120 pounds lighter...

A miracle diet?

No. More like daylight robbery!

Less than 20 minutes in the dentist’s chair! As I was paying and being encouraged to make the next appointment the receptionist informed me that Dan had recommended that next time I might need an x-ray, costing £45. Whilst sitting in the waiting room I heard her say exactly the same thing to every other patient!

If only he wasn't such a good dentist...

What’s happened to the NHS?  Nye Bevan would turn his grave.

This got me thinking about what else I could do for the equivalent of £120. Any ideas?

Great minds...

...think alike.

A couple of days ago Colin and Elizabeth blogged about buzzards on the A14. You can read about them here.

Tim just happened to take these photographs last weekend whilst we were walking with Maisie and Lucy. He isn’t so happy with them but I like them.

Puppy pics...

Let me introduce you to Maisie and Lucy.

Rhiannon and her former partner owned a couple of dogs. When they split up it was agreed that the dogs would live with Ben but Rhiannon would have them every other weekend. As she is living with us while her new house is being renovated the dogs come to us. I absolutely love having them to stay. I always said that when we retire we’d have another dog, and perhaps we will, but for now this shared custody agreement suits very well.

Maisie

The dogs are sisters from the same litter of border collie/black labrador cross, but are very different in character. Both are very affectionate and whilst Maisie is clever and quick to learn, Lucy is more scatty and definitely a slow learner. Lucy will chase anything whereas Maisie will calculate her chances of getting it before Lucy and only chases when the odds are in her favour! Maisie prefers sticks but Lucy loves the frisbee.

Lucy

Unusual cargo...

Stafford is home to Alstom which makes large electrical generators. So it isn’t unusual whilst driving along the local roads to be met with a ‘convoi exceptionnel’, complete with a stack of police outriders. Usually, it has to be said, this is at some kind of peak driving time and is always followed by an even longer convoy of irate motorists!

So I wasn’t surprised to meet a convoy yesterday on a journey along the A51 to Stone. As it approached Rhiannon realised that it wasn’t a generator but something altogether different.

Without any hesitation Rhiannon was ringing her father and telling him to drive out to the end of our lane with his camera.

This is what he saw…

It turned out to be an old Hercules transport aircraft on its way to the ‘knackers yard’. Tim did some research and found some interesting information and photographs of Hercules 301 in service on the Touchdown Aviation website. 

St Valentine's Day, a sign of the times...

I have a collection of Welsh love spoons, some of which were made by Tim over the 34 years since we first met.

Here are some which illustrate how times have changed, from wooden and hand carved to high tech.

1980s

1990s

2000s

The symbols have different meanings. If you would like to find out more and see how Tim made this white spoon check out this link...

After the after...

In order for this to make any sense at all you'll need to read yesterday's blog post.

Tim has redeemed himself by finding the ‘after the after’ photograph. It seems it was never taken, but luckily the aftermath was still on the back lawn!

Time, tide and blog posting…

Before

After

Before

After

There was meant to be another photograph of when the snowman had completely melted. Even in our (read Tim’s) meticulously catalogued system the photograph cannot be found. It’s probably still on Tim’s camera waiting to be downloaded.
Ironically Tim’s at his camera club tonight, but, as someone (was it Chaucer?) once said, “time, tide and blog posting wait for no man”.

Test 2...

Test 2 is to write another 'blogging by email' post with the addition of a photograph.

This photograph always makes me smile. I came across it quite by chance this afternoon amongst some scanned images. Taking centre stage with Rhiannon on his 70th birthday is Tim's father. George died almost exactly ten years ago, having suffered from advanced Parkinson's disease for the last ten years of his life. Here he was very fit and healthy. He cycled  everywhere.

Look closely and you’ll spot a youthful looking Tim and Gaynor, barely recognisable (at least in Gaynor's case!). Just in case your eyes are not what they were we're the ones at the back, on the right! Everyone on this photograph is nearly 27 years older now and the cracks are certainly beginning to show. Since this was taken we've experienced a divorce, four weddings, two funerals and eight children. Would this make a good film title?

 My favourite part of the photograph is of Dave, Tim’s brother-in-law.

Can you spot him?

Test 1...

Trying out blogger by email…..