I'm going to take a break for a while.
Don't know when I'll be back.

Yesterday, we had to take Snowdrop, our lovely cat to the vets for her injections. She had the flu jab before we had her, and we had to take her back for her second one 3 weeks later. That was the beginning of December.
Well, have you ever tried to get a frightened cat into a basket? Believe you me, it's bloody hard work. In fact it was so difficult we couldn't actually manage it, we had to cancel the appointment and remake it for the 29-1-08. (yesterday)
So, we knew it was going to be difficult, so we closed the cat flap, so she couldn't run out of the house, and then it was all hands on deck.
Geoff grabbed her, firmly but gently and tried to put her in the basket, she struggled and struggled, all four paws were waving in the air, almost like a swimming motions, doing the doggy paddle and she was pushing geoff away as hard as she could. In the end she did get away and ran behind the t.v. We just looked at each other and sighed. What now? we thought.
After a few minutes she came out and although she was weary of us she sat on the living room floor, that was when geoff picked her up and tried, yet again, to put her in the basket.
To no avail.
Off she ran and hid.
The third time when she eventually came out I picked her up and we did get her in.
Thank god for that.

We took her to the car and started off to the vets. It is about a 20 minute ride and all that time all she did was meow, so I put my fingers inside the basket and was stroking her, just to relax her a bit. She has in fact got a lovely, quiet soft meow. She did calm down by the time we got her to the vets.
we took her in and explained to the vet what had happened before, that we had to cancel the prevous appointment because we could not get her in the basket. She laughed and said that a lot of people have trouble with cats. They hate being closed in.
The vet gave her her injection and examined her fully. She has got a problem with her front teeth, apparently, they have not developed properly. So we'll have to watch them.
All this time snowdrop behaved perfectly, never meowed or even tried to get away.
Typical.

When the examination had finished we put snowdrop back in the basket with no trouble at all, we got in the car and drove home.

Have you ever been given a dirty look by a cat?
We have.
We put the basket on the living room floor and opened it, snowdrop did not rush out, she just slowly walked out and giving us a look to kill, she promptly walked out of the cat flap and sulked.
Talk about telling us off! Snowdrop only stayed in the garden, she never goes far, would she come back in? Would she hell! We called her, we went out to pick her up and bring her in,we put her dinner down and called her, all she did was run away. Glaring at us every time.

I went to bed at about 10.00p.m. geoff came up about 12.00p.m. she still hadn't come back in.
We were both a bit worried because she hadn't stayed out before, she likes being in the warm you see. I did not sleep well and kept waking up thinking of her.

At 6.00a.m. I got up,went downstairs and there she was, in the living room, looking at me as if to say. whats up?
She always has her breakfast then so I gave her her breakfast and after she tucked into that she promptly sat on my lap making sure I could not move. She sat there like the queen.
Geoff got up about 9.a.m. and she just looked at him and walked away.
She hasn't spoken to geoff all day.

When geoff has tried to stroke her or amke any movement towards her she just lifts her head up and turns it away, as if to say, I don't like you, you put me in a basket and took me to the vets.
It's now 9.00 p.m. and she still hasn't spoken to geoff.

What a performance that has been. The problem is we have got to do it again in 3 weeks time for her next injection.

God help us!

WEB:
I can't get on to your blog site. I don't know whats wrong, it appears for a few seconds and then disappears.
Can you help?

I haven't really got any hobbies as such, but the one thing I love doing is going around graveyards.
The reason for this is, it's a good way of doing a family history. You can follow a families history by looking at the graveyard.
Often, in older graveyards they are usually buried in one big grave. You therefore have the name and dates of the whole family.In order of their deaths. It also says how they died, either through illnesses or accidental deaths and how many mothers lost their lives giving birth, and it's very upsetting to realise how many children died when they were only a few weeks or months old. This is probably what they now call a 'Cot death'.
They did not have the medical knowledge we have now.

Anyway, I saw this in a magazine and I must admit I have never seen anything like this on any gravestones I have read.

