Pets - I Wouldn't Be Without Mine

Yesterday my 5th or 7th cousin or something equally as obscure (but a great bloke, no less) made a joke about us eating Poppy for Christmas dinner. The joke carried on within the immediate family and we all agreed that it had been worth fattening her up and that it would be Jack’s turn at Easter. A joke, folks…. purely a joke.

However, I know there are some people out there who don’t believe you should keep animals at all unless they’re one day going to become food as pets aren’t ‘useful’ in any way but are a drain on our personal economy; they also demand time that could be spent in a more productive manner.

While I can understand that particular philosophy, I can’t personally agree with it. Yes, my furry friends do cost a bit to keep and yes, they do take up some of my time but they give me lots back in the form of companionship, entertainment, security and more.

When it comes to cost, they don’t really drain me. I save left-overs for them to eat and top that up with dog/cat biscuits. I know some would say that isn’t good enough but mine appear to be happy enough and although Poppy’s a bit on the heavy side - a problem I’ve had with her now that she’s knocking on a bit - she’s fit and active and a happy little soul. She can still sit up and beg and stay that way for a good five minutes if she has to.



Jack… well, he’s just always hungry. Feed him and half an hour later he’s scavenging for more food. Anything in the bin? Anything on the table? Anything on the work top? Maybe if I’m careful I can nick that sandwich right out of her hand without her even noticing! I’ve tried cutting out the scraps and just giving him good biscuits and a pouch of wet food but it doesn’t help - the boy is a pig! I have to be careful not to give Poppy left-overs that have a lot of onion in, neither of them are given anything spicy and Jack isn't given pork (we don't eat tuna so no problem there). I'll also add that they don't eat scraps every day - on non-scrap days Jack's given a sachet of wet food along with his biscuits and Poppy usually has just biscuits with the occassional half tin of wet food mixed in.



Now and then they have to go to the vet but insurance doesn’t cost more than £20 a month for the two of them and for those who can’t afford it there’s always the PDSA who’ll treat up to three pets free for those on a low income.

Time? Yes, dogs need exercise although I have to admit that Poppy doesn’t get as much as she should these days. I’ve had a bad year health wise and just haven’t been able to get out much with her. Richard takes her for a run now and then but LM… well, I don’t think she has at all this year. Strangely enough, Poppy doesn’t appear to mind. She doesn’t nag to go out and is generally happy just as long as she can be with me, whether that’s sitting next to me on the sofa, poking around in the garden or snuggled up under the duvet in bed with me. Most of the time I spend on her is pleasant, it’s the kind that builds companionship between us. She needs petting, playing with, talking to and if I didn’t have that with her I’d miss it something awful. The same applies to Jack. Although cats don’t even need walking of course. If my furry friends had been of the long-haired variety then they’d need grooming but mine don’t. The occasional bath for Poppy is more than enough.

Sometimes they drive me round the twist. Jack when he’s raiding bins or messes up my wool and Poppy when she pees on the floor but we only have ourselves to blame for not letting her out in time. If only she’d bark to let us know! But when Jack’s curled up on my lap, purring away contentedly and Poppy’s laying beside me, her head on my thigh, I feel peaceful. That alone is worth what they cost me in food and more.

Sharon J xx

~~+~~

A Painting and Other Things

After having a wonderful Christmas dinner that turned out just as it should, we opened our presents and all three of us were lucky enough to receive some lovely things.




Notice the Disney films? I collect the animated feature films and LM had bought me four! Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas and Dumbo. Lise bought me The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspain so I’ve plenty to watch this week :)

One present really brought tears to my eyes though.




This is a picture that my best friend Jo painted for me. Now she’ll be the first to admit that she’s no Van Gogh but there’s a story to this.

About a month or so ago she came to stay for a girly weekend. We had a laugh, solved the world’s problems (as you do) and went off on a zillion tangents. At one point we were talking about our dream homes. Mine’s a little white cottage that’s overlooking the sea, with flowers in window boxes and an old fashioned garden out the front. There would be a little wood nearby where I could go for cool picnics and be close to the trees and the animals that live there, and there would be mountains in the distance. Somehow Jo had managed to remember all of those details, got hold of a canvas and painted my vision!

Now this is a woman who has a young family to look after, a responsible job that keeps her busy, her grandmother’s been ill during the run up to Christmas meaning she’s had to travel from Manchester to Blackpool several times a week to make sure she’s ok, and she obviously had all the demands that running a home otherwise brings with it. And yet somehow, amidst this and the Christmas rush, she managed to find the time to paint this for me. Can you wonder that I had tears in my eyes?

Happy Twixmas, everyone.

Sharon J xx

~~+~~

Merry Christmas

I hope each and every one of you has the kind of Christmas you're hoping for. Thank you for keeping me company on my journey through life this year, for being so kind, interesting and funny. You've all helped make life a bit more special.



