Three male cats, not really loving each other.. =)

In the back garden with the boys..

29062013 ... Ever since our Oimo died (RIP), Oscar and Ringo have started claiming the back garden.. They can't get along at all, and they don't really tolerate Pushy, either - Pushy is the only one of them who is unofficially my cat (and gets to come in, too).. Oscar and Ringo belong to (different) neighbours.. Our Thatsit is female, so she's not into these territorial wars, but if any other cat approaches her, she'll scratch their nose..

As this is a longish video, here are some key moments; first, Oscar and Ringo are about to fight.. at around 1:00, Oscar slowly backs off and leaves the garden - Ringo is left sitting alert.. At ~ 2:35, Oscar is on my lap, and Ringo approaches - Oscar is alert, but Ringo walks to the back of the garden.. At ~ 3:35, Pushy is on the garden wall - nothing happens, but I had a feeling that Oscar wouldn't like it.. At ~ 4:00, unseen to camera, Pushy had made a move to jump down from the wall, and Oscar immediately activated - that's where I started shooting the last part of the video, and there's a bit of a cat fight between them (pretty much starting right at the 4:00 mark).. In less than ten seconds, Pushy had made it to the top of the gate, and from there on, I was pretty much just observing them, but nothing much happens after that, so if you're not interested in watching their stand-off behaviour, don't waste your time.. =) At ~ 7:38, Oscar jumps down from the coal box, and I go closer to Pushy, to check that he's OK.. (PS, my nail friends might like 7:53 - 7:58..)

I wear woolly socks in the summer as well =D

Sausage fashion.. =P

Ringo

    
Ringo has people, but likes to hang out in the back garden, often fighting with Oscar and/or Pushy..

Supermoon snaps

    



    

    

    

    

Really quick chicken wrap lunch, yesterday

    
I chopped two vine tomatoes, and the pale green mystery chili pepper out of this lot, and fried them with olive oil while cutting up two chicken breast fillets.. I added the fillet bits to the pan, and tossed the stuff around until the chicken bits were all cooked.. I poured some soy sauce all over it, and had a happy oops moment =D I hadn't planned on using quite that much soy sauce, but it turned out to be really good.. I also added some spicy Herbamare (herbal salt), and some garlic powder as I didn't have the time to peel and chop fresh garlic..

I nuked a tortilla wrap for about 20 seconds, and made a wrap with the chicken stuff and some mixed lettuce. Mmmmmm!! There was enough for two wraps.

I love wraps as they're so quick and easy. Perfect summer food!

My summery stuff playlist on Deezer.com

I'll be adding to this, whenever I remember something else that should be there.. (I'd love to be able to reorganise them as well, but the only way to do that, seems to be removing and re-adding..? So, maybe I'll do that when I've added some more tracks - or not..)

Cruel people :o

I have been following a page called Crazy Cat Ladies Unite, on Facebook. They post lots of good cat pictures, jokes, information, etc..

Today, I saw them post a picture of a humiliated cat, with wooden clothes pegs attached to its ears. (See it above - the original picture wasn't bigger than that.)

Having actually tried what it feels like, to attach a wooden clothes peg to my earlobe, I happen to know that it fuckin' hurts. And even if it didn't cause actual pain, there is no reason to do that to a defenseless animal - it's humiliating.

I didn't expect that the page owner would have shared such picture out of cruelty - I just assumed that they were being thoughtless, and probably hadn't tried what it actually feels like..

I posted the following comment:

That's cruel :( 

I didn't think more of it, at the time, but later on, I saw them post something that I was going to Like, only there was no option to Like it. I immediately guessed what had happened..

I went to check the clothes peg picture, and indeed, my comment had been removed, and I was no longer allowed to Like or Comment anything on that page!

PMS much?!? :O

I am very disappointed with the owner of that page.

My comment didn't offend anyone, didn't criticise anyone, just pointed out that it's cruel to attach clothes pegs on cat's ears - because it is.

