and breathe...

Hello, my friends! I am still feeling wiped out so I shall try not to ramble on too much.

 

I had a good evening as madam seems to be back to sleeping well. She went to bed on time without too much of a fight as well. I wasn't sure if she would as she hasn't done anything to tire her out. But I suppose she must be feeling like me and just feel drained by the whole experience.

 

I've sent her to school this morning and will pick her up at lunch time as I don't want her to over-tire herself. She was really pleased to be going back this morning and I have wrapped her in plenty of layers so that she doesn't get cold. Not that I am being a panicky mummy or anything, oh no...

 

But I just have that image in my head of her gasping for breath (bit like my dad's fish did in the summer...) and I know that they would never let that happen, but it's one of things that I can't un-see. And I will always be more aware of what could happen. The school told me they would check on her at playtime (remember how good playtime was!) and let me know if she looked like she might be struggling/tiring. No one has rung and playtime must be about over (it's 10.30am *now*) so she must be ok :)

 

Being protective mummy has meant I made her wear her hat and gloves to school, she also has on the lovely padded jacket that friend E passed us down from her little girl. I did iron in a name label, but I hate doing it onto fleece as it always ruins a little bit of it. Never mind. One small patch of non-fleecy will not affect her at all, just me and my perfectionism that don't like it!

 

I want to put her gloves on elastic as it makes life so much easier, but last year she just kept pulling them out of her coat and refused to wear the elasticated ones... Her independent streak can be infuriating! But I shall consult with her and see if she'll let me this year. They're really nice fleece lined ones and I don't want her losing them.

 

I got the new issue of Simply Crochet magazine yesterday and I have been prevailed upon to make the little fox purse out of it for a certain someone! I think I might make the granny square scarf for myself (though maybe substitute the pink) as the scarf I started I'm not sure I like as much as I thought I would... Although the scarf/hood on the cover is quite tempting too!

 

I keep looking at the time as I'm paranoid about picking madam up! It's not even 11... Might just go to Boyes and look at yarn first ;)

 

the happiness hamster!

 

 

  

Fish are friends, not food

it's Miffy's birthday today!

 

 

Superman was just as good as I remembered! I do love that film. I had forgotten some of the slightly cheesier moments (blocked them out?) though. I think the height of cheese is Lois's voiceover whilst Superman takes her flying.

 

I mentioned I had a crush on Christopher Reeve as a child, and apparently this is still ongoing! Phwoar! I have to say when he gave his statistics to Lois it meant more to me than as a 5yr old...

 

Madam was leaping about doing not sleeping (ostensibly because she was worried about the fishes) and ended up watching the first half before she finally gave in to exhaustion and went to sleep on the sofa. I did debate going straight onto number 2 but thought that might be a very late night for me!

 

I seem to vaguely remember preferring Superman 2 as a child, but again, it's so long since I watched them...

 

So, fishtank update now. It's still not a happy tank. The pump is still working but we seem to have lost more fish overnight. And the water is still murky. It's a relief not to have found them all dead though.

 

I have no idea how long the pump would need to have been off for the situation to get so bad.

 

And tonight is Friday, which means it's a Guide night. With madam in tow... I am hoping we might have a better number of them than last week. I'm debating taking some photos of our activities to post on our twitter feed. But I would have to get parental permissions etc... Stress.

 

On the plus side, we sort of have a ready made activity this week as after much consultation Girlguiding UK have decided to change the promise. So we get to introduce it to them. I shall make attempts at ways to do so...

 

I'm guessing crafts will be out though, whatever we do! I'm also hoping that the weather will improve so we can do a bit of outside stuff. I like getting them to go outside, makes for more fun usually.

 

I shall also remember to buy a return on the bus this week!   

Superman and tropical fish

I got myself a treat today :) I found the boxset of Superman films in Morrison's for a tenner... So that's £2 a film, genius... The main reason I got these, other than my childhood crush on Christopher Reeve, is because of a twitter discussion about them.

 

 

 

I remember loving the films as a kid, I remember that we always watched them when they were on TV. But I don't remember all of them. And I haven't seen the reboot they did a few years ago at all.

 

I'm excited to have a movie marathon with them and also know that madam will be able to watch it to. I think I might have to just watch them by myself first though. Bit like with Harry Potter when I watched all of those last week. I knew madam was ok with the first two but on re-watching them I know that she still would be afraid of all of the others...

 

I started writing this post much earlier today and then, whilst typing I happened to look up and noticed that the fish in my dad's tropical tank were acting strangely. They were all at the top of the tank and looked to be struggling to breathe.

 

Also the water looked sort of green-ish. Panic set in. I have spent most of the time that I've been looking after these fish I've been panicking about the marine tank. Which is fine. But the tropical suddenly drastically not so.

