No More Pumblechooks For The Trotters

NO MORE TROTTERS AT ALL, in fact. with poor Spherical having passed away in her sleep mid-afternoon.

I am hamsterless and bereft.

Not long ago I still had three tiny trotters in a tank, just like tiny meerkats they loved one another and did everything together.

Itchy was the tiniest and bottom peck. Poor swine! This meant the other two treated her as their baby, grooming her half to death. Every day, when she was young, she would appear soaking wet from the (literal) licking her older sisters inflicted on her. Wet fur bashed up all over the place, she looked like a Porkshire terrier that had just got out of the bath.

Bashful took it on herself to be chief housemaid. When I gave them paper strips and cardboard, she chewed these into a nest. Hence the scruffy appearance of their former nest-collection (they rotated every few days, between three or four nests, all hamster made like the one I videoed). This is the one piece of film of the trotters (see yesterday's post) I managed to take and it's a miracle it ever got on Youtube at all, as I hadn't a clue how to put it on. The internet shop man very kindly did all the clicks for me ...

Spherical was so named because, compared to the others, she always seemed so enormously tubby. Looking at other people's roborovskis online from time to time I used to think, Why are my hammies so tiny? It turned out the smaller two were "runts". They never got any bigger than juvenile size, and died the first. But "Spherical" for all her tubby name, was really of normal robo-build. She was 5cm/2in long, about the length of my thumb.

The roborovskis used to sleep all in a heap in the same nest. At one point they had a lightbulb box full of seeds. It was my way of making sure they always had an emergency supply of food but they turned it into a bedroom. When I used to appear cooing with more dindins their three little pink noses would appear quivering at the entrance hole as if to say "What is this? Why are you disturbing us this early. You know we're nocturnal ..."

But it's no more pumblechooks from now on. These pumbles are the interior seedheads from red peppers, which they adored. Pumblechooks not to be confused with bumblechooks (from green peppers), tumblechooks (from yellow ones) or kermumblechooks (yellow ones with green blobs on). And if you believe that, you'll believe anything. I might be mad but I'm not that loopy
;->...

What shall I do now? This is the end of an era.

A grand state funeral is in order ...

... I don't know.

RIP THE TINY TUBBY TROTTERS.

Furry Funeral

SPHERICAL ROBOROVSKI IS DEAD!

I noticed over the last few days no midnight squeakings from the wheel. A hamster going off its wheel is like an Irish person going off drink ~ it's totally out of character.

Shortly after Bashful's death, she slimmed down and became little and runtlike just like her and Itchy. She stopped being so active and hobbled around. Also her senses faded, so that I could put in my hand and she'd jump out of her skin when finally she realized it was there.

That is quite a weird thing in a rodent. Rodents after all rely on their senses to survive the great outside ...

I know when hamsters are on the way out, so it wasn't a great surprise...

But this is the end of an era. I am now completely hamsterless.

REST IN PEACE, SPHERICAL ...

THIS was Itchy, Bashful and Spherical when they were alive:





If you want to comment but can't see the box, move cursor to envelope signal and commentary option should appear ...

The Need to Clean

I'M out and about, floating around, doing my "chores" ~ which consist of picking up methadone and purchasing more Angel Delight. (Isn't life painful.) I noted the local supermarket are totally cleaned out of butterscotch flavour, which is mostly down to me. So I had to compromise and buy the (slightly) yukki(er) own brand.

I'm not that addicted to Angel Delight. I've never done more than three packets in a day. Usually I do just the one. That's 300mls of nutritious milk I'm taking in, I tell myself. Along with artificial flavourings, colours, sweeteners and a gluey conglomeration of modified potato and milk starches and sugars. Yummmmmmm!! It does whip up a treat.

Which reminds me, Own Brand "Strawberry Whipping Desert" is on sale at just 6p a pack. Added to 250mls cold milk it's a tasty treat for all the family. The local Turkish "masaj" parlour also do something similar-sounding to Strawberry Whipping Desert. But theirs costs £135. Can anyone think why...??!

