Strange Cats

Debbie was shattered yesterday after driving to Harrogate yesterday for her course which turned out to be only for half a day so she was back at work in the afternoon. I hate that when you are out of the office for a long period and then get back, it's difficult to get back into the swing of things and makes the day more tiring. I suppose if you were out of the office regularly then you'd get used to it, but for someone like myself and Debbie who arn't let loose on the road all that often, it can be a pain.

We found Misty attached to the door again when we got home yesterday, I don't understand why he's suddenly started doing it, it's a solid wood door leading to the stairs, I know he loves going up there to sleep on the bed given half the chance but he's never going to get anywhere swinging by his claws half way up the door. It is funny though! Todd is always in the same spot when we get home, in the litter tray trying to dig is way to Australia, I think it's just because he waits while Lucy is distracted by the cars pulling into the drive and makes a run for it.

Bank holiday weekend is almost upon us and with it comes the forecast of thundery showers..... don't think we'll be going to the beach then.

Paul

Too Tired

We gave the dancing a miss last night due to aching limbs and also Debbie had to be up early today to set off for a one day course, we'll give it another go tonight though. There's usually nothing much on TV on a Wednesday night but last night we watched an old film called Nine Months which I'd never heard of to be honest but it was hilariously funny, especially the scenes with Robin Williams.

Paul

Dance Dance Dance

Despite the rain yesterday and Lucy's refusal to go outside, when we got home, the kitchen was as we left it, which was a nice surprise. A few things were out of place with the cats re-enacting world war two during the day but that's normal.

We got our new dance mats yesterday with the game Dance:UK, which uses a different system to Dance Stage that we borrowed. Also, it's much, much faster! There we were, legs moving faster than the cast of Riverdance trying to keep up with all these arrows coming from all directions. I don't think we'll bother with the add on headset microphones for karaoke, it's bad enough that we're jumping around the living room to the tune of Ohh Ahh Just A Little Bit!

Paul

Into The Groove

We borrowed a dance mat for the playstation off my brother on Saturday and we got around to trying it out last night. I was a bit sceptical at first but bounding about on this mat to the tune of zipadeedoodah was great fun, certainly more entertaining than jogging or going to the gym. We enjoyed it so much, I'm going to get two dance mats of our own so we can dance the night away.

After a few days of glorious sunshine, we had thunder storms yesterday that knocked out the power at work for a while and this morning it's raining again. Lucy hates the rain or any kind of water, she must be the only dog in the world that will walk round mud and puddles rather than jumping in. This poses a problem, like this morning, we take her outside but if there is a single spot of rain she just stands next to the door looking at you. Hey ho, looks like the mop and bucket will be out tonight.

Paul

Hot Stuff

It's been a great weekend with lovely hot sunshine, not that we're all that keen on hot sunny days, but it did make a pleasant change from cold rainy days. Debbie was working on Saturday morning so I got everything done at home leaving us the rest of the weekend free to do whatever we liked. I even washed the car for the second time in 6 months. On Saturday afternoon we had a ride out to a local parrot centre to get a few things for Zippy. They have a huge selection of birds there and it's nice just to walk round for a while. All we ended up getting was a feeding bowl for outside Zippys cage. Saturday night, we decided to clip Zippys wings, I held him in a towel while Debbie clipped away, to say was not impressed was an understatement, but we managed to get the whole thing done quite quickly. Just when we thought the whole thing had gone without incident, Zippy decided to try and fly off, landing on the table and sending Debbies gin & tonic all over the place. When we all settled down again, I got Zippy on his stand and found that he no longer tried to fly off when I approached him, I left it at that, not wanting to push things too far after his ordeal.

We were up at the crack of dawn on Sunday and we decided to checked out a garden centre that we'd not been to before. They had a decent selection of pet supplies at reasonable prices and I purchased a new toy for Zippy, then after queuing for 20 minutes at the checkout, we went off to another garden centre, this time Debbie got some lovely miniature daffodils and I got a couple of small perches to do some step up training with.

When we got back, we let Zippy out of his cage and after half an hour he decided to make an appearance, I took him from the cage and placed him on his stand, left him for a while and then out came the new perch. After a few minutes of pressing against his chest, he gave up resistance and hopped on and stayed on there while I walked around giving a guided tour of the living room and kitchen closely followed by Lucy who was whining away the whole time. Then he decided he'd walk on to my hand so I had him there for about half an hour. During the afternoon I managed to get him to hop onto the perch about a dozen times which is more than the whole of the last year so clipping his wings has really made and improvement.

