alexeden

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:16:40 GMT

Christmas-time.. fun of course, right? When you have friends, YES!

This year I've had:

A muffin tin
A Katharine Kerr book
River Cottage Fish book
A box of magnetic bits to play with
A pooping reindeer
A stuffie reindeer
Chocolate and other candy
An angel bell

BUT Cassie does not have her present yet, Vicky has misplaced hers... *sigh*... Lynn, Laura and Mel have had theirs which is something though. I'm still waiting to hear on the others but fingers are crossed.

Losing a friend

Sat, 08 Sep 2007 18:36:29 GMT

Well I rarely write anything here, and to be honest it's still hurting but I can't just leave it. I have to keep poking at it, to see if it still hurts, like the biggest bruise I ever had (which was when I had a chair with a metal frame hit me unintentionally).

So, to the reason for writing.

I've heard that friends come into your life for a time, give and take of you what's meant to be, then move on. Or you do. And I've had that happen a lot, losing touch with people or just plain finding that we don't have stuff in common any more, or that I've changed and drifted away. But when one of your best friends leaves you, it leaves a gaping chasm.

Eden was 16, a really good age for a Persian, and he was healthy up until March of this year. Bar a bout of cystitis and a cat fight, years ago, he wasn't one of those cats who was constantly ailing. He got stiff back legs in the last year and a bit, but we took that as due to age. Which it likely was. But a kidney infection back in March was the start of the end, although we didn't know it at the time.

A cat can function on only one third of normal kidney processing ability. By the time you notice any symptoms, it's likely that the rest has already stopped working. And that happened with our beautiful lad. Two weeks ago he wasn't eating much, and was slowing up. A week ago he was on a drip at the PDSA, having cost us a heap at a private vet before I'd thought to get in touch with the PDSA. To be truthful, the other vet is on the doorstep and I thought he'd bounce back like last time. So I hadn't planned on the drip, or the hospitalisation, or any of that.

On Monday we brought him home. The PDSA couldn't keep him on a drip indefinitely, and they said they didn't know how much his kidneys would be able to work by themselves, so we should take him home and see if he could manage on Fortekor tablets. The nurse who released him to us said she'd be happy if he just ate *something*. So we gave him chicken breast and braising steak, and a few prawns. Things he fancied. He went back for a check up on Wednesday and the vet asked what he was eating, and gave us two sachets of a special renal diet to try, not the same thing that he'd been eating with them as they'd run out. He didn't like the diet, he'd never really been a one for beef cat food, if he was going to have beef it had to be the proper thing.

Thursday he stopped eating altogether, his jaw was clicking and grinding again (also a symptom of kidney failure). I made an appointment for him to go back and be checked over again on Monday, wondering if we'd have to make that final decision then. He was getting thinner though, with him not eating we knew he'd go downhill. It's a step-and-plateau deterioration, rather than a gentle decline.

It wasn't to be. Friday morning at 2.45 I came down to check on him and the look he gave me - I thought it was saying that he'd had enough. When Mark got up I asked his opinion, we talked it over and agreed that with the weekend coming we didn't want him to slide down into the next stages of failure, which are generally vomiting, fits, evil things like that. He was already very weak and unsteady on his feet. So I rang the PDSA to try and get an appointment at the end of the day, to let Eden go free of the debilitated weakened state he found himself in.

I wrote the Arolos OOC post before we went. It didn't mention the specific date that we let our friend go, 7th September 2007, because I forgot to put that in when I got back and just clicked the send button.

We had an hour-long wait in the PDSA but by the time it was our turn there was hardly anyone left waiting. That was what we wanted. And throughout that time Eden purred, and spoke to us every once in a while, to remind us that he was there and wanted us to be comforted by that. The vet got the consent form and Mark signed it, and we were told that it wouldn't take long, and that it might hurt him when the injection went in. He asked what we wanted to have done with our boy, and we said we didn't want to bury him in the garden because we couldn't bear the thought of someone digging him up in a few years, even if they didn't mean to. So he said they send them to a specialist pet crematorium then the ashes are scattered in a memorial garden, and we said that was fine. So we stroked and held him, and he complained at the needle, but Mark supported him gently to the bench as he collapsed and I just stroked him and spoke to him, telling him it was alright, that he'd feel better soon and he'd have a lovely long sleep. Then he was gone, and Mark and I shed so many tears. It was much quicker than I'd expected, due to the fact that he'd already been so weak according to the vet.

The vet was really nice, he let us cry over our dear little lad for a while, before we got as much back in control as we could. He let us say our goodbyes, and it's all pretty hazy from this part onwards. We got home somehow, walked into an empty house and promptly broke down.

Eden was a part of our lives for 16 years, and he'll be a part of our hearts forever. There's probably loads more I could say, or maybe even should, but I think whatever I say will never be enough to tell the joy and brightness he brought into our lives. So I'll end now.

We will always love him, and will miss him hugely.

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 10:29:54 GMT

Okay, 11 days to go *bounces* although I've thought of myself as 36 for some months - it's less of a shock that way. Once I reach turn-around on 14th August I bump myself up a year. It works for me :)

Amazon wishlist:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/88HDU0WBBNFU

Other wanted things:

There's a book on Ebay at the moment in one of the shops called "Lapidary for Beginners"

A piece of unpolished rough malachite

A chunk of soapstone

A water snake from Hawkin's Bazaar

- - -

Hopefully something that anyone can afford on here :D

(and I already know what I'm getting for the Vicky's birthday hehe)

Holiday wishlist!

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 23:56:52 GMT

My holiday wishlist:

1) Pictures of dragons, or links to them. Not chinese dragons, but big winged dragons with four legs, Pernese dragons.

2) My very own gold firelizard picture. The flit in question, Siri, has her description in Elenerin’s sheet at www.arolosweyr.co.uk

3) E-cards, funny ones preferably, I don’t mind if they’re rude ;)

4) A leather case for my PDA, which is an Ipaq 5450, ebay have them usually

5) Something to fiddle with like… I don’t know, a magnetic sculpture or something fairly aimless. I’m not big on puzzles though.

6) The OS Explorer map that covers Lands End and St Just in Cornwall (secondhand is great)

7) A cheap copy of the Crystal Bible, secondhand would be fine as long as all the pages are there

8) Recommend me a (free or shareware) game to try on my PDA!

9) A pebble from your garden or your neighbourhood if you don’t have a garden, as big as the top joint of your thumb

10) Lastly, I can’t think of anything else so how about you go to www.postpals.co.uk ? Sick kiddies shouldn’t be sad kiddies!

My email address is alexeden1971 at gmail dot com , happy holidays to you!

Christmas...

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 11:21:14 GMT

Okay so people have been asking me what I would like for Christmas and it’s time I thought about it a little more seriously :)

The thing that I crave the most, which you probably wouldn’t expect of me, is KNOWLEDGE. I love to research stuff that I’m interested in. Currently I’m delving into:

Animal spirits
Lapidary techniques such as rock tumbling (have done evening classes and created a cabochon in the past)
Alternative energy sources

…so that would lead you in the direction of books, probably. I love books but I don’t read fluff and no I’m not going to start. My reading time is limited so if I’m going to tear myself away from the computer it has to be for something worthwhile that’s going to teach me things, or something that I’m already deep into, like Katharine Kerr’s latest, the Gold Falcon (on the wishlist).

Anyway I have an Amazon wishlist, I think most people do now because it’s a good place to put things down as being wanted.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/ref=topnav__w_h_/202-9080751-6891041

Things not on the list:
Screen protectors. I now own a very shiny (but not new) PDA, an Ipaq 5450 and although I put a screen protector on it because it came with 2, it’s not a great one and it’s a little bubbly. It’s an expansys protector which is proving to be a bugger to move around if you get it in the wrong place.

What else do I like… rocks! And by rocks I mean real ones, in their rough state, things like granite and amethyst and opal and aventurine... like the sort of rough rock that www.mineralcraft.com have :) And solar powered stuff. And magnetic things to play with.

So that should help, right? And if you’re not sure whether I’ll like something or not, ask Cassie :) She should know me well enough after living here for 7 months.

PS: Definite no-no items are anything to do with housework hehehe

The wilds of the West Country ... and celery!

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 21:54:51 GMT

This evening was the conclusion of Cassie's and my trip to Somerset which was a major hoot apart from I got a bit blah this morning (but I shook it off).

Day One started Sunday morning with a really wet trip down to Vicky's - torrential rain for the first 1 1/2 hours' driving, that wasn't fun at all, but once we got to Hampshire the weather started to improve.

I found the right road easily enough, having done my research before I left home, but trying to find the end of the road was a bit harder :-) We got there though, half an hour late because we left a little later than planned and also because of the weather. There was much to-ing and fro-ing of cars to get everything settled with the neighbours but it was fine.