 

I took to twitter in the vain hope there would be someone there that might help. And I was in luck. Lovely friend talked me down and gave me tips as to what I could do. I also rang my brother as although he was too far away to come around he did at least keep his own fish up until his move.

 

I had noticed that the water in the tank didn't seem to be moving, and had no idea how to fix it as everything seemed to be switched on. Bro suggested that the pump had gone if the water wasn't moving and remembered where my dad kept a spare (see, that's what siblings are for). I managed to remove the old one and replace it so that the water started flowing again.

 

Sadly, some of the fish haven't survived this experience. Including my dad's beloved gold nugget plecostomus. But having managed to prevent the entire tank from dying off I think he'll be okay with it. On a plus point, one of the fish my dad has been waiting to keel over now has! 

 

I'm not sure what it's called, but it's big and stripy and kept eating some of his smaller fish. I think it was supposed to be in  there to eat snails...

 

Anyway, if I'm going to get the first Superman under my belt this evening I better get on with it!

pets mean prizes (or something like that)

Well, we've not managed to achieve very much today! In fact we've only just nicely gone out the house and got some fresh air. We have been glued to cartoons all morning! Was quite nice actually... Madam and I haven't had a nice chilled Saturday for an awfully long time.

 

We had a bit of a munchy lunch with lots of little bits and watched even more cartoons. I do love a cartoon marathon every now and again... We were watching the Pokémon movie and various others. Not really my favourite, but it keeps madam happy.

 

She also now has to let me pick next time! Hahaha! That'll be me watching something from my childhood then... But the question is do we go really old school and have Tom & Jerry or shall I vote for Bagpuss. Again.

 

Or I could go for a film like Mary Poppins or the Goonies. Madam had a pirate day at nursery on Tuesday and has mentioned One Eyed Willy several times since then. I'd like to point out that she claimed that other girls had a beard and moustache drawn on, but couldn't name any... Hmm...

 

We haven't even attempted our outing to Burton Bushes, we'll maybe see how it goes tomorrow. I really love the idea of taking madam up there. It is a bit of a hike, so the picnic option is definitely the best bribery to get her motivated. I did let madam cycle to my mum and dad's as I thought she'd get more fun out of that than walking...

 

I still haven't checked my bike. I'm going to guess I need to at least pump the tyres up as it's just been sitting in the back yard for the last year. I'm actually looking forward to getting it out again as I really enjoy cycling and find it's an easy way for me to do exercise as I don't notice that I'm doing it so much.

 

Might need to get in touch with H and ask her which app it was she was using when she was doing her manic cycling... It could be good to have an idea of how far I actually cycle. Rather than the random guesswork I usually employ!

 

Whilst we're at the parents today I am doing the first lot of fish feeding. I have two different tanks that I'm in charge of. The tropical and the marine. It's the marine tank I'm most likely to upset. Although I have been given a number in case of emergencies...

 

It also feels very strange to be here and not have the cats wrapping themselves around your ankles. This is the first time they've been to the cattery in years. And although I appreciate that I haven't got to co-ordinate feeding them every day it's just very odd to have no furry purries in the house...

 

We've kept cats for years. I don't remember us not having them. The first one I remember is the one who had the biggest reputation. He was almost a local celebrity he was so distinctive and had such a personality.

 

I think the best thing he used to do is sit in the middle of the road (we lived on the approach to the local hospital at the time) and stare down the patient transports. They actually used to have to physically get out and move him out the way! But he was rather keen on his sunbathing spot...

 

He was called Orion and was the nicest cat in the world. Unless you wanted to brush him. We've also had (in sort of order) Peter, Zulu, Lulu (no, that wasn't deliberate), Bugsy, George, Molly and Tesco. There is also my brother's two cats Bubble and Banzai. Banzai lives with my parents as he was in a place that she couldn't get access to the outside. She's an inside/outside and back again kind of a cat.

 

Molly :)

 

 

George was sort of mine. He picked me at the rescue centre, and once we'd all met him he was too hard to resist. He was called Smoky when we got him. He was a grey tabby, the most ENORMOUS cat you'd ever met. He was incredibly bouncy and you couldn't touch him without him purring his head off. He was also very naughty and my mum renamed him George after the small boy Joyce Grenfell was always telling off. It suited him.

 

 

 

Sadly he was killed on the road only about 6 months after we got him. I was in Greece at the time and my dad had to phone me and tell me. I still miss his furry little face... Worse is that I don't think we have any photos of him :(

 

I really wish we were allowed to have a cat where we live. But realistically, we can't afford one. I don't have the money for a vet if the cat were ill. And I cannot justify letting an animal suffer for my own selfish gain.

 

But if I did get a cat, I'd really love one of these:

 

 

 

That's a British Blue Shorthair for those not in the know... Though I'm just as happy with a moggy from the local animal rescue. And usually moggies live much longer than pedigrees...

 

I guess I shall have to keep dreaming!