:: dog wars

Apparently X along the road has had a letter from the factor of the flats across the road complaining about her dogs. She is *furious*. She's an angry person anyway, and this is just about to tip her over the edge. NO-ONE ELSE has had a letter, she says, and anyway her dogs never poo around the flats and she carries bags anyway. She blames Y - who lives in one of the flats opposite her and has three dogs - for the factor's letter. X went into an angry rant about how "aggressive" Y's dogs are, "especially that black one, he needs a smack". (Actually the dogs are all perfectly OK, and Bertie gets on particularly well with the black one. X's two dogs, on the other hand, regularly growl at and nip Bertie.) X had gone across the road to confront her but got Z instead, who didn't say much.

So anyway then I met Z, who walks Y's dogs because Y has MS and can't manage them(I'm not sure if Z is her partner, her brother, nephew or even son - she's about my age and he's in his 30s). I mentioned X's letter to him, and he said they'd got one too. In fact every dog-owner in the whole complex had got a letter. X was the only dog-owner on our side of the street to get one, though. Z's theory is that the culprit is a cat, because the poos are quite small. There is a big black fluffy cat that seems to be outdoors all day and night. And when I think about it, something has been peeing and crapping on my front lawn, leaving bleached patches. That's highly unlikely to have been a dog. I forgot about that until I mowed the lawn this afternoon - the grass was so long it hid a pile of poo until it was too late.

I should write a letter of complaint to all the cat owners in the street.

:: cruising

Ah, having a (nearly) new car is lovely. Electric windows! Electric wing mirrors! Central locking! Most of all - extreme cleanliness. The last means, of course, no dogs allowed. I did take Bertie for a birl at the weekend, but he got (white) hairs on the (black) upholstery despite the seat cover and slobbered all over the windows, so he's banned again for a while. It won't be too long before I've tashed it up myself though, and he'll be back in the rear seat enjoying the 70mph breezes.

Also at the weekend I went to a party across the road - Dave & Diane's 35th wedding anniversary. It was fun! Dave has a jazz combo so I'd hoped for music - but they didn't play. I did meet most of the band, though, and their spouses, all real characters. And I also met a lot of across-the-street neighbours, who all knew me as "the woman who walks the tall skinny white dog". Hee hee! D&D's house backs on to the river, and it was wonderful to sit outside watching the yachts and dinghies and ships.

On Sunday I made jam - a dozen or so jars of gooseberry and just two of raspberry. The rasps are not up to much this year - possibly not enough rain. The gooseberries did surprisingly well. The fencing guys trampled one bush, breaking several branches off and damaging the others. But although the remaining branches were lying right on the ground almost hidden by straggly grass, there was an abundance of berries. The other bush suffers every year from some kind of insect attack or disease, not sure which, that strips off all the leaves just as the fruit are ripening, so I end up with a weird bald bush covered in gooseberries. The jam was excellent, a beautiful colour (green skins and seeds and pale pink jelly) and perfectly set.

The blackcurrants are coming along nicely too, should be ready in a week or so depending on the weather.

Oh, I forgot to mention last week's fun - meeting some flickrites in the flesh. I've never done this before - met internet contacts - so I was a bit nervous. Brendada came up from Durham and stayed with me, and we met up with Birdw0rks from New York and Chumplick from Texas. Not their real names! I also got to meet Shooz and Ladybobo briefly.

I'd better get back to my work - will write more later.

:: new wheels

Or nearly new, anyway - I've signed on the dotted line for a one-year-old Ford Fiesta, boring car in boring silver. It feels very nice to drive though, so it'll be ok. Also, the sales yard I'm getting it from is giving me £50 for my poor leaky, dented old bomb! Which is £50 more than anyone else has offered.

I have Tuesday off, so I'm collecting it then. I didn't like to ask if I could try putting my dog in the back seat to see if he fits, so too bad if he doesn't!

I'm looking forward to getting it, I must say. The window in my car is really hard to wind up and down - the mechanism is broken - and because various bits have broken down it has three, count 'em three keys. And now ... electric windows and just the one key. Luxury.

It's under warranty until May 2007 - and that's when it has its first MoT test!! No MoT (WoF) worries until then!

So anyway yes, I am still driving my old bomb around, as it happens. I went over some speed bumps today & suddenly thought - erk, that doesn't sound too clever. The suspension bearings are "worn to excess" in the back. Fingers crossed.

