We have minus 8 on the beach

Alice trials her new coat from Silver Peacock .Silver Peacock - Handmade Greyhound, Whippet, Lurcher Long Neck Coats

16 year old dies

Whilst we are kind of revelling in the heavy snow falls and wondering just how long it can go on , we hear the news that a 16 year old in the year above Nat at school ( now at college ) has been killed on the roads just near Scotch Corner . Travelling with his mother by car it lost control and they left the car to go to safety but were hit by a waggon . JakeYouTube - That kid jake .. Dance Freestyle - Real talk-Outlaws was killed and his mother is critically ill . Jake was a dancer.

The school remains open .

8000 schools closed ...

....but our local remains open.
Nat scoured the schools website last night and the information remained the same . Almost all schools in the area closed bar hers, and indeed by 8 30 am this morning the information was getting worse . A text message arrived on my mobile which finally tipped things over the edge and profanities were utteredat high pitch..... " M***** High School is closed to years blah blah blah and blah but open to years ten and eleven today ".

I ushered her out of the front door reminding her of her responsibility to attend etc and headed back upstairs .

The dog spat out a mouth full of wet tissue as I entered the bedroom and sank down guiltily onto the duvet. The tissue box disintegrated beneath her in a wet flop. Caught up in the general air of tension and excitement she had slipped upstairs and engaged in her own private massacre. Shouting and barking not her strong suit but paper and card ripping in seconds her best game .

Big Fat telly

For yonks I have been resistant to the idea of those things that most men seem to long for , namely a Big Fat telly with a Big Fat Plasma Screen that they can glue themselves to and Watch other men kick balls at .
Mainly I have been resistant for reasons that make perfect sense to me , but not apparently to anyone else , namely that we have several perfectly good tellies , spread about the other rooms in the house , one in most of the rooms where people congregate or sleep ( though I have always refused to have one near where I myself sleep) and an extra one for good measure just in case. Since tellies do blow up with alarming frequency most of ours now seem to be of the required flat screen variety too , though of late the cry " but they are not Plasma" has become an issue , whatever this means ( nothing much to me, fortunately, since I now earn less and less) and I see people scanning my expression for signs of change when I am confronted with such examples in John Lewis or indeed glancing through their friends' windows.

But , despite today starting much as usual , at six am with a pot of coffee and a fairytale four inches of snow , it ends in defeat .
I CatCall on foot and all is well with the world . Indeed Star and Pip seem to know their family is back today and come down with me to help me wash up and prepare their food for the first visit of the fortnight , Pip happily pottering and Star moodily standing blocking the exit to the cat flap .The snow falls fatly outside and I watch wondering how the roads will be . I have left my car at home as the slush has frozen solid .
Later , after Alice makes it plain she is not keen to go far , D disappears and I know my time is up . I head off again on foot , and when I return an hour later , with a few pathetic paperbacks from the library , there intruding into the room is a 32 inch biggin . My feeble protest is lost .

Mainly on Foot

.. This morning I am mainly CatCalling on foot .

I wake at six am and the the New Year's Day silence is not just about holidays and lack of traffic down below.
Click on the photo directly above and you can see the cat hiding from the fox who was a few yards away at midnight.

For those asking , D is at home , better , but still with some pain and waiting for some tests (next week after the holidays).

Happy New Year everyone !

Tired and Emotional

Alice rests quietly on the sofa , tired and emotional after an exhausting Festive Spell . Not only has she had to deal with the absence of D during his spell in hospital but there is also the business of the freezing of the pavements and roads outside which means it is nigh on impossible for her to walk anywhere without her legs splaying and sliding out in most undignified fashion . When I attempt to take her for a proper walk we are stopped by a man exhorting us to stay on the grass in case we land on the deck . Perhaps he has does not fancy heaving us up himself again should we fall to the ground . Perhaps he has already had to heave another to her feet ? Alice barks at his dogs as he advises . We head back to the house and Alice holds her paws up obediently to be dried, relieved that we are going no further .

Furthermore there has been the added challenge of continued presence of family members , day on day . Alice prefers a short walk , a full day's lounging ( though if a family member is ill in bed with her this is ok too ) followed by an evening en famille , preferably with cats "busy elsewhere" . But this continual family involvment , in and out of the car , on and off with the coats , freezing temperatures, people wanting to cuddle and pet , cats throwing new catnip mice up in the air , phone going whilst people enquire after D , well , all in all a bit much really .

Thus tired and emotional . And dying to get back to reality .

What is it with this Year ?

I am on a train to another Northern town with a colleague where we are to engage in some work and travel back later that day . I have tussled with myself about whether I should go , leaving D . Still uncertain what is wrong with him , but acutely aware that he is still suffering pain to varying degrees , I know I am taking a chance . He urges me to go and says he will not be doing much either way . But at the furthest point on my travels it could take me three or four hours to get home . Added to which if I am not at home who knows what he might not attempt in the way of excessive household tasks , tidying , shopping , dog-management etc?
As I leave the house at seven thirty he is already up and about , unloading the dishwasher though I have fed all the animals and done one or two odd jobs having been up since five forty five . The dog is still comatose. Not much dog management required yet .
Thus it is that two or three hours later I am on the train opposite my colleague watching myself watching his phone ringing , seeing him pick it up , seeing his face change as he utters a few words and I realise that something has changed for him . More bad news at the eve of Christmas 2009 as he hears that his mother has died. We talk about how to proceed and he leaves the train at the next stop in order to change direction and join the rest of his family .
I stare into space and wonder What Next ?

I proceed on to complete the work and once back go out on CatCalls .
The roads are sheets of ice and I slide and slip .
Finally , at home at eight pm , I stare at the walls and think , is this what Shock feels like . I am cold , tired and I cannot wait to climb into bed , preferably the ( hot) water bed a notch higher than usual, and certainly with another being though whether human canine feline or all three , it would not matter greatly . I need warmth .
Nat offers to wrap presents and I cannot face even beginning to think where presents are stored but she urges me on and I finally drag myself out of my stupour knowing that it will save me a task later . As she sits neatly wrapping and chatting to me I start to thaw and we talk about Christmasses past , how much Christmas Eve is our favourite time , how we are looking forward to going to Auntie Laura and co tomorrow afternoon ( snow permitting ) and the final episode of The Family comes on Channel whatever it is and before long we are squealing with laughter and loving them all . Shay and Sunni are getting married . Nat is convinced Shay's mother will come to the wedding and I think she sheds a quiet tear when she doesn't show up. At least she now has this amazing family instead , until her own family realise what and who they have lost .
Finally I find there are several members of my own family ( mostly pets ) snuggling on the water bed and I am dozing off whilst Nat lectures me on some heavy topic I have failed to comprehend because I am "too old" . I think , though I may have mis -remembered , it was about boyfriends .