Friday 30 November 2012

Total PayPal (Mauritius) frustration

We have less than two weeks left, to try and get some donations towards Muzakir's kidney operation in Mauritius. His mother texted me some hours ago, asking for help with getting the bank account verified with PayPal. She gave me the login info, and I logged in to her account. She then gave me her bank account info, which I entered to the PayPal account, BUT... PayPal Mauritius requires the Routing Number of the bank - there is NO way to get around it, and a Swift code will not be accepted.

Routing Number is only used in the US banks (and in Canada, but it's different there). Banks in Mauritius use a Swift code instead. So, WHY does PayPal Mauritius require a number which is not even used in Mauritius?!?

I've sent them email about this, explaining the urgency of the situation, but it's Friday now and I'm wondering if I'll even get a reply before the weekend, which means missing more valuable days..

Wednesday 28 November 2012

Missing child - Reunite Ellie (Update: Ellie is back with her family - nightmare over)

A friend of a friend's daughter is missing - please, read more about it on Facebook: Reunite Ellie, and sign the petition on Change.org. (Also, please share those links and the picture as much as possible, especially if you know people in Portugal..) If you have any information, comments or questions, please post them on that Facebook page as I am only sharing this.

Update: Ellie was found, and she is now back with her family =) (Feb-2013)

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Monday 26 November 2012

Don't buy animals as presents

Source: facebook.com via Stella on Pinterest



ARAN (Animal Rights Action Network) launches new Christmas poster campaign;

Scratch Me Off Your Shopping List!

Cats and dogs require a 10- to 20-year financial and emotional commitment.
Please, don't buy animals as presents.

(In general, never buy pets - adopt instead.)

Saturday 24 November 2012

General entitlement

This is something that's been annoying me for a long time, and I've seen it a lot online, over the years - and offline as well. It's people who seem to think that they are somehow better than others, and that their time is more worthy than other people's time.


As this is perhaps a bit difficult to explain in other ways, I might give an example. This is all fictional (incl. the websites/services mentioned), but very much based on reality;

Airhead: Oh, poor me, I want to sell my crafts, but I don't know how.
Friend: You could sell them on FictionalShop, it's free to open an online shop there..
Airhead: Oh, how do you do that?
Friend: [gives a link to FictionalShop, and another one to their very clear HowTo page]
Airhead: [without even bothering to check the site first] Lol, I'm so bad with all this stuff, can you explain it to me?
Friend: Well, if you look at that HowTo page I just linked, you'll see that it's explained very clearly.. I don't think I could explain it any better than that..
Airhead: Ok, I'll give it a try one of these days.. How do you get, like, pictures of the stuff? I just have a camera on my phone, but it's really crappy. I think I need to buy a new camera. Which one is good?
Friend: [mental sigh..] It depends on so many things, like what's your budget and what you'll be using it for, etc..
Airhead: I dunno, maybe €£$***.. And I'll take pictures of the kids, too, and my dog, lol..
Friend: Ok, well, if you go to FictionalCameraReviewSite, and search with those specs, you should find a range of cameras that would be good for you, and full reviews of them.. [gives a link]
Airhead: I don't really know anything about them, can you do it for me?
Friend: Fine.. [Your Feckin' Highness.. because I've nothing better to do than spend hours reading on cheap cameras, for someone else..]
*some time later*
Friend: Ok, these cameras would suit your budget and needs [gives a list of links].. I made brief notes on the pros and cons..
Airhead: Oh, turns out that I don't need it now, lol. I've just been to the FictionalSuperMarket with the kids, and they had this cute pink camera on sale, so I bought it! It has the cutest decorations on it, and it came with a free bag. I love it!
Friend: Oh. Great. Congrats. [ya cunt.. don't even say thanks or anything..]
*some time later*
Airhead: Help! Lol.. I took pictures of my crafts, but they're really blurry, what am I doing wrong?
Friend: [mental sigh] What settings did you use?
Airhead: There are settings? Lol.. I'm so bad at this..
Friend: [you said it..] The camera must have come with a manual, did you look at it? Or, you could google it..
Airhead: It's FictionalPixKam700.
Friend: [oh.. so, you're expecting ME to google it, find a manual, read it, and explain it to you?!? I'm so surprised.. Tell you what - why don't I spend my own money on a round trip to where you live, I'll take the damn pics for you, set up an online shop, make you a website, and feed you feckin' grapes while at it! How's that, ya lazy cunt?!? I could walk the dog, too, and take the kids to school, FFS.. NO need to prepare the guestroom or anything, I'll just sleep on the other doormat..]

