Unwell,unemployed and moaney,

Well that did a lot of good,or rather not,all tests come back negative,no leukodystrophies,heritable spastic paraparesis or rare copper metabolism problems,no thyroid or diabetic issues and no neuro-syphilis ,in fact I am perfectly healthy except I don't function properly,it would seem according to docs that I have either an unknown neurological condition or MS that just isn't testing positive.This exciting news means that I can expect absolutely no treatment for the time being,In fact I am currently getting less relief than last week.
I went to my GP to ask again if I can have any help with my seriously debilitating fatigue,she promptly took me off the antispasmodic baclofen as 'they can cause fatigue' I explained I had suffered with fatigue on and off for several years before any other symptoms showed themselves to no avail,I am now fatigued and full of cramps,spasms and spasticity.......
Daughter has gone off to Australia for her year,various members of the family saw her off from Heathrow,Rory and his daddy found a taxi to play in whilst there

she is such a busy bee,instead of having some fun she starts an accounts job Thursday, less than a fortnight after arriving! She has sent back picture of beaches and fruit bats and cockatoos via facebook and hopefully we will be arranging a skype schedule for video calls,don't tell her I said so but I miss her nightly moany phone calls.

Her moggies are well settled now and have arranged a truce with my Lucifer cat,in fact Claude her slightly simple cat has developed a fondness for my crochet blankie in progress and Charley the big ginger and white cat has taken possession of my sheepskin rug.

Magnet therapy and wind power.

Not the best option,but I really hate nimbys,I have just spent an hour telling a whole pile of nimbys in my village how beautiful and soothing I find wind turbines.........I may yet be drummed out for my anti-establishment ideas.
The whole of their argument is based on these don't look pretty especially on a ridge above' ye olde worlde' village,it really is a shame that so many people are intimidated by the better accented,educated and paid members of the community.So many of the quiet little people agree with me or are completely indifferent yet their opinions are never heard above the nimby din.
When I pointed out that sattellite dishes,tv aerials and phone lines were actually more in line of sight than any wind turbine would be, they tried the noise argument,except that didn't wash,the turbines will be a mile from even the edge of the village.
As an aside everyone I debated with said they would love an old wooden windmill in the neighbourhood with all the clunking and banging they entail.............some folks like the past way too much.It really is a shame that wind power isn't really that green or efficient
As an aside,you know how quacktitioners sell magnetic bracelets and things ,well will my MRI at the end of the month cure all my ills ?it is after all a giant magnet.

Well the postman laughed.........

As I explained in no uncertain terms to the loopy theists on my doorstep that unlike my near neighbours, I wasn't eighty with a terminal illness,nor did I have mental health problems I am in fact completely not vulnerable,but sadly did not have several hours free to explain the error of their ways(I really wanted to chase away the black clad vultures),mind you the postman was delivering a letter from BT offering to flog me a sports tv package,they really ought to check what their customers are up to before they waste so much on mass mailings.
I am one of their not so well off broadband customers,this means they charge me £4.50 a quarter because I pay my bill quarterly in cash(direct debit isn't a good idea when you live hand to mouth and sometimes rob Peter to pay Paul) then if I am a few days late they  add another £7.50 to my bill for late payment,which would be okay except...........my call costs rarely if ever even come to £7.50 the bill is almost entirely broadband and line rental,always billed a quarter in advance,so they charge me the 7 1/2 quid for not paying far enough in advance,it gets worse though,as of october line rental costs will rise from £12.79 to £13.29 per month, while daytime caller rates will increase by 10%.Of course one will  have the opportunity to reduce the line rental cost to just £9.49 a month by paying for 12 months up front by credit or debit card - but this may not be a realistic option for those like me already struggling to make ends meet.
So they are not only charging me for paying two and a half months in advance they will be charging me more for not paying a year in advance,as I live out in the countryside I have no cable option available and dongle reception out here is virtually non-existent.
Good news is that today I am walking without limping,

I have had massively swollen feet and lower legs for several months now,having tried water tablets, the doc sent me to nursey to be fitted for Norah Battys,they work,spend half an hour puffing panting and pulling to put them on in the morning you pop them on in the mornings before the legs swell up then they make the muscles in your calves act as pressure pumps for the lymph system..........so far they seem to be working,although I must admit I went for knee length black socks rather than stockings as I am almost always in trousers anyway.

