Zone Doubt, a.k.a. 'Surreal Я Us'...

Joules, trusted by... dozens... to make a drama out of your crisis...

Other sites:

:: JAT :: WaveWrights :: Publications ::

I live to write. It's not wise to get in my way.

... I'd write my autobiography, but no-one would believe it....


If you come across any words you don't recognise in this blog, take a look at the Taylorspeke Glossary in the left-hand infopane, you'll usually find a definition there.


The Poppy Tales

(Transformers fanfiction!)

Transformers mini-comics here.




Adventures in Orchids

Apparently I am now collecting them...

There's room for one - or maybe two, at a pinch - more on that bedroom windowsill (the only one in the house that's ideal for them). Let's see what I find. Well, that didn't last long...


EO - Everlasting orchid. Phalaenopsis. I've had this orchid since 2007 and it just keeps flowering...







AO - Alien face orchid. Phalaenopsis . Bought 2018 - lovely little flowers, all different patterns!





RO - Rescued orchid photo to come when it flowers. Phalaenopsis. Rescued from a bin up the road in 2019. Classic!






TO - Tiny orchid. Phalaenopsis. Bought at Tesco 21.8.20. It just begged to come home with me. How could I say no?





CO - Crimson orchid. Cambria. Another Tesco find. This one may be going to live in Ken's room once we've redecorated and put up the new shelving; it prefers a cooler, less sunny windowsill. If so, I'll need to find another cambrian to keep it company.






GO - Golden orchid. Phalaenopsis. Saw this one when I bought CO and left it behind - then immediately regretted it as soon as I got home. Never seen one like it before. Ken, bless him, went back over to Tesco in the rain and bought it for me...





DO - Dendrobium Orchid. Smells of wisteria, so beautiful...











RO2 - Rescued orchid no 2. Phalaenopsis. This is the one I rescued from the wall along the road middle of 2021.








PO. Pink orchid. Phalaenopsis. This is the one I bought at Cabury Garden Centre on special, late 2021. It's much happier here!










TWO. Teeny weeny orchid, Phalaenopsis. Rescued from Tesco end 2021 (I think).




















My IMDb ep summaries

(completed)
Arthur of the Britons
Sky
Star Maidens
The Starlost
Space Rangers
The Sentinel (part: seasons 2 and 3)
Swamp Thing (part: season 3)
Gravedale High
Transformers: Armada
Transformers: Energon
Transformers: Cybertron (part)
Misfits of Science (four eps)
Zoo Gang
Zodiac
Jupiter Moon
Transformers: Beast Wars (part: seasons 2 and 3)
Transformers: Beast Machines (part)
Vampire Princess Miyu
Starhyke
Nathan Barley
No Heroics
Undermind (3 eps)
Will Shakespeare (Tim Curry version)
Nightwalker
12 Kingdoms
Trigun (ep 8)
Rayearth
Hyperdrive (season 2 ep 3)
The Café

For later:

Missing Earthian ep
Missing Haibane Renme eps


Silver birch at Eastwood 

Farm

"Autumnal - nothing to do with leaves. It is to do with a certain brownness at the edges of the day... Brown is creeping up on us, take my word for it... Russets and tangerine shades of old gold flushing the very outside edge of the senses... deep shining ochres, burnt umber and parchments of baked earth - reflecting on itself and through itself, filtering the light. At such times, perhaps, coincidentally, the leaves might fall, somewhere..."

(Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Act 2: Tom Stoppard)

Autumn...

I love this time of year. I love the colours, the sharp slant of sunlight on the trees, mosaics of acid-yellow and harts- blood, velvet and darkness and a haze of mist-grey over the hills. I love its immanence, its mellowness, the tang of frost just around the corner of the year...

Watching the little birds in the goat-willow in my garden, I realised something more.

I love this land with a fierce, possessive love, deep-rooted in two thousand years of history. From the frosted beaches and cloud-brushing peaks of the north to the wind-haunted meanderings of the rivers of the east, from the sensuous rolling patchworked hills of the south to the demanding dark moors of the west, this land seeps into bone and blood and synapse, mother of motley nobility, culture, individual freedoms. It can be known. It can be understood. It can be felt deep inside.