Paul

Weekend again....

Every night when Ive come home from work this week, Misty our eldest cat as been clung to the stairs door like a Garfield, on thurdays night it took me 5 mins to get his claws out of the wood...lol... dont think Paul beleived for one min untill tonight when he tried getting in the house to find Misty in the same position...lol... Think he is going bonkers..lol...

Its an early night tonight as Im working tomorrow morning, just to please our new accountant who thinks we should be at least 12 months in front with our work...eebbygebbys...lol...

Its suppose to be nice weather this weekend, so while Im working think Paul will be getting the flask and butties ready to go off for the afternoon with Lucy, not sure were we are going yet, but you can bet it will include the digi cam...lol...

Debbie

More training

I had Zippy out again last night for more training, managed to get him on the stand via the TV and lampshade, I think it might be time to clip his wings now he's getting the hang of flying. We decided against clipping when we got Zippy but now he's being allowed out for long periods I think it might be best and will help with the training. I'll look into this at the weekend and see what needs to be done. I think we'll need to clip one feather from each wing per day and monitor how he's getting on, he needs to be able to flutter down to the ground with a soft landing rather than falling out of the air like a brick.

Paul

Back to Work

Monday mornings are always a drag, especially when you have to get up 3 hours earlier than you have for a week. We were both still half asleep at breakfast but the strong coffee did the trick and got us moving at least a little and we were off to face work.

Debbie had already done the shopping when I got home so we could get the tea on and chill with a few glasses of wine. I was still on a mission to tame Zippy while Debbie had 2 or 3 conversations going on msn, giggling away. I can just about handle one chat session, if someone else pops up I have to get Debbie to step in because my brain wasn't designed for this kind of multitasking.

So, I managed to coax Zippy out of his cage after an hour of trying and once he was out I picked him up in his towel and took him over to his stand. I stayed with him for 10 minutes stroking his head while he calmed down from all the excitement and then sat down leaving Zippy to chill out and have a bit of a munch. All the time I'm having to say "Lucy shut up, Lucy shut up" because she whines the whole time Zippy is out of the cage, she's obsessed. The whining did die down a little after about 2 hours. I'm hoping that by the end of this week she'll be used to Zippy being out and about and not bother as much, can't see this coming off, but I am hoping. Bed time for Zippy used to be a nightmare, we'd try to catch him and he'd end up behind the telly or under the desk and would refuse to come out which just resulted in a stand off lasting an hour and getting got all concerned very stressed. Since we've adopted the towel approach it's much better because once he's in the towel we can hold him for a while and stroke him. Since doing this he's not been nipping when I have managed to pick him up by hand. Last night he flew from the stand to the sofa to the telly to the lamp shade and finally to the top of his cage which just left me to deploy the towel and whisk him back in side.

Paul

Chill Day

We got up very late on Sunday and did as little as possible after a very busy week, it rained all day so we wouldn't have been going anywhere anyway. I brought Zippy's stand back out, we hadn't been using it because we had a nightmare catching him before. Now he's getting used to be being handled I thought I'd give it another go. I managed to get him on there and after half an hour he was munching and chirping away as normal. He's still wary when we go near him but he is getting better and with some intensive training over the coming weeks and months, I'm hoping to get him hand tame very soon.

Paul

Chester Zoo

After plans for a day out on Friday were rained off, we went off to Chester Zoo yesterday and even had some sunshine. The main thing that has changed since we were there two years ago is the new black rhinos centre, appart from that everything is much the same. There were a few dissapointments, the wolves were hiding again just like last time and we were advised by the keeper that the spectacled bears were also hiding and never came out while people were arround, not much point in listing them a 'must see' in the guide then. There were high points though, we got great views of the sea lions and a good cose up view of the jaguar and a short glimpse of the black panther. The otters put on a great show but the best display has to be the tiger who roared while he proweld arround, I think last time we wondered if it was stuffed. The one lion on display was asleep when we got there and was alseep when we left, maybe it was one of the toy ones from the ark shop. The bat cave was cool, we managed to get some good shots of the bats in the dark using night capture on the cam.

We've loaded 40 new pictures from Chester into our photo album.

It's the end of our holiday now, back to the real world again tomorrow and we must finish off the kitchen.

Paul

Knowsley Safari Park

Here we are again another two fun filled days, well one of them were...lol....

