Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Another End Of Year

For the first time in I don't know how long I expect to see in 2009 safely tucked up in bed.

The cold has gone, for the most part, but there doesn't seem to be a reason to stay up. Another Hogmanay spent alone and in front of the tv? Second year in a row, it is becoming a habit.

2008 was interesting, an improvement on 2007 which I realise now is a year that held more benefits than at first it seemed. Whatever 2009 brings I can ask for only one thing at the moment, that my father, who is in hospital at the moment, recovers. There are some things I do not wish to contemplate and one of them is what seems inevitable but no matter how much I wish it wasn't the truth I still cannot face it.

Come on 2009, lets see what you bring.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Sometimes I Amaze Myself

It doesn't often happen, and when it does it is usually by accident but sometimes I achieve something I thought impossible.

Be it having to grin and bear it while spending time with an ex who purposefully keeps me strapped for cash (for the sake of the Hobbits this was on Christmas morning, it doesn't last long as he is on a tight leash and for that I can be grateful.) Be it through passing an OU course I thought I had completely blown thanks to an exam where I was the first to leave.

Considering my brain is addled by the after effects of too much cold medicine and the Christmas hangover those are the only two examples I give at the moment simply because I am concerned with the latter.

Because I passed my history course. And I really didn't think I would. And I am very smugly pleased with myself. And it doesn't happen that often. And now I am repeating myself.

Anyhoo, the course is done, I do not need to resit. Checking the results page online I got an average score, very few people did any better than I did. So that horror of being the first to get up, hand my paper in and leave was not justified. Keep to the question. Worked.

I have been advised by a friend that what I should take is Vitamin C tablets, orange juice and Lucozade. She also mentioned rest despite the fact that, as a parent, she should know that is but a dream.

Friday, December 19, 2008

37 Plus One Day

I have a cold, the Hobbits have a cold. Only the four-legged ones and finned ones in this house are safe. Speaking of four-legged ones. In an attempt to give myself one more challenge we are joined by two kittens, Padme and Anakin - can you guess who named them?
Resident Grumpy Old Cat has taken to them relatively well. They can be his child warriors against the big, clumsy, lumbering oaf of a dog - I would imagine that is how Paris sees it. Poor Andrex sits quietly while they dance around him, all part of the training my dear.
Photos to fallow when normal service resumes and it isn't the medication doing the writing, regardless of what an improvement that may be.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Goodbye To A Hero

I don't use that title lightly. There are few people to which I would label as having a lasting effect on my own life but there is an agreement of millions of other people who were little children in 70s Britain so I feel it is only appropriate.




And I realised what that meant to me personally, when I heard it on the radio this morning and was actually really upset at the thought. His voice is the one that soothed me throughout childhood; his tales of Noggin the Nog, The Clangers, Ivor The Engine and of course my own favourite Bagpuss. Because of him for years I thought that people in Wales rode in wonderful green trains that went tsshhtt-ko, tsshhtt-ko as they trundled along and there were singing dragons living in the mountain tops. The stories he told were, and there is no other word for it, gentle, proper stories. Not the frantic dash and splash of the short-attention span kids tv now. This was tv to calm you down, ready for dinner and then bed. Like a comforting blanket on a cold day. Even now I hear the opening chords of Bagpuss and it is complete contentment.


I introduced his programmes to the Hobbits a few years ago and they laughed at the Soup Dragon dancing on The Clangers which turned out to be their favourite. Noggin was, and is, perhaps a little too dark of a saga for some but perfect for that even if Nogbad was a bit scary.


Perhaps Mr. Postgate will forever be in that top left-hand corner of Wales.


Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss,

Old fat furry cat-puss,

Wake up, and look at this thing that I bring,

Wake up, be bright, be golden and light,

Bagpuss, oh hear what I sing.