Part of my target reached...yay!!!!

you may wonder...what target?

I have just had two weeks off work, during which I intended to get some work done in the back bedroom, soon to be Edwin's new room.
Below is what I hoped to do
1) Paint woodwork of cupboard framework.
2) find suitable wood for shelves as in 1)
3) Source and attach doors to cupboard.
4) Cut, paint and fasten to wall baton for curtain rail
5) Attach curtain rail to 4)
6) Make curtains
7) hang curtains
8) Arrange, buy and have carpet fitted.

These jobs should have taken no more than a few days, unfortunately a really bad cold, then sciatica put paid to my plans.
I have however managed to get the curtains ready, and the curtain rail is ready to put up, more or less, but I can only say I have completed item 6 on the list. Still better than a slap in the belly with a wet kipper, as an old friend of mine used to say. I may have enough wood stashed away, and didn't realise. Ah well!
Maybe it will get done soon.
The plan was get it all ready so that when Edwin came back from Scotland, he would be surprised and all that remained would be to move his stuff in.

And on a totally different note, the dogs were clipped yesterday, and both look very smart. And I am sure secretly they are pleased the were clipped, as the weather has just turned quite warm, and Shadow looked like a teddy bear.

Off at a tangent

There is a radio advert being aired here at the moment, and although the subject is really a very serious one, every time I hear it I can't stop myself laughing.
Perhaps the USAs mania for labelling everything so people don't sue is beginning to rub off here in the UK? After all why else would they have to say part way through the advert, which is about a bowel cancer testing kit, [see told you it was serious!,] an instruction to "Take the test in the privacy of your own home!"? I would have thought that instruction was blazingly obvious, being as we are civilised people and do not just squat down as and when the urge takes us.

I'm sorry, but I do find the instruction superfluous. I can't say anyone comes to mind who would blithely fill their sample container in the public eye. Perhaps I just don't know anyone daft enough.

I may have told you about these before.

Yes, it's getting silly season again here.
Early this morning I was just dozing back off to sleep, when I heard thuds, and a car alarm. That went on for a few minutes, so I looked out of the window. In the middle of the street was one of my neighbours, sat on someone, face down. He then began to repeatedly smash the person he was sat upon's face into the road, he then twisted the person's arm at a very strange angle and bashed his face onto the road some more. He was shouting abuse at the person he was sat on, and a third person was just stood there calming smoking a cigarette. I won't try to repeat the words, but I decided I should call the police. I picked up the phone in my room, only to hear my daughter's voice talking to the Police dispatcher/ receptionist....you know what I mean....so I put the handset back down. Samantha had fallen asleep in the living room watching TV, and the disturbance had woken her. Within minutes two Police vans arrived. But the most worrying thing for me is, in the meantime the fight had stopped and all three had gone into the same house. [Yes, it IS the house where the people who always seem to be causing a disturbance live.]
Can't say anymore, except I hope this isn't the start of things again, as last summer there seemed to be something almost every weekend, and it was only Saturday last night, so there's time for them to have another go tonight.

I really do hope not, as it took me three hours to get back to sleep after that.

Just random stuff

The bookshop I go to has a loyalty card scheme, every pound you spend you get 3 loyalty points. If you don't take a carrier bag, and use your own you get another 5 points. Some of the books even clock up double points. Another "perk" of this scheme is that you are given, or can take a free copy of their magazine. [Oh! and the points build up and you can take them as cash against a purchase.]
Anyway, I was reading the last magazine earlier on today, when I came across an article I found surprising. It was about a group that campaigns to have "bad books" removed from school libraries.

