10 things of thankful - The Considered edition

After doing this for several weeks now I'm getting bored of talking about me, and fancied a break from it, so I wanted to talk about 10 aspects of someone else who means a lot to me - The Considerer!  As she reads this (which I'm sure she will) I can picture her squirming with awkward embarrassment, and that is not the aim, just an unwanted side effect, but you know how it's easier to sometimes put words to paper (or the web) than verbalise them?  The following is all true, and VERY warranted, I promise :), and she WILL accept these accolades ;).

1.  The great Considerer came up with this almighty 10 things of thankful bloghop.  Which is amazing.  And for a good few months now has got me coming up with lots of things to be thankful for.  And lots of moments where I've thought 'oh I'll just take a picture of that, that has to go in my thankful blog post'.  It is a wonderful idea, and it is a wonderful exercise, so long live the TTOT.

2.   I had been toying with the idea of starting a blog for a while, but being lazy too busy to get organised and actually do it, I needed a push and someone with know how to get me started.  And there Considerer stepped up to the plate.  And now I have not just one blog, but two!  Wooo hooo.  She liked a little piece I wrote for a Facebook group and effectively told me I MUST start blogging, so that little nudge and encouragement has got me here now, and hopefully, if I put the time and effort in, all these posts I am planning in my mind will come to fruition!

3.  The Considerer has got me walking, a lot more than I ever did before!  And she makes me go faster!  And we go further.  And we get lost (which apparently is always MY fault???).  And we fall in streams (oh no, that one was just me!).  And while we walk we talk and have a jolly good time, stop to attempt handstands and cartwheels (oh yes, that's just Lizzi, I cannot do them!) and throw pebbles in ponds (oh to be a child again).  There is definitely something about going out walking with someone else that makes it much less arduous than doing it on ones own, and I really do love our walks.

  4.  On more than one occasion, I have made use of the spare room at Considerer's abode, generally at short notice after a begging from me that I need her company, want to get slightly tipsy and then won't be able to drive home.  Her hospitality is lovely, you can just be at home there, and on these evenings, and on our walks, we can talk about anything and everything and generally put the world to rights.  And I always leave feeling better.

5.  Now let's just say we both have *interesting* family set-ups and history, and things from our childhoods we'd maybe like to push to the back of our minds.  Well Lizzi has listened to more than her fair share of me lamenting the trials my various family members like to put me through.  And again doesn't judge, just mostly offers very sound and sensible advice.  Much to my uncomfortable embarrassment the other week she was present for a mahooosive barney between my Mother and sister, but she was very unphased by it all, didn't mind, and just offered suggestions to remedy the situation - family counsellor at hand ;).

6.  Now on the occasions we help at the youth club once a month we have started a tradition.  There is a takeaway close to the building the youth club is held in called Twisted.  I'd driven by it lots and meant to try it, but Lizzi and Joe being regular customers got me in there, and now after every youth club we have to bring food home.  The spaghetti and meatballs are amazing!  And I love that I now know another great takeaway to frequent.

7.  While we eat said takeaway, another tradition has started.  Lizzi has The Big Bang Theory box set, and we watch and laugh and enjoy.  And it's okay to be a geek here.  Being like Sheldon, which my sister throws at me as some kind of insult, is okay!

8.  I have Lizzi to thank for another weight-losing idea.  We both LOVE cheese.  Can't get enough of the stuff.  But one day, Lizzi said "why don't we just not buy cheese, use what we've got and not buy any more?".  THE HORROR!!!!  But actually it's not been that bad.  There are other things to go in sandwiches.  I appreciate the cheese when I'm out elsewhere a lot more.  And my accountability to her (she knows when I'm lying) has  kept me on the straight and narrow in the supermarket!

9.  I am no gardener.  I neglect my garden horrendously, and when I first employed Lizzi's help to sort it out, it took us a little while!  Thankfully she knows a lot more about gardening and plants than me, and is very motivational!  We have also painted my fence (well, half done, half to go - thanks Dad by the way for the ginger 'Autumn Red' colour (I'm sure he thought he was being helpful trying to match my shed).

