Thursday 5 November 2009

Happy Bonfire Night to one and all.  I hope the fireworks haven’t bothered your animals (if you have them) too much.  Our neighbours have been letting them off over the course of several days and apart from the odd cat tearing through the catflap at an incredible rate of knots there don’t seem to be any ill effects.  The cows are in at night now especially since it seems to have rained an awful lot during the past few nights so there isn’t a problem with a stray rocket landing on their heads.

Gordon’s mum was admitted to hospital yesterday in ‘respitory distress’ and the nurse who examined her before calling an ambulance said it might have been pneumonia.  I visited her last night in the Medical Assessment Unit at Musgrove Park Hospital and Gordon went this evening.  He tells me they’ve diagnosed something with a series of initials which he thinks may be CAPD, but then he is dyslexic!  I’m pretty sure he’s got that in the right order though and we think the PD bit stands for Pulmonary Disease.  If you know different, please let me know.

Terri and I are going to watch Bridgwater Carnival tomorrow evening and have grandstand seats for the performance.  We go every year with Dad, who generally takes along a folding chair because he finds it hard to stand for that length of time so we thought it was about time to move into the grandstand.  I think they’re under cover too so we’ll be OK if it rains.  If you’ve never heard of Bridgwater Carnival I’d recommend googling it as well as typing it into the search box at YouTube.  It’s the largest illuminated carnival in the country and we’ve been watching it since we were small.

Update: Thanks to Terri for pointing out that it’s COPD which stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.  Now we know.

Tuesday 3 November 2009

Now and again I’m called upon by friends to come and look at their computer because it’s running slow, playing-up or not running at all.  I can go for months at a time with no-one contacting me, but I’ve come to the conclusion that computers play-up in cycles.  In the past week I’ve been asked to look at six computers, some of which won’t connect to the internet, some of which need reformatting and one that needed setting up.  This isn’t because I’m a computer expert; more a computer-geek who spends far too much time delving into what makes a computer tick.  I’ve always been like that even as a child.  I once took apart my mother’s tape deck to see why the reel-to-reel tape kept getting caught up.  I thought it would be a good idea to mend it so she would think I was clever, but oddly enough she didn’t, particularly since I couldn’t put it back together again.  It was the springs, you see.  I took the top off and it was holding down at least ten little springs, which leapt into the air simultaneously, leaving me with no idea where they’d come from or more importantly, where they should go back!

Anyway, back to computers.  The first pc I owned was temperamental and someone told me about a wonderful technique of cleaning everything up – reformatting.  It sounded like the perfect solution and he explained that you just typed in ‘format c:’ at the prompt and away it all went.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think to ask him “then what?” and spent about a fortnight trying to work out how to revive my computer!  Both computers and I have come a long way since then.

I set up a new computer for my parents’ friends yesterday and today it wouldn’t connect to the internet so I made a quick decision, phoned dad, asked if he wanted to come for a visit while I sorted it out, then go on to lunch afterwards.  He’s fairly gloomy at the moment, feeling lonely on his own and shut in by the bad weather we’ve been having, so he jumped at the offer.  We went to The Maypole Inn at Thurloxton and had a wonderful lunch as usual.  We recommended the Sticky Toffee Pudding to the ladies on the next table and dad told James, the chef that it had been mentioned in Somerset Life – high praise indeed.

Tuesday 27 October 2009

You’ll never guess what I’ve been doing for the past week!  Cleaning!  Yes, me, shirker of general housework.  The house is now pretty clean and a stack of stuff has been listed on Freecycle in yet another (probably doomed) attempt to declutter.  It could be more aggravation than it’s worth and easier to take the whole lot to the nearest charity shop, but you’ve got to try, haven’t you?

Our news is in the local paper this week.  My friend rang me to say she’d save me the paper as we don’t get them.  I’m interested to read it although it’ll probably be along similar lines to the article on the webpage.  The MP for Bridgwater has declared his intention of fighting it tooth and claw, but Somerset is way under its quota for renewable energy so his opinion may not count for a great deal.  Let’s hope not.

Last week we went for a stroll along the prom in Burnham-on-Sea and photographed the seafront church of St Andrew’s, well-known for its ‘leaning tower’.  You can see why in this photograph!

And yes, I was holding the camera straight!

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Check out this link:  Exciting! (Well, it will be if the link works properly!)

That’s us.  We’ve finally come out!  Now all we have to do is sit back and wait for the shit to hit the fan (if you’ll pardon the pun).  Gordon has already spoken to the press, as you can see in the article although oddly they didn’t publish the rant about how “if the general public bought British ALL the time farmers would be in a much better position financially” or the bit where he pointed out that actually, no-one will see them as they’re tucked away in our back fields.  OK, they’ll be visible from the village that lives on the hill behind us, mostly occupied by former city dwellers who’ve come to the countryside to live the rural dream and then objected to how noisy/smelly/dark it really is and bemoaning the fact that they can’t sleep without earplugs due to the noise of owls, foxes, cows or sheep!  No doubt they’ll object to the fact that it’s in their view, but in fact they don’t own that particular bit of view – we do, and ’scenic’ it isn’t!  I have to admit, I’m not knowledgeable enough about turbines to say whether they’re effective or not, but I do think they look nice and surely renewable energy has to be a good thing?  Besides which, no-one apart from EDF has offered us chunks of rent money and god knows, we really do need the money or we’ll have to consider selling the farm, but I’m sure that won’t stop the objectors!

