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 !!!

Carnival & Music Festival !!!

Carnival  & Music Festival !!!  Yeah, that’s the polite name for it.  The Carnival is as it says.  A Carnival.  A procession of floats through the town then ending up at the local park for people to have a look round.  They have a few amusements in the park for the kids and some shows, like a dog show and the local Majorettes doing their thing and other kind of shows like that.  This all happens on the Saturday. 

On the Sunday we have the ‘Music Festival’ aka ‘Piss-up in the Park’ because that’s what happens.  We go to the park and get pissed up.  The page on Facebook says  ‘Join us this afternoon for the second half of our Carnival weekend for an afternoon of great music from some fantastic bands.  Dance the afternoon away or sit down and relax while enjoying the sunshine and music.  Fair rides for the kids, plenty of food stalls and not forgetting the beer tent for all you adults.  ** Something different this year..... for those of you that bring your wheel barrow..decorate your barrows and a prize will be given to the best one on the day **’

Pfft.  Who needs a beer tent when we have cooler boxes and beer.  And wine.  And Cider.  And Pernod.  And Vodka.  And ....   basically anything else we might fancy on the day.  We’re not sure which alcoholic beverages we are taking yet.  We did go shopping today and stocked up on beer but it’s not ALL for the ‘piss-up’.  It was just that Sainsburys and Tesco have certain beers on offer so we done the double.  We went to both stores and sorted out the beer choice !

As for the bands -  I’m not sure about the words ‘fantastic bands’.  They do have a variety of bands from mid-day in the local park.  We normally get there at about 2pm but the best bands really start at about 5pm.  It then goes on until 9pm that night.  As for decorating the wheelbarrow – this is for some people that carry their beer to the ‘piss-up’ in a wheelbarrow.  Then they take the beer out and the wheelbarrow doubles as a barbecue.  Never mind that, we just take some rolls and sandwiches.  I’ve found it’s much easier to do this than to piss about trying to get a barbecue going in a wheelbarrow when you’re half pissed.  It’s a yearly thing.  We don’t get out often so we do like to make the most of it.  My mum normally gives us a lift home afterwards.  We all kind of pile round her house waiting for ‘mums taxi’.  It’s normally at this point that she says ‘are you drunk’.  We don’t even go there.  So ...  watch this space.  The ‘Carnival & Music Festival’ is next weekend.  Pictures to follow.  Maybe.  I’m not always good drunk in charge of a camera !