ZOMBIES, RUN!

Went to Tesco today, got ambushed by zombies.

Dammit.

Probably should explain that: new phone has GPS, mapping and interactive gaming. His Lordship found a funky-ass game, "Zombie, Run!" It uses all of the phone's abilities to work out where you are, where you're going and then to bung a bunch of virtual zombies along your path to escape from! One leapt out from the bushes in the woods and ate me; I was most annoyed, but it gave Himself the chance to escape.

After making it all the way to town relatively unchewed, we discovered that the film we wanted to see was booked through the ROOF, so we ended up eating over at Frankie and Benny's instead.

You gotta admit though, that's one hell of a drink! Pineapple, orange, lime, lemon and a hefty splash of peach schnapps makes for a dangerously easy-to-drink beverage...

We wound up asking a friend if we could borrow their copy of Tangled in the end. His Lordship enjoyed it thoroughly as "it covered all the bases". Me, I just wanted to watch it because it's the first movie in YEARS to have a cute lizard. (I can't wait for Rango to hit the cinemas.) Pascal was hugely cute and lightened some of the classic Disney darker moments. I particularly enjoyed the loud, painful "SMAP!" noise of his tongue contacting firmly with the dude's head. A film worth watching if you haven't already - and make sure to relax for the flying lanterns scene if you watch it in 3D. Lushness.

Android Phone Home?

Tsam came downstairs with us today whilst we cooked dinner for a run around (and a little time off from swearing at Pete) when the little sod decided it would be a good idea to crawl under the kitchen sideboards. The cupboard that goes RIGHT the way back to the back of the house and hasn't been boarded under yet.

Tsam under kitchen cupboards: 30 minutes.

His Lordship trying to lure him out with worms and treats: 20 minutes.

His Owner using a long handled mop to remove dragon: 2 minutes.

A quick twist and flip of the squeegee mop and a bright torch beam from my nice new phone, and that lizard grumped his way out from the cupboard!

Talking of my new phone, the Android is going into SPACE! According to the BBC, the Android based phone will be used to control a 30cm-long satellite and take pictures of the Earth in the mission later this year. The satellite will have advanced guidance, navigation and control systems including miniature reaction wheels, and a GPS receiver, as well as innovative pulse plasma thrusters to propel it through space!

"We're not taking it (the phone) apart; we're not gutting it; we're not taking out the printed circuit boards and re-soldering them into our satellite - we're flying it as is," Mr Kenyon explained. "And, in fact, we're going to have another camera on the satellite so we can take a picture of the phone - because we want to operate the screen and have some good images of that as well!"

Manky Mince and Pet Pete

Yuck. I made the mistake of being lazy and picking up a box of Co-op minced beef for Himself to cook the Chili he's been on about for the last couple of days. It was a sensible price (not cheap, but not hugely overpriced0, but it was horrible... We found bits of bone and grit and gristle. Deeply unimpressed.

But the Jaffa Cakes I picked up at the same time, ridiculously reduced in price yet still very tasty, more than made up for it. Mmmmm, 4 orange-y goodnesses...

PETE THE DRAGON - Green and furry and soft. He's the plushie dragon, not an actual lizard. We called him Pete because he looks a bit like Elliott (from Pete's Dragon) with that smile...

He arrived today, from Danny and LouLou; an intrepid traveller all the way from Canada! Tsammy threw a whole number of wobblies at the intruder, especially when he found Pete peeking out of Tsam's favourite tunnel for dozing in!

Tsam and his "scary dragon" pipecleaners won us the best picture of the day on the FaceBook competition amongst the gang though. But then maybe they were too scared to stand up to him!

Stuuuuuupid SNAKE!

I have a remarkably stupid snake. Bless her scaly little heart, she does make me laugh. When she's not rearranging her tank (and then putting it back the way it was again), she tends to do some very silly things.

Today's was a real classic. She'd shed her skin, had a nap and forgotten about it. Later, having woken up and patrolling her tank, she discovered something hollow and snake-sized. Yes, she tried to climb back into her old skin. And got properly wedged. Considering shedding isn't exactly unusual for her species, why she felt she had to get back in is beyond me; I had to go rescue her.

I just discovered that "Tard" is a town in Hungary. LINK.

Although I did used to keep a very unusual snake once. She used to would raise up and sway from left to right, right to left and so on. She was a windscreen viper.

Here's a cool page on how snakes eat with great x-ray pictures, courtesy of my mother: LINK

QOTD: Danny: Mine has done exactly the same "Ooh look, that's just the right size for me to get into ... oh crap ... little help??" thing. - So it's not just Eden then.

Happy Buthuthdee Me

It was my birthday today!

I got another log, hurray: I especially loved its bubbly, grey wrapping paper! But no really, mushrooms are always a good thing. We've been going through some serious numbers of my favourite... vegetables? What are mushrooms classed as? (Which reminds me of the best philosoraptor quote so far ->)

Anyway, His Lordship took me to the movies and to one of my favourite restaurants for a lush mushroom risotto. We wound up watching the new Seth Rogen movie, Green Hornet, where we had to fork out again for the damn 3D glasses- we have DOZENS of pairs, but constantly forget them on the way out of the door.

PaperbackWizard summed it up well in his review: "All in all, "The Green Hornet" is a fun movie to see, and that's all it tries to be. If you're looking for "The Dark Green Hornet Knight", you won't find it; likewise if you're looking for "CSI: Green Hornet". But if you "want to see something cool", then this is your movie."

The risotto turned out much smoother and creamier than our attempt at making a mushroom soup a few weeks back - it was more of a mushroom gruel, but it had Himself in creases as we reheated the leftovers for lunch the next day:

Quote of the Tay: "Reminds me of "Cassandra" from Doctor Who."

