clo_again

I just got Barnabas out of his cage and tried to take some pictures of him, reasoning that I have relatively few pictures of him compared to the hundreds of thousands that I've taken of Casper.

I soon remembered why it's much easier to take pictures of a mostly-stationary cat than it is of a mostly-moving-at-the-speed-of-light dwarf hamster. So instead, ( have some pictures of Casper ) (that I wish I'd taken with a proper camera instead of my appallingly crap camera phone because they would've been so pretty to print out in good quality).


And so he doesn't feel left out, ( have a two-year old picture of Barnabas which is still one of the only good pictures I have of him ). Considering he's about a hundred and two in hamster years, he doesn't seem to have slowed down at all. Except he can only climb the stairs once these days and if you put him back to the bottom one he keeps trying and falling off because obviously his paws are tired. I cheat and put my hand under him to lift him up so he can pretend he can still climb them twice. You're only as old as you feel.

I should probably go to bed because I have one more day of The Boss to endure before I get a weekend. Hm. I feel guilty for not NaNoing today but I also want to watch the Black Books outtakes since we finally found the DVD today. Decisions, decisions.

edit: Casper was just mrowling outside my door to be let out, so I went downstairs and waited for him (it's too cold and wet for him to like being outside all night). While he was in the flower border doing his business, a black cat with a white bib came along the wall and stopped to lurk ominously. He knew I was watching though because he kept looking at the window; Casper seemed oblivious to everything but then he jumped up on the side wall and deliberately blanked the black cat while he looked around so I think he knew a. exactly where the black cat was and b. that I was waiting as back-up. My cat is brave when he knows there's a human there to come running to his rescue. It's kind of sweet, in a pathetic way.

Casper then came inside and I went out to say hello to the black cat because he hadn't attacked Casper and therefore got a pass card. I don't know him well enough to have a name for him before now (I thought I'd call him Tux to go with the crazy white cat Bats who steals Casper's food from the kitchen, Mistoffeles who seems to have vanished, the other all-black cat and Bundy the tabby. And that's not counting the tortiseshell a few houses up who won't say hi to me or the ginger who is very friendly, but I think lives quite a distance away because he's hardly ever here. Secret Lives of Cats in my back yard, I kid you not). I've definitely met this one before though; I remember his purr because it sounds like a squeaky door. A loud squeaky door. It's so, so cute.

It's oddly nice to go to sleep having had a polite exchange with a strange cat. As if I've improved his night by petting him instead of chasing him off and my night is therefore also improved. Mmmmm.

So my glacier hike was cancelled today. We had so much rain and wind and thunder last night that, in addition to the entire town (which to be honest is so not that big) not having power for about six hours, the track up the glacier was washed away. They were running a half-day hike instead (weather dependent) but I'd heard so many bad things about the half-day (not to mention one of the *plus* points someome told me was that the guides on the full day cut the steps into the ice, so on the half-day they're already there and you're not waiting around. But since there wasn't a full day hike...) I thought about it for about twenty minutes while we waited around for an update and decided it just wasn't worth the hundred dollars.

I'm kind of alternating between gutted and oddly relieved. Gutted because one girl showed me her pictures from the full day hike last night and it looked unfuckingbelievably awesome, but relieved too because the weather last night was so utterly terrible that I'd sort of accepted there was very little chance of us getting up there, though I'd dutifully gone out and bought sandwiches for lunch etc. because I'd have looked pretty damn stupid if I'd waved it off as "Of course we're not going!" and then we did. But I was just so tired. I was cranky yesterday with all the bus-hopping and out hostel is nice but the slightly funky kind where you wonder if they actually do change the sheets for every new person which is something I mostly don't think about (most hostels are good! YHAs, for example, are lovely and comfortable on the whole and for all its other failings, Base does at least seem to have clean sheets) but isn't exactly conducive to a restful night's sleep. I think the moving around every other day or so finally caught up with me and my subconscious was metaphorically digging in its heels and going if you climb a river of ice today, you will fall asleep while walking and die.

Which is probably only a slight exaggeration.

So instead I went back to the hostel, sat on the sofas in the lounge and did... nothing. I faffed around on iTunes, I charged my phone, I arranged my escape from Franz Josef a day early because the weather is apparently bad tomorrow too so no more chance of glacier hiking and I'll be damned if I spend another day sitting aimlessly (don't get me wrong, one day of fairly aimless sitting has done me a world of good but I'm fast heading into my last week here and there's a limit to how much time I'm willing to waste) because there is simply nothing else to do here when the weather is bad. Example: a little earlier, I walked a short way up the nearest trail to town which is about an hour round trip and apparently gives you a view of the glacier. Just before I stepped onto it, I admired the view of the mountains with the first little bit of snow I'd seen so far and little puffy wisps of cloud drifting between them.

