El Día de los Santos Inocentes

One odd thing about this time of year is that yesterday, El Día de los Santos Inocentes (day of the innocents) is the equivalent of our April Fools day. As the day is to commemorate the killing of the babies by Herod, marking the occasion by jokes seems a little strange.

A Creative Year

In preparation for my About.com contract not being renewed, I've been planning a daily creative challenge called A Creative Year cr8365, which I'm hosting on my Away With The Pixels site. The aim is for people to draw, sketch, doodle, paint something every day, even if it's just spending a couple of minutes on something, and I'm positioning it as a good place for beginners to come to build confidence and skills in a friendly atmosphere. Everyone is welcome to join in!

As it turns out, my contract was renewed, but I decided to proceed with a Creative Year as it's a good idea and it doesn't hurt to have a few more strings to our bows.

We also got our international VAT number today too, so we can proceed full speed ahead now with Modme.

Cada Dia and Mini Golf

Ian was surprised to see that the local supermarket has turned into a Cada Dia, which is a small version of Dia supermarket0
3+6-. It is the same people who are running it, and I think they must have taken on a Dia franchise. I was thinking about whether this is good or bad news, and concluded that it must be good news because they obviously have enough confidence in the village to commit to a franchise, and likewise Dia must believe that they have a solid enough costumer base to allow them to take the franchise. The range of food is now different, but the costs are lower. One thing we don't know is whether they will still stock local produce in the summer.

And I was surprised to see more building work by the padel court. On closer investigation it turns out that the council's latest initiative is a mini-golf course! The village now has an outdoor gym, indoor gym, sports hall, tennis court, basketball/football court, volleyball court, padel court, so I guess they were getting pretty stuck for new things to build - but even so, mini-golf seems like a strange option. I can see it being popular, however, as it's quite a social thing (plenty of chat opportunity without having to run around).

This does rather suggest that the village is in good shape - hopefully it will help to entice buyers.

Kate and the Cross Eyed Cheese Man

Last week, during class crossover time, I was stood in the hall saying goodbye to one of my students, Olga, when a man popped his head round the door and started talking to Olga. I assumed he was a family member or something, as it isn't unusual for people to pop in and out with messages, so I paid no attention and just milled around waiting for them to finish so I could shut the door.

After a while it became silent and I was aware that Olga was looking at me, and the man started all over again. This time I listened in and I must admit I did think it was strange that the man was asking Olga if she wanted to buy any goat's cheese - and I also wondered why Olga was looking at me for approval.

I then realised with horror that the man was cross eyed and had been talking to me all along. He naturally assumed I was a little crazy and started to address Olga instead hoping to get more sense from her than from me, making things even more confusing, something along the lines of 'does the mad woman want any goat's cheese' to which Olga replied she didn't know. And luckily I started to get the gist of things by that time and I said I'd check.

Having regained some control over the situation I shouted out to Ian to ask if we wanted any cheese, and he replied that we had three in the fridge he didn't think we wanted any more. I thought this was a little odd, as I could not remember seeing three cheeses in the fridge, and I was certain I would have remembered buying them. I asked Ian if he thought we should get one for Christmas and he replied that it wasn't his favourite thing, and he wasn't particularly keen on getting one for Christmas. Increasingly having an Alice in Wonderland feeling, I queried Ian's apparent sudden dislike of cheese - while also thinking our festive cheese feast was going to be a bit disappointing this year. It transpired that Ian thought I said 'aubergine'. Although I really don't know how 'goats cheese' came out as sounding anything like 'aubergine'.

The cheese man looked on with bemusement - obviously regretting his decision to call - as we appeared to be debating with much vigor whether to buy a cheese.


Eventually we said yes, and with much trepidation the poor man asked what type we wanted, obviously thinking that he was about to initiate another bout of confusion. Happily by that time we'd used up our confusion quota for the day and I was able to say we wanted a mature one which he was able to deliver and disappear with much relief.

I am guessing we won't be seeing him again in a hurry!!!

Nativity

I've been putting our nativity scene out - several times - this week. I let the youngsters put it out which entails a lot of debate - not least because I include the witch.

Holidays!

Another thing that takes a bit of getting used to is how the two holidays at the start of December - Constitution day and the day of the immaculate conception - result in shops being shut so close to Christmas. This year, falling as they have, the shops will have been shut for three days because shops are shut on Sunday anyway. Of course, with the main present giving time not being until January 6th, the build up to the festivities is still someway off.

The weather has got colder over the last couple of days, with a frost appearing on the roof of the barn. We haven't lit a fire yet as the house isn't too cold yet (but we have put the curtains up over the doors again which help to keep the house warm), but I guess it won't be too far away now. Hopefully the fire will start up again without too much smoke!

When is Christmas Day?

I never cease to be amazed that children here do not know when Christmas Day is - I continually forget and take it for granted that everyone knows that Christmas Day is the 25th. Yesterday, in my class at the school, I gave the children (11 and 12 year olds) a quiz about Christmas and not one of them knew when Christmas Day was, which rendered the other questions, such as what is the day before Christmas Day obsolete too. They do know, however, Noche Buena (the good night) which is Christmas Eve and a big family celebration. Christmas Day is pretty much just the recovery day after Christmas Eve. It is the tradition to eat late at night on Christmas Eve, with people sitting down to eat 10 or 11 or even later - after mass at the church - in big family groups of 20 or so.

I guess if I asked a similar class in England when 3 Kings Day was, they'd be similarly mystified (or  probably more so. Interestingly, the village nativity play is in January - which makes sense if it is the 3 Kings which are the focus rather than Father Christmas.

I only have one class left at school this year, as next Monday is Day of the Immaculate Conception, and therefore a holiday. I'm trying to think of a non-messy Christmas craft I can do with them - as I am using a classroom, and with memories of the havoc previous Christmas crafty sessions rendered on our house, it had better be something without glitter or chocolate.

A New Potential New Home

We saw the details of THIS FARMHOUSE and have added it to our list of potential places we might like to live. It is in the olive producing area of Jaen (as you can see by the olive trees in the photo) which is in Andalucia. It is by the side of a newish embalse - I think it was finished in 1997, but I don't know if this is the date when the building work was finished or when it was completely filled with water which takes a number of years.

The property details are sparse, however if the house is liveable it would have quite a lot going for it. It appears to be a couple of kilometers away from a lively looking village with a couple of big towns within a reasonable drive - and Malaga airport just over a couple of hours a way.

