TV Aerials and Moon Landings

Mrs CG was always complaining that the telly in the kitchen produced a lousy picture, my answer was always the same, when we first moved in to the house and had a new aerial installed, the installation man told me that we were in a poor reception area and it was unlikely that we could ever get a good quality picture. The main TV is linked up to sky so picture wise we have no issue with quality, although reverting back to the roof antenna the picture was somewhat fuzzy.

In the end I decided to take a risk and install a new TV aerial, I didn’t think it would be too difficult to set up and went out over the weekend and spent £40 on buying a new one. Attaching it to the disused chimney on the kitchen roof, I set it all up as per the instructions and blow me it worked perfectly with a picture that matched the sky receiver. Mrs CG now has fun whizzing through the freeview channels and seems to be a happy bunny. The moral of the story is the TV aerial installation man is not always right, it only took me seven years to find out!

Whilst on the subject of tellies, I have been watching the programmes celebrating the 40th year since the Apollo moon landings. I remember as a kid staying up very late back in 1969 to watch Neil Armstrong doing his walk. It’s hard to believe that it was 40 years ago this month. It’s also hard to take in that NASA did not continue with the moon exploration, but at 3 billion dollars a launch the Saturn V rocket proved rather expensive. However, for me I will always remember the Apollo13 drama which as rescues goes has got to be one of the greatest ever completed. Gene Kranz the Apollo flight director always believes it was NASA’s greatest triumph and I’ve got to agree rescuing three men from a tin can 240000 miles away from the earth was pretty remarkable.

The Tree the Dog and the War

I always forget that the tree outside the front door blossoms in June/July and attracts loads of different species of bee. Most mornings when leaving the house for work, my ears are hit with a loud hum coming from the tree and on closer inspection hundreds of bees can be seen going about their business pollinating the flower. I have no idea what type of tree it is so if anyone knows please tell me.

We were worried how Fenja would react to the sad demise of Daisy but she is carrying on as normal, it might be the fact that she saw all that was happening and has accepted the situation. The old girl still has her hunting instincts and happily caught a mole the other day, proudly presenting it to me with a loud bark and a wag of her tail. Her walks are now fairly short due to her arthritis but the tablets she takes generally do the trick for her and considering she is twelve she is still pretty active.

I’m going to have a good moan today so please forgive me while I get this off my chest!

Watching the news today made me very depressed when I heard that yet more soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan. Like any ex service person I was brainwashed in to an obedient machine and on leaving the service it took years for me to return to civilian normality. In those years I gradually became less of right wing action man and now combined with hopefully a wiser head I just cannot understand the mess that our politicians get us in to.

Afghanistan is a country with a history of catastrophic failures from other powers that have wanted to control it, the biggest recent failure is probably the Russian invasion and yet sadly Britain and America think they can change the population to favour the west, reject the Taliban and stop their profitable drug trade by sending in troops. Unfortunately I predict this will go on for sometime before somebody realises that this is not going to succeed. By then it will be too late for some of our troops who will have died in vain for yet another pathetic governmental cock up who still think that Britain is an empire.

Daisy

It’s a sad time for the CG household, we lost Daisy yesterday, she hadn’t been well for the past week and it was apparent from Thursday that the outcome did not look good, she had been struggling to breathe throughout the warm weather and Mrs CG had been up most nights nursing our Daz through.

Finally yesterday enough was enough and we called in the vet who basically announced what we already new and the deed was done. I have to say I thought I would be ok but as usual I’m a big softy and I wept my eyes out. Strangely I found myself feeling very angry that their lives are so short and it felt so very unfair but I forced myself to remember that in that short time they bring so much joy to our lives. Naturally today I am wondering around in a bit of a daze and a wee bit lost but time will heal and of course I have some wonderful memories of my dearest Daisy.

Mrs CG always loves to describe the great story of how Daisy picked her rather than she picked Daisy!
Searching the local papers for puppy ads, we came across some pups for sale at a farm situated close by and Mrs CG and her sister were soon on their way to the farm to check out the pups, (it was known by all that whatever the outcome Mrs CG was coming home with a pup!)
The place was a mess and things did not look promising. However, they were led to an enclosed area with a small shed and the puppies were herded out to be viewed. One particular pup who was covered in muck took a shine to Mrs CG and refused to leave her alone, naturally Mrs CG loving all things cute went in to love overdrive and Daisy was whisked home covered in shit all for the princely sum of £200.

