chesneycat

This isn't a friends-only journal, and it never will be.  Everyone's welcome.   But if you're reading and not commenting as well, I'd still appreciate knowing you're there - just so I can keep enough cake in stock.

Drop me a line here, as anonymously as you like.

I was a little premature with my last post.

The next [and hopefully final] addition goes thusly:

I never expected to find myself vomiting blood.

*sigh*

I've just got back from hospital, having had the full german ambulance treatment on wednesday night. A day and a half of blood tests, monitoring and an endoscopy later, I apparently don't have any bleeding in my throat or any bleeding ulcers, but I do have a minor hernia, and can add antacids to my daily menu for the foreseeable future.

Huh.  This also explains all the belching.

Then there are the things you read about, but don't give all that much credence to.  My skin is wonderfully soft and glowy - it gave me away at my cousin's wedding this weekend.  Dad had mentioned my pregnancy to his brothers after the ceremony, but hadn't got round to all the nephews and nieces yet, when one of them mentioned to our mutual uncle how, well, glowy I was looking.  "There's a good reason for that!"

Ah well.  It's all going well, as far as I can tell.  I've got a couple more appointments tomorrow, one with the haematology professor, and the other for a nuchal translucency scan.  Fingers crossed...

"Here are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish."

48.  Not bad.  There's a dozen more on Mum's bookshelf at home (which she has read, but I haven't got round to yet) so it ought to go up a bit more next time I visit.

Man regrows severed fingertip.   <--BBC news article is thataway down the link.

Read it, watch the videos, or just look out for the story in your preferred news media outlet. This is truly a phenomenal piece of medical technology, straight out of SF.

Wow.

[OTOH, it's probably all just bollocks...]

... I was lying in a bed in the Hallamshire, just down the road from here.

Today, I'm a little over twelve weeks with number four, and I've got a hell of a lot to be thankful for aside from the obvious.  Looking back, a few things stand out.  How amazing everyone around me was, how compassionate and supportive.  My friends around the world who kept me in their thoughts, my family, and those I know who've been through the same thing and reached out to me, some of whom were in the middle of their own dark hours at the time.

This is Roo's legacy.  A helluva lot of love.  We were deepened by what we went through, Jez and I, and given such a great gift alongside the pain.  Everything wonderful in the world was thrown into bright relief, our selves included. It broke our lives apart, a crucible or a chrysalis, and it fucking hurt.  That's change, I guess.  Change and growth, and the fact that nothing truly worthwhile ever comes easy.  Growing and healing took time, and it was undeniably hard, and I won't pretend we're anywhere near finished with it.  I don't think I want to.  Coming of age, growing up... you set yourself all these landmarks as a child and as an adult, and they really mean nothing.  What use are they, except as walls to hem yourself in?  Life is a continuum, in every way. We're analogue, unquantised, the butterflies of chaos.

So.  I'm not just thankful for current little one, though that does take an immeasurably large part of it. Nor my own strengths, the parts that were lent or given and the parts I always had unfound within me, though they were certainly invaluable when we faced the same pain again and again, and through all the crises we've been through in the last three months.  I certainly don't pretend that it's all going to be plain sailing from here onwards either; it'd be nice if these experiences gave you a kind of get out of jail free card for life, but it doesn't work that way.  And it doesn't matter, because we've been gifted, all of us, with the scope to keep going and to keep living, to see those crumbs of hope, the lights in the darkness, the people we love or who love us that keep us living. I think Yoda said it best.

Luminous beings are we.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7373940.stm

The UK has been left looking like an "unreliable" and "incompetent" partner for international science, according to a committee of MPs.

...

The study pins much of the blame on the head of the main funding body, and says "urgent changes must be made".

...

"We are at a loss to understand how Professor Mason could think that secretive reviews would have anything other than a divisive effect on the community and undermine confidence in any of his future decisions."

They also condemned "lamentable" communications, which had ultimately cost the STFC the "trust of the community".

