Two Good Things...

An ex boyfriend of mine was hugely irritating in many and varied ways but there was one irritation that really stood out for me and that was his daily - yes, DAILY query of:
"So tell me your Good Thing"  and, even though it made me feel like a child of five, I always battled to find just ONE thing to shut him up.  For, he would not desist until the Good Thing was revealed ...  even if it had been that the sun had simply shone... I caught on quick, mind,  and made things up most of the time just to be rid of his incessant repetition but sometimes I surprised myself by revealing an actual wonderment of the first buds of life poking through the soil in the Spring.  I know...I know... give me a Daff and I'll wax lyrical 'til the cows come home - so long as it's the right time of the month, you understand.

Anyway - these are the Two things that stood out for me today.  And even at the time I thought 'Wow' and 'Crikey' (in that order):-

1. My lovely shiny new bedfellow (Mr Blackberry - now there's NOTHING irritating about this young chap) alerted me at 7 o'clock - the time I have told him he is allowed to start speaking - that I had an e-mail.  And so for the next few minutes I sat up in bed at 7 o'clock in the morning reading an e-mail from my lovely cousin in Australia who make me smile, cheered me and kept me up to date on his two ageing parents - my Aunt and Uncle (also my Godparents) who aren't do so good right now.  But I marvelled at how technology is so bloody clever, for me to be able to sit up in bed reading mail sent from the other side of the world and being made to smile first thing in the morning by a cousin I last saw when I was about 7.  Amazing.

2. Just now, whilst I was bringing in the washing from the line in the garden, I happened to look up and there, in the (still blue even at 9pm) sky was a very close red, white and yellow hot air balloon, floating right over our house.  It looked beautiful.  And it was so close I could hear the gas (is it?) hissing and when I waved, the flames were released three times.  And even though I hadn't got my seeing specs on, I took this as a sign that they'd seen me.  A flamey wave, if you like.  And the cutest thing was that Ant (the Christmas Tree cat for anyone who wants to flip back to the December posts and see just how majestic he truly is) was watching in.. well, wonderment wouldn't be really the right word.  Stunned surprise I think it might have been.  he's never seen a bird that fat and that slow before and I think he was a bit bemused at its relaxed attitude about soaring over the garden as if it wasn't the least bit frightened of his feline ways.

So there.  I shall be looking out for Two Good Things tomorrow now... How 'bout you?

So, here it is...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank YOU ALL for visiting this year and having a wee read of my whitterings and taking time to make comment on them when you get the urge.  It's lovely knowing that somewhere, sometimes I make somebody LOL (and 18 months ago I thought that was something only lazy labradors did against the nearest person's leg).
So, before I ruin my mascara and start putting Kate Winslet to shame, I'd just like to wish you a Verry Merry Christmas, A Joyous and Resolution-free New Year (otherwise it ends in tears and I don't wish that on anyone) and a peaceful and healthy 2010.
*cheers*
(oh, that's Ant by the tree, btw - the Ginger twin of the black and white mess that is Dec) (don't ask - he has Gingivitius and the rest you really don't want to know this close to Christmas dinner).

Funny Friday Foto...

Just hung out a whites wash and when I turned to come back in, thought something had dropped off the line...
Looks like the cat's got a far better idea as to what's more fun to do on a beautiful Summer's afternoon. It IS Summer, right?

Most parents DO 'ave 'em!

But the real question is why? They cause more problems the older they get than do the kids and/or the ageing relatives - and that's saying something. The only great thing about them is that they can't answer back because of the 'one vocal cord' thing. And I bet they're fooling us i that respect too! And Jeez... but can't they make the most of that one sodding vocal cord they DO have?!!
Pets.
I'm talking pets, of course. And the reason we have them? Simply children. Our parents had them whilst they were children - didn't they use them to help shift heavy logs and stuff in the fields or something? And we have such fond memories of the ones we had ourselves as children, don't we? We instinctively seem to deem them a part of our history and thenceforth our own children's history-in-the-making.
Personally speaking the dog in our house was the only living creature who ever truly listened to me when I needed to bend a (soft, fluffy, warm) ear but that was about the best thing about it. Okay, walking it was quite nice - if the weather was right. Brushing it was okay too - so long as I got the requisite fifty pee payment afterwards. But would I ever have stooped so low (see what I did there?!) as to pick up any of our family pet's 'messages' from the street/park/shoes it saw fit to leave a deposit in? Er... I think not! If lifting a steaming pile of dog shit with an inverted Co-op carrier bag had been a part of my daughterly duties, then - pocket-money-making or not - that would have been a chore too far.
Of course, I don't honestly know what I would have done to have passed this motion (fnnar, fnnar!) to my parents - just reneged on the 50p demand I guess. No great standpoint really.
We had gerbils too. Two of them. One for me (Big Un) and one for my brother (Little Un). Which all started out perfectly nicely until my parents found them in a state of procreating frenzy and the penny dropped they weren't the same sex the guy in the shop told us they were. Arse. I'm still not certain which shocked my parents more... whether it was witnessing post-coital gerbils or the fact we'd have to buy another cage to separate them.
I'm wondering if this thought was at the back of my mothers mind when she inadvertently sat on one gerbil which was hiding underneath a cushion on the setee when she threw herself into full relax-mode from work one afternoon. The little thing managed to drag inself out from underneath with a clear daze about it and managed to survive another week or so but I think it wa delayed shock that finished it off in the end. Having my mother's rear bearing down and subseuently flattening the breath from you HAS to be way more shocking to a gerbil than the thought of carrying your brother's incestuous love-child. Surely?
When Mini-Me was about 5 I thought her having kittens would be agreat introduction to health, hygiene, responsibility, grooming... oh I'm floundering with my reasoning now... I think I was cajouled into getting two cute little fluff ball because her friends all had a pet something or other and I felt left out. (me - not her!). So two gorgeous fluff-balls of 6 week old kittens were duly purchased to much excitement and enthusiasm - for about 6 months and then, guess what? They became cats. Proper, squawking, stay-out-late, shit-where-you-want, bring-gifts-of-dead-mice/birds-home, sick-up on the carpet when you feel like it, mewing, refusing-to-eat-anthing-other-than-gourmet-foil-trays (my grandfather's meals on wheels pale into insigificance) cats.
Wave a stick/ribbon/piece of wool in front of either of them now and they look at you with the disdain of a superior being who cannot seriously believe it has the misfortune of having to share a home with you - much less have to move to get off a favourite chair or cushion to let you sit on it. God damn can't you SEE I've still only slept for nineteen hours today?! Get a life, you sad excuse for a human being... oh and while you're getting that, a nice saucer of (Whiskas) milk would be nice too... it's exhausting lying about here licking my balls all day.
Gah - what a life!
But awwwww... what memories they're bequeathing us, hmm?
Hmm?