Is it any wonder.......

....that Tilly has had problems with her legs when she chooses to adopt this position to sleep for over two hours! Ok, so it was her front legs that were troubling her, now thankfully they seem to be completely recovered but still, at best it can't be particularly comfortable!


....and I promise you she was sleeping, this was not any form of the usual 'point a camera at me or invite visitors in and I'll clean my nether regions' activity.

Miniature earth

Interesting, depressing, amazing or strange? ......however THIS strikes you it is certainly food for thought!

Small foot firmly in big mouth!

I am not and never have been renowned for my ability to speak tactfully at all times, I have a nasty habit of finding myself with my size 3 in my gob when I least expect it and really, honestly, without any intention of causing offence. I just seem to have an uncanny ability to be a little too forthright at times despite attempts at being otherwise. Sunday at work was one of those occasions.

You have to understand that I am a city girl at heart and transplanted as I have been into a field, with very few inhabitants by comparison, I struggle to get used to the lack of anonymity here. There is very little I dislike about my little patch of Scotland but I really do struggle sometimes with the 'everyone knows everyone else' thing......and I forget that by virtue of that, I really ought to be much more careful what I say and to whom!

And so Sunday I was making conversation with a customer who then proceeded to offer me a tidbit of local gossip regarding the landlady of a local pub/guest house. This is an establishment I have experience of, my parents had the misfortune to stay there when they visited a year or two ago.....and 'guest house' I would consider to be a description way and above what it deserves. The place was barely worthy of any title other than maybe 'yuk' but certainly not 'guest house'. So Mr customer is chattering away about this lady and her establishment, in a none to flattering way and at some point he referred to it as a 'hotel'. I chirped in, mind apparently blank to the risks, with a giggle and some degree of derogatory comment regarding my opinion on it's more honest status....that of a tumble-down heap!

The guy went quiet, looked me in the eye and said "I built that hotel, ran it for years and sold it recently"!

Oh crap! Oopsss....foot firmly in big mouth again gemmak.

On the mend

Thankfully this morning Tilly seems to be back to her usual 'bag of frogs' state of physical health and behaviour. There have been one or two very minor limping episodes but nothing on the scale of the last two days and it ain't holding her back none!

As ever with me I'm not quite counting my chickens yet, pride always seems to pre-empt a fall in gemmak's-ville and I don't wish to tempt it, this time yesterday all seemed well but by evening things had gone pear shaped again.....but fingers crossed that this time her poorliness is gone for good.

We still don't know exactly what ailed her but as ever my good blog friend Magz came through in her inimitable amazing style and suggested a number of options that had previously not been considered, offered some solutions and treatment and hey presto, within a few hours Tilly was on the mend. Now I know there are skeptics out there, I am usually one of them but this lady really knows her stuff, she has a very special ability with all kinds of animals and never fails in my case to solve a cat health problem. Her approach may not always be main stream veterinary medicine, though she strongly advocates that as a first line of treatment but wrong she never is......I will always be amazed by her intuitive abilities with Poppy who she 'diagnosed' and helped keep happy for many months.

A big thank you to you Magz, from we two..... and one very small and currently extremely active kitten!

Something strange is ailing Tilly

We are thoroughly confused and a little worried and when I say'we are confused' I include in that statement the vet.

Something peculiar has happened to Tilly. It didn't begin as peculiar it began as what appeared to be a straighforward minor injury. I arrived home from work yesterday evening to find one small kitten quite subdued and limping badly on her left foreleg. We monitored her for a while and it worsened, so we called the out of hours cat doctor service. By luck we got the same wonderful guy who treated Poppy in her last hours and having asked many questions and had me carry out some careful 'prodding' of the sore leg he was happy that she had only suffered a soft tissue injury and it would heal quickly. His opinion was that Ditto had maybe been a little over enthusiastic in her playing and had inadvertently bruised or pulled one of Tilly's little muscles.


Just as he had anticipated things improved and by this morning she appeared back to her normal little self and off we went to work. So what you may ask is so strange about that? Well nothing so far...... but things were not as they seemed.

When PG arrived home from work he found her limping badly again........but this time on the opposite front leg! I promise you, we have not got confused, she is without doubt presenting identical symptoms, the only difference is the leg it is affecting! Very odd.

I called the vet again, he too is confused and admits he has no real idea what is causing this strange ailment. An injury affecting both legs would be rare without any other injury being apparent and would anyway have presented in both legs at once. A neurological problem would not have healed overnight on her left side and she has no symptoms of any infection, her colour is good, her temperature seems fine, she is eating and she is still playing on and off, providing of course the game can be played without her left leg yesterday and her right leg today, requiring much use. No amount of gentle prodding can isolate where exactly in her leg or paw it hurts her and she sits constantly holding it up so it obviously does!

All we can do at this stage is 'wait and see'. The vet is honest, he thinks even if he saw her now, out of hours, he would still be unable to make a diagnosis, he thinks this leg too, will likely heal quickly and that will be that. We have a short list of worsening symptoms to look out for and nothing more can be done for now. We just have to see how she progresses overnight.

Poor little soul, she is battling on bravely with only three fully functioning legs but she looks confused when she topples over and cries little cries now and then when she forgets it hurts and uses it. :o(

Hmmm.....

....and pigs might fly! I don't think I'll be breaking out the snow chains and shovel based on recent performance.

Saturday silliness Tilliness

Getting stuck on top of the microwave, which is on top of the fridge freezer and hence high......... and taking a precarious route to safety via a biscuit barrel, a pen pot and a letter rack, until ultimately requiring a 'rescue party' to be involved!





....and for a little extra Saturday silliness, go HERE.

Snow........

....what snow would that be then? We have no snow, what we do have is the infernal wind and rain....rain.... what good is rain? There seems to be snow all around us, but here, nope, not a single flake to be seen! Ack! :o(

Now those 'in the know' are predicting another large snowfall here for early next week....ppffbbttt, methinks they are making it up as they go along!

George Best dies

George Best has died. Despite his difficulties, or perhaps because of them, I can't help but feel terribly sad for him and his family. I am not, and never have been interested in football but even to me he transcended the usual disinterest in his sport.

Small person, big wind!

Thus far my 'promised' snow has been conspicuous in it's absence, if I am entirely honest I did see maybe three flakes as I left work this evening but three was an absolute maximum in my estimation and nothing further has been evident. We do however have a different weather extreme to contend with and that is wind. I have mentioned before that this little patch of Scotland seems to present winds like I have never encountered before and today was one such encounter.

I don't know the maximum gust speeds but this wind is a vicious, biting, bone chilling wind when coupled with the low temperatures and it has caused me more than a moment or two of embarrasing difficulty.

One has to understand first the layout of the property in which we reside. The building is a row of four ancient stone cottages, parked in a field and now converted into eight flats. Gemmak's-ville is situated on the first floor, access to which is gained via pathways around the side and along the back of the building and which culminates a winding metal stairway. This property, whilst it is approx. 12 miles from the sea has nothing of geographical significance between it and the North Sea and consequently, when the wind blows it really blows, add to that somehow the specifics of the building's positioning means that the wind 'tunnels' along the back of it.

