Dolly!

Yes I went there with the obvious.

Yesterday I got up early, drove down south to literally meet a lady about a dog.

The dog in question was a seven year old pug named, you guessed it, Dolly.

Naturally the owner needed to meet me and make sure I was going to give Dolly a loving home.

I think it’s stating the obvious to say Dolly’s owner was very upset having to find Dolly a new home. I’d be the same.

In the run up to this day I’d not said much about it. I was trying to manage my expectations and hopes. If it fell through I knew I’d be heart broken. I wanted to try and limit the amount of hurt.

But I passed the test both by the owner and Dolly.

Dolly did amazing on the way back. The M25 was horrendous as was the bit of the M1 that I take. I think the M25 from basically the M3 junction where I got on to the M40 junction took nearly two hours.

So when I got a chance to stop at a services on the M1 I did so. Dolly really needed a moment to answer the call of nature and stretch her legs.

When we eventually got home the boys were following Dolly around as she explored her new surroundings.

Considering how stressful the day was for Dolly she had a pretty good night. Only a couple of “accidents” downstairs to clean up. I woke up with Dolly cuddled up to me on the bed.

I know one thing Nico and Loki need to up their meal time game. Dolly is a food hover. And blindingly fast. They won’t be able to just eat when they want now. If it’s left Dolly will have it.

We are now learning how to live together as a pack, learn each others routines, get used to being comfortable together. It’s a good start so far. But it’s a long journey.

Welcome to the family Dolly.

I survived the last four days at work.

I think that’s the best way to describe them.

Obviously the days got busier as it got closer to the big day. They also got more challenging as my chest infection has not started to clear up. But my energy levels have gradually improved thankfully.

Instead of finishing at midday Christmas Eve, I took a two hour break and then did a four hour shift at a local express store. So I finished actual work at 6pm last night.

Having started at 5am that morning as I had my other shifts since returning from illness (except Sunday store opens at 7am then). Yesterday was a bloody long day and this may be stating the obvious but I was to say the least very knackered when I got home.

But now I’m looking at a nice break from work and not back until the 8th January. Which if the next bit of this post comes off is great timing.

My planned gaming session for this Friday might not being going ahead, and need rescheduling. Instead I may have to be making a journey to take a step closer to a possible major big news announcement.

Yes I know that’s a big tease. But I’m trying to manage my own expectations and hopes so if it doesn’t happen I’m not too heart broken over it.

Anyway it’s that big day every kid, big and small has been waiting for. Which leaves me just to say to every reader of this blog from myself, Nathan, my Mum, and the two attack chihuahuas Nico and Loki.

Merry Christmas

A brief update.

Monday at work I started to feel what I thought was a cold coming on. So I bought the usual cold/flu capsules, and chewable high strength vitamin C tablets. Popped some capsules, and chewed a vit C.

But I got worse during the day once home.

This wasn’t a cold. It was a chest infection. I was coughing, being sick. I was shaking from feeling cold but my forehead was hot.

I gathered the strength to put the attack chihuahuas round with mum. Then collapsed on my bed. Fading in and out of sleep.

That was my Tuesday.

Wednesday wasn’t much better but I was able to start getting some diluted squash to drink.

A new twist to the symptoms is the lower left arm feeling bruised/sore. That happened after the heat returned to them.

Currently I’m trying not to talk or move so I don’t spark a coughing fit.

I hope this improves soon.

Yesterday afternoon I completed the purchase of the house I’ve been renting for the last 14 years.

I’m a home owner again.

This is something I never thought I’d ever be doing again.

But thanks to the generosity of my aunt and uncle I’ve been able to do so.

I can’t put into words how much this means to me or how much I will always be grateful to them.

I now need a will update.

The r&r has started.

Official it started 1pm yesterday when my shift ended.

But I didn’t get to lie-in and enjoy a lazy relaxed start to this week off work.

I had to get up early to help a relative replace the felt on my downstairs toilet. It’s been leaking during heavy rainfall for a while now.

The leak was due to rotted felt under the tiles. The tiles themselves were still doing their job.

So 8am this morning we stripped the roof of the tiles. Removed the old batons and rotted felt.

It was then time to lay the new felt, new batons, and re-lay the tiles (once I’d cleaned the moss off them).

We got that done by lunchtime.

Tomorrow some cement work needs doing and once dry some sealant stuff (that’s about as technical as I get on this diy stuff), and it’s all good as new.

What this means is that my visit to Nath is going to be at the end of the week.

And hopefully before I see Nath I’ll have some big news to share with you.

I can’t believe it’s been a week nearly since my last post.

The work life balance seems out of whack at the moment. Maybe not in hours worked but more the physical and emotional toll.

Sometimes it feels age is catching up with me and despite getting about eight hours sleep. I am still having an afternoon nap.

However since the last post I’ve been on the first of three training courses to become a union health and safety rep. It was a three day course at the unions branch office, with accommodation provided at a local Premier Inn.

Yes breakfast was included. So it would have been rude to not have the full English to start the days off correctly.

I even made a batch of cold brew coffee over night in the hotel room to have during the day on the course.

Yes they had coffee, tea, biscuits etc to help yourself to during the day. But sachets of Nescafé coffee just won’t cut it as the caffeine option.

So I felt forced to make the cold brew to get that fix.

How did I make the cold brew?

Well I had my 1 litre Nalgene bottle, cold brew filter bags, Hario mini mill plus, and some coffee beans in the car (along with a few other bits, like gas stove, dehydrated food).

That first night in the hotel room saw me grinding beans, filling the filter bag, placing it in the Nalgene and pouring in the bottled water purchased from the Tesco next to the Premier Inn.

The next morning I had a litre of cold brew ready to take in with me.

I had been due two back to back days off but I was asked if I’d do some overtime Friday. Which I agreed to.

The bright side of all this is that in seven shifts time I’m on holiday for a week. I’ll talk more about those plans in another post.

Castle Combo arrived, and once some more Mayday premium sleeves also arrived, was sleeved.

Thanks to Jamey Stegmaier and his latest YouTube video (at time of writing) about his favourite mechanic in Splendor: Pokémon I have now ordered a copy.

The thing about this version of the game is it’s not available out side Korea. So to get a copy you have to import a copy or hope a company specialising in imported games has it. I went the former via eBay. The later could have been an option but the company I found was out of stock for it.

This kind of reminds me of the “original” Star Wars Love Letter that sadly was only available in Russia. At the time I did try and get a copy. But as you have probably already guessed I was unsuccessful in those attempts.

Carcassonne Star Wars was a similar thing for the US. Available in the UK and EU. But not licensed for the States.

The joys of franchise licensing.

Back to Splendor. I don’t actually own the original game, despite liking it. I sold on my copy plus it’s play mat once I had the Marvel edition in my collection. I preferred the extra bits that they added to the Marvel version such as the Avengers Assemble tile.

I can see there being room for two copies of the game (possibly).

I’ve been looking everywhere for my copy of Strike! But can I find it? So like previous times in similar situations I’ve ordered a replacement copy. If it does turn up it’ll be handy having two copies.

Right I think that’s enough for this post time to spend the day just chilling before work tomorrow.