A Kingdom for a Bird?!!

I couldn’t help but include this article here….it’s self-explanatory. I found it on the BBC headlines. The picture has nothing to do with the article...but more with the title....and yeah I am an anti-Microsoft girl....

Tower's ravens are kept indoors

The Tower of London has decided to keep its famous ravens indoors to protect them from bird flu.

Special aviaries have been created for the six birds within one of the towers of the fortress on the Thames.

Legend has it the Tower of London will collapse and the kingdom will fall if all the ravens leave.

The Tower ravens - named Branwen, Hugine, Munin, Gwyllum, Thor and Baldrick - are said to be getting used to their new surroundings.

The Tower's Yeoman raven master, Derrick Coyle, said: "Although we don't like having to bring the Tower ravens inside, we believe it is the safest thing to do for their own protection, given the speed that the virus is moving across Europe.

"We are taking advice on the vaccinations against avian flu, and in the meantime, we will continue to give our six ravens as much care and attention as they need."

EU farm ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss the spread of the virus, which has now reached France.

UK ministers said it was still not necessary to lock up Britain's 20m free-range poultry, despite some experts backing it.

….no comment!

My Smurfy Valentine

Yaaay….that time of year again…Joy…..I can already hear the violins and the sound of rose petals as they gently fall on the ground, showering loving couples as they walk hand in hand on this, their feast. Quick! Hand me a bucket!!!!!

OK…so as you may have gathered…I’m a non-valentine’s day sort of person. The only reason I’m writing today is because there was a special smurf episode released on the 13th of February, 1983 (yes, I was old enough to have watched it)….called “My Smurfy Valentine”. It was quite an amusing story in which Smurfette was waiting for her Prince Smurfing….so she wrote a letter to Cupid asking him to help her out. But Gargamel found the letter, and due to a great misunderstanding fell madly in love with Chlorhydris, an evil witch.

Cool episode. And yes….I have a lot of spare time…. :o)

The Return of Smurfette

Hi everyone! Sorry for my long absence…I was sadly wrapped up in the day-to-day monotony of routine, and, having no internet access at home, I found little time (well….I’m sure I could have made time….) to share my daily (sometimes hourly) rants with cyberspace…..

Part 1: Birmingham

Where shall I start..? I guess where I had left off, would be a good one….

SO….Coming back to Birmingham from Malta was…ehm…painful…to say the least. I boarded the plane, found my aisle seat - I always ask for an aisle seat…that makes my regular visits to the little front room far less annoying to fellow passengers – and I looked across the seats next to me, at the blue sky outside. I distinctly remember telling myself to soak in every inch of blue sky while I still could….it could be months before I see anything remotely resembling it again…..

At that point, an announcement was heard. “Good afternoon and welcome on board this AirMalta flight. This is your captain speaking…” After all the bla-di-bla that hardly anyone ever listens to, he told us one very interesting bit of information…..”The temperature at destination is 2 degrees C”…..Great. And there I was, complaining that it was unbearably cold at home – a freezing 15 degrees. Ah well…when I bought my ticket, I knew I wasn’t going to the Bahamas…..

Pleasant flight all in all….made friends with a British couple who had been to Malta 20 times in 4 years….(and I thought I was a hero for going to Ireland 4 times in a year…) and had a good hour’s worth of reading.

When I arrived in Birmingham, it was raining. Jim was at the airport, and we took a cab to his place, only to find that there was great trouble with his housemates…not of the un-personal kind…so I thought “Right….this bodes well for my new year in the UK…”

Since I am not the type of person who believes our destinies are pre-determined, but rather everyone holds the pen and is free to write down their own destiny, day by day, I decided my pen wasn’t going to have black ink, sympathy-card style…So when I realised that I can’t hide from my house forever, and any chances of finding a replacement were long gone…..I bought myself a nice heater. Sod the electricity bill. We share all the costs equally (apart from phonecalls)…so if my housemate complains, well, that’s his problem, not mine. You have central heating and refuse to use it? Then pay for my heater bill.

Now I must admit I’m much much happier here. My room is cozy….and I even started baking again…which is a good sign. I have this inbuilt sense of “Mediterranean Grandmother”-itis, which gives me the inexplicable need to feed everyone. Ah well…better a cookie than a slap in the face, right?!

Part 2: Glasgow

So although I’m feeling much better in Brummy, I still needed to get away from the sticky pasta, grainy curries and chocolate-brown sky….So last week, during one of my regular msn chats with the weegies I made friends with when I went to Glasgow in November, I was invited to spend the weekend at Marc’s place. This was Thursday.

On Friday, at 2 o’clock, I was on my way. Sleeping bag in one hand, scones and cookies (that I baked the night before, especially) in the other, I ran to the station, and boarded the train. Fantastic.

It was a 4.5 hour ride to Glasgow, and when I arrived, it was already dark. But I met my friends and had the most fun I’d had in ages. We laughed, ate, talked, listened to cartoon songs….from our childhood, of course….ahem….On Saturday I visited the necropolis. It’s so weird for a cemetery to have such a mixed style….but it was beautiful…especially the view from the top.

We then went to Borders. :o) Oh come on! I hadn’t bought a book in absolutely AGES. Anyway….I’m not going to bore anyone with the details of my Glasgow trip, but it definitely was worthwhile.

Now I’m back in Birmingham…..writing this blog….I’ll soon have to go back to Glasgow (for work, this time), and I can’t wait. Meanwhile I’m preparing a poster, a paper, helping a student with her project, and demonstrating 2^nd year experiments on a Wednesday morning…..and reading reading reading…..

I promise I won’t take long to write again!

xXx