And so, with that in mind you can imagine on this bitterly cold and very windy evening that when I arrived home, in the dark and carrying seven bags of grocery shopping, I had a little 'difficulty'. I have a bad habit of attempting to carry way too much in one hit, laziness dictates that a second trip is to be avoided at all costs and so attempt a Charles Atlas impression. Picture if you will, my small self, struggling already under the weight of shopping, arms feeling as tough they could well be an extra inch or two in length at the finish of this, cold fingers feeling shredded by plastic bag handles and shivering with cold as I navigated the corner into the 'wind tunnel' and suddenly finding myself bought to an abrupt halt. I just couldn't move against the strength of the strongest gusts, in fact it was all I could do to keep hold of the bags as they blew in the wind, despite their weight, at right angles to my body! I was completely stuck to the spot, in the pitch black (there is no light, remember this is a field), bags pulling my arms from their sockets and no one in sight to offer assistance.

There was nothing else for it, I ditched the bags on the ground deciding I would have to make repeated journeys, I staggered up the stairway fighting against the wind with the first two bags, took an age to manipulate the key into the lock with frozen hands and fell very ungracefully through the door to be greeted by a surprised looking Tilly and Ditto rushing past me to escape outside. She stopped briefly on the landing to consider if venturing out in such conditions was wise and then accompanied me back down the stairs to the remaining five bags.....that were by now having their contents scattered all over! I set about gathering up a lettuce, some mushrooms, toilet rolls, a packet of biscuits and other assorted paraphernalia whilst Ditto sniffed 'helpfully' at my battered shopping and then walked off, herself struggling a little on the corner where the wind is always at it's most powerful.

Three trips I had to make, each time literally fighting to propel myself forward in the stronger gusts and with the bags flailing all around, hitting the railings and tearing, scattering more of their already suffering contents at my feet!

I am only glad that there was no one watching this ridiculous spectacle, ok, so little I may be but only once before in my life have I been almost blown away! I can't help but laugh at just how silly it must have all looked. If I had been watching me instead of being me I couldn't have helped out for laughing!

All that and still no damn snow!

Set for snow?

Yesterday's sunset. Could there be snow in that sky?

The Ikea conspiracy

There is definitely a conspiracy afoot, it's the 'man will avoid Ikea at all costs' conspiracy, really, believe me, this is not paranoia on my part, it is fact!

This afternoon PG and I had managed to plan a rare few hours where he was not required at the golf club, on the golf course, to mend someone's computer or to earn a living and I have kinda caught up a little.....the plan was to venture Edinburgh-ward and visit Ikea, the purpose, to replace a chair that has succumbed to the attentions of an adolescent Tilly's toes.

Now to be fair I have not entered even one foot inside an Ikea for months and months, I kid you not, this is not a case of female selective memory, just a distinct lack of opportunity and motivation ........ I don't have the opportunity too often and PG definitely doesn't have the motivation.

And so today, finally, it was planned, all systems go, until that is a few minutes ago, when PG called to reiterate that he considers ( I ignored his gentle protestations at 7 am as he left for work) it 'unwise' to venture on a 120 mile round trip with a minus 8 temperature and it's incumbent freezing fog and ice forecast. Add to that he rationalised, Tilly will doubtless destroy the new chair, best we wait until she grows up a little he suggests!

Unwise? How convenient.....what does he mean unwise? Has this man lost his sense of adventure? Does he not know it is always wise to visit Ikea?........... is it not?!

More frost!

Having been chivvied by someone to brave the sub zero's again this morning who am I to refuse! Damn.......it's even colder today....happy now 'someone'? ;o)

(Clickable)






......and someone else decided a little 'help' was in order!

Fingers and toes........

.....are firmly crossed in gemmak's-ville in the hope that the promised snowfall will this time materialize!

It's looking good, red if for 'high risk' and the text below is an extract from the forecast for Thursday and Friday :o)

"Frequent and often heavy showers will turn increasingly to snow by the end of the day on Thursday across many parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Northeast England. North Wales and Southwest England may also be at risk. Settling snowfall is expected especially over higher ground and with winds gusting up to gale force and locally severe gale force over Scotland blizzard conditions are expected even at relatively low levels for a time".

Surely given the evidence above just for once they can't be wrong.....ok, I know, that's asking a little too much!

Frosted berries

There I was, out at minus 4.5 degrees at some unearthly hour this morning, clad only in a t-shirt and trousers for fear that in the time it would take to get dressed suitably, the frost might melt......it's late afternoon now, the temperature never made it above freezing and the frost has been in evidence all day. Damn it was cold!

(Click to enlarge)

'Tornado Tilly'

What a day I had yesterday, I mean in a good, 'how lucky I am to have such good friends way', not the grumbly, 'it was all awful and terrible way'!

Firstly there was the pleasure and pride of discovering I had a place in another man's bedroom (see post below) and then later on in the evening my inbox presented me with one of the fabest (is that a word?) things I have ever been lucky enough to be gifted.

Earlier in the proceedings I had been emailing a friend back and forth about one thing and another. Shephard and I met when we worked together on a his blog design and we fast became friends. I happened in the conversation to mention that Tilly has much in common with a tornado of late and he in turn mentioned it to his partner. Within only a few minutes it seemed I received an e- mail and attached to it was this fantastic cartoon, 'Tornado Tilly':


Now as if the picture itself is not impressive enough, hell I can't even draw a stick man cat, let me tell you, this is not just any cartoon, this is Tilly depicted in 'tornado mode' by a professional cartoonist, for Shephard's partner is no less than a Disney animator and a damn fine one at that! Wow....how many people get such a wonderful gift and from a source with such pedigree?!

I will treasure it forever, what a fab day I had yesterday, I went to my bed truly smiling last night, all felt good in the world I am truly lucky to have such considerate and generous friends and honored to have 'Tornado Tilly'....soon to be framed and hung with pride on my wall.

So a massive thank you to both of you for really making yesterday one of the 'good one's' :o)

.....and there are those that say 'internet friends' are not real friends......piffle!

In another man's bedroom!

As of today I find myself in another man's bedroom...... and very flattered I am too. The man in question is my long time blogger friend Dale of Mimico Musings. Dale and I have been good friends since our very beginnings in the blogosphere but I never imagined for one moment that he would invite me into his boudoir!

Things of course are not quite as they might seem, for my invitation is somewhat
more tenuous than it may first appear. Many moons ago I took a photograph and published it here on my blog, Dale took a particular fancy to it and I offered him said image in a decent size file and that was that, or so I thought but he had a plan.


He took my image and had it enlarged professionally, he then passed it onto a framer who framed it to perfection and finally today the completed item has been hung in his bedroom over his bed!

Wow, how flattered and puffed up with pride am I? Not to my knowledge has anyone ever wanted possession of one of my photographs, let alone spent good money on it and given it pride of place in their home!


