Birthday Greetings from Joe Cocker


Just posting this brilliant video! It's been taken off of YouTube but I found it somewhere else!

Catching up!

Hi everyone! I feel like I've been away for ever, it's been nearly two months!So, what's kept me away from here? Well, first my trip to the Caribbean. Then when I got back I'd just started adding my first photos to my travel blog when my computer crashed spectacularly on me! It didn't just lose my Windows ~ everything disappeared. Can you imagine, I'd just put 1,300 photos of the Caribbean on there.... panic stations! One of my staff is doing a Masters Degree in computer technology so I asked him if he'd look at it. Unfortunately it was too serious a problem for him to deal with, after a couple of visits trying to fix it he gave up so I had to call my trusty Geeks On Wheels! That's the name of the company! They're a lovely group of computer techs, not a bit geeky and always seem to know how to cure computer problems. Well my computer is rather quirky, I'd told the 'geek' who arrived that he'd never get the CD drive drawer open, I have to use a knife to flick it open! He said I shouldn't do that, and he'd get it open. After five minutes he turned to me and said 'Can I borrow your knife please!' I like a man who knows when he's beaten! He tried four recovery discs and the hard drive didn't respond. He said I needed a new hard drive. I told him about my photos of the Caribbean and asked if he could possibly save them. He said he'd do his best but couldn't guarantee how much he could retrieve. He took the computer away for a week. Last Friday I got a call saying he'd put in the new hard drive and transferred all he could from my old hard drive. He'd not been able to get one of the same dimensions in the 160GB size so he upgraded me to 250GB for no extra charge! When he got here he set it up and I found he'd saved just about everything, bless him! Relief swept over me! Although another trip to the Caribbean to re-take all the photos would've been nice! Lol!
I've just done nearly two weeks of working nights then some long 12hr days so I've been too tired to come online much this week.
We had problems at work. A measles epidemic has hit the city and we've had kids brought into hospital with it. I really don't see why they're brought in. Remember when we were young? All I ever got when I got measles, mumps, chickenpox etc was a bottle of Lucozade and a Noddy book! We were put to bed at home and didn't get up till the spots were gone. Anyway, having staff from countries who don't get measles means they don't have the immunity that we develop from getting the illness. We had to send six staff home including one of the other supervisors so it's been hard work covering the shifts for the past few weeks. I was intending to give Andy all my overtime money for our holiday to Australia but it's had to go to paying for my new hard drive. Ah well, c'est la vie n'est-ce pas?! Nina and Katinka are both doing well and waiting for the summer! It seems we get a few warmish days then it's back to winter again. The past few days we've had strong gales and heavy rain to contend with. Where's the heatwave we've been promised?! Bring it on now, I'm more than ready for it!
Here's a few photos of Nina and Katinka. I bought new pillows for my bed a few weeks ago and they've got my old ones as a bed, they're a lot cheaper than cat beds and you can change the pillowcase on them more easily than washing the bed!

Hey everyone, I fit nicely into my mum's handbag don't I?!

Last weekend I was so glad I didn't go to see Andy on Saturday like I normally do. I was looking out of my kitchen window towards the office blocks opposite me. I saw something strange flapping around, I couldn't make out what it was until I looked through binoculars. It was a dead seagull, tangled up in the netting put over the roof to keep the gulls off. Then I saw another seagull trapped under the same netting. He was jumping up hitting the netting then giving up and sitting down. I couldn't bear to see him sitting there starving to death as he surely would. I called the RSPCA who to their credit came out within half an hour. A young girl inspector came to my flat so that I could show here where the gull was situated on the roof. Nina didn't like her much, I think it was the badge on her uniform which stated Animal Collection Unit which made Nina nervous! Lol! She said she wouldn't be able to go up on the roof due to Health and Safety legislation so she'd have to call the fire brigade. Off she went up the road, a while later I saw her out on the balcony with a security guard, a few minutes later a fire engine arrived. I had my camera ready and took photos of the fireman getting onto the roof and tucking the seagull safely under his arm before coming down again. I'd given the RSPCA inspector a visitors pass to use for her van in our car park so she wouldn't get clamped while on her rescue mission. When she returned she said the gull was very weak and frightened but he was uninjured and would be OK. She was keeping him overnight in the RSPCA shelter before giving him a meal of fish in the morning and releasing him. I was so happy that he was free, it was just so strange because I'd normally be over Andy's at that time so wouldn't have seen him trapped on that roof. The fireman also cut the dead bird out from the netting and took him away. I'm using the photos from this on the Photo Story Photo Challenge which hopefully I'll be doing later this weekend. I've spent ages this week adding photos to Photobucket, ready for when I start adding them to my travel journal. They upload so much faster than adding them from the computer.

