John McCrae - In Flanders Field

It is interesting to see John's handwritten version, but it still moves me as much now as when I first read it.

A sad sight but all too common

I always find these gravestone so very sad, and yet have so much respect for those that died for our freedom that we take for granted today.

It doesn't matter which conflict

.. and they'll all wear their poppies with pride

There's rats in the trenches
A thousand foul stenches
Of piss, pus and puke, blood and death
Jim's screaming his head off
'Cause Frank hasn't got one
And Joey's just drawn his last breath
While back home in Surrey
They try not to worry
And keep all their doubts locked inside
For in a few years
There'll be no more tears
And they'll all wear their poppies with pride...


She can't understand
As she holds the girl's hand
That her daughter's no longer attached
They were all blown to hell

As a terrorist cell

Though a wedding was all that they'd hatched

And back in the West

They're so sure they know best

Though they've tortured and murdered and lied

And they don't want to know

What the body counts show

As they all wear their poppies with pride...

Oh, they all wear their poppies with pride...

At the annual board meeting
Arms dealers are greeting
Reports of their profits with glee
They'll always be willing
To make a quick killing
From slaughter and mass misery
And when it's all over
They'll head off to stuff
The big bellies their suits cannot hide
And they won't spare a thought
For the carnage they've brought
But they'll all wear their poppies with pride...
Yes they'll all wear their poppies with pride...

Whoever you mix with
There's bound to be someone
Whose mind is still caught in the mesh
Those soldiers aren't heroes
They're nothing but fodder
For the thing that grows fat on our flesh
And you show no respect
For the ones left behind
Or the miserable sods who have died
If you can't face the truth about why they were killed
And you still wear your poppies with pride...
If you still wear your poppies with pride....
Do you still wear your poppies with pride?

(Paul Cudenec, 2009)

The joys of getting older

Sadly no wiser, but then again wisdom only comes with hindsight and I am always lacking that lol.

I have been given antibiotics to fight a tooth abscess caused by a dodgy root filling not be done completely by my old dentist and this is the 'root' cause of the problem. Mind you the price of fixing it will be an arm and a leg, but I have trust in my new dentist (that might be because he has access to strong sedatives and gas and air mind you :-) )

Still on a brighter note, even with the overcast clouds and rain thundering down, we are finally settled in. The cheque arrived from the solicitors yesterday and some shopping is to be done for the oven this weekend, I think I have identified the one, sadly not the one I was lusting after but a good second alternative. The main reason for not going with the lustful one was simply price, I couldn't justify spending over a £1200 on a cooker for mainly just the two of us so I had a rethink and have come up with a smaller version which has two ovens still but is only 60cm wide so we don't have to reorganise the kitchen to make space for it.

The boxes have been travelling upstairs this week in preparation for making the dining room presentable, and also we have a unit to pick up which will fit in here and contain glassware, drinks and other sundry items along with the dining room table.

It is nice to wake up in a bed, and not in a caravan; to have the space and place for everything and not live out of plastic boxes protecting clothes from the damp. I am grateful for that time, and it was cosy and warm but it is nice to be able to open the back door and walk out into a garden which needs work on it to make it more interesting than just a square bit of grass fenced in on two sides with a wall at the bottom.

Guess I am grateful that the house means I am finally settled as I always felt the house at the Back of Beyond was just too big for me and that I couldn't manage it; this house is much more manageable even with the few niggles we found.

Remiss of me

Hadriana has given me two awards, the Sunshine Award and the Circle of Friendship award.. thank you




It is always nice to be appreciated, and I would like to pass these two awards on to you all, a little hard to name all and everyone so I am going to be cheeky and ask you to take it if you want it. All the linked blogs and the blogs I follow I treasure and it is too difficult to pick just some names out.



PS. Happy Birthday to me, to celebrate with the people that I love is more important than anything else I have at the moment :-) To everyone else, thank you for your kind wishes, and your continued visits.

Sparking off - an unfortunate series of events

Part of my unofficial duties of where I am staying is to help with the animals, many of whom are surrounded by electric fencing; of a suitable low voltage.

Though when they touch it, the pigs they do squeal loudly - ear splitting in fact, but they only do it when they are about to be fed and are too eager to get to the food first.

Normally with the ponies I turn off the fence before hopping over to give them some hay and some nuts, but not on Friday night. Instead I did Merlin's and then Dillon.

This is where the fun started, or not if you were Dillon, I hoped over the fence and bless him, ever eager for his nuts he lunged forward to meet me and my hand touched his headcollar at which point he wheeled away fast and I was left with a finger throbbing where the electricity had surged through to the metal work on his headcollar.

Poor Dillon, he still hasn't forgiven me yet even though over the weekend well Saturday I was feeding him treats and scratching his rump to try and make it up to him.