Gordon’s cleaning his shotgun, putting up the barbed wire and practicing his call of ‘Get Off My Land’ as we speak!

Sunday 18 October 2009

Whilst browsing about this morning I came across this on the ‘Phrase Finder‘.  It made me laugh and hopefully will do the same for you!

Here’s an example from Brendan Behan (the self-confessed “drinker with writing problems”) who, when asked to define the difference between prose and poetry, is reported as saying:

“There was a young fellah named Rollocks
Who worked for Ferrier Pollocks.
As he walked on the Strand
With his girl by the hand
The tide came up to his knees.

Now that’s prose. If the tide had been in, it would have been poetry.”

That incident is part of Irish literary folklore and if you take one of Dublin’s enjoyable literary pub-crawls you are sure to hear it repeated. There’s precious little evidence to prove that Behan ever said it though and it doesn’t appear anywhere in his published work or autobiography – so perhaps best taken with a pinch of salt (or maybe a Guinness or two).

Tuesday 13 October 2009

I went to Wedmore yesterday with my friend Mandy.  She grew up around there and although it isn’t far away I’m ashamed to say I’ve never stopped there.  I’ve driven through it on the way to other places and have often thought how pretty it looks, but never stopped.  The weather was glorious, a crisp and sunny autumn day and we walked up and down the main street dipping in and out of the many gift shops.  We walked around the church on the outside (you may recall I love old churchyards!) and were surprised to find the doors open, something that seems rarer nowadays due to vandalism and theft.  Some people have no respect!  We walked around the inside too taking discreet photographs.  It was warm enough for butterflies although they were huddling close to the white walls of houses on the sunny side of the street!  We stopped at The Packhorse Inn in Mark for lunch on the way back.

Wedmore Church

A gruesome reminder on one of the tombs

The weathered church clock - it's stopped, by the way!

A red admiral butterfly clinging to warm paintwork

Monday 12 October 2009

I’ve been away.  You might have noticed.  I’ve been to Portugal and various other places, but have been home long enough to have written a post about it.  Unfortunately, when I got home I was so swamped with e-mails (over 1000) and letters/invoices/statements/bills relating to the business.  Far too many.  I set about reducing the number in the pile and am still working on it, but I won’t bore you too much with that.  Suffice it to say that dealing with them has left me feeling less fond of my computer than I normally am and although I’m spending time on it every day, it’s mostly business-related and therefore not that interesting.

Instead: Portugal.  Wow!  I’m one of these people who’ve always looked down on the Algarve in the same way that you might look down on somewhere like the Costa del Sol.  I’m sure they have their merits, but I’ve never really seen why you’d want to go to the same place as thousands of other Brits.  The British on holiday are, as a rule rude, demanding and generally embarrassing in their attitude to local customs, people and food.  I expected it to be similar during this holiday.

To begin with, our hotel was lovely.  Large but quiet since we’d chosen to go off-season.  This meant that some things normally available to the holiday-maker were closed for the winter, but on the whole it made for a peaceful break away.

View from our hotel balcony

Since there were eight of us on the trip (all female) we decided on an excursion at the beginning of the week and opted for an all-day Jeep Safari into the ‘interior’, a trip that promised in the brochure to introduce us to the ‘real’ Algarve.  Our driver, Rogerio, picked us up from the hotel and we all clambered into one jeep.  We drove away from Vilamoura and were gradually joined by other jeeps from the same company before heading to a small craft room for our first briefing and to meet a local basket-maker.  He was pretty old and was plaiting palm-leaves into long strips ready to sew together to make baskets.  According to our guide his age is relevant as it seems he and others like him will be the last generation to do this.  Younger people see how little money is to be made in this way and have headed off into the towns, where the main industry is tourism and pays much better.

We were then driven into the mountains where Rogerio (who’d obviously got our measure fairly early on) drove up and down the sides of the hills along dirt tracks at about sixty miles an hour.  Thank goodness we’d all heeded his warning and put our seatbelts on or I’m sure at least two of us would have been bounced out the back.  He stopped every-so-often to explain something of interest: pomegranate, almond, fig, orange, date, carob and olive trees, wild lavender, thyme and rosemary, and the tradition of the cork trees which can only be harvested for their cork every nine years.  The whole morning was fascinating.  We stopped in a small town for coffee and carob cake, then again at lunch time in a little restaurant.  During the afternoon we were driven through small villages, waving at the locals and replying to ‘bom dia’ with the same.  If you ever go to the Algarve, I can thoroughly recommend one of these trips.