While we were sailing back to Miami we were followed by some large brown and white birds. I googled 'seabirds of the eastern Caribbean' and discovered they were brown Booby birds. This is one of the things I love about the internet, it has just about everything on it. If you want to know something it's just a few clicks away!

I'm still not smoking. I don't know if I told you I gave up in March before we went on holiday. I thought we wouldn't be able to smoke on the ship so I bought nicotine patches. When we went onboard we were told we could smoke on all the open decks and in our cabins! I didn't bother, just carried on with the patches. I've graduated to the very small 5mg patches now and some days forget to put one on. Funny but since I stopped smoking everything tastes awful! First off everything tasted of sardines! Weird! Now I can't eat cheese, it just tastes too salty. I know that manufacturers add salt to most things but I've never been able to taste it before!

I think I'll get off to bed now and wish you a good night.I'll be over to visit you soon. It's just such a pain when you've had no computer for three weeks and have so much to catch up on. I really need to sort through my new holiday photos and put them on CD where they'll be safe from errant computers! Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Off to paradise next week!

Hi everybody. I've not been around much here for quite a while. I thought I'd do an entry before I go away next week, yes, that trip to the Caribbean is almost here! I went to work today but came home after a couple of hours. I've had a bad cold and felt really sick, it's something that's been going around at work lately. I thought I had missed it but it finally got me! Having a few hours spare means I can do an entry here. I've been trying to catch up with everybody just lately. It seems like most of us aren't doing so many entries since moving to Blogger, it just doesn't feel the same does it? Well, spring finally sprung last week then disappeared today. We, like most of the country, have had wind and rain all day. It seems much worse after a few warm days.

I mustn't complain, I shall be in the Caribbean next week! Heat, sunshine, white sandy beaches...... ! I didn't see Andy at the weekend, I didn't want to give him my cold, I don't want to have to cancel this holiday! I spent the weekend washing and ironing my sun tops, sorting out the rest of my clothes ready to pack. Now all that's left is to clean my flat up.

Tien who looks after my cats is away in Germany so I had to look around for somebody else. It's really hard to find somebody I can trust but I found the ideal person at work. Guido, a young Brazilian man, came up two weeks ago and Nina and Katinka loved him so he's the chosen one! Nina loves men and flaunts herself when she meets one! I knew they'd like Guido, he's very softly spoken; they don't like loud people! He's also a very meticulous cleaner so I'm having to try and get my place spotless before he comes up ~ I don't do spotless but I'm trying!

Here's a few photos of Nina and Katinka with their new play centre, the last one they destroyed in less than six weeks! Nina has taken a liking to the 'nest', she spends all her sleeping hours scrunched up in it!

So what's been happening here? Remember Jane, my old boss? She got fired from work. I can't say I'm sorry to see her go after the way she treated me and others who worked for her. They say God pays his debts without money!Some of you know I'm on Facebook now. I opened it up as all my friends at work are on it, that's why most of my friends on my list are Brazilian! We've only got five English staff in the hospital!

I've been walking to work and home again every day, doing about twenty five miles a week, including walking to Andy's at the weekend. I feel much better for it and don't get the leg pains I was getting when I sit at the computer. I've lost over a stone in weight and a lot of my clothes fit me that didn't fit before! I bought a pair of Foster Grants' computer glasses last week. They have tinted lenses to cut out the harsh blue light from the computer screen. My eyes got so tired and sore on here, I've got macular degeneration which doesn't help. I need to get off here now, I probably won't come back till mid April when I get home from my cruise. It's going to be a new experience, I've never done a cruise before, I've never actually wanted to do one, it's never appealed to me but I've always wanted to see the Caribbean. If I like it I'd like to do a cruise up the Norwegian coast next year. It looks rather unusual, it's on a mail ship which delivers mail to coastal towns in Norway so you get to see places that tourists don't usually see. There are some beautiful little towns and wonderful fjord scenery. I don't know if Andy would want to go as it's not in a hot place but I'll ask him anyway. I never mind travelling alone, I just don't like paying the single room supplement although I'd rather do that than share a room with a stranger! Too many times I've met people on tour who share with somebody they don't get on with. Funniest one was in America. They'd put a 70yr old lady in a room with a 21yr old girl. The old lady wanted to go out partying half the night while the young girl insisted that the lights were out by 10pm and she wasn't' to be disturbed! These youngsters just haven't got our stamina have they?! Lol!

So, next week we fly to Miami then board our cruise ship. We visit The Dominican Republic, Tortola in the Virgin Islands, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados before sailing back to Miami. I just know it's going to be so interesting and I'll take lots of photos. Andy bought me a polarising filter for my camera at Christmas, I can't wait to try it out! The header photo of this entry is Antigua Bay where I shall be the week after next.

I shall bid you a fond farewell and see you in a few weeks when I get home. Hopefully spring will be in full swing by then!

Cold snowy week and more to come!

I thought it was about time I did an entry an gave an update on Andy.He's doing OK now, the headache lasted for over a week which caused us concern but it's gone now although he still aches more than normal. Maybe that's due to this freezing winter we're all experiencing. He went back to work so hopefully he'll be OK now. It was 21°F when I went out this morning, that's just too cold for anyone! Last night my friend rung to ask if I wanted to go to a local theatre to see a comedy act. I declined, partly because of the weather and mostly because I don't find these new wave comedians funny. I can't stand bad language, I find it really offensive, and I'm afraid most comedians these days rely to heavily on it for laughs. I did see that Ken Dodd was coming to Brighton in June, I want to see him ~ he's one of the old time comedians with genuine talent. I've heard too that he doesn't leave the stage till the audience has gone, sometimes he's stayed till 1am doing the show ~ now that's entertainment! I'm hoping that Andy can get the night off work so that we can go. On Monday we had a lot of snow, it started Sunday afternoon and just carried on through to Monday night. A lot of our staff didn't come into work that day. A few trekked in from out of town which I thought was a bit silly as they'd have to walk home in worse conditions that evening. I walked but it's a little less than two miles for me and I do it every day so I'm used to it. I also walk home every night which was a bit dangerous on Monday but I walked on the road where the cars had cleared it and didn't slip once. One of my staff had an accident. She was almost at work when she fell and landed on her backside, breaking her coccyx. She was in A&E for a while then they wheeled her over to us, we put her into a bed in the day case unit as the operating list was cancelled that day, she's still off sick. Most of the doctors who came into work on Monday stayed overnight in the day case unit as they couldn't get home and wouldn't have been able to get back to work next day. One of them told me it was quite exciting to spend the night on a ward in a childrens hospital! They're all big kids at heart!The snow's gone now but more's forecast for next week. Anyone know a number I can call to cancel it? Lol! I took a few photos on my way to work on Monday, it's quite unusual to see snow laying in the city centre. The top one is of people out sledding in Preston Park, I took it on my balcony with my zoom lens as it's a mile away from here.

This next one I didn't think was that brilliant but somebody on Flickr has commented and thought it was beautiful and wants me to add it to a group!

I found out this week that Lori from Lori's Letter Box did the cruise in January that I'm doing in April! An amazing coincidence! Andy actually wanted to go on the same date that Lori went but I thought it was too early in the year and we'd come back to cold weather. The change in temperature wouldn't do Andy any good so I'm glad we waited although it would have been nice to have met another fellow journaller while on holiday. I didn't know Lori was doing it back then, it'll be nice to read what she thought of it before we set off.

Work is still hectic with staff off sick and new staff to train. Last Friday they asked if I'd train twenty new staff as nobody else could do it. It took most of my morning and half the afternoon signing traing sheets. I signed my signature 700 times! I also had to stay behind on Wednesday till 10pm to train a new man. He does 2-10pm and couldn't be left alone on his first day. I had to be back at work by 8am next day as the other manager was off sick, I stayed till 8pm that night, I thought twelve hours was long enough! One day everybody is going to come to work and I'll be able to work my own hours and go home! I got a pay rise last week too plus back pay from last April. In this recession it was very welcome! Everything has increased in price and there are so many shops in Brighton that have closed or are having closing down sales. It's sad to see empty shop fronts and all the familiar shop names disappearing into obscurity. While everybody else is shedding employees to cut costs we seem to be taking more and more on.I've been on a diet for a couple of weeks and I've lost nine pounds so far. I'm on Wu Yi tea and acai berries which are meant to speed up your metabolism. I want to lose quite a bit of weight before our holiday. I'm getting off here now, I don't spend a lot of time on the computer these days.Stay warm out there, I hope this awful winter will end soon and we'll see some spring flowers emerging from the frozen ground.

Quick post

Friday night:
Just a quick entry tonight. I phoned Andy last night (Thursday) at 9pm and he said he was in bed as he wasn't feeling too well. I was worried so called him back this morning but got no reply. I thought maybe he felt better and had gone shopping; I didn't want to think the worse. I went to work and Karon, my boss, came in and asked how he was then realised I didn't know what she was talking about. He'd called an ambulance in the early hours of the morning and got himself admitted into hospital. From A&E he'd gone to CDU. CDU stands for the Clinical Decisions Unit but we always call it the Can't Decide Unit, everybody goes there until they decide what to do with them. Karon said I could go upstairs to A&E and see him before I started work. Anyway, he was on a drip and his glands were swollen right out under his ears, it looked like he had an apple in each cheek. He said he ached all over but his head felt better than when he came in. Eventually I thought I'd better go do some work so I left him and said I'd be back later. A couple of hours later he phoned me to say the doctor said he could go home as he wasn't in pain any more. He wanted money for a taxi. I went to the ATM and got some money out and took it up to him. I called a taxi and before he left he said he'd told the doctor he wasn't in pain but he was really. I think that's really stupid, I know being in hospital isn't nice but it's dangerous to come out before he's ready. I'm just praying he'll be OK. As he gets older he seems to be getting more of these mini crisis before a big one. I hope he's going to be OK, we go on holiday in nine weeks and I want him well for it. It was so weird because I never take my purse to work so wouldn't have normally had money for a taxi for him but today for some reason I picked my purse up before I left home. Maybe I'm psychic! Our holiday to Scotland had to be cancelled when he was in crisis a year ago, I just hope we don't have to repeat that again. I'm off here now, I need to get to bed so I can get up early to go over and see Andy, I've told him to call me if he has to be re-admitted ~ fingers crossed he doesn't.
Saturday night:
I called Andy this morning to make sure he was OK. He said he still ached much more than usual and the pain in his head was back. I told him to keep drinking and asked if he needed anything. He wanted a sack of potatoes so I picked them up on the way over there. He's been in bed since he got home yesterday, I've got a really bad feeling about this, I'm just praying he'll be OK by the time our holiday comes round. I'm worried about the head pains, sickle cell patients have a much higher chance of having a stroke.
I always feel like I'm in limbo when he's like this, just waiting to see what's going to happen. He's been lucky so far but I know that at 53yrs old he's past the age that sickle cell sufferers normally live. I just want him around longer, we've been together nearly twenty four years now, I don't know what I'd do without him.
Anyway, I've got to get on with some laundry and other mundane chores I had to put off earlier.
Sorry I haven't been around much but this is taking up all my time right now. I'll be back when Andy is well again ~ I hope it won't be too long this time.