10.  The Considerer is a battler.  A trooper.  You throw stuff at her, and she just gets on with it, marching on, not giving up.  She thinks, A LOT, sometimes too much probably (hands up here as well!), and doesn't realise how jolly fab she is, so there we have it, 10 whole reasons why I'm glad she is in my life.

10 things of thankful #5

Well it's another weekend, so that means it's time for another 10 things of thankful.  Here we go for all the fun and good things in the Emmaverse this week:

1.  I went shopping last weekend, very naughtily on a Sunday (which I try not to do) but it was when myself and the two friends who were coming with me could make.  We went to Gunwharf Quays, a nice mainly outlet type shopping centre in Portsmouth.  I turned a corner, saw the Radley sign, held my finger up and pointed at it like E.T., and my fate was sealed.  About 15 minutes later I came out with the following:

The justifications were many:

• It was my birthday, and this was my birthday treat to myself.
• I had the money left (and if I want to spend it I jolly well will).
• Jessica loved enjoying seeing me spend my money.
• I have wanted Radley stuff for ages.
• It was 50% off, then another 20% off, so I JUST HAD TO!

So operation switch handbag and purse was undertaken and now they are coming everywhere with me!

2.   This week, with the heat that is still continuing, I am thankful for cold water.  This one is all Considerer's fault.  We bought a little gift for a friend and left it in her front garden.  We then discovered the friends were out of town.  So we went for a walk to retrieve the present until such time it could be given to them.  On returning from the walk, Considerer got her big tub and filled it with water, and promised it would cool us down.  It did, and it was lovely, but after berating Considerer for the look on her face as her feet touched the water, this was mine:

IT WAS VERY VERY VERY COLD!!  But I am thankful for that.

3.  The last two items come from last Sunday and Monday, which was an amazing weekend as it consisted of shopping, crafting and movie watching with two friends the first day, and then picnic, blogging, movie watching, drinking and enjoying birthday with Considerer.  They were two brilliant days and I am very grateful for my friends and the brilliant times I had with them.

4.  I am thankful for my crafting bits and pieces and that they help me get my creative side out, for someone who cannot draw and is not arty, I can at least make a pretty decent card and scrapbook page now!  And even better, I am thankful that Jessica has now bought the mighty "Bigshot" (excellent die-cutting machine) which we can now utilise to make all sorts of patterns and embellishments. 

5.  I am very very thankful for gloves this week.  So thankful I double-gloved, which I hardly ever do!  It all started when Lin, my workaholic manager, decided she was finally going to sort out the rubbish that isn't ours which had been dumped by our bins.  A few minutes later I heard "urrrgggghhhh".

Me: "are you okay?"
Lin: "No".
Me: "what's wrong?"
Lin: "come and smell this"
Me: "No I don't want to" (I had heard rumours that there were nappies amongst the rubbish).
I go out to investigate.
Me: "urggghh yes that stinks, hang on and I'll get some gloves and I can help you, actually I think I'll double glove"
Lin: "I think it's meat"
Me: "uuuurrrrrrrgggggghhhh, how long has it been there?  Actually, let's not think about that!".

If I had not had gloves, there is NO WAY I would have been anywhere near that rubbish!

I am also thankful that I didn't have nightmares this week, after SOMEONE (she knows who she is!!) asked if there were any customers we hadn't seen in a while, suggesting that maybe we'd just disposed of a dead body!

6.  I have just been with a friend up to London to the British Museum, on her membership of the museum, to see the Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition they have going on.  It was really good and interesting, and I loved it.  I did the Romans a lot at school, and also did Latin GCSE, so I have wanted to visit Pompeii for a long time, and until my friend and I get our act together and go, hopefully sometime in the next few years, this was the next best thing.  It's amazing the artifacts they found and how preserved they are!

7.  In about 15 minutes time I should be jetting out again having got this finished to an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet with some old work colleagues and new staff from a branch I used to work at to say goodbye and good luck in your new job to our old manager (she used to be manager, she IS NOT old, just to clarify ;) ).  Hopefully we won't get harassed out of the place and plates removed the moment we stop ordering this time!

8.  We have had various jobs in the shop that have needed doing in the shop lately, and luckily Lin has partner extraordinaire who is multi-talented builder, plumber etc etc etc.  He has fixed a step which was liable to trip me up and make me go flying, and unblocked our consultation room sink, so I am very appreciative of this!

