Author's Note

Hopelessly, I'm taking a mental picture of you now, 'cause hopelessly the hope is that we have so much to feel good about.
- One Republic

P.S. Please feed the fish :)

Saturday 30 July 2011

Alright, what's 'appertaining?

Enjoying a recent walk in the Memorial Park
Actually quite a lot has been ''appertaining' since I last blogged. Mostly involving one small, old, unwell canine companion by the name of Jake. In case you are unfamiliar with this handsome creature, he can be viewed in picture form over there ->

With such a gorgeous little face, you can imagine the worry when our little guy started being sick a lot and we noticed his stomach was swollen. The vet told us they would need to do X-rays and blood tests so we took him in last Monday. We got a phone call in the afternoon saying they'd found a lump (never good) and when we went in to discuss in more details they told us they'd never seen anything like it - it was tennis ball sized and had a crust round it but didn't seem to be attached to the neighbouring organs i.e. his liver/spleen. So basically the ideal option would be to operate on him the next day and remove it, however, he is 13 years old and has a heart murmur :/ They also said that if they found it was a malignant tumour they wouldn't wake him up but then the non-operative route would give him only a few months left to live ... :'(
We decided to go ahead with the op. He was in a recovery cage at the vets but we didn't want to get him excited by seeing him that evening so went home ... not really knowing if we'd ever see him again.
I have to say it was horrible, the atmosphere in our house was so depressing. I mean when Molly died, there was still Jake for company but without him it was just so quiet :/ 
Thankfully, we weren't left to ponder the possibilities too long as we got a phone call about 2pm Tuesday saying everything had gone well and we could get him Weds morning - YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY :D Until Wednesday morning came and the vet phoned saying he'd been sick so they were putting him on a drip and could we wait another day? AAAH! Anyway, finally at 2pm Thursday we were told we could collect him at 5:30pm that evening :)
Looking completely unphased by the entire proceedings
He was SO happy and excited when he saw us - I expected him to have one of those collars on to stop him chewing his stitches but instead he just had a cute little red bandage on his front arm where his drip had been. Awwwww!

Now that he is all fit and well again I have come up with some new nicknames for him including Sausage, Lumpy and my personal favourite Lord Voldejake.

We're taking it in turns being on "Jake Duty". He's not supposed to go upstairs or jump on chairs so we've had to barricade the sofa and one of us has had to sleep downstairs on my mattress. I took the first shift Thursday night - he didn't settle 'til about 2am, deciding going on a 15minute trek in our garden and licking my feet were both preferable to sleeping. Again, at half 3 I got a lick on the nose because he wanted to go outside. Stupid dog. I say this fondly. I think. 

Fortunately I've escaped duties last night and tonight as I have to be up early to cycle the 12mile round trip to work. I say "have to", I choose to because I feel very lazy lounging about on my arse all day plus I really want to lose weight (don't I always). I don't know whether it's this cycling that's caused it but I've injured everything: I think I've pulled muscles in my neck because it hurts to turn my head and when I take a deep breath, my ribs are bruised and my left shoulder hurts whenever I move it :( Won't stop me, up at 7:30am tomorrow to do it again! Determination!

Last exciting thing that's happened is probably Wednesday night we had a rather lovely reunion with Kathy Foote :)

Nathan, Em, Kathy, me, James & Hannah :)
Can't wait for reunion.2 - clubbing on the 16th August and meal and Harry Potter times on the 17th! :D


That's about it ... I was going to keeping blogging to pass the time until I found out whether Ellie (greyhound) won her race and me money but William Hill are being VERY slow - the race was at 21:53, they should know who won by now? Turbo's already won me £1.13 tonight - the bet cost me £1, I made 13p profit, I'm a rich girl.

Oh also I tried a mushroom tonight. I hate mushrooms but figure I'm nearly 21 now, I should probably stop refusing to eat foods on the basis of them looking weird.

That's all for now :)
Cock
xxx

ps. HITLER KITTY!


Monday 25 July 2011

Molly's Ghost?

Ok so this is going to sound completely whacky and to be honest is probably one of those things that you should keep to yourself because otherwise you'll sound mad. Which I expect I will, but nevertheless I feel the need to blog it.
So, Molly died January 27th 2010, and since then there's been a few things that I've thought were weird but I've kept my mouth shut and presumed were nothing (and they probably are) but now my Mum's said she's noticed it too so I feel much less insane.

