This journal is friends only - friend at will (there won't be anything posted that you can see but feel free).

If you want to be friended back please email me at lexin0 (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk

Christmas went well, I had a guest, aunty_marion and we ate various comestibles all either from packets or from frozen. I don’t believe in cooking if I can avoid it. Aunty Bessie does roast potatoes much better than me. aunty_marion doesn’t like things like raisins or sultanas so I had all the Christmas pud, which made me very happy. Having a guest for Christmas was lovely, and Aunty Marion is welcome any time.

My two cats are still not on speaking terms, though Pixel (the new cat) almost put a foot out of the bedroom yesterday. So minor progress there. Smokey and she hiss when they encounter each other, though judicious use of treats as a reward for quiet is reducing the incidence of this.

I’m considering how Pixel might be brought into the living room without World War III breaking out. Any advice gladly received.

In other news, I have had a cold over Christmas and New Year, much coughing was coughed, and it is threatening to return. I can so live without that, and so can the cats. No sooner has a cat settled on me (either Smokey in the living room or Pixel in the bedroom) than I start to cough and the poor cat leaves in a huff. It’s not much fun for me, either.

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A couple of people have asked for pictures of Pixel, my new cat. This link should work:

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k169/lexin0/Pixel/IMG_0075%202_zpswojjp8yr.jpg

She is a darling - very sweet, small, black and white kitty.

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No news I can give you on the job front, things continue to grind on in a grindy sort of way.

I do, however, have a new cat.

It is thus: a friend of a friend was looking for someone to take on a cat of hers. She started the year with four cats. One, the eldest and grande dame of the household, Pippo, died. This left three cats, Pixel, Squeakerton and Polar, none of whom were happy without Pippo. Pixel was being bullied by Polar and Squeakerton was acting out (peeing where he shouldn’t and so on) so she decided to try to rehome Pixel, and Squeakerton if she could find anyone suitable.

I said I’d take Pixel. This was in June. The FOAF was going to South America in August, so said she would wait until she came back to pass Pixel over. August came and went, and I got in touch with her, and she said she’d got flu, so could I wait. I waited. September came and went, as did most of October.

Finally, she said she was ready to pass on Pixel and even then it took a little while to arrange a suitable weekend to bring her down from Norfolk to London.

Pixel spent the first two weeks here living at the back of my wardrobe and only coming out to eat, drink, pee and poop. In the last ten days or so, she’s come out into the bedroom and now sleeps either on my bed, on me or on the chair I’ve sprayed catnip all over. But she won’t come into the rest of the flat, and if Smokey goes into the bedroom, Pixel hisses and spits at her. Smokey just looks confused, but does do that fur-all-out thing that cats do – her tail looks like a bottle brush and she looks twice her normal size, and hisses, but doesn’t spit. Every other day they have a yowly disagreement, but separate without damage to either party.

Sometimes Pixel will growl at nothing – no sign of Smokey, but she sits under a chair and has a growl to herself.

I’m not sure what to do now – I’ve bought Feliway Friends and put it in Pixel’s room. Smokey has ordinary Feliway in the living room.

I want them to co-exist, if not peacefully, without fighting or growling. Any suggestions?

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From the organisers (of which I am not one...)

We are delighted - but slightly staggered - to announce that KISMET 2018 is ON!! We’ve signed the contract and paid the deposit, so we’re committed (or perhaps should be…)

When? : 31 August – 2 September 2018

Where? : Lane End Conference Centre (the same rooms we had last time!) Church Road, Lane End, Bucks HP14 3HH (www.lane-end-conferences.co.uk)

How much?: Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon (fully inclusive of en-suite accommodation and all meals & refreshments) £245

For those who want to continue the fun - Friday afternoon to Monday morning (to include Sunday dinner, & Monday breakfast) £345

Supporting membership £30

It’s still early days, but further information & updates will be provided as soon as possible. We’ll be looking for lots of help, especially on the more techie stuff, and will post requests as we think of things we need (You have been warned!)

