Tesco - Every Little Helps (them) ...

We always go to Tesco shopping.  Everyone moans about the prices and the 'special offers' they have there, but everyone still goes.  It probably has the best variety of groceries so it's convenient I guess.

I just thought I'd show you their latest offer.  Frozen strawberries.  This is a good deal for a stupid person.  It clearly states £1.00 per pack or any 3 for £5.00.  Hmm.  I'd be wanting 5 packs for £5.00 but as the offer states it is 'any 3 for £5.00' .  Go figure !!! 

Happy Anniversary !!!

Okay, so our Anniversary was actually yesterday.  I did write this on my blog yesterday but the 'post' appears to have gone onto a different blog.  *Looks at empty wine bottles*  I have no idea why or how that happened !!!

Anyway, as some of you may already know, Boy George is kind of my idol (ssshh, don't laugh) and via the wonderful world of Twitter (that I never really use), on my birthday I got him to wish me a Happy Birthday.  So, our anniversary ...   well I had to try.   And, ta-daaaaa, he obliged.  I really don't use Twitter except to try and get Boy George to send me a personal message.  Well, if you don't ask, you don't get !!!  See, he even put a little kiss after his message.  Yes, that IS a little kiss.  It is NOT some form of 'X marks the spot' for him to shoot me because he thinks I'm his stalker.  I'm not.  Honest.  *Beams*

Fish Duty ..... again !!!

Yes, I've been on fish duty again.  Mum went away for just two nights.  When I went round hers to feed the fish, I found this note next to the fish food and blackbird food (all with appropriate 'measuring' scoops). 

Can you imagine how long the note is when she goes away for a week ?

Saturday = day for stupid questions !!!

As I said previously, I'm selling all my PS1 and PS2 games on Ebay.  I've listed some in 'bundles' and I've listed some separately.  To save time (and money on Ebay) I put a picture of about 25 games that I have for sale.  I put a starting bid of £2.00 and then put:  THIS AUCTION IS FOR ONE ITEM ONLY – PLEASE CONTACT ME TO LET ME KNOW WHICH GAME YOU WANT.  Then I get an email asking:  "Do you get all the game in the picture or is a random selection".  And no, I've not spelt anything wrong there - that's exactly how the question was put to me.  It's not just me is it ?  I mean, I put this auction is for one item only.  I am then asked if they get all the games.

I get stupid questions all the time.  I have advertised five Crash Bandicoot games as a bundle.  I then get people asking me how much would postage be for just two of the games.   No.  You can't buy just two.  That's the idea of a 'bundle'.  They are bundled together.  Clear ?  I have another listing that already has a bid on it.  I am then asked by someone else if they can buy the games but can I do them for £4.00 cheaper.  Umm.  No.  These games are already being sold so cheap just to get rid of them and make more space in my cupboard.  What do they want me to do ?  Pay THEM to take them off my hands ?  Perhaps I'll answer the next stupid email (because I know there will be more) with 'you are the weakest link, goodbye' !!!

The End of an Era !!!

I finally decided to try and get rid of all my old Playstation 1 and Playstation 2 games.  Yes, I am a child at heart really.  I love all kinds of video games (as they were called years ago).  I grew up with Pac-Man and Space Invaders.  And when I say 'Space Invaders' I really do mean the proper, original version.  I don't just mean a game with space-crafts that fire bullets at you to try and destroy you.  I mean 'Space Invaders'.  There is only one.  The original.  Anyway, back to my games.  I have put most of my games on Ebay as it was free listing weekend last weekend.  It was either that or these same games will sit in the cupboard for another five years or more and then I will be lucky to get 10p each for any of them.  I thought I might just get a couple of quid each for these games but it appears there is a bit of a call for the Crash Bandicoot games. 

I thought I'd sold them the other night but after I took a PayPal payment for £22.50 for all five PS1 Crash games and a Resident Evil Survivor game, I noticed other people were bidding for the Crash games and were up to £26.00 just for them.  I refunded the man I'd 'sold' them to and apologised profusely and then put them back on Ebay for sale.  I've now had a bid for all five Crash PS1 games and also a bid for all five Crash PS2 games.  This is just the start.  I think the bidding will continue when the items get closer to ending.

I will miss Crash Bandicoot.  He has kept me busy on many a cold and wet night.  Boredom sets in and Crash Bandicoot comes out.  Although saying that, I've not been as much into video games for the last few years due to the fact I bought this silly thing called a computer.  It uses up too much of my time. 

Yahoo Messenger was addictive enough to chat to people, then they go and invent Facebook.  That really sucks the life out of me.  Anyway, I just thought I'd say goodbye to Crash Bandicoot via my blog.  I must go now as I have people to stalk, umm, I mean look up on Facebook.

Raining ! (again)

I would blog but it's rained.  Nothing exciting has happened because of the rain.  Nothing exciting WILL happen because of the rain.  British Summer-time has ended.  Official.  Bloody rain !

Customer Service vacancy ?