Instead of taking the poor animal's side, the admin decided to remove the comment that was defending the cat, and block further comments from the person who would always take the animal's side, against cruelty.

I was also quite appalled by other comments under that picture.. Their general thinking seems to be, that "if it's not as bad as some REALLY horrible animal cruelty, then it's not cruel at all, and you people need to calm down".. (Yes, go and have a look..)

Just because it's not "cruel enough" to make you puke, it's still cruel!

If you find it entertaining to attach clothes pegs to an animal's ears, get a stuffed animal.

As I don't really want to follow FB pages where Liking or Commenting is impossible, I have selected to Unlike that page, and stop following it. At least there are lots of other cat related pages, where they actually put animals first and allow the animals to have the dignity they deserve.

(Screenshot from my FB page)

Hot stuff, with LIDL chili peppers

I bought this selection of hot chili peppers, on Thursday, but didn't dare to try them until Friday evening as I didn't know exactly HOW hot they'd be, and I didn't want any awkward surprises at work.. =D

    

    
Well.. On Friday evening, I started with a blob of natural yogurt, the smallest of the tiny red peppers, and a gherkin. I thought, if the pepper was to be incredibly hot, the yogurt should bring it down a bit.

I chopped the pepper and the gherkin, and added them to the yogurt. It clearly needed more stuff, so I thought I'd add a vine tomato. I didn't want it all watery, so I scooped out the pips, and ate them, just chopping the solid parts of the tomato and adding to the yogurt based mix. At this point, I had a tiny bit of tomato, which had touched the spot of the counter where I'd earlier chopped the chili pepper, and WHOA!, my mouth was on fire! =D So, I found that the pepper was, in fact, incredibly hot... I also chopped some onion to the yogurt mix.

I had tortilla wraps and two chicken breast fillets in the fridge, and I thought I'd fry the breast fillets with some onion, then make spicy hot wraps with some lettuce, fried chicken, and the hot peppery yogurt mix.. But with the pepper being THAT hot, I decided to add it to my chicken and onion mix, saving me from seasoning that separately, and then I'd just add some lettuce to my wraps.



    
After the first wrap, I was totally burning, but at the same time, it was really good! I like the kind of proper hot flavour, which doesn't kill other flavours. However, when I had the second wrap, I decided to add blobs of natural yogurt (and drink some milk first), because I thought otherwise I might either have a heart attack or the runs.. LOL


On the following day, I made two more wraps with the leftovers. Somehow, it didn't seem quite as hot, this time, and I added some fresh vine tomato and blobs of mayonnaise, and the lettuce, of course. Very nice..

Now, I still have the rest of those peppers, and as I fried all my beef mince with fajita mix, earlier on (to freeze most of it for quick meals when I feel like it), I don't know what to do with the peppers!

Source: bethsfavoriterecipes.blogspot.ie via Stella on Pinterest

I might try making something similar to Giardiniera, and just add whole peppers as they'd be kind of "lethal" if chopped.. =) Or, I might use some for spicy hot omelettes or such!

Routebuilder stuff, shopping, extra work, that job..

    

    
Since my last Routebuilder / driving update, I've done two shopping trips to Greystones LIDL (2 x this route), where I usually get enough food for a week.

On Thursday, I bought something I'd planned on getting for a long time, but never seemed to have the money for it - a car first aid kit (photos above). They had them at LIDL for just €6.99, which is a lot cheaper than what I've seen anywhere else! It's the proper stuff, too. I remember reading a Finnish article where they compared various first aid kits, and the winning one was actually very similar to this kit, if not identical.

    
I bought a 3-pack of 0,5L containers as well, which are suitable for freezing food. (-40C - +100C) I've sometimes used old take-away boxes for freezing food, but they tend to be too big for one portion, and it's difficult to cut a chunk out of a frozen brick, at least without breaking the box..