But now most urgently I turn to the subject of the day: cleaning. A singularly thorough "spring" clean is in the "offing". At present my accommodation looks like Al Qaeda have nuked a pigsty. Which is not pretty, let me tell you.

My one consolation is that I can behave like the housewives in the movies, shake-rattle and rolling with the feather duster as Linguaphone "Ivrit" עברית blasts at top volume.

Yeah man: Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were learning French as she piningly awaits Robert Redford to return home ...

Does anyone know where feather dusters might be purchased these days? Perhaps Harrods might do 'em. After all, they're "never knowingly undersold". O no that's John Lewis. But Harrods used to boast they'd get you anything. Didn't they used to stock lion cubs in the pets dept.?

Anyhow I must fly. Do have a charming day y'all ..!!

Look at this trotterdonkey lion from Harrods playing in a field:



The way they were; the way we all were: young and beautiful ...

New Cassette Player

I AM PROUD OWNER of a brand new cassette player from Argos the shop that sells everything ~ in order that my hardcore Hebrew
הכלב צ'יקו הגיע אל המרפאה בגלל בעיות קשות וגירוי חריף באזור פי הטבעת
can make some sense to me. The course is so oldfashioned it's on cassette only. Two of the books are exclusively in
לפני שבוע עברנו מסימילאק(טופ 3) למטרנה (שלב 3), היתה ליובל בשבועיים לפני כן קיבה רכה פה ושם, אבל גם קיבה קשה ולא שלשול.
So now I'm £23 lighter and (hopefully soon shall be) a one stately language of modernity and antiquity heavier.
So I sincerely hope, at least.
As I mentioned before, I have already familiarized myself with the Hebrew alphabet, both in printed and "script" forms. The printed letters are those in scribal forms, as used in most newspapers and books. "Script" letters are derived from 19th century Yiddish handwriting ~ they differ just as much (if not more) from printed letters as does the Russian alphabet than ours. It took me more than a week just to get a rudimentary reading knowledge of Hebrew but I'm glad I bothered as the course I'm now using barely troubles to teach the alphabet before launching directly into what appear to me to be quite sophisticated dialogues with no transliteration whatsoever. The one concession to the learner is that dialogues are printed out "pointed" # that is with vowel dots under the letters, rather than unpointed whch wd lk smthng lk ths but it's the way Hebrew-speakers have always preferred to jot down their tongue ... What I'm glad of is that this new alphabet book gives an accepted way of copying down Hebrew letters in standard printed form ~ the way you might wish to write on a public notice or poster for example. There are too many similar-looking letters to reliably invent one's own style of characters without fear of creating absolute confusion in the eyes of a native Hebrew-speaker (if they were unfortunate enough to clap eyes upon my notebook-doodlings.
Anyway it's past 2pm and I must dash. Busy busy busy! Never a moment to spare today. Which could put me in a very bad mood if I let it but I'm keeping positive. So cheery-o now y'all!!

Meerkats!

FURRY FRIDAY ON SATURDAY:

Meerkats are some of the most entertaining of all animals to watch.



Meerkats are highly social animals and do everything together.



They're only 1ft (30cm) tall, ie slightly smaller and slighter than the average house cat. This is their characteristic "sentry" pose as they watch out for enemies in the Kalahari Desert region of Southern Africa they call home.



Meerkats are closely related to mongooses and similarly have a huge natural resistance to venom of many types. Yes, they eat scorpions. Plus a very varied diet that includes everything from insects to tree roots ...



They can even survive the bite of a puff adder, which would ordinarily kill a grown man. Here's a clip from the BBC's highly acclaimed Meerkat Manor series:



And baby meerkats are tiny (of course)





and very, very cute ...