So ...  the phone rings today.  I answer it.  Immediately, by the way the guy is talking I know it's either a scam or it is someone trying to sell something.  I think the guy may have been Indian.  No offence to anyone from India reading this, but he did have a very strong accent.  My surname is quite a simple one.  It has an 'e' on the end of it but it's not pronounced.  I knew we were in trouble when the guy on the phone said 'is that Mr' and he pronounced my surname as if there was 'ay' on the end.  I just said hello again.  He then says 'oh, is that Mrs ...'.  I say yes.  The guy then says that he is from the technical department of Windows and that he can tell each time I log in that I am having download problems and that I am probably downloading some malicious files and that he can help eradicate these problems.  Uh-huh.  I've had one of these before, or maybe five before.  I know all about the scam where you log in, they give you a password, then they hack in and steal all your personal details from your computer.  Normally with these calls I play along a little and try to get them to give me their phone number in case I get cut off and I can always phone them back as I really do need their help. 

I couldn't be bothered to play the game today.  I just told him that I knew of his scam and that I wasn't going to log into my computer and let him steal all my personal data.  I think I may have flustered him a little because he began to talk so fast that I really couldn't understand him.  I thought I did hear one word in particular though, so I asked him to repeat what he had just said.  He said 'Mrs, fuck you and fuck your family'.  I said pardon.  Again he said 'fuck you and fuck your family'.  I think he might have put an 'a' on the end of the word fuck each time.  It sounded now like he could be of mixed race - possibly Italian and Indian.  It probably didn't help with me ending the conversation by saying 'and how fucking rude are you'.  After the call I dialled 1471 to see if a number had been left so I could make a polite phone call back to them.  It said 'you were called today by telephone number 000000000'.  Odd.  I phoned my mum afterwards to warn her about this scam, again.  When I say warn her, I don't mean that the phone call would shock her, I was just warning her that perhaps if she gets the same guy on the phone she can tell him to fuck himself and fuck his family before he gets in there first !!!

Splash !!!

I had no fear as a child.  I didn't realise the dangers of the river.  We now see images of kids jumping in rivers and either getting sucked under with the current or just getting off lightly (as opposed to dying) with a few broken limbs or nasty cuts.  The picture below is of the river in the town where I live now.  It pretty much stretches all through the town and you can get to different parts of it at various points within the town.  The part of the river in the picture is now full of old shopping trollies and other very dangerous bits of metal.  I guess it was just as full with rubbish when I was a kid.  Large holiday boats also travel down this stretch of the river as the river pretty much stretches quite a way through the county.  That means that most of the river is full of shit too.  People on a boating holiday have toilets installed in the boats.  They don't save it and take it home !!!

Cars used to travel over this bridge years ago.  See the part between the arches on the right hand side of the picture ?  Yeah ?  We used to wait for the cars to go over the bridge, then stand right on the top, balance as best we could, wait for the boats to pass then leap into the water.  We had to make sure as we jumped that we missed the wall completely and that we jumped further enough out to miss the brickwork construction on the bottom of the building as it entered the water.  I think I was about 10 years old at this point.  No fear !

Growing Up - Part I !!!

The London riots got me thinking.  I wasn’t perfect as a kid, far from it, but when you see the kids nowadays it makes you see things now how your parents did when you were younger.  I called this ‘Growing Up Part I’ because there are so many tales I could write, but the blog would go on forever.  Maybe another day I will bore you with another tale from my childhood.

I done bad things as a kid.  Okay so I thought they were bad things and of course they were for children of my age.  I’m talking about things like stealing sweets from the sweet shop when I was about eight years old.  Don’t look at me and shake your head.  I’m sure every child, at some point in their youth, stole sweets.  There was a tiny sweet shop in the village where I used to live as a child.  I think it must’ve originally been the front room of a house and then that room was just used as a sweet shop.  I know this because the old lady that owned it had to walk from one room into this sweet shop.  When I say ‘old lady’ I really do mean that.  I think she must’ve been at least 70 and not very fast.  Us kids knew that if we got to the door of the shop and then prepared ourselves by emptying our pockets, we could get into the shop and stuff our pockets full of sweets before the old lady had managed to hobble from her house into the shop.   

We’d then spend about 5p on penny chews and go out of the shop knowing we had enough sweets to last us a good couple of days.  I know that was a very bad thing to do and we never knew if we would be more scared if it was the shopkeeper that caught us or whether, if we did ever get caught, they chose to tell our parents.  It was a small village and everyone knew everyone and kids our age were still scared of our parents !  I think this shop might even have sold cigarettes, but in my days the kids just weren’t interested in them.  Young children didn’t smoke like they do nowadays and we didn’t even think about stealing the cigarettes to sell to the older kids. 

Now we see the London riots with youths picking up any large objects they can find and then smashing them into windows of shops to gain access and steal whatever they can.  Stealing handfuls of penny sweets really doesn’t seem that bad now.  The 70 year old lady would stand no chance against todays eight year old kids.

Lambrini Girl ???

