Weekend Snapshots ~ 8: New Camera!

I finally bought a new camera today and I’m having lots of fun playing around with it and setting it up.  I love the way it feels in my hands and I just love how it functions too.  I went through last Sunday morning to Jessups in Bluewater Mall and immediately rejected all of the cameras that had been on my shortlist as they just didn’t feel right.  My friend had a Canon that I had been playing around with a short while ago and so I settled on the Canon 1000 D with an image stabilising lens.  I went back again this morning and picked it up.  I’m quite looking forward to going out and about in the next couple of weeks and trying it out.  For now, I present my menagerie:

Josey (born 18 January 2004)

Molly (born 23 January 2004)

Seth (born 4 September 2006)

Summer (born 4 September 2006)

I could do with some happy thoughts on Thursday! I’m writing my first exam but have no doubt I’ll pass.  I was ready to write about three weeks ago.

Normal Programming Will Resume Shortly

It has been three whirlwind weeks in which my in-laws and friend Patrick visited from South Africa and we all went up to Scotland for a week in the middle of that.  Patrick left last week and my in-laws left last night and I look and feel as glum as Molly in the photo above.  The good news, dear blogging friends, is that normal programming will resume shortly on Emm in London as I have so much still to share with you about my travels to Serbia, Isle of Wight and now Scotland.  I am starting studying again next Monday so my actual outings will be limited somewhat until I go to South Africa in December but I am sure I’ll find something to keep us all occupied!

By the way, my dear dog was not being deprived or tortured, honest! Stephen had just gone out to the shops which always makes her interminably glum and sad until he comes back home.  You’ll be pleased to know that she couldn’t care less when I leave home; don’t I feel special!

Wordless Wednesday ~ 16: Six Fifteen

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What Falling Snow Looks Like

A lot of my South African friends and family have never seen snow falling before (in fact, many have never seen snow) so I thought I’d take a short video.  Snow usually floats down softly and quietly so this was quite a downpour!!  What I love most about snow (apart from not actually having to be in it) it how silent it always is when it falls.

This was taken at 3.34pm, to give you an idea of how early it gets dark.  It is post-Winter solstice now and in fact, it is staying light just a little longer.

I tried so hard to take photos of the snow flakes as some of them were up to an inch in diameter!

Let it snow!

It’s not often that I’m happy to see snow but I am over the moon tonight!  I’ve been praying all afternoon for the snow to come because for once in my life, I actually have work that I can do from home tomorrow.  It is our financial year end and so I have loads of cross checking that I can do and I emailed all the spreadsheets to myself before I left work today.

Southeastern Railways were being their usual useless selves and had already told us early this afternoon that trains would only be running every half hour tomorrow.  Of course, they neglected to say whereabouts in the hour their ‘half hour’ would start and as trains are generally oversubscribed as it is, I didn’t rate my chances of actually getting on any trains tomorrow.  With the predicted “extreme weather” having arrived, it is doubtful whether they will run at all. 

Wonderful news then… it is a snow day tomorrow!

At home: The Return of the Prodigal Cat

I interrupt my normal programming to tell you a story about my beloved boy cat Seth. Some of you may have met Seth earlier this year as he was the star of our Snow Day and provided endless laughs and entertainment.

Seth has been spending more and more time away from home lately because my neighbours keep feeding him pilchards and it has been making me quite sad. By Friday night, we hadn’t seen him for two weeks although my one friendly neighbour said he had seen him. I have to admit to being on the verge of tears on Friday and was planning a door to door canvas on Saturday morning.

Thankfully, Stephen came and woke me up on Saturday morning with a bundle of black and white fluff in his arms.

Seth's Jedi mind tricks made his eyes glow

I expected cuddles and purring and all sorts but as you can see, he headed straight for the bedroom door and used Jedi mind tricks to try will it to open and let him out. Well, he lost that particular fight. We took him to the vet for a complete check up and make sure he got his booster inoculations plus his worms and flea treatments. I also put a collar on him with a bell, to try irritate my neighbours and of course, stop him catching any birds. We’ve kept him locked inside the whole weekend with us which has been incredibly stuffy but we’re just trying to wean him off my neighbours and his wild, wandering ways. I’m fully aware that we may not succeed.

We had a nice long afternoon nap together yesterday and he also spent the whole day with me today.

The vet had joked that the cat had gone feral and as you can see, he does have black paws which I have always believed to be the sign of a feral cat. The thing that concerns me most is the grazing you can see on his back, right leg there.

