Odds and Sods

I know its a bit late, but wasn't Torchwood brilliant!!! I only watched the last two episodes on Monday but wow what great drama. Hardly any high tech special effects but just pure menace... and not from the aliens... from the government!!

Shame they had to kill Ianto off, I liked him, although Gwen did start to annoy me towards the end and I almost found myself hoping they would shoot her in the back as she ran away with the children. But the two scenes that really got me were when Frobisher killed his family and when Jack sacrificed his grandson. I just hope this isn't the end of this brilliant programme. Maybe they could go back to Jack's early days with Torchwood, but whatever they do I hope it comes back.

Update on Erin, she is doing fine now and enjoying the rest of her holiday although the tablets they gave her mean she can't have a drink... shame (LOL!!)

Nugget has been in the wars a bit. He came in Sunday night with a sore on his side so I took him to the vet on Monday morning, luckily with no fuss whatsoever. It looks like he has been bitten by another cat and it developed into an abcess which has now burst leaving a horrid open wound on his side. The vet gave him an antibiotic injection and we have the bathe the wound every day with salt water. He didn't like it much last night at all and we may have problems doing it tonight I think.

And on a completely separate note, I have no idea when my last period was but I am sure it was a lot more than a month ago... this means a) I am starting the menopause or b) I am pregnant... I do hope its a).

Family

Oh the joy of parenthood!!.... I was woken at 3pm this afternoon by Noel to be informed that Erin had spent the night in hospital in Turkey. As you can imagine my first reaction was total panic, but he soon reassured me that everything was fine. She had suffered a bout of, what the hospital called "gastroenteritis" and was suffering from dehydration.

Apparently she had been sick a few times in the night so Ffion has woken my Dad and they had taken her to the hospital where they kept her in overnight and put her on a drip. Dad had called Noel about 11am this morning but he hadn't wanted to wake me.

Once I was up and about I immediately phoned Ffion who reassured me that everything was fine, they were back at the apartment and Erin was sleeping as she had been awake all night. This all made me feel much happier and I made her promise to get Erin to ring me once she woke up.

I then ventured downstairs to discover that the ironing fairy had visited while I had been asleep and miraculously the three huge piles of ironing that had been sitting in the utility room had disappeard and been replaced with two piles of beautifully pressed and folded clothes. I suspected that my Mother might be responsible so I called her to tell her about Erin and to thank her. She later came round with the third pile also neatly ironed and folded... I really do love her sometimes!!

Erin did ring about 4.30 and sounded a bit washed out and tired but said she was fine. Dad is now going to stick around until at least Monday to make sure everything is ok before going sailing again, which is very good to know... oh the joys of parenthood!!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

How much luggage do two teenage girls need for a fortnight in Turkey? Now there is a question. The answer to which is A LOT!!

With a luggage allowance of 25kg each you would think that there wouldn't be a problem... Wrong!!

Exactly why each of them had to pack the entire contents of Boots the Chemist's hair and beauty department is a concept I can nearly understand, their Father on the other hand could not get his head around it at all.

Also being a man whose entire collection of footwear comprises a pair of deck shoes, a pair of flip flops, his wedding shoes (yes they are 25 years old but he refuses to get new ones) and a pair of trainers for work, he failed to understand why they would want to pack 5 pairs of flip flops each (surely a flip flop is a flip flop.... WRONG!!) as well as assorted sandles, wedges, espidrilles, dolly shoes... do I need to go on??

The result of all this, plus enough reading material to supply a small village library for a year, not to mention the actual clothes required to look presentable for a fortnight, resulted in Erin's suitcase being 27kg and Ffion's 29kg. After much gnashing of teeth, discarding of items and general whinging that they couldn't possibly do without any of it each suitcase was reduced to the correct weight.