Any questions? Ask here, message Chrissy or email us at kismetcon@gmail.com

Want to register? (please!) Contact Chrissy for payment options (we have lots!) on chrissy.hornby@btinternet.com

Love from Anne & Chrissy (who are currently being measured for their straitjackets ~ Chrissy: Can mine be Vulcan green? Anne: Only if I can have Science Blue)

****

ETAAs a further attraction, I shall be going. I have already decided, though I haven't yet talked to aunty_marion about sitting Smokey. Plus, it's only a week after my gaming event in Wales, which is irritating.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/648113.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Still applying for jobs. Still not getting any. I get the odd interview, but so far none have been successful. I’ve got one interview outstanding since March – they interviewed me in March and I still don’t have the outcome. But then one of my FB friends applied for a Civil Service job last June and started a week ago, so I’m not quite losing hope on that one.

In other news, there is no real other news.

Smokey is very well, full of beans and cat food. She’s currently asleep on the sofa – we had a lovely cuddle this morning, but then I had to get up from my recumbent position and start doing some work on the computer. So she stretched out into my spot, perhaps thinking it would stay warm.

Oh, I know what I’m doing – I bought the AD&D 5e (Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition for those who aren’t geeks) and have been writing a basic scenario so we can see how it runs. In this I’ve been assisted by my friend Patrick who is such a geek he even out-geeks me, and he calculated everything on his character sheet out by hand to ensure that I wasn’t cheating him out of any advantages his character should have.

What between him and me, we managed to spot a bug in the computer program I’m using to roll up characters, which made us both very happy. We’re strange like that.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/644629.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

I’m safely back from redemption_con; the journeys were totally straightforward and the trains were on time there and back.

I enjoyed the convention. Numbers seemed down (if you like a fan-run convention do go along to Redemption in 2019, it runs better with more people) and the convention over-organised for the numbers (at times there were nine streams of events), but that didn’t bother me. I just went along to what appealed to me and dodged anything that didn’t.

I spent a lot of time with legionseagle and julesjones over the weekend, and with various other people whose LJ and DW names I have forgotten. Much gossip was gossed.

Guests were Dr Lynette Nusbacher, Steve Lycett , Miranda Gower-Qian, Thalia Evans and David Wake. Probably you’ve never heard of any of them, I had only heard of Dr Lynette who is one of the presenters of the wargame TV show “Time Commanders”. She was lovely, though I didn’t go to any of her talks she was very nice and approachable when out and about and she always wears lovely clothes, which she told me mostly come from TK Maxx.

The only complaint I heard about the food offerings in the restaurant was from the two people I know who can’t cope with spices. All the cheap restaurant meals (Chinese, Indian and Mexican) were not suitable for them. But they had the option of pizzas in the bar, though one person did mention that it was a bit same-y to have a plain pizza two nights running. I liked the desserts on the cheap restaurant meals, the fudge cake was yummy, and they were quite happy to supply cream if asked.

One night I had the New York hot dog pizza and that was very nice, though I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so physically hot for some reason, and hot cheese is a really hot thing when you bite into it.

The carvery baps were very good, decent portions, as were the sandwich bar options.

Breakfasts were adequate mass catering, though I liked the fact that they were frying eggs practically on demand.

Other things: yes, some of the panels were under attended, but I put that down to the convention being somewhat under attended overall and the sometimes nine streams meaning that people were spread a bit thin. The panels I attended went off well, even if there weren’t that many there. I thought six streams would be fine for the number we had attending, with room to expand it if more sign up.

I forgot about slash Pictionary. I’d have been there if I’d remembered.

One thing I would like to see for Redemption 19 is a slash/adult stream as there’s no general slash con (that I know of) being run in the UK currently.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/642427.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

It’s 5am and I have given up any pretence of sleeping. I have no idea why I have insomnia tonight. As has the cat, who is meowing round me as if I might have a clue what she wants. It’s probably food, but Smokey is not a cat who fusses for her food usually. I have put food out, but she’s not eating it. Maybe she’s just worried about me.

