Who nicked February?

I don't believe it! 1st March this week? Nooo! Where did February go?



Having the hire car for 10 days was fun apart from trying to get Honey in and out.
I had to take her to the Ringwood vet for X-ray and as it was a hatchback I had to lift her in over the sill and lift her out both ends of the trip. She is a big heavy dog! But I managed with the help of the delicious Phil, the vet. The Xray was good and the bones are well fused but they decided to leave it another 6 weeks to fully set. They were impressed with her walking with hardly a limp which has helped the bones set and kept her muscle tone good too. They had other dogs there with pinned legs who were walking on 3 legs still after months in pins. Honey has been the model patient!

I have got my own car back now with a beaten out and re-sprayed rear tailgate and a nice new bumper. I paid for the body shop guy to 'clean up' my body work... err my car's bodywork.. removing those pesky door scrape marks from careless parkers. It looks almost like new again and with the new bumper looks very smart. The new bumper means I have lost the few scrape and bump marks I had 'acquired' over the years plus the damage from the woman who backed into me. I just have to be very careful reversing myself now.

I have been folking quite a bit the last couple of weeks. There was a fund-raising concert in aid of Wimborne Folk Festival featuring a lot of my friends, with the bill topped by Claire Mann and Aaron Jones. It was a brilliant concert and a good night, if a little cool in the hall! I've been to Wimborne Folk club singaround each Thursday. The numbers have been a bit up and down of late. A sign of hard times I think.
Last Friday was our own club and we had a great night with a young lass from Derby called Lucy Ward. She was brilliant! Her material wasn't to everyone's taste though. But most seemed to really enjoy her. I think she is a name to watch.

I finally got round to dying my hair today. "Golden Praline" was the name of the colour and it looked like a very light golden brown or dark golden blonde on the box. On my hair it's come out a rather reddish medium brown! It will fade with washing and at least it's all the same colour now rather than blonde ends and grey roots LOL I've also gone curly again. My hair is naturally curly and I just leave it to air dry. If I use the dryer it tends to be straighter and smoother. I need a trip to hairdresser for a decent cut. Curly hair hides a multitude of sins!

I'll try to not leave it so long before I blog again. Have a good week wherever you are.
For all you poor things having to go to work every day, take care. By the time you're at work I'll be showering and having a nice big leisurely mug of coffee. :-D
xxx

Catch up again

Hmm where to start? Well you remember the noise from my car? Well the garage suspected a leak of power steering fluid from somewhere but it was all so mucky they could not see where from, so they steam cleaned the engine and surrounding bits.
It was all quiet at first, but after a couple of days I noticed oily patches on the drive and then the noise started coming back. I booked it in and they set to work. they could now see where the leak was - a hose had split! The power steering motor and pump are tucked in under and behind everything so it was a bugger to get at and fit the new hose. It was all sorted by Friday. Just in time to go to the body shop this week to get the tailgate and rear bumper fixed!

Last week, on Tuesday, John and I went to see Fairport Convention on their winter tour at Chichester. Lovely theatre and a great show. We managed a brief chat with the 'boys' afterwards too. We saw a few familiar faces in the audience too as they are doing different venues on this tour and we were all spread around trying to find the easiest/nearest venue to see them. We usually saw them in either Yeovil or Salisbury as these were the closest venues to us. Neither were on this tour so we had a choice of Exeter, Weston Super Mare, Farnham, or Chichester! As Chichester is motorway and dual carriageway all the way we decided that was the easiest drive. It took about the same time as going to Yeovil so not a problem.

I took my car to the body shop Monday, with the nice man from Enterprise collecting me and taking me to the car hire base. I saw a few silver cars lined up and wondered what I would get. I'd booked an automatic estate/hatchback and was a little taken aback to get given a bright red Seat Leon. Yes hatchback, yes automatic but red?? I have a 'thing' about red cars and never want to own one. I am changing my opinion LOL The Leon is not the perfect car. The pillars make visibility a bit of a problem and the speedometer is bad. It starts at 6 o'clock position on dial and steering wheel centre block conceals the speedo below 40 mph. Not good! I have lowered the sreering column a bit and can now just about see the 30mph mark - oh yes they only mark every 20 mph with numbers - 20, 40, 60, 80. So usual limits of 30, 50 and 70 are not labelled on the dial! I am still wrestling with all the little control buttons on the stalks but I've sussed the radio tuning and volume controls, got the lights and indicators sorted too.
It's an automatic, deisel engine and when you take your foot off the accelerator you get engine breaking, which I do not get on my petrol engine automatic. So my driving style is altering slowly. It means a lot less brake wear so that is a good feature, but it means you have to keep the gas on instead.
I have collected the boys from school the last couple of days and they liked the more sporty appearance of the car compared to my wagon. I must admit it pootles around town quite nicely, yet is very responsive on the open road. Acceleration is impressive when needed (or just fancied LOL). Jen suggested when the time comes to change cars I should make a short list and hire each one for a day or 2 to try out on a lengthy road test to check good and bad points. Might be a good idea.

