Meet Ruby...

Ruby is my neice who is just gorgeous...










What do you think of my wings?











and cheeky






What can I get away with next?











And can be that age... two









I want to run around all those people even though they are having lunch....








And funny










Oh Uncle Allan do that again!














And mischevious....












What should I do next?









And brave...










Make way I am coming in - splash!













And thoughtful....











Is it really my birthday... where is the cake?













And as I said, just gorgeous. Ruby was two and half when these were taken last May. She lives in Spain with my youngest sister and her hubby. She is cute, funny, quite clever, mischeivious and has a great sense of humour - she really laughs.

Lovely eh!

Where I have visited...

These are the countries I have visited in my young 47 years. I have been very fortunate.

My youngest sister lived in Hong Kong for many years and when we visited her we would then go off on holiday to the Philippines or Thailand. That is what started the travel bug.

I spent 15 months backpacking in 1999/2000 with my hubby Allan, mainly in Asia. I will have to write a travel blog of this time.

I have been to so many countries but never been to Scotland or Ireland. Isn't that terrible, I do feel guilty about that. Every year I say I must visit these places but put it off for another trip elsewhere.

In my recent 'student' years holidays have been restricted to family trips. Now that I am working again we can now consider which country to visit next... Maybe it will be within the British Isles but I somehow doubt it.

We haven't been diving for many years so I think that will be our next proper holiday. To revisit the beautiful underwater world of the fish, it does feel like you are visiting another world when you dive. We dived once to see hammerhead sharks; wow it was scary, and thrilling. We sat deep down in the blue ocean waiting for the sharks to pass, and they did.

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

Aubin and his better half...

I have been away for too long… I haven’t found time to blog, been busy or too tired- no excuse I know!

I have been at my job for just over one week now and think it is going to be good. I have been thrown in the deep end and am just getting on with it. As it is a new restaurant the office systems have been set up in a rush, some of them are fine but others need to be tweaked here and there. There will be 3 of us in the office, 2 part timers and one full timer. I never realised that you would need this many staff in a restaurant. In actual fact it is two restaurants in the same building. Downstairs is a gastro pub and upstairs is a very posh restaurant.

The office is in a separate building to the restaurant though just across the road. My desk backs onto the window and here are the views……

And this...

If I had thought a bit quicker I could have joined the two photographs and given you a panoramic view - just too slow!

I must say that I found myself gazing past the harbour out to the sea to the yachts and jetskiers more than once; they were having a race last week. I will have to enjoy the view whilst I can though as we are moving office in a month or so and I won’t be having a view, although we will still be in the harbour area.

Aubin The Goose

On my way to work one morning I stopped to have a chat with Aubin the goose and his lady friend. I interrupted their breakfast as they were tucking into the geraniums.

Aubin and his better half live in the harbour itself along with many ducks. Not long ago they (the authorities!) moved Aubin to another location in Jersey (I am not sure if he had a BH at the time) and the public went quackers (sorry i couldn't resist that), they were outraged. Such a fuss was made that Aubin was quickly returned to his former home. Quite rightly so, says I.

Other Updates

Dad - Dear Dad is now out of hospital. They have stabilised his fluids and sent him home with a catheter. Currently. there are no plans to give him dialasis thankfully, I don't know how he would have managed with that. Although he has a cathater in now, I can't image he will keep it in for long - bless him. His mind is a bit befuddled at the moment. He was saying that his sisters birthday is next week - she has been passed away for about 8 years. Last week he asked if our maternal grandparents were still alive...

Brother - He has had his blood tests and we are awaiting the results.

Herbal Medicines - I got excited too soon. The Chief pharmasist still says that the law states that I can only import and use single drugs. Therefore, I have put in an order for 50 or so single herbs from a very reputable hospital in south India and I intend to make up my own formulations using the classical recipes. I won't be beaten!

Where does the time go?

BH,'Happy Allan' has been off work this week and we have been out and about. Also, I have been a busy bee, I have :-

• been for two interviews (more about that later)
• seen the Chiropractor twice,
• took some disabled friends to see the Blood Brothers musical at our local opera house - which was fab...
• took others to see the War Tunnels (previously called The German Underground Hospital) which were buit during the German occupation of the island. It's pretty cold in there and quite sad, though very interesting ....

• put highlights in my friends hair
• played tennis
• went to look at a possibility for an organic vegetable patch - not suitable
  
• went walking
  
• went on a cycle ride
• searched town for new work clothes
• took Ayurvedic doctor out for an evening walk
• what else - oh ate too many lunches out and afternoon tea and cake.

The cycle ride.

We cycled from home up hill to St Martins (without stopping to walk I might add) were we visited Ransoms Garden Centre with the sole purpose of having a big piece of cake and a pot of tea in the Garden Tea Room. Ransoms is one of THE places to visit for afternoon tea.

In order to feel a little less guilty we did walk around the garden centre on the pretence that we were interested in looking at the garden furniture, plants, animal food stuffs, fish, clothes, fencing, granite Buddhas etc. In actual fact we were both incredibly thirsty and peckish and just wanted to get to the tea rooms. I chose banoffee pie whilst BH chose cheesecake. Each piece was so large and sweet we should have shared one. We have eyes too big for our bellies.

Back on our bikes for the cycle home we passed via Gorey. Gorey is on the east coast of the island and has a very pretty harbour overlooked by Mont Orgueil Castle.











The castle has under gone some very sympathetic renovation and recently reopened. I visited in June with my brother who was on holiday, here are some photos taken then.

From the back of the Castle











From the front of the castle











Looking down from the topmost tower to Gorey harbour.








The interior of the castle is pretty interesting too; I will share that with you at a later date.

Back to cycling. Here are some photos taken of the ride back along the coast to home. As you will see the tide goes out such a long way . Gorey has a sandy beach but as you come around the coast from east to south it gets very rocky (tourism of Jersey arrange evening moon walks around this part of the island).

Here is a photo from further round the coast looking back to the castle.














And another looking away from the castle, out to Le Rocque and the more rocky area.














On the job front.

On Tuesday I went off to The Boathouse restaurant for my interview, I was there for an hour and a half and thought it went very well. I was offered the position that afternoon.

I also went for another interview on Thursday morning with a lawyer firm, in fact where BH works. It was a role for project work within IT which I have done before and thought might be interesting. This job was a full time position so not for me.

I have now accepted the Boathouse position and on Monday will be driving out to St Aubin harbour to start my new job.

Yippee, I will have money again for the first time in 4 years.

Some people...

Some people are just great....

In an empty field aside a main road a man and his young daughters have planted some seeds. Here is the result.

When I stopped to take these photos the chap was there with his girls (age 5 and 10?). I told the youngsters that I thought their field was wonderful and would make everyone smile on the way to work.

Apparently they had planted the seeds in the empty unused field so that people without gardens could enjoy the sight of all the flowers.

They had returned to the field to collect seeds pods to use next year.


There are poppies, cornflowers, sunflowers and other flowers, and some baby ladybirds so the 5 year old told me. Lovely eh!




Update....

Dad - He seems OK at the moment. They have managed to get him to keep his drip/catheter in and they are stabilising him, They intend to keep him in for a month - no long term plan as yet - is that good or bad?? Good I think, at least they are not sending him back too soon. He seems happy with himself, so much so he is asking for his cowboy hat and Brut aftershave to be taken in. Bless, he obviously has his eye on one of the nurses, God help them.

Sister 1 - left a message on the answer phone. She was quite sweet and now I feel guilty for my sarcasm. I will speak to her later tonight or tomorrow. Oh, she sent me a lovely top in the post, it was a car boot purchase she bought when we were visiting Dad in May. She said it looks better on me! This is unusual though, but very nice.

Dog - Well we decided not to have a puppy. As I am going back to work it would be unfair to leave a little puppy dog alone (although someone told me today that it is OK to leave a dog for up to 4 hours, especially after a good morning walk) Gosh, what to do?!? I still think its not fair to leave a little puppy for so long.

Job - I am going for an interview on Tuesday. This is at a newly built restaurant overlooking the beautiful harbour of St Aubin.