Dale and I, who are both still given at times to be amazed by the possibilities that this modern technology allows us are both fascinated and amused that a little picture that begun in my garden, then flew across the Atlantic where it went from photo processor to framer and ended up thousands of miles away from it's beginnings is Scotland, on a bedroom wall in Canada!

Thanks Dale for liking what I did enough to do what you did, I am truly flattered, you made my day, week, month.......

Where did the weekend go?

Was the weekend that just passed me by a whole two days, or did someone sneak in and steal part of it when I wasn't looking? It sure as hell didn't seem to last two entire days, despite the fact that I was enduring the purgatory that is retail at Christmas time. One minute it was 5am on Saturday and the next it was 7am this morning and the 'in between' seems to be just a blur of demanding customers, slightly short tempered bosses, sore feet and a small Tilly kitten wreaking havoc at every move!

It just cannot have been two days, somehow, somewhere, some of it went missing, evaporated away perhaps in the stinging cold air that accompanied it, you may say what you like but I just know it was not two whole days!

Good grief, I barely even made it online in 48 hours, something almost unheard of in gemmak's-ville. I got up this morning to design jobs coming out of my ears, a virtual pile of unanswered emails, comments un-read and not so much as one new Tilly photograph taken to be offered up here for your utter boredom amusement!

Christmas in retail, the cause of this disappearing weekend? I won't go there right now....suffice to say it is mad, the whole situation is mad, the customers are mad, the ethos is mad and many more weeks of it and I will be mad too!

So that's it, the weekend, or at least part of it, went awol and I'm off now to try and catch up and to endeavor to instill a little discipline in this kitten. Yes, I have the water sprays, the 'time out' theories, the scratching posts and the 'kitten toy box' stuffed full of every conceivable attention diverting kitten game but still she is hanging off the curtains and running around the walls......are there 'e-numbers' in cat food I wonder??

Stuff on my cat

This site is hilarious I promise....or do I have a warped sense of humour?

Thanks to Astrantia for the link.

Saturday silliness

Myself and a blogger friend had a minor altercation earlier this week regarding a third parties 'religious spoutings' in comments. It didn't come to much, the third party didn't return to defend her comments but she did offer veiled threats about the likelihood of our not making it to heaven.

My friend's response was this:


Please, I don't wish to offend anyone's religious sensibilities but hell (no pun intended) I laughed until my sides hurt!

All innocence

Tilly kitten may have an endearing look of innocence, she may appear as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, she may seem all sweetness and light, but one thing she most definitely not, is innocent.

Having decided that life is just fine and dandy in gemmak's-ville and that her humans and big cat companion are acceptable,

she has proceeded to make herself thoroughly at home and one her nine week birthday she has arrived at what, if she were a child, I think would be referred to as 'the terrible two's!

This one small kitten has a rapidly acquired ability to turn her surroundings into chaos in just a few seconds. She does the classic kitten thing, she runs absolutely wild for an hour or so and then collapses suddenly in a sleeping, purring heap, decimation all around her, and while she sleeps peacefully Ditto heaves a sigh of relief and we set about repairing the damage left in her wake.

As an illustration of the havoc this small devilish innocent creature can create, the last two days have resulted in curtains requiring some repair, stereo speakers with a rather 'attractive' boucle effect adorning the fronts as a result of scratch practice, a broken dish, torn bedding (ours not hers), a web cam that has spent more time on the floor than on the desk, Lord knows if it still operates, and computer speakers left completely useless having had just one too many trips thudding to the floor! Add to that, she has jumped in her water bowl upending it into her food which simultaneously seemed to leave terra firma, both then emptied their respective contents on top of her......in her fright she fled leaving a trail of soggy cat food behind her which yours truly them had to pick up piece by piece from just about every surface.

She has fallen off things, over things, climbed things suitably unstable for climbing, trodden in porridge, hurled my phone across the room, chewed books, unrolled and shredded half a toilet roll,

hung off our plates as we eat, stolen food from them in a flash, made it to the summit of the clothes horse and then lost her nerve coming down, been shut in the bathroom, the wardrobe and *eeekkkk* almost the fridge. She has decided that without doubt the contents of the litter box are for playing in, a cat kind of sandpit if you like and oh what fun to scatter the contents far and wide as you hurl your little furry body round and round at break neck speed!...no matter whether it be clean or soiled, it makes no odds to Tilly!

Finally we have begun practicing the 'arts' of hissing, spitting and growling, though there is still some way to go until perfection is attained. Dare to go near her when she is devouring a tidbit and one is greeted with what can only be described as a particularly un-scary little growl, advance on the tidbit a little further and a rapid hiss emits, a little closer still and in her panic she spits, this is not the usual cat spitting that is little more than a vehement hiss, this is the real thing, this delightful looking little kitten spits like a damn camel, though very thankfully without the accompanying 'projectile'. God love her....and she looks so innocent. Of course, any attempts we might make at chastising or telling her off are useless, she doesn't care, we can't stop laughing and just how do you discipline only 80g of kitten, who at the telling off stage is curling up purring on your lap?!

It's winter!

And just in case you were in any doubt, whilst my much wished for snow has still not materialised this mornings frost was doing a damn good impression!

I woke to minus 4.3 degrees and despite the sun shining all day the temparature has barely made it's way above freezing, even the horses have kept their coats on for the duration..... it is kinda pretty from inside though!


(Clickable)

What's all this about then?

No explanation necessary! :o)

Fending off phishing

I'm not usually given to offering titbits of techie advice, in the main because I don't know any or understand much of what I do know, but I received an email from a friend today regarding 'Phishing' that I found unusually easy to understand and it's source reliable. The subject is suitably concerning for all of us and hence I decided to break my 'no techie stuff' rule and put it up here in the hope that just a few less of us will get 'caught':

Fending off phishing attacks.

Phishing is computer slang for attacks in which criminals pretend to be a bank or other institution. They try to trick you into giving up your password and user name.

Here's how it works:
The criminals send you an e-mail (spam). When you open the e-mail, a small program called a script runs. Note that you only need to open the e-mail; there is no attachment.

The scripting program goes to your HOSTS file, located deep in your computer. The actual path in Windows XP is: C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc\HOSTS

It enters your bank's Web address--for instance, www.YourBank.com--in the HOSTS file. It also enters an Internet Protocol (IP) number for the criminals' address.

The next time you need to surf to your bank, you attempt to go to www.YourBank.com. When you enter that address, or any other address, the browser first goes to the HOSTS file to find the IP number. If it isn't there (it normally would not be), it goes to a special computer on the Internet to find the IP number.

However, the criminals have put your bank's address in the HOSTS file, along with their IP number. So you are automatically sent to that IP number, which is the criminals' computer. It looks like the bank's Web site, so you enter your user name and password. That gives the criminals the information they need to enter your account and steal your money.

