Heart attack

Monday, January 04, 2010

New Year

Well, the holiday is over. Carol went back to work at the Academy today. Not sure when the children go back, though. I think it's Wednesday. I think the teachers have a few days training, one of which is on How To Use an iPod Touch. All the teachers were given them when the Academy opened. Carol isn't sure what they are supposed to use these gadgets for. They were also given digital cameras. We have managed to fathom that out and used it several times. We charged the iPod up last night, and it seems O.K. I'm still getting to grips with my iPod Nano which I got for Christmas two years ago.

We haven't been out much. This was mainly due to the weather. We did go for a drive out towards Woburn Abbey. We drove through the deer park. We couldn't immediately see the deer, but as we drove towards the exit we saw a group in the distance. Perhaps it was more sheltered where they were. On Friday we drove towards Aylesbury and then towards Oxford and stopped at an attractive little town called Thame. A lot of these Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire towns have a similar layout, with wide main streets with plenty of space to park. It also reminded us somewhat of the place we stayed near in Yorkshire, Northallerton. We took the dogs with us, and as soon as the car stopped, Alfie started to yap and bark. We took both dogs for a walk through the streets, although there wasn't much open, apart from a rather attractive cafe. We took the dogs back to the car and then went back to the cafe to have hot chocolate and scones and jam! It was doing a roaring trade, so I'm glad we went in. We'll have to remember this place as we want to come back again when all the shops are open. We went to Stow-On-The-Wold a few months back, and it seems similar to Thame. 

I have a shift at Macintyre in Wingrave this afternoon. I just hope that the roads are relaltively ice-free when I drive there later. I really don't want to drive in the sort of conditions we had last February (see earlier blog.) They are forecasting more snow this week. Some of the roads I have to drive along on my way to Wingrave are likely to be un-gritted and there is the possibility that at least one section could be blocked by drifting snow, so I'm not too keen to drive out there if I get further shifts.

We took the dogs out for a walk yesterday afternoon, to Bradwell, near the Roman excavations. I have a feeling it is/was a villa belonging to a farm or something. We let the dogs off their leads and they were really glad to be able to run, particularly Alfie. Carol noticed blood coming out of one of Alfie's paws, and he was limping on that paw, holding it up. We managed to stop the bleeding with some tissue, but he didn't seem happy with it. We walked back to the car and went to Tesco's in Wolverton and did some shopping and got some Savlon and cotton wool. When we got home Carol bathed the paw. We still don't know what caused the cut. It might have been a bit of glass he'd picked up, or a sharp bit of gravel. He looked really miserable and fell asleep on the large leather cushion in the lounge.

We had icecream last night. I bought this in Morrison's the other day. There must be something wrong with our freezer, as the icecream had melted. I  left the plastic container out on the work-surface, and some of the icecream leaked out, and some of it must have gone on the floor. We found Alfie, looking really wet, and couldn't work out what he'd been up to. Then, on smelling a certain aroma coming from him, that of icecream, we discovered that he must have found the leaking, melting icecream in the kitchen, and found that it tasted nice and so decided to eat it, and got a fair amount on his coat. He looked as if he'd been out in a gale force wind, as his coat was all over the place, and particularly on his head. This morning Carol took a bath flannel to him and attempted to wipe the icecream off. I'm not too sure how successful this has been, as the smell of icecream is still strong. As for the injured paw, he is still limping on it, but it can't be too bad as he managed to jump onto our bed in the night. I don't think it's too serious, but we will have to keep an eye on him

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