Educational Courses…

As part of my New Year Resolutions, I said that I wanted to learn new things. so I have enrolled in a few courses.  My 4 courses are  (1) Screenwriting, (2) Mathematic cryptarithms & symbologies, (3) Copyrighting, (4) Novel Analysis.  Yes, I know, a bit of a wildcard in there with the mathematics, but English and Maths are passions of mine, and I have always loved and been quite good at both, that is why I did a degree in English Language and Literature.

I love education and if I had my way, I would spend 8am until 5pm Monday to Friday in a classroom learning everything.  I have a good memory, and M has complimented me on my knowledge of many things, which is nice to hear as he is very clever too and is a microelectronic technician and has designed and built CAT scan machines, which, ironically enough due to his illnesses he has had a great use of in the hospitals.  I loved school and stayed on and did the extra year of O levels, then did my two years of A levels, but at the same time I also went to night school and did more O and A levels, and continued with night school every year until 1998.  Through the years I have done Psychology, Sociology, Japanese Language & Culture, Archaeology, Equality & Diversity, and many many more.

 

Vet Update…

Mazikeen has recovered from her bout of illness.  The vet gave her injections to combat the stomach problems, which turned out to be gastric irritation which had caused thickening of the gut and irritated it.  She also had injections of anti-sickness and antibiotics.  They examined her and did x-rays to make sure she did not have any foreign objects stuck in her tummy, and thankfully for all that she swallows, nothing was trapped.  I picked her up at 4pm and she was really happy to see us, although she was a little dopy due to the anaesthetic, but she soon recovered from that and was running around the house playing with Harper like nothing had happened.

The only thing the vet said to do was to feed her steamed chicken for a day or two as it was easy on the stomach and get her back into eating.  Needless to say, chicken is her favourite food, so she gulped it down every time we fed her (little but often).

Today she jumped out of bed early and has been on the go ever since.  Her only quiet moment was when she came back from the forest after a long walk and slept on the couch beside me for an hour.

Glad she is all better, but at £160 for that one trip, I would hope that she stays well.

40 Years On…

Over the last 4 years I have met up with lots of family members I never knew (my Mums birth family) or had not seen for 30+ years (cousins, uncles and aunts), today I got to meet my cousins who I have not seen for 40 years.  Only due to Facebook was this possible, I had added cousins, uncles and aunts there and my cousin Gail messaged me a few weeks ago asking if I was the little boy she remembered from all that time back.  She asked if I fancied meeting up and having a catch-up and she would bring her sister Lorraine with her.  Today was the day, and I had a lovely afternoon chatting and recalling things from when I was 8 years old, I even told them where I remembered their house was, their Dads speedboat colours and many many other things.  They were both amazed at the fact I remembered so much from all those years ago.

We talked about family, how my Dads family were estranged due to his lies, telling them we had moved (my Mum still lives in the same house and has done for 46 years) and telling my Nan not to make contact with us.  Like me, their opinion of my father is also very low.  I was saddened to find that their Dad had died in 1999, but glad to hear their Mum is still alive and living in the same house I remember from my childhood.  My Nan was their Nan’s sister, so we talked about both of them and the legendary parties their Nan had at new year.  We shared stories of our memories when we all went on holiday to Devon and Cornwall which was quite a thing as there were so many of us there, usually my family, my Nan, their Nan and Granddad, their family, my uncle and his family and another of my uncles, so we are talking 18 people, our dog Kimmy and some years more, so it was quite an event.

Lorraine had to go to the Dentist at 5, so I took Gail home and met her husband and kids, so again more connections added to my family tree.  Both girls live around the corner from where I was born and lived as a toddler, and not far from my aunts where we spent lots and lots of time from when we were kids to my late 20’s.  The coincidences were in abundance, and we think that we would have passed each other many many times, but never known it.  Gail and her husband also go to the pinewoods all the time, so it is possible that we have passed each other again, but never known it.

We have vowed to keep in touch and to meet up again in a week or so and bring our spouses with us, and when they are going to the woods to let us know and we will meet them down there and our dogs can meet too.  This seems like the first of my family that genuinely want to keep in touch, and we are planning to go and visit their mum as a surprise too.

So today’s reunion has been a good day all round and I am looking forward to the next chapter.

Vet Emergency…

As with every morning, my alarm goes off, and the bedroom lights automatically switch on (the joys of an automated home).  At this point, both dogs take this as a cue to jump all over me, but this morning only Harper did.  Mazikeen was in a ball curled up next to me.  I said hello to the pup and stoked and cuddled her, but she started making noises, nothing new, when she is tired she makes a certain moan/groan noise, but with this, there was a whimper too.  I got up and went to let them both out for the toilet, Harper was up for this but the pup did not want to go, so I carried her to the door, still making moans.  I thought it may be because she is teething, but when opening the door to the garden she decided that she did not want to move.  I carried her out and she came back in.  Not her usual behaviour.  Back in the house, I got dressed and her moans increased.  I put her on the bed and lay next to her rubbing her tummy.  I checked her teeth, and although some were pushing their way through her gums she was not reacting, so not that.  I felt her tummy and nothing obvious.  She cuddled into me and started to fall asleep.  But I knew that something was wrong, so at 8am when the Vets opened I called to get her in.  Whilst waiting for the next hour to pass she climbed on me and slept in a ball again, yes she is a Daddies girl.

In the Vets office, she was quite vocal about her discomfort.  The vet checked her out and said that it could be she had swallowed something that was lodged in her tummy as puppies tend to eat everything they get their mouths around, but I knew this was not the case as we watch her all the time.  His other thought was that one part of the cut was extruding to another and cutting off blood supply which would be painful.  He decided that she should go to their hospital and be examined under general anaesthetic and give her some x-rays to check everything out.  An hour passed and Michael the Vet called to say nothing was trapped that they could see, but it depends on what the item is made from, but he was happy to rule that out together with the other thing he thought it may be, which was good as this could be fatal.  The only thing he could find is that her stomach on one side is quite thick and he thinks that this could be the problem as it would cause gastric problems along with inflammation and pain.  So panic over, but she will be there for the rest of the afternoon to recover and have some injections to sort the problem out and make her comfortable, and they also want to get her to eat something too, and I will collect her about 5pm.

I hate seeing the dogs sick, especially the pup as she is only four and a half months old, but at least she will be okay.  Roll on 5pm so I can go and collect her.

Our Plane…

I thought I would share with you all a photograph I took of our plane. It is a sculpture of  Lockheed 10E Electra Plane that took its first transatlantic flight on 15th May 1937 from our beach to New York.  It was a record breaker and took 16 hours to cross the Atlantic.  Below is a photo of the original plane.

The building in the background “Toad Hall” is still there but has been empty for a long time now.  It was a Hotel/B&B in its early days and then a nightclub.