Sharon J xx

~~+~~

Yay! I Did It!

My Christmas food shop has been delivered and Richard's been out and bought some extra bits and bobs for me so as behind as I was, everything is now on target.

We're having turkey this year for the first time ever. I was brought up with beef at Christmas then moved to Norway where their Christmas dinner is belly pork with a special type of sausage and pork cakes but this year, after watching Jamie Oliver, I decided to go for the bird. I've never prepared and cooked turkey before so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't go terribly wrong. A lot of the preparation will be done tomorrow - the veggies will cooked ready for rewarming and the turkey stuffed and buttered. At least that way the day itself shouldn't be too stressful with the work being shared between LM and myself.

My mouth's watering already.

The cherry vodka that I made back in August is looking good now so I'll be trying that bottling that up later today and there's a bottle of Bailey's with my name on it.

The presents are all wrapped and those that needed to be sent have been. The embroidery didn't get finished but I'm not beating myself up over that. I don't have too much left to do so they should be sent during Twixmas. People will understand that I was ill and lagging behind.

With help from Richard and LM, I don't think I've done too badly.

Sharon J xx

~~+~~

Image Credit: Bucklava

~~+~~

O Christmas Tree

Just when I thought we’d never get the tree up in time, my daughter stepped up and did the business.

Here’s the final result.




It’s a sod to put up as each individual branch has to be put on and their colour coded by size, only we don’t have the code list anymore so it’s anybody's guess where they go. She managed it alone in an evening though (yes, it takes that long) and the next morning the lights and baubles went on. Not all 300 of them, that would have taken her too long alone, but all of the best ones and some of the smaller ones. It may not be quite as laden as usual but I still think it looks pretty. Thank LM, a job well done.

Here are a few pictures of my favourite baubles collected over the years (although some aren’t strictly baubles, but you get the gist).






And bless her, she'd even bought a bunch of pretty roses to cheer the place up during the run up to Christmas.



Now there’s just the other bits and bobs to be dotted around the living room. I can do that as I go along over the next few days though. Christmas, it seems, is coming to our house after all :)

Sharon J xx

~~+~~

Yuletide Celebrations

Today is Yule, also known as the winter solstice, the original winter celebration that early Christians tried to stamp out by introducing a Christian celebration during the 4th century instead. You know the one I mean, it’s called Christmas.

A lot of people still mark Yule though, in one way or another, because tonight will be the longest night of year meaning that the days are gradually going to start getting lighter as we once again head towards spring. If that’s not something to celebrate in the midst of a grey and dismal winter - and that’s what we usually get here in the UK, after all - then I really don’t know what is.

I don’t make a big fuss about Yule because our family celebrate Christmas too, although not from a religious point of view. We celebrate it as the turning of the year, the mid point in winter from where things can only get better. Basically, a delayed Yule celebration but I do mark the actual day in my own quiet little way by lighting lots of candles and making a meal that I particularly enjoy. The lighting of candles was originally to persuade the sun, through the Sun God, Mithras, who was born on the shortest day of the year, to reappear as quickly as possible, grow strong and drive away the darkness. As for the food, I don’t have a tradition, I just go with what I fancy. This year it’ll be marinated pork loin with cherry sauce, potatoes and fresh vegetables. The cherry sauce has been frozen for a couple of months but that’s ok, it’ll thaw out and warm up nicely and will be a reminder of the glorious fruit that will once again adorn the tree in the garden following the setting of the blossom, a true mark of spring. As for the pork, I just love pork loin, especially if it’s been marinated properly, and a few winter veg never go amiss.

In Scandinavia they still use the name Jul (pronounced Yule) to describe Christmas, rather than anything religious. Try as they might, those early Christians just never managed to ‘persuade’ them to entirely drop their Pagan traditions. They still have ‘nisser’ - naughty elf like creatures who you have to be kind to during the celebrations otherwise they’ll bugger up your crops next year - and they still use apples, oranges with cloves in, straw goats and other typically Pagan festival decorations.

Mind you, having said that, a lot of what we have originates from the Yule celebrations, it‘s just that most people aren‘t aware of them. Holly, Ivy, Yule Logs, Mistletoe, and even some ‘Christmas’ cards have a Yuletide greeting on them, being sent by people who have no idea that Yule is not the same as Christmas. The twelve days of Christmas also originates from the burning of the Yule log for twelve days.

As somebody who feels the cold something dreadful, I’m sooooooo looking forward to the sun gathering strength and warming us up again, so for me the winter solstice is definitely something to celebrate.

Sharon J xx

~~+~~

Social Services and The Rest - What Do They Know?

No doubt those of you in the UK will have heard about the James Hughes case, the severely disabled man whose body was found in a suitcase in the garden after his mother hanged herself. Once again a finger is being pointed at social services for not noticing that he’d lost huge amounts of weight, and at his GP for not having seen him for three years.

Well let me tell you something. Paul, my 30 year old son, also has profound learning difficulties (as did James) and in the eleven years we’ve been living in this country, social services have seen him once! Yes, that’s right, once! ONE TIME IN ELLEVEN YEARS! And that wasn’t in this town but while we were living in Manchester. And what’s more, they weren’t particularly interested in him either. I was told there was no work available for him and no respite care other than a weekend in a house shared with drug addicts. Yepp… that’s the God’s honest truth!

During the seven years we’ve lived here, they haven’t seen him at all. NOT ONCE!! They know of him, but they haven’t bothered to visit him, enquire about him, or anything else. For all they know, Paul could be dead and they wouldn’t even notice!

His GP has seen him maybe twice during those seven years and certainly not for the past three years. For all he knows, Paul could be dead.

A few years ago he had an appointment with the hospital that I cancelled. Nobody asked why and when I said he didn’t need a new appointment that was accepted without question. Paul could be dead.

Paul receives disability living allowance but nobody has asked to see him since he was first awarded the benefit. It just goes into the bank but Paul could be dead.

The neighbours haven’t seen him for a couple of years - not since he came home from my Mum’s two summers ago to come on holiday with us. Nobody has asked about him. He could be dead.

The point I’m trying to make is that anything could happen to Paul and nobody would notice. It’s just assumed that all is well. But how do they know that? How do they know that taking care of Paul didn’t become too much for me and that one day I snapped and…. well…. did the unthinkable?

I can assure you that Paul is very much alive and well and still helping my mum care for my dad but you really only have my word for that. Some of you will know it’s the truth because you know me personally and have seen Paul, but most of you don’t. I could be covering up something sinister, couldn’t I? How would you know? How would anybody know when nobody follows him up? I don't even have a recent photo of him to post here to prove he's alive and well (he is though, honestly. I'd hate to think you really think I might have... !)

Paul is just one of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in this country and I’m sure he’s not the only one who hasn’t been followed up properly. Who knows what might be going on behind closed doors? It’s hard being the parent of a disabled child and it doesn’t get easier when they become adults - sometimes a person’s patience can only stretch so far and when they’re not getting help….

It’s a scary situation.

Once Paul comes home for good I shall contact social services and ask why he hasn’t been assessed regularly. I wonder what they’ll say.

Sharon J xx

~~+~~

Wooly Things

I’ve finally finished making the things I was knitting and crocheting. A few bits had already been wrapped before I thought about taking photos but here are those that were left. I’m not saying who they’re for though - you just never know who’s reading here :)

Socks for keeping cold toes toasty

A crocheted brooch - the colours are slightly more muted than they appear in the photo though

A bundle of tiny hats for the preemie department at our local hospital.

I think it’s nice to give something to charity at Christmas and although I’ve nothing against donating to charity shops or putting money in collection boxes at other times, I do feel that ‘giving to charity’ should also mean actually putting yourself out a bit to do something, whether it’s a sponsored walk or other activity, helping out at a shelter or making something for those less fortunate than ourselves. The hats take no time to knit up and the yarn's all left over stuff from other projects so giving a bundle of them to the hospital isn’t much of a big deal really. And because the parents of the preemie babies get to keep the hat their baby wore whilst in hospital, they always need new supplies.

Now I just have to finished the cross-stitch projects.

Sharon J

~~+~~

Moon River

Some of you already know that my dad’s very ill and isn’t going to get better. He’s been like it for a couple of years now and it’s a surprise to everybody that he’s still alive - alive but not living. Laying on a bed, not knowing where he is, who his wife is, who I am, or being able to feed himself or control his bowels is not living. Surviving yes, but not living.

If I’m honest, I’ve never had a good relationship with my dad. Without going into detail, I can say that he’s a been very selfish man, but it was only once I was old enough to understand certain things that I realised what he was really like. As a young girl, I thought he was great. Why? Because he was funny when he was drunk (which he was twice a day, every day) and he taught me to dance.

I used to love dancing with Dad. I can’t have been more than about four when he taught me to waltz at the social club we used to go to at weekends. Then came the foxtrot, the quick step and a few others, but the waltz was always ‘our’ dance. And even when I got older and ‘played out’ with the other kids rather than hanging in the club, I always made sure I was back in the hall for the last waltz because that belonged to me and Dad.

I don’t really have anything special that reminds me of dad but a week or so ago I came across this on eBay.




It’s the sheet music to ‘Moon River’, the song he taught me to waltz to and one I can remember dancing with him to on so many occasions, including at my wedding. I’m going to put it in a black frame and hang it on the living room wall because although we didn’t get along too well, those dances ARE good memories, and hearing the song nowadays makes me both smile and cry.