We are waiting anxiously for Sammy my youngest to go into labour,Rory-James isn't due until Friday 13th(you just know what chicken nannas pet name for him is going to be don't you ?) but she started getting a really huge bump a few weeks ago and in light of all that happened with poor little Michael she was sent for an emergency scan,all is well with the baby but he is thought to have weighed in at 8lb three weeks ago.......it fair makes your eyes water...............still maybe they got the estimation wrong.
Our Bex is expecting a sister for Poppy in November,I will soon have worn out my fingers with all the crocheting and knitting.

Note to self ' Blogging should not be neglected,even if it is only a waffle.'

T. rex,Tits and assorted other troublesome thoughts.

I was replacing a badly punctured tyre on the push-bike today when I noticed the chickens gathered around it,they looked like a load of dinosaurs gathered round a carcass.T.rex/chook picture from here.

Talking of things that are or should be extinct,I see some more Lords have been pretending to be Brits(pretending is correct me thinks,cos true Brits pay British taxes ) I fancy a version of the old French revolution,at the very least a few heads should roll.

Good morning,good morning,good ruddy morning.

As I popped into the village for my paper this morning(which I haven't even glanced at since) everyone and their uncle greeted me,living in a small community is lovely whether it be a small community in a village or a street in a huge city,smiling faces and friendly greetings really make a day start off well.
Well that is my be nice section now back to the mumbling..........
I can't find the mouse,Lucifer must have scoffed it.
I had to go to the docs,again,on Friday,the old ankles were swollen from toes to above the knee,we are waiting for blood test results to ensure I am not diabetic/got a dodgy thyroid/got a pituitary tumour etc etc,I have no heart or blood pressure problems 113/74 isn't bad for an overweight ex smoker,no known kidney or liver issues,so it is suspected I have idiopathic oedema, to me it feels like idiopathic elephantiasis   my legs were double their normal circumference and walking was becoming more and more painful,and surprisingly tiring as my legs were extremely heavy due to the fluid in them
So the doc gave me two weeks worth of water tablets after the first tablet I peed for queen and country and they also dried up the other funny little problem,but today the swelling is coming back,I am not happy,if the tablets don't work I have been threatened with compression stockings for life,that could be a ruddy long time,I am only 48 3/4..............the ruddy kids are bound to crack 'mummies legs' jokes........Sadly I am now on a lower calorie diet and that weird tasting lo salt stuff.

Quiet life.

Most people assume I live a quiet life.,rarely leaving the village,haven't had a holiday since 93,very rare nights out at the pub,let me tell you,if I could find the time for a quiet life I would.
Instead I am sitting writing this on notepaper in bed yesterday,in fact by the time I have typed this up it will be several yesterdays ago.So what has been happening ?Sam and Sarah have been on the phone complaining of swollen ankles,Sarah had a bruise appear on her leg so big and black that she was sent for blood tests just to make sure her platelets hadn't gone on strike,two days later she got a little insect bite which blew her foot up so badly she needed antibiotics..........Bex hasn't been moaning which is quite worrying in itself.

There was a big battery hen rescue last week by LHR,sadly the trailer carrying the newly freed hens was in an accident on the A14 lots of hens killed and injured.So having lost Cleopatra queen of the bantams to old age recently, I have now taken on Fanny the wonder hen !