Ten minutes down the track, after being throughly spooked by the gloom, the moss-encrusted woods, a dark and shadowy overhang that (UNHELPFULLY FOR THE FREAKING-OUT-NESS BY THE WAY SUBCONSCIOUS) made me think of the wolflike critter from The Neverending Story, I hit a bridge that was blocked off with a solid wooden gate and a sign declaring the track beyond was irretreviably DAMAGED BY FLOODING. After a brief reaction of "Thank you random trail blocker", I hightailed it back to the town thinking of a bar and possibly letting myself indulge in a Tui (my new favourite drink ever).

As I came out of the woods into actual daylight again, I happened to glance back at the mountains which I'd admired on the way in. It's a good thing I did then because now, fifteen minutes later, they were totally out of sight in dark grey clouds. Even the closest hill which really, not that far away in this town, was just an indistinct blur. On my way down to the bar with unsecured wireless (what I'm leeching right now), the weather chased me with rain and wind and finally hail. If some lovely person hadn't closed my trail off, I would've walked right into it.

In short, I'm not all that disappointed that I chose to avoid the half-day hike today. There're much better things to spend the hundred dollars (like Tui and the pretty paua shell necklace I just bought as my mother's present, unless I decide to steal it for myself before I get home) than being lost in a cloud for three hours. Next time I'm here (which will happen. I swear on Casper that it will) I'll try again.

So now I'm sitting in my favourite bar here, drinking my second (and last considering they're six dollars apiece :( ) Tui, full of delicious pizza and watching Good News Week download faster than I dared hope. Hey I'm a backpacker; if I downloaded it in the YHA tomorrow it'd cost me probably thirteen dollars or more; here it's free except for the price of the Tui which to be honest, I would've bought anyway. If my battery runs out before it finishes then I've chosen a table near a plug point and I will sit here with it plugged in. This is what backpacking does; if something can be had for free? NO SHAME IN TAKING IT.

Then I need to head back and repack my backpack. Again. At least I'm in Queenstown for four days; sure I'm moving hostels once but only just up the road which so doesn't count. I haven't spent four days anywhere since... since Australia. I'm so looking forward to it. Tomorrow I get a pretty long day just sitting on the bus too so I can sleep. That's mostly what I'm looking forward to when I get home; just lying in bed and not having roommates wake you up at 6am, or random French people yelling in the hallway for an hour when you're trying to nap or knowing you have to haul yourself out of your potentially-unclean bed at some godawful hour of the morning to fling yourself up mountains and take pictures of sea. I miss sleep. And Casper. But mostly sleep.

Now I'm yawning but I have another thirty-eight minutes to sit here surreptitiously before I can leave with GNW safely on my laptop. Maybe I'll order a coffee. I saved myself $150 by being a lazy ass today; I can afford a little caffiene in my life.

edit: Bwahahahah, I just caught one of the bar staff as he went past, to ask for a coffee, and he was like "Yeah, of course love." Except his voice is exactly the same as the voice Peter Serafinowicz puts on to play that guy whose voice "does things" to Fran in Black Books. EXACTLY.

I did not crack up but it was close. :D

Today, on a total whim, I went to Lancaster to see Twilight. I started out thinking maybe I'd see something Oscar-nominated like ...Benjamin Button but Twilight's down to just the weekend showings now and I figured I might not get to see it cinema-ised if I didn't go now. Besides, how can I mock with authority if I haven't seen it?

I really enjoyed it. More in hindsight, because while actually watching it I kept going "WTF?!! No one talks like that!" but I keep thinking back and giggling because Edward Cullen is essentially a giant dork who can kill you while Bella wasn't nearly as much of a snot as she was in the book and Charlie was adorable.

Several things annoyed me though. Repeatedly. ( Read more... )

Oddly enough, although I didn't find...fine I'll fucking Google it ROBERT PATTINSON all that attractive most of the time (his hair was too hilariously distracting and his makeup too hilariously pale but the dorky humour moments were sweet), I did find myself thinking of Julian from LJ Smith's The Forbidden Game. I guess there are similarities but I totally wouldn't have pegged RP as my mental Julian (oh for them to make that a movie... *wistful*). Also Jenny gets way more points in the awesome stakes than Bella. Actually now I;m drawing parallels with Labyrinth... is there a trend these days that heroines once would've told the good-looking demons/vampires/bad guys where to stuff their undying love but now we're getting the "Oh I will love your undead ass forever!"?

Odd thought. I think I'll contemplate my book/DVD collection later.


Anyway, after Twilight I ambled around Lancaster to pick up everything I needed, like a collar & nametag for Casper so when he inevitably gets lost when we let him wander, whoever finds him can call us to give him back *touch wood*. When looking for a collar I tried a shop that I avoided like the plague for three years of university. It sells things for pets, like beds and dog leads etc. but... well, it has a giant stuffed horse in the window and I wasn't really expecting much, except I could see they had collars and leads hanging up so I thought I'd give it a shot.

On asking for cat collars I was presented with a whole basket of choice, in an entire rainbow of colours complete with rhinestones, holographic silver patterns and frilly edges. In the entire basket there wasn't one collar that Casper wouldn't have suffocated me in my sleep for making him wear and they were £10 each. I've never backtracked out of a shop so fast in my life.

I eventually got him a pretty, stretchy, safety-clasped red one from an actual pet shop. He is of course entirely ungrateful for it and spent all of Demons attempting to scratch off the bell and, when that failed, walking over my laptop keyboard as payback. Don't let anyone tell you cats are not evil.

~

It's decidedly odd being back in Lancaster though, especially on my own because it just doesn't feel like I'll be coming back to Ulverston instead of my room on campus. However, I think I mentioned before how beautiful the train ride to Lancaster from here is and this morning, with thick frost and the sun rising (it was half eight. I know, on a Saturday; don't die of shock) it was... gorgeous.

So gorgeous in fact that I tried to take pictures despite only having my terrible cameraphone and the train windows being dirt-encrusted. Then it was so pretty that I got carried away and ( there're quite a few )

At Grange-over-Sands station there's tall, arched windows that look out over beach and sea and mountains. It looks like a mural painted on, something out of Narnia. My picture didn't come out and you really have to see it to believe just how incredibly weird it looks. I'll have to stop one nice day and take a proper photo because really... how many train stations overlook beach and sea and mountains? Crazy.

However, after a really fun and pretty day I ruined the benefit of all the walking I did by caving to the lure of a Mint Choc cupcake from The Yummy Cupcake Company. So much for being good. *woes* I bought it from the market stall but that website just told me there's a shop now! That's top of my visiting list for the next Lancaster trip then. (Ooooohhhhhh... check out the flickr gallery. o_O)

ALl in all, a good - if uh, bad calorie-wise - day. Yay! And wow, this got kinda long. x_x Sorry y'all.

SNOW. I WOULD JUST LIKE TO FLAIL OVER Y'ALL BECAUSE WE HAVE SNOW.

IN OCTOBER.

I LOVE THIS WINTER ALREADY.

Seriously, I'm not talking icing sugar dusting here. There's a good three inches out there and it's still snowing with that fast intent that means there'll be at least an extra inch between me going to bed in a minute and waking up at half seven to go prance around in it like a five year old.

It is of course snowing like this now because I am leaving for London tomorrow- wait, today. I'll have to catch the half nine bus to make my half eleven train and that'll be it for my snow. *sadness* But the next direct train doesn't get me in until like half six which is silly.

Which is why I'll be up at half seven to at least go for a walk in it. It might melt in a day anyway; it usually does for us... but I am not here and so it'll probably stay all weekend. That's how it usually works. They had more snow here while I was in Lancaster than we had in twice the years before it. Bah.

Casper is so not impressed with this cold white stuff that's taken over his garden once again. He twitches every time a snowflake lands on his ears and he's hiding inside even though he really wants to go out. It'd be pathetic if it wasn't cute.

And now I'm going to bed so I can be up early for snow. Hee. I hope when we move to the Lake District it gets more snow than Lancaster did, though that wouldn't be difficult.

By the way, I aten't ded everybody. Uh. *touch wood* I've just been being lazy and tired from the cats fighting and waking me up, though I think it's not exactly fighting so much as the big white tom terrorising Casper and Kitty who are too cowardly to do anything about it except make a lot of noise. I actually got pissed off enough last night to run down the garden in an indecently-short nightie yelling "Bastard cat! Shoo! Amscray! Piss off!" It clearly had an effect, since he was back the moment I went inside. Am debating getting my hands ona super-soaker and staking out the garden from my bedroom window until I get him in the middle of his squashed face. That'll teach him to wake me up at all times of the night. Hah.

Then again, I'll probably hit Casper by accident and he'll never speak to me again. You know. The cat version of speaking, which is merely acknowledging your existance.

Sigh. So I'm in work, half asleep, thinking mournfully of the four days I have to get through before my weekend. Also somehow when I picked shoes to wear to work today, I forgot and chose the ones that rip my feet to pieces. And then, having forgotten that, I decide to rush over to Tesco before work to buy coffee. And I took the plasters out my bag last week when I was clearing all the receipts out of it. Ow ow ow.

But you know, there's a black Porshe 911 parked right outside my window. It's surprising how much this improved my day.

When did it get so cold? I slept in my warm Lancaster hoodie last night, thinking it'd be a one-off but I'm cold enough to be seriously considering it tonight too. And I'm the person who's usually walking around in a t-shirt while everyone else wears multiple layers.

Today, I did nothing. Other than play with the flying car cheat on Vice City and decide that, as hilarious as it is for a while, the novelty wears off. Mostly. There's still the little bit of "It's like Back to the Future!" squee no matter how many times you crash and burn.

