this and that today

Christmas is a comin, well it is as far as Mr Sainsbury is concerned, we must have at least 30 lines on the bread and cake isle alone.  Its quite funny hearing the comments of  customers.  there are 2 camps, the, "oh lets have a look" brigade and the "i dont believe it" brigade.  Personally i would rather have the Christmas stuff than this tacky "trick or treat" rubbish, nasty American idea!

We have a new 2 i/c in the shop and he's just getting around to flexing his muscles with everyone it will be an interesting time to see how he copes with Christmas.


Our 2 new Kitty's are still just running around like lunatics, its quite amusing watching them but our old cat Tom doesn't seem to want to join in. Here's a pic of them, "Resting"

The texting with Debs has ceased lately, could be that she's in love! 

A Day out with the Needham woman and Mike

After a Rather Boozy evening following the BBQ at which Sally invited Sharon & Mike to look around our friends Lisa & Jim's building project and i invited them to a bit of "offroading" with our 2 landrovers.  Sally appeared bright as a button on Monday morning but having no recollection of the invitation!!  Shades of the days when Sharon lived next door but one.

Anyway! having met up with Sharon & Mike at 10:30 we realised their holiday let was next door to our friend Peter.  Later in the day I e mailed him and ticked him off for not seeing Sharon. His reply was typical Peter "I'll put some pants on and go round then" ! 

I took Mike over our logging routes with both the Freelander & the Defender telling him how we used to cane the Landrovers in the Army.  He seemed to enjoy the experience.  Sharon was with Sally and Lisa having a girlie natter.  We all then had a guided tour of the Reservoir building project and both Sharon and Mike cant understand why the Peak Park is being so obstructive in granting permission to use it as a residence.

The idea then was to go and look at the "nine ladies stone circle" but as it was getting on we opted for lunch up at the "Grouse" above Froggett.  Its got to be our favourite lunch spot and as usual the food was very good.

Next stop was Chatsworth and a walk from the car park up to the hunting tower and back.  A quick stop at the Devonshire in Beeley and then back to ours to put all Sharons photos on a DVD as she had filled up the card in the camera.

I then dropped off the weary travellers back at the holiday let and was asked to text them the phone number of the Shalemar Indian Restaurant.  I did that about half an hour later.

This morning they reported that even though they got the text they crashed out in front of the TV and log fire!!!

Mike, Sharon & Sally by the fountain in Chatsworth Stables

 Mike after his 4x4 experience

Sally, Sharon & Mike lunching at the Grouse.

Short shift Saturday

I had agreed to go into work Saturday for 4 hours to help put out the bread delivery which is normally very "heavy" as its termed.  It turned out to be one of the smallest deliveries i have seen for a Saturday.  This gave us (Becks & I) time to do a good working of the rollers and for me to get to grips with the growing number of Christmas lines that are appearing.
Its strange that the description on the box of some items bears no relation to the price label on the shelf edge.   I cant imagine why this is so, its an important period in the year for sales and we don't want to get stuck with Christmas lines in the New Year so why cant they get it right.  The daily ritual of "the count" will be made that little bit more difficult because of this anomaly 

The Needham BBQ

After our friend Sharon from Canada along with sidekick Mike surprised us by tapping on our winow in the early evening of Friday they both arrived on a soggy part of the afternoon yesterday (Sunday) for a BBQ.
Luckily the weather improved and we managed to eat in the sunshine only to retreat later to the house when the rain threatened again.

I had spent a couple of hours in the morning going through 1000's of photographs picking out the ones of Sharon so we had a slide show of these (224) Strange that almost 95% of them featrued both Sally and Sharon with glasses of booze in their hands! I gave her a CD with them all on to take home.

The Needham cometh!!

Our dear friend Sharon is at last in the country and on her way to our area.  We are to meet her Sunday along with her friend Mike who apparently wants a "good English sausage" .  We are intending to have a BBQ Sunday so a good English sausage he shall have!!

I popped into the shop today after i had been logging with all the gear on to drop off some wood for my mate Debbs and got the chorus "I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok" lol.

Spoke to my Boss Tracy and she agreed that I could go in tomorrow morning for 4 hours and put out the bread for them, i did a days overtime Thursday as my opposite number Paul is off until Sunday so it will be a little unexpected injection into the holiday fund at the end of the period.

Book what book!!!

I mentioned on the 9th of Sept that i was going to write a book on my 29 Years 197 days (!) in the Army.  I sat down yesterday and attempted to write a plan and realised 1.  What a fantastic time i had in the Army and 2. how the hell do you put it into a book?.

I must speak to our friend Peter who has written a book which unfortunately he hasn't had published but he must have some tips on how to go about it.

I spent an hour or so today collecting all my documents and photo's etc so at least now I have all the relevant docs that I can tie bits of story to.  There will be lots that are done from pure memory, oh for a digital camera 30 years ago!

I sat down yesterday and wrote a plan of what I should do but quickly fell into the trap of trying to remember specific story lines of incidents in different regiments.  All I finished up with was a heading of say 7 RHA and then a mish mash of one liners e.g. "the 9mm pistol incident", "turn right here" "Dont worry I have the map".
So I think it might be best to have a separate "document" for each regiment and put in all the one liners then expand them into stories. The time line is pretty important and i have a (loose) record of "when" i served "where" so the time line will hopefully join all the stories together.

A daunting prospect but hopefully it will all pan out successfully.   

 

We (Tom) are not amused

Kittens Tesco & Sainsbury  are having a ball exploring everything and trying to eat most of the soft furnishings etc.  After a couple of minor lavatorial excursions they now know what the litter tray is for and are using it quite a lot.  When they were up at the farm they only got fed once a day and of course here we interpret any squeak in the kitchen to mean i want food and give it them.
Tom is definitely not amused and is still not accepting the fact that they are here to stay.  He has decamped to the back bedroom and whenever he comes down he exits through the cat flap.  He will have a nose to nose with one of the kittens but then its off to the garden or sits by the cars.

We are hoping that he will get used to them by the time it gets cold as it will be hard on him at his age when it gets cold.  Time alone will tell.  

Tesco & Sainsbury

We decided over the weekend that we should get another cat as Tom is being all clingy and we are interpreting that as a sign of him pining for company
We looked at RSPCA who I hate anyway, they wanted to charge £86 for a kitten!  Also Cats Protection want to do a home inspection and as we are on the main road we would probably get turned down.
I put up a sign at work asking if anyone knew of a kitten and one of the girls from the deli mentioned seeing a sign, "Kittens for Sale" on Slack Hill.
I went over after work and pulled into a farm where i was shown some delightful kittens but then had to wait ages until the lady of the house turned up to do the deal.  I was actually trying to get out onto the main road when she signalled to turn in.  £20 each or 2 for £30 - - - sucker! I got 2.   We have a boy and a girl and I have named them Tesco (girl) & Sainsbury.
Tom is hardly over the moon at the moment but no doubt he will get used to them and knock them into shape soon enough.

Dahlia Sunday

Really quite tedious at the shop today. I'm not sure why but Sundays always seem to drag even though there's plenty to do.
We propagated over a 100 Dahlia seeds in the greenhouse earlier in the year and planted them out in the garden after the frosts.  I was a little disappointed at the result in the early summer but they are really coming into their own now

There's a hint of the bad weather promised by all the agencies yesterday.  The wind is gusting to near 20mph and there are a number of large dark cloud formations marching across the sky and we are now getting the odd  drop of rain.    

Weekend working

A very close clammy day at work, its ok on the shop floor but once you go back into the warehouse or have to go into the yard it was quite uncomfortable.  It seems that we are about to get the tail end of hurricane Katia very late Sunday and definitely by the time daylight comes Monday.  Should be an interesting prospect watching the weather develop. 
Lots of "transport" people around in the shop today.  In Darley Dale each 2nd weekend in September there's a show called the festival of transport, it goes on for 2 days and draws quite a crowd and obviously the shop gets a bit of a boost.

I have been thinking about writing, "the book" today, I really do need to sit down and work out the different phases of my Army service, 1 I had forgotton about was my year at Cambridge University - - - a few tales there!  Then there's the photo's of course as well as some interesting bits of paper that i need to find.  It should keep me going until Christmas just sorting that out.

Talking of Christmas, we already have the mince pies! and there are some Christmas ckaes on a roller that I must look at tomorrow.   

You should write a book

Oh dear! whenever I start talking about my time in the Army I  I nearly always get the hoary old chestnut of "You should write a book"  I must admit to thinking of the countless amusing and admittedly not so amusing tales I could put to paper and realise there are nearly 30 years of my life to mull over and manufacture a tome.  My written English is not so good and I could use a look at a Thesaurus.  What the hell ----

I downloaded a bit of software yesterday and its all designed so that you can include illustrations etc.  So in effect you are doing the production of the book yourself.  When its finished  the online people publish the book for as many copies as you wish.  You can also add the book to their list of books and do the marketing yourself they just take a cut of the profits.

