In at the deep end!

It had to happen! sooner or later our Tabby cat Sainsbury would go/fall into the pond.  I was away at work and only heard the tale when I returned.  One of his favourite pastimes is sitting or walking across the top of the waterfall and attempting to get at either the fish or the moving water as in the pic below

From the "Exit water trail" he looks to have fallen in and managed to swim over to the edge and scramble out.  Sally discovered him soaked through on top of the wood shed frantically trying to dry himself off in the sunshine.  I only hope in his efforts to get out he hasn't punctured the liner, we will find out over the coming days.  The fish appear to have escaped unscathed.

Opening Ceremony - at last!

So after 7 long years of preparation the 2012 Olympic games opened last night in London.  The "show" did look pretty spectacular by any standards although some politicians jumped on the bashing band wagon claiming it to be "too left wing".  I think maybe they didn't get a seat at the opening!
It was good to see the youth of the country taking the lead although the old and bold previous Olympians were there and well represented!
Back to reality for me though this morning at the fun factory which is the local sainsbugs.  There's nothing like a bit of bread stacking to concentrate the mind!!

Boris is bleeding!

So after the excitement of last week with the Mirbat 40th anniversary the "fall out" is still around.  I have my now proudly owned signed Mirbat print which needs re-framing.  I have an association membership update form in the post winging its way to me to be filled in and returned.  It turns out i'm still on the books but in the "lapsed" section.   I have the other (Hereford end) association to join so will need to get that form sent off. In the meantime I really need to get back to the book!
In amongst all that went on last week we noticed some red oil/fluid on the ground under Sally's beloved Boris the Defender.  It didn't take long to work out it was coming from the power steering pump.  I quickly booked him in with the "Darley Dale Garage" over the road but because of an error in the booking he couldn't be repaired until yesterday.  Meanwhile the noise when you turned the steering wheel got louder and louder and the puddle of fluid larger by the day.  We kept on topping up the reservoir so no damage done.  He was fixed yesterday and is now back on his normal duties.
Back to the mundane today in as much as I am adding yet another coat of white paint to the kitchen window frames at the back of the house and the porch at the front.  It just gives me the chance to prod and poke the frames to look for any rot and get the repairs done before the ravages of winter hit us.  I might also put a coat of paint on the wall next to the wood shed as its breeze block grey does look rather dull.
Our log shed would normally by now be bulging at the seams with the winter store of wood.  The recent rains have however meant it is still only about half full and this is another task which needs our attention.  I took my little van to the area where the wood is and promptly got it bogged last Saturday so it looks as if the shiny Boris will have to be coerced into weekend wood moving duties for a while.
Another work week begins tomorrow so its back to the fun factory and all its drama's, challenges and opportunities!  No doubt there will be some rich pickings for the blog in the next few days.
Now where did I put those paint brushes   

