2805 Cheryl

 

As most of you know Cheryl is an important part of my life. Her generosity, time and effort helps make my life more refreshing enjoyable and fulfilling. She is a wonder woman ands im very happy to know her.

Why she does so many things for me, is a mystery. I have asked her whether it is all a large chore or OK for her. Happily she is OK with them

Today, for example was a case in point. After another poor session (and delivery of loads of poppies from her garden) and nervousness about my guts, we ventured off to Norwich for H birthday presents.

H had left a modest list, which we swept up. The two major presents were also purchased in Norwich. I hope she likes them all.

For lunch we went  to “Waggamama”, which is a Chinese serving and cooking in a very open speedy, bar type place. Having paid every time for the presents with PIN  and chip, this restaurant didn't accept it. I said that I couldn't sign, so I scribbled my name. They were happy. Cheryl enjoyed her meal, again and I didn't, again!

 

 

270508 Guesswork

 

My mate , Irishman John Leen, from my Swiss hospital, has helped enormously by ordering my new wheel to replace the one I smashed. It was ordered from Germany, to be sent directly here to avoid Swiss duties etc

He then went on leave, hoping or praying that he had done enough. He sent me an email on 1405 telling me it was fixed and if not, call Frau Grunnmann, this lady in the factory if there was a problem.

I phoned with my rusty German and she proceeded to gabble and in all ways be typically unhelpful and officious. She was tapping away on her PC, trying to look for delivery notes, orders or any confirmation of what had happened. In my most naive moment for years, I suggested that she took my number aqnd she could call me back when she had found out what had happened.

I took the phone outside, whilst doing some gardening, to receive her call. All of a sudden NOTHING HAPPENED.

I then thought an email would be preferable. I wrote a simple email and then to whom should I send it? I guessed and sent it to three different addresses and only one was rejected. My conclusion therefore is that she has it. (3 hours later still no answer) 

                She phoned at 14.00 (5 hours later) and her supplier had delivered the wrong bit and that’s why it hat been sent. They say I must wait another week minimum. Well I’m not stuck here because of the wheels but the weather!!

                We had an amazing thunder storm at 0300. It woke us both up and the lightening was fab, we had one break right over us. The shower light went on, of course!!

 

 

 

 

260508 Extremes

My god, H was keen to get to where ever she was going tonight, as she shot out of the door. She has left the bread mix on the side and the bread machine is totally inaccessible as well as incomprehensible. My excuse for not knowing HOW to use it, is that I can't reach it and I’m sticking to that excuse!! Probably a good thing anyway. It only has a 12 hour timer and I would have been woken by “bread activity” at 0500 as it beeped its completion.

We only have one friend who deals with kids in the way, I think I would have. At our house warming party, they got a babysitter in and came to enjoy an adult party as adults. When visiting them, they make sure kids are used for serving and greeting, then whoosh they’ve silently gone to bed. No fuss, no arguing just gone. Fantastic. We therefore can talk to each other without fear of interruption or upsetting the “language police”. When the PARENTS come here for evening dinner, no sign of the KIDS. Nrrrrr.

                H has bought another hoover. We now have one to scrub the tiled floors. It’s an amazing piece of equipment that looks like something very modern and space like. H is like a “pig in ****” with it and I think it will be used often to clear up all the crap I create. I just hope that the limestone doesn't become a cave or we have stalagmites growing!!

 

 

 

 

250508 Taking the hint

 

Yes, there are things I don’t put on my blog cos I don’t want people to know/see/hear. Amazing that I have evolved into such a sensitive caring person. Who would of guessed it?

                Exactly as forecast, the weather has turned cooler. More importantly we have some blessed rain. I can almost hear the plants slurping as they greedily drink in the wonderful rain. We have had too much dry weather recently. My garden needs a drink. Though tonight as my 18.30 “Water the plants” alarm went off on my phone, I did regret NOT having to go out and do that daily chore. (looking at the weather forecast, it looks like I wont need to do it for a while.)

I’m hoping that my theory about the daisies is true. I can only see the oxeye daisies growing on the wetter parts of the meadow, near the patio run-off by the house. So now we have rain, the daisies need to appear.  

                Cheryl was here for a rainy and unproductive session.