...and so on. It usually goes on forever (if you let it..) - the Airhead will want this and that, requiring sites and services suggested to them, will never bother checking the links given as they are too "busy" for that, whereas your time is not that important, so you can go and get familiar with how stuff works, and then "explain it" to them, often to find out that their interests have shifted, and they're into something else now, so the circle starts again, with new stuff.. Generally, they just think that they are a god, and you're their minion who only exists to help them and do their work for them.

In case anyone wondered; no, Airhead is NOT referring to anyone in particular. It's a combo of real people and their attitudes. Friend is not really me, either, but it's a combo of situations and thoughts I've experienced..

I do NOT have a problem with anyone asking for help, if they genuinely need it, and if they are actually interested in learning something new. If I'm able to help, I love doing it and seeing people discover and learn new things. However, when it's some self-important eejit just constantly coming up with various flippant needs, expecting other people to drop everything and do all the work, and then not even appreciating their effort, they can pretty much go fuck themselves, as far as I'm concerned.

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Helping a sick child can be really difficult

Muzakir pictures (used with permission)

A Finnish friend of mine (NK) was in Mauritius, a few months ago, with her family, visiting her husband's relatives. During the trip, one of her two daughters had to spend some time in a hospital. While there, NK made friends with MaR, whose little boy, Muzakir was a patient in the same ward.

Muzakir pictures (used with permission)   Muzakir pictures (used with permission)

This entry is about Muzakir - a child with the most beautiful chocolate eyes.

Muzakir is five months old, and suffers from kidney problems. He has already had one expensive operation, but now needs another operation, which has been booked to take place on 18th December 2012 at Apollo Bramwell Hospital in Mauritius. The family needs to collect money for it as all their savings went to the first operation.

They need MUR 576,000 = €14,325 = US$18,315 = GB£11,593
(Currency rate for Mauritian Rupee may change - click on the links for the most recent rate..)

Muzakir pictures (used with permission)   Muzakir pictures (used with permission)

This is where helping gets difficult.

Normally, you could set up a ChipIn account, which would pay donations to the recipient's PayPal account, and the owner of the account could then transfer them to their bank account.

However, our little patient and his family live in Mauritius. I am not entirely sure if PayPal Mauritius (which I've only just now discovered!) has all the same functions available than PayPal Ireland, for example (which is where my personal PayPal account is - and I've never even used it yet). As I was googling about it, the other day, I didn't get PayPal Mauritius in the results, but I got a discussion (2010-2011), which mentioned another site as a way of getting PayPal funds paid to Mauritius; 2Checkout.com

As it turns out that PayPal might nowadays work normally in Mauritius as well, maybe there's no need to use 2Checkout, although fair play to them for replying promptly to my Twitter query.

MaR (Muzakir's mother) has stayed in touch with NK (my friend in Finland), but MaR doesn't have internet connection at home, and having six children, with the youngest of them (Muzakir) being ill, it's understandable that she can't be going out all the time, to check her email. As far as I've understood, she's not extremely familiar with opening various online accounts, but we are trying to find a way for her to get that PayPal account up and running, so that we could actually start asking for donations towards little Muzakir's operation. I have sent her instructions by email, and a text message to let her know that it's something she should get done a.s.a.p.

After all, we need to collect a lot of money in a very short time!

Muzakir pictures (used with permission)   Muzakir pictures (used with permission)

If anyone who reads this, would like to make a donation, I will post a donation link as soon as we have one available! First, we need to make sure that they will be able to access any funds that may be donated, but hopefully PayPal Mauritius will be useful for that.

(Photos used with permission.)

Sunday 18 November 2012

Feral cat boxes

Feral cat box Feral cat box
About a month ago, I saw very useful looking feral cat boxes on Facebook - made and sold by Community Cats Network. Unfortunately for me, they are based in Cork, which is a bit too far for collecting two cheap cat boxes..

I googled for styrofoam fish boxes, which they've used for these boxes. After all, it would be easy enough to make similar boxes. However, it seems that you can only bulk buy those fish boxes, so I had to forget that idea..

Eventually, one of the CCN people was driving to Dublin, so I agreed to collect two cat boxes from City Centre, between 10:30-11:30am today. We were in touch by text messages, and I was expecting to just collect the boxes, pay for them (€15 for the two - otherwise they're €8 each) and go, but unfortunately, L didn't have the boxes ready when I arrived, which was a bit of a nightmare as there was nowhere to stop/park, so D had to keep driving around the block as we walked to a nearby building where L's car was parked, to get the boxes.. Had I driven myself there, I would have had to just turn back and drive home without those boxes as there really was nowhere to stop! I didn't expect it to be that busy on a Sunday morning, to be honest.. (And I did expect her to have the boxes ready as she knew what time I was arriving..) Anyway, I have them now, so it's just a case of getting Ginga to discover them.

Ginga and a feral cat box
Here's Ginga and one of the cat boxes.. Ginga sometimes sleeps/shelters under the garden table, so I decided to put one box there, hoping that he would go in and find it comfy..

Feral cat box Feral cat box
I wrapped the ancient bit of rug over the box, just in case it rains in a funny angle or anything - that should offer some added protection..

Feral cat box
I must try and find some bricks or something, to put under the box to make it straight..

Ginga and a feral cat box Ginga and a feral cat box
I put some Whiskas treats in the box and in front of it, and gave Ginga his foodies near the box as well, trying to lure him in.. He's getting blind, so he goes mainly by sounds and smells nowadays..

Feral cat box
I'm really not happy with the second spot as there's rusty bike junk and other crap under the tree, so I couldn't get the box in a better position. I just tried to get it secured, so that it wouldn't fall when a cat moves inside the box. I'll work on it again and see if I could move some of that ugly junk..

Saturday 17 November 2012

Natural cure for common cold

Cold-killers
Usually, when I get a cold, it can linger for up to two or three weeks, and even then, I'll be left with the dry cough, sometimes for several months..

Some years ago, I happened to have some fresh garlic and onions, and when I felt the first signs of a cold, I decided to test some natural cold cure tricks.. At the time, I think I stuffed my socks with sliced onion, and put cloves of garlic between my toes, before I went to sleep. The following morning, there was no sign of the cold.

I've had many common colds since the one I managed to avoid, but never remembered to get garlic and onion again (while having a cold), until last Thursday..

I got a cold, last weekend, pretty much out of the blue. Between Tuesday and Thursday, I was feeling totally miserable, my nose was either blocked or running non-stop, I had no energy, I felt shivery, etc.. On Thursday, I finally got money, so I went out to buy some food. I happened to remember garlic and onion, so I bought some of each. I also bought my favourite orange juice (Tropicana with extra juicy bits) as I thought I could do with some vitamins..

As soon as I got back home, I chopped a clove of garlic in bits, and took them like pills, with the orange juice. (Tip: if you place the bits of raw garlic on the back of your tongue, you won't even taste them - I just thought I'd mention this as some people think it tastes horrible to eat raw garlic like that.. well, if you actually chew it, it does! LOL) I'd say I had about one pint of orange juice.

Here's the funny part; I wasn't planning to go to sleep as it was daytime, so I didn't feel like stuffing my socks with sliced onion.. I decided to stuff my bra with it instead! =D (In retrospect, I wish I'd used a black bra.. That white bra now has yellow onion pattern, and still smells of onions, even after a wash.. LOL)

I also placed some raw onion next to my laptop, and continued facebooking.. Oh, and I rubbed some raw onion against my neck..

Some time later, I got really tired, and decided to take a nap. I slept for a few hours, and when I woke up, I couldn't believe how much better I felt! My nose was no longer blocked or runny, breathing was much easier, and I just felt fantastic! Of course, I was also seriously stinking of onions (and probably garlic), but it was so worth it!

At some point, I replaced the onion bits with fresh onion (LOL), and I've kept taking a clove of garlic with orange juice, twice a day.

Here's something interesting; not only did my cold disappear, my lungs also feel much better in general! I find breathing much easier - usually I feel sort of semi-asthmatic as I live with two smokers, cats, and tons of dust.. I think I'll be taking garlic regularly from now on!

Unfortunately, I still haven't found anything that would kill my cough.. Asthma inhaler and time will eventually make it disappear, but there's no quick way to get rid of it. However, I keep drinking tea with honey, cinnamon, and milk - that's soothing.

Sexy and I Know It


SPONGEBOB IM SEXY AND I KNOW IT [FIREMAST23 MUSIC VIDEO] - ORIGINAL

Hilarious!!

Here's another funny version; Mr Bean - Sexy and I know it (Original - @GonzaloLugoVelazquez) (embedding disabled, unfortunately..)


LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It

I hadn't actually even seen the LMFAO original video - Ron Jeremy is on it! He has pretty eyes.

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Dáil Rig Protest on Wednesday 21st November, 4pm, Leinster House, Dublin

Source: facebook.com via Stella on Pinterest


From Protect Dublin Bay From Large Oil Drill 2012;

Highly risky licence granted to drill just a few miles off the Dublin/Wicklow shoreline.

-Without proper public consultation.
-Without adequate environmental assessment.
-Profits stay offshore & Ireland Inc. gets next to nothing.
-Coast guard not prepared for any clean up yet totally responsible to clean up any spill at our expense.

We take all the risk for no gain! They want to commence operations within the next 2 months.

Is it a joke ?

stay informed: Facebook/ProtectOurCoast

DO visit the Facebook page behind the above link - there's plenty of information on this issue, and the time to make noise about it is NOW.

This is NOT something that will only affect people living on the coast! Should anything go wrong (and the risks are high), where do you think the money will come from, for the clean up? Bingo..

PROTEST:

4pm, Wednesday 21st November, Leinster House.

Twitter: @ProtectOurCoast #dublinbay #dalkeyoil
Facebook: Protect Dublin Bay From Large Oil Drill 2012
(There are other related FB pages / events, but you should find links to all on this one I've linked above..)

Something a bit different..


I can't even remember what I was originally searching, but I ended up trying to find pictures of 1970's Chinese (?) pioneer (?) children (defo) - the kind they had on wall calendars, in those days. Super happy big smiles, bright colours, blue skies, flags, flowers, Asian writing (I assume it was Chinese, but I was a child, at the time, so.. I would have recognised Russian writing, and it wasn't that - something a bit more 'exotic', from my point of view..) Anyway, the general idea was - isn't Communism great, eh?! *forced grin*

Well, I couldn't find any such pictures, but I found somewhat nostalgic Russian videos.. (No, I don't miss that world, but this stuff triggers more personal memories from those times. And some of the Youtube comments were actually surprising - or perhaps not.. Some Russians saying they miss the Soviet days.. In a way, it's understandable, and it isn't.. It would totally depend on what kind of memories they have from that time, if any..)


My only experiences of communist countries, were the two trips I made to Bulgaria in 1980 and 1981, with my granny (who always packed her suitcase full of tights, etc., which she gave to women in the communist countries she visited as those things weren't widely available there). I was a child, but I remember finding it strange how there was a big supermarket, but the shelves were mainly empty. They did have fresh white bread everyday - probably the best bread I've had in my life. Once, we made the mistake of buying butter, but it turned out to be unsalted, and.. well, bleeerrrghh.. After that, we just ate the bread on its own, and it was gorgeous like that. They also sold runny honey - the first time I'd seen runny honey in my life, and I loved it.. (Finnish honey was always solid.) There were hard sweets in tins, and Holi Rose liqueur, which I got to taste, and had it been up to me, I could easily have become an alcoholic child right there and then, lol.. (It was really good! I'd probably hate it now..) I vaguely remember some huge tins or jars of some pickled stuff, but other than that, most of the shelves were always empty. There were no plastic bags, either. When you bought bread, I think they wrapped it in thin paper, but otherwise you were expected to bring your own bag.

I loved ice cream in Bulgaria! The best stuff was sort of 'watery', which doesn't sound nice, but oh, it was.. I didn't actually like the creamier stuff nearly as much..