"We conclude that STFC's communications are inadequate, particularly its internal communications," the report said.

"This raises serious questions about the role and performance of the chief executive, especially his ability to retain the confidence of the scientific community as well as to carry through the necessary changes."

Some suggest this is a thinly-veiled call for Professor Mason's resignation."

Abso-bloody-Word.

Del Toro's going to direct The Hobbit. I'm not too sure about the whole concept of the purported 'sequel', and I imagine that some of the hardcore fans will be spitting furiously... but perhaps if they concentrate on The White Council vs. The Necromancer it might not be totally irredeemable.

Ah well.

Del Toro!

Yay!

[Of course, this means I have to add tOR.n back to my daily reading list as well.]

Jeremy from the cattery is making his way over to the vets right now, to be with Chesney at the end. He loves Chesney to bits, nearly as much as we do. The vet really doesn't see any hope for him at all, and it'd be very, very cruel to force him to hang on at this stage.

So this is goodbye.



Shit.

Chesney's at the vets.

It's not looking good.

Wahey! About bloody time, too.

I've just had a rather interesting review for this drabble over on the Pit of Voles.

The review goes thusly:
Most of these stories are very believable. This one, chap 79, is not. Hatchlings don't attack those they don't choose unless that person stands in their way while searching for or making their way to their rider. The little queen would lock eyes with the candidate and then, upon not finding what she was looking for, ignore the girl and continue to search for her lifemate. She wouldn't take time to attack the girl. These babies hatch *hungry* and want to find their food provider as quick as possible.

Oh. Dear.

That particular drabble?  Describes the hatching of probably the most famous queen dragon on Pern.

*attempts to smother giggles*

*fails*

Tell it to Anne, dearie.  But you'd better hurry, because the failboat leaves in the next five minutes....

It's photo-dump time!


Not bad!

As seen on the door to our canteen, explaining the recent price rises for some food items:

After 4 years of consistency, we apologise for your understanding.

I know, I know, if the boot were on the other foot I'd do a hell of a lot worse. But that doesn't stop these things being funny (or if not funny, mildly amusing at the least) does it?  [And at least a brief giggle keeps my mind off tomorrow.]

Anyway, if you want to come up with a more literal explanation for that sentence, be my guest.  I'm just too tired to quite wrap my head around the un-meant meanings yet...

No, not AMCF spam. REAL spam!

( spam-cut )

Nope. I think not.

I HAVE THE APARTMENT I WANT!!

Yay!

It's in the suburb of Kirchheim, well connected to public transport, good shops nearby (including a bakery/cafe next door. Mmmmm!), a decent size with a large garden and a small sunroom.  Oh, and the garden has fruit trees, and rhubarb, and beetroot and all sorts of other goodies.

And I don't have to pay a deposit of 2 months rent, or a fee of 2.38 months rent...

SO much yay!


Of course, I'm going to spend the first week eating re-heated bolognese and sleeping on an air mattress, but that's not too bad.

Just spotted this on Scalzi's Whatever...

77
Time was the biggest factor here, and the amount wasted on figuring out how to enter the UK, the US and the Netherlands. It also wouldn't accept the people's democratic republic of congo - I'm sure thats the new name for Zaire.

Well, I've narrowed down this weekend's flat selection to twelve, and hopefully they won't all be gone by monday!  There's bound to be at least one good one in there!

While I wait for the rain clouds to move away, I think I'll crack on with the Longest Meme in History!

As if I wasn't fragile enough right now, I've just had the wonderful experience of being turned down for the one decent flat I've found so far simply because I'm childless.

Yes, that's right. I'm being penalised because my babies keep dying.

Fuckin' A, man.


On the plus side, at least I'm not this guy:

I have just been informed that [name removed] who came into the Department to discuss climate change about two weeks ago, and has been causing a nuisance on campus, was arrested and sectioned yesterday.  [Name removed] has since escaped from a secure mental unit and may return to the Hicks Building posing as his twin brother.

There's always someone worse off.  Plenty of someones, really.