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Originally uploaded by spirofoto.
It seems the most of Greece is engulfed in flames. High winds are fanning the fire which the authorities think might have been started by selfish property developers who want to build on the land.
Things have got totally out of hand and over 60 people have now died. In some places the flames are moving at over 100 miles an hour.
I hope that things can be brought under control and that no more lives are lost.
Yesterday I had to take Tigwell E Cat to the vets – nothing serious, just his annual injection and check-up. The whole thing was complicated by the fact that earlier in the day a re-occurring injury to my back flared up (I injured my back in a minor car accident about 10 years ago and now every now and again it twists out again).
I realised that I couldn’t carry the cat box once I had ‘forced’ Tiggy into the damn thing! Instead of cancelling the appointment I did what I actually hate doing, I phoned someone for help – Jon.
After a bid for freedom which saw Tiggy leaping from the box across the road and having to be retrieved from the bottom of Fred’s garden, but then subsequently falling asleep on the vets table whilst having an injections – I’m now £32 poorer and the cat is sulking.
But I guess I should think myself lucky, £32 isn’t a great deal and if (Bob forbid) anything serious was necessary I do have him insured. The owners of Lily the chicken obviously care as much for their pet as I do for Tiggy.
When she hurt her leg, instead of eating Lily for dinner her owners, Vicky and Sam Mills, took out a £1,800 (according to the Guardian, £2000 according to the Daily Mail) loan in order to pay for her to have the leg amputated and she has made a full recovery. I’ve just been looking for a photo of it on the internet and discovered that the chicken is now (not surprisingly) suffering from depression!! How do they know?
We are silly about our pets aren’t we?!
My house is equidistant between two small areas of shops – both within walking distance (don’t get that down south!) – Gleadless and Heeley Green.
Both areas have Co-op supermarkets, take away Chinese, fish and chips, and a Post Office. When I lived at Fred’s the nearest shop was Steve’s Convenience store, open until 8pm and extremely useful; the nearest Co-op was the one at Heeley Green and wasn’t really within quick walking distance.
So I now have a choice, a couple of evenings this week I’ve walked up to Gleadless (which is probably a little nearer and certainly less effort as it’s level with my house!), but I won’t be doing it again. Unfortunately it’s not safe, there are gangs of teenagers hanging around looking very menacing, in fact since I was on my mobile on one occasion it’s amazing that I didn’t get mugged.
However, this morning I needed to go to a Post Office to send a copy of my photo in the Guardian to Dad. As I left my house my neighbour, Ian was coming out of his; also on the way to the shops.
So instead of walking to Heeley Green, which had been my intention, we went to Gleadless. Within two minutes of walking I’d met the woman who lives just down the road and has a mysterious piece of topiary in her garden (Shirley – even she doesn’t know what it’s meant to be!), and a number of other local characters – it seems that Ian knows everyone! But then he has always lived within a 1 or 2 mile radius of here.
I’ve met more neighbours in the three weeks that I’ve lived here (got a card from the other side of me welcoming me to the neighbourhood), than I did in five years of living at Fred’s, or the over 10 years that Mum lived at North Home Road (in fact the only neighbours Mum ever knew were Ron and Sally directly next door).
I’m both surprised and not surprised in equal measure. Surprised as our houses all look over the same way and therefore are all in a line – there is no-one opposite; Not surprised as this is the North of England where people are generally more friendly.
Fred and I have joined the growing band of couples who are now called ‘LATs’ – ‘living alone together’. I’m not sure how it’s going to work, we’ll have to see.
In The Guardian magazine last week (August 18th) there was an article by Lucy Morgan which I think was about relationships; unfortunately I didn’t read the article and I only pulled out a small section of it; but the last bit really struck me as sensible advice: -
10 Secrets to a long-lasting relationship
1) Separate interests
2) Separate workplaces
3) Separate televisions
4) Separate beds
5) Separate meals
6) Separate houses
7) Separate friends
Separate holidays
9) Separate Christmasses
10) Separate bank accounts
Sounds ideal to me (when I’m not missing Fred too much!!)
The house is starting to look much more like home – which is to say that it’s looking more cluttered with bits and pieces, and less full of boxes! I’ve even managed to get some stuff in the loft.
Yesterday I paid a visit to IKEA – I’m not keen on a lot of their furniture, but they do ‘storage solutions’ very well. Fred and I bought a sofa a couple of years ago, and for some reason IKEA are under the impression that off-white is a great colour for a piece of furniture that sees a lot of use. So since we bought it I’ve covered it with a ‘throw’ to protect it (and it’s still managed to get grubby).
Finally they have realised that light colours are not a good idea, and I now have a red corduroy sofa (a new cover)! Fred didn’t want it as it’s only a two seater and he likes to have three seats so that he can sleep on it every now and again! So he’ll be getting a new one (his last one he found in a skip!).
I also got a great rug for the living room, the carpet in there (like the rest of the house) is pale (I can’t believe anyone would think that a good idea!?), so I now have a brown and cream (more brown than cream) rug – but I’ve just got to find the floor!
The main thing I went for was a desk for my office – as a home worker I thought it an idea that I got a desk! The biggest problem is that I can’t lift the damn thing and so will have to rely on Fred to help me get it out of the car and into the house – I’ve managed most other things on my own.