The kinda things that happen are I see something white move out of the corner of my eye and obviously we've still got Jakey running around so it could easily be him but I remember being in my bedroom once with my back to the door and I heard the patter of paws and the collar jingling and actually said "Hey Jake!" expecting him to be at my door ... he wasn't there. He wasn't even upstairs. Similar things have happened but I've put it down to imagination and wishful thinking 'cause I love the idea that Doos is still tootling around the house with us.

Anyway, today it got weirder because I heard the noise of collar jingling by the patio doors and a load of pigeons flew off :/ Can't have been Jake as he is at the vets all day. So then I mentioned to Mum how weird it is there not being a dog in the house and that I keep thinking I can hear things. And she goes "Well it's funny you should say that ..." and basically she had thrown something in the bin in her bedroom and she'd heard the same thing - a collar jingle, really clearly apparently. Mum actually shook the bin to see if there was something in it that could've made that noise but there wasn't.

I expect it's just our imagination but the fact it's not just me makes me feel better and personally I rather like the idea that we have a little Molly ghost in the house :)

There's my mad ramblings done for the day. Bye!
Cock
xxx

Sunday 24 July 2011

There's always something to look forward to

To those who think students are poor and can't afford stuff (i.e. me) - read this and weep :P
 

6th August
Helen & Myke's wedding. Getting paid £25 for the first few hours and then staying on to boogie on down. I have not been to a wedding since I was 11 (aww) so nearly 10 years :D





 

1st September
Back to Plymouth - moving into new house - GFF224 North Road West with some awesome peoples ready to tackle our final year of Uni. How mad is that?!





 
9th October
My 21st. Planning on having a weekend of chaos. A twenty-onesie party - yes, you heard. Turn up in onesies or nothing. That is your choice :P







14th/15th December
Off on an adventure to London with Kristina, Handcuffs and Boobies to see 100 Monkeys, party in London and stay in a suite in the Islington Hilton Hotel!!!







20th January
Going to see the fantabulous Alfie Boe at the Pavilions with Miss Garry. Oh and did I mention we have front row seats? Well we do. Mmmmm. Beard.






May-June 2012
Unbelievably less than a year to go until we finish uni and fingers crossed I am able to go to Africa for 4 weeks and work on a lion and tiger conservation programme near Port Elizabeth :D




17th August 2012
And the cherry on this already pretty layered cake of awesomeness, myself, Handcuffs and Boobes are off to see the legendary Michael McIntyre at the Pavilions :D After sitting with 3 laptops in front of me for nearly 2 and a half hours trying to get through to get tickets, we finally have 3 ... at the back. BUT IT'S MICHAEL FRIGGIN' MCINTYRE SO WOOOOOOOP!



Not a bad line-up aye? 


But until this awesomeness commences, I have a dissertation project to research so I must away and get some sleep. 
Night all,
Cock
xxx


ps epic unrelated video that I stumbled across a few mins ago. Captain Jack <3 The Doctor!!!

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Facebook lessons/Alan Rickman fest

I am definitely not about to download the Harry Potter soundtrack right now. Nope. Certainly not.

OMG THEY ACTUALLY HAVE THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART II AVAILABLE ALREADY! *eeeeee's with excitement*

Ahem. Nothing to see here.

Welling up just listening to them. 

Seriously Lisa, MAN THE F*CK UP!

Let's draw a line under that little fan girl moment...

Sunday 17 July 2011

Harry Potter - the Final Chapter ***SPOILERS***

Ok, so I can't contain my love and whatsit for this spectacular film any longer as I think I might explode therefore I am going to proclaim my love in blog form in the hope that focusing on it will distract me from the atrocious '60s music videos my parents are watching (the songs aren't bad but the '60s TOTP sound quality is hideous ... and some of the moustaches and hair-dos are gonna haunt me forever).

Back to the Harry Potter - I remember seeing the Philosopher's Stone book for the first time when I was 9 years old - my year 4 teacher was giving us a (very misguiding) speech about not judging a book by it's cover and holding up the book she said, and I quote "Now this book has got a great front cover - very bright, original picture but you look inside ... " *flicks through pages* "... and there's no pictures!" *throws book aside* .... Needless to say this teacher has since been sacked, possibly for blasphemy against the world of Potter. So ignoring my idiot teacher, I tootled off and read the first and second books within months and was pretty much hooked from then on. I think the fact that I grew up at the same time as the characters really helped: I am one of the "Harry Potter Generation" who went to watch the films because I'd read the books and I reckon this adds to the experience and enjoyment - books never seem as good after you've seen the film.

