Your first thought today?

[ellie]

I wish I could hear a cock pheasant in the garden.  It would be better than the bloody motorway noise.  For the last thirty or so years people have been telling me 'You'll get used to it'.  Well, I haven't.

Gyppo

Ahh, the joys of country living Gyppo ..you should hear the old bull in the field on the corner when he gets going..is it the mating season d'you know?

(sympathise with you, I lived next to a very busy road once, in Essex)

[Gyppo]

you should hear the old bull in the field on the corner when he gets going..is it the mating season d'you know?

What for?  Bulls, or just in general ;-)

I gather that most cows don't even see a bull these days.  Just the man from the Ministry of AG (or whatever they call it these days) with a pair of rubber gloves and a plastic bag of frozen 'bull juice'.  Could explain 'Mad Cow Disease', couldn't it?

Country living...  When we first moved here, about 45 years ago, the road outside was just a gravel track and there was woodland - with bluebells and all the other stuff we used to take for granted - just the other side of the track.  Then they built a row of old folks bungalows.  It was a typical 60s experiment in social engineering, sticking old folks opposite families with kids.  All the houses had a little alcove built on for storing bicycles.  Gradually the estate grew around us.

We could hear owls hooting at night, and sometimes the cows coughing in the fields beyond the woodland.  Very distinctive, a cow's cough.  Gamekeepers and poachers learn to cough so it sounds like a cow, if they have to ;-) 

About a mile away down the hill and beyond the river there was the proper town with several large factories, and at 6am you could hear the rumble as machinery started en-masse.  But it wasn't as obtrusive as the motorway noise.  There were still a lot of farms around and a lot of open ground.  All gradually eaten up by housing and factories.

I've been away and come back a few times, and after being down in Cornwall the first few weeks back with the motorway noise were a nightmare.

A few years back we went for a short break at a place in Cornwall called Lansallos, and, not only was it quiet enough to hear a fox walking past in the night, there was virtually no light pollution from street lamps.  I could walk down to the beach at night through the fields by starlight.  It's only in the wild places that you realise just how much light stars can provide, even without a moon.  Just sit outside for a while to let your eyes adjust and away you go.  Magic.  Of course, on a cloudy night it was as black as the inside of a bag ;-)

Damn, I need to get back there...

Gyppo   

[Big T]

Great insight Gyppo thanks.

First thoughts:
Today, I finish at 12 .... hooray!
Beer at 13:00
Shopping .... after the beer ... No closing time!!! Could be a wobbly evening.

T

[Spell Chick]

first thought: Shit, someone is landing a C-17 in the back yard (those are the huge transport planes the US Air Force uses and they are horribly, terribly, loud) Peeked at clock to see 5:39 AM

next realization, some idiot has some souped up car with a barrel muffler to make it sound like a C-17 and they are not driving away anytime soon. I must track them down and kill them.

[pamela07]

Did the next round of snow storms start yet?  I still have shopping to do.

[Talisman]

my first thought was 'wish I didn't have to go to work'.

[Gyppo]

first thought: Shit, someone is landing a C-17 in the back yard (those are the huge transport planes the US Air Force uses and they are horribly, terribly, loud) Peeked at clock to see 5:39 AM

next realization, some idiot has some souped up car with a barrel muffler to make it sound like a C-17 and they are not driving away anytime soon. I must track them down and kill them.

You need to walk out casually, smash their windscreen, on the driver's side, with a sledge-hammer or perhaps a felling axe, and when they jump out to remonstrate - or perhaps run away - say "Now I have your attention...".

On the other hand this may not be good advice for a female...

When I worked nights I stalked across the carpark outside my house one day, wearing nothing but my underpants and carrying a felling axe to 'have a word' with two noisy gits who were 'balancing' their new car stereo, they weren't inclined to argue.  Nor was my then wife, who stood in the doorway watching and didn't know quite how to react.  I think she knew I was acting the part, but perhaps she wondered.

It was all a very careful act, but down in Cornwall they have a morbid fear of axe-murderers so it worked really well.

"I'll gladly cut it in half if it will help you balance things..."

Then I suggested a layby/pull-in about half a mile away where they could do the job without waking me again.  After that I put the axe away and went straight back to sleep.  The absence of adrenaline wakefulness proved it was just an act.

If you do something like that every couple of years it keeps the 'natives' on their toes and properly respectful ;-)

Gyppo

[CarrieSheppard]

First thought today...

Turn the alarm off, it's Saturday!

Second though - oh gawd, Carol will be here in half an hour and we're going shopping....

[Paula]

My first thought was probably unrepeatable. My dog decided it was time I was up, hopped up onto my bed and danced a merry little jig. Shes a particularly big collie cross who didnt care that she was trampling me. Pah

[Gyppo]

Turn the alarm off, it's Saturday!

Thank the gods for that.  Most of today I've been thinking it was Sunday.  It's been a strange week, but I've just gained another 24 hours I thought were gone.

Gyppo

[Talisman]

first thought today - can't wait for Christmas Day so I can actually have a day off !

If you go shopping at Currys today anyone spare for a thought for me, and if you go to Dorking then pop in and say hello ! 

[CarrieSheppard]

I went to Currys - couldn't find the TV I wanted!     Dorking's a tad out the way for me though.

Used to go to the folk club there though, long ago.  http://www.chanticleerfolk.co.uk/

As for finding that TV - I think internet search about to commence!

OK - back on topid!  First thought this morning?

How nice it is to be loved.

Second thought:

I don't wanna get up! 

[Spell Chick]

My first thought: Why am I looking at a clock with the first number a 3? I am hating these hot flashes. I hope I can manage to get back to sleep

Second first thought: Well, the first number is a 5, maybe I will just close my eyes for a moment longer.

Third first thought: Why is the phone ringing in the middle of the night? (time now 7.28)
I guess I could get up. I wonder if there is coffee yet. (there wasn't, but it was started)

[Ken100]

My first thought...
'Hmm, I actually feel ok, considering how much I had to drink last night!'

 

[Don]

If you do something like that every couple of years it keeps the 'natives' on their toes and properly respectful ;-)

Lol.  Occasionally, I will rent a moving van and park it in front of the house just to get the neighbors' hopes up.  I love seeing their long faces when I drive it away, unused.

First thought today:  Ack!  Dinner with the in-laws.