Mrs B

Work here today as well. Don't know why as there'll hardly be anyone in the office, the 'phone won't ring, no-one will send me any e-mails, bring me any mail, none of our other offices anywhere else in the world seem to be open, .................. and no doubt the place will be freezing. The upside is I only need to find a clean(ish) pair of jeans today - no suit's till next week. First I have to take Tigger Dawgus to the Vets - a broken tooth on Christmas Day which is going to have to be removed today And a man's coming to mend my NEW cooker - the thermostat needs replacing. So goodness knows what time I'll finish work tonight when I've done the required number of hours. And I have to sort the freezer out as I have a dog food delivery tomorrow (well, 'tis Landywoods, so maybe tomorrow is a bit of an elastic hope ) Goodbye Christmas 2008!

Oh, and I think that even my very adaptable Christmas Auntie would have found the idea of eating a McDonalds on Christmas Eve (or probably any Eve) very bizarre! And my OH would probably just have divorced me.

Well, I've been ringing round, and found a few open. Some seemed to find my question "how far from the hospital are you?" just a tad bizarre. But that means I've tracked down the nearest which is about 3/4 mile away - it possibly won't be the best, but at least I know how to find it! Anyone want to guess what we're having for Christmas Eve dinner? Thanks Fugees.

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/news/H...il/article.html Probably just as well I wasn't there to see it - if I had I probably would have wondered what on earth to do about it ........... that was legal!

Oh fantastic. Will be 'phoning around at lunch time today (once they're open!). I'll make sure I let you know the results - just in case there's any other s(m)ad peron on here who yearns to travel to Bury St Edmunds on Christmas Eve to buy fish 'n' chips!

I just found the increased speed made the fat start to break down too much - and it really only takes a short while to do the "rubbing in" bit on low speed anyway. Anyway, for 1lb flour and 8 ozs fat you need 4 tablespoons refridgerated water. Let us know how you get on - or send over a few samples.

As it says on the tin really - anyone from Bury St Edmunds? Do you know if there's a fish and chip shop open Christmas Eve? If it makes any difference, we'll be the Hospital/Heath end of town. Maybe I'm mad, or maybe I'm just trying to make sure Pingu doesn't chuck me off for not posting.

Agree with everything Ruth says. Also, use v-e-r-y slow speed for the rubbing in bit, turn it off when it looks like breadcrumbs, then add the exact quantity of water required in one go (I keep a bottle in the fridge so it's ice cold) and mix slowly until just combined. If you need to know how much water to add to how much flour etc, let me know, and I'll look it up for you.

Was about to blithely say "no other pets" - then remembered they have a ferret (outdoors) who was there before the cat. I think this is one pandered to pooch - some of which is shown in the quantity of food on offer on demand (read into that the truth!) so I wouldn't be at all surprised if she threw a paddy if there had been some minor change in her life. My colleague's not around for the rest of the week, but I'm going to be sending her an e-mail with some of your suggestions - and will try to seek further info.

The answer to the first bit is yes. The answer to the second is, yes, normally, although .............................. there was one occasion (a couple of weeks ago) when there wasn't enough litter in the tray, or it wasn't there ................. on which occasion the cat wee-ed where the litter tray should have been. But I can still suggest frequency/depth as possible reasons .......... just in case.

One of my work colleagues took on a cat around 18 months ago when her owner died – think it’s around 6 or 7 years old now The cat’s happily been using a litter tray – until a couple of weeks ago, when she decided that the litter tray was only for weeing in and anything solid had to be done behind the kitchen door! Last night the litter tray was moved behind the kitchen door – to see if that would solve the problem – so now the cat has found a new place to leave her solid presents, but will still wee in the litter tray even though it's moved! No changes in routine/health/food/household etc. Anyone any suggestions for anything that might help/advice/comment? Way outside my knowledge – which isn’t difficult when it comes to cats!

I am a very very very happy person. Someone at work did me a downloady of the font I wanted, and I managed to upload it and have it working within about ten seconds of me trying - in fact it was just about first attempt. So loads of thanks for all your help and excellent instructions. You've made me a very happy person. Now I just need to go and do some stuff with it ...............