I am attempting a long walk today, although it is not the seven mile hike along the Malvern Hills. A couple of friends are coming round to cheer me up and we are walking the valley that surrounds the farm, a distance of about five miles. Since I haven’t walked for some weeks it will hopefully loosen me up for when I do attempt the old Worcestershire beacon. Wish me luck!

Bad Sport and Bird Nests

I watched a lot of sport over the weekend but I have to say that it seemed all rather disappointing. The Lions lost the rugby against South Africa in a closely fought game; the game was lost due to some silly mistakes rather than the springbok’s strength. But I reckon they still might give South Africa a run for their money in the next two games, but only if they realise their basic errors and above all strengthen the scrumaging as they were beaten fair and square in that department.

The British Grand Prix was a bit of a let down with Hamilton way down the pack and Button coming only sixth, After the initial start of the race I switched off because quite honestly after the stupidity of the FIA and the race teams I really don’t believe there is any future for Formula one. The issue over the possible split between the teams which is caused by Max Mosley and his mates in the FIA is such a mess that is hard to believe the people can behave in such a stupid manner. I tried to write an email to the FIA but there was no contact information on their website, for me that just about sums it up, they really don’t give a damn about the general public, its all about money and power.

Taking Fenja out for a walk early Saturday morning, I spotted the barn owl patrolling over the barley field at the back of the farm, no doubt on the hunt to feed the chicks that are hidden in the oak tree that was split in two by lightning last year. The tree now looks like it has two large arms pointing skywards, the base of the v has obviously created a hole that is ideal for a nesting site, unfortunately it is too high for me to clamber up to take a look, but I’m certain there is a nest there as I have seen the Barn owls sitting in and patrolling near to the oak.

Follow the river flow for five hundred yards and you come to a small hillock above the flood plain, there, lying silhouetted by the woods is an old wreck of a tree that’s probably been dead for a good ten years, its grey bare branches stretch and twist upwards in fashion that makes it look as if it was still in pain. Somewhere within the old wreck a pair of kestrels have nested and can be seen regularly swooping away from the branches heading out towards the fields on their daily journey for food.

Having parked up nearby Fenja and I returned to the car after our walk and as I began to unlock the doors I heard loud high pitched screeches coming from the tree, no doubt about it there was a chick there and it was demanding attention. Within seconds I saw one of the kestrels fly in at speed with something in its beak, all of a sudden the screeching stopped as the bird gulped down its breakfast. The adult kestrel then swooped back out of the tree and headed towards the south at the edge of Colne wood, there he or she took up a hovering position looking for its next prey. Within minutes the screeching started again, boy that chick was hungry!

Dweezil Does Good

Dweezil Zappa lived up to expectations and was without doubt as good a musician as his father ever was. Although slightly late on stage (due so we are told to an ear-piece problem) The boy did good and played many of his Dads more well known songs including “Don’t eat Yellow Snow”, “Catholic Girls” and an excellent version of the popular “Cosmic Debris”.

The band all seemed to be in their early twenties which made their musical feats even more surprising, I really could not believe how talented they were. At one stage each individual was approached by the young Zappa to play a theme or sound which was selected at random by the ever watchful audience, who I might add was made up of 80% middle aged Zappa freaks mostly bald on top and with the inevitable goatee beard or the old seventies Zappa Tee shirt. Each band member then played their instrumental solos in the requested theme, happily producing exquisite jaw dropping music for at least ten minutes per slot.

At the end of the concert instead of leaving in the usual manner the band stayed on stage and conversed happily with the audience, something that I had never seen before and was pleasantly surprising.
Interestingly after leaving the Symphony hall and returning to my hotel and asking the receptionist for my key, I believe she made a polite inquiry about the concert but I had absolutely no idea what she was saying, my ears were still ringing loudly with the sounds of guitars and drums, but I know I had a big smile on my face!

Sleep per chance to Sleep

The sleep deprivation is getting worse, now that Daisy is no longer able to manage the stairs we have set up her favourite sofa with a step so that in the middle of the night she can have a wonder and then climb back up to have a sleep. Well, that was the plan but Daisy has other ideas, which don’t include sleep. She is obviously miffed that she cannot come upstairs and has taken to the heavy breathing and wining at 3am, meanwhile Fenja who is still agile and can manage to get upstairs is happy to constantly butt either myself or Mrs CG so that she can climb up on to the bed. With all this going on sleep is impossible and so are we having a right old time of it at the moment.

Today I am in the Birmingham office and have managed to get a ticket to see “Zappa plays Zappa” at the symphony Hall down town. Dweezil Zappa, son of the great Frank has put a band together and is playing some of his father’s late tunes and by all accounts the reviews are very good, so I thought what the hell as I’m staying the night I might as well get out and see a show, that’s if I can stay awake.

Saturday night as I sat down to watch some telly my concentration on the TT highlights was interrupted by Berty the bat deciding to take a short cut from the front garden to the rear via entering the main door and flying around the house. It is amazing to have a close up view of Berty flying around at high speed dodging all the furniture in search of escape. After about 10 minutes of whizzing about the place he finally got his bearings and sped of out through the back door, not before taking a couple of moths with him from the conservatory.

Talking of flying things, whilst trying to take 40 winks of catch up Saturday afternoon, I am once again kept awake, but this time by the very loud noise of a jet engine. Glancing skyward there in all its glory was the Avro Vulcan escorted by two VC10 refuelling aircraft presumably from Brize Norton happily buzzing around the house as if in a holding pattern. No doubt they had heard about our lack of sleep and where keen to keep both myself and Mrs CG on our toes just in case we should nod off!

Hopefully when more with it I shall report back tomorrow on the concert, oh incidentally I’m afraid my expeditionary attempt on the west face of the Worcestershire beacon was put off due to lack of energy, I will have another attempt next week when I should have a little more go, failing that it will be a quick trot round the farm!

Sleep Pheasants and Bikes

Daisy has taken to heavy breathing during the night which means that we are all suffering from lack of sleep in particular is Mrs CG who did not actually go to sleep till 4:00am this morning.
Being a typical bloke I can sleep through most things but I do like my eight hours and if I don’t get them I’m a miserable old bugger. Mrs CG can take less hours sleep, but that does not mean she doesn’t suffer, she does doesn’t complain and just gets on with it!

There is absolutely no doubt the older I have got the more grumpier I have become, whether this is to do with older men in general or maybe it just some genes inherited from my old man (he was a notoriously grumpy)!

The Bonneville returned home after being at the bike hospital all last week, it has had a new front brake disc and new calliper fitted, this is so I can actually stop the thing when travelling at a reasonable speed. I must admit you can now stop it on a sixpence and it was well worth the money, especially since I saw the same caliper being used by the TT boys over in the Isle of Man this week. Did you watch any of that? Those guys are nutters, average speeds of 130mph around a 35 mile circuit literally on country roads, just crazy.

The other day while out walking, Fenja and Mrs CG were stopped by a male pheasant who was literally acting like a traffic warden. He stood his ground and refused to let them pass. Puzzled as to what was happening Mrs CG played the game and waited, she was rewarded by the sight of half a dozen chicks being led across the track by the female bird and then as if in thanks the male bird nodded and disappeared in to the hedge row, wonderful!

I’m still thinking about my attempt to scale the Worcestershire beacon at Malvern on Sunday morning (all of 1006 ft). I think large amounts of tea at base camp (the Wytches Cutting) and then attempt the west face with oxygen and more tea at the top.
Well see if I have a good nights sleep tonight!

Springwatch and Walks

I do like “Springwatch” especially now since Mr Oddie has left, I felt he was a miserable old bugger always trying to out do the wonderful Kate Humble! The new presenter Chris Packham fits well in to the team and has a good dry sense of humour. Last night one of the stories Chris was talking about was the sad plight of the cuckoo which is disappearing from our countryside. I have to say that so far this year I have not heard a single cuckoo and remember remarking to Mrs CG how sad it was that the wonderful cuckoo call was missing from the farm. I also might add that I have yet to see any hedgehogs around the garden, but maybe that’s because Fenja likes to eat them!

I have decided that I need to exercise more as all I seem to do during work time is sit at a desk and monitor computers, to this end I have started walking around the surrounding countryside each weekend and it is certainly having the desired effect in making me feel fitter and viewing the superb scenery that is on offer around my area of the Cotswolds. I shall in future try to post some pictures of my adventures.

Last Sunday Mrs CG dropped me off close to the top of Hilcot, an area between Upper Cobberley and Withington where I ambled back over the hill and down past Hilcot house towards the valley to the back of Withington. Although damp under foot from the previous night’s rain, the walk certainly provided a good glimpse in to the Cotswold scenery but proved to be longer than I imagined and at one stage I ended up lost in some woods near to Kim Bailey’s racing stables. Stumbling through many a hawthorn bush and squelching my way ankle deep in muddy puddles I eventually cleared the wood only to be greeted by twelve large race horses all interested in this creature covered in mud appearing out of the trees. Thankfully, there was no one about and I managed to clean myself up with doc leaves, get my bearings and head home without too much trouble but I reckon I kept the horses amused for the next few days.

