On Top of the World

This week has gone faster than I was anticipating - I was sure I’d get more posts in after the one on Monday. Anyway, this week has literally been a bit painful.

I have my ears pierced 3 times in each ear, and due to not having worn earrings at all (or very rarely) for the last few months, one set of holes had pretty much closed over. Initially I didn’t really mind, but last weekend I decided that I did want to be able to wear 3 pairs of earrings if I felt like it, so I tried to get some earrings in.

The first hole was fine, the second was a little more difficult but still no major drama, but the third holes had closed over, and I had to force the earring through the skin, pretty much recreating the hole. That didn’t really hurt very much; it just felt a bit warm, like it does after you first get them pierced.

What did hurt was when I had to change the earrings to something I could sleep in. I used those standard stud things that you get when you get your ears pierced, and because the posts on those are quite thick, I couldn’t get one of them entirely through the hole. And that pointy bit on the end of the post, while not terribly sharp in itself, causes a surprising amount of pain when you’re trying to stick it through already sensitive skin.

I bought some more sleepers, and had more dramas putting them in (damn pointy bits again), but eventually, after some more pain and some bleeding, all was sorted out. They’re still a bit sore a week later, but I’ve been putting antiseptic cream on it twice a day, so hopefully they’ll be all fixed soon.

Stupid ears - I thought that I’d had them done sufficiently long ago that they wouldn’t close over, but obviously not. Ugh, I don’t want to have to go through that again.

It’s September again, and in Adelaide that means the Royal Adelaide Show. We’re not going this year because we’re trying to save as much as we can for our holiday. If it weren’t so expensive we might go, but given that it costs $34 to get through the gate (for the two of us), it’s not going to happen. Oh well. Even though it’s pretty much the same every year, it’s still nice to walk around and look at stuff. But I’ll have much cooler rides to go on when we’re overseas, so it’s not so bad. It’s hard to believe that in 4 weeks we’ll be in London.

We’re STILL trying to get prices organised, and it’s really a royal pain in the behind. We keep to-ing and fro-ing, getting what we thought was going to be the price, only to see that it’s been doubled on the next quote. Arrrgh, just give us the price we want and we’ll pay!

It looks like we may not see our boss overseas after all - I think we’re leaving London on the day he arrives. He and his wife kept trying to convince us to make a day trip to Oxford especially to meet them for lunch or dinner (even though they were going to be in London), and we had to keep trying to find tactful ways of saying that there’s no way in hell that we’re making a special trip somewhere we had no intention of going just so we can see our BOSS on our HOLIDAY!

I’ve always wanted a brother, but since it never happened, I have to get them where I can. Today I visited my mum, and saw my uncle’s cat, that my mum is looking after until he gets shipped over to the other side of the world in January. My mum is already calling herself ‘mummy’, and is debating telling her brother that his cat died so that she doesn’t have to send him over. Well, I don’t think she’d actually do that, but she’s sure that the cat loves her more than he loves them.

He really is quite cute, and he didn’t even run away from me when he saw me today. Last time I went over, he’d only been there for a day or two, after having been in quarantine in Melbourne for a couple of months, and was still feeling quite scared and unsure of himself. Hence, he spent a little while hiding behind the couch, and eventually coming out. But now he’s made himself completely at home, and spends a lot of time on his new mother’s lap.

Fortunately my mum has said she’ll look after our cats while we’re away, so hopefully she won’t turn them against us. I wonder if they’ll remember us when we get back… I’m making sure to spend lots of time with them so they remember what I look like, but who am I kidding - cats are fickle and only love those who feed them. So while that means they may forget us while we’re gone, at least they’ll remember us again pretty soon after we get back and start feeding them again.

The cutest thing happened on the way to work this morning. Well, at first I was annoyed, but then when I realised what was going on, it was really cute.

M and I were driving along our usual route to work, and when we went around one corner, there were cars stopped for no immediately obvious reason (hence the annoyance bit). I was wondering what was going on, and then M said there were ducks on the road.

Sure enough, a mother duck and her babies had come up through the drain in the side of the road, and was trying to make her way across the road with all her ducklings huddling under her body. It was so cute. The poor mother was quite indecisive, because there were still cars coming in the opposite direction to us, and one of the ducklings decided to make a break for it and started running across. Fortunately it stopped before it reached the oncoming traffic - it would have been awful to see one of them get run over - and went back to its mum. They weren’t making any progress, so in the end a couple of pedestrians herded them across the road, with one of them picking up a few of the ducklings and carrying them across.

Once they reached the other side, off they waddled, with the babies huddling under mummy again. Hee hee - ducklings are just too cute! I took a picture with my phone, but I’m not sure how well it worked out. I’ll put it up when I get home and get it off my phone (unfortunately it’s too big to send to myself via email and post now).

Update: I’ve finally got around to put the photo in… of course the woman (with the blue top) herding them across the road is standing right in front of them - d’oh! Oh well, I thought I’d put the photo in anyway.