Having survived cage and crash she really is a wonder hen.
My soppy hen Hoppy has been really ill with bubbly sounding breathing,she was so bad that on at least two occasions I thought she was a goner,but antibiotics and a bit of pampering and she lives on,she won't last forever,she is a sickly weak thing,but boy does she cling to life with some gusto.The hens that survived the crash were hosed down by the fire-brigade (gratuitous men in uniform pic here) as they were almost roasting alive at the roadside,they were then moved to their temporary accommodation by a fleet of volunteer drivers and parked in a nice warm straw filled barn,where their wet feathers gave all the water to the straw,which they all promptly laid eggs in,so I spent quite a while one afternoon washing, drying and dating 9 dozen plus eggs by hand whilst Hoppy sat on a rug next to me watching and munching the odd grape( I did tell you these hens were pets didn't I)
Now I am about to start painting the sitting room,a nice shade of magnolia,at least if I want to change the scheme in there it will only take dyeing cushion covers and throws.........Tomorrow I have to remove the triffid like nettles from the garden,do some more painting and dye my hair,oh and put a little old lady to bed in the village,bless her she was a 100 on Tuesday she got card from the queen and one from Ian Duncan Smith of all people,I have no idea why he needed to send her a card but hey ho it is only our money.
If this is a quiet life can I now try a busy one ?
PS.I wrote this two yesterdays ago.
PPS. I got the all clear from the hospital on the old throat thing,seems the voice changes are from giving up smoking.

I want a ciggie.

Am I a silly cow or what,I got Grubby to do some drilling for me last week,he went to move a nearby coat and I said no don't worry any dust will brush off.....Well it didn't so I foolishly put a full length waxed duster coat(Don't tell anyone but I have a cowboy hat too) through the machine on a cold wash thinking it would be OK.....I have just ordered a can of Barbour Thornproof Wax Dressing  .Do you know what a long winded stinky job re-waxing a coat is?
I had a jolly good chuckle today,maybe I am just not sporty enough,but can someone explain to me why whole troupes of people are strolling round the village in hiking boots with ski poles in their hands ? I live in East Anglia,you know the flatlands,g-d help us if some of them are actually practising for skiing,I am a big girl and some of those women dwarfed me.....I know, I know, they were Nordic walking,but it looks dead comical in 20c and in an area where a molehill is almost a mountain.
Well,we have a government,it wasn't an option on my ballot paper,but I will wait and see what 'toffs united' think they can do to heal the countries woes.
Oh and all the fuss over eyefattalelteyet that Icelandic volcano did you realise it is 30 years and a day since Mount St.Helens went up,my Dad has some ash from it.....goodness knows how, he has never been outside the UK.
I was wandering round the V and A website when I came across a fantastic quilt,go take a look Canals,coal and cotton.
Oh on the cityscape subject(well vaguely) did you know that the London underground is the habitat of a unique bitey mosquito ?
Sarah had a copy of the letter from the hospital about her scan, if you click on the piccy it should be readable,who would have thought a VSD(hole in the heart) could be a good thing.....so fingers crossed.

I haven't heard anything yet about my appointment for dodgy throat stuff but I am not too worried,I suspect at worst a polyp and they take a very long time to develop into nasty things.
Sadly Cleo the cross dressing hen has gone to the great dust bath in the sky,but she was twelve,a damnably impressive age for a bantam .

It never rains,it just pours and pours and pours...

So having given up smoking for three months now I have decided to decorate,I started with the easy bit,the front hall........
Halfway through my best friend decides to empty her loft of baby goodies,cot,first size bed,car seats,bouncy seat,changing mat,bedding,clothes etc etc.......and announces they need picking up,my other friend has donated a fridge to the cause as the door on mine is held shut by a giant magnet..........
all coming in through the front hall.........and just randomly parking anywhere till painting is complete.
I took the strange old curtain rail down above the front door,it brought a goodly chunk of wall down too,I haven't any filler but I do have bathroom grout,so you just know what I did don't you ?.
In the midst of all the chaos oldest daughter Bex rings..........

Guess what ,yup!!! she is having a baby too,so I will have three new grandchildren before the year is out.


And too top it off I have an urgent(the scary cancerish within a fortnight type urgent) referral to hospital for odd goings on with my voice box...........

And we still have no government,Labour should have got rid of Brown and they would have had lots of coalition allies I suspect.........

Do not discuss religion with my mother !!

