Earlier this week, I caught up with the new album by Nine Inch Nails, called "Hesitation Marks".  I've liked them for a while and saw that they were playing in Cardiff so decided to find out more about their new stuff.  I bought a CD from Amazon, which is on its way, but one of the nifty things they now do is that you get a instant download as well for your Kindle etc, so I was able to start listening to it right away. 

The single from the album is "Came Back Haunted" - a real stormer.  I immediately identified with the lyrics on this - it seemed appropriate for having cancer, actually.  Here is a link  to the video. 

The rest of the CD is fabulous - and I especially like the fact that like all the best albums, you hear different things each time you listen.  I listened to an audio interview with Trent Reznor where he discussed the genesis of the album and he mentioned a point where he chose deliberately to follow an electronica path rather than a more "rocky" guitar based sound and I love the results. Not really surprising, as I adore Husky Rescue who also have an electronic based sound (but very different) and listening, I was strongly reminded also of one of my favourite albums by David Byrne/Brian Eno, as well as a few Kraftwerk/New Order touches.  As someone who grew up on 80s electronica, this is perfect.  

I came to NIN rather late - having cancer sort of knocked all kinds of cultural stuff out of kilter, and I found I just wasn't interested in a lot of things.  I 've gradually got back to liking stuff and being curious but find that I'm catching up with things that have been out there for years - NIN being a case in point.  As well as the new album, I also bumped into one of their other songs on Youtube, called Closer, and thought I'd share it  too.    Again, apologies if you've known about it for years! It's one of the best musical descriptions I've ever come across of that mindblowing feeling when you turn from being a grown up who votes, recycles and reads the Economist into a lust fuelled tiger whose sole ambition is to have wild animal sex until you have to walk like John Wayne for 48 hours.  

I'm hoping we can go and see them in Cardiff when they play here later in the year, I've suggested Andrew gets me tickets for my birthday.  I think he was a bit surprised when I mentioned it, but I suspect they'll be great live.  

We've also been planning some other stuff for later in the year.  We're booked for a weekend in London in February so are going to see The Duck House - a comedy with the excellent Ben Miller about the MP expenses scandal. 

We're also planning (or starting to) our visit to the Tour de France when it starts in the UK later in the year.  I can't wait! I think we will head for the stage in the SE rather than Yorkshire - easier to get to.  This year's race is going to be a peach (I know, I say this every year) - with both Wiggins and Froome racing, on the SAME team!! Awesome.  As well as that, I'm really excited about the whole Tour circus thing - will be fab to see the parade of sponsor vehicles and all that kind of thing, as well as a view of the peloton in full flight.  

I know that British people are famed for their ability to moan endlessly about the weather, but this unending rain is really getting me down.  Not so much because of it falling - I actually don't mind walking in the rain, find it quite romantic at times but because the ground is now beyond saturated.  Every walk means sliding on thick mud, all our clothes get filthy, the dogs get filthy, the car gets filthy and stinks of mud, and it all makes any form of cleaning feel self-defeating. To make a change, we've had some hail over the past two days but the rain is continuing tonight and we have more forecast tomorrow. 

Yesterday, I completed the annual RSPB Great Garden Birdwatch.  It was difficult to find a slot without rain, but eventually in the afternoon, it eased off for a bit, and the birds came out to visit the feeders.  We had our usual colony of house sparrows, blue tits, great tits, the wren and the blackbird.  Long tailed tits visit regularly but didn't make an appearance yesterday. 

Today's been a day of quiet routine.  We walked the dogs at Tredegar House this morning - waded may be a more accurate word.  Our walk was cut short though by an off lead Lab with no collar who was hurtling round the park knocking other dogs over like ninepins.  The owner was completely oblivious - I had words with her when she eventually returned. 

Two visits to the Post Office - lots of coats to send out, and the first batch of rosettes from the online dog show. 

More paperwork, accounts, and happily some time to have a cuddle with Callie.  We're also starting to get bookings for summer shows - it's nice to think about warm, sunny days and taking out the Tent of Destiny again.  