How can you protect yourself? Some anti-virus programs guard against this kind of thing; others do not. To be safe, you must disable your computer's scripting ability. To do that:

--In Windows XP, click Start>>My Computer. Click Tools>>Folder Options. Select the File Types tab. Click File Types, then scroll to and click VBScript Script File. Click Advanced. In the Actions box, click Open. Click Remove.

If you need to restore scripting, click New. Put Open in the Action box. In the next box, click Browse. Find wscript.exe in C:\Windows\System32. Double-click it.

--In Windows ME and 2000, the procedure is similar. If you need to restore scripting in Windows ME, the wscript.exe file is in C:\Windows.

--In Windows 98, you must disable Windows Scripting Host. Click Start>>Settings>>Control Panel. Double-click Add/Remove Programs. Select the Windows Setup tab. Double-click Accessories. Click the box next to Windows Scripting Host to deselect it. Click OK>>Apply>>OK.

Damn it's cold!

In fact it's more than cold, it's very ear freezingly, nose drippingly, toe bitingly, 'take your breath away' cold....but it's beautiful. Just the start to a new day that a miserable, wingeing old bint needed to lift the spirits.

I have 1 degree on the mercury right now but I'm reliably informed that wind chill and humidity taken into account, it's feeling somewhere in the region of minus 15 degrees, brrr, but still it is beautiful enough that I couldn't resist ejecting myself from the coziness of indoors to share my early morning sights with you.

See what dedication I have, is there is no end to the things I will go through for you five lot?! heh.

Snow?......I wonder, it's looking good.

Early morning moon


Moonset


Sun-up


(Images clickable)

Why is it......

....that just when you are pottering along in life feeling like all is, if not perfect, then at least more than acceptable, something in the dark and normally uncharted depths of your mind decides from nowhere to kick your ass and create a day of serious disgruntlement?

I am as a rule a 'glass half full' kinda gal, I haven't always been that way but life taught me over the years (and there have been a fair number of those) that a half empty glass is not something to be cherished. Despite that, today my usual demeanor has deserted me, don't ask me why because I don't know but my 'glass' is pathetically lacking in any degree of content at all!

In a nutshell I am 'having one of those days', a tiny gemmak pity party is in progress in this corner of Scotland and I can't say I care for it very much. I have been doing the 'oh just bloody marvelous so this is what my life amounts to is it?' thing and stuff and incidents that normally are long dealt with or forgotten seem to be bugging me. The 'hell I'll never see forty again and what have I done with my life' line is playing in my head, interspersed nicely with little thought delights such as, 'where did my career disappear too', how come I am always broke, WTF happened to 'making it' at something and bloody hell I'm already half way to dead, well given my nicotine intake probably well over half way and I still haven't actually done anything! Well, unless of course you count two divorces, financial ruin and a bodged career as achievements. Hells bells, I haven't even been off this island since I was five! Gah.

Add to that I have bits that hurt from doing nothing, that five years ago I didn't even know my body had, I can't remember anyone's name when I need too and I have a fly the size of a bat that has been buzzing me all day, that I just can't catch, kill or mutilate despite attempting all usual courses of action. Oh and Tilly stood infront of me on the desk this morning and promptly regurgitated her entire breakfast, a large proportion of which landed on and in my keyboard!

Yup, I think I can safely say today is not a good one in gemmak's-ville and no doubt you are now chuffed to bits *cough* that you clicked on a 'gemmak' link somewhere, just to listen to my wingeing. My apologies, my pity parties are generally short lived, tomorrow is another day.......

Bloody, damn, soddin' fly!

Angel with attitude!

I know, babies are not my 'thing' but this one is an exception! I know where this one is coming from. ;o)

A B C's of me

I keep seeing this everywhere I go so, finally I thought I would have a bash at it too.

A. Ambidextrous
B. British
C. Catty
D. Daft
E. Effervescent
F. Fastidious
G. Geeky
H. Heterosexual
I. Impetuous
J. Jocular
K. Knackered
L. Little
M. Myopic
N. Nocturnal
O. Obsessive
P. Paradoxical
Q. Quirky
R. Realistic
S. Short
T. Teetotal
U. Unstuck
V. Vincible
W. Warm
X. X-rayed
Y. Yawning!
Z. Zealous

Pushing one's luck ~ continued

For Lisa, who said in comments that she would like to know what happened next when Tilly decided a little 'tail stalking' was in order, see below:


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H.I.V. breakthrough?

Just for once there has been a report in the news that, albeit cautious, is good news!

The story is that of Andrew Stimpson, a 25 year old man in the UK, who having been diagnosed with H.I.V back in 2002 was found on further testing, to be free of the virus in 2003. I'm not remotely religious but if this is in fact a medical breakthrough it is as damn near a miracle as it gets for me. I don't see it as divine intervention but that just perhaps the human body in some cases, is learning to fight the H.I.V virus itself at last, after all, though I am not remotely medically qualified I do know that there is no cure for any virus but that the thousands that attack our bodies in a lifetime are fought off by our own immune systems.

Whether Andrew Stimpson's experience is a permanent one and why exactly it happened is yet to be determined by the medical profession but it does seem that the consensus of opinion is that he has a particularly healthy immune system and has healed himself.

Whilst that may not be the case for all individuals suffering this illness it may at least give those researching ways of combating it a new line of enquiry and assist in their finding a way to help sufferers in greater numbers. We may not have all the answers yet and it may not help those who have already been lost to this terrible virus, but it is a significant step forward and one that I can only help lead to a more positive future.

As for Mr Stimpson, he must feel like he has won 10 lotteries all at once and whilst he is likely to now become something of a human guinea pig he will have the pleasure of knowing he is helping in this fight, something I am sure he is only too happy to do.

Pushing one's luck!

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Here we go again!

Yes, it's that time of year again, the time of year when gemmak's-ville goes on red alert for even the remotest, tiniest, most insignificant possibility of a forecast of snowfall. Well this half of gemmak's-ville at any rate, for the other half is somewhat less enamored at the prospect to say the least!

Winter, I love winter, cozy nights in, the sound of the wind howling and beautiful frosts in the early morning sun but best of all I love winter for the snow, beautiful, white, glistening virgin snow. There is nothing like it.

When I moved North I assumed copious amounts of the white stuff came as standard, indeed just the year before I arrived there had been a massive fall, well over five feet, the place ground to a halt, most were without power for almost a week but the images I have seen were stunning....a 'gemmak snow dream'. Less of a dream for those like PG who was stuck at work for four days and those in the situation I would now find myself, with no power and hence no lighting, heating etc. etc.....everything here is electric, we have no mains gas.

But still, just once, my dreamed of winter wonderland would be nice, even a foot and I would be happy..... and so again this year, as almost every other in my life since I was old enough to know what snow is, I have begun the 'weather watch' in earnest. And what prompted this ritual of mine so early in the season? Well, a sudden drop in temperature over the last few days and see below, the first this winter....a forecast for our little patch of Scotland showing SNOW for next Wednesday!



