Short Entry

I heard strange noises last night and looking out what did I see?  Barney!

After he left Sandra of  Sandra`s Scribbles he made a detour and stopped off at my house.  He really is getting inquisitive.  He had a rummage around my freezer and did not like the fish fingers he found but he did enjoy some kippers and cod fillets.

As it was a very cold night last night, he slept in the garden. He does not like travelling at night.  This morning I told him that Joan whom he normally lives with over at Stranny Dayze would be missing him and that as exciting things were happening at her home, he had better hurry back.  He has a long journey ahead of him.  So, Joan, expect him this evening.

Thanks to all who have joined in my quiz questions of yesterday. I have enjoyed reading your answers.  For those of you who have not yet seen them, there is still time to join in if you wish to.  I know that some of you intended doing your answers over the weekend and that is fine.

Have a good weekend my friends.

 

Some Questions For You

The sun has finally appeared after several days of leaden skies and it certainly is nice to see. They say we are in for a colder spell but not, thank goodness, the temperatures of minus 30 degrees that they are having in Russia.

The net curtains have now been picked up for return to that firm and I hope it is the last I hear about them although I am not counting my chickens.

I thought I would give you a bit of fun today so I have set some questions for you to answer.  You can give straight answers or comical ones, it is up to you and you can either post your replies under comments or reply on your own journal but do not forget to let me know that you have done so because I would like to come and read your replies.

Are you ready?  Here goes

 

1.   If a film was being made of your life, what actor or actress would you like to see in the lead?

2.   If you could choose to live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

3.   If you could meet someone famous (alive or dead) who would you choose and why?

4.   What is your all time favourite film or book?

5.  If you could change one thing about your appearance what would it be?

6.   If you could appear on a T.V. programme, which one would you choose?

7.   If you were going out to dinner, what type of restaurant would you pick?

8.   If you could invent a totally new gadget that would make your life easier, what would you like it to be?

9.   If you could own a racehorse, what would you call it?

10. What is the most memorable event in your life so far?

11. If you could live your life over again is there anything that you would change?

12.  What one thing annoys you the most?

13.  If you could change your first name, what would you like to be called?

14.  If you were a keeper in a zoo, which animals would you most like to be in charge of?

15.  Is there any actor/actress that you really dislike?

Well, that should keep you occupied for a while.  Have fun.

THROUGH A DOG'S EYES

Friendship

This was the sunset taken from our front door last night.  Nature never ceases to amaze me.  It was truly spectacular turning the whole of the front of our home pink and then crimson.  Even on the darkest day (and yesterday really was gloomy and dark) joy can still be found in little things, things that we should never take for granted, things that can lift our spirits and touch our souls.

Monday was not a good day for us, it was the day Pip returned home. Tears were shed again but Mike and I were both so touched with the dignity that had been accorded him and included was even a condolence card.  Had he been human he could not have been treated better.  So, that puts a kind of closure on things now although we miss him and always will.  He was the best dog we ever owned and we have had a few.  He was very special and will always remain so.

I have been reading again "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran and wanted to share with you today his writing on friendship.  I have often found great consolation in this book and you have all been such a great comfort to us that I think it fitting to share this with you today.

ON FRIENDSHIP

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."

Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

~ Kahlil Gibran

THROUGH A DOG'S EYES

Shivery Sunday

The sun made valiant efforts to shine today but the clouds defeated it.  Now, it is so dark it could be evening and I have had to put the lights on and the temperature has really taken a fall.  I do not know whether I suffer from SAD but these gloomy days really get me down, make me feel like crawling back to bed and staying there. Sunshine always lifts my spirits.

I do not really have a lot to write about today.  I watched the finale of Soapstar Superstar and as predicted, Richard won.  He was tipped to win right from the start and I am pleased for him.  He is so very talented for a boy of sixteen and yet I could not help but feel sorry for Andy.  He is such a nice guy and a really genuine person.  He smiled the whole way through every night of the contest and never minded what song they gave him to sing.  It is a pity that it came down to a final between the two of them.  It must have been hard for the cast of Coronation Street because their loyalties must really have been divided. They would have wanted them both to win. 

That was followed by Dancing On Ice which is really Strictly Come Dancing but on ice.  I did watch the beginning.  How nice to see Torvill and Dean skating together after ten years. They have lost none of their talent.  However, after watching the first two contestants, I lost interest.  I think it was because Strictly Come Dancing so recently finished and the programme was on directly after Soapstar Superstar.  How much reality t.v. can you take!  I think it should have been on at a different time.  So, I retired to the bedroom and watched a programme I had recorded earlier in the week.

Today is very quiet, no visitors and we have just been browsing the Sunday papers and chatting.  Mike is taking Jesse out soon and not looking forward to it now it has become so cold. My blood sugars are coming down but very very slowly.  Strange how quickly they can shoot up but it takes ages to get them back down.