I picked up a load of new sample coats from Nina earlier in the week and yesterday, amazingly, it wasn't raining.  So after our normal walk at Tredegar House, we took the girls over to the reen behind the houses and did a few pictures to put on our website.  We have several new fleeces  and the second prototype of the raincoats we'll be launching soon.  Got some lovely pics of the girls - Sara is very photogenic.  

 

After we'd done our mini shoot, got home, fed the woofs, fed ourselves and read the paper for a bit.  Then Andrew started uploading pics to the website along with the various bits of text, shopping basket etc.  and I put lots on Facebook.  Caught up with the wedding Sherlock last night- I enjoyed it, but it did feel quite self-indulgent, and again, I'm struck by how poorly written the female characters are. 

This morning, Andrew took the boys out first thing and got some diesel, while I got ready, then headed off with the girls.  Our destination was the Bristol DAWG Dog Show at Avon Riding Centre, Henbury, just south of Bristol city centre.  The centre has a lovely view back towards the Severn Bridge.  I met up with our lovely friend Sue and her gorgeous hound Mick - we entered quite a few classes but not a sniff of a rosette.  This happens sometimes, so not too worried, especially as I know that shows are such good fundraisers for smaller rescues.  

 

There was a raffle as well, and to my astonishment, I won the most enormous hamper of dog goodies I have ever seen in my life.  It took a man with a big parcel trolley to load it all into the car - there's masses of stuff.  Tinned food, dry food, treats, snacks, even sardines.  We'll be keeping and using some, but quite a lot will be going to EGLR, I'm helping with their show in May, and this will be perfect for the Doggy Tombola. I started my journey for home just before 4 in the rainy dusk.  There's something really romantic about that time of day - I love the grey, low sky, the twinkling lights and the sense of returning home to warmth and welcome.  The girls were shattered after a long day of bum sniffing and excitement so slept most of the way. 

Andrew had been busy while I was away and there was a warm welcome from the two boys.  A big tray of vegetables for roasting was just going into the oven - they are cooking now and smell gorgeous.  I probably won't be having wine tonight though - for the last couple of months, I've drastically reduced my wine consumption as I've found it triggers hot flushes.  This is particularly unpleasant if I drink in the evening as the flushes seem to happen a couple of hours later, so I'm kept awake.  Fortunately, if I drink vodka or gin, there seems to be no ill effect, so I'm currently enjoying a big glass of vodka and orange juice. 

Over Christmas my cousin Jonathan kindly gave me a very polite nudge and reminded me that I'd lapsed in my blogging.  Now that things are getting back to normal, I thought I'd do a post and will hopefully soon get back into the groove.  

It's been another busy day today.  I walked the dogs this morning - taking the boys over to Tredegar House.  After we'd walked, (or paddled) I headed for the Post Office to send some Milgi parcels, then to Duffryn Community Centre.  Regular readers will know I often write about Busy Bees where I do patchwork - just before Christmas the shop was completely destroyed by a fire.  This was devestating news - as the shop is far more than that, it is the hub of a very friendly and involved group of quilters and needlewomen.  This week, Sandra and Sue, the shop's owners, have hired space at Duffryn Community Centre so that customers could pop in to check and confirm their bookings for the various courses they run.  I'd booked on a day course in March so called in today.  It was lovely to see Chris and Marianne, and it's likely we'll soon hear if/where/when the shop will be re-opening.  Wherever possible, they are also going to go ahead with the courses, which is excellent news.  For the short time I was there, there was a steady stream of customers, full of concern, but also of hope - a very cheering start to the New Year.  

This afternoon, I've been doing Milgi admin, ordering more fabric, sorting out photos for the online dog show, ordering some prizes for it (giant cheese cookies for the dogs) and passing on orders and stock lists to be made up to our machinists.  The company who supplies the dog biscuits is another small business - Jayne, the owner is always incredibly helpful and very positive.   We sent out giant cookies to our customers in the run up to Christmas as a way of saying Thank You, and often put little bags of the doggy treats in with orders the rest of the year.  

After feeding the dogs and having something to eat this evening, I had a phone call from a rescue friend - help needed for an emergency transport run, plus a lovely catch up on lots of other news.  Tidied the kitchen then came upstairs to a fresh round of emails.  Dogs are all settled now, so soon it will be time for bed.