It doesn’t help that I have in some way banjaxed my back and hip. They are ouchy. And I’ve had a couple of goes of cramp in my right calf, leaving that sore. I found some painkillers in the back of a cupboard and they’re about cutting in now.

In other news I’m playing a couple of computer games. Skyrim retains its interest, not least because you don’t have to rush around beating creatures up to get anywhere. Building your own house can take up hours of innocent fun. Not so Shadow of Mordor. Oh, what a dull game that is if you’re not very quick with your button recognition. I frequently mix up square and circle, and thus end up dead more often than alive. Plus, the baddies level up if you don’t kill them quickly and I’ve ended up with a couple of bosses at 20th level that appear whenever I do and I can’t kill them because they’ve about 25 supporters who appear likewise. Largest number of orcs I can do away with is about six. More than that and I’m outnumbered. So it gets a bit boring.

My brother bought me Arcania for my birthday, and that’s a bit more interesting. Doesn’t require me to learn any button combinations to hit things, and that’s always good. Not as pretty as Shadow of Mordor though, or rather, not as well drawn because I wouldn’t call Mordor pretty but they’ve really put a lot of work into how it looks.

There’s another game a friend bought me for my birthday, a game set in modern times, but I’ve put it somewhere and don’t remember where it is or what it was called. Maybe it’s in a box I still haven’t unpacked from the decorating.

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Meme collected from legionseagle.

Rules: go to page 7 of your WIP, skip to the 7th line, share 7 sentences, and tag 7 more writers to continue the challenge.


Elrond waited for the other elf who did deliveries for the bakery to arrive and she, too, said she’d not seen anyone around in the street.

Elrond sighed. So that was the end of that possibility.

#

Finding a residence in a fold of hills leading down to the sea outside the city proper, it had amused Elrond to call his new home Rivendell. The only resemblance it bore to his house on Middle-Earth was that it was, if possible, even more rambling than his former home, and had been built over a long period in a variety of styles and painted a number of colours. His amusement, he knew, was not shared by all of his household, but at least there was little confusion about who lived here.

He’d chosen it because it was the only house available that seemed large enough to contain his household. He’d arrived with a few friends, the Ringbearers among them, but his foresight had not failed him and in time the numbers grew.



I don't tag, it always strikes me as unfair.

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Does anyone know of any book bloggers who would be interested in reviewing books that the writers describe as "far-out insane grimdark epic fantasy."

If so, let me know and I'll pass the details on to my two writer friends who hope to be having their books out soon-ish.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/629342.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

I'm not sure I really understood what was required, the tutor had asked for a monologue addressed to someone else and this is what I produced. He said it was a bit of a cheat. However, ( this is a short original piece I wrote for my creative writing course.Collapse )

Comments welcome, as always.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/628691.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

I’m arranging to go to my Auntie Queenie’s funeral on the 9th of November – what a palaver it all is.

The village she lived in, Thorne (South Yorkshire), has two stations, and it has taken me three days to get my waffly Auntie Peggy to tell me which one is most convenient for them to collect me from and for the church. My brother, who is not nearly as waffly, would have given me a lift at least from Doncaster, but he can’t go as he can’t get the leave from his employer.

That leaves me practically on my own, as the only people I’ll know at this jamboree are my Auntie Peggy, her husband Geoff, and their daughter Margaret. I’ve never met Auntie Queenie’s daughter, my cousin Diane (or not that I remember – I may have been to her wedding when I was a little girl) and only met her brother, my cousin John, once and that a long time ago, again when I was a child. Should be a laugh a minute.

Thinking about it, it will be a laugh in one way or another. Any given family event involving my family, something goes horribly wrong in a weird way, and the only way we can find to cope is to laugh at it because the alternative is to scream and throw things or have a massive row.

The only members of the family alive from my father’s generation are the aforementioned Peggy, Geoff and Uncle Sonnie’s widow, Pat. I don’t know if Pat will be there as I don’t know how well she got on with Queenie, or what her health is like. Auntie Pat must be in her 90s as well. I mean, some of my cousins are pensioners already. Of all the cousins, I’m the second youngest at 53 and my brother is the youngest at 51. It’s a sobering thought.