Well it finally happened,after all these years of attempted indoctrination I have shouted at my mother to stop trying to convince me of a benevolent sky fairy.
I had rung her to tell her the good news about our Sarahs baby,she had another scan friday and it seems one of the arteries that was too small has started to grow and if things keep on the way they are he may not need surgery straight after his birth..........sadly he still has other heart abnormalities so will need surgery eventually no matter what.
Mother started lecturing me on how good her brand of sky fairy was and it was all because her church had been praying for him,she went on and on and on,in the end I yelled down the phone so she would stop and listen,I explained that if her god exists and he was any sort of a decent chap the baby wouldn't be born with life threatening defects,so in my opinion if there is a god he is an evil and cruel creature,I even tried the philosophical debate with her which goes..................

1. God exists.
2. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good.
3. A perfectly good being would want to prevent all evils.
4. An omniscient being knows every way in which evils can come into existence.
5. An omnipotent being, who knows every way in which an evil can come into existence, has the power to prevent that evil from coming into existence.
6. A being who knows every way in which an evil can come into existence, who is able to prevent that evil from coming into existence, and who wants to do so, would prevent the existence of that evil.
7. If there exists an omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good being, then no evil exists.
8. Evil exists (logical contradiction)

 Still she went on and on about her elderly aunts church praying too,in the end I just said I agreed to differ and hung up........

A lot of shite !

Thursday evening I was just pottering around wondering what to do as I didn't have to help an old lady in to bed when I suddenly came over all peculiar,shivering and sweating and wobbly,you just know don't you when it is going to be a proper illness........Within the hour I was effectively glued to the bog with a bucket on my lap,I was so poorly I really did think it was some kind of poisoning,but it turns out my friends hubby was coming down with it at the same time as me,not only had I not eaten the same as him but I also hadn't even seen him,so we must have a carrier in common,I must ask my friend if she ever goes by the name of Typhoid Mary or perhaps Cholera Susan.Well after 18 hours of very dodgy tum I still had a roaring temperature,so I ended up in bed for a total of 36 hours except for getting up for drinks,the loo and to make sure there was no-one wrong here on the internet.
Although I am effectively better now I am still finding that at even the slightest exertion I am sweating and wobbly,it also feels like I have a super hangover,except none of the pleasure of the drinking.
My new sofas were meant to come today,having been delayed twice already, thanks to a van double-booking and a death,Sammy and James drove to pick them up from Nottingham in his works van and broke down just as they arrived........

my sofas are currently in James van being towed down the A14 by a nice AA man,the van will be delivered to the 'unit',up the industrial estate,I suppose that at least they are within two miles of me now and if I get desperate I can ride up and stroke them........

Is anyone else sick to the back teeth with what is passing for politics and news at the moment ?

We have the Cons screaming the end of life as we know it(not such a bad thing if you ask me) if there is a hung parliament,Labour are screaming that a vote for the cons will also end the world,everybody and their mother are trying to knock the Clegg man down from his recently achieved pedestal.When will they all stop making stuff up about each other and start to speak some truths about their own policies .

Now this Popish brouhaha going on is really annoying me too, some civil servant type has been moved to another department (same punishment as ratface was giving the child molesting priests)but the reality is if you read the list they are all sensible things,not some mottley collection of insults.
It is my NSHO that rattburger should be giving it some of this .
Why do we forgive such monstrous behaviour under the excuse of skyfairy diplomatic immunity ?
Of course all this spouting off may get me an asbo rather than a priestley move to a new bunch of kids.

My own horror film.

Sometimes I feel as though I am living a horror film,this one isn't 'the birds' though,it should be entitled killer cats.....as I have blogged previously a random strange cat broke in and ate my beautiful little zebra finches and then the other night I came in from work to find the evil Lucifer had got another random cat pinned in a corner,it having snuck in his cat flap, and was screaming in that awful way only a tom cat can,now I know better than to touch my cat when he is even slightly tetchy I certainly wasn't risking his wrath with him yowling like that,so I opened the back door and waved my arms around to no avail,then fearing for its safety I picked up the random visiting cat...........big error,a terrified cat is a dangerous critter.I have huge deep claw marks and a badly bruised forearm where the cats claw must have popped a vein...........
Not very clear,but taking pics of the back of your wrist ain't easy...........

On a much lighter note,you know how some people sneeze when they look at very bright lights or the sun,well would you believe the science bods called it 'ATCHOO ' syndrome,autosomal dominant compelling helio-ophthalmic outburst syndrome.

