myrtlebaggins

• I woke up to a text from JB asking  if I fancied a ride to the Metrocentre to help him shop for his niece's birthday and I found that I did actually, so off we went.   Everybody and their dog had apparently decided to do the same thing so even with skipping along the back roads instead of sticking to the A1 there was still a certain amount of being stuck in traffic to be done.  We went to the Disney shop to stock up on High School Musical goodies (omg the Prince Caspian costume/clothing is aces.  I found a child left on its own in a buggy and I was *this* close to just dressing it up and leaving it.) We seemed to have lots of bags when we came out but I only got a magazine and a postcard. :(
• We scooted back to mine to check on Betty (still ill), have pizza and make a personalised HSM birthday card for aforementioned niece, then I had to eject JB as I had tickets and went to see
• Khalyn, Oddbod and Khalyn's scarf in Pygmalion which was cool.  That theatre is gorgeous - all stone walls and wooden beams -  and I got to see the bar this time which is also very dainty and cute, as I stopped by for drinks in the interval with K's friend N.  I didn't hang around afterwards as I was worried about Betty who had been making frequent jerky movements with her head before I left.
• In my absence and the fading light she had espied a fleece of mine that I'd untidily strewn over the back of the seat out there and had somehow managed to get herself up onto it and snuggled down in the fleece.  It was the cutest thing evah but I had to get her down sadly, in case there was pooing in the night.  She followed me back out to the eglu and spent the night in her own house.
• ( Doctor Who stuff behind cut in case of spoilers. )
  

• Betty is still ill.  I can't believe she is still with us - yesterday she came into the conservatory and spent most of the day lying down asleep in her box looking like she was at death's door.  She didn't eat anything until 5pm and didn't drink until 7 at which point she jumped up and went out into the garden happy as a happy thing to run around until bedtime, leaving me stunned.

Today she spent the morning in her box again, but I think it was a bit too warm in there for her so she spent most of the rest of the day standing under a tree looking sad.  She hasn't eaten or drunk anything today, despite my attempts to get her to and it's been really hot so I don't how she is keeping going - she's a little soldier.

The new stuff from Omlet came today so it's nice that she gets to see it although I don't think she'll get much use out of it.
They've started doing the sunshades in colours to match the Eglu now and they say they are stronger than the others so I've replaced the ripped and faded green one that was there before:



They are also now doing plastic bars to replace the wooden ones - WUHOO!  They were the only part of the thing that were difficult to keep clean, and I always kept two sets in so that I could use one while the other set was drying.  Now I can just...dry them.  I wonder if they'll be as warm for their little feet in the winter though.

• Got up at the crack of because Betty is poorly again and the vets do an hour open surgery on a Sat morning and I was meeting up with K at ten to 11 so it was panic stations.  When I got there it turned out everyone else was up at the crack of for the doors opening too so it took ages AND some unidentified creature did a really cheesy fart and I had to not breathe for a couple of minutes. Vet said it was fine to keep feeding her toast if that is all she'll eat and I had to go home and wait for her to poo then scrape it up into a little bottle for testing.  She obliged as soon as she was out of her box at home.
• Met up with K - I still managed to get there before him - HAH :D  and went to see Prince Caspian.  THAT IS SO MY KIND OF FILM!!!  I loved it.  About halfway through it starts to differ from the book but I thought the film was better than the book and it's not often that happens at all.  The only tiny thing I didn't like was that at the end there is a song that seems really out of place.  After the film we called at Dalton P for shopping and eaty things.
• When I got home Betty had perked up slightly so I took the Eglu to bits and did a big old clean and disinfect and covered the inside with mite powder as I'd seen a few red spiders kicking about and thought I'd better, just in case.
• I made friends with Mrs. Blackbird by throwing bits of toast for her.  Mr. Robin was trying to screw up his courage to come over too but he'd get so far then have a panic attack and fly off.  Betty was all *EXCUSE ME, that's MY toast thankyouverymuch*
• I watched Doctor Who and got a bit annoyed with it.  The Doctor story was good but the Torchwood/Sarah Jane stuff felt like it wasn't aimed at me and tbh I was kinda hoping they'd be exterminated early so we could get back to Doctor Who.  I think I was supposed to care about them, but I dunno who they are.  Maybe next week's will be more doctorific.  I'm also quite surprised at everyone being all :O at the regeneration thing as I'd just assumed they'd find some way to fix it at the end - they did do a random close up of his hand-in-a-jar at the start.  Overall I was very *meh* about the whole thing.
• I'm sure I did something on Saturday night but I have entirely forgotten what it was...