Bouncing Bobbins

Bobbins surprised us recently by a sudden spurt in the growth of her legs. She now looks a tad less like a little barrel and more like a little dog. She's now probably as tall as Tinkerbelle (albeit a completely different build).  Her new longer legs open up all sorts of opportunities for her, and it is not unusual to see a little Bobbins head appearing as she tried to clamber onto the sofa or bed. She has also found that she can jump - and when she does she bounces up and down, you'd just need the cartoon caption to say 'boing' each time for the complete cartoon effect.

She has also started to run round in circles too - like Millie, however she does circuits around Ian at meal times. It is quite funny to watch. Bobbins is such a sweet little dog, it's impossible not to smile at her.

Without a doubt Queenie remains, through the strong competition, our most odd dog. Life to her appears to be one big exciting venture, especially rounding up her collection of logs which she does with gusto and little piles of chewed logs appear in various places throughout the day. We are used to it now, however my students often ask what the crash noises are, as Queenie drops a chew or log onto the floor and then runs off to get another.

I had some new Modme prototypes arrive this week. I had to make some amendments to the designs so I wanted to get them made before I get them ordered in bulk. I also tested some different density of dyes to see what colour range I can achieve. Still nothing from the tax office about the international VAT number. I checked again to see if I can find a company in Spain I can use, but I can't find anyone with competitive pricing. Ian has arrange for some samples of boxes to look at to package Modmes in. I had found a German company which makes boxes which a company I buy jewellery supplies from uses, however these are quite utilitarian. The samples which are coming are boxes which are used by printers to send business cards to customers in and are deeper so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

Lurgy #1

Well, one week into autumn weather and I was rendered lurgy-ridden, no doubt by germy students. Having spent what feels like most of last winter battling some lurgy or other, I had meant to get a flue-jab this year but forgot. Still, this first lurgy bout is early, even by my recent winter woes. It's a bit annoying as it knocks me for six - well either the lurgy or the lem-sip-alikes. But it appears that I go to bed one week to reappear 10 days later. I'm hoping that the early bout of it will increase my resistance for the rest of the winter.

I started teaching in the school last week. I am taking a class of year 6 primary, which would be the equivalent of year 1 secondary in the UK. There are 11 of them, mixed ability, and, given that I could hardly talk, I think the class went OK. 5 of the class were students of mine anyway so I sort of knew the level I was aiming for.

We were surprised last week by a visit from the tax man. The one upside of our limited income is that we rarely bother the tax man - and visa versa, which I guess may have been the reason why the visit was triggered. The visit was part of the process of getting an international VAT number. He wanted to see that Ian had a valid reason for applying for it, which meant Ian had to present Modmes to the tax man. Although he wasn't prepared for this, happily the hours of me boring Ian with latest Modme snippets bore fruit and he was able to present them well, at least I read the tax man's notes afterwards and he appeared to get the gist of them. I guess we now have to wait. It might mean a change in business classification for Ian, who is registered as a web designer currently, however both the tax man and the account seem flummoxed as to what category Modmes come into - so they may decide it is easier to leave them where they are.

Poor Bobbins went into the vet for her sterilization operation only to come home again because Ian mentioned that she was passing blood in her poo, and the vet didn't want to operate until this was cleared. We guess she has some sort of parasite.

It Might Be Time to Light the Fire

I think that may be my best chance of getting my chair back - making the floor the most attractive place to be.

##¡¡????***** - You Can't Say That In Spanish

One of the joys of teaching English to teenagers (and to adults actually) is correcting the grammatical errors in their clumsy attempts to swear.  One of the things we can thank our Saxon heritage for is the rich range of swearing we have - it really makes the Spanish language's ability to swear look very weedy. I think the difference is that in Spanish they can use nouns and exclaim (mainly to exclaim or as an insult), whereas languages with the Saxon influence find that not only do they have nouns and exclamations, we can also use swear words as verbs, adjectives and adverbs. I along time ago decided address the use of swear words in a neutral manner (applying what I think are BBC standards) as there's no point in people learning advanced level English if they aren't going to recognize it in real life situations, so when they use a swearword in a grammatically incorrect way, I correct them. I also think that explaining the grammatical inaccuracies of their swearing also takes some of the mystique out of it.

I did finish a long tirade to Ian, venting my computer-directed frustrations, which probably would not be suitable for delicate ears with 'and they couldn't say that in Spanish'!

More Modmes

Here are some more Modme pics. These are samples which I've made using patterns I've written and I think the round and square Modmes will be part of the launch range.

These show the new backs that I have made for the Modmes. I didn't want them to look too open at the back, however they need to be stacked together for economical printing. The one on the left shows where I designed the Modme logo which shows inside, the other has a back which is produced separately and clicks in. We decided to go with the one on the right. It was a little tricky to make the design, however I think it makes a much better finish.

Hello Mr Grumpy Head

Alfie can be such a little grump. Here he is expressing his displeasure at being joined by Millie.

Spinning Bobbins

I was doing some spinning on my spinning wheel with two treddles, but I was just using my right foot to give my ankle some exercise. I was aware that it was becoming heavier and I looked down and Bobbins was sat on the other treddle, happily going up and down as I was spinning. She obviously misunderstood the fact that a bobbin is essential to spinning.

She is such a cartoon dog, she only needed Pirata to be sat with a frying pan hitting her over the head as she merrily went up and down to complete the picture!

Silent Night

Well, no one could be more surprised than me to find that Ian has written all of the last month's blog posts. Time to pull my finger out again...

I noticed the other night that we now have silent nights (except for an extremely loud and annoying insect in the street, whose chirrup reverberated around the house). I was drawn to this fact by noticing that I was aware that Queenie was barking and grumbling during the night and I realised this was something she hadn't done for a while. We'd actually turned the light in the hall off that we leave on for her and it seems that she still needs the light on for her to find her way round at night. I also noticed that Bobbins no longer gets 'stuck' outside. I am sure that it was only a couple of weeks ago that she barked during the night to be rescued from the top of a step, however she has got the hang of jumping (as much as a dog of her physique) up and down steps with aplomb. She has even managed to climb onto the sofa which was quite a surprise.

Classes have started again. I have three new little girls, one new adult and the two new students who joined during the summer are continuing - one adult, one teenager (cousins). I think that I'm currently at 21 hours of classes, and I hope not to take on any more. The new adult is a lady from Usagre, and she is a lady shepherd! She took over the sheep/olive farm from her father. She works for the cooperative in Usagre which is responsible for processing and selling their products. She learned Italian a few years ago and was responsible for selling the sheep wool to another cooperative in Italy, and she's learning English because she wants to try selling the olive oil to England - obviously she couldn't sell the olive oil to Italy as this would be like coals to Newcastle.

