Wat -er Fool!

I went to get a cup of hot chocolate at work today, leaned to fill the kettle and... nothing. No water, no gurgle, nowt. A quick call to the waterboard revealed no problems, so they sent a man out to have a look if we had a burst pipe. 10 minutes later he came back in. "It's the meter itself that froze. If you could do me a kettle of hot water I'll soon have it fixed!" I looked at him. "And how am I supposed to do that? You're here because I CAN'T have hot water." ... "Oh. Oh yeah. Um, I'll ask a neighbour." I mean, I'd understand if I said it, but this guy does it for a living!

On a plus side, the snow we were supposed to be getting turned into sleet and rain, and has been dissolving the rest of the ice. If it doesn't get too cold tonight, it should stop entirely! It certainly made it easier to get home and look at a potential new home. This one, whilst a bit pricy, is much nicer - it has two bedrooms, a sweet but spacious kitchen (you can actually move in it), and a quirky front room. It's built on top of garages, as well as tucked behind a row of houses and trees away from the main road so it will be much quieter and one of the garages belongs to the house. My favourite part was the bay window in the lounge, a boxy three sider that I just know the lizards will adore watching the world from. (Pic: unknown source.)

Talking of lizards, Tsam has been in explore-mode and has repeatedly been warned away from various obstacles. He had been insisting on climbing round behind the sofa for some time, so to prove a point, I let him. He scrambled up a pair of someone's boots, stretched up to the side of an empty copper bin... poised... and... jumped. And failed. And got stuck.

Poor boy. I did rescue him after laughing at him for a while and taking pictures. I think he might have learned his lesson now - he hasn't tried it since at any rate!

I have often come back to one particular blog for various religious stats and Biblical quotes (it's allowed me to win the odd theological argument), so I was amused to read this page: http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com/2006/08/worth-of-woman-bible-vs-quran.html

To synopsisize, it's a combination of the Quran and the Bible's view on the worth of a woman. It works out about 1/2 to 2/3rds. Bear in mind the "Gender Wage Ratio" is about 77% on a rough constant over the years. Summary: A two thousand year old book is not too far off, especially if you consider today's employment standards. Ouch.

The appropriate Captcha I received today: "Cloning Necessary".