9.  Until Friday (obviously used the q word too much on Thursday) we had quite a quiet week in the pharmacy (see, I always say never say that word!!).   What do you do when it's quiet in a pharmacy?  You date check and tidy shelves of course!  So now I am very happy that due to my lovely dispensers my dressings now look like this and we can see what we've got!

10.   And finally, this week it has been sunny.  I have driven home with car windows down.  And I realised how much I LOVE my car radio when this came on and I sang it at the top of my voice, can't beat it!

Made the short drive home x 100 better!

That's all for now folks :)

10 things of thankful #4

1.  Yes you read correctly, this is number 4, the fourth week I've been doing this properly on my own blog (and for a few weeks before that I had been chipping in in the comment boxes on Considerer's blog).  And do you know what?  I thought it would be getting harder, every week, to find 10 things.  I am so thankful that in reality I have found it much easier than I ever imagined to come up with 10 things each and every week, and they're new things, I don't think I'm repeating myself!

 2.  I received a parcel from a dear friend this week.  I knew a present for my birthday was on its way but I didn't know what it was.  I opened it and I was so so pleased with it, it was so lovely!  I spent a week's holiday with her in early June and she took a lot of photos, and while I was there we went in a stationers a picked out an album together that she needed for "a friend".  I've now got this very album, complete with lots of lovely photos from my week with them, and there's space to add more later.  It is so lovely, and I will cherish it.

3.  Today I got to go to Lepe beach for the first time in many years, to help celebrate Considerer's birthday.  The weather was beautiful, I didn't get TOO burnt, I met some of her friends I hadn't met before, and it was a lovely time.  There were also cupcakes made by her sister, which were awesome!

4.  Tomorrow I get to go out for the day with a couple of friends who weren't able to come to Monkey World a few weeks ago, and spend the day in the sunshine shopping, watching films, crafting and generally being girly - I'm really looking forward to it.

5.  We have nice scales at work in my new branch which I love as they are accurate (I am told) and are telling me that I weigh almost a stone less now than when I was at my heaviest!  I think the eating a bit less, more sensibly, and walking with Considerer is working!  Yippe!!  (only *"£^%$ more stones to go!)

6.  This week I am very thankful for ice cream.  Our CEO has, for the last couple of summers, when we've had a particularly warm spell, invited us all to go out and purchase ice creams on expenses courtesy of him.  And this week with the heatwave we've been having he repeated the exercise.

So off we went to Farmfoods where cheap multipack boxes of ice creams of all descriptions are in good supply, and our freezer box in the fridge now looks like this:

7.  I got to go and spend the evening at a gig in a pub last night with my godparents.  It was a great gig, I've seen the band twice before, and they are really good.  It was good to get out for the night and have some good music, and despite the reputation the pub has I didn't get beaten up!  It was still fairly warm even come 10 in the evening, but there was a nice breeze coming in the windows and a good time was had by all.

8.  We have had a student in our branch the last few weeks and we have taught him a lot about pharmacy (and ice cream ;) ).  He has been a really good worker, very useful to have around and on his last day got us a lovely card and box of chocolates - we will miss him, and are secretly hoping he will apply for his pre-reg year with us when the time comes!

9.  I have nice new sunglasses, and thanks to staff discount and the buy-one-get-one-half-price promotion, I thought what the hell, let's get two pairs, the thing with sunglasses is that they always break or get lost!  I am looking forward to this weather keeping up and getting chance to get good use out of them.

10.  I am thankful for my car, and the quick getaways it can provide.  Or rather Considerer is.  On leaving the house we had our church group at on Thursday, another girl also there bumped into a family just outside who knew her from when she worked at the nursery where her and Considerer both used to work together.  On seeing this happen, Considerer went into great escape mode.  She legged it quick as she could, we both got in my car, and I drove away ASAP, laughing and asking "did you not like them then?".  Obviously no.  Nice rescue!  I then asked if her poor friend also found them not to her liking - also true!  Poor friend!  Oh well, we escaped ;).