• Slept in like a sleeping in thing on account of being very tired.
• Discovered Betty and the Eglu all covered in egg yolk.  I wonder if that's what this has all been about?  I've tried to find out what happens when chickens hit the menopause but to no avail.  She's now gone off toast and onto pasta.
• Went out furniture hunting and then for a drive around.
• Faffed about on the internet
• Cleaned and mite-powdered eglu AGAIN on account of Yolk Incident
• Harvested some potatoes for dinner
• Ordered a new shade for the run because mine is all ripped and they do them in colours to match the eglu now, and they've started making plastic roosting bars now  so I ordered some of them at the same time.  They'll be much easier to scrape egg off than the wooden ones.
• Brother is considering getting married up a mountain.  I may be barking up entirely the wrong tree as regards suitable wedding clothing.  Perhaps I should be looking in Millets.

• I was listening to another audio play yesterday while baking (Blueberry and lemon drizzle cake. Big, not cup) and this time a character was trying to remember what he had a memory like and I SWEAR as I lifted a mini sieve out of the drawer he said 'sieve'. 3RD TIME!!
  
• Also, as I was listening to the play (Shada) it really reminded me of a book I read in March (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams). I have googled it today and it turns out Shada was also written by Douglas Adams and he re-used parts of the story and some of the dialogue for DG'sHDA, replacing the Doctor with Dirk Gently. See? I liked that book.  Didn't think much of the sequel.
• Betty was at the vets again yesterday for her follow up injection. I'd been dreading it because I didn't know how I'd get her into the box now she's lively again, and how I'd get her to sit still in the vets, and how I'd get her back into the box again.  I went for the 'oh LOOK Betty!  Sunflower seeds!' *whips up and into box before she realises* approach, which we managed with only a little bit of protesting.  The box was cute sitting on the living room floor with periodic 'Broo?' noises emanating from it.  By the time we got to the car park she looked like she was having a panic attack, all lying in the box being gaspy but luckily there was no-one else in the vets at all so we got in straight away.  I dunno where everyone was, it's normally mad busy on a Monday.  We saw a lovely lady vet and Betty was GOOD AS GOLD for her injection and no-one got at all scratched.  She didn't want to go back in the box much mindyer, but I managed.  She has to finished the bottle of antibiotics now and then we see how we go.  When we got home I gave her a little bit of toast and she made her 'THIS IS THE BEST TREAT EVAH!!!!' noise for ages.  She doesn't appear to be a grudge bearer.
• Telly Doctor Who was v. good on Saturday, but I'm a bit *meh* about the next two parts on account of it being infiltrated by the Torchwood lot.  We'll See though, I was wrong about Donna.  LOVED the crap looking beetle monster thing.  That's a proper Doctor Who monster.
  
• I really must get on with sewing The Dresses.  My embroidered flower bits arrived last week and I want to see what they're going to look like on the spotty, plus I keep seeing cardi/bolero things I like but until I finish the dress there's no point in getting one.
• A combination of my brother, Mr. Khalyn and gingerelanor's recommendations and dabbling in Wii Fit have made me really fancy trying a Yoga class. I'm not sure I'll find it relaxing, but I could do with the toning aspects.