My eternal love for goats milk started in Bulgaria as well - accidentally, by the way.. We stayed in Zorniza, which still exists (!!!), but based on the more recent photos online, it's a completely different place from the lovable kip it was in those days.. Anyway, they might not have had a proper breakfast available as we would always go to some other nearby hotel for breakfast. Most often, it was Mercury, across the road. They had tall glasses of milk on the breakfast buffet table, and I just grabbed one without realising that there were glasses of cows milk AND goats milk.. I'd happened to grab a glass of goats milk, and I loved it! From then on, it was goats milk every morning =D (Quick googling found just one photo of the current Mercury - totally different.. It's either been completely revamped, or has moved to a new location.. I'd have to spend more time googling the details..)

Sometimes, we'd have breakfast in Orel, which still looks the same, only smaller (than in my memories).. They had the best salami..

I would actually love to visit Nesebar again, someday, but I'm not sure if it would be a good idea. I have so many great memories from that place, and nowadays it might just be full of the kind of tourists I'd love to avoid.. Not that I'm planning to travel anywhere, in the near future..


I should have some photos of those childhood trips, but they're all in Finland. Must check them out the next time I visit my parents..


The above video includes Sandman footage - I loved Sandman as a child! (Totally missing the politics, lol..) I've only watched the first ten minutes of this video, though, but it's very interesting.

I'm still hoping to find those Chinese (?) pictures, someday. I think my grandfather brought me the old calendars from work (or maybe they were current calendars - they would have been useless in their office as no one understood the language), and I decorated my playhouse with the pictures. I also wish I still had my dad's old comic books, which were left there.. Robin Hood, etc.

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Protect Dublin Bay from large oil drill 2012

There is a public meeting today (Tuesday 13th November) at 8pm, in the Fitzpatrick’s Killiney Castle Hotel. See/Like: ‎Protect Dublin Bay From Large Oil Drill 2012 (on Facebook). I'd like to go, but I'm trying to shake a very unfortunately timed cold, so I probably won't..

I found this following bit very interesting (yet not surprising at all);

This Unfortunately Is Not A Joke, Some Irish Ministers, TD's & Councillors Actually Have Shares In The Oil Company Providence Resources That Was Swiftly Granted An Oil/Gas Foreshore Drilling Licence Which At 6KM To The Shore Puts At Grave Risk The Dublin & Wicklow Coast. Only Shareholders Are Set To Gain Profits And The Nation Takes All The Risk. Councillors, TD's & Ministers Effectively Ignored Widespread Calls For A Public Enquiry & Denied The Public Any Right Of Engagement. It Is Now Time For A More Mature Way Of Managing Our National Resources In The Best Interests Of The Country And The Environment. We Call On All Politicians To Open The Discussion For A Better Way That Takes Into Consideration Our Economic Sovereignty And Environment. The Simple Truth Is Out. Lets Grow Up As A Nation With Everyone Working Together And Start To Do Things To The Best Of Our Collective Ability !

(Quoted from a Facebook photo caption, which has since disappeared - shame.. the "Dáil Rig" photo was priceless..)

MAKE NOISE ABOUT THIS!!! There's something VERY dodgy about it...

Added @11pm; There will probably be more about the  public meeting, on the Facebook page I've linked above, but for now, check out the comments here - some idea of what went on. (I wasn't there myself, so relying on info posted online..)

Monday 12 November 2012

Does your cat have a drinking problem?

I thought I'd blog about this as it's a simple and easy trick, which might make life easier for many cats (and their staff)..

If your cat doesn't seem to drink enough water, or if s/he seems to have a problem drinking it, you should try giving them warm water.

Note: do not get warm water straight from the tap (just in case). Instead, fill the water bowl with maybe 3/4 or 4/5 cold water, add some boiled hot water, and mix it with your finger.

The reason I'm suggesting you mix it with your finger, is that it's an easy way of telling when the water temperature is good. Ideally, when you mix the water, it should be almost as if you can't feel it at all - that's when it's exactly your body temperature. It can be a little bit warmer, too, because cats actually have slightly higher body temperature than people (38.6C / 101.5F).