I love its effortless eccentricities, its vigour and vibrancy, its flawed perfections, its silent strength and tenacious resilience, its hard-won tolerances and intense and variable beauty, the profound energy in its sacred mythical landscape.

Home and more-than-home, the forces that shape and protect and bind, in me, as I am in the land. Love returning love in the stillness for those who'll only take the time to listen...

(Joules, Autumn 2004)


All photographs taken by Joules unless otherwise specified. All photographs © Joules A Taylor or other specified individual.


In Memoriam

17.03.09 - Argent

25.07.08 - Raptor

18.12.07 - Quyn

02.12.06 - Ryme


Currently enjoying:
Muse
Transformers - IDW, Prime, Animated, Rescue Bots.

Currently reading:
Various Transformers books and graphic novels.



Currently working on:
Haadri

Currently chuffed with:
My garden

Currently miffed at:
Nestlé, Nonpres Tinyhands Fart, Toadface Farage

Currently maintaining:
BCHS
BCW


Blog Pics
I've gathered some of my pages of photos together: the page of links is here. I'll be adding more as time goes by!




Evil Squid
A Little Glossary of Taylorspeke
(in no particular order)

plit popints - n. Typo for 'plot points' typed on a keyboard with more than half the characters worn off...

[PING] (alt [ping]) - n. A brainwave. The text equivalent of a lightbulb going on blindingly over someone's head. Usually mine. And usually at the most inconvenient of times. [sigh]

TPTB - The Powers That Be.

wulmet - n. A person of little or no talent who somehow inveigles himself into a position where he is in power over other, far more talented people and uses his position to downplay them in order to try to make himself feel superior.

biteable - referring to an anatomical part vb, tasty.

Flatterfed - vb. 27.02.08: my typo for flattered, but since it's so cutely apt I thought it would fit nicely here. Lutra defined it as "the lovely warm feeling of satisfaction resulting from enthusiastic reviews..." (which I've been getting for my MB fics).

Composted - vb, 'compos mentis', mentally capable of working. Contrast with uncomposted or non- composted, not 'compos mentis', not capable of working, hungover...

Cumbles - n, cucumbers.

Kewp - how Ken says 'thank you'. We rather like Lutra's 'nanx', too...

Musekick - noun, music, without which I cannot work.

'feinne - noun, caffeine, essential for correct mental functioning, especially first thing in the morning. I prefer mine in the form of SodaStream Diet Coke. And on that subject...

Skoosh - verb, noun. To skoosh - to add CO2 to a sodastream bottle filled with water to make it fizzy, prior to adding Diet Coke syrup (or just drinking as sparkling water). A skoosh - a bottle of water that has been skooshed. Skooshy - something that has been skooshed, water, or that whipped cream that comes in tins you have to shake then upend and press the nozzle...

Shoogle - verb. To shake gently, for example, of roast potatoes in a roasting tin to ensure they're covered with oil. I have vague memories of this being a real Scottish colloquialism...

Stegasaurus - n, spider of the genus tegenaria. Why? No idea. I just find it easier, that's all...
Edit 08.09.07: Lutra thinks that Brian is a good name for a mini-stegasaurus. From now on, any 'Brian's in the posts may be assumed to be a tegenaria. Except where otherwise specified.

Viterals - noun, vitamins + minerals. Also a pun on victuals.

Splish - verb. A combination of slosh and splash.

Parrots - noun, paracetemol (from the old joke "Why are there no aspirin tablets in the jungle? Because the parrots eat 'em all...")

Maggles - noun, magpies. As opposed to non-magical people.

Flamewings - noun. Swifts. So called because the first time we became aware of them was an early summer evening when they were flying high, the light from the setting sun seemingly turning their wings to flames. Lovely little birds. We always know summer's arrived when we hear their high-pitched squeeing.

Murfs - noun, moths.

Peasant cut - noun, roughly cut up into big chunks, e.g. vegetables chopped in a hurry for a hearty stew or soup. By extension, anything prepared in a hurry - haircut, material, even a first draft of a story...

Giraffe - noun, a carafe (of wine, coffee or water, for example).

Shrumps - noun, mushrooms.

Splings - noun, Kai's spelling homework: by extension, any spelling.

Tyops - noun, typos. var toyps, typso, psyto, psoyt, etc. Usual result of a dose of the fingerials (see next entry).

