Yoko - Day One

So far I have surmised that kittens like:

small spaces and little corridors

being petted

boingy mice on scratching posts

hiding in their carry cages

exploring, but only when people are around

and don't like:

food

water

loud noises

sudden movements (except for boingy mouse movements)

not being able to see people

and are generally confused by:

bicycles

Let's see how this pans out :)

p.s. I wasn't quick enough with the camera to capture her browsing my CD collection, but I do think her choice of James' Dick Francis novels may come back to haunt her when she is older...

I'm not fluffy, I'm a killing machine

Kitten Love

turning the corner

I *think* I am starting to feel a bit better. I can actually swallow without wanting to cry now, which has to be something. And I managed to get outraged at a news story Riccardo sent me, which requires my brain to be at least part-operational. As long as I'm better enough to finish this chapter tomorrow, because I think we all know that as soon as Sunday arrives and there is a kitten, it will be very difficult to do anything! Excited!

more of the same

Still got plague. Worse today than yesterday, so given that it was the third day where absolutely *nothing* was working - not even stuff I had from last time I had tonsilitis - and I felt like crap I managed to drag myself to the doctors for some heavy duty antibiotics. Fingers crossed I will start to feel better tomorrow. I'm really so very over it. And I know this may sound strange, but I actually WANT to get back to work. It was actually going ok before this and I was about to submit a chapter. Now I'm stalled in a very annoying way. Sigh. Still, nothing I can do but wait it out, and at least I guess it means I'm resting the bloody hip injury! God, I must be getting old. I have AILMENTS. Plural.

Was going to watch 'For The Bible Tells Me So' tonight, but just couldn't face it. Had delicious cottage pie (Gordon Ramsay recipe, cooked by Alice) tonight, and I actually managed to eat about half a bowl of it, which is as much as I've had of anything really. Got some Ben and Jerry's sorbet too. Mmm...

By the way, if you haven't been to see Mike Leigh's new film 'Happy-Go-Lucky' yet, you really must. It's fantastic. I was skeptical that the man was capable of making a happy movie - especially as he claims that some of his others are happy (I've seen most of them: he and I obviously differ in our definitions of 'happy'), but he definitely pulls it off. Sally Hawkins is brilliant, as is Eddie Marsan (who I think lives round the corner from me, as I often see him in Chiswick eateries). See it, and feel like a better person :)

Bad News #1

Physio says no tennis for at least a month, and not much of anything for at least a week-10 days

Bad news #2

Not a cold but tonsilitis. Fever and razory throat, not so lovely

Good news #1

Four days to kitten!

sick AND injured? seriously?

As if the annoyance of getting a hip injury which meant we lost a semi final of a tournament we probably would have won was not enough, today I wake up with a sore throat, blocked nose, stiff neck and general feelings of clammy, heavy badness. Sigh. Plus I'm trying to finish this chapter, and it is NOT making it easier. I just sat for ten minutes trying to remember the word 'eponymous'.

On the plus side, we are 'kitten minus five days' :)

New kitten (hopefully!)

This is a picture of our potential new kitten! She's 13 weeks old and ready to leave the nest (that can't be the right word) on Sunday. She's a blue colourpointed ragdoll all the way from Wales.

Comment immediately and rate kitteny cuteness :)

Endnote Rage

Ok, I've already ranted about this on Facebook, as well as to at least three people in person, but it seems I'm still not done.

WHY WHY WHY would people use endnotes?

When you read a book, and someone makes a point, and puts a little number next to it, that means there's further information about that point, or a slightly tangential/amusing opinion, or simply the source of the point. Which more often than not, you want to read. So you glance to the bottom of the page, where you find your (hopefully Terry Pratchett-esque) footnote, your curiosity is sated and you move on. But no! For there are those in the world who do not believe life should be this easy, so they put their thinking caps on:

(ACT ONE: SOMEWHERE IN THE BOWELS OF HELL)

'Hey, you know those great footnotes you get in books?'

- 'Yeah?'

'Haven't you ever wished they were more... I don't know... annoying? Harder to find? Time consuming?'

