Monday, August 11, 2008

Blood test - Long Eaton - National Trust

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After a blood test (my blood taker lady was prompt) it was straight over to Long Eaton where we had a lovely time. The girls had so much to show us, plus the holiday snaps on the laptop. Sky played the flute to us, and she is rather good - semi-accompanied by Brooke on Keyboards. We also had the pleasure of reading first-class school reports and clearly they are doing extremely well.

On the left is a working carousel which Brooke has made. Aren't kids clever these days.

About my blood test - it is now 9.45pm and the clinic haven't rung. This is good news because were my INR level to be dramatically askew there would be an immediate dosage change and/or hospital admission had it gone up even higher.

So - fingers crossed !

When we got home we tackled the National Trust stuff needed for tomorrow morning's Committee Meeting in Mansfield. It is also a Karen day so we won't be under her feet.

While we were at Long Eaton, during coffee, Sky drew our double-portrait and we love it. My picture wall is getting so crowded I've had to start an extension as I hope you can see.

What a nice young lady she is. The portraits are so flattering and happy. And we are both so slim - she's taken years off us.

This evening we watched part 2 of the Richard Dawkins programme about The Genius of Charles Darwin and thought it extremely good. Several points left 'hanging' last week were explained.

Even so, he had to point out that the title of his 1970s book The Selfish Gene was something of a misnomer. I thought ""Well, you chose the title Dawkins, no-one else was responsible". Anyway, we are both looking forward to Part 3 next week.

Comments

Jill ..... Re Buzzards in the locality. Sometimes we drive down a very narrow and completely wild lane at the back of the Horse and Groom at Moorgreen. A Buzzard has been reported there, but we have never seen it. Were Roy around he would know. Still, he will be back soon.

Our Buzzard didn't 'mew' or say anything at all. He just sat there, scaring the sparrows to death. I do really hope that he pays us another visit. Can always find a vacant post for a Buzzard don't you know?

Strange about your comment on the unpublished blog. Blogger.com is, as you all are aware, apt to occasionally act in odd ways. Still a good programme though. Typical of Google in general I guess.

See as below to Helen, re 'fish-eating veggies'.

Helen .... Y and I both envy your Hamlet visit. David Tennant has earned glowing reviews. People tend to forget that many actors, who achieve fame for a particular role, often have RADA and RSC history behind them. And, apparently, he was ably assisted by Captain Jean Luc Picard.

As Oliver Pritchett (Matt's Dad) says this morning in The Telegraph, perhaps a Dalek as Macbeth ?

I suppose 'fish-eating vegetarian' is OK - like a 'whisky drinking teetotaller' ?

Bungus ...... Sorry about the terminology. As you know, I frequent WebUser forums (a very friendly and helpful place to loiter) and they use the shorthand of IE7 (Internet Explorer 7) to distinguish it from Internet Explorer 6.

Firefox really is the better browser - honest.

Re - Saturday isn't Sunday ! You e-mailed me to point out that my clock seemed to be running a little fast. So, I went into the relevant blog post and edited it.

I see from you and Rob that The Sports Desk is back.

AnonymousRob ...... Can't agree with you about lenses. Like Andy does, I find them interesting in themselves. I realise it is just the same as kids with toys. Bogger the results ! I just like looking at them and playing with them.

Very witty about barber queues ! And the Serif of Nottingham. I hadn't realised the phonetic connection before.

Please see above re the reason for IE7. Just habit really, from lurking in another place (see above).

You are right to point out that an explanation is needed for the VR description of the Nikon lens.

So - for the benefit of other readers - The letters stand for Vibration Reduction. Other makers use different words to mean the same thing. Canon talks of Image Stabiisation for instance. They all mean 'anti- camera shake' and allow the user to take pictures with less problems due to shaky hands..

We really must sort out a date (as previously discussed) for you and Elaine to come and eat. Would it be a good idea if I did something simple like Sausage and Mash and invited Reg and Maureen on the same occasion ? I'm sure we could find something to talk about. (Sorry Reg and Mo for just dropping that on your toes)

On the subject of food. We have discovered a new Farm Shop, called the Watnall Farm Shop a hundred yards or so down Narrow Lane at the Watnall end.

I can't publish a link to it because their information is a PDF page rather than a website. Personally speaking I dislike PDF pages - they seem inflexible.

And before anybody asks - Portable Document Format.

Anyway their produce seems good, so here is a snap of the blurb.

Best I can do I'm afraid.

Reg ... good to have you back on board. And thanks for your help on the phone, to deal with the Photoshop glitch.

I'm sure you are right about the blonde-presenters. They all look the same to me -ha ha!

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Quotation time .............. I've always a keen Santayana fan. Very astute fella !

"Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better"



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Sleep tight everybody. Not really looking forward to the Committee Meeting tomorrow. They can be a pain. Still, lets hope for the best. And it will be nice to see our chums.


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The blonde presenter I didn't know was/is Hazel Irvine - in yesterday's tv review bit they mentioned her sang-froid while dealing with the plastic buckets around her....

And the answer to the 'quick' (huh!) crossword clue, another name for a goldfinch, was 'redcap'. I've never heard them called that - perhaps it is local? It was all I could think of that fitted in, but I thought I was making it up!

We have had Olympics on here all day, a lot of the time waiting for the boxing (him) and tennis (me), the timings are hopelessly wrong. It seems to rain there as much as it does here....

Inbetween all that excitement we de-frosted the deep freeze. Originally it did this itself, but that facility pcked up as soon as the guarantee ran out. I have my system for doing this, involving a rolling pin, a palette knife and a hair-dryer, R thought he could improve on this so I left him to it. He and the carpet seemed to get very wet. But it is now done, and turned out, found all sorts of goodies and non-goodies.

Hope you don#t hear from the hospital.....

Yes, children nowadays do seem to be frighteningly clever. I think they are taught different things to us though.

Anonymous said...

From Sunday comments.

Rob:

Mea Culpa !
I was getting confused as occasionally happens.
NOT Anita Longsburgh (nor yet Judy Grinham) not Olympic Games, not Gold Medal:
The Mansfield swimmer I was thinking of was Maureen Pitchfork (later Arnold) who achieved longlasting local fame by coming fifth in the final of the 100 metres backstroke in the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Canada. She was 6 years old Rebecca Adlington's first coach at Mansfield Woodhouse's Sherwood Baths,

And of course Miss Bramwell was never Prime Minister! She served in Daddy Naylor’s cabinet as one of the coat hooks upon which he hung his canes (he always gave a choice of thin or thick and always used the one not selected. He was leader of the Sadism Party in the mid 1930s.

Ergo, the expression: “Gie’s a lend o’ yer lens”.

I thought only Chinamen had barber queues

I believe the Serif of Nottingham lives in the Meadows while the High Serif (otherwise Gizoo) occupies the castle.

I don’t want an explanation because it would only further confuse my fevered brain, but it is hard to see how the Firefox (which I really thought was fighter plane) can do a significantly better job than Internet Explorer. I shall just accept that RG is correct until it starts to cause him problems!

I may have it wrong but I have always understood ‘dogging’ to be more of a participatory exercise (and more of a young persons’ gymnastic one as it seems to take place in cars, ie ‘amomaxia’) whereas ‘piking’ is purely observational.

Reg:
I think it is Sharon, not Charon, Davies; she was a gymnast not a rower.

Mon blog:
Sorry, but I don’t find ‘Portable Document Format’ any more informative than ‘PDF’. But there you go!

Possibly the identical (to the untutored eye) blonde presenters have been selected as a homage to the host nation?

Do fruitarians eat only gooseberries?

Jill:
I would have thought 'redcap' was more likely an alternative name for the 'Redpoll' (acanthis flammea) rather than the 'Goldfinch' (carduelis carduelis).
BUT: The Redcap oranda (Carassius auratus) is a selectively bred form of the common goldFISH developed centuries ago.

Haven't tried a rolling pin but a blunt knife and a hair dryer very useful. With a chest freezer, poring in a bucket of hot water works very well.
Yes children are taught differently. Geography is not at all the same subject that it once was, for instance.

Anonymous said...

PS:
I would really expect the Internet Explorer to be a butterfly collector.

Anonymous said...

I don't know, I haven't visited for a number of days and you've moved my location a couple of hundred miles to the south. No need to worry at all as most people do it. For some reason when we tell people where we live they say down by Southampton.Bungus and Graham thank you so much for your kind comments regarding my site. I see what you mean about it being an advert for the island. I can assure you I don't receive any money from the authorities I do it out of love, and I do enjoy it. Of course give the URL to friends. Give it to as many people as you want. The more people visiting the better.Wow a buzzard in your back garden. the biggest birds we get are gulls and they are a right pain I can tell you.