Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant!

I think they're friends again!

In other news, influenza sucks.

Yesterday was awesome.

Woke up earlyish for a non-work day, hit the shower, shovelled some bircher museli down the gullet and walked down Macaulay Road to meet the lovely vivienne_aster for coffee at Elevenses.

These days when I say I'm meeting someone for coffee what I actually mean is "generic non-alcoholic beverage- usually warm" becaue for some reason coffe these days makes me feel ill. So I sat with my pot of tea and Kate had her coffee and we chatted for an hour or so until mc_shamo came down and picked me up. We made a quick stop for supplies at SAfeway then headed to the zoo.

The last time I went to Melbourne Zoo the animals were still in the little cages. I was really really glad to see them in proper sized enclosures that mimicked their habitats in the wild. I think my favourites were the orang-utans, though the gorillas were also pretty cool. Since it was such a warm day most of the animals were keeping cool by sleeping in the shade. The Canadian brown bear looked like he was having a good time. He'd got into the water in his enclosure and was swimming about, throwing himself on his back over and over. Oh! And a meer cat tried to dig his way to freedom, but was stopped by concrete once he hit the side on his enclosure. We picnicked near the carosul and watched the penguins playing.

We had a look at the zoo's Sustainability information and discovered you can actually buy... well... they've politely called it "Zoo-Gro" but I think it's probably better known by the name we gave it of "Zoo Poo." We bought a large bag of it for a our front lawn, soil enriched with pygmy hippo and monkey poo here we come, exotic!

When we left I still had a bit over an hour before I had to be anywhere, and we were both flagging a bit, so we decided to continue with the animal theme and have coffee at Animal Orchestra near uni, then we walked to Lygon court so I could check out the new EcoWear shop. I was very restrained (mainly cos I'm broke) and walked out only with a pair of fisherman's pants and a cotton bag to put them in. Definitely saw somethings I want when I'm more flush with cash though!

Seamus dropped me off in the city where I met up with cows_might_fly to do some of the last minute shopping for her wedding and generally catch up, which was stacks of fun. We caught the tram together and then I walked the rest of the way home. Seamus texted to ask if I was still in the city since he and rin_tin_tin_ were there for rock climbing and wanted to say hi, but as I was ten minutes from home I declined.

Since he is awesome Seamus had set dinner marinating before he'd left in the morning, so all I had to do was bung it in the oven and collapse infront of the television for an hour (Glee- I'm hardly ever home when it's on, but if I am it's enjoyable trash). I decided to have a bath to soothe my muscles (the day before I'd done spin and balance at the gym, then I'd walked about 6 hours all up including the zoo and the city) with lavender and bath salts. Yum.

Seamus came home while I was in the bath, ate his dinner, then suggested we go out and get some Mountain Goat and drink it in the backyard since the weather was so nice. I thought this sounded great, so put off gaoing to bed in order to do it.

When we'd sat ourselves down in the backyard we heard plaintative whinging mewing from inside. So I got up, got Loki's harness and leash and let him come out for an explore. Puck hates the harness and freaks out when it's put on him, so he doesn't come outside at all, but Loki doesn't mind it, I think his curiosity overrides any discomfort!

It was such a nice, relaxing day, without being a bludge day physically. The original plan was to go to Healesville Sanctuary, then I wrecked the car and we had to opt for a slightly more frugal microbreak, but I don't think the day could have been any more perfect any other way.

Loki had to go back to the vet again. Poor little dude. He is okay, but I was warned quite gently that he may not be a terrifically long lived cat. He may only be around for a few years (if anything else goes wrong with him they can't operate again- too much scar tissue and trauma ad so forth)

But on the bright side he right now he is happy and healthy and purring on my lap. :-)

Now how'm I going to get up and cook with this little guy wanting attention?:

This is the story of how I got a $140 jacket for $20.

I went inot ISKA yesterday, the highpoint store. I went to Highpoint as I have noticed that the Highpoint store often has mach better sales and much better items in their sales than the Carlton store- probably not too surprising considering the different socio-economic factors. Also I needed teaspoons and there is a Big W in Highpoint, there is not a Big W on Lygon St.

My original idea was to purchase a long winter skirt, alas these appear not to exist this season (mid calf my arse, I want the hem to brush the toes of my docs!) I then saw this really lovely high collared black jacket, handmade and fitted. More to the point, fitted for someone like me with broad shoulders and a small waist. It was marked down from $140 to $50, and I had the $30 gift voucher vivienne_aster had very kindly gifted me. There for i paid $20 for a very lovely jacket that I'm sure I will practically live in this winter.