No, I'm not a 'Lambrini Girl'.  Okay, so you need to be British and need to have seen the Lambrini advert to know what a Lambrini Girl is.  But I assure you I'm not one.  I just happen to quite like the taste of Lambrini and quite like the fact that it is only £1.23 per bottle at Tesco.  See - for less than a fiver I can get quite merry.  That's all there is to it really !

Tipple of the Day !!!

Everyone is talking about the riots happening in London.  I'm not.  Not because I don't care, but I think it's been on the news enough that everyone in the world knows what is happening.

Instead I will show you my 'tipple of the day'.  I'm still trying to find a nice drink.  I went off lager many years ago.  Even with lime in it some of the lagers still taste vile.  I do sometimes just top my glass of lager up with a little lemonade but apparently I'm killing it !  So I'm back to cider.  This one is 'Jacques'.  It says on the back 'a deliciously refreshed blend of lightly sparkling cider and the concentrated juice of orchard fruits - enjoy Jacques over ice'.  Okay, so I forgot the ice but I'm thinking if I drink it quick enough I won't need the ice because it won't have had the chance to go warm !

There is another 'Jacques' cider.  The other one is deep red in colour and I think it is made from forest fruits as opposed to orchard fruits.  I think it might actually be the forest fruits one that I like best.  Although saying that, this one isn't going down too bad.  I'll let you know in due course which one I prefer !

Holidays are over !!!

As it says – the holidays are over.  Well, they are for my parents and my aunt.  For my parents I have fed the big fish, fed the little fish, watered the runner beans and fed the wild blackbird.  Yes, this is a wild blackbird and has special food bought for it.  Tubs of worms !  This same blackbird has been visiting their house for the past, hmm, at least 5 years.  It has been known to walk into the kitchen before.  It gets very impatient and taps on the window with its beak if it is hungry.  If that fails it begins to sing until someone pays it attention.  Well, it’s not the attention it wants, just the worms.



Big fish food, little fish food, blackird food !



We did check the post and water other parts of the garden, but really it was the runner beans that mum needed watering most.  Today she is having roast pork for her dinner.  She has managed to get an apple from a small tree in the garden for the apple sauce, she got enough runner beans to have with her dinner and she has picked loads of plums from her plum tree (we did confess that we ate two).  She says she is going to put some apples and blackberries (also from the garden) with the plums then freeze them in bags so she can just take out a bag at a time and make some form of dessert from them.  Good thinking Batman.  She bought us a stick of rock each back from her holiday – one is pineapple flavour and the other is banana flavour.  HE thinks he’s getting the banana flavoured one.  HE can think what he likes.  It ain’t happening.  I think he’ll like the pineapple flavoured one.  She also rewarded us with a little cash too !  Thanks mum.

As for my Aunt ...  we watered her plants, checked that her electric stayed on and watered the vegetable patch in the back garden.  Oh yes, not forgetting the sunflowers – they were the biggest concern.  They lived.  Phew.  I was ‘responsible’ for them but I don’t really like being responsible.  I always think that makes me a proper grown up and I don’t think I want to be a grown up either.  My aunt gave us a card with a sheep on the front of it with the words ‘ewe are my sunshine’ on it.  Inside she wrote ‘thank you so much’ but had she have been thinking cleverly, she could have put ‘thank ewe so much’.  Never mind.  The sheep is also made of some kind of fabric – I’ve never seen a yellow sheep before.  She also rewarded us with a little cash.  Thanks aunty.

So ...   now all the duties are over, I think I can find enough time for myself to sit down and enjoy a Bulmers Cider 'with crushed red berries and lime'.  Don't mind if I do !!!



Sunflowers and frogs !!!

I couldn't think of anything else to call this post.  It's about sunflowers and frogs so I thought why not call it just that !!!  Anyway, as you know I've been on 'watering' duty this week.  I've done this before but this time the conversation with my aunt and her saying 'we're worried we could lose the sunflowers with this hot weather' kind of scared me.  Great.  That meant I was solely responsible for two big sunflowers.  We've been watering them since Monday night.  They looked okay all week.  We gave them a good soaking again last night but then since the early hours of this morning it's been raining so I think they'll be fine now.  My aunt is back today (probably as I type this she has arrived home) and I'm pleased that I will no longer have such a great responsibility.  How long do sunflowers last for ?   Uh-oh, I hope my aunt isn't going away again any time soon !



They lived !

When we went to do the watering on Tuesday night it was a bit damp.  It had rained a little during the day but not really enough to actually give the plants a good watering.  So while we were there doing the watering we noticed the flowers kept moving.  Then all of a sudden a big frog hopped out.  I think they must've been disturbed by the sprinkler going in their 'house' !  Of course, last night I went back armed with my mobile phone and was ready to take a picture.  There he was again, the big frog, Freddy !  I'm quite sure it was the same one.  Okay so I'm not, I think we saw at least three big frogs while we were there and anything up to 20 baby frogs all hopping around, taking in the damp air and moist grass.  Freddy hopped about and I just said 'please stay still, let me take your picture' and he did.  He was quite obliging.  I'm not sure if he wants a modelling fee for sitting pretty !



Freddy the frog !



Summer has been ... again !!!