(I'm starting to catch up with posts now. There's plenty under construction.)

Handling the New System - Like a BOSS!

Well, we kind of know what's going on with our jobs now. It looks like I'll be shifting over to the central branch temporarily, and my colleague will replace a part timer over in my main. If you hadn't heard, my little branch (naming no companies) is having its hours slashed back to 1pm, with no Tuesdays or Thursdays. It's caused uproar amongst my customers (the part timers of whom don't finish work until 1pm), but there's nothing I can do about it. I'm going to miss all my regulars though - I've really got to know people over the last two years.

After all, the hours have to come from somewhere to pioneer the new hours-testing they're doing elsewhere. Late night Thursdays are still continuing, they're already rolling out early morning starts, and they're testing... Sunday openings. Yeah. You heard right. Sundays.

But the bosses know what they're doing, don't they? It's all about customer service, isn't it? After all, that's why my branch is changing as well: "But we're not closing!"

Mum: Bank stuff and official stuff freaks me out; it's like loose hair...

Me:Which is why you have a daughter that subconsciously recognised this and has managed to drift into an official banking work situation.

Note: this video doesn't in any way ascribe my or the company's views on the company or any of the management. No, really. Honestly...!

P.S; have you ever tried searching for Chuck Norris on Google? See for yourself...

Boxes and Bedrooms

Sorry for the delay in posting - but I've backdated them all to fit nicely!

We've spent the last few days packing bits and bobs that aren't "every day" in bubblewrap and boxes, books and DVDs into bags, dragon stuffs into baskets and generally trying to sort rubbish out.

In our spare time, we've been looking at properties and we think we've seen a house we like. It has two biggish livingrooms (this is my favourite, and our recently acquired cherry leather and walnut sofas would look lovely in there), a conservatory (which is a huge bonus - can you imagine how nutty the dragons would go in there?!), decking, a fair patch of lawn... It looks rather nice all said and done.

Though I do find myself waking up at 4am. Probably to do with not knowing what's going on, but there's not much can be done about that. You can't sleep? Have a peep at this: http://www.anasomnia.com/ It made me smile anyway.

Today's BEST Quote: "These Wham bar wrappers never come off right. At this rate, I'll be able to poop you a bauble for Christmas." - My lovely, lovely man, stopping for a snack.

Terry Trouble!

It's usually the same routine every night.

"PLAP" on to the glass, just to make sure we know he's here.

"PLAP" on to his favourite yellow chameleon.

"PLAP" on to the finger.

Jump for the top, miss, get caught midair. There's been some close calls, as he's been practising his "strafe-jumps" more lately, warping sideways. Hop off onto the bed, run around, poop on paper (IF he remembers), then it's time to sit with His Lordship whilst I get Terry's syringe.

Licky licky lick water from the dripper, pause, lick eyes. Finish drink, run around. Sometimes eat worm (shake it like a terrier with a rat), followed by some light exercise with hand-to-hand splats before going back into the tank. Aim for the top, miss, get caught and put back in on the vine.

Splat on door. Stare at owners. Climb back onto favourite vine loop for TV.

I had to laugh at him this morning though. All the fuss and the run around at 5am put him right out of sorts. He fell asleep halfway through climbing his favourite vine. Dangling by one hand, (the other is round his back) two toes, a chin and a whole lot of sleepy gecko magic...

Click the pic for better quality.

Sweet Dreams Sweetheart

Thank you.

Christmas Catchup!

Sorry it's been a bit late - it's all been a bit mental here. Huge thank you's to everyone for our lovely presents!

The muhassive thing my mum gave me (that weighed a ton and took up most of the suitcase!) turned out to be a log. A mouldy log.

Yup, it's a piece of wood seeded with shiitake mushroom spores. I love shiitake mushrooms, as they have a unique texture and taste. I'd describe them, but that would be like trying to describe a strawberry to someone whom has never tried one. Try it, and see for yourself - describing the taste of a strawberry I mean. But then again, I wouldn't discourage you from trying shiitakes either, they're lovely!

I also think that, yes, next year the sprouts should be available commercially. They're just so cute and googly. I was very proud to hang it at the very top of my tree. Though I am immeasurably glad you didn't add ew-de-pong of the original Brussels... (Lost as part of a game some months previous, and rediscovered as a shrivelled, malevolent mass of evil. EUGHHHH!)

We have a new TV from His Father for the bedroom, just a wee one with a built in DVD player, but it's exactly what we wanted. We'll be able to put the nice telly back in the living room and have a more appropriately sized bedroom TV now.

His Father had the scare of his life when he came home to discover his Christmas present lurking in wait for him. I think we did a stunning job of giftwrapping the monster Meerkat, complete with his humongous Christmas cracker and ridiculous oversized gift tag. We're very proud of that!

I got a marvellous stack of books to ponder through (The Lucifer Box collection is brilliant. Very debauched Bond style.) and His Lordship got more sweeties than he possibly knows what to do with - besides eat them, of course! Grandad's plum loaf with a cup of hot chocolate is the perfect bedtime treat too, and finished off Christmas day nicely.

We ate exceedingly well, come to think of it. We had a small half-turkey crown packed with stuffing similar to a kiev. Butter basted, then covered with a layer of smoky bacon, it was a delight with veggies, stuffing balls, turkey gravy and yorkshires.

The lizards had their favourite dinners, and got some nice toys to play with, including a mechanical toy bug. Tsam was especially delighted when he discovered that he gets a juicy waxworm if he just licked it instead of trying to chew the bright orange, rattles-your-teeth-violently thing!