dates 30 July 2009
Another one of THOSE days was kinda diverted, but only in parts. First up, the old laptop, and presently ‘house’ computer, completely and utterly died…the battery has long been dodgy and it was constantly hooked up to the mains but even that didn’t save it…I shall try to do a rescue tomorrow by luring A Man into have a look at it but perhaps it’s time has come…hope not, as it has lots of stuff on it that isn’t backed up anywhere else (music, mostly and I don’t want to have to sync my ipod elsewhere as I have only just learned how to do it properly on that machine!!!).
However, writing got did and the rowing machine is now assembled and ready to go = huzzah!
I also went on a second cinema date with my present Husband tonight – 2 in one week, mind, which is 2 more than the last 4 months…or more…maybe lots more…
The Builder tried to clear the kitchen sink today and seemed to be doing great work but now it’s bunged up worse than it was…
No sign of any rodents…barring those already mentioned…
flu 29 July 2009
Right – turns out the smell may be a return of the visiting rodent (though that’s unlikely, according to The Man who deals with this for me) or DRAINS which was my opinion all along and I rest my case on that as even a bit of a tweak at those today has resulted in a big improvement in the fug o nastiness in the house. In the meantime, however, I hear from neighbours that the area is overrun with rats cos the local disused railway line is being redeveloped and WOULD’NT YOU KNOW IT tonight as I was gazing out the window I saw a small creature run by in the garden – coulda been a mouse but more likely a young rat…eeek and not good…
In the meantime myself AND the G are v sneezy – can it be that we have our very own version of swine flu in the house??? kinda all we need….
hugs 28 July 2009
Richard is very keen that I should tell you all that hugs were had and all is well – consider it done, Hubby!
I had one of those experiences today that proved a ‘saying’ to me. I bit into a red grape and it was as if it had turned, within its skin, into wine – though v vinegary wine…and I wondered if I had actually tasted ‘sour grapes’?
I am very taken with the series DESPERATE ROMANTICS on UK tv – I have never been a fan of the neo romantic art of Millais and Rosetti but it’s a great series – good fun, well written, brilliantly performed and directed, and bound to get people interested in that era.
Progress slow on the book today but tomorrow looks set to be three RIGOROUS sessions to make up for that…oh joy!
smells 27 July 2009
Oh dear, a TERRIBLE smell of drains in the house now – I think -HOPE – that’s it’s the drains – actually, I don’t think it’s the same as the smell of the rat nesting, from days not quite of yore (EEEK). When does shit (real or metaphorical) just stop hitting a person’s personal fan?
The G is in good form and not shitty (so it ain’t her that’s smellin’)
The Hubby is home after a week of around the world…his wife is glad (nuff said)
Nite now….
grooming 26 July 2009
My sincerest thanks to all who have emailed to give tips re the G’s grooming. Everything you suggest will result in me being SHREDDED by her but I will try! She’s grand today but the old poos are quite runny now. Mind you, she ain’t the only smell in the house – there is a niff I cannot locate and, if I was pressed, I’d say it’s something rotting gently somewhere, possible under a floorboard – could be a dead creature, might be a sausage that rolled away in escape, who knows…and I have searched fruitlessly (mixed food and organic matter imagery there, sorry) and cannot locate the culprit so we’ll have to ride this one out, as they say…
I went the whole day without going for a paper and then, close to 9pm I cracked and got one – don’t know why as it was eff all use as news or information…ah well, got me out and about for a few moments, I guess.
Had MAJOR cravings for carbs today and that happens from time to time on this no-pasta-no-rice-no-bread-no-potatoes regime I am following – but I am happy (for this read guilty but unashamed) to report there were 4 cream crackers left over from my niece’s visit and I had them with butter = BLISS! I’d love to shift another few (but crucial) pounds but I rather suspect that would mean giving up wine and I am not prepared to do that until I have to think about filming again in a few weeks time…and I had hoped the extra flab would be off by then – ARGH, she exclaims, while sipping a gentle shiraz…one ounce at a time, then…
trouble 25 July 2009
i’m having a torrid time with my internet connection again – one laptop has ‘lost’ it’s software for the dongle thingy and refuses to work and the other is roaming on a uk one (and costing a FORTUNE) and can be a bit temperamental with it – hence no blog last evening as it was tantrum time from the latter. and it was quite a day for all such things yesterday – a man came to fix the landline in the house and told me he could only bring it TO the house not then connect the line with the various sockets for the phone IN the house – i’ll have to get an electrician to do that (another thing to put on list for the builder if he ever returns – so no, Joyce in Embra, they are not yet done, seeing as how you were asking recently) – indeed it was the builders who were the cause of the fault in the first place as they did something dicky to the system when they replaced the bathroom window. Than a man delivered my rowing machine and it’ll take me and a few others to get it out of the box, even, cos it’s heavy and there are a million bolts etc to be fitted (it’s pretty much flat pack) although i was assured in the shop that it’ll only take the briefest of anons to put up…hmmm…and yet another chap came with a modem for broadband/wifi and when i enquired about THAT i was told i’ll have to get someone from the alarm company to deal with it as we have a telephone monitored alarm and also that the exchange won’t be putting the data for all that up until the 30th of the month so it’s pointless doing anything before then….a strange and confusing day all round.