I might have told you in a previous post that we seem to be getting two days a month of hot weather.  Maybe I didn't tell you.  Maybe I just thought I did.  Anyway ...  we had two hot days in May, two hot days in June, two hot days in July and we've just had our two hot days in August.  They are now forecasting rain and thunderstorms for tomorrow so it would appear that Summer is over again.  I wonder if the weather will run to two good days in September ?  I sat in the garden for maybe an hour yesterday and again today.  It was a bit of a job to do as we had to dodge the clouds yesterday and then a few drops of rain today.  Never mind.  It also poured down with rain yesterday evening just after we had watered the entire contents of my aunt's garden.  Oh well, the rain is good for the garden I guess.  My mums plums are doing well.  See for yourself ...

See, they are quite red aren't they ?  We still daren't eat one though.  She might know.  She might be on holiday but she has this sense of knowing what's happening at all times.  I once thought she had eyes in the back of her head.  Of course I know this isn't true because when I was about six she woke up while I was routling in her hair looking for her eyes.  We won't eat the plums but they ARE nice and red.  I think my arm might be catching up in colour too.  Wanna look ?

The End.  And possibly the end of Summer too.

My garden !!!

Okay, so I'm not exactly telling the truth.  These pictures didn't actually come from MY garden.  As some of you know, my garden just really consists of a lawn with stones round the edge and a few pot plants, but hey, that does us.  These pictures are from the gardens I've been looking after for the past few days.  So for now I think we CAN call them my garden(s).  I'll apologise now.  I know the pictures aren't very good.  I do need practice in taking better pictures and it didn't help that I just took these quickly on my mobile phone.  It was getting dark and we had watering to do !

My mums plums !  These are on a tree in her garden.  When I say tree, it's more twig looking than tree looking but it does produce plums.  I bought her it for Mothers Day in 2009 (I think) and it produced plums last year too.  We thought about eating one as we were watering the garden but we daren't, just in case she's counted them !!!

The pigs arse !  This is an ornamental 'thing' that my aunt bought for her garden.  We don't really ask WHY she bought it, but I have to say, she was very excited the day she bought it and couldn't wait to get it out of the box to show us.  I'm not sure the neighbours were too sure about it after watching HIM water the garden last night and then blasted the hose over the pig and said 'just washing the pigs arse' !!!

Oh, and the last picture is of Buster.  This has nothing really to do with the gardens but I just downloaded the other pictures from my phone and found this one on there.  I thought I would share the picture with you guys because I hope you will all agree, what a handsome lad he is !!!  I have no idea why it cut the bottom corner off the picture either !

Summer is here .... well, for a limited period only !!!

Well today it is 01 August and we are still waiting for our Summer.  The weather forecasters are saying we are going to get another mini heatwave, lasting from today until Wednesday.  Wow.  Three days.  When is the rest of summer arriving or is this it ?  I went out in the car this morning and it said 'outside temperature 27C'.  I now know that is 80.6F - I've done my homework and found if you multiply the temperature in C by 1.8, then add 32, you get the temperature in F.  Although judging by the weather at the moment, it might be better just to think of a number, times it by 1.8, add any other number of your choice, take away the number you first thought of and then pretend that will be the temperature for the day.  Okay so the forecasters might have got the temperature right but it's still quite breezy and there is no sun to speak of.  I had big plans for today.  I was going to have a day in the garden.  Oh no, I don't mean 'doing' the garden, digging, planting, that kind of thing - just lazing.  Doing nothing.  It didn't really happen.  I made us a sandwich for lunch and sat out there and ate it.  That was it. 

Now we just have to hope that the weather stays fine for Saturday and we will have a boozy, lazy, barbecue day.  Yes, this is the same barbecue that we've been waiting to have since the beginning of May.  I'm quite looking forward to a nice day in the garden with plenty of wine.  I think I'll have deserved it by then as I'm looking after two of my relations houses until Thursday/Friday.  Seriously, our weather has just not been good enough to enjoy a nice barbecue.  So watch this space.  I'd say 'pics of the barbecue to follow' but I'm still not holding my breath !  So here is just a picture of the barbecue, sitting in the corner, not getting much use !

One week on ...

A week has passed since Amy Winehouse died.  I really did feel sad about it.  I’ve never really known the death of a pop star to affect me in any way at all.  I guess the last big pop star to die was Michael Jackson.  Okay so I used to listen to his music on the radio.  I can’t say I was much of a fan of his and I didn’t really have any of his albums that I played over and over.  Freddie Mercury was probably the one before that.  Again, I wasn’t particularly bothered by that either.  Maybe I’m just a bitch.  Maybe I just didn’t like the singers enough.  Maybe that is why I now feel sad about Amy’s death.  I liked her as a singer but I’m not sure I would have liked her as a person but all her family and friends say what a great person she was and very loving.  I think she was just a bit misled.  There was the death of Elvis Presley.  That was pretty much worldwide too but I was only young when that happened so it didn’t really mean that much to me.  I remember staying at a friends house in the summer holidays when my mum worked.  We started watching a load of the old Elvis movies.  Bearing in mind how old I was when Elvis died I’m thinking that we watched the movies AFTER he died.  They probably had a few weeks where they showed nothing  but Elvis movies on TV.  John Lennon is another one I remember the death of.  I think I had stayed round a friends house the night before and their mum woke us up the next morning to tell us that John Lennon was dead.  I’m not sure.  I do know that people still listen to the music of Elvis and John Lennon.  There are many people  who still visit the former home of Elvis on the anniversary of his death every year.  Perhaps they will do that for Amy Winehouse.  Perhaps they won’t. 

I never really knew what style of singing hers was.  Many people say she was a Jazz singer.  I guess after listening to her first album ‘Frank’ this week, she does sound a bit jazzy !  This probably comes out in her song 'Me and Mr Jones' aswell.   She only ever made the two albums but I’d like to think that her music will still be played in years to come.  One thing I will say is that when Michael Jackson died they really played a lot of his songs on the radio.  Okay so he was the ‘King of Pop’ to some people but I’ve not heard any Amy Winehouse songs played on the radio except for ‘Back to Black’ which re-entered our charts last Sunday.  Perhaps Amy Winehouse just wasn’t as big as I’d like her to have been. 

Presents !!!

So, today we all got a present.  Kind of.   I’ve not done much in the last week so I’m falling behind with my blogs.  I thought I should write about something even if it is only the boring day I’ve had today.  I had a message asking if I was ever going to blog again.  I must also remember to look at my settings on my blog.  I have all ‘comments’ sent through to my email address which is also on my mobile phone.  If I get comments come through while I’m in a shop it’s not too good as I have this really stupid ring-tone set for emails.  Also, if someone in another country that is maybe five hours behind me sends me a message, it might be only 10pm their time, but when I’m in bed at 3am, a loud email notification isn’t always the best way of being woken up !

Anyway, our presents today ...   I got a laptop cooling pad.  I already had one but I think it was beginning to die.  It would begin whirring away, then every 20 minutes or so it would just sound like it was about to die and then start up again.  I only bought this some time last year so I thought I’d look out the receipt and take it back to the shop before  it died completely.  I found the receipt – I bought the cooling pad on 31 July last year.  Hmm.  Today is 30 July.  Never mind.  A year guarantee is just that.  A year.  I took it back to the shop today and explained to the guy what was happening.  He did say that the warranty was out of date by a year but not to worry and he would still replace it.  I had to pay an extra £5.00 though because the ones they had in stock were a slightly different model and £5.00 more expensive.  This one is smaller .  I have a 17 inch laptop but the man assured me it will fit and that although it’s smaller, they are made for laptops up to 17 inch.  Okay, so it DOES fit but only just.  My laptop maybe overhangs the pad by ¼ inch either side but the base of the pad is cushioned so it’s quite comfortable on my lap now.

The next shop was for HIM.  Well, he thinks it was for him but the item purchased is for me too really.  We bought a ‘gaming chair’ for the X-box.  We both get fed up sitting on the floor in front of the X-box to play it.  Okay so we don’t really have to sit on the floor to play it but if you want to get the positioning right we do sit on the floor.  We have quite a large lounge to so if we sit on the sofa to play the games then we seem too far away.  I thought it might be easier to buy the gaming chair than to begin re-arranging the furniture and TV in the lounge !  This chair is called the ‘X-Rocker’ and it’s good because it has sound built in to it so as you play the game the noise seems to appear from behind.  Although if HE turns the volume up on it again while I am playing it I WILL punch him on the nose !

The last item purchased was for Buster.  Well, it’s for HIM and Buster.  We bought a 10 metre long training lead for him.  We can let Buster off the lead when we get to the park so he can have a good run but he has an awful habit of stealing balls that belong to other dogs.  The owners only have to throw a ball and Buster is away after it.  That’s not really the problem.  It’s the fact that he then won’t come to us because he knows we’ll take the ball away from him.  We do try and warn the other dog owners but how can you tell them they can’t throw a ball for their own dog ?  So ...   the training lead is to put on Buster when he’s in the park.  He can still have a run about but if he goes after another ball he can be stopped quickly.  Hopefully !

 

RIP Amy Winehouse - 1983-2011

The title says it all.  Amy Winehouse is dead.  We'd been out shopping today and when I came home I done the usual - checked my emails, checked my Ebay, checked Facebook.  After about 10 minutes on Facebook I noticed two people had put 'RIP Amy Winehouse'.  I thought it was odd.  A bit strange in fact.  Surely they couldn't really be saying she was dead.  I then checked the online news and there were some posts saying 'the body of a female had been found in the home of Amy Winehouse'.  Okay, so there's still hope.  They weren't saying it was her.  I then put on Sky News which of course was dominated with the news that it was true, Amy Winehouse had been found dead at her home. 

