We’ve been having a few days off this week and decided to go The Range at South Shore. It was something we knew we had to do as Jane has pestered to go there for a while. She loves that shop, so no holiday would be complete without a visit there, for Jane anyway. I must say that I enjoy a mooch around, apart from my mouching days being over and I’m at the mercy of whoever is pushing me!
The dogs weren’t amused poor things. They’ve got so used to me staying in with them that it’s a bit of a shock when I do go out now that we can. Their little faces look so sad, as if they’re telling me they want to come too. What made it even worse was, that when we had our glad rags on and were ready to leave, we did as we always do and put them out for a tinkle or poo! Eagle eyed Jane thought something was amiss with Muffin’s wee again (one of my dogs if you don’t know). So she got some toilet paper and dabbed it on his doofer and lo and behold it had got blood on it.
Muffin’s in Trouble Again…
The poor little fella. He’s had more than his fair share of problems this last few months. He seems to have been plagued by infections which he hasn’t had before. Kevin sprang into action and rang the vets who asked for a wee sample in a clean bottle, which usually happens. I think they know that it’s his old problem coming up again so don’t need to see him. This was just as we were leaving the house, you can’t make it up.
We decided that as he had just emptied his bladder, we’d catch a sample when we got home and Kevin would take it in then. If any of you are asked to give a pets’ wee sample, a good way to do it is get a big tablespoon and hold it under their willie and catch some. It works wonders if you’ve got a boy! I know from experience that it’s not quite so easy with a girl…
Anyway, Kevin took it through to the vets and hadn’t been back long when they rang to say he’d got another infection. In one way I was glad, because if it hadn’t been an infection it would mean a lot more trouble. Even if it’s not nice it’s better than the alternative, if you know what I mean. They’ve given him another type of antibiotic, so fingers crossed again!
Anyway, we eventually set off. I swear, it’s like a safari expedition when we go out, asking if everyone had watches, glasses, masks and all sorts of things – usually aimed at me I might say. But off we went. We’d only gone a few yards on the road and I looked up and couldn’t see a thing.
A Hand in Front…
Now I know what it feels like when my cataracts and macular degeneration gets even worse, heaven forbid. It was awful, I literally couldn’t see a hand in front of me! I did think they couldn’t have got worse in half an hour and then a flash of lightning hit me. I had my reading glasses on and not my distance ones, dopey me!
Off Kevin sprinted back into the house only to come back with the wrong ones. Back he went, with tutting no doubt, because I was the dope who had held us up. But off we went, through Blackpool which was very busy and to the Range at last.
Poor hubby, he’s not much good at wheelchair driving. We’d just got out of the car and gone about five yards and he nearly tipped me out before I got into the shop. I did think it didn’t bode well!
Oh my goodness, I’ve never seen as many Christmas decorations. Rows and rows and all at a reasonable price. There were pink, gold, silver, red, white, grey. You name it they had it. There was some very pretty things, but apart from a tiny Santa arriving with a parachute, we didn’t get any of them, weren’t we good.
Jane wanted things for her driftwood house building, so off we went to find them. Lots of things have been moved around for Xmas things and they’ve put an Iceland food area in the shop too. I must say I was underwhelmed with it as there wasn’t much at all there. Just very basic things so we didn’t linger long in that area!
Everything your heart desires
I don’t know if you have ever been to The Range but it’s a very good shop, well we think so. There’s everything your heart could desire to set up a home. It does tend to make you feel like you want to have a complete change of everything, but that wasn’t going to happen, so we enjoyed a good look round.
Hubby needs kiddy reins fastened to him as he always wanders off. I can’t find him then when I want to show him something! There I am, yelling his name at the top of my voice until he suddenly pops round a corner as if nothing had happened. I get a lot of funny looks when I’m trying to find him, but he’s oblivious, bless him.
I don’t know how it happened but we seemed to buy lots of things which of course you never know you need until you see it. I think it’s a woman thing but I did get a needle threader at the princely sum of £1, wasn’t I rash! Some colouring pencils made their way home with me which I couldn’t resist. Naughty me. I have what you might call a good selection of them already!
Eventually we realised what time it was and with Muffin’s wee having to go to the vets, we set off back home to two happy to see you dogs!
Fishing for goldfish
Changing the subject, we don’t reckon much to the change in weather. Although the windows did come clean from the heaviest rain we’ve had in a while but are sanded up again – and so it goes on. That’s the price for being on the sea front but I still wouldn’t be anywhere else!
Some people have a window cleaner which would be a waste of money here. You never know when the wind’s going to strike up and make them filthy again. It could be the day after, making you think ‘why did I pay all that money out to end up as bad’!
We had a window cleaner at home in Yorkshire as we had a lot of windows to clean and very little time. I used to clean them but it got too much for me so we set our window cleaner on and that was. We got to know him very well over the years to the point that he asked if we wanted some goldfish out of his mother’s pond. So off went Kevin, bucket and net in hand to catch himself some fish.
Snack Time
Apparently, his mother’s fish had bred non-stop until they were overrun by goldfish. They’d given a lot away and still had loads more so back came Kevin with goodness knows how many goldfish in his bucket.
We had a big pond for our koi and a small wildlife pond which was the obvious place to put them. If they’d gone into the main pond, the big fish would simply have eaten them up. We learnt that to our peril when we had some small fish in their pond which they enjoyed as a snack!
Much to my horror, I saw one with a fish half in and half out of its mouth! I was so upset for ages but anyway, these tiny new goldfish went in the little pond. Would you believe, when we left there, we brought all the fish with us which was a story in itself. We still have some from the original lot which must have been 30 years ago when we got them. As goldfish tend to live at the most for 15 years, I’ve become very fond of them. Especially one that’s mostly white with dabs of orange. Luckily, my other fish aren’t interested and haven’t touched them as they’re too big to swallow although I bet they tried!
Other blogs you might be interested in:
- Lunch and hot chocolate
- What happened to the weather?
- Party time again
- Celebrating 30 years
- Being a bit more normal
- Breast Cancer Stories
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