All quiet on the DIY front

Yes, for the past couple of weeks we’ve eased off things completely, which has given me ample time to reengage with my neglected hobbies such as knitting, crochet and Blythe and to commence Christmas preparations. Yeah right, who am I kidding?!?!?!? As usual it’s been non-stop here, but finally we’ve turned a corner (to use a cliche), seen the light at the end of the tunnel (and another) and are on the home straight (things do come in threes, or is that now four?!?). Both bathrooms are finished and looking mighty swell. Poor lighting conditions preclude satisfactory photos so you will have have to sit tight for those. This weekend was devoted to sorting out our bedroom. I hadn’t looked forward to this at all, as the bedroom is one area where John and I clash, aesthetically-speaking He wants it to look like an 80s batchelor pad, with lots of harsh lines, white bedding and stainless steel ’stuff’, whereas I’d like to lift most of the prettier stuff out of Habitat with some girly goodness from Monsoon thrown in. Finding a compromise was going to be tough, but after a few weeks of obstinance, this was the course taken:

However John did manage to sneak something in without me looking:

Normally I wouldn’t use my blog to share my political leanings. But as a paid up member of the Labour party who’s stood for council twice, I take umbridge at the fact that John has put an SDP (LibDem predecessors from the 1980s) electioneering poster on display in the bedroom. However, revenge is sweet. See that black round thing under my toys? It’s actually a super-expensive Bang and Olufsen sub-woofer. But given that Turtle has been with me since 1981, he takes priority and now it’s a super-expensive Bang and Olufsen Turtle bed. Here he is again!

As you can see this was quite a big bedroom, but fortunately John actually agreed to help me paint (why that decision couldn’t have been taken several rooms ago is beyond me), so we did get the main part done on Saturday. Good job really, as I was out of action on Sunday after a fashion/wine-based injury. Here’s what I wore, and as you can see there’s several garment-led opportunities for mishaps. Can you guess what one it was?

It was the shoes! My lovely olive green leather shoes with wooden wedge heels! Throw a bottle of wine and a load of leaf mulch in an unseen gutter into the mix and you can see where this is going… yup, I went for a Burton on the mean streets of Pudsey. I put my hands out to break my fall and ended up with small but fairly deep gouges in them, a shredded knee and some nasty spraining on my right wrist. Couldn’t pick up a roller at all yesterday and have actually ended up with quite a nasty infection (red lines have coursed up my arm). They’ve now been cleaned up with germoline and I’m in the middle of preparing myself to go to the Doc’s for a course of tetanus (oh why did I skive off injection days at school? I’ve missed polio, tetanus, small pox and probably a couple of others).

They actually look worse in real life, but you’ve gotta love my wartime spirit with the Disney plasters and panda pjs I must add that this is my second injury of the week. I went to a knitting group in Leeds for the first time in order to make some friends of my own. Whilst there I managed to stab my palm with my needle, and left a bit of a hole that flooded with blood. I felt so stupid around people I didn’t know, and I just sat there smiling away with the offending hand hidden whilst weeping with pain on the inside. For a whole 90 minutes!

In non-me/house news, I’ve delighted to report that the mog is all healed up and getting back to normal. He’s not been too licky on his wound, which is a relief, although I wish he’s stop jumping up and down from the dining table… More good news was had following the biopsy on the tumour – it wasn’t cancer after all! Apparently it’s difficult to tell the difference from the type of tumour he had and cancer from cells alone – they need to be in situ. It’s a good job it was removed, though, as even though it was benign, it was fast growing and would eventually embed itself into his fat, and spread all over. Phew! So glad we caught that in time!

Lazy furballs

Sitting with the cats over the last few days to stop Victor licking his wound has made me realise how bloody lazy they are! Here’s a typical day for them:

07:20 Get up

07:30 Run downstairs with John

07:40 Sit on sofa waiting for breakfast

08:30 Breakfast

08:45 Sit on sofa digesting breakfast

09:30 Sleep on sofa digesting breakfast

13:00 Lunch

13:15 Sit on sofa digesting lunch

14:00 Sleep on sofa digesting lunch

16:00* Slink

17:00 John home. Get in way of door. Generally mill around.