So, I am hugely grateful to whatever force gave me the urge to spontaneously ask Cathy on Thursday morning if she wanted to see the 12:01am showing of Harry Potter and I have to say, it was completely worth it - even if just to see loads of other people dressed as various HP characters, why didn't I think of that?

Anyway! It started off brilliantly; thought it a bit slow but within minutes it got going and the action pretty much continued for the next 2.5hours. Also, I had completely forgotten about the whole breaking into Gringotts fandango and the dragon and multiplying gold so that was cool.

As far as I remember pretty much everything was accurate to the book ... although I'm sure there were more Horcruxes - there should be 7: snake, ring, diary, cup, diadem, locket and .. something else and then Harry was an accident? Will have to re-read the book.
Right ...


*UBER SPOILERS NOW - STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS*



So yeh, I had anticipated that I may shed a tear but I have to say ... I cried a lot. It was past the point of being able to use the back of my hand to wipe the odd tear away and verging on needing tissues. Snape started me off when he cried his tiny man tears - I think I am a little bit in love with him ... well Alan Rickman as him anyway - why Lily turned him down I shall never know. Once you know he's good, it makes you see him in a completely different way in the rest of the films. RIP Snape :(

This is now my desktop background
So after this initial tearful incident I just about managed to compose myself before everyone returned to the Great Hall and we see all the dead - complete breakdown on my part. Especially at Lupin - I remember my stomach dropping when I read that he died. The third book and film are my favourite of the series and Lupin has to be my favourite character - little bit annoyed that they more-or-less skipped the storyline of his and Tonks' relationship.

I think the ending was made more emotional by the the fact that, despite all the fighting and death and crap, they had more jokes and snappy one-liners than in the rest of the film ... and there are some punch the air moments i.e. when Molly Weasley kills Bellatrix Lestrange it is just awesome :P

I have just realised I sound like I know these people personally, but after 7 books and 8 films that's kinda how it feels!

I really cannot rate this film high enough - I wanted to see it again as soon as I'd left the cinema (at half 2 in the morning). Thankfully I'm going again Monday with the family which means I can then actually talk about it to my parents because at the moment I'm having to keep schtum!

Wow. This was a pretty long blog. Sorry. Night all!
Cock
xxx


p.s. after a slightly er ... unexpected dream involving Daniel Radcliffe/Harry Potter I think I might have developed a tiny crush. I'm sure it'll pass ... but in this picture, would you honestly say no? (maybe ignore the dress comment on the left)

Friday 15 July 2011

5 reasons why my risk assessment should go burn in Hell

I was going to do a happy light-hearted blog on the new Harry Potter which I saw at 12:01am this morning but instead I was shouted at to go and do my risk assessment forms for my dissertation, which apparently need to be completed and handed in before I start my research. I now feel compelled to write this list, although first I should perhaps briefly explain what I am doing for my dissertation:
Basically, I am observing racing greyhounds. On the morning before they race I spend 10minutes watching each one and record their behaviour. I also go into each one's kennel to see how they react to me. I repeat this process the morning after they race and compare the difference to see how, if at all, racing affects their behaviour. That's about it, hardly dangerous which means writing a risk assessment is a proverbial pain in the bottom. The fact that our university is less organised than a drunk snail is also massively unhelpful. So here we go ...

Reason 1
I can only do my observations on the nights my greyhounds race i.e. Tuesday, Friday and Saturday and that is not always guaranteed so I had to start my research early in June if I wanted to get enough done before September. Along with most other people, I was completely oblivious to the fact that any forms needed filling out beforehand let-alone that if you didn't you automatically fail the module because clearly that isn't something you need to know.

Reason 2
These risk assessments need to be signed by our dissertation advisor and handed into an office at uni for assessment and approval. Obviously it is too much effort for them to email us during term time so instead they are emailed to us on the 16th June, when our exams finished almost a month beforehand and everyone has gone home for Summer so would need to make a special trip back to Plymouth to hand them in.