The Battle of Mirbat - 40 years on

For the uninitiated The Battle of Mirbat took place on the 19th of July 1972 in the Sultanate of Oman.  Suffice to say there are a number of accounts of the battle and a particularly poignant one is at this link Mirbat explained .
I have neglected my links with the various regiments I served in until recently when I was urged by a "colleague at work, lets call him Paul", to chronicle the various events and stories I told about him about my 29 years 197 days as a soldier.
In gathering the material for the book I came into contact again with people I had not seen or been in touch with for over 20 years.  
In particular one person from my Hereford days, "lets call him Bulmer" (bulmers cider, hereford get the drift?) urged me to attend a little "do" he was putting together to honour and remember our Mirbat Heroes on the 40th Anniversary of the battle.
It was only when I received an e mail from "Bulmers" wife, lets call her "Maud"!, asking me very succinctly to attend. In fact her actual words were "Isn’t it about time you got your backside down here and did some catching up?"  How could I refuse!
On the 19th July 2012 the survivors less 1 met up at Bulmers house and for the first time I stood there in awe as they told the tale.  Like many others I have a "Mirbat Print" and they had agreed to sign it albeit with some reluctance as they generally end up on ebay! 
We then went down to the cemetery where Laba who died at Mirbat and Tommy who died later of his wounds in UK are buried to lay wreaths.  
The culmination of the day however was a dinner held at a local hotel where a 100 people (about 60 old soldiers and wives) met up to celebrate the anniversary.
 I'm particularly bad at remembering names and when you are being advanced on by a smiling old guy who for 1 you don't recognise and if you do you cant rememberer his name its little daunting.  It was strange though that even when I had to say who are you? a growing number of times the voices mannerisms and smiles whipped up the memory of who they were.  
At dinner I sat next to 1 of the Strikemaster jet pilots who helped save the day and opposite my old Squadron Commander who had my old Troop Commander sat next to him! 
At after dinner speech time we had to gather in the garden, thank goodness for the warm pleasant weather.  Three items in the speeches really drove home the significance and of the importance and respect we all still have for these guys.  
One was a letter from the Prime Minister read out by "Bulmer", another was the fact that wreaths were laid at Mirbat that very morning and we saw the pictures and thirdly a report no one had seen before.  
An officer, (not connected to our regiment) was despatched to Mirbat not long after the battle to write the official and unbiased report of the events.  The actual officer stood there in front of us all and read out the report and you could have heard a pin drop.  
The glowing references to each of the 8  guys involved was staggering and a fitting culmination to the evening events.  
So my ties with Hereford, and all that! have been renewed and I will keep them going. It remains then only for me to say thanks "to a colleague, lets call him Paul", for urging me to write the book which started all this and finally thanks to "Bulmer and Maud!" for putting in the hard work for the "do" and renewing my link with them and to what has been described as, "The most exclusive club in the world", 22 Special Air Service Regiment.  
 Pic of a "Potent brew below!" 

Back to my roots!

I finally removed the crown and root of the "ornamental cherry tree" from the garden.  It might have been a pathetic stick when it was planted 14 years ago but it certainly established itself during its tenure.

Grumpy's day!

A year has rushed past since we had to have one of our cats put down.  His name was "Grumble" which was soon shortened to "Grumpy".  In effect he was a rescue cat although the person who owned him couldn't cope rather than being cruel.
He was always a very nervous cat and for months lived either behind/in the TV cabinet or for a long time in a wardrobe or directly under the centre of our bed.
Sally spent hours and hours trying to get him to come out and in the end her persistence paid off.
He gave us a couple of scares during the 11 years we had him by "disappearing " twice once for a week then again for 2 weeks.  We reckon he had been locked in somewhere because both times he came back ravenous and quite thin.
Just like Tom our large black cat he enjoyed his time in our garden and would join us  whenever we sat out in it.
Tom would always have a play fight with him and he would roll around in front of Tom to initiate it then squeal when Tom bit his legs or whatever.
So we are trying to remember the good times today and concentrating on the times he made us smile.  Follow the link below to see a few pics.
Grumpy pics

It was me who cut down the cherry tree!

Back in 1998 we bought a number of plug plants online and in the bundle was a free cherry tree, well more like a dead stick really.  If we had bought it the cost was £1 so you get the idea.  Well we put it in the front garden and amazingly it survived and grew and grew and grew.
I seem to remember it was meant to be an ornamental cherry and we expected it to not grow to more that 6 or 8 feet.  A few years ago I lopped off the top when it was level with the roof and also had to cut out a root which had invaded the footpath, I was all for chopping it down but it always produced such a wonderful display of blossom in spring.

It finally met its demise yesterday when we noticed it was undermining the wall between the gardens and a couple of stones had become dislodged.  So in between lunch and  the mens wimbledon final we cut it down and disposed of the evidence!
So here are the pics then a before and after shot

The upside of course is that we will get more light into the front of the house and the tree did get infested with black cherry aphids every summer.

And so to the Wimbledon mens final.  We did manage to sit in the sunshine to watch it after an initial bit of rain.  Pity about Murray but at least he won a set.  2 pics then here, Tom is visibly not impressed and took to one of the chairs in the greenhouse and one of the TV with its weatherproof cover on!

 

Will it ever stop raining?

Well here we are just before the weekend when normally the roads will be thick with tourists heading for the camp sites with their throw away barbies already to go.
Alas the roads are empty save for the locals who all seem to have adopted what I call the Lake District code of dress.  This consists of mainly waterproof gear with the odd brolly evident.
The garden seems to like all the rain and the pond which i have all the water coming from the shed roof draining into it must have had 2 water changes in he last 24 hours!  The fish seem to enjoy the clean water!

