turps

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday messages yesterday. It's always lovely to be remembered and I appreciate everyone who took the time to get in touch.

I had a nice day. I asked for some wax melts and bath stuff from James, and that's exactly what he got. turlough sent me the most beautiful, sparkly scarf which I really love a lot. We went to MetroCentre where we had dinner at Wagamamas -- this time we had the cut price lunch special menu, which meant I wasn't tempted by the firecracker option again. Then went off to watch Wuthering Heights, which was actually quite entertaining and visually, lovely to watch. Well, I say watch, I saw it all, James fell asleep about 30 minutes in.

Corey phoned when I was eating, so it was a quick talk, especially as he was getting ready for work, but it was lovely to hear from him.

I also had a look into Lush and with apologies to everyone I've already mentioned this to elsewhere, I couldn't believe how much the prices have shot up again. I got a Paddington Marmalade sandwich bubble bar, which smells delicious and I'll enjoy using it, but it was £9.50. No wonder I stick to just getting Lush in the half price sale now.

Left Metro and went to Kayleigh's where I got the most adorable card from Bodhi, and my brother turned up too with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, which was very unexpected of him. But mainly, I enjoyed hanging with my sibs, Bodhi and James, as it's not often we all get together like that.

Then when I got home, much later than I expected, I had a caterpillar birthday cake to eat. And very delicious it was, too. I posted some photos here if anyone wants to see.

I was shocked to hear about the passing of spikedluv obituary is here and you can also see comments on her last post on her journal.

It feels like she's always been around, and I'll miss her comments and constant support. I'll also miss her daily posts, both fannish and real life, which especially included her happiness as she wrote Jessica Fletcher into multiple other shows.

My love goes out into the universe for Spikedluv's family and friends. And thank you to those who started passing the word.

It was Corey's birthday yesterday so as it was James' day off, we drove to Corey's place to see him. I can't believe he's 30 now, it doesn't seem that long ago I was posting photos of him on LJ where he was wearing his yellow Easter bonnet and going to junior school. A couple of photos from yesterday are on Insta if you follow me on there.

Other than that, we went to Pauline's to pick up Corey's card, and she made us some lunch, and also passed on more books. At this rate, even if I could read a book a day it would take months to clear my to-read pile.

We also went to pick up a slab of live edged wood James had bought from someone online and man, that thing was heavy, and as long as the back seat of our car. Thankfully, my brother said he'd cut it into smaller pieces so I could drop it off at his house and didn't have to carry it home.

This morning I finally got my appointment for the scan behind my knee. That's the beginning of next month at 8:30, in the walk in centre that's in the same building as the gym so it'll be no issue having a walk down. It says to allow 30 minutes, so I should be all done and dusted by mid-morning, and fingers crossed, have the start of some answers.

Now I need to prise my backside off my chair and go rescue the wheelie bin as I've just heard it be trundled back by my neighbour and for once, it's not raining right at this moment. But then later, after bath and book and making tea, new Starfleet Academy, my new favourite show.

Apparently it's been getting bad reviews, but I'm still enjoying Starfleet Academy. I can't say which character I like the most, as I like them all. Though, Jay-Den is up there if I was forced to pick. I'm also enjoying how they keep referring to previous series, each mention of Voyager makes me beam, because that's still my Trek. Loved this latest ep too ( cut for spoilers )

It's raining, cold and windy today. It's been cold and rainy and windy for what feels weeks now, and the week ahead forecast is rain, wind, and cold. Joy. I don't mind going out in the rain, but do protest at going out into sleety rain that's lashing against my face due to the wind. Roll on some spring sunshine.

As part of the weight management programme I get an email on a Friday summing up the talks for the previous weeks, a couple of recipes and saying what sessions will be held the upcoming week. I read the email earlier and the sessions for my class are cancelled again next week, which does make me worry that something has gone wrong for Rosie as this would be a month the classes have been cancelled.

I've been trying to organise a wider family meal for Corey's birthday next week, and am getting nowhere. People are either broke or at work or school, so getting everyone together on his actual birthday week is a no-go. At this point, I'll be surprised if I can arrange anything this month at all.

Nearly bath and book time. I'm reading The Inheritance by Ilona Andrews atm and enjoying it. I knew I would, as their writing always hits the spot for me.

Oh, talking of books. When we went to restock some stock at the Craft Shop, the bookshop opposite was open, and all the books are free! You're limited to 6 items a day, and how I walked out with nothing still amazes me. Also great, they take books as donations so I can donate a load of books that I've read already.