Fingerials - (pr. fin GEEE ree yalls) noun, fingers that will not type what you want them to.

Haddock - noun, time, of which I never have enough. (Origin of this term here.)

Sleep - noun? vb? a.k.a. sheeeeeeeeep.... I used to know what this word meant...


The Updates Blog

The place to stay notified of WaveWrights' Fiction updates: Zone, Darkside, DarkRealm, Matrix, Vault, Safehouse 13...




my computer gremlin Butch. click the pic to see the larger image

Butch, my computer gremlin. Click the pic for larger version, and read his adventures here...

Butch by the talented 

Sylverthorne

A gift for me! Butch by the very talented Sylverthorne. Click pic for larger image.

Joules' 

Haddock

This is MY haddock. It was caught exclusively for me by Talon. No, you can't have any. I need all the haddock I can get!!



A'lestrel by Valkyrie.

A'lestrel - a gift for me from Valkyrie...



Albino Alsatian Benten (c) MEBird 

2004

Another gorgeous Valkyrie gift for me - Benten the Albino Alsatian! Click thumbnail for larger image.

Radittsu, an oekaki for my birthday 04 

by 

Onna

Oekai by Bakayaro Onna - Radittsu at his sexiest...



The Zone Plant from
The Zone 

blog 

plant

OrganicHTML (which alas no longer seems to exist...)
[::..My Regular Reads..::]
:: Astronomical Pic of the Day [>]
:: What is Space... [>]
:: Dark Roasted Blend [>]
:: BLDG [>]
:: Watchismo Times [>]
[::..Fun Places..::]
::HubbleSite
Stunning...
::PALEOMAP Project
Absolutely fascinating.
:: Skymap
Check out the night sky where you are!
[::..Useful Sites..::]
:: GreenNet
First stop for environmental matters
:: The Forest of Avon
Our local community forest and places to visit
:: The Guardian
Online Guardian Newspaper.
:: Symbols
Exactly what it says
:: World Timeserver
For checking the current time around this world
:: Universal Currency Converter
Actually it's just a terran-global currency converter, not universal, but it's still useful...

So what is it with the haddock? Am I some kind of fish freak?

I'll leave that to others to decide.

The tale (or tail if you prefer) harks back to October 2000, when my GoodTwin and I, ably assisted by Sue, ran the first UK Professionals convention...
It's common knowledge that I never have enough time, and I was determined not to bewail the fact that weekend: hence I promised not to use the 'T' word...
Of course, that didn't really work (if nothing else I had to let the trainees know what times things were supposed to be happening!) so we decided a substitute word would be employed instead. There were several suggestions. Banana came very close to being chosen. However, I eventually decided that 'haddock' fitted the bill nicely. Ever since, haddock=time. Hence the title of my forthcoming autobiography,
My Half-Life in the Haddock Space Continuum....


Normally I wouldn't, but these were just irresistible...

How could I resist?

Just too adorable...

and to complete the rainbow...

These Too-Kawaii Kitties
were adopted from
Ghost's Anime Page (which appears to have disappeared, alas...)

[::..Anime/Manga..::]
Useful sites:

BBTS -
Fabulous anime figures

Anime Lyrics
A huge selection... evil popups

Anime still needed to complete series' I'm collecting... Many thanks to everyone who has helped me acquire the collection!
Ai no Kusabi

Owned:
   DVD
   Dj: June Special
   CD: Ambivalence

Cyber City Oedo 808

Owned:
   DVD
   All 3 eps on Video, dubbed
   Dj: Cyberage 1-3
   Illustrated Book 2 (Benten's) in Japanese

From Eroica with Love

Owned:
   Manga Vols 1, 9, 11

Mirage of Blaze

Owned:
   DVD Vol 1 (eps 1-4)

R.G. Veda

Owned:
   English Manga: Vol 1
   Japanese Manga: Vol 1-7 complete
   Tarot Pack
   R.G.Veda video

Twelve Kingdoms

Owned:
   Anime Vol 1-12: complete

Under the Glass Moon

Owned:
   Manga Vol 1, 2
Vol 3 needed

Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust

Owned:
   DVD

   Vampire Hunter D Book 1



New Vampire Miyu

Owned:
   (Studio Ironcat) Manga Vols 1 -5 (complete)


Yami no Matsuei

Owned:
   Viz Manga: English translation, Vols 1 - 11 (complete: I believe vol 12 is only available online)
   Japanese 3-DVD set
   Central Park Media: Descendants of Darkness Vol. 1, English/Japanese subbed.
   Sketchbook


[::..Joules SP fied..::]


... this is Terra? How the hell'd I end up here...?