This has really made a huge difference with Oimo, and with Ginga as well! Oimo wasn't great with drinking, and he'd often "eat" the water, rather than drink it normally with his tongue, as cats are supposed to do. He didn't seem to get enough water, and it got worse when he lost a fang.

When he got warm water, he immediately started drinking normally, and he would drink lots of it! He now gets warm water several times a day. (Obviously, it won't stay warm for long, but I always make him warm water when I feed him, and if he gets thirsty between meals, he knows to come and ask for it..)

Ginga is an outdoor cat (semi-feral), and although I've offered him water many times, over the years, he's never been interested at all. So, I thought he must have had his own drinking spots somewhere, and just continued feeding him with wet food. However, now that he's getting old and blind, I sometimes let him eat in the kitchen at night, and he has actually drank some warm water as well!

This is definitely worth trying, if your cat has a drinking problem!

Sunday 11 November 2012

Knitting

Knitting
I found my knitting needles, and started making a sleeve, or an arm warmer.. The needles are different lengths/sizes, which is really annoying and makes knitting very slow.. We'll see if I can ever finish the pair of loose sleeves.. (Crocheting is much more fun!)

Saturday 10 November 2012

I learned a new gland

I tried to take a picture of my 'face cancer', as I named the mystery bump on my left jaw (on the right, in the photo, obviously..) It's not that obvious in the picture, but it was very obvious IRL.

I had it checked, yesterday, although it had already more or less disappeared. Turns out that it was probably a temporary blockage in the left submandibular gland - the middle one of the three salivary glands on each side. (Yes, I had to google it when I came home..) Apparently, if it happens again, I should go back when it's actually swollen.

Btw, I discovered how to minimise the time spent in the waiting room - it seems that I just need to take my crocheting with me and pull it out of the bag, and I'll be called in immediately! =D (I was almost disappointed! I'd looked forward to crocheting a bit, while waiting to be called in..)

Late night gourmet (=raiding the cupboards..)

Fried spuds, reindeer paté, mushrooms and scallions
Just the other night, I found myself really hungry, after having had nothing but a couple of sambos and peanut bars, all day. I hadn't done shopping, either, so it was time to raid the cupboards..

Cooking with whatever I could find..
Since there were a few spuds, I decided to fry some, but I had no onions (other than four very dry scallions that had been there for a while..) and no eggs, so I needed to find something.. Luckily, I had a tin of reindeer paté, left from last Christmas! That would do, and a few mushrooms.. I also grabbed some seasoning (vegetable stock pot, spicy Herbamare, white pepper, garlic powder, and ketchup for later..), and I was ready to start chopping stuff..

Cooking with whatever I could find..
I like to chop everything before anything goes to the pan, so I don't have to do it in a hurry later.. I wasn't sure about paté really working in this, but it actually did! Btw, I obviously used cooking oil (and some olive oil, since we were low on the regular stuff, and I didn't want to use it all), but didn't use any of that Herbamare as the vegetable stock pot is quite salty..

Cooking with whatever I could find.. Cooking with whatever I could find..
Someone had cooked a steak or chops in the pan, and left it unwashed, so that gave some added flavour.. I fried the spuds first, then threw in the scallions and mushrooms, and finally, the paté. I thought, since it didn't really require cooking, and with its texture being quite soft, it might go all mushy and messy, if I'd fry it too long.. It did go a little bit mushy, but the result was actually much, much nicer than what I'd expected! I really liked it!

I could only manage about 2/3 of it, and then I was painfully stuffed.. That's where the ketchup came in.. LOL.. Much later, when the leftovers had gone cold, I had them with ketchup. (I was in the attic, at the time, and really couldn't be bothered to carry the leftovers back to the kitchen and nuke them, so.. cold with ketchup..)

I usually keep noodles and soups, etc., for when I haven't done any shopping and it's in the middle of the night and I suddenly get hungry.. This time, though, I'd eaten all my emergency food, and hadn't bought more.. Still, I ended up having a very nice meal!

Friday 9 November 2012

Chocolate replacement - finally =)

Nature Valley Sweet & Nutty freebies
I went off chocolate, about two years ago, and I've been looking for something to replace it, ever since.. Recently, I found my chocolate replacement: Nature Valley Sweet & Nutty Peanut bars! (The Almond version is nice as well, but just a little bit too sweet for me..)

