What? July already!

I can't believe the year has flown by so quickly, this time last year, I was busy decorating the back of beyond ready for putting it on the market. This year I am busy unpacking at the Edge of the World and looking forward to my new career which started yesterday.

I am busy catching up with the paperwork needed, of which there is plenty. In the main though, I have a free reign to manage my work load and make my own appointments to see clients.

Life has been full of surprises over the past 12 months, some good, some bad but always interesting to come out of the other side. Hopefully now the surprises may be small and good for the forseeable future.

The World

Is a little quieter this morning, and I don't mean just because the England Football team Prima Donnas'  got knocked out of the World Cup. Not it was much more than that. The long dusty days full of sunshine and heat have mellowed the land into a gray, misty world.

At 6.30am this morning it was already hazy and hot, with the promise of more heat as the day goes on and I for one will be glad when this afternoon is over as I have an appointment with a dentist to fix the problems that the last one caused and I still have inflammation in the gum which the antibiotics couldn't clear completely so hears to hoping this afternoon will resolve it.

I didn't manage to complete the fence yesterday afternoon, it was just a little too hot and I was tired after doing the washing, shopping and ironing so just managed to get just over a metre done and the rest can wait for tonight unless the impending rain stops play.

I can't complain about the last few weeks, we have been treated to just how good this country can be when the weather is clement and she has been spectacularly kind of recent days with the long hot sunny days of Summer.

The sun is shining

The fence needs painting, so I am off to get splattered lol.

Hope everyone has a great day, practicising safe sun... slap it on, keep cool and enjoy the lovely weather.

Saturday Satire : The Honeymoon

A young couple left the church and arrived at the hotel where they were spending the first night of their honeymoon. They opened the champagne and began undressing.

When the bridegroom removed his socks, his new wife asked, "What's wrong with your feet? Your toes look all mangled and weird."

"I had tolio as a child," he answered.

"Tolio? Surely you mean polio?" she asked.

"No, it was tolio. The disease only affected my toes."

When the groom took off his trousers, his bride once again asked "What's wrong with your knees? They're all lumpy and deformed!"

"As a child, I also had kneasles," he explained.

"Kneasles? Surely you mean measles?" she asked.

"No, it was kneasles. It was a strange illness that only affected my knees."

Although she thought it was odd, the new bride just had to be satisfied with his answer.

As the undressing continued, her husband at last removed his underpants.

"Don't tell me," she said.

"Let me see if I can get this one right for myself... errmmm.... smallcox?"

Designer Pets or Money Makers

I was talking to a lady about her dog the other day, it was a pedigree she advised me. Dad was a KC registered Springer Spaniel while Mum was a KC registered Cocker Spaniel. This had the delightful name of a Sprocker Spaniel.

Now, despite my ignorance, Two KC registered dogs have to be of the same breed to be considered pedigree anything outside of that was a mongrel. So when did designer pooches like the following become pedigree (or as I prefer to say money makers).

Jackapoo - Jack Russell with a Poodle
Sprocker - as above
Cockerpoo - Cocker Spaniel with a Poodle
Pugalier - Pug with a Cavalier Spaniel
Labradoodle - Labrador with a poodle (admittedly these were bred to enhance lives of people sensitive to shed hair)

The list is endless, and while they look cute as puppies, these guys grow up and then suddenly lose their charm finding themselves ignored, or up for rehoming, or worse just dumped. I miss having a dog, I want another one, but don't really want to pay premium prices for people carelessly breeding these puppies. I know I don't want another Jack Russell, not because it would remind me of Sam, more I have always wanted a bigger dog though god forbig it gets the idea it wants to be a lapdog.

The world is crazy enough, with too many dogs and cats needing homes without adding to the pile of must have designer things that have people digging too deep just because it is the next new thing in fashion.

What a beautiful evening

The weather is glorious, wall to wall sunshine with just a cool breeze to take the edge off the heat but all the same it is wonderful and dry. For those people on holiday, it must be lovely to be able to enjoy it and sitting here in my office looking out I just want to be out there too.

I have a couple of planters to pot up tonight with some busy lizzies, marigolds and some Winston Churchill Fuchsia's which will look lovely and put a dividing boundary between us and next door who children like riding their bikes over our piece of garden despite being politely asked not to. So these long tubs will mark the boundary and look pretty too.

Hopefully I have enough plants to plant up the big blue planter which this year will just have annuals planted in it while I think what to plant. I need to replace the lavenders, rosemary and herbs from the Back of Beyond and sadly my dwarf lilac didn't make the transition nor a hardy fuchsia that was lovely. I would like some philadephus and a californian lilac the varieagated variety which was just turning into a nicely shaped shrub but we neither had the time nor the space to bring them all and given we lost the two we did bring I cannot be sorry to have left them behind.

I also want to plant a honeysuckle and have found one that I can take a cutting from, which has the most glorious scent and will look nice in one corner of the garden and growing along the top of the wall, I also need to get some suitably spiky plants to deter visitors from entering/leaving the garden that way lol.

Plans, Plans, Plans and somehow it was nice just watching and imagining in the sunshine last night.. Browning was right when he said Oh to be in England now that April's here... well make that sunny June and warm evenings full of bird song and quiet fox cubs exploring the fields and hedgerows and this is a beautiful land.

Fencing with Paint

I had the day off yesterday, because I have holiday to use up and also because I had a doctors' appointment for an Asthma review which I passed with flying colours. My peak flow reading was back up to 450 while it was predicted at 409, a huge increase over the 300 I was blowing back in January when I had to be put on steroids though you could blame that on the cold weather and living in a caravan.

It was too nice a morning to stay in bed, and the fence was needing to be painted, so I got up had a quick breakfast out on the bench in the sunshine and then prepared to be speckled - well if you have seen me paint you will know why.

I managed to get some paint on the fence, on the house, on me, on the chimney pot and even some on the clematis lol but by 1.30pm I had finished the main part between us and the next door neighbours, the brush we brought was supposed to be suitable for fence painting but not the sort of fence we have and I need a smaller one to do the bits I couldn't reach like into the corners etc but on the whole it doesn't look too bad at all.

I washed off all the speckled bits from me before I walked over to the doctors, enjoying the summer sunshine, which has been absolutely glorious the past couple of weeks and I hope it will last longer as I am enjoying it. The garden is taking shape, the back wall is starting to look like a wall and not like a bush of ivy; though somebody who has taken advantage at some point in time and thrown their rubbish on top of the wall which will have to be removed. I want to plant some trailing lobelia and also have some solar garden lights to go along the wall which will make it look stunning when it is done.

The longest day certainly lived up to its name, though I enjoyed every moment of the day well into the evening.

Weekending and Fencing

We had a new fence installed at the weekend, courtesy of Adam and his Dad to which many thanks is due. Before we had just a 3ft wire link fence which didn't afford much privacy between us and next door neighbours who were yet to move in but on Friday night they were unpacking their stuff and the kids running and cycling across our front lawn. Hmm I thought give it chance.

I introduced myself and SOH to them, and explained that the workmen would be installing a higher fence on Saturday and may need access to their side to do the final pieces. They were a bit strange but luckily were out on Saturday so we didn't have any issues.

It did mean missing Murdoch day, which was a shame, but we couldn't have just left Adam and his Dad and it gave me a chance to catch up with the ironing while watching Young Victoria which I thoroughly enjoyed to my surprise.

The evening saw us go to the Eden Project for a private function, and it was nice to revisit it without too many other people; after two years it has grown enormously since our last visit and the tropical biodome was just as hot and steamy as I remembered. It was made fascinating with acrobats in the tropical biodome and dancing green men on stilts in the cafeteria. I have pictures, just have to load them up. We got home at 10pm with a chinese to finish off the day, late for us but once in a while doesn't hurt.

Sunday was a day of glorious sunshine, and a chance to go shopping for some paint to cover the fence up and protect it against the weather, we settled for Dark Oak as the rest of the wood and surrounds are dark in colour and it would blend in better, but I was very tempted by the other colours. We were also looking for some screening to give us a bit more privacy and allow the clematis to cling to but couldn't find any so have to keep looking.

Saturday Satire : Scottish Policemen

With suitable apologies to Noddy.

A London lawyer runs a stop sign and gets pulled over by a Glasgow copper.

He thinks that he is smarter than the cop because he is a lawyer from LONDON and is certain that he has a better education then any Jock cop. He decides to prove this to himself and have some fun at the Glasgow cops expense!!

Glasgow cop says: " Licence and registration, please."

London Lawyer says, "What for?"

Glasgow cop says, "Ye didnae come to a complete stop at the stop sign."

London Lawyer says, "I slowed down, and no one was coming."

Glasgow cop says, "Ye still didnae come to a complete stop. Licence and registration, please."

London Lawyer says, "What's the difference?"

Glasgow cop says, "The difference is, ye havte to come to complete stop, that's the law. Licence and registration, please!"

London Lawyer says, "If you can show me the legal difference between slow down and stop, I'll give you my licence and registration; and you give me the ticket. If not, you let me go and don't give me the ticket."

Glasgow cop says, "Sounds fair. Exit your vehicle, sir."

The London Lawyer exits his vehicle.

The Glasgow cop takes out his baton and starts beating the feck out of the lawyer and says,

"Dae ye want me to stop, or just slow doon?"

Exploring

Just across from the house is a farm with a public bridleway leading to Gwennap pit, have been for an amble up the track but not yet up to the pit; something I am longing to do and may have time on Sunday or Monday as I am not working those days.

It has a long history with the mining, as it evolved as a result of the ground subsiding due to mining activities. It was used, and is still for methodist preaching with a service being held there every Whitsun Bank Holiday.

It is nice to start exploring the countryside, I shall take a rucksack with a drink and a book and contemplate the events of the last twelve months always keeping in mind that the sunshine may not last forever and enjoy it while I can.

nowydh da

I didn't have to wait too long to hear the results of the interview, and from September I will officially be a Key Skills Tutor responsible for teaching ICT, Literacy and Numeracy across Cornwall so I will be doing a fair amount of travelling (which is good) and making a lot of use of the Sat Nav initially while I find my way around the county.

It is only part-time, hence the reason for joining Kernowflex which is bank admin to top up the income a bit, though I also hope to pick up some sessional teaching hours as well as private tuition in Computer Skills which should bring in the money. Then I need to have some good record keeping, along with book-keeping skills just in case the tax man cometh. If you are in a similar position, just starting out please drop me a line with any hints, suggestions etc.

After nearly a month of asking, I now have a BT landline installed, not perfectly working but there seems to be a slight problem with the circuitry that leaves the line pulsating. Doesn't bode well with the need to have broadband installed but I have every confidence that BT will resolve it :-) .

Finally, I have ordered the cooker I have chosen, not without it's own problems as ordering on-line is a bit hit and miss as the postcode is not always recognised by the various addressing systems so had to go into the store but who were very helpful in providing me with the on-line prices, and I have ordered a desk for the study from them as well one with a storage shelf system for files and should be all set for the start of term.

The weather has been glorious, blue skies and sunshine wall to wall and late on until the evening. England can be a lovely place when the weather gives us her blessing and none more that we have at the moment. SOH and I went down to Portreath beach on Tuesday evening and walked along the beach with the numerous dog owners and surf rescue trainees; the only thing that would have made it better would have been to have had a nice cold pint of one of the local ales lol but we waited to get back home and open a bottle of Black Tower to celebrate along with a chinese.

Couldn't resist this one

Department of Transport initiative, June 2010.


Information Release

Due to the nature of the quality of driving in England, the Department of Transport has now devised a new scheme in order to identify bad drivers and give good drivers the opportunity to recognise them whilst on the road.

To clarify, bad driving includes:

1) Overtaking in dangerous places
2) Hovering within one inch of the car in front
3) Stopping sharply
4) Speeding in residential areas
5) Pulling out without indication
6) Performing U turns inappropriately in busy high streets
7) Under-taking on motorways
9) Wandering from one lane to another in multi lane roads
10) Using front fog lamps in perfectly clear visibility

As from 1st June 2010, bad drivers will be issued with flags - these will be white with a red cross - signifying their inability to drive properly. These flags must be clipped to a door of the car and be visible to all other drivers and pedestrians.

Those drivers who have shown particularly poor driving skills will have to display a flag on each side of the car to indicate to the general public their greater lack of skill and general lower intelligence.

Please circulate this to as many other motorists as you can so that drivers and pedestrians will be aware of the meaning of these flags.

The Department's advice is to avoid these sub-standard, low IQ motorists, and give them as wide a birth as is possible.