Yesterday Bertie and I went on the Make History Poverty march. It was quite something - up to 200,000 people aiming to form a white band around the centre of Edinburgh. This was organised before Geldof's Live 8 thang, which kind of overshadowed it in the end. What really struck me about the Edinburgh rally was the amazing variety of people there - all political persuasions, from Socialist Workers to church leaders (including the cardinal), punks to hippies, tres chic folk to teenage hoodies. The atmosphere was good too, relaxed but purposeful. People had come from all over the place, even Wales.

Bertie did brilliantly well, considering the place was heaving with children, and most of them were blowing whistles. He hated it, but he didn't freak out. Afterwards, as a treat, I took him to the Water of Leith.

:: argh

Bad news today: my dear old Peugeot, which has ferried me back and forth to work pretty much faithfully for five years, has failed its MOT (WOF, for kiwis). The repairs needed for a pass would cost £500 or so, and it's just not worth it.

Worse news: I thought I'd be able to sell it for scrap, but no-one I've phoned so far has offered a bean! They don't want to know! "I'll take it off your hands but I won't give you anything for it," they say. Bah. I'm going to offer it to the lads down the road who mend cars in their driveway - if I'm giving it away I'd rather it went to someone I know. They might not want it either, of course, it is pretty rough. But hey, it has four good tires! Errrr.... and that's about it.

The mechanic says it's actually dangerous to drive, so I'll probably have to hire a car to go car-hunting in. One of the chaps at the garage offered me a P-reg SEAT Toledo for £150, but as I said to him, it's probably time I got a proper car.

So, car-hunting. Tomorrow is my day off, but it's also, wait for it, Make Poverty History rally day. Yes, not only would I rather be rallying myself, but a) I can't and b) car-hunting/hiring/scrapping will be made difficult by road closures, heavy traffic, police, steel perimeter fences ... oh, it's going to be just lovely.

Oh, and of course then there's car parking at work - you only get into the car park with your own car, the one registered as yours. So I'll have to explain to them about my hire car etc etc.

An added complication is insurance - apparently some car dealers will insist you have a certificate of insurance before they'll let you drive your car away. So that means giving them a deposit, arranging insurance, waiting for the insurer to post a certificate and then picking up the car.

Grumble grumble grumble.

Plan A is to get the bus into town and hire a car, then tootle around looking at car yards. What is missing from this plan? Bertie, that's what. So I have to walk him, get the bus, hire a car, blah blah.

Everything else I was planning to do on my day off goes out the window.

I'll stop grumbling now. It's a lovely sunny day, hurrah.

:: The Big Update

John phoned today (hi John! hi Mum!) and said: "Have you finished with that bloke then?" Or at least that's what I thought he said. In fact he was asking about this blog, not about my imaginary boyfriend. And he's not the only one asking about the blog. It seems I have Readers.

So here it is: an update at last and a promise to drop an occasional line or two here.

Where did I get up to? The general election.

It was a busy night at work but fun - it was strange seeing all the London-based political correspondents in the office, and very strange indeed that we were almost all still in the office as dawn broke. Bertie stayed with my colleague John's wife Penny, and I collected him before driving home. The downside of this late shift was that the next night at work I felt as though I had a really shocking hangover.


John and Alistair compare notes at the end of the all-night shift. Please note that I have two computers!

Anyway, soon enough I was off for my extended weekend trip to Argyll and points north. I took my time getting there - I was still a bit groggy from sleep deprivation. The weather was a bit wild en route: I stopped to let Bertie out for a wee on a bleak hillside and nearly couldn't get the door open, the wind was so strong. And I had some trouble finding the B&B - I've stayed there before, so I thought it'd be easy to spot. But in fact it's fairly tucked away, and Mrs Gordon doesn't bother with a B&B shingle.

It's a lovely comfortable place - not great on mod cons, but wonderfully homey and relaxing. I also had a nice big room, which is great where Bertie's concerned. Click on any of the photos to see more on flickr.com.


After walking Bertie I hit the hay and had a wonderfully restorative sleep. Just as well, because I had a busy day planned. First off, south to Loch Sween and the Kilmory Knap Chapel, to look at gravestones:



After that I had a great walk at a forest reserve along the road. It was a real gem - Bertie enjoyed it enormously. He doesn't get off the lead much on country walks due to sheep, so a gallop through forest glades was just thrilling for him.



