Month: April 2011

Another beautiful day.

I went to get a few bits of shopping and Cyprus Today, another 2tl wasted for the content it had in it! see link

Mal did a bit more shifting gravel and I think the front fruit tree garden is now finished (until the autumn).

The Russian House dog is barking again today. So much so, I had an email from David who asked if we could hear it as much as them…oh yes we can. David has spoken to the lady there and she has obviously ignored him.  David and Kenny have guests staying and this really is unacceptable. I don’t think we can stand it the entire summer.

We watched the Chelsea v Spurs game. What a farce. Spurs were robbed. One Chelsea goal wasn’t over the goal line and the other was offside. It is beyond me why they don’t use line technology. We saw the non goal again on TV about 5 seconds later  so why can’t the officials?? They use it in many other sports, why not football? Looks as though that will cost Spurs the ‘Championship’.

I gave Rosie her last injection before ringing the vet on Monday. Tonights went  well. Thank goodness. I can’t say I enjoy doing it.

The roses in the garden are all blooming.

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Thought for the Day – “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice” ~ John Cassis

 

It was a beautiful sunny day. No rain in London either for the Royal wedding day.

Mal said he is not a royalist so didn’t want to go to any of the clebrations here. So, we stayed home and I watched the wedding on the TV. We did have a jug of Pimms though.

I was so pleased to see Kate had such a lovely understated dress. But what were Beatrice and Eugene wearing?! And where was Princess Anne, did I miss something?

When we were still living in the UK, we had friends from Tennessee to stay with us and of course took them to all the sights including Buck Palace. They had never visited the Uk before and not since. Glenda has been very ill and so Mal sent this photo to cheer them up! I hope it did as they are also having bad weather and losing the internet. I hope they managed to see the wedding too. Get better soon Glenda.

Rosie’s injection was not as successful today, she jumped and I had to put it in twice. I do it on my own without anyone holding her and I think she knew it was coming today. She is drinking loads of water, must be a side effect.

The dog at the Russian House is driving us mad. It barks non stop because they tie it up and just ignore it…..all day long. It’s a big dog and doesn’t have the exercise that it should. In fact I have only seen it on a very short walk twice since they have had it.  We are now sitting the other side of our house so it doesn’t seem quite as loud.

Thought for the Day – “When you are young and healthy, it never occurs to you that in a single second your whole life could change.” ~ Annette Funicello

 

 

The day started off well but by the afternoon we had a really bad storm.

Lou and Rhys called early evening and they were having another BBQ! Well, the UK is having a really good Spring this year.

Torin was in Bulgaria and in the night travelling to Romania (for work).

Another injection for Rosie. I think this may take a while to kick in as we see no improvement yet. To be honest she didn’t even want to go for her walks.

The photo is of “Miss Independent” – Josie

 

Thought for the Day – “Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating for us growing old” ~ Mary H Waldrip

 

 

Apologies to anyone who could not read the last two days of the diary properly. The problem is now sorted out.

In the morning Mal and I cleaned the floc out of the pool. He hoovered the pool while I held the pipe on as it was all going to waste. Yeah! A blue pool again (Thanks Gary for refreshing Mal’s memory how to do it! )

I popped to the shops to buy Cyprus Today, for what it is worth see link

I then started worrying how on earth I was going to give Rosie the first of her injections. I kept thinking about the programme years ago ‘Vets in Practice’ and the training vet Truda who just could not get the hang of giving an injection.

I soon remembered from Cesar Millan …”calm and assertive” and it was no good me getting in  a stew as she would know and she did! She picked up on it and her eyes followed me everywhere.  I was told to give the injections in alternate legs each day but of course when she was lying down she was on the wrong side!

Later in the afternoon, she was lying on the correct side. I just stood above her, needle in the correct place and I syringed the cortisone in. She didn’t even move. What a relief! Now the first one was OK I feel confident I can do it now. Perhaps I have missed my vocation!

She doesn’t seem too happy at the moment.

Thought for the Day – “I don’t believe that you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.” ~ Ken Venturi

Mal and I made a joint decision to get a second opinion about Rosie’s leg as even with the pain killers, she was still hopping around on three legs. I have to say that my favoured vet is Mehmet at Animalia in Lefkoşa. We previously went to the vet in Alsancak thinking that it was always handy to know the nearest vet in an emergency.

Mehmet firstly gave Rosie her annual boosters and then examined Rosie’s leg and got Mal to listen to the click and where it was. It is in her knee joint and not in her hip. I immediatley thought of our last Goldie, Barney who snapped first one of his cruciate ligaments and the year after a second, both obviously needing surgery. Mehmet said no surgery (thank goodness) but he would give her a course of cortisone injections. He gave her one while we were there and filled four phials for the next four days, saying that we could give them to her!!!! Mal immediatley said that he couldn’t do it. Oh well, my dog, my problem! I watched to see how he did it and took the four syringes.

We now have to ring him on Monday to see how Rosie is doing and she may have to have more, spaced over three day intervals.

So, full examination and diagnosis, Rosie’s annual boosters, 5 cortisone injections….total cost 90tl! I think that would probably be the price of crossing the threshold at a vets in the UK.

Rosie much prefers Mehmet to any other vet. She has a wee outside and then runs in. Others we have been to I have to drag her in and then she promptly wees on the floor. Far less embarrasment at this one! She doesn’t bother about the injections either.

Back home and we decided we woould go out to eat. We hadn’t actually decided where to go but as we drove through Alsancak, we saw a board outside B and I saying they had Kleftiko on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

As usual a very warm welcome and of course we both chose the Kleftiko…it was very good. It arrived in foil, with potatoes and onion that had been baked in the clay oven with it. Also we had a plate of salad each, rice,yoghurt and village bread (brown).  It was 23tl for the kleftiko, 4tl for an Efes, 2.5tl for a Yedigun and complimentary Turkish coffees with water. It is a huge meal. I even took some of the meat home for Rosie.

 

Thought for the Day – “I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt and I am convinced that basically dogs thinks humans are nuts.” ~ John Steinbeck

 

Lovely weather and so we spent all day in the garden.

Lou, Rhys and the kids came back from their holiday in Cornwall and sent me some pictures.

In the evening Mal put the ‘floc’ in the pool.

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Thought for the Day – “As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round. ” ~ Ben Hogan

We had every intention of going to the Dog Show, then on second thoughts, trying to find somewhere to park and then walking from the car and also walking around it all, Mal suggested it wouldn’t be wise with my ankle and risk going backwards. I guessed he was right so we stayed at home and had a really nice day doing very little (and eating a couple of Easter eggs!)

Our pool is going slightly green. We think that it was perhaps the last of the old chlorine that was possibly not up to its 90% strength, so Mal will have to ‘floc’ it. We need it soon because the temperature is set to go up (hopefuly).

Torin, Scarlet and Jack came on the webcam early evening. The twins latest word is ‘nuisance’. No they didn’t pick it up when anyone was talking about them but about the dogs!

I did tidy up another of our gardens.

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Thought for the Day – “To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.” ~ Helen Keller