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!

The fight continues!

I have just read my lovely friend Sara Diana Williams blog! Once again this brave and outstanding woman has made me feel so much better about my illness! Considering what Sara has gone through in the last 3 years, it puts my illness in to the shade! 

The only problem I have with my illness is the fact that nobody can see it! Nobody can see that I am in pain, that each new day brings a new challenge - the latest one being stomach cramps every time I eat or drink anything and the constant feeling that I need to go to the toilet! I also seem to have problems with my thermostat! I can be sitting in a room where the temperature remains the same, and I can feel myself going hot from the tip of my toes to the top of my head, finishing with flushed cheeks and hot ears! Weird I know, but that is exactly how it feels! Each time something happens I go back to the wonderful internet and look it up and find that it is yet another side effect of having Fibro! How many more can there be I ask myself, or is it just a ploy by the doctors to keep us out of their surgery, just add another symptom to the Fibro, they won't know any difference!

I will say the stomach cramps have been horrific, a bit like period pains but I know it can't be that as I have no baby carriage - as my wonderful eldest son called it when I had my hysterectomy! He was only 5 at the time I had my operation, and he couldn't say hysterectomy or understand what it was, so my mum, bless her heart, tried to explain to him what a hysterectomy was! Putting it in the simplest of terms worked, they had taken away my baby carriage, the place where he and his brother had slept when they were being 'cooked', and as it was now not very well and I didn't need it any more, the doctors were taking it away! Oh the fun we had when he went into school and told them that! The teacher he had, Miss Evans, was a very tall lady, with a wicked sense of humour, and she found this analogy delightful! I did, however, find it quite difficult to know what to say when some of the little girls in my son's class came over and asked me why I had a pram in my tummy! Trust the girls to see it differently, we really are a very different breed to men! (Thank goodness!!)

Anyway, I digress, I have been having a bad time since I returned from my holiday, I have been very emotional, in fact the silliest little thing has me in floods of tears, the world seems like such a rotten place at the moment, everywhere I turn there is something awful going on! This last month has seen some crazed man in Denver go into a cinema that was showing the new Batman movie and shoot down and kill innocent people, including some young children; Belfast City Council has put to sleep a completely innocent dog because of the Breed Specific Legislation, a ridiculous law that needs to be stopped, and this has left a little 9 year old girl heartbroken at the loss of her beautiful pet!  If they had been putting down a rapist or a paedophile I could have understood that, but not a completely innocent dog whose only crime was having some pit bull in him!

On the other side of the coin I have had some really happy times and some good news in the last month too, and this is what I am trying to focus on right now to keep me on the right track and make the most of every day. My mum, who I miss with all my heart and every fibre of my being, used to say to me 'This is not a dress rehearsal our Sharon, this is it, you have to make the most of every day, because you won't get another chance'. Life is what we make of it, there will always be sadness, there will always be happiness, and as long as I can stay happy, or at least be on the middle ground, I know I can keep this illness under control! This bloody annoying, painful and downright horrible illness will not rule me, I am in charge and I will make the most of each day!  So there!

Back again!

Well after a wonderful holiday in Spain I have come back down to earth with a hell of a bump! I returned on Sunday of last week, the 8th July, and since then it has been a pretty awful 9 days! I have been in the most horrific pain, to the extent that I have been in tears, and then on Friday last I awoke with a headache that completely floored me, I felt exhausted, and everything I tried to do was like climbing a mountain!

Since then, I have tried really hard to work through the illness that is Fibromyalgia, all to no avail, and on Sunday I had to give in and spend the day in bed! When I tried to get out of bed on Friday, the whole room spun, I felt sick and I literally fell back into bed! My head felt like it would burst and my ears actually burned and were bright red and hurt to touch! I then found out that there is a virus going around, and these were the symptoms! I would say it likened to my thermometer going haywire and not working! One minute I was shivering with cold, the next I had to turn the fan on, in fact both Saturday and Sunday night I had to sleep with the fan on! Poor Richard was wrapped in the quilt with it up to his neck, and I was lying there dripping in sweat! The fact that I spent two days in bed is rare, but after spending a wonderful holiday resting, I think it all got a bit too much having to come home to the cleaning, washing and the bills to sort out, and of course the wonderful British weather!

As we left the apartment in Spain, at 10.30 in the morning, the temperature was 32 degrees and rising, and as we came into the UK the temperature was 16 degrees and dropping! Quite a shock for my body I think, and perhaps why I have suddenly hit that damned brick wall and come to a complete full stop!

The one good thing that we came back to was a cheque that was sent from a PPI claim that we had started about 18 months ago! Because of this we have decided to take another holiday later this year, we weren't sure we would be able to have another holiday until much later this year, but now we have decided to use some of the money for another break. I am so much better when I am out in the sunshine, in fact I would say I am like a new woman! The pain is still there but because I am resting more and in the heat, it is more manageable!

When I was out in Spain, I was really looking forward to the fact that the Bar and Restaurant on site was open, and I was hoping to be able to walk round there for a drink and a meal, but I had forgotten just how far it was to the bar, and poor Richard had to drive round because it was just too far for me! Really frustrating to be away in such beautiful weather and not be well enough to walk as far as the bar! Fortunately Richard is not much of a drinker, and a couple of beers and a glass of wine is as much as he will have in an evening, and the roads on site are also private, so there is no chance of the police coming into the resort without us all knowing, as they would have to come through the security gates, and even they would have to stop and show their I.D.!!

I will say though that Coppola's was an absolute delight, the staff, the food, the ambience, everything about it was right! They had entertainment on at the weekends, and since we have returned from holiday they have also started a Quiz night on a Monday and a Karaoke and Disco night on a Wednesday (not my favourite is Karaoke!!), but the best thing of all is that the resort has lots of Spanish people living there, the entertainment is in Spanish and English, and one staff member, the wonderful Alicia, has been helping us with our Spanish, so we have come on leaps and bounds with our language skills during this break!  

 Alicia is the one on the far left next to me, behind Richard is Paco the chef, and I am unsure of the names of the other people, but the man in the blue checked shirt is the owner and the young boy is Paco's son! They asked us for a photo because we are now part of the Coppola's family!

Alicia and another staff member serving up our wonderful paella!

Richard having a lovely afternoon of golf, I drove the cart!

Alicia and I on our last night! I miss her very much, delightful young lady who was always smiling! She also used to spoil Jess, who became quite a celebrity, and bring her out pieces of steak! Paco, the chef, also used to bring Jess slices of ham when the boss wasn't looking!

While we were out in Spain, the dog was with us, and she became quite a celebrity with everyone! People would come and speak to us, many people thought we lived there because we had the dog with us! In the evening when we started to get ready to go out, Jess would start 'padding', and as soon as I said 'are you coming to the pub', she would start making a lot of noise, and would pick up her bag with her bowl, chews and toy in it! It was so funny to watch her! Because she is such a good dog, we never put her on the lead when we walk her, but because often people were eating we would put her on the lead until we found a seat. She would carry her bag into the square where the seats were - outside dining is just great - and everyone would watch in awe as she walked to the table, sat down and we then gave the staff her water bowl which they would fill, even before we got a drink! The Spanish are not usually good with big dogs, they tend to have small ones, and big dogs are used as guard dogs, but because Jess was so well behaved, everyone wanted to pet her! Jess really did us proud and was very well behaved, even when Spain won the European Cup and there were fireworks going off everywhere, she just sat quietly and never made a fuss! That was definitely one of the highlights of the holiday, the atmosphere was brilliant, everyone was watching the football and we were all rooting for Spain, and even though Rich had a bad foot and a bite that had swollen up, we had a good night!

On Saturday just gone we had Abby's parents over for a Chinese Take Away, and we gave them the information folder and the keys to our apartment. They are taking a holiday on their own for the first time since they had their children, which is over 23 years ago! They are flying out to Spain and using our apartment so they can have a really relaxing and stress free holiday, I hope they will love it there as much as we do! It may be out in the sticks, but personally I prefer that to being in the middle of bars and restaurants, being kept awake by noisy holiday goers, having the smell of food from restaurants and take aways around me, the peace and quiet is what I enjoy, I would rather drive to find the noise and night life, at least then you can drive away and leave it!

This is where our apartment is, ours is the one right in the middle of the picture, second floor, with the ornament on the wall! It may only be small, but it is our little piece of paradise!

An update on the fiasco with the benefits people, I have to be reassessed, they are paying me at the moment, at the lowest rate, until my appeal is heard, so now it is just a waiting game. However, I have started a complaint against the doctor who examined me, because he blatantly lied, and every doctor takes the hippocratic oath, and part of that oath is to always tell the truth, and I will make sure that he pays for the lies he has told, in more ways than one, and that he never does this to anyone else!