Advertisement for Dr Greebo

Sick of your humans refusing to behave?

Feeding you late?

Not letting you in when YOU demand it?

Applying inappropriate flea drops when not necessary?


THEN WAIT NO LONGER!

Dr Greebo, human specialist, specialises in human behaviour modification

Ssee the difference in your human within 7 days-

or YOUR CATNIP BACK!


Dr Greebo O'Neill MSc, MRCPsych, MRSP
Specialist in Human Behaviour Modification Analysis
The Belgrave Clinic,
Blackpool
FY4 4DZ

Father's Day , Shirls visit and Ann's birthday

Hellooo everyone! Tis a dull and rainy day in Blackpool (is there any other type of day I hear you ask). It's Father's Day in the UK, and I invited Alexander O'Neill round to the house for an afternoon of home-made sunday roast, World Cup and a few drinkies.

Dad at Portree on our holiday to the Isle of Skye March 2004

He's all you could wish for in a Dad and I'm lucky he became a first time dad with me when he was 50 lol! He has such a positive outlook, great sense of humour, very warm and giving, and especially since Mum passed away, we have supported each other through the ups and downs of our lives. He had a heartattack three years ago, and I was terrified I could lose him. Not a chance if it had anything to do with Big Alex! He took it the way he has taken everything in his colourful life- an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive. He lives life as he has always done- with positive attitude and earned the respect of his GP and other medical staff with his determined attitiude and unyealding ability to make others laugh!

Plus he has great skin- I can only hope that I have inherited it along with his vivid blue eyes lol!!


Shirls nipped in to say hello around 1.30 - after a full day's work- yes that girl has to get up at ungodly hours of the night/early morning...for instance 3.30-4.30 a.m. to start her train shifts. Urrggh. She looks great and we had a good ol' chinwag over cups of tea before she set off back home to celebrate Father's Day with her lovely dad. I adore Shirls- she is one of my best friends. I am so lucky to have encountered and found such fabulous and wonderful best friends on my life journey...Ann, Karen and Shirls. I am truely spolit and I am very lucky to have them in my life.

Shirley-Wurley

Later in the evening, Darren and I went round to Ann's house to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! and to give her our lovely Sanctuary pampering pressie!! I hope that Ann enjoys it as much as her daughter enjoyed carrying it around the house lol ! Of course Tez enjoyed his Father's Day too- and had his first golf lesson this morning- a Daddy's Day treat from Ann & Charlotte.



Ann & Celia Hogmany 2004 ( and yes Ann I bet you complain about this photo as well tee hee- but we truely are bosom buddies. Ahem.
God. I forgot just how I've changed- this is me with my natural hair colour and 3 stone heavier)


Important news- Nici, you and Paul will be proud- we cracked 1st place on Need for Speed, yes we beat Razor- and are now doing it again with other cars lol !! And we will come over to Deutschland and have drinkies and gaming sessions when you've moved home! xxx

Getting better...positive day

Hi guys...returned to work today, and although sore and limping, I can confidently say my hip is improving hour by hour- moving it, stretching it etc etc is doing the job. Saw Ann Tez and Charlotte today (aww she's soo CUTE!) and Charlotte's whizzing around now as if she's been walking years- not a few mere months!

Blast from the past today too- Louise, an old work pal I had lost contact with, emailed me at work asking "fixed a date yet?!" and we got emailing. Such a nice surprise. She's hopefully moving to Lincolnshire so we'll have to meet up before she goes.
This is the darlin' who organised my surprise 30th birthday party- she nicked all the telephone numbers off my mobile and called everyone. I was going to be alone the Friday after my birthday on the Tuesday, and she said we'd have girly night in together. She'd rustle something up in the kitchen...so I turn up expecting a girly night and instead find a surprise party- everyone there- from all across the country. And bless, Darren , who'd I'd only been dating a week at the time lol.
We lost contact afew years ago when she moved to a new work site, so it's lovely to swap up-to- date mobile numbers and get in contact again.

So I saw a best friend, caught-up with a lost friend, and back and hip improving- a Positive Day!

Lee and Andrea - What a Send off...

10th June...England's first World Cup match, but we were all thinking of something else more important...our chance to send Lee of in style before doing his duty with the Royal Navy again.

After the match we all sat outside in the blistering hot sunshine, sipping beers and generally getting merry. This photo here shows most of us (except me 'cos I'm taking the photo lol, D was at the bar and James hadn't arrived yet):

From the top left, Steve, Lee, Andrea, Steve Smith; bottom left: Gill Shirls and Coral.

We all had a cracking time, and the girls were talking about a possible girly weekend away in Centerparcs, and all of us going on a barge trip...will have to see what the future holds and if anything gets planned. It was the first time we had seen Steve S since Coral's housewarming, and we all took great delight in reminding him of his staggering off down the road with a glassful of JD and fruit- he doesn't remember anything after 8pm, apparently. He awoke the next day to find his shirt full of chocolate where the other Steve had been patting fondue chocolate onto his back...

Lee Andrea me and D

We carried on into town and hit other various drinking establishments, and a cracking time was being had by all. The gang are so brilliant and we'll look after Andrea whilst you're away, Lee!

We were having a ball chatting and drinking in the Litton Tree, when suddenly, my back and hip just 'went'- never experienced pain like it, thought I'd ripped something. I was the one in tears, and had to come home early about 11.30 p.m. after being out only six hours. I had worn boring shoes, hadn't been dancing, sat down alot- been very sensible frankly!- and still cannot fathom why it 'went' with such viciousness.

Anyway I managed to keep my composure enough to say my goodbyes to Lee and Andrea, and I hobbled with tears streaming down my face into a taxi. I was at this point virtually unable to walk and couldn't weight-bear on my right leg at all. It is amazing how soberity hits when pain does. Frankly I was really upset and distressed when I got home- is this damn thing never going to get better? Why is it always one step forward two steps back? Why did it happen when I was out TODAY on such an important day? etc. I was mortified and felt v self- conscious...here's Celia with her bad back again...

Sunday 11th June

Woke every half hour throughout the night with pain. Hit painkillers all day. By the end of the day I could put my foot down onto the floor and 'hobble'. Good sign. Now think I've just twisted my spine/iliac joint. Did exercises to gently stretch the damaged tendon in hip/back and rested. Think everyone had a belting night- thought about texting Shirls or Andrea to see how long they went on for but didn't feel up to human contact. Supposed to chat to KC too, but just felt ill all day.

Monday 12th June

Called work and booked a day off. Leg still v sore but can gently walk around house now. Felt exhausted and sick from painkillers and had power nap in the afternoon. I intend to return to work tomorrow. Had a lovely natter with KC who telephoned me, and D and I had our long-awaited Dominos! The weather has been beautiful in Blackpool for a change- we've actually had some sunshine for more than 4 hours! This is 4 days worth now lol! Aunt Lorraine in Oz has told me it's rainy Down Under, as it's their Winter...sending sunshine rays to you petal xxx

Waiting...anticipating...

13.21. Still no sign of Double-glazing bloke.

Worried if sit out in back garden, won't hear him knock on the door (no bell).

Considers making cup of tea.

13.25 Sipping said cup of tea. Typically, sky now clouding over. God did this on purpose as this morning I went to local Chemist and bought TWO bottles of sun lotion in anticipation of excellent sunning weather.

13.29 Telephone rings. Pick up as think will be Double-glazing guys saying they're nearby. It's my pal Denise just callin' for a quick chat as she knows I'm off work for window repairs. Am told my friend Bev has pulled a sickie and is setting off in half an hour to camp site for weekend of World Cup, booze and sunbathing. She laughs at my sun lotion/no sun situation and hangs up.

I finish tea and start on nice cold long glass of Robinson's lemon Barley water.


13.42 Sun has come out! Slathered on sun lotion, donned sunglasses and went into backgarden. Reading my latest Astronomy magazine (it's great- all about Supernovas, Comets and the theories on Dark matter). Cat kept me company by sitting under the sunchair in the shade.

13.56 Sun went in.

15.20 Finished chat with Darren who phoned me from work, checking on progress re: window repair. I telephoned Safestyle and they informed me they had left a telephone message this morning, advising the work was cancelled! Apparently the unit was inspected by engineer this morning and found to be damaged. Great. So have re-booked installation of unit and repair of window lock for 20th June. The only thing good about this, is that I have had a nice afternoon in the backgarden. Darren has booked the 20th off to stay in the house. Not a bad day- it's an England game day in the World Cup, so D getting in the diary is excellent luck.

Although disappointed re: windows, have decided that after all that sunning (albeit with cloud cover most of the afternoon- didn't mind as it was hot) and drinking lemon barley water, I shall look healthy and radiant! I am hatching cunning plan that hopefully D shall agree to- a night of Dominos pizza, vodka, and XBox 'Need for Speed'- we're racing for 2nd place now yipee! (Yes I am a console game junkie).

Ahh time for painkillers- back has kicked off. Ciao for now xxx

Quick update of the week so far...

Hi everyone. It's June, and the weather is gorgeously hot and sunny! I'm happy as I'm off tomorrow (Friday) as my double-glazing is being repaired so I've booked a day's leave. The sun is shining and I shall be outside, sunbathing with any luck while I wait for the service guy to arrive (although the neighbours are erecting a new fence, so it may be very noisy, dusty and frankly I may end up sitting in the house waiting for the engineer to come to avoid the stress!)

Well, I managed to successfully swim again this week with Vanni- she did well bearing in mind the terrible sunburn she had, bless her! I was pleased with my efforts, and, unlike last week, this week I had no pain at all afterwards or 2 days afterwards! Plus I swam 18-20 lengths which was more than last week. V. pleased with back and neck. Back is a tad sore now but I've been at work, so that is to be expected unfortunately. No sign of the Chiropractor appointment either so far. Anyway I've just taken painkillers and done my physio exercises so I'll be fine!

I was especially pleased with my back yesterday, as I had to go to Leeds in Yorkshire (just under 200 miles return trip) in the pool car for a high level meeting yesterday (Wednesday). The Executive Team (ET heh heh heh) are answerable to the Minister, and the Communications Group I'm involved with, fifteen of us, were invited to undertake a 15 minute presentation to the ET. We are trying to change the underlying problems with staff morale and mis-communication inhouse between Higher Management and us. We impressed the Consultant so much a fortnight ago with our ideas and vision that she contacted the ET and arranged for us to attend the meeting yesterday to express our views- the negative, and our ideas on how to progress into positive (my work psychology training came in v handy here!). Needless to say, I was one of the main speakers, and taking questions from Higher Management on our experiences and recommendations. It felt like Jerry Springer- powerpoint, microphones, handouts and when ET were standing up to field a question, they were waiting for a microphone to be handed to them lol! Wembley and Birmingham groups also featured, but we were thanked for our professional presentation (another nod to my time at Uni, having to do this infront of 200 people lol).

I was really nervous, as my nerves haven't been the greatest recently (I've been prescribed anti-depressants as back pain wearing me out), but no one noticed. My voice held true and apparently I was engaging delegates and coming across as if I was used to it. I'm not and I actually had stage-fright beforehand. After our presentation, one of the Executive Team (Higher Management about 6 grades above me) came and sat next to me and Rachel at lunch, and the three of us thrashed through more... I didn't really realise who the gentleman was either until afterwards! I hope this is going to be rolled-out over the DWP (DSS to you lol), but I have a bad feeling that cost and overall staff reluctance to get involved will kill it off. Management are trying their hardest to listen, but so much has happened, that this may be too little too late.


Looking forward to Saturday- but sad too as we were scheduled to visit Karen and Stef in Shropshire this weekend (I was soo looking forward to it, haven't seen KC since Mighty Boosh), but Darren and I's friend Lee is going back to sea (he's in the Navy) for 6 months, so we're all meeting up Sat for one last session. There is every chance we won't see him again for a v long time, as Andrea, his missus (the same Andrea in Coral's housewarming) is selling up and moving to Portsmouth for when he returns. Karen and Stef have been really understanding and we're visiting them later this month instead. We're watching the match in the pub (Raikes) and then carrying on. Supposed to be an all-dayer lol but concerned that half way through the night, emotions will be high. Hope no one starts crying.