Just been out to a lovely Italian restaurant with Ds brother Simon and his girlfriend Sarah whose birthday co-incides with Douglases so we had a slighly belated celebration.
Just to make you salivate.. here are some of the things we had!!
A lime Mohito (wonderful cocktail) A tricolri (some strange 3 coloured cocktail) and an alcoholic limonarde!!
Pizza Rustica (pizza with roast veg, pesto, goats cheese and frizzy lettuce leaves on)
Angel hair spaghetti with clams
Risotto with wild mushrooms and bacon
Risotto with pumpkin and other stuff..
Garlic bread (like a very thin pizza base with masses of garlic)
A bowl of black and green olives
and.. a selection for us to share of deserts.. panacotta, tirimisu, baked choc pudding, profiteroles and baked cheesecake.. not to mention the raspberry icecream they made in the restaurant.
This lot was washed down with a bottle of Frascatti, some ancient port, and some very nice cold tap water.
What a lovely evening.. chatting to S&S, enjoing a very good meal, then winding our way through town back to the tram and home. mmmmm!
Please excuse any awful spelling.. I have had a fair bit to drink!!!!!!
Hic!
zzzzzzzzzzzz
Thursday, 28 August 2008
The loved ones birthday (no ....not the cats the other loved one!)
26th August my lovely Douglas had his birthday today. We will pass a polite veil over his age, because all his friends and family know his mental age is more important, and that remains the same as ever !
Yesterday Douglas got two lovely presents. My younger brother got him a bird box, and my parents got him an African drum. (although my dear Douglas does not have a very good sense of rhythm, he enjoys joining in with drumming whilst on camp) I didn’t get him anything, as we had decided that his portable power pack was expensive enough.
D also got some very funny birthday cards, which made him laugh.
Part way through the morning, D sent me a text to tell me he was having a rotten day, and that he had called a customer to give him some information, and the customer had blown up into the most enormous temper. Douglas spent the next 25mins thinking “why do I have to listen to this guy ranting and raving at me?” Poor thing.. on his birthday too…
We had a meal out planned for later in the week with his brother Simon and Si’s girlfriend, but I knew Douglas needed some cheering up…
We met at his work, and went home. I told Douglas that he had two jobs to do. The first was feed our Sacred Beasts, the second, to get a drink, sit down and watch rubbish on TV for a bit! Being an Obedient husband, he followed these directions.
I snuck upstairs, got the post code of his most favourite Japanese restaurant, put it in my Sat Nav (A most blessed object) collected the Douglas from the sofa with the words “Guess how much I love you?” and set off.
Douglas had guessed where we were going even before we were out of the house, bless him, but didn’t tell me until I went the wrong way! (I had not heard the directions the Sat Nav said)
We thoroughly enjoyed the meal, and Douglas got quite tipsy, having had a cider before we set out, then most of a bottle of very strong Saki with his food. He managed to crawl up the stairs to our attic bedroom, and fall asleep with a very happy grin on his face.
Yesterday Douglas got two lovely presents. My younger brother got him a bird box, and my parents got him an African drum. (although my dear Douglas does not have a very good sense of rhythm, he enjoys joining in with drumming whilst on camp) I didn’t get him anything, as we had decided that his portable power pack was expensive enough.
D also got some very funny birthday cards, which made him laugh.
Part way through the morning, D sent me a text to tell me he was having a rotten day, and that he had called a customer to give him some information, and the customer had blown up into the most enormous temper. Douglas spent the next 25mins thinking “why do I have to listen to this guy ranting and raving at me?” Poor thing.. on his birthday too…
We had a meal out planned for later in the week with his brother Simon and Si’s girlfriend, but I knew Douglas needed some cheering up…
We met at his work, and went home. I told Douglas that he had two jobs to do. The first was feed our Sacred Beasts, the second, to get a drink, sit down and watch rubbish on TV for a bit! Being an Obedient husband, he followed these directions.
I snuck upstairs, got the post code of his most favourite Japanese restaurant, put it in my Sat Nav (A most blessed object) collected the Douglas from the sofa with the words “Guess how much I love you?” and set off.
Douglas had guessed where we were going even before we were out of the house, bless him, but didn’t tell me until I went the wrong way! (I had not heard the directions the Sat Nav said)
We thoroughly enjoyed the meal, and Douglas got quite tipsy, having had a cider before we set out, then most of a bottle of very strong Saki with his food. He managed to crawl up the stairs to our attic bedroom, and fall asleep with a very happy grin on his face.
