Introducing Eos!

Ok it's not much of an introduction as most of you guys who are friends with me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter will have had their timelines spammed with photos of the new addition to our family 😁.

So without further ado allow me to introduce Miss Eos!

Eos is a Border Collie born on 3rd March 2019. Dad and I first met her when she was 4 weeks old.

A Pile Of Puppies! Eos (well her butt and tail) is on the far right

She was the same size as Dad's foot

 

My first cuddle

A couple of weeks later Mum came along to visit with us!

We couldn't believe how much she'd grown already (Eos not Mum!)

More tiny puppy cuddles

I was immediately impressed by her ability to nap instantly!

Eos' Mum is the pretty doggy on the left

Eos' name come from the Greek Goddess Eos who is the goddess of the dawn and a new day (NOT the camera make!). An ironic name really seeing as we've spent the last few months up at the crack of dawn with her!

Finally the big day arrived and on Sun 28th April little Eos officially joined our family!

On the way home (shortly before she was sick on me!)

So this is my living room now?

Meeting Auntie Helen (Aka Auntie NO) for the first time

  

It's amazing how she's gone from a little, fat barrel on legs to a long, sleek doggy on very spindly legs! 

Not quite sure how this thing works ...

It must be time for another nap right?

                                                       

"What doing?"

This was the first time she went to the bottom of the garden so she could see the outside world before she had her final jabs and could be unleashed on the world!

Naturally for such a cute puppy Eos has an adoring audience of people queuing up to visit her ....

Uncle Chris and Auntie Vana

Auntie Rach (aka Future Mother-In-Law)

Auntie Amanda (With Auntie NO)

She's also more than happy to provide home visits, especially to 'The Palace'

Eos has also been to puppy classes that are just round the corner from us and actually passed (even though on the day of the exam she kept refusing to do anything and was hellbent on being a disruptive influence with her BFF Rose the Lab!).

Told you I could do it Mum

 


To celebrate everyone passing the course her puppy class Eastbourne Dog Training Club organised for us all to go to Freedom Field. Freedom Field is great as it's totally enclosed with loads of toys and agility equipment for all the doggies to play on.

Queen of the castle

A taste of some agility

One of the best things about having Eos is thinking of places to take her now that she can go out for short walks, it's like re-discovering places that I've taken for granted through her eyes. 

Walkies!

In her favourite patch of long grass near Pevensey Castle

We love the beach

   

One of my favourite places to take her is the Love All  tennis cafe in Gilderidge Park. The park itself is great for dog walkers and the cafe is always so friendly and accommodating plus their scones are amazing! 

I think the biggest suprise for us all has been how well Eos and Esme have gotten on. As my regular readers will know Esme is my beloved Mini Lop who also doubles over as the world's grumpiest rabbit and loves everyone except me! Esme has been totally accepting of Eos, although of course Eos is only allowed near Esme's hutch with one of us supervising and never in her run or near an open hutch door. 

I often wonder what they're talking about .......

Please throw the ball for me Esme!

Eos has settled in so well and it's hard to imagine life without her here, even when I do still have the odd "Er there's a dog in the living room" moments.

We also hope that one day she'll  grow into her ears .....

Love Jen

XxxX

Slide Away

Looks like things are back to normal after my cheeriness following Dunsfold Airshow a couple of weeks ago (See my previous blog for plenty of geeking) and I’m back on a slippery slope (points to whoever got the Oasis song pun I used for the title of my blog!).

My mood is crap again and I’m back to hardly working again which means that my savings are going down the pan to pay for food and cover my direct debits. This also means that should any gigs or events come up that I want to go to it’s not gonna happen due to my stupid self not being able to cope with the simplest job with lovely work colleagues. Earning on average of £70 a week when I manage even one day is just not sustainable. I’m having to look at going to Citizen’s Advice to see if I’m entitled to any financial help for being ill, which I hate as I feel like I’m one of those Daily Mail-hated wasters with their hands out expecting the state to pay for them.