Barnbas has started to eat treats from my fingers with only a minor freak-out of "HANDHANDINCAGEOMGWHUT" first. Also, he unexpectedly ran up my jumper sleeve today and for a minute I had a hamster in my jumper without knowing exactly where he was. I managed to catch him without mishap in spite of my own minor freak-out of "HAMSTERHAMSTERINMYJUMPEROMGWHUT". Fairly pleased that we've made it through the first week without Casper eating him, him escaping, or me losing him. It's somewhat hilarious that the first of those is the least likely, given that Casper's terrified of Barnabas - who is, of course, something like a fiftieth of his size - and runs away whenever Barnabas is brought near him. Sometimes I wonder if he's really a cat at all.

Cold. Insanely, stupidly cold. It's wonderful compared to being too hot but I really need to start adjusting into wearing more layers.

edit: Meant to say: caught an hour or so of Withnail and I on C4 last night, because I'd been told to watch it and I spotted it scrolling the listings. Didn't make it all the way through to the end at 3:25am because I was knackered and the sign language person in the corner was getting in the way (seriously? I really wish you could turn them on and off like subtitles. Aren't they a form of subtitle, really? I'm sure the deaf people don't like having all their stuff shown at 3am; make the sign language person a turn on/turn off feature dring daytime TV and everyone's life would be easier) but I loved what I saw. I couldn't work out why I liked Paul McGann so much, until I twigged that, in that coat and with that hair, he reminds me of Neil Gaiman.

It's not the keyboard of awesome and it's going to take a bit of getting used to new keys, again after laptop and then keyboard of awesome at home but keebord! Yayness! I can post without it taking three hours typing letter by letter mwahahaha! Fear mah postability. It's black too and shiny and new.

Hey, nifty. Freema Agyman-with-the-name-I-still-can't-spell is on Jonathan Ross. That makes up a bit for missing John Barrowman last week. Missed HIGNFY again but that's what Saturday repeats are for. Plus Doctor Who and Joseph and oh, wait, we're going to see Pirates. Huh. That... hadn't occurred to me.

Huh. This is when I miss Sky+. Maybe we can go after.

Stream-of-consciousness post. I haven't been able to do this in forever, because by the time I typed anything it'd happened last month and I'd forgotten. Hee, Ozzy Osbourne. I love him on chat shows, because it's just fun watching him try to talk.

Random call from 'rents in America. "Where are you?!" "I was in the kitchen." "WHICH KITCHEN?!" "In Lancaster." "...Why are you in Lancaster?" "...Um. I go to uni here?" They'd been calling home thinking I was still there. Sigh. And then they asked if I'd left Casper inside. Inside for two days when he's apparently forgotten what a litter tray is for, yeah right. I'm that stupid. Sometimes I wonder what my parents really think of me. Though, I did let Casper sleep on my bed last night and the little git gradually takes up more and more room until you're literally stuck in a corner with no duvet and a cat attacking your feet if you try to shift him. Meaning I got no sleep because I couldn't get comfortable. So maybe my 'rents have got something there after all.

...There was something I started this post to say and I've forgotten in the random. Maybe that I' (finally) back in Lancaster. Yeah. That... kinda wasn't interesting enough to merit the rambling but shush. Keyboard!

edit: Also this (found via seperis) is the funnest waste of time ever invented. Seriously. Pretty circles. With pretty sound effects. What else is there?

edit: Oh and Miko said she was watching Shaun of the Dead earlier, and her exact words were "I love Simon Pegg. He's so adorable." To which I did not do a Manic Dance of Gleeful Conversion to Pegglove, but very calmly said "Oh you should watch Spaced. He's good in that too."

So I'm lending her Spaced after her exams finish. I'm just vaguely gutted that she's going back to Japan in a month and we won't be able to fangirl, maybe ever again. Alas.

Uncle and his incredibly rude wife are visiting with their dog Onion. (I know. I bit my tongue.) Now it's a well known fact my mother isn't the greatest dog fan. She doesn't even let Casper on the sofas because she hates the hair. So when Incredibly Rude Wife encourages Onion up to sit, not even on her knee but on the actual sofa between them, well.

And then, knowing we had a cat somewhere in the house and for all she knew sitting right outside the lounge door, to say "Cat! Where's the cat Onion?!" I love dogs and Onion's adorable but I swear, if she chased Casper, *my* cat, in *my* house? Her paws would not touch the ground as I threw her out the door. With the woman I wouldn't call auntie if you paid me in solid gold coins right behind her.

I had to leave the room before I was inexcusably rude. This woman is a barnacle on the face of the planet. Getting eaten by piranhas would be too good for her.

edit: Um. Sorry about the rant. I was a little bit annoyed.

People. -_-