I got excellent mail yesterday, thank you, spikedluv, for the Valentine's card. It's always lovely to get stuff that isn't a bill ♥

Yesterday I also went to see Kangaroo at the cinema. It's such a feel good, easy watch film and I enjoyed it so much.

We'd gone to Subway for dinner beforehand, and also picked up a Subway cookie and bread Too Good to Go bag afterwards -- four empty but still warm and soft, foot longs and a big bag of cookies for £3.50 -- so that meant a sandwich for tea, and also some things needed for James' bait for work partially sorted.

Feb 1st today, and for the month dreamersdare is hosting Stuff I Love: Top Ten Edition. More details are at the post, but generally the aim is simple, each week in Feb you'll be challenged to write a themed top ten list with a focus on different aspects of media. It sounds fun, and very low pressured. If you want to see more, you can do so here

I'm going to give it a go, and am looking forward to seeing what other people love, too.

It was Murphy and Kevin's annual booster and check-up appointment this morning. Both were fine, but Murphy is now over 7kg which isn't ideal. The problem is he needs the prescription dry food to help with his bladder stone issues, and eating that isn't helping with the weight gain. Thankfully, the vet said you can buy the prescription kind he needs in a lower calorie format, so we'll be buying that when his latest bag is finished.

Poor Murphy was so frightened, though. Understandable as the last two times he was at the vets he ended up whisked away to the emergency vets and admitted.

Kevin was just his usual self, in perfect health apart from his chronic congestion, and he was jumping around and exploring the room, being his usual, purr'ey, friendly self. Then covered his face is lick e lix when I fed him one as a distraction as he got his nails trimmed.

( two recent photos )

Rosie texted last night to say class was cancelled today. I'm assuming for personal reasons due to the late communication. That did make going to the vets easier as before I would have had to go there, come home, drop off the cats and then quickly head for the gym, hoping the vets appointment didn't overrun. Which it actually did due to us being seen late, so time would have been tight.

I really didn't want to go to class on Monday. It was cold, it was wet, my friend/usual partner had messaged saying she couldn't come that day, and everything was just, meh. But I gave my head a shake and made myself go, and was glad I did. It was another big class with only five of us oldies there, I got partnered with someone new who was very nice, and we had a laugh. I'm especially glad I went as class was cancelled for today, so it would have been another week without having a supervised session.

We went to see 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and man, the violence was so much worse, and graphic, than the last one. It was well acted, how some fabulous visuals and acting, especially by Ralph Fiennes and Jack O'Connell, but I really wouldn't recommend it due to the excessive amount of gore.

Yesterday was my six monthly lymphedema appointment ( cut for details )

TV wise, I watched the first ep of Starfleet Academy and really enjoyed it. As I'm also watching Strange New Worlds still, I'm just rolling in Trek stuff atm, which is a lovely place to be.

Rosie sent out a message on Tuesday night that due to the weather, she was only going to do the exercise part of class on Wednesday, as it was too cold to sit for the talk for an hour. The part of the gym we use does have heating, but class starts at 9am, and it's a big hall with huge windows that we use, so no way would it have been heated enough for sitting around.

So, that's exactly what happened, I slip-slided down with James and for ages we were the only people who turned up. Then three other hardy souls turned up, and it was a nice, quiet class. Though, after the main exercise part, Rosie said we were going to do a finisher before cool down. The finisher turned out to be a version of this. I did not know about the Bring Sally Up squat challenge, I feel my life was better when I didn't know.

After class, we drove my friend home as the pavements were horribly icy, then onto my SiL's because we were taking my MiL's clothes to a charity shop, then from there, went to a florist to order some flowers. While there's going to be no actual service, the funeral director said flowers could still go into the garden of remembrance after, so it felt right to order some.

Thursday, James went with my SiL to close down bank accounts, while I stayed home as my brother was coming over to do a couple of jobs for us. He moved the front step rail so it was actually attached to the steps, and not the ground, so James could actually reach it easily, and also attached some cat things to the living room wall. So, next to the cat tower they now have a high up hammock, a set of stairs and some steps. I thought they'd be straight up there exploring, especially Kevin, but so far all they'd done is stand on the steps.

It was good to spend some time with my brother, and we ended up having long conversations about many things.

Yesterday it was still very cold, but the snow had mostly melted, so I headed to Durham with James for a quick walk. Sadly, while there I saw one of my favourite charity shops, the one where every item of clothing was £1, was closing for good that day. Because of that they didn't have much stock in terms of clothes, but they did have books which they were selling for 5 for £1. I swear, I'll never get through my to-read pile at this rate.