in the meantime the G is getting a bit doddery, I think, and is now managing to get poo on herself and is not that great at cleaning it off – this was ultimately why i let poor little Snubby go because she was poo encased and not enjoying herself at all – and impossible to help with cleaning…it’s sad and AWFUL to see it coming but i want the G to go at the height of her superpowers as you all know…AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL. any tips on how to help her groom herself or what to use when i try to would be MOST welcome. i really don’t want to let her go just yet (ever, actually, if truth be told)
blunt 23 July 2009
There’s a lot of talk about spying in the papers today because Anthony Blunt’s memoir has been released. He was the Surveyor of the King’s (and, I suppose, subsequently the Queen’s) Pictures from 1945 but a spy for the Soviets from much earlier in his college days at Cambridge. I often wonder if there were students at Trinity in Dublin (where I ‘read’ my degree) who got the tap on the shoulder – I assume that there were because, for instance, although I was there in, what seemed to be, rubbish years 79 – 83 there’d’ve been a lot of Northern Irelanders also and there was an actual war going on up there, even if we all referred to it as The Troubles….
My lasting memory of the Blunt episode, though, was that my professor Anne Cruickshank (amazing woman and teacher) was emblazoned on the front of all of the papers in Ireland a possible ‘5th Man’ as she was a favourite pupil of Blunt’s – SSOOOOOO exciting
diamonds 22 July 2009
did a charity photo shoot in dublin recently with a really great presenter (ray d’arcy – he’s actually the reason i listen to irish radio) and we mocked up a 3 legged race for that, amongst other scenarios. when we were posing for a more formal shot of the soles of our shoes he opined that we probably had a lot of dogshit on there (as lovely as the municipal park we were in was/is) and i thought that’d be a great rewriting of the paul simon song – SO! instead of Diamonds it’d be Dog-poo On The Soles Of Her Shoes – says a lot about how one life is real and the other is Hollywood…
minute 21 July 2009
OH a minute is a LONG time to try to NOT hesitate, deviate or repeat oneself (doncha love the ‘one’ from a peasant there, but HEY that’s the way things roll…) ANYHOW, i returned to JUST A MINUTE this evening and it was a TOTAL pleasure but i am SO crap at the game…my dream is to to do well but it must be admitted that I don’t spot the mistakes well and then get into discussions with the others about silly things and talk over host Nicholas Parsons (a crime!) – aside from all that, funny things were said and in the can and ready for transmission from 27th of this month.
For those of you in the rest of the world who don’t know JUST A MINUTE I urge you to check it out in general, as a concept, and then in particular on the bbc website – damn fine entertaining (terrifying to ‘do’ but audiences love it and that’s good enough for me – I am, after all, in the Entertainment Business!!)
minute 21 July 2009
OH a minute is a LONG time to try to NOT hesitate, deviate or repeat oneself (doncha love the ‘one’ from a peasant there, but HEY that’s the way things roll…) ANYHOW, i returned to JUST A MINUTE this evening and it was a TOTAL pleasure but i am SO crap at the game…my dream is to to do well but it must be admitted that I don’t spot the mistakes well and then get into discussions with the others about silly things and talk over host Nicholas Parsons (a crime!) – aside from all that, funny things were said and in the can and ready for transmission from 27th of this month.
For those of you in the rest of the world who don’t know JUST A MINUTE I urge you to check it out in general, as a concept, and then in particular on the bbc website – damn fine entertaining (terrifying to ‘do’ but audiences love it and that’s good enough for me – I am, after all, in the Entertainment Business!!)