Yesterday, Paul did some more work on the kitchen, almost done now...yippee....while I did some Wedding Invites I have done me own to make it more special

Today we went to Knowsley Safari Park near Liverpool, it was a fantastic day, we have got lots of picture for you to see, but there are two many to put on here but you can see them in our Photo Album soon......

C u Soon

Debbie

Another bank holiday over and done with!

Well we got stuck into the kitchen on saturday, this is a long job, lots of fiddley bits to do!!

Sunday we went to Llandudno, very nice indeed, apart from following Debbie's brother in law on the motorway, talk about a snail overtaking us!! boy it was pain staking......We first had to drive to the other side of Manchester with took an hour and then from Debbie's sisters house to Llandudno took another 2 hours....Talk about road rage.....

Coming home we set off first and it in record time, Debbie driving of course, Wales to South Yorkshire in 2 hours...was like Sterling Moss...lol...

Today we have been sorting the kitchen again, nearly finished just the edging and the varnishing to do...yippee....

Then its time to do the stairs and the bathroom, think Paul will be leaving home soon with all these jobs Ive got planned for him...lol...

Time for a nice hot soak and watch a good film me thinks, Paul is planning on getting drunk, thats if he stays awake long enough....lol..

Debbie

Never ending jobs

Well, I got stuck into the kithcen again today and got loads more done, but there is still loads to do... and I ran out of wood. We've been to the DIY store and picked up more supplies and are now hoping that we'll be able to finish off tomorrow. I came quite close to sawing my wrist today but got away with just catching my finger with the saw, but it did draw blood and that's enough to send me dizzy. We're chilling tonight in front of the telly, flicking through the TV guide, the usual shite severed up has been replaced by extra speacial bank holiday shite. Time to open another bottle of wine me thinks, while we discuss our holiday day trip plans, show me the lions!

Paul

Letters to the Housing Authority

These are extracts from actual letters sent to various councils and Housing Associations throughout the UK:

1. I want some repairs done to my cooker as it has backfired and burnt my knob off.

2. I wish to complain that my father hurt his ankle very badly when he put his foot in the hole in his back passage.

3. And their 18 year old son is continually banging his balls against my fence.

4. I wish to report that the tiles are missing from the outside toilet roof. I think it was that bad wind the other night that blew them off.

5. I am writing on behalf of my sink, which is coming away from the wall.

6. Will you please send someone to mend the garden path, my wife tripped and fell on it yesterday and now she is pregnant?

7. I request permission to remove my drawers in the kitchen. 50% of the walls are damp, 50% have crumbling plaster and the rest are plain filthy.

8. The toilet is blocked and we cannot bath the children until it is cleared.

9. Will you please send a man to look at my water? It is a funny colour and not fit to drink.

10. Our lavatory seat is broken in half and is now in three pieces.

11. I want to complain about the farmer across the road, every morning at 6:00 am his cock wakes me up and it's now getting too much for me.

12. The man next door has a large erection in the garden, which is unsightly and dangerous.

13. Our kitchen floor is damp. We have two small children and would like a third so please send someone round to do something about it.

14. I am a single woman living in a downstairs flat and would you please do something about the noise made by the man I have on top of me every night.

15. Please send a man with the right tool to finish the job and satisfy my wife.

16. I have had the clerk of the works down on the floor six times but I still have had no satisfaction.

17. My bush is really overgrown round the front and my back passage has fungus in it.

18. He's got this huge tool that vibrates the whole house and I just can't take it any more.


I'm not sure that any of the above is true, but it's funny so who cares. Now we are officially on holiday and it's time to PARTY!

Paul

Last day...

Wooopeeee, last day before our holiday!

Zippy was out again last night, doing laps of the room again but this time landed a bit better. Lucy is a real pain when Zippy is out, she lies next to him and whines & whines and whines none stop until he goes back in his cage. We ended up having to put Lucy in the kitchen while we had half an hour quality time with Zippy. We wrapped him up in a towel and he just laid there while we took it turns to stroke him while Lucy was still whimpering in the kitchen. She can be a very jealous little dog at times, never nasty, just muscles in if Misty, Todd, Zippy or Bungee are getting any attention.

We watched a programme called Grand Designs last night about a couple who imported a flat pack house from America, it arrived on two trucks and took a whole day to unload. They just bought an old house in a nice spot, knocked it down, put new foundations down and everything else was included in the pack. It looked like hard work but we really did like the house when it was finished.