However, back to driving - and some other stuff..

On Wednesday, I was offered an extra day on "Love, Rosie", with the work being on Friday, but I needed to go for a fitting on Thursday, which was the following day (of the phone call). I was happy with that, but almost all my clothes were waiting for a laundry day, and I was asked to bring lots of my own clothes as they'd pick my costume out of those.. Sooo.. Two loads of washing, and it had to be a rainy day, of course.. I'll get back to this, after some driving related stress.. =P


My fitting was at Sandyford Industrial Estate, which is (well, was) a totally unfamiliar area for me. Not accessible by DART, either - by a bus, perhaps, but the thought of dragging lots of (still dampish) clothes on a bus, and maybe having to walk a lot as well, was just too much.. Sooo.. I realised that I'd just have to drive there..

I needed to be there at 5pm, which was another bummer as that's kind of rush hour time.. *gulp* At first, I thought I'd go via Enniskerry & Stepaside, but since I wasn't sure how long that would take me, I decided to take the N11. (My route here) I just have to say: Thank God for Google Street View.. =) It really helped, having checked out parts of the route virtually, before actually going there. Still, I was a nervous wreck..

Above, a picture of my very first pay & display ticket =D I'd checked the studios on Google Street View, and their parking lot was blocked with concrete yokes, with some of that area being under construction when the Google car was around.. So, I decided to find alternative parking (while on Google Street View).. There would have been a small parking lot for free parking up to 2h, but it seemed to be a bit of a walk from the place.. I noticed that two nearby roads had pay & display spots, though, and I decided to check out one of them first, and then go to the parking lot, if there was no space. I did find a spot, though! I was there about 30 minutes before my fitting appt., and I decided to pay for 2h parking, in case I'd need to wait around or something.. Well, eventually, it didn't take long at all - I was out of there ten minutes before my appt.! Then I was kind of pissed off, having spent €2 on parking, lol.. (Turned out that those concrete yokes were long gone as well, so I COULD have just driven to their own parking lot, hmmm..)

And now, back to the clothes & fitting.. I'd taken a full bag of clothes, I got there, I was asked in to the fitting room.. They went: "I like what you're wearing, can you wear that tomorrow?" !!!!! Not even a look at all the clothes I'd brought! LOL (Oh well, at least all my clothes are clean now..)

I couldn't face the N11 again, so I decided to drive home via Stepaside & Enniskerry (route here). Great choice! Although, getting out of the industrial estate was a pain.. I knew where to go, so that wasn't the problem, but the rush hour traffic was at its worst, and I even hate Bray town traffic during the day, so this was a complete nightmare for me.. Also, once I'd gotten around The Beacon, to Blackthorn Drive, I found myself on a lane that was leading to the M50.. (I'm still on the learner permit, so I'm not allowed on motorways.) I probably would have been just fine, staying on that lane and risking it to take the M50, but it wasn't where I wanted to go, so I managed to change lanes (probably making some people shout insults at me, in their cars..), and got to the quiet route I wanted. Phew.

I knew that I'd have to go to the same place again, the next day, but at least it'd be early morning, before the morning rush hour.. Also, we were to have free parking at Holly Avenue parking lot.

    

    
I took the same (N11) route to Sandyford, than the day before, but it was SO much nicer in the early morning! (Also, I had a Topaz stop in Bray, to get some air for my right back tyre, and some petrol as well.) Here's today's route - this time, I put it all on one, unlike yesterday, which was divided between two links..