Plans are still progressing, albeit slowly, on the Modme front. I am waiting for an European VAT number which means we can buy things from other European countries net of VAT which will obviously be tremendously helpful. It's taking a long time, and we're sort of at am empass, as I don't want to progress with buying things like boxes or actual Modmes until we have this number.

Annoyingly, the 3d print company I was going to use adjusted their prices. They said they went down by 75% for over half of their clients. Needless to say I was in the other half and found the prices went up by 300%! They have changed their charging method to the amount of machine space you use, so by better preparing the files I could reduce the cost. However, I also found another company in Belgium whose prices were significantly lower. So what started off as a mini disaster, ended with an upside. Which is both nice and unusual for us.

We are both continuing to miss Petal - and so is Tinkerbelle. Poor Tinks can't decide who is going to be her buddy now. She has tried snuggling up to most of the others, but doesn't seem to have found a favourite yet.

Goodbye Petal

Unfortunately Petal's condition deteriorated over the last few days after she stopped eating on Sunday. She saw the vets on Tuesday when she was looking quite weak, but Joanna was still positive that she could bounce back. Her diet became pureed dog meat and last night we felt quite positive too as she seemed quite bright and alert.

However, this morning she seemed weaker than Tuesday and she bought back up most of the liquid food syringed into her. She was due back to the vets this morning and during the examination, it became clear she also had a large tumour growing and her blood pressure was low. There wasn't anymore that could be done for her then.

There have been several times during her treatment when we felt that she may have reached the end, but she kept bouncing back and dealing with the problems thrown at her. She took to the Petalmobile with no problems at all, once persented with frankfurters to chase. At the vets, she happily scooted around to say hello to other dogs and those waiting.

Joanna had been very encouraged by the way she took to her cart and believed that we could give her a reasonable life still - she'd been contacting people with experience of dealing with paralysed animals for advice and also looking at alternative therapies. She was clearly surprised by Petal's condition today and disappointed that there wasn't more that they could do.

While we're obviously sad, we can be grateful for the fact that while Petal was poorly for some weeks, she remained bright and positive throughout, even when faced with having to learn to drive so late on in life.

Another Pretender to My Throne

I'm not sure who's most horrified by Millie's interest in our chair (nee my chair) - Alfie, Dumpling or myself.

Harvey

For some reason today I found myself thinking about the James Stewart film Harvey. No idea why.

Petalmobile Mk2

Following closely on the heels of the Petalmobile Mk1.1, the short lived variation we created yesterday with a revised harness, we now present the Petalmobile Mk2.

I had suspected the rear frame should be more upright to reduce the weight on Petal's shoulders, but her back feet also need to be lifted clear of the ground, so it's a bit of a compromise.

Anyway, we visited the vets this morning and after talking to Joanna, this afternoon has been spent trying several variations before reaching the Mk2 version you see. The difference isn't obvious, but it is now more upright. I need to improve the foot rest and fit new straps. If this then gets Joanna's approval, we'll remove the tape and use glue for the joints and neaten all the padding too. Perhaps we'll even paint it if the news is positive at her appraisal in two weeks.

The Petalmobile Goes To The Vet

Poor Petal has been dealt a cruel blow. Having improved so much that she was pretty much her normal self, as Ian wrote in his blog post, she is now paralyzed at the back legs, because she had a swelling on her spine which affected the nerves to her back legs. We're pretty pragmatic when it comes to the health and life of our animals, and we both independently decided that we normally know when it is the time for us to say good bye to them, and that it was not the right time yet for Petal - she's just too happy and well to be put to sleep. A month ago it would have been a different story.

We decided that as long as she is well, we're not going to have her put to sleep 'just' because she can't use her back legs. The vet seemed happy with our decision and has advised us on the construction of the Petalmobile. Today we had to take it in so they could see how it looked and we have some amendments to do before they are happy with it.

In the vet Petal was going up to other dogs and saying hello, wandering around the waiting room, saying hello to other people - really being the center of attention! People say how quickly animals adapt to their new condition and Petal is proof of it. Although she still has a way to go before she is completely settled, she certainly seems more like the old Petal.

We've decided, on the advice of the vet, to stop any treatment to try to get her back legs to work. They were using strong anti-flamatories, which could cause long term problems. After 15 days we are going to take her back and the vet will check her and see how she is then. If she is in good shape we will continue to care for her as a disabled dog. If she has any problems (it's likely to be her kidneys), then we will make a decision based on this information at the time.

Petalmobile Mk1

While Petal appears to have been responding to treatment for leishmania, unfortunately she has other problems to contend with that are related. Her left eyeball has swollen from increased internal pressure and the treatment for that over the last couple of weeks hasn't been successful, with the cornea now probably damaged beyond repair. Even more problematic has been problems in her spine that are typical in older dogs, but have been exacerbated by her condition. This has led to the loss of use of her back legs, though she still has sensation in the toes and tail.

Hence the photo of the Heath Robinson contraption above - the Petalmobile Mk1. Using tips from some sites online, this is built from uPVC piping, various bits of padding and duct tape. The tape is a temporary thing while we test the design to check it works ok.

So far, so good. Petal has proven to be mobile in it and able to move about. She even navigated her way down a step, though that wasn't planned. When we're happy with the design, we'll remove the tape and glue it together, however, it's possible we'll reduce the height so that her feet are on the ground in the hope if may force her to exercise her legs a bit.

She has to see the vet tomorrow morning and so we're now deciding whether to take the Petalmobile with us then. We probably will as they may be able to offer advice, though I can just imagine the faces!

Petal Update

Well, there isn't anything to update really, which in itself must be good news. We think she is much more lively and perkier. She seemed to go downhill quickly after we went to the vet the first time, but perhaps that was her body adjusting to the medicine. And since then she has picked up dramatically, but that was from a very low point. She is eating well too - for Petal, although we are feeding her three times a day, as she seems to eat the same amount per meal whether she has one or three meals a day. But what we don't know is what is going on inside her and if her kidneys are failing. But only time can tell us that.

...and we're still waiting for rain! The forecast rain didn't appear on Sunday and there were about half a dozen spots yesterday - not enough for one rain drop per patio tile, and what did fall was laden with dust.

I don't have classes now till October which is great! It's so nice not to be tied so rigidly. But come October I start six days a week again, which I'd rather not do, but then neither do I want to work past nine at night so that's the only way I can fit it in. Most of the private tutors I know offer classes until 11 at night, which I know now is why people used to double check the times I gave them for morning classes in the summer!!

