Texas

My friend and colleague Lalita has always wanted to live in Texas.

She was going to move last year, but her youngest son flatly refused to do High School - he wanted 'A' levels and so they stayed put. But now, there's been a change of plan and Lalita and her hubby are off to Texas on September 12th.

Cue scenes of great grieving in our office! We are going to miss her like mad, and this week has just been a complete washout, workwise. The man-size box of tissues on my desk is nearly empty, her desk is covered with cards (plus a fluffy pink elephant and a box of Ferrero Rocher - they make great talking points at rodeos).

Lal has been part of the team for 6 years, so everyone is feeling pretty down. She's always been the really sweet one, good at her job and general all-round good sort.

The upside to this has been the Media Centre compilation DVD. It's a bit of a tradition, if you leave the Media Centre then they will produce a DVD full of in-jokes and much piss-taking.

Eddie (Head of Unit) had his Edwardian spoof, which involves the Queen, Michael Palin-style travel and...er...trifle, and previous works included the shameless rip-off 'Little Media' and the Crimewatch spoof ("vegetarian" exposed as meat dealer, pushing Bovril to the students in the editing suites). They had less warning for Lal, and she would have been very embarrassed, so they concentrated on a lovely "Wanted" poster instead.

So now we are all putting on the smiley faces, making the jokes and wondering how we feel when we roll in on Monday and Lal isn't here to greet us.

What's the carbon footprint on a flight to Texas?

I'm phoning the Cats Protection League...

to see if they want to do a swap. Tiger (the Ginger Git) has developed a new way to torment me. It involves waiting until I'm asleep, then either biting/sticking a claw in my nose. Once awake, I get one more bite, just to make sure I've felt pain, then he goes back to sleep.

4am this morning!! 4am! He didn't even have the excuse of the earthquake. I've had my nose pierced, thanks, and once is enough. Especially as done by a vicious cat with hygiene issues.

The others have all been suspiciously quiet recently. I suppose I should be grateful they now have the psycho days on some sort of rota. But I'm not.

Maybe he's heard about the extra on Facebook - Catbook. Yes, profile your cat!

He'll get more than a profile, if he doesn't start behaving soon...

That didn't last long...

The baby niece had left Mahahual, not Playa del Carmen.

Mahahual was a very lovely little village. Note the word was - parts of it are now ever so slightly trashed.

Read the report here.

Huge sigh of relief

My niece has shown wonderful sense and maturity, and legged it from Playa del Carmen before Hurricane Dean hits.

At least one of the two-legged pesky critters has the sense it was born with.

Friday 10 August 2007

Manchester had an earthquake. Okay, a baby tremor but it was a slow news day until Tony Wilson died.

The events are not thought to be linked.

Facebook

Dilemma:

They've all gone mad on Facebook here. I love some of my colleagues to bits, but would happily poison the rest.

Thanks to Jills and Sophie, I'm on Facebook ( though I can't be arsed updating it often).

By adding my colleagues, I can widen my network, but will have to surrender the place where I whinge about work, to my mates.

Hhhhuuuuummmmmm. This is tricky.

A fine addition to the Pesky Critters

My sister's new house is next to a garden with a beautiful old beech tree. Two brilliant psycho-squirrels live in it. They throw things out of the tree at passers-by - their strike rate is so good, I don't believe it is accidental. Although her roof has just been fixed, and they can't get in to cause damage, Big Sis is already looking for roast squirrel recipes. They are way too bright to come down to a level where they might be caught, she could be waiting for quite a while...

In fact,I think they are safe for a bit. This is the woman who threatened her farming neighbour with all sorts of personal injury, should he just 'happen to accidentally' harm her adopted fox, at the last house.

"Wouldn't it be nice, to get on wiv me neighbours..."

On Monday the Monday Night Group (clue's in the name) got together to write, drink beer and talk rubbish. Several ex-writers and their drinking support team ducked the writing bit and went straight to the pub. As usual, we warmed up with "What've you been up to?", before heading for the stupid stuff. Even trained professionals need to warm up.

My mate Paul and I were comparing Sunday evening. I had visited my brother, Paul had spent a quiet night at home. I was describing the Sunday night cat-fight at my brother's house. Paul knows all about the Reservoir Mogs and their sidekicks (Southern Chapter and the Salford posse). The Salford Posse belong to my brother - Red, Blue and Pumphrey and they are suffering. Next door have acquired a kitten (young Shadow) and he is trying to take over the garden. Red is staying out of the scrap, Blue is fighting her corner in a real death-or-glory struggle, and Pumphrey is just heading for a nervous breakdown. Blue can't really fight for long, so she saved her energy for a short but spectacular attack, spoilt only by the fact that Shadow danced off, oblivious, to chase a squirrel.

Paul's verdict? "Put a Pink Floyd soundtrack on that, and you've still got more action than a whole series of Heartbeat."

Basking Sharks

Last year, I spent my birthday in a small fishing boat off the South Cornwall coast, watching basking sharks. They were beautiful peaceful creatures, and it was one of the best experiences of my life, to see them so close to our boat.

Now, The Sun is telling me that I was actually in mortal peril, as it was bound to be a Great White, pretending to be veggie to lure us over the side....

The best thing about that newspaper is the highly absorbent nature of it, when used to line cat-litter trays! Has anyone asked the hardline surfer types which would they prefer; to see a Great White, or surf through the blood & guts being poured in the water, by big-game fishing boats out to trap it? I'd be curious to find out - I know about Surfers Against Sewage, but never checked their policy on offal.

If it is a Great White, it is welcome to as many panicking tourists as it can eat... And if it turns out to be the regular basking sharks, what a waste of time offering fish/meat offerings to veggies!

Cambridge Folk Festival

Was great!

Weather - rained enough to justify wellies on the Thursday, surprisingly nice until around 9.30pm Saturday, then lots of rain overnight to spoil the planned post-music shenanigans :( Musically, well what would you expect of a festival that combined Joan Baez, the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, and Toots and the Maytals???

Go to www.cambridgefolkfestival.co.uk for full reports - I'm still trying to get it all into some sort of order at the mo, and as usual have no photos to show for it...