Friday, September 07, 2007

'Nails' Day - Portrait of Ralph

It gives me great pleasure to publish this 'Portrait of Ralph' who, like the rest of us, is becoming quite an elderly gentleman. My lady readers are, of course, excluded from the designation, as are the young.

I think you can tell from his face, he is a super dog and we sympathise with his failing faculties and inability to leap around as he once did. If a dog ever deserved Portugese sardines, it is Ralph !

You wouldn't believe that 3 weeks plus has passed since Y's 'nails service' but it has and we went over to Carlton as usual. We gave Frantinis a miss but Y was in 'being done' nearly an hour, so I managed a detailed investigation of the charity shops. Apparently one of the nails-girls has had a baby who was carefully passed from person to person. Her name is to be Jennifer, which might seem odd for a Vietnamese child, but Y said it suited her and that she looked divine! Babies don't appeal to me I'm afraid - wet, smelly, fragile things who you can't have a decent conversation with. I think it is a lady thing.

The we nipped over to Mapperley Top to look into the Estate Agents and to lunch in the Cheesecake Shop which is very popular in the area for lunch. One isn't restricted to cheesecake and we had chicken soup with toasted ciabatta. Both were delicious ! The soup was more of a broth with vegetables rather than 'creamed' and the bread had certainly never seen the inside of a freezer. It was light and airy and even Y (not being a keen bread person) finished both of her slices with relish. We saw a chalet bungalow in one of the Agents which we both like the look of and we are going tomorrow afternoon for a viewing. But still ! Trying not to get excited ! We were favoured by a gorgeous afternoon. Ideal for house-viewing and it surprising that almost each time Y has had her nails done the weather has been like this. The temperature reached 71F and there was no wind.

Y then went further down the road to look in other agents and I found yet another charity shop where I bought 3 more poetry books. If you wonder why, at nearly 72 I am still buying poetry books, I will explain. When I was depressed following my heart op, I threw out nearly all my poetry. It is only thanks to Y's good sense in retrieving many of them, that I still have any at all.

I couldn't resist this John Hegley collection which I haven't previously read. He is an excellent performance poet who also comes over well from the written page. His sense of humour is of Roger McGough quality. And, as you will see from the title and the cover, we residents of a Christian country, do retain a sense of humour perhaps denied to certain other faiths.

We are actually going to look at 2 bungalows tomorrow afternoon and I will, of course, keep you informed.

Re 'blog pictures'. The glitch whereby pictures which I have used, seem to vanish when one researches past blog posts, is widespread.

I visited the 'blogger' forums this morning and people have been bemoaning this trait since July. Nobody from Google has emerged to give an explanation or suggest a cure. From fellow sufferers, it appears that if you shrink your pictures to around 600 x 600pixels it doesn't seem to happen. But most of us don't want to do that, we want the pictures to be big enough for readers to enjoy. I guess, as with other google-glitches, eventually it will resolve itself.

Picture 3 is yet another artichoke-head study. The thistledown type seeds were just hanging on by a thread so to speak and I was attracted by their etherealness ( if in fact that is a word)

Tomorrow we are mounting the EPS exhibition in the refurbished Eastwood Library which is not yet officially open. So we can all have a 'neb' and see what it is like. Then we need to go to Coney Grey Farm where the butcher has opened a farm shop. They are farmers as well as butchers and all their beef and lamb is grown on their own land, hence its undoubted quality. That also will be interesting because I have never been to the farm!

Then we need shopping and we will have to eat, so another action-packed day lies ahead.

And I learnt several useful wrinkles last night at our club night, so I would enoy an hour messing about with my pictures.

Lots of reading to do too. The crossword defeated us both today. We did maybe three-quarters but I like it to be completed. It is a sort of household challenge.

Yesterday's quotation on my igoogle homepage amused me :-

"Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters"

Samuel Johnson - 'naturellement' - ha ha!
..Not tired at all tonight. We both slept well last night. Lets hope we do so again. Hope everybody does. Steven rang to say thanks for the sticks. As predicted he liked the 'gadget' one. It is his pub quiz night tonight and he intends to walk. Hope he doesn't overdo it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll give Ralph a home any time - I really do miss having a dog (first time in 32 years....).

If etherealness isn't a word it should be. Loved the photo.

I couldn't do the crossword either, did about half (on my own). Clues seemed terribly wordy, and I couldn't work out which word the answer was connected to.

Oldest daughter and I spent the day going round places looking for a venue for Golden Wedding do next Spring. Surprising how difficult it is to find somewhere that meets our criteria! - two we went to would not take children under twelve, one wanted to charge £300 to use the car park. No, I don't think so. We went out to lunch, a different Cafe Rouge, this time we had the Menu Prix Fixe, £7.95 for two courses, £9.95 for three. Limited choice, but luckily things we both liked, Fi had roasted veg. and sticky toffee pudding with ice-cream,(no, not on the same plate...) I had a melon/ham starter and penne with a very tasty cheese/bacon/creamy sauce, not quite a carbonara.

Off tomorrow with friends to a yarn shop in CVaterham, Surrey run by a friend, celebrating its 4th birthday, cakes and champagne are promised. And it is just within the M25, so my free travel pass covers me.....

Anonymous said...

Ralph is delighted to be featured in the blog despite hardly being able to see his portrait because of his cataracts. He likes the sound track though (he is deaf too). He is only sorry that it isn’t an edible picture.
I am pleased, for other readers, that he does not appear in ‘smellyvision’. RG has always being an odour aficionado but I think Ralph has given him pause for thought.

I too find John Hegley amusing; he reminds me (in appearance rather than performance, although there are echoes) of the Swan half of Flanders & Swan.

I am not convinced by ‘etherealness’; a bit clunky perhaps?. I think I favour ‘ethereality’ (ether-reality). I may look in the dictionary tomorrow. A nice picture anyway.

Anonymous said...

PS

Sorry Jill but Ralph won't sleep anywhere but here (12 or 13 years ago youngest son had to bring him back off holiday at Sutton-on-Sea after two whimperingly miserable days and nights).
He's a bit old to relocate anyway; and feels great sympathy for people in their 80s and 90s who (usually for financial reasons) are being forced to move from residential homes where they have been comfortable.