Pog Towers post

Posted on February 14, 2016 by thepogblog

I was going to write this post feeling entertained, but a tiny bit humphy that the only interesting mail to arrive at Pog Towers this week was for Norman….

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(It was in response to a card he had written to The Lovely Nut, obviously.)

But there was no need for Humphing. Norman has clearly got the hang of this posting malarkey…he just needs a little help. A short while ago I get a text from Sister 2. Norman had apparently asked her to tell me to check outside my front door. I did, and I found these:

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According to Sister 2, Norman had been all the way into town with his backpack to get me these Valentine’s things. I am a lucky Pog :o)

Posted in cats, Dating, Pog Life | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

A lightbulb moment

Posted on February 12, 2016 by thepogblog

This week I had a lightbulb moment.  Three to be specific.  The light in my electric fire went out so I replaced it (after consulting YouTube and Google to work out which end had to be unscrewed first.  This was a good plan as I would have definitely have gone for the back, had I just winged it, and that would have been all sorts of wrong).  Anyway, ten minutes later my outside light went pop and one of the two bathroom lights went at Christmas – but it’s such a bugger to change them, I’d been managing without.  I decided to tackle them all together, and after calling dad to check the possibility of electrocuting myself in the process was small (there was that incident a while back when I attempted electrical things in a way that, apparently, it’s surprising I am still around to tell the tale), I went on a lightbulb hunt.

It turned out the outside one wasn’t as tricky as I’d thought, so I sorted that one out quite quickly.  It was the bathroom one that I was dreading.  It involves standing on a chair, unscrewing three screws, and when you get to the last one trying to catch the wooden frame and piece of glass as it comes away from the ceiling.  I did that ok though, to my surprise.  I took out the bulb that had presumably found better things to do with its existence than be a light and rummaged in my washing up bowl (the place I keep random things that don’t fit in my man drawer) for a new bulb.  The dead bulb was 11 watts but I only had a 25 watt bulb that was the right shape so I thought I’d check for any guidance in the actual light.

Now, what you need to know is that my bathroom is in the middle of my house with no natural light.  I have had that light fitting for about eight years, and for eight years my bathroom has been dim, even after turning the light on.  Really dim.  So dim that I tend to put the light on a good 10 minutes before I use the bathroom in order to be able to see anything.  It’s always a little awkward when new people come over and I have to tell them that they need to wait a while for the light to do its thing before they do theirs.

Which is why it was really annoying to discover that I had misunderstood my light.  It wasn’t meant to have a combined wattage of 25; each bulb was supposed to be 25 watts.  I put the new lightbulb in, did the screwing-the-thing-to the-ceiling dance and hey presto!  I literally had light!  I can see in my bathroom after eight years of dimness.  I did only change the one bulb though – if I had two correct ones the brightness would just scare me…

So check your bulbs, it might not be thick glass or energy saving lightbulbs that are the problem, as I’d thought.  It could be a user error…

And in other news, I’ve finished my first ten dragons.  They’ll be off to a new home soon  :o)

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Posted in crochet, Pog Life | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Not The Waltons

Posted on February 9, 2016 by thepogblog

Every Sunday various combinations of Sister 1, Sister 2, Little Pea various other halves and I go to my parents house for Sunday dinner.  Mum cooks the main course and we take it in turns to make pudding, with varying degrees of success.  Every time I mention this to people they comment on how lovely it is.  I think they probably imagine The Waltons or some other sort of wholesome gathering.

This is my family though, and basically, what happens is a bit of chaos.  We all try to stand in the kitchen (which doesn’t fit more than two people – particularly when Mum is cooking) until we realise that this is a futile effort – we haven’t ever fitted in there so why should this particular Sunday be any different – and we start to spill into the dining room.  Last Sunday was no different.

I’d been unable to dress myself properly before I arrived, adding layer after layer – none of which matched – rather than swapping any of them for something warmer.  When I got there I discovered we were taking Little Pea to feed the local donkey and felt my layers weren’t sufficient, so borrowed another layer from Dad and added hat, scarf and gloves (none of them matched either).  Sister 2 arrived, looked at me and said ‘You look….homeless’.  I think this was a little unkind to homeless people, but feeling great about my personal style, we wandered to the donkey field.

When we got back and the migration to the dining room had started, Little Pea and I looked at books.  He was a bit cocky looking at the ‘baby’ books, naming each picture very fast.  I loved this though…

‘monkey, nest, yellows…’

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And then Grandad came to play with the finger puppets.

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He and Little Pea were having a great time until Little Pea got over excited and bit Grandad.  Grandad retaliated by pushing Little Pea away.  Little Pea fell over.

I intervened:

‘Grandad, say sorry to Little Pea’

‘He started it!’

‘Ok, Little Pea, say sorry to Grandad’

‘Sorry Grandad’

‘Grandad, now say sorry to Little Pea’

‘Sorry to Little Pea.  I’m not playing any more though.’

And he humphed off.  All was forgiven and forgotten though, as Little Pea decided he wasn’t going anywhere fast.

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And it kind of carries on like that…  So, not quite The Waltons, but I wouldn’t have it any other way :o)

Posted in Pog Life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Blood, sweat and…humphing

Posted on February 7, 2016 by thepogblog

I am like a child when it comes to going to bed: I don’t like to go early in case I miss out on something important. But yesterday I had another all day upholstery course and after quite a long week involving quite a lot of snot, I thought I would get an early night on Friday in preparation for leaving the house at 8.30am.

As I cleaned my teeth I heard that nose all humans owned by cats will recognise: the sound of a cat about to throw up. I located Norman just as he therew up all over my bedroom carpet. I cleaned up and got into bed a little later than planned, but still earlier that usual for a Friday night. 30 minutes later the cat flap clattered and Norman didn’t miaow as he came in, which is a signal that heprobably has something in his mouth. Sure enough, he had a mouse.  I chased him round the house, back out the cat flap and got back into bed again. It wasn’t to last. 10 minutes later there was another clatter, another lack of miaow and this time he got under my bed before I could get to him. Shining a torch on the pair, I realised that 1) Norman had dropped mousey and 2) mousey was still alive – actually unhurt – but presumably so terrified he couldn’t move. To cut a long story short, after 30 minutes with a mixing bowl and the long Hoover attachment I had mousey safely in the bowl. I then had to convince Norman I was releasing him in the front garden, leave Norman there to run to the back and release mousey in the Norman free back garden. I let Norman back in the front door and got back into bed. 10 minutes later Norman, presumably due to the excitement, threw up again. Some kitchen roll, Vanish carpet cleaner and a scrubbing brush later, I finally made it into bed at 1am. Feeling very humphy and a bit sweaty.

I was a bit humphy on the upholstery course too, the sewing machine didn’t like me and I spent a fair amount of time swearing at it between accidentally stabbing myself with a huge needle and getting blood over my chair in the making. I learned to do piping though, and although I have still not finished my chair (another cause of my humphing), I did some more last night and this morning and I am very slowly getting there. This chair contains my blood, sweat and humphs. At least there were no tears though :o)

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Posted in cats, upholstery | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

I’ll never be a YouTube star

Posted on February 5, 2016 by thepogblog

Last night I thought I’d try to be helpful.  I’d recently told Mum and Dad about a duvet trick I’d seen online (it’s been around forever, looking at the dates of posts – we may well be the only three people in the world unaware of it) and last night I needed to change my bedding.  ‘I know!’ I thought ‘I’ll video me doing the duvet trick and send it to them.’  Why I didn’t just send them one of the many YouTube links out there, I don’t know.

It didn’t go to plan.  Not only did I get confused, but…well, it made my parents laugh, even if it might not have taught them how to change their duvet cover.  This was the end result (skip to around 1 minute 20 if you’re short of time):

(Before you watch, please know that:

  1. I’d just got in from work and changed into slouchy clothes and I didn’t even look in the mirror to consider hair or make up
  2. I wasn’t anticipating anyone other than family to see this
  3. The reason I suddenly keep looking at the camera a lot around 1:30 is because I was starting to anticipate what happened at around 2 minutes)

If you want vastly better instructions on the duvet trick (which actually saves heaps of time, even when you’re as rubbish at it as I am), here’s one of the links I should have sent my parents :o)

Posted in cats, Pog Life | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

A smile challenge instead?

Posted on February 2, 2016 by thepogblog

I never post my opinion about bigger things on here, mainly because I am scared people will disagree and I am a coward.  It’s a lot easier just to let people laugh at me.  I’m going to try it though.  Not exactly an opinion.  More a suggestion, because I’ll always be a coward :o)

So….Let’s get one thing straight: Anyone who is a Mummy has my utter respect.  I have trouble controlling Norman cat; I could never manage a little person.  I definitely couldn’t manage the little person growing into a teenager.  Just the idea gives me palpitations.

That said, I never imagined getting to this age without children.  It is how it is though, and I love the fact that I can stay up late without knowing I’m be woken at silly o’clock at the weekend, that I can do classes on a whim without taking anyone else into consideration and I can have dairylea on toast for my dinner without worrying about getting 5 a day into the tummy of anyone else.

So the while the Motherhood challenge ‘thing’ doing the rounds at the moment (posting 3-5 photos that make you happy to be a mother) is lovely to see – just as every photo of my friend’s children is –  it does make a teeny bit of me sad too, because, for whatever reason, not everyone is part of that club.

Sister 1 posted on Facebook about it today in a slightly shouty, sweary way, but she hit the nail on the head:

‘…why throw it in the faces of people who maybe are unable to have children, those who have suffered a loss that we know nothing about, those who have been trying for years and we know nothing about their struggles, those people begging to have a baby but can’t…’

(I took the shouty, sweary bits out.  Sister 1 doesn’t tend to sit on the fence on the things she feels strongly about….)

Mummies make the world go round and I am not disputing that.  It’s just… maybe we should all be a bit sensitive on a subject that impacts people way more than we might be aware of.

People make judgments that those of you who are mums might not be aware of and they do add up.  My highlights were when I was informed that ‘As you’re not a Mum, you can’t possibly understand what love is’.  Really?  It might be different, but does not having a child invalidate any kind of love I have ever felt?  And from someone who had met me minutes before and started the conversation with the usual ‘Do you have children?’  When I said no, she followed up with ‘How old are you?  Oh, it’s ok.  If you’re quick you might just have time to have one’.

For some people it’s a choice, for some the right time and the right person never got coordinated, but for some it’s a lot more complicated than that.  I’m not making some declaration that nobody should join this particular challenge.  Just maybe be a bit gentle with friends – you don’t know what you don’t know.

And to finish on a smile, I’m going to suggest that we start a new Facebook thingy, Pog style.  Post three things to your profile that make you smile.  Everyone can join in this one and maybe it will make everyone a bit more smiley….what do you think? Here are mine:

:o)

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1) Having a Norman cat who has taken to staring at me in bed, even when I turn the light out

2) Living in Bumpkinsville

2) Living in Bumpkinsville

3) Having a family incapable of a selfie

3) Having a family incapable of a selfie

Posted in opinion | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Dragons and uneven stripes

Posted on January 31, 2016 by thepogblog

When I crochet I like things to be symetrical.  This doesn’t aways work, especialy if I’m making up the pattern but the intention at least, is that things should match.  At the end of last year Sister 2 saw this on Facebook and thought I should try it:

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Basically, you assign each ball of wool a temperature range and crochet one row a day, based on what the thermometer (or the BBC weather app) says.  So I changed the temperatures slightly to make them more Bumpkinsville appropriate, found some similar wool, and then got slightly twitchy when I realised this was going to look very, very random and I had no control over it.  But I’m getting over the trauma and have finished January:

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I have developed a slightly unhealthy interest in the temperature, discussing with Norman that it ‘would have looked a lot better if it was a Petrol day rather than Storm Blue’, but he doesn’t seem too worried, so I am trying to be more cat about it.  There’s a way to go, but when it’s finished and I’ve added a boarder, I’ll have a third blanket to go on top of my duvet:

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And in other crochet news, I’m a small way through making whatever the term is for a lot of dragons:

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These are destined for new homes where I hope the bravery dragons are known for comes in useful.  I’ll save that story for another time though :o)

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Posted in Bumpkinsville, crochet | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

All in a bit of a muddle

Posted on January 29, 2016 by thepogblog

A few weeks ago in yoga I finally thought to ask, when rolling on your back with my knees tucked in, if everyone have issues with their ‘edges’.  I get to a certain point and it gets a bit ouchy and feels like I’ll tip over.  The teacher explained that I had a huge, very heavy pelvis and rolling around on it could create the tipping feeling.  Realising how her explanation had come out she assured me that it wasn’t just me with a huge pelvis – just that it is a huge bone and everyone has similar issues.  Hmmm.

Nobody nodded or murmured in agreement though, so I whispered to the girl next to me to ask if she had issues with her edges.  Something was lost in translation and she looked a bit surprised:  ‘Do I have urges?!’  That was it.  We both promptly got the giggles.

It’s not just spoken words that get me in a pickle though.  My boss at work had asked me to put together quite a big project and I spent a lot of last week working on it.  I was quite proud of the result – I had prepared a really comprehensive report giving my recommendations and the positives and negatives for each item.  I had a meeting to talk him though it.  I was sounding professional.  I was looking professional.  He might start to see me in some sort of professional light – nothing had gone wrong.  Nothing until we got right to the last page.

‘Um…what is this referring to?’ he asked as he pointed at the positive for a particular suggestion.

I can only assume I’d got into yoga retreat mode as I wrote it.  It read:

‘+ve:  Would demonstrate transparency across the bunnies and between leaders and employees.’