Oh, you will remember the saga of the net curtains.  You will recall I ordered some in November and kept being told they would be delayed due to "production problems".  In the end I told the firm where to stick them.  I cancelled the order over the phone, I cancelled the order on my online account to make doubly sure and to make triply sure I also wrote to them confirming I had cancelled.  Guess what arrived on Friday - yes, the damned curtains.  You can imagine the air was blue.  Now I have had to make two phone calls to them, write to them and have to wait for them to send me a returns form.  Then I get another email saying that cannot accept net curtains as a return because they have been cut to size and therefore cannot be resold!!!!!!!  I got on the phone and gave them hell believe me.  I can get angry, believe me you do not want to see me when I am angry.

I have demanded that their delivery person comes and picks the curtains up, I have said that if they dare add the cost of the said curtains to my account then I will take this matter as far as I can.  No way am I paying for a cancelled order that is absolutely no good to me because I now have new curtains at my windows.

This year, not a lot seems to have gone right for us so far   and I am getting pretty sick of it I can tell you.

Well now, and there was me thinking I did not have much to write about.

Warning

I wanted to warn you about a scam that is going around in case you did not already know.  This applies to readers in the UK. and concerns the National Lottery.

Many of you probably play the lottery and some of you might even do so online as I do myself from time to time.  So, be warned if you get a "winners notification" sent via e-mail.  It is a total and utter scam.

I received one myself yesterday and for a moment it did make me wonder, after all, as I have said above, I do play online from time to time.  The e-mail at first glance looks pretty genuine.  I was told for instance that I had won £650 and that I could call at the offices to collect my winnings or claim by post and the prize would be delivered by courier.

However, a couple of things immediately alerted me.  One was the fact that the heading said "you have won on are lottery"  Note the "are" and not "our. " The second thing was even more obvious.  It said I had won on Thunderball.  I never play Thunderball!  If I do not play it, then I could not possibly have won on it.

I have sent a copy of the email I received off to the National Lottery so that they have the e-mail address of the person who contacted me.  They are aware of the situation and under "contact us" they have put a piece about these scams. If you do win playing online, the National Lottery  will e-mail you but they never put the amount that you have won  and never ask you for personal details.

However, I am very worried that other people might fall for it and come unstuck.  From what I understand these people pose as "agents" for the National Lottery, ask you for a handling fee and then disappear without trace. Naturally you never get to see any money!

There are probably many such people out there running the same sort of scam but I can only warn you about the one that contacted me.  So if you hear from someone calling themselves Gabriel Harrington and giving an email address as ureach.com - delete it and ignore.  It is not genuine.

 

THROUGH A DOG'S EYES

 

 

Gloomy Thursday

What a gloomy day it has been today. Skies the colour of battleships but at least it remained dry and the wind had dropped.

The saga of the car keys has finally finished.  You will remember how Mike lost the house and car keys on Boxing Day (they never turned up).  Changing the locks on the house was no problem but the car key was a different matter.  We could not get the spare key to work at all. Mike took it back to the garage, they could not get it to work. Endless phone calls were made.  We were getting nowhere.  It turned out that the numbers for our car were incorrect ones.  When Mike bought the car, they allocated him the wrong one of the batch and apologised at the time and even gave us a slightly upgraded car as compensation. The problem was that the key numbers that were in our handbook were the original car numbers and not for our car at all.  So after three trips to the original car dealers, two trips to another outlet of the car dealers and several calls to the manufacturers, they eventually solved the problem today so all car keys are now working.  They charged even more than the original quote and then, of course, there is the damned vat!  Mike was not best pleased and said with all the trouble he had been put to, he should have got a reduction.  They said that was not possible but they did give the car a free "health" check so we had to settle for that.

We looked after baby Daniel on Tuesday morning whilst Becky took Nathan swimming.  Daniel is smiling all the time now and very very vocal, much more so than Nathan was at the same age.  He is taking a great interest in everything and starting to try and sit up.  It will not be long.

We have been told we will be getting Pip's ashes back on Monday, something I am not looking forward to because I know it will upset me again, but at least it puts a kind of closure on it.  The house still seems very strange without him.

Apart from that it has been very quiet.  We got hooked on Soapstar Superstar despite our best efforts not to. This is not the sort of t.v. we usually watch but were curious on day one just what soapstars would be on it and that was it, they had us, so we will be tuning in again tonight.

I have been feeling under the weather all day hence my late postings.  Hope I am not going down with something.

Have a good evening everyone.

P.S. I have posted a new chapter under THROUGH A DOG'S EYES

For Dog Lovers

Hello my friends.  For all those people who have been following Pip's Tale, I wanted to let you know that as from now, further episodes will appear elsewhere.

I am grateful to Helen for suggesting this idea because it is a fitting memorial to Pip to have his own place even if AOL will not let it stay there forever once I do cease to update.

I know there is lots of trouble with alerts at the moment, alerts have certainly not been going out on my journal and, from what I gather, I am not the only one.

Nevertheless, you might want to earmark this new site so that you do not miss the continuing story. I can only hope you get an alert on this posting.  I am so glad that you are enjoying the story.

THROUGH A DOG'S EYES