The Jellyfish Incident...

Today I will tell you about an amusing incident from my childhood, known as The Jellyfish Incident. Myself, my older sister, my mother and my mother's boyfriend, Kevin, were having a holiday at the seaside. I forget which seaside it was, but that's not important to the story. Just know that it involved a sandy beach with small rock pools which were revealed when the tide went out. I was about 6 or 7, and my sister Mandy was 8 or 9. Kevin was 19, and me and Mandy liked him because he used to make purple and green pancakes for us. (My mother's reasons for liking him were probably somewhat different...) Anyway, this particular hot and sunny day the tide was out and we were exploring the rock pools, when Kevin discovered a large jellyfish, stranded upside down on the sand, gently baking in the sun. Kevin decided he Must Do Something About This immediately- no poor creature was going to die on his watch. He had the rather genius idea of using several spoons and a large chip pan we had thoughtfully brought with us on our camping trip. (For those of you who are not familiar with Britain in the 1970's, a chip pan is a large saucepan you fill with cooking oil, heat until it's roughly the temperature of a volcano and put pieces of raw potato in to cook until golden brown, then you remove them, smother them with tomato sauce and gobble them down whilst they are still hot enough to melt the enamel from your teeth). These chip pans have now been replaced by deep fat fryers which have cut down on the number of kitchen/house/entire neighbourhood fires by a significant number, but the chips never taste as good as they used to.......
My sister and I stood on the rocks clapping and cheering and generally being encouraging while Kevin and my mother attempted to persuade the unfortunate jellyfish into the chip pan. It was no quick task; every time they got a bit of him in there on a spoon, he would slosh out the other side, him being made of jelly and all. Anyway, eventually most of the jellyfish was contained in the chip pan, with the rest of him hanging casually over the side, and Kevin felt it was time to Release Him Back Into The Wild.
Thus, he waded out triumphantly into the sea, chip pan held proudly aloft while we all clapped and cheered some more from our rocky perches. His Hero status was complete.
There was a flaw in his otherwise perfect plan though; he hadn't considered that the tide was now coming in, so when he gently plopped the jellyfish into the sea, it merely began following him back to shore. I will never forget the look of pure terror on his face as he ran in slow motion in-the-sea type strides back to shore, followed by what must surely be the most ungrateful jellyfish ever. Today's picture is my recollection of that event..... I hope you like it....

Taking a Leap of Faith...

Ok, so I didn't write anything yesterday, as I was busy thinking...... I know. It doesn't happen very often, and it can be quite dangerous, so I try and keep quiet when it occasionally does happen. But now I will tell you what I was busy thinking about (besides unicorns and sparkly things)...... Me and Perfect Husband are going to adopt an ACTUAL DOG. Naturally we had only gone into the petshop to buy elderly dog vitamins for Whiney Dog, and then we saw them. All those tiny hopeful faces. People who know me will know that I'm not keen on dogs in general, I've always been more of a cat person, but I do like small dogs (cat sized ones!) and this is precisely what Bindi is. She's a 7 year old Chihuahua, (although she looks a lot older with her little grey face) and she is coming to live with us on Friday. Hopefully Whiney Dog (my husband's faithful companion of 12 years) will take to her as a new friend and not a Stealer of Perfect Husband's Affections, and all will be well. I will have my very own Whiney Dog, a small creature to be my friend and to curl up on my lap, and we shall love each other. That is the great hope; we'll see how things work out.
So today's photo is Perfect Husband and Bindi getting acquainted at the dog rehoming meet and greet.

The love of a good friend...

Today's photo is not mine; I just love it very much. The only details I know are that the Orangutan was a small, frightened and depressed orphan, and the dog was sick. These two met while they were both being treated and obviously found something in each other's love and companionship to keep going. I love the fact this simple photo says it all; we all need friends, we all need love, we all need someone who cares for us, and someone who we can care for. It doesn't matter if your companion is a fellow human being, an animal, or even a garden full of carefully nurtured flowers; it's love that surely makes the world go round.
Look closely at this photo and you will see the love and contentment of these two friends shining out. I particularly like the way the orangutan is holding onto his friend affectionately with three out of his four "hands"- how absolutely endearing!

Brain Freeze!!

Here in Alaska we have been experiencing an exceptional Summer. Last year's was non existent; cold, grey, miserable, but this year we have had lots of sunshine and hot sun, and I have even worn shorts on a couple of occasions! The locals are so used to years and years of biting cold that when the temperature rises above freezing the majority complain that it's too hot. One of my coworkers (Grumpy Dog Lady Who Talks With Her Mouth Full) comes in every day saying that it's "brutal" out there and a "scorcher" whenever the temperature edges anywhere near 70 degrees.
Yesterday as I left work at 5pm I checked my trusty iphone and it told me that the temperature was 81 degrees-delicious! I stood at the bus stop in a summer dress enjoying the warmth. When I got on the bus the first thing I noticed was that the lady bus driver was wearing a bag of icecubes on her head while she was driving, so I complimented her on her lovely hat and took my seat. I then proceeded with my usual Ninja skills to try and get a photo to show you- this is the best I could do I'm afraid, but better than nothing and proof that I don't make these things up because I am bored......
(although yes quite frequently I do get bored so I amuse myself with nonsense like this.....it's either this or buy stuff off Ebay......)

