In the garden: my ramsons have survived and are sprouting merrily under the hazel trees; the garlic I planted has also now sprouted and is looking good in the high raised bed, and there are the tiniest emerald slivers of shoots showing where I planted the first lot of carrots. Planted two different sorts of radishes yesterday. All the fruit trees we replanted seem to have survived and are budding, so that's a relief.

We have, as Kai said, "a genuine apocalypse of frogs" in Roeg's pool. You can't see the bottom of the pool for them, two deep everywhere. We seem to be hosting the entire frog population of Brislington... Kai's copse pool has huge amounts of spawn already.

RiD Starscream and IDW Ultra Magnus...

The little figure is his mincon (heh, shades of Armada!) Lancelon

The tiny figure is Minimus Ambus. He's the actual Cybertronian: the rest is his armour.

Did I mention I picked up the rebooted Fantastic Four DVD a little while back? I forget. Then again, the film is utterly forgettable. Dull and boring. Its low rating is deserved.

Reply to Ellel Bee, below: racial equality protests were a little before my time, and I may be a slacktivist now, but while at uni I went on the Anti-Nazi League march and rally, and later the Anti Corrie Bill march. Interesting times...

Labels: films, frogs, garden, political stuff, Transformers, wildlife

Right, what have we been up to...?

The week went by pretty much as normal - no appts though, made a nice change! On Fri GoodTwin and Sue came over for my birthday visit: it was the usual enormous fun with much hilarity. And quizzes.

Another wonderful sign from Sue!

Card from Kai.

Card from Ken

   
Card from Sue. (She brought cupcakes too!)

   
Card from GoodTwin

Present wise - RiD Starscream, IDW Ultra Magnus (maybe photos later when I've had time to unpack them!), Swan Lake, Vampire Circus, and The Big Bus, which we watched last night: it's even funnier than I remembered after seeing it waaaaay back donkey's years ago, and I believe was the first of its kind (it was rebooted a few years later in Airplane! with pretty much the same plot, same characters, even similar jokes.) Loads of fun! Thank you both - it was a wonderful day!

Sat was shopping and garden stuff (of the three 50litre and one 75litre bags of potting compost GoodTwin drove back from Hurrans garden centre for me, the 75litre and one of the 50litre bags are now empty): greenhouse is now all ready for my tomatoes!

Yesterday Kai and I went to Hurrans, had coffee and cakes in the café - accompanied by the robin which haunts the place

   

And bought bamboo sticks to support the peas and beans, and a whole load of herbs and wild flowers on special for Kai's meadow.

All in all a fine weekend!

Labels: birthdays, friends, garden centres, old films, visits

... to catch up.

Where did we get to? Ah yes...

Ken took Mon and Tues off as annual leave. Monday we did a little gardening - tidied the front a little, moved two of the small shrubs to the back to make room for the larger ones we plan to put in, so the voyeur next door can't peer into my lounge (have seen a pretty silvery conifer at Almondsbury that reaches 3 metres and is a good 1.5 metre wide, which would do nicely), dead-headed the ice plants and lifted the magnolia, as it's continually attacked by something out there. Managed to get Kai a drs appt in the evening as he was running out of the citalopram meds: the sky was beautiful when we left the surgery...

Tuesday Ken and I headed off for Almondsbury, via B&Q and Wickes at Cribbs Causeway (all-day bus tickets are wonderful!). Found the paving slabs we want at a reasonable price for around the greenhouse and raised beds, and possibly to build a small flat platform for the telescope, and while we were there checked out the feasibility of sorting out the sink unit in the kitchen. DIY corner units are reasonably priced, and there are now umpteen different sinks and taps available. I need to take some photos and email to our plumber to see how much it would be to sort out the Heath-Robinson plumbing, but otherwise it's looking doable. And ye gods it needs doing!

Remember last June half a lower molar snapped off (the enamel, anyway) while I was eating cheese on a thin cracker? I was able to get an emergency appt then and the dentist filled it, but warned me that it was a very big filling and if it went again I'd need the tooth capped (£200+: I winced). On Wed the filling fell out. Managed to get an emergency appt for Thurs: resigned to having to fork out for the repair.

So you can imagine how pleased I was when she refilled it - stronger, tougher and white filling material! - and because the previous one hadn't been in place for a year, didn't charge me. Apparently our dentists now guarantee their work for a year... Dead chuffed!

Fri: Actually managed to get a little writing done! Have started the intro for the joint book (nicknamed Dystopia for now) that Lutra and I wrote a good few years ago, but which in the current global situation can be made into something potentially sellable. It needs MAJOR revision and rewrite, but the first draft is finished, so it's less work than starting something completely new, and given it's been so long I need that.

In the evening I had a meeting with the BCC's Neighbourhood Partnerships Liaison Officer about the BCP site. Given the Council's current almost complete embargo on providing funds for anything the site was due to lapse at the end of the current name and hosting sub, but it's been agreed that as it's a useful community resource, funds will be made available from other community groups to keep it going until 2019 at least. Which is great! It's not like we're talking a lot of money - £50.30 for two years. It usually takes just minutes to update (I've set up notes and mini-templates for myself all over the coding) so I'm lucky if my fee comes to £5 a year.

On Sat Kai and I thoroughly enjoyed our promised trip to Harbourside. First port of call was M-Shed to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. It's fabulous! We spent an hour there, and could quite happily have been longer. There's an associated book with all the photos in it, which I may pick up as a Yule pressie - £25 isn't too bad for a book crammed with gorgeous pics and info.

