We had a wonderful Church service on Sunday by Christingle Light

I forgot my camera so had to rely on someone sending me these photos over the e mail.

Gilda and Nila made some wonderful Christingles for us.

Our Parson and his wife was visiting family in Ireland so it was up to us! The good news was we had no sermon :O).

The artificial lights were put out and we had our service by candle light.

We had a visitor from Scandinavia, he played the guitar and sang Silent night, the first verse was in his own language, the second was Latin the third was German and then we all sang it through in English of course! No photo :O(

After singing several other carols we had visitors (a brother and sister) from Indonesia, they sang four songs and apologised that they were about to sing Silent night again in FOUR different languages again! Their own, English, Dutch, Malaysian. Again I have no photo.

The three singers were very good, especially the man who had such a rich voice, it was wonderful to hear that beautiful carol in six different languages as well as ours. They all had the same tune except the German one.

We were allowed to bring the Christingles home so I have copied them for our Spanish neighbours; this is what we gave them. I used Dates and chocolate and poor Dave's liquorice all-sorts as I did not have any other sweets :O(

Also I did them for our Christmas meal.

As usual our babies were allowed on this one occasion to eat their meal from the table, before we did I hasten to add!

Note their Little presents! At first they refuse to eat and look so innocent, once they realise it is OK there is no stopping them. Tiny was with us this year and she was not going to be left out, she would not sit to close to ours so I had to move Toff along a bit. Jeanette will be very surprised at Tiny, she is so scared and timid. She really loves it with us and the babies; she soon becomes one of the pack! She settles down immediately the front door is closed behind Jeanette. Just look at Toff licking her lips at the Trifle in the photo below, waiting for permission to eat it!.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day and enjoyed all your company.

Tina xx

My friend Jeanette

Hi

Just a very small blog to tell you all that Jeanette has been working very hard and in secret for two weeks or more. Today I found out what she has been up to. She has made me a beautiful decoupage calendar. It is very personalised, to give you an example April is on the theme of ‘Happy Birthday Tina’ etc. I shall scan in a special page for you.

I hope you can see it is a picnic with Toffee and Gizzie, my two darling friends.

What a good friend I have. She says she loves me too.
Tina

testing a video.

Christmas free day out.

Hi

Today is the Free Christmas fun day that our local super market puts on each year. It is an all day event with lots of fun for the kiddies. As you enter they give you a Santa hat and you pass on to a table full of cakes, they place three on a plate and give you a cup nearly full of melted chocolate to pour over your cakes.

There are many, many raffles and many really good prizes. It must cost thousands to put on.

..............................................................First and second prise.

They went on to put out two more mountain bikes a child's bike a pram they were still putting prizes out as we left. We arrived at 9am but did not stay very long this time as we were on our own. (Jeanette and Brian are in England) and no family this year :O(

Doug and Liz came to in 04 and Leeta and children came in 05

as did Pip & Jo. Can you spy Jeanette in the photo of Jo? It is a great day with lots to do. There is a bouncy castle, face painting etc for the children. Father Christmas and his helper arrive and all the children go for their presents and then the adults!!! Here I am queuing

........................waiting for a kiss and my pressy. (can you notice me copping a quick feel)

There is a professional photographer there and all the photos are given out free later. There must be hundreds of people that pass through as it opens at 8am and closes at 5am. ALL get a present from Santa.

Dave was not to be left out of the pressy or the 'feel' Just take a look at Santa's face and the shock horror of what this OAP is doing to him, his expression is ace!
The food as you see is plentiful and scrumptious.
They serve wine beer and juice & coke etc all day also.

At the end of the day they throw loads of sweets and all the remaining presents out. The year before last we brought home eight parcels and lots of bars of chocolate. (Last year I was at Leeta's)

I don’t think we shall go back this year for the sweets, photo and presents as we have Church and it would be a rush.

Every where you look are red hats :O)

Tina Spain.

Ford Focus Estate year 2000

Sorry, have just read the comments on my car blog and you are all right of course, I did not tell you much about the car or how we came by it. I will try to put it right.

Yes it is a lovely car, and yes I have already mentioned to Dave about how much more we can pack in it and he has once again reminded me that it is not the quantity but the weight that worries him!.

It was definitely a God send to us, our car had the air conditioning broken and we had plenty of quotes (cheapest 600 Euro) We had been saving for months and months to get it done and was about to pay out the 600 Euro when I had to go to England, Dave had his accident a few days before it was due to be taken in for the air con.!

Not only did we not waste the 600 on a car that was about to go to heaven BUT we now had 600 towards the next car.

Ernie and Mary owned the car we brought (you know the ones that we had fallen out with) they had offered us the car when Ernie was passing and noticed that our car was missing, once Dave told him what happened he said they had finally sold their house and were about to sell their car as well. As they wanted a very quick last minute sale they offered it to us for 3,000 Euro. Dave knew it was a bargain as Ernie had never used it more then once a month to the hospital and chemist. The mileage was very, very low. It had been serviced every year and was up to date with its m.o.t. in short quite a bargain.