And for those of you not at all interested in clothes or bargains, here is a kitten:

Just a quick note. Loki came through okay, the surgeon has stapled Loki's tummy to his abdomen in the hopes it stops it happening again.

He is home and seems to be in pain (and disoriented and scared), but he will be okay.

We're breaking the new rule about having kittens in the bedroom to take care of him overnight.

Not completely out of the woods, but can see daylight :-)

Just got a call from Sam the Surgeon. He's going to do the operation now. It carries a little more risk than last time but he thinks he can get Loki through it. Depending on how it goes Loki will either go to the animal hospital or come home tonight to be watched over by us.

Sam said Loki is okay right now, he's not panicking and he's stable.

Sam is also only charging us $300. I'm not sure why it's so little but I'm grateful!

I love my Loki bear.

Puck is being very affectionate today.

This afternoon we had mc_shamo's high school friends over for a bbq. It proved that Seamus was just as good at picking friends when he was 12 as he is now. They're all really awesome people and it was a fun afternoon. There were salads and wines cheese and Raya made an awesome trifle. Plus Raya, who is an osteopath, very nicely fixed my dodgy ankle!

Tonight we're heading to _audhumla_ and ragedc's place to have MUCAAS pub as they are back in Melbourne, hurrah! This shall be much much fun.

And in more good news, today Loki found one of his toy mice. He did this to it:




I think he is feeling better...

We just went to visit him, he is doing well. We can bring him home this evening as long as he's kept quiet, in fact the surgeon thinks he'll do better in a familiar environment.

He's a bit patchy, fur-wise. He has bandages on two of his legs which have been shaved, he's also been shaved under his chin and his whole underside, so basically, everywhere he is white has been shaved off. There is a long, impressive scar running from his chest to tummy. They had to completely open him up.

The vet nurse said he's very lucky to be alive, and it's great that we caught it.

What they think happened: He suffered a trauma in the first few weeks of life (before he was brought in at Kent st) or he was simply born with it. His stomach and spleen etc. moved up into his chest cavity, which would have eventually killed him. When he ate the charity wristband it blocked up his stomach and it got full of gas. Because the stomach was in the chest cavity this pushed on his lungs, causing the symptoms we noticed. So him eating the charity wristband was actually a huge blessing in disguise, otherwise we probably wouldn't have known anything was wrong until too late.

When we came to see him he came to the front of his cage and once it was open and we could stroke him he started to purr. He's moving very stiffly and seems sore. He's also completely out of it as they've put him on very strong painkillers (methodine and morphine were mentions).

The vet surgeon is amazing. Loki's regular vet told Seamus what he had to do to be qualified; He had to train as a vet, work as a vet for two years, then do a ten year internship at the Uni of Melb vet clinic as a surgeon, then sit an examination (that most people, even after ten years, still fail the first time) and then he was allowed to practice. Wow. Really nice bloke too.

We brought Loki his favourite toy, some favourite food and the anti-biotics he was already on. We can have him back in three hours.

Yay!

If he is well enough this evening I will post some pics of the brave boy.

Thank you all for your kind words and wishes and vibes and prayers. :-)

I'm at work, in the comfy chair, full of pasta and milo. Apart from taking three calls in two minutes (and don't people get snippy when they've called an emergency service and get put on hold?) I've not done terribly much. Currently I have Mary Poppins on the flatscrren in the office- best of a bad bunch tonight I'm afraid, and they're nearly up to the chimney-sweep bit.

Yesterday I went to the wedding of nearlyalegume and directorratbag. It was fun, and lovely and very them :-) I particularley enjoyed the piniata in the shape of a wedding cake, and So Long and Thanks For All The Fish, and catching up with people I get to see less and less. It was also nice to see St Mary's church again, my father did some of his training there about 15 years ago. The priest remembered me (though didn't recognise me til I introduced myself) and it turns out Dad knows some of nearlyalegume's relatives.

Today I took Loki to the vet as he still seemed unwell. There is something wrong with his lung, vet in unsure what it means, but he had lots of X-rays today and has anti-biotics (that mc_shamo says are huge) and will have to go back on Friday for more X-rays. Possible pneumonia, possible asthma, definite chest infection, possible something else. Poor little kitty :-(


I keep forgetting to ring the doctor and make an appointment for myself. Must do that. Actually, I keep forgetting a lot of stuff right now.

Hee! Chim-chiminy chim-chiminy chim-chim-cheree! Oh Dick Van Dyke, you can't do a cockny accent to save your life. :-)

[Edit]My auntie was right, watching this movie as an adult it's incredibly disturbing how little contact these children get with their parents.

I'm bored and I can't breathe, but this is damn cute.

( Photos of Cats, taken with mobile phone, therefore of questionable quality )