Lazy!

Don't think you're lying in bed all day, my lad. Time to get up!

Cycling

As walking isn't too comfortable at the moment, thanks to the creaky ankle, I thought cycling might be better. After all, Keith has a chronically bad ankle but is able to cycle quite easily. So this morning, early (so that no-one would be around to see any possible falling off), we set off down a local cycle path which I recently discovered. 

I am not a newcomer to cycling, although I didn't learn till I was about 16. I did, at one time, cycle to work on a fairly regular basis, along quiet, flat roads, I hasten to add and if it was windy, I chickened out and took the car, but that was about 20 years ago and since then, I have done very little on two wheels. The bike I had then was a very simple, three gear one - yes, it's that long ago, but not quite as long ago as the penny farthing; I would never have coped with that! The bike that Keith bought me a few years ago has lots of gears, which, let's face it, is a bit confusing, but I have slowly begun to realise that trying to go up a hill in 3rd or 4th gear is counter-productive, as I am not exactly Tour de France material.

What I really want is a bike which selects the best gear for me automatically. We have automatic cars, why not automatic bikes? Any enterprising inventors out there?

Electronics

For the past couple of weeks, Keith has been teaching himself electronics - not all of it, I'm sure, but the bits he's interested in. Unfortunately, this meant taking over the dining room, which is very small, and covering every inch of the table with what I would loosely call 'bits and pieces'.( I believe the scientific term would be -bits and pieces). 

But that's not all. In addition, he was building a new, thankfully smaller, computer for NASA, so there were various computer components littered around the living room. Oh, and he has taken the caravan television to pieces too in a, so far unsuccessful,  attempt to mend it.

I am fairly patient and long-suffering (Yes, I am, Kathy!) but if there's one thing which really, really gets to me, it's being surrounded by mess. It doesn't matter that, to Keith it's not mess but precious and interesting stuff, I have only to look around and my positive mood reading immediately drops to double negative with more negative on top.

So now, he's moved everything to the study upstairs. It meant that some of my stuff was unceremoniously ejected, but I can live with that on the basis of 'out of sight, out of mind' is far more bearable.

Peace reigns once more ...

Alice in Wonderland

Some time ago we learned that Paul was going to be taking part in a production put on by a drama group for youngsters in Bingley. The drama group is a branch of  Theatretrain and the performance was 'Alice in Wonderland'. Paul had got himself a part as a spider.
As the performance was an evening one, Claire, Keith and I stayed overnight at Kathy's in Sheffield, which was lovely as we don't often get to spend time together.  We really enjoyed the performance and, of course, Paul was a star, to us, anyway, but it was a long day. The youngsters had been rehearsing since ten o'clock that morning and the performance didn't finish till nine.
In the usual manner of life in the wild, Paul had had problems with the 'bee', who kept trying to pull his legs off but, as you can see from the photo, all legs remained intact at the end of the day.

Paddy + walk + another dog =

Well, in today's case, it equals a twisted, very painful ankle. I am determined not to even think of it as a sprain but, it ain't looking good. This sad situation arose because a lovely little Jack Russell, who, unlike Paddy, is trusted to be off his lead in the valley, came bounding up to us and he and Paddy did the usual sniffing nether regions etc that dogs usually do. All well and good, until little Jack decided to hi-tail it  back to base. Paddy hadn't quite finished his greetings and made a lunge to follow him, catching me by surprise and  causing me to turn my ankle over.

"It'll be fine in a second," I thought, as I hobbled to a nearby bench, but it wasn't. In fact it was painful and I had to hobble back home at greatly reduced speed. 

"You should have rung me and I would have come to get you," said Keith, when he arrived home later.

"But you had already gone out by then," I said, visions of an ex-ambulance trundling across a wide expanse of grass, having skilfully negotiated the lake and the ducks.

"Well, I could have come in the Pajero, off-roading," he replied. I think he would have enjoyed that.

Anyway, I have spent the rest of the day trying ice packs, strapping it up, hobbling and generally trying in vain to reduce the golf ball that is now the outer side of my ankle, but what better excuse not to do the housework that I had planned for today?

Every cloud...!

Bogs 'R Us

For a few weeks now, the downstairs lavatory has been malfunctioning, as in, when you flush it, the water just keeps on coming and the only way to stop the flow has been to lift the cistern lid and then slowly lower it back into place. Don't ask me why it works, it just does.

Whilst not happy with the situation, I lived with it, in the hope that it would  one day sort itself out without any action needing to be taken and I think Keith was of the same mind, so we kept a watching brief, but occasionally, my clients need to use this lavatory too and I can hardly dart in after they've emerged to lift the cistern lid, not without awkward explanations, anyway. 

So, yesterday, Keith was finally on the case and sorted it, by himself, without having to replace the cistern and he is, naturally, very proud, as he has kept on and on about it not ceased to remind me of his success for the past twenty four hours.

That's that, then. Now onto the other items on the to-do list ...

Wheels!

Today the weather is lovely, here in Barmouth. Paddy has been for his walk and was trusted to run free on the beach for a while. For the first moment, he couldn't quite believe his luck, but he was good and came back when called. 

And then, the time I could put off no longer, a bike ride. Only a little one as I haven't touched my bike for three years. I am not one of the world's naturally co-ordinated biker riders. I hang on to the handlebars like grim death and hope no-one gets in my way, but today, I couldn't really go wrong, cycling along the promenade from the caravan site to Barmouth itself, all level, no hills or even mild slopes; my idea of an ideal cycling route. Also, the weather is lovely, no wind today, a few white, scudding clouds and....sun! We could almost be in France.

And, at the end of the prom, they even had a bench all ready and waiting with my name on. Now that's what I call service.