Face, snow, bed ........arse.
I have been having pain in my jaw, ear, teeth and face for a couple of weeks.
It has been all rather vague and each time I thought I had figured out where it was coming from....it would move again.
Anyway, Wednesday, I woke up with real pain that seemed to be coming from my teeth, but affecting my jaw and ear.
I went to work and felt wretched. Fortunately, my dentist is just across the street from work so I phoned and then went over there when I had finished.
He took x rays and prodded around before announcing he could find nothing wrong with my teeth but thought I may have a sinus infection, which can, apparently cause all this stuff.
He wrote me a prescription for antibiotics and I am hoping that will do the trick.
Thursday.........big day. The bed (well mattress and base) was due to arrive in the morning.
But, they rang Wednesday night to say it would not be delivered until Friday morning. Pants.
I got a little bit concerned in case it was going to turn into one of those tales of "six weeks later and still no bed", that you occasionally hear of.
The weather had been dry for weeks and then Thursday morning we woke up to this :-
Perfect weather to have men dragging a king size bed in and the treading snow through the house and up the stairs.
I got out a load of old sheets that haven't made their way to the charity shop yet, and set about covering the floor.
They had given me a delivery time of between 10am and 1pm.
At 9.45am they rang to say they were on their way and they arrived spot on 10am.
I needn't have worried.
They had these dear little booties that they put on over their snow boots when they came in.
The old bed and base was taken away free.........goodo, always a nightmare to get rid of these things unless a neighbour happens to be having work done and has inadvertently left a skip outside.
The base was in two sections so that went up the stairs easily.
The mattress was a slightly different story. They had to take all the pictures off the walls and the light fitting nearly went west but after much huffing and puffing (mostly by me just watching them), the bed was assembled in our bedroom.
It is huge.
After they had gone I went upstairs to lie on it while I phoned Philip to let him know it had been successfully installed and I found they had left two mints on it.
How sweet was that?
We have slept on it for two nights now and we both like it. It is a bit odd though. You can't feel the other person move around as it doesn't transfer motion.
I still get the same number of cats sleeping around me and on my head but I can't feel them get on the bed.
It is firmer than any bed I have had before but I like that too. It is definitely comfy and I find I don't turn over as many times as I would usually.
The pillows are twice as long as regular pillows which is great for me as I generally have to share mine with a cat.
I did tell Philip that I thought it might be an idea to take our mobile phones to bed with us in case we needed to talk to each other.
Now if only I could stop Philip snoring I think I would have a wonderful night's kip.
Land of Nod
I have mentioned before that we would like a new bed.
Not just any old bed, but a decent mattress which might help our backs and various aches and pains.
Also, we would like a king size one.
Philip is a big guy and therefore takes up quite a bit of room.
Also, I have varying numbers of cats to accommodate during the night so a big bed seems like a good idea.
As my mum used to say about most things, "If you are going to have one, have a big 'un".
I never was all that sure exactly what she was referring too and thought it wise not to ask.
We have been looking at the memory foam type mattresses. We did sleep on one of these when we were in Bradford and it was pants, but, we think it was probably a cheapo one.
Philip found himself sinking right through it and lying on the board beneath.
Not good.
The ones we were taken with, after almost nodding off in the store, were lovely.
They also make sense to us as with his lordship being a tad heavier than me, this means I won't keep rolling into the dip he has made.
But, they are really expensive.
On Friday we had a flyer come through the mail advertising a new mattress shop which had just opened not far from us. They had a lot of special "grand opening" offers.
Being of a suspicious nature, I had already decided they were all probably a con.
They advertised a king size memory foam mattress and base for $799.
Considering the cheapest we had seen elsewhere was $2500.......I thought it was a bit fishy.
We went to have a look on Saturday, fully expecting there to either :-
1. Be none left.
2. Be a load of rubbish.
We were wrong. They were brill.
We have ordered one and it should arrive on Thursday. They will also remove the old mattress and base which is a blessing.
It will have to be on the floor for a bit because we have to get a bed to put in on. The whole bed thing is different over here. All a bit weird really. We have seen one which we like and can afford and hope to order it at the end of the month.
It looks like this.