Then today a delivery is due. It had a time frame of 7am to 7pm, but the company said they'd text with a four-hour window. Which they did, sending the message just after 7, saying our delivery window was 2-6, which is typical after getting up so early. But, the delivery guy phoned about 30 mins away saying he'd be about an hour, so the waiting will soon be over.

Thank you to jacieleigh, stellamira and spikedluv for the Christmas cards. While my decorations are down now I've left up the cards, so I can enjoy the cheerful greetings for a bit longer.

As I said, all decorations are down and apart from one crate, put away. Though I did find a springy legged gonk propped up in the corner of the living room this morning. This year, we also bought two succulents in plant pots in the shape of dinosaurs wearing jaunty Santa hats, and those were deliberately left on the kitchen windowsill as I doubt the plants would like being stored for a year. I'm going to see if the hats will come off easily, if not, I don't mind seeing santa!dinos all year.

While the boxes were out of the huge hall cupboard I took advantage of space and had a good declutter in there. That resulted in six binbags of stuff to donate and stuff that needed throwing away, including a load of extra packaging from Christmas. We do have a tip slot booked for midday for today, and were all ready to go, but it's snowing really heavily just now. And while I don't mind walking in it to the car and at the tip, it's the driving that's making me wonder if we should postpone. Oh well, there's a couple of hours to our spot, it may stop before then.

Yuletide authors were revealed and I can now rec in you I have absolute faith a Magnificent Seven film fic by sperrywink. I really enjoyed reading this, and helped bounce some ideas at the start, so yeah, if you like h/c go read, it's good stuff.

Doing that bouncing of ideas also reminded me how much I enjoy thinking about writing, and that along with some really nice comments I've been getting on my bandom stuff makes me a little sad that I haven't written for so long. I have to wonder if I've been recced somewhere for my bandom stories as I have had so many, and on longer stories, too. Lately I've reread due to answering comments, Tints verse, Mr Bob, Sing the Revolution and Painted Ponies, and you know, I still like my own writing.

When I went to bed last night I looked outside and saw a package sitting on the corner of the bin. The package hadn't been there earlier and as the bin is against the fence, the delivery driver had obviously just dropped it over, without knocking or any email to say it had been delivered. Which meant I had to go back out and retrieve it, and I'm glad I did as it was a customised water bottle I'd bought for one of James' Christmas presents. I'd got his pyrography name and logo printed onto the bottle, and I would have hated if someone had reached over and taken it, especially as the delivery was already weeks late.

Heated Rivalry starts here very soon and seeing how many people are talking about it, I'm very eager to watch. It sounds like it could be something I really enjoy. Between that and The Pitt season two, bring on the new shows!

The knife saga is over, sadly, not with help by Amazon. In the end, yesterday, we just drove to the outlet mall again and bought the equivalent quality knives from the kitchen shop there. It did cost a little more than the Amazon prices, but both knives also come guaranteed for 25 years and at least they're bought as it was getting a little close to Christmas for comfort.

We did our usual thing of going an hour early, planning to go for a Costa while waiting for the shops to open at 10. Only to find out the Sunday hours are different, and you couldn't even get to any of the shops, including the food ones, as the gates to the actual mall were all shut. But, you could go into the McDonalds at the end, so I had a McMuffin and coffee and watched the craft and food stalls set up.

There were so many tempting stalls, including one selling bath stuff. I'm a sucker for soap, whipped soaps etc, so after checking out the smells I gave James a big hint such stuff would be nice to receive, and he sent me on my way as he made a surprise purchase. Which he then left next to the Christmas tree at home in an open paper bag.

We may also have come home with some cakes, which were enjoyed last night, with more left for tea later.

Saturday it was the delivery day for the pieces James has been working on. Thankfully, the man who'd commissioned the pieces loved them. James had also created a freebie for him, a raccoon on a live piece of wood. I think that's the technical term anyway, it's wood which still has bark attached at the sides. The man sat stroking that piece -- the other two are a bit big to hold onto -- and it was obvious he was genuinely happy with everything, which was such a relief.

After delivering those, we drove up to Seahouses, taking the coastal route and stopping off in some small villages to have a mooch and hot coffees. It was so nice to do that, normally those places are packed in the summer, but in winter it was easy to look around and actually see stuff, including a red phone box that had been turned into a Christmas decorated tiny library.

In Seahouses itself, we got to pose with a giant plastic polar bear, and a lovely lady offered to take a photo of both of us together You can also see photos of the pieces James delivered if you're interested, just click the arrows to see all the photos. No photo of the raccoon piece, though, I had to take a screengrab from a video from that, so that's behind the cut. With bonus standing in front of our Christmas tree too, as I know turlough likes to laugh at it every year *g* ( behind here )