I know, the likelihood is that it will have changed by the time we get to next week but I can dream and if this winter my dream comes true and I have bored you all to tears in the meantime with constant blogging on the subject you can all laugh heartily when I have no heat, no light, no cooking facilities and no internet connection. Really, it would be worth it.....

........I think! :o)

Saturday silliness

10,9,8 meme

Thieved from Shephards Alley and you will be pleased to hear it's not a 'tagging' meme!

10 Favorites

Favorite Season: Winter.
Favorite Sport: Gymnastics.
Favorite Time: Night.
Favorite Color: Black.
Favorite Actor: Richard Gere.
Favorite Actress: Can't think of one.
Favorite Ice Cream: Chocolate.
Favorite Food: Green olives.
Favorite Drink: Coffee.
Favorite Place: At home.

9 Currents

Current Feeling: A little bit lonely.
Current Underwear Color: black.
Current Windows Open: Blogger, Outlook, PSP.
Current Drink: Tea.
Current Time: 20.21
Current Mobile(s) Used: Nokia.
Current Show on TV: 'Tonight'.
Current Thought: Why can't I think of a favourite actress!
Current Clothes: Fleece and sweat pants.

8 Firsts

First Nickname: Never had one....does that make me dysfunctional?
First Kiss: What about it? Oh ok, age 13, boy next door.
First Crush: Robert.
First Best Friend: Kim.
First Vehicle I drove: Mini.
First Job: Babysitting, and then I worked at a newsagents.
First Movie: Bambi.
First Pet: White mouse called 'mini'...she was a Christmas present, cage the lot, much to my mothers chagrin she gave birth to 10 offspring a few days later!
First Shave: er.......!!!!

7 Lasts

Last Drink : Is that alcohol? I don't,
Last Kiss: PG.
Last Time: Yesterday.
Last Time Shaved: Pass.
Last Web Site Visited: Shephards blog.
Last Movie Watched: Ghost.
Last Pill I Had: Does a ventolin inhaler count.?

6 Have You Evers

Have You Ever Broken the Law: Yes.
Have You Ever Been Drunk: Very, in my youth.
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: Yes
Have You Ever Been in the Middle/Close to Gunfire or Bomb Blast: Yes, a number of times :o(
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: No.
Have You Ever Broken Anyone's Heart: Apparently but I didn't know until recently.

5 Things

Things You Can Hear Right Now: Wind....the weather kind before you say something Fletch! ;o)
Things on Your Bed: Bedding, Tilly, Ditto.....well Tilly is kinda hanging off the side tormenting Ditto.
Things You Ate Today: Crisps, chocolate, tea cakes, toast, stir fry & noodles.
Things You Can’t Live Without: Internet, nicotine caffeine, pets, chocolate, PG.
Things You Do When You Are Bored: Moan, smoke and sleep, not all at once.

4 Places You Have Been today
Bedroom,living room, kitchen....oh and just outside to rescue Ditto from her enemy.

3 Things On Your Desk Right Now
Mobile phone, ashtray, lighter.

2 Choices
Black or White: black
Hot or Cold: Depends.

1 Thing You Want To Do Before You Die
Stop being scared of dying!

Hooray!!!

Yippeeee, hurahhhhh, after much ado, much fiddling and much disturbance to my phone line over the last 8 hours I finally and not before time, have my broadband connection back!!!....fingers crossed it stays back.

Many are the issues that I intend to present to Wanadoo with regard to this latest debacle but for now I am just happy to be whizzing around the blogosphere instead of the dawdling as I have been for the last week :o)

A connection....any connection?

Most of the morning my phone line seems to have been 'down' completely and hence so has any form of internet connection, let alone the luxury of ASDL! The positive side of me is assuming that this state of affairs is caused by someone finally working on the problem that has now existed for almost a week....the negative side is forced to say.....if I disappear completely for a time, you will of course know why!

I dare not try to type anymore for fear of even this post failing to make it's way to the blogosphere before I get cast out once more into the wilderness.

I'll catch you on the other side, wherever and whenever the great 'phone line Gods' get their act together!

How odd!

I find it rather odd and more than a little amusing that Blogger doesn't have the words 'blog' or 'blogger' in it's spell check....... but it does have the word 'harrumph'!

Posh cat!

This little Harrods 'cat bed' belongs really, to a soft toy kitten that PG bought me many moons ago (yes, I know, but I'm a woman, men buy us these things) though of late someone very small has decided to turf out the sitting tenant and take up squaters rights. We didn't engineer this, we found her as happy as a pig in muck late last night, toy dispensed with and 'herself' snuggled down in this tiny bed fast asleep!


(Clickable)

Oh woe is me

Well ok, actually only a tiny bit of woe but woe none the less, for today is the last day of my holiday, it's back to the hell heaven that is pre-Christmas in retail tomorrow for me. Yeah, I know sympathy will not abound, I have after all had the last ten (bar one) day off and I only work at the day job for three days anyway but still, right now I could happily have a small tantrum at the prospect.

Add to my return to work the departure of PG, who has to work away Friday though Sunday, which I don't relish either. I'm used to him working odd shifts and nights but this will be only the second time since we met that we have had to spend more than a day apart. Harrumph! Pathetic I know for a grown woman of forty something but I hate it....though in his absence there will be plenty of room in the bed for Tilly, who you never know, might not feel the need to wriggle and pounce all night long if she has so much space.

I'm not giving odds mind you!

Chortle!

Ok, so maybe it's cruel to laugh but I did anyway!

The harsh realities of kitten life

For Tilly, up until yesterday, her whole little life had been one long round of things that are good. Unending playtime interspersed with frequent naps, every type of yummy kitten cuisine on tap, toys galore and as many cuddles as a little cats heart might desire.....and then came the slightly harsher side of life.

Yesterday, all at once, not only did the little soul have to face Ditto's displeasure all morning until the cat-nip incident bought about a renewed sense of peace but she also suddenly became home to a flea, well a flea or three in fact and her slightly poorly tummy became slightly more poorly. Having tried all the dietary manipulations known to cat parents to cure her tummy troubles and having failed, and my cat medicine cupboard being sadly lacking in flea preparations safe to use on one so small, the biggest trauma yet in her 7 week life was to come in the evening.....her very first visit to the vet!

Not ever having undergone this trauma she was blithely happy whilst in the waiting room, despite the company of a Boxer dog, a Doberman and assorted other canines, whilst they sniffed and pulled interestedly toward her little box, she just slept and purred away merrily.

Once on the table things were a little more disapproved of. The very nice vet lady fell in love with her, particularly her white tail tip and couldn't resist a little cuddle before the serious medical business began, but none of this flattery was to bluff one small kitten into enjoying the ensuing examination and treatments! It is amazing just how wriggly, squirmy and claw-ridden a tiny kitten can become when the dreaded thermometer comes into contact, or just how much noise said tiny kitten can make in response to an antibiotic injection. Poor little scrap, my heart bled for her but it had to be done.

She is suffering nothing terrible, her tummy troubles, as suspected, are the result of being weaned too young and the fleas are easy. Well in fact there weren't any fleas, I had caught them when I first found them but a quick spray with the prescribed chemical on our return home sorted any remaining 'pre-hatchers'. Ditto was none too impressed that all this required her also to have an extra shot of 'anti flea', and a worm tablet jammed down her throat unceremoniously before she had next expected either!

So all is well, Tilly has a few days medicine that she has taken a definite dislike too and manages to eject from her mouth in all directions and amid much baby spitting and complaining but her tummy is already much improved and she has got through her first scary visit to a vet without major trauma.

As for yesterday's sudden 'battling shenanigans', the picture below, taken late last night, illustrates how well that seems to have been resolved :o)

Arghhh....how frustrating!

I am completely and utterly fed up with this emergency dial-up connection already and yet, whilst when I had nothing else, I looked forward to a broadband connection, the dial-up didn't seem as terribly, horribly, frustratingly slow as it does now!!! It's strange how quickly the human mind seems to dispense with such memories, I don't recall my old dial-up ever being this dire and yet I know it was exactly the speed I have now!

The day to day business of surfing is suddenly transformed to something bordering 'yawn-worthy' but worse than that, the designing of a template, necessitating loading a page tens, if not hundreds of times, has been turned into a thing of unending annoyance.

But still, it looks as if I will have to learn to tolerate it for some time yet, Wanadoo and BT are still arguing among themselves as to who's responsibility our problem is, our latest promised repair date has been and gone without so much as a phone call from anyone, and the call we made confirmed only that yet again, what was promised hadn't happened! Do I look surprised?

Yes, I could continue harassing them 24/7 as I have been but it would appear that those on the receiving end are barely Neanderthal in their emotional or intellectual evolutionary process and it is only me who is getting stressed....they sure as hell aren't. So for a day or two I am trying to ignore the whole sorry situation and pretend to myself that the waiting times involved right now in gemmak's-ville, are really designed to allow for chocolate consumption and kitten watching!

The latest news is that we will be fixed by 9th November....I am assuming that rather than that referring to tomorrows date they in fact mean 9th November 2006!!!

I'm off to eat chocolate.......

Stoned.....

.... on cat-nip and friends again :o)




(Click to enlarge)

A happy coincidence

This is kinda strange, a tale of how two entirely separate incidents joined forces at just the right time to avert a small cat-astrophe! It is a tale in two parts and was originally going to be two entirely separate posts until something happened this morning to bring them together.

Part 1:

A number of weeks ago I was asked to design a blog for a lady in Daytona Beach, I won't identify her to save her blushes, if she wishes to identify herself in comments then that is her perogative for she knows who she is. Anyways, along the route of emails that always accompanies the designing of a template, myself and this anonymous lady discovered we had much in common and became friends. At around the same time the famous annual 'Biketoberfest' was in progress in Daytona, an event that bikers worldwide, myself very much included, would almost kill to be able to attend just once in their life. My aforementioned friend set about making it as real as possible for me and repeatedly made special trips to where the action was so that she could send me photographs and video clips. I was treated to a whole week of 'almost being there' courtesy of this lady, it was really as close as I could ever get without the flight and for me something almost fantastical made possible by this thing we call technology and someone who I had only known a few weeks. Once the week was over she then went one step further and against my protestations that she had already done more than enough, she promised to mail me a genuine real American Biketoberfest t-shirt....for me that was pretty 'wow'.....and until today, that was where one part of this story ends.

Part 2:

Late last night, having had Tilly kitten prevent us achieving even one whole undisturbed nights sleep since we got her, and she seeming to have settled down completely, I decided just for one night I would shut both cats out of the bedroom. The last I saw of them at 2 am, as I staggered off to bed, they were asleep, together, actually touching and seeming like any fears of dislike of one another were well and truly over. They have spent day after day playing, they eat together and Ditto even allows her to attempt to suckle from her still without any retribution. We went to bed, not a cry was uttered from Tilly .....all seemed well in gemmak's-ville.

Hmmmmmm.....famous last words eh?

I woke this morning to what appeared to be peace and quiet, I got up, ventured into the living room and found that things were not all they seemed. Tilly had at some point deposited a few little 'parcels' around the living room, ah well I thought, it is her first accident and she has had a slightly upset tummy and I set about the delightful cleaning process. My troubles were just beginning. En route to gather cleaning paraphernalia I discovered Ditto, looking most unhappy, jammed in a corner of the hallway, as I advanced on her to see why, I was met instantly by a 'wild cat', striking out, growling, spitting and fur and tail all on end. Things got considerably worse when she caught sight of Tilly happily trotting toward her for her morning play....Ditto launched at her all claws and teeth, in a state of wildness I have never seen from her before. I hastily interjected, heart pounding a little and removed Tilly, who by now was also attempting her very own, very small version of the 'claws and teeth' performance, which I was on the receiving end of.

And on it continued, Ditto behaving like she had never met Tilly before and even less that she had got on so well with her....my heart sank and I called the vet who confirmed my suspicions, Ditto had interpreted Tilly's little 'accident' as a form of territory marking and had consequently reverted to type and was battling for her 'ground'.

I have to say, as experienced as I am with cats it was really quite harrowing to watch and fazed me quite considerably. The vet said we shouldn't leave them alone and should monitor the situation carefully, Ditto given the size ratio, would be more than capable of seriously injuring Tilly in her current state of mind.

And so, a little saddened that this situation had occurred at all, we spent the morning monitoring the pair of them as they faced one another out, constantly spitting and growling, at one point I was even forced to don my motorcycle gloves to separate them, I know only too well just how seriously a moody cat can lacerate, a cat in this mood is not 'playing' and the worst case I ever came across involved a lady losing a leg as the result of becoming embroiled in breaking up a serious cat fight, and I, once before, dealt with a cat myself that had been injured by a car that was equally stressed and I was more than a little relieved at the time that I had been clad from heat to to in leathers, that small cat ripped through the sleeve of my jacket in one hit!

But I digress. Things were not looking good, we were feeling sad and nothing seemed to be changing. Four hours we watched, we talked calmly to them, we encouraged them and we kept them from doing serious harm and then the strange coincidence occurred that I spoke of at the beginning of this post.

The conclusion:

Someone knocked on the door, it was the postman with a big box addressed to me. To be honest my frame of mind was not it's usual 'oh yipee a parcel self' but I set about opening it. Inside was my gift from my friend in Daytona, only it wasn't just a t-shirt....it was a great heap of wonderful things all relating to the Biketoberfest. T-shirts (plural), tops, posters, magazines, badges, a flag, a beautiful shell off the beach, just masses and masses of stuff, it was like Christmas! I was so surprised and touched I barely noticed Ditto walk into the room and begin to investigate in the bottom of the box. What she found was a cat toy, very impregnated with the cat drug of choice 'cat-nip'. In an instant she hooked it out of the box and began rolling around the floor in a daze with it between her paws. She shredded the packaging having sniffed it in an almost alarmingly addictive manner and gradually fell victim to that very familiar 'stoned' look that any cat parent with a catnip addicted cat knows only too well!

