It's Official...

...Bailey is staying with me.

James and Angie have agreed that it is for the best.

He seems quite happy about it, the cats are making plans for a 'welcome committee' and I am resigned to never sitting on my sofa again.

So now I'd better put a photo up of the pesky critter, now he's officially one of the gang.

Birthday presents

We all have someone who is difficult to buy for. Scott over at Everybody laughed is such a one.

And it now seems sooo obvious what he wanted. It is a good thing that Ben is on the case.

Ben bought Scott a ukulele.

A Flying V ukulele.

In pink, with a postcard of Miss Hawaii circa 1963 tucked in the strings.

I hadn't acually bought Scott's present at this point (the ukulele upstaged the haggis a bit, at the Burns night supper) but I didn't buy anything ukulele related on Sunday.

This present deserves to enjoy it's moment of glory.

On the 8th Day

On the 8th Day is one of the best places in Manchester.

Even more so now they have answered a big question from last year - is there really such a thing as vegetarian black pudding? A trivial matter in the great scheme of things, but had managed to become a minor obsession.

Misterohsee swore you could buy it, but never actually produced the proof. My first thought was that he'd been at the drink (again). And call me sceptical but let's face it, any product whose main ingredient is animal blood seems veggie-proof.

But this is Lancashire ingenuity at its finest and the Real Lancashire Black Pudding Company have created V-pud.

So, seeing as it is a day for apologies, cheers misterohsee!

Let's start with an apology...

...to Tig.

Dear Tig, sorry to scare you so much, I was doing some exercises. From your horrified expression I realise that you thought I'd died on the floor. Don't worry, I won't be doing that again. You will just have to live with a crocked owner with a bad back, if the sight of me doing some back-stretching exercises is so traumatic.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, now get your claws out of my ankle.

Happy Half-Year to TJ

TJ is 6 months old today. He has two teeth, is making furious efforts at crawling on his own, and walking in his baby bouncer. He is a sweet and cheery little soul who smiles at everyone. Grandma Lyn still refuses to let his beautiful little face adorn this blog, so I'm still using the troll photo.

It is my dearest wish to see him dye his hair this colour, and get into serious back-combing.

Need to get organised

That Scott over at Everybody Laughed... has mentioned the O word in a post.

Organised. HAH! Combined it with ruthless, too.

So I now feel strangely challenged. Strange, seeing as he admits to lapsing after a fortnight. I didn't even get that far.

I now feel I have to:

Upload the pictures of the lovely niece at her graduation (in November).
Add a picture of the equally but differently lovely Bailey (resident since October-ish).
Re-instate the link to Incessant Pointless Barking (deleted with Frowny Baby by mistake when FB decided to retire from blogging).
Mess about with the template for a bit, just...because.

And what are the chances of that happening? About the same as me being seen out in a size zero frock singing Spice Girls songs.

Wind-up merchant.

Neet's Youngest was starting to show signs of being a Red, like his mum. 'Rooney' was a very early addition to his vocabulary, and now he's learning the art of the wind-up.

Youngest:(Pointing at the telly) "Mummy, look! There's Tapas!"
Neet: "No,his name is Tevez"
Y: "Yes, Tapas."
N: "No, Tevez"
Y: "NOOOOO, TAPAS!"

This will continue until he's dragged at least two other family members into the row. He then sneaks off to let them fight it out.

Makes a change from 'oo et all the pies.

Owwwwccchhhh......

Neet, the mother of Child Dawkins, has been back with more tales from the madhouse.

She's just given us a graphic description of The Eldest's first attempt at shaving. There are several bath towels that will never be the same again...

Child Dawkins trapped her in the car and asked about the Immaculate Conception. Apparently it's "just a phrase she's heard at school." She is trying to find out whether Mary actually wanted the Baby Jesus, or not. Bit harsh to give a baby to someone who doesn't want it, in her view. So God had better have a good explanation for that one.

Youngest is developing a wide vocabulary and a mischievous streak. He has started a campaign to liberate one of his nursery assistants from nappy changing duties. He's toddling round saying "Why's it your turn again? Why's it her turn again, Miss?. It's always her turn." Chanting this as a mantra, the little Botticelli cherub careers round the nursery causing uproar in the work force. Mostly hysterical laughter, but we could have a baby social reformer on our hands. His baby pictures will look lovely in the biography.

If you thought my dogs were weird...

Then read this. They've never gone that far...

Things to make you go 'Yay'!

First thing - my colleague Denise has just phoned to say her 17-year old diabetic daughter is out of ICU, and complaining like a real teenager. She collapsed on Friday and Denise spent a very anxious weekend in Southampton - Holly was taken ill on a trip away. Big sighs of relief all round here, Denise is a sweetheart and devoted to her kids. So we've been pacing up and down in sympathy for her while she wore out corridors in Southampton.

Second thing - Rachel, my line manager, has finally got a proper job in the outside world. Three cheers for Rach, who has tolerated a lot of bullshit in recent months. And she's offered to write a nice reference for me, when I decide to go over the wall. My other bosses are now in a quandry. They really need us all to work as a team for the greater good, blahblahshit. Translate as 'work till you drop, it's only 2 unfilled posts' as Texas Lal wasn't replaced by a full time post - there are no guarantees that Rachel will be replaced either. The niceness levels from one boss in particular have been stomach churning.

Third thing - a nice line in bitchiness from a straight guy! On hearing someone described as a star, he retorted with, "Why? Gassy and flaming annoying? Or only comes out at night?" Pretty good for someone with no links to the School of Physics and Astronomy :) Could see the 'flaming' bit, but need to find out why stars are annoying him though, this could be an interesting discussion...

Good job he wasn't describing me though.

Reservoir Mogs - update on the other chapters

There are several chapters of the Reservoir Mogs, and here's the action from around the regions;

Reservoir Mogs (Southern Manchester)
Scott went back to Scotland for Christmas, so I resumed babysitting duties. Which just involved sitting around, snoozing with Holly and Rumpole. There was a bit of recycling involved too. Holly was very happy with the large cardboard box that came with some piece of computer kit or other - we agreed that geeks do the best cardboard boxes.

Reservoir Mogs (Salford Posse)
Shadow is officially a two-home cat, though he did have the decency to leave my brother's house to spend Xmas with his proper family next door. Blue has decided she will finally see him off this year, while Red and Pumphrey are just treating him with complete contempt. But he's won over the humans of the household, for what that's worth.

Reservoir Mogs (Gee Cross)
Sadly, Tubbs is no longer with us, but a quick visit to RSPCA recruited Peason. He's a nice stripy tabby, which will add a bit of variety to the photos.

Apart from that I spent Xmas at the races, spent quality time fighting with the folks and managed to return to work lighter than I left. Result!