(here under infrared light in at Australia's Mogo Zoo)



When they think the humans aren't listening meerkats talk with a Russian accent, as "divulged" by this advert series for a British price comparison website. The ads have been so successful that one football manager from the former USSR cannot open his mouth before team-mates start quoting the famous commercials for Compare the Meerkat dotCom:









Have a happy weekend, y'all..!

Jaundiced Under The Sun

I WAS PULLING OLD NEWSPAPERS out of my bag yesterday. I am forever cluttered with newspapers. Old newsppaers. We get three daily ones free here (though one closed down due to recession ~ so now two). I am forever burdened down with newsprint. At least if I get caught short with diarrhoea I'll not be without wipes.

Anyway there I am, hovering by the telephone and cable TV substsation (dark green box under a bush at the end of the street) when an old lady hobbled past me.

She was soon accompanied by a middle aged grey-haired man. He looked like he'd spent the past 40 years swigging beer in an easy chair in front of the TV; she looked like a retired meths drinker.

Neither of them recognized me and I thought what a terrible thing this alcohol and drug addiction are, wrecking people's lives.

As soon as she recognized me she squarked and nearly spilled the rremains of the cyder she was swilling. At one point we shared the same druggieworker who came from South Wales so she kept asking me to do my impression and nearly pooed herself cackling. (So those newspapers would most definitely have come in handy.)

They both asked me whether I'd stopped taking gear and remared how tidy and smart I looked. He claimed not to have done gear in eight months. I think the flat tone of my answer gave away my disbelief.

I couldn't really tell them they looked well as they didn't. I quickly realized the yellow tone of her sink wasn't most probaby a suntan at all but jaundice. She was in a terrible state. Flyaway-haired, painfully thin (like my friend Lucky used to be before she died)... she looked worn-out and frazzled. He just seemed worn-out.

And then they were gone. Weaving along the back ways home. Whether or not he or they both gave up heroin, alcohol's obviously a big part of their lives and it's very sad. Apart from that I don't know what to say ...

Hardcore Hebrew. Because I'm Really Depressed...

I'VE FOUND A COPY OF THE MOST hardcore Hebrew course you can get. I want to learn the same language carved out by the finger of God on those 10 Commandment stones.

It's the now out-of-print Linguaphone course with cassettes. Of the three textbooks, two are exclusively in Hebrew print. The tapes are exclusively in Hebrew. No prompts or explanations in English.

The Handbook explains in English supposedly all you need to know.


I'm glad I troubled to learn the alphabet beforehand; otherwise it'd all be:
השם עבר מופיע בתנ"ך כשמו של סבו של אברהם אבינו. המושג "עברי" נזכר בתנ"ך פעמים רבות
to me ...

Now I just need to get a working cassette player so I can use the thing ..!

Yeah I'm tired and depressed but what's new? I'm psyching myself up for spending the rest of my forseeable life on methadone without any freedom OR a lovely hit of "B" on the horizon ...

Back to the faintly religious theme, I do believe this is what "faith" is about. The willingness to take a leap into seeming hopelessness of pitch dark, knowing it's the best thing and trusting all will come out right in the end...

Where or when-ever "the end" might be. That's what I've always found so hard about methadone, as I posted the other day. The whole experience feels like an endless pointless drag with no hope in view.

I don't know quite what else to say, but I'm giving it a shot ...



LINKS:

Linguaphone, Rosetta stone and other language methods compared, homepage ...

Rosetta Stone review ...

Top illustration: Dead Sea scrolls fragment ...

50 CENT: BALTIMORE LOVE THING

Here's a 50 Cent track about heroin. Thanks to Clarity In Muddy Waters who listed the words ...

Armageddon is Coming!