Reason 3
I have to record any environmental hazard. The form asks "Are environmental hazards associated with the proposed activities?" and gives examples such as glaciers, crevasses, electric fences, tides, quicksand and mountains. I am not expecting to find any such things in someone's back yard. Nor am I likely to be susceptible to exposure (to what, a naked man?), sunburn or hypothermia as I am working indoors and it's Summer therefore I go to tick "No". Apparently this isn't an option: according to the form "this is always the case" and I must tick the Yes box therefore I am left with no choice but to be at risk of falling off an imaginary cliff or get exploded by imaginary mines. In the end the only thing I could think of was getting bitten by a dog.

Reason 4
My solution to the environmental issue was ruined upon noticing the next point - "Biological hazards are usually present (..., ..., aggressive animals, ..., ...) Oh. So I can't put dog bite as environmental. To be honest I don't need to put it at all - the dogs are not going to bite me. I've worked with all of them before and they're so docile and I've never even been growled at. The only dog related dangers are being knocked over by Rocky when he hugs me or having my leg humped by BB.

Reason 5
There are 20 forms worth of this shit.


Rant over.
Cock
xxx


Monday 11 July 2011

We're talking holidays ...

Back. Tanned. Bored already. Hello blogging.

So, Portugal was good. I made some new friends including a dog who I played fetch with and a small child at Faro airport who played "Peeka-boo" over the seats at myself, Kieran and Catharine.

But the most important event of the holiday I think was the addition of 'Soddball' to the family. I feel I should perhaps mention first that we are all mad, keep this in mind throughout reading the upcoming story.

It all began with a blue and black beach ball, who was purchased in Majorca over 20 years ago. Over the last 17 years of holidays and many puncture patches later this ball became misshapen, verging on triangular and was therefore dubbed "Oddball" (I think naming this ball was our first rookie error as it has since led to full on conversations with inflatables). Anyway, sadly Oddball disappeared sometime before our Majorca holiday in 2009 and is now officially "missing presumed dead". Therefore he has been replaced ... although really no-one/ball can every replace Oddball so we have the next best thing which is his son - Soddball (Son of Oddball = Soddball ... logical right?). He's a bit young though and he kept misbehaving. Many times he got biffed out the swimming pool and we had to spend a good 5minutes calling him back in to the pool again (seriously). I think there were genuine tears shed at the end of the holiday when we had to deflate him. Ah well, here's a nice family photo of us and Soddball in action.
Soddball is the ball in the middle :P

Besides talking to an inflatable ball, we found another new form of entertainment which was watching the two lizards, Leonard and Lucas (yes we name everything) catch and eat various moths and crickets circling the outside lights. We would all sit there after our dinners yelling "NO YOU STUPID MOTH!" and "HE'S BEHIND YOU!" and "GO ON, BITE HIS HEAD OFF!". The lizards really were impressively fast - not many bugs escaped once they set their eyes on them.

Lots of other things happened including my Dad smacking his face on a waterslide and needing a short portugese Professor Sprout look-a-like nurse to put 3 stitches above his eyebrow. Observe:

There were some fantastic quotes as well, mostly from Keith:
"I feel a big one coming on"
"That is a big moth .. I mean, we're talking moths!"
And also some standard classics from the brother Simon:
"IDIOT!" (at my Dad, forget why)
"That's a nice breast" (chicken)

... and finally one by Kieran that made Maureen spray drink everywhere:
"Doo doo doodle oo doo doo do.. BASTARD!"

Anyway, despite all this happy times, it is very nice to be home - got to sleep in a bed last night that didn't creak like hell and without gale force winds blowing sun beds onto my window - not sure I had one decent nights sleep while there. It's weird how back home I don't even notice El Dogface jumping on and off my bed but if a bed creaks it wakes me up :/

Speaking of dogface, Jake has returned home safe and sound and much skinnier - good job we fattened him up before hand, maybe I should go stay in a kennels for a bit. And of course the rats returned all happy as well :)

I'm sure there were other things to say but I've forgotten ... OH, I think I'm just a little bit over-excited for the release of Haz Paz and the Daz Haz Part 2 on Friday as I had about 5 dreams involving Haz Paz whilst on holiday. Including one where Voldemort was after me so I hid under some stairs but then I couldn't remember any spells apart from "Expelliarmus" and "Stupify" so I had to look them up on the internet and found "Petrificus totalus" so I used that. Exciting though it was I am concerned that my subconscious actually managed to remember proper Harry Potter spells ... :/

Anyway it's late-ish and the rats need attention so for now, laters :)
Cock
xxx