Sad times, Tall Ships, Bråstein - Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's take:

Picture is taken from www.NRK.no, from a building in Oslo after the atrocities that occurred in Norway on the 22nd of July. Things that happened that day only happen in films or America, not in Norway. People are having to come to terms that it's a home grown loon that unleashed unmitigated evil in Norway on that day. Folk like having people to blame/fight against, the reality is that the vast majority of people of all nations, creeds, colours, and religion are peaceful and have nothing to do with terrorism, sadly this attack against society illustrates that. This last week in Norway has been sad and surprisingly dignified. All flags at half mast and deep sadness amongst the population. The loss of a loved one is a terrible thing, but the loss of so many people's loved ones in such an evil attack is heart breaking and my deepest sympathies go out to all the folk affected. Apparently last Monday a girl wrote a note on her social networking website words to the effect of, "If one man can have so much hatred, imagine how much love one country can have." These words somehow metamorphosed into people gathering (most with roses/flowers) in every centre in Norway. 100 000 folk in Stavanger or over 1/2 the town's population at a moments notice.

  For those not directly affected, life goes on. Tall ships race is in Stavanger at the moment. This is what the harbour looked like last night.

Today Kin and I took our evening walk down in the harbour. Wall to wall people. Kin wasn't fussed. Bumped into many folk that I knew, and many who 'knew' Kin.

I'm not entirely certain what happened here. Had stopped to talk to some friends looked around to this scene.

Still the young woman, got up, thanked me(!) and when on her way with her two friends! Kin didn't mind.

Now Kin did keep trying to jump into the harbour and it would have been really hard to have got him back out of the water had he managed it. On passing a fountain he did hop in:

And then being a Newfie...

He promptly lay down and tried to go to sleep... in the water.


Been irritatingly busy at work (pretty much since I started this new job), still have managed to take the little chap on a few walks.

Ingvild & the Madster

joined us on one trip.

Mel on another, where we bumped into Jussi, or at least Kin did:

Jussi is a 15 month old St Bernard's bitch, (Kin is eight months old dog) and they are similar sized and every time they meet they love to play together.

When tried to walk away Kin ran after Jussi. We walked off into the distance... Kin came running back eventually but he kept looking back... All very cute.

Goodbye old friend, ouch, shoes, deer - Nurhan

Nurhan's take:

I should really be in bed by now but there is a reason why I have to write this post today, that I'll come to later in this posting.

Sheep TV is still a top channel, which is strange as these

folk didn't get a look in when Kin and I were walking off the lead... At least they didn't spark Kin's interest until they decided to exit stage right, at which point he decided to chase, now Newfie's are built for comfort, not speed... Deer's are built for speed. I walked in the other direction, called Kin and after 50 m of 'chase' (by which time the two above were in a different time zone), Kin turned round and ambled back.

Now onto shoes: Gortex is a wonderful invention, however with Gortex has every Tom, Dick, & Harry making Gortex boots, which has the advantage that you can buy them 'dirt' cheap now; and I do have a high attrition rate for 'dog walking footware'. Now for dog walking I don't buy expensive shoes, problem with this is that you tend to get shoes with soles like this:

Which are fine for walking on gravel type paths (which is what most folk would buy them for). This sole gives you some grip and because there are no sharp angle changes, the soles are 'kind' on paths. Indeed back in the 90's they tried introducing this kind of sole on proper walking boots, end result was that mountain paths suffered less erosion, BUT more people broke their legs. I've had two bad falls with these boots owing to the inadequate sole... I am now limping and have a good mark on one of my legs... time to fix this issue:

Notice the cut away section at the start of the heel. This is now a 90 degree angle. This is what catches when you start to slide (and because it catches it erodes paths; but stops you breaking your legs).

Now for the main reason for writing now.

Today is exactly a year since I lost my last Newfie, Karma. At New Year's 2009-2010, he was towing a friend's kids down a snow covered hill, but then he went dramatically down hill. He'd got to the stage when he showed little interest in food, or walks. He had difficulties getting up, and the life had gone out of his eyes. You have to make the decision what is best for him. He looked tired, and had reverted to a shadow of his former self. My heart was in a vice. I'd take him for a trip and ask him what he wanted to do, and after not very far he'd turn around and walk back to the house; I'd have tears in my eyes (as I do now). I spoke with my ex and she too agreed that his quality of life was now poor. Decided that I'd see how the weekend went and if he seemed the same then I'd release him from his failing body.