I'd checked out the parking lot on Google Street View, so had no trouble finding it. I was quite early, and looking at the usual NCPS semi-threatening pay & display signs, I was wondering if we were supposed to pay for a ticket, or what, because no one had asked for my registration number or anything, so how on earth would they know whose car was with the film, and whose wasn't?!? So, I made a phone call. They didn't actually know, so they made a phone call, and then got back to me. I didn't need to pay, but a fella arrived to bring me a ticket to display;


Also, the parking lot man wanted us all parked at the back wall. I was already nearby, so I just reversed there. I didn't like him fine-tuning my parking, though. I mean, yes, I was going to check that I was parked properly, but to come and give me some feckin' blonde instructions ("turn your wheel to the right", etc.) when I'm not even there, is not appreciated. Just tell me where you want me to go, and I'll go there, but don't fuckin' come and treat me like I'm some bimbo, FFS.

There was a shuttle bus for us, to take us to the studios, which was a nice surprise. Not that it was far from the place, but still..

The hair guy was from Estonia =D I got the same plait I always seem to get, for extra work.. (For period stuff, they just make it messy. This was obviously a modern thing, though.)



    
After costume, hair & makeup, we were taken to location @ UCD. Most of the time, we were just sitting around on hospital beds, waiting.. It was comfy, and lots of fun as well, because the ward was full of fake patients (not a part of the film, they were there for teaching purposes), which were like life size & realistic weight dolls.. Kinda creepy =D There was an 80's Michael Jackson with boobs, etc.. Crew members had fun with the dollies, which was fun to follow. (Not like that, you perv!)

Most of the time, I was chatting with M, whom I hadn't met before, and we ended up being on the same scene, too. Just the one scene, and that was it for us. Above, just a few snaps from the shuttle bus as we were leaving the place.

We were signed out at 12:30pm, so it was a short day! =D No shuttle bus to the parking lot, though, because they were still needed at the location, for the crew. But the weather was still good, and it wasn't that much of a walk, so it was all good.

    
In the morning, there was breakfast, but I wasn't really hungry, so I just had a croissant and a coffee, and a slice of watermelon.. About an hour later, I could have managed a bigger breakfast.. As we wrapped so early, there was no lunch for us, but luckily, I'd packed a sambo and a wrap, and some juice - in a bag that I'd left at the studios, though! But I had a sambo in the car, before I drove home, so that kept me going.

I took the Stepaside / Enniskerry route again, and although the industrial estate was still very busy, my driving was smoother, this time, and I wasn't quite as nervous.

I was hoping for the sunny weather to last longer, but after Kilternan, it started to drizzle, and when I got to Bray, it was raining =( Bleh..

I took a looong nap, and later on, found out that I got the part-time job I was hoping to get! =D Absolutely awesome!!! Like, it's home based, it's not much, and I've no idea how much it'll pay, but it's better than nothing =) Also, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there might be another day on "Love, Rosie", but we'll see what happens..

Car insurance, work, laundry..

I renewed my car insurance today, so I'm pretty much skint now.. I did get the price down a bit, from their renewal quote (with better coverage, too), but I still need a Euromillions miracle, or something..

As it happens, "something" did come up, soon after the insurance call - I got an extra gig for Friday =D Still, I'd need a good few more of those, to make enough to cover my car insurance fee..

I need to bring lots of my own clothes for the fitting tomorrow, and obviously, almost everything needed washing.. So, I had to do two washes, and now I'm just hoping that it'll all be dry by my costume appointment, tomorrow.. (Of course, it had to be sort of rainy as well..)

I've also sent an application for a part-time job, and signed some nondisclosure stuff for it, but I don't know if I'll get it or not. It would be ideal for me, so I'd love to get it! *fingers crossed*...

Monday BBQ with friends

My godson's sister had painted kitty whiskers on his face - and done his nails with green nail polish =D He's soooo cute! (And so full of energy..)


We had a BBQ lunch in their breezy garden, on Monday.

    


Omnomnom.. Perfect burger! =) Btw, I had some mustard with mustard seeds and whiskey, in my burger, and it was SO good.. Mmmm.. Must get some of that, if I happen to make burgers at home.. Much nicer than ketchup, for example..

    
Tiramisù and jam tarts for dessert.. Mmmmm..


The trampoline is still popular =)