More news from the Emmaverse soon folks :)

10 things of thankful #3

Well it's been another week in the Emmaverse and there have been many goings-on, so here's the things we are particularly thankful for this week.

1.  I had a brilliant BBQ at my Dad's last night.  About time, well we've waited for summer long enough!  And the last few times I've been due to go round there and it's been a nice day there's been various reasons as to why a BBQ could not happen.  But now I'VE HAD MY BBQ!  And very nice it was too.

My Dad's cat didn't manage to eat any, but it wasn't for want of trying!

2. THE TOOTH IS GONE!  Finally, after causing problems on and off for the last few months, various painkillers, antibiotics and visits to OOH dentists, my regular dentist has taken the thing away!  And my haven't I been sleeping better!  I don't think I had appreciated quite how much it had been disturbing me.  If anyone cares, it was the lower left number 7 (in front of the wisdom tooth) which was causing the problems, as it was being bullied by the wisdom tooth behind which was trying to erupt at 45 degrees (see x-ray below).

I had to zoom quite a bit, but on the far right is the wonky wisdom tooth - the one to its left is the one that came out.

For those of a more squeamish disposition you may want to skip to number 3 now, for those interested in how a tooth comes out, read on!

I arrived in the dentist's room and they were watching Andy Murray's triumphant victory from Sunday on catch up (another thing I am thankful for by the way) but unfortunately the last point was reached before I was even numb, and the TV was not on the ceiling, so not much distraction there!  Four local anaesthetic injections later the dentist and I were both satisfied that the whole left side of my face was suitably numb and we began.  Little plastic stick, really not doing the job to dislodge (come on, this is a relatively healthy tooth here!).  Metal forceps managed to loosen tooth pretty well, but it still wasn't giving up.  So out came the drill to split the tooth so it could come out in two bits (with almighty pops I tell you) and one root was left, so cue a good five minutes of trying to get that out!  Luckily the dental nurse was petty good at understanding people who are numb and chewing on gauze, and between her and the dentist my questions were answered afterwards.

Now to wait for a referral to the hospital to x-ray and have the wisdom tooth out the other side, oh joy!  (X-ray was attempted but being so far back in the mouth, couldn't really bite down in the way they wanted without it moving before the button was pressed - dentist came back and said 'oh I made you cry' - my reply 'yes, the inside of my mouth is soft, and that film is sharp!').

3.  In my late teens in the late 1990s there was a girl group.  They were called the Sugababes.  After album 1,  Siobhan left and Heidi came in.  Then some years after that Mutya had a  baby and left.  Then a year or two after that Keisha left - and no original members were left.  And they still insisted on keeping the 'Sugababes' brand????  Not the same any more people!

But....

Fast forward to 2013....

In September the original line-up are releasing this, their debut single, and I AM BEYOND EXCITED!  As soon as the album is available to pre-order on Amazon (other music retailers are available) I will be doing so!

4.  I have been at my new branch two weeks now, and I am settling in well and liking it.  I even had lovely feedback (which is always really nice) from the branch manager I am working with that I was doing well and we're all working well as a team, so lots of warm fuzziness there :).

5.  I have a dining table.  Every few months or so I have my church group round for tea and some discussion based on a recent sermon.  My little round table gets VERY crowded in such situations, as it's only meant for 4 really, and there can be up to 10 of us and some of us end up round the coffee table.  Now, when I moved (which is nearly seven years ago!) the table did have to come apart to get out of the flat.  What I didn't re-discover or remember til recently is that the round table has a very special secret - if you slide the two halves of the circle apart there is another leaf of the table underneath to extend it which makes it seat 6 - didn't I feel stupid (although my mother could have mentioned it, you'd think she would have known it being her mother's table!).  Anyway, it was lovely Thursday to get all 7 people present round the table altogether eating and talking together, so long may that continue!

6.  In Portswood where my new branch is, there is a KFC almost right next door.  That might be good enough for most people you'd think, but oh no, I have resisted there so far and ended up for my 'naughty Friday' (a tradition whereby I don't take a packed lunch one day a week and see what takes my fancy) at Roosters Piri-Piri chicken as recommended by my staff.  Think Nando's but cheaper and in a more fast-food place as opposed to a restaurant.  I had Piri-piri chicken breast fillet in the lemon and herb dressing (I'm a wimp when it comes to spices) and IT WAS AWESOME!  I can feel a return visit coming on already ;).

7.  I twinned my toilet.  I expect the people in Africa (Uganda) where my latrine will get built might be even more thankful for this than me, but I am thankful that soon I will get a little certificate to display in my toilet and spread the news about this amazing scheme which endeavours to ensure EVERYONE has suitable facilities to stop the spread of disease etc.  I mean, I know our grandparents had outside loos maybe, but who in the west now can say they don't have a toilet?  It's a basic thing people!
http://www.toilettwinning.org/

8.  England has been having a heatwave, yay!!  But this leads me to be thankful for:

the mighty air conditioning!

Seriously, if the temperature in my shop had been the same as it has been outside in the last week, I don't think I would have been able to work, at least not without some major impact on my concentration, and looking and feeling like a sportsperson after a marathon for example!

9. I am very thankful for my lovely birthday day out, and all the lovely messages, cards and gifts I received.  I had such a lovely time, the sun shone, we got there and back okay, we didn't lose anyone and Considerer's niece and nephew even composed me a little song and made her sing it (it was so sweet!).

10.  I am thankful for weed killer, and that I used it and it did the job!  A couple of months ago, my Dad, his wife and I spent a painstaking 4 hours removing the gravel from my front garden, taking the old lining up, levelling the ground and getting rid of roots, putting new lining down and replacing all the stones.  Alas little weeds STILL started showing!  I am hoping as I have got them now, nice and early on before they take root too much, I can win the battle!

Dad in the middle of the painstaking process of putting the new lining down!

So that's this week's thankfulness from the Emmaverse, more news soon!

Oooo-be-do, I wanna be like you-u-u

I wanna walk like you (there was lots of that), talk like you (again, plenty of that - well I was there wasn't I ;) ) too-oo-oo.

Do you get the link with the song?  Did you, did you?  Today I turned 32 (32 years of still being lucky to be alive and not kicked to kingdom come my parents may say at some points ;) ).  And to celebrate, off we went to the lovely Monkey World in Dorset. http://www.monkeyworld.org/home.php

The day started quite well at 7:30, whence I actually obeyed the alarm at this unusually early hour for a Sunday, having had a fairly okay night's sleep and obviously keen to get birthday related fun underway!

Much thanks goes to the mother for making us both some lovely scrambled eggs and toast as I felt I deserved a cooked breakfast today.  Unfortunately, that took us til about 8:15ish somehow, and after spending some time messing around being very constructive online, I looked at the clock and it was 8:50!!  8:50!!!   Mother you do know I wanted to go at 9, you're still in the bathroom and I haven't had my shower yet?????   AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!  I think we eventually got to Shirley to pick up some friends at 9:35, and then to Considerer's place so she could follow me with her niece and nephew.

So I set the sat nav up.  We left at 9:45.  I think at this point it estimated an arrival time of 11:00.  And we headed for the motorway.  And we joined the slip road - and - crawl, crawl, crawl.  Now the British have this odd behaviour in brilliant basking sunshine as it was today.  It is obligatory, as such days are very rare, to get in your car and drive to the nearest beach to enjoy the sunshine.  It feels like the whole world and their dog takes to the road.  And living on the South Coast, not too far along from Bournemouth, and Monkey World being the other side of Bournemouth - well, you can imagine!  Luckily, I had one of the two presents I had allowed myself to open this morning, from the mother (big hints were dropped) of Stooshe's album to keep us entertained.  (They really are very good don't ya know).

Considerer is also a fan, and at one point we were able to hold up the album for her to see (the tail-to-tail traffic having one benefit!) and got a big thumbs up :). (She must let me know if she wants to borrow it???).

At one point I think Considerer had a "well I'm fed up with sitting here in this slow moving traffic in lane 1 malarkey!" moment and I saw her pulling out and overtaking me!  Not wanting to be outdone, I thought I can't be having this, and promptly moved out into lane 2 myself (I was meant to be leading her, being the one with the sat nav ;) ).  She did concede then and we re-swapped positions and normal play was resumed.

