Well THAT was manic!

But good. Over and above the usual busyness I'm currently meeting Kim every Tues for swimming (have dropped my goal from 36 to 24 lengths. I know I can do the 36, but it leaves me knackered for the rest of the day, while 24 is more relaxing and nothing like as tiring), and GoodTwin and Adrian came to visit last Friday and check out Derpy. She gets their seal of approval - seems I unwittingly got a really good deal, as well as that old stereotype, a nice little car with just one previous lady owner! (Service history shows she was Welsh and obviously looked after the car really well.) [GLOMPS] to you both, and many many thanks for all the advice and help. It was lovely to see you again.

Bought a Derpy figure on ebay as a celebratory mascot...

Now I need to make the time to take her out!

Kai had venesection yesterday, and YAY!! his ferritin level is finally below 1,000. This is fantastic news. He has a big BMT clinic next week - exactly four years post bone marrow transplant - so it'll be interesting to hear what Prof Marks has to say (he was going to reassess the venesection schedule once Kai reached this level.) Will report back later.

We have a vixen and cubs regularly visiting/playing in the garden (they tipped over the recycling boxes last week, presumably climbing on them. Nothing broke so that was OK.) Ken managed to take a photo of mum on the PDSA wall, yawning while the cubs were playing down below.

Ken's on annual leave this week: will probably be off out with Kai later on, once Kai's recovered from the venesection. We're also visiting Mum T - we were going to anyway but late last week she had a blackout (probably caused by her BP meds, they think, though the doctors are mooting surgery in the spring) and managed to fall on her face. She's back from hospital and managing OK, though she may have damaged a few teeth. Luckily her neighbours are fantastic and looked after the flat and her dogs while she was away.

Watching... Starhunter is dreadful. There have been two vaguely interesting episodes so far (and we're on disc 3 of 4), the rest have sent us to sleep. It's so frustrating - the overall story should be intriguing, but the execution is dire.

By contrast, Ready Player One is wonderful, an absolute triumph. We all loved it. Last night it was Rampage, which surprised us with the complexity of the plot. It's a gem too - rollicking good fun and a subtly strong message. Great stuff!

Kai and I are on season 4 of Lexx, and I'm enjoying it more this time around. It still doesn't beat the stunning season 3, but it's certainly 'spot the meme' anarchic fun!

Right - lunch!

Labels: busyness, car, films, medical matters, SF

Here she is, newly MOTed, insured as of one minute past midnight today, and taxed a couple of hours before she arrived.

Wave hello to Derpy

... don't ask...

Taking her out after the weekend!

We haz a car!

Well, we will have on Friday when I've sorted out the insurance and tax, paid the balance and driven it home. Same make as the one I drove for my refresher lessons and it's wonderful.

More later!

Labels: car

Can I actually remember what's happened this last week?

We've watched Blade Runner 2049... Well, it's good, but soooo sloooooow... I kept falling asleep but Ken assures me I didn't miss anything important.

Went swimming with Kim last week - still managing 36 lengths, though it doesn't give us much time to talk!

Tyjer is much better now, back eating and his stomach is back to normal, which is a relief.

My hibiscus plants have survived - just, although they're stunted and not happy - being sprayed with paint and replanted during the hottest summer in years: -

And I take a Renault Clio for a test drive tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

[Peeps over the battlements, sees no-one around, scuttles to update while it's quiet...]

So what's been happening? Well, K&K have carried on moving earth from front to back:

Front

Back (what was the 'rockery')

It's been generally busy, as usual. Kai and Dawn went out for a day to the Kennet and Avon Canal (that was the Bath-wards trip mentioned in the last post) and then last Thurs they went to Chepstow. Lots of walking both days. Ken and Dawn went to a postcard fair yesterday, which I gather was quite successful.

Wed before last I met Kim at the pool: she can get there every other week, so we're seeing if we can make it a regular thing. I found I was having trouble keeping track of the lengths I was swimming (I have to count back crawl strokes (31) so I don't crash into the pool edge, and it throws me off) so have treated myself to a clicky thing that does it for me. Used it last Tues and it's great. Only managed 32 lengths though - not my fault, bus was late then got stuck behind a garbage lorry so I was 10 mins late into the pool.

Kai had venesection Sun 29th: his ferritin is now down to 1,325, which is fine - it's slowly going down, and his energy is slowly going up accordingly.

I've found hedgehog signs in the garden, so we've started putting out a small bowl of water (although I've filled the pools from the main waterbutt after the rains, it would be difficult for a hedgehog to climb out if it fell in any of them) and food tucked among the stones waiting to be used. It's really good news, as they're becoming scarce down here.

And our fox is still haunting the garden, so we're putting a bowl of food out every now and then, just to help. Oh, and we now have a flock of magpies as regular visitors, so I've started putting out the ground feeder with meal worms, sultanas and suet nuggets around lunch time every day (it stops them trying to eat from the hanging bird feeders). Nature reserve, we haz it.

On a slightly more worrying note, Tyjer's not himself at the moment. He's not ill, as far as I can tell, just off his food and his stomach's been upset the last couple of days. Going to see how we do the next few days and if necessary I'll get him up to Pets@Home (they have in-store vets). It may just be age (he's 14 now, and beginning to look old) and the heat: fingers crossed, anyway.

STILL haven't finished painting in the hall. Hoping to get that done this week.

Ken found a copy of the Finnish version of Vampires: used international BACS to buy it (it seems Finland doesn't have Paypal) and they've just confirmed the book is in the post!

Watching: picked up Pacific Rim: Uprising and had a Sat evening matinee. Thoroughly enjoyed it - great fun, fine acting, wonderful sfx! Fingers crossed for a third one. Kai fancied re-watching Lexx, and since I like the idea too we're now onto season 3 (Fire and Water), one of the eeriest and most effective s-f productions ever, as far as I'm concerned. My favourite, anyway. Last night we saw the first ep of StarHunter... Oh dear. Well, I'll watch a few more and see if it picks up, but K&K aren't keen. Maybe we should have gone with the ReduX version...

We've now settled in to having the main grocery shop delivered from Waitrose: their organic produce is mostly grown on the Duchy of Cornwall estate (I think - pretty local anyway) and delivery is free any day of the week if the order is over £60. The quality is great!

Though BND has apparently taken to moving his car off his drive and parking on the road whenever I latch our gate open for the grocery delivery vans - I assume to make it more difficult for them to park. Half the time they have to stop across his drive in order to make the delivery, so it seems pointless. Unless that's what he wants - another (self-inflicted) reason to whinge. Typical of his pettiness. Tempted to perhaps latch the gate randomly, regardless of whether we have a delivery scheduled or not, to see what happens...

Right. Off to feed the maggles, then make lunch, then I have to trawl through old photographs for an hour or so. Later!

Labels: busyness, days out, drama, films, garden, swimming