Jasmine

30.3.09

I received this wonderful email this morning and just had to share it with you... be sure to read on below the pictures.




In 2003, police in Warwickshire, England, opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog.. It had been locked in the shed and abandoned. It was dirty and malnourished, and had clearly been abused.
In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a Greyhound female, to the nearby Nuneaton Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, run by a man named Geoff Grewcock and known as a willing haven for Animals abandoned, orphaned or otherwise in need. http://www.warwickshirewildlifesanctuary.co.uk/index.htm
Geoff and the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims to restore the dog to full health, and to win her trust. It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved.
They named her Jasmine, and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home...
But Jasmine had other ideas. No-one remembers now how it began, but she started welcoming all Animal arrivals at the sanctuary. It wouldn't matter if it was a puppy, a fox cub, a rabbit or, any other lost or hurting Animal, Jasmine would peer into the box or cage and, where possible, deliver a welcoming lick.
Geoff relates one of the early incidents. "We had two puppies that had been abandoned by a nearby railway line. One was a Lakeland Terrier cross and another was a Jack Russell Doberman cross. They were tiny when they arrived at the centre and Jasmine approached them and grabbed one by the scruff of the neck in her mouth and put him on the settee. Then she fetched the other one and sat down with them, cuddling them."
"But she is like that with all of our animals, even the rabbits. She takes all the stress out of them and it helps them to not only feel close to her but to settle into their new surroundings.
"She has done the same with the fox and badger cubs, she licks the rabbits and guinea pigs and even lets the birds perch on the bridge of her nose."
Jasmine, the timid, abused, deserted waif, became the animal sanctuary's resident surrogate mother, a role for which she might have been born. The list of orphaned and abandoned youngsters she has cared for comprises five fox cubs, four badger cubs, 15 chicks, eight guinea pigs, two stray puppies and 15 rabbits.
And one roe deer fawn. Tiny Bramble, 11 weeks old, was found semi-conscious in a field. Upon arrival at the sanctuary, Jasmine cuddled up to her to keep her warm, and then went into the full foster mum role. Jasmine the greyhound showers Bramble the Roe deer with affection and makes sure nothing is matted.
"They are inseparable," says Geoff "Bramble walks between her legs and they keep kissing each other. They walk together round the sanctuary.
It's a real treat to see them."
Jasmine will continue to care for Bramble until she is old enough to be returned to woodland life. When that happens, Jasmine will not be lonely. She will be too busy showering love and affection on the next Orphan or victim of abuse.
From left, Toby, a stray Lakeland dog; Bramble, orphaned Roe deer; Buster, a stray Jack Russell; a dumped rabbit; Sky, an injured barn owl; and Jasmine with a Mothers heart doing best what a caring Mother would do...

How time flies!

25.3.09

I seem to have a time monster with me at the moment. It’s sitting on my shoulder and eating away at all my time! Although, having said that, I do know where all my time has been going…

Firstly, I have recently met lots of fabulous new friends and, whenever possible, we meet up, even if it’s just for a cup of coffee. The problem lies there. The cup of coffee. We arrange to meet at, say, 10am and then we sit over said cup of coffee and chat… and chat… and chat! On Monday, I met my good pal, AW, and I didn’t get home until 4pm!

A week before that, I met up with AW, HJ and SK and again… we just chatted and chatted and chatted and before we knew it, the time had just flown by.

However, I’m not spending all my time just sitting and chatting about everything and anything… I have actually begun doing something a little more meaningful with my Friday mornings. I have started to volunteer at a local children’s home.

Although I am only with a few of the children for a few hours per week (I have been taking them to their weekly swimming class), I do feel as though I am doing something important. With so much for the staff to have to attend to at the Home, I am able to free up a couple of hours for them to do other tasks which may have otherwise been difficult.

There are currently around 30 children at the Home and almost all of them are siblings. The Home is one of the very few in the country that caters for girls and boys, allowing brothers and sisters to remain together. They are all aged between three and 17 years old (younger babies are looked after at other homes throughout the country), allowing this Home to concentrate on older siblings.

All the people I have met at the Home have been absolutely fantastic. They are firm with the children when they need to be, using what would be called ‘tough love’, but you can tell the children are well looked after and loved.

It’s heartbreaking to hear the stories of some of these youngsters, some having lived there almost their entire lives and some no longer having any contact with their parents. Many of them have what are translated as ‘Support Families’, who collect the children perhaps on a Friday, and look after them over the weekend and sometimes during school holidays, giving them some semblance of a family life.