- 'Totally! Someone should totally come up with that!'

'Well. I think I have an idea. Why not put them all in the back of the book?'

- 'So you have to skip to the back every single time you want to read them? And then back again?'

'Yes! Sometimes even twice with ONE WORD!'

- 'It's genius, frankly'

(SCENE)

The book currently causing my rage is, 'Rape: A History From 1860 To The Present' by Joanna Bourke. Now, as you might guess from the title, this is not light reading, so you might think the author/publisher might want to take it a little easy on the reader. But no. The book is nearly 600 pages long, and includes almost 100 PAGES OF ENDNOTES. Any bored mathmos out there who want to calculate how much of my life I am going to waste flipping backwards and forwards, please be my guest.

Ok, I feel better. But it may not be because I'm ranting. It may just be because all the time I've been writing, I have not been holding the book. Back to it...

Grr

Work hasn't gone particularly well today (annoying, as I thought I was on a bit of a roll). Still, I finished the Nick Hornby book I started last night, 'Slam'. It's aimed at teenagers, but is a pretty good read for anyone, I think. I've got tons of novels I want to read, and think I am going to start reading again, instead of feeling guilty because I'm not reading academic books.

The two books next on my list: 'South Of The River' by Blake Morrison, and 'A Complicated Kindness' by Miriam Toews. Gifts from Zoe and Louse respectively :)

And I really DO want a ragdoll kitten.

I want a cat

like this one...

Bjork

Great show. Sad that there was only ONE song (Anchor Song) from my two favourite albums combined (Vespertine and Debut), but there's no doubt that it was a great show. And if you can throw glitter everywhere, why wouldn't you?! Highlights for me were 'Dull Flame Of Desire', which was a duet with Antony from Antony and the Johnsons, 'Who Is It', 'Declare Independence' and, obvs, 'Anchor Song'.

The merch was sadly uninspired though. Now if she'd been selling hats like the one she was wearing...

blah blah blah

Well, on the plus side, the reason I haven't blogged much is because I have actually been getting a reasonable amount of work done. Some days I even believe that I'm going to get a PhD at the end of this. 

Ten things I have done in the last month that prove I am now a grown-up

1. Filed all my bank statements and financial papers in one place

2. Written about 10,000 words of my PhD

3. Got engaged

4. Opened a joint bank account for bills and food

5. Refused to attend several gigs on the grounds that they are too far away (Brixton, instead of west London for example) or that they are standing gigs. I need to sit down and have a good view, dammit!

6. Not bitten my nails (this is mainly related to point 3 as people keep looking at my hands)

7. Cleared my desk ENTIRELY of extraneous material

8. Read (and understood) business section news about the credit crunch

9. Remembered to keep my fold-out alternative to a plastic bag in my bag when I go shopping

10. Baked pies, puddings and other things

Ten things that might throw doubt on my adult status:

1. Used animal shaped cookie cutters to turn grown up pie into 'Polar Bear Pie' etc.

2. Continued to buy 'Heat' every week and read it cover to cover

3. Had to reapply nail polish every day as keep picking it off as an alternative to biting nails

4. Bought more Kipling bags on Ebay because they are so great and the monkeys are cute

5. Played too much Scrabulous when could have been writing more PhD

6. Have been hiding engagement because questions about weddings are too grown-up and more unanswerable than questions about PhD. Chairbacks? Seriously?

7. Went to see '21' and '27 Dresses' and enjoyed '27 Dresses' more

8. Currently wearing hair in bunches

9. Wardrobe contains at least 20 hoodies

10. Had to make list about whether adult or not 

Now I've read everything

As if we needed more proof that the BNP are fucking morons, here's one of them suggesting that rape is like CAKE. 

I hope this goes round the internet like wildfire because they really do need to have their shameful views brought into the light where everyone can see them for the codswallop they are.

procrastination of the highest order

Stolen from Rachel: a Herculean task

Real update soon...

Shining

This is awesome! A trailer for 'The Shining' re-imagined as a romantic comedy: