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25 June 2010
24 June 2010
A New Home, A New Chapter
Taz at 8 weeks on the day after we brought him home with us.
Meet Taz! Our 9 week-old Golden Retriever. We took him home 10 days after we moved to our new home. He loves our garden :)CLICK HERE for more photos.
I am so blessed and every day I thank God for never getting tired of answering my prayers. A week shy of a year ago, my husband and I moved to our first place together. I liked it there. It was an excellent 'starter' condo-style flat. But James and I have always known, from the time we moved there that it is all temporary. Ten months later we started looking at houses that is still close to town centre but with a spare bedroom and a garden. We viewed a few but settled for the one we live in now. It has a very large strip of garden, a spacious front yard, a much larger kitchen and best of all it is not an open-plan house like our previous home. You can see the Crooked Spire from the second bedroom and to top it all off, it's a magnificent spot to watch the sunset. We still have a lot of decorating to do but first things first! We had to get our little baby home from Matlock. Marley & Me, anyone?
FINDING TAZ
Finding the right breed of dog was very important for me. I want to be fair to the dog, I always remember this line from one of the many Dog Training books that I've read: Your dog didn't choose you, YOU chose your dog.
When I was a young girl I dreamt of having a Saint Bernard after watching Bethoven. Then my sister bought a big poster of dog breeds when I was 11 and I wanted to have every single one of them. But it was the movie Homeward Bound that touched my heart so much so that I promised myself that some day I will have a Golden Retriever and he will be just as clever and kind as Shadow, and will even have Chance's sense of humour. After 15 years that moment is here and that dream has come true.
It wasn't easy to find a Golden Retriever puppy. We looked on UK Kennel Club accredited websites and found several reputable breeders. James made a dozen phone calls and email inquiries only to be told that all the litter has already been reserved, even those that weren't even born yet! I never knew Goldens sold like hotcakes!
I was about to give up on finding a pedigree Golden and was ready to consider getting a Labrador, which is James' first choice or a Border Collie.
So when we saw an advert about a Lab x Golden I told James that I don't mind if it's a cross. So he rang the number and spoke with Mr Slater who turned out to be a really well-off farmer (in terms of assets, the land he owns is massive!) and above it all, he was a really humble and hospitable chap. He even took us home straight to Chesterfield twice which I thought was really thoughtful. He's a very genuine person and his family were nice too. I loved being in his farm even though I brought home with me a million midge bites, which have not completely healed up to now. But to me, it was well worth it. The first time we went to the farm was only to have a look at the puppies. As it turned out he had two litter - one of pedigree Golden Retrievers and Border Collie cross, roughly the same age. We had a look at both but we fell in love with the Golden Retrievers! So we paid a deposit for Taz, and Mr Stephen Slater sprayed his bum with orange sheep spray which is still slghtly visible to up now. We went back twice more, second time to visit Taz and make sure he is OK and I got to milk cows and feed the calves! I got to hold some newborn British Blue kittens and got to play with 12 Golden Retriever puppies, 10 BC x GR cross pups and played with 6 adult Goldens. It was an absolutely wicked experience for me.
Finding the right breed of dog was very important for me. I want to be fair to the dog, I always remember this line from one of the many Dog Training books that I've read: Your dog didn't choose you, YOU chose your dog.
When I was a young girl I dreamt of having a Saint Bernard after watching Bethoven. Then my sister bought a big poster of dog breeds when I was 11 and I wanted to have every single one of them. But it was the movie Homeward Bound that touched my heart so much so that I promised myself that some day I will have a Golden Retriever and he will be just as clever and kind as Shadow, and will even have Chance's sense of humour. After 15 years that moment is here and that dream has come true.
It wasn't easy to find a Golden Retriever puppy. We looked on UK Kennel Club accredited websites and found several reputable breeders. James made a dozen phone calls and email inquiries only to be told that all the litter has already been reserved, even those that weren't even born yet! I never knew Goldens sold like hotcakes!
I was about to give up on finding a pedigree Golden and was ready to consider getting a Labrador, which is James' first choice or a Border Collie.
So when we saw an advert about a Lab x Golden I told James that I don't mind if it's a cross. So he rang the number and spoke with Mr Slater who turned out to be a really well-off farmer (in terms of assets, the land he owns is massive!) and above it all, he was a really humble and hospitable chap. He even took us home straight to Chesterfield twice which I thought was really thoughtful. He's a very genuine person and his family were nice too. I loved being in his farm even though I brought home with me a million midge bites, which have not completely healed up to now. But to me, it was well worth it. The first time we went to the farm was only to have a look at the puppies. As it turned out he had two litter - one of pedigree Golden Retrievers and Border Collie cross, roughly the same age. We had a look at both but we fell in love with the Golden Retrievers! So we paid a deposit for Taz, and Mr Stephen Slater sprayed his bum with orange sheep spray which is still slghtly visible to up now. We went back twice more, second time to visit Taz and make sure he is OK and I got to milk cows and feed the calves! I got to hold some newborn British Blue kittens and got to play with 12 Golden Retriever puppies, 10 BC x GR cross pups and played with 6 adult Goldens. It was an absolutely wicked experience for me.