18:30 Tea

18:45 Sit on sofa/kitchen table digesting tea

19:30 Sleep on sofa digesting tea

23:00 Bed. Litter tray. General activeness for 15 mins

23:15 Sleep

* = Victor only

Oh to be a cat!

A big week for a little cat

Up against it timewise tonight as we’re going out pretty early to see Pudsey’s Christmas lights being switched on. Apparently it was a member of the Emmerdale cast who did the honours last year, so hopefully it is going to be an all-star event – when I walked past the leisure centre earlier there were at least two speakers rigged up the the PA system. I’ll let you know which Yorkshire ‘great’ is in attendance this time, as I know you won’t rest over the weekend otherwise…

Anyway, enough of my ramblings and back to the main topic – my darling pussolini (please excuse the dodgy connotations – the nickname stuck and that’s that) Mr Victor. After I picked him up from the vets on Wednesday afternoon, he was feeling most sorry for himself and was walking all wonky. Following a two hour cuddle, where he was asleep for most of it on my knee , I roasted him a chicken breast for his tea and he went back to sleep until the morning. He’s pretty much been asleep since then and is sat next to me now, snoring away having just fallen back to sleep again – it’s been a big week for a little cat! I just hope he carries on sleeping as I want to stop him licking his stitches, as he refuses to wear his collar – can you believe they charged me an extra £8 for this on top of a total bill of £360?????? He’s now got half his tummy shaved and has been left with 10cm gash along the join between his thigh and body (not a good place in terms of healing). The stitches dissolve over time, so hopefully he won’t be goig back to the vets (the tumour has been sent off for analysis and will be back on Monday. The result, that is, not the tumour ). John told his 90 year old Gran all about it, and her sage old lady advice was that he must be getting better if he’s eating so much chicken, and if you look at this photo you might agree too

Update on Victor

Thanks for your kind words about Victor everyone. They really do mean a lot to John and I. We had the test results in today, and it is a cancerous tumour. I can’t remember the exact name, but apparently it’s an okay one to have (relatively-speaking) in that it’s localised and can be treated through surgery alone as we caught it so early. The whole lot needs removing and then it’s sent to the labs for further tests and to make sure they caught it all. Hopefully it shouldn’t come back, but if it did it would be in the same spot.

I’m taking him in at 8.20am tomorrow and he should be back with us once his catty anaesthesia has worn off (which is just as risky as the op itself in my mind). Fortunately, the costs are relatively bearable at £250, which is a relief. The whole incident has made me realise that I couldn’t really afford to pay much more than this, so we managed to find cat insurance for them both without an upper-age limit andwith 50% off introductory offer (praise be Tesco – you may be the scurge of the high street, but you’re the savior of my pets). Obviously, I can’t claim for this as there’s a 14 day lead-in on the policy before you can claim for new illnesses, and there’s no way I’m waiting that long to pretend that it’s a new ailment at another vets and start the testing again, as it could get worse in this period (illegality aside, natch ). But if anything else happens in the future, at least both cats are covered.

I’ll keep you posted with progress updates. At least Mr Victor is not aware of what’s going on – the worst thing for him will be the nil-by-mouth from 9pm tonight.

Prisoner, Cell Block V

Mr Victor is broken I was giving him a cuddle yesterday when I felt something strange on his leg. At first I thought (hoped) it was a big knot of hair, as he’s so fluffy. But on closer inspection, I found a lump slightly large than a marble on his inner thigh near his groin. Victor has had lumps and bumps before – he used to have a cyst, where the hair follicles were blocked, that we had to squeeze for him. But this time it was different, I could just tell. As soon as John got home we took him to the vet’s. I had to bump him into his basket by his bum – that look on his face says it all.

The vet agreed that it wasn’t a cyst and suggested that it was either a trauma or a tumor. I can’t see it being a trauma as he’s a housecat, and the skin was probably red because he’s had the scratchy flea comb ran over him so much. So that leaves the tumor option. The vet took a sample and we should here by Monday, or possibly Saturday. I do so hope that it’s benign – my dog had one similar on his outer thigh and it caused him no problems so we left it alone, which is the course of action we’ll take with Victor. But what if it isn’t? I have so many questions whirring round my head at the moment, not least related to the cost issue. My pets aren’t insured – the were too old to take out a policy by them time we could afford it. Last night’s trip, coupled with last week’s dramas has already set us back over £200, and all this work on the house, plus my non-income since September whilst I am writing up my PhD has left my pot somewhat bereft. How much is a reasonable amount to spend on a pet? How should you make these decisions. How can you make these decisions??? All help and advice would be very much appreciated at the moment.

A New Arrival!

John and I had a lovely anniversary; many thanks for all your kind words! We ended up going for a curry here. Now I know curry isn’t what most people associate with romantic occassions, but we loved it! The first time we went here was 5 years ago. I was doing a PGCE (teacher training) at the time and was dreadfully unhappy with the way my life was going. I was working from 8am until midnight each and every day in a terrible school with little support and bloody awful kids (you do get bad kids, contrary to what touchy-feely types would have you believe). To cheer me up, John took me out for a Fliss-friendly day in the Christmas hols, which consisted of feeding ducks, walking through the park and eating curry at the Aagrah! It was during that meal that he convinced me to quit my PGCE and apply for a PhD (as all my tutors had tried to a year prior). Since then I’ve never look back, and the Aagrah always holds a special place in my heart (not to mention my tum ). As it was Hallowe’en, I did make a sartorial nod to the occassion too.

I was also spoiled by a love pressie from Johnny. I got a new addtion to my burgeoning elephant family. Can you see him?

It’s Babyphant! Don’t worry – Flissyphant and Johnphant have only been touching trunks as Babyphant is their futuristic cousin from the planet Phant

Hot on the heels of Hallowe’en was Bonfire Night, which if truth be told is my favourite out of the two events. I do feel that poor old Bonfire Night is being increasingly squeezed out by Hallowe’en, which is a shame. I feel nostalgic about Bonfire Night in a way that I never will about Hallowe’en; do you remember all the warnings on Blue Peter about checking your bonfire for hedgehogs before you lit it, or the dangers of picking up extinguished sparklers? Good, tradtional stuff Nowadays, bonfire just seem to be an excuse for pubs to make money – set alight a load of old pallets and park a burger van outside, whilst ensuring that the local yoof don’t pepper the fire with used Lynx cans. And as such it’s always on a weekend, regardless of when 5th November actually falls. Fortunately, the ever-benevolent Leeds City Council had provided a series of free bonfires and firework displays across the city on the appropriate day. We had great fun and my ears are still ringing!

But the action-packed week didn’t end there! On Tuesday we had a night out in Blackpool. Now, under ordinary circumstances, this is not something I’d recommend, despite my local affinity to the place. But Tuesday was different; we had tickets to see The Verve! Originally I had tickets to see them in 1995 (supporting Oasis for the princely sum of £8.50!), but they split up before the gig. I honestly thought I’d never get to see them again, so when they reformed and I managed to get tickets, I was like a dog with two tails! It was a really good gig – they’re great musicians and so talented too, and they were on stage for a full two hours! My only complaint (small) is that some of the songs were jammed out slightly too long in the mid-section, and that I’d have liked a few more tunes from A Northern Soul to have been played. I guess this was inevitable, though, as Urban Hymns is what made them mainstream (shame). Nonetheless I couldn’t help but cringe at the lighters-out-vibe during ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ – it’s not a lovesong kids, but a tale about the physical decline and eventual death of Richard Ashcroft’s father. But this isn’t The Verve’s fault and they were still great.

In other news, I’m STILL plugging away at mum’s bag. I’m now on the strap. 31 inches down, 27 to go. Mental not to self – next pattern MUST use bigger needles than 3mm as my patience is being sorely tested. John’s going out with his dad tonight, so I should be able to get a few more inches done…

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Awwww, my l’il bro is 24 tomorrow! Isn’t he growing up fast?!? Andrew is the best brother in the world and perhaps my bestest friend In many ways we’re like chalk and cheese – I left home as a teenager and have lived all over the place, done many jobs, and met many people; whereas Andrew still lives at home (he gets everything done for him too – what is it with mums and sons?), and spends time with his friends he’s known since playgroup and primary school. But we’ve also got a lot in common, including a mutual interest in beer, indie music and winding my mum up. We’re that close that sometimes we communicate through funny looks alone and can end up in sticthes at the dinner table, much to mum and John’s consternation!

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW – YOU ROCK!*

* – it’s actually his birthday tomorrow but I have a date with destiny (a box of tiles) so will not be able to post.