Yes, honestly!

Sometimes I so annoy myself! We are none of us perfect and I probably less so than many but there are times when my reactions and responses to a situation seem ridiculous and I wish I could modify them more successfully.

I am currently on the horns of a dilemma, it's really only a small issue but it's causing me untold internal argument.

This coming weekend there is an event I am desperate to attend, it is important to me on a personal level for a number of reasons that I make it. Hmmmm I hear you say, so what's the big deal? Well the big deal for me is that to attend this function requires me to tell a big fat porky pie. To be more specific the event is over four days, attending part of it would be pretty useless and so I have to 'throw a sickie' to facilitate my escape from work.

To date I have never taken a sickie in my life. Yes I have had one or two days off ill when perhaps with a little more effort I could have got myself into work but I have never taken a straight out sickie! Ok...call me sad.

I can rationalise and justify this one time bad behaviour in that I have tried to take unpaid leave but my request was denied out of hand, I have no annual leave left after my summer holiday is taken (we only get 10 days a year!), my employer is crap, pays only legal minimum wage, contravenes almost every bit of employment legislation one way or another and shows no loyalty to staff but expects it in return in bucket loads....but none of this stops me feeling as guilty as hell for letting them down. I know they have no-one to cover my absence and that they will lose money, yada, yada, yada.

Oh, and add to that I am probably the worlds most abysmal and unaccomplished fibber to boot. I have concocted all manner of plausible reasons and illnesses in my head and run through and through actually telling the fib but to no avail, I still feel guilty and I just know I am gonna sound completely unconvincing!

Ok......now is your cue to tell me that I won't go straight to hell for this one time misdemeanour and that just occasionally one can be too honest for one's own good! ;o)

Ugh.

Achieving the impossible!

This might might mean absolutely nothing to those of you unfamiliar with the Honda Goldwing but to anyone who is aware of just what a big and unwieldy lump it is the following clip proves that it is possible to achieve the impossible!

Amazing....whoever is riding this deserves a medal and a great deal of respect....or sectioning immediately! ;o)

Tilly-less

My parents are away on holiday right now for a few weeks and it has been quite a rude awakening for me in one respect. I had over the last three months or so got a little more used to being without Tilly, I missed her daily but I was getting resigned to the situation maybe...that however was before I found myself entirely 'home alone'.

When my parents are away I kinda have a whole new set of routines to those I usually follow when they are here and I hadn't realised just how much of those routines included Tilly, nor how much I relied on her for company.

I don't ever particularly relish rattling around in this house on my own but as a rule, after a day or two I get used to it, this time I am really not enjoying it, it's lonely. From when I leave work until when I return again the following morning I see no-one and speak to no-one, save for a phone call or two and call me mad or demented but looking back, I used to talk to Tilly constantly. We had our little routines, she was company, another living being to keep me company, a distraction and a friend.

This is the first time in my life I have been completely on my own that I can recall, any time previously I have had one or other of my cats and here I had Tilly. I hadn't expected to miss her again so much and I can't say I am enjoying what others might call 'peace and quiet'.

It's been a long week.....maybe next week I will begin to get accustomed to it.

Killer tortoise!

I can't decide if this tortoise is brave or utterly stupid but either way it appears to have the upper hand! Heh.

Sunset in suburbia

(Clickable)

The week upside down

If only we could live each week upside down...that is to say that we worked only the weekends and had the week off to do as we please..... This I doubt somehow is a new philosophy though!

This last weekend I had the best time, an amazing, fabulous, relaxed, fun weekend, full of good food, alcohol (ok, not so much of that in my case, I'm a serious lightweight), lots of sleep, lots of laughter and most of all excellent company. You know the kind of weekend I mean, the ones where the rest of the crap that is life seems a million miles away and just for too short a time you actually begin to believe life is good again, that there might just be a light at the end of the seemingly unending tunnel.

It's been quite some time since I felt so happy, since somehow I managed to eradicate all the worry that usually fills my mind and feel for a time that I am floating on air as opposed to dragging my feet through mud.

But as ever we are never satisfied are we, the all too brief reminder of how good things can feel throws real life back into a stark relief on a Monday morning and whilst somehow one would wish for the 'feel good factor' to improve an early morning outlook in a contrary way it makes it all the harder!

Yeah I know, someone is gonna tell me that if that were the case, if happy were the norm then I would no longer truly appreciate it...but hey, I'd take my chances! ;o)

An empty nest

Finally it seems that my egg-less nesting swan has, after over two months of patiently waiting on her nest, realised that there are no eggs and has left.

I'll miss seeing her everyday now, I had got used to checking on her daily but it was sad to see her perched there week in week out to no avail so the fact that she has at last realised and has gone back to the water and her usual life is a happier situation.

Hold my hand!

As I have been accused of concentrating way too much on the peacocks of late and as my recent cat 'situation' has changed I thought I had better go for something else.

Ok....so it's still mammalian but hey......you know me, cats may be my passion but anything with fur or feathers (and less than eight legs) comes a close second!

Enjoy. :o) (Watch to the end)

Still on the subject of peacocks.....

....I am horrified to read THIS story in the press today! :o(

Seven healthy peacocks that has been resident at Paignton Zoo were culled yesterday on the basis of just one complaint.

The birds in question had escaped the immediate confines of the zoo some time ago and taken up residency in a nearby street where they had taken a liking to a particular tree for roosting purposes. It seems that whilst most residents were only too happy with their new neighbours, one (yes, just one) was unhappy, To be fair, for a few weeks in the spring during the mating season Peacocks make an almighty calling noise which is not particularly conducive to a sleeping 'late on a Sunday morning' but to cull the birds for this reason alone seems appalling to me.

The zoo and the local authority had tried all manner of solutions over time to placate the complainant but ultimately when they were threatened with litigation, as a charitable organisation, they were forced into this sad course of action.

I would so like to know the identity of the complainant in question and have a 'word' in their ear..... this story has particularly angered me but unsurprisingly, not only does this individual present a selfish and uncaring attitude but he or she is also a coward, requesting that their name not be released to the press!

Incidentally, these birds have been at the zoo for over 80 years and were there long before any of the houses affected were.

Hitching a ride!

Remember the peacock I came across on my daily manderings a week or two back?


......well today he was in evidence again, only this time hitching a ride on the back of a forklift truck!



Somehow it doesn't seem an appropriately elegant mode of transport for something so beautiful!

*Phone cam again...ugh apologies!

Shift happens!

Well I was gonna post this but 'someone' beat me to it so I'll just take the lazy option and direct you HERE instead! :o)

A special thank you....

.....to those of you who left such kind comments and sent emails on my post 'One year on'. It has been a tough year, a damn tough year and at a time when my self esteem and general state of 'whoopeee-ness' have suffered somewhat, your positive input and support makes a very big difference.

Thank you :o)

'Champagne Charlie'

Having read THIS article in a newspaper during in an idle moment earlier today, I just had to check out 'Holly's Blog'....the blog of a pregnant donkey and now also that of her two week old white foal.

The 'awwwwwwww factor' is signifigant I promise you. Hey, you know me......I'm a sucker for anything with fur or feathers and less than eight legs!!

Meet 'Nora'.....

......the piano playing cat!



You gotta love it! ;o)

*Thanks KC for the link.