My first impressions of Vicky and Laura? Well they seemed like chalk and cheese. Vicky is tall and was quiet, reserved almost I thought, and Laura is small and loud. But after a very few minutes I realised that Vicky wasn't reserved at all and she does an excellent job of keeping Laura in hand and telling her "no" in all the right places. They really bounce off one another but neither Cassie nor I felt left out, and of course we already knew Lynn so that helped. Vicky's mum is really nice and her and Vicky laid us on a huge lunch and a really excellent summer pudding (which I wish I'd had more of). Cassie and Laura had their presents - read more about the giant ant elsewhere on LiveJournal, Vicky had done us some CDs with mp3s on and Lynn had made beautiful little green flits for everyone (thank you both!).

There was non-stop talking and a LOT of laughter from 12.30 until 7.30 when we left to go hunt down the B&B we were to stay at. I don't think I've ever laughed so much in one afternoon, they are fantastic people to know. The B&B was easy to find as well, and we were soon settled then it was off into Wells itself to track down some dinner - the Rajah Tandoori is pretty good. Full and tired, we toddled off back up to our room and talked a load more before trying to sleep. It wasn't until after 11 that we finally were silent.

Day Two commenced early - a body clock is a marvellous thing, isn't it? And can't you just hear the sarcasm. Waking up at 5.50 just because it's Monday, even though you don't have to be at breakfast until 8.30, seems to be my body's idea of a joke. Well it's not mine, and having been in a strange bed anyway (by myself before you wonder) I felt rather mangled. Still, coffee and a cooked breakfast worked a minor miracle and we went down into the city centre for a wander round the cathedral and the shops. I found something in a shop which spoke to me and begged me to take it home for a friend so she'll be getting it in a few days, and Cassie took loads of pics in the cathedral.

By lunchtime we'd changed location and were in Glastonbury where we bought tarot cards and tried to find Gog and Magog (unsuccessfully) but it was vaguely entertaining trying not to rip the front of the car off on the farmtrack we were trying to go down. I think I mentioned hitting Vicky once or twice for suggesting we tried to find the two ancient oaks... but there also was a lot of bad language.

After that we headed out to Clarks Village at Street and in Clarks itself we came across two very familiar people and stalked them mwahahahaha! Spending another few hours gossiping noisily with Vicky and Laura was great fun, and we discovered the meaning of the "and celery" tag at the bottom of the xxx list posts, as well as the "inexplicably naked" one at the bottom of the ooc list. Much amusement was had by all four of us and yes Vicky I was jealous of Laura - damn size 8 people! I should have bought her one of those little sleeveless jackets that I tried on, she could have been even fuzzier with that on! Also I nearly got seduced by the shinies in one of the shops there but I extricated myself. Laura and I had a fight with the wooden stirrers in Starbucks while the other two, wiser, members of our group rolled their eyes at us.

Finally it was back to Wells and we had a pub dinner which was very good and we were undercharged! Again there was another night of not much sleep but more talking.

Day Three began with a headache. Yes it was at 5.50. Cassie was also awake early and I lay talking to her with my eyes shut for nearly an hour before I braved my glasses. Luckily some strong painkillers clobbered it. After breakfast we decided to go back to Glastonbury to have more of a walk round since this time we managed to get a proper parking space so we could take as long as we wanted. We went down to the tattoo studio but there were too many people in there for Cassie's liking and we came away without having anything done although some of the designs we saw were very pretty. I bought three books and two skirts, and was very pleased, although I really wanted a necklace. I didn't see anything I liked enough to get it but we talked quite a bit to the Crystal Man. We bought some postcards of the Abbey but didn't go round it and by the time we left I was a bit blah because I felt some kind of dissatisfaction with my visit, like it was incomplete or something.

Anyway that took a while to shake off but I did as we drove, and I showed Cassie more of the beautiful English countryside as we headed down to the A303. We stopped off at Stonehenge on the way home and took photos with the Shirl Bean and Lauren Pony, it still feels energised as it did when I last visited, but it doesn't seem anywhere near as big - does that have something to do with the fact that I was only 3 when I last went?

We didn't stop for lunch at all and popped briefly into Bluewater on the way home where I bought an amethyst pendant on a leather cord. Nothing else in the jewellery line had really acught my eye all day but never mind. Everything was fine when we reached home and it's taken nearly an hour to write this lot up! I had a great time, it was wonderful to be away from home in such good company and to meet new friends.

Knackered now, time for bed. My legs haven't stopped aching yet ;-)