(Thanks, Lutra, for the quote!)

[::..archive..::]
07/01/2002 - 07/31/2002
08/01/2002 - 08/31/2002
09/01/2002 - 09/30/2002
10/01/2002 - 10/31/2002
11/01/2002 - 11/30/2002
12/01/2002 - 12/31/2002
01/01/2003 - 01/31/2003
02/01/2003 - 02/28/2003
03/01/2003 - 03/31/2003
04/01/2003 - 04/30/2003
05/01/2003 - 05/31/2003
06/01/2003 - 06/30/2003
07/01/2003 - 07/31/2003
08/01/2003 - 08/31/2003
09/01/2003 - 09/30/2003
10/01/2003 - 10/31/2003
11/01/2003 - 11/30/2003
12/01/2003 - 12/31/2003
01/01/2004 - 01/31/2004
02/01/2004 - 02/29/2004
03/01/2004 - 03/31/2004
04/01/2004 - 04/30/2004
05/01/2004 - 05/31/2004
06/01/2004 - 06/30/2004
07/01/2004 - 07/31/2004
08/01/2004 - 08/31/2004
09/01/2004 - 09/30/2004
10/01/2004 - 10/31/2004
11/01/2004 - 11/30/2004
12/01/2004 - 12/31/2004
01/01/2005 - 01/31/2005
02/01/2005 - 02/28/2005
03/01/2005 - 03/31/2005
04/01/2005 - 04/30/2005
05/01/2005 - 05/31/2005
06/01/2005 - 06/30/2005
07/01/2005 - 07/31/2005
08/01/2005 - 08/31/2005
09/01/2005 - 09/30/2005
10/01/2005 - 10/31/2005
11/01/2005 - 11/30/2005
12/01/2005 - 12/31/2005
01/01/2006 - 01/31/2006
02/01/2006 - 02/28/2006
03/01/2006 - 03/31/2006
04/01/2006 - 04/30/2006
05/01/2006 - 05/31/2006
06/01/2006 - 06/30/2006
07/01/2006 - 07/31/2006
08/01/2006 - 08/31/2006
09/01/2006 - 09/30/2006
10/01/2006 - 10/31/2006
11/01/2006 - 11/30/2006
12/01/2006 - 12/31/2006
01/01/2007 - 01/31/2007
02/01/2007 - 02/28/2007
03/01/2007 - 03/31/2007
04/01/2007 - 04/30/2007
05/01/2007 - 05/31/2007
06/01/2007 - 06/30/2007
07/01/2007 - 07/31/2007
08/01/2007 - 08/31/2007
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10/01/2007 - 10/31/2007
11/01/2007 - 11/30/2007
12/01/2007 - 12/31/2007
01/01/2008 - 31/01/2008
01/02/2008 - 29/02/2008
03/01/2008 - 31/03/2008
01/04/2008 - 04/30/2008
01/05/2008 - 31/05/2008
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01/01/2015 - 31/01/2015
01/02/2015 - 28/02/2015
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01/12/2015 - 31/12/2015
01/01/2016 - 31/01/2016
01/022016 - 28/02/2016
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01/12/2016 - 31/12/2016
01/01/2017 - 31/01/2017
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01/07/2017 - 31/07/2017
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01/10/2017 - 31/10/2017
01/11/2017 - 30/11/2017
01/12/2017 - 31/12/2017
01/01/2018 - 31/01/2018
01/02/2018 - 28/02/2018
01/03/2018 - 31/03/2018
01/04/2018 - 30/04/2018
01/05/2018 - 31/05/2018
01/06/2018 - 30/06/2018
01/07/2018 - 31/07/2018
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01/10/2018 - 31/10/2018
01/11/2018 - 30/11/2018
01/12/2018 - 31/12/2018
01/01/2019 - 31/01/2019
01/02/2019 - 28/02/2019
01/03/2019 - 31/03/2019
01/04/2019 - 30/04/2019
01/05/2019 - 31/05/2019
01/06/2019 - 30/06/2019
01/07/2019 - 31/07/2019
01/08/2019 - 31/08/2019
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01/10/2019 - 31/10/2019
01/11/2019 - 30/11/2019
01/12/2019 - 31/12/2019
01/01/2020 - 31/01/2020
01/02/2020 - 29/02/2020
01/03/2020 - 31/03/2020
01/04/2020 - 31/04/2020
01/05/2020 - 31/05/2020
01/06/2020 - 31/06/2020
01/07/2020 - 31/07/2020
01/08/2020 - 31/08/2020
01/09/2020 - 30/09/2020
01/10/2020 - 31/10/2020
01/11/2020 - 30/11/2020
01/12/2020 - 31/12/2020
01/01/2021 - 31/01/2021
01/02/2021 - 28/02/2021
01/03/2021 - 31/03/2021
01/04/2021 - 30/04/2021
01/05/2021 - 31/05/2021
01/06/2021 - 30/06/2021
01/07/2021 - 31/07/2021
01/08/2021 - 31/08/2021
01/09/2021 - 30/09/2021
01/10/2021 - 31/10/2021
01/11/2021 - 30/11/2021
01/12/2021 - 31/12/2021
01/01/2022 - 31/01/2022
01/02/2022 - 28/02/2022
01/03/2022 - 31/03/2022
01/04/2022 - 30/04/2022
01/05/2022 - 30/05/2022
01/06/2022 - 31/06/2022
01/07/2022 - 31/07/2022
01/08/2022 - 31/08/2022
01/09/2022 - 30/09/2022
01/10/2022 - 31/10/2022
01/11/2021 - 31/11/2021
01/12/2022 - 31/12/2022
01/01/2023 - 31/01/2023
01/02/2023 - 28/02/2023
01/03/2023 - 31/03/2023
01/04/2023 - 30/04/2023
01/08/2023 - 31/08/2023
01/11/2023 - 31/11/2023