• I won on both the premium bonds AND the lottery this week. Which was nice. (The little prizes, but still. It shall go into the holibob fund)
• I made heart shaped choc chip muffins with double the amount of egg by accident. Still et them. I listened to a Doctor Who Audio Play called 'Assasin In The Limelight' while I baked which was most enjoyable (and perhaps the reason for my lack of concentration, egg-wise)
  
• I made an Ood T-shirt, despite deciding I wasn't going to:
  
  
  

• I spent a bewildered half an hour in a cake decorating shop on Saturday and came out with some rolly icing (pink and chocolate - was going to get white and colour it myself but lady customer I asked in the icing aisle - whole aisle for icing - said that you have to get the coloured pastes to mix with it and the colour liquid doesn't mix well with it. The colour paste was 'spensive so I just got the two pre-coloured ones. Does anyone know if that is true?), some sugar flowers, marzipan carrots, a flower cutter and some farmyard animal cutters (although when I've opened them and read the instructions, I bought the wrong kind of icing for them on account of being bewildered by the icing choice. Still going to try them though), and a tube of white icing that as it turns out is much cheaper in Tesco. I *nearly* got sparkly sprinkle things but it was £2.25 for a tiny tub that would do about 4 cakes or £4.95 for a ma-hoo-sive one that would do about 4000 and wouldn't fit in the cupboard, so I didn't.
• From there I went to the Metrocentre for some glue (for notebooks and cards etc, not cakes) and came home with glue (hurrah), more paper for notebooks, a new guillotine because mine isn't straight any more (Till lady asked me if I was sure I was 18. I think she was being sarcastic, but I'm pretending she wasn't), and two cupcake books. I meant to make a note of kittyalex  's books before I went book shopping, but as it turns out I chose the one she has anyway + one that has nice basic recipes in it.
  
  
  

• Watched Doctor Who. GOSH that was that was a bit dramatic and scary. I really liked that we never found out what the creature was or what it wanted. I really liked that they were on a different planet - they need to get out and about more tbh. I liked that I remembered where I'd seen nasty married woman before JUST before the credits rolled (Eastenders, Bianca's Mum). There seemed to be unexplained things about Skye though - why did she think the Things were after her? Lesley Sharp had a bit of a job to do. I bet that was hard, all those lines, getting the timing right with no facial expression.
  

• Today I made carrot cakes from the pink book, listening to the first half another DW audio play 'Bride of Peladon'. The cakes were Very Nice Indeed, but the recipe had a cream cheese topping and I'd rather have had buttercream. With buttercream they would have been GOOOOOOORGEOUS. I am totally making rosewater and pomegranate cupcakes next.
  
  
  

• Unfortunately most of today was spent worrying about Betty Chicken. Her eating has been a bit off for the last few days - I realised I hadn't seen her eat her chicken food for a while and she wasn't interested when I handed her some. Then she went off bioyoghurt-y porridge, then raisins, which have been her treat of choice for almost 3 years. She was still getting all *oo what am I getting? What am I getting?* if I went out carrying a treat, but when she saw it she'd be *Oh.* She is also having poo issues that I won't go into. This morning I offered her plain porridge and water which she et all up but then a while later she was under her poorly tree - where she goes when she is under the weather or sad - all hunched up and ill. Her eyes kept closing and she was making a noise a little like a high pitched purr, but quiet, and then she would stamp her foot every so often. I made up the sick bay for her and she came and stood in the sick bay box in the conservatory of her own accord for a while, then went back to the poorly tree. At one point her tail was down so far she looked like a big black football on legs :( I popped out and got her some cat food and grapes and she was very happy to have some of the cat food but then went and stood in the sick bay box again :( I walked over with her to the Eglu at around 9:15 and tucked her in for the night. I hope she is feeling better in the morning, but the way she looked today I doubt it. So it looks like we're vet-bound in the morning. My poor little lambkin :(
  