It is called a Sleigh Bed. I have wanted one since we first moved over here. I don't know if they have them in the U.K.
Saturday afternoon we met up with Gary as it was his birthday on Friday.
We had lunch with him which proved eventful. I shouldn't eat out as it is nearly always "eventful" when I do.
Firstly, I ordered a wrap and got a tuna sandwich.
Then Gary got a place of fruit instead of fries.
The waitress was very sorry about it and whisked my sandwich away and told Gary he could keep the fruit and she would bring fries too.
We were quite happy with that, but she had noticed the birthday prezzies we had bought Gary and as gesture of goodwill she and two other waitresses brought him a huge slice of cake with a candle in it.
They then proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday" to him.
This made Gary suitably embarrassed and rounded off the meal.
He seemed to like the "Sexy Super Hero" paper dress up dollies book I bought him, plus the tin of Ouija Mints.
We then wandered outside to "ooh and ahhh" over Gary's new car.
All in all not a bad day.
Oh also, I have spoken to Alan and it seems he is having a fab time in Whitstable. I think he was going to Belgium or somewhere equally exotic to visit an aquarium yesterday. I am sure he will have enjoyed that trip.
New Vet
Firstly, Alanmas ended on Tuesday.
Philip took him to the airport in the morning. It is always a little bit sad. The past six weeks have truly flown by.
But, at least now he spends a week or so in Whitstable. Whilst here he can catch up with some old mates in Ashford.
He apparently met up with some of them today.
I shall have to wait until I hear from him again to find out how it all went.
I saw a post on Facebook to say he was enjoying a pint with one of his old chums so I know he met up with them.
He phoned me yesterday and apparently his flight was fine but he stayed overnight at a hotel at the airport.......and it was pants.
He had no sleep because the room was too hot (the thermostat on the heating didn't work), the bed was too hard and the bathroom fan would not turn off.
Poor Alan.
Still at least he was only there for one night.
This evening we took Bubba (sitting in the bowl above) to visit the prospective new vet.
The vet was lovely.
He explained more to us in this one visit than we have ever been told over the years of visiting the other one.
He is going to do Bubba's dental procedure on Feb 28th and also treat all the other little buggers for the parasite that Bubba has had.
He said they can carry it without exhibiting symptoms.
I explained that we would like to bring our others to him. I also forewarned him of
Lily The Exploding Kitty.
He didn't seem worried about her at all...........Muaha ha ha ha....he will learn.
The prices are way more reasonable and we are hopeful that this will be a positive move.
We have been with the other vet's office for 13 years. I say "office" and not "vet" because they have changed many times over the years. This new guy works alone so at least we know who we will see each time we go.
Donna and Lauren are coming over here at the end of March. I am so looking forward to it. I am also looking forward to getting over to England sometime later in the year.
I missed that trip last year.
Alan's Birthday
Friday was Alan's Birthday.
We got him a birthday card.
This is the front of it.
This is the inside.
Well it made me laugh.
He seems to have enjoyed his birthday. I made him a birthday cake. A chocolate one.
It looked like this.
It actually is quite yummy.
I put candles on it and he seemed to really enjoy it.
I am glad he had a good birthday. We bought him gifts and took him out for a meal.
Today, Saturday, we got Bubba some more jollop from the vet and then set off to do some shopping.
I needed new jeans as the zip of my favourite ones broke this morning. We also wanted to look at mattresses and bed linen too.
It was one of those days when everything in my favour was against me.
I couldn't find jeans I liked, the mattresses were pants and we couldn't agree on the bed linen.
But, my day was saved by a trip to the Chinese take away shop.
I had been perusing the menu and as we don't often have Chinese I asked the young girl behind the counter what Hunan Shrimp was.
She looked very puzzled and found an older lady to consult with. After some discussion she piped up....."Shlimp, callots and cerery."
Oh...ok....what about the Szechuan Shrimp?
More puzzlement and another consultation with the older lady.
"Szechuan Shlimp.....shlimp, callots and cerery, " she announced.
I sighed at Philip. I wanted to know what the dishes were. Were they sweet, spicy....what flavours were they.
So, this time I asked her what sort of sauce the Szechuan Shlimp...I mean shrimp came in.
Oh this was a very hard question.
