Good news and Bad news week

Bj has landed a super new job! Well done that man. He went for the interview one day and was offered it the next, no messing around with second interviews, just offered it straight away. It is mainly office based with maybe a small amount of travel so we are all happy. We have had a year of constant separation and neither of us like it.

Simon has had a bit of a nightmare! He was doggy sitting at our house last week and while watching TV suddenly lost total vision in his left eye. After about 40 minutes it returned but very blurred and with a blind spot in the middle of vision.
He DROVE to the Doctors (daft or what!) who sent him hot foot to the eye hospital where he had a very thorough examination. It seems he may have some retina damage but due to the amount of blood in his eye it is difficult to tell. It seems it is something that can happen spontaneously,or is caused by coughing or sneezing, a bit scary to say the least. He has to go back this week once the bllod has hopefully drained so they can check the retina, he may have to have a little operation to fix it. Hope to God all is well, its all very worrying!

Giving Out the Wrong Signals

I spent a few days in Herne Bay last week, ostentatiously it was a business trip but I was able to combine it with visiting my family.

I got to meet Sarah's (my niece, yep another, I have many very wonderful versions of nieces each one beautiful and unique!)new boyfriend Steve. He is a wonderful guy who loves Sarah to little pieces but he is profoundly deaf and has been since birth. To those of you who know our Miss chatterbox Sarah you might say 'well that's handy!'
Sarah is the kind of girl that you wind up and let go, she can talk for England, bless her cotton socks! Well, back to Steve, he is a very handsome lad with an elastic face due to having to use exagarated facial expressions while communicating, which he does by BSL signing. He would be great to have on your team in 'Give us a clue!' In fact when he gets very excited about getting a point across he stands up to sign so it is very much like a game of charades, he has a great sense of humour but he obviously does not understand irony or pick up on sarcasm.

Over the course of the evening I communicated well with him, apparently he could lip read me well and I had a crash course in signing over the course of the evening! All was well until the end of the evening when I had been discussing Sarah's forthcoming visit to Birmingham and the fact that she and Steve would stay with us in Coventry. I then decided to extend my invitation by signing to Steve and kindly offered for him to sleep with me!!!!....
Oh ... How quickly I then learned the sign for embarrassed!

Every-one had a good laugh and Sarah told us a story of another friend who when asked if she would stay for another glass of wine at their flat signed that she could not as she had to up early the next morning for sex! She meant work but the signs are similar.
Steve can occasionally hear certain sounds and often imitates them with embarrassing consequences as he does not realize he is being loud. He could easily hear Annette and I laugh and mimicked us relentlessly!
I think I must get a book re-BSL signing before they visit in April otherwise I may be offering services I don't intend.

Blondie goes to Penny Lane!

As BJ is working away almost continuously, I thought it would be good to go and visit the fair city of Liverpool and spend an evening with him! I planned it meticulously sorting out a kennel to take Ta-shi too that was conveniently located to the motorway, sorting out the cats and arranging a fun time for us in Beatle land!

I found a nice looking restaurant on the internet, I have to admit I chose it for it's location than any other reason, it was on Penny Lane and to my great excitement was indeed next to a Barber Shop, and across the road from a bank and near a florist! Ok the barber shop did not have pictures of every head ever shaved, I saw no banker in the pouring rain and the girl in the florists did not look like a nurse, and as for fish and finger pie, no... I was like a big kid and felt I was walking through a song, marvelous, marvelous. I can totally recommend 'The Ark' to eat in,see www.arkrestaurant.co.uk
It was totally superb. The food was all homemade, right down to the icecream desserts. The service was impeccable and the atmosphere all candlelit and intimate, It was so good I expected Gordon F**@#! Ramsay to step out of the kitchen any minute.