RUSSIA still has 15,000 nuclear warheads, the USA has 10,000. The number of nuclear states is only increasing. Until some nutter unleashes this horror on the earth (AGAIN) it's only a matter of time:



Threads (1984): British nuclear war film set in northern town of Sheffield



The Day After (1981): American nuclear war movie. The nuclear footage is quite well-done considering how old it is:



Hiroshima:
This explains what happened very clearly

Kerry Coke-Nose Dropped by Iceland

KERRY KATONA, the "Atomic Kitten Who Never Sang", ex-wife of Brian McFadden of Irish pop band Westlife, reality star, infamously ghostwritten "author" and columnist and star of Iceland (a frozen food shop, not the country!) TV commercials, was caught in the act snorting cocaine in her own home.

A hidden camera in her bathroom filmed the action. (Some friends she has...) The News of the World sunday newspaper broke the story and it was announced today in The Sun that Kerry has been dropped by Iceland, losing a £250,000 a year deal and her chief source of income.

This incident is only the latest in a string of woes. Last year she caused outrage when she seemingly appeared on the highly popular TV programme This Morning drunk as a skunk.

At the time she blamed the fiasco on her "bipolar meds".

She was diagnosed bipolar last year after spending time in the celebrity Priory clinic.

Not long after this, MTV-UK dropped her reality show after it pulled in only 19,000 viewers.

All this in the same year poor Kerry was victim of "home invasion" as robbers stormed in and robbed the "terrified star" of £10,000s of jewellery, cash and an expensive car.

As well as all this she is trying to bring up three young children in an on-off marriage to a gold-digging man who looks like a weasel who milked her so dry she was actually declared bankrupt in 2008, as the British tabloids gleefully reported.

Her husband Mark Croft is actually Kerry's childhood sweetheart ~ a fact the media like conveniently to ignore.

The bankruptcy was actually a technicality due to an unpaid tax bill and income that would cover it coming later (or whatever).

Whatever the world is coming to I do not know but here's the links and vids for those who wish to learn more:

LINKS:

KERRY KATONA biography, wikipedia.

Kerry Katona online (fansite).

MTV UK KK page

Atomic Kitten write-up (Wikipedia).

Atomic Kitten official site.

KK Goes Mad On Coke After 4-Day Booze Bender (News of the World newspaper)

KK's Coke Binge Caught On Camera (Perez Hilton)

Frozen Out: Kerry Dropped by Iceland chain (Sun newspaper)

Husband of Broke Kerry "has £450,000 in business account" (News of the World).

KK Robbery Latest (Now magazine).

~O man all this makes it look like I'm a fan and she winds the living **** out of me!!~

KERRY KATONA SNORTS COCAINE:



KERRY KATONA: DRUNK ON "THIS MORNING"

Methadone Purgatory

I DON'T KNOW WHY IT IS, and I wish I could change my attitude, but every day on methadone is a miserable day. Nothing ever seems to fit, nothing sticks. Nothing's ever right. The only way I manage it is by keeping self and money strictly separate and avoiding venturing anywhere non-essential till after 5:30, by which time the Post Office is closed. I don't keep any money in a cashcard account.

One of the Operatives who run the antidruggie Groups and Workshops and the Operative who interviewed me about my Mental Health History both seem to feel this is some sort of underlying depression manifesting as soon as heroin's not there screening it off.

I used to think it was just that I wanted an excuse to use, that my heart wasn't in the right place and that my attitude was wrong. But now I'm starting to believe perhaps these people have a point ...

It's not like I have nothing to do, but the last 3 days nothing could engage me, nothing distracted me. I was doing "really well". Though I got highly annoyed waking up feeling rattled and slightly nauseous every morning until the methadone came on gradually, like a high tide, hiding the wasteland beach of my despair~(!!)

Heroin's far more efficient. It hits like a tsunami. No messing about there.

Even professional drugs services ~ detox units and the like hate methadone. They advise on the record to avoid methadone as far as possible in the week before Rapid Detox because methadone stays in the body an inordinate length of time and drags out withdrawal symptoms horrifically.

I know one particular individual who was forced to come off methadone in prison some years ago and refuses to touch it to this day, it was such a harrowing experience.