Sharon J xx

~~+~~

Will It Or Won't It Happen?

I really can’t see there being much of a Christmas in our house this year because I’m still stuck in bed with this rotten bug. I got up for a few hours at the weekend but that just set me back again so here I am, still ‘enjoying’ these same old four walls.

At the moment I’m surrounded by wrapping paper, presents, tags, ribbons, bubble wrap, brown paper, sellotape and other wrapping bits and bobs, trying to get things wrapped and ready to be put in the post. I’m still hoping there’s a chance things will get to their recipients before the big day, especially my son’s pressies, as he’s still a child in his mind and gets really excited about Santa bringing him presents.

I also have my embroidery and knitting on the bed with me, and Christmas cards that I’m gradually writing in between doing other stuff so you can imagine what it looks like here. In a king sized bed, I have just an edge to use cos the rest is covered in Christmas stuff. Well just because I have to rest, doesn’t mean I can’t do anything, does it? It just isn’t all that easy to do it all from the confines of a bed, but I’m getting there.

I’ve ordered all my Christmas food for home delivery because I’m pretty sure I won’t be fit enough to go shopping in time. I just hope I’m fit enough to actually make the Christmas dinner because my daughter sure as heck can’t do it. She can make hotpot and shepherd’s pie but that’s about it, unless you count warming up frozen pizza. Oh well, if we have to share a tin of soup then we’ll have to…. not quite the same though.

I’m still trying not to stress over any of it. Stress just makes me ill (my body doesn’t deal with it well and it’s landed me in hospital before) so I have to stay zen-like about Christmas. Ha! I can’t say that’s working exactly because I am getting pretty fed up with the situation now, but I can’t compromise my health for the sake of Christmas.

I just wish my immune system worked properly and maybe this bug wouldn’t have hit me quite as bad. I can’t easily shake them off y’see and as much as my doctors tell me that I should avoid viruses whenever possible, I’m still part of this world and it’s inevitable that sometimes….

Oh well, we’ll just have to see how it goes.

Sharon J xx

~~+~~

Pictures of Malta

Sliema - Malta's most popular tourist destination

Sliema

The backstreets are narrow but incredibly quaint and certainly make for interesting driving.

A lot of the buses are very old and, I'm told, very uncomfortable. The good thing about them though, is that you can catch a bus from just about anywhere to get to just about anywhere else.

The sea surrounding Malta is said to be the clearest in the Mediterranean

Washing hanging out to dry in the street. It's a good job Malta doesn't attract the lager lout crowd or I doubt they'd be left hanging there long.

Popeye Village - the location of the film 'Popeye' starring Robin Williams

Marsaxlokk Harbour - a beautiful fishing village where life seems to have stood still for a very long time

Marsaxlokk is famed for it's colourful fishing boats (Luzzu)

Maltese Lace blowing in the breeze at the daily market

Mosta Dome - apparently the 3rd largest unsupported dome in the world

Inside Mosta Dome - an incredibly beautiful church

View from Gozo towards Comino and Malta. To be so far south, Malta and Gozo are both incredibly green and lush.

And finally, my baby, relaxing in the shade of an outdoor restuarant

Christmas Doesn’t Have To Be Perfect

Having been stuck in bed for a week, I am most definitely behind with my Christmas preparations. The tree isn’t up, gifts aren’t wrapped, some gifts still haven’t been bought and others that I’m making aren’t finished and cards aren’t written which is a bit of a git considering that some of them have to go abroad. Luckily, the presents that have to go to Norway won’t be opened until after Christmas anyway (I won’t go into the reasons here and now) so I don’t have to worry about those not getting there in time. I just hope everything that I’ve ordered for Paul comes with enough time to be sent down to London as I’d hate him to get his pressies late.

There’s still food shopping to be done and the mince pies and stuff that I was planning to make are just going to have to go take a walk this year. I must get the rest of the vodka into the kilner jar so that the cherry vodka’s ready on the day, though; I’ve been looking forward to that too much to miss it.

A few days ago I was getting my knickers in a right old twist over all this but I’ve come to the conclusion that Christmas really doesn’t have to be perfect. The day will come and go regardless of whether or not I’m prepared and once it’s gone it really won’t matter anymore. Nobody will remember it for the home-made mince pies, or whether or not the house was squeaky clean. And I’m sure half of those on my Christmas card list won’t really give a toss care whether or not they get a card.

It’s just one day and really not worth all the stress it can cause. I’ll do what I can and enjoy doing it - what I can’t do I won’t do and that’s that. End of story. Not having a perfect Christmas doesn’t make me a failure and nobody will be hurt, life will just poodle along as usual and Christmas will be forgotten for yet another year.

Sharon J

~~+~~

Image Credit: Krisdecurtis

~~+~~