Pomegranate Tree

Stripped (harvested) cork tree

Along the dirt tracks

A jeep-load of dusty girls plus one happy driver!

On the following Monday we discovered that one of our group had chartered a cruiser as a special surprise for Debbie because it was her birthday.  It was an incredibly generous gift which we all got to share.

It came complete with a crew of two who took us out along the coastline on a two-hour trip, whilst plying us with wine and nibbles!  We decided we could definitely get used to this way of life.

Enjoying the view

Leaving Albufeira Marina

Portuguese coastline

Our 'captain' impressing us with his rock diving skills!

We came home on Thursday morning and were back in chilly England before lunchtime.  All in all we had a wonderful break away and if you ever get the chance to go to Portugal, I can thoroughly recommend it.

Wednesday 23 September 2009

Or, translated from Portuguese (courtesy of Babel Fish so I hope it’s right), Goodbye, see you soon!  I’m off to Portugal early tomorrow morning.

I’ve packed my suitcase, got the spray tan so I don’t dazzle anyone at the poolside with the whiteness of my flesh, made a list, checked it twice …. oh hang on, that’s something else altogether to do with Father Christmas, isn’t it?

Seriously though, I come from a long line of list-makers so something as important as a holiday requires a good list, at least as the foundation of the packing.  It can be improvised on, but never shortened!  My grandad did it, my mother took it to a whole new level of obsession, I do it and Stephanie has inherited the need to make countless lists.  What if I forget something?  It’s OK, breathe … breathe …. calmer now.

I’m driving to the airport and collecting people on the way so I’ve set my alarm for 2.15 am.  I didn’t set it last night for obvious reasons, but kept waking up in a bit of a panic in case I’d overslept.  You can tell I make a good traveller, can’t you?  This will be my eleventh flight of the year – good grief, I’m a positive frequent flyer.

Be good while I’m gone and I will definitely post photos when I return at the beginning of October.

Sunday 20 September 2009

I’ve been back from Glasgow for ages.  Sorry.  I was hiding away, catching up on stuff like sleep (not a lot of that in Glasgow) and paperwork (a lot of that here).  I can think of many excuses why I haven’t blogged since my return but the main one was I’ve been weary for a while and severely lacking inspiration or enthusiasm.  I believe I might have mentioned this once or twice before.  Now, however, I’ve been nagged by various friends who ask how they can keep up with my daily doings if I don’t update my blog on a regular basis.  So, I’m back.

Only for a couple of days though and then I’m away again.  Yes, again!  Poor Gordon, he feels so abandoned, but in fairness he was invited to my friend’s wedding and declined on the grounds that someone had to stay behind and look after the farm.  Well, I suppose so.  This time I’m off to Portugal with a friend to celebrate her birthday, along with six other friends of hers.  We’re leaving at some obscene hour on Wednesday night/Thursday morning and plan to be relaxing in sunshine by the middle of Thursday at the latest.  I’ve never been to Portugal before and am looking forward to it.

Since I’ve been away … hmm, what’s happened?

I went to my friend’s wedding as one of her matrons of honour and despite the rain, the day went well.  I wasn’t in much of a position to take photographs so I’m waiting for the official ones to be available.  I came back on Sunday evening and they flew out to New York for their honeymoon.  Lucky them.  It’s on my list of places to go before I die.  They’ve flown home today and are probably jet-lagged as I speak.

Gordon and I celebrated our anniversary last Saturday with a barbecue in the garden and were joined by a select group of friends and family.  A good time was had by all and the weather was perfect enabling us to stay in the garden until gone ten o’clock in the evening.  I don’t think we’ve had many days like that even in the summer, so it was a plus.

Alex has gone back to Cheltenham and is about to begin her third year as a university student.  She’d reached the stage where she was missing her friends there a lot.  I drove her back last Sunday along with many suitcases, boxes, her auntie and her grandfather!  My sister came along for the shopping and dad just came for the day-out.  He’d never seen Alex’s accommodation so it gave him a chance to look around.

Stephanie’s gone back to Bridgwater College for the second year of her ‘A’ levels, dropping subjects she’d grown to dislike and starting a new one at AS level.  I think she’s enjoying herself with Film Studies especially since watching films is one of her favourite things to do.

I also saw some puppies (photo below) and found it very hard to resist a litter of semi-feral kittens (no photos unfortunately) which were offered to Gordon and I for the farm.  We have enough cats really but they’ve all become domesticated so don’t hunt as often as they should.  Perhaps we should just starve the ones we have until they start killing rats again before we get overrun!

Beagle Baby

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Tomorrow afternoon I’m off to Glasgow again, this time for my friend’s wedding.  It doesn’t seem possible that I’ve been visiting her regularly for fittings and such since last September, but this weekend is the big day.  I’ll take lots of photographs and hope that at least some of them are blog-worthy!  I know that in Glasgow, nerves are at breaking point so suspect there’ll be lots of soothing to do.  I’ll see you when I get back.