Honey has been doing really well lately and obviously feels no pain or discomfort from her scaffolding. She is booked in for Tuesday next week to have it x-rayed and hopefully have the metal work removed. She is leaping around at home and managing the stairs just fine. I think we are both getting fed up with lead walks all the time, but about a month of it to go after the metal is out, and then  she can start running free again. She has been getting regular massages from me and Jenny and loves them. As she walks most of the time with barely a limp I am sure she will soon be fully rehabilitated once the frame is off. It will take a while for the bones to seal over and get fully strong again but a month was the estimate for physio and exercise to get her fit again.
I can't wait to see her run free again and get back to enjoying life fully.

My knee has been very up and down this last week. Some days I have not wanted to move as every change of position caused pain and walking about was agony. Then days like today when I am barely aware of any pain at all. Maybe it's the weather?

I do hope you have avoided the nasty bugs still doing the rounds. Some of my friends have been missing out on good evenings out at folk clubs etc because they have been poorly. All I have had all winter is one 3 day snuffly cold - my antibodies are tough strong things and I've survived pretty unscathed. Mind you I have put off going to the doc about my knees to avoid the coughing and sneezing of flu or cold virus carriers.

Have a good week my friends and stay safe!
xx

Monday and the problems start

I was only thinking the other day that my car is almost 6 years old and it's often the age major things wear out or go wrong. Well it has. At least I hope it's not major!
Coming home last night from a great night at the folk club, the car did not feel quite right. I turned off the radio and opened the window to listen to it. There was a background whine I did not like the sound of. By the time I got home it was quite noticable. I've had a look and cannot see anything obvious - but then I wouldn't! The noise is still there and I have a feeling its a belt slipping. I'm booked into my friendly local garage just down the road this afternoon for them to have a look and listen. I'm praying it's something simple and easy to repair.

I know it's a while since I've posted in here and I'm sorry, but I've just not felt like writing and nothing much has happened to write about.

Honey is doing well and prancing around the house without a care. I think her leg is healing well and the next step is a return visit to the Ringwood vet for Xray and removal of the pins! I've been seeing my own vet weekly, and last week the gorgeous Dan said it was all fine and no need to see him again before the Ringwood vet visit, unless a problem arises. Honey is acting as though there is nothing wrong with her leg at all. She is taking me for walkies now LOL moving much more freely than I am and walking faster than me! I look forward to the day she can go off lead again. It will be about a month following the pin removal before she can be allowed to run again, so it's lead walks until then. Having done so well this far, I do not want to spoil all the hard work of the past months and let her injure herself because the bones are not full strength yet.
The biggest problem I have is that Honey keeps jumping up at me when she's excited about going out and she bashes my legs with the metal frame. It is padded and wrapped in bandages but it is still hard! She also has a habit of digging me in the back with her legs in bed at night. OUCH!
My aches and pains are coming and going with the weather changes. Roll on some Spring weather! The snowdrops are out round here and a few crocus are out too. A sign of better times to come - I hope. The birds and squirrels are chasing each other around with enthusiasm. I am on frog watch too - should be spawning time soon.
I did the Great British Bird watch last weekend, spending an hour watching the garden.
It was a pretty standard hour with all my common visitors showing their faces, but none of my more spectacular infrequent visitors. I did the tally and have posted my results on the website.
John has been pretty poorly this last few days. He has toothache and the painkillers he was given have upset his stomach so he's been sick and hardly eaten anything, being unable to chew either.  Hopefully the dentist can sort him out today.
We have tickets booked for the Chichester Theatre tomorrow night to see Fairport Convention in concert. We usually see them at Yeovil around my birthday but they did not 'do' Yeovil this year, nor Salisbury. The closest gigs have been Exeter, Weston Super Mare, Farnham, and Chichester :( all well over an hour's drive. I hope we are both well enough to go and enjoy the night.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Pub quiz night tonight. :-D a good night out with my family and friends.
I hope its a busier night than recently.  I think everyone is feeling the pinch after Christmas.
I can hear you making sympathetic noises. It's a long time from December to January pay day and all the Christmas purchases now show on credit cards - a painful time.