She consulted with the older lady. The older lady started to look puzzled and then she became quite frantic. They both set off to the back of the shop where they winkled out a man who looked like he might be the chef.
Intense consultation this time. All three became quite animated but, of course, we had no idea what they were saying. Eventually they all seemed to reach an understanding and the young girl returned to us at the counter.
"Sauce is brown," she proclaimed triumphantly.
I thought I would collapse with laughing. Oh that was alright then, I would have the 'brown' sauce.
This kept me giggling all the time we were waiting for our dinners.
I couldn't get over the degree of discussion that went on to get to the resulting description of this exotic Chinese sauce. Brown.
Now ya know.
Nick Falldown and Jack Knickerless.
Sunday.
Out to brekkie, which was delish. I had a veggie skillet again. This time the hash browns were crisp and golden.
There were also lots of veggies and two fried eggs on top.
Philip had something similar but it was a steak skillet and Alan had the meat lovers skillet.
So, off we went, all full of grub, to have some fun on the driving range.
Alan hadn't played before so Philip gave him some useless....oops I mean.....useful (well that probably depends on your outlook) advice.
I stayed in the warm car and read my book.
Alan seemed to enjoy himself.
This picture made me laugh.
It looks like Philip is creeping up on him and about to clonk him on the head with his golf club.
After all this excitement we calmed down with the grocery shopping and then headed home.
The Superbowl was on in the afternoon and although the excitement wasn't as great as last year, Alan did wish to watch it.
I didn't, but I was reliably informed that it was a boring game.
I did see the halftime show which starred Madonna.......YAWN !!!
I had read that she was going to mime and mime she did.
She may be able to afford lots of botox or whatever to keep herself looking young but no matter how young you
look, in your 50s you will not have the energy or vitality that you had when you were in your 20s. So, she spent a lot of time ........ walking up and down ....while all the backing singers and dancers did all the energetic stuff. One was over energetic with her gesture to the crowd which has caused quite a bit of upset over here.
Apparently, she hadn't made this gesture once during rehearsals so, I suppose she did it to get her name out there. She has achieved this. Unfortunately, it turns out she is British.
The news & sports reports loved to emphasise this of course.
On the upside, a Brit did relieve the monotony of a tedious American football final........can't be all bad then.
Bimbling about a bit.
Alan and Philip are still getting on well........see above.
I have only had to use the "Did you see the giraffes back there?" card a couple of times.
Philip did start poking cocktail sticks in Alan's leg the other day but that is fairly mild.
So, what have we done this week?
The two 'old gits' went to see a movie on Tuesday.
"Contraband" I think it was called.
If you get the chance to go and see it .........go to the dentist instead. It seems you would have more fun.
They left around 6.45pm and I settled down to play WoW on the computer.
The movie was due to start shortly after 7pm I think. I received a phone call around 8pm to say they were on their way home.
They had walked out of the cinema.
Apparently it was that bad.
I have never walked out of a cinema before the end of a film.
Bloody hell, I even stuck with "Space Truckers" until the end and that must rank up there with one of the worst movies of all time.
I remember I went to see it in Folkestone by myself as Philip and a gang of mates were all playing computer games at the house.
I wasn't involved in it all so I thought I would treat myself to a movie.
I was the only person in the place and when it started, the girl at the ticket office came and sat next to me, as she said, to keep me company.
It was awful.
Halfway through she turned and told me it was one of the worst she had seen but we stayed until the end.
To be honest, I think I only stayed because I would have felt bad leaving when she had been kind enough to sit with me and probably she didn't like to get up and go because she didn't want to leave me sitting there by myself.
Alan and I ventured out to the mall on Thursday. I was a bit miffed because we ran to catch the bus which was early as they had changed the schedules without telling anyone, and I hurt my leg.
I then had a difficult time walking around the mall and was dreading it being something that would take weeks to heal.
When Philip hurt his leg (calf muscle - same place as I hurt mine) it took months to heal.
Anyway, I needn't have worried. It was a bit dodgy all day but yesterday it wasn't too bad and is just a little sore today.
No need for crutches then.
Tomorrow we are off to the driving range (heated etc) for a spot of golf.
Alan is going to have a go.