"Sadly, it's not aimed at teachers to dump ragged old tomes in the bin and buy new editions: the aim of their campaign is to root out subject matter they feel is 'sensitive, controversial and inappropriate'. " [Quote from Waterstones Quarterly Magazine, issue 31/2009]

After reading the article, I mentally added a few more that they would probably object to. But the real thing that bothered me is.........just WHO ploughs through the books...and finds the 'sensitive, controversial and inappropriate' subject matter. And after looking at the group's website I felt quite sorry for these people. As they must have pretty mucky minds. As they list the "rogue" passages on their website.
One other thought crossed my mind, would they rather their children experienced some of the situations first hand?
Then my mind did it's usually tangential thing, and thought of Alison Lurie, and how she has written at least one book on the subversive nature of children's literature.
As a parent you do wish to protect your children from harmful influences, but there is protecting, and then there is wrapping up in cotton wool.
Yes, the group I have talked about is American, which then tangentially leads me onto a question Blue asked me. She asked, in a nutshell, what it meant to be British, to me. And to consider aspects such as religion, politics, sexual preference, employment, education, etc.
I gave her a one word answer, and the word was FREEDOM. We have the freedom to vote as we see fit politically, worship in whatever fashion we want to, so long as we are "of age" sexual preference is not dictated, so long as it is between consenting adults, most jobs are open to people of both genders, education is there for all up to the age of 16, soon to be 17, rising to 18. Yes, we do have laws, but within those laws, and so long as you keep them, I would say that your average Brit is fairly free.

Oh!!!! yes, and one last point...being British means it is your patriotic duty to discuss the weather with total strangers. Can you think of a better way to start up a conversation with a total stranger?

"sigh"

So, I had problems getting out of bed this morning, the pain had gone worse.
After a couple of hours I rung our out of hours doctor.
After a quick visit to the out of hours doctor I have had confirmed, yes, it's sciatica, and could take up to 6 weeks to clear. CRIPES!!!!!!
Pass me another book and some needlecraft of some type to do please?
Have got some very strong painkillers, hope these work well. From what I remember, last time I took these ones, they almost knocked me out.

Why?

Why is it that most holidays I get a cold, lose my voice or something happens to frustrate my plans?
Last week I almost lost my voice and was full of a cold. This morning I woke, feeling ok, went downstairs, then in the middle of preparing my breakfast, something went, and I now have a pain in my right hip that is making me walk around like an old lady, and I don't even feel fit enough to walk the dogs around the block. I have just rubbed the area with "muscle rub" in the vain hope it will ease the pain. Ah well, I'll have to find something I can do that doesn't cause pain until it sorts itself out.

Big grin

Yes, I have a big grin, from ear to ear.
Why?
Cos I'm going to my first ever real "gig" next month. I had hummed and ahhed about it for a couple of weeks, thinking perhaps the tickets were a little pricey. Anyway yesterday I asked Oliver if the price they were asking was OTT. He assured me that it wasn't, and the venue has seats, so I won't have to stand. He also said he wouldn't mind coming with me, as the gig is in Manchester at the MEN arena.
So....next month I go to see Jean Michel Jarre in concert. I have liked his music ever since he appeared on the Uk music scene in 1977 with Oxygene 4. Although I think that is the only "single" that really got anywhere in the charts, I'm not bothered. I think I only have a couple of his albums missing. And even my mobile ring tone is an adaptation of Bach's Toccata and Fugue by JMJ.
I'm sure I will enjoy the gig. I may even go to another if I enjoy it. I had wanted to go to Ozric Tentacles when they were here a couple of years back, but all the venues were standing only.

http://www.jeanmicheljarre.com

Why can't people be honest?

Just a quick gripe.

Why can't people be honest, they use sites designed for singles to meet, and keep quiet about the fact they are married, even put their "status" down as single. Then they start to chat up someone of their preferred sexual orientation, and don't enlighten them.
It is the words people use while chatting that give the game away however, also they unusual times they are available to chat at as well.

Yes! I have had this happen to me at least twice to my knowledge.

Strange phrase

I switched the radio on when I got up this morning, and the news was on. They used one of those phrases that I find confusing. They were talking about a celebrity funeral, and related how many "well-wishers" had turned out for the funeral. Might just be me, but "well-wishers" seems a strange choice of words. After all, when someone is dead, what use is a "well-wisher"? It ain't going to make the person miraculously return to life,is it?
It just made me wonder. There are quite a few times when phrases used by rote seem at odds with the situation.
Another example to me is the phrase "new baby". The word baby means amongst other things, "a very young animal" this in itself implies newness. And I for one have never seen an old baby, complete with wrinkled face, false teeth, etc. Perhaps it's just me