Drunken Ebaying....

I did it again. I confess. I had a tiny, little peruse of Ebay whilst under the influence of a glass or two of red wine and bought a bracelet and a pony.
The truth of the matter is, I'm not even sorry. I have a penchant for things that sparkle you see, and this bracelet and I were destined to be together, oh yes. It was written in the (sparkly) stars. Most days I am sensible, and I am pretty good with my money. I pay bills, buy food and petrol, all the boring stuff. I save hard, I buy gifts for Fabulous Daughters One and Two, but these days I rarely treat myself. It is true that I don't really NEED anything, and as I get older I am trying to become less materialistic and more appreciative of what I have, and I do not, as a rule, buy things that I don't need. However, I had been watching this certain sparkly bracelet very closely for several months, lurking in the long grass of the Ebay Watching option, waiting for my opportunity to ambush it when it came down to the edge of the water for a drink........ and it did on Sunday afternoon. I was emboldened after a couple of glasses of wine, as I so often am, and I decided to try my luck with the "Best Offer" option. I put in what I felt was a perfectly respectable offer, although it was about a third less than suggested, just to see what would happen. Lo and behold they accepted and I am awaiting delivery with mounting excitement, and a small amount of guilt.
I shall put a photo on here when it arrives.
And the pony? Oh yes, Fabulous Daughter Number One collects ponies, My Little Pony to be precise, and I found a rare one on Ebay, made an offer and spent a bit more money!! Hooray! I am happy and I don't even feel a tiny bit guilty! I know I said I did earlier, but that was an outright lie.
I can always console myself with the fact that I am nowhere near as bad as Hapless Younger Brother who, a week or so after a similar drunken Ebay experience, had a box of 1200 yellow dusters appear on his doorstep......
Today's photos are me drinking...... and me skyping with Fabulous Daughter Number one while her ponies listen in.

Yay!!

Well naturally I am going to continue talking about the New Royal Baby! But first let me tell you what happened yesterday in the office. One of my American coworkers asked me if I'd heard the news, which of course I had (thank you, Facebook!) so we were having a brief but excited discussion about the day's lovely events. Another more senior coworker walked past, stopped and listened in to our conversation, rolled her eyes and said "Who cares? I'm not a Royalist- I hate people who think they are higher than everybody else." At this point I did actually step in and tell them that they were perfectly entitled to their opinion of course, but that it wasn't terribly nice of them to be miserable about it, when they weren't even involved in the original exchange of excitement and cooing! How perfectly rude some people are. I personally think that she has it wrong; the majority of the Royal Family do NOT think they are better than everybody else, and although they have no financial worries (unlike the rest of us) they DO have a lot of responsibilities, they ARE watched almost permanently, they DO have to remember they represent the country and her people, and they DO have their lives pretty much mapped out for them, sometimes a year or two in advance. They highlight and support a lot of worthwhile causes; in fact the Palace have asked that the public make donations in the baby's honor to the charity the Duchess supports, rather than send gifts-imagine the boost this could give them! This is not an easy life, and I think they do a brilliant job. Now of course not everybody shares this opinion, and that is not a problem for me, what a boring world if we all felt exactly the same about everything! But I DO so hate bad manners, and I WILL speak up ....even the Queen says please!
Incidentally, the same coworker who was so grumpy yesterday? As soon as she came in to work today, the first thing she said was "Oh have you seen the baby? It was just on the TV, Kate looks beautiful....that's what I love about her, she's so natural....." and so on and so forth.....gush, gush, gush! It would seem that even the hardest heart can be won over by such lovely and heart warming news-what a difference a day makes! Today's pic is not mine, but my favourite from the barrage of press outside the hospital....enjoy.

It's a BOY!!!

Ok, so unless you are a hermit living in a cave (in which case you're not likely to have access to the internet and therefore won't be reading this) you will know that The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Kate and William, have been expecting a baby. You will probably also know that said baby has now arrived and is a BOY! A future King weighed in at 8 pounds and 6 ounces, which actually is a pretty big baby for the poor tiny Duchess, who resembled a drinking straw in her pre-pregnancy days, albeit a very pretty one.
There are surely a lot of different opinions on the British Royal Family, and here is mine;
I love them! I actually used to work at Buckingham Palace as a Housemaid; I started a month before the Duke and Duchess of York got married, in 1986. Princess Diana was still alive and married to Prince Charles back then, and William and Harry were toddlers. I have always had a lot of respect for the Queen, I think she does a brilliant job of representing our country and works tirelessly for her people. I think they are worth every penny we pay them for the trade they bring to the UK, for the work they do for charities and the environment etc. Yes there have been some problems in the past, but I feel that now they are all more hardworking and popular than ever. As a Brit living in America I have found a lot of Americans to be very positive about the British Royals too.
So I am thrilled along with a lot of other people to hear this happy news. I think William and Kate will make very good parents, and wish them luck taking the British Monarchy into a new era.
Of course I have to mention Princess Diana at this point; such a shame she can't be with them to coo over her new grandson, but I think she would be very proud. So today's photo is not mine, but it is a lovely one, for a lovely occasion.