A Bad couple of weeks!

I have had the worst two weeks this year! There are times in my life when I feel like everything is just too much and I want to get off the ride and just lie down! This is one of them! I try so hard not to get like this because I know that there are so many people in this terrible world we live in who are worse off than me. But, this is one of those times when I want my mum. I might be 55, but when my mum passed away almost 5 years ago she was my rock, my sounding board, my light at the end of the tunnel, all those metaphores that mean she always kept me grounded and she always said the right things! I miss her so much, if I could just have one last chat, a hug and tell her I love her, but then if I did, I think I would still want just one more!

 

I think that part of this melancholy has been caused by the fact that my youngest son, Luke, has just bought his first home with his partner Abby and he will be moving out in January. So after Christmas there will just be Richard and I living here. I am not looking forward to that. My boys have been my life for the last almost 27 years, and I miss them when they are not here. Aaron moved out almost eight years ago and to this day I miss him! Mums and their sons I feel will always have a very special bond, and I hope that my two 'boys' will always feel they have that too! There is a lot going on at the moment within the family, things are changing, and I am not dealing with it very well! The next big change will be a move for Richard and I, we intend to sell our current home and move out to a village, preferably in a bungalow, and although I want to get out of a town, I have a lot of happy memories in this house and don't want to leave it for that reason only! Not least the fact that my mum spent every Christmas here with us after my dad passed away, every bank holiday and when she had her hip replacement I nursed her here for 10 weeks until she was ready to go home! I know that wherever I am my mum is with me, but I have so many wonderful memories here that I will be sad to leave it!

 

My lovely mum with Luke at Christmastime, Luke was about 5 here!

 



 

Luke and Abby's lovely new home!

 

 

Kitchen!

 



 

Luke and Abby, proud homeowners!

 

I think another problem for me is that I am exhausted! My new GP has put me on morphine, and this makes me feel very 'spaced out'! After spending six weeks in Spain throughout October and into November, during which we had a car accident and our car was written off, causing us to have to buy a car online and have it shipped out to Spain, I came home feeling very deflated, and unsure now that I actually want to live over there. As much as this country drives me mad, I think I prefer the UK to Spain, and I am now fighting with my conscience to know what to do! I have also had a very busy time since my return, trying to get everything sorted for Christmas, helping Luke prepare for his move, moving furniture up to Aaron in Leeds, and tomorrow we are off to Heathrow to take Luke and Abby for their flight to Reykjavik! All of these things I do because I want to, it's just that my body can't cope with it all! And it really does tick me off!

 

I have also had the 'flu' since I returned from Spain, it started last week, after a trip to the doctors on Monday and then the dentists on Tuesday, I awoke on Wednesday feeling really ill! Oh joy! Thursday morning I awoke at 4 a.m. and couldn't breathe, something I have had a fear of all of my life, having an illness where I couldn't breathe! For the next two days I fought the cold, and on Saturday I managed to go with Rich to take the sofa to Aaron, but I really think I should have stayed at home in bed!

 

Next weekend is also a busy one, because we have to go to Heathrow again next Saturday and collect Luke and Abby, and on Sunday we are going out for lunch with Abby and her parents and brother! On the Monday (3rd December) Rich and I are going to Coombe Abbey to watch the Christmas Carols Singing and I have booked us a room for the night too! I am hoping this will give us both a bit of a break and give us chance to talk about the Spain situation!

 

The weekend after this we have the works night out on Friday 7th, and on 8th we have Aaron home for a gig he is attending. The weekend after that we are in Leeds (14th) as it is Aaron's 27th birthday! And of course the weekend after that it is Christmas weekend, and the men finish work on 21st December! Aaron is coming home on the 23rd for the week, so we will have a lovely family Christmas again! How many more of these we will have I don't know, and how many more we will have in this house - who knows!