And that was it, she got up, sniffed at Tilly, laid down next to her and behaved as if the entire morning up until that point had not happened! Job done, no careful cat psychology employed, no long drawn out days of hatred.....all it took was a little bit of cat-nip...... and that is where it is such a happy coincidence that these two things came together at just this time, I would never in a million years have thought of getting Ditto 'high' to sort out the situation and restore the shattered peace!

Tilly in the meanwhile is off for her first visit to the vet this evening to sort out her little upset tummy and hopefully prevent a repeat of last nights performance and I for my part just hope that the situation remains as is now between the two of them and peace reigns again.

And to our anonymous benefactor....a massive thank you for my wonderful parcel and for bringing to a very fast end a small war!

Never in my life....

....have I had the misfortune, until this week, to deal with a company who are so utterly unable to deliver anything like an even half way satisfactory level of customer service.

We have all come across poor service, technical help lines that are neither technical nor helpful, impolite staff and inefficiency beyond imagination but the prize for outstandingly shoddy service must surely, thus far in my life, go to Wanadoo.

Friday morning I woke to discover my broadband connection had mysteriously disappeared, I conducted the normal basic checks and still nothing, I checked it on the laptop.... nothing and so PG had a try....still nothing. At this point he took over, hardware is his forte not mine but what ensued was an utter customer service nightmare.

Without exaggeration one or other of us spent over seven hours on the phone on eight separate calls. Each one took over forty minutes to get a reply, each time we got a different person in a different call center and each time they refused to speak to PG because he is not the account holder, despite my having set him up on three previous occasions with the appropriate authorization. None of these employees seemed to be either able to read information on their screens because each call necessitated we begin the story from the beginning or too input it in the first place. We were repeatedly taken through the same 'hoo ha' of testing one or other modem, of uninstalling and re-installing software and ultimately no-one could shed even the slightest glimmer of light on what was causing our connection to remain staunchly absent!

Finally, having got hold of a particularly helpful guy at BT, Wanadoo agreed to carry out a whoosh test on our line. If you have ever been through this carry on you will know that one cannot request this test on one's own BT line, if the ISP is anyone other than BT, the ISP must make that request.....only they don't appear to be very keen to do it!

So, whilst this test is underway, not even a dialup connection can be made and at midday we were promised a result by 14.00hrs. At 14.00hrs it was promised at 18.00hrs. At 18.00 hrs at 21.00hrs, at 21.00hrs at midnight....all this despite repeated 'promises' that 'this time it would happen'!

Along the way we had asked on a number of occasions to speak to a manager or supervisor but were met with complete refusal, apparently Wanadoo's superiors in the customer service department don't sully their days with real customers or real service!

At midnight PG blew his stack, enough was enough..... but still no joy, still the 'trained monkey' approach, though we were instructed to leave the pc connected and idle overnight and assured that by the morning the results of the line test would be available.......but you know of course what happened don't you. Morning came and no test had been done, in fact, a little investigation via BT revealed that it hadn't even been requested!

I think you can probably begin to see at this point why the prize for 'lifetime crap service' is being awarded to Wanadoo!

Among all of this the majority of Wanadoo's technical help line staff were bordering on the rude, they most certainly cannot be described as having any real technical knowledge or know-how, twice when we had their backs verbally against the wall and they had no answer they hung up on us, necessitating another forty minute wait for our call to be answered and having to start from the beginning of the whole sad tale again. They were mostly, at best disinterested, often rude and had absolutely no concept of the basic customer service principles of taking responsibility for, and ownership of, a customer's problem. They were inflexible, behaved like trained monkeys spouting company policy blindly, no one seemed to have any authority to do anything nor the wit to think for themselves and use initiative........and still, on top of all else, each time we called we had to go through the getting authorization for PG to discuss the issue palaver.....despite by now, that authorization having apparently been noted on the account on four separate occasions!

And so, yesterday afternoon, finally we were give the results of our whoosh test....and guess what ...those results were 'inconclusive'!!! Arghhhhhh. Methinks there is some fibbing going on there, I doubt it was ever done, a result of 'inconclusive' seems very 'convenient'! Wanadoo's solution to our still non existent connection is too give up, they can't fix it and have handed the issue over to BT, convinced it must be their problem. Memories of trying to deal with BT in trying to get this connection enabled at all three months ago, have come flooding back and BT's promise of a fix within forty eight hours is not being taken too seriously in gemmak's-ville!

In the meantime Wanadoo are not prepared to provide us with a dial-up connection gratis, nor pay anything other than a fraction of our phone bill if we connect via a pay as you go connection so finally, exhausted and beaten by this companies ineptitude and inability to provide any kind of customer service, we have had to pay another ISP and set up 24/7 dial-up connection to keep us online, for however long it takes to sort out the broadband debacle! ....oh, and to add insult to injury, Wanadoo it transpires, have fixed my email address so that I cannot send from it, via a different ISP's connection!

One thing is for sure, I will happily 'cut my nose off to spite my face' with this issue now and regardless of cost etc. etc. once this is sorted I will wriggle somehow out of my contract with Wanadoo and go elsewhere, come hell or high water I will not remain a customer of this bunch of buffoons any longer than is absolutely necessary!

Oh....and hell, I had forgotten just how slow dial-up is.....but at least I have a connection of some sort again now!

Saturday silliness

Inelegant slumber ~ Tilly!



Internet connection? Don't ask!

Inter-not!

Oh happy days!

I went to bed at 02.00 hrs this morning, having spent the evening very much online, no problems, everything was hunky dory. Six hours later I surface, boot up this infernal machine ready for a days work (yes, ok, and some play) and what happens? I'll tell you what happens....precisely nothing! Zip, zilch, nada! Well, to be honest that is a little exaggeration, the computer is working just fine....but I have no damn connection, the all singing, all dancing, oh so wonderful Wanadoo 'Live Box' has become very definitely un-live overnight.

So this morning, after four hours of hanging on the phone for techies that know nothing technical to speak of, of being cut off, of raised voices and frayed tempers, what is their solution? They don't have one! Well they do, but it is to send me new hardware, which of course is not going to arrive today now is it? So, here I am, a mere three months after the initial long and arduous fight to attain a broadband connection at all, connected again via a 44kbps dial-up.... which to add serious insult to injury, is also of the 'pay as you go' breed. What fun, a bill for maybe six hours a day, minute by minute, peak rate charges. One thing is for sure, this is not the failure of my equipment and I won't be paying the bill, come hell or high water Wanadoo will be picking up that tab!!!

I am not a happy blogger :o(

Capitulation

Ok......under increasing pressure I have capitulated, tired, with no make up and a silly 'I don't want my picture taken' look on my face, is that enough excuses? ....here is the 'after' shot. Available for only a few days!

This last week......

..... courtesy of one very small and lively kitten, sleep has become a thing of the past, well, copious amounts of it at any rate. I now have some small idea of what it must be like to have a new baby in the house and I have to say, it has gone no way toward making me regret my childless state!

