Category Archives: pleasures

And Not a Holiday in Sight

I’ve not been blogging as much as I would have liked over recent weeks. I blame the day job which has been manic especially as I’ve spent a chunk of July and most of August covering for colleagues who are on holiday.

And now summer has gone and, yet again this year, I’ve not had a holiday. Every plan we’ve made to get a break away this year (excepting our 5 days in February) has turned to dust for one reason or another. We had 2 weeks off in early June, but couldn’t get away as we couldn’t get either a cat feeder or get the little buggers into the local cattery. We were planning a trip to Sweden in late-October/early November but our work has scuppered that with important meetings etc. and the friends we were going to see are moving then.

So we’ve had to compromise and are taking a week in mid-September – though having decided where we wanted to go we’ve been unable to book anywhere, so it’s going to be another stay at home break. Still we already have a couple of away-days planned, including a trip to see my favourite aunt who has just come out of hospital after a stroke. The only problem is that if we stay at home we don’t relax properly and you always that never-ending list of jobs round your neck like an albatross.

All of which means we’ve had one 5 day break away in the last two years, mostly because of clashes caused by my work and Noreen’s – at any time one or the other of us has been tied to immovable project dates and schedules. And the medics seriously wonder why I get depressed. It’s enough to drive you mad!

Maybe we can get that Swedish break in next Spring. And plans are already afoot for Autumn 2009. By then I might have won the lottery and be retired. Well at least I can dream!

25/08/2008 Pet Meme


25/08/08 Pet Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

1. Gianduia occhioni, 2. Mutant pickles, 3. Thirty years old…, 4. Almost Nothing, 5. Rallying Point… In The Middle Of Nowhere…!!!, 6. Paper & String, these are a few of my favorite things, 7. Relaxing is good!, 8. Emergency Rescue, 9. Near Humphrey’s Peak, 10. Kissie … just arrived back home from the vet …, 11. A hunter Russian blue, 12. pussy 3875

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste the html into your blog or Flickr stream (the easiest way is to copy the URLs and then head over to the fd’s flickr toys link above and use the mosaic maker).

The questions and answers:
1. What was your favorite pet? Calico (tortoiseshell & white) shorthaor moggy
2. What was it’s name? She was nicknamed Pickle
3. How old where you when you got your first pet? The first to be really mine was when we moved to our own house when I was 30, but there had always been pets at home, including a dofg which came for my 7th birthday and was nominally mine.
4. What do you feed your favorite pet under the table? Almost nothing, the current 2 cats aren’t that interested in human food
5. Where to you like to take your pet on trips? Nowhere, they don’t like travelling
6. What is your pets favorite toy? String
7. What is the coolest trick your pet can do? Relax
8. Did you adopt your pet or buy it from a breeder? Rescued, all four of our cats (2 now long gone and the current 2) were rescued from The Blue Cross a charity which we continue to support
9. Where is the furthest you’ve taken your pet on a trip? For the current two, 7.2 miles from the rescue centre to home
10. What is the most extravagant thing you’ve purchased for your pet? Vet care
11. What is your favorite breed? Russian Blue cats
12. Describe your pet in one word. Pussy 😉

I guess I should explain that our first two cats were Floss (white & black; male) and Bubbles (aka Pickle; tortie & white; female) were rescued from Blue Cross at Victoria in August 1981. They were followed by the present two Harry (grey & white; male) and Sally (tabby; female) from Blue Cross at Hammersmith in December 1998. H&S appear from time to time on these pages. Notwithsatnding that there were always pets around home: cats, a dog, a tortoise, a duck. Oh and of course we also have fish. Now I know we’re mad!

Determined to do this without a human in any frame!

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

Finish this Sentence Meme

I stole this meme from Girl with a One-Track Mind and Troubled Diva because I liked it’s zen mischief potential. My objective is just to complete each of the following sentences. Your objective is to work out which are serious and which aren’t.