The moral of the story? Don’t feed other people’s pets please. It’s not cute or endearing. Pets should be encouraged to return to their own homes every night and you can bet that I would have tended to Seth’s graze at the time if he had come home. The neighbours might be charmed by my friendly little cat but we’re the ones who love him and eagerly accept the responsibility of paying for vets bills when necessary.

I’ve sent away for a tag to go on his collar. It will say his name and my number on the one side and “pls do not feed me” on the other. [insert mental image of me looking determined here]

Read more about Seth and Summer by clicking here.

Normal posts on my trip to New York will resume this week. I also have a couple of summery London posts to share.

Snow Day!

We had our first snow day today.  This picture shows the field behind my house with all the children playing on sleighs and building snow men.  I had to stay home for the day because all of the trains were cancelled.  Luckily, Ste and my brother work outside of London and their colleagues picked them up and took them to Orpington and Dartford respectively.  I was a bit disappointed after sitting around in my work clothes for three hours to learn that apart from there being no trains or buses, our offices were closing at 1pm and those of us that hadn't made it in would have to take a day's annual leave.  I tend to sleep in late and lounge about in pyjamas on my days off - not get up earlier than usual to make a special effort to get in and sit around waiting in my suit and jacket.  Grumpiness aside, once I realised it really was a day off, I made some Milo and watched Demons and Being Human from the weekend.  I also experimented with changing the layout for this blog, as I am a bit tired of this layout, but that didn't go very well.

The most amusing part of the day was observing my pets' differing reactions to the snow.

Cats
Early this morning, Seth was being an incorrigible pain in the neck bold and was meowing and asking to be let out.  So I opened the window thinking he would feel the snow on the window sill and realise that it was to wet and cold to go outside.  He put a tentative paw on the window sill and quickly shook it; but instead of coming back inside, he launched himself out of the window and promptly disappeared!  All I saw then was him shaking his back paws as cats do when their paws get wet and forging a way ahead in the snow.  Before I could do anything he sped off and was gone.  Oh dear.  I had to leave a window open for him then as I went to bath but soon he was back announcing at the top of his lungs something that sounded remarkably like, "Mum! I'm home! And wet! And cold! Close the windows quick!"

Well, his wet and cold experience didn't really leave an impression because a few hours later I was confronted with these friendly faces as I walked into the sitting room:

I promise you! He was giving me a right mouthful!  Summer supports him but won't actually go outside herself.

Well, as you can see, he got kind of insistent after a while so I hauled on my wellies and went outside the front door with him.  He immediately ran to the shelter of the bay window, complaining about the cold all the way!  Then he ran under the car and sat forlornly under the engine as if he were the most hard-done-by cat on the planet.  Unable to coax him from under the car, I returned inside and he came shooting in at the sound of the door.  Thankfully, that was that and he seems to have accepted that it is too cold and wet to go outside.

Dogs
Considering how terrified our dogs were of our swimming pool in South Africa, I never imagined that they would like snow so much!  I had opened up the back door to see if the dogs needed to pee and they just stood there watching it snow. 

That wasn't so much fun for me so I went inside to make some tea.  Suddenly, I noticed the pair of them prancing about in the snow like two little puppies, and they were even playing about with a rubber toy between them which is something they never do (share, I mean.  They are very possessive over their toys).  It was so funny to watch!

In the end, it was a pretty fun and exciting snow day!  Now to cook some dinner!

At home: staying at home in winter

[Disclaimer: I apologise in advance for any bad spelling or nonsensical sentences in this post.  Let's just say I have had a lot of cold medication in the past two days].

This was the view out of my back door at 7am yesterday morning.  It was somewhere around this time that I convinced myself that my cold was serious enough to warrant me taking off work.  I don't have flu as I had the vaccine but I phoned up work and explained that I would rather consider cancelling a day's leave next week than risk getting a more serious chest or lung infection.  Thankfully I am pretty dedicated to my job so they seemed okay with this.  (And yes, I am indeed a big baby when it comes to getting sick.  I don't like it at all!).

Stephen was off on business in Liverpool this week and he asked me later in the day if I had watched lots of television (being a TV addict requires some dedication to the cause!).  I told him that in fact I hadn't - I actually didn't feel too good at all and had just lain in bed and stared out of the window most of the day.  I have pretty much followed the same pattern again today.

This is the view out of my bedroom window today.  Twenty years ago this type of rainy day weather would have inspired me to listen to The Cure and write really bad poetry but thankfully I grew out of my coffin-kid phase.  These days I just lie in bed and marvel at how beautiful my cats are. 

Stephen's parents are arriving in London from South Africa tomorrow - they are most likely at the airport right now.  It is very exciting as they have never been out of South Africa before although they are both frequent fliers within the country.  I have three or four days left of work for the year and then we are off on two small road trips.  I'll post my itineraries in the next day or so.  I challenge you to try spell "itinerary" when you are feeling under the weather!

