SUMMER SEX

We had a lovely day yesterday, visiting with friends. Whitney was quite the tart. When we removed her from the car, she hurled herself up the drive into the garden and happily let the stud be outrageous. They have mated today and are now curled up together. When I know if she took, I'll tell you who she was bred to. Maybe you can have a sweepstake on it, guessing who I used! :-)

The Lady Decorator, or one of them, Marian, has been around with the paint charts for out bedroom. We have been dark navy for nearly 14 years now. We are going to go for something dramatically different. I chose the Midnight Blue because it is a scientific fact that a dark room is a must for a good sleep. Well, heavy curtains will make it dark no matter what colour the walls!

This is the computer chair I have. We have one each. Very comfortable and it forces me to sit correctly, instead of being hunched over the keyboard, I am sitting back against the padded chair. Very comfortable.

John and I are planning to be at both Sottish shows this weekend. We will leave on Friday and return on Monday. Of course, Whitney will not return until next week, Pussy, Chase and MG are coming with us, leaving poor old Luque on his own at our friend's kennels.

6 DAYS LEFT

This, is Tantra's Plenty O'Toole isa Kutani. She is owned and loved by Wendy Cain of the Kutani kennel. She is otherwise known as Deita. She is bred by me and is a daughter of my Ch Polielin's Whitney with Tantra.

Deita has done very well. She has a G1 Puppy, and 3RCC and now 2 CC both with Best of Breed. She is not yet 18mths old. Her mother was such a winner at this age too. I could not be more pleased. this is the first of my breeding to have won at this level. (Despite owning this breed since 1972, I have been unable to do anything about showing and breeding properly until 2006. I am very pleased that each dog I have shown since then has won, and Deita has won the most.)

Our wedding is now less than a week away. On Saturday the 7th. I am now getting excited about it.

The house renovations have taken their toll. It has been 13 weeks now and still many more weeks to go. However, the downstairs will be complete for our wedding and thus we have somewhere for our guests to be between the ceremony and the reception dinner.

We both decided that we will tell the decorators and the carpet layers when we are ready for the three upstairs rooms to be done. We have both just had enough for now.

I am typing this blog post on a brand new 27" iMac with the highest specifications possible. This should last me forever now. Or at least until I find another excuse for upgrading!

The Hi Fi is all set up in our new lounge. 27' by 13' conservatory. It is beautiful. Not yet completely furnished.

I have become so exhausted that on Wednesday I awoke at 4pm to find that the stairs and landing had been carpeted. I had not heard a thing!

Our honeymoon is in a 5* skyscraper hotel in Frankfurt from Monday 9th through to the 14Th, back in England on the 15th.

STILL LIVING

It has been nine weeks since the house alterations have started and there is another 8-12 weeks to go. However, the decorating and downstairs flooring and furniture placement will all be done by July 5th, two days before our wedding. The rest will be done after our honeymoon. That most bothersome of that will be the stair carpets and the bedroom carpets. Then it is complete indoors. The rest of the work is outside. We won't be living as at present once the inside is complete and the 3 months till completion is not continuous work but rather waiting for work to be done which will only be a few days duration each.

I can't believe the synchronicity. Everything, and all the tradespeople, has just fallen into place. I chose all the right people initially and through them we found the other tradesmen to do the other stuff. 

We have been discussing how we seriously need cavity wall insulation and loft insulation too. Well, today a man knocked at the door and he managed to get 'insulation' out before I told him to get lost or words to that effect. Instead, much to his surprise I invited him in. Just what we need I told him. Guess what? It is all being at no cost to us! The government (taxpayers) pay for it because I am disabled. (Do bear in mind that John has paid huge sums in tax and NI!!! And never taken any benefits. Just pointing it out for those who like to bitch about SS. Disability COSTS money-in daily living and in the alterations made to this house.)

All in  all, things are going very well. I wish I could say the same about me. I have found this very stressful, the first signs of which was my body showing worsening symptoms-like the loss of balance, thus falling, several times a day, more pain, less sleep. Doc does not think this is a permanent progression given what has been going on. I have to say I was not prepared at all for the sheer awfulness of my safe place being so disrupted, people coming in and out all day, not being free to nap or just flop about. I just keep the finished picture in my mind. It will all be worth it in the end.

I have had to forgo dog shows much to my disappointment but I just physically cannot manage it. I am hoping to be at a show on July 1st as at least the downstairs flooring will be done so the dogs can stay clean after bathing. However, it is also smack bang in the middle of the decorating so maybe no shows until after the honeymoon.

I do try to keep posting here. I use Facebook too but i forget that not all my readers are there so of course it is naturally to wonder why this usually anything but quiet man is being so quiet! Now you know. I feel like I have lots to say on the more serious subjects too but just have not been with it enough to do so. 

I get emails from some readers, privately, sharing stuff they don't feel comfortable sharing on here. Please do not think you cannot still do that. Survivors always come first and I get much from your sharing.

