Why Does It Always Happen To Us?

Himself has wanted a decent camera for some time, he has always been happy with a compact in the past, but lately has decided he wants to join me in my love of photography, and I'm more than happy to help with my pretty limited knowledge. If I'm honest, most of my pictures are down to having a brilliant camera rather than any skill on my part, but please don't tell him that!

On Saturday we went shopping to buy Himself his camera, he had done a lot of research and finally decided a Canon SX40 would suit his needs. All the lenses built in, and some really good features, in fact I was so impressed with it I'm seriously thinking about replacing my old Fujifilm S100 with it.

So off we went to Guildford and into Jessops, the sales assistant was a lovely girl and very knowledgeable, she suggested we also look at the Sony DSC-HX200V which was one he hadn't researched.

What a great camera, we both loved it, but we're very reserved about impulse buying, she printed of the

Silent Sunday

Silent Sunday

 

A Note to Cesar Millan

"Well done Alan Titchmarsh" are not words I ever expected to be saying. 

He certainly took you to task about your outdated training methods didn't he?

Sadly there are so many clips, videos and TV series's of your outdated training methods, that even if you

The Gallery 120 ~ Books

The theme for The Gallery this week is Books.

Another hard one for me, I read many books, I love books, my taste is very broad from Dean Koontz,  Brian Jacques to Biographies.  

How can I use books as a theme?

I went looking through the bookcase and came across my childhood version of 101 Dalmatians.

 I had an idea **relieved sigh** I would hate to miss a week.

This book, Black Beauty and Nancy Drew where the books of my childhood.  

Sadly I don't have an old copy of  Black Beauty or any of the Nancy Drew books, but I'm always on the look out for them in charity shops.

I think what I loved the most about these books, was that "Good" always won in the end. 

I fell in love with the little Cocker Spaniel in Chapter 9:- Hot Buttered Toast, and I now have my own  Cocker Spaniel called Badger Boo.

Why not pop over to Sticky Fingers and check out other peoples entries in this weeks Gallery.

Getting Very Bored Now!

Went to the Doctor to see if I could get signed as "Fit for Work" today. 

No such luck, got to have another week off, as I have to have my medication reduced. I'm so bored now it's starting to really get on my wick! 

Crikey, I even resorted to making a massive dent in the leaning tower of ironing! 

Yep I know, using foul language isn't very nice I apologise.

Not a lot is happening here, tomorrow I get to wait in for the man to come and rewire the shaver light. He wired it all wrong, so it will only charge if you leave the light on, so it means we've had to leave the bathroom light on overnight just to charge the toothbrushes, how annoying is that!

On Friday I'm getting a haircut Whoopy Do!

Silent Sunday

Silent Sunday

 

Vets, Vets, Physio and Jumpers

Last week we thought Badger Boo had a stroke which was our Vets diagnosis, he was very ill and it resulted in a referral trip to Fitzpatricks, better known as the Bionic Vet. 

What an amazing place, luckily for us it is quite near to where we live, but people travel across the country to attend this amazing practice.

We were told by our vet he would need an MRI scan to determine whether or not he had had a stroke, luckily for my purse after the most in depth examination it was decided it wasn't a stroke as he was showing none of the usual signs.

We saw Dr Tim, and after checking Badgers reflexes and bending him in all sorts of directions **none of which he minded I might add** a quick look in his ear found the source of the problem. 

It was a GRASS SEED! It  had caused a middle ear infection affecting his balance. To say that was an expensive and embarrassing experience is an understatement, thankfully we didn't have to have the humiliation of the MRI too.

The Gallery 119 ~ Old

The theme for The Gallery this week is Old.

We have a lot of old pictures in this house, but this is the only one on the PC. It's a picture of my dad and his friends on a day out in the 60's, my dad is on the right.

I grew up with this picture, and it has a lot of sentimental value for my dad, as one of the young men was killed the very next day.

I have many happy memories of time spent with my dad, this picture and the stories he used to tell me about him and his friends.

The reason it is on my PC is because, for his 70th Birthday I secretly took a picture of it, and got it enlarged to A4 and framed for him.

I have never seen my dad as emotional as the day I gave him this picture, it was so nice to do something nice for him, as he has always been there for me through thick and thin.  

This next picture is my dad singing with one of his favorite bands from The 60's  The Rapiers at his 70th Birthday Party.

It was a fantastic night.

If you want to check out other Old pictures them head over to Sticky Fingers to see them.

Silent Sunday

The Gallery 118 ~ Yellow

The theme for The Gallery this week is Yellow.

This is a hard one for me, I don't particularly like the colour yellow!

 I have to wear a yellow hi-vis vest everyday **urgh**

I searched high and low for a picture with yellow in it.

No luck until I looked in Badger Boo's photo album, and found one of him modelling his new hi-vis jacket.

I got him this jacket two years ago, so I could see him in the woods when I walk him in the dark, he also has a florescent yellow flashing collar. 

The difference is amazing, I can always keep track of where he is, so he has the freedom to run even in the dark.

Now you have heard my views on the colour Yellow, why not pop over to Sticky Fingers and see other peoples views on this colour!

Silent Sunday

Saturday Caption

Yep it's a scary picture of me in my youth, sitting on a pony called Polly who is far too small for me. Can you think of a caption?

Chinks of Light and De-Cluttering

Last week I got signed off work with Depression, now my sick days have shot through the roof, which will no doubt mean a meeting without coffee with my new Line Manager. 

Yes, I have another one. This is the third since the the whole process of me being Medically Retired/Dismissed started up in February!

The first couple of days I felt pretty upset about the whole thing. Then on the Sunday I went to Redhill with Himself, for the presentation of his award for doing over 500 voluntary hours as a Community First Responder. 

World Animal Day 4th October

World Animal Day October 4th

Sponsored by Terri Giuliano Long, author of In Leah’s Wake, and David M. Brown, author of upcoming title Man vs Cat

 I've had dogs most of my life, first it was the family dog Sam who was a Lab/Greyhound cross, he was a nightmare I realise now, always escaping and never came when he was called, I would go so far as to say he had no training at all, But he was the most amazing dog, so affectionate and not a bad bone in his body. He was my best friend and confident through those rough school years of the bullies.

Sam age unknown but we had him 15 years...

The Gallery 117 ~ Fitness

This weeks theme for The Gallery is Fitness.

Himself is a keen kayaker, it's an excellent way to keep fit as well as being great fun, for many years he has been an instructor, teaching mostly young people the benefits of this brilliant sport.

Several years ago Himself decided to teach our Cocker Spaniel Badger to stand on the front of the kayak, as he kept swimming around and around, and appeared to want to join him. This picture was Badgers first lesson.

Within minutes he had learnt to balance, and soon discovered that it was very comfortable to curl up on the spraydeck and have a little snooze.

So whilst Himself is paddling around getting a massive upper body work out, Badger is busy exercising his right to take things easy, as only a dog can.

Badger is free to jump off at any time, but he will always opt to go back to the kayak after a swim, and refuses join me on the shoreline until Himself has finished, he loves it that much.

Please note:- 

We used only positive training methods and went at Badgers own pace. Not all dogs like water, or the instability of being on a kayak and could become very stressed very quickly, so do not try this if your dog is not 100% happy in water.

Why not pop over to Sticky Fingers to check out other peoples ideas on Fitness. 

The Gallery has teamed up with Coca-Cola and their Work it Out Calculator so you can see how much exercise you need to do to burn off the calories, what a great idea..