Friday, March 31, 2017

Another quick catch up...

Fri 24th Wendy came to visit - great fun, loads of catching up and laughs. Thanks for a great day!

Rang dentist on Mon, to be told that the earliest they could get me an appt was Friday (today). Oh joy. So had a miserable week, unable to bite or chew and in a lot of pain. This morning she drilled out the tooth and packed it with medicinal stuff to clean and heal it, and I go back in three weeks for the actual filling. So nice to be out of pain! Could actually eat a proper lunch today - it's been soup the rest of the week.

Films... Picked up and watched Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them on Mon - a fine fun film! The Gods Must Be Crazy II is also fun, though not as good as the first film. Arrival is... intriguing. It feels unfinished. Then again, having read the free book (of short stories) that came with the DVD, most of the author's stories feel unfinished. Strange and unsettling, but good.

A couple of years ago I picked up Sin City II: A Dame To Kill For, but first we had to watch Sin City, as Kai hadn't seen it. Very stylish, very violent, but enjoyable all the same. Sleepers is a good film, but very grim. (We seem to watching a lot of darker films at the moment...) On Wed High Rise was on TV - I've been havering about this, not sure if I was going to like it despite Tom Hiddlestone starring. Ken and I watched it until the second commercial break, then turned it off. Didn't like it. Obnoxious unpleasant characters without an ounce of empathy. Glad I didn't buy it!

Kai is now on holiday for three weeks, so of course we've both gone down with colds. Going to take the next few days easy, then plans include seeing Life at the cinema, a little gardening, organising Kai's new meadow and getting the pool in, and the usual BHOC appts. Fingers crossed for nice weather!

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Saturday, March 25, 2017

In brief - toothache is back and making it difficult to concentrate: painkillers are barely making a dent in it. Rang dentist this am: no appts possible, and I'm to ring back Mon 8 am to try then. Knowing my dentist she'll fit me in somewhere, but I have a drs appt for BP check and possible blood test for levothyroxine levels on Mon too. Good news - the two surgeries are pretty much opposite each other, but what do you bet they clash?