So for a laugh I thought I would print these:

"Here lies the body of Anna,
done to death by a banana,
It wasn't the fruit that laid her low,
but the skin of the thing that laid her low."

"Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake,
stepped on the gas instead of the brake."

"Harry Edsel Smith,
looked up the elevator shaft to see if the car
was on the way down.
It was."

"Here lies the father of 29,
he would have had more,
but he didn't have time."

"Jedediah Goodwin"
Auctioneer.
born 1828
Going!
Going!!
Gone!!!
1876

"Stranger tread this ground,
with gravity,
Dentist Brown is filling his
last cavity."

Sir John Strange:
"Here lies an honest lawyer,
and that is strange."

"beneath this stone, a limp of clay,
lies stingy Jimmy Wyatt,
who died one morning, just at 10,
and saved a dinner by it."

"Owen Moore,
gone away,
owin' more,
than he can pay."

"I was somebody,
who,
is no business
of yours."

"Here lies nell Bun,
who was slain by a gun,
Her name was not Bun
but Wood,
but Wood
wouldn't rhyme with Gun,
but Bun would."

"Dear sister,
Here lies the body of Mary Ford,
we hope her soul is with the Lord,
But if for Hell she's changed this life,
better live there than as J Ford's wife."

"Here lies Johnny Yeast,
pardon me for not rising."

"here lies the body of
Detlof Swenson,
Waiter.
God finally caught his eye."
10 April 1902

Mary Weary.
Housewife.
"Dear friends,
I am going where washing ain't done,
or cooking and sewing.
Don't mourn for me now,
or weep for me never,
For I go to do nothing,
forever and ever."

All these epitaphs are from real graves!!!

Good for all of you that went on the march.

Having read all these blogs about that day, and how far you all walked,(worth it though wasn't it!) and how well it all went.

But the one thing that keeps being mentioned is the amount of fun you had! Whether you went straight home or not, I bet you all talked and cheered at the amount of people that turned up that day.You probably discussed how it was planned, who did what, and after all the hard work, how pleased you were because it went so well.


You may have read the posting I did about the demos I have been on and I said then about the fun we had. And we did.
You do feel great, you feel you have done something and others have heard your voice.
You feel proud that you made the effort and went.


Well done all of you.


You never know, you might get hooked on this!!

Good Luck for tomorrow.
I hope everything goes well.

Just a couple of jokes to cheer us up on this cold January day.

A woman in her 40's went to a plastic surgeon for a face lift.
He explained that there was a new procedure called 'The Knob' where a knob is placed on the back of the womans head and she can turn it to tighten up her skin to give the effect of a brand new face lift.
The woman readily agreed to this and the knob was placed on the back of her head.
Over the years the woman tightened the knob and the effect was wonderful. The woman looked young and vibrant.
After 15 years she started to have problems so she went back to the surgeon.
"Whats wrong?" He asked.
"Well, she said looking alarmed ," I have these great big bags under my eyes."
The surgeon went over and looked at the womans face.
"These are not bags under your eyes," He said.
"Those are your breasts."


A wealthy man came home from a gambling trip and told his wife he had lost their entire fortune.
"If only you could cook," He said. "we could fire the chef."
"Yes dear," She replied. "And if you could learn how to make love, we could fire the gardener."

A couple of days ago Whichendbites did a blog called:
How to make a woman happy.
It was very good and yes, I think it would make women happy.
That made me think and I wondered:

Are men Happier?

Reasons for this statement:

Your last name stays the same

Wedding plans take care of themselves

Wedding dress= £2000.00 Tux rental =£100.00

You can never be pregnant

People never stare at your chest when you speak to them

3 pairs of shoes are more than enough

The same hairstyle last you for years

You only have to shave your face and neck

You can wear shorts no matter what your legs look like

If someone forgets to invite you, he/she can still be your friend

You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park

You can wear NO T-shirt to a water park

The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected

You can play with toys all your life

Your world is your urinal

You never have to drive to another petrol station toilet because this one is to icky

You can open your own jars

You know things about tanks

Tell this to a woman who can handle it and to the men who will enjoy reading it.