 

For me this is a difficult time, I miss my parents, I miss their steadfast love, their wisdom but most of all I miss them - a big hug from them right now would be bliss! But while on Facebook earlier I saw the picture below, and I got to thinking, my mum and dad are always here with me, I have my dad's red hair, his shape of nose and his big ears (thanks dad!!!!) and I have my mum's personality, I take no nonsense, say it as it is, but if I could do something for someone I would - if someone needed it more than me I would give them the shirt off my back! I think I have turned out ok, and so have my two boys, and I have my parents to thank for that! I hope that they know this, I pray that they know how much I love them, and I will always be the person I am because of them - thankyou mum and dad!

 

 





 

 

The Birthday Blues!

It has been a bit of a topsy turvy few weeks for me! I have finally started to get things sorted with respect to my illness, with the first step of moving doctors! My old surgery was very large, but very impersonal, it was almost impossible to get an appointment and I always felt like the doctors were very dismissive of me. What I would give to be able to give them Fibromyalgia for the day! I would love to see them struggling to put their feet on the floor because of the pain shooting up their legs to their hips, trying to shower but the water on their skin actually feels like it is burning because of the pain, feeling wiped out after the shower and having to sit for 20 minutes before they can even think about getting dressed, trying to get downstairs but having to sit on their bum because the pressure on their knees is too much and brings them to tears - and all this is before 10 in the morning! What would they do, how would they cope with it, and how on earth would they be able to go to work every day when a simple task like a shower can take anything from half an hour to two hours! Gives people food for thought that simple everyday tasks are like climbing a mountain for a person with Fibro!

 

My lovely friend Debs Towers-Best sent me an article she had found that was written by someone who had worked with people with Fibro, and in it he stated that often people are diagnosed with Fibro within two years of a major trauma in their life! This makes sense for me, because I was diagnosed with it just 14 months after the death of my beloved mum, and the subsequent fall out with my family! It is incredible really that I must have had this illness for about a year before I realised there was anything wrong! So many of the things mentioned in this article fitted with how I am - the longing for chocolate, something I never had before, because apparently you crave sweet things, the intake of too much caffeine, mainly because all I want to do is sleep, and not eating properly! Most of the time I have no appetite and it is too much of an effort to make food! The other one, which I do not have a problem with, is drinking plenty of water, I drink at least 2 litres a day, as I am constantly thirsty!

 

I have an appointment at my new doctors on Monday and I am going to sit over the weekend and write out a list of things I want to mention to him. My symptoms have escalated of late, and I am finding that the pain relief is only lasting about an hour, after that it gradually returns and I have to spend a couple of hours sitting rocking back and forth waiting for the 4 hours to be up so I can take some more! Not a good way to live!

 

I have also received the paperwork from the court telling me that there is a 40 week - yes 9 months - wait to get my tribunal heard because of the backlog! It beggars belief that I am going to have this hanging over me for 9 months, and all the time I have no doubt I will be deteriorating because stress makes this illness worse!

 

Of all the symptoms this illness has, the worst one for me is the loss of short term memory, it drives me crazy that I cannot get myself organised in any way, everything is so muddled in my head, and often I can't even say what I want to say because the words just won't come to me! What a carry on!

 

On the other side of the coin I sat today and read about two lady police officers who were gunned down and killed earlier this week! The sadness I felt at the tragic loss of two ladies just doing their jobs, the awful way their families must be feeling that they would never see them again, and it really put things into perspective. I may be in pain, but at least I am alive, but then I also thought, but what sort of life is it? I never make plans to go anywhere because I know that 90% of the time I will cancel, I hardly leave the house on my own because I am scared that I will either fall over or I will get some sort of spasm and not be able to move, and worst of all I hate going out because when I walk the pain is so bad that I am almost in tears!

 

But I want to end this blog on a happy note, this weekend is my birthday (well Monday!!) and I will be 55! The realisation hit me the other day that I will be nearer to 60 than 50, and it was quite a shock! My eldest son Aaron is coming home for the weekend with his girlfriend Vickie and Luke's girlfriend Abby will be coming over too! We have booked to go out for a meal on Saturday night at Cafe Gnosh, and although I am looking forward to it, I am also dreading it, because I will have to spend time getting ready to go! The one consolation is it is a Saturday, so I will have a very easy day and hopefully a rest in the afternoon so I can cope with going out! I love it when all my family are together, and I am so looking forward to that! Life is good in so many ways, and for this I am grateful, but what I would like is one day free from pain, not much to ask, but unlikely to happen!

 

 

Aaron and Vickie

 

Luke and Abby

 



Goodbye Kerry!

Today was Kerry's funeral! Something I had been dreading attending for some time. Not because I didn't want to pay my respects to an incredible woman, but because I knew there would be people there who are two faced hypocrits who never had a good word to say about Kerry while she was alive and were only there because they were bloody nosey! I know that sounds awful, but I can't help telling the truth! There were people there who had asked me not to invite Kerry to get togethers at my home, which I find incredible! Thankfully I have my own mind and do what I want to do in my own home!

 

The send off was beautiful, the church was packed, the hymns were lovely, the eulogy was wonderful, but for me the two things that brought tears to my eyes were the poem Kerry's 11 year old daughter tried to read and the speech Kerry's husband Dave made. To say that he was angry is putting it mildly, but he was right to be angry, because a lot of people think that the reason for Kerry's illness and the speed with which it took her life was down to the stress she went through. You see Kerry was one of those people who gave her all to her job, she did in fact give her life! I won't put all the details on here, out of respect for Kerry and her family, but the Health Authority she worked for for many many years, and where she did her training, basically crapped on her from a great height - and today Dave named and shamed those responsible knowing that it would get back to them! A brave step to take, but an understandable one! Kerry, the bubbly fun loving girl who would give the shirt off her back to help someone was accused of being a bully and racist, and the people who accused her of this were people she thought were her friends. I believe they lied, and what is even more incredible is the main perpetrator of these lies was promoted once Kerry was suspended and then removed from her post! Incredible that in this day and age people can lie in court and get away with it. And what is even worse, the person that did this to Kerry denied that she was her friend, yet just a few years before this had been on holiday with her!

 

I hope that Kerry can rest in peace now, and I hope that Dave can have some closure now that he has had his say, and I hope that the people who did this to Kerry never have another days peace for as long as they live! Kerry's 15 year old son stood tall today, tears in his eyes, and tried to be strong for his dad and little sister, Kerry's 11 year old daughter was in pieces. She was bereft that this was her time to say goodbye to the fun loving vibrant mummy who had always been there for her, given her everything she could, and all she wanted now was a cuddle from her mum!

 

 

Kerry and Dave - taken just 18 months ago at a party we went to!



 

Because I was unsure if the people I did not like were going to continue on to the wake, I decided not to attend. There was also a burial after the church service, and I couldn't face that either. So myself and Mel went for lunch and we had a bottle of wine and toasted Kerry, which in Kerry's eyes would be the thing to do! We all had visions of Kerry sitting on a cloud with a glass of wine in one hand and her mobile phone in the other! If Kerry wasn't laughing and joking she was on her phone, which never seemed to stop ringing! God bless you Kerry Marriott, you will be so sadly missed by so many, but you will live on in your two children, who look so much like you, and I hope that they will both grow up to be like their mum too - bubbly, cheeky, radiant and full of fun, that was Kerry!

 

After I got home from lunch we had a bit of a break and a cup of tea, then finally went to the doctors on the estate to register with them. I am finding it increasingly difficult to drive, and when I go to my surgery in town it is a difficult drive and parking is a nightmare! The surgery on the estate is literally a 2 minute drive and there is lots of parking, which is a relief! I also feel that the surgery in town is now too big, the doctors are not interested, and most of the time they don't even look up when you are talking! This for me is just rude! How can they possibly know how I am when they don't even look at me? Anyway, we are now on the move, hopefully, and with that move we should get a full overhaul by the new doctors! Now that should be interesting!

 

I have a busy day again tomorrow, my theatre trip with Elaine and Vic and meal out, so I am off to bed shortly. The pain today has been mostly everywhere! I have struggled to hold up my head, my shoulders really hurt, and my hips and knees feel like they have red hot pokers stuck in them! But I will carry on, I will not give in, and maybe one day I can just get something that will help me! But I would like a cure for cancer to be found first, because cancer kills, and I really don't want any more children to have to go through what Kerry's children did today! Cancer sucks, I hate it with a passion, and I pray to God that one day that cure will be found!

