I am a person of, shall we say, alternative beliefs. I am also a person who sets a lot in store in books, being of the opinion that the gain of knowledge via books not only improves one but is essential for one’s wellbeing. Why is it then, that I find myself in the “Mind, Soul and Spirit” section of Waterstones looking with contempt at titles such as “How to Be A Real Witch”, “100 spells for every occasion”? I can’t help feeling that if you need to read a book about it, you’ve missed the point.

On the subject of books, I’m reading Stephen Fry’s The Liar at the moment which follows a Public School boy at Cambridge in the 1970′s. An unusual book – it’s written in Fry’s high brow style that should tax the brain and yet I’m already over a third of the way through it. The relevant point for this blog entry is one character’s opinions of books. He believes books are not to be worshiped or revered or collected. Words yes, books themselves, no. A 1st edition should have no more value than a 32nd edition – the words within them are what’s important. And I look at my bookcase full of the complete works of Terry Practchett, the Lord of the Ring and His Dark Materials trilogies, Hitchhikers, a large Star Trek collection plus one off copies of almost every book I have ever owned… and I wonder which I value – the knowledge or the binding? Luckily I have an excuse – the complete lack of a functional memory requires me to keep my books in order to reread them and relearn that which I already knew.

So I’m back home for mum’s birthday. Life’s good, barring someone who owe me money and is ignoring my texts. Compy is coming home (unfixed but at least uncharged). I’ve somehow been roped into an Open Day at the vets to give career’s advice tomorrow – should be fun. And 2nd Oct we have a craft fair (new enterprise of mine and my sister’s). All go at the moment!

Yus yus tis my b’day and it is being most chuff-worthy! For a quick rundown of the week’s events (for birthday’s last a week in this house), Saturday Dad took me and Ding to France for lunch (ahh the benefits of a private pilot Dad), Sunday G’ma took me, Mum, Dad, Ding and Nan for a meal at the Woodman – met a rather nice barman who looked like Oz from Buffy but was sadly about the same height. Nice bloke though – felt rather sorry for me as I made about 6 trips to the bar to order various foods and drinks from him throughout the evening (no table service). Yesterday AnM came round at PB to give me presents and introduce me to her new car, Ra-Ra… don’t ask. To top Monday off, The Patriot was on telly so I got to watch the gorgeous Jason Isaacs again. And today (technically Tuesday) my sister did a Real Rooms thing on me – binbag over my bedroom door and everything – she’d totally finished decorating and tidied my room for me! We had a Chinese Takeaway tonight too. And tomorrow H is coming down from Milton Keynes and we’re going out for lunch (me, H, L and K) as it’s H and L’s b’days this month too.

I got loads of cool presents, including lovely cards (must show you the “flying duck” from the frog – unbelievable!) and postal pressies too – am feeling a much loved ducky!

But now I am a tired little duck. And I must sleep.

Something about college starting fills me with dread – it’s not started yet and I’m already under-achieving and pissing myself off with my own procrastinating. A good start!

I’m about to start 12 weeks of college with my end of year exam at the end, so trying to do revision and write up my rat project at the same time as keeping up with the work, and also trying at the same time to have some vestige of a life, online and otherwise. My room isn’t finished here yet – though it is getting there. I have to go up to PB tomorrow and meet a new housemate at lunchtime and be there by 9.30 to meet a friend who wants her stuff back from my shed. So around 2-3 hours of sitting around in an empty house doing nothing. Gonna take my questions I should have written about 3 weeks ago and do them.

And I lent on a freshly painted PURPLE doorframe with a good t-shirt. And the sticky stars on my ceiling are gonna take ages to pick off. And my rooms a mess. And my laptop is half the country away. And I have to flush out the bunny’s abscess every day for the next 4 weeks. AND to top it all off my bread didn’t rise.

Yeah yeah, when life sucks, make lemon pie… :confused:

The REAL cruncher, the one thing that makes all of this so icky and stinky and so not fair, is the fact that on average my life is a hell of a lot better than a lot of people I know, and I should stop my whining and get on with it. Bloody guilt trips. They stink too.

Well that went surprisingly well and quickly… Even got greymatter to transfer over smoothly.