More later. Round up of news and films watched in due course, but other than personal health things are going pretty well at the moment.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Sue said...

Huge sympathies. Hope the dentist can give you some relief on Monday.

9:31 pm  



Saturday, March 18, 2017

Just quickly to try to keep up...

Our Friday night film was Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children on Filmflex, and it's extraordinary! Thoroughly gripping. We will be buying it (when the price comes down a little). Tonight it was The Gods Must Be Crazy, which I picked up in a charity shop, double pack with The Gods Must Be Crazy II (which we'll probably try to watch tomorrow). Old but what a film! Reminiscent of HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy (the TV series, not the abysmal film), and I still can't work out how a film can be laugh out loud funny and horribly violent at the same time. Wonderful stuff!

Tyjer rather likes his outdoor indoor bed, thank you mum...


Very cozy while Kai and I worked in the patchy drizzle...

And finally, the other ring I bought from amazon, silver and black opal this one.

Looks better in real life...

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought "Mrs Peregrine's..." sounded interesting. Good to know it's worth picking up.

Bella has an outdoor bed - a hooded litter tray with special cosy cat cushions. She adores it :)

GoodTwin

7:46 am  



Friday, March 17, 2017

Catch up again!

First, the gum infection has gone, although the tooth is still very sensitive, especially to hot and cold things. Dentist took an X-ray yesterday, and there's nothing obviously wrong, so for the moment we're leaving it alone. I have a standard check up in May: see how we go. I'd very much rather avoid a root canal if I can!

K&K ended up not going mine-researching last Sat (Kai got up too late, which threw my whole day out too. Not chuffed about that): Ken and I did the Sunday shop early instead. On Sunday it was more garden work: the native privet is now uprooted and partially replanted - main plant at the top and I'm bringing on five plantlets in pots, so we'll have a ready-made hedge when it's grown a bit.

Ken took Monday off and we got a little more done in the garden. Things are beginning to blossom...


The prunus, currently full of honeybees!



'A riot of life', as Lutra calls it.

The rest of the week went much as normal. Client work and house and garden work for me; the courgettes, pumpkins and one sweet pepper are now sprouting in the greenhouse, and I've made a bed in there for Tyjer for later, when the door is open and he wants to snooze in the sun.


And did I mention that the ramsons I planted last year have taken really well and formed two little patches? There'll be more next year. And to my surprise, one of the plants I put in closer to the wall a couple of years ago has survived and is coming on well, so Kai's 'holloway' between the hazels and the wall will look like a real woodland path by the time we're finished.

I was supposed to go for my MATS appt (steroid injection to my hand for the carpal tunnel) at 11 on Tues, but at 9 I got a phone call saying it was cancelled as the consultant I was due to see had rung in sick, but she was actually the wrong person anyway, as she did spines, not hands. [SIGH] So I now have another appt - end of April, at a completely different location.

Am I ever actually going to get this bloody treatment??

Onto things we've watched in the past week and a bit...

Picked up Doctor Strange as soon as it came out Mon last week, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Cracking film. Last Tues Ken and I watched Philomena (had it for a while and since Kai had other things to do and wasn't bothered, it was a good time). Beautiful, funny, heart-breaking film which did nothing to improve my loathing of organised religion. Then Blood, the Last Vampire - live action anime and pretty good. Lots of fun and gore: Unfriended - meh. Stylistically similar to Cloverfield and Blair Witch Project but without that godawful dragonfly camera; a keeper as the only sample of the genre we're ever likely to watch: Little Fockers (bought for completeness sake as I have and quite like the other two films), which was OK. Fairly funny, not as bad as the reviews make out, as far as we're concerned. Last night we steeled ourselves for Lord of the Flies, another I've had for ages. Saw it donkey's years ago and picked it up at a charity shop as a classic British drama that we really ought to have, but don't think we're likely to watch it again. Dark and depressing.

Arrival hits the shops on Monday, I believe: we managed to miss that at the cinema, so I'll pick it up as soon as I can. Kai and I are planning to see Life in the near future (due at the Showcase on 24th March, I think - we'll leave it a week or two to let the crowds die down. If there are any...)

Kai has venesection on Sunday, and I finally get my hair cut on Monday (it's driving me nuts, it's all in my eyes, but I just haven't managed to find the time until now. Not to mention Jeff has changed the days he's in...)