To be honest I don't mind all the rain but it is meant to be the middle of summer and its more like the rainy season.  I have coined a phrase to fit the bill just lately.  If you can see the other side of the valley its going to rain and if you cant it is raining.
Heres a pic from yesterday of what must be the heaviest rain I have ever seen in the UK.  It was akin to the tropical storms we see in the Maldives on holiday.  You can see the storm marching across the ocean and it will blast the resort for 10 to 15 minutes and then the sun will re-appear and dry everything out in half an hour.  We seem at present to be in the blasting stage and I wonder if we will ever see the sun again!

This out the back of the house, our cat Sainsbury was making a dash for the house and had to nip under Cyril the white van just as i took the pic then he made another dash into the house soaked to the skin.  

This is out the front of the house, a whirlpool has developed trying to get the water down the drain in the middle of the pic

A little fish for lunch me thinks

Hey ho another week without having to work begins and to hell with it I have no pressing itinerary for the afternoon after bimbling about (thats a Royal Marines term for ambling around without any aim, I just hate those Royal Marines! not really but look at my book when its finished for the link!) shopping picking up pills and nipping to the Aquarium place attached to Scotland nurseries for some pond fish food

That probably means I will play around with the website layout whilst watching a bit of the Wimbledon Tennis, didnt that Scot when he's losing but Brit when he's winning Murray do well yesterday! and also watch a bit of my favourite sport thingy the Tour de France.  I watched it yesterday and saw young Cavendish go down 2.7km from the finish in a large crash lets hope he's ok!

1 last story then for today the Daily Express front page which is always good for a laugh, "Britain Facing Flood Misery" "3 Months rain in the next 3 days".  Don't be silly Daily Express we always watch the Wimbledon Finals on a TV carried to the top of the garden in the sun, break out the Barby!!!!!

Finally then here we are in our "Flood Misery" the gentle breeze drying the towels and other bits on the washing line, the sun popping in and out from behind the fluffy white clouds and little Sainsbury thinking "A little fish for lunch me thinks!"

 Now, do I choose that one over there or this one which is a little closer Mmmmmmmmm?

There's no recruiting!

With the leaving of a colleague "lets call him Paul" last week, his job appeared on the notice board.  There has been little interest from the internal recruiting which to me is a bit of a mystery as you are left alone to get on with it for most of the shift.  That could be it though you are in the spotlight and meant to be in one place, too easy to keep tabs on, anyway I digress.
In a fleeting conversation one morning in the canteen, a colleague, "lets call her Leeanne" who works only 15 hours a week for the commercial arm of the store expressed an interest and I told her to speak to one of our "leaders".   This she did only to be told she could transfer but still only work the 15 hours a week.  I questioned my boss, "lets call her Tracy", only to be told "There's no recruiting".  Which was the same answer I got when I said the day before that I had someone interested in the job, although she thought I meant an external enquiry.
At this juncture my interest/enthusiasm/affection for the companies logic always switches into "well who gives a s*** anyway".  A position that has been there since the store opened 5 years ago is vacant it has been advertised internally by the great HR sausage machine but all of a sudden "there's no recruiting".  To put the icing on the cake of ridiculousness, as I was leaving yesterday my boss "lets call her Tracy" ask's me if (she could get the hours) I could work 5 days a week instead of the 3 that I do now to make up for the vacant job slot!? In my haste to leave I fail completely to comprehend this logic! 

This dilemma is however paled into insignificance and trivia when you look at the newspapers and read about the state of the nations armed forces.  "They are recruiting!" oh yes!, pulling in our young men to send them off to fight in wars that are really just an exercise in political manoeuvring no matter what the "politicians" are telling us.  Spending millions in training and equipping them with state of the art technology which some pink faced boffin has spent years developing without even bothering to consult the poor sod who has to pick it up and point it in the end.
GET DOWN OFF YOUR SOAP BOX YOU SILLY OLD FART! "someone shouts from the sidelines"

Oh yes, get to the point, well I was, eventually - - - The papers are full of doom and gloom about armed forces cut backs and amalgamations, old battalions being shuffled off into redundancy.  old and young soldiers being dumped back on the streets without so much of a qualification to their names except some meaningless NVQ.  Never mind there will always be a job at Sainbugs oh but I forgot, "There's no recruiting!"