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

P1060571, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Well were now into the 4th day of our holiday and we’ve managed to cram in visits to :

Whitby Abbey, which was a pleasant couple of hours spent walking round the remains of what at one time must have been a very imposing structure (still is I suppose) for such a small coastal town of the times, the views from the hill its built on give you some very good panoramic views over Whitby and the surrounding area.

Filey which once you’ve seen it you’ve seen it

Goathland, again a pleasant little village which seems to be making a living off the back of Heartbeat, just about every shop there is a gift shop, which is a shame, as I’m sure it would be nicer/quainter if it actually had some proper shops.

Becks Hole, home of what must be Britains smallest Pub, The Birch Hall Inn, nice place to stop off in for a beer and one of their hearty sandwichs and home made Pork Pies, dogs are welcome as well.

Grosmont, the place where the steam engine line starts and home of the steam engine workshops, you can go for a ride on one of the locally restored Steam Engines and experience a time gone by, theres also a nice little pub there just by the railway crossings that serves a very nice Beer battered Cod and Chips.

Pickering, which is a quaint little Market Town and also the end of the line for Grosmonts Steam Railway, theres a rather nice little bakery there that does lots of home made sweet and savoury pies.
The day we went there was a flea market on which had quite a few nice antique stalls for those who like that sort of thing, you’ve also got the remains of Pickering Castle, which sadly we did’nt get to explore as it not open on a Monday or Tuesday.

Probably going to have a drive to Scarborough today as it looks like its gonna be a sunny day indeed . .

might have been one of my favourite lines in the movie Apocalypse Now, but for me this morning the worst smell was of burning oil coming through my car air vents this morning, thinking there’s something serious the matter with my car, checked the oil levels and they seemed OK, but still smell burning oil and the car’s got a very high temperature, am presently trying to get it booked into the local BMW garage to get it looked at, as can’t be without my car, need it to get to and from work as well as run god knows how many different errands.

Why do things like this always happen at the end of the month when your skint and have no money what so ever to spare, I just can’t be doing with this right now, especially what with it looking like I’ll just be getting the cost of living rise at work and that’s even looking as if it will be delayed for another month.

Someone up there must really really hate me right now to have this happen right now . .  heres hoping its nothing real serious . . .

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

Well what can I say except that the Unabombers End of Year Riot at Electriks at Legends was a belter of a night . .  the venue the DJ’s, the music and most of all the people were fantastic, not had a night out as much fun as that in god knows how many years . . .  has definitely set me up for tonight’s NYE party at Electriks Bar.

I took a few picture of the night and am still in the process of uploading them to flickr, should hopefully have them all uploaded later on today, so keep checking back, didn’t get any video footage as it was way to dark in there to film.

Highlights of my night apart from the music and the people were the lovely Gemma who I know from going to Electriks Bar was recognizing me and asking where Blue was and some absolutely bolloxed up guy ambling across to me, grabbing me by the hand, shaking it profoundly and saying he was very upset that my Essential Mix on Radio 1 hadn’t been voted the top mix of the decade . . .  looking a little bemused I asked him who he thought I was . .  apparently according to him he thought I was Brandon Block . .  made me laugh . .

Anyway the night was a right good laugh, met some really nice people, who I shall hopefully bump into again at some point . ., guessing the same will happen tonight.

So before  go better wish you all a Happy New Year and hope to see you on the other side later

Drove across to Market Weighton on Friday night and thought I’d set up the time-lapse camera on the car and do a night time-lapse of the journey along the M62 Motorway from Manchester and heres the result

Quite liking how the rain hitting the camera at the end of the trip makes it sort of trippy, got a few more to add over the next few days of our holiday in Dorset and Cornwall, so keep checking back for some more timelapse trips

Picture 095, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Did’nt really post to much over the weekend as I spent quite alot of it in bed, due to being called out to an alarm call at my workplace, was there from midnight Friday till 5:30am Saturday morning, so spent quite a while in bed recovering.

So seeing as most of Saturday was spent in bed thought we#d better do something on Sunday, was’nt sure what to do or where to go, but in the end we decided on Chelford Car boot.

Got there for about 12:30 and spent a good hour or so just wondering round looking for bargain’s but think we missed most of them, so just ended up buying lots of quaility cheeses instead, more about those in another post.

After leaving we thought we’d best take Blue for a walk and on the way back we chanced upon Styal Estate a rather good dog walking place, we’d heard about it before but never actually bothered to go look for it, really wish we had cause its definatly a dog friendly walk, lost of paths and fields for Blue to galavant in, I’ll stick some photo & videos up this weekend so you can see for yourselfs.

Anyway its close to 8:00am and I’d better start making my way to work, cyas laters
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Heading into Chorton last night with Ash, John and Sophie for a night of merriment and met random strangers, said random strangers where however very decent folk and to top it all were actually Yorkshiremen, well 2 of them were anyways.
The Yorkshiremen in question were Paul originally from York and his dad Steve who’d come over to visit him, they’d come out with what I’m guessing were Pauls mates in Manchester and we just sort of sat next to them and then just instigated ourselves into the group, though by the end of the night it felt we’d known them for alot longer then a couple of hours.
I’ve added a few photo’s to the flickr account of the night, not many though as I was to pissed to take that many, it was a very enjoyable evening in the Nook and I most certainly think we’ll be going there for a drink again in the not to distant future

I’m going to end the post here as its still only 7:58am in the morning, I’m still hungover and have now got to find some mug who’ll drive me to Chorlton to pick up my car . . . wish me luck.

Went to see Selby Market today and Crows’ Auctions, not much to see to be honest as there redoing the main street in Selby so the front end of the Markets been relocated and the rear Markets dwindled down to on about a dozen stall’s which is a shame, seems even the Markets are being hit by the downturn.

Crows Auction was still busy though, people bidding on other peoples house clearances and buying the small birds and livestock on view, it was nice to go back there and see the auction, hard to think that dad used to own it, but now its in somebody elses hands and they seem to be making a go of it.

After we got back went to the bank to put in the cheque from mum and then dropped her off, me and mel then headed to Spring Wells and took Blue for a walk along the railway line, its now a designated country walk that goes by the name of Hudsons Way, quite a nice walk indeed, reall good for excercising your dog and yourself, felt quite alive after our walk, took a few photo’s which i’ll post on the blog at some point and alos did a few time-lapse movies of the journey to Selby and back so keep your eyes open for them.

Anway i’ve got another piece of chocolate fudge cake and vanilla ice cream to be eating, so best be off.

Picture 015, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Went and checked out Davyhulmes Millenium Nature Reserve at the weekend with Blue our Cane Corso, the whole site covers about 8 hectares of land along side about 3/4 mile of the west bank of Manchesters Ship Canal , the reserve is a mixed landscape of wetland, woods, water features & open land.

You can do everything from bird watching, walking, cycling there as well as having a traditional picnic on one of the benchs provided.

The site is owned and maintained by United Utilities and part of it is a designated Site of Biological Importance.