And that's us up to date. I think. If I've missed anything I'll edit later!

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Friday, March 10, 2017

So the night after my previous post I developed toothache under the recently filled tooth. Thought maybe I'd been a little too harsh when cleaning, but by Sat the pain was excruciating and painkillers - even co-codamol - weren't doing anything but numb it slightly.

Monday I reported to the dental practise and said I'd wait until I could be squeezed in between patients. I didn't have long to wait, luckily: my dentist had a good look (and chuncked on all the teeth in the area with one of her tools - that didn't hurt) and said it was most likely a gum infection (to be honest that's what I thought too, having had one before). She prescribed a five day course of amoxicillin 500mg (that's the anti-bio Kai was given after his transplant - it kills everything) and I have an appt to go back next Thurs. Problem is, I'm still in an awful lot of pain and my jaw is still swollen, so I don't think the anti-bios are working. If they don't, she told me the next step is a root canal and a crown. OUCH. Would be cheaper to have the damn thing extracted...

Please keep fingers crossed. Will report back when I know what's what.

Over the weekend we did a little gardening, got a few more seeds on the go. These are my garlic plants: the hollows behind them are where my new asparagus plants are. They won't produce anything until next year at the earliest, but they seem to be coming along well so far.

Crocuses at the top of the garden - in completely the wrong place of course. Practically all my bulbs will have to be dug up and moved as soon as they've finished flowering. They'll be going in the old meadow, which I'm slowly populating with masses of flowering plants (it's going to be civilised rather than wild, from now on).

I will get some better photos when things are a little more organised. I know I keep saying that but we only have the time and energy (and in my case, I can only do so much before my legs and back stop co-operating) to get it done little by little.

Kai and I did get the automatic openers for the greenhouse vents and louvre sorted though, and they now work beautifully. Hoping to pot on my tomato plants this weekend.

Kai's birthday was pleasant, although he's trying to fight something off again. He loved his earrings though, and tonight watched The Secret of NIHM 2, which was better than expected. He took today off and we bussed to Street to scour charity shops and the antique market with his birthday money, and he came home with a few fun things that caught his eye. Lovely day, mostly sunny but not too hot, and the ride down there is always gorgeous. Tired when we got back though.

Tomorrow K&K plan to go researching mines to the north of Bristol. Why? Not entirely sure, but Kai has discovered a recent interest in mines and caves. Ken isn't claustrophobic, so he gets seconded to go on these sorts of trips. I get the fun of housework instead, oh joy. Still, I'll have the house to myself for a while so hopefully may be able to get some writing done.

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Blogger Sue said...

Huge sympathies for the tooth, that must be awful. Both Chris and I have had trboule recently. Like you, one of my large filings fell out and they couldn't refill it so it was extracted. They ran straight passed the idea of a crown and on the whole, although one doesn't like to lose teeth, I was quite reliefed at not paying the cost with no guarantee it wouldn't fall out at some point.
Chris had a wisdom tooth crack and break away so the dentist extracted that.
Such fun!

6:51 pm  



Thursday, March 02, 2017

Just a quickie...

Kai is taking GatU (Galaxies and the Universe) as one of his courses this year and it's utterly fascinating (yes, he's sharing it with me!) I think it's generally known that the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are heading for each other and in about 4.5 billion years will collide. What I didn't know was that the Milky Way is already colliding with another (small) galaxy - the dwarf Sagittarius galaxy...

It's too faint to see unless you know where to look, and even then there's not much visible, but I find the very idea engrossing.

The sky was clear for an hour or so tonight: took the telescope out and gazed at the perfect, beautiful crescent of Venus using the Barlow lens (the one with the greatest magnification). The shape echoed that of tonight's slender crescent moon, which we also took a look at. Beautiful crater detail. I've been trying to find which ones we saw but can't find a sufficiently detailed lunar map online... Quick glimpse at the Orion Nebula then I left K&K to it - it was cold and Kai was trying to find the Rosetta Nebula. (He has Stellarium loaded onto his tablet and finds it incredibly useful. Perhaps I should get it too... No joy yet. Next time!)

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Blogger Sue said...

Fascinating, thanks for sharing!

1:35 pm  





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