Introducing modme

Here's our latest project. It's quite exciting as it's something I've been thinking about for ages and it looks like we're really in a position to make it happen. It's a range of 'things' that can be modified with knitting, crochet etc to make jewellery and decorations. We have given them the name 'modme'.

These are a pair of modmes which have been modified with crochet (ignore the website address, we couldn't register modme.com as someone already has that address). Our plan is to sell the base modme shapes which people can then modify themselves.

It's taken a few steps to get this far. This was the first modme prototype and I had it 3d printed. The quality was great for prototyping but not for the finished product. You can see the ridges, which was part of the 3d printing process.

I designed the modmes in 3d and this is an example of the 3d model and the photo below is of the finished modme made into earrings. The finished products will also be 3d printed, however they are made using a process called SLS which is selective laser sintering. Nylon powder is lasered to melt into shape. The end result is matte, slightly rough and amazingly strong. We tried to break a modme and were unable to do so using normal strength. The modmes come in white so I am dying them to make them coloured. I used normal wool dye for these, however I have spoken with the dye company who have recommended a special type of dye for dying nylon and I am getting some of these to try.



These earrings were also modded with crochet. I have designed some square sided modmes which will work with knitting (although I do have designed a couple of patterns knitting around a round modme).

This is a flower modme. Here it is made into a snowflake - perhaps it could be used for Christmas decorations? However modded in a different way it could look completely different. I didn't dye this modme, one material option is something called alumnide, which is nylon and aluminum powder combined.

This project would have been impossible - well not feasible - without 3d modeling and 3d printing. 3d printing offers us the opportunity to manufacture modmes but in really tiny numbers. It is low cost as you only pay for what you produce - there's no moulds or dyes to be made or minimum production runs. So for once, I've been able to take one of my pie in the sky ideas and turn it into something tangible!

One of the problems with caring for a non-greedy poorly dog...

is ensuring they eat enough. Because Petal's kidney's aren't working properly, the vet wants to avoid giving her any unnecessary pills to help her anemia, relying instead on food. However, because Petal isn't a greedy dog it's quite difficult to ensure she eats enough. She self regulates her food and eats when she is hungry, and because she is feeling poorly, she's not feeling very hungry. Also, I think that crunchy food, or food she has to chew, is painful for her because of the inflammation around her eyes, however she doesn't seem to like liver, either raw or cooked, even when it was chopped up like particularly gruesome baby food. She does seem to like frankfurter sausages, which she seems to swallow lumps of without chewing, and chicken. We bought her some non-cheap tinned dog food (it's actually quite difficult to find good quality dog food outside of the big supermarkets) which she also ate, but I had to chop it up for her.

So we're having to entice her to eat. She's actually eating very well, particularly by Petal standards. I wish she'd have eaten the liver as this has more iron (certainly more iron than the frankfurters which are, I believe, mainly sawdust). However we're hoping that any food will give her energy and the more energy she has the more appetite she may also have.

Petal's not quite as bad as Henry, who was completely non-plussed about food. Whereas we could have trained Bob to do handstands if he thought there was a mere crumb of a dog biscuit at the end of it, Henry was very unimpressed. He would come and sniff the food, lick it half heartedly and if he wasn't hungry, he'd just walk away.

I think I would describe Bob as being optimistic about food. He could spend days looking at the fridge if he thought that a cat biscuit had fallen behind it, and as we know, he also once climbed onto the fridge looking  for the cat food. Although he had never been fed in the morning, it didn't stop him faithfully following the big dogs to the garage gate every morning in case we suddenly remembered that he was supposed to have breakfast after all. He would stare intently at the food on the table, willing it to fall on the floor. This was exacerbated by the fact that once a gust of wind blue a bag of crisps off the table when he was giving them his Bob-stare, and from then on he was convinced of his super powers.

Petal seems brighter, her eye isn't closed now, which it was. She had seemed quite sad when  she was on the patio earlier this week, however I wonder if that was where the bright sunlight was hard on her swollen eyes. But only time will tell...

Rain is forecast for tomorrow and for the start of next week - and this is the first rain we've had in months. I don't think it's rained since we've had Bobbins, perhaps no rain since June? I had a quick look to see if I could see anything about it being a dry summer, but I just saw on a weather site that it said that it was a dryer than normal summer in the Badajoz region, but didn't qualify this by saying what normal was. Still, wonder how long it will be before we're moaning about the rain!

Hopeful News About Petal

We've just come back from the vet. The swelling around Petals eye had got noticeably worse over the last 24 hours, so I assumed it was a tumor and that it was an indication that she was deteriorating rapidly. We also have to give her fluid drips and Ian was unable to make it work this morning so she needed a new thing put in.

The vet said that the swelling around Petal's eye was an inflammation and not a tumor. The vet said the inflammation was painful, so that could explain why Petal was a little subdued yesterday.

However what was really significant is that she has leishmania and NOT lymphoma. If we didn't think that she had lymphoma then we'd have been pretty devastated by the diagnoses of leishmania as it can be a killer disease, however dogs can get better from this whereas lymphoma is fatal. The symptons are apparently identical, so they said they were testing for lymphoma and I think that we must have assumed that, later when we went back to get Petal and they gave us the treatment, that what they were treating was the lymphoma they'd said they'd tested for. And from then on we were hearing 'lymphoma' instead of leishmania. So while it is bad, it is not as bad as we had thought.

Anyway, the lumps are swellings and not tumors. She has anemia and her kidneys are struggling - however if she was a young dog she would have a very good chance of recovering, but in an older dog the chances are reduced, however she does have a chance. I guess when they were describing the symptoms of kidney failure it was so we knew what to look for, not saying that it was 100% going to happen.

I am so glad that the swelling around her eyes is an inflammation and not a tumor. She's eating well (very well for Petal who has never been a bit eater) which is a good sign. And we're giving her chicken liver to help her anemia.

Living with so many odd dogs...

...means that life is seldom boring - or relaxing. Queenie is probably at the top of the odd league. She could well be slightly odd anyway, however her deafness and partial site means that she is often a tad strange. One of her favourite things (and this could be because she is a sheep dog), is to round up logs. She carries them round in her mouth and then drops them on the floor with a resounding bang. She then repeats this with the other three logs and then starts the whole process again. It means that there are forever these very loud bangs. Unfortunately, she tries to attract Sam by dropping the logs next to him, and given that crunching dog biscuits makes him jump, this is not his favourite thing.

I think it is lucky for her that she lives in a safe environment. Because her vision is so poor, she does get surprised, for example she got spooked when Ian was carrying Bobbins as he was a different shape. She also doesn't see things from certain angles or in certain light conditions. I think this could be very unsettling for her and I think that life would be impossible for her in an open environment.