B.H. Monday
Douglas got back early on Monday morning – I sent him a text at about 9am asking him when he would be home.. and got one back almost immediately saying “come outside and kiss me!” What a nice surprise.
He had a lovely weekend, but as is the norm with the Pagan camps Ive been to, the facilities are somewhat lacking, so the first thing he did was jump in the shower, to get back to being his normal fragrant self. I decontaminated his clothes in the washing machine too ;-)
We had been invited to my younger brothers for a BBQ, and were asked to bring pudding with us for 9 of us. Him and his wife and 3 kids, our parents and us. I decided on something that was nice and easy.. Eton Mess. It’s a bit calorific, but it went down very well with everyone apart from little Carlo (aged 4) who looked at it and refused even to try some!
Eton Mess
Raspberries
Double Cream
Meringue
For 9 of us, I used 4 small punnets of raspberries, a whole box of meringues, and two tubs of cream.. one huge and one large.
Whip the cream until it reaches soft peak consistency, and whilst your trusty machine is doing that, break up the meringues into little bits.
Fold the cream, bit by bit into the raspberry and meringues, blob it out into a dish, and serve within about a hour. Keep it all in the fridge until you serve it.
After lunch, everyone apart from Douglas went to the local park that was having a heritage day. We were up there for about 3 hours, and I was totally exhausted by the time we got back. It was probably a good thing that Douglas decided to stay at my brothers and rest!
He had a lovely weekend, but as is the norm with the Pagan camps Ive been to, the facilities are somewhat lacking, so the first thing he did was jump in the shower, to get back to being his normal fragrant self. I decontaminated his clothes in the washing machine too ;-)
We had been invited to my younger brothers for a BBQ, and were asked to bring pudding with us for 9 of us. Him and his wife and 3 kids, our parents and us. I decided on something that was nice and easy.. Eton Mess. It’s a bit calorific, but it went down very well with everyone apart from little Carlo (aged 4) who looked at it and refused even to try some!
Eton Mess
Raspberries
Double Cream
Meringue
For 9 of us, I used 4 small punnets of raspberries, a whole box of meringues, and two tubs of cream.. one huge and one large.
Whip the cream until it reaches soft peak consistency, and whilst your trusty machine is doing that, break up the meringues into little bits.
Fold the cream, bit by bit into the raspberry and meringues, blob it out into a dish, and serve within about a hour. Keep it all in the fridge until you serve it.
After lunch, everyone apart from Douglas went to the local park that was having a heritage day. We were up there for about 3 hours, and I was totally exhausted by the time we got back. It was probably a good thing that Douglas decided to stay at my brothers and rest!
The Veg patch gets it
Saturday afternoon I felt in a Green mood, so I started attacking the giant weeds (mainly dock and nettles) on our veg patch behind our shed.
If you read back a few weeks, you will see that i cut a load of these weeds down, and felt very pleased with myself, but the point I forgot is that weeds grow back!!!
This time, I dug a load of the weeds out, and started to fill our new compost darlek that arrived that morning
It was quite warm work, but I really enjoyed it. I’m also trying to level out the soil in the patch, as it has quite a gradient at present.
My neighbours appeared as I was getting down n dirty with the weeds, they have been on holiday in Shropshire and we have been cat sitting. We had a nice chat, then I went back to remove a few more weeds!
My parents called that evening, and said they were going to the River Idle on Sunday with their Canadian canoe, then to a garden open (someone’s private garden that they open to the public for a small fee that goes to charity) afterwards. Two friends of mine – Nikki and Joanna live close by, so I suggested that we could make this a joint trip. With canal canoeing trips, spare people can walk alongside the canal watching those in the boat, but it did not prove to be the same with this beautiful river.
My mum and dad had a quick paddle to make sure that the flow was not too fast, then Nikki hopped in the front instead of my mum, and she and my dad paddled up the river for a bit. The rest of us enjoyed the beauty of the river, and took photos from the bridge.
I had a quick paddle, then we left my parents to have a good long paddle up the river and back. I went with Nikki and Joanna to their house, had a lovely chat and lunch, worshipped about 3 of their very many cats before meeting up again with Ma and Pa at the Garden Open.
I had a quiet evening.. very quiet and a bit odd as no Douglas!!
If you read back a few weeks, you will see that i cut a load of these weeds down, and felt very pleased with myself, but the point I forgot is that weeds grow back!!!
This time, I dug a load of the weeds out, and started to fill our new compost darlek that arrived that morning
It was quite warm work, but I really enjoyed it. I’m also trying to level out the soil in the patch, as it has quite a gradient at present.