Amy was 27.  The news said her death was 'unexplained'.  Of course it is purely co-incidental that Kurt Cobain died at the age of 27.  Janis Joplin died at the age of 27.  Jimmy Hedrix died at the age of 27.  The news of those deaths didn't bother me.  Okay so I really was only a baby when Jimmy and Janis died.  I wasn't really into Nirvana at all so Kurt didn't seem to matter.  But Amy ....  I phoned my mum to tell her and as I told her I felt goosebumps on my arms.  It was weird.  I had never met Amy Winehouse and never expected to although we had been to Camden Town many times and often wondered if we would just casually bump into her.  I must admit I did often look out for her !

I once told my friend that I liked Amy Winehouse.  My friend just replied 'hmm, you seem to like the fuck-ups'.  Okay so poor Amy was a bit of a fuck-up.  I'd not really heard of her until around 2007 when she appeared on the Brits and sang Rehab.  I really liked the song and it sounded a bit like a 60's song, though I'm not sure why.  She also won a Brit that night for Best British Female Artist.  Watching her then and not knowing much about her, she appeared quite normal.  In March HE bought me the Back to Black album.   I think my favourite song on the whole album is Tears Dry on Their Own.  Later that year they released the 'Deluxe' edition of the Back to Black album - basically the same album but with an extra disc with some cover versions on it, including Monkey Man - one of my favourites to hear her sing.  I bought this album again.  Normally I go to our local library and borrow CD's a few months after they come out and just copy them.  I hardly ever buy albums new from the shop but I did in this case. 

I believe Amy Winehouse was very talented.  I have 'Frank', her first album too.  Listening to the albums you could tell she had a very good voice but maybe didn't use it to its full potential.  She didn't seem to care about her talent though.  I guess this was good in a way as she wasn't one of these big-headed stars who know they are good, and who know that other people know they are good too.  On the other hand, what a waste.  She did go back to rehab just recently and lots of people were hoping this would sort her out.  Maybe it's bad to say but perhaps there really was no hope.  I guess if she had wanted to escape all her problems then she could have done.  Perhaps she didn't want to.  We will never know.  All I know is that a good talent has gone to waste. 

RIP Amy.

Buster Bust It !!!

As you'll already know (if you've read my previous posts), it was Busters birthday last Thursday.  We thought we'd treat him, like you do !  We bought him a, umm, well you decide.  We'll call it a leggy lion.  It was just a cuddly toy with long legs and long arms.  It was (yes, WAS) a proper dog toy and we bought it from Pets At Home !  We gave it to him and within five minutes the lion appeared to have lost both its legs.  The left arm looked like it was about to come off and the poor lions arse was hanging out !  I've had several of his toys on my desk aka operating table on many occasions but I knew if he'd done this to the lion within five minutes, then it didn't stand much of a chance when sewn up.

So that was it.  We went back to the shop on Sunday.  I put the bag with the lion in it on the counter and I very politely explained that my dog had only had this toy for about five minutes before it was practically ripped to shreds.  Admittedly I didn't tell them that HE had hold of one of the arms and Buster had hold of the other and they were tugging it round our lounge.  Even so, I'm sure it was meant to last longer than it did.  I mean, with the length of the lions arms and legs they were meant to be pulled, right ?  They very kindly told us we could go and get a replacement.  I made a point of saying we didn't want one the same because they looked like they weren't made that strong.  I didn't say that we'd take another of the same item so that too could be pulled round the lounge and brought back to the shop the next day.  No.  We picked another thing that I can only describe as a monkey in a ring.  It's not broken yet.  I tested it out with HIM in the shop.  We both had a quick game of tug-of-war with it.  Apart from HIM tugging it that hard and almost dislocating my other shoulder, it seemed okay.  Buster is pleased with it too, we think.

Buster is the one on the far right as you look at the picture !

Perfect Personalised Wedding Presents !!!

So, I was just opening up my AOL page (sssh, I know AOL isn't the best but it's where I keep my Ebay emails) and I see this heading of 'Perfect Personalised Wedding Presents'.  I just thought I should share.  It says 'if you're stuck for ideas about what to get the happy couple why not give them a more personal gift'.  They have a picture of these pillows.  I'm sure the words on these aren't really what you would have printed for the happy couple.  This picture is probably just being used as an example in the advert.  But then I thought ...   what if you DID get these for someone.

'Just married' on the pillows looks good.  It's almost sweet.  But what happens if the happy couple go to bed and the pillows get moved around the bed in the throes of passion.  The next morning they wake up to see their pillows actually say 'married just'.  It's not really looking good is it ?

Happy Birthday Buster my Boy !!!

So, today is Buster’s birthday.  He’s a Cocker Spaniel.  We had a Cocker before but we lost her in May 2010.  She became diabetic in September 2009 but that wasn’t really a problem.  We handled it.  We took care of her but she then just kind of went downhill slowly.  It was so sad and painful losing her but we knew it was the only choice we could make.  She was 11 ½  so we think she done well to last as long with an illness.  After we lost her we said never again.  No more dogs.  It was so sad to lose her we couldn’t go through that again. 

Within 2 weeks we were talking of getting another dog.  The place was so quiet without her.  HE was wandering around with nothing to do as he used to take her for at least 2 good walks during the day.  We felt so guilty even thinking about getting another dog.  Just looking at pictures of other dogs made me feel guilty.  We didn’t want to replace her.  We just wanted another dog.  So we decided. 