Then I drove down the other side of Loch Sween just to have a look-see. Major thrill there was a roe deer dashing across the road right in front of the car, which caused Bertie almost to explode from excitement. I stopped in Tayvallich for a late lunch - the cafe was right on the shore, so I had a grand view of dinghy sailors battling the strong wind in the bay.

Next stop was Crinan, at the end of the Crinan Canal. Nice spot for an hour or so.



And still there was more to see! I hurtled back north to Kilmartin, to visit the graveyard there.



Then south again to Dunadd Fort, once the stronghold of Scotland's kings.



I was flagging a bit by now, but hit one more prehistoric highlight: the Nether Largie standing stones. It started to rain, so I headed back to Ri Cruin, completely cream-crackered. I didn't bother with dinner, just had a cup of tea and a biscuit.

While walking Bertie that evening, I saw something intriguing: a huge ruined house on the hill, half covered in ivy. I asked Mrs Gordon about it the next day, and she said it was Poltalloch House, which used to be the home of the owners of the big estate. It had a magnificent oak staircase and a pipe organ. Ri Cruin was the factor's house, and her parents had bought it after the war, when the estate was downsized.

She said they couldn't get staff for the house because young people didn't want to go into service any more - "they found out there was a world out there" - so they decided to demolish it. "They went and lived in the castle ... it's not like they didn't have anywhere else," she said.

So of course I had to go up there for a look. Mrs Gordon said there were Keep Out notices, but just to ignore them. I'd noticed what looked like a private road leading to the house during my walk, but when I looked at the map there seemed to be another one so I thought I'd try that. Next thing I was bumping along through a field on the most terrible farm track, trying not to gouge out the underside of the car on the ruts. And coming towards me was another car. Uh oh, I thought, here comes the farmer to berate me for upsetting his lambs.

He stopped and wound down his window. "Have you seen a lurcher anywhere?" he asked. Er, no, I said. Bertie of course was almost climbing out of the window - he does love novelty! "There's another road up here, you know, a much better one than this," he said as he drove off. So I carried on up the rocky road to the house. There were indeed signs warning me, but soon I was in the most amazing ruin. The roof was gone and the upper floors, and the ground was thick with mud and festooned in rolls of barbed wire. I couldn't get through all the obstacles to reach the front of the house, which was annoying.

Back in the car I drove round the front to see if I could get access that way, but it was all fenced off. (As I drove out on to the track, a van stopped and the driver wound the window down. "Have you seen a lurcher around anywhere?" she asked.) Plus I was due in Oban for lunch and still had other places to visit. I'll go back one day for a better look.



I headed off down the better track and met the lurcher man driving back up. "Did you find your dog?" I asked. Yes, he had. "She loves the farm so much she always runs away and hides when it's time to go home. She was in the house the whole time."

Off to Oban then, with a brief stop at the Temple Woods stone circle. I took some wonderful photos there the first time I visited - the bluebells were amazing. But this time it was drizzling and the flowers weren't quite out yet.



I was in Oban to visit Kate, Robbie and wee Calum. I found them all well and happy, in a nice little cottage tucked around the corner from a beautiful beach near the town.



After lunch (delicious soup and home-baked bread) I headed off across the country to the Rose-Millers' farm. It was an uneventful trip - until I got to Inverness. I got stuck in a rush-hour traffic jam! I still can't believe a little city like that could have a rush-hour, let alone one that traps you in a single street for nearly an hour. As it turned out I got to the farm just as dinner was served, so the timing was pretty good.

My farm visit was pretty busy too! On Tuesday, after a lazy start for me and lots of farm work for Andrew, we went to Culbin Sands for a walk. Bertie flushed a hare and chased it at break-neck speed straight into the forest. He must have been doing 30mph when he hit the treeline - he was very close to catching the hare. When we finally found him he was badly winded (he is seven and feeling his age a bit) and had scraped his back legs on logs or something. The walk back to the car was a good warm-down for him though and no serious harm was done. We had lunch at Brodie Country Fare, a favourite spot. It has a great restaurant and the most mind-boggling shop, a cornucopia of ornaments, gee gaws and objets of every description - all wildly expensive. The smell of potpourri would fell an ox. Which they would then stuff, decorate and sell to American tourists.

After Brodies we hurried home, ditched Bertie and headed off to the movies. We saw that Crusader film, the name of which escapes me. Kingdom of Heaven? Anyway it was OK - I have a thing for Orlando Bloom so the ludicrous plot didn't bother me too much.