This weekend provided it’s not raining I intend to do a short walk along the top of the Malvern Hills, from the Wyches cutting up to the Worcestershire beacon. The last time I did this walk was probably when I was about 12 years old, back when there used to be a café on top of the beacon that sold a very nice cup of cocoa. Somehow I doubt it is still open, but in any case cocoa will not be sufficient, I suspect I will need an oxygen mask at the peak and a stiff drink when back at the cutting….. Wish me luck!

Blazing Cabins and the New Path

Once again I must apologies as work and other matters have taken over and the writing of the blog has suffered. With the way things are going I may well have to temporarily close down as sadly I ‘m just not finding the time to write the necessary posts. I will have a think and report back at a later date.

The Saturday before last was mostly taken up by a wedding between two old friends of mine whose friendship goes back to early school days. The bride in question was actually my very first girlfriend, the innocent relationship lasted all of 3 months and I still have some of the letters that were written between us when I was at boarding school. Looking through the letter and translating between the bad spelling and ink splodges I see that most of my time was taken up by wishing that the monthly weekend breaks would speed up so that I could be with my 12 year old sweetheart!

The groom is again an old school mate whose friendship goes back to when we were in our early teens; he was a member of the dreaded class of 5c that old boys from Whitefriar’s School will remember with fond memories. Amongst the many of 5c’s famous antics were; setting fire to the Brecon Beacons and arriving at the Cheltenham college for a game of rugby and calmly walking on to the pitch with chains, axes and other weaponry to psych-out the opposing team, (it actually worked quite well).
I’m glad to report with the fine weather the wedding was a great success.

The farm is in full action with plenty of spraying and other crop monitoring exercises, although there was some excitement the other day when two fire engines appeared with lights flashing and alarms ringing. It turned out that the large sprayer had decided to blow all the electrics and a fire erupted in the cockpit, Gary the farm hand was seen frantically trying to put the fire out but gave up when his overals caught fire. The fire Brigade, who turned up very promptly had the fire under control and out in minutes and then proceeded to drink as much tea as posssible and discuss the weekend football results with anyone interested.

We have a new path leading to the front of the house. The old concrete path was a mixture of repairs and cracks and the final straw was when I tripped over one of the larger holes and landed in the flower bed.
Kev the builder was called in and we quickly went down to B&Q to purchase the selected cobble stones (as requested by Mrs CG), the only instructions to the builder were to make sure it was wide enough and tough enough to withstand the weight and dimensions of my bikes!

just need to paint it yellow!

By the end of the week the old concrete had been dug up and the hardcore collected and quickly dispersed by tractor shovel, filling in potholes all around the farm.
After laying down a half ton of sharp sand the newly purchased packs of cobbled stones were laid over the sand and gently tapped in place. To complete, a mixture of concrete and sand was sprinkled and compressed in to the gaps between the cobble stones. We now have a lovely cobbled path that the presenters of Gardeners World would be proud of!

The rooks have fledged from the old chimney that sits on the kitchen roof and thankfully early morning peace once more reigns around the cottage. One minute they were all there chatting away and the next vanished in to the big bad world. It is surprising how the chicks manage to scamper up the chimney as it must be a good four feet in depth. I’m tempted next time to block the entrance so next year the little buggers can wake someone else up at 5am every May morning!

Here's Trigger

Trigger keeps appearing at the front door, he comes up from the farm realising that it’s far more interesting to visit the CG household and get fed some scraps than sitting in his master’s tractor all day long. He’s quite happy to sit in the kitchen and wait patiently for something to eat, cheeky little mite!

One of my project managers at work sat opposite from me today happily telling me about his wonderful week in Acapulco, I must admit I did think to myself that I hope he doesn’t sneeze on me. “How are you feeling then Michael?” I asked, “You’re about the one hundred and fiftieth person to ask me that question over the past few days,” he replied rather sternly, nothing more was said about the matter.

The car is still being repaired, interesting the Ford focus that I have as a replacement seems to be just as bad, the wipers are different sizes and make a horrid noise, the cigarette lighter fails to work which means I cannot charge my mobile or use my sat nav and the indicator light pod refuse to switch itself off so I have had various drivers flashing me to give me a reminder, this does give me a somewhat anxious feeling about the return of the Subaru. Thankfully I do have next week off, so if I catch swine flu or have a major seizure while duffing up the car dealer it won’t interfere with work!