Getting Shaun up on top

Another week of oddities and amusement.

No dental visit for a change, root canal was finished last week, yay!  Another one yet to be started but it will have to wait until I get around to making another rack of bookings. 

I was at a loss for something to do on Monday morning this week (having got used to a nice lie down on a lay-back-and-float-up-and-down chair for an hour), so tackled the Christmas decorations.  The tree was bought and installed on Sunday, an elegant six footer, and just needed the lights on.  No point in putting baubles on as the littlies I look after always take them off or simply re-arrange them which is no good for my slight OCD tendencies.  Great, got the crate of lights out and made the mistake of adorning the needle covered wonder without plugging them in first to test.  Result?  Two sets of lights only partially working.  What to do?  Ah yes, parents out shopping in town, fired a call into them and they returned with a brand new set.  This worked well.................an abundance of white lights sparkling like the Trafalgar Square tree.  However, the coloured lights only work around the bottom of the tree.  Never mind, it is the thought that counts. 

Oh yes, the tree topper...............not for me a traditional fairy or star, oh no!  For several years now I have had a Shaun the Sheep, complete with a fir tree branch in his mouth, happily positioned atop the splendid offering.  Out he came, was dusted off and stuck on the top.  Just one problem, the top of this year’s tree is quite bendy so has been doubled over to stop Shaun falling off it like a daft teenager tomb stoning from a Cornish cliff.  This works well, however the position of the bent over branch underneath Shaun gives him a rather large appendage......................

Senior moment at my parents house.......new freeview plus box installed in time for Christmas, engineer left them with the system running and they watched some programmes.  Having spoken to my mother during the evening she said she couldn’t get a picture at all since tea time and although the green power light was on, the picture wasn’t.  Off I went, took one look and switched the television back on from standby...............praise be, a miracle!!

Snow forecast again for this week..............sledge ready, new gloves working well, hat, multiple coats and gilets at the ready, snow shovel primed and standing in hallway. Bizarrely the daffodils are poking through already despite the big chill.  Just proves they can get through in all weathers, unlike the local authority with their gritting trucks.

This is all.

White stuff in liquid, solid and slippery form

Ah right, winter wonderland has arrived.  Wonderland???? Dangerland more like.  Even with the light covering of snow we have had here the roads are treacherous and I have already had my first head on kerb hit of the season.  Weeks more of the white stuff to endure yet.  I remember when ‘the white stuff’ was a marketing initiative for milk suppliers along with  the Humphrey red and white drinking straw. Life was so much simpler then with either gold top or blue top milk.  Nowadays there are all sorts of options.........skimmed (yuk, just like coloured water), semi skimmed (acceptable in small doses), full fat (no way, all those floating bits of cream), even fuller fat (coronary in a glass), filtered, organic, unpasteurised, long life, milk from cows, goats, sheep, pandas - well not the pandas perhaps, but what happened to the simple instruction “grab me a pint of milk from the corner shop”?

Another horizontal start to the week at the dentists.............a nice lie down for an h0ur or so whilst another part of the current root canal was done.  Just drifting off into slumberland when I was aware of a burning cloves smell and opened my eyes to see smoke rising from my tooth.  Hey it is all part of the treatment and made a change from just tasting the clove poultice squirted into the gap.  Still not completed though but next week is looking good for an end result.

The outdoor supplies shops are making a killing in this cold weather.  Every time I find one I feel obliged to go and rifle through the bargain rail to add to the six or so layers I need to wear when outside.  Three pairs of gloves at once is not enough to keep my hands warm so another trip to the outdoor shop is looming to buy some ski gloves.  Add to this the various base layers, fleeces and a rather natty fleece hat (that flattens my hair out of all proportion) and you will understand why these shops are a godsend for a chilly and bloodless person like myself.  I do draw the line at a RAB coat priced £220 at the moment but will of course check it out at the end of the ski season to ascertain whether any reduction in price justifies a purchase.

Knitting update – the garment is nearly finished, just the collar to do then sew up the sides.  Might have to do another one if this looks ok.

This is all.