The weekend started with a Blonde disaster that has so far exceeded anything else stupid I have done in my life , and believe me they have been many and varied! I had spent Saturday morning dashing about getting ready to leave at about lunchtime, I popped down to the shops to buy a new outfit for my dinner date, rushed back, packed my bag, packed Ta-shi's bag sorted out the cats and left. I dropped Ta-shi off at the kennels and hacked up the motorway for a bit, then stopped for a toilet break. As I washed my hands I looked in the mirror and thought , Oh I did not put my dainty earrings in the bag. I was wearing ethnic dangly ones that would not really go with my outfit for the evening. I then had an "Oh my God" moment as it dawned on me that my suitcase was neatly packed and still standing by the front door!!! (on the inside folks)
I was totally panicked, I did not have time to go back for it as I was nearer to Liverpool than Coventry, but I literally had with me just what I was standing up in.
I decided to continue on my journey not sure whether to laugh or cry (so I did both, seemed fair in the circumstances).

Well, every cloud has a silver lining, as I joined the M62 I noticed a big shopping outlet just off Junction 9, so I left the Motorway at the junction and I swear I found the biggest Marks and Spencer in the World and possibly the Universe. The plastic had a bit of a bashing as I purchased a new outfit to 'Wow' my husband with, emergency underwear and then discovered a Boots to deal with all the other things a woman needs for a weekend away. So... I ended up with two new outfits, Ok one is unworn as yet, and yes it has cost me a fortune , but boy did I have a great weekend!

I had another 'Blonde' moment on Sunday morning at breakfast, the waiter asked me how I would like my eggs? I just stared at him in bewilderment, all I could think of was 'medium' like a steak! Barry helped me out by saying he would like his fried! Of course fried or scrambled. Doh! Barry has been calling me Debbie Aka Debbie Harry of Blondie fame. Richly deserved I am afraid.

As I had a couple of hours to spare Sunday morning I took a drive into the city centre. I found 'The Beatles Story' and thought it would round of my trip nicely. No wonder it is an award winning attraction, it is a MUST for Beatle fans.
A total recreation of the Cavern club was one of the attractions, as I walked into the Cavern 'Twist and Shout' started, it was all I could do not to dance! I was blown away, the atmosphere was awesome. I walked through a 'Yellow Submarine' and a 'Magical Mystery Tour', all with the aid of a headphone commentary that could be started and stopped at will. I had to keep stopping mine to listen to the music. A recreation of Abbey road studio's as it would of been in the Sixties.

The tour culminated with the 'John Lennon' room, centre stage was his iconic real Gold Glasses, a movie of lot's of dreadful war shots, including that poor little girl that was hit by nepalm in the Vietnam conflict in the background Johns voice quietly singing 'Love Is' So has anything changed? No we still think it's Ok to maim and kill...
The last and most moving room was a perfect recreation of 'The White Room' where John wrote 'Imagine' Felt really strange coming out into 2006 I was gone man, solid gone!.....

Henry The Mechanical Horse!

It was a very wet Tuesday morning and there I was in a big open fronted barn riding a mechanical horse at top speed canter like a jockey in the Gold Cup!

My second lesson with Molly, it was decided to start the lesson with improving my cruise control... Or at least the various gears involved in trot. The exercise was to drive her forward to a fast trot, slow her down to a slow trot with me giving the right message with my body movements then drive her forward to fast again. All this while steering her in a series of three circles of varying direction around the school. Now this sounds quite complicated but I just got it! I was on a roll and feeling very smug as we trotted fast, slow fast. Not a Foxtrot, but a Molly trot!

So... It was decided to work on canter, a little morsel of fear entered my mind, what if I fall, it's a long way down, what if I start her into canter and I can't stop her, you get the idea. Still a challenge is a challenge! Amy re-assured me that I had proved to Molly that I was in control, she was listening to all my body commands I naturally talked to her a lot, which she likes and at the end if the day if Amy thought I was in trouble she could slow her down with her voice if need be.

Soo... We went for it! It was great, but... I felt like a sack of potatoes, you are supposed to sit down to the saddle, move from the hips with the animal and enjoy the ride. Molly canters like no other horse I have ridden (actually I have never ridden a horse, only ponies) and I could not get with the motion.
It was not just me it transpired. Amy explained that Molly drives from the front in canter, most horses drive from the back end, so you get a slightly different gait which takes a bit of getting used to.