All Hail Ma Brown!

I had the best night out on Tuesday with my lovely hubby and my son Luke and his partner Abby. We went to see Mrs Brown Rides Again at the NIA in Birmingham, and to say that I laughed until I cried is putting it mildly! Even my throat hurt because I laughed so much, something I haven't done in a very long time! We booked the night out as a surprise for Luke's 24th Birthday, so he didn't know he was going until Sunday evening! We had arranged for Abby to finish work early on Tuesday so she could get here and have time to get ready. We didn't just go to the show, we also booked a meal as part of the Freestyle package, which was very enjoyable and also well organised. In with the price we had a main course and a sweet, three drinks per person, and our car parking ticket, which in itself would have been £8 if we hadn't got the package deal! We arrived in Birmingham at 5, which gave us plenty of time to find the car park, and make our way to the arena. Thankfully the car park had plenty of disabled places so we got a space and had a very short walk, down a ramp, to the venue. All very well organised! After waiting for about 15 minutes for the door to open, we were shown to our table and then the waiter came to take our order for drinks, and we then had to go to the buffet to choose our meal. I went for the chicken tikka with saga aloo and basmati rice, which was delicious. The sweet trolley was heaving with an abundance of lovely sweets, and I went for a caramel apple pie with cream! Mmmm, really tasty! I also had two glasses of wine with my meal, and ordered a wine for the interval.

 

We went to our seats for the show, which were in a really good spot, and it all began at 7.30 on the dot! The start in itself was hilarious, even the safety message was given by 'Ma Brown', and her mention of the IRA was funny and taken in good part. When the actual show began, Ma Brown was polishing in the kitchen, not particularly funny until you realised she was polishing the BAFTA the show had won! This was then promptly followed by her walking into the lounge and tripping over something, when she picked it up it was another BAFTA and her comment was 'jesus these feckin things are everywhere', to which the crowd roared and clapped with approval! The show itself was brilliant, lots of ad libs, hysterical cast, and many moments when they forgot their lines, but nobody in the audience minded, well most people! The only downside for us was the fact that the three people sat in front of us, a man, woman and a young girl, did not seem to be enjoying the show, and on quite a few occasions the man and woman looked at the young girl, who I assume was their daughter, and seemed a little embarrassed! There were a lot of inuendos in the show, and a lot of swearing, but I will say that the site you buy tickets from tells you that it does contain adult humour and under 14's have to be accompanied by an adult! If they felt it was too risque for their daughter, then maybe they should have thought twice about taking her! Thankfully they left about half an hour before it finished! The only other downside to the night was the seats in the arena, very very uncomfortable, and they really did not do me any good at all! By the end of the show I was in agony, and although there was plenty of leg room, my knees were very painful too! Thankfully it was a short walk to the car, and when I got home I had a nice cup of tea and 2 painkillers!

 

Ma Brown on the big screen!



 

 

 The cast at the end of the show!

 

 

Luke opening his presents!

 

 

 

We really have had a bit of a mad few weeks with one thing and another, but one thing I do have this week is the funeral of my lovely friend Kerry, not something I am looking forward to, especially as there will be people there who I know are not nice, and who have, in the past let me down badly. But I will rise above all that, because I have to pay my respects to a lovely woman who did not deserve to lose her life to bloody rotten cancer. She also did not deserve what she went through over the last few years! And more than all that, her two children aged just 15 and 11 do not deserve to grow up without a mother. Tragic is the word!

 

On Saturday I am at the theatre with Elaine and Vic, an early celebration for my birthday on 24th of this month, before they return to Spain for the winter. We are going for a meal first, which is going to be difficult because both Rich and I are on diets! We both have a lot of weight to lose and cannot afford to overdo it at the weekend, but I think we just have to be sensible. I am not going to drink, mainly because it is a meal before the show and I am worried about going to the toilet in the middle of the show and also being too tired to enjoy it! But whatever happens, we will enjoy it, because it is nice to meet up with friends and even better to have an evening out!

 

Next weekend is the one I am looking forward to, we are off to Windsor for a couple of days and staying at the McDonald Windsor Hotel right by the castle. But the bit I am looking forward to most is the trip around the Harry Potter Studios tour! I have arranged for a wheelchair as the tour itself is quite big, but mainly because I cannot walk too far now, and I know there is a lot to see!

 

So all in all September is a busy month, and it ends with a visit from my older son Aaron and his partner Vicki on the 21st to celebrate my birthday, which for me is always great because I miss him very much! It is always good to have the whole family together, and I must be honest I dread the time when they are too busy to visit, which I hope will never happen!

 

Anyway, I have a lot of other things going on, mainly the fact that my appeal is going to tribunal and that I am now changing my GP because I cannot get into town to go to the one I have now! So a busy month ahead, one I will no doubt wish would be at an end, because stress makes the Fibro worse, and at the moment I am extremely stressed! This I think is the main reason why I am in so much pain, which I will say is affecting my whole body at the moment! It has got so bad that some evenings I am having to get into my pyjamas early because I can't even stand my bra being on me as it hurts my skin! Try explaining that to your doctor, they really have no clue and do not understand one iota of what I go through each day! But I will carry on, I will get through all this, but sometimes, just sometimes, I wish that I could have one day free from pain, to be able to walk round without every step hurting me, to go up the stairs normally instead of on all fours, to get out of my chair without my knees creaking and hurting me! Oh look, there's a pink pig flying past my window! That is as likely as me having a day free from pain!!! 







In Memory of Kerry

I have just returned from a week away in Spain. During my holiday I found out that a friend of mine had passed away. She was only 49 years old and leaves behind a 15 year old son and an 11 year old daughter, both of whom will miss their mum and have to grow up without her. I know this happens to people every day, and that many young people lose their parents at a young age, but the tragedy in this is the difficulties that Kerry had been through over the last few years at the hands of the hospital management where she worked, which I think had probably contributed to her death. Although she had cancer, because of the awful time she had been through over the last 4 years she perhaps did not pay attention to her health as much as she should have, and as an excellent nurse had she not been so stressed over the treatment she was receiving from a hospital that she had given her life to she might have noticed the signs more easily!

 

Kerry was the most bubbly, fun loving person, even through all the difficulties, who had lots of friends who she always made time for. When she found out she had cancer, we all hoped she would survive, but it wasn't meant to be, in fact it took her very quickly. She fought for a while, but I think she knew that it was not going to help her. A tragic loss of a young life, and the loss of a very much loved wife to Dave and mother to Jacob and Naomi. She was also a much loved daughter, sister, auntie, niece and cousin, and there are many pictures of her on her Facebook page at many family gatherings.

 

I knew Kerry when she first started her nurse training, and in fact I mentored her for a short while, and she was one of those people that you always could rely on. She worked hard and became an excellent nurse, her only fault was that she was too soft and often used to let others take advantage. This is what caused her the problems later on and this I feel was the reason why she had been ill for so long and had just put it down to stress. What the people at the hospital did to her was disgusting, I will not discuss it on here as it is not worth the waste of words on such vile people, but I hope that those people who lied about Kerry, to further their own careers, can live with what they have done, because I just know that what they did to her caused her illness and subsequent death! So the next time you want to be vile to someone, or nasty, just think that there are consequences to everything that we do!

 

I feel devastated at the loss of Kerry, especially as I had not been to see her for some time, and had promised her that when I returned from holiday I would give her a call and go round for a coffee. The reason for my lack of visits was the most annoying thing, I felt so ill that I didn't want to go round to see her and be negative! Now I wish I had just pushed myself and made that visit, Fibromyalgia has such a devastating effect on me, leaves me down and unable to cope, and the last thing Kerry needed was me going round there and being shocked at how she looked or unable to contain my feelings and getting upset!!  Nobody knew that the cancer would take her so soon, not even Kerry, and I can only imagine the shock and devastation this has caused to her family. She will leave a very big hole in their lives, she was always the life and soul of the party, the one who was first to get up and sing on the karaoke, the one who everyone went to when they had a problem, she was just a great woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister, auntie, cousin and friend! God bless you Kerry, taken too soon, may you rest in peace free from pain, and I hope that you are now back with your brother Alan (Jappo), having the time of your lives with the Angels. I will miss you.