Leanne's (Somerset Seasons) box of Dorset goodies arrived on Saturday, and I had a marvellous time going through the contents... can't wait to try the recipe for Dorset Apple Cake - Thank you for this... once I am settled into a more permanent location I will do a similar giveaway with Cornish goodies instead though sadly you might have to miss out on the clotted cream :-)

Thank you

Leanne over at Somerset Seasons, Dorset Days just celebrated her 1,500th post with a giveaway. I can't remember when I came across her blog, but it is full of wisdom, gardening advice, news on her chickens and crafts galore.. a talented lady and a pleasure to 'visit' so drop on by and say hello if you are passing.

I put in a comment on her blog, to congratulate her, and when she did the drawing of the names to win the prize of a goodie bag from Dorset my name came up. Thank you Leanne, this will be treasured.

Having been born in Dorset, it will be nice to have some memento's of my birthplace and it should arrive just in time for my birthday so a double celebration.

In the pouring rain

A nice young man, known officially now as the hero of the hour, pulled off the old exhaust now completed severed from the manifold end and welded it back together using a bit of spare pipe and meanwhile the rain pelted down on him as he was lying on his back outside under the car.

It took him about an hour in total and then my little car sounded once more like a car and not an undersized tractor. He did try to kid me by saying I had to drive at 20 miles per hour for 5 miles which later got increased to 10 miles but I kept quiet. It has to have some more work done on it in the near future as the Cam belt drive and pulleys need to be replaced due to age, hopefully this will be enough to keep it going for a little longer.

I am looking to get a new car, well new second hand. I haven't made up my mind what I want, but some of it is going to come down to needs and environment as well as costs. I quite like the idea of a Kia next but have no experience of them, though SOH's Dad has had a couple and seems quite happy with them.

A quick visit

Raz, or Stormsmuggler as she is known on the rat forum is providing a loving (and I do mean loving) foster home for Gus and Barnie until we are settled. Thank you so much to Raz, it means a lot and I know when we take them back she is going to miss them both, but particularly Gus.

We dropped in to see her, and the two girls on Sunday on our way home to Cornwall. What a change from the two we left there just before Christmas. Even then Gus was interested in the smells of the other rats, while Barnie cowered in her igloo. Both had been successfully integrated into a small group of other females and Gus was in her element looking after the younger kittens like a maternal godmother. She did remember us though and happily came out to investigate and say hello even though it was their sleep time.

Barnie on the other hand, we knew she was different to Gus, but I put it down to her poor eyesight etc. Raz thinks that she is hormonally challenged. For those of you who are interested, rats come into season every 3-4 days and only on probably one of those did Barnie feel sociable, the rest of the time it was leave me alone and let me be. She fits in well with the group and they seem to understand her ways and leave her alone when she doesn't feel like interacting. Barnie did have an argument with the alpha female, Mabel who has put her in her place and all is peaceful. She will never be as easy to handle as Gus but I am growing in confidence and wouldn't feel scared about picking her up, just wise to the fact that she is more than likely to bite you if she feels like it.

What it does mean, is that the two of them will need a bit more company, particularly for Gus who loves the company of the other ratties, and curls up with them in big snuggly ratballs on the hammocks, so I have asked Raz when the time comes to help me find a couple of female companions, that will see our population rise to four rats rather than two. Barnie will be like the maiden aunt in the corner, grumpy as anything and leave Gus with her 'babies' to play and have fun.

It was good to see both of them, and to have a little time with them, for those that haven't thought of rats as pets I can vouch for them, highly intelligent and very entertaining. Gus particularly likes to supervise the cleaning out of her cage, holding onto your ear and bruxing in your ears to tell you when to put a bit of extra effort in.

　

Time to say my goodbyes

I have but a few days left here, and today is the start of the long farewell. I might not see some of these poeple again as visits will be intermittent in the future. Some will be harder than others, but there are many methods of communication, and I am certain to keep in contact via facebook with some, with phone calls and emails for others and some by letter.

I am savouring the memories, and at the same time I am looking forward to the new start. Leaving the problems I have encountered over the past 6 months here though not forgotten nor fully dealt with and I will be talking over these with people to see whether it is worth pursuing further action.

On a happier note, Kalem Murphy entered the world yesterday weighing in at over 9lbs (ouch) congratulations to Kathryn; hope you recover quickly and enjoy your new son.

The raggle taggle gypsy oh

I am about to up sticks and remove myself to Cornwall, and therefore have now handed in my notice to the University at the back of beyond and will be in Cornwall from 2010. A brand new year and a brand new start.