The Home is always open to donations and help of any kind. If you would like any further information, please let me know and I will put you in touch with them.

Over the past few days, my time has been taken over by a book! You know when you get into a great novel and you just can’t put it down? Well… I had that problem. The book, given to me by another friend, is by Barbara Erskine and wow… what a fantastic story. Daughters of Fire is set in present day as well as 2,000 years ago in Britain. I was so engrossed that I have already bought another by the same author. Although I’ll give that style a rest for the time being and my next read will be serious chick lit!

The perfect car

17.3.09


Several weeks ago I had a slight accident in my car. I was driving towards a roundabout and therefore slowed down to a stop. Moments later I was shunted from behind. My immediate thoughts were that the back of the car must be smashed to pieces, considering the force of the impact. However, on seeing it, I was surprised by how little ‘visual’ damage there was.
The driver of the other car was a young woman, very pleasant and very apologetic. It turns out that the car wasn’t hers, it belonged to the huge company she worked for, hence she wasn’t too worried about the damage (to the car or to her pocket!).
We sorted everything out and handed all the necessary paperwork to our respective insurance companies and waited for them to contact us. As my car is a solid little Mini Cooper S, we prefer to use the services of BMW / Mini to get it fixed. We finally took it in yesterday morning.
Fortunately our insurance company was able to offer us a hire car while the Mini is being fixed. Unfortunately, compared to the Mini, our replacement is dire... to say the least!
Although the Citroen C3 looks like a cute little car from the outside, it’s a totally different story inside! What appear to be bucket seats, hug you in all the wrong places – making it quite an uncomfortable ride, every time you change gear you bang your elbow on the arm rest, the hideous dashboard speedometer, etc is so big and in your face it almost distracts you from actually driving! But the worst thing of all is... it’s just so slow! Usually I can easily pull out into the fast lane to overtake, yet this morning I was barely even able to reach the speed limit, let alone pass anyone else! I think I will now look upon my little Mini with renewed enthusiasm and love. It’s speedy, incredibly comfortable and a strong little car!

Extra extra!

10.3.09

I had such an unusual morning the other day. I was an extra for a commercial
that was filmed in the Algarve. Having sent in my details to the production
company, I was among 100 extras that turned up at the Alvor Aerodrome to
take part. On arrival, I felt a little lonely considering there appeared to
be numerous small pods of friends all grouped together while I stood ‘on my
tod’, trying to appear confident and casual on my own. I also noticed that
many of the extras were Dutch (it is a Dutch production company), so I
wasn’t feeling brave enough to approach them, not being able to speak a word
of Dutch. Not that that would have really mattered… most Dutch people here
are incredibly friendly and all speak English!
However, eventually I noticed someone I knew from years ago, and his fiancée
whom I’d never met, so it was great to catch up while we waited for filming
to begin.
About an hour or two later we were called out to the middle of a slightly
muddy field where we proceeded t o watch a stunt pilot in a light aircraft.
There were plenty of ‘Oohs’ and ‘Aahs’ where we all tried our very best at
acting suitably impressed (actually we were very impressed, this guy was
incredible!)
We waved, pointed, looked up and across, took photos, looked afraid (very
afraid…). Whether we were doing a fantastic job or not is another question,
of course! Hopefully at some point we will be able to see the fruits of our
labours, (perhaps on YouTube?), or the production company’s website.
I’ll keep you posted!
Oh… I almost forgot to say… we were all paid for doing
something that was actually a lot of fun. I do hope I’ll be asked to be an
extra again!

Clothes shopping

10.3.09

Why is it that when you've got money to spend on clothes, you can never seem to find anything you like? I seem to have this problem quite a lot (well, I don't often have much money for that but you know what I mean!).This happened to me again the other day. I had just a little bit of money burning a hole in my pocket and so I decided to spend a few hours in the local shopping centre. I think I went into every single shop there, Zara, Stradivarius, Bershka, Pull & Bear, Springfield Woman, etc etc. Although the clothes all looked very pretty - there wasn't a single thing that I would want to spend my pennies on.

If I didn't have anything to spend, I bet I would have found masses of items to buy! The other side of the coin, of course, could have been the fact that I was shopping with hubby. Perhaps had I been with a few girlfriends I would have been more inclined to try things on and get their honest opinions, which would more than likely lead to a purchase or two. Perhaps that's what I should do. A good old girlie day out, shopping and lunch!

Canada coming up!