 

 

 

Kerry Wills Marriot

October 1962 - August 2012

Rest in Peace



What a joy the Olympics have been!

I am, I have to admit, one of those people who was thinking that the Olympics were a waste of resources and something the country could do without at the current time! With the recession biting, and keeping it's very unwelcome jaws clamped on us all for much longer than we would like, I just felt that the whole thing would be a flop! This was not helped by the ridiculous debacle of the security and the so called company who were supposed to be organising it! While we had the whole world watching us our wonderful (ahem) government decided that the cheapest would be the best, and put the security of the whole Olympics in the hands of a right bunch of muppets! Perhaps it is a bit of nepotism, because they must be related as neither seem capable of organising a p**s up in a brewery!

Not surprisingly the security was then handed over to our Armed Forces and Police. Go figure, the government had to depend on those people whose numbers they are planning on cutting over the coming months! Great, let's see you make sure the biggest event the country has ever organised is safe for all those taking part, visiting, etc., and by the way, at the end of it we will be giving you your P45! We have also had the most incredible volunteers who have helped at this fantastic event, and one of the things that has come across in the many many programmes covering the Olympics, is the fact that all of those who have been there to make sure that everyone is safe, gets to the right venue and generally helped, have had the most incredible smiles on their faces and have done their jobs in the typical way of us British - to the very best of their ability! We are a proud nation, and after this last two weeks I feel that we have a right to be, because from the Opening Ceremony to today, I have watched in awe as our fantastic team has won 29 Golds, 16 Silver and 19 Bronze medals, the most medals our country has ever won at a modern Olympics! Go Team Great Britain and Northern Ireland, you really have made me very proud to be British!

The Opening Ceremony I felt was incredible, from the fantastic rings that burned brightly as they were hoisted skyward, to seeing those future athletes lighting the flame of the incredible Olympic Torch, what a great way to ensure that the Olympic contestants of 2016, 2020, 2024 and beyond, will be sitting at home and thinking 'I want to be at the next Olympics'! Of course there were other highlights, seeing the Queen parachute into the stadium with James Bond aka Daniel Craig!! Seeing the wonderful Team GB and NI lead by Sir Chris Hoy in their incredible white and gold outfits coming into the stadium (and yes I cried!!), seeing David Beckham arrive on a speed boat with the flame, (that man is just so sexy!!), which was handed to Sir Steve Redgrave who then gave the honour to five future athletes, all picked by a famous Olympic medal winner, to light the incredible torch! The torch itself was a masterpiece, made up of 204 petals, one for each country taking part in the 30th Modern Olympiad, in London 2012!!! And of course there were the fireworks, and what a spectacle they were, absolutely incredible! Another note of interest for Great Britain is the fact that we are the only country to host the Olympics three times, 1908, 1948 and now 2012! What a great accolade for such a small country, and what an incredible job we have made of it!

 The Olmpic Rings aflame and being hoisted into the sky!

 The Queen (ahem!) parachuting into the stadium!

Sir Chris Hoy leading Team GB and NI into the stadium!

David Beckham on the speedboat with the flame!

The lighting of the Olympic Torch!

 The Firework Finale, incredible!!

Thoughout the 16 days there have been some fantastic moments, there have been some not so good ones, there have been tears, tantrums and many a laugh! There have also been the odd mistakes, times when things have gone wrong, times when countries you wouldn't expect to win a medal have done so, and times when teams who were expected to win have not! As one athlete said, it is all about the day, no matter how many times you have beaten someone before, the Olympics is a whole different ball game!!

I sat this morning watching one of the many programmes showing the highlights of the games, I found myself welling up, but none more so than when Tom Daley got his Bronze for the diving! At 18 years of age, this for him has been a very tough year. His dad, a wonderful man who never complained about getting up at 5 a.m. to take Tom to the swimming baths, passed away last year from a brain tumour. He fought very hard to survive, but it was not to be. A recent programme about Tom and his rise to fame - which of course has nothing to do with the fact that he is a lovely looking lad with a great physique - gave all of us more of an insight into this very unassuming young man, and the tough times in his life. Losing his dad was the toughest, but he also spoke about the fact that he was bullied at school, mainly by jealous people who didn't like the fact that he was so popular! Sad sad people who cannot rejoice in the good fortunes of others, and not once I would imagine did it ever occur to these mindless idiots just what he had gone through with losing his dad after a very long illness, but also all that he had to give up to become the athlete that he was! To see Tom's face when he won the bronze, and to see the coaching team and his team mates pick him up and jump into the pool with him was the highlight for me! The happiness was palpable, I felt myself grinning from ear to ear and I just hope that Tom will now take some time out for himself and enjoy the next few months - by the sounds of it he will be partying and eating!! He said last night that he had at times got fed up with always having to say no to going out and not being able to eat what he wanted to, and I got the impression he was going to be correcting that pretty rapidly!!



 Tom Daley being thrown into the pool by team mates and coaches!

Tom Daley with his medal!

I will be sitting tonight watching the closing ceremony, no doubt with tears, and I will have a few glasses of vino while I do! I am so proud right now to be British, a feeling I have not had about my place of birth for quite some time! So I am now an Olympic convert, and I hope that the closing ceremony will be as great as the Opening one, and I wish Rio all the best for the 2016 Olympics, and in particular I hope that Team GB and NI will have a successful games there too! 

In memory of LENNOX!

I thought I would do a blog today because tomorrow I have the delightful Boo coming to stay, and I doubt I will have time! Boo is Abby's (Luke's girlfriend) family dog! She is 7 months old and a Spanador (Spaniel/Labrador cross). She is absolutely delightful, but quite hard work still as she is a puppy. They are so like children and I wish people who suddenly decide on a whim to have a dog would realise just what hard work they are! When Abby's family decided to have a dog, they had Jess first to see if they could cope, asked me lots of questions, did some investigating on the internet, and prepared themselves for her. So far all is going well, although they do still find her hard work. There is no doubt on how much you need to do for a puppy, but the love and loyalty they give in return makes every second of it worthwhile! My Jess is my best friend, she is always here with me, she sits with me, she often lies on my feet actually, and she always knows when I am having a bad day! Over the last couple of weeks I have been watching in horror the story of poor Lennox, the dog who was murdered by Belfast City Council because of his breed. He supposedly had pitbull in him, but he had never actually hurt anyone. This murder was committed by a bunch of idiotic and ignorant people who hid behind the Breed Specific Legislation (I think it should be known as the bull shit legislation personally!!) to commit this crime. The Barnes family, the owners of Lennox, had given him as a puppy to their daughter, who is now 9, and he had been her best friend. That little girl is now devastated. What is even worse is the fact that Belfast City Council would not let the family see Lennox throughout the 2 (yes 2!!) years he was held, nor were they allowed to say goodbye to him. When they asked if they could have Lennox's body so he could be cremated and they could keep his ashes, they were told that 'some' ashes would be sent in the post!! They were also told they couldn't have his collar back either! Something about this story stinks, it has caused worldwide outrage, and thousands are asking for Belfast CC to be investigated! There are rumours that Lennox died months ago due to ill treatment, and it has been proven that he was in a terrible state when he was photographed, with his skin in a bad condition and huge bald patches all over his body! Belfast CC are now suffering because of their decision, and I am glad that they are, and I hope that one day the whole truth will be told about how this poor innocent little dog was murdered! Karma is a bitch, and I have no doubt she will get those involved!