Karma always knew when something was up with me and he'd sleep in my bedroom when he detected something was wrong. Last two days of his life I slept downstairs (and had to put the stair gates up, as he'd fall down the stairs). On the Sunday I really was very upset. I'm sure he picked up on this. He ate his food with fresh meat in it (which he hadn't done the days before) then he struggled up and picked up a ball and batted his big head against my hand, to play. We did. Then I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk. He hadn't wanted to for weeks but again he seemed keen. We had certain places where I'd ask him where he wanted to go, all of these he looked for the long option. He fell over a couple of times (and landed on my heart). I stopped him from going too far as I couldn't see how he could; I believe that I saw relief in his eyes. We still managed to make it to the first lake (which we hadn't managed in weeks), and being a Newfie:

 (Notice his trade mark tail :)

We took it really slow back to the house, and he did fall over.

This last trip was a great trip, but it really did take it out of the little chap. I'm convinced that he only did this last trip to please me. He didn't stir for the rest of the day and most of the next day.

I sent a cryptic text message to several friends as I really needed some help. David:

Picked up that something was up and came over.

David spent the night and took this last picture of Karma:

(which I can't look at with dry eyes).
Shortly after this picture was taken, the vet arrived and released Karma from his failing body. He died in our garden, in my arms and I still miss him with emotions that I cannot describe.

David and I carried him to the vets car and seeing him drive off was another twist of the knife in my broken heart.

His ashes are in the corner of my garden where he loved to lie in the shade.

David was with Shannon and I when we went to pick Karma up, David helped me on this terrible day a year ago (which I can't thank him enough for), and David came with me to pick up Kin.

One closing remark, from personal experience I do believe that the spirit is separate from the body. There were drugs involved, but only medicinal; after one accident I ended up in a recovery room after one of my arms had been set with a local anaesthetic. I was somewhat out of it, but wondered what the view was like out the window, so went and looked. The view was good. Then I heard a nurse telling me to snap out of it, looked back and saw her leaning over me! Next moment I'm looking up at her through blurred eyes (I wear glasses or contacts). Now I'm an engineer and I can't explain what happened by any scientific means other than this was my spirit taking a 'walk'.

Karma now is walking with my father.

Guilt of the working day, 'Not me Gov!', balls, and sexual development - Nurhan's take:

 Nurhan's take:

The heart breaking look a dog gives you as you go off to work (so you can afford to pay for the HUGE amount that they eat, not to mention repair the damage!)... His eye's implore, "how could you?" When you get home he's pressed against the fence waiting for freedom, and the guilt presses down more heavily on the owner... If you are really quiet and a little bit early you will find out how he actually spends his day! The above picture is taken from my basement after having arrived home and put my bike in the basement.

 Despite the bolts being pulled back on the kennel, he still hasn't noticed (obviously potential as a 'highly strung' guard dog...)

 Still hasn't noticed... could he be dead?

Now he's realised. You can see him thinking, "arh, the situation can still be saved if I put on a good show now..." As he tries to shake the tiredness from his eyes!

Incidentally guess how the splinted wood, in the above pictures, was done...

Still I haven't caught him on the sofa for awhile... which is of course different to, he hasn't been on the couch for awhile:

Now he's thinking:

"If I can just grab this without him noticing, then he'll never know..."

When Karma was a puppy, about the same age, we bought him one of these (this is Kin). This was THE ONLY BALL that lasted his entire life, and he loved it. When Karma died, I filled two of the big blue Ikea bags full of the balls he'd managed to acquire and took them to Bråstein; took Karma and my normal route and threw them into the woods. Karma used to love running off and coming back with a ball in his mouth. He seemed to have a 'ball seeking radar' in built into that huge head of his. He'd carry his new ball with his tail and head held high, and he'd skirt into the trees even to avoid a terrier, just in case it had designs on his balls (that might not sound quite right...). Well on the way back on that sad day we passed a dog that had found one of Karma's balls and his tail was high, he nipped into the trees to avoid me just in case I had designs on 'his' ball. It made me smile. I put Karma's balls in his favourite places. I've been and looked in the place where this ball was put, but it is long gone, the 'ghost' of Karma bringing pleasure to others. Thus the new ball, which Kin loves.

