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Tuesday, 11 October 2016

DIARY OF CHRISTMAS ALREADY BY FIONA CUMMINGS


Good day to you dear Bloggets. Gosh, so sorry not been here for a couple of days. I’m back now though. Thank you for all of your emails. A few days off my blog page and I am touched that you even miss latest words. Still waiting for some more suggestions on what to write about, this page is yours remember. If you choose to read it, then let me know what you want to read about, sometimes I just ramble on, and some guiding on what to ramble or research would be good. Smile.

 

A strange weekend, followed by a lovely day yesterday. I went into the office to give a talk. So off to where I had to give my speech if you like, lots of cuddles for the Wagging one and then my perfect partner in crime who is just the best, met up with a wonderful lady and off we went for lunch in a style only my side kick, or am I, the side kick? Side something anyway, could go in.

 

We had a lovely lunch where we did laugh as my friend tried to show me something a decoration from a Christmas tree, yes you read correctly, a Christmas decoration she knew I would like, well let’s just say, as she was putting it back, it didn’t quite go back in the same condition as it left its tree She is so much fun. Nothing is ever boring an yet we can have very serious conversations too. I love that.

 

Then it was time for her to go back to the office and I stayed with the lovely lady and she very kindly showed me around the garden centre where all of the Christmas decorations were on display.

 

Waggs was very patient though she did have a few moments where I had to tell myself, well, she is at the end of the day an animal. Haha. Sometimes I say that about people, and they are not half as cute.

 

Let’s say, she enjoyed the biscuit section and when we got to the till, she took a rather embarrassing liken to an item I bought and launched herself on the counter to sniff the box of delights that I had purchased. The edible box.

 

I was shocked by her, as she has never ever done that. But what I bought was a very strong smell I guess to dogs. Cringe moment, luckily the assistant laughed. I didn’t. But in general, it was half seven in fact quarter past that morning, when I let her out to spend as we call it, and she went for hours, but she does at home, unless I’m taking her out, then I take her to the garden, but she normally goes out in the morning then about half two. Well, it was almost three in the afternoon and she had not been to the toilet, so at least she didn’t shame me that way.

 

 We went to LF’s home before he came to us. Remember the lady who had to climb through the hatch in her dining room to get to the kitchen, where LF had blocked the door by eating or at least lifting her kitchen carpet? Oh heck. Seriously, as I went in the house, wow, what a beautiful house she has? To think of our LF doing so much damage? Thank goodness he is so settled now, when he went to the lady’s house, he wasn’t a happy boy, but she was so very good with him, and now she has two more dogs, permanently, who had to retire early as guide dogs. She gives them a perfect life and I can tell you, I have never known such privileged dogs. Not only do they have variety in their lives, they have lots of wonderful holidays, perfect for dogs and toys as well as a beautiful house and so much love from the lady, it’s bursting out of the windows and doors.

 

As I entered the porch, wow, they say if you are going to sell your house, the outside is important, ours gets 9 out of 10, as you walk through the door, is so important, ours gets 5 now we have the beautiful work done by the joiner, but no ten or just under, because you couldn’t swing a duck in there. Not that I would swing a duck, reminds me, Someone I was talking with yesterday, she has ducks. And I’m not talking about the kind you have in your bath… She said if she leaves the kitchen door open, one of the ducks, comes in and climbs on a little stool and admires herself in the long mirror on the wall. She said she, the duck that is, not my friend, doesn’t think it’s a pal, as she poses hahaha. How cute is that?

 

Well I digress, this entrance hall, gosh the doors and windows are really beautiful. I thought they were lead glass but I was told they were called something else but I can’t remember what? Well they were very tactile and had roses and leaves around the glass. It was what I would call a vestibule and there was a stunning solid wooden unit with either metal or iron handles, reminded me of a unit my Mum or Nana used to own, I wish I had kept it, it was solid wood, old fashioned wood so really dark and on the front were lions made from kind of metal or some sort of iron with those handles like rings that flop down and sound like a letter box on a door when you let go of them. For my Bloggets who live abroad, in the UK we have flaps on our front doors for our letters to go in and when the old fashioned ones close, they make a kind of ting, ting sound. Hahaha. The new doors don’t do that as they are more firm and snap closed. Do you know when you start something and you wonder where it is going?

Hmm.