I phoned my friend.  She is the breeder where we got our first dog from.  I believe our first dog was from her very first litter.  We put our order in with her.  We said we wanted a boy this time.  We wanted the colour to be chocolate roan if possible or just chocolate.  Our last dog was a blue roan.  So that was it.  We waited patiently.  We did go to her house for an afternoon just to see her dogs and to make sure we really did want another.  It might have been too painful for us but we knew that we’d find that out when we got there.  It was a definite decision.  We WOULD get another.  There were probably 3 litters all on their way.  Each time the puppies were born we waited.  No chocolate roan.  No chocolate.  We’d even picked out the name of Buster before he’d even arrived.  We had a girls name of ‘Dizzy’ just in case we did have another female but we thought it was very doubtful.  We waited for the next litter.  None of the right colour again. 

Then ...  1 year ago today.  I’m asleep.  It’s about 6am and I get a text message on my mobile phone.  It was my friend saying the dog was maybe about to have puppies because she was walking round in circles.  Within an hour or so I got another text message to say a puppy had been born.  It was the golden colour and a girl.  Hmm.  No good.  Then about 20 minutes later I get another text message with a picture of the next chocolate puppy out with the word ‘Buster’ underneath.  That was it.  He was here.  There was another chocolate boy and a black boy born after him.

When my nan died in 2008 she left me £2,000 (long story).  We had already decided to use some of this money to buy Buster.  She’d have liked that idea.  We went to see Buster twice before we were able to pick him up to bring him home.  Obviously the first time we went was to pick him out and make sure he was the one we wanted.  I think he was about 2 weeks old when we first saw him.  This picture is of him in my hands.

He was definitely the one we wanted.  His sister and brothers were cute, but he was the one.  The most 'manly looking' of the lot of them.  You might know which one he is in the next picture.  Yep - the one on the far right.  Already looking for trouble !  The day we brought him home would have been my nan’s birthday.  That seemed very appropriate as it was her money that paid for him.

Being a boy, we were told that house-training Buster might take a little longer.  The vets were saying 5-6 months was about average for a boy.  Great.  To be honest he done well with that.  He was pretty much house-trained after just 3 months.  Admittedly he did then have one very bad week and decided the hallway carpet was the best place for a wee, but after that week he was back to being trained again.  We say he is lucky to still be here because at the age of about 4 months he just ran around constantly chasing my feet.  I couldn’t walk anywhere without this puppy being attached to at least three of my toes.  It really got me down.  We think we might have fixed the problem by shaking a tin of coins at him.  At one point I think HE was all for walking him back to my friends (a 30 minute car journey).  It might have taken him a while to walk there !  Buster also used to have a mad half hour at about 7pm each night.  We would bring him into the lounge and he would just run round the sofa, constantly.  We couldn’t catch him, we just had to let him run.  We still have a little problem with him growling at night when we put him to bed, but apart from that he’s a good boy.  We went out today and bought him a birthday present.  We think it’s either a lion or a leopard.  Who knows.  It just has very long dangly legs and he’s already chewed the ear off it.  Happy Birthday Buster !

Party in the Park !!!

So that's it.  The Carnival and Party in the Park has been and gone for another year.  It goes so quickly.  I did try to find some decorated wheelbarrows but there weren't any.  Not sure what happened there but there were none to be found.  The piss-up-in-the-park is on the Sunday and normally goes on from mid-day until 9pm.  We usually get there between 2 and 3pm as the first few bands are just normally young local ones trying to make a name for themselves. 

The last two bands of the night don't normally come on until 6pm.  Some people don't even turn up until the very last band is on because they are normally the best - it's been 'Big 10' on last for the past few years.  They sing 'Ska' songs - stuff like Madness and Bad Manners sing.  It's at this point that we lose HIM for the evening.  Off he goes and does his stuff.  He calls it dancing.  We're still trying to come up with a name for it.

We did go to buy raffle tickets at just after 6pm but as we walked over to where they normally sell them, we heard them on stage drawing the numbers out.  Stupid.  The committee in charge of this party often complain that they don't get enough money.  Perhaps I should suggest they keep selling raffle tickets until at least 8pm.  Last year I did win a rather large teddy bear that some guy just appeared at my door with a couple of days later !  I was hoping for the first prize of £50 cash but it doesn't look like it will ever happen.

I guess it all went without a hitch.  Well, it did as long as we don't count the altercation on the way home.  There was a woman really looking for a fight.  I was quite willing to help her out with the request but I didn't.  I was quite drunk but also quite sensible.  I knew it would end up with me being in so much trouble.  We walked part of the way to mums (taxi for the evening) behind a couple of female Police Community Support Officers (PSCO's).  We were hoping they didn't realise the two girls with us were only 15 and 17 (HIS nieces).  They weren't THAT drunk although we'd already tried to tell the St John's Ambulance people that the youngest one had ADHD due to her dancing around like a mad woman and that the stain on her white T-Shirt was just something she'd eaten and spilt.  We hope they didn't realise it was where she'd actually been sick three times.  Tsk, the youth of today.  We did actually apologise to the PCSO's and they said it was alright and that they'd seen worse.  It was either that or we were just quite scary looking with there being six of us and only two of them !

