Monday 17th October 2016

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We went for a very long walk as the sun was out and it was really quite warm. The workers had already started their cabbage collection.

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By the end of the walk, we had both taken our fleeces off! According to the forecast it is going to get colder tomorrow.

Mal is reading quite a  good book full of all sorts of tips and one of the things in it, is talking about when you never get things done. I know that feeling. So you should put things in 20 minute slots. This actually works and I have had 4 productive 20 minute slots today. A bit of gardening, a whole bin bag of things sorted for the charity shop, ordering birthday presents and cleaning!

Mal went to the allotment until it rained but brought more spinach and an enormous squash home.

Thought for the Day – “Regardless of sunshine or rain, be thankful for another great day….and treat life as the ultimate gift….because it is.” ~ Pablo Valle

Sunday 16th October 2016

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I heard today that my friend in Tennessee is still in a coma, has kidney failure and little brain function. I fear she has “given up”. It is a year ago that she lost two of her daughters in the same week. One had been on dialysys for many years and the other died in a car accident, both in the same week. This was followed very shortly afterwards by her husband having a stroke. I don’t think she ever really got over it.  So very sad and really makes you appreciate every day when you wake up! Life can be so fragile.

A good place to clear your head is by the sea. We both still have colds and I woke with a headache, just one of the symptoms it seems. Sea air blows the cobwebs away. We went to Minnis Bay,  Ellie loves it down there, not only going in the sea but there are always masses of other dogs for her to play with.

We usually have tickets booked a while in advance for north Cyprus, we have our next lot booked and Sol and Tariq are coming with us.  We have just booked more tickets for March. Surprisingly Atlas Jet are cheaper than fly pigs this time. Thank goodness for that I have never known such miserable, rude air crew as Fly Pigs. PLUS we will be allowed an extra 10kg luggage, meals and drinks included in the price as well.

In the evening we caught up with “Cold Feet”. It’s one of our favourite programmes, not that we watch much anyway.

Thought for the Day – “Our prime purpose in life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” ~ Dalai Lama

Saturday 15th October 2016

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We took Ellie out as soon as it was light as  BT have given us a time slot between 8 and 12. There was a mist across the fields as it was so early.

BT arrived at 8am, on the dot. He was a really nice engineer and discovered that the router was broken. He said he would have to order us a new one. He had a scramble in his van and found a spare one which we can use temporarily. That was good of him, maybe something to do with the cups of coffee I kept making for him!  We only need Mal’s mobile to be repaired or replaced and we will be back to normal. He went off to the allotment and I worked on the front garden.  It was a nice day for gardening, Ellie comes out with me.

We watched the Spurs game (draw), followed by the Hammers game in the afternoon, their first win of the season. That put a smile on Mal’s face!

Thought for the Day – “You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can’t have it.” ~ Robert Anthony

Friday 14th October 2016

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A really nice walk with Ellie.

Later I went into Ramsgate, mainly to get my hair done at Marcello’s. I thought I would give him another try as half the time he is too busy talking to listen to how I want my hair done. He was very busy again! Perhaps I have been going to him for too long.  Familiarity and all that!

Still no internet. Marcello said he also has internet with BT and has had no end of problems and lack of service with them, not very encouraging!

Thought for the Day – “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” ~ Arthur Ashe

 

Thursday 13th October 2016

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For those in north Cyprus, are you aware there are plans for Turkey to supply electricity? Now that could be interesting.

We walked Ellie and then went into Broadstairs so that Mal could get his hair cut. I had a breezy walk along the sea front.

 
Mal went to the cash machine before we went back to the car and somehow managed to drop his phone screen side down on to the pavement. Yes, it shattered. So not only do we have no internet but now we are down to one mobile! So then we drove around trying to find someone who would fix it. We found one place that were going to charge £85!! Instead he phoned our insurance and although we have a £25 excess for phones, they have asked him to post it to them and they will either repair it or send him a new one. Now all Mal needed to do was to transfer everything to his old phone. Another problem as different size sims! Isn’t technology wonderful?! We then went on the hunt for something to sort that out. We ended up in Carphone Warehouse in Currys in Canterbury and the guy in there was so helpful and actually GAVE Mal exactly what he needed…..FREE!! Time to ‘pay it forward’ somehow.

When we finally arrived back home, the rest of the day was spent on to BT about our lack of internet. How frustrating are all these automated messages and voice recognition?!! Well it didn’t want to recognise Mal’s replies until he shouted!!

The end result of all that was “someone will come out on Saturday between 8 and 12.” We are not at all happy about that but apart from changing provider which will cost us, we must just wait. Life used to be so simple!

We watched The Apprentice in the evening, what a pathetic bunch of people this time!

Thought for the Day – “Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.” ~ Mother Teresa

Wednesday 12th October 2016

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Out around the orchards in the morning. We thought it would be the least muddy walk as it had rained during the night. Half way round we stopped to talk to someone, ‘took our eye off the ball’ for a minute with Ellie and next thing we saw was her lying in the muddiest puddle she could find and splashing the mud all over her face!

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Mal is going to the allotment every day to do some digging and bring produce back. An hour each day isn’t too much hassle. In the afternoon we went to Wingham Wildlife Park. They have built a lovely new enclosure for chimpanzees that were supposed to be coming from the US last September. Bureaucracy  has held all that up, but the latest update…

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If I am honest I don’t like Wingham wildlife as much as Howletts, they seem to be much more into money making where as Howletts is purely for endangered species and reintroduction programmes to return the animals to the wild. But, I have to give WWL their due, they rescued two very sad lions, Clarence and Brutus and are looking after them but my opinion is that a lot of the animals don’t have enough space there.


But it’s nice this time of year as there are very few visitors.


We are still waiting for BT to sort our internet out! It’s not easy using a mobile as a modem when we have hardly any signal!

Thought for the Day – “Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.” ~ Dr Wayne W Dyer

Tuesday 11th October 2016

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We woke up to no telephone and of course no internet. We went for a long walk and for some reason we were out at 6.45, almost as soon as it was light , so there was a bit of a haze to begin with.

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While we were out we phoned BT as our mobiles don’t work at home! We had previously complained to 3, our provider and they sent us a box, which works but not when you have no internet! Back to walking down the road to make a phone call! When we did get through BT kindly told us they would investigate but if the fault turned out to be our fault (eg line caught up in our trees etc) then they would have to charge us  £150!!  We continued with our walk, lots of cauliflowers are ready now. This area is famous for its cauliflowers which is probably why they are not my favourite vegetable as we always seem to be surrounded by them. and they can stink! They have also left a lot of the harvest festival decorations at the church. Mal is doing his best to identify field mushrooms but I don’t know whether I want to chance eating them! There are masses around at the moment.


By the time we arrived home the phone line was back on but no internet. Another phone call to try and get this up and running. It may take 2 days we have been told. So, no internet and no mobile phones. Our landline we only have free calls at weekends, our mobiles we have free calls all the time!

So, our option is to walk down the road or if we stand on a chair in the shed and wiggle our mobiles around and if the wind is in the right direction, we may get a signal. With this in mind, Mal managed to place his mobile in a suitable position and we were able to sit in the shed using it as a modem and go online………life gets complicated living in the country!

We watched the England game in the evening….totally underwhelmed by it!

Thought for the Day – “Living the country life helps you appreciate some of the simpler things, things that make us feel good about ourselves.”