I’m really missing Fred, I haven’t seen him since the beginning of the week, but he’s so busy with Brodsworth I don’t think he’s ‘missing’ me. I know that he’s noticed that I’m not there in his house – but that’s not the same. I hate this time of year, he’s always so preoccupied with the dig. In a way it was the worst time of year for me to move out – I hope that come September he’ll begin to miss me and then we will perhaps see a little more of each other. So far he’s only really turned up here late in the evening and we’ve gone to bed – and then only two or three times in a fortnight.
I’d like to get the living room sorted next, but the need for bookshelves is getting pressing. I don’t feel confident about putting up wall shelves, but I think I’m going to have to try soon. I haven’t yet moved all my books from Fred’s but will have to soon.
Shooting Stars, 12 Aug ‘06
Originally uploaded by Pianoman75.
It’s good to know I’m not the only lunatic in the area – it did cross my mind as I got in the car at 11.30pm with a blanket and torch.
This weekend has been the annual Perseids meteor shower, and conditions were supposed to be perfect for viewing the c.80 meteors per hour between midnight and 4am.
Living in Sheffield means that I’m near to one of the few places in Britain that appears ‘black’ on a satellite photo of the country – the Peak District National Park. I decided that the best place would be ‘Surprise View’ on the road to Hathersage; lots of sky and a large-ish car park.
As I’ve said, I wasn’t the only one with the idea; when I arrived there were a number of cars and three girls sat on a blanket in the middle of the car park.
So there I stood (wrapped in the blanket) for over an hour – and probably saw a grand total of 10 shooting stars! Many other people came and went (the girls didn’t stay long, and another group arrived and disappeared, shrieking, into the night!), but there wasn’t much action in the sky.
I’m sure that there will be amazing photographs in the newspapers tomorrow, and maybe I didn’t stay long enough; but by 1.30 I was cold – time to go home. I guess there is always next year?!
Postscript – the following day when I got in the car to drive to Colin’s I’d got half way down the drive when I saw the largest moth in the world in my rear view mirror – Oh My Bob! I managed to get it out when I got to the bottom of my drive!
When I was at school I ‘hung around’ with a group of friends; I use the term ‘friends’ loosely as I was rather bullied by them. One of these was a girl called Catherine, she came from a local (Stroud) family, was very pretty, and was the biggest bully (whilst putting up a pretence of being my friend!).
She made my life hell, causing trouble between myself and my best friend, and generally being very spiteful towards me. I haven’t seen her since I left school in 1988.
When I was in my first year at university for some bizarre reason I phoned her (I can’t even remember where I got her phone number). After a 10 minute conversation I put the phone down really upset – she had managed to make me feel very insignificant and inferior. It wasn’t a nice experience at all.
The reason for writing about this now is the weird experience I had at Cropredy. In a field of 23,000 people I walked passed a girl (young woman is more accurate) who looked familiar. No, it wasn’t Catherine; it was her younger sister. For some weird reason I stopped her and asked if it was really her!
She was so sweet; didn’t recognise me until I told her my name, but seemed genuinely pleased to see me and asked what the heck I was doing there (silly question really!). Her and her husband live just down the road from the festival so get cheap tickets.
What is most amazing is not that I recognised her after at least 20 years; but that in all that time she hasn’t changed at all – not in any way!! Bob, I wish the same could be said for me!
Dog on a string
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.
It never ceases to amaze me what human beings can do – their capacity for cruelty is astounding. On Saturday morning at Cropredy I was leaving the campsite in the car; and as I got to the gate out of field seven there was the most pathetic looking dog I’ve ever seen in my life.
It was wandering around looking very confused and unsteady – whilst people walked passed. True, most of them were giving it a very pitiful look, but no-one appeared to be doing anything.
The poor dog had hardly any fur on it’s hind quarters as it had fleas (I could actually see them on it’s back), had obviously not eaten for many weeks, had very sore eyes and was extremely dehydrated. How could I leave it?
One of the stewards kindly shut it in the hut with a bowl of water whilst I tried to call the RSPCA, but of course by damn mobile didn’t have enough reception – there was only one thing I could do – I put the poor thing in the boot of my car and drove to Banbury police station.
The local council Dog Warden, Neil, was wonderful. He assured me that the dog would be okay (it looked so bad due to the lack of fur caused by scratching the fleas), and once eight days had passed (in which time the ‘owners’ could claim him – and risk prosecution) he would be taken to a re-homing centre nearby. But first he was going to the vets for a check over.
I have to admit to getting rather emotional – I can’t stand to see things like that. Heaven knows where he came from, but wherever it was, someone had allowed him to get into that state. I hope that whoever did it never owns a pet again – there really should be more protection for animals.
Ashamed to be a human
Wednesday, 15 August, 2007Happy (knackered) new Mum
Originally uploaded by Gigglejuice.
Following on from my experience with the dog at Cropredy I can’t find the words to describe what has recently happened at our local city farm – Heeley City Farm.
These 13 wonderful little piggies were born on August 9th – so cute.
By the morning of the 10th they were all dead. Someone (probably more than one) broken into the farm and butchered them all – and as if that wasn’t enough, body parts were scattered all over the farm.
It wasn’t a fox or other animal, one of the piglets had been decapitated and another had be chopped in half with an axe or something.
WHAT THE F**K IS HAPPENING IN THIS WORLD??
I’m so upset by this that I can’t find the words to describe how I feel. More details are here
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