Jboy and the incident of the meat.....

So...yesterday I was in one room just finishing a phone call and Jboy wandered into the kitchen.  When I followed him there, moments later, he was sitting at the table looking a bit guilty. And so he should...what had he done???? Well he had stuffed a goodly amount of meat (cooked pork to be exact) into his mouth. Now, bear in mind that he cannot chew and the configuration of his teeth make it such that he does not bite, and you might be able to imagine the large lumps of meat which he managed to get into himself before I appeared. He was clearly not himself and spent the whole evening gagging and returning undigested pork to us. We gave him a prolonged warm bath and eventually settled him for the night once he had stopped gagging......today M and I had a great debate about whether Jboy was well enough to go to the MMDC or not.  Jboy was exhibiting no signs of distress but neither did he want to eat....I decided that he was well and happy and therefore could go. He is now home. He has had a lovely day...but he has eaten no lunch.....he is obviously not quite right. I have had an extensive internet search for remedies/advice. I think it has been helpful and reassuring on the whole. He is happy, laughing and jolly but not eating.....any advice would be gratefully received.
Thanks.
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Unglued....

So...I am reading a book  called 'Unglued'...the author is talking of an emotional ungluing here..those moments when you explode as the final straw hits you...of course, I am sure no one who is reading this has even experienced that......when the computer freezes for the 100000000th time and you were just about to order something/pay for something/submit something/save something.....whatever it might be. A moment when all you want to do is throw the thing out of the window. Or stamp on it really hard. Oh, that's just me then??
Often, these emotions are  like a cauldron inside and you manage them until the last thing happens, whatever it might be. I know I have talked about this before in reference to a glass of water which is completely full and a sort of dome forms (the meniscus) so that when even a teeny tiny extra bit of water is added, it overflows. This is another way of looking at the same thing I suppose. (do you sense a theme in my life??? I cope. Then I don't.)
This author talks of emotions being glued together then one last thing happens and you become all unglued. I have enjoyed reading her book because she talks of those times when you have shouted out loud about something which last week might have been received  differently (sorry children-mine) and how you deal with it. She talks of not being able to control your circumstances, but controlling how you think about them and therefore how you react to them. She talks of not being defined by our mistakes ..nothing new ,I know ,but it is good to be reminded of these things and good to know that I am not actually the only one in the world!!
Well, off to the garden where I can potter and plant and enjoy the May sunshine while it lasts, feeling relatively well glued together, knowing that if/when I start to unglue , it will be OK.
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an empty head and a dog post

So....you know that feeling when you have so much in your head but just can't get anything out....my head is bursting with thoughts and feelings and words but I can't get them out in a proper order. I have been sitting here, looking at this blank page, willing the right words to tumble out. I write this blog to keep myself sane and to inform anyone who wants to read it about life with a chap like Jboy. Today, there is too much inside. I can't unravel it sensibly. I do have moments of  clarity..mostly at 2 or 3 in the morning when I am up with Jboy but have no means of recording my thoughts. I always think 'I will remember that' and sometimes I do but sometimes the thought  just falls right out of my head, never to be seen again. Today was one such day.

I do, however, have a facebook page which is sometimes different from the things I write here. Today I had a thought about dogs and their humans.  I shall share that with you today...

So...I have heard it said that dogs look like their owners...or the other way around and anyone who has seen the beginning of the Disney cartoon version of 101 Dalmatians will be able to note that this theory is not just confined to the narrow bounds of my mind. It is a fascinating idea. HOWEVER, Jboy and I would like to disagree or at least state that this not always the case. We see many a dog and its human walking along of a morning and we have noted (well, I have..Jboy less so) that is in fact a rare phenomenon. Today, for example, we saw a young man (well, young to me as almost everyone is these days) sporting very slightly scary tattoos across both cheeks. He was dressed in black , that ominous 'don't mess with me' sort of black and he had that 'don't mess with me' sort of walk too.....and he was walking his dog. Guess the dog? It was .....a very cute Yorkshire Terrier, trotting along , tail in the air and a doggy smile on his face. In addition to this observation, while M and I were on our jolly jaunt, we stopped at a motorway service station where we saw a gentleman emerge from his car. He was tall and very muscled, arms like the proverbial tree trunks. He reached into the back of his car to retrieve his dog which turned out to be a.....teeny tiny chihuahua. Maybe both of these fine gentlemen have dogs which reflect their inner selves as they certainly did NOT reflect their outer selves..or maybe they were walking them for someone else. Maybe there is a PhD in there somewhere.......

I had a Golden Labrador...not sure what that says about me....

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Wednesday again....

