Look after your liver

What an absolutely stunning day we had in Farnham today. The weather was perfect. The park looked perfect. It was all pretty much perfect.

Looking across the park

After shopping and then discussing the ghastly thing that is Yahoo 7 with Mum & Dad, I started my day’s work.

Back when I varnished the window sill in the stairwell, some of the stain managed to attack the gloss paint on the edge of the window. When I tried to remove it with a damp cloth (as instructed by the can) all I managed to do was strip away some of the gloss paint. It made little difference to the stain, which decided it liked the taste of the white paint. Strange but I guess that teaches me not to use masking tape.

Armed with sandpaper, I attacked the stain, stripping back the gloss paint in the process. This time it was on purpose. It was then just a quick sand soap clean and thorough dry before giving it a quick coat of primer. An hour later, I finished it off with a coat of gloss. Six hours later I was able to close the window as it seems to be dry. This time I used masking tape and was very, very careful. Apart from the smell of paint, it looks much better.

The dogs had an appointment at the vet today. The second part of their usual yearly shots. Today it was to be the kennel cough spray up the nose, which they hate. For the first time since we’ve been visiting the vet up the road, the receptionist knew who I was without asking me and looking at her computer first. I was stunned.

The vet called us in and the poodles were (unusually) very well behaved. I don’t mean that they’re naughty or nasty but they do jump around a lot when the other one is on the examination table. Before giving her the spray, the vet looked Carmen over (Carmen is always first).

I mentioned that she had a strange scab on her neck. The vet looked at it and shook her head. She proclaimed that it requires a two week course of antibiotics to clear up any infection and regular salt water bathing. The kennel cough spray would have to wait. She told me that if they are administered together, they cancel each other out!

I wonder how they found that out. Did a dog have its kennel cough spray then take some antibiotics then go into a kennel and contract kennel cough?

So, after our (sort of) wasted trip to the vet, I rewarded the girls with a lovely walk right around the park where they managed to ignore every dog we saw while engaging in fox waste retrieval virtually every five minutes. They were wearing their coats so no need for a bath. Although this is not always a guarantee. As I was explaining to Mirinda on the weekend, Carmen still manages to get it on her front legs and neck sometimes. Rotten dog.

Back at home I returned to my garden work. A couple of weeks ago we bought some cyclamens to put in pots. Last weekend we bought some lovely roses which we don’t really want to put in the ground, given we’re trying to sell the house. Because of this, the roses get first dibs on the pots that were lined up for the cyclamens. So the cyclamens had to be planted.

I read up about their requirements and (hopefully) the new bed by the holly bush should be ideal. I spent a lovely hour preparing the soil and planting them in their new homes while good old Radio 4 kept me company. They looked very pretty in the afternoon light when I’d finished.

New cyclamens

Now for something I really have to share with as many people as I possibly can. My friend Lynden is in a Liva Tone shots ad. It’s all over Facebook…well, not really all over, more just among his friends. One of his relatives put it up on Youtube. I thought it only right and proper that I did the same here. It made me laugh a lot. You can view it below.

He reckons his Shakespearean career is now in tatters. Oh, Ross, what has happened to you?