For the love of dogs

Now I love dogs.  In fact, I would almost go as far as saying that these days I prefer most dogs to most humans!

I don't mind seeing dogs in pubs, cafés and restaurants - I would much rather have well-behaved dogs sitting quietly under their owners' chairs and tables than badly behaved humans of any size running amok.

Dogs are, on the whole, brilliant.  They are loyal, they love you unconditionally, they are always pleased to see you, and become a huge, important part of the family.

So that's why it didn't really surprise me to read that the main sticking point in sorting out Ant McPartlin and his soon-to-be-ex-wife Lisa's divorce is their mutual love for their chocolate Labrador Hurley.

It's been reported that each party wants sole custody of him, as they say their current shared agreement of him spending one week at each other's house isn't working, and they're finding it too upsetting at hand-over time.

Now, I don't know Ant and Lisa personally, but if I did I would tell them this -  in fact I would say it to anyone going through the same situation - you need to put aside your own feelings and think about what's best for Hurley.

Just as you would do for a human child, he's your fur-baby, and deserves just as much consideration as if you'd given birth to him yourselves.

Yes, hand-over time might be jolly uncomfortable for you both, but you have to think of your dog's happiness.

By all accounts, he adores both his Mum and Dad, so how could you deprive him of the right to see either?  You wouldn't do this to human babies, so please don't do it to your dog.

Ant and Lisa both seem like decent people, so I'm sure they can find a way to make sure that Hurley remains a priority in their new lives. 

A dog is for life, even if a marriage sadly isn't.

The latest craze?

Picture this - I'm sitting there one lunchtime, watching the News at 1pm, as is my habit now I'm a worker from home.

Then the newsreader starts talking about Brazilian Butt Lifts, and I nearly choke on my cheese and pickle sarnie.

What, seriously?  I didn't even know such a thing existed!  Admittedly, I'm not a subscriber to Plastic Surgery Monthly or any other such publication, but even so, how did I not know about this?

I put down my sandwich, lest there be another near-choking incident while I listened to the segment, which described in graphic detail the procedure, the risks involved, and then heard the horror stories direct from the patients' mouths about what went wrong when they had this operation overseas.

It turns out that this is the most risky cosmetic procedure you can have.  Because of the size of the gluteous maximus muscles, they have large blood vessels, and the fat - which is removed from another part of the patient's body to be used to enhance the buttocks - can be accidentally injected into the wrong place and can cause all sorts of problems.

There is a risk of infection - one lady flew home from abroad with a sky-high temperature and then had to have IV antibiotics to try to cure her.

There is a risk of scarring - oh yes, unfortunately we were shown very scarred posteriors - but also, sadly, people can die from undertaking this procedure, paying the ultimate price for wanting to change the way they look.

According to this news item, there's a trend for tiny waists and massive, cartoon-like backsides which resemble two beach balls defying gravity.

This is the image some people see on social media and want to copy.  But is this worth running the risk of dying for?

No, I would vehemently argue that it isn't, and I think it's so sad that in our selfie-obsessed world people are going to such extreme measures for what is a very unrealistic and unhealthy idea of beauty, or indeed booty.

On the doorstep

I'm sure that I'm not alone in sometimes taking for granted what we have here on our doorsteps in North Northamptonshire.

Not very far from the hubbub of the towns with the convenience of their shops, cinemas and theatres, we have beautiful countryside, woodland and country parks.

There's stunning architecture, historical buildings and beautiful churches in both the towns and villages.  We go on holiday far from home to see such sights, but sometimes fail to appreciate what surrounds us every day.

I must confess that I felt like this when I popped over the border to visit Peterborough.  I hadn't been there for a few years, and had forgotten how magnificent the Cathedral is.

The reason for this particular visit was to see Tim Peake's Soyuz space capsule, which is on display until 5th November.

This seemingly incongruous marriage of modern space travel and ancient religious architecture should be wrong, but somehow it's so right.

The tiny space capsule - which housed three fully-grown men on their descent back to Earth - is dwarfed by the magnificence of the Cathedral which has stood proudly on that spot for 900 years.

Quite how the spacemen fitted in this gadget which looks like a glorified industrial washing machine is beyond me - but as my daughter reminded me, they were all seated for their journey. Even so, sardines in a tin seems an apt analogy.

It's well worth a visit to see, and there's also Tim Peake's spacesuit in a glass case which looks like it might just fit me, a Soyuz gift shop, as well as a virtual reality pod, which happened to be shut on the day we were there though.

If you do go, remember to have a good look at the Cathedral while you're there.  As well as being the final resting place of  Mary Queen of Scots and Catherine of Aragon, look up and marvel at the frescoed ceiling which apparently includes a depiction of a monkey riding backwards on a donkey, but I couldn't spot that particular gem!

Northamptonshire - three sides to the story?

There are three sides to every story - each of the opposing viewpoints, and the truth, which often falls somewhere in between.

With this in mind, I've been giving a lot of thought to the current state of Northamptonshire County Council, and where the county as a whole now finds itself.

We've been told that the mess we're in is purely down to incompetence at county council level.

But what if it isn't as simple as that?  What if that's only part of the reason, and the other part is because of a lack of fair funding, leading to a 'perfect storm' situation?

If that is indeed the case, what concerns me is that without additional money from central government, how can the two new proposed unitary authorities possibly succeed?

I've read an article which stated 10 other councils are under financial strain, and have seen NCC referred to as the 'canary in the mine', with people waiting to see what happens here.

So while of course it can be acknowledged that there has been some incompetence, I think it's time to also consider how a lack of funding has made the situation even worse.

Lack of funding for public services appears to be rife - for example, anyone who works or has children in the current state education system knows there's a lack of funding there.  The NHS is under terrible strain, there have been huge cutbacks in Policing.  But because everybody's focus remains on Brexit - when will that ever end? - attention has been elsewhere.

But local people, affected every day by loss of bus services, poor road maintenance, closing libraries, and indeed all of their public services cut to the bone, aren't going to forget in a hurry what's happened here in Northamptonshire.

I've even been told 'I've voted Tory all my life, but never again, not after what's gone on in this county, it's a disgrace.'

When there's rumblings like that in the shire, it's time for people to listen and make some changes, or face the inevitable consequences.

Bodyguard

I know everybody's talking about Bodyguard, the BBC Sunday night show, but I'm afraid I can't join in with the discussion because I haven't seen it.

I fear I may be the only person in the country who hasn't, but I just didn't get around to watching it.

Perhaps at this point I should also confess that I'm not watching Killing Eve, and I've never seen a single episode of Downton Abbey or Game Of Thrones either.  But as I'm not a TV critic, I don't suppose that really matters.

Getting back to Bodyguard, I'm not sure how, or why, but I started watching Eight Go Rallying: The Road to Saigon which clashed with it in real time, at least I think it did, and then I never got round to seeing it on iPlayer.

Eight Go Rallying was quite good actually, but it didn't quite generate the same amount of interest and discussion around the nation's water coolers as the fictional Home Secretary's fictional personal protection officer - Noel Edmonds is perhaps disappointed that he lost that particular battle.  He came out with some one-liners that were certainly worthy of the nation's attention.

I have been watching Michael Palin in North Korea though, but again this doesn't seem to be making people want to talk non-stop about it, while others shield their eyes and ears and shout 'No spoilers!  I'm watching it on catch up!!'

In a way though, it must be greatly reassuring for the BBC that they have produced a show which has captured the country's attention in such a fashion and caused so much group discussion. 

With the endless competition from satellite, cable and online providers, it must be getting increasingly difficult to win market share of programming.

It's even been reported that 'the Bodyguard effect' has caused a spike in interest for jobs in that field, but having seen a picture of the actor, Richard Madden, bloodied and bruised wrapped in a blanket, I'm not entirely sure why!

Scroll-free September

There was a call for people to go social-media-free for a month with 'Scroll-free September'.

Along the same lines as Dry January and Stoptober, I think the idea is that after a month not doing something, you tend not to go back to doing it the same as you did before. 

So could you, or are you trying to, go social-media-free for a whole month?

I gave this some serious thought - I had an enforced absence from all means of electronic communication for a week when the lightning took out mine, and most of my area's, broadband at the start of the school summer holidays.

While this was a massive inconvenience - I work from home, after all - it did take me back to a gentler time, a time before we relied totally on our PCs for all our information, and were at the beck and call of e-mails.

There was no Facebook!  Or Twitter!  I remained blissfully unaware of all the things that I normally find on there - admittedly, sometimes useful information like road closures - but there was no negativity, no complaining about dog poo, or youngsters misbehaving, no pictures of dog poo or pictures of stray dogs, and no photos of people's dinners etc.

Admittedly, I'm fairly new to social media in the great scheme of things - I lived for over forty years without it - but one thing I'm yet to understand, and probably never will, is some people's constant need to share every aspect of their lives for all and sundry to see.

I'm a believer in sharing important news with your nearest and dearest, either in person, on the phone or by text; I figure that nobody else is really that interested.

But could I give it up completely for a whole month?  Sadly no, as that's how I find out about what's going on where I live, the good as well as the bad.

I do limit my use though, and choose not to receive notifications.  I've also been trialling 'social-media-free Sundays' (my own creation!), perhaps worth a try if you're also trying to cut down.

You cannot be serious!

Now I like to think of myself as a reasonably patient person - although my nearest and dearest may sometimes disagree.

But lately, as I get older, I feel that I'm told information that makes me want to shout, in a John McEnroe-type way, 'You cannot be serious!'.

As this is happening with startling regularity, I feel the need to share.

Firstly, and I'm sure I'm not alone here, absolutely everything that's gone on with Northamptonshire County Council, and continues to do so. 

The fact that funds were spent on purchasing a hospitality box at the Saints' Rugby ground was - raises eyebrows as far up forehead as physically possible - surprising, to say the least.

And why weren't we all invited to the B17 flypast at Grafton Underwood?  I like to see vintage aircraft as much as the next person.  I'm also very partial to cheese, and wonder what exactly was on the council's £250 cheese board?

Moving on, I was enjoying a quiet coffee outside a café when the chap at the table next to mine returned to his family to inform them that he'd ordered breakfast, but he was having to eat fried egg on toast as his preferred option of scrambled egg was unavailable because, and I quote, 'the lady who does the scrambled eggs isn't here today'.

Seriously, what?  How is that even possible?  It was a café, serving breakfasts, from a menu that clearly stated 'scrambled eggs', it did not say that 'scrambled eggs only available if Denise is here'!

Then I went to my Doctor's surgery and our usual receptionist wasn't there.  I successfully renewed prescriptions, but asked to book my annual asthma review and flu jab.

This was obviously a request too far for the replacement receptionist, as I was told that she didn't know how to do this and that I'd have to ring the main branch surgery.

Without being harsh, how can you be a Doctor's receptionist and not know how to book appointments?! 

So, what did I do?  Despite my exasperation, I simply replied 'OK, thanks', and thought I'll call back next week. I'm just hoping our usual receptionist returns!