My neighbours appeared as I was getting down n dirty with the weeds, they have been on holiday in Shropshire and we have been cat sitting. We had a nice chat, then I went back to remove a few more weeds!
My parents called that evening, and said they were going to the River Idle on Sunday with their Canadian canoe, then to a garden open (someone’s private garden that they open to the public for a small fee that goes to charity) afterwards. Two friends of mine – Nikki and Joanna live close by, so I suggested that we could make this a joint trip. With canal canoeing trips, spare people can walk alongside the canal watching those in the boat, but it did not prove to be the same with this beautiful river.
My mum and dad had a quick paddle to make sure that the flow was not too fast, then Nikki hopped in the front instead of my mum, and she and my dad paddled up the river for a bit. The rest of us enjoyed the beauty of the river, and took photos from the bridge.
I had a quick paddle, then we left my parents to have a good long paddle up the river and back. I went with Nikki and Joanna to their house, had a lovely chat and lunch, worshipped about 3 of their very many cats before meeting up again with Ma and Pa at the Garden Open.
I had a quiet evening.. very quiet and a bit odd as no Douglas!!
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Bank Holiday Weekend
Douglas and I went out separate ways for once!
Douglas went up to North Yorkshire, and met a group of his friends to help with the building of a stone circle. I just didn't fancy going, so I packed him up, and waved him bye bye on Saturday morning.
From the photos and text messages he sent me, he had a wonderful time, but came back quite exhausted and oh boy!! did he smell of Barbeque!! After a shower and a change of clothes, he was his usual fragrant self :-)
The group were trying to move a 3 tonne stone by way of wooden sledge up a hill - there were about 40 of them helping, and even so they only managed to move it a few hundred yards. They could so easily use a tractor, but they want to make the circle the traditional way - blood, sweat, tears and a lot of patience!!
Meanwhile.. back at home... I had a very peaceful Saturday, sleeping, playing Runescape, and washing the second of our lounge curtains!! It was quite sunny, so after most of the water had drained out of it, I hung it over our washing line.
The veg patch also got attention.. but my lunch time has ended and I have to do the rest of this later.
Douglas went up to North Yorkshire, and met a group of his friends to help with the building of a stone circle. I just didn't fancy going, so I packed him up, and waved him bye bye on Saturday morning.
From the photos and text messages he sent me, he had a wonderful time, but came back quite exhausted and oh boy!! did he smell of Barbeque!! After a shower and a change of clothes, he was his usual fragrant self :-)
The group were trying to move a 3 tonne stone by way of wooden sledge up a hill - there were about 40 of them helping, and even so they only managed to move it a few hundred yards. They could so easily use a tractor, but they want to make the circle the traditional way - blood, sweat, tears and a lot of patience!!
Meanwhile.. back at home... I had a very peaceful Saturday, sleeping, playing Runescape, and washing the second of our lounge curtains!! It was quite sunny, so after most of the water had drained out of it, I hung it over our washing line.
The veg patch also got attention.. but my lunch time has ended and I have to do the rest of this later.
Friday, 22 August 2008
Fun at work
We are having a charity day today.. we can wear what we like and ignore the dress code, and my friend and fellow team mate Jodie has been painting peoples faces for 50p a face.
I was going to have a tiger, but as quite a few others wanted similar I changed my mind and decided that I would have a snake instead.
Meanwhile, we have been having some fun over the last few weeks with another of my colleagues, Simon. Si had a single lonely lego policeman on his desk, which occasionally went walkies to other team members desks.. it even went on holiday to Turkey!!
My friends and I decided that Lego Policeman was lonely.. so I purchased a Princess Leia from Star Wars to keep him company.. but the ebayer sent two by mistake, so Lego Policeman has twins to play with!!
We (ok I) went a bit further last Friday.. I got him 18 more little lego figures off ebay, printed out little notices saying "im lost, please return to Simon" He looked a bit bewildered through that morning.. more and more members of staff came up to him with lost lego men.. it was so funny I had great difficulty stopping laughing when the phone bleeped for the next customer to come through on the phone!
The rest of my team - those that were "in" on the joke also found it very funny :-) I think Simon did too... but hes taken them all home, and is now on holiday for a week. I hope his Lego men have fun at his house whilst he is away.
I was going to have a tiger, but as quite a few others wanted similar I changed my mind and decided that I would have a snake instead.
