Farewell my best friend

Tonight marks the end of an era. For the last eighteen years I have shared my life with my four-legged friends. My beloved Sammy passed away 51 weeks again and today I said goodnight to my other companion, Sonny Jim.

I didn't choose Sonny Jim, or Scooby as he was called back then. As a collie cross, I expected to have my work cut out. As the years went by, people kept assuring me he would calm down. Whilst it was great to see him running around fields and enjoying life, it could be tiresome - especially after a full day at work. We coped though, and boy did we walk the miles!

It was only after taking part in Race for Life together in 2009 (aged 13) that I finally started to see the calm setting in. It was quite a shock to the system to see such an active dog start to slow down and not need so many or such long walks. We tailored our activities to make sure no-one over did it. It didn't help that around this time both boys were diagnosed with heart murmurs. Not that this stopped the walks though.

So on we walked. Our move to Wiltshire was probably one of the best decisions ever. Sad to move away from close family and friends, but what a choice we had for our walks. It has only been in the past year since losing Sammy that the walks stopped. Sadly the arthritis took hold and the muscle wastage meant standing was more of a challenge than going for a walk.

You cannot understate the worth of companionship with our four legged friends. My life would have been so empty without both my dogs. And since losing Sammy, Sonny Jim became my rock. Many of our family and friends worried how he would cope without Sammy. He surprised us all though and almost made it to the anniversary next week.

So to all dog lovers out there, I salute you. Give your dogs a big hug from me and cherish every single moment you have together. I have many years of fabulous memories - and for this reason my dogs are my latest rave for this blog.

Good night dear Sonny Jim, I wish you a safe journey to join Sammy. Remember to visit me in my dreams and I look forward to being reunited with you one day in the future. Lettie and Lady Bella also send you their love too and we all hope you are now able to rest in peace.

xxx

Plank-abs-tic

OK so here comes the first of my "raves"!

Don't be put off about the shortness of this rave compared to that of my first rant. Let it be said, that the fact that I'm raving about it is worth the equivalent of a long post!!

So if you have read my bio, you'll know I like to go to the gym. I have always had a gym membership, but it wasn't until I stopped smoking almost five years ago that I took it seriously and became a regular "gym bunny".

That said, it has always been an annoyance of mine that I never seem to improve. I'm always a beetroot colour after working out and I ache like crazy for about two days after working out. I must be improving though as I feel I am at most fittest right now. I love the classes I do; in some cases, I stretch myself even more by adding wrist weights to the advanced aerobics classes!!

So with the legs, bums and tums class being covered this week due to the Bank Holiday I had concerns the week wouldn't come up to the usual standards. No worries though, it was one of the best classes I had been to, and for the strangest of reasons.

Personally I hate doing the plank and believe this can only be perfected by people who weigh as much as a feather (i.e. I'd have to lose half my body weight to perfect the hold!) Either that or they have super strong arms and wrists!!

If I can manage a full 30 seconds hold in plank position I am impressed, but this week we were pushed to hold this in 6 different ways, each time for 30 seconds. With step moves and knee bends as well as just the standard hold. OK so I couldn't complete all of them, but I did try and successfully managed each hold for at least half the time. Believe me, for me, that's good and serious progress!

Normally I would also hate the abs workout that followed, but they were a pleasant break from all the planks! Thankfully I finished the class feeling like I had really worked out and look forward to the next class!

Driving me mad

After giving it some careful consideration, and despite friends' advice, I am starting with a rant. I feel justified as in the blog title a rant does come before a rave!! Besides which if I don't get this off my chest soon I think I might just implode next time I'm in the car.

So my rant for this evening is about driving. Not necessarily my driving, although I know I can also cause other drivers to rant in a similar vein. But this is my blog so bear with me while I share with you the top five ways I can be literally driven to distraction by other road users.

• Roundabouts
  
  I live in Swindon, you know the place... the one with the Magic Roundabout. Not the old children's TV programme, the five mini-roundabouts contraption! You would think having this construction would imply that at minimum local residents would know how to navigate a roundabout. It's not hard. Priority right (for the UK anyway)!
  
  For a town that supposedly has the most roundabouts than anywhere else in the UK, I would have expected better. Of course I accept there will always be a slight confusion when all cars arrive at pretty much the same time. It's almost laughable as in our British politeness you see one car make a move, but then immediately slam on the brakes as another also makes a move. Just go for it. If you hesitate, you might just as well sit there until you get a written invitation to move!
  
  My advice, adjust your speed to avoid arriving at the same time. And if you witness any hesitation, take full advantage and make your move stick!

• Middle / outside lane drivers
  
  On occasion I have been undertaken on a motorway when I've been in the outside lane. To explain, I'm usually in this lane to overtake someone in the middle lane, but there is no-one ahead in the left hand lane. As a speeding car from behind approaches in the left hand lane, it's not long before both outside lanes are being undertaken. I hate this almost as much as any unnecessary middle lane driving!!!!!
  
  If only that middle lane driver was driving correctly, my rants would be saved!

• Parking
  
  Here I want to name three parking frustrations. Firstly I will pick on the people who would rather park a distance away than try to reverse park into a space. With a friend recently, we parked at the far end of a car park, purely because she preferred to drive into a space. Now you still have to reverse out of the space, but sometimes there's no arguing these little points!(?)
  
  Secondly the lovely people who park over two spaces. Why? OK I get you then avoid anyone accidentally knocking your car with their doors, but seriously on a Saturday morning supermarket shop, this is just mean!
  
  And thirdly, tight fit parking - on one side that is. Some cars have parked so close to me that I have been known to get back into the car from the passenger side. I only assume they had either a stick insect for a passenger or none at all. A little thoughtful consideration wouldn't go amiss here!!

• Wide births
  
  Whether overtaking a bicycle or a parked car, some people seem to need to have the rest of the whole road width free for them to safely complete this manoeuvre. This is especially frustrating as it seems to happen more often with owners of smaller cars. Not logical I know, but not a lot of the driving referred to here is!

• Indicating
  
  Oh the piece de resistance. I can't quite decide which is more annoying. Sitting at a roundabout waiting for the person in the non-indicating car to go straight ahead, but they turn left. Or, my biggest bug bear of all, the right hand indicator being used (again on a roundabout) when the driver is actually going straight across. Why???
  
  I only drive four miles to work but in those few minutes I encounter eight roundabouts. With visits home at lunchtime, that makes 32 opportunities for a roundabout calamity! Touch wood, no accidents to date, but plenty of near misses!

As I said at the beginning, I'm no saint when driving. I could add at least another 3 frustrations that other drivers would nominate: tailgating, not paying attention and impatience.

So there you have it, first rant over and done with. I'm looking forward to the rave. Actually though I have to say this has been quite therapeutic. Let's see how calm the journey to work is in the morning!

Thanks for reading!