Lots of bits

Lots of bits in this post.

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Talked to Dad again yesterday, and although it's hard to really say from this far away how he's really doing (or how bad he was before the Op) he really did sound to me far far better, his voice has returned a lot of the sparkle which has slipped away without being noticed over the last couple of years. So if that's anything to go by, I'm very happy.

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Another plus, although not on the same scale, is our flowers and teddy turned up. No one's sure where they were, and it doesn't appear they are any worse for the delay. I sent a card about 10 days ago, which I don't think has go there, but - heck that the UK postal system (I'm not goin to blame Oz).

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Bingley (pictured here with W having a walk by the river - dried up this time of year - on our estate) is all healed up now.

He's managed to work our how to get upstairs - all be it very slowly as he slips on the wooden treads. He's not supposed to go up there, but has obviously been sneeking up whilst we've been at work. We found the evidence in the form of a chewed letter outside - taken from a box of old letters from student days (early 80's) which he's managed to find under the upstairs bed, and dig a substantial hole into.

The interesting thing about the letter he chose was that it was one of the few that wasn't between W and I. Probable 98% of them are from us writting between Derby and Portsmouth (we wrote to each other every day for three years).

The letter was to me from friend Dipti, sent during the summer break, regarding our managing to get through to the 2nd year.

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Here's our 1st decent collections of apples from the garden.

We've had a few peaches, bananas, apples, lemonades (fruit from orange and lemons), oranges, lemons, and even a few almonds - but certainly nothing on this scale. As you can see we've covered the tree with bird netting, after the parrots decimated our trees last year.

Categories:

• bingley
• garden
• dad

Flowers

I don't feel I'm having much luck lately.

First we have a hit and run, followed by suspiciously inept handling of the case by the police. Then our new burglar alarm, simply doesn't work. Now the flowers and teddy I ordered for Dad have gone missing. The flower shop says they were sent and given to the nurse on the ward. The nurses say they didn't get it - what can I do.

Still all this is over compensated by the fact Dad doing well, and I even got to have a few words with him last night. Sis says he's looking a lot better too.

Status

The news I've got so far is that Dad's OK - We stayed up last night until he was out of surgery, and M called to say he was out, but didn't know much more. Over night she's SMSed to say he's OK. I'll get a proper update tonight (my time) / This morning (UK time).

Yet another round of redundancies have been happening at work over the last week. It's done in dribs and drabs rather than a load at once, thus leaving everyone permanently worried. - What happened to the West being a nice place to work? The work load is just crazy, and still they are looking at reducing staff. Thankfully the redundancy package is quite good - possibly it wouldn't be a bad thing.

The alarm system doesn't appear as 'pet sensitive' as it's supposed to be. We've had four false alarms already, which we're fairly confident it was Bingley setting of the sensors in various rooms. Right now the whole alarm system is basically useless. They are arranging for the installer to come back...

Sunday shift

I was back at work today - Sunday shift. I like working Sundays as it gives me time to clean up all the loose end without too many interruptions.

W and I are on a Buffy bender at the moment - we've watched 3 series of buffys already in the last 8 weeks. Still it's not like we're watching too much TV - it's just that the only thing we've been watching is Buffy.

My Dad's in hospital for a triple bypass tomorrow, well what can I say - triple bypass that says a lot in itself. Oh - and of course he's 10000 miles away. Lots of phone calls coming up.

Bingley had his last training this morning. He's graduated level one, despite his total non-commitment to walking to lead. So we're starting level two in a fortnight.

On Friday we had a super-duper burglar alarm fitted, complete with 24 hour monitoring and all the bells and whistles - OK the bell, but no whistle. It can even tell the difference between the animals and us (people) by monitoring the body temperature.

My attempt of wiring the home theatre with a HTPC (Home Theatre PC) have not gone well. The PC itself isn't working as it's supposed to, and the TV reception has took a plunge. I suspect W will soon be getting annoyed with it, especially as it's left the house in a wiry mess. W's mum has been particularly restrained, as any mess usually freaks her out.

We have an egg overflow problem, three eggs a day are more than we can manage - No more eggy meals - please.

Oh well - back to the Buffy.