I have no idea where these bunnies came from, but I am betting with their running and hopping they don’t have huge, very heavy pelvises. :o)

Norman in a wool muddle

Norman in a wool muddle

Posted in cats, Pog Life, work, yoga | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Bendy to (almost) broken

Posted on January 26, 2016 by thepogblog

On Sunday afternoon, after 11 hours of yoga over the previous 48, I was feeling very stretched, bendy and relaxed.  Today (with an additional fitball class last night), I can barely move.  And I have another 1.5 hours of yoga this evening; I may not be able to move from my bed tomorrow morning.  It was worth it though – the yoga retreat of the weekend was fantabulous.  A few highlights (some of which you may need to have been there to appreciate) are as follows:

  • Having really good vegetarian food cooked for you for a whole weekend is great. It’s not so great for anyone unfortunate enough to be practicing yoga close to me – particularly the evening session held an hour or so after vegetable curry.
  • It’s great being in such a quiet environment. It’s worth remembering though, that other people may be standing quietly behind a wall when you decide to sing along loudly to ‘Luka’ which was playing on the kitchen radio as you passed.
  • Ditto the above when those vegetables get the better of you. It was the same person who heard both….
  • Best line of the weekend from my lovely, very gentle yoga teacher while trying to demonstrate a breathing thing: ‘I’m sorry, that was a terribly girly ‘Huh’. I’m looking for more of an angry bear HUUUUH.’
  • Second best line from my lovely yoga teacher: ‘Would you like me to take you now?’
  • Circling the biggest walled gardens in the county more than once before locating the (huge) door.
  • Discovering that I can revert to being a three year old in seconds when I managed to do my very first honey pot head balance and shouted for the teacher to watch me. (I was really proud of myself, ok?).
  • Spending two days trying to learn how to say the name of one lady, before informing her that ‘I think I’ll have to call you something else’. (Luckily the lady is lovely and said as long as she knew what the something else was, she was ok with that).
  • Finding out I am capable of not talking for a short while. We were asked to be silent for the early morning session and into breakfast.  My friends looked at me and laughed when this was suggested, but I did it!  And I quite enjoyed it.  It was only a couple of hours though, and I’m not sure I’d manage it again.

If anyone wants to join me for stretching, singing, farting, getting lost, reverting to a child, talking lots, being silent a little, laughing frequently and doing a spot of yoga, mindfulness and meditation next January, I’ll be going back (if the teachers let me…) :o)

Anyway, here are some photos of the amazing place and some of the lovely people to give you a bit more of an idea.

Cedar Cottage - the entrance to my room

Cedar Cottage – the entrance to my room

My room

My room – it was almost as big as Pog Towers!

 

My view

My view

The rose garden

The rose garden

The library fireplace

The library fireplace

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Posted in holiday, yoga | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

A little break and a little pep talk

Posted on January 22, 2016 by thepogblog

I am so excited.  In a few hours I’ll be leaving for a short yoga retreat.  Am I jetting off to sunnier places?  Um no.  I’m going (according to Google maps) 18 minutes away from my house.  But that’s ok with me.  I went there a few years ago and it was so relaxing and stretchy, I know it will feel like I am a million miles away.  Except for the rain, of course.  I imagine that wont stop so close to home.

I’ve packed – and added a few extras (I couldn’t be too healthy – my body would probably collapse in shock).

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And once I’ve posted this I’ll log off and start relaxing.   I was told this week that I am ‘quite eccentric’.  I’m not sure how to take that, but I’ve given myself a pep talk, based on the fact I already only know one other person who’ll be there and would quite like to make a sensible impression on new people.   I’ve decided there are two main things to remember:

  1. When people start talking about their children (as they always do), unless I can keep the pretence up for the whole weekend, I must not talk about Norman as if he is a small child.  Last time that happened – when I had Charlie and Norman –  I got part way through a conversation before I realised that I’d unintentionally created that impression but couldn’t work out how to correct things without looking like a loon.  It turned out I ended up having to admit to it when the lady I was talking to asked who I was looking after them while I was away.  I’d already told her that ‘my boys’ were two, and without thinking, I answered the childcare question with ‘oh, they’re on their own at home – someone is just popping in to feed them later’.
  2. To keep the conversation about knickers in my head.  It’s a mystery to me what underwear people wear for yoga that comfortably stay where they should with all the stretching, bending and twisting involved.  The girl I am next to in our usual classes copes very well when I mumble that I’ve ‘got the wrong bloody knickers on again’, but the people this weekend might not be as lovely and able to cope with my over sharing.

So I’ll do my best.  Hopefully I’ll be relaxed and stretchy very soon. Maybe I’ll have even met some new people who don’t think I’m eccentric :o)

Posted in cats, yoga | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments