Room 101

[alison]

Does it?  Thanks.  So why on earth don't they email you a PDF?!

[AnneMarriott]

I have stopped opting for print-at-home tickets because I finished up knee-deep in paperwork with "Admit 1 (or 2)"  plus the actual ticket(s) for the seats concerned.  This often resulted in two A4 sheets of paper which had to be cut to a reasonable size.  Now I just ignore the e-ticket option and wait for the post to deliver the old-fashioned ones. For anyone preparing to reply that I can show e-tickets on my phone, no I can't - my phone is of the primitive type that simply sends and receives calls,  and at the moment we have to attend performances separately because our puppy has a broken foot (don't ask) and is on five weeks' cage rest so can't be left alone or with puppy-sitters.

[alison]

You have a new puppy?  Did I know about this?  I've been rather out of the loop this year.

[AnneMarriott]

6 hours ago, alison said:

You have a new puppy?  Did I know about this?  I've been rather out of the loop this year.

Yes, we got him in mid-August.  He's a lurcher, (whippet/collie cross) and had been responding wonderfully well to training until the mishap.  Ironically I was doing a loose-lead walking session when he darted under my feet (what an excellent dog trainer I am!) and sent me flying down an embankment.  I either trod on his foot or kicked him  during my airborne trajectory and he finished up with four broken bones in his foot, requiring expensive orthopaedic surgery and five weeks of cage rest.  All the joys of pet ownership ...

[Jan McNulty]

Glad you’ve got your new pup Anne. Sorry about the mishap.

[alison]

How were you, Anne?

[AnneMarriott]

2 hours ago, alison said:

How were you, Anne?

Ahem - black eye, torrential nosebleed, facial bruising, mangled right arm and sprained left wrist plus various other bruises, but otherwise unharmed except for a slight loss of dignity.  Luckily all my injuries were of the self-healing type but I was jolly glad when the facial bruising faded and I was able to go out in public without having to field intrusive questions about my relationship with poor innocent Bruce!

[Colman]

Oh dear. We have a pup of similar antecedents and it sounds exactly like something he’d do.

[AnneMarriott]

10 hours ago, Colman said:

Oh dear. We have a pup of similar antecedents and it sounds exactly like something he’d do.

 

Then, if you haven't already, I recommend getting the maximum vet-fee cover!

[Pas de Quatre]

So sorry to hear of your misfortune Anne.  We have always had Collie crosses since my husband and I moved out of London, two or sometimes three at a time with overlap!  Currently we have one aged 12 who was billed as Collie x Lab, but we think there must be some whippet in there as he has a deep rib cage and slim waist.  The new one we have had only ten days.  He is now just over nine weeks old, Collie x Springer Spaniel.   So you can imagine how lively he is and definitely a trip hazard! 

[taxi4ballet]

My neighbour's dog managed to trip her up when they were out for a walk. She fell down a ditch, broke her ankle really badly and was in hospital for weeks. These canines have a lot to answer for!

[Colman]

4 hours ago, taxi4ballet said:

My neighbour's dog managed to trip her up when they were out for a walk. She fell down a ditch, broke her ankle really badly and was in hospital for weeks. These canines have a lot to answer for!

 

Our St Bernard managed to knock/drag my wife over into the bumper of a parked car and - horror of horrors - hurt her back badly enough that she had to skip ballet class for some weeks. 

[Fonty]

On 23/09/2017 at 07:15, Jane said:

We live in a very rural location, no neighbours and grow own veg. I used to go out early in the morning  to do a cull which involved scooping up on spade and flinging into road where they could be squashed by traffic until I was busy doing one morning and tossed into path of a dog walker. Made for an unusual conversation starter especially as I was in dressing gown and wellies. 

 

Fortunately, we don't seem to get many slugs, but I get masses of snails.  I live backing on to a small local park, so I used to pick them up and throw them over the fence as hard as I could.  Until I heard an anguished cry from a dog walker one day.  Now I put them in a bucket, walk them to the  main park on the other side of the road and throw them in the bushes.  

 

We are not putting puppies in Room 101, are we?   I would have to vote against that!

[AnneMarriott]

4 hours ago, Colman said:

 

Our St Bernard managed to knock/drag my wife over into the bumper of a parked car and - horror of horrors - hurt her back badly enough that she had to skip ballet class for some weeks. 

 

9 hours ago, taxi4ballet said:

My neighbour's dog managed to trip her up when they were out for a walk. She fell down a ditch, broke her ankle really badly and was in hospital for weeks. These canines have a lot to answer for!

I now realise I got off lightly!

[AnneMarriott]

9 hours ago, Pas de Quatre said:

So sorry to hear of your misfortune Anne.  We have always had Collie crosses since my husband and I moved out of London, two or sometimes three at a time with overlap!  Currently we have one aged 12 who was billed as Collie x Lab, but we think there must be some whippet in there as he has a deep rib cage and slim waist.  The new one we have had only ten days.  He is now just over nine weeks old, Collie x Springer Spaniel.   So you can imagine how lively he is and definitely a trip hazard! 

"Lively" must be the understatement of the decade.  Having had a Springer in the past, and having witnessed the energy displayed by various Collies, I can only think "turbo-charged" is a more accurate description of your Collie Cross.

[Melody]

Dog lovers are the same the world over. A few years ago I was in the emergency room with pneumonia and was sharing a room with an old lady who'd broken bones in her neck after a fall while walking her daughter's dog, and was lying there immobilized and apparently not sure if she was going to be able to walk again. Her daughter called the ER to find out about her, and the nurse brought the phone to her so she could talk to her daughter. The first words out of her mouth were, "It wasn't the dog's fault!"

[alison]

On 28/10/2017 at 16:34, AnneMarriott said:

Ahem - black eye, torrential nosebleed, facial bruising, mangled right arm and sprained left wrist plus various other bruises, but otherwise unharmed except for a slight loss of dignity.  Luckily all my injuries were of the self-healing type but I was jolly glad when the facial bruising faded and I was able to go out in public without having to field intrusive questions about my relationship with poor innocent Bruce!

 

I'm sure.  Having a friend with a blood disorder who fell on her face a few weeks ago, I can only sympathise.  It's healing nicely now, but if it had happened a couple of weeks later she'd probably have won every Hallowe'en competition going without even trying

[LinMM]

Hope you are better AnneMarriott....and your puppy too. I love reading dog stories!

my friends had a Springer spaniel called Molly and she was just so lovable and loved rounding people up and checking everyone was there .....but completely mad and "turbo Charged" too.

( love that expression) 

Once when they came to visit she got so excited on our walk from Saltdean to Rottingdean that she suddenly jumped up onto this wall bordering the beach ran along and then just did this flying leap off. It was quite a few feet down to the beach so must have taken her by surprise a bit but I was just glad it wasn't a 20foot drop or more  the other side!! 

[ballettaxi]

I only wish these comments had been on here a few months ago - prior to us picking up our Springer Spaniel puppy!  I truly believe she has a screw loose!

 

She is now 6 months old, growing by the day and NEVER runs out of steam - she just runs and jumps from 6am to 11pm every day!  I have no doubt that I'll have some similar stories in the not too distant future as I'm already struggling to hold her back when we're out walking.  My husband thinks I have a partially dislocated elbow due to her pulling me - but who has time to go to the doctor, I've popped a tubigrip onto it and that'll do until the pain goes away!

 

Yesterday she managed to jump out of her play pen because she got so excited when my son came home from school.  The pen 'walls' are 1.2 m high.  Surely this is ridiculous - it isn't as though she was able to take a run at this - she literally sprung up from a sitting position.  I guess the clue is in the name - but those back legs are unbelievably strong!

 

The problem is that she's just too gorgeous to get annoyed with - even when she started to chew my kitchen cabinets (hence the play pen).  I've been told she'll eventually calm down - in about 6 or 7 years!

[Colman]

5 minutes ago, ballettaxi said:

The problem is that she's just too gorgeous to get annoyed with - even when she started to chew my kitchen cabinets (hence the play pen).  I've been told she'll eventually calm down - in about 6 or 7 years!

 

I haven't fixed that yet. I did just fix the hole in the plasterboard beside the door where idiot lurcher boy scratched through it in less than an hour.

[ballettaxi]

Yes, we had that too.  Every corner that was plasterboard was chewed through to the wooden framing behind it AND my beautiful mahogany doors were also chewed - what is a puppy's obsession with chewing everything except the toys we buy for them for that purpose??? 

[AnneMarriott]

40 minutes ago, ballettaxi said:

 

 

  I've been told she'll eventually calm down - in about 6 or 7 years!

Don't you believe it!  Paddy, our Springer was quite mature when we took him over from my in-laws who found him too much of a handful.  Our garden backed onto school playing fields and he used to fly over the fence and run to join in with the netball.  I'd have to wave his lead and shout "walkies".  He'd run to jump back over the fence and then of course I'd have to take him for a walk.  He never tired.  Then there was his taste for swimming in stagnant water, the smellier the better, but I won't go on - I don't want to worry you ...

[ballettaxi]

Yikes Anne - what on earth have I taken on???  So far Clover hasn't shown any fondness for water  - in fact she hates going out for a walk in the rain even with her raincoat on.  Plus side - we don't have to go for long walks in the pouring rain / Down side - she still has all that energy to burn off / Result - Springer running in circles round the house for a few hours!!

 

Also I thought Spaniels were supposed to be intelligent - maybe it's because she's still a puppy but she does the most stupid things at time.  i.e. running in circles until she's so dizzy that she walks into walls or tries to walk away and thumps her head on door frames or simply falls over and lays on her back for a few minutes until she can focus again.  Then there's the fact that she doesn't understand that momentum will keep her moving - so when she's out running and decides to grab hold of a branch (that's still attached to a tree/bush) not realising that the rest of her body will keep moving and spin her around.  So the look of bewilderment on her face every time this happens to her is hilarious.

 

Or my personal favourite - where she grabs something she's not supposed to have and tries to drag it into her crate, but can't fathom why she can't get it through the door so just keeps ramming against it, thinking that if she runs at it she'll be able to force it in!  I let her do it a few times and then take it from her and give her something that will fit AND that she's allowed to have.

[AnneMarriott]

7 hours ago, ballettaxi said:

Yikes Anne - what on earth have I taken on???  So far Clover hasn't shown any fondness for water  - in fact she hates going out for a walk in the rain even with her raincoat on.  Plus side - we don't have to go for long walks in the pouring rain / Down side - she still has all that energy to burn off / Result - Springer running in circles round the house for a few hours!!

 

Also I thought Spaniels were supposed to be intelligent - maybe it's because she's still a puppy but she does the most stupid things at time.  i.e. running in circles until she's so dizzy that she walks into walls or tries to walk away and thumps her head on door frames or simply falls over and lays on her back for a few minutes until she can focus again.  Then there's the fact that she doesn't understand that momentum will keep her moving - so when she's out running and decides to grab hold of a branch (that's still attached to a tree/bush) not realising that the rest of her body will keep moving and spin her around.  So the look of bewilderment on her face every time this happens to her is hilarious.

 

Or my personal favourite - where she grabs something she's not supposed to have and tries to drag it into her crate, but can't fathom why she can't get it through the door so just keeps ramming against it, thinking that if she runs at it she'll be able to force it in!  I let her do it a few times and then take it from her and give her something that will fit AND that she's allowed to have.

You seem to have taken on a pretty typical Springer.  I wish you lots of luck - but the rewards really do outweigh the disadvantages.  They are such lovely merry little dogs.

[LinMM]

Well they definitely seem to be able to wind you around their little paws!!

bit of guilty admission coming up.

My friends with Molly didn't like  her to go in the bedrooms.

Well one night I was staying I heard this noise at the door and then Molly poked her head round practically grinning at me.

I know what I should have done but didn't .....instead I beckoned her in and did a shhh and the next minute she was on the bed nearly knocking me out with her tail.....but looking round at the door just to check .....so I'm sure she knew just as well as I did that she was being naughty!! But she quickly had me sussed as a soft touch and took full advantage so daft in one way but not in another!!

[LinMM]

I don't know whether others are familiar with the cartoons about all things dog called "Off the Leash"

But there was one a while back depicting dogs in a cafe ....well mostly Springers as the customers rushing around in circles ...and the owner is saying to the server( both dogs) " I've told you before Springers are strictly decaf!" 

[taxi4ballet]

Dear ambulance driver,

 

Yes, I know you were behind me, I could see your blue lights. Yes, I know you wanted to get past. But we were travelling up a steep hill on a narrow carriageway with loads of cars coming the other way, double white lines, nowhere for me to pull in, and a blind summit and a sharp bend at the top of the hill. Then there were several more sharp bends and nowhere for you to overtake. You could see those road conditions as well as I could. There was no opportunity for me to get out of your way or to let you pass safely.

 

So why were you blasting the siren, horn, flashing your headlights and waving  furiously at me? What was I supposed to do - levitate? 

[porthesia]

Rant warning.

 

I have just been trying to buy tickets for Australian Pink Floyd for my husbands Christmas present -Brighton Centre next November 2018.  Bit cheesed off at the £4.50 booking fee  - that's £4.50 per ticket to then have the choice of paying £2.90 to have the tickets delivered 48 hours before the performance so nothing to give my OH Christmas day or £2.55 - to PRINT THEM MYSELF!! So I'm paying for the ink in the printer, the paper and the electricity and also being charged for the privilege  of doing it myself.  Can't even collect from the venue!  Ticketmaster I think you take the biscuit for ripping people off

Edited November 29, 2017 by porthesia
Edited for clarification

[alison]

Nope, Viagogo are far worse.  I was looking at tickets for the tennis at the O2 the other week: the ticket price, mid-to-late 20s, was okay, but when I added up the various charges that added over another 50% to it   But yes, I agree it's a cheek to charge extra to print yourself - as it is to pay out loads of money for an alleged highly secure, signed-for special delivery service for tickets (I think this was for the World Athletics Champs - it's not often that I book for tickets which require hefty booking fees etc.) only to find that the postie signed for them himself and just dropped them straight through the letterbox!  I was in at the time, too

[Fonty]

I've moaned about the tickets for tennis at the O2 before.  Outrageous to charge an extra £10 (I think) as a "booking fee."  They charge exactly the same if you go and buy tickets at the box office in person, which is shocking.  When I asked what it was for, they said it was to pay for "the use of the facilities."  Not sure whether they meant the toilets, or the seats in the arena.  Maybe it was the lights?  If I am paying £70 for a ticket, I think I have paid for the right to use the facilities. 

 

Can someone tell me why the people contracted to do the work in  the council parks cannot co-ordinate the leaf clearing activities?  Yesterday, we endured the sound of incredibly noisy leaf blowers, as two workmen spent several hours blowing the leaves into neat piles.  Which they then left.  Today, we have just had fierce winds, which have blown the leaves all over the park again.  Is  it really beyond the realms of possibility to have one man blowing leaves into a pile, while another man puts that pile onto the lorry to take away?  See it every year, and every year it annoys me. Such a waste of time, and presumably money as well.  

 

Not to mention the fact that we will have to endure another day of NOISY leaf blowers some time in the not too distant future.  

[taxi4ballet]

2 hours ago, Fonty said:

Can someone tell me why the people contracted to do the work in  the council parks cannot co-ordinate the leaf clearing activities?  Yesterday, we endured the sound of incredibly noisy leaf blowers, as two workmen spent several hours blowing the leaves into neat piles.  Which they then left.  Today, we have just had fierce winds, which have blown the leaves all over the park again.  Is  it really beyond the realms of possibility to have one man blowing leaves into a pile, while another man puts that pile onto the lorry to take away?  See it every year, and every year it annoys me. Such a waste of time, and presumably money as well.  

 

Not to mention the fact that we will have to endure another day of NOISY leaf blowers some time in the not too distant future.  

Our council goes one better. There are miles and miles of main roads with overgrown grass verges, all of which tend to collect litter. So what does the council decide to do about it? Send in a team of litter-pickers to dispose of it all, and then cut the verges? Nope. They send in the industrial lawnmowers first, and shred all the litter into a million confetti-sized pieces, too small for the litter-pickers to pick up. Doh. 

[Fiz]

Give your council an Darwin Award!

[AnneMarriott]

There's a small area of woodland opposite our house, mainly oak trees.  The council sends the street sweeper along at about 7.30 am on a random day of their choosing.  Needless to say all the residents' cars are still parked so the sweeper drives along the middle of the road sweeping up nothing at all.  Even if one neighbour rushes out to move a car the sweeper can't get to the kerb to clear their little space.  Now the leaves have accumulated into a blanket so thick that we can't see the kerb at all.  I've tried to clear my front and back garden in order to stop the lawn being swamped but every time there's a puff of wind or someone moves their car all the leaves just blow about and resettle where I've cleared them.  Maddening!