The deal was almost in the bag when the man buying their house phoned to say they would not complete until April/May of next year. Ernie phoned up to say how sorry he was but he could not sell the car now until April or May and as we needed one sooner the deal was now off. Dave was miffed to say the very least and tried to get me to phone back and say that if we brought it they could still use it until they go, I would not do it.

The phone rang about 9.30 that evening and it was Ernie who apologised for the late call but wanted to put a suggestion our way. How would we feel if they shared the car with us until April? for this they would knock 1,000 Euro off the price! Also we need not pay in one lump; we could spread it out until April. We said a quite “thank you God” and accepted his offer. Man oh Man, we had what we wanted with 1,000 bonus!!

The only difference was that as soon as the money came through from the Insurance we paid in full. Yes that was another thing, Dave spent the day going between the breakers yard and the Insurance Company arguing his case about only getting scrap price for it as he was fully comp. After about four visits a very exasperated lady promised to do what she could. Dave returned home without much hope of improving the quote much. The next day (two days after Ernie’s offer) a Spanish message had been left on our answering machine for Dave, Pillar happened to pop in and Dave asked her what it said. She said it is from an insurance company saying the money has been put into your bank. Once she had left Dave looked at the bank statement on the web…Nothing… The next day he looked again and 4,000 Euro less the 400 scrap price had been put in!!

We now had a car worth a lot more than 3,000 for 2,000 which left another 2,000 in the bank!

Dave is having his much needed treatment on his teeth done, he has already had root treatment and then the tooth repaired ( three visits) in all 150 Euro, he is about to have another the same on the other side and then a tooth removed and a replacement put onto his existing plate. We estimate that it may cost about anything up to 600 Euro. It is a private Dentist. Me? Well I had my computer done as you all know and the rest is not to be used unless it is very much needed.

The final piece of this story is that the man buying Ernie and Mary’s house phoned the other day to say he had sold and wanted to move in after Christmas! Ernie and Mary went to England and brought a lovely cottage in Devon, so the car is all ours from January.

Tina Spain

The vets

Hi

I am writing a blog on Sandie demands..Over and over and over… he he

The dogs:

We have had as you all know a very hard year financially and because of this we have let the dogs injections for returning to England laps by nine month!!

Dave made an appointment with our normal lovely vet and was convinced he would do the honours of back dating everything by nine months, Ummm Hello.

The appointment finally came yesterday, we arrived with me feeling pretty uncomfortable and refusing to ask the vet.

The vet greeted both dogs with his usual loving and boisterous way. (On his knees stroking, kissing and playing with them) He was saying to them that he hopes they are feeling well and that Mummy and Daddy are being kind to them etc. etc. (he always remembers their names) anyway he asked us if they had a problem, I took a genteeel step back and looked sweetly at the vet and then pointedly at Dave, leaving the vet in no uncertain terms as to who was the boss this time!!

Dave said “We wish a favour please, a big one” The vet said “ci” Dave said we have forgotten completely about the injections this year and we are a little over due. A little duh! I sort of made myself a little shorter and whistling looked at the ceiling. Well inside I was!

Dave handed over the passports but before he looked inside at the dreaded date he asked me how Toffee’s eye was? I was surprised he remembered and said “Oh fine, it has been great thank you” He the looked inside the passport “Oh she is February it is due, yes?” we sort of mumbled “yes” me still looking sheepishly at my feet.

He then put the passports down and said “Toffee you first, and no shaky shaky” we were not sure what he was going to do as he had not said at this point. He whisked Toff onto the table and started to smell inside Toff's ears, he said in Spanish “Beautiful no” at this point I was thinking he must have gone mad as Toff’s 'ear' smell is not beautiful!

He then looked at her eyes, her teeth, her paws, her bum, at this point he felt her glands and said “ooh we need emptying No?” he started the horrid job of 'emptying the bum gland scenario'. As usual I heaved and he smiled. When he had finished, he washed and sprayed something on her bum, he took her face in his hands and very definitely started to tell her that she was about to get a lovely manicure, so she must not complain, oooheee the doggies will love you later!

With me clinging to her little neck and her face in my arms he started the dreaded nail clipping that Toff hates with a vengeance, Toff gave a little squeal with each nail, and with each nail he kissed her head and told her to be good! He is the most loving and gentle vet we have ever had, he really cares for his four legged patients. After everything had been poked and prodded he got the needle out and started the injection's still talking to her. (Oooh it looked like he was going to back date the passports after all.)

He then started the whole process over again with Giz. Once he had finished with Giz he sat at the desk and opened the passports, he proceeded to take all the labels of the injection bottles placing them in the appropriate place on the passport. He then changed the date stamp and proceeded to date everything. He gave us worming tablets and one spot and told us to return in April for the heart warm injection. He said that it would be better if we return next year in February! I asked if it was OK that they had the injections so soon and he told us that it was fine, they would have better protection, no harm.

The Bill for about one hour of his time and all he did to each dog was only 78 Euro. Under 40 Euro each dog, about 28 pound each. What a vet ah. We do not know what the cost would have been if we had to start over, we do know we would not have been able to visit England next year (or at least for six months)

Tina Spain.

Hi everyone I’m back……..

Just a very short blog to show everyone our new car.