My weight isn’t doing so great either, I can post all the body-positive photos on my Instagram @jenraefrances that I want but the fact of the matter is that I’ve put on 2 kilos since Christmas because my inner-pig has re-emerged with a vengeance and I’m just too damn tired to walk anywhere. I know the greed and tiredness is mood-related too and the weight that I’ve put on just makes me feel sick and disgusted with myself.

I don’t know what the answer is, I should be in a good place – I enjoy my job, have a puppy who’s always pleased to see me and a rabbit currently tolerating me, my Uncle coming to stay at Christmas and Airbourne and Duxford airshows to look forward too. I just feel so pathetic and whiny at the moment and feel bad for it when everyone is doing their best to help me.

Hopefully the next blog will be more positive

Love Jen

XxxX

 

Dunsfold Wings & Wheels 2019 Review

Hi everyone! My 2019 airshow season has finally begun with a trip to  Dunsfold Wings & Wheels show last month.

It was my first trip to the aerodrome and very sadly it was to be the last show there so I was very lucky to go when I did. Dunsfold is famous for being the BBC Top Gear track and they also had a car show during the day (hence the 'wheels' part of the name), I must shamefully admit that I missed most of the car action due to being in the world's longest ice cream van queue 👀.

There is a lot of important aviation history attached to the Dunsfold Aerodrome, it was the test site for a number of ground-breaking Hawker aircraft such as the Harrier, Sea Hawk, Sea Fury, Hurricane and more. You can read more about it's history here. 

On the car journey up the weather could have been best described as biblical, with torrential rain and flashes of lightning, still not enough to put us hardened plane-geeks (and Mum) off. Luckily the weather started to clear and the cloud to lift as we arrived, so much so that by the time the show opened it was brilliant sunshine.

Kicking things off were the Strike Display UK team of two Strikemasters simulating a ground attack with plenty of noise! As a bit of a pyromaniac myself anything with smoke and explosions always gets my vote! Although I still manage to jump even when I know an explosion is going to happen!

One of the highlights for me, as always, was the Chinook display. Even though we see a fair few Chinooks round here I always love the thudding 'wocka wocka' sound that their blades make and the sheer mobility of the helicopter. I particularly like seeing them at airshows when there is a runway and they show off their ability to 'wheelie' up and down it.

The RAF's two primary training aircraft were also there in the form of the Tutor and Tucano teams. The Tutor put on a really dynamic display against the blue sky.

2019 is the last year of the Tucano display before the RAF moves onto the Texan aircraft. Their display this season is a real send off in style and I'm looking foward to seeing them here at Airbourne one final time.

There was a really good selection of warbirds at Dunsfold, many were painted in D Day invasion colours to mark this year's 75th Anniversary. I enjoyed seeing the P47 Thunderbolt or 'Jug' for the first time -

We also had the BBMF Spitfire

A Dakota

Sally B the B-17 Flying Fortress

And also a Westland Lysander which gave today's STOL (Short Take Off/Landing) aircraft a real run for their money as it got airborne in a matter of meters!

The tempo changed with the arrival of the Turbulent Team , if you've never seen aircraft take part in flour-bombing, balloon popping or attempting the limbo then you're missing out!

How low can you go? 

Wings & Wheels were lucky enough to be one of the few shows this year to feature the Red Arrows ahead of their jaunt to North America later this summer (I'm still trying to forgive them for missing Airbourne later this year!). Any of you who've read any of my previous airshow blogs will know what a Red Arrows fan girl I am so I'll spare you the gushing and just leave you with a couple of photos. 

Another of my favourite aerobatic acts was performing, Rich Goodwin with his muscle bi-plane. If you think biplanes are dull then wait until you see Rich throwing his Pitts S2C around the sky and see how quickly you change your mind! 

The day rounded off back on a warbird theme with a P51 Mustang and two Hurricanes. The Mustang roared and whistled her way across the sky 

The show was closed fittingly by a pair of Hawker Hurricanes flying over the aerodrome that their manufacturers called home, I'll never get tired of Merlins roaring over me and to have a pair of Hurricanes shining in the late afternoon light was really special.

Dunsfold was a really great day out and I'm genuinely gutted to not be able to go again. It was a great opening to my geeking season, roll on Airbourne and Duxford!

Love Jen
XxxX