Mine is Tigger, with a daisy. For my two mates, Tigger and Daisy This means I can't have any more dogs as I wouldn't be able to find an appropriate avatar.

Actually, double moron. Turns out I HAD downloaded the correct font - but on closer examination on what was on offer, it was Lucida Calligraphy tarted up with musical bits (hence the Symphony?) Any chance of this font without the fancy bits - or am I asking too much of a freebie. I'm just amazed I downloaded the thing at all. Mind you, I now have something "unusual" to use as a font on some unsuspecting occasions.

Told you I was clueless. I kind of followed the instructions - took me a couple of attempts to unzip, but got that. So how come I've ended up with "Symphony" rather than "Lucida Calligaphy" - I definitely had that open and saved it, and to be honest thought maybe it was a different name, or "close to" font that I could live with. Now Symphony is w-a-y to fancy for a plain speaking lass like me! Give me a cake recipe to follow any day.

I have a stack of stuff set up using Lucida Calligraphy Font - which I created on 'another' PC. Now I want to use it on my PC, and although I have other Lucida fonts, I don't have Calligraphy - and I would quite like it - preferably for free. Does anyone know (a) if I can have it for free and if so (b) please will they give me a very idiot proof guide on how to put it on here. The alternative would be to change all my fonts - but nothing else is quite looking right to me for what I have been doing.

A group I belong to is going to discuss this tomorrow night, and I'm currently trying to get my cold filled brain to work this one out. The idea is to put a list together of ten things you'd like to do before you die - I guess money is supposedly no object ............ otherwise I will be very limited. I have one or two things on my list, (well, about five actually) and have realised that some things I wanted to do at 18 I've either achieved, or have become impossible, or I no longer have any inclination for. So, jumping out of an aeroplane (preferably with a parachute) at one time was a positive dream - now I just think "why"? Owning a dog is a dream fulfilled. Going water skiing - been there, done that, I was useless. - not going to happen Anyone want to share their Bucket List? I'll let you know what mine is before I go out tomorrow night.

Plenty of good advice above re joining BritBarf - although it can be slightly when really intelligent folks start doing the breakdown of all the nutrients - so I go more for the commonsense approach of what my two would do left to their own devices ............ Do some reading around - but be prepared for contradictory advice (!) - and I bought a couple of books - Billinghurst - not his first one, but the second one as I felt this had more up to date thinking, and someone Schultzy (?) - I'll find them later, but I'm feeling groggy just now. Feeding-wise, quick overview Chicken - anything goes really Turkey - necks, drumsticks, wings Lamb - ribs, breast Beef - ribs Rabbit - anything Meat - from any of the above - with the bones minced in from the chicken and turkey Pork - I don't feed this more than once a week - more difficult for them to digest - but mine do enjoy a tail, trotter, snout or ear (you have to be very down to earth to do this feeding sometimes!) Offal - anything from anywhere - but I only feed liver once a week Eggs Oily fish And a couple of tablespoons of liquidised raw veggies Other folks feed supplements, yoghurt, carbohydrates ............... we all have different opinions - at the end of the day, I look at the "condition" of my dogs and am content they are thriving on what they are given. Oh, and quantity-wise - skinny Daisy's on about 2.5% of her body weight, stocky Tigger is on around 2% - but I work it out for the week, as I have no wish to start chopping bits of turkey necks to make them exactly the right weight! And some folks fast their dogs one day I week - I tried this and Tigger did not enjoy it so now I just feed them a bit less one day in the week - whenever it fits in with what we're doing.

For raw feeding most of the veggies are fine (obviously not the onions and I don't do potatoes). The idea is always to get a mix of "above ground" and "below ground" - but in this house, anything goes, depending on what is cheap or better still free! Must admit I never cook mine first, just whizz it up raw. And freeze portions of it so there's always some available - 'cause they don't need much at a time. And I can always tell when the dogs think they're not getting enough greens - they start munching on the grass outside!

I do liquidise cabbage for raw feeding - but don't blanche it first - but I do add some liquid which I then strain off, or do a multi-veg mix. Perhaps my (ancient) liquidiser is more robust? It seems to cope with the cabbage just fine, stems and all.