There's quite a few of you that have been doing:

7 random things about yourself:

So, I thought I would join in and have a go as well.

1. I hate wednesdays.
2. I hate spiders.
3. I hate injustices of any sort and no matter who by.
4. I get angry easily about this and wish I could meet the person who done the injustice.
5. I hate those bloody road humps, to the extent I could blow them all up.
6. I hate the way we don't seem to have any privacy any more.
7. I have just looked at the last 6 'random things' and realizes what a miserable old f**t I am.

So there we are.

The End.

I must admit that since christmas I haven't really felt like blogging,as I'm sure you understand we are all feeling a bit low at the moment, but I have been reading all yours and they have cheered me up.
I hope everything goes well on Jan 23rd. I will be watching to see what happens.
I hope that you will get 2.5% pay rise.

Good Luck.

At the begining of November my sister Yvonne, rang me up and asked me if we would like to go to Jeff's (her husband) birthday party. I was a little surprised because they live in Oxford and we don't normally meet for birthday parties. But then she explained that it was Jeff's 60th birthday and she wanted to hold a surprise birthday party for him with all the family there.
I immediately said yes and looked forward to it.
Jeff's birthday was actually the 18th December but you cannot book anywhere because they are all booked up for christmas parties so she told us it would have to be in November, not December.
Jeff was a very popular man who would do anything for anyone, always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone who needed it. He would always laugh and joke with you about anything. He was always smiling, his life was perfect. Two lovely children and a lovely grandaughter, Keira and a lovely home he had worked hard to get.
This he did especially with my mum, Ruth and my stepfather Bruce. My mum is 78 and Bruce is 76, and they both have trouble with walking and are unable to do a lot of the things we take for granted.
When we all left home my mum and Bruce moved into a bungalow and it was yvonne and jeff who helped them move,taking all their belongings in their car and making sure they were settled. They had a small garden and it was Jeff who used to go around and see to it, because he loved gardening. Every sunday they were either at my mums or my mum and Bruce would go round to see them at their home. They never went a week without seeing each other. If they needed to see a doctor or had any other appointment it would be yvonne or jeff that would take them.

Yvonne had met jeff in 1972 and married in 1974. They have two children Dawn and Darren.

Dawn is 31 and she married a lovely man, Simon 2 years ago, they have got one daughter, Keira who is now 8 months old.

Darren who is 29 is still at home and he has been with his girlfriend, Donna, for 1 year, they are not planning to get married just yet as Donna is still at university.



Yvonne emailed us and told us she had arranged the party to be held on Saturday 24th November at the Old Bell Inn in Maidenhead. She had arranged a room for us all and said there was going to be 14 of us all together. Jeff is not one for parties as such so it was just going to be a meal and drinks.

We made our way to maidenhead on the 24th and went straight to our rooms. We were all asked to stay out of sight until yvonne and jeff arrive at the hotel.
Her daughter Dawn was keeping an eye out for them and when she saw them coming down the road in their car she rang us and asked us to go to the bar and wait for yvonne and jeff.
This we did, then we watched as they walked in and we all turned around and said HI Jeff.

His face was a picture. he couldn't believe what he could see. Myself and geoff, Bob and rosellen,(my brother and sister in law), Adrian, (Hes a friend from years back), Their daughter Dawn and simon, her husband, and their beautiful daughter Keira,their son Darren and his girlfriend Donna, Simon's mum and dad, and two friends they hadn't seen for years. Yvonne had found them and asked them to join them at the party. This they did willingly.

Jeff was overwhelmed and he became quite emotional. After half an hour or more he had settled down and yvonne told him that she had done it for his special birthday. They were of course loads of jokes going around, like getting his pension, yvonne helping him up the stairs etc.etc.
The night was wonderful, we had a few drinks and then went into the dining room for dinner.
We had a great time and yvonne had even made a special cake for him. Jeff loves gardening and he works for Oxford city council as a gardener. He goes around to all the pensioners houses and flats and he does their gardens for them. He loves this work and he himself has entered the Oxford Mail gardening competitions. He came second last year. His garden is like a palace.
Everything was great and the next day (sunday) we all went home, having enjoyed the weekend with Jeff.

