Category Archives: life stuff

peace at last?

14 Thursday Jun 2007

Posted by in animals & pets, home, life stuff

≈ 19 Comments

siesta.jpg           amigos.jpg           reading-in-bed.jpg

After six months of dealing with pee wars and cat fights it looks as if peace has broken out at casa az. The middle pic was taken earlier this evening – even as little as a month ago I thought I’d never see them that close to each other again.

I’d love to see them sleeping together again too but, as you can see, they still seem to prefer sleeping with the Big Cats. They do both sleep in bed with us now, but in opposite corners – that’s Azar’s ‘safe place’ up there, on top of my head. Sunny, being a dog, usually prefers sleeping at the foot of the bed.

Awhile ago we started leaving the boys to roam free at night rather than keeping them in separate rooms. And it was Nog’s idea to start feeding them together in the mornings when the only thing they are concerned about is their brekky. Then we started keeping the food dishes in the same room all the time, slowly moving them closer together. It seems that sleeping and eating together really helped them get used to each other again.

They still have little spats, and we don’t yet feel comfortable about leaving them alone together when we’re not at home, but it’s a helluva lot better than before.

~ more cat photos ~

lisbon story

11 Monday Jun 2007

Posted by in holidays, life stuff, photos, portugal, trips

≈ 12 Comments

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I am in love with Lisbon!

Some general impressions include: the wonderful pavements, the amazing ‘churrasco’ restaurants, custard tarts, films & television programmes shown in the original language with Portuguese subtitles, hardly any souvenir shops but lots of sunglass and hashish street hawkers, cream coloured Mercedes sedan taxis, the trams, the HILLS …

I found the best way to communicate was to start off by speaking Spanish. If the person knew English they would automatically switch to that, if not it turned out quite easy to converse using Spanish and Portuguese. I picked up a few phrases while I was there and noticed that people quite liked it when I made an attempt at speaking their language.

The Lisbon photo albums are mostly up and somewhat organised, but still haven’t been properly edited and labelled.

And this is what we did . . .
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totally knackered…

10 Sunday Jun 2007

Posted by in life stuff, love, musings, trips

≈ 2 Comments

    . . . but in a nice way.

Got back from Lisbon about two hours ago. Earlier today we both felt we weren’t quite ready to come back but as soon as we got in the door it felt good to be home again. First item on the agenda was to make a huge fuss over the cats. Well, cat – Azar still isn’t speaking to us, but Sunny greeted us in his lovable doggy manner as soon as we came in and has been demanding constant attention ever since. I reckon Azar will forgive us and come for a cuddle once we get into bed.

Aside from feeling totally knackered I’m also feeling very happy about our trip – it was the best holiday yet. Quite different from Barcelona in that Lisbon really felt like ‘home’ almost as soon as we arrived. And four days wasn’t nearly enough.

Anyhow, I’ve got close to 400 photos to sort through and upload, as well as coming up with an edited version of the daily notes I wrote.

But right now I really need to sleep. So hasta mañana . . .

azzzzzzz

an apology

06 Wednesday Jun 2007

Posted by in life stuff

≈ 6 Comments

apology.jpg      Just in case . . .

The last three weeks have been quite eventful and emotional ones. The ‘hand incident’ left me reeling in a way I hadn’t expected. I guess it was a combination of the pain and also the frustration of not being able to function normally, so I ended up feeling extra vulnerable. It also felt as if so much time was ‘lost’ – most of it going to and from the hospital and dealing with my utter dread of those places. And then the gastrointeritis hit me when I was down. I ended up not coping very well with what amounted to a lot of fear and other quite mixed up feelings.

So I want to apologise to anyone who may have found me being stroppy, short-tempered, over-sensitive or otherwise strange lately. I probably shouldn’t have allowed myself to be out in public while I was feeling so weird, but the blogs and chatting with people were usually a welcome distraction (even though typing one-handed really sucks).

And I want to say thanks to Nog who stood by me and helped me through, putting up with my bizarre mood swings and – dare I say it? – always willing to lend a hand.

And also thanks to the friends who listened and understood, and who didn’t desert me when I needed them most. f_hug.gif

~ back on Sunday ~

happily ever after?

01 Friday Jun 2007

Posted by in culture, life stuff, love

≈ 3 Comments

sleep.jpg      Misery: the secret to happiness

Jan Parker of the Association of Family Therapy said: “The authors are right to point out that the pursuit of relationship nirvana can be potentially damaging.”

She said it was important to explore what people mean by a happy and healthy relationship, because nobody’s life or relationship can be in a permanent state of happiness – there will always be more difficult times.

This sounds like kind of a no-brainer to me, but apparently there are a lot of people out there who have been brainwashed into thinking that getting married somehow gives them a guarantee of living ‘happily ever after’. It certainly wasn’t always so.

I blame Hollywood. 😉