Add more water, then sieve the excess out! Or could you mix a more "liquid" veg with it - tomatoes or courgettes for example.

Oh no, so sorry I missed this. Someone would like to send a special cuddle.

www.daf-petfood.co.uk

It was good to meet one or two Fugees at the Show – no doubt there were more there than I met, but they were probably in hiding from me (for reasons which will become apparent ). The weather was wonderfully kind. I was sending messages back to the front on Saturday – saying “it really, truly, honestly is NOT raining here – please come†– although I did hope that no-one was going to turn up in sandals and white trousers! Back home no-one can quite believe that we really didn’t have storms all weekend – Grandad Bryn, you did us proud. My camping knowledge was severely put to the test by a Squiggs Tent, complete with hefty instruction manual (one diagram 1 cm x 2 cm in size!) which was required for the protection of Squiggs and Noah. Now I know why Mark is not always MR HLGS. As far as tents were concerned, I couldn’t quite see why the Squirrels couldn’t have stuck with the good old fashioned ridge tent with wooden poles – now that I CAN do! Duties for me including “persuading†folks to part with cash in return for raffle tickets – to which end I was notable for making a complete prat of myself charging up to folks for the fifth time saying “would you like to buy a raffle ticket?â€, and have to admit that by the end of Sunday, I was almost certainly talking complete gibberish and probably sold Mr B a few raffle tickets in my sleep Sunday night. The donations from the Wiccaweys supporters for the Raffle prizes were absolutely amazingly wonderfully generous. Hamper after hamper appeared on the table, and then the second table, and then on a bench. I regret not having a photograph of all the prizes. Needless to say, as usual, I won nothing! (But I know one or two who did). Serious apologies to Helly-Di. As I was trying to actually spend some of MY money for a change, standing for the fifth time at the DogStar stall hoping that I wouldn’t have to dash off anywhere this time before actually choosing from the goodies, and hoping that they wouldn’t actually finish packing up before I’d done so, they called Best Wiccaweys Boy class, which Tigger was entered in. I can’t grovel enough for the language I used in front of you Di, I’m sure you’d never heard the likes before, and can’t apologise enough. And the sight of me running to fetch Tigger was probably also an unfortunate one. However, the Squiggs did give Tigger a very pretty yellow rosette, and he does think that yellow suits him. And returning to the stall, not only did Daisy get a super dog toy, which she found on Monday morning and ran around the house killing and loves, but I am STILL trying to work out how I could win the only cookery book on the stall! And my special Tigger and Daisy made my weekend. To some they may not be the best behaved dogs in the world, but I love them to bits for just what they are. Even last year, Tigger was still capable of snaffling a dog’s nose or several in moments of stressfulness, jealousy or just because they were there, but this year passed with all noses intact – and it’s a reminder to me that year on year he is changing. And I think that a few folks had Tigger’s muddy paw prints on their tummy, to prove that he no longer thinks that people are scary – he just wants to meet EVERYONE (‘cept scary Paul and scary Mr Squiggs). And Daisy managed to keep her sniping to herself, although she was visibly relieved every time we headed back to the safety of the van. And, I missed her doing it, but she went off to have a go on the agility, and was a very happy little girlie. I was however, most miffed not to win the Most Spectacular Mud Slide Award of the weekend. I had two entries in this competition, both of them viewed by a great many spectators, and not even a sniff of a prize. Next time I’ll stay on my feet! He still hopes to meet you one day Mags.

It is indeed a Mog Farahdog. However many years ago, Farah nearly had the misfortune to come on foster to us ................. but Tigger took one look at her and decided to dissuade us by puting her pretty little head in his great big mouth! Having never fostered, we ran a mile at this point, and left Farah in the safe keeping of Wiccaweys where she was speedily snaffled by Morag - which was wonderful. So what was equally wonderful this weekend, was Tigger spying Farah and going "oh, a pretty girlie - I like her, will she play with me if I sniff her bottom .................?" As you do! Farah seemed to bear him no ill-will!