Life.

Isn't life strange,no matter what I do or how carefully I choose my path, life is always chaotic around me.
So a series of updates,Sarah is signed up for some counselling as she isn't coping well with the worries over babies heart problems,Sam seems to have pre-birthing depression,goodness knows what will happen post-natally.
I forgot to photograph it but the crocheted hexagon baby cardi of legend has been adapted and made to fit my two and a half year old granddaughter in nice shades of 'princess pink',I am three quarters of the way through a retro crocheted cushion for a beautiful refurbished VW camper of my bosses,there are umpteen mice living in the house,that cat  releases one a day in here and I am sure I haven't caught them all,the sofas didn't come when due, as Sam's grandmother-in-law popped off,  on the day the kids were due to pick them up,but having already advertised my old ones on freecycle I am now going to be sofa-less until the kids can get round to picking up the new ones.Why has the daft woman who is picking them up specified 9.20 am ? why not just quarter or half past ?
I have of late been helping put an old lady to bed of an evening,she will be 100 at the end of May,firstly remind me to have my suicide pills ready for when  I have had enough,secondly,can you imagine what changes this woman has seen  since her birth in 1910 ? On the occasions she is in the same world as us she is an incredibly amusing lady,sadly most of the time she is drifting somewhere in her head,although if I were blind deaf and unable to move around I might choose to live in my head.........

Something for me.

On Friday Grubby and I went to the local town for some shopping and a bite to eat,we went to our usual Italian place where we were served by the same waitress we always have,bearing in mind this girl must serve thousands over the months she always remembers us,even to the extent that she had kept my scarf that I left behind last time we went and without even being asked brought it out to me,she tells me she finally has five days off next week,would you believe this young girl hasn't had a day off in six months,on the subject of immigrant workers did any of you here in Britland see this.........supports everything I already thought.It is the idle natives that drain the system.

Whilst in town,much to poor Grubby's embarrassment,I like to have a browse round the charity shops,I do try only to window shop rather than drag the man round them,but this time in the window of Barnardo's there was a lovely mishmash of an early sixties dinner set,Midwinter stylecraft in the Mayfield pattern,I have a gravy boat and stand,six double handled soup coupes and stands,a serving platter,umpteen plates, bowls, cups,milk/cream jug and saucers all for the princely sum of nineteen quid,there was so much there that the ladies in the shop showed Grubby where to park out the back so we didn't have to try and carry it all.So while he was off to get the motor I had a look round the shop,I found another fabulous bargain I found,an eisenegger coat still with it's £130.99 label attached for a whole £4.99 I also bought some knitting needles and learnt to knit overnight,that however is another tale worthy of a photo and giggle.
So I am pleased to say I have finally got some things to show for not spending money on ciggies anymore.

No wonder Brit business is dying.

A few weeks ago a chappy came to repair my heating timer,I wasn't in ,so he left a note saying contact the contractor to rebook the appointment,I duly rang them up and arranged for someone to visit and fix timer,I left a contact phone number and waited for said day.
Repairs day arrives,repair man arrives perfectly on time but brings a pump not a timer with him,he tells me he will come back next day with a timer.Next day I get a call from the contractor 'we can't make it today can we rebook?'
So rebook for ten days hence,which was Thursday just gone,chappie comes out and fits a new heating and hot water control except the hot water isn't connected to it...........says he will return 2pm Friday to fit some things called pipe stats,seems they will stop my pipes from boiling if I have a big hot fire.
Well 2pm comes and goes,I remember when trying to book an appointment for chappie to visit  being told they only work from 8.30 to 3.30ish   so at 3pm I ring the contractors office,polite girl on reception puts me through to 'relevant department' young lad takes my phone number and says he will call me back as the electrician is on the phone currently.........
At five thirty I give up and put my coat on to go and let a friends dog out while she is off babysitting grandchildren and who should knock on the door.........He tells me he would have rung to let me know what time but they didn't have a contact number.
The words piss up and brewery spring readily to mind.

Back to normal moaning.

