It’s a Blog ! Not a Log !

Those of you who read my blog will no doubt have come across posts about our Cane Corso (Italian Mastiff) Blue, well I’m sad to say Blue’s been a little bit under the weather these past few weeks due to damage to her cruciate ligament in one of her hind legs.

She developed some lameness in her leg in May which was prescribed anti-inflammatories for and this seemed to do the trick, however at the end of June, beginning of July her symptoms came back, so after 2 visits to the vets and a set of x-rays we were told that she’d most likely torn her cruciate ligament and were referred to a Consultant Vet at North West Surgeons nr Frodsham.

So along came the appointed consultation where we were told that from what could be seen from the x-rays it appears that Blues ligament has indeed been torn, this was apparently obvious from the x-rays (not a vet myself, so have had to take his word for it), the next step we’ve been told is surgery and at present Blue is booked in to have the operation on the 13th August 2010.

We’ve been told the operation has a 96% success rate, but this all depends on how her recovery is managed, so for the first 6 weeks, Blue will be crated confined and only allowed out for her constitutionals and that’s it, then after the 6 weeks its a case of very slow, gentle exercise, which will gradually build up to a manageable 20 minute walk, and then over time hopefully build up to longer walks and fingers crossed semi-normality.

I can honestly say I am very nervous about Blue going under anethisia, as thats probably the most dangerous part of the whole operation, don’t know what we’d do if anything every happened to Blue, so fingers crossed, wood touched everything will go smoothly.

Will endeavour to keep you all updated on how our little Princess is getting on

kennys party 071, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Kenny reached the grand old age of 50 last week along with Andy reaching the 40 mark, so they had a joint party to celebrate and used the oppurtunity to get everyone back togeather again.

It was good to see all the faces from the partys togeather again having a laugh and just generally getting on, party kicked off at of all places Stretford Cricket Club, then moved onto Lisa’s flat, where drinks flowed and people talked bollox (mainly due to what they’d had).

We left fairly early on in the morning 5:00am so maybe not so early, but the party carried on after we left, ending only when John, Ben and a few others decided to place most of Lisa food stuffs in the freezer . . . oh and after Ben had emptied a full bag of flour over the sleeping Lisa’s head (not nice Ben).

Gotta say Kenny was looking good for an old man and no doubt has many years left in him, all the best Kenny and Andy

that’s what I am, just not had the energy to post on the blog on a regular basis for quite a while now, think its been the winter blues that have been causing it, all these dark nights when I’ve been getting home from work’s to blame.

I shall attempt to remedy that by telling you about things that I’ve done int the week that’s been and gone . .

Sunday was spent walking Blue and then heading over to electrik bar in Chorlton for a most enjoyable night of Sundays 1 Deck Session where the DJ on the deck that night was the wonderfully moustached Andrew Weatherall . . . and boy what a moustache he has . .

Over the course of the evening he played everything from Rockabilly, the Clash, the specials and just about anything else that took his fancy, thoroughly nice man and thoroughly good entertainment was had by all who attended, these 1 Deck sessions at electrik just get better.

Should also point you towards @undeleted’s Blog were you can find a much better write up of the evening and who is the man responsible for this pioneering new camera interview technique “The Chest and Chin”

Monday through to Wednesday weren’t all that exciting just the usual drudgery of work and wondering if we’d be hit by another white out with the snow, the only highlights were watching the new series of Survivors starting on the BBC, which gave me and no doubt a few other dotted around Manchester the opportunity to play spot the Mancunian location, the most obvious was the exterior of the Midland Hotel, where they took Tom to operate on, didn’t recognise anywhere else, but that’s probably down to the fact the BBC have moved production of the new series to Birmingham, so expect to see local shots around there in the coming episodes.

Also spent some time uploading a few more videos onto YouTube . .  yes and they were of the dog Blue, but do you blame me, she is after all the prettiest dog in the world

First up in her new video adventures is the quilt sucking episode, it seems that when you leave Blue alone in the bedroom she has a habit of bunching up the quilt and grabbing it in her jaws and just  “Sucking”

She treats it like its some sort of security blanket or something, anyway here’s the proof and just check out the so serious face when she clocks the camera filming her

Next up there’s Blue enjoying the summer in Longford Park, filmed this earlier on last year, but just never got around to uploading it

Then came Thursday and today, not much to blog about I’m afraid.

As for tomorrow there might be more to blog about, as I’ve instituted #DogClub on Twitter and will hopefully have a few peeps joining me and Blue on our Saturday morning walk around Ivy Green, though this might change to another location as yet undecided.

Also I must say hello to Adrian or to his friends Eddy Layton, who I’ve recently discovered reads my blog from time to time, so Eddy if your reading this say hello to my mum next time you see her and say hello Mrs L and Paul for me.

Could’nt sleep this morning so decided to upload a few more videos to YouTube.

First one’s of Blue in Longford Parkin Chorlton enjoying running through the Daffodills, she seems to like them, reminds her of long grss no doubt

This second one’s of our return journey from Yorkshire to Manchester, not to sure about the music I added to it though think I might have to change it to something a bit more uptempo

Anyway enjoy and feel free to comment

View outside the Horse and Jockey

Spent an enjoyable couple of hours sat outside the refurbished Horse and Jockey Pub in Chorlton last night with Mel and Blue, Mel had been there for a bit of a celebratory meal with a couple of friends from work and as is usually the case I came along to be the designated driver.