Blog finished !!

A couple of odds, for a couple of **** :O)

Especially for Leeta, Dave sitting under the olive tree fairy lights galore!

Especially for Emily!!!! Matching clothes as well.

lemon and oranges

Sandie I took these the day you blogged to show that a lemon is lemon colour and the oranges are green. I forgot to post them!

These are oranges

This is a lemon

Rainbow on my ceiling!

An angel came to visit me today. She left her magic dust behind to make me feel better :O)

Toffee and the Vets

Hi all,

I expect by now you all know that’s its great news with our Toffee. God was definitely good to us and not only listened but answered all our prayers.

We took these last few photos before taking her to the vets in case she lost her eye!

Just before we left for the vets, we made a promise to Toff that we would let her have a drink if all was OK.

Our normal vet was not there and a new man saw Toff, he was lovely, he was accompanied by a female vet, also lovely; it looked like she had undergone a complete face reconstruction for some reason. You could tell the scarring and effect was very good, but she would never look normal.

Anyway they phoned the vet that had done the first surgery and got all the info, they explained to us that they had to put Toffee to sleep and remove the stitches and clean the eye and look for nerve separation, ulcers, inflammation and infection etc. all of which he explained is very possible. He had also noticed that Toffee had two marbles like lumps on the top of her head; they are her horns I always say! (Do you remember Mummy used to say that too?) He asked if I had ever had a biopsy taken from them, I said no, he said he would take a biopsy whilst she was under.

We held her in our arms as she went off, he was so nice and spoke and stroked her the whole time.

We waited in the surgery with Jeanette and Brian, she was gone for almost one hour, once they called us back, the nice man explained what they had done and what the outcome was. He had completely cleaned the eye and injected it with anti-inflammatory medication. He found the eye was not infected, not inflamed, the nerve was attached and everything looked wonderful, he said this was not what they had expected to find, she was a very lucky dog indeed. I think she was a very blessed dog indeed. As for the ‘lumps’ they were also completely normal cysts filled with a fluid.

He could do one of two things to make sure that the eye did not pop out again, (I asked was this likely, he said yes) one was to sew the entire outer lid to the bottom (as the other stitches would not have held long term) and she would have to have a drain put in, this would mean that she would have had a fifteen day stay in hospital and as he said, this is not good to separate you and also very expensive. The second option was to sedate her for the entire day, tomorrow she would also be quite and sleepy, and this was to give the eye total rest. We would have to administer two drops of anti inflammatory in her eye three times a day for six days. She was to be kept completely quite for about four days, no walks, no getting on furniture as she must not jump down. No playing with Giz and definitely no fighting with Rottweiler's. If we noticed the eye weeping we are to squirt saline into it before each set of eye drops. Needless to say we all agreed that the second option was better for all.

He also told us that if the eye popped out again, we were to soak a gauze in clean cold water and try to ease it back, if not possible we were to get her to the vets as soon as possible, if vet is not open we must bind the head and eye with a bandage until we can get to a vet:O(

He gave her another injection and she is still sleeping soundly, she is OK because when I spoke to her she definitely moved her head towards me. I didn’t like the idea that she had not come too from the first aesthetic, but she is conscious in as much as she is aware of me she just cannot move.

He gave us a bill chitty, (they do not write the cost, just a code and she gets it up on the screen) so we were guessing as to the cost of this operation and cyst draining. We both thought (or hoped) it would be no more than the first operation. The charge of the whole thing was 28 Euro. Our vets are unbelievable.

What a wonderful outcome to the whole unhappy saga ah. We prayed there would be no permanent damage, that the bill would be within our possible means, and that Toff would not suffer. All three was answered above all our expectations. Prayer is definitely a strong Allie to have on your side.

Toff sleeps it off! Perhaps we gave her a little too much wine!

I know that in the great scheme of things, this is a very small problem, and I am aware Toff is only a dog, but to us, she is our baby and God must understand that.

Tina Spain.

Poor Toff

This was taken with Jeanette's camera she gave me and then I took a photo of the screen :O)

I cannot write a blog as I am looking after Toff who believe it or not is still very sleepy and keeps falling when she tries to walk. Poor little Toff, can you see her sore little mouth?

Thank goodness Jeanette and Brian were around to help us. They took money in case the vet would not except a card, they did thank goodness. I shall have to hope Jeanette and Brian are around on Monday morning for another lift to the vets.

Tinax

My new camera

This is the front of the camera

This is the side view, a guard pops out to protect viewer screen from Light. When we were out for the day I could not see a thing on my screen but Jeanette could see everything :O)

What a lucky girl I am, and what a great friend I have in Jeanette.

.

Jeanette has also brought her Lexmark 3400 printer for me to borrow until we can afford to get one. It Prints of course and Photocopies, scans, prints photos directly from a camera photo card, it also faxes, and e-mails directly from printer.

.

Unfortunately she cannot find the software so I cannot install it yet. I am looking after Tiny for them tonight and tomorrow. They will be back late so I shall have to be patient and wait until Saturday when Jeanette has promised to re search for the software. Once I have it up and running Leeta, I can print all those lovely decoupage sheets.

Tina Spain