Tia is our beautiful Alsatian puppy. We rescued here in January.

Here she is!

Most of the time she is an angel - but she snarls at small children and this suggests she has been treated badly. Maybe it was because she was in season and bled on the carpet... she is in season right now and she is very clingy.

Now Tia (I have learnt since this is Greek for Princess) is about 1 year old and she has a penchant for chewing... and yesterday she "broke" into the bedroom it was my brand new shoes...(those who know me well know that a new pair of shoes is a remarkable purchase). Greek gift indeed!

What can you do..

Today I was just tidying out some of my things and I came across a little list. This was a list of humourous events that relate to my late brother, Gary. I'd like to share some of these with you and hope they brighten your day as they surely did ours. We - my close family and I - never fail to enjoy recalling many of them.

The Cherry Tree

My brother could never hold down a job for long - he would "speak his mind" - so for many years he did odd jobs for our dad. One such odd job was to deliver goods from Liverpool to Newcastle. This is, for those who don't know, a 400 mile round trip. Now this was a rather simple 6 hours or so to do. Gary would always follow instructions - but generally he would follow them by Gary's rules! So on this particular occasion he was specifically told NOT to travel all the way to Newcastle and back in one day - he was particularly fond of driving, even if it was at Gary's pace (40 mph perhaps if you were lucky on a main road!). Sure enough the goods were safely delivered to Newcastle, and Gary sets off home, back to Liverpool.

Sticking strictly to the letter of the instruction, Gary did indeed stop for the night. Not as you might imagine in somewhere like Middlesbrough (just over half way through the journey). Not in Leeds, Not in Manchester ... but at the Cherry Tree Hotel - just about 10 miles outside Liverpool!!!

Petrol

Gary was always worried about the level of petrol in any car he would be driving. "Full to the top, flooding out" was his motto!!! Frequently he would stop me and go "Err Daniel, you need petrol" (It might be half full). His list for a service on a vehicle read like a complete overhaul - he would hand this to the garage and you can imagine the dollar signs in their eyes!! A marriage made in heaven. Gary would also put his cars to bed with a (newish) sheepskin coat for company over the engine. This was of course in a lock-up garage! Anyway moving on the this little story. Gary was instructed to go on another trip - it would have been a hire-van. This van would be collected on empty and was supposed to be returned empty. Gary was instructed, as always, to return the vehicle empty. Now relate this instruction with the requirement for a vehicle to be "full to the top, flooding out" and you can imagine that on this particular occasion Gary arrives back with the vehicle nearly full. So what does he do to resolve this little conundrum? He drives around all night - until it's empty. Result: One vehicle returned with an empty tank!

Footnote: The owner of the car-hire company was so fond of Gary that he and his wife and son attended his funeral.

The Tunnel:

There are 2 tunnels between Birkenhead and Liverpool. Normally the one way trip is £1.30. Now on this particular occasion the tunnel workers were on strike and there was no fee to pay. Gary proudly drives back and forth, back and forth and happily relates to Dad just how much he's saved him today!!!

The Cement Mixer

Dad was always getting Gary lots of jobs to keep him busy. They didn't last long and this one was no exception. Gary was given a job driving a cement mixer to and from whereever they get their materials (quarries?) and the site. Now Gary is doing rather well at this and he's asked the foreman if he can get the job full time and get himself an HGV licence. So, on one particular journey Gary stops to collect some application for this licence. Imagine the scene if you will - for those who don't know the score a cement mixer goes round and round and this is vital - if it stops the cement hardens inside the drum.. So Gary returns to the vehicle - having collected his application form - to find the cement has set, solid inside the drum.....

B.O.
Gary was very fond of mimicking the television, particularly the adverts.

"Keep going well, keep going Shell, Britain goes better with Shell, Shell, Shell"

"The Esso sign is happy motoring"

and so on. So picture this scene. Gary is on the bus with his Aunt. He leans over towards some unsuspecting soul and whispers (thankfully) in their ear: "B O" (thanks to Lifebuoy soap for that one)!

Shipwrecks!

And finally for today a classic from the 60s. The Aunt in the B.O. story has taken Gary to London for a weekend. They are staying in a nice hotel off Oxford Street and she's left Gary in the bedroom, together with his dinner (Gary had a great appetite and was your friend if you fed him - which reminds me of another story where he's done the rounds of friends and family eating along the way, to arrive at another house with this exchange:

Relative: "Have you had anything to eat, Gary"
Gary: "We'll I've had a sandwich!!!"

and another favourite is the diet story:

Gary: "I've been good today, I had salad and ryvita for tea. I've done the diet and I had some chips and a pie on the way home"

Anyway back to London: Auntie has gone to have her hair done with the instruction to Gary to eat his dinner and not to leave the room. Well Gary didn't really leave the room - not exactly. She returns to find the entire contents of the room in the corridor, save for the bed.

Auntie: "Gary, what have you done?"
Gary (just about 10 years old remember!) "I've been playing shipwrecks"

That's it for now. More later - together with other family members funny stories!

TD

It's Midsummer's Day tomorrow - and we are but 5 miles from Stonehenge (interestingly enough residents of our village are entitled to free access to Stonehenge as a part of the condition of the sale of the site by the previous owner to the state).

So, you can imagine there will be several thousand new-age, old-age, stone-age and just about any-age people there for the event. Ian set out across the fields (we know a few short cuts!) with his mates. This year however they have abandoned all hope of seeing the sun come up - and returned well before midnight - soaked!

Oh to be a teenager again, eh?

On second thoughts... maybe not!

TD

No, not being rude!!

Ian is directly above this room - he's in his bedroom - and... he's obviously downloading something, probably a film or something similar... and the broadband is now narrowband! Welcome to the 90s

So, anyone got a long pole to bang on the roof?

:D

TD

Dragged into town on some pretext (probably "I feel like a drive somewhere, Dad!! do you want to come?) ... lunch... and 2 losing bets (I had no intention of backing anything whatsoever on 2 or 4 legs) - meanwhile he wins of course.. Not quite sure what the purpose of the trip was to be brutally honest!

Oh well I get home to find a huge ornate pole outside my door - for the washing line which needs to go into the ground post-gravelled back garden. Result!!

So, next it's the airport to fetch 4 back from their (lost) weekend sojourn in Dublin.... what WILL the trip home hold?!?!

TD

It seems to me I am Mr Unlucky - or at least those near and dear to me are.

Here's the checklist:

1. My brother passes away - suddenly - aged 49. He had Aspergers Syndrome.

2. His funeral was a farce (very disturbing as well) - and of course my mother was grossly overcharged (I won't go into details as I intend to sue the people responsible but the price was agreed by my mother at a vulnerable moment and there are complications, which leads us to number 3.

3. My mother was taking action against the Insurance company for the medical costs associated with my brother's death - £12,000 in all - and they of course are trying to squirm their way out of it and counter-demand over £2,500 (£3,000 ++ if you count our legal costs to date), on the basis that he hadn't mentioned a blood pressure tablet he was on. Well he wouldn't would he. My mother took out the insurance - and acted uberrima fides in utmost good faith. Furthermore he hadn't made her aware of it and she was, in any event, unconscious in hospital with one of her frequent serious illnesses at the time. So all in all a pretty shocking set of events.

4. My mother passed away, also suddenly, over Christmas. She was visiting me for a fortnight. She was 73 years old and had suffered with multiple cancers and other problems such as diabetes and a colostomy.

5. I agreed to give up my job - take redundancy - to look after her. We fully intended to move to be with her and probably buy a larger house for all of us. Now I have no job and no mother!! I am well qualified and can get re-employed when the time is right - but right now it isn't and I guess that at 45 I might struggle to find the right job. At any rate I can start up a business or something like that.

6. My best friend has just been told he has cancer (again). This time it doesn't look so good. Here's hoping he can beat it.

There's plenty more besides - I have 2 half-sisters and the older one seems to have gone off the rails trying to recapture her lost youth (I did just that around my 40th birthday but I won't dwell on that!!). Not too bright a thing to do with FOUR kids in tow is it?

I have experienced some serious bouts of depression -(it probably didn't help to be the pawn in the game between my divorcing parents) - as has my son.

OK to the plus side - I have a great wife and a loving son (when he's up and around that is), plenty to enthuse about and plenty of interesting activities to do - I play a lot of bridge (some would say too much) and follow Everton (hence the Toffee bit) - or is that a good thing??!! I've seen a lot of the world and met a lot of interesting (even famous) people.

Maybe you shouldn't be my friend (at least not in the physical get to know me sense)!!

See you all later!

TD

OK so the Argentinians are playing great football but, just to peg them down a notch or two.... here's something to amuse you (hopefully) - otherwise look away NOW!!

TD

Ha! My experiences are pretty good but once in a while you come across a shyster:

Let's review it:

99% of sellers are reasonably genuine - although I think quite a few embellish the item with flowery English. You also get the odd greedy one who overprices their item - absolutely no chance of selling it I'd say - and those who try to make on the postage. Most send the item immediately (I even had one send it before payment received!!)

I've seen a few fruitcakes however who clearly should be avoided. I've definitely been stung once (it wasn't a scam but it wasn't quite what the description said on the label, so to speak) but that's life!

If you want to buy or sell for gain try a real auction room - if you don't mind the commission. I've bought some pretty good bits and pieces by doing the research before buying... especially art works!

Here's one I picked up recently for £60

TD

Gary was my brother! A kinder, more generous person you could scarcely ever meet. And yet, typically, he was not blessed with any luck.

Born 50 years ago with Aspergers Syndrome caused by an accident of birth (lack of oxygen) he was the most accommodating, considerate person. Typically he had no luck in his life. I am sure he would have made a great success in his life but for this form of Autism.

He lived in a world of his own of course - and for many people he was a real handful. I will touch on his life a lot more in future weeks but for now I will just say he passed away in Portugal last year - suddenly - when he suffered a heart attack (pulminary oedema to be exact) - he never regained consciousness. We all flew out, in the middle of the night, to Lisbon.

Somehow he knew he was going to die. He said as much to my aunt. But he was frightened of strange situations - like the doctors - so he paid for this fear with his very life. He was on a cruise holiday with my mum (who passed away over Christmas). Full of life to the end he said it was the best holiday he had ever been on and that "he didn't want it to end". Regretably, for him, it never did.

It is difficult to understand the meaning of love: Certainly in my lovely brother's world there was little time for demonstrative shows of affection, simply because he wasn't capable of showing the same sort of emotions as most other people - but I will never forget him or fail to love him all the same.

Gary Miller 19 May 1956 - 21 August 2005
Your laugh mattered
Your love mattered
But, above all, it mattered that you were loved

TD

Sophie, my sister, is 30 today!!

Son wakes up early (in the afternoon that is) - in time to go out for Father's Day..just the 2 of us (well 2 plus Tia our Alsatian) Then football on the TV as Brazil edge past Australia and France fail against South Korea (La France l'ont complètement soufflé!!!)

Tia is having fun testing out the new garden layout - finished yesterday - fully gravelled back garden! She quite fancies the stones actually. Typical!

Here's her pic!

Finally get the lad out of bed. Get a call from Tricia - on a weekend away in Dublin - to say she's having champagne for breakfast!! One of the group of 4 has just been awarded MBE for services to the community.

What's coming up? A trip to consecrate Gary's grave - next week. We are having a black marble stone erected in his memory. I will talk about my brother and his lovely nature in the future and about his Asperger's Syndrome and his sudden passing, whilst on holiday, last year.

World Cup Fever! Just wish I had backed my judgement on the games so far: 17 of 23 results so far (and 5 correct scores!) - Looking forward to putting the Poisson Distribution on scores to the test next season though.

Well, let's give this a go!

Colin has given me this we-blog link and I am sure it's a gas! Even if it's far too early on a Saturday morning for the brain to co-operate I am here because it's time to get the 19 year old up for work - and what a job that is - expect he will be reading this sometime soon and commenting appropriately.

I will check back some time soon and make it a whole lot more interesting..

In the meantime, for Colin - "You hold...."

TD