So I was up at 3am this morning to wave them off to the airport, Noel and Meurig drove them up, checked them in and bought them breakfast before they went through to the Departure lounge. Its going to be a very strange two weeks with no girls around. We have never been without both of them at the same time and despite the initial thought of peace and quite I am sure that I am going to miss them. I am sure however, that they will have a wonderful time in Turkey.

Cat in a Box

Today was the annual visit to the vets for all four of my kitties in order for them to get their annual check up and booster jabs. As you can imagine it can be quite a logistical operation getting all four of them to the vets and can't be achieved in one trip.

First of all we have to ensure that they are all present and accounted for. By 8am Skittles, Nugget and Chicken had appeared but there was no sign of Henry. This was quite unusual as Henry is the laziest cat that ever lived and never usually wanders very far from his customary perch atop the Father in Laws barbeque (when switched off and covered of course). A few calls of puss, puss, puss from the back door and eventually about 9am he came galloping round the side of house and straight in through the patio door. With all four present and correct, it was then just a case of trying to get two into the cat box together.

First though I had to find the cat box which had somehow found its way into the attic of the garage along with all the other junk, so after routing around amongst the assorted rubbish I finally managed to man (or woman) handle it down the ladder and into the kitchen, only to discover that the door was broken and wouldn't lock. This meant that I had to try and hold the door shut with one hand while carrying the box with the other and hope that none of the cats had ideas of being Steve McQueen and making a mad dash for freedom.

So cat box is sat in the middle of the kitchen floor with the door invitingly open, up trots Henry, always the nosey one and walks straight into it, excellent thinks I, so Erin grabs Nugget and tries to get him into the box as well, but Henry is having none of it, hisses and takes a swipe at poor Nugget who immediately legs it into the living room. Henry in the meantime is happy in the box (strange cat) so Erin tries to insert Skittles next. She isn't too keen on this idea and puts all four legs out in an attempt not to be put in the box. After much palava she finally gets in, I shut the door, it falls off the hinges and both cats leg it across the kitchen!! This is not going to plan!

Plan B - I grab Henry, Erin grabs Skittles, I shove Henry in the box, Erin shoves Skittles in the box, I shut the door, taking care to ensure the hinges stay in place, hold the other side shut with one hand, pick up the box with the other and head for the car. Erin sits in the back seat with the cat box next to her holding the door shut and I drive as carefully as possible to the vets. Henry makes a noise that I have never heard from a cat before all the way to the vets, across the car park and into the waiting room where the presence of two dogs finally shuts him up.

The actual examination and injections were not problem what so ever, both behaved impeccably and returned to the box with no problems at all, so the first leg over with we returned to the house to pick up the other two. Now Chicken and Nugget, despite being brothers don't always get on very well together, Chicken being Top Cat of the house and Nugget being a right gay boy and general coward, so I anticipated some problems in getting both of them in the same box.

After a quick discussion Erin and I decided that bribery was probably the best policy so out came the cat crunchies, a handful of which were thrown into the box. Into the box goes....... Henry!! Not only is he lazy, he is also a pig. Henry is extracted from the box (under protest, after all there is food in there) and banished to the hall, Chicken then decides to go in after the crunchies so once he is in there Erin grabs Nugget and pushes him into the box. He is instantly pounced upon by Chicken, who objects to having his personal space invaded. There is much hissing and spitting, a few tufts of grey fur float out of the box then finally they calm down and resign themselves to the fact that for the next 10 minutes or so they are going to have to inhabit the same space.

The run to the vets and the appointment are completely uneventful, neither Chicken nor Nugget make the type of sound Henry did (being mature, grown up sensible cats). Both are examined, injected and re-inserted into their box without incident and once back in the car Chicken enjoys the trip home on Erin's lap gazing out of the window.

Thank god this only has to be done once a year........ especially as the whole thing cost me £136!!!

Hot and Sticky

It's been a bit warm lately hasn't it? I don't think we have had it as bad here as the south east has but it's still been quite uncomfortable, especially at night.

Not much to report really in the last week. Went back to work last Saturday and had a really busy watch on Sunday then two relatively quiet nights.

Yesterday was a lovely day and I spent quite a while out in the garden topping up my tan and reading. Just finished a good book called The Last Templar which was sort of Da Vinci Codeish. I am now trying to read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince before the film comes out in two weeks, not sure if I will manage it.

Erin and I went swimming this morning, I have been trying to get back into the habit of going and I must admit I do feel good once I've done my 32 lengths (half a mile). I dropped Erin at work about 11.30, went to Tescos then popped in to visit Nicole. She had another heart attack 2 weeks ago which was another shock, but she was pretty good today, if going a bit stir crazy. We will try and have lunch next week and catch up on all the gossip.

Some bad local news at the moment, an 18 year old girl from Milford died on holidays in Gran Canaria this week. Ffion works with one of the girls she was on holidays with and they are all in shock, its a horrid thing to have happened, especially a week before my girls go on holidays together for the first time on their own!!

Hayfever Relief

Noel has hayfever.... he never used to get it. It only really started when we bought the plot that we built the house on. The first time he came here to strim the grass he only did a little bit before his breathing got laboured and his neck became swollen. Every year since then he has suffered from hayfever.

Tuesday night when we went to Druidstone there was a lot of long grass with seed heads on it. His eyes were really bad, he couldn't stop sneezing and even got some lumps come up on his neck that looked like nettle rash.

Anyway today he went to the chemist and bought one of these.
"The Lloydspharmacy Allergy Reliever is an innovative and effective treatment for the relief of those irritating symptoms associated with allergic rhinitis - for example, watery eyes, runny nose and sneezing. It is safe, quick and easy to use and some people may feel an improvement after just a few treatments."

Unfortunately the literature dosn't tell you that this is what you look like when you use it!!!

Bosheston and Druidstone

Yesterday was a lovely day, too nice to waste sitting around in the house and doing "house" things or even playing on the computer, so Erin and I decided to take a trip to Bosheston and have a walk around the Lily Ponds.

We left about 11am and parked up in the National Trust car park then set off on a hike around one small section of the ponds. Almost immediately we had to decide which path to take, the long way round or the short option. We opted for the long trail and crossed the first of three little bridges over the lily ponds.

The Lillies were in bloom and the ponds looked absolutely gorgeous. During our mile and half walk around one side we saw all kinds of wildlife and flora, including some iredescent blue dragonflies, honeysuckle in full bloom, wild roses, waterlilies of course and even a Heron in full flight.

At one stage we reached an outcrop of rock from which there was a lovely view of the ponds and we sat for a while and just took in the view.

Eventually the walk around the ponds takes you to Broad Haven South beach which is one of the lovliest beaches in Pembrokeshire. We took our shoes off and walked over the hot sand right down to the water's edge where we went for a paddle. The water was cold but the day was so warm it would have been lovely to have gone for a swim.

After our bit of a paddle, we trekked back up the beach and took the shorter route back around the ponds to the car park, spotting a huge fish in one of the ponds on the way. We then retired to the Bosheston Tea Rooms for a sandwich and scone and cream. The tea rooms have been run by the same lady for the last 70 years and this year she was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday honours.... a bit of a long time to wait but she seemed pleased!!

We finally got home about 2.30pm and spent the rest of the afternoon sunbathing in the garden. In the evening we decided to go to Druidstone for a meal and took Noel's mum and dad with us as it was his Dad's birthday today. We had intended to have the Greek buffet but when we got there we discovered it was fully booked so we had to make do with a bar meal instead but it was worth the wait as there was the most spectacular sunset

We had a lovely meal (Ham salad for me followed by Pavlova), quite a few drinks (not for me because I was driving), but the highlight of the evening really was the sunset which eventually finished in a true blaze of glory as the sun sank below the St. David's penninsular proving that there really is no lovlier place to live than Pembrokeshire.