Millie is odd in her own little way, not least how she runs around the table. She gets such a speed up, it's amazing to watch her. The trouble is, we have to catch her mid run and picking her up is like picking up a little squirmey thing!

Bobbins is also quite high up on the oddness table. She gets lost at night and barks to be rescued. Of course, Wilbur and Queenie have also gone through this so it's not really a surprise, particularly given that she's a lot smaller. We stopped putting her away at night when she had diarrhea and for some reason she was then unable to go through the night, so she takes herself out and then forgets how to get back in. Her physique means that she's never going to be good at jumping or climbing. She sometimes tries to get on the bed, but that entails her just running at the bed. She is looking very pretty at the moment (but remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder), the eye lid on her big eye didn't form properly (or didn't open properly) and she has both the top and bottom eyelashes along the bottom of her eye. This is giving her a rather splendid look with long lashes sweeping out from under her eye, however I think the vet will be removing this as it could be uncomfortable for her. Bobbins also runs round in circles, but only at tea time. I think that when they run round in circles they are only doing normal doggy behaviour, but instead of being able to run around freely, they run in circles because once they've done the first circle they know there's nothing in the way.

And I can't write about odd animals without including Larry. He often falls off his perch - do they do this in the wild? We here a flutter and then a squark as he drops to the floor of his cage. His breed is described as being the 'clown of the parrot world' which from our experience seems very apt. I wonder if the cliffs of Patagonia are full of  Patagonian Conures tumbling to the ground and then looking round with a 'I meant to do that' expression.

Petal is still perky, but I think she is deteriorating quite quickly. She's eating very well and still walks around with her tail wagging, but I've also seen her standing still with her tail down looking dejected. She has a lump growing around her eye which I think will start to bother her soon and I think at that might be what we need to watch. She stopped eating dry food and I think that the pressure of crunching on the biscuits was uncomfortable for her. But she's tucking into canned dog food so she still has her appetite. We were thinking in terms of weeks, however I think that we should probably now be thinking in terms of days. It's so sad, but we'll know when the time is right to say good bye.

Petal is Very Poorly

Poor Petal is very poorly. Last week when I picked her up I could feel a lump under her front leg, and on closer investigation I found some more on her neck and on a similar spot on her other side. I had hoped that it was just fatty lumps, as they were quite widely spread and not localized like I thought cancer tumours would be, however she went to the vet yesterday who diagnosed lymphona and her kidneys are failing so there's nothing that can be done. You wouldn't actually know that she was poorly to look at her and her behaviour is no different. She can't jump like she did, but she hasn't for a while. We noticed a while ago that she was thin - but she's never been a big eater so we changed her food so she was eating two smaller portions a day, and that has been working well.

At the moment, though, she is completely the same as she has been, it's only us that knows that she's very poorly, so I guess that's a good thing.

Dark!

It is noticeably darker in the mornings now. The solar fairy lights don't go off until well past 7 now. The other morning it was so dark first thing I had to check the clock to make sure I hadn't got up in the middle of the night!

I'm finishing summer classes this week or next (this week for the annoying students, next week for the not-quite-so-annoying ones!). I am already fully booked for October, with two new 5 year olds and a couple of new older ones. I am not giving classes to two of my original students. They are in the final year of high school now and I have a rule not to give classes to year 4 students (there are only 4 years in high school, they don't start there until they are 12/13) as they cancel a lot because they have so much studying to do for other exams.

I've had a new adult starting. He made me smile - he said that Spanish people were the worst for learning other languages because 'everywhere you go people speak Spanish'. This always makes me smile as this is what English people always say too! I've heard this before from other Spanish people and I try not to get into a debate about who is the worst at learning other languages.

We talked about languages and he told me that languages weren't taught when he was at school (he's 28 - and compulsory education beyond 14 is a relatively recent thing too, one of the teachers from Llerena who came to classes last year left school at 14 and she's in her early 30s). He actually wants to learn Russian, but there's nowhere that teaches it here - at the moment!

Hot!

We're both moaning about the heat at the moment, and judging by the amount of fluffy little bodies hugging the cool floor, so are the animals.  It's actually not really hot, it hasn't been a hot year (low to mid 30s as opposed to high 30s in other yers), however the last couple of days it's been humid, which is something we're really not used to, and that makes everything sticky and oppressive. And while there is a strongish wind today, it is a hot wind and not at all refreshing.

While it hasn't been a hot year, it's been a dry one. I can't remember the last time it rained, but I don't think it's rained since I've been doing summer classes. I'm not aware that it's causing any problems, perhaps the influx of new resevoirs is helping stop water shortages. There certainly doesn't seem to be any loss in water pressure at the moment.

Yesterday I noticed that Milly has a very long claw on her back paw, so long it is going round on itself. On further investigation, she seems to have a withered toe which is much shorter than the rest, and the claw doesn't rub along the ground when she is on her regular run round the table, which keeps her nails trim.

Sam hasn't had another fit, so while his old pattern of two together hasn't returned, neither has the flurry he had earlier this year. He is jumpy at the moment because of the building work opposite and it is windy today, which always unsettles him. The wind seems to unsettle all the dogs, particularly the blind ones as it blows unfamiliar smells to them. I thought Queenie would be more unsettled, but she doesn't seem unduly phased.

Why are English People Red?

One of my young students has just come back from a couple of days at the beach and he wanted to know why all English people were red. He had noticed that there were a lot of red people in the place where he was staying and he realized that they were all English and therefore assumed that this was the natural colour of all English people and he wanted to know why I wasn't red too! 

It was only a matter of time...

For a village where vacuuming the pavement is regarded as a natural development from brushing the pavement and where mornings are a scurry of people cleaning their bits of street, it was only a matter of time before the latest village amenity was going to be cleanliness based. The latest amenity is a car wash center. I am surprised that they haven't installed one before, but I imagine that this will be a constant hive of activity.

Actually, the latest amenity I think is a new fountain, which has been built by the new picnic area. The big project which the mayor had been promising was that people would be able to walk to the cemetery from any part of the village along a lighted road. While this might not include the most direct route each time, I think this has now been completed.

Another piece of building work has been the reroofing of the house opposite. I am glad we didn't have anyone come to see the house over the last couple of weeks as it's been a non stop whirl of skips arriving and going.

Sam Has a Fit

After months of being seizure free, Sam had a fit last night. If his old pattern comes back, he is likely to have another one soon and then hopefully no more for a while. We're not too worried about him having one, as it would be too much to hope that we could stop his fits by more frequent worming and feeding him twice a day, but we do hope that he doesn't get into the cycle of very frequent fitting as he was earlier in the year.