Meanwhile, we have been having some fun over the last few weeks with another of my colleagues, Simon. Si had a single lonely lego policeman on his desk, which occasionally went walkies to other team members desks.. it even went on holiday to Turkey!!
My friends and I decided that Lego Policeman was lonely.. so I purchased a Princess Leia from Star Wars to keep him company.. but the ebayer sent two by mistake, so Lego Policeman has twins to play with!!
We (ok I) went a bit further last Friday.. I got him 18 more little lego figures off ebay, printed out little notices saying "im lost, please return to Simon" He looked a bit bewildered through that morning.. more and more members of staff came up to him with lost lego men.. it was so funny I had great difficulty stopping laughing when the phone bleeped for the next customer to come through on the phone!
The rest of my team - those that were "in" on the joke also found it very funny :-) I think Simon did too... but hes taken them all home, and is now on holiday for a week. I hope his Lego men have fun at his house whilst he is away.
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Billy blogs..
Hello humans and cats, I'm Billy and I decided to write a little bit on my pet humans blog! I spend a lot of time sitting sleeping next to her whilst she writes this thing, and being a very clever cat I have decided to sneak on whilst shes not looking!! (I even looked at her password whilst pretending to be nice and friendly)
I have met a nice cat who lives next door to me! One of my humans seems to be feeding it at the moment, so whenever she goes over, I go with her. Lilly is shyer and she follows at a distance, pretending she is not interested.
This next door cat is called Milo by the humans, and lives in a very empty (humans use the word tidy) looking house. Ive been all over it. Milo does not seem to mind this at all, but my human, Anna seems cross when I sneak up stairs and have a nosey!!
Milo is ginger and white, and hes quite a nice old boy.. does not seem to mind if I have a nibble or two of his food now and then!
I hope that soon he will be given his own personal cat door, so I can go and chat to him more often.
Hmm time to lick myself clean again, and go pester male human for a bit more of that lovely chicken that he has locked away in the cold white cupboard.. such a waste when I could be eating it...
good bye!
Billy xxx
I have met a nice cat who lives next door to me! One of my humans seems to be feeding it at the moment, so whenever she goes over, I go with her. Lilly is shyer and she follows at a distance, pretending she is not interested.
This next door cat is called Milo by the humans, and lives in a very empty (humans use the word tidy) looking house. Ive been all over it. Milo does not seem to mind this at all, but my human, Anna seems cross when I sneak up stairs and have a nosey!!
Milo is ginger and white, and hes quite a nice old boy.. does not seem to mind if I have a nibble or two of his food now and then!
I hope that soon he will be given his own personal cat door, so I can go and chat to him more often.
Hmm time to lick myself clean again, and go pester male human for a bit more of that lovely chicken that he has locked away in the cold white cupboard.. such a waste when I could be eating it...
good bye!
Billy xxx
Bath time!!
Im waiting for the bath to run. It has to be deep and soapy, but not for me, not for Douglas, and those felines, and feline lovers will be glad to know its not for Billy or Lilly either!!
The bath is for the second of a pair of once cream coloured curtains from our lounge, that have gone cream/grey over the couple of years they have been up. The material is heavy, and lined by even heavier black out cloth, as there is nothing more annoying that trying to watch TV with daylight coming through the curtains!!
I did the first about a week ago.. the water went a very dark brown, and I had to do several rinses to get the water to run anything near to clear! Once washed and rinsed, I had to drape it over an airing horse in the bath for a few days to drip, dry a little, then with help from Douglas, we moved it downstairs and finished it off, draped over same airing horse and two chairs!!
Its a very satisfying process, and with the extra curtain hooks (the ones that look a bit like an ampersand @ ) and a lot of help from Douglas, the first curtain is back up in place, and looks better than it has done for months!!!
***
Second curtain now having the first soak.. water already turning brown :-)
Last weekend D was not himself, and come Monday felt really grotty and sick (he had both the D & the V) so he stayed off work. I had the day off.. having booked Monday and Tuesday as some "me" time. Tuesday he still wasnt very well, so we trogged along to local hospital.. waited..
and waited..
and waited to have some blood taken and a Dr chat to him.
Blood done, and Dr chatted to, we could have done more waiting, but instead went to fairly local evil big shopping centre, thats name ends in Hall, but locals change it to Hell ;-) I went to buy a new swimming cozzy, and oh dear just accidentally two rather nice tops just fell into my hands, so I got them too.
I went and collected Douglas, who had managed to down a cup of tea and a slice of toast (just stayed down) and went back to the hospital.
We waited.. and waited..
