Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Hob.

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This is Hob (short for Hobgoblin). She was offered to us on Thursday after her owner had been evicted from her house, and the RSPCA had refused to take her. She's an absolute darling, friendly and sociable and affectionate, but she has head tilt, meaning that her head is almost permanently on one side, she has a tendency to circle, and sometimes to roll, and a lack of balance.

I took her to the vet yesterday, and he thinks it's most likely to be an infection or inflammation of the brain (her mania could be a sign of this too) and he is concerned about her size and weight. So he gave me a broad-spectrum antibiotic to give her twice a day, and he's told me to feed her up. There is a possibility that she may have to be put down if her quality of life gets worse, but we're crossing our fingers that it won't come to that.

Here's Hob hanging out on the back of my neck.
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And Matt and Hob napping.
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Saturday, January 20, 2007

Whit.

So, we went to the pet shop today. We were meant to just be buying a top-up of the crushed cardboard stuff for Hastings' cage.

We also impulse bought a hamster. It was our own fault. We were discussing hamsters when we were eating lunch beforehand, so we were in the right sort of mood for Whit to bring out his big guns. He sat inside the food bowl in the cage, burrowing, then he fluffed up all his wuzz, then (and this was the killing stroke) he washed his little nose with his little paws. He had us then.

He's called Whit, short for WTBAYDIT, short for What The Buggery Are You Doing In There.

This was due to the energetic exertions he was displaying in the cardboard carrier as we brought him home. He's possibly the most ludicrously fluffy tiny hamster in the entire world.

He's also (already!) known as Fo'ty Dollu (in the manner of 'Fiddy Cent') when we think he's being 'gangsta', and as Wuzz Against the Machine when we think he's being 'metal'. Bless, his names are longer than he is.

Fear da wuzz!
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Looking confused (or blinded by the flash).
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Pootlin'.
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We're keeping him well away from Hastings at the moment, as she'd so totally eat him.

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Thursday, January 18, 2007

Auntie Jean

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My (great-)auntie Jean died two days ago.

She was a wonderful woman. She had a way with everyone, both children and adults, and always made me laugh. Never talked down to children. Was always friendly and interested and interesting.

The photo above (of her, as she said, 'helping' with a buffet) really epitomises her for me.

I'm going to miss her a lot.

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Monday, January 15, 2007

Why, who's asking?

So the thing with the doctor was so much less scary than I thought it'd be.

She's really nice (and not patronising), and, although I got somewhat tearful a few times, it was more because of just telling someone, rather than any bad reasons.

I was surprised I managed to talk to her for an hour. I really was expecting it to be more awkward. At the end of the session she mentioned that I was doing well to have done so.

So, yeah. It all went well. She (and I) think that the therapy could work, so I'm going back a week on Thursday.
And I have homework! Goddamnit.

Over the weekend, we had movie night with Mouse and her husband (they made a very nice curry thing), and on Sunday we tried to fly our stunt kite. The wind was too strong, and Matt managed to beat the previous record set by Mouse (popping out all three of the support struts) by not only popping the struts out, but having two of them actually remove themselves from the kite as it plummeted to earth. Luckily, we managed to track them down.

Here are some photos that some people may have seen. They're in chronological order, and are of Hastings escaping, then re-escaping when we didn't manage to clip the cage shut quickly enough. Note the annoyed expression when she gets caught.

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Thursday, January 11, 2007

Don't want to sleep...

Because then it will be tomorrow.
And I'm scared.

LaMa - I know they don't show it to the client. But that doesn't mean they don't feel it.

Nettie - I don't think that'll happen, but thanks for the warning.
*laughs*

It doesn't help that I had a read through the literature I was sent with the letter, and it's all slightly... patronising.

Phrases such as "You will then be given appropriate self-help literature to take home and work through."

For one, I've read up on this a lot. Plus, should I feel confident in a piece of literature that can't punctuate correctly?*

*Not in the part I mentioned.

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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Th-Th-Th-Th-Therapy.

Therapist tomorrow.

Am I nervous? Why, yes I am, thanks for asking.

*takes deep breaths*

I have no idea what this woman is like. I'm not good at opening up to people I don't know. I don't want her to judge me or to be disappointed in me. Oh god.

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Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Happy whatever.

Well, New Year was New Yeary.

We had Mouse and her husband round on Saturday. We went kite flying with our new cool metre-and-a-half stunt kite. None of us are what you'd call expert kite flyers, but we had a lot of fun anyway. Then we came home, I made a delicious stew, and we watched some episodes of Firefly.

New Year's Eve was ok. We went out clubbing. The club was... a bit boring, but we all got talking to an Australian guy and a South African guy outside, and that was better.

New Year's Day we went through to my parents' house for a big feast of party snacks. We also swapped presents with them. Mouse got me the best present. I have been wanting this film for so long! Frogs!

Marvellous!

We went up to the local country park yesterday.

View from the top of the hill.
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My dad, sister and brother pretending to be spying land across the small loch.
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It's getting dark early at the moment, so we went to play on the death slide (those things that are a hard rubber disc on a stick that you sit on and it zooms down a wire) before it got completely black.

My brother got at my camera, so here are some photos he took of himself. The handsome devil.
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And here he is standing up on the death slide.
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Just before that photo was taken, he'd sort of thrown the slide thing back along the wire, and the heavy rubber disc had slammed into my right temple. There was a bit of dizzyness and double vision, a bit of nausea and a lot of pain, but I didn't pass out or anything. Bastard. Typical that it's me who got injured.

Finally, here's a picture of Hastings. The cute little thing that she is.
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