Chrissy enjoying the gas fire last night. It’s her birthday today. She’s 11. Love you my little Witchy-Poo 🙂
Hilda: The Lost Hog, Part 2
RIP Poor Hilda.
She lost her fight overnight. Jacqui called this morning. I was elsewhere so she left a message on the answering machine. She had appeared to be going well. I’d called Jacqui on Wednesday for an update on her. She had lost then regained weight. She still had weight gaining problems, losing then regaining weight since Wednesday. Then she just appeared to have had enough of the fight, the poor little sweetheart, and gave up. I hope she’s enjoying her new life in the big hog box in the sky.
Hilda: The Lost Hog.
At around 2pm on Saturday (Nov. 14th), I was sitting on the sofa reading, Em was in the kitchen doing some washing when suddenly Em said to me “there’s a hedgehog in the garden”. Okay, not that significant you might think, but if you know ANYTHING about hedgehogs (and as we have several visiting our garden we’ve read up and are familiar with hedgehog antics) you’ll know that seeing a hedgehog (a nocturnal creature) out in daylight is NOT good.
The weather was quite horrible. It was raining and the light was dimming (even at 2pm, yes!), but still, a hedgehog shouldn’t really be seen out before dusk. Em gloved up, went outside and retrieved the poor little mite. We initially had the poor little fella/miss in a cardboard box.
Photos From The Archives – The Gremlin from The Kremlin
Chrissy046, originally uploaded by Larelle_M_R.
This is my favourite picture of Chrissy as a kitten. I think we’ve had her only a few days when this photo was taken. The photo would date around mid February 2000.
I’d been in the UK seven months. I missed my Oz cat, Tiger, like crazy and *SO* wanted to have a cat here. Obviously being in a rented property we were not meant to have pets. But I worked it all out and ‘gently’ persuaded Em to take a chance on us getting a kitten. Early in February (the 10th, to be exact), 2000 I was at the local laundrette doing some tumble drying. The local rag was there to read and so I looked in the classifieds section to see if there was anything under pets. To my joy there were some kittens listed for sale in the nearby town of Dunstable for £10 a pop. I had my mobile with me, so I called the number there and then. The lady said she had one female (Chrissy) left. I asked her to please keep her for me and I would pick her up that evening. That night we went over to Dunstable to collect Chris. She was sitting on the ladies lounge with her mum. There were 3 or 4 of her brothers all around in the loungeroom. They were all playing while she was sitting contently with her mum. I remember seeing her and falling instantly in love with her. She was gorgeous! We paid the £10, thanked the lady, and were on our way home with our new bundle of fluff. I was in raptures. And the rest, as they say, is history. Chrissy will be 10 on December 1st, 2009.Odd Juxtaposing Day.
I feel very drained today. We ventured out yesterday. Got this free bus travel around the region and have hardly used it so far. We just went to Stevenage again. There’s a pet store there that I wanted to go to. It’s quite large and they have lots of small animals for sale. Bunnies, guinea pigs, chinchilla’s, gerbils, as well as degu’s. One of the gerbils looked just like our little Banjie, and he came up to the glass to say hello to me! Too cute. And me and Em were both going gaga over all the lovely CAVEY’S!
Anyway, we didn’t go there for the fluffy creatures, we went there to try and get some replacement equipment for the fish tank. There’s a split in the under-gravel filter and we need to get a new one. Of course they didn’t have one! But we were able to get a replacement glass scraper/cleaner and we bought two tubs of this stuff they are selling, which is kind of like a chewy version of Bonito tuna flakes/Kitty Kaviar. I was really hoping Chris would like it, ‘cos she goes MENTAL over the Kitty Kaviar, but she’s not keen. The texture is too heavy and chewy. It’s not light, dry and flaky like the Kitty Kaviar. She kept investigating it, went to eat it a couple of times, but then stopped. I just don’t think she likes the texture. BUM! Anyway, while in Stevenage, we checked out Aldi and we got a little tray of mini Ritter Sport’s chocolates. Em got all dark chocs and marzipan, and I got all milk chocs with different centres. And the local Tesco has an in-store Krispy Kreme counter, so I got my big Easter treat of a dozen original glazed doughnuts!!! YUM! We went back to Hitchin for a while. We got some flower and vegetable seeds from the 9TP (where everything is 90p – hence the name. Cute pun!) shop. 15 packs of seeds for 90p! Then we got a couple of fruit tree/shrub/plants from another discount store. We got one blackberry and one blackcurrant for £2 each. Anyway, on to today. As a result of yesterday’s adventures, I feel TRULY knackered. My legs started to hurt before we got home. By the time we were home, they’d died. My feet were aching like mad, and at that point, once I’ve rested, for next 36 hours, I find it incredibly uncomfortable to put any weight on my legs. They just ached and throbbed in bed all last night. I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. I didn’t want to put weight on my legs and feet. I stayed in bed until 11.30am, then I knew I had to get up. Luckily I did, as my “friends” had just arrived and left a spot on my underwear – GODDAMNIT!! Just to add insult to injury, they arrive! So, it’s a lovely sunny day, Em’s just gone off to some allotment society thing at another allotment nearby to join and get some supplies. And two weird juxtaposing events are happening in England today. The Grand National and Jade’s funeral. At least it’s a lovely sunny day for both. Today is a weird day…Let’s Get Knitting!
My knitting supplies arrived yesterday and I started off straight away. I got a bit lost at first, then made a hash job at starting with the chenille (which is going to be a little flaky to deal with me thinks – a bit ambitious of me), so switched to starting the cotton yarn.
This is what I’ve done so far…just yesterday.
The Jay Returned!
Amazing! I never thought I’d see it again, the jay returned to the garden today. Em was taking FOREVER to get the camera ready. He was on the ground for a minute or two, but by the time slowcoach had the camera, he was in the tree.
STILL – we did manage to get two shots.
Bah Bum-Hug!
Here’s one of a set of Christmas photos of Chrissy in her Santa scarf and hat. She wasn’t very happy about it…
Pre-Christmas Organizing and Stuff…
Just basic ramblings about stuff for today.
We put up most of the Christmas decorations last night. We’ve got a decorated artificial 5ft tree by the lounge room window and we’ve got a dinky little 3ft fibre optic tree at the bottom of the stairs on the other side of the lounge room. We’ve got a fibre optic Father Christmas by the TV and have a nativity scene, an advent Santa and a Santa snow-globe on the gas fire mantle, and a wreath on the door. Over the weekend the fish tank needs a good cleanout. JUST in case we get guests over the festive period. Not likely, but it’ll be a nice pressie for the fishies to have a clean tank for Xmas anyway. After that, I’ll have to clean out the freezer section of the fridge, to make sure we can house the goodies over the Xmas period. On a separate note. I tried to get tickets for Hamlet today, as I’d heard there were some limited seats available from the box office for today’s performance. I lucked out sadly, but the guy on the phone said I should keep trying as some tickets do become available through the day. I will try again in a few weeks though, as I have to watch the pennies until the rent is paid. Anyway, that’s about it for now. Catch ya later.Dude, Where’s My Bra?
We’ve hired a car for the weekend. And while Em was off collecting it, I was having a shower. Once I got out the shower, I was getting dressed. I went to my underwear draw to get my best bra, but oh, my bra wasn’t in the draw? No matter, I thought, it must be around here somewhere…
I searched in EVERY place feasible to no avail. I was starting to get flustered. IT’S MY BEST BRA! I’ve only had it a few months. I had some not very suitable “back up” bras – one too small for me, the other with a hook that had snapped. Well I had no choice, so I wore the one with the about to bust hook. I have a ritual, see. I don’t wear my bras when I’m at home. It’s a thing I got from my mum. It just helps to lengthen the life of the bra. So, when I *do* go out and wear my bra, when I come home, I take it off. I normally leave it on the end of the bed to “air off” a while, then put it back in my underwear draw later. The last time I wore it was about a week ago (yes, I go out that often). I remember coming home, taking it off and draping it on the end of the bed, and then… I’VE LOST MY BRA!!!! Have you seen it? On to the car. We’d planned a trip to Cambridge and then perhaps Whipsnade Zoo the next day. But I think we’ll change tack to Hitchin tomorrow and then perhaps a trip to Shepreth on Sunday. We’ve spent a bit of dosh today, spoiling Chrissy and myself. I’ve got an early birthday present.