• Chicken wise Betty and I are slowly adjusting to being without our Chicken/Human translator.  She is hanging around near the house less and has (thankfully) stopped coming into the conservatory and looking and calling for Elsie.  I'm getting used to not always getting a reply when I talk to Betty (although I do miss me going to tuck them in at night and Elsie giving a soft 'oo' in reply) and getting used to not having a *cuddly* chicken.  I'm spending more time out there with Betty so she is getting used to me being the one she hangs around with now.  Gosh I'm dreading anything happening to her :(
• Work has been bonkers busy lately and slightly stressy, but the plus side to doing more hours is more money, which I desperately need as my brother is getting married so I should be off to Australia shortly.  My passport will be arriving next week (£72!!)  Absolutely DREADING the flight.  I haven't flown for about 10 years and I loathe flying.  Sometimes I'm excited about going, sometimes I can't even think about it for The Fear.  We'll See.  I hope I go.  I hope I can get the time off work, I haven't mentioned it to my boss yet as we still don't know when it will be exactly.
• My Wii Fit is arriving tomorrow, for which I am very excited.  I ordered it before I knew about Australia and considered cancelling the pre-order on account of how it would nearly pay for my passport but then I didn't cos....well cos I want it tbh.  Although I also want Mario Kart but I'm not allowing myself to get that until I come back, when I can have it as a treat for braving the flight and the spiders and killer koalas. (assuming I do of course)
• I LOVE the library and have discovered that you can see what all of the libraries in City of Sunderland have in online sand I've become mildly addicted to searching for things.  S'brilliant.   It's like when the internet was new.   I've also found out that I can get books out from any of the CofS libraries and then take it back to my local one which is marvellous because the big City library has all sorts of books and DVDs that my little local one doesn't.  I just finished reading Touching the Void so I'm going to rent the DVD of that, and Hairspray because I can't get the song 'Good Morning Baltimore' out of my head and I think seeing the movie might help.
• I'm still making my way through Lost Season 3 that I got for Christmas.  I think I'm about halfway through now and I keep being all :o and *gosh*
  
• My first potato plants are enormous and I've had to move them outside before All Risk Of Frost Has Passed because they're too heavy to keep lugging about now.  I'm more excited than any person has a right to be about growing potatoes.  I have another three tubs with potatoes in indoors that are just starting to grow now.  My spring onions have also started to peep above the compost in the window box now and my first radishes are just about to get their first true leaves.  ACTUAL FARMER.
• Oh I meant to split this up into different posts.  Right then.

• Desperate for clothes that fit (cos size 8 T-shirts on my new size 12 body are feeling the strain a bit tbh) I went to Tk Maxx on Saturday. They have a new rack called 'Young Fashion'. I avoided it for a while, knowing in my heart that I am no longer either young or fashionable then realised that it could just as easily be called 'Mutton Dressed As Lamb', which I DO qualify for and that is where I found my new Kermit The Frog hoody. (I did try on a Kermit T-shirt but found it to be a Step Too Far) I also got a couple of tops and two pairs of tracksuit bottoms that need shortening, for badminton. Then I popped next door to Peacocks to see if they had any of their cheapy vest tops in, and they did - hurrah - so I got 6 of them in size 10-12. Sadly they are ENORMOUS and will have to go back in exchange for an 8. Weird. Am now skint again.
• Also on Saturday I went to the sports centre in the next village to ask about badminton. It's on the outskirts of a roughy-ish estate and you have to walk down a little secluded ramp to get to it, which is probably unnerving of an evening and then when I came out and crossed the road I heard a car peep behind me and then the blokes in the car threw a glass bottle out which smashed on the road just behind me. Lovely. I think I'll give that sports centre a miss as well tbh.
• We had another Elsie incident on Friday. I opened the back door to give them some treats and they both came running over, but Elsie was hopping along hunkered down like she wanted to poo. I told her she wasn't allowed in the conservatory if there was imminent poo-ing and gave them the treats in the back yard. She ate them, then squatted, ejected something and Betty promptly ran off with it :| When I got it back from Betty and had a look it was a sort of lump of rubbery stuff - almost like chewing gum, around 2 inches in length. Not very pleasant. I took a photo of it and put it on the chicken forum and now know that it is known as a 'lash'. A chicken forumite told me ' Occasionally they expel a bit of gubbins from the laying tackle and it looks like a bit of cooked chicken or an eraser. She may have had some sort of infection and the body has dealt with it.' Good grief. She's been completely fine before and since it happened but it's nice to know what it was. I'm thinking she's probably finished with egg laying now as she still hasn't laid one since last year. We had to actually buy actual eggs the other day.
• Yesterday I went out to do some work in the garden and ended up spending the afternoon making silly videos with the chickens. We had lots of fun but didn't get much gardening done.
• The mouse (who has been named Alfred McWhiskerson) was kind enough to pose for me last night. You can't really get a sense of scale on these photos HE IS SO TINY but here he is in all his boggle eyed, satellite dish eared glory: