Aw Diddums

Mood: Fed up
Listening to: Ghost song in my head: 'Trials and Tribulations' from JCS

There seems to be some work going on in Blogigo. A few times I have logged out and then tried to go back in for something, only to be faced with a message that everything is being moved to a faster server. Well, that's good. . Perhaps some of the other site glitches will be sorted out as well, in time. That recent problem with new posts not appearing on the home page has already been dealt with.

Just now it seems to be the blogigo.co.uk domain that's affected - something to do with a loop of redirects that doesn't work. The other Blogigo blogs (non-UK) are showing up. Maybe there's a reason for it - wish I knew.

Just to moan a little, it's frustrating when you post something, spot a typo straight away - and when you go back in to correct it, you can't, because the site is down. It's then a case of 'hold that thought' till it all comes back online again.

The typo looms larger and larger in your mind, like a spot on the nose.

The thought that nobody can see it right now is not a comfort - you just know when you give up and stop watching the site that the blog post will immediately reappear to the view of the world, complete with typo.

You are also reminded that because the blog post has gone offline, any subscribers getting notifications that there's a new post will try to view it - to no avail. The past three times I've posted something, the site has gone offline very quickly afterwards! It's not me, though - this poor site gets so many spammers posting their boring little splogs here that your own post doesn't stay at the top of the 'recent posts' list for very long. Probably the sploggers are the ones breaking Blogigo. It's their loss as well as ours, is all I can say.

I'm off for lunch. Bet the site comes back online the minute I leave the room. (Trails off, moaning like Marvin the robot).

Mood: Sleepy
Listening to: Ghost song in my head: 'The Last Supper' from JCS

Thailand Gal suggests that everybody answers these 35 questions. Sometimes I think it's easier to give a point of view if you're prompted for it, rather than come out with odd snippets out of the blue... and some of these things are good to own up to.

I enjoyed filling this out. Some questions I've answered before (but can still come up with something new), whereas others were quite hard to answer, and made me think.

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A more inclusive world with more balanced aims and methods and far fewer control freaks.

2. What is your greatest fear?
Being misunderstood, spurned and never fully heard.

3. Which living person do you most admire?
I really don't know. I tried to think whose ways I've rather liked recently, and the first to leap to mind was C.J. from the Eggheads. Don't ask me. That was just the first figure to mind. After Stephen Fry.

4. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Not living up to my own expectations.

5. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
The tendency to dismiss other people, views and experiences as worthless or 'wrong'.

6. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
I have to agree with Thailand Gal - it's being 'hard working'. You have to see the bigger picture and the people around you - not just your own little treadmill.

7. On what occasion do you lie?
Polite lies - "I really enjoyed the dinner." Or "I would love to come but I'm too busy that day."
Also, "I would really love this job because..."

8. What do you dislike most about your appearance?
My hair needs cutting - and my talons need filing or trimming or something. Again.

9. What is your greatest regret?
Not knowing older family members better, including my dad who died when I was 24.

10. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
A certain lad from Singapore. He came the closest to accepting me for who I was.

11. Which talent would you most like to have?
Clearer, more fluent speech.

12. What is your current state of mind?
'Hunger' seems to be the best description - not for food, but for all the things I want to say and achieve right now. I want more hours in the day.

13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I have to say it, because it's true - I would welcome nice crisp hearing, just a little bit better than everybody else's! Just for a change.

14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
2002 Winning the British Mensa Championsh.... oh, wait! That wasn't me, that was C.J.
Several times Best in Show Oriental... nuh uh, that was Sharky.
Er.
Oh I know... getting born. All those other spermatazoa were loooooosers.

15. If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
A cat - a well-loved one in a warm home.

16. What is your most treasured possession?
My little house.

17. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
When I worry that nobody understands where I'm coming from and is not prepared to try. A sinking suspicion that people are too busy going round and round in their hamster wheels to stop and really connect.

18. Where would you like to live?
Kenya - or a more rural area of Scotland.

19. What is your most marked characteristic?
Worry.

20. Who are your favorite writers?
Writers with three-dimensional characters, intelligent plots, humour, perceptiveness... who do not have an abrasive style.

21. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Same as Thailand Gal's - Anne Shirley. She was a writer and a dreamer. I tried to come up with somebody different, but got stuck. Moominmamma? You'd all think I was crazy.

22. Who are your heroes in real life?
It has to be my family - I see their lives first hand, with the various trials and tribulations that beset them.
'Look at all my trials and tribulations.... sinking in a gentle pool of wine. What's that in the bread? It's gone to my head; until this evening this morning life was fine.' [Jesus Christ Superstar]

23. What is it that you most dislike?
Narrow-mindedness; lack of empathy; sweeping views; derisiveness; coarseness; loudness.

24. What is your motto?
'It will all be the same in a hundred years.'

25. Favorite journey?
Chuffing across Kenya by overnight train.

26. What do you value most in your friends?
Willingness to communicate; reliability; kindness.

27. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
"Personally..."
"What?"
"Sorry, didn't catch that."
"Oddly enough..."
"I was just thinking..."
"Oh, I didn't realize."
"Sigh."

28. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
GMB (without the drinking)!! If you could call him a historical figure. He certainly liked his history.

29. What is your greatest extravagance?
Books. Bears. Gifts. Nice furnishings for my Most Treasured Possession.

30. If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
Their age - I would roll it back.

31. What is your favorite occupation?
Pottering around at home.

32. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Connection of minds.

33. What is the quality you most like in a man?
Connection of minds.

34. How would you like to die?
In my sleep.

35. If you could chose what to come back as, what would it be?
I thought we answered that one! Definitely a cat. Or maybe C.J.

Mood: Kicking myself
Listening to: Ghost song in my head: 'Malaika' by Fadhili William

It's a jolly good thing we did do the Gadget Show broadband test - it was a catalyst for change. I didn't know all that much about the terms of Mum's broadband account (which I'm sharing) so when I said it was advertised on the ISP's site as 'up to 8 Mb', E said “we've both got the 512 Kb package, which means the broadband speed is as good as we can expect.”
“Oh,” I said, “I looked on the ISP's site and didn't realize they were selling it in different speeds - mea culpa.”

E got suspicious, rootled around, and announced that the packages have been changed and they don't sell different speeds any more - just different download limits. However, Mum (and E) are still stuck on the old 512 Kb packages. Mum is paying £30 a month for hers... which means she could have been getting 'up to 8 Mb' speeds and a capacious download limit of 30 GB for that price - but as far as I'm aware, they didn't tell her.

You know, there's something about that that's just not honest!

We decided to 'downgrade' to a 2 GB package, which will save Mum £10 a month. If we need more, we will get extra blocks if we pay... but it's not as expensive as paying £10 a month for a download capacity we're not using.

I decided to check my dial-up account, which I only keep now for the email address. It's a very old, very cheap account, and I didn't think I could do better, but it turns out there's a still cheaper option by the same ISP, with the added bonus of a limited amount of free internet surf time, which I wasn't getting with the old account.

I don't know who I'm most annoyed with - the ISP for not keeping us abreast of these account changes, or myself for not keeping an eagle eye on them.

I've put in account change requests for both the broadband and dial-up accounts. Mum was thinking of switching to a different ISP but they have a very bad press on the ISP Review UK site at the moment. We've been with our current ISP for years and I don't remember anything but the smallest and most temporary of glitches. Hopefully it will stay that way! And maybe we'll see our broadband speeds improve - fingers crossed.

My ISP moves fast - I put in my bid to change the dial-up account last night, and today I got a message to say it will change at the end of my monthly billing period to the new account. Talk about speedy.

Being in the mood all of a sudden to save money, I rushed into my telephone account and cancelled the Caller Display at my house... I'm not even there to use it. The fax machine is sitting here in Mum's house now.

Life is so..... complicated!!! Full of fidgety little things you forget to monitor! And I'm quite sure that's what 'they' are counting on. Sigh.

Mood: No different
Listening to: Nothing

Britain's broadband speeds are well behind the rest of Europe's, and the advertising is generally misleading - it's said that nobody gets anything like the speeds they're offered. Big Sister and I have just taken part in the broadband speed test by the Gadget Show on Five. We got the following results:

Download speed (mine) 487 kbps.
Download speed (sister's) 490 kbps.
Upload speed (mine) 17 kbps.

We're on the 512kB package anyway, it seems - actually we've been thrown into confusion about that and are trying to find out just what it is we're paying for, as it seems things have changed since we signed up - we're now expecting 'up to 8 Mb' (we are??) but there are other conditions we didn't know about. Meanwhile I'm not sure if that upload speed is par for the course?

Mood: Avoiding the X Factor on TV downstairs
Listening to: 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'

Pieces of Eight meme (edited) pinched from Blue Moon Girl:

8 Things I Am Passionate About
1. For humanity to chill out more
2. Passion? What's that?

8 Things I Say Often
1. Blut
2. Bleep!
3. Drattles
4. Hello, wotchoo bin doing? (to Sharky)
5. D'yoo want some food? (to Sharky)
6. Don't DO that!
7. What I was going to say was...
8. Nooooooooooooooo! (first thing in the morning)

8 Books I’ve Read Recently
1. George Mackay Brown: The Life by Maggie Fergusson
2. Stars of the New Curfew by Ben Okri
3. Starship Voyager: Caretaker by L.A. Graf
4. The Tales of Olga da Polga by Michael Bond
5. The Saint of Dragons by Jason Hightman
6. Ffangs the Vampire Bat and the Kiss of Truth by Ted Hughes
7. The Blue Lion by Robert Lynd
8. Joys of Single Blessedness by George Ade

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over
1. The Lion Sleeps Tonight / Wimoweh (any version) - ANIMATED CLIP
2. Kingston Town by UB40 - CLIP
3. Karma Chameleon by Culture Club - CLIP
4. Souvenir by OMD - CLIP
5. Enola Gay by OMD - CLIP
6. Dream a Lie by UB40 - CLIP
7. Mr Bassman (especially as performed by the Muppets) - MUPPETS CLIP
8. Going Home by Runrig (wot - no clip??)

Mood: Brighter than earlier, but with a headache
Listening to: 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'

I was telling Snoskred that I don't visit video sites - not for any particular reason; just because I'm usually wasting my time in other ways! My sister seems to enjoy rootling around in YouTube, though, and occasionally sends us links to the clips she finds.

Tonight she found some old favourites of ours - Mahnahmahnah by the Muppet Show, Hugga Wugga, and Halfway Down the Stairs.

That got me scratching around in the archives when I should have been finishing a letter to a penpal, and I got my own back by sending her the clip for The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

That song's an old favourite of mine, ever since I was seven...

In the jungle, the mighty jungle,
The lion sleeps tonight
In the jungle, the quiet jungle,
The lion sleeps tonight
Ooooooo wimoweh, wimoweh...

Actually there's a Wikipedia entry saying 'wimoweh' was a mishearing of 'uyimbube' which means 'you're a lion'.

I've watched it three or four times already. Must turn off the computer and get some sleep.

Hush, my darling, don't fear, my darling,
The lion sleeps tonight
Hush, my darling, don't fear, my darling,
The lion sleeps tonight

Ooooooooooooooo wimoweh, wimoweh!
Ooooooooooooooo! Wimoweh!
Ooooooooooooooo, wimoweh
Ooooooooooooooo! Wimoweh!

Now you know what I used to listen to in my mispent youth, every time I fired up that creaky old record player.

Mood: Fine
Listening to: Horrible tinnitus and house rushings

I've known from a child that Mum could be inconsistent - it was confusing but I eventually learned that most people swither about a lot of things. Possibly the aspect that most confused me was the confidence and determination with which Mum would state a preference which was later changed.

Actually it still confuses me.

For instance, we decided to get a new lino for my hall (house to be rented out). My sister said "why not a carpet?"
"Oh yes, we could get a carpet for a change, it might be more comfortable," I said, but Mum came up with all sorts of reasons why I should stick with lino.

When we discovered lino was not much cheaper, she said a carpet would be the sensible buy. I had only just told her I disliked all the carpets but had seen a nice lino, so I was a bit taken aback. All that had just been brushed aside. I protested that the lino would probably last longer than a cheap pale carpet which had had mud tramped into it by tenants and visitors on wet days.

"Oh yes, you're right," she said.

We went to the warehouse and I turned towards the lino section, thinking I had won the battle... but Mum pointed at a carpet and said "how about this? It doesn't cost much more than the linos and it's a Stainsomethingorover - should be easy to clean."

The shop manager told us we would need underlay as well, which would jack the price up... Suddenly we were looking at the linos again - and lino is what we bought.

Having told this story, I'm beginning to wonder if she's really so contradictory, or it's just something about me that loses the plot every so often - there's such a clear pattern here. Doubtless we are talking loudly about which would last the longest, but ultimately we are being led by price.

Well, on another occasion we went shopping for a double duvet cover for my new double bed (in the house to be rented out). I found one I quite liked - mostly white with panels of pink flowers. They weren't too large or too close together, so it was reasonably tasteful. I showed it to Mum, and she looked as horrorstruck as though I'd offered her a Disney Princess or Hello Kitty duvet set.

"You can't get that... what if a couple looks at the house? A fellow won't want to sleep in it with those pink flowers."

Well, let's see... the double bedroom has a pink carpet, bright floral curtains and a pale pink lightshade. The single bedroom also has a pink carpet; the curtains are cream with a pleasant floral print - I'll point out that Mum found that set. The bathroom has bright floral wallpaper and silver lino... I wasn't sure what difference one more 'girly' item would make, especially as it was mostly white anyway.

We moved on without buying anything.

In the very next place (a charity shop), Mum found a double duvet set for something like £4. It was a strong bubblegum pink all over with large yellow daisies.

"We'll get THIS, shall we?" she said brightly, confident I'd love it.

I just nodded - it seemed the easiest way out.

---

Later on I got another duvet set with matching curtains... fresh creamy white with large wobbly pink flowers on the lower half. The curtains are lighter and longer than my old floral 'cottage garden' curtains. It sounds girly, I know, but looks quite sophisticated. I'll hide the bubblegum pink duvet set at the back of the airing cupboard for spares - the Scaly Tenants can use it if they like...

I'm beginning to wonder if these tenants will ever actually exist, outside of my imagination.

Mood: Amused
Listening to: Ghostly song in my head: 'All My Life's a Circle' by the New Seekers

This tortoise appears to have been overtaken by a fit of pure blind rage... YouTube video.

Mood: Disillusioned
Listening to: House buzzing

I followed the 'What Classic Movie Are You?' questionnaire and apparently I'm "Platoon. An anxious foot soldier on the battlefield of life, seeking to avoid danger and preserve her security."

Mood: Tiring
Listening to: House buzzing

I have a link to the Webfetch metasearch engine (I hope that's the right term). It compiles the results from several search engines including Google. However, they don't pass any 'identifiable' data to them - see Cookies in Webfetch's blog. It's worth reading even if you're happy with your current search engine.

I was particularly fascinated by the 'show engine position' feature - you can see which engines had which results. I tried a Webfetch search for a friend's site, and discovered it was on only three search engines. Quite a nifty way of checking! Some of the results were not on Google - it seems that some pages from the same site are, some are not.

Webfetch was recommended by the ComputerActive magazine a few issues back.

I meant to use it more than I did, and still found myself Googling, but largely that was because I have a Firefox browser with a little search box in the top right corner. It was set to Google and I was in the habit of doing my searches from there. Today I realized I should be able to change it to any search engine I liked... so all my searches will be with you-know-who from now on!

One more link (not connected to search engines):

Waiting on the world to change - link to video pinched from browneyedgirl.

I should have called my blog that - sums up my cast of mind! The ironic thing is, I can't sign... I'm one of those needing to change. I wasn't taught sign language as a young child, as it was considered in those days that everybody should be made to communicate orally.

Mood: Energetic
Listening to: House buzzing

ANNOYANCE. Sorry if that made you jump - it's BlogFriday's latest word of the week.

A particular annoyance of mine is stereotyping - for instance, 'single women live alone with cats'. What a horrible fate(!) There are so many families, bachelors, married couples, unmarried couples and politicians living with cats, and nobody ever says anything about that - but the minute it turns out that the cat in question is sharing the roof of a single woman, the perspective shifts.

It's really rather boring.

The family I grew up in has always had cats. We've occasionally had dogs, guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens (I think), budgies, tortoises, fish, terrapins, mice, rats, hamsters, gerbils, jirds (my sister's), degus (my sister's) and chinchillas (mostly my sister's)... but the one animal whose presence has been almost constant in our lives has been the cat. In those days we had cats because we liked them. Now that the man of the house (my father) has gone, we are three single women, and probably considered to fall in the category of women who are driven to keep cats because there are no men in their lives.

Bosh.

I found two articles on the subject, both apparently by Barbara Ellen - looking at their dates, it seems my attack on this topic is years behind. My excuses are: (1) I didn't start my blog till 2005; (2) negative stereotypes connecting women and cats are so old that even the mould has fossilized. I thought we were supposed to be civilized now? (Rationality is a whole other ballpark, being beyond the reach of the human race, but we could do with more of that too).

Of the two articles, I particularly like Up Front.

Why Women Prefer Cats falls apart here and there, but has some good thoughts and punchlines.

Mood: See title
Listening to: House humming

On Geosomin's blog I found this meme, posted because she was feeling lousy. Though it's nearly the other end of the day, I thought I would try it in case it holds a miracle cure.

Current clothes: Café latte coloured Indian skirt with sequinned trim. White petticoat. Grass-green T-shirt.

Current mood: Tired and disillusioned.

Current music: Nothing.

Current annoyance: Spammer who got into Blogigo. Nothing happened for a long time before today, but last night I got a pricking of my thumbs for no reason other than feeling cheesed off, and decided to reset my preferences so that any new comments coming from the outside world would need to be activated. I assumed spammers wouldn't even bother registering with Blogigo just to post on our blogs, but I was wrong - and that's where the spam came from. So it got past me anyway. It wasn't there very long - bim, bim, bim, and I changed my preferences, so all comments are being moderated just now. I'm in the mood to change to WordPress (I called up their site last night) but don't have time. That's my other annoyance.

Current thing: You caught me between 'things'. Zzz. Possibly a BlogFriday post which is in the offing for tomorrow, and I was thinking of trawling the NaBloPoMo membership list for new blog reads.

Current desktop picture: An improved photo of Sharky sleeping on Mum's bed. I like the way the blue sweet pea design shines out.

Current book: The Terry Wogan autobiography. I'm reading slowly - not his fault!

Current song in head: I did this meme at the wrong time, as there's no music playing there right now!

Current DVD in player: Nothing.

Current refreshment: Nothing.

Current worry: Will everything be sorted out before Christmas?

Current thought: It's time the world moved away from 'money'.



To cheer anyone else who's feeling lousy, my sister sent a link to a design-related video this morning. It goes on for a while, but be sure to watch it to the end - that's where the best bit is.

Mood: Low
Listening to: House humming

The other night I woke up congested, and had to scrabble about for the Sudafed. It seemed easier to sit up and put the light on so that I could see what I was doing.

In seconds, a small form appeared silently in the doorway. She sat and blinked at me with lazy green eyes, tail wrapped round her neat paws. Peace radiated from her, although she seemed to be enquiring "what are you doing up at this time of night?" Just knowing she was there was a comfort - somebody in the world knew I had stirred, and was paying attention.

It made me feel the real mistress of this house is this cat, Cheeky.

It also reminded me of my first night here under her ægis. For some reason I was thinking about monsters under the bed - how silly! But then I thought to myself "there can be no monsters when Cheeky's around. I'm perfectly safe." I put my foot out of the bed with complete confidence, and nothing sank its teeth in.

Mood: Rocky
Listening to: Silence

I have a particular affection for websites that allow me to format dates the way I prefer. I always get a little confuddled (aargh, brain slowdown!) when faced with dates as follows:

11/29/07

as opposed to:

29/11/07

It's bad enough when there's a nice big number like 29 to point the way - it gets much more problematic when you're faced with small figures (like 4/5/07) and are not certain which system is being used.

If I have to accept one date format and one date format only, I would prefer Nov 29 2007.

Praise where it's due (and I'm not paid for advertising) - Caedes.net is a website that allows me to set the time format to suit myself.

NewsGator isn't - and that's what started me off on the blog post! My account there was full of long columns of unread blog posts along with dates that turned my brain to mush.

Mood: Sleepy
Listening to: Ghostly song in my head: Ae Fond Kiss (as sung by The Corries)

I know I've been quiet lately, but don't count on it continuing... a score of blog posts is thundering out of my teeming thoughts even as we speak. NaBloPoMo (which I failed to join this year despite my intentions) has nothing on me. I decided to catch up on my blog-reading, and found a host of interesting observations by Iain of Posted Notes - I couldn't let them pass without comment.


In response to Return of FOPP:

The FOPP in our small town stood empty and barred for so long... then a short while ago we passed somebody unlocking the gate and going in. People stood around and stared, while I whipped my head round as I caught the scene in the corner of my eye...

Mum noticed too, and looked hopeful, but I suggested "maybe they're going to strip it now."

Went past again a few days later, and they were indeed stripping/redecorating it - not sure what's going to happen there.

Oh, Mum says she knows. It's going to be a stationer's. I said "a STATIONER'S? We already HAVE stationers! What do we need another one for??"

Mum looked mildly offended, and said "that's exactly what Big Sister said. But I don't see what's wrong with..."

What we DO need is a good music and DVD store. Sorry. I'm just so annoyed.

---

In response to Hilariously Historic:

I was on an editorial chat list for a while (and stopped reading it because the chatter and some of the attitudes were driving me up the wall). Anyway, I clearly remember one editor writing in to say that she makes a point of putting 'an historic', 'an hotel' etc because it used to be correct. Well, that's not the correct approach...

It makes sense to say that it's to do with how we pronounce the words, so we should write how we speak... checked around and found that here on AskOxford.com.

---

In response to Munros and Shakespeare Plays:

Heh. Poetry of all sorts come under that kind of judgement.

Maybe pictures and photography as well. Death itself brings dignity to a name - one example was folk going to look at the online gallery of the fractalist who died... some of them saying "I never looked at her gallery before - but you know, it was good."

Kind of depressing. All that good stuff there to look at (or read), and people there to talk to (or write to), but we don't. And then the opportunity's gone. That's just life, I suppose.

Anyway, your Munro parallel reminds me of showing a Munro-bagger around... we went to climb a local hill - very windy, gentle hill. There I was, standing at the foot of it, calling it a hill, and he said "that's not a hill... that's a bump."

Mood: Hungry - time for food
Listening to: Ghostly song in my head: 'Where Do You Go To, My Lovely?'

My quest to provide a good quality home for Future Scaly Tenants continues... I acquired a 200 thread count Egyptian cotton sheet with matching pillow cases.

Fascinating... not.

Thinking of a completely different type of Scaly Tenant, I ran nose-first into one of those frustrating moments when you realize that what you had in mind was not what everybody else had in mind. Worse yet, what you had in mind was probably not as good.

One of Mum's cats (Grumble) has been feeling the cold lately - and he's not even Mum's oldest cat. He stalks the house on shaky legs, complaining. Mum said she would get him a particular kind of cat bed that he could snuggle inside and keep away from any cold draughts (like when Mum leaves the cat flap propped open for cats like Grumble).

Being a helpful sort of person, every time we went to a pet shop of any description, I hurried to the bedding section and pointed out the most likely contenders. I remember an igloo-shaped cat nest, but Mum said no, that wouldn't do.

So yesterday we found ourselves at Pets at Home, and I was first at the bedding section. My first find was a lovely cylindrical fleece nest, padded at the bottom with a matching fleece cushion. It wasn't roofed over, but the sides were pretty high, and I could imagine it keeping the draughts at bay. My second find was a stiffened fleece-lined tartan sack. A cat would be able to fit inside quite snugly - the only thing that bothered me was that it was too small for Grumble (or any of our cats. What size is the average mog these days?? Or do they think people only buy beds for kittens?)

Anyway.. those two were the ones I settled on as possible Grumble-beds.

My sister arrived.
"Oh look," I said, pointing at the tartan sack and the fleece cylinder.
"Oh my!" said Big Sister, impressed... and reached past them to seize an enormous fleecy igloo.

Then Mum arrived.
"Look!" said Big Sister!
"Oh yes!" responded Mum, her eyes lighting up, also reaching for the igloo.

It cost £40 but was an instant hit - one of the cats (Cheeky) went inside and stayed (without budging) for five hours. When she finally emerged we introduced Grumble to it, and he went inside without any complaints. "Oh, this is lovely," he said, scratching around busily before settling down. "Why did nobody TELL me about this?"

So where did I go wrong?

I wouldn't have bought it myself, but then my cantankerous Siamese/Oriental cats never went inside these things - only lay on top and squashed them flat. Granny's Siamese cat was the same. It seems that Mum's cats (and my sister's - mostly Rexes) do go inside them the way they're supposed to.

But I went jouncing off-track when I pointed out an igloo-shaped bed some time ago which was turned down by Mum. What was wrong with it, I don't know - maybe it was too small. Quite likely... most cat beds ARE small.

I suppose I'm just not a mind-reader.

Mood: Normal - bored with the nittier-grittier things of life
Listening to: Ghostly song in my head: 'Where Do You Go To, My Lovely?'

I finished George Mackay Brown's biography quite quickly - the one by Maggie Fergusson. It's shorter than it looks, because of all the references at the back. I enjoyed it very much and it was more informative than GMB's autobiography (From the Islands I Sing) but I did find it fairly dry in the middle, around the period when GMB was spending a lot of time with the other poets... I started to wonder whose biography it was - GMB's, Edwin Muir's, Norman McCaig's or Sidney Goodsir Smith's?

I suppose each person's life is bound up with others and you really can't separate them too much. These other people supported, chivvied, influenced etc.

In his serious writing, GMB did have a taste for the very dark things of human existence (such as what happened to the local witches). But he also had his lighter, chattier moments.

GMB suffered from periodic depression as well as... (and I didn't know this!)... agoraphobia. I wonder if many of the reviewers and critics really understood how that would impact on GMB. I was reading a review by someone who has read Maggie Fergusson's book - the reviewer kept saying "but it was hard to understand why GMB [this, that or the other]". In turn, I couldn't understand how they could read that book (or know anything about him) and not understand.

It's true that some people still think in very black and white terms. They would imagine that if you have agoraphobia, you never leave the house. And if you leave the house regularly (like GMB going to the shops), you don't have it any more. But as GMB found, it hangs around... sometimes it's bad, and sometimes it's barely even present. He stared at the island of Hoy and wondered how he ever found the energy and courage to go out there. I do that too - think about places I've been and things I've done, and been amazed. But it doesn't mean I would never be able to do them again - I would just feel currently unable.

I was muttering out loud about the party of poets taking over, and Mum's just told me I was taught English (for a while) by Sidney Goodsir Smith's widow! I didn't realize that. There's mention of a wife called Hazel in the biography. Small world.

Mum said one of my English teachers said I had exceptional ability (typical 'proud mother' flashback!), but she can't remember if it was Mrs Smith or someone else. The name rings a bell but I don't really remember her. Most of my attention was focused on a young English teacher I got on very well with (though of course I got on with all my English teachers, except for one solitary primary school teacher I couldn't stand...) Anyway, the one I liked was very fresh and charming and invited me to an after-school literature club. That didn't last long because I found when the school bell rang I just wanted to go home. That's all I wanted to do. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the club... I just wasn't particularly outgoing, I suppose, and home to me was the best place on earth.

Well, now that book is finished, I've begun reading a different autobiography - about Terry Wogan! I'm not sure I'll bend your ear about it, though it's good reading... but we'll see.

Mood: Enthralled
Listening to: Ghostly song in my head: 'A Wandering Minstrel, I' from The Mikado

I spent an old book token on George Mackay Brown: The Life by Maggie Fergusson. I've had that token two years by now and could never bring myself to spend it on anything - but today I spotted 'GMB' along with 'signed by the author', and that old book token was gone without a second glance. I like signed copies, and I like GMB, though I still haven't read enough of his books. I feel very guilty about it - it's on my to-do list. I was interrupted halfway through one by having to take it back to the library - and the library wouldn't let me renew it online (presumably because it was overdue, but it's not as if I'm a chronic offender - I don't often borrow library books). That annoyed me so much I didn't ask to renew at the desk, though I suspect they would have allowed it.

However, I digress...

While we were waiting for the men to come and fit the new hall lino at my house, I started reading the GMB biography as it was the only one I had with me. It was a mistake. Not because I didn't like the book - but because I liked it too much. I've had my nose in it ever since then. I was annoyed that Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was on, as I wanted to watch that too (not seen it before) and so was torn between the film and the book.

(Looks hunted).

I ended up reading during commercial breaks. So much for all those ads about... well I wasn't watching, was I?

I've not finished the biography yet and wasn't going to talk about it till I did finish, but I've tried that before with other books, and it never works. I have to talk about things 'hot off the press', otherwise the experience cools and slips silently away. And right now I'm enthused about this. I'm sure the gift token was waiting in my trolley all this time for this very moment.

I don't wish to say much about it - I've been realizing that most reviews are to be avoided if you don't want the surprise spoiled. If you're curious, read it! It's given me a chuckle or two already, and some thoughtful, even shocked silences. The things you never quite realize about other people's lives... or about things that are just familiar words like 'The Royal Oak at Scapa Flow'. All I want to say is that when I read For the Islands I Sing (GMB's autobiography) some time ago, I was disappointed. It was indeed about his life, but in an odd way it was out of context - as though we were reading about a bubble called GMB and nothing else. The biography by Maggie Fergusson fills out the surrounding space and everything seems much more grounded. Some of what she says also makes me realize that if I'd read more of his books I might not have been so surprised.

A while ago, Mum bought a catalogue of first editions among books. It listed authors and titles with their possible values, and I was shocked that GMB wasn't included. His name was the first I looked up. Dick Francis? Check. Enid Blyton? Check. GMB? Errr... I told Mum and she said "I know - I looked him up too. He's not there - seems very strange to me."

A bad omission.

A wandering minstrel, I
A thing of shreds and patches
Of ballads, songs and snatches
And dreamy lullaby...

From The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan

Mood: Wishing Bryce hadn't crashed - fortunately I saved my mountain scene
Listening to: Tinnitus - someone singing a modern tune

On What's That You Said? I found a link to this test - are you left-brained or right-brained? To find out, look at the picture then read the text.

Seems I'm right-brained - though when I looked away from the picture and read the text, suddenly I became left-brained!

*Cackles with laughter.*

Mood: Ordinary
Listening to: Morning tinnitus

I must be the only person in the country who gets up to heated toothpaste. No, we don't have a butler or a maid or something - it's just that my sponge bag hangs too close to the radiator.

On the wallpaper site my small audience slowly grows - it's actually a little nerve-racking, like on this blog... you wonder if you will suddenly start posting rubbish, and not because you meant to. And there's always the risk someone will drop in to say "pooh bah" and not much else. It hasn't happened yet, but you never know.

I think, though, that my shell is a lot tougher than it used to be. I've been on the internet a fair time and I'm more inclined to shrug things off and see that it's just some so-and-so in a bullying rampage. Other times, seeming rudeness was meant as a joke - quite often I've understood what somebody was trying to say, but the person they're addressing gets upset and thinks they're being attacked.

I'm not leading anywhere with this - just saying... Anyway, if in doubt, it's better to say nothing than to respond with hurt and anger. Sometimes ignoring something is the best thing to do, anyway - it just dissipates into thin air. A day of peace is better than a day of strife. Much better. Got so much to do - carpet-hunting again. We went into another carpet store the other day, and this was the choice: beige, stone, beige, fudge, beige, mushroom, beige. And there weren't even any speckled ones.