Sunday, March 22, 2009

Mothering Sunday - Y at BJ - 50F - NW at 9 mph

.
I must open with 'good news' and 'No' - not the Gospel according to St. Radiogandy. Simply that the first set of mittens, which Jill so kindly knitted for me, have turned up.

The 'mitten thief' who stole them from the Pub, somehow gained entry to the bungalow and secreted them in the pocket of my blue denim jacket which it has been too cold to wear.

So now, as the illustration shows, I have two pairs - both equally comfortable and efficient. ........ I think, on balance, the blue ones are my favourites. It is fervently hoped that Jill won't insist on the return of one pair or the other !

Y was duly collected by TJ just after 11am and transported to Burton Joyce for the day. There are to be three Mums. Yvonne, Lisa, and Lisa's Mum and Tracy and Steven are in charge of the kitchen. I'm sure they will be having a great time.

During the night, rather than twiddle my thumbs, I created the picture on the left. And sent it to Yvonne shortly after 7am.

She likes it a lot. The image is from Y's 'white-water rafting' triumph and the rest is photographic chicanery. I am quite proud of the result and Hannah said in 'google-chat' ..... "That is Soooo good". Praise indeed.

My day has involved catching up on reading, crossword puzzle, and - naturellement - radio. Interspersed with frequent naps.

On e-bay I was pursuing a x2 converter for my Nikon and had high hopes I might 'win' for £12.50 but at the last minute I was outbid and decided to let it go. During the week I'll give Jason at Calumet a ring and talk about a new one. My interest in photographing our garden birds remains undiminished and I could do with something longer than the long end of my 70-300mm Nikkor lens. I still have a 200mm Vivitar which is as crisp as a fresh cracker - the converter would make that 400mm which should be more than adequate.

Another site I 'stumbled upon' during the night was this site for people suffering from MS. Whenever I see the words my thoughts fly to David's pal JD. So awful to be afflicted in one's 40s. Awful at any age I know but it really hits home when its people the same age as your children. The site is Squiffy's House of Fun. Although a donation isn't required I sent a fiver which has already been graciously acknowledged. I felt happier then about using one of their cartoons. Please see below -


There are many others, equally witty, so - watch this space ! ...... A sense of humour, as a sufferer, must be valuable. When I was 'doing' the Home Office Police Discipline Appeals Tribunals we sat in threes and my particular three was chaired by Gary Flather a Barrister who couldn't practise anymore due to MS. His brain-power however remained undiminished.

My responses to your previous comments

Bob .... Talking of old gramophones and childhood 78s my favourite was ' I wanna go back to my little grass shack, way back in Kallikoo Hawaii! ' I haven't had time to google it but I can hear it now. Ray is the best 'lyric finder' I know so - if you are reading Ray !

Although thrushes may call it an 'anvil' the stone in question is a bog-standard concrete paving slab.

As the date has now passed anyway I feel I can safey agree to your Caps & Bells celebration of the blog's birthday. But, as with 'giving up Marathon running for Lent' you will be pleased to learn that I haven't faltered !

JBW .... You now have me completely confused (not difficult these days) . If the 'aqueduct' portion is the water carrying bit (by definition) and is some feet lower at the inlet end, how do they persuade the water to run uphill ?

Jill .... Reading between the lines, I suspect I am with you. I now know as much as I need to know about aqueducts/viaducts. In fact I suspect I could survive with slightly less !

You are also quite right about Bob and Twitter. We could all then enrol as his 'friend' and he could blog away to his heart's content.

Reg .... I haven't forgotten "it simply come to pieces in my hand". If I have another bad night I'll tackle it then.

Also I am indebted to you for this Tommy Cooper gem -

"Two fish in a tank,.one says 'a you drive and I'll look after the guns'

......................................

n.b. People have been good about keeping their comments within suggested word-counts - using real names, and not posting more than once each day etc.... I have decided therefore to suspend the 'comment-moderation' system for a trial period. This means that, as soon as you write your comment, it will be published. No time lag !

...............................


Quotation time .....

"Belief is the death of intelligence."



Had my usual Sunday morning Chat to David which was nice and John also rang. Laura and Joe are off trekking - India, China, Tibet, Russia etc., before Joe comes back to begin his PhD at Newcastle. John obviously feels that Laura, 25 now, will be in 'safe hands'.

John's last day of work is quite soon although his last pre-retirement day isn't till June. And he and Yvonne are off in their Camper Van to go wherever the spirit takes them. I know he will keep in touch and send pictures etc., and all I can say is good luck to them all. They have worked hard, and they deserve it.

...................................

"Sleep tight - catch you tomorow"
.


.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Got back from Tenerife on Friday so I'm feeling the cold! The 'Yvonne as Cover Girl' picture is brilliant and I also like the fox and hounds pic. I've been having my own problems with packs of dogs on my lane where Toby and I were cornered by two enormous Dogues de Bordeaux this morning. It's the third time it's happened so I'm going to have to take my walks elsewhere.
I'll e-mail you some flowers from Tenerife - our hotel was very close to the botanical gardens which were quite magnificent.

Anonymous said...

You say are confused. Are you sure that your were wearing the correct spectacles or were you trying to read my comment backwards? Have another read !!
I know the feeling, when you get old - your mind does not work like it used to do. Even Shakespeare told us that we go back to childhood.

Anonymous said...

Your 'mitten thief' is also active in the north of the county.
I frequently have things stolen which are later returned and hidden under the bed (or even in the cupboard from which they were taken).

Applause for the fake magazine cover.

Witty fox & hounds picture.
The wife of a friend had MS in her 20s but didn’t let it stop her living. She had affairs and even remarried after their divorce. Sadly, she was killed in a car crash in France some 20 years ago.

Re kale-nourished jester marathons: I consider you faltless.

Jill:
Bet you didn’t know the Pont du Garde aqueduct is 50km long and has a gradient of 0.4%.
If you aren’t careful I’ll tell you about the Great Pyramid of Cheops (as it was known 50 years ago). It has 2 air vents to the King’s Chamber: one 4”sq, the other 6”).

Twitter makes me think of a poem I wrote some 20 years ago. I’ll email it.

Jbw:
Don’t know how old you are? but us old fogeys do get confused at times.

Unknown said...

Wonderful day yesterday - doesn't matter how many times I say I only want cards,I still get the works: meals, flowers, presents. etc. (I'm not really complaining).

Delighted you've eased the censorship of the blog. I hope your trust won't be abused.

Anonymous said...

G, your 'reading between the lines' was quite correct...

JBW, I wish my brain would revert to childhood, I thought much quicker then, and didn't spend so much time losing/finding things....

So pleased the mittens have turned up, returned by the mitten thief,who no doubt was overcome with remorse, crying into his beer, at the thought of your poor cold mittenless hands... At least you have a spare pair now!

Loved the doctored 'Esquire' cover, aren't you clever, and the fox with the hounds, that really appealed. I know someone with MS, in her forties with family, has periods of remission when she is fine, then she gets a relapse and can really only rest. At the moment the remissions are much longer than the relapses.

Y, I did well yesterday too, flowers and cards (but no meal ...) and cake! Nice, isn't it? Am a bit mixed up with these Yvonnes, I take it it is not you off in the camper van?