After the movie we hurried home again and got ready for dinner. We went to the Cawdor Tavern, which has great food. I didn't see much of Jenny, who is, as ever, busy with the museum. But Andrew and John are on good form.



Andrew is looking forward to starting teacher training. He's going to a college in Glasgow, arriving in July or August. His preparation includes observing at a school in Auldearn, a village near Nairn, and doing high-school maths.

The next day after a nice walk I headed for home. I went via the museum and then south over the moors via Carrbridge.



Fast-forward now to later in May and a brief visit from Faye. We went toHopetoun House, which is just down the road from my house but which I've never visited. It was great, and I'd like to go back for a second look. We had a sumputous afternoon tea in the cafe, which is in the old stable block. "The horses lived better than the servants," the waitress said.



Faye enjoyed having a break from her job - she says it's lovely to sit and read or do embroidery and know you're not going to be summoned away to deal with something. She's now waiting to hear from the Home Office whether her application for permanent residence has been approved. If it has, she'll try to get work up here in Scotland. If not ... wah!

So that's the main events. Other than that I've been quietly, happily busy: work, dogwalking, photography, the occasional movie or meal out, yakking on the phone, gardening, going to the gym, tapestry, reading. I'm feeling the benefits of the gym work, though my knees are still pretty painful. My trainer, Stewart, is a hoot. I had my MP3 player on while treadling away on the crosstrainer and he asked what I was listening to. "The Supremes," I said. "What do they do?" I let him listen to a snatch of Baby Love. "Oh, that 80s stuff!" he said. "Sixties, I think," I said. "I dunno, I wasn't born then," he shrugged. Now he ribs me mercilessly about my "old people's music". "Yeah, it's some old stuff from the 90s, before you were born," I told him.

I'm so old.

Also on the fitness theme, some workmates and I have started up a walking group - we're going to go for a longish hike one Saturday a month, see how it goes. The first one was yesterday: Barbara, me, Anne and Anne's friend Gina. We went to the Pentlands, did the long flat walk by the reservoirs. Barbara brought her dog, Jack, along and I took Bertie. It was a good walk, good company too.



I had a lovely letter from cousin Jean the other day. She and Margaret are coming to Scotland next year, probably November. I haven't seen Jean for years and years, so it was great to hear about her family and their farm and the McKenzie Country. It's amazing to think how similar our start in life was and how completely different our lives have been. I'm looking forward to having them to stay.

Work has been particularly busy the past few days, as John's away on holiday, so I have more solo shifts. Friday was a complete nightmare: it was the busiest I've ever been in this particular job, I was a blur from go to whoa. But I survived, and not only that, I didn't kill anyone or even shout at anyone, which is quite an achievement.

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair done - I'm going back to my natural colour, or rather my hairdresser's interpretation of it. But it's only a semipermanent tint, so it washes out - it's looking terrible at the moment. I've got Tuesday off, hurrah.

So there you go! All caught up. I will try to be more regular from now on.

:: 1,000 words

Well. I have been away for some time - I hope you're still checking my pulse now and then.

I've been over on flickr, which is lots of fun. The combination of a new camera, broadband and flickr has been addictive - in fact I've decided to limit the amount of time I spend online.

In other news ...

I have a new back gate and fence. I'd accepted the quote I had (plus an extra £20 for a bit more height) and I had a call at 10:15pm one night asking if it was ok if they came the next day. And they did! I raced out before they arrived and took the canes down from around my "veg garden" (aka patch of weeds).

The team of two blokes started with the gate - within a few minutes they had demolished the old one and set up new posts.

 

Then they went off for "breakfast" before coming back to hang the new gate, take down the bamboo curtain and put in fence posts. After coffee and biscuits they got stuck in to fencing proper. One of them had a nail gun, so the whole thing went up incredibly fast. They didn't do too much damage, just broke some branches off a gooseberry bush and a blackcurrant.

That was a Thursday. I spent the entire weekend, Saturday and Sunday, coating the fence in wood preservative. Very messy stuff, runny and bright orange. Saturday I did the gate and panel, both sides, and nearly all of my side of the fence. Then on Sunday I went next door and cut out the old wire fence (which Frances tells me was put up by Mrs Blacker's son, the builder), chopped out the weeds and grass that was growing under it and painted the rest. I had felt I was more than halfway, but I hadn't counted on how bloody long it would take to paint the inner edges of the planks. It was agonising! But so worth the effort. 

My other news is that I've been officially diagnosed as having mild to moderate arthritis in both my knees. I knew that already, but had an X-ray to confirm. It's been quite depressing over the past couple of years, the deterioration and pain. I've had to give up sailing - I'm not nimble enough any more, and any kneeling at all, even just briefly, leaves me in bad pain for up to a week. And I've been wimpish about hillwalking too - it's so painful going downhill! So I've put on weight, which has in turn put more pressure on my knees.

At about this time, the Guardian published an article by the late Andrea Dworkin about her arthritic knees. What struck me about it was how relentlessly negative she was, and how passive. She didn't appear to have done anything positive herself about her condition - losing weight, for example, or investigating alternative remedies. I've tried various things - cutting out fruit juice has helped, oddly enough, and glucosamine is good too - and of course I've surfed the net for ideas.

All this came together in the decision to lose weight by getting more exercise. I hate dieting - it's boring and makes me obsess about food - and I want to build my muscle strength back up. I called the nearest gym and they said to get the doctor to refer me - it's cheaper. So I did that and my first session is Thursday.

Yesterday I went out and bought a pair of sneakers - it's that long since I went to the gym! It was hilarious - sneakers are so ugly now! And wildly expensive. I always used to get plain white Reeboks - but the style that I like is only for kids now, so I had to settle for a horrible-looking 70s-style pair, the plainest I could find. Oh well, they were cheap.

Also on Thursday is the election, and I'm doing a special late-late shift, 9pm to 6am. What fun! Yes really! Working election night is always a buzz - it's exciting when it's close and you're waiting for the next result to come in, and the next and the next. Labour is going to get a pasting but will probably still get in. I don't agree with all they've done, especially over the war, but the Tories would be a disaster. I've been hating their campaign - banging on about immigration as though it's a bad thing. Pah!

So I work to 6am on Friday, then 4pm to 1am, then on Saturday I drive across the country to Kilmartin. Yup, a long weekend has lured me out onto the road. I'm having a couple of days in Kilmartin, Argyll, then off to Oban to visit Kate, Robbie and wee Calum, then straight up the Great Glen to Inverness and Wester Barevan. I'm there for just a couple of nights.

Right now I'm off home. I'll put some pics in later on.

:: flickrd off

Flickr has taken over from my blog! Photography and website tinkering and surfing (Anthea has been sending me music and Mum and John have been phoning regularly, both via Skype), walking, work ... I don't know. Time flashes past.

I'm trying to be disciplined and go to bed early, ha ha. Today I was wrenched from my bed by the doorbell at 11:30am - Bertie's new kibble being delivered. He's recovered from his ordeal (aka my holiday) to the extent that I think he might be better off on "Greyhound Maintenance" than "Beta Active". He turned his nose up at the new stuff though. "Bleugh! I'm not eating that rubbish."

On Easter Monday morning it was the fencing man that woke me, come to do a quote. The bamboo curtain isn't going to last another winter so I'd better get on with a replacement. The back gate is also falling apart, so I got him to quote for that as well. He reckoned 4ft would be high enough for the fence, though I have my doubts.

Last week's alarm clock was the next door neighbours having new central heating installed - they were very good about it, making sure the noisy work didn't start until late morning. They had to have the chimney swept and warned me about it in advance, which was just as well - it sounded as though someone was coming through the wall!

Went to quite a good concert recently - the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union. One of its members works in the features department and sells us tickets at a discount. This was a varied programme, to mark the launch of their CD. They did a James MacMillan piece, A New Song, which was gorgeous ... I really like MacMillan ... and my favourite bit of The Messiah.

On Saturday night Fiona, who is an ace social organiser, got a fun group round to her place for drinks and then off down the hill to a pub at Granton for a meal. There were ten of us altogether, once Verity had arrived - she'd just flown in from California that day! Really enjoyable evening.

Some wonderful news: my friend Colin (used to be a workmate, taught me sailing, now training to be a nurse) has just become a dad - his wife Gillian had a little boy by Caesarian section this morning. She already has three kids and he's been being a house-husband while waiting for his course to start.

Right. I'd better head off and walk Bertie before getting to bed - it's nearly 3am!!

:: losing streak

Must ... go ... to ... bed ... must ... stop ... surfing ...