I put another 3 hours on the horrid pay and display in the car park. Well you know.. that did the trick! Within 10 mins, the Dr had seen him, seen the blood results, which were fine, and we were allowed home. It just must be a bug.
In the car park, I was just in time to stop an elderly lady putting her £3 into the evil mouth of the ticket machine, and gave her ours instead. She seemed very pleased, and said that it never happened to her!!
Well, its Wednesday.. Im back to work without having had my two selfish me time days off, but at least I was able to look after poorly Douglas, and keep him company a bit. Hes still off work - feeling more human this evening - lets hope it lasts.
The bath is for the second of a pair of once cream coloured curtains from our lounge, that have gone cream/grey over the couple of years they have been up. The material is heavy, and lined by even heavier black out cloth, as there is nothing more annoying that trying to watch TV with daylight coming through the curtains!!
I did the first about a week ago.. the water went a very dark brown, and I had to do several rinses to get the water to run anything near to clear! Once washed and rinsed, I had to drape it over an airing horse in the bath for a few days to drip, dry a little, then with help from Douglas, we moved it downstairs and finished it off, draped over same airing horse and two chairs!!
Its a very satisfying process, and with the extra curtain hooks (the ones that look a bit like an ampersand @ ) and a lot of help from Douglas, the first curtain is back up in place, and looks better than it has done for months!!!
***
Second curtain now having the first soak.. water already turning brown :-)
Last weekend D was not himself, and come Monday felt really grotty and sick (he had both the D & the V) so he stayed off work. I had the day off.. having booked Monday and Tuesday as some "me" time. Tuesday he still wasnt very well, so we trogged along to local hospital.. waited..
and waited..
and waited to have some blood taken and a Dr chat to him.
Blood done, and Dr chatted to, we could have done more waiting, but instead went to fairly local evil big shopping centre, thats name ends in Hall, but locals change it to Hell ;-) I went to buy a new swimming cozzy, and oh dear just accidentally two rather nice tops just fell into my hands, so I got them too.
I went and collected Douglas, who had managed to down a cup of tea and a slice of toast (just stayed down) and went back to the hospital.
We waited.. and waited..
I put another 3 hours on the horrid pay and display in the car park. Well you know.. that did the trick! Within 10 mins, the Dr had seen him, seen the blood results, which were fine, and we were allowed home. It just must be a bug.
In the car park, I was just in time to stop an elderly lady putting her £3 into the evil mouth of the ticket machine, and gave her ours instead. She seemed very pleased, and said that it never happened to her!!
Well, its Wednesday.. Im back to work without having had my two selfish me time days off, but at least I was able to look after poorly Douglas, and keep him company a bit. Hes still off work - feeling more human this evening - lets hope it lasts.
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Update
Billy is doing well.. his tail is now fully healed, and the fur is growing back.
Lilly is getting much more affectionate, and is now even miaowing for attention at times!!
Not much happening here at the moment.. all is well :-)
Will try to get someting worth blogging to happen next weekend!
Lilly is getting much more affectionate, and is now even miaowing for attention at times!!
Not much happening here at the moment.. all is well :-)
Will try to get someting worth blogging to happen next weekend!
Sunday, 3 August 2008
The Great Escape
Two cats.. kept in prison for something they didn't do.. all because of a poorly tail. Two cats.. who enjoy their food but foremost their freedom.. Two cats who will try almost anything to get out! (Cue theme tune)
This evening, whilst the guards were sitting on their sofa, and one of them was eating her stuffed peppers, the house (errm I mean prison) went strangely quiet, and devoid of prisoners (cats) The female guard suspected something was up, but decided to finish her meal.
After the repast, male guard still glued to the sofa and TV, female guard looked out of the window and lo and behold! Walking along the wall at the back of our house was the female prisoner who goes by the name of Lilly!!
The guards already know that Prisioner Lilly is the more intelligent and active of the two inmates, and has been spotted, on a previous occasion the wrong side of the office window :-) (There is a sloping roof outside it)
Female Guard then opened the back door, and saw, not really to her surprise at all, that both inmates had escaped via this route, and were enjoying the last evening light of the weekend. Billy, once seen, decided that being picked up and brought back in was a very bad idea, and scarpered to the bottom of the garden.
Being as Billys tail is much improved, we have decided to let them both out on parole, but any deterioration in the conditions set (that the tail must continue to heal nicely) and both cats will, once more be on remand :-)
********
Oh.. Douglas and I also went to see Mamma Mia, which is a great feminist feel good film.
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