Certainly the only predictable thing about the pattern of Sam's seizures is the unpredictability of them. He's been over a year in the past without a seizure and also had multiple ones in one day. If there was more of a pattern we could consider medication, but it seems a shame to give him medicine when he can go months without a seizure.

Ah well, fingers crossed that this was a one off...

Bobbins the Poo Hound

Bobbins has been pretty much a model little puppy. I think she'd dearly love to be a naughty little tyke, however her blindness hinders her somewhat so she spend the majority of the time being unwittingly good. She spends a lot of time playing on her own, namely because when she gets too annoying the others walk away and leave her, and she often doesn't realize they've gone. She ends up playing and making friends with odd things. She quite happily spends ages playing with her friend the drain pipe, who doesn't run away from her! She can't get down steps - well, to be more accurate, she doesn't like going down steps, she quite happily leaps down them at food time, but the rest of the time she calls to be rescued.

She's been excellent with her puppy crate too, and this has been really useful. Although she is a solid little thing, she is very small and needs to be kept safe if we're not around to supervise. She came to us with a plastic spider toy. I said to Ian when I saw her spider that it wouldn't last long and I had visions of one of the others shredding it, or at least chewing a leg or two off. However, her spider is still intact and keeps her company at night. Ian said it is because it is such a fearful looking spider (it is like a large real spider) that none of the others would want to play with it!

And until this week she had been excellent at night, however she's had a spot of diarrhea which seems to come on at night. She doesn't ask to be let out, or if she does I don't hear her. She also appears to be quite happy rolling in it, because when I let her out in the morning she is a little poo encrusted monster scattering bits around her until she gets outside. It's getting to be a bit of a problem, as her bedding needs washing every day. We've wormed her, so hopefully this will make a difference. We also changed her food recently, however I think that this has been going on for too long now for it still to be an effect of her food. Hopefully it will sort itself out this week.

We've got a nice little family at the moment, although it is hard to think of Petal and Tinkerbelle as being the matriarchs of the family.

Bobbins Goes to the Vets

Ian took Bobbins to see the vet about her eyes and he isn't going to remove them. He is of the opinion that there's no point in putting here through more than she needs. He will trim away some of the lumps of skin around her big eye when she is sterilized, as this might make her eye more comfortable. We'll need to keep her eyes clean, but it won't be any different to Pirata.

Queenie feels better

Queenie is feeling much brighter now. The biggest problem is that she can't navigate the house well with the lampshade on her head. The lampshade also holds down her big ears. We went to the vet in Zafra as he has developed a key hole technique which he uses to neuter them, he does a lot of work for the animal rescue places who live in kennels and they can't look after the dogs when they are recovering like dogs in a house, so he developed this technique to make it easier for the wounds to heal. Certainly Queenie's scar looked very clean and the stitches will be out on Wednesday, so very quick.

Queenie was very miserable when we bought her home, however after one night she was back to her normal self. She has discovered she can use her lamp shade to bash Rosie with during their play fights.

The vets haven't said anything about Bobbin's eyes yet, but there's no rush. I can't believe we've only had her for four weeks - it feels like much longer - in a good way! She is very easy to look after and is more robust than Millie who we have to keep an eye on - not least because Milly never makes a sound so we don't know if she is 'lost' or somewhere she can't get out of. Bobbins is very well behaved (at the moment) and is so easy to pop away in her puppy crate if we can't supervise her. She's not so great on the house training side of things, but she's only recently been able to get up and down the step outside so it's early days. Unlike Millie, Bobbins is very happy letting us know where she is - and very happy to let us know when it is meal times, with enthusiastic barking and ungainly jumping up and down, which generally results in her tumbling over.

Poor Queenie

Queenie spent the day at the vet being neutered. We had a feeling she wouldn't make a great patient and she did a fine job of feeling sorry for herself last night. She's a lot brighter today thankfully.

Well, that was a surprise!

Last week we went to visit some friends of ours in Feria. We took them a 'takeaway curry', which was something that was LONG overdue as a thank you to them for helping us out two years ago when we had car problems at the vet and then again when we had car problems and Bob was at the vet and needed rescuing. So it was well over two years since we last saw them (except for unscheduled meetings at the vets), and maybe longer since we went to their house.

We drove up to their house, up the very steep hill into Feria and didn't see anything unusual. When we were there we were talking about our plans and they commented that we ought to look for a house round their new embalse, to which we both smiled politely thinking that they were talking about a small pond which might have been built for cattle or something. Anyway, when we left and started to go back down the hill, what did we see in front of us but a massive lake!

Yesterday it was a bit cooler and we had to go shopping so we decided to go shopping in Zafra and then take a look at the new embalse for a picnic and quick look. It is quite strange as it has obviously only just been filled (it started being filled in 2010) and it still looked round the edge like it had been flooded - which of course is what has happened - as there are a load of trees with their tops poking out of the water, and tracks disappearing into the water. We had a brief argument about whether there would be any fish in a lake this new, which was settled once we saw a couple of fishermen set up on the bank. But I don't think they would be finding any of the fishy monsters in the older embalses. There were a couple of lakeside farm houses, which wouldn't have been lakeside just a few years ago. We're hoping that these farm houses will now be considered worthless if the farm land has been lost under the water, however given the situation of these farm houses now my guess is that the situation will have gone the other way.

This lake is so new that it doesn't show up yet on any maps and we now need to research whether there are any other new damns in Extremadura and soon-to-be-lakes we need to explore.

We left Bobbins at home yesterday in her puppy crate. She missed her lunch, which she certainly let us know about, but apart from that she didn't seem too phased. We're lucky she is happy in her crate as it makes life a lot easier as we know she's not going to bump/fall off/into something while we're not around.

More Tempeh

This delicious looking (???) tempeh loaf used chickpeas as a base. The moment of truth will come at lunch time, though I'll probably nip down to the shop to get something edible to put into my own baguette.

Our First Passion Fruit

We'd be the first to admit that we're not green fingered, but thankfully some our plants are able to take responsibility for themselves. That's the case with our Passion flower which produced fruit this year for the first time.

Speedy Millie

OK, so this isn't the best video, however it shows the problem we have with Millie now. First of all she's difficult to catch when she is in full flow running round the table, you literally have to wait for each circuit and try to grab her on her way round, secondly, her little legs don't stop running when we pick her up! This is a video of Ian catching Millie for her tea, if you press the little box thing on the bottom right of the video you'll see a larger version.

imperfect pets

I think Alfie sums it up pretty well!!

Bobbins Goes to the Vet

We took Bobbins to see the vet about her eyes. She has no right eye, and they are going to let us know about her left eye. I am sure that they will suggest removing her left eye and closing the right one, but we'll wait and see what they say. It's a shame really as it won't be very nice for her, she is such an exceptionally happy little pup and doesn't know any different. However her big eye must be uncomfortable and her non existent eye will be at risk from infection so it will have to be done (if that's what the vet suggests). Here she is modeling her cooling tutu. This should be wet when she puts it on and it keeps her cool when she is outside.

You can see the marks on her head where she bumps into things. She hasn't mastered the art of jumping yet, so she's inclined to run into a step rather than jump up it. I remember Bob doing the same when he was a puppy. He used to run into the back door at Great Elm rather than use the cat flap. He would see the cats run out through the cat flap and think he could do the same by just running at the door.

Summer is Here

Our summer routine has started now. I have classes this year every morning except Sunday although I only have two hours each on Friday and Saturday. I can't combine them as I have more younger students and they don't like coming after 12 to avoid wasting precious swimming pool time.  Annoyingly I also seem to have quite a few single students this year, two of my original students have asked for classes independently as they are at different levels now, so I said yes, because it's true they are. But it means that I've effectively halved my hourly rate.  At least I don't need to prepare for them.

I have my first (certified) special needs child starting tomorrow. His sister has been coming to classes for a year now and she is 6, the boy is 12 and his mum says he is at the same development level. He is coming to class with his sister. I sent the mum a message to tell her what we would do tomorrow so the lad will know what to expect, however I have seen him around and he seems very nice, just a bit slow, so I don't think he will find it too scary.

I had three pupils go into the bilingual course in October. That's three out of four. The fourth I didn't expect to get in, however he was a late developer and could have been in with a (very) outside chance. I've only had two students not get into the bilingual course.

The special needs boy is the grandson of our neighbour. He has nine grandchildren, of which 8 come to classes (one is a baby so he is exempted) and he pays for their classes with me. I think now he is the single largest contributor of students. There's also a lot of cousins that come, however given that one child's parents both have eight siblings, that's hardly surprising!

Bobbins continues to settle in well, she really is a very well behaved little pup, but goodness me, she doesn't half bump into things. She is like a little bumper car finding her way around. She is very sweet and likes to play, the trouble is that she's not very good at it!

I have come to the conclusion that's there's something echoey about our house which confused blind dogs when they come. I have noticed with all of them that they do hear when we call them, but they often head off in the wrong direction or walk round in circles. Dumpling used to - and so did Millie - and we wondered about the hearing of both of them. Bobbins does the same, and I really don't think it is anything to do with their hearing I think it is difficult for them to get their bearings. At least we always know where Bobbins is - just listen out for the bumps!

The vet said there was nothing to worry about with Alfie's chest x-ray or air-gun pellet. His heart and lungs look normal for an old dog and the pellet could have been in him for many many years and won't be causing him any discomfort.

Tempeh

There are apparently many joys to being vegetarian and tempeh is the latest one to reach this household. It's basically soy beans fermented in mould. Late tried making it once before but it didn't work, possibly because the tempeh culture was several years past it's use by date. However I gave it a go this week using one of our old egg incubators to maintain a steady temperature.

It should have taken 36 hours or so, but perhaps because our starter had been dormant for several years, the loaf in the picture took almost twice that time.

Looking at it here where I cut it so it would fit in the pot for steaming, it could have used a bit more time. It's meant to make a good bacon substitute when sliced, among other things, so hopefully Kate will like it. Fingers crossed I steam it long enough to kill everything in it!

My Beanbag

My beanbag is the bed of choice at the moment, and they all sit on it regardless of who was there first - as poor little Millie found after Queenie sat on her. Millie never makes a sound, so it wasn't until I looked round that I saw she was squashed under Queenie's bottom. Not, of course, that making a sound would have helped in Queenie's case...

Bobbins Climbs Her First Step

As I stood in the kitchen testing different techniques for skinning soy beans, I looked out to see that Bobbins must have climbed her first step. It may not sound like much of an achievement, but with those short legs and stocky frame, it can't have been easy.

Wilbur is a Mummy

Bobbins has decided that Wilbur would make a fine mother.

Wilbur, Our Dairy Dog

Wilbs may not be able to see, however he can hear the crack of a yogurt pot at 100 meters and his eyes light up and he finds himself at the table waiting to lick out the yogurt pots. Wilbs's absolute favourite would be chocolate yogurt as he is still has a chocolate addiction. Here he is hoping that I'll put the camera down and give him some yogurt!

Life with Bobbins continues to run smoothly. It makes a huge difference the fact that she is prepared to go into the puppy crate. She seems to be very happy in there and it is helpful for getting her into a routine and also good because she is a small puppy - much smaller than Queenie was when we got her - so we don't need to worry about her getting lost in the house.

Wet T-Shirt

Puppies can over heat in the hot weather, particularly ones with short noses so I make a top for Bobbins out of a sleeve of a t-shirt. The design needs finessing, a small children's t-shirt sleeve would have been a better fit, but it worked in principle. The idea is to keep it wet when she is playing outside to keep her cool.

You will see the logo on the photo for our new website with the play on imperfect pet and I'm perfect pet.

Milly Gets Her Skip Back

Milly has added the outdoor tables to her race track and here she is demonstrating that she has got her skip back. She was a little unsettled by Bobbins, however she is back to her normal skippy self now.

Here's Rosie trying to work out if Bobbins is something she can eat...

We Say Goodbye to Schnukems

Schnukem died in her sleep last night. We suspect she had a tumor inside, however because of her shape we couldn't see it. Certainly there was no clue that anything was wrong until we noticed her walking stiffly yesterday. She was on the bed yesterday afternoon breathing quite shallowly so we put her in the shower room and made a little bed for her so we could keep an eye on her (knowing that cats take themselves away when they are feeling bad) and this morning I found that she had died over night. She has been her normal self right up to yesterday. I am glad we put her in the shower room yesterday so she died at home and at least it was peaceful for her and we have the peace of knowing what happened to her.

Here she is as part of a big kitty pile, something she used to enjoy a lot.

Life with Bobbins

Bobbins is settling in with ease. There was a flurry of interest in her from the others, but that soon dispelled. It was only Milly who seemed affected by Bobbins. Ideally we wouldn't have bought another animal in so soon, as little Milly is still gaining confidence. On Friday afternoon and Saturday she was no where near as skippy as she had been and has needed a few extra cuddles to get her confidence back. Milly does like playing and I am sure she will see Bobbins as being a playmate soon.