But wait! I've just stumbled on Bertie's racing record. Poor devil, he started out really well, but it all went pear-shaped in a matter of months. All his races were in Galway, Ireland, the first on 15 April 1999, the last on 21 September 1999. I've had him since 22 March 2001. "Total prize money of €0." Pooooor Bertie, he didn't earn a living.

Right! I'm off to bed. I've been working on my website revamp - it's a lot easier with broadband! Honestly!

Forth Road Bridge

Forth Road Bridge
Originally uploaded by hockadilly.

Blustery, cold day - walked across the bridge with the wind blowing up my sleeves, had an ice-cream and got the train back. At the station some Russian tourists told me Bertie was a Russian dog and asked how much he cost. They thought £50 was pretty reasonable.

:: on the mend

Bertie's fans will be pleased to know he's recovered from his ordeal (aka my holiday) and has regained most of the weight he lost in kennels. Accordingly he's becoming a fussy eater yet again - for a while there he was scoffing anything and everything and then asking for more. His bowl is always clean at the end of the day though.

I should really take some photos of my house just now - it's a wreck. I've just got broadband (which is fantastic!) and installing it involved plugging a special splitter and extension cable into the phone socket. Which is behind a six foot tall bookcase. So I took all the books out of the bookcase and stacked them on the table and wiggled the case away from the wall. So far so good. But to get the extension to reach all the way from the socket to the modem, I had to slide it round behind the four other six-foot tall bookcases. This was tricky - they fit flush against the wall, so I had to stand on a chair and delicately tip each one forward, being careful not to tip them right over - books are heavy. But the cable got stuck underneath and wouldn't pull through and wouldn't fit all the way round. So plan B is to get a USB extension and take the mountain to Mohammed. In the meantime the books stay on the table - along with the box the modem came in, a printout of the instructions for doing everything, the old phone extension cord, packets of photo paper - the usual stuff.

Meanwhile in the livingroom piles of mail are building up: photo CD-ROMs for the family, music CDs for Rowan, books for Chris and Kate, a card for Caroline, pressies for Faye. out in the hall is the recycling collection; my old office upstairs has never recovered from its demotion (it's turning into one of those rooms you have to seal off when there are visitors); my bedroom - well, let's not go there. It was tidy for five minutes about a week ago, when I finished packing. It's not any more. Bertie refuses to keep the spare room tidy. The bathroom and toilet are pretty good.

The kitchen was a disaster area until Monday, when I had a shock visit from the water inspector. "Do you mind if I just shift these dishes out of the sink?" she said. It's a random thing they do every day, apparently. This woman drives around visiting houses to sample their water. She swabbed the tap with chlorine, left it for two minutes (she had a timer round her neck) then ran it for a while before filling a bottle from her tray. As soon as she was gone I did the dishes and wiped all the surfaces and polished the kettle and swept the floor. I'm sure she sees worse, but still, it was a wake-up call.

:: travelogue

Not yet! I've started on an account of my hols but only got a couple of sentences done before I was distracted.

There are some pictures on flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/hockadilly
Any information for wedding captions welcome - I haven't got names for some of the faces.

Bertie is recovering from his ordeal. He's been eating like a hungry horse and enjoying his walks. He's still quite clingy though, so I hope he doesn't freak out when I go back to work tomorrow night. I washed all the floors before collecting him from the kennels, but he's still finding certain sections dangerously slippery. Unless there's a walk or some biscuits in the offing of course; then he seems to be able to negotiate them without whining for help.

:: brrr

This is the view from the plane, flying in to Edinburgh airport on Thursday afternoon. I'd been on the go for what felt like several days but was something over 24 hours. It was roasting hot in Auckland when I left, fairly warm in LA (not that we were allowed outdoors), chilly in London. Edinburgh - argh, freezing. The taxi driver said the main snowfall on Wednesday was spectacular. My flight had been delayed because there was only one de-icing machine working at Heathrow. The next day a lot of short-haul flights were cancelled because of snow on the runways, so my timing was pretty good.

:: shock, horror

IMG0003
Originally uploaded by hockadilly.

