Farewell to a friend

Its with great sadness that I have to say Ziggy passed away last Saturday evening.  He’s been frail and suffering with digestive problems for quite some time now.  He seemed to be choking on something on Saturday night which he just couldn’t clear, by the time we’d spoken with the vet to arrange to meet at the surgery, Ziggy had unfortunately passed away (a huge thank you to Smith Ryder Davies by the way for calling us back for our emergency!).  He’d had a similar choking problem a few weeks ago but managed to clear it then.  He was 6 years old though which is very old for a piggy apparently.  John and I will miss him greatly…

Ziggy

“The Chain” from Lord Celery’s blog

I enjoyed reading my friend’s blog regarding quirky character traits so much I decided I’d participate as suggested.  So below are my six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about myself:

1.  I hate, hate, hate the taste of Licorice.  I’ve always managed to avoid the stuff quite well until I recently bought a bag of assorted toffees.  Of course the bag didn’t say what the various wrapping colours meant and so one of them ended up being Licorice.  I was so annoyed I felt like complaining to the large supermarket in question (although I never did find the time of course!)

2.  I learnt to play a clarinet while at secondary school.  This was mostly to please my father.  I kind of enjoyed it at the time but as soon as I left school, I’ve barely taken the thing out of its case.  I’ve always been average at the clarinet, I definately don’t have a talent for it otherwise I might be more enthusiastic.

3.  I’m terrified of small children and babies.  Yes its absolutely true I’m afraid.  I’ve never had much contact with small children and babies and as a consequence I feel terrified when I’m near them.  A couple of weekends ago I went to a family party of my in-laws.  One of my husbands cousins has a child which took a fancy to me (must have been the leather motorbike pants – thought I looked like a power ranger apparently), needless to say I was running on adrenaline the whole time.  My close friend is expecting her first baby very soon and no doubt I will have the same feelings again – I just hope she’s patient with me.

4.  Every time John and I go on holiday, I spend most of the time worrying about the pets back home.  I’ve always loved animals since a very young age and finally having some pets of my own is the best thing in the world to me.

5. I developed an annoying habit which I simply haven’t managed to quit.  This habit formed while I worked with Lord Celery’s husband at Saffery’s in London, so its been with me for over 10 years now.  Every so often during an email I end a sentence with dot dot dot, as if the sentence could continue.  Whenever I see I’ve typed it in an email I think of it as bad english…

6.  I came 1st in the 1500 metre race while at Junior School during Sports Day one year.  Its the one and only time I’ve ever come 1st in any athletics event.  Every year on Sports Day (even in secondary school) I always came 2nd to a girl called Samantha, but this one year I managed to get off the line quicker than her.  I rarely do anything that energetic these days but I remember being very pleased with myself at the time, I even still have the little yellow metal badge I was awarded.

As Lord Celery has said in her blog, I’m not going to tag anyone in the usual “Chain Letter” fashion.  If anyone wants to participate though please do let me know as I’m as curious as Lord Celery.

Thanks for reading!

A question?

I’ve been looking to see if its possible to update this Blog by sending in an email – so far I’ve not found any useful hints on the wordpress website telling me how to achieve this but if anyone knows the answer, please let me know!

How long?

Crickey, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything on this blog…. So much to catch up on, where to start?

Well, in January I passed my Direct Access test! YAY!! So now I can ride any size motorbike I like. Currently I have a 6 year old Honda CB500. Advice from friends led me to buy a bike similar to that I’d passed my test on until I’ve got some serious riding experience under my belt at least. My other half decided to go for a slightly different option, he bought an old Kawasaki GPZ 500 which needed lots of work. Its through the MOT now and we’ve been out on our respective bikes together numerous times now, all good fun. We’re planning to ride to BikeFest at Donnington in June, that will be my longest journey so far.

Creative thinking.

I attended a Making Bead Jewelery workshop this weekend. I haven’t been creative in the area of Arts for a long long time and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There isn’t much to making the jewelery itself but looking around the room at all the others, you can see how other people’s imagination takes flight. I look forward to part two of the workshop next weekend.

On another note about creative thinking, my husband is a self-employed plumber. He’s had meetings with a well known advertising company recently and is frustrated with their attempts to “bully” him into using their advertising techniques. Last year he was persuaded to take on bigger adverts with more graphics/colour and also took on an 0845 number. Apparently 0845 numbers are local rate calls but John has found the number of phone calls through this advertising company has dropped off over the last year. My suggestion was that not everyone is aware that 0845 numbers are local rate, I wouldn’t have known for instance, whereas a normal STD coded number would have probably got me to call. I only tend to call 08** numbers if the word “freephone” goes with it personally! So John is reviewing his advertising campaign this year and will try a competitor to this main company. On the subject of 08** numbers, you might want to read the blog on my friend Simon’s page for more conversation on the subject.

Take care everyone!