Thank you for reading.

WINDFALL

Life can be very strange as I am sure you know.

My mood has been somewhat low recently. I haven't really understood why. Especially when everything in my life seems to be going so well.  Tonight my closest friend  suggested that it is precisely because everything is going so well and really good things are happening is why my mood has taken the plunge. She says because I am just not used to life being this good and my old tapes are always that things go from bad to worse.  Anyway, I am feeling much better.

There are major changes  going on right now.  First of all we have come into a very large sum of money which we were not expecting.  We have considered buying a bungalow which we could do tomorrow and still keep this house.  However, we have been very happy in this house and we have good neighbours. So we think we shall be making more alterations to this house than just the conservatory we have already booked.

We will have the kitchen totally remodelled and we will either have a double sink or one big enough to bath the dogs in.  We shall also have a Stannah chair lift put in and turn the bathroom into a shower room.  We will also turn the outside sheds,  which have a fully plumbed toilet,  into part of the house.  They are already made of brick. 

 We will have the whole house carpeted top to bottom and also redecorated throughout.  I will finally bite the bullet and get rid of almost all of my knitting machines and everything that goes with them.  I have to face facts that I cannot really put them too much use myself now.  It takes me a long while to knit just one sweater.  I will not however leave myself without at least one machine.

 Even after doing all this to the house we could still go out and buy another house!  So we are pretty much set for life.  My fears about the quality of life dropping considerably once John retired have now gone and in fact our quality of life will be greater!

 It feels very strange to be writing about such good things happening to ME.  This is the sort of thing that happens to other people.  I have always been very aware of how fortunate I have been to have survived what I have survived.  This, however is way way beyond my expectations which were very few. I just wanted to not feel bad all the time.  I never thought or dreamt about feeling good.  I just wanted to be numb.

 Now most of you reading this will no that I have serious physical pain 24/7 and you therefore may be surprised at the above paragraph.  Don't be. This sort of pain is nothing in comparison to the psychic pain that was my life for so many years.

 It feels very strange to look at a 5 bedroomed bungalow, which I did do today, and know that I could pay for it cash if I so chose to.  I do think though that I have made the right decision, along with John of course, to get this house the way we would like it to be and use the rest of the money for security and living well.

 I do agree with those people that have suggested that my day at Crufts really took a lot out of me.  I had not been to a dog show since last September and so to make my 1st show Cruft's was a big deal! 

 I also came to realise a few things about showing dogs, especially my breed which are usually such late maturers.  Elizabeth  who won BIS at Cruft's,  is 7 years old!  I was very lucky that Whitney became a champion by the age of 18 months and was retired before she was 3!  I realise that this is not usual and that I must bear in mind that the timescale for Mary Grace and any other dog that  I show will be longer. 

 Touch wood, at the moment Chase  looks to be exactly what I was hoping for and I am excited about showing him.  He has not got his 2nd set of teeth yet and we just have to sweat it out until he does because the teeth could make or break him!  Other than that he is a beautiful dog who is very well made and with the most delightful personality.  His jaw at present is perfect  and what I would expect it to be before the 2nd teeth come in.  He is now 4 months old and during the next 8 weeks I will know the answer as to what his bite will be!  This is a very difficult breed when it comes to bites. 

IT’S ALL IN THE EYES

I am knitting a large swatch for an Aran sweater done on 2.25mm needles. It will take time of course but I have that. No point in knitting up a thick one when I don’t really wear thick ones.

My yarn dyeing is going well and selling well still.

On Sunday, I ordered two new Niddy Noddy ‘s and neither has yet arrived. I have just had a ‘shipped’ email for one of them. I hate crap service. I have ordered two (from different suppliers) because they are of different sizes and therefore will make hanks of different sizes and therefore I will be able to dye in more varied ways. That is the idea, anyway.

I am on my third book in the Power of Five series, Necropolis. I am enjoying these books very much and do not quite understand why they have been limited by being marketed purely as youth fiction. They are not written differently to fiction for adults so it seems that to limit them like this is doing no one any favours. Why must we label all the time?

I do rather enjoy House despite it being unbelievable. I think Hugh Laurie is very attractive in this which makes me wonder if I am on too many drugs. I can’t say I took any notice of him in that way before. I must say I cannot stand the character he is playing and he would be terrible relationship material but his unshaven appearance, those eyes and his tallness all appeal. Mind you, I often find that men improve with age. George Clooney was not what he is now when he was in that hospital comedy show years ago and yet by the time he was in ER and beyond, wow!

Quiet day today. Resting to make sure I am up to tonight’s demo in Bedford. Last evening, half thru drying Carly after her bath, I came over very weak and fatigued and could not complete her. Fortunately, she was almost done so she wasn’t left dripping wet. yet I had not felt so good in long time as I had on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with swimming each day being relatively easy.