The Short Epic

I couldn't decide where to post the pics for finuala so I've put them here, behind a cut:

( Meme Results )

So, what do you think?

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We've just got home, about 12 hours later than the original plan and I'll fill you in on the whys later, suffice to say that since someone saw fit to cover the place in cold, white stuff while we were away and we've both now been awake for a full 48 hours, the drive home was a lot of concentration and I'm totally exhausted.

I'm going to be bed now and will try to catch up tomorrow. I hope you all had good New Years and Christmas holidays, let me know if I should know anything in particular.

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(as played on the Ukelele for you this morning....)

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday Dearest finuala
Happy Birthday tooooo yooooooo

*Cheers*

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Poor Horace has been sitting, bored, doing nothing in the carpark for a week now, so I took today to give him some loving, and look at the results....

( Gorgeous Boy )

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I'm discovering that there's more to Anime than meets the eye. JJ introduced us to it with the film "Spirited Away" which was really good, although it took a little while to get into the movie, mostly just because we'd never watched anything like it before. Since then we've also watched and enjoyed "Howls Moving Castle" and decided we wanted to explore a bit further.

The thing I like about the Anime we've seen, is that you just about think you have a grip on what's going on, and something completely unexpected and impossible to fathom will happen just to keep you interested. Even better than that is the way that unexpected, unbelievable thing is then wound into the story, so before long, you can't understand how the movie existed without it. All of the films we've seen are Ghibli studio productions and we have a feel for how those look and sound, this weekend we pushed ourselves a bit further down the Anime route with another Ghibli film that we haven't watched yet; "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" and a DVD which had the first two episodes of "Naruto" and "Bleach" on. We've watched those and enjoyed them very much, so we're now going to figure out buying some more and watching all of the series of both.

It's got that exciting feeling of being new and totally different each time, still good stories and animation, excellent thought processes and nothing like anything I've seen before. "We like it, We love it, We want more of it..."

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Well, life is currently being quite 'interesting'

From the point of view that I have no patience for anything, not for the rambling attention-seeking oddness that is our new online Meeting Place, not for the bosses at work lamenting having to fly premium economy instead of economy, not for the whiners going to conference, not even for my regular online haunts.

I took my last pill today so some form of normality should be returning, but for now I feel sorta grumpy and like I could do with a good few hours of cuddling for one of those really great oxytocin highs. I also feel angry, not something I experience often, angry at people who are rubbish at counting their blessings, angry and things going wrong, angry at my own shortcomings and angry at my need to post about them.

There are a few people whos posts in forums I often skim, I know they will be filled with self-pitying whining and complaints about how hard their lives are, how poor they are and etc. I also know that they swing and roundabout between moods like they're attached in the middle by a bungee, I also know that the poor ones will soon be raving about the next gadget, the next fancy schmancy thing they own because they "just had to have it" while not paying their electric bill and whining about getting cut off.

I'm not perfect, I don't aspire to be. I could manage what money I have better, I'm sure I could use a little PMA adjustment every once in a while, but compared to these people I'm a rich little miss sunshine all the time. Does it cost anything when someone asks how you are to say "brilliant thanks" or "I'm great" just to make a change from the litany of "fine" or a list of all the things that could be better? I work with a load of sad sacks as well, if I ask the question "how are you?" it's because I'm interested, I'm not passing the time of day, I don't expect the response "ok I suppose" you suppose? if you don't know then who does? and would it kill you to sprinkle a bit of positivity into your day? Sometimes things suck and they can overwhelm everything else in your brains "field of vision" but seriously, if you always concentrate on the downer it'll be even harder to quirk the edges of that mouth into a smile when you feel like it.

So, I beg you all, if someone asks you how you are tomorrow, reply with the words "I'm tip-top-tastic thanks" or "I'm fabulous" with a big smile at them, then tell them one positive thing going on in your life and just watch the effect. I've caused someone to walk backwards into a printer at the effusiveness of my reply before now, it's both nice and incredibly sad to see the amazed responses I get.

What are we becomming?

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Garry and I have bought a car. His name is Horace and he's a gorgeous classic shaped Saab 900 Aero LPT. We saw him on ebay last week, went to see him and drive him on Saturday and after some exciting and nerve-wracking last minute bidding, we won him tonight:



Isn't he handsome?

We're hopefully bringing him home on Friday, then we can get him all fixed up and bristol fashion.

With Thanks to megamole

Your Ego is Medium

You have what psychologists would call a healthy ego. You have high self esteem, but you don't think too highly of yourself. You believe in yourself, but you are also able to believe in others. You know how to put your ego in check and let someone else take the reins.

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I was trying to take pics of my new hair colour but it's not agreeable with fake lighting for pictures. I'll try again tomorrow for that pic. In the meantime here's an arty-ish shot I took of myself.

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Garry bought me some "just because" flowers at the weekend, tulips, my favourites and they have started to open so I had a bit of a play with my new digital camera and with Garrys finepix digital camera and got some quite nice shots:

( Pretty Flowers )

I also took a couple of fishy pics:
( Fish/Shrimp )