Got to say very impressed with what Peter and Simon (the new owners) have done with the place, and looking at the amount of business they’ve got so is every one else, the food looks very tasty as well, must say I’ve only had the Twice Fried Chips so far, but Mel had the Smoked haddock with potatoes (Baked in double cream, fish stock and saffron with layers of sliced potato), which was apparently very very tasty, no doubt in the coming weeks I’ll eventually sit down and eat something there myself, at the moment I’m eyeing up the Slow roasted boned breast of lamb (Rolled Breast of lamb stuffed with rosemary, garlic, thyme and golden sultanas, slow roasted and served with a thick onion, fennel and red wine gravy), mmm now if that does’nt get the old taste buds moist I don’t know what else will.

The two gents now running the Pub Simon and Peter seem quite taken with our little Princess Blue and may have ideas about getting a Cane Corso themselves, seems they’ve fallen for Blue and her Chilled out Bar/pub vibes, be nice if someone else where to get a Cane Corso in Manchester and after speaking to the pair of them they seem nice enough guys to be owned by a Corso.

The best thing about the Horse and Jockey though is that its dog friendly, something which alot of pubs are’nt anymore, so me, Mel and Blue give it a thumbs up and check it out yourselfs and see if we’re wrong

I was born, it was a Sunday, apparently I was a large child, but my mother with the help no doubt of a Midwife managed to push me out and now here I am 15706 days later celebrating my 43rd birthday, there were times I never thought I’d even reach my 30th birthday, this was down to spending way to many weekends of my life clubbing and imbibing copious amounts of Class A drugs, but alas my attempts to live fast and die young never succeeded and I’m now destined to end up being one of those people who spend there retirement years complaining about kids hanging on street corners . .  wait a minute I do that already, fuck what am I going to have to complain about now ?

Anyway as is usual on this momentous day I shall be bringing cakes into work, which you shall hopefully see via the magic of twitter, I’ll snap a few shots off on the iphone and post them to twitter, so be sure to have a look on there some time after 3:00pm, regarding what I’m doing for my birthday . .  well I’m heading home to Yorkshire to Giant Bradley day 2009 with Mel and our friends Liam and Gemma, this will be there first experience of Giant Bradley Day, so should be an interesting weekend I hope, taking Blue our Cane Corso with us of course, she’ll be entering the Dog Show and hopefully winning a few prizes along the way, she came first last year and won some Burn’s dog-food.

As for presents for my birthday not had any as yet, will get mine from Mel’s tonight I’m guessing and any from my sisters when I get to Market Weighton, will no doubt post about them then.

Well apart from Blue, yeah poor Vince is holding down the fort while Mel’s having a girls night in Blackpool with her sister, I was hoping to have a lad’s night, but it seems most of them are in the Lakes at either Phil’s or Ben’s caravan, so what is Vince going to do with himself today ?

Thus far I’ve done Blues morning walk round Ivy Green, i’ve managed a Supreme Breakfast at Orlando’s and now I’m sat in Electrik’s having a nice cold Hoeggarden and watching the world of Chorlton slowly go by, actually thought there’d be more people out and about today, but’s it fairly quiet round here, not many people in the bar, guessing there all outside somewere enjoying the sun.

Tried ringing Ben and John to see if the’d care to join me, but Ben’s got plans at the moment and as for John he’s still in bed recvering from last nights excess’s after the Prodigy gig, no doubt he and Sophie went overboard and probably did’nt get to bed till stupid o’clock this morning, I’ll try giving him a call later and see if he’s up for drink or 2 tonight.

Anyway while I was at Orando’s had a quick chat with Rupert who’s given me the heads up about his next little project, can’t really say much at the moment, but watch this space, for when the time comes I shall divulge more.

Best get back to people watching and drinking my Hoeggarden before it gets to warm and the sun disappears.

Laters

Seems our company had some people in at work over the weekend carry out some sort of IT Audit, think it was to do with the network being a bit slow etc, from what I can gather they carried out tests on all the company PC’s to see what speeds they we’re getting, what there configuration/settings were and also to see what software they had installed on them.

So no doubt a report will be coming out detailing the rights and wrongs with the system and I’ll be collared for a little chat at some point, I’ll obviously be in the wrong cause I always am . .  apparently, though to be honest I ain’t a network genius, all my IT skills are self-taught and I think I’ve done pretty damn good considering I’ve been there 10yrs now and in that time I’ve recovered the system 2 times due to accidents/errors that where caused by outside influences that were not related to the IT Dept, a Power Surge and teh broadband going down and to think in 10yrs we’ve only ever had one 1 virus outbreak in the company that I got on top of straight away.

How many other IT Depts can boast that

Anyway just have to wait and see what comes of the reading of the report.

Got back yesterda afternoon and went straight round to see  mum, got settled in then headed across to Kirkella to see my friend Lisa and catch up a abit on all the gossip, eventually got home around midnight after sharing  a bottle or wine, could’nt stay longer as had car-boots to attend today with mel and mum.

So did the carboot thing this morning, not very many bargains to catch m eye I’m afriad, but plenty of people’s eye’s were aught Blue, had lots of people enquiring after her breed, even had some ask us if we’d be at Crufts next weekend which we found amusing, especially as Blue’s breed the Cane Corso is’nt even recognised by the UK Kennel Club, then we headed to York, but decided against staying as it was just to busy with foriegn tourists.

Now me and mel are sat in one of Market Weightons wifi hotspots Bradleys Cafe/Bistro enjoying a beer and a mocha and of course updating my blog, as for the next 2 days  . . . no idea what we’ll be doing, but as soon as we know no doubt i’ll post about it on here so for now I’ll say ttfn

Its party night tonight, heading round to Nikki and Andy’s for Nikki’s b-day party, just waiting for Liam and Steve to get here and then we’ll be off, not seen a few people for a while so should be a laugh, can’t stay to long tonight though as got things to do tomorrow that can’t be avoided.

Will post some piccies up later no doubt for your enjoyment