On a lower note – I got a call from technical support today. They’ve had lappy running for something like 72 hours and haven’t had it overheat :angry: They reminded me I’d have to pay a charge if they couldn’t find something wrong with it. I told them to look harder. I’m NOT having that thing come back to me in exactly the same condition I sent it out in AND paying a blinkin’ charge – not to mention the £20 postage and insurance I paid. They said I’d get a refund if I had to return it within the next 3 months – but that’s still another £20 for me. Not impressed. :plain:

No blog for a couple of days as I’m moving servers Wish me luck!

Bunny’s back She’s a bit dopey, very hungrey and has a 1cm sized hole in her puffy neck for the abscess to drain out of. It was entwined around her trachea and blood vessels so couldn’t be removed, so the vet opened it and emptied it, and “marsupialised” it (i.e. sutured the abscess wall to the skin to make a pouch that opens to the outside). I have to flush it daily which will be another bonding experience for me and the beast no doubt. It’s not a sure thing that it’ll resolve, but with the flushing, stong antibiotics and some potassium iodide to penetrate the abscess she’s got the best chance. She’s currently a puddle of fur in a cage which is nice – relaxed rabbit.

Me and Ding are off to AnM’s house to warm it tonight – indian takeaway for all! Yummy…

So I’ve had animals since I was 7, and I’ve worked at vets for the past 6 years. You’d think I’d be better about this stuff. Bunny’s having an op tomorrow for an abscess in her dewlap. I can’t stay as I panic if things go wrong. But if I leave I’m frantic with worry. As it is I’m worried sick, despite the fact I know my vet has hardly ever lost an animal under anaesthetic. …want bunny well…

My little lappy has gone back to the mothership After several days of fruitless conversations with technical support and one day where I was on hold for over 15 mins listening to the Corrs “Only when I sleep” non-stop (evil, evil fiends), I got through today to someone with a brain! No, really! After I finished reading him my 2 page list of what had gone wrong, he told me I’d need to send it back.

So lappy is returning to the nest. Posted him today (cost £20 :plain:) and he’ll be there before 1pm0 tomorrow. Mr Man at tech support claimed a 5 day maximum turnaround as long as they have the spare parts in stock, so in theory he should be back by Thursday. I actually found it very distressing having to pass my lappy through the parcel hatch. Which again is subtle encouragement for me to find a life.

Quite excited though – if it comes back all lovely and working I’m planning to learn more about partitioning, play with some new OSs, and learn to backup

Rabbit’s ill again. Can’t keep up with these animals. Boy cat is constantly on antibiotics for the infections he gets through fighting – I think he’s a bit of a junkie – this is his 4th lot this year. The neurotic one is on anti-depressants to stop her licking her fur off and on antibiotics to fight the infection she got from licking fur off, plus constant flea treatment as she’s allergic to fleas now. So she’s sitting on my sister’s bed talking to walls at the moment. George the guinea pig is still weak and fussy but plodding along. The rabbit now has a large lump under her chin and her 3rd eyelids are inflammed. Brain infection and gut stasis weren’t enough for one year. And my sisters mad guinea pig Marie is suspiciously snuffly. Considering I get a discount for being an ex-nurse and a current proto-vet, plus I tend to diagnose stuff myself, I don’t know how normal people get by. These animals have cost me hundreds since Summer started, and my mum’s been buying the food. *sigh* be nice if they’d stay healthy instead of developing some new rare illness that sends me traipsing back to the vets again. It’s embarassing! I was there on Monday with the two cats and now have to try and take rabbit in tomorrow!

I find it funny how after millennia of evolution, we can still be turned into gibbering wrecks if the lights go out. Last night I was lying in bed reading a Terry Pratchett book “The Wee Free Men” – I was putting off going to sleep as it’s a rather scary book (if you’re me), and I wanted to reach a point in the book that wasn’t so scary. So here we are in the book, where nightmares are coming true and nothing can be depended upon, and boom – power cut. I lay there pleading for the lights to come back on, made a very mad (and brave) scrabble for my mobile under the bed (the little green light of sanctuary – didn’t find it) and then called to my Dad to open the door. This didn’t make it any lighter but it’s easy to wander about in the dark when other people are doing it as well. So one lighter and a trusty tealight later and I’m back in bed. I made sure the lighter, mobile and candle were all very close to hand and got a small iron weight to keep away the faeries with (don’t ask). Even then I was awake and alert for another half hour. And there is no logical reason for any of it. None!