The Dandy Warhols

We saw them at The Firestation in Bournemouth, which is a tiny venue when you think of the Dandys as being something big, which I did. The venue wasn't even full, which was a shame for the band but great for us! They didn't have much of a rapport with the audience, but they played all of their hits in spellbinding fashion. I've got the set list so I'll post their songs when I can. Needless to say I was very happy about not having to go too far afield. My days of travelling to London or Coventry to see a band are over. Definitely

Crusty Jugglers

Well, we saw the crusties off on the 9th October and we had a great time round at kezzer's and jimbob's. In fact we spent too long round there and before we knew it, it was 11pm and we had to race home. When I said "race home" I meant meandered on my bike, but it was a great evening. James had to take them to the airport at 4.30 the next morning and I think they had already started on the vino then. Nightmare. Anyway, they went off happily and we were all happy until about 4 hours later Rope's gran died. We've not heard sight nor sound of him since so we think he may miss the funeral. Shame really. All his reletives tend to pop off when he's away. I'm thinking that Portugal may be bad luck for him and his family....

Seasick Steve

Well, we went to see Seasick Steve on Friday 3rd at Southampton Guildhall. I had front row seats in the balcony, but we hung around in the standing area and didn't actually make it up stairs. He was brilliant. His slide guitar is great and his blues is exceptional. Particularly as he claims he was a hobo, jumping the trains to get from one side of the US to the other. He is the flavour of the month in the music business and did a gig at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday, so I think we're in good company. He was fab, although I think his gig was blighted by "Friday nighters" as there were loads of people there just chatting all the way through the set. He didn't take it sitting down though and stood up with his baseball bat and said "Shut the fuck up!" I think they took the hint because it quietened down and we all listened respectfully to his hobo stories. It was good to be out with Patsy too.

Piccys

Well, we had a last supper last night with the Howards and Rope and it was a fantastic evening. I think he's been on his own decorating because he was so chatty and that's unusual for him I think. he's off next Thursday and the Howards have said that they're not going to be able to do a Portugal visit, so hey ho. It will mean that I save more towards one in the new year I suppose and Rope will be gagging for a bit of company by then!

here are a few tasters of the forage in the forest 2008:-

Foray in the Forest 2008

We had a blast! I'll post some piccys later, but we had such a good time. Saturday was spent setting up and then the guys went off to forage for shrooms and I read my new graphic "The Wormwood Chronicles". When the guys came back, they cooked the shrooms and I reckon we catered for about 20 people including Liz's two little ones and my Anna. We managed to eat everything and also drink the contents of a small wine cellar. We took the tent and it was freezing in the evening and I'm sure I didn't sleep, although the rutting deer and the galloping and neighing stallions didn't help, along with patsy doing his impression of a PIG and snorting in his sleep. He was nearly smothered, it got so bad and I did end up punching him and saying "shut the F*ck up!" Sorry.
So that was lovely. Like I say I'll post the piccys up here soon. S x

Well, I'm supposed to be going to the school for a "fun and informative Literacy and Maths evening" tonight. Sigh....This is the evening which kerry said was the only one she could fit in this week, so I may cry off and go to hers instead. No one's at home at the moment, so I'll call a bit later. It's so quiet at work, it's like the Carling Complaints desk! Still haven't heard from Rope and Patsy's still getting out of bed at stupid o'clock to go bassing. Still, that will stop when the storms come in October. We're off to the forest this weekend to do a spot of fungi hunting and we're going to stay over (camping) which will be nice and chilled

I've received my activity monitor from the MS team. I've got to wear it from tonight when I go to bed, to Sunday morning. They're going to look at it and go "bloody hell, no wonder she's fatigued" as I'm in the office on Friday and then we're off to the woods! Oh well. we'll see.

Anna's had a cold this week, but she's gone into school today, although she was pretty distressed about it. She's totally overwhelmed with it all, especially the homework and the fact that if you don't finish your classwork, you have to finish that as well as the homework. Poor thing. i really feel for her. I'm trying to help as much as possible, but it's beginning to become a tidal wave of work. She's definitely not enjoying it.
Sian's just come in from college and they went down the beach and did lots of running and jumping so she's exhausted too. Hopefully it will all settle down soon.
Hope to be seeing Mrs H, but it's tricky with all the stuff after school etc. I'm not getting a moment to myself at all. Saw Ran last night and that was nice. haven't heard a thing from Rope for several days. Hope he's ok...

Not just any old Fish

We had a lovely evening this Saturday 20th. Bev and Ags came round and pat did homemade mackerel pate with home made onion bread and watercress on the side. For the main, he did line caught local bass baked on a bed of wild mushrooms with stir fried vegetables and then for pud he did creme brulee with a plum coulis! It was bloody marvellous and I think Bev was very impressed! Ag's blood sugar level went up by about 16 after it though ( she's diabetic).

On sunday, we had a slow start, but not hungover at all, which was good. Sian went to the track and Anna went to the cinema in bournemouth, so me and Patsy went to Tapas plus and had lunch. Very lovely! As we'd drunk most of the wine on Saturday, there were a couple of glasses which I had and then bed by 9.30. What a lovely weekend!