A little explanation for yesterdays post.I was very down as I had been unable to save my friends hennie when she became ill sunday,I also felt quite guilty as she had asked me several times to look at her and each time she had appeared perfectly fine to me.Still I am not a vet and I did my best for her.So instead of hennie blogging I just had a pathetic day or two.
Yup I have had my self pitying whine and now I am ready to resume my normal moaning..........You lucky readers.

I now have a really good reason not to diet,it seems my enlarged rear end is healthy !
I am busily crocheting a cardi from the book the kids got me for Christmas along with what we call a clever or IQ blankie,it is hexagons in various red,white and black combinations,our Sam has decided they are the most stimulating colours for her baby,I am also making two of these in yellow and green rounds in the way this cardi is done and a rabbit soft toy for Sarah.Talking of crochet,I made a scary toilet roll cover dress for Poppy

when she was born,just to wind my least frills possible daughter up,imagine my delight when Poppy last visited to discover that it was her fave dolls dress and can Nanny make her some smaller knickers,it seems dolls have smaller bums than babies..........
Holy shit,what must the aliens think of us,we have sent into space over one hundred thousand separate postings from craigslist.org.We have sent a doritos ad and the sound of squelching fannies I kid you not !

Ooh look what I found here..a superb example of a loo roll cover if ever I saw one.

Sigh........

Firstly,that tip of the day..........
If you put hair colour on, then put marmalade on, then realise halfway through everything that..........
a) the water won't be hot in time to rinse your hair
b) your hair and the marmalade will be done at the same time
you are in trouble,so turn boiling fruit off,stoke up fire to heat water as well as turning immersion heater on,then give your hair its quickest rinse ever,turn marmalade back on whilst trying to wrap hair in a towel.
At least I am not the only one who makes things like this see here.

More seriously,we are having a family panic,we have all been worried about youngest and her spotting during pregnancy whilst we thought middling daughter was muddling along just fine.
Middle daughter Sarah went for her 12 week scan Wednesday it threw up some anomalies so they immediately did a nuchal translucency scan,which suggested there was a very high chance of baby having a chromosomal anomaly like Down's syndrome or trisomy 18,well they sent her for a cvs test the next day,which is pretty horrid and carries a risk of miscarriage,she got the results today,her 25th birthday,no extra or missing chromosomes so that rules out all the more common problems,she now has to wait three weeks to find out if there are any translocation errors,insertion or deletion errors in the babies genes,but it looks a lot more promising than it did two days ago.And if all is okay we will know whether we need pink or blue too.
I thought I would make her a yummy cake,an old fashioned butter cream and jam filled birthday cake(her fave).I went to the shop in the village for eggs as my girls have been off lay for weeks,they only had cheap evil eggs,not only will I not buy them, but daughter would rather have a scone than eat anything battery,I went to see my friend who has pet hens but she had already given her spare eggs away.Then last night as I was tucking my girls in for the night what did I find,three perfect eggs in the nest box..........It may be a good omen.

Mumble, mumble.

In the comments on my last post people were joking about burning books to keep warm,well today I saw one worthy of pyromaniac experimentation,on the bookshelf in the house where I work on Tuesdays was a book by the awful poo lady  (sense about science weren't impressed with her either) amongst piles of self help crapola,the only self any of them help, if you ask me, are the pockets of the authors.
On the subject of stuff I find incongruous,everyone is saying that the government have stuffed up over rock salt for roads or rather lack of it,yet they are moaning that we have 'wasted millions' on swine flu vaccine,now call me daft but what would have happened if the flu turned out to be like the 1918 version,the winter were mild and we had bought salt instead of vaccine? Even if 'big pharma' have lobbied governments to buy the vaccines, buying them wasn't an error,at the beginning of the outbreak no one had any idea whether the flu would be mild or have a fifty percent mortality rate.
Tip of the day.........do not attempt to make satsuma and stem ginger marmalade whilst simultaneously colouring your hair.I will tell you that tale tomorrow !

So much for a shiny new year.