Still, tickets are booked and will be in the post to me tomorrow. I’ve elected to travel first class there and back as it was only a few quid more and I don’t want to be uncomfortable as well as miserable.

I shall have to look out a black handbag as I don’t feel my normal bright red handbag is suitable for a funeral, and I shall have to decide which of my coats is the best option. I have four coats: light grey, dark grey, bright green and navy blue but with checks. I’m leaning towards the dark grey.

What do people think? Suitable coat to wear to the funeral of an aunt you like but were not particularly close to?

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/628348.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

I am back from Nottingham, where I was attending the British Fantasy Convention. I had a great time, saw some excellent panels and met a gaggle of writers and people who teach writing. I attended with my friend Anna Smith-Spark (@annalibitina on Twitter), whom I know from work. When I worked of course.

My only quibble was the choice of people on the panels. I get that it’s largely an event for writers and aspiring writers, but I got mildly tired of hearing people say something along the lines of, “When I wrote my book [name of book] I did [this awesome thing].” I know that a lot of the people who attend are there to sell their book, but really? Is it necessary to hammer it home that hard?

@annalibitina did not over sell her book in the panel that she was on (she has an agent, though not a publishing deal – yet) though the reading she did was the best I heard and made me want to read her book properly. Also from discussions I had with her, I think she and legionseagle would get on a storm. Not that they’re writing the same type of book, because they’re totally not, but their politics mesh very well, and their views of fantasy as a genre.

Anna is concerned that she doesn’t end up with fans who miss the point of her book (“Death! Death! Death!”) and don’t realise that she’s playing with the trope.

Sadly, she can’t make Eastercon – but maybe I can get them to meet up for lunch sometime.

I gather the next British Fantasy Convention will be in Scarborough. A tidy step from where I live. And will be in September, which is also a bit close to my gaming event. We’ll see how my finances bear up, too.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/628171.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Three good things have happened today, both of which fill me with quiet pleasure.

Firstly, I bought some writing software which has encouraged me to write 1000 words on my Elrond/Thranduil story about them meeting in Valinor. That's a move forward as I'd been stalled.

Secondly, I managed to find (remember) my Fanfiction.net password. Remember fanfiction.net? Well, I sort of do, and not being able to get into my account was an occasional niggle. Not a day in day out niggle, just something that irritated me when I remembered it. So I spent some time today working through the options for the email address and password combinations that it could be. And, in the end, I found it.

Thirdly, I finally put the 'missing' story of mine on AO3. I've finally accepted that I've lost touch with the co-writer (some fan called Tidmag) and just put it up on my account. Maybe she'll get in touch, maybe she won't, but that won't be niggling at me, either. I only wrote it in 2006...

So that's it.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/626781.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

In the comments of my last entry, the question was raised about whether I remember not having computers - and I do.

I bought my first computer in 1986, and it was an Amstrad 8512, it had two disc drives and an integral printer, which was the reason I'd bought it. The word processing program was called Locoscript, and was a total bugger to learn, though I did get quite adept at it in the end. I can't imagine I paid for it myself, my husband and I largely lived on welfare benefits, so I think it was either a Christmas or birthday gift from my parents.

At the time, I lived in Scunthorpe, in Lincolnshire and was married. All that was to change pretty quickly.

So, yes, I do remember what it was like before computers.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/626173.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Sometimes the help files for computers are maddening. I found one which started

"Problem: You cannot print" and then went on to say, "You may find it easier to follow the steps if you print this article first."

Are they for real?

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/622722.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

The big question...do I update to Windows 10, or don't I? I'm still undecided. I've been reading marahmarie with interest and care. She recommended a BIOS update for my laptop, which I'm applying even as I write, but actually my turn for having my desktop updated has already been notified to me.

Still very leery. Nothing good comes of Windows updates, in my experience.