I first saw this stuff in the Ideal Home Show goody bag, ate one, absolutely loved it, found their Ireland/UK page on Facebook, and ordered some free samples - they sent a package of FOUR free bars! Nice.. =) And yes, I've since bought more.. =D It's also a great emergency breakfast, if you've nothing else in..

Crocheting..

Crocheting.. Crocheting..
It's looking so much better when all the yarn is the same thickness, and the colours actually go together.. =)

I meant to buy some more yarn today, but forgot..

The Power of Love


Gabrielle Aplin - The Power of Love

I just saw this beautiful cover version on Facebook. The original (see below) is one of my favourite songs, EVER, and as good as the Gabrielle Aplin version is, it's nowhere near as beautiful as the original.. Listening to it now;


The Power Of Love - Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Thursday 8 November 2012

County by county... =)

I just saw this on Facebook, and it made me happy =)

I'd love to see all circus animals retire and have some happiness in suitable sanctuaries.. Nothing against circuses in general, it's just such a cruel and unhappy life for animals.. You CAN - and should - run a circus without animals.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

It's all good! Well, maybe not ALL..

Somewhere in Temple Bar
I had an awesome day & evening, yesterday - Quirke open casting, sober pub crawl, etc..

I tried to stay up and follow the US election results, but I was too tired, and gave up at some point.. So, it was good to wake up to Obama news (Americans, you're not quite as fucked up as I thought.. LOL)

What else, what else.. It's like I had a million things to blog, but stuff happens, cats are jumpin', etc., and it's all gone out of my head, only to return after I hit Publish..

I should make an appointment about my 'face cancer' :o I found this strange bump on my jaw, yesterday - no idea how long it's been there, but having looked through my recent photos, I don't think it was there then.. Anyway, I've named it my face cancer, and I expect to have a quarter of my face chopped off and replaced with stainless steel. I shall be known as RoboStello.

Oh! Oh! My Loreen album arrived - I won it on Facebook (GCN page)


Friday 2 November 2012

Yarned

I bought some yarn
I have the crocheting fever again.. =D I was almost out of yarn, and I've only had various leftover bits (mainly from my mam), so my colour choices have been very.. different.. Yesterday, I went to Love to Knit, here in Bray, and bought some nice colours.. Can't wait to get started now!

I bought some yarn
That Creative Cotton Aran stuff was €1.99 each, and the Katia Memory was, hmmm, €4.95, I think.

Small bag/purse, crocheted with leftover yarn
Here's my little 'shopping bag' - I wanted a very small bag, which only takes the necessities (like my wallet, keys, phone, tissue, mirror, etc.). It's handy sometimes.. As you can see, my leftover yarn selection was.. mixed.. LOL

Dinner with friends, yesterday

R made chicken curry
I hadn't seen R in a while, so she invited me to their place, yesterday, to have dinner with them. She'd made lovely chicken curry, rice, lentils, and roasted veggies.. Omnomnom..

R made a cake
For dessert, she baked a banana-carrot-sultana cake, which we had with Greek yogurt. Mmmm..

She should be teaching people to cook Sri Lankan and Indian food!

Well, this was interesting


EXPOSED: Satanism in the Industry (Music, Hollywood, Illuminati, NWO)

I saw this posted on Facebook, and just thought I'd watch a little bit, but I ended up watching it all. Check it out.

Thursday 1 November 2012

Some post-Hallowe'en horror


Ringu (Japanese, with English subtitles)
Ringu is my favourite horror movie. Western horror movies don't really do anything to me anymore, but they can REALLY make proper horror in Japan..


Ringu 2 (Japanese, with English subtitles)
The sequel is also worth watching, and in some ways I enjoyed it even more - although, nothing beats that Sadako scene in the first movie..


Ôdishon (Audition - Japanese, with English subtitles)
This one comes with a warning.. After the slow beginning, it gets kind of.. uncomfortable.. I'm not saying more as I don't want to ruin it for anyone! I've only seen it once, and I'm not sure if I'd want to watch it again.


The Orphanage
This one I haven't actually seen yet, so I'm including it here to watch it later.. =D