Shopping heaven

Food shopping is something I have to do but like to get over and done with as quickly and painlessly as possibly so this morning, having loaded my trolley and looked in vain for a checkout with less than a hundred customers patiently waiting, (OK exaggeration, but minor!) I drew up at the one with the shortest queue and grumbled to the lady in front of me about the urgent need for more open checkouts rather than employees standing around watching us queueing. We both agreed that we don't use the self-service checkouts on principle and then she told me that she has discovered that, if the people waiting ensure that they are blocking the aisle so that people still shopping can't get past, the powers that be open up another checkout sooner rather than later.
So that's what we did - and they did!
Power to the shoppers!
Next, to Boots with a prescription for Keith's new painkillers. Normally, we get prescriptions renewed over the phone and then I pick them up at the chemist, but today, Keith had been to the doc's (arm twisted up his back) and come back clutching the prescription in his mitt. You may recall that I have done battle with this branch of Boots in the past and taken my custom elsewhere but, for convenience, today I went in with the prescription, only to be told that they 'don't have a contract for NHS presecriptions', which I had forgotten, but which seems just as senseless to me now as it ever did. What is the point of a branch of Boots the chemist which can't dispense prescriptions?
(I'll probably get barred from there soon.)

Power Cut

This morning, at half past nine, we had a power cut for an hour. Now, much as I like living in north Wales, I have to say, during the past 8 years of living here, I have experienced about four times as many power cuts as I have during the rest of my life living elsewhere. What is it about the electricity supply here? Sheep gnawing through cables?
Anyway, once again, I was reminded of all I can't do when there's no electricity to do it with.
Computer? Forget it. Battery life is about 35 minutes when online.
TV? Radio? CD? Nope.
If it's winter - no heating.
Cup of tea/coffee? Only if I have a match to light the gas.
Cordless phone? Well that relies on mains electricity too.
Mobile phone? Because the signal is so weak, we have a signal booster which, guess what, is plugged into the mains.
Still, as it happened, I didn't need to do any of those things just then as I was waiting for my first counselling client of the day...
who didn't turn up.

Squirrels

I noticed last weekend in Kathy's garden that she had peanuts for the birds in plastic containers and she tells me that there are squirrels in the area too, so I wondered aloud to Keith the other day, why the squirrels there don't demolish the peanuts as they do here. This was after I had bemoaned that fact that feeding the birds here is an ongoing battle with the squirrels. No matter what I do, they always manage to grab the lion's share and even having a guided, squirrel-seeking missile in the form of Paddy does not deter them.
"Pretty obvious really," was Keith's reply. "The Sheffield squirrels are thick, unlike the Welsh squirrels who are super-intelligent."
I'll now sit back and await the torrents of abuse I know will be coming my way across the Pennines and all the way west to North Wales....!

The Wedding

Well, in the end, I did watch the royal wedding, having left Keith bound and gagged in the corner (not really) to silence his caustic comments. So, instead, evesdroppers chez Jennyta would have heard such comments as,
"Well, that outfit does her no favours!"
"Have you seen the state of that hat?"
"What an awful coat!" and other such sartorially helpful comments.
I quite liked THE dress but actually much preferred the chief bridesmaid's and I thought the aerial views of the abbey were amazing, but all in all, it didn't go with quite such a buzz as this version.

How time flies!

It seems like only yesterday that William was flushing his father's shoes down the toilet!

Watching TV

For some time now, Keith has been wittering on talking about getting a new, bigger television and I have been equally enthusiastic about not getting a new, bigger television. Our house is small, was my argument and I don't particularly want to have to sit on the stairs or out in the garden to watch telly, so I was quite happy with our 'compact' 20 inch TV.
However, the weekend visit to Kathy's reignited his wish to be the owner of a new, bigger television and, being as it is his birthday today, I finally gave in (cheap present on my part as he was paying!) and we popped down to PC World/Dixons/Curry's and, half an hour later, arrived back with a rather large package.

In no time at all (certainly a lot less time than the installation of the heated towel rail which was been waiting to be installed in the bathroom and still resides in the study - but don't let's be small-minded here), it was up and running.
"Of course, it is only a 32 inch," said Keith as he settled back to watch some boring war thingy, "Not as big as Kathy's."
"Oh, I'm sure it is," I said from out there on the stairs...

In which I get it wrong again!

Hi, folks, Paddy here. I'm with Jenny and Keith at Kathy's this weekend. Kathy has a  lovely, long garden with lots of interesting smells but, sadly, no hens at the moment, which was rather disappointing as I had been looking forward to catching one.
Yesterday, I was very good and so I was allowed to roam around the garden without a lead. Jenny is a bit dubious about this as she says I could get out onto the road or jump over the back wall but no-one took any notice of that.
"He'll be fine!" they said.

And so I was, until this morning, Keith and Kathy let me out in the garden and, suddenly, there was a delicious smell of cat in the air. I followed it, but it led to the gardens behind this one and, before I knew it, I had jumped over the wall and down into another garden. The cat got away, of course - it's so annoying how they always manage to do that - and I was trapped. This garden was much lower than Kathy's and I couldn't jump out, nor could I get out the other way as the gate was closed. I could hear Keith and Kathy and then Jenny and Mark wondering how they could get me out and I don't think they even knew which garden I was in. Eventually, Keith got in the car to drive round and see if he could spot me and Kathy and Jenny walked round to the back of the other houses and crept in and out of people's back gardens till they eventually found me. I don't think they were very pleased at having to do this at 8.30 on Easter Sunday morning and they certainly weren't very pleased with me when they got hold of me.

Now, I'm just lying here, trying to be patient, waiting for my proper walk...