In other news, Plex sucks like a sucky thing. Barely a day passes but it drops connectivity and has to be patiently coaxed into working again. Three things connect into it (the TV, the PlayStation and the iPad) and keeping all of them so they'll connect is almost a full time job.

So nervous of a Windows update.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/621745.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

I bought some map designing software because I've always wanted it since I saw it advertised a few years ago when I was poor. I couldn't buy it then, and it disappeared of the site of the company that was selling it.

The other day, I found it again and couldn't resist it. Since then, I've been playing with it - the learning curve is practically vertical with it, I've never used computer aided design before, and it's complicated.

Today I produced a map of a village. It's a rough old village, but here it is:



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I used my iPad as phone, today. My first use of Skype. What a weird thing that is.

Anybody wishing to Skype me will need to know my real name (and there are many people with my name, including three also living in London) and also let me know so that I can have the iPad or the laptop on. My desktop, which is my workhorse computer has no microphone or camera, and is staying that way. I have enough trouble with the bloke who contacts me through FB chat if he happens to catch me - I keep it mostly switched off to discourage him.

On the plus side, though, I have managed to finally find an app which allows one to use an iPad as an extended screen. The odd thing about it is that it's wired, not wireless. Good thing is that there's no lag, but it is strange. I've invested in a six foot fire cable for the iPad for my trip to Wales.

Knowing my luck, they (that is Lone Wolf Development) will announce their browser version at Gen Con, and I'll have bought it all for nothing. We will see.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/618968.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

I am somewhat behindhand on my reviews of the Hugo nominations. This is largely because I started the novels and the first one I picked up is “The Three Body Problem” by Cixin Liu. Other people on File 770 have raved over it, but I’m finding it very hard going. I will try to finish it, but I’m only prepared to give it another couple of days before I give up and move on. It’s not the translation – the translator did a bang up job – I’m just struggling to dig up much interest.

It’s also because I had to prepare to run my occasional Call of Cthuhlu campaign for my two friends, which always takes up time. We had a good game, though. Well worth it. We’re still looking for a third player, in case anyone’s interested.

The final two "related" works…and there are no spoilers in these items, for once.

( “Why Science is Never Settled”, Tedd RobertsCollapse )

( Wisdom from My Internet, Michael Z. WilliamsonCollapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/612957.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

On Thursday, I had a bit of a hiccup. I decided that, after a year of using it, I didn’t like the way that Windows 8’s standard email program dealt with emails. So I resolved to sort it out and get Outlook 2013 up and working and make it my default program for email. I thought it would be easy. A ten minute job.

How wrong could I be?

As it turned out, very very wrong. It took me only a few minutes to make it work with my outlook.com email address. Very simple. Done in three clicks. For some reason the icloud.com email address I have but never use was already linked to it. Don’t know how that happened, I’d certainly done nothing to make it do that.

The sticking point was my standard gmail.com address, the one I use for 90% of the time.

Gmail’s instructions make it sound simple. “Put these settings into the email program and watch it work.” So I put the settings into the email program and it did not work. I varied them according to the instructions for over four hours and it still did not work. I had a cup of tea and tried again. No dice. Rebooted. No dice. Cuddled the cat in a marked manner. No dice.

Finally I tried settings I was sure I’d tried at least twice before with no results…and it worked. Eh? What was with that?

My old friend yonmei once said that she’d been working with computers since 1991 and still sometimes the only explanation for why the thing has done what it’s just done is, “It’s possessed.” I concur.

Hugos reviews, continued. Note: rampaging spoilers herein. Please do not click on the links if you can’t cope with spoilers.

I’m currently working my way through the “Best Related Work” list. I should say up front that I haven’t finished two of these, and doubt if I will finish them – if I’m even meant to finish them which I’m not completely sure I am.


( Letters from Gardner, Lou AntonelliCollapse )


( The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SFCollapse )


Finally for this tranche we have:

( Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful TruthCollapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/612741.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

The Hugo Awards packet came out yesterday (yippee! I’ve been waiting for this) and I think what I’m going to do is to post probably short reviews of the stories as I read them, mostly as records for my own voting purposes so that I’ll remember what I read and what I thought of it when I read it. I plan to give them marks out of ten, but reserve the right to alter these as I read more.

