Having the lovely atreic over = wonderful.

Going for a nice walk on the common around Datchet = also wonderful.

Being bitten on my back by a horse = Not So Much.


Have done the NHS Direct thing, am all dressinged up, know what to do. Am in pain but fine. Its teeth didn't go through my fleece and I'm up-to-date with my tetanus so the risks are pretty low. And Sally has been looking after me perfectly.


Still. This is a little more excitement than I'd really been looking forward to having this evening...

Hm.

Tell, me, oh wise interwebs, what good exhibitions/other nice indoor things are going on in London at the moment that you can recommend?

Indoor ones, that is. Because this one looks like it rather requires better weather than my companion and I are likely to get on Thursday.

Just wanted to wish every conceivable pile of luck to borusa, the_alchemist and strongtrousers for Henry V.


Break all the right limbs and none of the wrong ones. And have a fantastic week. I look forward to seeing it on Saturday! :-D

[to the tune of "Amazing Grace", football-chant style] Seven years, seven years, seven years, seven years...



(There is a bigger version here. :-D)


All in all, I'm having a very good weekend... :-)

a) You have Kylie Minogue's Je Ne Sais Quoi going through your head, even though it's 20 years since you last heard it.

b) When *that's* not bothering you, you're finding yourself mentally perpetrating LOLcat-speak versions of folk songs. (Dance to ur daddy my tiny ktn, dance to ur daddy my tiny cat, you can has a fishy, you can has a fin, you can has a herring when ur boat comez in... ARGH! just kill me now!!!)

c) You have a lot to do and have been procrastinating for an awful lot of the day and need something loud and motivational to accompany Getting Stuff Done.


Time for some melodramatic rock played at a high volume, methinks... :-)

Apparently The Big Read think that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books.

( Thus I shall easily demonstrate that I am not the average adult )

Incidentally, those I've bolded but not underlined still cover a fair range from "read but didn't particularly rate it" through to "love it but not quite enough to merit an underline". Alice, Pooh and the Secret Garden are firmly in the latter category. :-)


Which of the ones I've left blank should I get around to reading soon, oh wise Interwebs?

(*prepares to have yvesilena at least thwap me one for not having read Le Petit Prince yet.* ;-) )

Also, why is there no Fielding on the list? Booo!

I have an unexpected visitor.

A furry, tabby, rather dainty little visitor with white socks and a white bib. She came in through the window while I was watching the telly, about an hour ago.

I have given her some milk and we have been cuddling quite a lot. She was on my lap when I started this entry but is now off exploring the house. (My lap is not the best for sitting on, alas!)

She is *very* fond of being stroked. She also likes being picked up, but only for a small amount of time. Generally I suspect her attention span = not huge.

I'm off in 15 minutes for my GP appointment so I'll have to put her out then and close the windows. But I hope she visits me again. I've told her she's always welcome, and she's been rubbing her cheek against pretty much everything in the house (including my monitor, and also the bath!) so I suspect we are now officially part of her territory. :-)

(taimatsu and mostly_a_cat: I think she's the elder of the two tabbies who were hanging around when we were doing the fence! Not the one who was obsessed with the mouse innards though. Thankfully...)

For the win: - the arrival of four new lap-trays this morning. The first new ones we've had since kmazzy bought us our old two several years ago (which were wonderful, but are now very skanky indeed!)

The new ones are gorgeous: two have photographs of kittens, one is a painting of a rowing boat, the other a more abstract painting with leaves and things. They're all smart and they're NOT COVERED IN FOOD STAINS/FALLING APART FROM THE INCREASINGLY FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO CLEAN THEM and they look a lot easier to keep clean than the others were too. And they have nice dark-coloured padded bits which should stay looking nice for longer than the creamy old ones.

And there are four of them, which will make us much better hosts.

(Especially given how small our house is, and how rare it is that we get the table out - though given how much more housework I've been doing over the last week, it should get a *bit* less rare because the table is no longer covered in tonnes of crap, and there's more floor-space.)


Made of fail: - the unbelievably idiotic, glaring misprint there is on the text of one of the kitten ones. It reads as follows:

"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this. - UKNOWN."

I mean, really. How hard is it to spell "unknown"? I'm especially amused/irritated because that one will probably become mine, what with me being the resident pagan 'n' all. But I'm honestly not sure whether I'll be able to use it without getting too annoyed! I suppose a lot of the time it will have a plate to cover it up, which helps...

I feel a bit of a twit, also, because looking at the photo of the tray on the website we bought it from, the misprint was there all the time, and we should have spotted it before we made the purchase. Alas!

Maybe it will train me to be more tolerant of misprints/spelling mistakes. And at least it's not an apostrophe misuse... ;-)


Still, on the whole the win is much, much bigger than the fail here. :-)

How hot is it in the Big Smoke today?

Wondering what to wear and whether I need to shave my legs.


I admit I am slightly nervous about all this. Think it will be fine though. :-)

Happy Birthday taimatsu!!!

Yay for her. :-D

I've started doing a bit of research into the Seven Yellow Gypsies/Raggle Taggle Gypsies/Blackjack Davey/etc. group of folk-songs, partly for the Folk Wiki and (especially) taimatsu.

The songs all involve a rich lady absconding from her father or husband with a gorgeous man of colour, and refusing to go return to her old wealthy life.

It seems the original story the songs are all at some level based on is that of "The Countess and the Gypsy", in which the King of the Gypsies ran away with the Lady Jane Hamilton, the Countess of Cassilis. It's not clear from the very cursory reading I've done already to what extent it's believed that this was an actual event.

However, it does seem quite clear what the name of the King of the Gypsies in question was:

John Faa. :-)

How to spot when you are having Far Too Much Fun writing a Roman-themed roleplay:

When you find yourself deciding which chariot race team each character supports. *grins*


(Greens, Blues, Reds and Whites. Yup, they really were called after colours. The whole thing seems to have been very much like UK football teams. A real loyalty thing, which was sometimes carried much too far...)

I'm trying to write the front page of a newspaper for the Campania/Bay of Naples region of Italy in 35AD.

I want an alliterative title for it, so "The Campania C..." something. But not comet, because that would seem strange somehow.

Quick, everyone! Tell me something newspaper title-like beginning with C!


Back-up plan: Herculaneum Herald. (As that was pretty much the biggest town in the area.)

Doctor Who and Shakespeare fans beware: Doctor Who and the Moody Dane.

Thanks to hairyears for the link! :-)

This article entertains me so much...

I'd be interested to see what a larger scale study could come up with. The phrase "a small group" suggests the need for caution, at least.

I'd also be interested to read the study in more detail (assuming I understood it!), rather than just this article. I Am Not A Scientist, but I know enough to be highly suspicious of reports of studies in the media, even the BBC.

(Many thanks to feanelwa for the link!)

mostly_a_cat has put a few photos of me with the New Improved Purple Hair up on his website, here.


And here's a sneak preview:




Four washes on from the dyeing, the colour is *still* bleeding a fair bit. My ears and neck especially are still pretty purple! Suspect this is an inevitable effect of excellent dye + fairly non-absorbent hair.

I'm looking forward to when it stops being a problem. Apart from anything else, sleeping with my head on a towel is getting faintly irritating!

A nice discipline for yours truly, this...

( Behind The Cut )

TORCHWOOD CARDIFF

Seeks new recruits.

Must be

1) bisexual

2) highly intelligent

3) angst-ridden

and

4) strangely incompetent

---

I do love it really. And I'm looking forward to tonight's episode. But I can see why mostly_a_cat's got sick of it. I do after all mostly watch it for the boykissing...