Holiday plans

At last we've got around to planning our holiday. Unfortunately Ws brothers away on our last week in the UK, so our initial plans to see them before we leave has changed, and we now think we'll be going to see them as soon as we land.

MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN
JULY 2006				30 – Depart 16:00 Singapore 2105/2355	1 – Manchester 07:00->Liverpool	2- LPool
3- LPool	4- LPool	5- Lpool -> Sheff	6	7	8-Cornwall	9-CWall
10-Cwall	11-Cwall	12-CWall	13-CWall	14-CWall	15-CWall -> Bham	16 BHam
17	18	19 Meal (J&M)	20	21 – Meal(Gary)	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29 Depart 10:00	30 Singapore 0600/0933 Perth 1435

We had planned calling in at Lowestoft on the way back from Cornwall, however Sis has just let us know it make the journey a mamoth 10.5 hours. Since our main plan for this holiday was not to drive as much as last time (already failing in that one) I'm afraid Lowestoft looks like it's canned.

We've still got to get to Derby and Birmingham somewhere along the way. Mmmm

Birthday

We went to The Loose Box last night for my Birthday, and as always really enjoyed it. The place is a bit pricey - but the food is just so excellent. I took the day off as I really didn't enjoy last year - having to work on my Birthday, although I didn't do much - just podging around home, oh and I did buy myself an amp for the guitar. Now my terrible playing sounds so much louder.

We're off to a party at L's tonight - Ms 80th. The timing is good, as the wedding album came back yesterday, so we can give it them tonight. It looks quite good (though I say so myself).

I'm still seething over the hit-and-run and the total shambles the police have made in handling it. Grrrr - I'm really fuming, but their is so little I can do about it.

Bingley all better now, all the stitches out, and running around like a mad thing.

It's steaming hot - hence this short entry (and lack of...)

Totally incompetent Police

I'm suprised at this, as I always thought the police here were reasonably good. However my mind has now been changed.

After our car was hit and run whilst parked a month ago, we reported it to the police, on the day, giving full details of the hit-and-run. The next day we went to the Police station to report in person (as we were asked to do) - getting a load of paperwork to fill in at home. This we filled in and dropped off at the Station.

After several calls to see if we could get the name of the criminal - including an time that our report apparently went 'missing', we got the name and address of the person. ** Ryan Gregory Oostryck - 3 Tribune Street, Shelley. **

The name was needed for our insurance, to ensure we didn't loose any money.

Having endured three weeks without a car, as it got fixed. The police have added insult to injury by sending US a caution for both the crash, and the non-reporting (run).

This has two problems. 1) Aren't you supposed to charge the criminal, not the victim. (OK Thats just police incompetence) - more worrying 2) The charges indicated no fine, motor-points OR criminal record would be made, and they weren't even going to record the conviction.

So for a hit and run, it would appear their is NO punishment whats over. This I find unbelievable, and can only presume that Ryan Gregory Oostryck (3 Tribune Street, Shelley) has some Policeman/woman in his family. - A corrupt police force is slightly more appealing than a criminal system that has no chance of ever stopping a crime.

Dog training

Mr Bingley is doing so well at the Sunday training sessions we're taking him to - why can't he do equally well at being house trained. This morning he's managed to pee in the house (on the living room carpet again!) overnight. He's got a dog flap, which he uses all day. But at night he just wont use it. Why always the carpet? 80% of our house is tiled - at least that would be easier to clean up. So now he's banished outside, told off and getting no loving.

I've just had three days off work (for all my Sunday shifts over Christmas). I met W for lunch on the 1st day, taking Bingley with me. She took him briefly into work (so everyone could have a look) - and guess what he did - yes pee'd on the carpet. Very embarrassing for W.

I've spent a good portion of the time off trying to get my HTPC setup. It's 80% their. At least you can sit in the TV room again now (it looked like we'd had burglars for most of this week).

Rats - it's time to go to work again.

Categories

• bingley

Hit and Run Update

At long last the police have let us know the name / address of the (presumed) drunk who 'hit and run' W's car.

Ryan Gregory Oostryck - 3 Tribune Street, Shelley.

Thanks Ryan - you're a real nice guy, W really appreciated her car being off the road for 3 weeks.

At least now we can get our no-claims back from our insurance. We just hope you get a criminal record.