I’m also going to start cross posting to my WordPress thingy at mpmrommel.co.uk as I don’t currently make use of that and I really should. I shall just have to hope that if I overstep the allowances the hosts get in touch and let me know.

I have to say, also, that anything that isn’t in the packet and isn’t available on the web probably won’t get read. It’s not that I don’t want to read those stories, but that I’ve spent this month’s allowance on books, and can’t afford to spend more.

Note: rampaging spoilers herein. Please do not click on the links if you can’t cope with spoilers.

( On a Spiritual Plane by Lou AntonelliCollapse )

( A Single Samurai by Steven DiamondCollapse )

( Totaled by Kary EnglishCollapse )

So that’s the first three.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/612148.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Does anyone have any helpful advice about using a neti pot?

I have a post-nasal drip that just will not quit. A neti pot is my last attempt to cure it myself before throwing myself on the mercy of my doctor. I've already tried allergy medication.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/607260.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

This post is image heavy, so I'm cutting it. If you want to see them, you might have to let the images load. ( Read more...Collapse )

Basically, I went to the zoo, and I photographed everything that moved. A lot of things didn't show themselves because it was cold, and because Gorilla Kingdom was closed due to one of the gorillas having given birth overnight.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/605636.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Quite by accident (I thought they were detective stories) I’ve started to read the Whyborne and Griffin series of books by Jordan L Hawk – for some reason I got bored with the fanfic I was reading and had a look what I’d got on the Kindle.

These are horror stories with a side order of m/m sex when the eldritch pseudopods aren’t reaching from beyond the stars, or, in one memorable moment, when the sandstorm is howling outside the tent and there’s nothing else to do.

The two protagonists are Dr Percival Whyborne, comparative philologist at the local museum and his friend Griffin Flaherty (I think it’s Flaherty – it’s something Irish beginning with an F) detective, thrown together by the events of the first book Widdershins, which is also the name of the New England town in which they live.

They’re both attractive blokes but the stories are mostly told from the point of view of Whyborne who suffers from a chip on his shoulder about his appearance so heavy he should be nicknamed Mr Chippy. Also along on the adventures is Christine, the museum’s Egyptologist, who seems as at home with a rifle and a swordstick if she has to as she is down among the mummies – skills which would come as a surprise no doubt to a real Egyptologist.

When I say these stories are horror, I mean a very specific kind of horror – anyone who’s ever read the stories of H P Lovecraft will recognise the milieu: Nylarthotep trying to reach from beyond the grave or from beyond the beyond, Yog-Sothoth worshipped by hooded cultists mostly from New England (sorry New England), Cthuhlu and the canning factory…you get the picture.

As such they’re about right for me – the horrors are not at all believable, to my mind – and anyway I run regular scenarios of the horror roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu, so I doubt these stories can dig up anything worse than the stuff I’ve encountered already in the game.

And they’re good page turners. They keep the suspense going and the action going. I recommend them if you’re looking for an adventure with a bit of loving thrown in and have a few hours to kill.

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Smokey has returned, not hungry, slightly dazed and confused, with a bare bit on one leg where they put the anaesthetic in, but with sparkling teeth.

I'm told the tartar was worse than they'd expected - really very bad in places, and she had swollen gums because of it. So done just in time. But the teeth underneath the covering of crap are in good condition and none needed to be extracted. They didn't do x-rays as the teeth didn't give any indication of caries.

I've been told to feed her on special "dental" cat food one day in three or so and to slowly stop feeding her wet food. She won't like that, though I wonder if her preference for wet food was because of her teeth.

Smokey behaved well throughout, didn't bite anyone and was quite laid back about it all.

I am, of course, being given the cold shoulder treatment by the kitty - though from fairly close by. So she's annoyed with me, but wants to be near me, just in case.

I'm so pleased to have her back safe, I can't tell you!

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I know you’re all still on the edge of your seats to hear how I’m doing with Smokey.

She had a good weekend, lots of cuddles and scritches, though she is definitely not as clingy as she was when she first came to me. Having a cat that won’t let you out of the room without following is sometimes quite fun, but I’m rejoicing at the fact that she’s growing more confident. She still doesn’t like the computer or the iPad, though. They take my attention away from cats, which is where it should be in her opinion.

She did really well with my gaming friends. I sorted out a place where she could go and hide, which had food, water, her favourite blanket and so on. In the end, though, she hardly used it.

She insisted on staying in the room with my friends, occasionally drawing attention to herself but generally happy to watch them and blink slowly in the way of cats and when she wanted support she came and sat on me. She did have a mad twenty minutes where she ran from the living room to the kitchen and back again repeatedly – I don’ t know what she was about there – but it was short lived.

Today, she meets the cleaner. That should be fun and games for all as it’ll be her first encounter with that creature of evil, the vacuum cleaner. Also the hissy thing that is the iron.

I changed the litter in her tray and gave the tray a wash; never a fun job but it has to be done. I have to say, modern cat litter is very much easier to cope with (if no lighter) than the stuff we used when I had cats before in the early 1980s to the early 1990s. There seems to have been a step change in cat litter technology in the intervening years.

Her appetite seems to have improved considerably – one thing that’s helped is that I tested a different brand of dry cat food on her, and she much prefers it. The down side is that it’s Iams (the only ‘serious’ cat food you can get in supermarkets) and one of my FB friends says that Iams test on animals.

I’m a bit torn over this news. I see any animal testing as a bad thing (though I accept that in science it’s sometimes unavoidable) but on the other hand at least someone has tested the food to check that cats like the stuff. It seems better than formulating and manufacturing a cat food just hoping cats like it (which the manufacturer seems to have done with Go-Cat judging by Smokey’s attitude towards it). However, I’ve ordered some small bags of alternatives from an online pet store to check against it to see if she’ll like those even better.

Then I won’t tell anyone what brand she went for, in case it has an even worse reputation. Frankly my definite preference is that my cat eats her food and fills out a bit – because at the moment she’s a bit of a thin thing and a thank-you. I don’t want her fat, but I want her flanks to fill out.

In other news

It seems there will be a voluntary retirement/redundancy scheme advertised today or tomorrow. I’m very tempted to get a quote just to see how much I’d get if I decided to go. You don’t have to accept the quote and anyway I’m a bit young to retire – but I hate working for this government so very much.

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Up at a sparrow's fart after a very disturbed night. Smokey (for it was she) came and "slept" on my bed.

This "sleeping" involved wanting fuss every hour on the hour, then going to sleep for an hour on my feet, rinse and repeat all through the night until about 4am, when she disappeared to sleep properly because it was clearly all too much for a simple cat to cope with.

She's currently behind the sofa (I think) having a kip, whereas I'm up and looking at my work laptop through bleary eyes.

The good news, though, is that she's eating and is using her litter tray just fine. (By the way, thank you shezan for recommending that kind of litter tray. It's very much easier for me to cope with and Smokey just loves it.)

We are having something of a Mexican standoff about dry cat food. She's not keen (despite being fed it at the RSPCA) whereas I think it should form the mainstay of a cat's diet and is good for her teeth. We'll see who has the stomach for the fight. So to speak.

This is my best photo of her so far - still a bit blurry:

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k169/lexin0/catandassoc020_zps62feb5b8.jpg

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Well, the RSPCA are going to come to my house to interview me on Thursday and I have to do some prep for that – I am a bit nervous that I won't be found worthy of having a cat from them. Some of my Facebook friends tell me I'm being overly concerned, but I can't help it. I hate interviews of any kind.

I won't have time to prepare everything to be ready for the little catty arrival by Thursday, but it should be helpful – shouldn't it? – that I know what I have to do. This is largely thanks to the advice of my friends here and on Facebook, I know I wouldn't have thought of half of it without you!