Two weeks later I received a phone call from yvonne saying that jeff was in hospital.
Apparently that weekend jeff got up on the sunday complaining that his legs were weak and funny. He tried to go up the stairs but his legs gave way and he collapsed. Luckily Darren, his son was there and he helped him into bed. yvonne called the doctor. The doctor came but could not really explain what the reason was for this, he gave him some tablets and went.
The hours passed and jeff was no better, so yvonne called the doctor again this time the doctor sent him to hospital for test.
The tests came back and it was found that his own antibodies was fighting his own body. Yvonne explained that they were both bad a few weeks before and it only lasted a weekend. The doctors said that was the reason jeff's antibodies was still fighting, although not the virus, they had turned to fighting jeff's own body. The treatment for this was five days on a drip of antibodies. That would slow his anti bodies down and get him back to normal.
That was the monday.

I called yvonne on the monday and asked how he was,yvonne said he was fine but she was still a little worried about him as this is quite an uncommon thing to happen.
I told her that now jeff was in hospital he would be fine, as the doctors and nurses would now look after him.

Thursday afternoon we received a call from yvonne.

Jeff was seriously ill.

Then yvonne explained that jeff had been doing very well with his treatment but what nobody had anticipated was the brain haemorrage he had suffered.
He had had the haemorrage on Wednesday while still in hospital and they had operated on him and kept him on a life support machine.

Yvonne, like us, could not believe what had happened and she went to see the doctor and asked if the two illnesses had been somehow connected to each other.

The doctors said no, they were completely seperate illnesses.

No-one knew Jeff was going to have a brain haemorrage as he showed no sings of anything being wrong, by that I mean, no headaches, nothing. The peculiar thing about the haemorrage was it was in fact a most unusal haemorrage. The vein at the base of the skull had become 'departed' from the skull and it was that that had caused the haemorrage.

When the doctors explained this there was a silence for a while and then the doctors asked her if they could remove Jeff's brain, to test it. She was horrified of the thought of this and immediatley said no. The doctors asked her to think about this again and gave her time to consider it again. They explained that although they know what happened they don't know why it happened.
They explained that it was for research.
They said that when they had finished the research they would replace Jeff's brain and she could then bury him, this would take 6-8 weeks.
Yvonne found this so upsetting and said that she could not allow this because Jeff would have his memories.

On Thursday the doctors told yvonne that they must switch the machine off because jeff had died 24 hrs ago on the wednesday. Although officially, because he was on the life support machine he was still 'alive'.

Yvonne had their daughter Dawn and their son Darren with him when they switched the machine off.
He died peacefully at 3.45 p.m. thursday afternoon.

He was 59 years old.

The funeral was the 18th december, it would have been his birthday.

He was being cremated but yvonne had arranged to have a service for him in the small church where they had married and Dawn and Darren had been christened.
My other sister Lorraine who now lives in Australia was unable to come for the funeral.
However, lorraine belongs to a choir and she has made a demo tape which she sent to us a while back. This was played as they brought jeff into the church.

It was a lovely service but still no-one can believe what has happened. It is such a shock to us all.
Dawn and Darren have been a tower of strength to yvonne, I have never met such a close and loving family. We must not forget that yvonne has lost a loving husband and Dawn and Darren have lost their father.
We cannot believe that he was taken from us when he had worked so hard and was so happy.


The only thing left to say is:


Goodnight jeff, god bless.
xxx

As you can probably see I have just posted the hitmap map. It hasn't done it properly but that doesn't matter, it still registers anyone reading my bloggs.
It has taken me ages, but there you are, I'm so useless on this computer.

I had to laugh though, it came up saying I had 5 hits and so I went to see where the 'hits' came from.

4 from Ipswich
1 from Newcastle.

Who are these people???