Patsy's getting up at stupid o'clock in the morning at the moment to go bassing or mushrooming and it's making my body feel like I've been up a whole day. I'm up at 6.30am to get anna going for school and as I was working at home today, I was sorted by about 8.00. I've started doing the physio exercises and it makes me ache so much!
Nearly had Rannoch round last night, but by the time Patsy phoned him, he'd already eaten, so we had a huge chilli to ourselves and managed to get through 1 1/2 bottles of vino. I woke up with such a hangover this morning! Who'd have thought!
It's really quiet at work, which is lovely but also boring. Hence my return to the blog. I also looked at one of my big diaries this morning and it was for 2001 to 2006. it was amazing to find the first time I mentioned Rope (2001) and the first time I had an obvious MS attack (2002). We've certainly calmed down on the socialising though. how did I ever afford it??
Watched Witness last night and I'm not sure that I saw the end, but it's one of my fave films of the 80s. That was when Harrison Ford was a hottie!
We're having the cavity wall insulation put in tomorrow. hurrah! Need to get Patsy making space down the side though. Where is he?
S x

Well for the first time in my life I've decided not to go to a gig, so I've just sold my Nickelback tickets for Friday. It's no big thing but I'm not up for it and neither's Sian, so we're going shopping instead with my ill gotten gains. That will be some weekend in the future.

What's been happening since I last wrote? Well, I've seen the MS nurse and she's sorted out loads of appointments for me with OH, physio, fatigue management, so it's all good. I've also applied for a blue badge, so we'll see how that goes.

Both the girls are at college and school now. Anna's finding it a bit horrible and the homework! Well, it's appalling! Sian's at college doing sport Btec and she's enjoying it so far. It's a change from school and I think she's really going to like it.

Me and Pat are good. I've looked back at 3 years of these ramblings and my yahoo blog and it's been tumultuous to say the least. We're still here though and still having a good time generally. he's calmed down now that he doesn't have to work with Kev and he's doing his own thing with gardening, mushrooming and fishing, so he's good.

My friendship with Rope nearly came to a crescendo last Saturday as it was his birthday and we all piled round his. I got rather worse for wear and just wanted to hug him and touch him, but clearly that was not the sort of thing that a woman in a 25 year relationship should do really. I've talked to Kez about it and she says that if I can, to try to stay out of his way until he goes back to porch as it would cause a complete meltdown. I know this is true and I don't want to create anything bad at all. I can't believe that this has been going on now for at least 6 years!

Mum's birthday

Well, it's mum's birthday today. she's a grand old 64 but she doesn't look a day over 63 or thereabouts! I'm going round tonight and hopefully Jane will be there as we need to launch a two pronged attack to sort out the bathroom at the end of September. Mum is getting cold feet, but she needs to go ahead with it so that it's easier to shower etc without having to climb into the bath. We'll go easy though, as it's not our decision and she doesn't like the thought of any change. it will make her life easier in the longrun, for a little bit of hassle in the short term. Anyway, if I can get away from there I may visit Rope if I've got a window of opportunity as I haven't seen him for a while and also his computers on the blink.

Well on Friday, had the day off and so P & I were very good and after about 1 to 1 1/2 hours of mucking about in the morning, did the curtains which had been sitting in the bedroom for a while and it looks lovely. We did some other stuff around the house and then went for lunch at the Woolpack in Sopley. The food was rather nice, even though they'd had a thatch fire a few weeks earlier. We went home afterwards and Mike M came round with R and Shamus came round too so it was very social. Needless to say, by the time we got to K's we were a bit the worse for wear! Had a lovely fish pie. S Christchurch wants us girls to go to Spain together but K is a bit doubtful as it will be a "pump and grind" weekend which she's not up for at all. I can't see me doing it either what with my "wonky donkey" condition, so it looks like she's on her own.
J back from Port tonight. Hope he had a good time and that Rope behaved himself. He has been taking it easy with the old alc recently, so he should have had a good time.
Will carry on soon. Have to go! S x

Well...

Well, I've just read my ramblings back to myself and although they're few and far between, they're pretty good. I do need to try harder.
What's the news? Well, Malc died last month over Easter. He had lung cancer which was diagnosed at Christmas and he lasted 3 months. Awful really. It does make you wonder whether curbing the hedonism is in order. The funeral was horrible, although Siobhan was very strong. I'm not sure i'd be able to keep it together at P's.
Anyway, that apart, it's been a quiet start to the year. B spent Xmas with us and J came over too so we had a house full with mum and pete. We managed to drink 14 bottles of champers and wine on Xmas day between 4 of us!!
Inevitably, we had a non drinking February which was great. Both of us did it and felt all the better for doing it. However, we didn't see many people socially and I managed to read loads of books. So that was good. It's amazing how social moments are always linked in with drinking.
D & C came round last night, so several bottles of wine were drunk, but after a curry which M bought for me and Patsy to say thanks for doing his tax. A fair swap I think. Indeed.
Ended up talking inheritance tax with D as he's doing all sorts of stuff with his parents and their house, so I gave him my up to date tax book and told him to speak to a solicitor. All good stuff though. We didn't go to bed till 1.00am and as a result I'm hanging today. Never mind I'll go to bed early tonight. Actually the new series of Heroes is on so I won't be in bed until I've watched that! James is in Port at the moment seeing Rope. We're going round K's tomorrow night for fish pie, so I'll catch up with all the gossip then. Over and out.