I have now climbed off my soapbox and I am sitting with a fan on - summer has finally arrived - in the lounge while I type my blog! Jess is sunning herself in the garden and I sat out with her while I had a coffee and my lunch! She is definitely an outdoor girl is our Jess, the minute the sun is out, so is she! Today we have had to have a new shower fitted in our family bathroom - Luke and Abby will be delighted with it, it is a lot better than the old one! Although I am thrilled we have a new shower, while the man was here fitting it I had to go up and down the stairs a few times to speak to him, and then to look at it when he had finished! So now my knees are really painful, and I have had to take some extra painkillers! Oh the joys of Fibro! But on the plus side, hubby is taking me out for dinner tonight, we are going to go and try Cafe Gnosh, because I feel absolutely knackered and can't be bothered to cook! Well, that's my excuse!

The delightful Boo!

Jess and Boo, when she was just 3 months old, sharing Jess' bed!

I have had dogs all my married life, our first dog, Bess, was a black Labrador, just like Jess is now! We got her in 1982, and she was very much Richard's dog. She was a wonderful dog, very loyal, brilliant with the boys when they were born and was with us until 1996. We had a few months break from having a dog, then we got Zero, who was a Labrador/Lurcher cross, and she was 4 years old when we got her in late 1996. We got Zero from the RSPCA kennels, and she was a wonderful dog. She eventually left us on 11th June 2005, just one week before our Silver Wedding celebrations! We then had a two year gap, as I was devastated at the loss of Zero and couldn't face having another dog! When we were on holiday in the Caribbean in 2007, a celebration for our 50th birthdays, with our friends Elaine and Vic, I mentioned that I was thinking of getting another dog, and my friend Elaine straight away said not to do anything as she worked for Labrador Rescue and she would look out for a dog for us! I was quite fussy about what I wanted, a bitch, about 6 months or less, and black! She said that they rarely got bitches and never 6 months or less, but I was happy to wait! Someone must have been looking down on me I think, because we returned from our holiday on Wednesday 6th June, on the Friday Elaine phoned me to say there was a 6 month old bitch who needed a new home, and did we want her! I was shocked, thrilled, delighted and panic stricken all at once! By the following Monday Jess was here with us and note the date 11th June, exactly two years since we had lost Zero! It was just meant to be!! Elaine had to come and do a check, even though she knew my house was ok, she wanted to do things properly, Jess had to be checked over, and then she was ours! We have never looked back! Jess is part of the family, Luke loves her, as does Abby, she is a character, she is intelligent, but she is most definitely mine! The sad thing for me is the fact that I can no longer walk her, I used to love going for a lunchtime walk with her, but now I am not steady enough to do that! We recently took her to Spain with us, her third visit abroad, and she was an absolute star! Every evening we would tell her we were going to the pub, and the minute we said this she would pick her bag up (with her portable bowl, toys and chews in it!) and wait by the door! The people at the restaurant and bar on site greeted her like a child, took her bowl and filled it with water, and quite frequently came out with little treats for her - including some steak! The children loved her and made a fuss of her, even the Spanish children who are usually wary of big dogs, and she became quite a celebrity! And what was even better was the fact that because of Jess people talked to us! Like having children, animals break down barriers and people talk to each other! Something that the British are not very good at is talking to strangers, they almost hold back because of a fear that it will be seen as the wrong thing to do - but with a dog with you they are intrigued! 'Do you live here then' was usually the opener, and when we replied no, they would then ask how we got there, and one that surprised us was that someone who actually had a dog did not realise that dogs no longer have to be quarantined when they go back to the UK and they can have a pet passport! We spent quite a lot of time talking to this couple, and they actually said they were going to be looking into this for their dog when they got home! Another couple that we spoke to quite a bit had just lost their dog and they were trying to decide whether to have another one. This couple had a lot in common with us, the fact that they live in Kenilworth, which is literally 20 minutes from Rugby, and they were married the same year as us but two weeks after, made for some interesting conversations! It is amazing how many animal lovers there are when you start to speak to people, which is why I find the idea of someone killing a dog because of some stupid bull shit legislation abhorrent! But let's hope that the Barnes family will get some closure from this awful tragedy, and I also hope that they will take some comfort from the fact that they have had worldwide support for Lennox, and that although he may now be on the Rainbow Bridge, he will NEVER be forgotten!