Both Pirata and Wilbur appeared to have a funny five minutes yesterday. Admittedly, it's not that unusual for Pirata to play a special cat and mouse game with a mouse that only he can see, however yesterday he was quite insistent and it transpired he was catching a fly.
I also noticed Wilbur acting strangely. He was holding his head up and his eyes appeared to be rolling. I was a little concerned - until I noticed that he's heard a fly and was following it. Pirata can catch flies, but Wilbur was just happy to 'watch' it.
Interestingly we heard night insects for the first time this year last night so Wilbs and Pirata were our advanced warning. It was nice to hear the chirping of night insects again.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Slug Slurping
Rosie has amassed quite an array of unpleasant habits. However she has plunged new depths with her current unpleasentness - slug slurping. When she is out walking she hoovers up slugs as she walks. She doesn't miss a step, simply slurping up the slugs as she passes them. She is very good at this and slugs must taste pretty good as she even bypasses sheep droppings in favour of slugs.
However, this is not the end of the unpleasantness. She then waits until we come back into the village and then vomits up her slug collection, leaving a stream of slime coming from her mouth, making her look like something not from this world and slightly zombie like, resulting in old ladies staring and obviously thinking about running away and crossing themselves. This makes my feel quite poorly simply writing about it, so you can imagine the full horrors of the reality.
This is the only good thing about her drinking technique of sticking her whole head into the water bowl - at least this washes the slug deposit away.
I've just finished a marathon weekend of making digital papers and box templates for my new website. I set myself a goal of making 500 on Saturday. In the end I got 300 done, which wasn't too bad. I was over optimistic with the 500, I think when I was setting my goals I may have forgot about sleeping! I did 120 boxes. I felt a bit cross-eyed at the end, but hopefully at the end of the month I will have launched the website so it will be worth it!
Manuel didn't work last week. He was rained off on Monday and was umming and ahing about the rest of the week. As Ian was away for a few days it was by far my preference for them not to be here, so when I said that I'd be happy for them not to work, they agreed to start again today. It certainly made life a lot easier. The only downside is that the weather was glorious last week so they would have been able to make up for the time lost when it rained earlier in the month.
Plans for this week include looking for door knobs for our kitchen cupboard doors.
However, this is not the end of the unpleasantness. She then waits until we come back into the village and then vomits up her slug collection, leaving a stream of slime coming from her mouth, making her look like something not from this world and slightly zombie like, resulting in old ladies staring and obviously thinking about running away and crossing themselves. This makes my feel quite poorly simply writing about it, so you can imagine the full horrors of the reality.
This is the only good thing about her drinking technique of sticking her whole head into the water bowl - at least this washes the slug deposit away.
I've just finished a marathon weekend of making digital papers and box templates for my new website. I set myself a goal of making 500 on Saturday. In the end I got 300 done, which wasn't too bad. I was over optimistic with the 500, I think when I was setting my goals I may have forgot about sleeping! I did 120 boxes. I felt a bit cross-eyed at the end, but hopefully at the end of the month I will have launched the website so it will be worth it!
Manuel didn't work last week. He was rained off on Monday and was umming and ahing about the rest of the week. As Ian was away for a few days it was by far my preference for them not to be here, so when I said that I'd be happy for them not to work, they agreed to start again today. It certainly made life a lot easier. The only downside is that the weather was glorious last week so they would have been able to make up for the time lost when it rained earlier in the month.
Plans for this week include looking for door knobs for our kitchen cupboard doors.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Rainy Days
Well, since the start of March the weather has turned miserable. Shame as this has curtailed our asparagus picking. I realise we are fair weather asparagus pickers.
Last week was Carnival, and there was a super-fiesta on Sunday where Carnival and the sardine feast got rolled into one on Sunday. As it started before our bedtime we decided to go, and had a good time. My class one a prize for their costumes. They went as poker cards - basically wearing cardboard boxes with the card symbols drawn on them. There were some good costumes, with one lady dressed as a tea table. Both Ian and I were taken for a pasadoble around the dance floor with the village elders. Ian had to apologise for standing on his partners toes.