They are looking for an accountant to cook the books and help manage the business, 25-30 hours a week. I think it would nice not working for a bank or accountant. When I was in finance I used to think that all I was doing was making rich men richer - here at least people will be enjoying the experience, well hopefully!

I have no experience in catering but I will but my brain to it tomorrow and work out what is involved and needs to be said.

Herbal Medication - Yesterday I found a local government document dated 2/6/06 or 6/2/06 that states "The Medical Officer of Health has confirmed that an Ayurvedic practitioner does not require a licence to work in the Island and there are no objections on medical grounds to Ayurvedic treatments" Yippee, if it means what it says.

I have forwarded the document to the chief pharmacist (a local government official!) for his comments. Maybe this is going to be a good week.

GOM - Actually I am going to stop calling him this in the hope that one day it will become untrue. You know what they say about daily affirmations.

Happy Allan is taking this week off as holiday. I thought it would be nice for us to have a week together before I start work (if I start work). The weather forecast is cloudy tomorrow and then sun and cloud for the remainder of the week. As they are always wrong my prediction is that it is going to be glorious and sunny.

We are going to go sightseeing, to visit some historical sites that we haven't been to for years, have picnics, go to the beach, swim, cycle (me on his bike), walk, and anything else that takes our fancy.

Not a good day for.....

Cars - or my car in particularily. I had a 10am appointment with chiropractor yesterday and at 9.35am attempted to start the car - nothing, dead as a dodo, flat battery. Now we have had Beanie for over 4 years (since becoming a student), she has always been very reliable for her age (DOB 1989), but yesterday she made a stand.

Bikes - So, I will jump on my bike I thought. So got changed into my jeans and trainers and off I went to get my bike. Guess what, you got it - flat tyre. Well I have no feelings for this stupid cycle, bloody thing. So what I am to do. No car and no bike and by this time its getting on for 9.45am. So decided to take GOM's bike (grumpy old man if you have forgotten or not read that far).

Oh no, its got a cross bar, how will I get on with that were my thoughts. Do you know, it was great, I loved it. It was so easy to cycle, even up the inclines and slopes (I didn't try any hills). Lord knows what I looked like, but it got me there in a flash. I was there well before my 10.00am appointment. From now on I am going to use his bike instead of mine though I do wonder how that will go down. I can't see him riding a pink ladies bike, especially one that is not as easy to ride as his own.

GOM came with jump leads and started Beanie for me later in the day. Only for her to make another stand whilst I was at the supermarket, I had to abandon her and the shopping and walk home. She wasn't rescued until 8.00pm. Today I am going to treat her to a new battery hoping that will keep her happy for another few years - at least.

1989 - What about MOT I here you shout, we don't have that here. As long as your vehicle goes, looks safe and the lights all work, no one bothers.

As I thought ....

Mr Handsome had not told the people I was meeting for my interview that I only want to work part time. All was going well until I said that I want to work part time, and then we all seemed disappointed. Mr H apologised, he has got irons in other fires so I will see what comes. He is off tomorrow so I will catch up with him on Friday.

The weather was appaling last night apparently, thunder and lightening, I missed the lot. I like that, knowing that I must have been in a very deep sleep. This morning it poured down, I know the garden needs it and all that but I don't like the rain. Now it is glorious, blue blue sky and bright sunshine. Just in time for my weekly game of Tennis.

We have a new partner for our doubles game this week. Me and GOM play doubles with our friends B&D and we usually win. This week B is rowing and therefore frisky S is standing in, it is going to be a different game altogether and at least D won't be shouted at, as is usual. I don't really have a lot of competitive spirit, but just recently I have been going for it. Fingers crossed for tonight.

Must carry a camera.....

I haven't been out photographing these last couple of days, though I should have the weather has been glorious. Here are a few from earlier in the year.

Moody St Ouens Bay - at the waters edge

Sunny St John - daffs in April

Updates.....

Dad - He has acute renal failure, basically kidney failure. We don't know how severe at this stage, I am hoping that when they rebalance his fluids and blood that he will bounce back. Though I fear that he now has lasting kidney damage, then what is the plan - dialysis? I doubt it, not if he won't keep a drip in his arm, how are they going to get dialysis going.

Sister (1) called me today, what an honour.... She had her mobile phone off all last week while she was away at a karate week with her boys (1 hubby and 3 sons). She returned on Saturday and received my message on her answer phone. Today is Tuesday! I gave her an update on Dad, said she would sleep on it as she had just come in from a night duty, she is a nurse. I wonder did she call the hospital....

Brother - he was advised to take more exercise and watch what he eats, not too helpful when the drugs they are giving him slows him right down, he has no enthusiasm for anything. Additionally, he lives in a home and has no choice over meals apart from whether to eat them or not. The doctor/consultant also gave him a card to take to his GP so that he can have blood taken for testing. I truly believe that the drugs have made him as he now is and hopefully the blood test will reveal this.

Job - I have an interview tomorrow for a part time position, at least I hope Mr handsome has told them I want to work part time. He advised me that they know all about me and to go for an informal chat - sounds ominous.

Herbal Medicines - bad news from the chief pharmacist, he advices that as far as he can interpret the law (in that he is not a lawyer/advocat) I am allowed to import, supply and sell raw herbs only (PTB). I am not allowed to bring any of the formulations that are available in India and that were allowed here just a few years ago. The law changed in 2004, do you remember a lot of fuss about not being able to take vitamins ect, then. So I am now looking into what herbal preparations are for sale in London, if they can be sold there, hopefully I can sell them here.

Did I mention that I am taking a distance learning course. Actually I am doing two but they are only modules not complete courses. Anatomy and Physiology - I need these subjects when Ayurveda does become regulated in the distant future, and it would be helpful for me to know the difference between a rectum and a radius when seeing patients. I received my first set of notes today, I will look at them tomorow. Today I sat in front of the TV watching wimbledon.

Not in such a good mood today, I will have to cheer myself up and get with it for this interview tomorrow. Don't know what to wear yet, I have lived in jeans and cheesecloth for far too long.

Organics...

Yesterday I went to the farm to collect my organic veg box, this weeks contents are carrots, new potatoes, broad beans, broccoli and lettuce.






On the way I passed Annabell



Then went on to Big Verns for a cup of tea and to admire the view





The farm offer a delivery service for 50p but with these views I am glad that I have the time to collect them myself.

Weeds.. where do they come from?

This is my garden taken from the decking. I love my garden. Most of the plants have been purchased from boot sales, open gardens, been given by friends or just got there by themselves. I am useless at plant names and don't know what they are called apart from the geraniums. My latest purchase from car boot sale last saturday is this a curly willow.

So many things going on at once........

Dad - he's in hospital, was rushed in on Sunday evening after collapsing in the home where he lives. He is comfortable and eating and drinking, so I am told by the overly busy people I speak to on the telephone. We are still waiting for the hospital renal doctor to examine him and his test results then we will know what the plan is for him. Dad suffers from urinary problems and is supposed to wear/use a catheter, however due to his psychiatric problems (Dad suffers from schizophrenia) he always removes it (ouch...), so there is an additional problem. Anyway, we wait to see what happens next. Dad lives in a home for people with psychiatric problems, along with my brother.

Sister 1 in and sister 2 are both on holiday so don't know about Dad yet. Sister 1 has her mobile switched off (handy!) and sister 2 is away for a few days and I will tell her when she comes back, in fact she is back today so will speak to her later. I have informed sister 3 who lives in Spain.

Brother (one and only) - He sees the consultant physiatrist today in order to have tests to check that the medicines he takes (also for schizophrenia) are not poisoning his body. Although the current medicines have made him less fearful, they are having a terrible effect on his body. He has but on about 3.5 stones in weight in less than 3 years, additionally and more important Tony's face has changed nearly beyond recognition in the same time. I sent the consultant photos of Tony two and a half years ago and a recent photo, this prompted the appointment today. We will see how he gets on.