The shock was flying into a snowy Edinburgh; the horror was collecting Bertie from the kennels and finding him almost emaciated. The owner said Bertie had been eating heaps - the food I provided was nearly all gone - but I don't believe him. Bertie weighed nearly 33kg when I left him at the kennels. Less than a month later he weighs 30kg. I took him to the vet yesterday & she said only diabetes could cause such a dramatic weight loss in a dog that was eating properly, but she tested for that and he was clear. He's acting starved too, gobbling everything that's put in front of him. The kennel owner is a blustering kind of bloke, acting as if it's normal - "some breeds naturally lose weight in kennels; boxers, greyhounds" - and denying point blank that Bertie showed any signs of distress. "It might just have been the cold," he said. See me, sucked in by the words "luxury heated kennels" in the advert. Grrrr. Right now I'm concentrating on getting Bertie well again, feeding him well and taking him to all his favourite spots.

:: The Big Day

Christchurch, NZ

It's the day of the wedding and fingers are crossed that the weather forecasters are wrong: they're saying there may be showers and thunderstorms this afternoon. It's been sunny all morning but it's clouding over now.

Everything's going smoothly - the bridal party is at a hotel in town; Trevor is wrangling three of his grandchildren; Pinky is looking after Mum and John; I'm at Liz's place helping Ken, Leighanne, Cathy and Gary mind the twins (ie, we're sitting around reading magazines, watching TV and drinking coffee while the babies cry in another room). I've already been sicked up on once, it's fun! This morning Cathy and I collected the large, fragile wedding cake from a chocolatier on one side of town and transported it across the city to the venue, a large colonial farmhouse on the way to Akaroa. We also had the floral arrangement for the room where the reception is being held.

I've had a great time so far; the weather has been mostly very hot and sunny, with some oddities. I had to stay an extra day in Wellington because of thick fog, and there was a violent rainstorm in Dunedin the day I left there, plus there was persistent fog along the coast. It's been wonderful catching up with everyone. The kids have all shot up of course, and there are the tiny babies and a couple of new boyfriends to meet. In Dunedin I stayed with Leighanne and her two girls, Georgia and Amelia, and her partner Gary - all very relaxed and enjoyable. We visited Uncle Jock and cousin Margaret on the peninsula, and dropped in on an old friend of Leigh's who makes beautiful Damascene knives. Leigh also took me for a drive down to Port Chalmers, and we visited Julia in St Leonards. She's a friend of mine who was a nurse, then a stockbroker and is now an artist.

There are photos on flickr - I think you might have to open an account to look at them, I'm not sure. It's free and very easy though, and it's a great site. My screen name is hockadilly.

Here in Christchurch I'm staying with Trevor and Jenny, another relaxed home. I haven't been doing much - a lot of babysitting (no hardship! the twins are soooo cute!) and a bit of sightseeing. I also visited some old Invercargill friends who are living up here now.

It's nearly time to get ready for the wedding, whee! It's going to be a wonderful day.

:: Slippy floors

A new cleaning product has made the floors dangerously slippery, apparently. For the last few days Bertie has had to be coaxed into the livingroom using Frolic, the crack cocaine of the dog world. Otherwise he stands trembling, whining and barking in the hallway.

It won't be a problem for the next month, of course, because today I took him to the kennels. What a shock! "Hey, hang on, the door's shut! Where are you going? Hey!" I did feel guilty, and I hope he settles in quickly and enjoys the change of scene.

The floors didn't seem to be slippy at all.

Well it's nearly 1am, the taxi's coming at 7.30, so I'd better get to bed. My bag is packed and I'm all set.

I don't think I've forgotten anything.

I'M VERY, VERY EXCITED.

:: snowdrops

snowdrops
Originally uploaded by hockadilly.

Spring! Not quite, but the bulbs are all doing their thing and I've seen quite a few snowdrops around. Not in my garden, sadly. For some reason I cannot get snowdrops to flower. I'll try again later this year - I'm sure they'd do well up the back of the garden.

Only three more sleeps to go till liftoff! It's getting very exciting. I've triple-checked all my tickets in a very neurotic manner, but still haven't really started packing. I have the suitcase out and have put some clothes in it, plus things like adapter plugs and sunglasses. I've bought suncream (Factor 30) and a new bathing suit - the weather is great, I'm told, so I'm going to be optimistic. The boot is full of dogfood for Bertie's hotel stay. (Food is included in the price, but he's really fussy and the kennel people couldn't find "his" variety.) I have books to read on the plane and flight socks.

I just have a couple of things to do (book a taxi to the airport, phone a couple of people) and I'm good to go.

:: Countdown to liftoff: 9 sleeps

Single figures! I can't believe it. Time to drag my suitcase out of the cupboard, freak out at how little summer clothing I have (17C in Wellington, ice on the puddles here), stare in horror at the mothballs in my bathing suit, fret about formal wear, wonder whether it's too late to get NZ currency. I already have some, actually, Christmas presents: a $50 note and a full set of coins. The coins are especially useful, because I can practise paying for things without having to read the amounts. Added to my kiwi accent, dreary clothes and fish-belly pale skin, fumbling with money makes me look like someone on day-release.

Bertie's been particularly cheerful since his feet healed up, prancing around and enjoying life. Little does he know ... I feel almost guilty. Almost. I wish it was easy to take him with me, though - he'd love hanging out with Poppy and Sam the kiwi dogs.

I'm even looking forward to the gruesome 24-hour plane journey. I have a couple of books and some sleeping pills, so I'm all set.

Eeeeeee!!!

:: all done

I finally, finally, finally got the computer going properly. The new one, this is, not the old one. The old one is a husk. It wasn't easy and I learnt a lot, mainly about the benefits of not rushing in with my first idea, or even my second one.

One of these days I'll write up the whole experience, but for now here are some photos:



This is the old computer, in the process of being gutted. I've taken out its hard disk drive and its floppy drive to use in the new machine. I was going to take out one of its CD drives too, but the new computer has an odd design which means it'd be extremely difficult to squeeze it in. Which explains why, in this next picture, the CD drive is balanced on top of the new open case.



It's a smaller case than the old one, so it's more congested. And I needed the CD drive to install the operating system on the old HDD inserted in the new case - oh, it's a loooooong story.

But anyway it's finally done and all I have left to do is reinstalling my software. I started that process today. Everything so lovely and smooth and fast, it's wonderful. It's always like that with a new computer. Mmmmm. It would have been a lot easier and less traumatic to have bought a whizzy laptop - I was sorely tempted - but I need to be financially sensible ahead of the big NZ holiday.

Only 16 sleeps to go! (Seventeen if you count dozing on the plane. Or even 18 if you count crossing the dateline. I think. Maths was never my strong point.)

The other thing I've been busy doing is finding a place for Bertie to stay while I'm away. I had thought of boarding him at the Cat and Dog Home, so I went there to check it out on Monday.

It was awful.

The people are lovely, and they do good work, but there's no way I could leave poor B there for a whole month. The kennel itself was a tiled nook, with the food dishes round the corner. But in one I looked at there was a gutter full of pee between the bedding and the door, and the place was minging. "We hose it out in the mornings," said the chap. It seemed the dogs were only inside at night, the rest of the time they're locked in a bare concrete run with a chain fence. Each one separately.

The real deal-killer, though, was that they don't walk the dogs. At all. The lucky ones - the ones that won't "do their business" in the run - are let out into a grassed area for five minutes. There were two greyhounds there, both wearing their jackets because of the cold.

Bertie was freaked out being back there - it's where he was rescued to - and he was extremely pleased to get back into the car.

I had a browse through the phone book and picked a place pretty much at random, after consulting a map. It's called Barking Mews - it's a cattery as well - and not much more expensive than the dog home. The kennel arrangement is slightly better, in that the run opens off the kennel, so the dogs can be inside or outside. Most important, they're taken for walks. It's in the country, and I noticed a path going off along the property's boundary, so hopefully they'll be good walks. The ad also promised cuddles, so Bertie won't have to rely entirely on his mojo.

I'm not going to talk about work, except to say it's a lovely place full of lovely people and run by even lovelier people. Click here.

:: happy new year!!

I'm still offline at home, but today I ordered the solution: a bare-bones computer "box". It should be ready in a few days, after which I just have to install my modem, plug in the peripherals, install the software and tada! I'm back in computer-ville.

I did toy with the idea of getting a fabulous laptop - I've been wanting a laptop for years now, and they're coming down in price and going up in specs - but in the end (after nearly going mad trying to choose between zillions of alluring machines) I went the cheapo DIY desktop route. Besides, I would rather have a new camera than a laptop.

I'm writing this at work - I still have access to my home email here.

:: meanwhile ...

I killed my computer. It's dead as a dead doornail. Apart from little green light that blinks relentlessly. It's my own fault - I was tinkering again - but it's still annoying.

I asked for help in a computer forum on the net (I'm at work) and someone suggested taking out the CMOS battery for 15 seconds before putting it back in and switching back on. Personally I think a better solution is to buy a snazzy new laptop.