My work friend who volunteers for the RSPCA has offered to lend me a cat carrier, and will have it there ready for me assuming I pass the inspection. I should be able to see the cats on offer at the weekend, I hope – it means going to some place in north(ish) London that begins with an H. (Possibly Holloway.) I trust I will remember where before I have to go there – I can always ring them and ask for directions, I suppose.

As for bringing my new friend home, I shall have to get a taxi. Unless they deliver – my friend seemed to think there was a good chance they might deliver. Which seems odd, but you never know.

I do know they did deliver years ago when my (ex) husband and I had a cat from a rescue place which may or may not have been the RSPCA.

That was one weird cat. We were told that it might be shy – might come out of its cat carrier slowly and take a slow look around and investigate the place.

Not so. When the cat arrived, my ex put the carrier down on the floor in the living room, opened the top…and didn't have time to stand back because the cat came out of its carrier as if the hounds of hell were after him and shot round the room like greased lightning. We just stood back and watched, amazed that this 'shy' cat was hitting the sound barrier. He did calm down after a while, but wow, that cat was fast!

We called him Hernu (Hernaux?) after a French politician then in the news who'd disgraced himself over some problem with a Greenpeace ship. (I don't remember the exact details after so long.) My ex said that the brains of our new cat just about matched this politician, a bit like calling a cat David Mellor.

I have very fond memories of Hernu. Not because he was a clever cat (on the contrary, he was rather dim – Hernu chased flies but the flies regularly outwitted him), not because he was a handsome cat (he was lean and rangy, scraggy and rather untidy, like Aragorn-as-Strider but with whiskers, a cat who had never quite tucked his shirt in and whose socks were always falling down), and not because he was an affectionate cat (he came to humans strictly on his own terms) but because he was our cat.

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I hate this government so very, very much. They would look good on a lamppost, like Mussolini.

The Spending Review. Yes, that’s what it’s about. For welfare claimants none of it is an improvement.

The key policy elements of the settlement include:
• 7 waiting days at the start of UC, ESA and JSA
• Increased requirements at start of claim, including an English language test for JSA, mandation* for CV and UJ (Universal Jobmatch) registration
• Increased signing, weekly for at least 50% of claimants
• UC claimants subject to full conditionality to verify claim every year
• Increased requirements for IS lone parents
• Looking at pilots for new ways of encouraging ESA(WRAG) to take steps to improve their health and significantly increasing requirements for claimants over 3.5 years on JSA


Seven waiting days at the start of a UC, ESA or JSA claim. Now, that’s seven days without money for the poorest people. My savings are such that I could last seven days without pay, but many people, including many poorly paid people, are skin-close to borrowing from loan sharks to keep the wolf from the door as it is.

Increased requirements for the start of claim…we may live in England, but nowhere is there a requirement to be able to speak English. Speak what you like has always been the rule.

Besides, I can think of at least one or two situations where the outcome of this would be very unfair indeed. Think of the situation of a woman who has come here as the wife of a Pakistani man. She speaks only Gujarati. He’s abusive and she leaves him, leaving the children behind her. She can’t go to family: they will shun her because she left her husband. She can only claim UC/JSA – but now she can’t because she doesn’t speak English. What does she do? Her only option is to return to her abuser, because she can’t live any other way.

It’s not that unusual a situation in the district where I live. One of my colleagues has a wife who manages a Jobcentre in central London. Where she works, about 65% of the clients don’t speak good English.

The mandatory registration on Universal Jobmatch means putting your details on a site known to be unsafe (see what Johnny Void has to say about it) and known to be glitchy, in a way which means the staff at your Jobcentre can see what you’ve applied for and harass you to apply for unsuitable jobs in places you can't travel to. It’s a rubbish idea and someone’s going to be killed, I swear it.

The rest of the ideas are appalling, too. It’s as if they think that there are jobs to be had easily which people are not applying for. If there were decent** jobs to be had, people would take them. That’s how it’s always worked in the past and it would work that way now, too.



* Is mandation even a word? I don’t think it is.

** Properly paid, not part time zero hours contracts, or weird jobs which don’t exist when you make further enquiries.

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