Sooo... I am riding a front wheel drive, with several more gears than I am used to, it's like driving my little Nissan Micra then driving a Jaguar!
Amy decided I needed a short session on Henry! I wondered what kind of Horse Henry was. We returned Molly to her stall and I followed Amy to the barn. Here stood a magnificent shiny black beast complete with mane and tail and a key to get him going.
Up I jumped again with the aid of a handy step ladder, and Amy turned the key. Henry has but three gears, slow canter, medium canter, and fast wind in the hair canter. It was a great way to find your seat as although the movement is totally authentic you don't have to worry about steering, cornering or braking! Just sit tight and get that hip movement going!

It was a really good exercise and I am sure I will be more confident in cantering Big Moll around the school next week.

Horsing Around!

The big day arrived, the day I was going to put my bum back in the saddle after four long years. I was as excited as a kid on Christmas eve.
I got to the posh equestrian centre far to early and had to sit in the car for ten minutes until I was only a respectable ten minutes early. It gave me time to look around the yard from the comfort of my car and take in the surroundings.

I had chosen an equestrian centre in preference to a bog standard riding school as I really want to learn to ride as a skill as well as a hobby, I also want to ride proper responsive well schooled horses rather than the tired 'Duff donkey's' that you get at riding schools. It looked very promising, a very neat tidy well kept yard, a well fenced and marked outdoor school and I could also see an indoor school as well. What I could not see was any horses! There were a few chickens (all healthy and not sneezing) a cute black cat stalking the chickens and being told off by a large speckled hen and a few stable girls pushing wheelbarrows of steaming manure to a hidden heap somewhere.

Once in the office I had to fill in an impressive form with all my personal details, next of kin, doctors name etc. It was also pointed out that riding is a risk sport and I should consider personal insurance. I was becoming a little worried at this point, What WAS I going to be riding!

I was introduced to Amy my tutor and we went to get my mount.


My first thought was I saw Molly was "oh my God she's enormous!" She was however very pretty but I detected a little glint of mischief in her eye. We led her out and her first act was to balk at the sight of the overnight snow, it was a case of "I am NOT walking on That" and she stopped dead and dug her hooves in. A little encouragement got her into the indoor school where she then bit my arm as I adjusted her reins. It was a definite case of her trying it on as she sensed I was a little nervous. It was then decided I needed a step ladder to mount her (I am not joking!)but once ensconced in the saddle I suddenly felt at home!

We pootled around the school for a few minutes so I could get the feel for her, then tried some rising trot, then sitting trot and going from one to the other. She was a bit of a Madam to start with and tried to shortcut circuits or not respond to my commands. However as my confidence grew she pricked her ears and did my bidding. We were flying around the circuit doing 20 metre circles, 40 metre circle, figure of eights. Trotting over poles, trotting up to poles and making her halt with the pole between her front and back legs. All was going tremendously well until a workman banged a wheelbarrow on the wall of the corrugated iron wall of the school, Molly leapt six foot in the air and took of across the school at a fair rate of knots. I was startled but kept control, sat into the saddle and persuaded her stopping would be good at this point! Amy was dead impressed and complemented me on my control and that I had relaxed into the saddle rather than panicking and tensing up. Believe me I have had plenty of practice with bolting horses, I just had not expected it to happen on my first lesson.
Anyway, Molly seemed to gain confidence in me after that as I had reassured her straight away when we had stopped, and she was an absolute star it was truly as if horse and rider were completely in tune.

Amy was impressed with my position and line of body in the saddle and I learnt more about schooling in that half an hour than I ever knew. I have not had a proper riding lesson since I was about ten years old. It is like riding a bike a skill once learned never leaves you. The only thing being bikes usually have brakes!

My tutor, Amy was an excellent teacher the right amount of praise and encouragement, with the skill of pushing you just far enough to stretch you without making you think "I can't do this." I can't wait for next Friday when me and Molly meet again.

My new hobby has cost me dear as I had to go buy a new riding hat as My old one no longer meets British Standards, then I felt compelled to buy a riding jacket, where will it end? (probably with buying a horse again) No, Barry don't worry not really!