Madam has a 'sleep span' of approximately two to three hours at which point she considers it an appropriate time to play with almost anything that creates noise or to indulge in a little 'body and face pouncing' practice. Dearly as I love her, twenty small and exceedingly sharp claws in the face, whilst it has her desired effect of gaining attention is no pleasure and for PG who has suffered one or two 'stalk and attack' sessions in rather more delicate 'departments' it is no fun snigger at all!

It was thus that this morning, at 4.30, and against my better judgment I finally gathered her up and shut her out of the bedroom. I hate to do that but really, we need some sleep! We tried the exclusion method a few days back but her sad baby crying caused us to relented in under a minute and let her back in, but this time, maybe because she is a little older and more settled there were only two half hearted sounds of protest and then quiet. We slept blissfully! So blissfully in fact that I didn't wake again until 9.30, arghhhh, unheard of for me and the result is that I am way behind with my day. I don't have time to be in bed that late!

Claws in the face or other areas may not be absolute fun but at least they act as an excellent alarm clock!

Mouse mat?

Cat mat!

The deed is done!

This time I couldn't resist, my hair is gone, transformed into a big blondish pile on the floor to be swiftly swept up by some minion!

No more hour long hair drying sessions, no more fiddling with straightners, no more bits in my face, no more hair! :o)

As ever the visit to the salon was not without incident, I sometimes find it hard to belive that this is actually a reasonably expensive, up market establishment with a good reputation! This time the young girl charged with hair washing duties, who a few weeks ago on my last visit, managed to give me a full shower, almost pulled my hair out by it's roots, forgot the conditioner and then proudly presented me with a cup of coffee.....that was stone cold! Young and new she may be but if she doesn't shape up soon surely she will be jobless, in fact I'm amazed she hasn't already been posted off to join the dole queue!

Aside from the assistant from hell the afternoons entertainment was provided by my stylist, who again was somewhat nervous about hacking the whole lot off. I reasoned with her that last time I asked her to do the same it was much longer, we both had survived that so this would be easy. She wasn't entirely convinced and kept telling me that people just don't go from long to very short in one hit! Hmmmm....this 'people' does.

The whole shenanigans was accompanied by the sound of another client, a middle aged lady with a very loud voice, regaling her attendant with tales of woe regarding her husbands recent departure from their marriage. Really, I'm all for 'open and honest' but their was barely a gory detail left unsaid!

And to think I used to detest these visits, it seems that if nothing else they are mildly entertaining of late but just once it would perhaps be nice for the whole process to be relaxed and 'incident' free!

The long and the short

I'm doing it again, the almost quarterly 'do I or don't I' thing with my hair! I seem to tolerate the bits in my face, the hours drying and fiddling malarky every day just to prevent myself from looking like a bag lady, the having to pull a brush through it every time there is so much as a puff of wind and the sore head from tying it up........ and then my perseverance deserts me and to have it hacked off real short suddenly become almost irresistible!

The thought of a five minute shuffle over it with the dryer, no sore head and the ability to be able to move off the mark without a hairbrush glued to my hand is once again becoming an extremely attractive proposition but then there is the big down side to be considered. Short hair necessitates far more frequent forays to dreaded, time consuming and terminally boring hairdressers.

Oh....and having had the 'deed done', there is ever the question of regret. Women! Fickle creatures eh?

Hey ho, we will see what today brings but a hacking I think, is very likely!

*EDIT: Chopping booked ~ 15.00 hrs, today. Eekkkk.

The perfect life

Sometimes something comes along that hits you between the eyes like a sledgehammer and reminds you just how lucky you really are and just how fragile and unpredictable life can be.

We all set off in life with a plan of sorts, even before we have our own plan our parents have one loosely worked out for us but most, if not all of us, know as we get older that life rarely works out according to those plans. In my case very much so. I was going to get a good education, a career, marry only once and in my thirties, children optional but unlikely, a decent pension, own my own home, take holidays abroad, blah, blah, blah.

In the event I screwed up the latter part of my education, married young, successfully avoided the offspring, divorced, lost my career through ill health, married and divorced again, lost my home and eventually ended up here in Scotland with the life I now live.

Hardly any resemblance to the original plan at all and yet I still feel lucky in comparison to many and specifically having heard from a friend of many years yesterday.

My friend and I met in our first job at age sixteen, we went through many of the usual teenage up's and down's together and then we both married, I moved away and our days of 'hanging out' were over. We have however managed to remain in contact over the years and meet up once in a while.

My friend had what I considered to be the perfect life, her husband was stunning, he built a well remunerated career, he was charming, articulate and bright, they lived in a beautiful home in a very select area, they had two equally beautiful children, wore designer gear, furnished their house with designer furnishings, drove cars to die for and took international holidays, but most of all they seemed to remain very much in love and very grounded.....and that was it, one assumed a happy ending. One was very, very wrong in that assumption.

Lately I hadn't been able to make contact with my friend, I was worried she may have move and we would finally lose contact but yesterday she called me. I don't know too many details and if I did here is not the place to broadcast them but she has moved but not to an even more delightful home but because she and her husband have parted ways, reason unclear and I didn't like to pry. She now lives in a dingy little flat and struggles financially but worse than that, much worse, her husband lost his job and then his health, he is still just in his forties but is undergoing his fourth course of chemotherapy for a cancer which remained undiagnosed for way too long. She is wracked with guilt, her children (now adults) are at a loss and her beautiful husband is scared for his life and a shadow of his former self!

Never in a million years could I have imagined that this perfect couple, living their perfect life would have ended up where they are today.

I feel extremely sad for them, maybe even a little sad that what I considered a dream relationship and life for most of my own adult life, didn't in the end, survive any better than many dreams do, but most of all I feel lucky, damn lucky, that when my life didn't go to plan, it didn't go so catastrophically and sadly off the rails as my friends. It is perhaps selfish but today I am counting my lucky stars!

Learning young!

Tilly kitten seems to already have adopted the fascination for computers that her 'parents' have, under the circumstances I'm not entirely sure that is a good thing!!


The majority of the last few days I have spent trying to work on here whilst she has attempted to master the quickstep on the keyboard, she has fast learnt the 'cat thing' about mice, though her choice of 'mouse' is somewhat suspect and she has discovered, that if one's human blocks up all access points to the rear of the contraption, where the oh so attractive balls of wire exist, then there is only one option remaining....... to make your little cat body flat enough to slide under the desk.....yes, that little space between the floor and the base, that is less than one and a half inches in height in this case, appears to be just enough space for a flattened six week old kitten to slither into and is suitably beyond all reach for purposes of extrication!!


And then there is the 'God laptop'....... wires and mouse within incredibly easy reach, a key board just made for dance practice that doesn't involve one having to make a death defying leap from the sofa, risking the embarrassment of missing and falling in an ungainly heap on the floor to access, and a screen, completely unprotected from any attempts at cursor catching!