A BETTER ROSY!

THIS 'N' THAT

I had thought that I would update this blog monthly, but I seem to be doing it very much more often. Do let me know (on billybubbles@me.com) if this is too frequent. I had also thought of including more photos, but the weather has been so cold and ghastly that I've avoided the outside world as much as possible. (Plus persuading the photo to be as big as I want it to be is still a bit of a challenge).

What I HAVE done is to tweak 'Rosy' a bit.

I used to have an excellent hi-fi (ish) system. It consisted of a pair of Wharfdale speakers, fed by 2 car radios - one armed with a CD player, 'tother with a tape player. A couple of years ago, there was a major re-vamp of Rosy's electrics, culminating in Sparks inviting me to check that everything was working. I omitted to check the hi-fi, and it was several weeks later before I discovered that they had both died.

It was not until a week ago that I had a serious go at solving the problem.

The CD radio was merely a loose connection, so it now plays CDs. (I also have a clever box that I can load with some 10 CDs, and the radio will play them all). What it doesn't yet do is to act as a radio, but I'll fix that sometime. (I currently use either a Pure Move or a Roberts portable radio. The Pure Move was enjoyable, until its rechargeable battery started to fail. I bought a replacement battery, but for various reasons it is now not the high class sound that I seek ('Rosy' is TV-less, so the radio takes quite a beating). I also have a Roberts radio, which gives excellent sound, but the battery doesn't last very long. I am in the process of getting another Roberts radio that does last  long enough for me).

The cassette tape radio was totally dis-interested in playing tapes.

Fortunately, I mentioned this in the last blog, and a kind person is in the process of posting his un-wanted radio/tape player to me.

This will mean that the tedious task of transferring all the music onto an MP3 player can (thank goodness) go on hold. However, I guess that at some time in the future it will have to be done - though maybe I will shuffle off this mortal coil first.

FANNY

Poor Fanny is a very un-happy woof at the moment. Some 13 or 14 months ago she cut the inside of a hind leg - only a short cut, but she licked it so much that it never healed. A month and a bit ago, I launched a really serious attack on it - a month of 2 pills a day, followed by a month of washing it with some clever stuff twice a day - PLUS wearing a plastic horn wrapped around her neck, so that she cannot lick the wound. She obviously doesn't like this, but the wound does appear to be getting very much better.

BOOKS

I get through quite a few books on 'Rosy'. I rarely buy new ones, preferring 2nd hand shops and book swaps, though I occasionally make use of ABE Books (on the internet with a HUGE collection of used books for sale). I get through most books in a couple or 3 days. However, Anthony Beevor's 'D-Day' has taken nigh on a week. It covers not only D-Day itself, but also co the following months. Detailed and fascinating (if you like that sort of thing). I have already read his 'Second World War'.

(I missed most of the 2nd world war. I was born in London suburbia in Nov 43. My father was conscripted, and my mother took my sister and I to her parental home (a farm in Scotland). Father thought the whole war was a waste of time and effort, and had severe reservations about my entry into the Brit army. I enjoyed the Army a lot. I left the Brit Army for the Oman army, which provided the cash to repair to England and to buy a house without needing a mortgage.

I then became a college lecturer. Then my wife and I separated. I headed back to Oman to become, eventually, involved in the management of the equivalent of a 6th form college. 3 happy years generated the cash for me to buy Rosy - and improved my Arabic, much of which I have now, sadly, lost).