Sunday morning entry

Saturday morning.
Brrrr! It's cold out there! The wind's howling and battering the windows and it's been raining on and off for most of the day.I finished my run of night shifts today. It's been very busy but I like it that way ~ makes the time go much faster! As I said in my last entry, I've been sleeping well, eight to nine hours a day, much better than facing the cold dark January days! At least at night you expect it to be cold and dark don't you?! Next week I'm back on day shift, it'll be nice to catch up on all my staff. This morning I got home at 7am, cold, wet and tired but I decided to go out again and get some shopping, Nina and Katinka were almost out of cat food and litter. I had to force myself to go, luckily the supermarket is only a two minute walk from here. I was back indoors by eight o'clock. I got to bed at 10am and set the alarm for three hours later. I didn't want to sleep too long or I'd never sleep tonight. that's the only problem with night work, it's difficult to get back into a routine when the week ends. Funny but working in the other hospital was OK except that I didn't really find my way around, it's a vast site, until last night! I actually found a way to get to the renal and cardiac wards without going outside, there's a honeycomb of tunnels underground to use and I finally managed to navigate them on my last night of working! Still, I'll know next time I cover the night shift! Maybe the gales and torrential rain helped me to find my way without going outside and getting soaked and blown over! A few days ago I had a letter from our travel agents telling us that we need to fill out some forms for our holiday. We start our Caribbean cruise in Miami and apparently the US have decided a visa waiver form isn't enough to gain entry to the States. We have to go to a website and download application forms to be filled in and remitted before we travel. I went to the site and found that I have to pay $49.95 to download the application form. I haven't done it yet but they say that the information you give must be exactly the same as what you put on the visa waiver ~ we still need to fill that in on the plane. It just seems a way of getting more money from us! After this horrible freezing cold winter I can't wait to get to the Caribbean, I've always wanted to go there, it sounds so laid back and wonderful.... palm fringed white sand beaches, gentle breezes, azure blue skies and ~best of all~ heat! A few days ago I thought I'd switched off the heating before I left for work. I came home the next morning and it was so hot indoors, I looked at the central heating switch and saw I'd turned the dial the wrong way, it was on the highest heat! Poor Katinka and Nina, they were both on the kitchen window ledge pressed against the cold glass trying to cool down! Poor souls thought mummy had gone loopy! Like all of you, I can't believe Nina is almost three now, it seems like yesterday I brought her home and took these photos of her on her first day here.

Well, it’s now Sunday morning, I was falling asleep while writing last night so succumbed and went to bed. It’s still wet and windy out there. I got up early to finish this before I go and see Andy, we worked together on Friday night which was nice. I never see him at work now as he only works night-time weekends. He’s in charge of the porters and I’m in charge of the housekeeping and catering side. It’s just about getting light outside now, it’ll be nice to see some daylight again but I want heat and sunshine too, not asking for much am I?! I went out a week ago and bought all my Christmas cards for this year! I’m going to get them written out during the year so I’m not too late to send them! Last Christmas was the first year that I didn’t send any due to working 14hrs a day plus weekend working but thank you to all of you who took the time to send me one, it was very much appreciated. The end of last year was manic so I’m trying not to leave things till the last minute this year. We’re already over halfway through January. We leave for our Caribbean cruise on April 2nd so I need to get that sorted first, it’ll be a joy to be packing sun tops and going to warmer climes!I added some photos of Nina and Katinka to my side bar which is at the bottom of the page as I don’t have a sidebar! I don’t know why they came up so big as it said it’d shrink them when it was uploading them.

Anyway, I’d better get off here now and add this to my journal, I typed it up in Word so I could add to it.

Have a great Sunday and stay warm! I wish I could stay indoors but Andy is expecting me!

Starting over again!

I'm starting this new journal in place of my old AOL one. All my photos that I'd added to the old journal weren't imported over when AOL decided they didn't want us anymore. There were a lot of gaps in it which I wasn't too happy about. My journal was about places I'd been to amongst other things and photos of the places I'd visited. Now I have a journal dedicated to my trips abroad I thought I'd start another general one and keep it public. Although I won't delete my old one I shan't be using it for posts now. I'm hoping this entry will save, I've just been practising on my practise journal and none of the text came up, just the photos I posted! Let's hope the text will show up on this!

Nina and Katinka have dropped by to say hi too! Katinka is five years old this year and 'little' Nina is turning into a big hairy monster who'll be three years old in March. Those who followed my old blog will remember when I brought her home, it doesn't seem like three years ago does it?

I have to get to bed now, I've been doing a night shift for almost two weeks. I've been sleeping surprisingly well, from 8am-5pm; nine hours a day! It's nice to sleep the cold dark January days away, I can highly recommend it!

Now let's see if the text shows up!