Full Metal Wheelbarrow

On Monday I had to take the van over to Stapleford for a repair. The bad news was, they couldn’t do it there and then. The good news was that it’s a recognised fault and they would take pictures, get it authorised by Ford and organise the repairs later.

So I pootled off to Attenborough to visit the ducks as it’s only a few minutes away from the garage….

( “Ducks!” )

Scammer :Hello?

Me (with cheerful enthusiasm) Hello! Earwigs International, how can I help you?

Scammer: Is that Mrs Hag?

Me: (Still being annoyingly cheerful)What sort of earwigs would you like? Blue or pink? We have a special on orange ones this week!

Scammer: Mam, listen to me, I'm calling from Microsoft and...

Me Really? I'm so pleased they want some of our earwigs! We have some special polka dot ones!

Scammer: dial tone....

I'm particularly proud of this one as if was done entirely off-the-cuff... :)

Congratulations YouView , you've rejigged your UI and made it less intuitive and more annoying to use.

The old version had the recordings in a simple text list, ordered by when they were recorded. It was clear. It was simple. It was easy to find the thing I wanted to watch.

The new one has pictures! Of different sizes! In no discernible order! And appears to be shouting in my face all the time! And have to scroll back across three screens to find the episode of Castle I want!

Hooterem sideways with the rough end of a pineapple.

Just back from collecting Rob and his new velo from Newcastle ferryport this morning. I stayed up there overnight to make life easier and yesterday, I reached the Angel of the North just as dusk was falling...

So, Rob went to the dentist yesterday, had a filling and *now* has toothache.

I may be wrong, but I rather thought that was supposed to work the other way round....

There seems to be a competition on as to who can produce the most dirgelike version of "All I Want For Christmas Is You".

I'd say Michael "Monotone" Buble is winning over Lady Antebellum at present.

I'm just waiting for Coldplay to wheel out a *really* depressing rendition now....

Rob's colleagues have asked if I'll be making them some mince pies again this year. Not sure if they're keen or fearful ;)

Huge crash in the kitchen at about half six this morning.

Downstairs to investigate and there's the teapot - the *Denby* teapot, mind - on the floor and a rather subdued Rebus. Normally he's rubbing round my ankles in anticipation of breakfast first thing in the morning, but today he was into the lounge and observing from a distance, even before I saw what he'd done and called him a rude name.

Astonishingly, the pot itself was intact, but the lid was in a Several of pieces. I swept those up and then went to give Rebus a cuddle - we've got three or four teapots but only one cat, after all.

On Friday we drove up to Caerlaverock Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust for a short break - just overnight, coming back on Saturday. The main thing we went to see were the Whooper swans which migrate here from Iceland for the winter, but there were plenty of other birds too.

( “Caerlaverock” )

Ironically enough, the best pictures I took at the zoo today were the ones of the wild birds ;)

( “Zoo!” )