I don't know what I'm going to achieve by saying this but just wanted my say ~ moan moan moan moan moan.

Cheerio now!

Illustration: top right, a model African Pygmy Hedgehog. I just thought I'd distract yous all with something more exciting to you than the predictable methadone-bottle post-illustration ...

Centre: sorry. Methadone clinic, Germany.

Bottom right, for those who missed it in Furry Friday on Saturday, a New Zealand hedgehog. Aren't they the cutest..?!?

MUSIC!
THE CARPENTERS ~ RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS



~ and here's another!! ~

CARPENTERS ~ WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN

Tales of the Riverbank

THIS was my favourite children's TV prog. (I wonder why?) It only aired when I was already in my 20s but who cares..?

This episode is called Hammy the Flying Postman.

Don't you just love the hamster-submarine?

Hedgehogs!

FURRY FRIDAY ON SATURDAY

These are British garden favourites.



Occasionally known as hedge pigs, they are much loved:



They can get quite big. Worldwide there are 16 species of hedgehog, living in Europe, North Africa, parts of Asia and New Zealand. Hedgehogs are not native to the Americas.



They'll sneak in at night and eat your slugs and left over catfood. Lots of people feed them deliberately:



When a hedgehog feels threatened, it tends to curl into a prickly ball. This dark-faced type, incidentally, is the kind most commonly seen in our gardens:



Baby hedgehogs are very tiny (at first (of course))



and very cute (once they get their spikes:



This little baby's from New Zealand. How cute is he/she with those ears?







VIDEO ~ This type of hedgehog is called the African Pygmy. They're often kept as pets in North America:

My New Addiction:

YES: ANGEL DELIGHT, specifically in the butterscotch flavour.

Take 300mls cold milk, preferably in the milk container. Pour on one pack butterscotch Angel Delight. Close bottle. Shake well for half to one minute.

(Alternatively whisk by hand or blender in mixing bowl. Or if you're me using a fork does just as well, just takes longer ...)

Mixture by this time will be well thickening.

Quickly pour out into a bowl. Leave to thicken for a further five minutes, by which time it has the consistency of a light mousse...

... and voilà! Superbe!

PS this actually has no connexion with the British instant whipping desert; but here's Betty Crocker's recipe for a "berry angel delight" ...

PPS my googlings have unearthed that foreigners believe Angel Delight is a British phenomenon. Not so! The local shop does a Turkish version, only the chocolate one's oversweetened and the strawberry is OK, with chocolate bits but it's 89p a pack whereas Morrisons Value strawberry is 6p (and adding a bashed-up Cadbury's Flake is far superior to the Turkish premixed brand... and Angel Delight proper currently retails at 47p... not bad.

Surely I Can't...

...PUT UP ANOTHER POSTING titled "marathon sleep" ~ but that's what I did last night.

I went to bed last night absolutely frazzled. Too exhausted to look at the TV screen, things were swimming in front of my eyes. I felt too blurry for words.

So I slept right through from 9pm to 9am. Still too exhausted. Slept another two hours 10am to midday. Then I had to get up. Didn't want to preserve the sacredness of sleep.

I missed Ugly Betty to retire early last night ~ so I must've been exhausted.

Though people ~ and even some doctors ~ say you "shouldn't sleep too much" ~ I feel far better for it.

I suppose I'm going to have to go for this multivirus test ~ HIV/AIDS (don't think it's that); Hep B (already immunized); Hep C (have the symptoms, but then have had such symptoms for years and the last test showed negative) and syphilis (don't have the symptoms).

So I don't know. My druggieworker wants me to go through this test but I'm unenthusiastic about doing it via someone I know even though she assures me it's not "in my name" ~ that's still not proper confidentiality. And even if I did have hep C no way on earth am I having liver biopsies ~ or even worse interferon combination therapy. No way!¬

PS My blog's taking so long to load I've temporarily shortened page length to three days at a time. You just need to click "older" and so on if you do want to Scroll Down ...