This has been a busy week. I've cancelled my English classes for four weeks as I have too much on. I had some more writing and I've been working hard trying to get my new website ready. I've set myself a four week deadline. I've also had an enquiry about another writing assignment. We've recently bought me a new computer - a refurbished Apple Macintosh - so it's handy getting these extra assignments to pay for that. When I said 'we' bought it - actually Ian did as, by happy coincidence, my bank card stopped working!
The patio is looking great, although Manuel has slowed a bit because of the weather. Also, his girlfriend is in Tokyo, which has been a worry for him. Poor Pirata and Wilbur are finding it difficult as new obsticles keep appearing. It is easy to forget that they are blind, however even a simple change like a pile of rubble can alter their perspective - poor Wilbs got 'stuck' when a row of bricks appeared, even though it was only about 6 inches high he didn't know he could get over it. Pirata has gone back to doing his funny walk, where he pulls his paws up really high. This is how he 'feels' his way around when he's unsure of what's around him. However hopefully soon he'll have a nice flat patio which he can walk around safely.
Last week was Carnival, and there was a super-fiesta on Sunday where Carnival and the sardine feast got rolled into one on Sunday. As it started before our bedtime we decided to go, and had a good time. My class one a prize for their costumes. They went as poker cards - basically wearing cardboard boxes with the card symbols drawn on them. There were some good costumes, with one lady dressed as a tea table. Both Ian and I were taken for a pasadoble around the dance floor with the village elders. Ian had to apologise for standing on his partners toes.
This has been a busy week. I've cancelled my English classes for four weeks as I have too much on. I had some more writing and I've been working hard trying to get my new website ready. I've set myself a four week deadline. I've also had an enquiry about another writing assignment. We've recently bought me a new computer - a refurbished Apple Macintosh - so it's handy getting these extra assignments to pay for that. When I said 'we' bought it - actually Ian did as, by happy coincidence, my bank card stopped working!
The patio is looking great, although Manuel has slowed a bit because of the weather. Also, his girlfriend is in Tokyo, which has been a worry for him. Poor Pirata and Wilbur are finding it difficult as new obsticles keep appearing. It is easy to forget that they are blind, however even a simple change like a pile of rubble can alter their perspective - poor Wilbs got 'stuck' when a row of bricks appeared, even though it was only about 6 inches high he didn't know he could get over it. Pirata has gone back to doing his funny walk, where he pulls his paws up really high. This is how he 'feels' his way around when he's unsure of what's around him. However hopefully soon he'll have a nice flat patio which he can walk around safely.
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Ghost Writing
I've just finished a ghost writing assignment for Quatro Press. I had to write short introductions to four chapters of a new 'Bead Jewelry Designer's Encyclopedia'. I quite enjoyed it! I had to write in the original author's style, and write the intros so that they pulled together the key concepts in the chapter, so it was really just like writing a conclusion, but in the beginning. It was also quite lucrative. I would definitely do this again and I have let them know that I can write on a number of craft subjects.
I have also just finished a couple of audiobook reviews, and for the first time I had one that we couldn't finish. It was a love or hate book, and the author used a lot of repetition to make an aural backdrop to the story and it probably did work well as an audiobook, but not for me or Ian. The good thing about reviewing audiobooks, however is that I am reviewing the audio side of things, not the story, so I was able to write hopefully a good review, even though we didn't make it to the end. I think I am going to have to question one that I have for this month, however, as it is in Spanish. It's by a Chilean author, so I had assumed I'd get the translation, so I'm hoping this is a mistake.
It's been an odd week for odd projects. Ian is working on a set of instructions for putting together a flat pack. The company want none written instructions - just diagrams and arrows - so that's proving to be fun!
I have also just finished a couple of audiobook reviews, and for the first time I had one that we couldn't finish. It was a love or hate book, and the author used a lot of repetition to make an aural backdrop to the story and it probably did work well as an audiobook, but not for me or Ian. The good thing about reviewing audiobooks, however is that I am reviewing the audio side of things, not the story, so I was able to write hopefully a good review, even though we didn't make it to the end. I think I am going to have to question one that I have for this month, however, as it is in Spanish. It's by a Chilean author, so I had assumed I'd get the translation, so I'm hoping this is a mistake.
It's been an odd week for odd projects. Ian is working on a set of instructions for putting together a flat pack. The company want none written instructions - just diagrams and arrows - so that's proving to be fun!