Jade came for her maths lesson. We did MEDIAN, MODE and MEAN then distance / time graphs. I really enjoy helping her to try to learn the basics. We use “Teachers TV “as a source of a 15 minute video to introduce a topic. Then we pause throughout the video to test ideas, concepts and learning. She only comes IF SHE wants to. She has decided to delay her “MJ times table” test  until the end of the term. Now I understand a very small part of “parental emotions”. There is nothing I would like to do more than go for lunch in the Half Moon with her and sister, but we wont go until she cracks her times tables. I try to give sometimes believe me!!.  

 

240508 salmon and asparagus

Cheryl and I managed yesterday, at last to do a full set. A slow but correct 1+1 then 1+1. After worrying about it, I asked her to time me. A single lap of walking 12 metres took 5 minutes. Watch out Linford Christie.

Last night Bo took me to a footie match to celebrate a clearly very popular guy, who had died working for EDF, in an accident. His wife Carolyn knew me from delivering horse poo. She nearly joined the camp of women to which the answer to the following question is embarrassment. “When is the baby due ?”. thankfully I actually thought before opening my mouth. She is the sole member of another club. “Women from whom I refused a drink” as I was busy organising my purchase of our next round..

Needing to pee, Bo suggested we used the normal gents. Willing to try anything, Bo got me in and then the toilet doors were too narrow and the pissoir too high. Then Bo did something to solve it. I opened the valve, whilst he massaged the bag like he was milking a cow and pushed the piss up hill out of the bag. Would you do that? He is a VERY special friend. We celebrate our differences. It is this very fact, that I enjoy so much.

It was great to see Bob and Ruth at the same event. They knew loads of the kids and parents through their two daughters.

We had tried to go out this evening, but being a bank holiday, everywhere was fully booked. H as ever, decided to cook. We had a great meal of salmon and asparagus. David and I were quiet as the three women competed with each other to entertain us the most.

 

230508 Inspirational people who don’t realise their impact

 

We went to see some neighbours last night. The original plan was to give them a list of perennials in December that I wanted. Then I would go back in May and pick them up. As normal with “Mr Decisive” himself - MJ , the original list had been cut down, added to and volumes adjusted. I.e. it was crap. Added to this confusion was a “woman in a handbag shop” being shown round the nursery by a man whose passion and knowledge of perennials is awesome.

 

Instead of a 30 minute stay to get our goodies allocated to a trailer for delivery on a Thursday (for planting by our gardener), we were there 2 hours. Added to this enjoyment was DP arriving to talk to people he had known for 20 years and two fantastic daughters, one going for a jog, the other supporting the process.

 

Despite numerous subtle and getting less subtle, hints we were eventually given drinks. Mary, remembering my normal wish, gave me a pint glass of lightly flavoured water. Having planned lupins, delphiniums, hollyhocks and other normal conservative, MJ plants, we left having trimmed volumes of these but added artichokes and other not yet understood plants including a red leaved rhubarb look-a-like. My £100 budget being smashed !! I hear you all saying “What did you take a woman for?”

 

Gary had talked last week about how content he was in his stress less life. How he enjoyed watching friends of his charging around, but never being actually sure what more they achieved with these longer days and stress-full lives. He explained that this week he had been head-hunted. Their winter lives were dominated by grave digging. This was a job that had to have priority, so meant they had to fit other activities around it. A very rich neighbour(10 acres, Mansion and 100m from them) has offered them 5 days gardening work per week. This could be shared between days of the week and the two of them, as they saw fit. Flexibility. 

 

Good luck to them.

 

220508 Being attacked by the police

 

Do you think I look the hooligan type? Here I was innocently walking Bramble and suddenly a young female policewoman jumped out of he hedge firing questions at me like the Spanish inquisition. (I know you will understand how difficult it was for me to chat to a young lady in uniform).

                It turns out she is the younger daughter of builder  Mervyn and sister of Karl, my “always up for a chat” building labourer. My god the Dickleburgh families are big , complicated and inter-related. When she told me her surname was “Mark” I innocently asked if she was related to “George” my recently deceased neighbour. “Yes”.

                Once home Jez phoned to tell me he was featured in the “Sunday Mail”. I quickly found it on www and his work with obese patients was a good read. He was rightfully chuffed to have made national news. Good lad.

 

210508 Young people

 

Today I saw Steve, the chicken farmer. He is 20x and he filled me again with hope for our country as he explained his work and efforts to do this and that. I'm still not sure whether unrealistic dreams at his age is a good thing to raise the bar, or a bad thing to underachieve your potential. This discussion is the theme of many sales conferences.

 

Another crap Cheryl time. I only managed to go the Left to right 4 times. Well nagged Cheryl . my left knee is very weak, which H maybe right in blaming my lack of standing exercise. I will check up o see if I can still do them.

 

 

 

 

 

200508 T-shirt politics in our house

 

As you’ll know, I have loads of t-shirts. Some very valuable old ones like Euro 96 or World Cup 94 or recent (normally black) tour t shirts. I have 2 piles of 20 shirts and they are each 25 cm deep. Of course I take one of the top ones every day. H washes 2/3 times a week so I could have Mondays t-shirt back n the top on Thursday. Am I a real pain if sometimes I try to take one from other than the top?   

I have recently become a “pain-in-the-arse” regarding tour t-shirts.(add it to the list, I hear you shout). When gigging as a teenager to Friars or Hammersmith, I was broke could afford the t-shirts so used to olook longingly at the t-shirt boards, thinking “One day…”. That day has arrived. 

 

There has been a big debate about squirrels on the gaedening discussion website….here is a response to my view

 

 

 

 

190508 My wonderful neighbours.

 

Was out with pup for our long route walk. On the way Chris-Windows stopped, loaded up with canes, to chat. Bramble nearly peed herself, as ever, with the excitement at the social contact with Chris. It was great to speak to him, without having to stand guard over Bramble playing with Max, his Alsatian.

Nearly home, I veered into Eric Ba’s drive to watch him welding a big post He was making a wedge to use to make holes prior to ramming fence posts into the ground This sort of ingenuity, to an accountant, was amazing. Eric must be 20 stone and dressed in his work clothes, he doesn't look very ingenious. He looks like he sleeps on the streets. My mother always warned me about making first impressions and he again proved her right. I could list them all with him, but the rusting tumble drier outside his garaged since we bought the plot in 2003 would be another one.

One summer he invited me up to see some of his handiwork making a horse exercise area. I went with trepidation after studying many times, the outside of his house which looks like “Steptoe and son”. Once I had eventually found it, it was clear he had made a very professional, neat and well made horse area. He was rightfully proud of it. He is also very good at clearing up my meadow in the autumn through cutting, harrowing and raking. It is clearly annoying to him that I don’t ask him to do the hedge work. The only reason being I don’t want Les to get his oar in, through him. Neighbourhood politics!

Talking of “Steptoe” my other neighbour Les, who fare more resembles the scrap yard, avoiding me, made himself known to Eric, who swiftly made me feel like he would like me to go. What has this man got over Eric,that makes him jump to attention like that?

 

 

 

180508 Fantastic cool relaxing day

 

Trousers organising is tough for a man in a chair with one arm. In the winter its easy cos H puts the shorts at 3m high and I'm not worried about wearing these boring grey / blue/ black M&S lounge trousers every day. When it’s neither summer nor winter, my desire to keep all options open, means my space is severely constrained. “Summer not Cheryl trousers” that aren’t big enough to take my leg brace off, whilst dressed, add to the confusion. Cheryl helps with the organisation of this and my desire NOT to wear the same 3 t-shirts all the time.

Today we awoke early and lay and chatted until 09.00. Ann changed by bag and dressed my wound professionally. After a blackcurrant jam loaded breakfast we got dressed up to do our garden chores. After organising my t-shirts, vests and trousers we ventured outside into the sunny but cloudy outside. Firstly we noticed that Mark had zapped the remaining foxgloves in the roadside gutter. We picked out the Bob seedlings instead. These were planted in the roadside beds. We split primula, moved them from under the flopping daffodils and generally re-arranged the bed with the addition of some garden peat. We shifted water to these plants with the help of my “flexible buckets”. We then refilled the seedbed gutters with peat.

                We decided to venture to Bob and Ruth to “steal” their seedlings I had been offered. Ruth insisted on giving a grand tour of their great garden. It’s similar sized as ours but 10 years older, so the trees are more mature. She offered me all the self-seedling trees for our bund in the autumn.(oak, birch etc)

                Ann then cooked lunch of beans and salmon and left at 15.00. Ann is another of my wonderful friends. Why does someone bother to drive 250 miles for a weekend of looking after me ?

                We had a super time, talking about all her challenges and future objectives. Raising 4 boys and moving house towards the High school being the latest wish. I hope I managed to look at these from a different angle and give her some new ideas She is my second oldest friend (c1983) and an extremely valuable one. It’s a shame she is not nearer.

 

170508 Learning to say “NO”and losing weight.

 

When I was young we were lectured never to say “no” to food and never to leave anything on the plate. After 18 years of this being rammed into you and living the rules for 40 ears, I am only now learning that life doesn't end if you leave food or actually say “no”.

Yesterday I left most of my cuscus and disappointingly some of the olive paste. Having learnt to say “no”, my strawberries lay on the table waiting to be consumed as an afternoon snack. After eating more slowly, I now listen to my stretching stomach and stop eating!! It’s that simple.     

Two friends, who remain nameless, have in one case had 2 lunches within an hour and in the second case, been the only one in three to have a pudding. H and I refused the chance and simply watched the third. Why didn't they just say “no”? Were they really hungry? Had they had the same lectures as kids? Or are they simply guts?

 

Cheryl arrived at 19.00 to take us to “Fox and Goose” in Fressingfield for our now traditional, meal out. This time we had decided to try the poshest restaurant around. Recently famous locally for refusing a table for Johnny Depp, we struggled in and were sat down for our meal. I could even get under the table. We had a great meal. All of us having the same scallops for starters. Then haddock for me, pork and lamb main courses for the ladies. Puddings were served to the two ladies. 

 

 

160508 Friday with my gals

 

H got up early for her outing to Paris on Eurostar. It was weird for us but strangely comforting, to have breakfast at a “Normal “ time of 08.00. H has left a lovely gift for Anne, who is expected at 18.00 for a H cooked fish pie, already in the oven, waiting for the timer to take over.

Cheryl arrived for a session of 0 then 1+1 followed by a “snack”. This definition for Cheryl is difficult to explain but let’s say that I didn't eat half of it. As I always expect though, it was gorgeous. Bottled Lemon cooked with chicken and cuscus. It’s no wonder her partner struggles to lose weight. For my “svieree” she has left a huge portion of Richie’s strawberries

Most of you who know me, understand why, what to wear is such an issue for me. I desperately try to avoid getting over heated so I need to decide at 08.00 whether it will get warm, cold or wet and thus I can try to decide WHAT to wear.

Women have the same but they have the much wider stress of colours, styles etc. For me its much simpler. My choice is only SHORTS or LONG TROUSERS.  Once dressed its too difficult to swap and I can't be bothered to do it alone, that’s for sure.

If I wrongly chose shorts, then I just lay something on my legs. However if I wrongly chose trousers?

The good news is that I’m no longer worried about people looking at my pissbag, but if I’m going to a restaurant or other posh place I lay my jumper on my legs. At least the only one to actually comment was Les. Who cares now, what he thinks?

 

150508 Lively Thursday

 

A week ago, H had moaned about losing a pair of knickers off the line, near to the house on the northern side. Gardeners, labourers, friends and all garden tourists were warned to be on the look out for a pair of bright red H knickers. Would Bramble get them to chew a she did as a puppy?

 

Today half of the mystery was solved. Bob (da-di-da) knocked on the door at 08.30 on the way to work with the pair of red knickers. He had found them in the hedge on the road. This is 130 metres from the washing line AND OUTSIDE the petfence security line for our three pets. Would rabbits have moved them? We rarely get Northerly winds but could that really work? How did they get around the house over the beds and across the drive and through the hedges to the road?

 

Same old same old. DP , Chris-Fish etc etc

 

I was invited to my neighbour's funeral by a suprisingly vocal son, Paul

 

140508 Political tax rebates / bribes

 

I have never seen such a blatant bribe as that which was doled out this week.. They screwed up the 10p tax by giving people like me something for nothing. After they announced it months ago, I was amazed about how much I would benefit. I'm the typical man that the labour party seeks to benefit……NOT . Now bi-election in mind they have corrected this **** up by giving people like me MORE money. An increase in allowances to all 22 million tax payers to solve a problem for 1m people. Apart from reversing the original **** up, this “correction” is at least easy administratively.

 

Smashing a nut with a sledge hammer ?

 

Cheryl came and for the first time since yonks we did 2 sessions of 1+1 walks with her not touching me. Fantastic.

 

Last night I went to see “Australian Pink Floyd” AT UEA. A few traffic problems meant the second we were on the raised platform, the first very loud note was struck. Both Nigel and I jumped. Brilliant, they even played (and I recorded) “The Great Gig In The Sky”. As last time in 07,  after the first amazing solo from one of the female singers, but 2 minutes left of the track, there was spontaneous , all round applause. Amazing.