At home: Summer update @ 10 weeks

It's only been 10 weeks but Summer has recovered so well since her accident and I thought it was time for an update.

First, Summer is a lunatic but I didn't think photos of an indistinguishable, blurry piece of fluff would impress anyone so you'll have to settle for stills instead.  Suffice to say, she has really recovered and is back to being her normal kitten-like self again.

See? You can't even notice at first that she is missing a leg.  That is in fact the affected side and if you look hard, you can see that the fur on her thigh is still growing back.

One of the signs of a healthy cat is if they preen themselves.  Summer is obviously pleased enough then.

Summer was sure to let me know when she'd had enough of me pointing a camera at her.

Summer and Seth were rescued by an animal shelter.  Men had been trying to sell them as 'meat' in a township and the shelter had confiscated the kittens.  We had gone to the shelter to pick up Summer and so I picked her up, put her on my lap and she promptly fell asleep.  Seth then climbed up my legs, sat on Summer's head and looked me in the eye as if to explain that this was a package deal only.  I had strict instructions from Stephen that we were not to get a male animal and so I looked doubtfully over to Stephen as if to ask what I should do and he just said something like, "okay, so we're getting two then".

So Seth doesn't like being left out.  Here are some pictures of my majestic little boy cat then:

Yes, my cats are pretty vain and Seth is no exception.

But sometimes I can distract him long enough to get a decent shot.

Until he too communicates that he has had enough.

Why can't they be more like dogs?  Dogs never tire of being photographed or being played with or being cuddled! 

Although sometimes dogs like some downtime too.  Have you noticed how Josey (in front) likes to steal Molly's bed?  Josey's bed is actually more expensive and meant to be better for her orthopedically but she prefers the immediate comfort of Molly's bed and steals it.  On the other hand, Molly like the relative coolness of Josey's bed anyway.

At Home: S & D & K come to visit

It apparently snowed in the night but this was followed immediately by rain so there was no trace of it when I dragged myself out of bed at 11am.  I never usually get up that late but I could not get to sleep last night and landed up reading reviews of the new Twilight movie until after 3am.  It's not that I wasn't tired though - on the contrary, I was exhausted and sleep was very much welcomed when it finally arrived.

Stephen decided to make a full roast dinner for us today and we invited Sara & Donovan & K over.  K is my godchild and she is two-and-a-half years old.  Sara and I met in high school and have been close friends since 1988.  Essentially, we followed them to the UK but would probably not follow them if they went back to South Africa again!

With a two-and-a-half year old child, you sure have to keep busy!!!

First we danced around a bit.

Then we bounced on my Swiss ball.  It is the most that ball has been used in six months!!!

Then we watched Beauty and the Beast and ate roast beef, roast potatoes, peas and Yorkshire pudding.  Yum!  Stephen is an awesome cook.  We tried to go for a walk after eating to try walk off our dinner but it started pouring with rain. We needed to tire K out somehow though...

So then we baked some cookies.  K is a great cook!  Maybe she'll grow up to be as good in the kitchen as Uncle Teev.

Of course, it's very important to clean up after a cooking exercise, so K had a couple of dishes to do.

All too quickly, our afternoon was over and Sara and Donovan and K have gone home.  We've decided to have a quiet hour now before Top Gear is on television and so all you can hear in our lounge right now is the sounds of Ste and I tapping away on our respective keyboards.  After that, I am going to study a bit and all I'll be able to hear from downstairs will be the sound of Ste giggling along to the Top Gear gags.

Summer update: A week since she came home

I'm sorry I haven't updated on Summer.  She's just so tiny and vulnerable and I've struggled to get around to updating.

This was taken the night she came home.  She was a bit extremely drugged out and she was really freaked out.  It was horrible to see because it seemed like she had lost all her trust in the world and she seemed to have thought that we had abandoned her.  In this picture she is lying on her wound.  Her leg was amputated right next to her body, so there will be no stump or anything, she just has no back leg on her left side any more.

Summer is actually sitting on my computer chair, on my pillow.  She jumped up there when she arrived and seemed to stay there for four days.  By Friday she was doing much better though and by Saturday night I knew she was definitely on the mend.  When I got Summer and Seth, they were too young to be away from their mother that's for sure.  At night, they used to balance themselves on my arm as I slept (I sleep on my side with a stuffed toy tucked under my arms for support).  Of course, they no longer way half a gram each and can get quite heavy these days!  Summer is lighter than Seth and I can sometimes tolerate her.  Anyway, Summer had done a whole lot of hiding under my bed when she came home from the hospital and I knew she was feeling safe again when she came out to sleep on my arm.  But she kept slipping off!  So she decided to sleep in my hair and when that didn't work, she decided that sleeping on my head would do!!  By this stage I was hoping she would recover quickly so that I could go back to locking her out of my room at night!

