Just got back from visiting friends in Thornbury over the weekend. Lots of snow lying in the fields in the Cotswolds & some still in Thornbury too. They have a lovely new house and the gang were all there. Had lunch in .Blend, an excellent vegeburger and very good service. Then some light shopping, Neil picked up a bargain fleece. Much cheese purchasing in the deli, to go with the local Terrick mustard cheddar that we took T&R from the Chiltern Brewery. T cooked a fanastic vegetable curry whilst we took R to sample his new local. A rather unwise but fun late night was had, and then back home today in glorious sunshine.
A family. Rose and Norah, in Albuquerque, lost their mother when they were young. Rose is responsible – a housecleaner, raising her seven-year-old son Oscar. She’s also having an affair with Mac, a married cop, her high-school sweetheart. Norah can’t hold a job. Their dad, Joe, is quirky. When Oscar is expelled for odd behavior, Rose wants to earn enough to send him to private school. Mac suggests she clean up after crime scenes, suicides, and deaths that go undiscovered for awhile. Rose enlists Norah, and Sunshine Cleaners is born. Norah bonds with the dead, Rose finds out that it’s a regulated business, and complications arise. Can a family marked by tragedy sort things out?
I really enjoyed this film and would recommend it.
Travelling again to Belfast, different this time though I am flying in and out of Belfast City (George Best) Airport rather Belfast international. City (as the locals call it) is right in the heart of the city of Belfast situated in I guess what would have been Harland and Wolf docks, I think they built the Titanic here. It is smaller than International with less gates. They give you plastic bags in security rather than charging a pound. I arrived early and took the opportunity for a bite to eat from Harvest Market. The fish pie and mushy peas is to be recommended. When I arrived in the departure lounge it was quite crowded but a couple of flights left and it emptied out.
On Saturday Gandalf went to meet his maker. We had been out for lunch at Rossini in Wendover with Helen and the parents. We got back to the house at about 17:00. Gandalf was at the door shouting about food as he usually does. My parent left and Helen gave him his usual food, then about 30 minutes later he was sick, etc and he was sitting as though he was not comfortable.
Not long after he was sick again and he did not seem too sure on his back legs, then it became obvious he was not right. He could hardly move his back legs and when he did the paws were folding over (knuckling). We got him on the settee and he curled up but was not comfortable he kept on trying to get up and rearrange himself. We decided we should call the vets. Helen spoke to a receptionist who took the details and would get a vet to call back quickly. I took the call and explained to the vet what was going on. It was clear that the vet recognosed the symptons and said we should bring him in for a look immediately. Alarm bells rang!
We got to the vets and the went in to the consultation room, the vet was a young lady. The vet asked lots of questions and gave Gandalf a thorough examination. She explained what she she had discovered in great detail and it was clear that she was trying to get across the message that things were not good. Basically Gandalf had a blood clot that had detached itself from the heart which had descended the arteries towards the hind quarters but had blocked the artery to the legs where the artery splits. This explained the coldness of the paws the lack of pulse and the problem Gandalf was having moving his legs. Although he appeared uncomfortable it is known that this condition is very painful for the cat.
The vet explained that he could be treated but in her experience the outcome was hardly ever good and that the age of Gandalf combined with the other underlying issues we knew about (heart murmur, thyroid condition and high white blood cell count) the prognosis was not good. We made the hard decision to have Gandalf put to rest. It was not an easy decision, but both Helen and I were there to make the decision and we are sure it was the right one. Gandalf was 18 years old we did not want his last days to be miserable.
The vet gave us a moment then came back with a cushion and explained what would happen. Gandalf got an injection into the stomach and very quickly he looked very comfortable, compared to a few minutes earlier. After a short time he let out a couple of short breaths and the vet checked for a heart beat. He had slipped away very peacefully.
Both Helen and I were sad that it had to happen but glad that it happened when we were able to get him to the vet quickly and make the difficult decision together.
You may have read my posts about the quiet lounge at Luton Airport that is near the gates used by EasyJet. Well today it all went wrong. I was in the lounge waiting for the 7sm flight to Belfast City (George Best) airport never been there before) when the flight was called at gate 21.
Gate 21 is all the way back to the main area and turn right not left. So I had to get a shift on to stand any chance of getting near the front of the queue. A fellow traveller had also made the same mistake and for a while was a head of me, but my stamina got the better of his quick off the mark speed. I managed to beat him to the gate, you have to make your own fun when you are travelling on your own. Anyway things did not turn out too bad, I was 6 in the queue at the exit, so should guarantee a place on the front row.
Update got my usual seat in the end, window seat next to left front door, for a quick get away at the other end. Apologies for the picture.
Helen is going to have her 40th birthday party this year, and we have decided have a party to celebrate at a local golf club. I have been designing the invite. We needed a good picture for the front of the card. I used a picture that Marshall drew for Helen for her 21st birthday. First I scanned it then I used Inkscape an opensource vector graphics drawing package t trace round all the bits and colour it in. It was surprisingly easy to do once I got started and had figured out how to do all the bits I needed.
We are having our Kitchen replaced, the ground floor redecorated, and oak flooring laid throughout. They started on the 11 January an the kitchen was in in a week, now we are on the second phase the painting. It is going to take a couple of weeks, our painter is very thorough and is doing a great quality job, and pays attention to the details. As of today we have a very white ceiling that is now waiting for the lights to be installed, and almond white walls have had one coat in the Kitchen/diner/lounge.
Kitchenprogress
I have included a couple of pictures in this blog entry but you can see quite a few more on flickr if you follow the link, it uses a set so as I add more they will automatically be included. http://www.flickr.com/photos/treecreeper/tags/kitchen/show/
Things are hotting up. After the IE hot fix and the German and French government advice not to use IE. Google takes the chance to gather some momentum for Chrome.
The film is set in the future where us earthlings are seeking new frontiers in space. The planet that the creatures live on contains a rare and expensive substance called unobtainium. The humans are evil and want to get rid of the locals from an area of the planet important to the locals but which contains the substance. The humans send in Avatars of the locals by some strange technology, and try to infiltrate them, one of the Avatars go native and the whole thing kicks off.
I was rather sceptical that the film would not be all it was cracked up to be. There was a lot of hype and a lot of technology, so I kind of figured it would be like all those other films that are all flash but no substance.