MY MATLOCK FARM EXPERIENCE
I love Facebook. It allows me to do a lot of things - share photos with my family and friends, let them know what's inside my head and my heart. I also love reading people's thoughts through their status - some warms my heart, some makes me smile, some makes me laugh and some makes me wish I had not bothered reading.
Another thing I love about Facebook is that it allows me to connect with my friends' friends. Some people may have overlooked this, but it actually lets you know your friends a little bit more through their friends. Overtime I have been getting friend requests from my friend Kaye's friends. I have ignored them all - repeatedly. Some people just don't get it.
Recently though, I had a wicked idea. I will accept some of them if I get any more to see if I will learn something about my friend through them. Who knows, we might actually become friends, too.
I accepted a couple and it wasn't long before I deleted one and moved one to my 'Unknown List' who sees nothing of my profile. I will tell you why I didn't delete both later.
I rarely go online on FB chat simply because I am not there to chat. But one time I made myself visible on FB chat, one of Kaye's mate messaged me and kept typing away even though I have not said anything back. The things he said mainly were compliments but I find it really RUDE when people, especially those who you're not really close with. IMs you and not bother (at the very least) saying 'hello'. And that same person commented on a photo a couple of days later saying: "hay naku, don't you feeed your asawa". My impulsive reaction was to write: "don't you ever stop eating?" but I restrained myself and hit the 'delete' button instead and move him to my 'Unknown' group. I will decide later whether to post something on his wall.
The other friend request I got and accepted was from a girl who also spoke to me on FB chat and asked me if Kaye lived near me. I was confused to start with but I said that Kaye is not in the UK yet (at the time) and has never been as far as I know. Obviously Kaye has been telling the same lies she told me, Sarah and Karen. A year before she actually got her visa to the UK she had told us that she had been to England before which is a load of bollocks as she wouldn't have been having the problems she had if she had acquired a visa to enter the UK before. In an older post, I think I have written about Kaye's mum blurting out to Sarah, Karen and I that she is having problems with her visa because she is not married. We, of course, being ever so polite, downplayed it as we have all been told by Kaye that she had been married for a year at that point in time. You wouldn't believe the latest lie she told is being with her husband for 8 years this June! Karen and I didn't know how to react to that as we both know thta 8 years ago, we were still working in Clarkton and Kaye had a boyfriend who never bothered to pick her up from work even on a Christmas Eve. And Karen has been married for 8 years so it was a no-brainer spotting that lie. I have no idea how someone can lie on their status knowing one's friends know the truth. If you live your life telling so many lies how can you ever be happy? I don't know, I'm just glad that it's not me in her shoes. Anyway, I decided to delete that girl because she tagged me in so many of her photos and she was just plain nuisance.
Just because I am friends with Kaye who worked in dancing bars including Mirrors Club in Clarkton (she was transfered to the dancing bar when they closed the Karaoke Bar just abit after I got sacked there for taking on a dare... don't ask, I was 17 and still a bit rebellious LOL), doesn't mean I am anything like her. Nor does it mean that I will look down on her just because she did. Of course that is probably what she thinks hence she makes up stories about her.
She had been a little better now since coming to the UK. She is slowly coming to her senses and perhaps seeing where she really stand in life. I hope the time will come when she will realise that it is better to be grateful for the things that she is blessed with rather than wanting to cover the flaws with lies. I know that one day she will grow to realise that when all the excitement of learning a lot of new things all at once pass, she will be a really good person because she has shown me, some nine years ago, that she could be a really good friend. And I have just realised myself that she hasn't really changed, she is just going through a phase and I will stick around until she is over that phase. That is what grown up friends do, after all. I don't care what she did for a living because through it she was able to help her family and build a better life for herself and her son. I suppose every one of us, to a certain point, make ourselves believe of things that we wish happened and for a minute we tend to live in that lie. Somehow it makes us stronger again when we face reality and that is not such a bad thing as long as you're not hurting other people in the process.
And finally, my verdict on her friends? well that is the last of them I will add. They treat me like they treat Kaye especially that idiot called Jason Fawcus who is so ignorant he probably thinks all of Kaye's friends are or were prostitutes too. But the bottom line is, Kaye isn't a prostitute anymore so she shouldn't be friends with people who treat her like dirt. I guess she is always eager to please people and again, there is nothing wrong with that but I think she should be treated better or at least her friends, should be treated with respect. And I have decided to delete him instead of giving him the satisfaction of giving him even just a second of my time. I have but one last thing to say. Who is worse off, the girls who are just trying to earn a little bit more money for their families or the punters who travel thousands of miles just to pay for those girls to have sex with them? It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.
Another thing I love about Facebook is that it allows me to connect with my friends' friends. Some people may have overlooked this, but it actually lets you know your friends a little bit more through their friends. Overtime I have been getting friend requests from my friend Kaye's friends. I have ignored them all - repeatedly. Some people just don't get it.
Recently though, I had a wicked idea. I will accept some of them if I get any more to see if I will learn something about my friend through them. Who knows, we might actually become friends, too.
I accepted a couple and it wasn't long before I deleted one and moved one to my 'Unknown List' who sees nothing of my profile. I will tell you why I didn't delete both later.
I rarely go online on FB chat simply because I am not there to chat. But one time I made myself visible on FB chat, one of Kaye's mate messaged me and kept typing away even though I have not said anything back. The things he said mainly were compliments but I find it really RUDE when people, especially those who you're not really close with. IMs you and not bother (at the very least) saying 'hello'. And that same person commented on a photo a couple of days later saying: "hay naku, don't you feeed your asawa". My impulsive reaction was to write: "don't you ever stop eating?" but I restrained myself and hit the 'delete' button instead and move him to my 'Unknown' group. I will decide later whether to post something on his wall.
The other friend request I got and accepted was from a girl who also spoke to me on FB chat and asked me if Kaye lived near me. I was confused to start with but I said that Kaye is not in the UK yet (at the time) and has never been as far as I know. Obviously Kaye has been telling the same lies she told me, Sarah and Karen. A year before she actually got her visa to the UK she had told us that she had been to England before which is a load of bollocks as she wouldn't have been having the problems she had if she had acquired a visa to enter the UK before. In an older post, I think I have written about Kaye's mum blurting out to Sarah, Karen and I that she is having problems with her visa because she is not married. We, of course, being ever so polite, downplayed it as we have all been told by Kaye that she had been married for a year at that point in time. You wouldn't believe the latest lie she told is being with her husband for 8 years this June! Karen and I didn't know how to react to that as we both know thta 8 years ago, we were still working in Clarkton and Kaye had a boyfriend who never bothered to pick her up from work even on a Christmas Eve. And Karen has been married for 8 years so it was a no-brainer spotting that lie. I have no idea how someone can lie on their status knowing one's friends know the truth. If you live your life telling so many lies how can you ever be happy? I don't know, I'm just glad that it's not me in her shoes. Anyway, I decided to delete that girl because she tagged me in so many of her photos and she was just plain nuisance.
Just because I am friends with Kaye who worked in dancing bars including Mirrors Club in Clarkton (she was transfered to the dancing bar when they closed the Karaoke Bar just abit after I got sacked there for taking on a dare... don't ask, I was 17 and still a bit rebellious LOL), doesn't mean I am anything like her. Nor does it mean that I will look down on her just because she did. Of course that is probably what she thinks hence she makes up stories about her.
She had been a little better now since coming to the UK. She is slowly coming to her senses and perhaps seeing where she really stand in life. I hope the time will come when she will realise that it is better to be grateful for the things that she is blessed with rather than wanting to cover the flaws with lies. I know that one day she will grow to realise that when all the excitement of learning a lot of new things all at once pass, she will be a really good person because she has shown me, some nine years ago, that she could be a really good friend. And I have just realised myself that she hasn't really changed, she is just going through a phase and I will stick around until she is over that phase. That is what grown up friends do, after all. I don't care what she did for a living because through it she was able to help her family and build a better life for herself and her son. I suppose every one of us, to a certain point, make ourselves believe of things that we wish happened and for a minute we tend to live in that lie. Somehow it makes us stronger again when we face reality and that is not such a bad thing as long as you're not hurting other people in the process.
And finally, my verdict on her friends? well that is the last of them I will add. They treat me like they treat Kaye especially that idiot called Jason Fawcus who is so ignorant he probably thinks all of Kaye's friends are or were prostitutes too. But the bottom line is, Kaye isn't a prostitute anymore so she shouldn't be friends with people who treat her like dirt. I guess she is always eager to please people and again, there is nothing wrong with that but I think she should be treated better or at least her friends, should be treated with respect. And I have decided to delete him instead of giving him the satisfaction of giving him even just a second of my time. I have but one last thing to say. Who is worse off, the girls who are just trying to earn a little bit more money for their families or the punters who travel thousands of miles just to pay for those girls to have sex with them? It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.
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