greycat_uk

A rumour of an update

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:42:35 GMT

It's been ages... but life's been interesting over recent months. I'm ok, good days really are outweighing bad days, and I'm getting on and do think I'm going where I need/want to be... but yeah. Interesting times.

But to sum it up: Wil's moving out on Monday. He's got a nice two-bedroomed semi in the centre of Derby (with a girl who's nice), so... helping with that over the weekend and next week. And then I get my house back. Much cleaning will ensue, but I'm pretty sure it'll feel weird... but I mean to make it better.

All is well, everything is amicable, just got to finalise the paperwork with the Courts now, which is chugging along. I won't be the richest person in the world at the end of it, but I'll have the house, Harry and Stuff... and a vastly reduced credit card debt (swapped for a slightly larger mortgage, but still better than it was in London). And my life my own again, I guess.

Harry is doing ok - after vets last week, he has one tooth left and it's going to fall out soon. But despite much fretting on the way to/from vets, he is now a massive purring machine whenever I'm about, due (I think) to me looking after him throughout and bringing him back, rather than dumping him somewhere (as I believe has happened before in his wee life). So yeah.

Any questions, I guess? What've I missed due to not updating for ages that anyone wants to know? ;)

Stolen but wonderful

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 10:05:56 GMT

This is from a fellow LJer, thebratqueen. I LOVE IT. Hands up who's with me... :)

Conversation had at the checkout of my local Borders:

Me: Hi, I'd like to give this book a home, please.

Saleswoman: I've never heard it put that way before.

Me: I promise to love it as my very own.

Saleswoman: That's good, because we do do background checks to make sure you'll provide a safe environment for it.

Me: Of course. For all you know I'm the sort of monster who breaks the spines.

Saleswoman: We can't have that.

Me: Indeed!

Blessings of Beltane everyone :)

Fri, 01 May 2009 10:37:27 GMT

Enjoy! :D

Request - old Wessex players

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:39:46 GMT

Heya chaps - does anyone have any of the old Wessex photos still knocking around? Trying to forage and find thngs, and realizing just what I'm missing... any old disks or PC folders, go rummage and email me plz? :)

Thanks much!! x

Recommendation

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:40:19 GMT

http://nextread.co.uk/2009/03/23/debut-review-a-madness-of-angels-by-kate-griffin-orbit/

I know people here recommended me Catherine Webb a while ago - this is she, under another name, for adults.

For those who loved 'Neverwhere', this seriously is the next generation. And it is magic :)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Madness-Angels-Kate-Griffin/dp/1841497339/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239197760&sr=8-1

And her website - the second entry is just fab: http://www.kategriffin.net/

Sad

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:39:29 GMT

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b106789_Angel_Star_Andy_Hallett_Dies_of_Heart_Failure.html

The world is very up-down atm... I am home with v bad cold. Hoping brain sorts itself out today, and can get some writing done.

Update

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:54:53 GMT

Have debated whether it's my place or not to post this, but figured what the hell does that mean - here we go. Best intentions.

Alex L (Spider from the Bears, or Sebastian Oaks to Vamp players) is in hospital still today, having been admitted on Saturday after a good few weeks of back pain, then sudden double vision on Saturday itself. After a brain scan, the docs believe he has suffered a minor stroke. He still can't see straight, and is naturally very scared and worried, but is having an MRI today to hopefully find out more.

Meantime, he's being instructed to relax in bed, but this is obviously very difficult. His colleagues have helpfully suggested that the brain-picture will feature a sign saying 'This Space For Rent' ;) But keeping him smiling is a good thing...

Please send all your good thoughts to him - I'll be speaking later, but he has got his moby and can receive texts. I'm trying to sort a care package of audio thingies, and hopefully will be able to zoom his way this weekend to deliver, if anyone wants to contribute (or I can privately email his addy).

Love y'all, and thanxx

Want! :)

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:51:47 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2009/mar/26/my-little-pony-film-characters-pictures?picture=345032718

Much needed!

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:05:21 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/15/usa-tv-jon-stewart-economy

Jon Stewart IS awesome. Watch him on More4 if you can, around 8pm each weeknight. His British comic guest is also hilarious :)

We NEED Satire. Can Bill Hicks pls be resurrected...?

Meeting Up!

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:49:58 GMT

Righto. For those London-types, I will be Dahn Sahth for a meeting tomorrow afternoon, with my train getting into St Pancras not long after midday. I'll then be in Holborn from about 1230 for an hour or so - anyone propose a meet and a jar? :D

Then Saturday... who's going to TORM? :D

I has no money, but meeting folk I haven't seen in too long more than makes up for it...!

This had better be true... :D

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:24:24 GMT

SO excited!! :D

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/4903759/David-Tennants-curtailed-Hamlet-will-rise-from-the-grave.html

So amazing

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:16:59 GMT

This is from another LJ I am part of - and I just wanted to share, cos it's wonderful. I suggest we all do such mad random things. :)

***
Tonight I was looking through a rather uninspiring book that could have been written by any of a thousand anti-fat crusaders, wondering how it is that women can so casually insult themselves and abuse themselves in a way that's perfectly acceptable to society, and so few ever stop and ask why. The baggage tied up in being a "fat girl" goes so far beyond health, so deep into the wounds of our world, that it astounds me that perfectly intelligent people fork over thousands of dollars a year to be taught to fear food and feel superior to other women based solely on size.

I was about to put the book down when I turned a page and a slip of paper fell out.

On it someone had written in green marker: "You are Lovely!" and drawn a happy face.

About fifty pages later was another one, this one purple, saying, "You are Beautiful!"

I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry, so I did a little of both.

I remember months ago in my most recent deep depressive phase, I was at that same bookstore and found myself writing a note to no one. I tore a page from my notebook and wrote things like "You are loved, you are wonderful," and then folded it and tucked it inside a random self-help book. It was my hope, in those days of despair, that someone would find it and feel better, if only for a moment, about themselves.

Apparently I'm not the only one who does this. It was that, as much as what the notes said, that affected me.

I kept the first note. I thought I should leave them both there for the next person, but the first one I saw moved me so much that I decided I should take it home and keep it on my altar at least for a little while. Eventually I'll take it back to Borders and hide it away in another book, or at least do the same thing with some markers of my own.

tickled

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:09:29 GMT

I have been invited to something that approximates a team-building day, about 2 mins down the hill from my house, on Wednesday. I thought it was for managers - apparently I'm to go too.

It's an Italian restaurant. I'm allergic to garlic. ;)

Given that this is going to be a room full of Doctors, I've suggested SARS-style masks, or sleeve protectors against the potential for v*mit... ;) Should always leave organising such things to the PAs!!

Hippocrates

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:59:30 GMT

After getting VERY angry with various GPs this morning, I idly looked up this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocratic_oath

Fascinating to read the newer (American) version, and then the ultimate modern interpretation, as used by my employers:

http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/good_medical_practice/index.asp

Can see why nobody ever agrees on anything. But the sheer power of the original oath blew me away (even if I don't agree with all of it).

It has been commented on that today, I feel like I'm in an episode of 'House' - without the cool bits ;)

Snow (you know it!)

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:13:59 GMT

It is snowing. It is winter. I am North. It's happened the last two years around this time, and generally folk are getting on with life :) I am here at work, for example, with my coffee and fleece. And a very pretty view out the window.

GMTV this morning was going into meltdown, as the WHOLE OF THE UK (ie everything inside the M25, apparently, as that was all they mentioned) had some of the white stuff. For the first time in 18 years (what does this say about London as its own universe? *grin*). Boris, were you unprepared at all? ;)

Meanwhile, Radio Nottingham is on about potential sledging opportunities in the region. It's snowed, if you're stuck get out there on your tea-trays. ;)

Hope everyone stays safe... but meantime, get out there and chuck a snowball or two about, you know you want to ;) I had a txt this morning to say a local mate was running about nekkid in it... corblimey! :O

Good news for once!

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:37:32 GMT

From February... I will no longer be a temp. I will be employed as a permanent staff member of EMAS. :D

Despite the obvious downer of a public-sector rate of pay, the job is great, the people are lovely, and I am really enjoying my job. And they want me. I was SO nervous this morning, after all the temp-to-perm nightmares of the past year but ... I am wanted, at a job that's Good.

The relief is tangible :D

Job(s) - tick!
Salary - (small) tick!
Now if the rest of life would kindly sort itself out... ;)

GENIUS!

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:57:56 GMT

Y'see, THIS is the sort of response the BBC should make (to anything the Daily Mail says, actually)...

http://www.topgear.com/us/blog/more/the-stig-is-revealed/

I personally hope it's actually Caractacus Potts, fictional driver of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. ;)

Annnnnd

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:25:30 GMT

One for Ladyloki :) Cos of the picture mainly

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/21/female-icons-cinema

Politics

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:19:56 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/obama-inauguration1

Comments at the bottom aside, why is it so wrong to question and write something inspirational and hopeful? Lord knows we need it.

One for Damehabonde, I think :) You ever thought of running for office? ;)

Request

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:35:44 GMT

I need a new book. Any suggestions? ;)

Update

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:52:56 GMT

As many of you may have gathered, last night was one of the worst ever. After many many months of trying to not make this decision, I confronted Manthing about getting a divorce, due mainly to the fact that our lives seem to be going in different ways over the past year or so. And all the stuff that's gone before (temper, obliviousness, money issues etc etc).

Don't want to go into it in too much detail really, but after a truly hellacious few hours, we're talking and he's basically on his last chance. He has promised to change many times before, but now the cards really are on the table - he's been making me more unhappy than happy in recent months, is the upshot, and while he may not have meant it, he's done it, and repeatedly. I need a companion in my life, not a child, and that's always been an issue. Now we see if he really can change some things that are fairly fundamentally ingrained into him.

I know I'm not blameless, don't think I am. But nor am I entirely evil. Just feel we're diverging, and want us both to be happy, rather than constantly just 'getting along'.

Don't know whether I dare to hope, as I've heard it all before. But I do still love him deeply, so prepared to give it the chance, if that's what it takes. If it works - great. But... we see.

Thanks to all for their support. I may be daft to be putting up with him for so long (as has been said, often) but I make my decisions for reasons, and I stand by them.

Onward.

BOOKS!

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:30:51 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/18/1000-novels-crime-part-one

Much as I don't like being told what to read, a hefty dose of recommendations is always welcome... I'm already surfing Project Gutenberg for the older ones! :)

Sharing the wealth, check the Guardian website - they've done Romance and Crime, and are keeping going week by week, I think... woot! :) (And huzzah for Amazon Prime...!)

Ponderings

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:37:34 GMT

Today, I found this. It's rather sweet, imho:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/02/death-grief-bereavement

Thought immediately of two dear friends on here who have all-too-recently experienced this, and while I have not, thought it might be a time to explain my quietness of late.

As I may have said, I'm now working at EMAS, PA-ing, but in the course of the job I have been given the task of essentially administrating the forms for those patients throughout the East Midlands who have requested not to be resuscitated. Obviously I can't talk about this in too much detail, but I am very much now the sole coordinating point for medics to advise EMAS of patients' imminently final wishes.

This has struck me hard. It's a very big deal, and (amazingly) quite a new incentive for the NHS, that some are still only just getting to grips with. Half the job is explaining things to GPs (after all, they're qualified doctors - it's hard to expect them to be able to fill out a basic form properly *grin*). I am taking it seriously, and working v hard to do my absolute best for those people.

But I am so aware of my lack of experience, and the lack of facility within society for dealing with such things. Some GPs and receptionists have made me froth violently for what could be considered callous behaviour - perhaps it's just their way of dealing with another patient that they'll soon have to take off the books, thats their choice. But I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT see these people as 'just another piece of paper', another number. That's me. I won't apologise for that. Over the Christmas period, I have been utterly flabbergasted by the response I have had from some - but while not wanting to cause a ruckus, can only stand by my experience and be honest with how I feel about it. Deal. I'll be over here, getting on with things while you get offended.

Spiritually, I've spoken to those who also deal with the dead daily (and often in a far more hands-on way), and have started working out my own ways of handling this, both in my head and in my actions. But it's hard. Not saying that as an excuse, but ... guess I'm hoping to explain why I may have been a bit distant lately. Life is being v tricksy atm, and this is a priority... but not a straightforward one.

x

Another year...

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:50:19 GMT

Today I get another year older. It's not the aging that bothers me at all (I'm as old as I feel, for sure), but it's amazing just how much has been accomplished in the last year.

I'm not going to meme it all, but it's been a phenomenal year - thanks to those of you who've helped make it so, but ... yeah. Much wow. Good things and bad but if every year is going to be as full and interesting... cor blimey! Much lived life at the end. Tis all good. Even the hard bits.

Feeling v like my icon today... sadly in lack of DT bearing gifts this morning, but heyho ;)

News that actually gave me hope this morning

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:33:56 GMT

HOW fab. There's one in Derby, and tis great :)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/dec/10/ethicalfood-foodanddrink

greycat_uk

A rumour of an update

Stolen but wonderful

Blessings of Beltane everyone :)

Request - old Wessex players

Recommendation

Sad

Update

Want! :)

Much needed!

Meeting Up!

This had better be true... :D

So amazing

*tickled*

Hippocrates

Snow (you know it!)

Good news for once!

GENIUS!

Annnnnd

Politics

Request

Update

BOOKS!

Ponderings

Another year...

News that actually gave me hope this morning

tickled