Talking of Bråstein, when Karma was four months old, he took his 'comfort' rug, from his bed, came running into the living room with it, bundled it up with his front paws and then started to try and hump it... I was nightly impressed... he was only four months old! My partner came out with, "eeek, I don't want a pervert as a 'boy'!" To my, "That's my boy!" Now Karma was always most considerate to the 'ladies' and he'd spend an awful lot of time at their rear end with that huge tongue of his, the bitches eyes would take of the dreamy look and...

Kin is a later developer, but here he is at Bråstein with a 14 month old St Bernard, what you can't tell from the picture is the oscillating of his hips... yes he has none of the good manners of Karma. Still they do say that women like bar-stewards, and despite this Lucy (the St B) didn't want to go... in fact to separate them, we had to revert to leads and even then we had to drag our dogs in different directions!

Can all be very tiring for the little chap... and talking of Bråstein, now I have to wake him up as that's where we are heading.

Points of view

Nurhan's take:

Back door open, looking for Kin, don't see him on the living room floor... don't see him in the garden, have another sweep of the living room and then I notice his wonderful camouflage job; he was very reluctant to move...

Kin's take:

I don't see the problem...

Swan, work, & play - Nurhan's take:

Nurhan's take:

Kin is tending to be spending more and more of his time in the water. And we can also walk further now, which is good.

 As I like exercise as well!

You know how some folk just seem to go out of their way to cause trouble...

Here we were minding our own business when along came this over opinionated duvet stuffing, huffing and generally being pompous. Kin was curious but the evil bird stayed out of the way.

 Just after this photo was taken, Kin turned around to head back to the shore and the evil bird, spread it's wings and jumped on his back. Now Kin is seven months old and had not experienced anything like this before. He ran out of the water, but his bark was one down from 'you are now dog meat', to 'I am seriously p_ssed, slightly unsure but if you are still behind me, you are dog meat'. Evil bed stuffing was heading off in a different direction. Sadly I didn't manage to get hold of a heavy stone fast enough, and evil bed stuffing was just out of range.

This does have the side effect that Kin will probably not be so genial next time he meets a Swan, and for self preservation purposes, if I was a swan I wouldn't pick on an animal that has a mouth that reflects a rather well stocked knife draw.

Kin for his part was a bit jumpy for the next ten minutes and did jump and look over his shoulder at the sound of air molecules colliding too loudly; but after that he was good.

On the plus side we keep bumping into deers and Kin doesn't seem to be too bothered by them (which is strange as sheep tv still keeps him rivitied):

One thing that I've never seen is a calf deer. We almost literately bumped into a mother and calf. The calf was the size of a kitten with legs that were about 250 mm long, way cuter than Bambi could ever be and five metres away.

On the down side, I'm spending more and more time working. Now I quite like what I do, I just don't like how much of it I do. I am paid for 7 1/2 hours, and would be happy to work that, I'm not happy to work ten hour onshore days and weekends. Would very much like to find some middle ground, which probably means changing jobs; which is a pity as I do derive satisfaction from what I do, but I don't live to work, I work to live. On the plus side work has given me a laptop which gives me full access to the work servers from home:

So a lot of the overtime I can do from home, which Kin isn't too chuffed about as he'd rather I was playing with him. So far he hasn't suffered, it just means I have no 'me' time, I am either working, sleeping, or catering for Kin.

Every now and again we get visits, these mainly exist of folk coming over and asking for Kin, I'm just here to open the door! Here are Eira & Isacc (one day I'll learn the correct spellings).

Eira now refers to Kin as, "the MONSTER". But as you can see she doesn't treat him as such!

Kin is surprisingly gentle with them. Bearing in mind that he's a seven month old puppy and prone to being boisterous, but somehow he knows/has learnt to tone it down with them. They enjoy playing with him, he loves it, and it's great for me as who know's one day maybe I'll manage to produce offspring for him to protect and play with.