So I'm going to give it a go, I will write up a project plan before Christmas and take it from there.  Damn you Paul W.

Bit of drama at the shop today Michael one of the managers had to rush off as his mother was taken into hospital.  Debs was supposed to be in today and didnt show.  A normal day apart from that, one thing we are doing now that is new is reducing the ordinary bread along with the rolls and cakes etc.  It makes for a longer job but I think the team leaders and bosses are aware that on some days it will mean other things just dont get done.

So Friday Sally is so looking forward to the week-end as she's still quite tired most days.  The advent of a visit from our friend Sharon from Canada will give her a boost.  Could be some hard drinking and disastrous BBQ's afoot.

Wet Tuesday

Didnt get a great deal of logging done yesterday due to the rain showers, its ok to work in the rain but if you are on a steep hillside its really no place to be waving a chainsaw around.

Settled down in the afternoon to read the last of a book I was given.  Its called The Feather Men by Ranulph Fiennes.  A relative of Sally's asked me to read it and comment on it being true.  I wont deny that Fiennes has done some pretty cool things but writing this book only props up my opinion that he's a plonker.  To make money out of the tragic deaths of so many SAS men in the Oman and push "himself" forward to take the final accolade in the book is truly disgraceful.  The book is pure fiction based loosely around SAS ops in the Oman War.

Quite a wet start this morning after a fair amount of overnight rain so no logging today, i must sort out the top of the garden after rescuing one of the pond plants that appears to have gone for a swim.  At least the winds dropped a little now.  onwards and upwards.

Blustery Monday

Good day yesterday at the logging camp managed to finish off the pile of wood we were cutting up the previous day.  Now looking at transporting the very first pile over to the cutting area and get that done before winter sets in. Pic below

We popped into the Church for a drink and haircut and i was amused at the name of a car in the car park, a Renault "Wind" i wonder if it suffers with it! lol

Last pic of the day yesterday a number of Ink Cap mushrooms up near the logging camp, yum yum!

We had an e mail from the Aus Babes yesterday still full of fun and looking forward to our trip over too them in early 2013.

Had a text from Debs last night saying she had fallen off her bike doing a practice emergency stop yesterday and bruised her shoulder.  She's taking the Mod 1 test on Tuesday, here's hoping all go's well.

1300 got soaked this morning logging and as soon as i had finished the sun was out!! Ah well nice afternoons reading in the garden .  Heard from Debs that she's had to cancel her test tomorrow due to the shoulder and her thumb is all swollen.  Is she ever going to get it done!

Sunday review

I did my few hours at the shop yesterday as promised, Paul my opposite number did actually come in and work and the new nightshift manager gave us a guy to help with the normal heavy Saturday delivery of bread etc so we managed to get most of it out before the shop got too busy.  Most colleagues in a good mood yesterday and some quite good animated discussions going on, especially the one where Debs was asking Paul that as he was ill could she dress up in her nurses uniform and come and hold his hand?!  Debs gave me 2 Whitby Lucky Ducks yesterday 1 each for Sally and me - - - sweet.  Always do with a bit of luck!

After work Sally and i shot up to our logging area to try and finish off cutting up the pile of small logs into firewood size bits.  She's still finding it hard going so we left a bit and need to pop back up this morning to finish it off.  

First Sunday off the month so its haircutting day down at the Church pub so we will be going in so that i can have a trim

Looking at Facebook earlier in the week Tim one of my old soldiers was asking for people to donate to a young lad who has lost his father in Afghanistan and is doing the Great North Run in his memory - - - tragic and in the end like most wars what a waste.  Anyone like to donate follow the link
http://www.bmycharity.com/BrandonKieranJuniorgreatnorthrun

Right then a few jobs to be done then off to the logging camp

Trouble at tmill

Popped into the shop for a few things and the guy who does week on week off with me has had to go home ill.  I'm going to go in tomorrow to put the bread out for them, 3 hours should be enough.  Should be a few more shekels into the holiday fund!

Had a pleasant walk today to see if my leg problem would give me any pain, everything seems ok not even a twinge so thats a step in the right direction. No pun intended.  I had an e mail from Ginny one of the 3 Peaks girsl from our June expedition.  She reckons to have recruited her younger sister to join our Welsh 15 attempt next June.  We only need 1 more to be able to have our own group and guide.

Couple of pics from the walk.  The top one is at a secluded picnic spot fantastic view

loch ness monster in the River Derwent

I have noticed this before and today the light was right to make it look as if we had a monster in the River Derwent