Importation of herbs from India - I am an Ayurvedic practitioner, newly qualified and am in the process of setting up my own practice. I am having problems with the importation of the Ayurvedic herbs and medicines. Apparently the law allows you to sell, supply, manufacture and assemble, but, as the nice and helpful customs chap sees it, it does not allow you me to import them. So I had a long chat today with another very nice chap in the health services who is trying to understand the current law and see if there is any way I can work with it to import the herbs.

Ayurveda - Put simply, Ayurveda seeks to keep you in good health by balancing your individual constitution, or ‘dosha’. The idea of 'dosha' follow the therory that everybody is made up of a unique blend of the three basic physiological principles that govern bodily processes (vata, pitta and kapha). Ayurveda followers see a disease in the body as an imbalance of the three dosha - and as such the treatments are focused on regaining a healthy balance. See link for more info on Ayurveda.

Employment - I have been a (mature!) student for 4 years and am now broke. I have decided to return to a finance/accounting job on a part time basis and run my Ayurvedic practice in the afternoons. Apparently there are many full time positions that would suit me, but no part time positions. The wonderful (and extremely handsome) man at the recruitment agency is going to do his best for me and I trust him completely. I am sure he will arrange something (in the job line) for me in the very near future. I am so looking forward to getting/having money again....

J - I have a very beautiful friend (J) who suffers from MS. I have been communicating with an Ayurvedic doctor who is currently working in Ireland. He has recommended a particular formulation for J to take, and am waiting to see if she is interested in trying it. It is quite costly at about £500.00 for 4 months supply. Anyway, during the communication with Dr K, it seems he wants to be famous and is happy for me to email him with my difficult patients and he will send the prescription details for me dispense. Sounds like a very good idea but..... we will see.... Actually I would be delighted for him to be famous as he is a really excellent doctor with 14 years experience. However, he is now talking about me advertising cases in the press showing his name, this I am not so sure about. Anyway early days yet.

Puppy – Do we or don’t we get a puppy. We have spoken about it for ages now, I want a golden retriever and hubby, alias GOM – grumpy old man, wants a westie. Well here on our beautiful island there are no puppies available, we thought we would have to go to the UK for one. Even the animal shelter (RSPCA) don’t have any and haven’t had any for over 6 months, well that is how long we have been on their register. Now there are 7 puppies available from a private seller, the mother is a Labrador cross and the father is a – wait for it – a poodle. They are calling these puppies labradoodles. Well GOM straight away said he was not having a labra-bloody-doodle…. Anyway, after someone told him that the puppies were gorgeous we went to have a look. They are really cute, there are 4 black and 3 fawn coloured, they are 8 weeks old and just adorable. The cost for each puppy is £300, yup £300. Now GOM is saying he is not paying £300 for a mongrel. Even more of a problem is we did get a puppy is who would look after it during the mornings that I (hopefully) will be a work. I don’t envisage being busy with my Ayurvedic practice straight away so the afternoons should be fine. Dearest J said she would look after him/her in the mornings, that might be fine when it is small but I think it would be too much for her when it grows. And…. now I am getting the willies about the responsibility. I am happy to get up and walk it in the mornings, and walk it in the evenings, that is not the problem. But leaving it alone for too long worries me and what about when I want to go away. Yes we have friends who would look after it and of course kennels if it came to it, but oh, I just don’t know. I have been like this all my life thinking about having kids and never been brave enough to go there, too much responsibility. So to have a puppy or not – to be decided….

I think that is enough to bring you up to date on my current issues. I am sure there is more but I think that is enough for one day.

Ps for those of you who are English experts, in the grammatical sense, just accept my errors. Thanks.

Am I a lady.....

Well I think I am though don't over do it. Often I think I should tidy myself up. What does the quiz think - see below.

You Are 40% Lady

You tend to make up your rules of etiquette, throwing all conventions aside. And while you try to be a lady (sometimes), your behavior is often quite shocking.

Are You A Lady?

Seven Deadly Sins Quizz - my results

These are the result to my answers, I don't know about the gluttony bit, I am a bit of a pig when it comes to sweet foods, cakes, biscuits...

Actually, I don't know if these results are good or bad....

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Low
Wrath:	Very Low
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	Very Low

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com

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