Unlike any of our other blind  animals, Bobbins seems very happy to be shut in the puppy cage. While others will lie in it with the door open, they do not like to be shut in (on a larger scale Wilbs doesn't like to be shut in a room). However I have shut the door on Bobbins at night and during her 'down-time' during the day and she doesn't seem to mind. She came with a toy spider and spends a lot of time attacking that, so a series of squeals comes from the crate. Unfortunately, Queenie used to like sleeping in the crate, but she refuses to go in there with Bobbins, maybe that will change. Bobbins also takes herself under the sofa. She's not a nervy pup, I think she just likes to have a safe little nest.

Having Bobbins using a puppy crate makes life very straight forward and will help no end with her house training. The only downside is that we carry her from her crate to outside, something that makes it difficult for her to get her bearings, but at least it will get her used to going to the toilet outside.

Bobbins loves to play and like Milly, likes to play with the dried up little oranges that have fallen off the tree. I think they must have a smell, as well as make a rattly noise when they roll. Bobbins has tried to get the others to play with her. They have all worked out that Bobbins can't get up the steps so they jump up the steps and sit there looking down on her snootily. Even Tinkerbelle does this, which is a little rich, given that she has been the naughty little sister of the family!

When we first saw Bobbins she had these little scars on  her forehead from 'bumping into things', which I must admit I was skeptical about, however having seen her over the last day or so I can see how. I think I am quite glad we didn't know Wilbur as a puppy (if he was blind then) as I think he would have been just as bouncy but several times the size! For the first time we did start musing the value of a tiny crash helmet for her. But it won't be long before she masters the steps and her biggest problem so far is running head long at them and not being able to jump up them.

Interestingly, she recognizes the change in surface between the patio tiles and the step edge. I've seen her come to a comedy cartoon-like halt when she gets to these - all four legs suddenly stopping rigid. We'd suspected this with the others, but this is the first time I've really seen this in action.

Queenie was originally scared of Bobbins, she doesn't be able to see her if she Bobbins comes out of the shade to Queenie, but I think that this is largely where she hasn't been expecting to see a small dark pup appear out of nowhere. I think that Queenie will be the first proper playmate for Bobbins, though, as they are closest in age.

Alfie is back to normal - we haven't heard anything from the vet about his pellet or whether they have seen any problems with his chest so hopefully everything is OK now.

Bobbins

Introducing Bobbins, she is a 10 week old pup. She is blind and her eyes are deformed so we think they will probably have to be removed. One eye is under formed and the other is over formed, I don't think she can shut the over formed eye.

She seems a very happy and sweet little dog. She is finding her way around and doesn't seem phased at all to be in the midst of our household of little misfits. I think she was just living outside with her brother until now so it must be different, but she is so young she will take it all in her stride.

We definitely weren't planning another pup, in fact we are waiting to hear about a blind kitten, but she is a small pup and won't be too much trouble. 

We've also decided to start a website dedicated to special need pets. We have quite a lot of experience now and hopefully can give people a positive insight into life with pets which are not quite perfect. In fact, we have registered the website name imperfect pet. We will make it a play on words so the website will be imperfect pet, but we'll twist it to I'm Perfect Pet.

We will place advertising on the site and hope to generate some money from the adverts. Watch this space...

Alfie Goes to the Vet

We've just come back from the vet with Alfie where he has been x-rayed so the vet could check his lungs. We were surprised to find that he has a pellet lodged in his chest from where he was shot by an air rifle some time ago. We don't know when, because we don't know anything about his past, however the poor little fellow has lost an eye, part of his leg, lived rough, and now it transpires he's been shot too. I now feel a little guilty pointing out his grumpiness - he has very good reason to be a tad grumpy from time to time...

He went to the vet on Monday because he had not eaten for a few days and had diarrhea.  That has cleared up but the vet had noticed before that he wheezes and it hadn't improved and she wanted to make sure that there was nothing nasty causing this. 

His and Her Yorkies

We definitely have his and her yorkies at the moment. Millie is my dog and comes running down the hall to see me after classes, and Alfie is wholeheartedly Ian's dog (at least he is Ian's chair's yorkie, as this is his chair of choice, I think if the truth was known Alfie would be found to suffer Ian in order that he could sit on Ian's chair).

Millie is so much like a little girl, all skippy and delicate, while Alfie is very much like a grumpy old man, with his one eye scowling at anyone who isn't Ian. While they both have damaged legs, even this affects them in different ways. Alfie's half a leg causes him to limp or hop which he does in a bullish way, whereas Millie's fused leg makes her skip.

At meal times, Millie gets so excited she runs round the table in a frenzy, whereas Alfie just takes himself out to the gate and waits resignedly.

Of course, the picture I am really painting is one of a grumpy versus a happy Yorkie, I wonder why this made me think of males and females...

It is San Juan fiesta this weekend, which is John the Baptist, however we didn't go. We normally only go to show our faces and we went to the school concert on Thursday and were seen by enough people that they know we are still here! The school concert was much as expected, gaggles of uncoordinated children going in different directions and jumping around randomly to the same song. The schools have now broken up for the summer.

Oh Dear England

Although Ian tells me that England could still go on to play in more matches. He explained it to me at length, however I blanked out after about 10 minutes.

The village does still have representatives of  one team left in the World Cup. The Honduras family will be watching their team with enthusiasm.

Oh Dear Spain

It was very quiet last night, not a beeping horn or firework to be heard....

I just don't understand how these things come as a surprise...

Listening to the news about passports last week I was able to give Ian the full benefit of one of my 'I just don't understand how these things come as a surprise' tirades, which Ian was delighted to note that I was able to spread in two directions. The first, was me wondering why they seemed to be surprised that that having shut down all the passport offices in the British consulates overseas from March of this year (including the one in Madrid), that they seemed to be unprepared for the extra work in the UK passport office. I was just launching into my second tirade which was going to go something along the lines of 'and why do people leave it to the last minute to get new passports - they have 10 years to plan for them...', when I realised that I was even worse than the people who leave it to the last moment before renewing their passport - I have let mine run out!  Ooops.

Ian got his renewed at the British Consulate in Madrid, but that's not an option for me now. However I think they have agreed to extend overseas passport holder's passports for another year. So as it turns out I would have been annoyed if I had got my passport in on time. What I don't understand, however, is how anyone will know that my passport has been extended for another year. I don't think I'd travel too far off the beaten tracks on the basis of having to explain to a grumpy passport control officer that my passport has been extended for a year with no form of proof.