Thanks to all of you who offered words of encouragement and support, it hasn't been an easy decision and not everything is yet in place but it is where I want to be and even though it is going to be tough financially it will be beneficial in the longer term.

Somehow today seems a little lighter, I feel less weighed down by the situation and even have a big smile on my face.. what could be more beneficial.

Swine Flu

I get my injection for swine flu today, hopefully this will stop me picking up this awful bug but you never really know. Friends in Cornwall have one son ill with it, and potentially their second son has it but we are keeping our fingers crossed that they recover soon.

Since my return from Cornwall at the beginning of October with a heavy cold, I have had no end of sinus problems and finally the docs have decided that perhaps a course of amoxycillin is in order to try and clear it up.

I had tried :

Steam baths
Steroid nasal spray
Reducing milk intake

Was there something else I could have done?

ps - grateful thanks for the grand annual christmas tea held in Aspen, I had a lovely time and arrived back in time thanks to my Fairy Godmother for her help and assistance.

ATC?

If you didn't know what the title of this post meant, you weren't the only one. Kath from Railway Cottage Blog had a post on recycling and offered an ATC (Artists Trading Card) as a prize for the best comment with an interesting recyling story.

I proposed the story of the fish in the fish pond made of a fibre-glass planter that was being thrown away and how I had ended up with fishlets after borrowing some pond week from a neighbours Koi carp pond..

Kath liked the story so much she awarded a prize of one of her ATC's and this morning it arrived safely, so for your viewing here it is.

It is truly beautiful and Kath wrote some lovely words on the back before putting it in a small cellophane bag to ensure it doesn't get damaged. Now all I have to do is find a small photoframe to suit the item and I will have my own piece of art.

Thanks Kath, I will treasure this and you never know you might get another person to tutor xx

Yesterday's Post and More Ideas

I got a few comments on the learning Cornish post of yesterday, some positive some less so and each valid for their reasons. My main reason is because it is relatively cheap, keeps me occupied and since I am moving to Cornwall is in keeping with where I am living.

If I moved to France, Italy or Germany I would do the same, try to integrate to be part of the community and the only difference is that Cornish like Welsh is a regional language and signs etc would be bilingual. Dickiebo quite rightfully pointed out that this is in many cases just a means of jobs for the boys which I agree with but I also believe that there are too many instances where English/British individuality is being erased by eurobureacracy and that we often give up things of value which we should hold onto; whether Cornish fits better into this category remains to be seen but I hope it does and that it grows.

So where is this post going? Well Hadriana came back from London having visited the Language Fair (how I wished I had known this was on) and was saying about learning Latin. My old University (can one say that about the Open University?) got some government money for putting up learning materials freely available to all, which I remembered included a basic Latin course and I posted the link to Hadriana the link is here if anyone else is interested, as well as Latin it has more modern languages, French, German and Spanish as well as other snippets of learning materials in History, Art, English etc and all of it absolutely free.

So if you have every fancied having a look, learning a new skill or just browsing for free materials then please follow the link.

If you know of any more links, please let me know.

....and on a sad note, exactly one calendar month today will be Christmas Day ... sigh

Armistice Day

While the commemorative services all took place last Sunday, as it was the nearest Sunday to the 11th, today is actually Armistice Day.

The cessation of hostilities by the Allies and Germany involved in the First World War Western Front took place 91 years ago today signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest. The Armistice was agreed at 5 AM on 11 November, to come into effect at 11 AM Paris time (that is 10 AM GMT), for which reason the occasion is sometimes referred to as "the eleventh (hour) of the eleventh (day) of the eleventh (month)".

The act of remembrance was actually suggested by George Honey in a letter to a British Newspaper, thank you George, and since about 20 years ago there has been a 2 minute silence kept on both Remembrance Sunday and also the 11th November and grows particularly with the current situation in Afghanistan as a way of remembering both those who serve and those who are currently serving.

So today at 11am I will stand quietly and remember those who were involved in the Great War, the Second World War, Suez, Korea, Malaya, The Falklands, Northern Ireland and now Afghanistan and hope that by the 100th anniversary of this sad day that peace will get an opportunity to change the future.

Last Night

I had the pleasure of attending one of the Open University's 40th Anniversary Lectures.. this one was given by Philip Pullman who is an honarary graduate of the OU.

Philip was to discuss the relationship between the story and the illustration, I have tried to read the Dark Materials Trilogy without success, nor manage to listen to the audiobooks, and as for the film...well the less said about that the better.

Philip discussed the borderland of a story, that's the bits that aren't written down to you and me. In other words, the story sets a scene, it may describe a place, a tavern, dark and warm with a nice fire and beer flowing. Your vision of the inn will be different to mine, drawing on our own experiences of life... I have always said that to me reading a book is like making my own film, I read the words and convert it to my own personal film show; I am caught up in my own imagination sometimes and it is hard to come back to the real world.

An excellent evening, I might even have another attempt at his books :-)

So otherwise why go, well it is a free evening out, includes tea and coffee, a chance to meet fellow OU students and Alumni and well I think that's enough to go on for now and yes as an Alumni of the Open University, I can recommend it to anyone interested in non-standard education and by that I mean going to University, yes you might miss out on the social life at many Universities.

Hmm that student that got so drunk that he peed all over a war memorial was at a freshers week and this was an organised piss-up... not something to be proud of in times to come.

Living in student accommodation, halls of residence away from the comforts of home and friends... can be depressing for some students trying to cope with the dramatic changes of being alone and stressed over course work.

The negatives of studying with the OU are many as well, sometimes lack of tutor support, distance learning can be isolating, particularly if you are in the higher level courses, ambiguous course materials, never ending assignment lists etc...

It is one heck of an achievement and one I am proud of being a member of this University with my BSc Open

Dehydration

No not me... food

I was on Kathy's blog a while back when she wrote of Summer's Bounty - August 16th.. and dehydrating food.. Now while I have used freezing, bottling and other mechanisms to hold over the harvest of food into winter I hadn't thought of using the dehydrating method... well actually I had for sun-dried tomatoes but never managed to find the space or location to dry them out successfully and most ended up wasted.

I managed to find a reasonably priced dehydrator from Westfalia UK, and it is en-route to me so I will be in time to do some dehydration before winter sets her fingers onto the market stalls of produce.

I will be doing some banana's both for use in cereals but also for the ratz as they like banana chips and prefer the harder ones to the softer ones, but these have so many preservatives that I am concerned for them and have to limit their intake..

I will keep you updated on how the experiment is going.

Freecycling - the joys and the despair

Those of you that know me, know my love of recycling or freecycling... one man's rubbish is another man's treasure..

I put a request on my local freecycle branch for some kitten stuff, as Piran and Saffy are coming back with me after my Interview on the 9th October... they have to be introduced to the ratz before they get too old and set in their ways... so home they are coming...

If I haven't mentioned them before it was all very up in the air, but I decided that I was going to have some new pets and it would be a while before I could entertain a dog, a cat would be more up my street. A family member has had two litters from each of her three cats in quick succession and a quick chat to her had me pick out Piran who gets his name because he is mostly black and white, then I had another thought and decided two was better than one, so Saffy was included as he is all black with blue eyes...

Friday saw me driving to a nearby village, en-route to a big pet's store as I needed more rat food, and collecting a travelling box.. a good size and a good scrub will see that as good as new and certainly at the price of being free.. thanks to Hazel for that one.

So yesterday involved a (what was supposed to be 35 mins drive to North London) traumatic drive to a location which is too close for comfort to the smoke, involving mapquest directions which didn't match the roads near London Colney (due to the bypass); I eventually collected a covered-in litter tray, a learner kitten tray and a stack of goodies from Emma ... thank you so much for that it was really appreciated and apologies for arriving about 40 minutes late and taking my phone calls for assistance in finding you :-)

I am preparing the study as the room of choice to be the nursery for the kittens as during the day I don't want an open war zone in the house.. so over the weekend, I packed and decluttered this room and now just have to paint it and I am going to get a doorway, hopefully through freecycle, so that the little 'uns can be caged I mean kept securely in their domain.

Pictures will follow as and when I can get them off my phone...lol

Monty's and a happy mistake

Not the full monty but very nice..

As a thank you to someone who was helping me declutter last week, and before the main onslaught of moving the 'stuff' to the skip I took them to Monty's a local restaurent. Although Monty's doesn't have a licence for alcohol, they do allow customers to bring along a bottle of wine.

I decided not to bother, as the food is delicious without stocking up on alcohol the night before a very long day on Saturday.

As we munched on the poppadom's complete with four different relishes, one with yoghurt, mint and spices, another with fruit chutney, the third was a hot pickle and the fourth and my absolute favourite was an onion relish... I keep trying to get the recipe without any success as each chef seems to have their own version.

I ordered a chicken dopeaza, which when delivered turned out to be lamb.. I had already tucked in and found it delicious and only mentioned it to the waiter as I wouldn't normally eat lamb unless grilled or roasted and had never had it in a curry before but that it was really nice and it was.

The lamb melted in the mouth and was beautifully spiced, neither too hot and spicy nor bland. They couldn't be apologetic enough and I had to giggle when he said later that even the chef couldn't think why he had served lamb instead of chicken.

When the bill came, he had deducted half for the cost of their mistake, which was not really a mistake as now I feel I can order it and know in confidence it will taste delicious.