Well I’m trying to describe the lady’s unit. Smile. Without going around feeling it, I tried to be discrete… It was that rustic wood I love. Oh the fragrance in her house too was beautiful. Like subtle rose petals and in her downstairs toilet, the fragrance was cherries. Funny, we can get cherry air fresheners, but have you ever smelled cherries as in the fruit? I don’t think they have any smell. So how do we get to the fragrance of cherry air freshener?

 

I sat on the plush chair in the large lounge and the whole house though I obviously couldn’t see it, even when I was given a guided tour of the beautiful home, and that was what it is, a home rather than a house, because it’s so cosy. I felt it had class. Gosh, such a beautiful house. Well, when I go to people’s houses I always keep Waggatail on her lead, but She was welcomed to play with the other two dogs. And play she did. She went to the toy box and picked her toy out and then her and the boy dog played in the garden. Waggs helped herself to a drink of water, and was kindly given a biscuit as we had a coffee and a lovely chat. Back to the office and too short of a chat with the lovely admin who I love there, and back home with Hub. It’s after mid-day I don’t need to go out until later, it’s a good job, apart from a few seconds in the garden, Waggs is flat out after her busy day yesterday of being a perfect show dog to represent Guide Dogs, to being well behaved as we took lunch. She lay under the table so well as always, to walking around the vast garden centre, showing me and herself up twice, to having a great time with the other two dogs and the long journey back home. Shattered dot com she is… Now, zonked.

 

It was lovely to be able to browse and rather than us going to a shop, getting assistance to get the one or two products that we need before rushing off out of the shop home, to be able to see what there was and what brilliant descriptions were given to me of the items for sale.

 

It was a totally different garden centre to the ones back in Newcastle, this was kind of huge displays. There were fire places all decorated. Some with garlands stretched across the mantelpiece with little robins among the pinecones but my favourite was, Green ferns entwined to create the garland with red berries and every now and then, there were red wine glasses with a tea light candle in. I guess you would use the battery ones for safety? How stunning would that look though? Especially in an English cottage.

 

On the ceiling, there were hanging umbrellas with the material removed. On the frame and spokes as well as the handle, there were lights wrapped around. There were large Santa’s you could buy and penguins, snowmen and so on. Tables were decorated with a Christmas lay out and they even had staircases decorated as well as three cottages well the fronts of them with picket fences and small shrubs to show what you could do outside your house and in your garden. All on a grand scale.

 

It’s strange in October before Halloween and Bomb fire night, to see Christmas decorations, some would say it’s very wrong. I kind of agree, but we live in a I want it now society. Gone the days when the Daddy would go out on Christmas eve and chop down the tree dragging it home with a rocking horse he had made in his workshop!  I do wonder if in five years’ time, Christmas shopping will start in June?

 

I guess before the rush though; it gives people time to buy without being pushed about. There was a child in a wheel chair who asked to talk with Waggs. I stopped to let her stroke her and a very angry woman said in a rude voice. “Can I just get by?”” She could see the child was just stroking Waggs, could she not wait thirty seconds? Or go four steps to her right and go down the next isle? As we were right at the end of the isle. What goes around comes around. I hope one day she finds herself in a situation where she wishes that someone just showed a bit of compassion? An eye for an eye? Oh yes, I’m a firm believer.

 

I bought a friend of mine from where I used to live a gift for Christmas and some decorations. I got a cuddly mouse with his best Christmas outfit on to sit on Hubs forbidden piano. Well he has a soft butt so it won’t scratch, right? Well that is where the Christmas teddy and reindeer go along with the polar bear in December.

 

O Teen went to a funfair last night. It was a really rough area he went to. I was anxious. It was about an hour and a quarter drive from here. He didn’t get in until well after midnight and for the second day in a row, he was up today at half five. I’m a bit concerned about him, as now it’s half past twelve, he normally is home by eleven for a lunch but not back yet. Not answering a text and his phone is not on. Ambulances have been flying by, so you know what I’m like? Worried? Just slightly.

 

Oh Waggs has     just woken up. Oh boy, she is wild. How does she do that? Fast asleep now full of energy? There is no in between.

 

OK dog attention time, I hope you are all well. I’m grateful to my company yesterday. And always grateful to You all. Even when I don’t post anything on here, the page receives about one hundred views per day. People look at older things that they may not have read. X

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