Jeff's Random & Readable Revelations

Late Autumn

It is amazing how wonderful the trees are at the moment. They appear to have been completly fooled by the mild weather. These are some pictures I have taken this weekend.

Epping New Road

Coppice Row - Theydon Bois

Coppice Row - Theydon Bois

Acer Tree in my Front Garden

Oh well, I suppose that the next pictures I take will be sometime next month of snow scenes!

Stresses & Strains

Yes, it has happened again! If anything is going to happen to anyone in our family it is me. Why am I so vulnerable?

As you all know, my other interest besides U3A is that I am approved by the Kennel Club to judge Cairn Terriers. In case you don’t know the breed, here is a picture of one of my favourite dogs owned by a lady in Scotland, the homeland of the breed.

Birslaw Billy Fury

Each year at Crufts and at Earls Court in November, the Kennel Club put on an exhibition showing every breed of dog that is registered with them. I run the stand at Earls Court for the Southern Cairn Terrier Club and on the Friday before the show I go up to the hall and dress our stand. This is a simple statement – but fraught with the kind of dangers that I should never contemplate encountering. .In order to print 200 information sheets, I decided to put a new laser cartridge into my printer and managed to jam it in the process! This entailed an hour stripping the infernal machine down to remove the offending item and re-assembling it. I now have one screw left over! It does work however, In the process of lifting this heavy printer I contrived to strain a muscle in my arm and it is now very painful.

Over the years I have devised a cunning plan (as Baldrick would say) in filling a suitcase with all the publicity material and tools required to fix it to our stand. I then strap a small stepladder to the case in order to take it by train to Earls Court. This, again, sound very simple, but in fixing the elastic straps around the ladder and case, one of them snapped back, sprung around at struck me on the upper lip. VERY PAINFUL!!! Nina’s reaction was to collapse into a fit of hysterical laughter, whilst I stuck my head under the cold tap to relieve the pain. Now we are both sitting watching it throb! The swelling has created a look that can only be described as a “vicious snarl”!

As soon as I have composed myself, I am of to set up the stand with a painful arm and pulsating lip to go with the stiff neck that I have had for some weeks now.

It just goes to show that to enjoy life after retirement, one of the prerequisites is to have a sense of humour. It does help to soften the effects of pain.

I hope that this article has managed to bring a smile to the readers face at my expense, but don’t worry; it took Nina at least an hour to stop laughing!

The Stand at Earls court

Happy Birthday Carly

A very happy 19th birthday to our darling granddaughter. We hope you are having a great time at Uni. We can't wait to see you at the end of term. Luv ya loads