Stephen took this picture on Monday.  Molly, being a Lab, gets quite hot and doesn't often sleep on her bed.  We just thought it was so cute that Summer was brave enough to take up Molly's whole bed.  You can see just how tiny she is!  There is no sign of Seth here.  He can obviously smell death / illness / injury / hospital on Summer because he has been hissing at her and swiping out at her a lot.  He is scared though.  I often call to him as I see conflict about to happen and he will look to me and give an uncertain little meow.  I think it has been very confusing for him and in a way he is still pining for the sister that he thought he lost.  It's hard to make heads or tails of it because these little animals don't have human emotions, but they are definitely scared and confused at the moment.

We know it will all pass with time though.  We just need to be patient.

Summer update

Bas (an excellent expat blogger stationed in Turkey) asked what actually happened with Summer. My reply turned into an essay, so here goes:
When she was six months old, Summer rushed into a window and caught her leg in the security bars and she snapped the bone at the knee. Because she was such a baby, the vet warned us that the joint might fuse when she healed. Well, it did fuse. The knee cap fused to the top bone and never provided the bottom bone with any protection. Then, it seems as if the bottom and top bone fused together at the tip. (This all happened because her growth plates were still developing when she first broke her leg). What happened now is that we moved into a new house. Her brother is an incorrigible escape artist and daredevil and he did not take well to us trying to keep them inside the house (we wanted them to get used to the house). Anyway, Seth learned to escape via a very high up bathroom window and he also learned to re-enter the house via that window, jumping at least two metres from the window to the tiled bathroom floor. Summer copied him, of course, and they continued to use this route even after we opened up other safer routes for them to use. Judging from the way the bone seemed to have torn away from the joint, I would imagine Summer took the leap and put too much pressure on her fused joint. This is the video from the last time Summer was hurt. It was taken on 02 February 2007. If you listen carefully, you'll hear me cooing to her in the background trying to settle her. She had to wear that cast for 6 weeks!

She is very vocal by the way. She is extremely vocal and she is always communicating. I always tease that I will know when she is seriously hurt, because she'll be quiet. Well, she was quiet on Friday night. She is the cutest thing when you get home at night - she chats and chats for ages as you open the door and put down your things and get settled. I am quite sure she'll get through this and be just fine.

Summer and Seth are named after charaters in The O.C. I loved that show and I thought that Summer and Seth were the best love story ever in television.

Summer came out of surgery last night and was apparently jumped about the cattery within minutes of waking up. I know she must have been scared, terrified in fact; but the vet seemed to think this was a good sign. They will let her come home as soon as she is no longer dependent on pain relief.

At Home: Our new house and the dogs

We had a really awful weekend.  My little cat Summer broke her leg again and the break is so bad that we have had to amputate.  She is in surgery as we speak.  The thing is, I kept promising to take pictures of my pets and I almost lost my little angel this weekend.  So here are a couple of pictures from home:

This is Molly. She is a pure-bred Labrador.  I used to be an Avon group leader and Molly was given to me by one of my representatives as a thank you present. She is 5 years old in January and is a very intelligent dog.  She likes playing ball and having her ears scratched.

This is Josey.  She is a cross Boxer/Boerboel.  Stephen and I were inexperienced dog owners and decided that we would only buy pure-bred animals as they are more predictable.  Well, the snake who sold Josey to us advertised her as a pure-bred but the minute we saw her we knew that wasn't so.  Boerboel puppies look like little teddy bears and Josey looked like Bambi - she was all legs and she was painfully thin too.  There was no chance on this green earth that I was leaving this clearly abused and neglected puppy there.  So we took Josey home and had to teach her to love and trust.

That's my kitchen window and shed you can see there, by the way.

This picture is taken from my back steps.  You can see the park behind our house and just make out the white lines they have painted for the football matches.

That is the park again.  It is really lovely and was the one factor that made me feel more easy about leaving my beautiful lake behind.

This is the back of the house seen from the back of the garden.

That is the front of the house and to the right you can see my life savings gone down the drain Stephen's car.

And finally, he is hard to capture these days but here is Seth:

My little boy is really missing his sister.  He jumps at every sound and looks to see if it is her.  He is also trying to get love from anyone he can.  Poor baby.  But she's on her way home and i just know she'll get over this.