Six Random Things

I've been tagged by Kevin Musgrove with the six random things meme so here goes:

1. I met Terry Pratchett when he was still becoming famous. Tickets to hear him speak were £2.50 at the local library and I got him to sign two books for me.
2. I've lived in France for two years. I used to dream in French but not any more.
3. I mostly don't drink caffeine or alcohol but I'm not a Mormon. They just don't agree with me.
4. I regularly wander round with a book under one arm like a security blanket and then put it down and forget where I put it and my family hears the plaintive cries of "Where's my book?" They're very sweet and instead of saying: "Oh no, not again!" they say: "What does it look like?"
5. I don't like wearing socks and shoes. I definitely don't like wearing socks without shoes as Rufus attacks them. Ouch!

I can't believe that anyone is interested in any of this but never mind. I'm tagging Freddie, Robin, Whirlochre, Kiersten, writtenwyrd and Vlad Dolezal but only if you want to be tagged.

Tag rules: Link to the person who tagged you. Post the rules on your blog. Write 6 random things about yourself. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them. Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted...

Rufus plays fetch

One of Rufus's favourite toys is a ball of screwed up paper. He likes us to throw it for him to chase and then he brings it back for us to throw again. I thought it was only dogs that did that.



The kittens were starting to go out through their two little cat flaps: into the garage from the kitchen and then out into the garden. We tend to keep them in at night but the vet said they are in no greater danger at night than in the daytime. It's worrying letting them out at any time of day but they love it.



This last week they've had to stay in as we've had them neutered. I'm not willing to live with a male cat marking his territory and fighting or a female cat in heat and calling. I feel so heartless doing that to my poor babies though.

Writing prompt

Artist Kenneth Tin-Kin

Dennis Cass has this picture as a writing prompt on his blog. You can see a larger version of it there too.

It reminds me of album covers when I was a kid and the 60s and hippies. I always feel I missed out: I was 6 in 1960, just a bit too small to be part of the scene. I remember England winning the football World Cup and the first men walking on the moon. I was in my early teens when we had "Flower Power" which for me meant sticking stylised flower pictures all over my school briefcase.

I shall stop this self-indulgent foray into the past now or we'll be here all night. I wonder what the picture makes you think of.

Banned Books Week 2008

I've just found out it's Banned Books Week.

I don't much like censorship. I don't like other people telling me what is or isn't fit for me to read. I only have to hear that a book is banned to want to read it.

I remember reading Lady Chatterley's Lover when I was a teenager. Well, when I say I read it, I mean that I skipped through it looking for naughty bits. I suspect it would seem much tamer to me if I reread it now.

Why I've been quiet lately

I'm tired and ill and have been for a while and it only gets worse. I've had no joy from the National Health Service (NHS) so I finally found a private doctor, Dr. Peatfield, who has diagnosed thyroid disorder.

Technically Dr. Peatfield is working as a nutritionist because if you treat thyroid disorders in the UK you have to work within General Medical Council guidelines and basically they are wrong. If I lived in the US I would have been on thyroid medication since October.

Anyway, I'm much slowed up in body and mind. I'm hoping that with treatment I'll start to feel better over the coming weeks and months and be able to post and comment a bit more. I might even get back to writing. Now, should I do NaNoWriMo this year or get on with the science fiction novel I've started?

Random post widget

I've just been over to Quirky Jessi and found this great little widget from Inkweaver Review that offers visitors a random post from the archives every time they refresh the page. You can see it at the top of the page. I just thought you might like it.

Why I didn't write this weekend

Boating at Oxford

I was at a wedding in Oxford this weekend, my fourth this year.

It was a special wedding for a special friend and I met some interesting people and learnt about the English quarter pipes which are played using a bellows rather than by blowing into them. I'd love to learn to play but I'd probably be better off learning the clarinet and I would never be much good, starting at my age.

There's no charge for dreaming though.

Typing

Freddie commented on her blog:

I'll bet it's especially difficult using Dvorak after a break.

Well, it is and it isn't. I hadn't really got the hang of Dvorak anyway but now I've completely lost all my ability with QWERTY so I'm stuck with it. I can type fairly accurately if I keep my eyes closed but that's not really practical so I'm using the backspace key a lot.

I think I'll get the hang of it eventually but I did think I'd be able to go back at any time. Now I know it's not that simple. I wonder if this was a really bad idea.

Home again

From this:

To this:



I've gone from temperatures of 30C to 20C. It's cold and I'm tired.

Nice to see the cats again though.

A Weekend of Riotous Pleasure

A Country Affair - picture from official website

A Country Affair - what it really looked like

Near Pyrford Lock on the Wey canal

Over the weekend I got the spare room ready for family to stay, went into London and saw The Lion King, walked for an hour near Pyrford Lock and went to Hampton Court for A Country Affair. It might not sound like much but I have a suspected thyroid problem*, so it's left me knackered.

We go off to Italy on Saturday so I need to get my act together. Needless to say, I'm not getting any writing done. Mind you, it doesn't help that I chose now to learn Dvorak and I'm currently incompetent in both QWERTY which I'm forgetting and Dvorak which I've not quite picked up yet. Silly me.

*When I say "a suspected thyroid problem" I mean that I suspect it. In the UK the doctors will only diagnose a thyroid problem if your blood results are outside a reference range that's more restrictive than the ones used in the US and the rest of Europe. But that's a whole other story.