  1. My uncle once: sailed the ocean blue
  2. Never in my life: have I taken illegal drugs
  3. When I was five: I looked like Prince Charles
  4. High school was: much better than I realised at the time
  5. I will never forget: and that isn’t the only resemblance I have to an elephant
  6. Once I met: a man in a kilt
  7. There’s this girl I know: who is unattainable
  8. Once, at a bar: I met a Colonel with a dog
  9. By noon, I’m usually: in need of lunch
  10. Last night: I didn’t have sex on the beach
  11. If only I had: the power and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen
  12. Next time I go to church: I’ll be taking photographs
  13. What worries me most: is politicians
  14. When I turn my head left I see: something sinister
  15. When I turn my head right I see: a right tit
  16. You know I’m lying when: I keep quiet
  17. What I miss most about the Eighties is: not very much
  18. If I were a character in Shakespeare I’d be: a lion whelping in the street (Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene ii)
  19. By this time next year: I might be retired
  20. A better name for me would be: Zanzibar
  21. I have a hard time understanding: why people need religion
  22. If I ever go back to school, I’ll: be in a time machine (’cos neither of my schools exists any more)
  23. You know I like you if: I kiss you
  24. If I ever won an award, the first person I would thank would be: grateful
  25. Take my advice, never: admit that you know
  26. My ideal breakfast is: a full English
  27. A song I love but do not have is: a John Mayall mouth-music track from the ’60s that I can’t now identify or find
  28. If you visit my hometown, I suggest you: search out its history
  29. Why won’t people: think
  30. If you spend a night at my house: you’ll be solicited by a pussy (or two)
  31. I’d stop my wedding for: a KitKat
  32. The world could do without: religion and politicians
  33. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: do a bungee jump
  34. My favourite blonde is: Michaela Strachan
  35. Paper clips are more useful than: a grapefruit and Marmite sandwich
  36. If I do anything well it’s: only to lull you into a false sense of security
  37. I can’t help but: be a perfectionist
  38. I usually cry: inwardly
  39. My advice to my child/nephew/niece: if it harm none, do as you will
  40. And by the way: there’s always toast at the end of the dragon

I’m not tagging anyone for this, but feel free to borrow (or steal) it if you like it. If you do use it, it would be nice if you left a comment here.

Getting to Know You Meme


Getting to Know You Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

1. A perfect weekend watching Tom & Jerry on tv and laughing…, 2. Amur Leopard, 3. A TRIBUTE TO A DEAR FRIEND. (KILKENNY, IRELAND), 4. Untitled, 5. ₪ Rhizomatic in-between typewriter ₪, 6. “Timemachines”, 7. 14th August 2007 / Day 226, 8. The cake i Made for my mother’s birthday, 9. Embracing the sun … {}, 10. day 151 Caught with crabs in my merkin! , 11. Walking in the rain 1_2499, 12. Smiles of Tibet in Exile

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste the html into your blog or Flickr stream (the easiest way is to copy the URLs and then head over to the fd’s flickr toys link above and use the mosaic maker).

The Questions & Answers:
1. What makes you laugh? Cats
2. What makes you cry? Animal suffering
3. Who is the one person you trust the most in the world? My Mother
4. Who broke your heart? Jill (no, not you Mistress Weekes; long before that!)
5. Where was your first kiss? I really don’t remember
6. What body part do you love most (your body)? My mind
7. What body part do you love least (your body)? My fat
8. What candy fits your personality? Coffee creme chocolate
9. What color would you paint your room if you could pick any color? Magnolia
10. A word that makes you laugh? Merkin
11. What emotion do you express most often? Depression
12. Who inspires you? The Dalai Lama

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys. for the Flickr My Meme group.

What I Done on My Holidays

At the beginning of June Noreen and I had two weeks holiday (well time off work anyway). For a variety of reasons, not least that we couldn’t get anyone to feed the cats, not even our local cattery, we didn’t go away. As always we intended to have lots of days out but due to basic knackeration and idleness we failed. So here is what I did done on my holidays …

  • Took lots of photographs of the garden and especially the roses
  • Supervised the gardener reconstructing the compost heaps
  • Got a boot-load of old stuff (dead printers, garden shredder) taken to the tip
  • Proofread Anthony Powell Society quarterly Newsletter and sent it to printer
  • Paid loads of bills
  • Turned out the toot from our wardrobes and threw out a load of old shoes, underwear, etc.
  • Reviewed the draft new Anthony Powell Society website (still under development at the time of writing)
  • Got a haircut
  • Tidied up my PC hard disk
  • Photoshopped lots of photos and posted them to Flickr
  • Caught up on the pile of magazines to read by the bed
  • Had some extra sleep
  • Cooked lamb curry, vegetable curry and trout & pasta
  • Decided not to buy a new bike (‘cos I know I’ll end up not using it, like I didn’t use the last one)
  • Attended a charity trustees meeting, and unexpectedly had to chair it
  • Went to London Zoo
  • Went to the garden centre and bought loads of plants (some acers, a rose, a passion flower, lots of small things) and some terracotta pots for the patio
  • Had a major tidy-up and repotted lots of plants on the patio
  • Stayed up late but still got up fairly early (at least on some days)
  • Had several siestas
  • Went to Kew Gardens
  • Spent lots of time pottering in the garden
  • Got slightly sunburnt
  • Wrote several weblog posts
  • Had sex, several times
  • Totally buggered my sleep pattern and failed to get up early on the days I wanted to (which is why we didn’t have as many away-days as planned)
  • Processed a raft of literary society membership renewals and other admin; three afternoons worth!
  • Tried to agree what we should do for an autumn holiday – and failed!

Such is the stuff of doing nothing.

Kew Gardens

On Saturday afternoon we went to Kew Gardens, home of the Royal Botanical Society. And what a contrast with our visit to London Zoo! OK, being Saturday there were no school parties, but there were lots of visitors with young children and lots of young couples, not just tourists. Everyone was there because they were interested – all ages from the suckling child to octogenarians; English, Australian, Japanese; the young and fit to those who needed a wheelchair or an electric buggy.

Kew is vast: over 300 acres; over a mile from end to end; and around half a mile from side to side. The RBS divide the gardens into three areas and reckon that each area is suitable for a 2-3 hour visit. I take leave to doubt this; we spend three hours there and saw about half of one area, tho’ we were taking our time. Essentially Kew is one huge piece of parkland with specialist collections and specialist “greenhouses” between open areas of grass and specimen trees. So you can lose an enormous number of people in it and it doesn’t seem busy. There are good paths, but you can (mostly) walk on the grass too; we even saw one family group who were obviously there to have a birthday party for their 6 year-old; a picnic and games on the grass!

Kew has something botanical for everyone. From the alpine house to the Palm House (excellent free sauna, as is the Water Lily House!); from cacti to aquatic plants; from deciduous woodland to marine algae. Whatever time of year you go there is always something to see. Obviously just now all the roses are in full flower as well as peonies and some irises; we spent quite a lot of time in the rose pergola, looking at the climbing roses. A few weeks ago the gardens would have been alive with Spring bulbs and Azaleas. In the autumn there will be the magnificent colours of the trees.

Every specimen is labelled clearly, so you know not only what it is but what variety it is. More than that each of the specialist areas has large, clear and informative labels – and unlike London Zoo they tell you interesting things; I learnt several things I didn’t know! But there is no prozeletysing about the right way to garden; Kew isn’t a garden show but a zoo for plants. The Palm House and the Temperate House are excellent and in the basement of the former there is a marine display which majors not just on marine plants as we think of them but explains the importance of algae (which includes all seaweeds); as an aquatic display and an exhibition of fishkeeping this knocks spots off the London Zoo Aquarium.

Like London Zoo, Kew also contains a number of important buildings, including the famous Pagoda and Kew Palace. The latter (administered by the Royal Palaces, not RBS) has recently been restored and opened to the public (at an extra charge); we have to go back and make sure we see this. There is a formal lake (with fountain), a few formal flower beds, and several excellent cafés (good cake in decent sized pieces!) and a new tree-top level walkway – again something we have to revisit to get to see.

At £13 for adult admission it still isn’t cheap, but wow!, do you get good value. I reckon you could spend a whole day there and still not do justice to more than half of the gardens.

OK, so what didn’t I like? Kew is under the main flightpath into Heathrow Airport, so the constant noise of aircraft is a pest. And you can’t buy a bottle/can of drink except from one of their cafés (makes note to take drink next time).

If you’re interested in plants, gardens, biology or just a day in the fresh air near central London then this is well worthwhile; it is one of those magical, little-known, places. And like London Zoo the RBS do lots of important conservation work.

Here are the best of my photos of Kew on Flickr.

London Zoo

We’re on holiday, but not away, this week and next. So we are trying to have a few days out, weather permitting which it didn’t on Monday and Tuesday.

Yesterday we went to London Zoo. I’ve not been to the Zoo since I was a teenager (the Snowdon Aviary wasn’t long open) – so over 40 years ago! And Noreen has never been despite having lived in London for over 30 years and done most of the tourist things.

What a disappointment. I’m glad I went, but to be honest I probably won’t bother again. Although we didn’t look at everything, we did see a large proportion. Now I know we’re all used to seeing animals in action in 5 second “vision bites” on TV, and that in reality most animals spend a lot of their day doing very little. But even allowing for that I found the “exhibits” dull. Why?

Many of the indoor enclosures looked drab, dull, unexciting and almost uncared for. Which I know does an injustice to the keepers, as they care greatly about giving their animals the best possible environment. The indoor spaces were frankly rather tatty and in need of a good coat of paint; not really surprising when you look at the number of pairs of feet walking round.

I suppose the thing which struck me most was the lack of variety. Sure there are birds and reptiles; fish; mammals of all types and sizes; insects and bugs. But I felt there was not enough variety of each, although of course space is very limited and one has to provide enough room for the number of visitors as well as the animals and staff as well as having some exhibit spaces empty and being refurbished. Nevertheless I felt that many of the animals are still kept in inadequately sized accommodation – specifically I don’t feel it ethical to keep an owl in an aviary where it doesn’t get a good long flightpath (20 x 30 x 8 feet high really doesn’t feel large enough!).

And the limitations of space, and even money, don’t excuse labels which were uninformative to anyone except a 10 year-old doing their school project. The science content of the labels for people like me was non-existent. OK, I set a high standard because I’m a scientist, but there should be something there to capture me too; I also need to be made to say “Heavens, I never knew that!” And by doing this you stretch other visitors and make them think. It’s a hard task; yes a lot of the labelling has to enthuse the school kids and the less well educated; that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be some (not all) information at a higher level.

And heavens the number of school kids! The whole place was crawling with school parties – all ages from 5 to 15 (or more). It’s a bit much when the noise of the kids drowns out the local starlings and the London traffic! Don’t get me wrong; it’s great that the kids are there and hopefully showing some interest (especially in a pair of turtles having it off! – the whole group of 8 year-olds had their mobile phones out taking photos!). Yes, they are the future and we need to catch ’em young and get them enthused about science in all forms. But it I would have felt more sanguine about it if I thought they were learning something and not just wandering round ticking boxes on the project sheet or meandering aimlessly. Most of the teachers didn’t seem too interested either, except to try to rein the kids in a bit; they weren’t doing any much teaching.

As a fishkeeper the area I really wanted to see was the Aquarium. Frankly I felt that this was a disgrace. Half the exhibit space appeared to be boarded off, with no word of explanation. Was it because it is being rebuilt; refurbished; closed because unrepairable (the building is old now); there isn’t the money to run it? Why? Nothing; just blank dark blue hoarding in a space so dark one could hardly see where one was walking. The tanks which were in use were to my mind unexciting and all too small. Yes there was a variety of freshwater and salt-water fish, tropical and temperate; but with a few exceptions (like large Tambaqui, fragile seahorses and quantities of anemones and corals) nothing a good amateur aquarist couldn’t keep at least as well. And almost nothing about crustaceans, shellfish, seaweed and no really good biotype displays.

So what was good? The staff were all helpful. The grounds are immaculately kept. Some exhibits were good. The penguins and meercats were an especial and unexpected delight. As was the large tiger dozing against the wall of his enclosure, literally just a foot the other side of the Plexiglas from us. Likewise the two very asleep, and very beautiful, Servals looking like oversized spotted domestic cats. The Lubetkin Penguin Pool is still there (it is Grade I listed) and refurbished but not in use (sad; I hope a use can be found for it other than for wire sculptures of insects). Noreen enjoyed the rainforest displays. The café is decent, even if not cheap (but then where is?). And the loos were spotless despite the hoards of kids.

I’m sure there is more that’s good – we didn’t see everything – but that doesn’t feel like a good return on the almost £20 admission price. Sad, really; very sad.

And there are a few of my photos of the animals over on Flickr; hopefully more to come later.

Summer in England

How do you know it’s summer in England? No not because the sun is shining. Because it’s raining! It really is almost that predictable.

We’re on holiday for a couple of weeks at present; a badly needed break. Unfortunately we failed in our attempts to go away because we were unable to find anyone to feed the cats (none of our 3 cat feeders is available, nor is our local cattery; they’re all on holiday too!). So we’re staying home and trying to go out for days. But it’s raining! – nice steady summer rain which looks set for the day.

The two top things we want to do are go to London Zoo (I’ve not been since I was a child) and go to Kew Gardens. Both are largely outdoors. Which ain’t too much fun when it’s peeing down with rain. There are few things more miserable, in my mind, than being out for the day in the rain.

At least the rest of the week looks good. Meanwhile we’re at home doing a few odd jobs around the place and not much else.

Update, 1735 hrs. And it is still raining; don’t think it’s stopped all day! We’ve spent the day pottering about and clearing out all the old toot from our wardrobes.