Paul

Totally Lost the Plot

I have just read Pauls updates of today, and it has been confirmed by me and Lucy that he has totally lost it...lol...

Think he should lay off the ...lol...

Only one more day to work, I will be glad when tomorrow is over, although I might be working till about 8pm to get everything done.....

Today was a nitemare, had to do a lot of inter company reconcilliations to do, would not mind but the phone was ringing nonstop and it was my coleuges from other dealerships seeing if I had done them....eeebygeeebys...

Well me gin and tonics going warm, off to chill before tomorrows rush of work.....

Debbie

PS PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT IF YOU THINK PAUL HAS LOST THE PLOT!!

New & Improved

I've just seen an email warning of a certain sales tactic that cannot possibly be true. You will, I'm sure, have noticed the slogan 'New & Improved' on almost everything you can buy. Now when you think about this, if it is new, then it can't have been improved because if it's new, it can't have existed before and therefor can't have been improved. Using the same logic, if it's improved, it must have existed before so it can't be new. This brings me onto another problem with this kind of advertising, concerning washing powder, which seems to be new and improved every other week. You might well have the new, improved, all singing, all dancing, best ever in your cupboard after running the gauntlet in your local supermarket the night before. However, you can be sure that as you sit down to dinner in front of the telly and the adverts appear in-between the news headlines, it's been improved again and you've now got two weeks worth of sub-standard washing powder. What do the advertizers think your going to do, chuck out the full box of powder and rush out to get the latest improved stuff while your still chewing on a piece of roast pork?

Paul

Dawn chorus

No problems getting up this morning, Lucy was on the move at the crack of dawn and the echoes of meeeeooooow could be heard downstairs, which roughly translated to English means 'gimme some biscuits'. Later in the morning we get 'meeeoweeoweeoweeow'', which means 'gimme some whiskas'. Zippy was having a lie in again, but then he was going for gold last night, out of his cage and taunting Lucy as usual and also managed a whole lap of the living room in the air before dive bombing behind the telly. I picked him up and took him back to his cage and he surprisingly didn't put up much of a fight, he's not too keen on being picked up but he didn't bite me once which is cool. Bungee rabbit was given a banquet of mixed salad, raspberries, strawberries and grapes this morning along with his normal rabbit food so I think he's a very happy bunny at the moment. Remember folks, a rabbit is not just for Easter, it's for life.

Paul

I must be a mug

There is a sort of craze going round the office at the moment, everyone's into buying huge mugs so that they get their fair share of tea or coffee through the day. Now, not to be beaten, I bought the largest mug I could find the other day, now there should be a warning with these things... Upon making my first round of drinks, I found that the spoon wouldn't reach the bottom of my mug, luckily I only drink coffee, otherwise I would never be able to get the tea bag out. I've sort of got round this now by inserting the spoon half way and spinning it round the mug, thus creating a whirlpool effect with the level of coffee lower in the middle of the mug allowing me to get the spoon to the bottom of the mug. This is not ideal as keeping the spinning going while not burning your fingers is nigh on impossible. Anyway, I'm now on the lookout for a two foot long tea spoon..

Paul

Overlaid

We all overlaid this morning, which is something we don't do very often, even if we forget to set the alarm, Lucy usually wakes us up half an hour before it's due to go off. Even then if Lucy doesn't move, the cats start meowing at about the same time, which then sets off Zippy the parrot, but for some reason everyone had a lie in this morning. It was all a bit of a rush but we still got out on time and I still made it to work 45 minutes before opening time as usual to let in the cleaners. I don't know what they are going to do next week when we are on holiday, as no one else is daft enough arrive at work that early so I've advised them to bring a flask and a packed lunch as it could be a long wait.

Paul

Small is beautiful

Not when it's a mobile phone it isn't. We both got new ones last year, going for the smallest ones we could find, balanced with them not being the same price as a weeks holiday for two in Australia. They looked good enough and easily fitted into my pocket, which is what I wanted rather than wearing leather pouch to hold it in. As far as I'm concerned, leather pouches should be seen on women's only nights at the local club, not waving about in the wind on the high street. There are three main problems with these phones, my thumb is twice as big as the keypad so I need to book a day off work to send a text message. The battery is so small, after one ten minute conversation, it's dead. But the most annoying thing is the bloody flip top that will never open up when it's ringing and I'm franticly trying to retrieve it from Debbie's handbag.