So, about 11:45 (an hour and a quarter after I had wanted to get there) we managed to find the other poor lost souls all waiting in the cafe.  We managed to make one big group over two tables and devour one cake which had been brought for me (the other would come out for tea break later ;) ) and then we split into two groups - those with children who wanted to burn off energy in the play area and headed down there, and those who went to see the orangutans and hear a little talk about them.

There are many many apes in this park, it's about 20 times bigger than the small monkey sanctuary I went to in Cornwall a few years ago, and I think we must have only seen about half of it all!  They all seemed to be very well looked after and having good lives, especially the occupants of the orangutan nursery, two of whom were having a good rolly-polly chase down a slope, hilarious!  I hope it's just an ape thing, and they're not ACTUALLY sad, but some of them did have the most sorry looking faces :(.

 I think a good time was had by all, I don't believe anyone got heat exhaustion or sunburn despite the high temperatures, and I even managed to resist the trappings of the gift shop on the way out (there was a bag which nearly got bought, and if I go again and STILL like it, it might have to become mine!).

Luckily the journey home was somewhat better than the journey there and despite hitting a little traffic it was flowing okay.  On arrival home I have opened all my presents and cards (which were all very lovely and I am very appreciative for) and am going to bed feeling a very lucky, loved, blessed and happy girl.

The cat even had a good time with what was effectively the rubbish - doesn't take much to please her!

So that's all folks, will check in again soon with more tales from the Emmaverse!

10 things of thankful #2

Hello everyone, well here I am at my second weekend of doing my 10 things of thankful on my very own blog!  Let's see what good things have happened in the Emmaverse this week.

1.  I am very thankful for the following which my Mum brought home for me (it's great that she works in a supermarket ;) ).  I think it had been in the firdge about 24hrs before I ate it, I kept looking in the fridge and saw one.
 My mother asked "have you eaten your eclair yet".
 I replied "oh are we not sharing it?"
"No, I've had mine."

Oh the joy!  It was ALL MINE!  And very nice it was too!

2. This week I am very thankful for, in no particular order: metronidazole, erythromycin, co-codamol, salt water mouth rinses, my microwaveable teddy, and ibuprofen.  All have made my dental pain better than it might have been and will hopefully get me through til Monday when I can have the tooth out, and have at least helped me get SOME sleep even on the worst nights.  FYI, my current dental X-ray on both sides of my lower jaw looks something like this:

3.  I am finding it brilliant that now I have started this blog I have also got another one up and running over at  http://butterflythinker.blogspot.co.uk/ and I'm hoping it will be good for me to write all about Turner's syndrome, and that it may also help others who read it.

4.  I am thankful that today I am due to meet up with some lovely ladies for lunch, and then I believe we are going to go bowling - should be fun, and as it's a group of T.S women who are not known for coordination it could result in much hilarity!

5.  Tomorrow IS MY BIRTHDAY.  We are off to Monkey World, and the pre-booking form I emailed them was for 16 adults and 6 children, but I have a feeling there might be even more!  It should be a good day, and we are due to have glorious sunshine!

6.  I am grateful for water, sunhats and suncream, which should enable everyone to enjoy the above visit without getting sunburnt/fainting/suffering from heat exhaustion.

7.  Yesterday I spent a few hours of the afternoon at my friend's house.  Her little girl has just turned 2, and Daddy was putting the following up while I was there ready for the party today!  Unfortunately the weight limit didn't seem to allow me to get on and bounce :(.

8.  I was able to watch Andy Murray's semi-final yesterday AND HE WON!!  And he got through in 4 sets, and Djokovic took 5 sets in a record breaking match - so who's going to be the fresher of the two, hmmmm?  I hope we can get a British Wimbledon winner tomorrow, I won't be at home to watch it but think I will be keeping track by the wonders of smartphone.

9.  I have got through the first week in my new branch!  And a nice change it has been as well, I think we're going to be just fine!  I'm just sad I'm losing one of my dispensers in a month as she's going on maternity leave, but getting the new person trained up will be an adventure all of its own as she's not worked in a dispensary before!

10. Did I mention IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW (surely I'm allowed that one twice??).

Right, so there's my 10 things of thankful for another weekend, see you next time!

