FantasyCon

Well I made the trip to Nottingham last weekend to take part in FantasyCon (thanks to Hagelrat) where I had the chance to see some familiar faces from Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Festival in Harrogate earlier this year.

As happened in Harrogate, I did have a wee bit to drink (though nowhere near as much and not with such dire consequences!) I may still have been the youngest there! But this time I did end up going to a couple of the panels, such as the one where a group of authors discussed crossing genres through their career. Or, as it was put- "being a whore" which was interesting :P

I did also meet a lot of great new people, such as Robert Shearman (who I pretended to be for about half the night using his name tag), Lee Harris,  Suw and a girl called Hollie who works in marketing :) No lush italian boys but well, you can't be that lucky all the time...

Though it was good seeing all of the Un:Bounders, so I can remind myself I'm not the only one suffering as a minion of Adele.

The cat ears made a rather stunning comeback, and we got a few people photographed wearing them! Not that Adele has provided a link to the photos yet. I only have this one of Lee.

It was a lot of fun though, and despite the fact that by the time I was meant to film the award ceremony with Vince I was seriously unsteady on my feet I think I made some friends. I got a great little notebook from Suw though! It's green! and SHINY!

Picked up LOADS of great free books as well, and got a few signings in which helped :)

Also, check out this little guy! So cute! Apparently he's evil... I'll have to read the book Moxyland by Lauren Beukes to find out then! :o

Gah

Emotional tirades are always sickening. I have no excuse except that I've had a bloody awful week xD

This has meant the diet went to pot and somehow I put on almost a whole stone after almost managing to lose that much (after 6 weeks) which sucks! And two members of my four-man committee that were helping to put together a choir have dropped out, which has meant that I've taken on their jobs, and am run to the ground.

And the consequence of this? I'm going to see Resident Evil tonight with friends I've not seen in ages, which should be having me all excited! And all I can think is that I don't want to go out and show them how huge I am. I'm actually considering not going out- because said friends are two boys and two very pretty, rather thin girls.

Why do I have good looking friends?

Joy.

Why the world is better off without spiders

I could only bring myself to include a small spider picture- freaks me out! But I'm not alone; about half of women and 10% of men have a phobia of spiders. Making it the most common phobia around. Looking at it this way- a lot of people would be much happier if spiders were as rare as Dodo birds.

In a recent conversation I had over the phone to my mum (while trying to figure out how to get rid of a particularly nasty hyper spider that was making a web across my kitchen doorway) I was told "but without spiders we'd be overrun by flies" to which I very quickly replied that I would rather have to kill flies all the time than spiders! (I was also told spiders are harmless- but that's not true! They bite!)

And besides- spiders aren't the only things that eat flies. We have frogs! I would quite happily be surrounded by frogs; they're cute, and I can touch one without bursting into tears and hyperventilating. Yes, there are poisonous frogs... but they don't hide in your shoes and find it more difficult to get into your house!

Look at the frog. Isn't he sweet? Wouldn't you rather find him in your house than the eight legged freaks that scurry around attaching themselves to everything?

Yes. I want a world without spiders. :D Muchly

Cornwall

Having spent a week in Cornwall with the family, I can safely say that my poor camera has been well and truly beat up. It has a UV filter STUCK on it, and two dodgy memory cards. I'm missing a lens cap, and a battery charger.

But somehow, I got some decent pictures :D

Murder Mysteries and Genii

Today while doing the ironing (I'm doing cleaning and stuff for my mum at the moment while staying here) I started watching the Poirot box set and it just made me remember how much fun they actually are. The first ten minutes or so are spent saying "He's dead." or "She's dead" as you try to guess who'll die first (and sometimes second) the rest is spent trying to guess who did it. The difficulty with the Agatha Christie ones is that you hardly ever get it right. You're looking for someone who's focused on a lot, then someone who's not given much thought by the characters, but none of these work- it's so frustrating! The bloody woman is too clever for me!

On another note, the new Artemis Fowl book is out today :D YAY my dad's gonna pick it up while at work so I can get a head start reading it :) The first ones may have been the best, but the later ones are interesting and still a lot of fun, so we'll see how it goes.

Men!

(Warning- prepare for mini-rant)

Recently I've been seeing a guy, and it's been going really well. He wanted me to work near his family home over summer, and honestly, no ones been so sweet to me. I went to spend a weekend with him and overnight things made a total about turn. He started ignoring me, and although I got on with all his friends ridiculously well. Gah.

Now it takes a lot for me to like someone that much, but I like to think I go with the flow pretty well; I've not sent any moany texts, and I've barely mentioned it to my housemates (something Natalie gets annoyed at me for- she likes gossip) and this is the last I'll mention of how annoying the whole situation is by my own prompt.

The reason I'm writing about it, is because on Monday night I went out with renewed confidence (though why I'm not sure) and got on very well with a guy I don't plan on seeing again. (To clarify, I don't do one night stands, he didn't come over) but apparently one of my housemates told me he liked me and I shrugged and walked away.

That is totally out of character for me, and I'm horrified- I don't even remember it. Anyway I've apologized and explained that I think of all my housemates like siblings, so hopefully it won't be too weird around here. Anyway, I'm now packing to move house, and going to see the parents tomorrow.

Gah. Love lifeness sucks

Oscar the Bionic Cat

I first saw this story on the news (and cried a little bit) a while ago, and when perusing BBC iplayer I found the documentary about it and watched it about an hour ago.

I have to say, this story is amazing.

Oscar the cat (pictured) had both his back feet taken off when sunbathing in a maize field near his home in Jersey, when a combine harvester caught both his back legs.

Luckily, the local vet had heard of a man in Surrey, Noel Fitzpatrick of Fitzpatrick Referrals, who was a man who used engineering with veterinary practice to help animals who would otherwise be put down. After meeting Oscar and his owner, Noel agreed that Oscar, who was only two years old and of an "above average personality" was a perfect candidate for a thus far theoretical procedure. If the experimental practice succeeded, Oscar would be the first ever Bionic cat, having metal pegs bonded to the bones in his ankles via a drilled hole and chemical covering to encourage bone cell growth.

Basically, after a three hour surgery, healing time and a quick connecting of the prosthetic feet to the protruding joint, Oscar was up on his feet and even climbing around the surgery. Noel's reaction to the success of the operation had me a little bit tearful, it was lovely!

You can see this and more of Noel's work on BBC iplayer, under "Bionic Vet"