Paul

Wiggly Worm

Noticed that on TTLB we've been elevated to the dizzy heights of 'Wiggly Worm' status, I think that merits a celebratory drink or two tonight.

The weather was pretty awful this morning, it's much brighter now though, almost spring like. I was thinking it was getting a bit warmer with the sun shining, but it's just the radiator next to me. I forgot I switched it on this morning. Looks like it's going to be wet, windy and cold right up to the bank holiday weekend. Could get a bit better on Saturday and Sunday followed by another couple of showery days, then getting sunny and warmer from Wednesday which will be nice if it comes off.

I think we might give the pub a try on bank holiday Monday, we say that every year but we've never ended up at the pub yet, maybe this will be the year. Now that's got me thinking, what do I fancy, Stones or John Smiths, I did like Cafferys before they reduced the strength and completely buggered up the taste. Maybe I'll just have a pint of everything, a sort of sampling session, sounds like this could be fun...

Paul

Bob the Builder .. Part 2

Finally got around to doing some more work on the kitchen on Sunday and this time had a full day at it. I've got all the batons on now, which I think is the hardest part. It went quite well, never threw anything or kicked anything but I did come close when I fell off the ladder and pulled part of a kitchen cupboard off. It's taken 97 screws and plugs which explains why it's taken so long, the tongue and groove can go up now using a nail gun which is a lot more fun and a lot less hassle. Hopefully, we'll get the kitchen more or less finished on Friday and then we can get out and about during our holiday.

Paul

First past the post....almost

Well, we've just watched the Grand National and one of our nags came in a close second, Clan Royal, who looked like he'd given everything. I don't think we'll be able to retire on our £3 winnings but we will spend it wisely.

We've been to see about the wedding dress today and got some samples of the material, we've also picked the material for the waist coats. While we were there, we had a look at her broken internet access, which is never as easy you think it's going to be, but we got there in the end.

The suits for the wedding have now been picked, I just need to arrange for my lot to go and get measured now and we should be just about sorted for a few months before we start with fittings and sorting out other details.

The kitchen is almost finished......err... it's as almost finished as it was last week any way. We'll have to get stuck into that again tomorrow, at least get another wall done. For now, it's chill time before we crack open a few tins and watch a couple of dvd's.

Paul

What a Week

Well thats another one over and done with, propper bobbins at work this week, glad its over.....
Only 4 more days to work then its HOLIDAY TIME YIPPEE FANDABBIEDOZIE....lol...

There is nothing on tv tonight so we have got the music channel on, what a plonker Paul looks trying to drance while sitting down...lol..

Im on G & T's while paul is on bitter, lets see who wakes up with the hangover in the morning...lol....

Tomorrow is going to be busy, we have to go see the dress maker and go put the deposit on the bar for the wedding and then do the kitchen, this time he aint being let off for good behavior...lol...lmao

Right off for a chill now and a giggle.....

till next time

Debbie

A big thankyou to Random Life. And Stuff. for linking to us.

Donkey Derby

After a few days of warm sunshine, it's raining again here, hey ho, at least it's Friday! The works sweep stake for the Grand National was drawn yesterday, we've drawn Kelami and Just In Debt, not sure if they have a chance as I've not had a look at the runners & riders yet. We'll check out the chicken later and stick a pin in a couple of nags for the annual trip to the bookies tomorrow. I think we just about managed to win our money back last year and got bugger all on the sweep stake.

Paul

Beer!!

this might make you all giggle...



Debbie

Scientific study

A recent scientific study found that the kind of male a woman finds attractive can differ depending on where she is in her menstrual cycle.

For instance, if she is ovulating she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features. And if she is menstruating, she is likely to prefer a man doused in petrol and set on fire, with scissors shoved deep into his temple and a cricket bat jammed up his arse.

Debbie

On Safari

Please don't let today be anything like yesterday, having wasted all that time, we were both rushing round like idiots trying to catch up at work. At least there are only 6 working days until Easter and then we can chill out for a while. We've not made any plans for our week off yet but I think we'd like to go a zoo/safari park again as we did like getting up close and personal with the lions at Knowsley the other year and the jaguars at Chester zoo were something special too. We'll be taking precautions this year though, last time we went to Chester the sun was beating down and we both ended up with sun stroke. I think I need to get me a cowboy hat for this summer......yeehah!

Paul

A big thankyou to Yorkshire Soul for linking to us.