Who really rules the Emmaverse?

I live alone.  As such, you'd think that I would be pretty in control of my surroundings, environment, and generally queen of my castle.  But I'm afraid you would be wrong.  Very wrong indeed.  That accolade goes to the furry ball of fluff which I allowed into my home about 3.5 years ago at the age of 9 weeks:

Ever since, she has most definitely been in charge, and has become very proficient at making her feelings and wishes known!  There is a saying which I have learnt is so true it's unreal, that "dogs have owners, cats have staff!".  On her first night in my home I decided to bring her upstairs with all her paraphernalia and see how it went - that lasted all of about 15 minutes!  I decided that a small kitten jumping all over the bed would not be conducive to sleep and back downstairs she went, as she did not seem to yet understand that night time and getting in bed meant sleep time!  The cries of abandonment were heart-wrenching though, the same ones given when I left the house for work, the same ones she made in the car on her journey home (those ones were probably asking "who are you and where are you taking me?") and caused guilty feelings of abandonment every time I left her.

Alas she is not so attached to me anymore, in fact when I arrive home she is just as likely to leave the house via the cat flap as she is to come and say hello!  Cats are quite independent (which is just as well as I do spend a lot of time out of the house, I knew I wouldn't have been able to commit to taking care of a dog) and they want you when they want you, and when they want to be left alone they tell you that too!  She is jolly good company though, and has been the cause of much amusement.

She is really obsessed with the laser pointer I got her (I bought it after seeing how much my friend's cats loved theirs) and still doesn't seem to understand that chasing the little red dot is useless, she will never catch it - much hilarity for me, especially when I make her spin round after her tail!

Only the other day I got out of my car, locked it and was hanging my coat up in my porch only for the car alarm to start going off.  I opened the front door to see Millie staring out the back window of the car - how she had snuck in there without me noticing I'll never know!

The other thing I should have been prepared for with cat ownership but wasn't is the "presents" they like to bring you.  Now Millie is only a small cat, and unlike my Dad's cat who has fun murdering and ripping the heart out of playing with pigeons, she has only graced me with some small field mice (dead and alive at various times) and a couple of birds.  The dead mouse being played with on my bed at 3am whilst I had been trying to sleep was NOT amusing, neither was the sound of chirping which was coming from a bird on my bedroom carpet at 4:30 am on another occasion.

The second bird which got brought in my Mum was present for, as Millie entered the lounge there was a scream of "oh my God she's got a bird" from my Mum.  Now the bird was fairly sizable and looked pretty lifeless in Millie's mouth, but no the bird was released and promptly started flying around the lounge trying to escape, with the cat tracking it every inch of the way!  The cat was evicted from the lounge and put out the back door, and the bird let out the front window, and was  hopefully okay after his shock!

Millie is quite wilful, but clearly knows when she has upset me (not that she lets that stop her at all!).  She definitely understands the words "no", "naughty" and "down" if not exactly the English meaning just by the tone of my voice!  Various crimes include:
1. Thinking that the clothes horses are climbing frames, most especially when they have nice clean washing on.
2. Jumping on the dining table, kitchen surfaces, or practically any other high place she likes, despite the discussions we have had about it not being acceptable!
3. Going from 'gently purring cat I'm liking being stroked cat' to 'get off me I want to attack and scratch you' in the matter of a nanosecond - you really have to pay attention and know when to quit!
4. Thinking the rear bedroom window is a second cat flap.  Now this one I don't mind so much, and in the summer when it's hot and windows are open I suppose she can come in and out over the conservatory up to my window, but it did surprise my friend a bit when she house sat that having trapped the cat downstairs for the night, she suddenly appeared again in the bedroom as she'd left the windows open!

Bags are apparently the most amazing toys don't you know, and the other photos here well, yes, I don't think I'm buying an expensive play centre and while the old armchairs in my bedroom and conservatory ARE effectively scratch posts, if she tried this in the leather sofa she would need a SERIOUS telling off!

So, this is my universe, and this is the ruler.  If you have cats, you'll relate, if you haven't, that's a little glimpse into their world!  See you at the weekend for 10 things of thankful!