9.3.09

I have square eyes.
I've spent almost two whole days staring at the computer screen... but for fab reasons. I am organising our next holiday... to Canada!
It's so exciting, I can hardly breathe!! (ok... maybe I can breathe perfectly well... I was just making a point). It'll be our first trip there.
Three whole weeks in Canada is going to be amazing. We are looking into flying into Vancouver, hiring a car to drive miles and miles to the likes of Banff, Jasper, Whistler, Clearwater and then back down to Vancouver Island where we will visit numerous beautiful locations. I bet we're going to fall in love with it so much that we won't want to come home.
If anyone has any tips or advice about visiting Alberta and British Columbia, please get in touch, I'd love to hear from you!

Chick Flicks galore

3.3.09

I have probably not mentioned this before but I am a bit of an ‘aholic’. No, I’m not addicted to anything dodgy or untoward. I do like a glass of wine in an evening though, and I am rather keen on the odd piece (or slab) of chocolate, however I’m not addicted to any of these things.
I am addicted to DVDs.
I cannot walk past a DVD bargain bin without delving in and having a good old rummage to find one that I haven’t already got – or one that simply appeals to my many tastes.
I’ve probably got between 70 and 100 DVDs in total (I can’t count exactly because my friends borrow them a lot!), and I am showing no signs of slowing down.
My particular favourites are so called ‘chick flicks’, preferably with a gloriously romantic and funny ending (I can’t be doing with those films that end abruptly or sadly). Having said that, I own a few with sad endings but I can’t bear to watch them too much. Too sad, too depressing, too many shed tears. I do tend to cry a lot when watching movies (and even on TV… I have even been known to cry at the top of a hat when watching glimpses of cartoons, soaps, adverts, even). I have been called ‘sad’ and I probably am.
I could talk about movies for hours on end and I am lucky that I have a fellow colleague at work with the same tastes as me… and with the same fondness for movies. We do talk a lot about films, and little else (we do get our work done at the same time, I might – we are women of many talents!)
I have so many favourite chick flicks, but the current ones at the top of my list include Serendipity with Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack, Sweet Home Alabama with Reese Witherspoon, Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick Jr (swoon), Practical Magic with Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Aidan Quinn (swoon).
I have so many others too. I’d love to hear what your favourite chick flicks are. Leave a comment if there are any you’d recommend that I haven’t included here. I’m always keen to get recommendations from fellow chick flickers!
Here is a list of the ones I have (let’s see if I can remember them off the top of my head) Kate and Leopold, Maid in Manhattan, Two Weeks Notice, Miss Congeniality (1 and 2), Gray Matters, Elizabethtown, Love Actually, Pretty Woman, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Erin Brockovich, The Wedding Planner, Mona Lisa Smile, Mean Girls, You’ve Got Mail, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones Diary (1&2), Chocolat, The Sweetest Thing, Steel Magnolias, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Family Stone, Ghost, Sliding Doors, The Wedding Date, Just Like Heaven, Sleeping with the Enemy. I'll add more to my list as I remember them (and buy them, of course!)
There are a few that I had but seem to have vanished into thin air… they include How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Fab films, both of them.

But its not just chick flicks I love... but that's for another post... another day!

Slow down

3.3.09

After a few weeks of glorious spring-like weather, the dark clouds have returned with a vengeance. Last night, it rained non-stop and the drive into work this morning was hazardous to say the least. When I say hazardous, I don’t mean roads covered in ice and snow like the recent flurry in the UK, I’m talking rain so heavy that you can barely see your bonnet, let alone the car in front of you.
I love driving at the best of the times, but can’t stand it when you can’t see very well at all – this meaning either when it’s raining so hard or at night when the combination of darkness and oncoming blinding lights make it almost nigh on impossible to manoeuvre the car. OK, perhaps I am being a bit of a drama queen (it’s in my nature) but I just don’t like driving when conditions aren’t at their best.
Pottering down the motorway (I certainly wasn’t going to speed in such conditions, was I?), I did notice an accident. It looked like it might have involved two of three cars and it had only just happened. All drivers were at the side of the road on their mobile phones. Luckily, this time, there didn’t seem to be any injuries. Speed was probably what caused it. It usually is.
People don’t seem to take into account the heavy rain when driving – instead they hop into their vehicles and put their feet to the floor as if the weather was impeccable and the roads dry. It drives me mad when they come speeding past you in conditions like those, not only will they likely kill themselves, they will likely take you with them. It sends shivers down my spine just to think what might happen.
Slow down, people. It won’t hurt you. In fact it might just save your life.
Made With Love By The Dutch Lady Designs