So...another damp morning in paradise. Jboy and I braved the raindrops to take up our position and wait for the Right Bus. As we stood, we looked around at all the lush greens of the trees and bushes around us. There is one particular tree which tells the seasons beautifully and which is now vividly dressed in green..it must be Spring! This morning, i had a look in my Forest of Coats for a suitable not too warm and yet warm enough coat which would be suitable for standing out in the misty moisty weather. i found a long, unlined leather number which has been languishing at the back of the forest for some time. M has a leather coat and is reluctant for us to be dressed similarly..I think he was traumatised by my lovely mother's attempts to make him feel part of the family, many years ago when he and I were new. She knitted us matching jumpers. Not so bad in and of itself .....but they were blue and white sailor style jumpers complete with large sailory collars. She had worked very hard so we had to wear them for at least a day in her presence. M has never been quite the same since! So this morning, I unearthed the long leathery coat and didn't get at all wet. Huzzah!!!

I leave you with the imagery of M dressed in a sailor style hand knitted jumper...and with a look of despair, concealed by a smile, as he tried very hard to be happy and please his future mother in law.

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normal service resumed....

So....normal service has been resumed with a 1.30 am wake up call from the Boy himself. He is a very happy fellow to be home and have his parental cuddles once more. As we stood on the Pavement this morning, waiting for the Right Bus with the Right Driver, we surveyed the world. Jboy was completely fascinated by a large snail which had made its merry way up a shrub to the top and which was munching its way along. Jboy enjoyed watching its tentacles twitching and its slow snail slither. He then noticed the raindrops, captured in the folds of a neighbouring leaf whorl, and thought they too were fascinating but in a different and more shiny way. And so we spent our time, watching and waiting. Waiting and watching until , joy of joys, the Right Bus came with the Right Driver and the most marvellous escort.
All is well in the world.
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road trip!!

So..I am returned. I was poorly for a while then M and I had the delight of being able to go away as Jboy was at the MMRC. M had no idea where we were going, as I had arranged it secretly. He knew we were going somewhere, just not where. We set off to our first stop...a well known rose nursery . Of course, I had forgotten that this is NOT the rose flowering season so there were rows and rows of beautifully pruned green bushes which , I imagine, in the summer would be fantastic to see and smell...a veritable feast for the senses. However, M and I have fairly vivid imaginations and were able to picture it all. We ate lunch in the very lovely café, with all the other old people(!) then purchased two roses which promise to be fabulous.(If the deer don't get them first) On to the second part of our road trip. I have a very pleasant satnav app in my new phone. I have called her Emily so Emily took us through the glorious English countryside to our next destination. Here, we found our B and B which was situated at the bottom of a hill. We discovered that the small town ,ancient and ringing with history, is built on a hill so everything is up and down. We  spent the next two days exploring the town with all its ancient buildings (over 500 listed buildings in the town) and walking along the river's edge and through woodland, places we could never go with Jboy as he can't manage such terrain. To M's delight, the town also has its own brewery so we paid a visit there to sample the local ale. He was such a happy chap! When our sojourn had finished in this lovely town, we moved on to the next stop, with the help of Emily, of course. This was a small Cathedral City which M has always wanted to visit. We strolled through the streets, sat a while in the cool of the Cathedral, saw the sights to be seen, lunched then moved on to our final destination. This was slightly less exciting as it was a place where M had to go to a conference. Our B and B here was not charming as it had been in our first venture. This one was far more utilitarian in nature but it did the job. We slept and breakfasted then , again with the help of trusty Emily, we found the conference centre. I saw M off then after a quick look at a street map , I marched off, purposefully ,in the direction of the city centre. I have the sort of brain which remembers maps quite well so I walked, joining in the sea of workers as they swept along to their various day jobs. And thus I spent my day...finding bookshops, cafes, interesting little places, a river walk, a park by the river, Harvey Nicholls (simply because I had never been to one) until my feet told me in no uncertain terms that they had had enough and could I walk them back to the conference centre please. This I did. The day was hot and my feet hotter so the cool of the foyer at the conference centre was a welcome experience.  I supped my large cold drink, surreptitiously removed my clogs, finished my book and waited for the conference to finish. The conference was being held in a large hotel so the foyer was a meeting place for various other parties using the facilities..I enjoyed making up stories about the people and what they were there for...such fun!!  At last, a trickle of M-a-likes began to emerge from somewhere in the depths of the hotel, followed soon by the M himself. We drove off, with the help of Emily, and made our hot and weary way home. What an adventure. It felt as if we had been away for weeks, not just days. Tomorrow, all will be back to normal with the return of the lovely Jboy and the travels up and down the countryside will be a memory. fast fading.
Still, it was fun while it lasted.
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poorly peep

So..it is a bank holiday Monday here in the UK... and sadly I am not too well so I shall be away for a day or two
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