The Harbour steam train was running that weekend - end of the school half-term holiday, I guess - so we leapt on and rode to the SS Great Britain (there's a longer trip that goes to the Vauxhall Bridge not far from the Riverside Garden Centre, but they aren't running that one until April. We'll just have to go back then!)

Then it was over Pero's Bridge to @Bristol - lunch in the café, reasonably tasty filled ciabattas (I had minute steak with rocket, roasted tomatoes and cheese: Kai had goats cheese with courgettes and roasted peppers - both served with chips? didn't work!) but very expensive. Probably won't eat there again. @Bristol itself was heaving with children - half term, of course - but we quite enjoyed it. Our main reasons for going were the Luke Jerram Glass Microbiology exhibition - absolutely beautiful - and the Planetarium. Which was awe-inspiring. Very basic stuff - nothing new for either Kai and I - but damn near perfect 3D. We're planning to go back for the adult evening performance, Exploring the Galaxy as soon as is convenient.

Sunday was the usual Sunday - two lots of shopping, then Kai had venesection in the afternoon (his ferritin level is now 2,300, so plateauing again a bit. He may need to start going every three weeks instead of every month, will see at his next BMT clinic).

And in other news... We've started watching Legends of Tomorrow. It's OK, basically a daft romp, but it's fun to see Doctor Who's Rory in a rather different rôle (as Rip Hunter, the leader of the group). It's fun, but we're unlikely to get any more than the first season.

I've now finished reading Cloud Atlas (Link full of spoilers, so be warned.) I picked up the film a year or so ago and loved it: 'borrowed' the book from the BHOC 'library'. I've donated over 30 books to that in the past so didn't think anyone would object! Will return it when K&K have read it, assuming they do...

At one point, one of the protagonists asks 'three simple questions':

"How did he get that power? How is he using it? And how can it be taken off the sonofabitch?" (Cloud Atlas p 420)

I've seen this before...

(IDW transformers: Chaos Theory)

Is it a recognised meme? It gives that impression..

Of the book as a whole? What can I say? This is the level of writing to which I aspire. Took a little while to really get into it but then I was absolutely gripped. Funny in places, gob-smacking in others, with light touches of the profound scattered throughout:

"If we believe that humanity may transcend tooth & claw, if we believe divers races & creeds can share this world... peaceably..., if we believe leaders must be just, violence muzzled, power accountable & the riches of the Earth and Oceans shared equitably, such a world will come to pass. I am not deceived. It is the hardest of worlds to make real. Tortuous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president's pen..."

(Sound familiar?)

Need to watch the film again now.

I watched the first ep SS GB last night (just me. Ken doesn't stay up late when he's working the next day, and Kai didn't fancy it from the trailers). The acting is terrific, the settings accurate (as far as I can tell), and the overall plot plausible. But oh, it's depressing. (Mind you, so is almost everything right now...) I'll carry on watching, but I don't think K&K would like it.

Up to date now. Later...

Labels: Almondsbury Garden Centre, BCP, British drama, busyness, client sites, days out, gardening, medical matters, Transformers

News in brief...

That first splurge of vertigo eased off by Friday a.m, and hasn't yet come back, although my balance is off again and I can't look upwards without my head spinning. [grits teeth] I can cope...

Last Saturday Kai had his PIP assessment. (We got the letter today saying he's no longer eligible. Of course I am appealing against it.) Afterwards we went down to the Harbourside and took a ride on the Ferris wheel (which was a Yule attraction and should be gone by now, but I guess it's still making money!)

The water features in Millennium Square. Really lovely!

The Planetarium connected to @Bristol. We're planning to get down there one weekend very soon.

Walked a short way along the New Cut afterwards - and Kai spotted a fox down by the water!

So cute!

Then Kai went down with a rather nasty cold, and has had to take the week off. It didn't hit me until after my physio appt on Tuesday (she's referring me back to my dr for another steroid injection in my hip, as it seems nothing else is really working). Kai was too poorly to go to his counselling session on Wed too. And for once even Ken got hit with it (he's usually very good at fending them off) and is currently flopped out unable to do anything. Heh. Guess who has to keep everything together?

Though I don't feel too bad today. Yesterday was my PIP assessment: it will be very interesting to see the result, given the surprising number of things I found I couldn't do (and the sitting down, sideways movement of my left leg felt like it tore something down the inside of my thigh, which is painful even today). I want a new body!!

We've spent post-dinner flump time this last week and a half watching Fruits Basket, which is absolutely charming. Kai and I are currently reading the manga (we waited until we'd both read past book 8, which is where the anime ends) and enjoying that too.

Last night we finally watched Heartbeeps, which is a very very strange little film. Budget was 10 million dollars (in 1981: Kai asked how much of that they actually spent on the film!) I'm glad we have it, if only for the charming little bots, but I'm also glad I didn't pay much for it!

Also picked up Deepwater Horizon which is a damned fine film. Enjoy isn't quite the right word, but it's gripping and compelling. Well worth a watch.

And that's about it. Will try to post a little more frequently from now on!

Labels: anime, films, fun stuff, medical matters

Just a quick note.

The vertigo (BPPV) I was afflicted with Feb 25th 2014 - which lasted 10 months - is back as of yesterday, oh joy. Dr has prescribed some meds that are supposed to help with the dizziness and loss of balance - will try them tomorrow. Only good thing is that having suffered this before, at least I know how to cope with it.

Perhaps this time it will only last a few weeks...

Labels: AAARRGGHH, medical matters, nothing's ever easy 'round here...