The end of the year and new beginnings

The last day of the year, and emails from Jana and Joan, who sent this picture from Ontario of Toby and Dick walking in the snow, having cleared a pathway through it first.















It was very frosty today, and we stocked up with shopping before the snow comes. Mas also filled the car with petrol as the price is due to rise tomorrow. After this Mas began to cough more, and feel rather worse; both of us were feeling tired too. Despite that we stayed up till midnight and watched the firework display on TV, and local people were also setting off fireworks.

January 1st 2010!
A bright cold day, and a holiday. We stayed home all day as Mas had been coughing all night, and both of us still felt tired. To add to this Mason's keyboard stopped working, and we spent a long time charging up batteries without success, then the TV got stuck on one channel and the video and CD player would not work. Somehow it seems as if the programming needs to be reset.

January 2nd
We awoke to a thick frost, Mason feeling very under the weather with an incapacitating cough. I walked to Edgware and bought some batteries for his keyboard, and magically it worked again. Pete called while I was out. Having randomly pushed all the buttons on the three necessary TV remote controls the TV worked again until bedtime when it again gave up the ghost. Toby phoned during the evening which was cheering; they are back in Toronto again.

Frustrations, healing and relaxations

We had another frustrating day. I recieved a letter from the hospital to phone and make an appointment. Using the number I had been sent after repeated calls all I could get is "There is no one here to take your call, please leave a message," but nobody called back. Mas was having similar problems too.

At 2.00pm we had another vet appointment, so took Salty off in the car in a borrowed cat cage.
The bandage was cut off Salty's leg, which was healing well. His temperature was taken, and he was generally checked all over while Salty practiced his new skill of growling. I bought him a special flea comb which takes out all the loose fur in a bid to stop him getting fur balls in his stomach later. He also got some penicillin pills. Mas bought a cage for him too. These furry friends are so expensive!

Salty enjoyed his antibiotic pill, and settled down happily. In the evening we thought we would relax, have a glass of red wine and watch the X-Files and unwind. We were peacefully doing this when Scully unexpectedly got shot which startled Mas; he jumped throwing the contents of his wine glass over his shoulder in a wide arc onto the carpet. (Mas is famous for excessive startle factor) After the surprise of that, we had a really good laugh, which is probably more relaxing than the wine would have been.

Minor irritations and good friends

Yesterday it was a little cooler and I managed to do lots of irritating things that had to be done, including complaining about household bills that were incorrect, and taking steps to block nuisance phone calls which will take a month to take effect. It is amazing how much time simple things take to organise. Later I went off to Edgware, by bus, as my feet have become rather painful and red due to the pills I am taking. Later Diane called while I was resting, and she arranged to come over next week which will be nice, we have not had a 'get together' for a long time.

Today Mas and I got some shopping in Stanmore and looked in at the pub there. There is a new manager now and it was immediately apparent! We decided to have lunch before going home again, and relaxed for a while.

I spoke to Pat who I have not seen for ages. It is a shame how easy it is to get taken up with the routine of daily life, not making enough time for friendship. Next year I will try to make up for this waste of time.