My heating is fixed,yay!!
I popped into the village yesterday morning and while buying some wildbird seed I overheard a conversation,part of which went
"well the coal merchant says they can deliver,but the driver says we will be lucky to get some as in his opinion the yard is just about empty"
So I fly,well cycle,

round the village,no-one has coal in,I start ringing farm shops in neighbouring villages,find one with coal in and ring my friend so we can drive out and get some,The drive out was 'interesting' the roads have been gritted,but obviously a lesser amount of grit has been used,so slippy,slippy.After getting home I popped round to a lady I work for,she was out for the day and her lovely Labrador needed letting out for a run and to do his business,oh and to munch on the spilled seed under the bird table.Then home again and I cleaned out the chicken house and filled it with extra bedding,sawdust for the floor and shredded newspaper(I figured that is how tramps insulate themselves) and straw in the nest boxes,a couple of the ex-batts and one of the elderly bantams sleeps in a box rather than on a perch .Then I cleaned the finches cage out.........
A nice lady I know who does hen rescue came round to kindly donate some wheat as treats for the hennies,a lady farmer in the village gives her loads of wheat,seems she is of the old school and thinks that is what chickens eat,I am sure some do,but all the rescued hennies have organic chicken pellets and all sorts of luxurious treats,you really would be surprised at what lovely pets chooks make,ex-batts particularly so,they like a nice cuddle and to eat from your hand etc.
This weather is getting me down now,it was/is very beautiful,but I have spent so much on coal now that I have probably spent the equivalent of up to the end of February's fuel money.The temperature is quite balmy at the moment,the fridge thermometer I have put outside just to torture myself reads exactly 0c,you never know we may actually get above freezing for the first time this week,it isn't doing the aches and pains much good being so cold.
Talking of aches and pains..............I am bloody furious,the doctor rang Friday to apologise,it seems that I haven't yet been referred to the bone doc at the hospital,why you may well ask,considering I thought the referral went out at the end of November,it seems that the receptionist was supposed to contact me with some"administrative questions" then send the letter off,
so I said to the doctor "okay what answers do you need ?"
she replied "I will just put you through to her now"
Guess what the questions were..........which hospital do I prefer and are there any dates I can't do.....so I have waited six effing weeks already and am back at the start of things.

Sod's Law.

My house is cold at the best of times,Grubby will confirm having seen condensation on my kitchen floor,thanks to an extremely humid day and a floor so cold I would swear I was built over an old Indian burial ground a la all the best horror stories.Well obviously it isn't that warm here at the moment(minus 8c last night).So today is the day my heating has broken,the riddler thingy has snapped in the open position,this means the fire is constantly drawing to much air and burning like crazy,which would be fine,but I have been told by the housing association that it has to be cold before they will fix it,so this evening will be spent in bed with two quilts and a sleeping bag.
I phoned the docs surgery today to see when my bone doc appointment is likely to be,only to be told by the receptionist that my doctor will ring and let me know..........The chicky-doodles however are in fine fettle,all big and round and finally fully feathered,I have discovered that Goonie the new hen is like Sid and will munch a mouse if given half a chance it is just a shame that those two hennies won't fit between the bedroom floorboards and the downstairs ceiling,I can hear the little buggers scuttling........

Not Welsh or rare,but yummy.

I had cheats rarebit for lunch.........unlike the real thing it required no roux making or reduction of beer and mustard....in my strange but delish version you put your toast under the grill and whilst it is doing, grate cheese,add a beaten egg, a pinch of dry mustard and a teaspoon of horseradish sauce,mix well, spread on toast and plonk back under the grill till nicely cooked.It is jolly moreish.
Talking of food,when did my offspring turn into a plague of locusts ? If one more of them claims to be eating for triplets I will have to murder them,I even had one claim that she needed the energy as she was trying hard to make me another grandchild(insert rolly eyed gif here) Still I suppose it saved me having to eat all the choccies.......sigh !

Since the last posting I have made two newborn cardis from the new book (bloody kids) one in baby yellow and one in green,I will of course have to make at least another pair the same or arguments are bound to ensue,I have also started on a newborn basket-weave pattern sweater,but despite being good and doing a gauge swatch,I suspect it will be a better fit for Poppy's Barbie doll.
Just as an after-note,it is ruddy cold here...........