Winter walk

Just a quick update; I've been very busy with work at Disability Rights UK since new year. It's good to be busy though, keeps me out of mischief.

I was at Moorfields hospital again last week for a follow up appointment. Since Christmas my eye has been less painful but not completely pain free. I'd also been experiencing a strange type of double vision which appeared like ghosting on an old TV set. It was particularly bad around bright things like when at the cinema or street & head lights. Anyway my consultant said that it was caused by internal inflammation of my eye caused by bits of lens debris (the stuff I had removed last year - except some escaped.) I've got to take steroid eye drops for the next couple of months and if the lens matter doesn't get reabsorbed by the eye then I'll have to have another op. Ho hum.

Yesterday I decided to go exploring across the public footpaths that lead virtually from our front door across the fields. I took the photo below of a tree I passed on the walk, I've only seen it from a distance from our bedroom window before :-) It was a lovely winter walk though a bit blustery.

Bread baking and cat update

I felt a bit rubbish this morning when I got up. I've been over sleeping again. I really need to get a regular routine going. Anyway as I felt a bit rubbish I thought I'd do some baking and cooking. So I baked some bread, following the Fabulous Baker Brothers' instructions for a perfect crusty white loaf Their method didn't differ too much from how I usually make it but the knead it for twice as long and throw a cup of water onto the baking tray before going in the oven. The bread turned out great and I have to say the dough was fantastic after 20 minutes kneading by hand!

With it being so sunny today I popped out into the garden to take a few pictures. I've really just left the garden to its own devices over the last few months not sure what to do with all the pots. But below is a picture of one of the winter baskets I bought back in November.

Cats update

Lumpy and Kasumi have been living with us now for nearly 3 weeks, although it seems a lot longer; they have settled in so well. Jason has taken some great photos of them playing and wrestling with each other which I hope to link to on the blog very soon. I have to say Lumpy can be a bit rough with his sister, even throwing in some WWE Smack down moves, but Kasumi seems to love it. Their personalities are really coming out now.

Let's start with Kasumi pictured below hinting that she would like some food! She seems to be the greediest of the two and even ate some duck egg omelette today, which had fallen off Jason's plate. She always finishes any food her brother leaves behind. She is a little minx always up to mischief, whether she is chasing after her brother, hiding inside her play tunnel ready to pounce on her bird toy which I dangle for her or just tearing up tissue paper. You can see said tissue paper in front of her in the picture. She loves attention but it's always on her terms. She adores Jason, snuggling up with him on the settee at night when he's playing Skyrim. I think she's a secret gamer.

Kasumi hinting that she would like some food

Lumpy on the other hand is far more laid back, though he loves to play and stalk his sister. When he catches Kasumi he'll wrestle with her for ages. Lumpy likes to know what's going on in the world, he loves sitting in the window of my study watching the world go by. Although we are trying to keep them indoors until they have had their second lot of vaccinations in 2 weeks time, he has been out in the garden twice. Both times he made his way home by himself which was a relief. The last time he went out he jumped on to the shed roof and miaowed to me to show me how brilliant he thought he was. I'm sure that when he's allowed to go out and explore he will be King of the neighbourhood! At night though he likes to sprawl out on my lap whilst I'm knitting and watching TV. He seems particularly fond of Clint Eastwood films!

Lumpy hinting that he would like to go out.

Lastly I took a photo of the single lavender flower which bloomed on the day we got the cats. Rookie's ashes are beneath the lavender bush so I saw it as a sign that she approved of us getting two new cats :-)

Cats Christmas and New Year

Cats Christmas and New Year, a set on Flickr.

I've just uploaded these photos of our new cats to flickr. The photos were taken during their first week with us and I think you can tell that they have really begun to settle in with us.

Lumpy is still the braver of the two but Kasumi is a lot less skittish now, Last night she even sat with Jason on the settee as he played on the PS3. She spent the whole time head butting him and kneading him with her paws.

Lumpy has sat on my lap now a couple of times but he tends to roll about and let his head fall of the end of my knees or the settee. Although I wasn't keen on the name Lumpy he is a big lump of a cat and such a softy that I think the name suits him well.

We are having hours of fun playing with the cats and watching them play with each other. They are totally devoted to each other, spending a lot of time grooming each other and play fighting.

Giving up broadcast news

After saying I don't like New Year's resolutions I'm now setting myself a new year challenge to give up watching the news on TV and listening to it on the radio.

Why?

Well more and more I find myself being angered by how the news is reported and what media outlets consider to be news worthy. I've wondered for a while if watching the news was making me more anxious and unhappy. So I'm going to see if it's true. By giving up watching and listening to the news.

My news habits

I've always watched and listened to the news. I grew up with Radio 4 on the radio and my parents watch the news almost religiously. As many people do, including me. As a child and teenager I I prided myself in being "well informed" and really didn't understand why some of my friends showed little interest in the news.

For a long time now I've been media aware enough to question what I see on the news. My unease at how the news is reported and how what is "news worthy" is decided, has grown recently.

But it's for more personal reasons that I'm going to cut out the broadcast news. I just think I watch and listen to too much news and it's making me unhappy and anxious.

News junkie

I start my day by listening to the news, then I usually listen to 5Live radio for a lot of the day whilst working from home. In the evening I'll watch the 6 o'clock news, the local news and sometimes even the channel 4 news! Then at night there's the 10 o'clock news and News Night. That's a lot of hours being devoted to news. Way too much.

I mean that's an extreme case but I reckon that on an average day I consume at least 2 hours of broadcast news.

The trouble with broadcast news is that unless you switch off you have no choice in which stories you want to follow. If I rely on the Internet for my news consumption then I pick and choose what to read.

The challenge

I am to forego all broadcast news for a month I will only get my news from Twitter - where I follow many different news outlets from around the world. So I can still be "informed" but I choose what to read and when I want to read it. If I find I'm spending 4 hours looking for news on twitter then I'll rethink this but I have a feeling my twitter consumption will remain about the same.

I'll keep you updated as to how I go! I think I'll miss Drive time on 5 live the most. I love grumpy Peter Allen :-(

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

2011 was a tough year for me but also a fantastic year;

I had 2 eye operations and around 6 weeks of not being able to see out of my left eye which was a hard thing to cope with, but

I also got married and went on a fabulous honeymoon!

So 2011 was challenging and rewarding in equal measure so I'm now looking forward to a change in 2012. Maybe a quieter year...

I'm not one for new year's resolutions, why only make changes at this time of the year? But this year I think I will make some resolutions. I don't like negative resolutions where you say I won't do this I won't do that. So I'm trying to make positive resolutions.

I will eat more healthily and exercise more

I will spend money more wisely

I will be more thankful for all my blessings

I will relax more and take things more slowly

I will write more often on my blog and creatively

Those are my resolutions, I'll come back to them later in the year and see if I'm sticking to them.

Cat update!

I'll finish my post with a photo of our two new cats Lumpy and Kasumi. I took the photo a couple of days ago. They still like sleeping at the top of the stairs at night. They have really settled in well. Kasumi has come out of her shell and loves having a fuss made of her, she was ever so brave when Jason's friend Mike came round on New Year's Day, she came straight up to him for a stroke and a tummy tickle! Lumpy greets us with a little chirruping miaow and follows me around the house in the day. At night the two cats play in the living room often chasing each other as well as their toys!