.

Creatures in the night

As you already know, Chris has gone to the Isle of Man TT races, so I have been on my own with the cats. Everything has been going fine without any problems....until last night.

I was up late as usual, had a couple of cans, half-watched a film on ITV4 and chatted on the net. At half past midnight, I thought it was time to go to bed, so I goes in the bathroom and started to clean my teeth. Suddenlly I turned around towards the sink, when I saw it....

A horrific, fat, hairy and very black, 8 legged creature sitting there right on top of the sink. I screamed so loud it made teazer run out of the room, with me in tow. I run outside with nothing on my feet and didn't stop until I was faced with gate. In the rush I hadn't even picked up the car keys so I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew no way was I going back into the house.

Eventually, I noticed that Dorothy's light was on so I braved doing her special ring and got her to open the door. Luckily she only had one look at me standing there crying, so she knew what it was immediately. She grabbed a cloth and told me to stay in her house whilst she went in and got it. Apparently, the thing was so fat that it bled. Doesn't bear to think about, does it? Dorothy is a true gem throughout. X