I counted up the bottles of wine that I took with me and noticed only one bottle got brought back home.  We won't go there with the actual figure but I'm quite sure I must've had a lot of help drinking them.  There's no way I could've drunk them all, including the one I drank before we went !

Yorkshire Pudding !!!

So, following along from the explanation for Spotted Dick.  I now have to explain why we eat ‘Yorkshire Pudding’ with our main course !

Again, there is more than one explanation for this.  The first is quite simple.  The batter mix of flour, milk and eggs is often used for making cakes and puddings.  This was then just called ‘Yorkshire Pudding’ by people, with not much imagination, in Yorkshire and it was served with fruit or cream.  This is the most simple explanation and makes the pudding part of the Yorkshire Pudding sound how it is – a pudding !  I would just like to point out that no, I’m not one of these people from Yorkshire.

Obviously that happened first.  The second explanation is that some cooks used fat from the dripping pan while cooking the meat and added it to the batter mix.  This was then cooked in the oven and served with the meat because with the taste of the dripping in it, it was classed as a savoury and not a sweet anymore but just kept to the name of Yorkshire Pudding !

I just like to think we call it Yorkshire Pudding because we are a slightly odd country !  My mum says that she remembers her dad eating a roast dinner with Yorkshire Pudding.  She said that if there was any of the Yorkshire Pudding left after he had finished his main course he would then stew some apples or other fruit and put it with the Yorkshire Pudding and have that as his dessert.  See.  Slightly odd.  I wouldn’t remember this as I was only four when that grandad died !

I also remember going to a friends house once and she was wondering why, after about an hour and a half, her Yorkshire Puddings weren’t cooking very quick.  She was a year or so older than me and had just moved in with her boyfriend.  I just casually asked her if she made sure the fat/oil was really, really hot before she put the batter mix in the oven.  It was when she just said ‘hot?’ that I knew what had happened.  I think she was quite glad when ‘Aunt Bessie’s’ were invented !!!

Spotted Dick !!!

So today I have been asked to blog about Spotted Dick.  I think this is just because of the odd name.  Although as I’m a Brit, the name doesn’t seem odd to me.  Well, not really. 

First of all, the Spotted Dick is just really a sponge pudding with currants in it (I believe other small fruit is sometimes used) and often served with custard, although the ‘Spotted Dick’ is just the pudding.  If you look up the meaning of this it says that the ‘Spotted’ refers to the currants – see – spots ?  Get it ?  Okay.  The ‘Dick’ part isn’t known 100%.  There is more than one explanation.  Some say the word dick is from the word dough as some people do also call this ‘Spotted Dough’ although I’ve never heard it referred to as that.  Some also say it comes from the German word for thick.  Another explanation given was that the ‘Dick’ was a hard cheese, treacle was added to make it ‘Treacle Dick’.  Then eventually currants were added to make it ‘Spotted Dick’.  No, I’ve never heard of that either !

There were also some people, possibly immature and couldn’t use the word ‘Dick’ without sniggering, that renamed this pudding ‘Spotted Richard’.  I don’t think it lasted long and they resorted back to the original name.  Having said that, I’m sure when the pudding first got the name of Spotted Dick there weren’t any people expecting small children to run round the playground with a marker pen in one hand and their willy in the other shouting out ‘I’ve got a spotted dick’ !!!  I’m equally certain that there have been no reports of men going to the doctors with a tin of spotted dick, putting it down on the doctors couch and saying ‘I’ve got a spotted dick’.  I believe men going to the surgery with a spotted dick, really DO have a spotted dick and they’ve exited the doctors with a special cream for it.  Not custard.

I hope this clears up the matter of Spotted Dick (which is probably also what the doctor said as he gave the men the cream).  It might also be interesting to see which adverts Google decides to put on here for me now.  Could be cream.  Could be custard !!!

Adele - 21 !!!

Okay guys.  You are my guinea-pigs.  I have set up 'Amazon Associates' on here and I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.  I'm not going to give you all that shit and pretend I'm clever.  I'm not.  Well okay I am, but this is all new to me.  I will start with Adele and her latest album '21'.  Supposedly if I talk about it here, then add a link, then you go to the website via my link and buy it ....    hey presto, I get a commission.  All this is pointless though if it doesn't actually work.  So we will see.

21  - like I said - this is Adele and '21'.  I do actually have this album but I borrowed it from the library.  I don't like spending much money on albums if they are crap, putting it bluntly, but this one is okay.  She became a bit of an overnight sensation after appearing on the Brits this year.  She has been about for a few years but all of a sudden, after the Brits, people started listening to her.  So, enough of my waffle - let's see if this is actually going to work.  Oh yeah, I guess somewhere along the line here I'm meant to say please, please, please buy this album !!!