Tuesday, December 30, 2014

For Poppy ...

JB Hi-Fi is having a sale and was selling the DVDs of Miniscule for a ridiculously small amount so I have bought the first and second series (three DVDs per season) for about $5.50 each for Poppy.  She usually comes running when she hears the music.  Parsifal is not as rapt in it but sometimes climbs behind the TV to see if he can catch the insects.


I have almost finished spinning braid 4 of the Jewel BFL+silk which D3 gave me for my birthday.  It is taking ages because it is so soft and it spins so fine although it fulls when it is skeined and washed.  I will have five skeins when I have finished spinning and am not sure what to do with it   -  a shawl of some sort because the colours are very overlapping.  And yesterday I finally bit the bullet and undid the vest thingy which I knitted from the 'Storm' fibre which I bought from the mob over the Tasman  and which gave me so much grief when I was spinning it.  I have just over a half kilo but it is very thick; maybe a proper vest?


Christmas was good.  We had a sausage sizzle and chocolate mousse which is something which my lactose intolerant family are able to cope with.  D3 is also gluten intolerant and GB1 is about to start a trial of no gluten.  It makes them all a bit difficult to cater for and D3 brought her own sausages  -  gluten-free Cumberland sausages; the rest of us ate ordinary Cumberlands.


Himself gave the babies a couple of toy mice and Parsifal immediately picked up one of them and tried to post it into his ball box  -  a sure sign that he thought that it was a keeper  -  bless his little black heart.  They insist on their walk in the passage every morning, in their harnesses, and then put themselves to bed.  They are getting very good about having their harnesses put on so if there is a fire I will be able to quickly tether then into the kitty carriage and take them down the fire escape.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

... who cannot see.

Yesterday the COTA volunteers were taken on a Grand Tour of our new headquarters and I am not happy.  We are moving to the Blind Institute and it seems that we are taking over quite a bit of the building.  I don't know if the current tenants are contracting down to a smaller space or if we are sharing the facilities.  Ken took us around the upper floor  -  security passes only  -  pointing out the changes which will be made  -  partitions removed, a door cut  through to another area, etc, and then we went downstairs to where the computers are.  We will be using the computers which are already there and which are set up for use by blind people so I am really not sure how it will work out.  Our server will be housed in the basement but I assume that we will have to turn on vision and turn off speech.


The facilities are good with a canteen and a gym which we will be able to use and far more space  -  but some of it is on a 'by the hour' basis.  I am not sure how the receptionists will fit into the scheme of things as there are receptionists already and I don't know if we will have to collect security passes if we want to go upstairs to speak to the admin. people.


I will be able to catch the same train into town as before and then I have six minutes to get to Platform 4 (which Transperth has hidden) and will arrive at Victoria Park Station which is just opposite the Institute so I will no longer collect Himself on my way to work.


I guess that if I don't like it, or find the system unmanageable, then I can just stop teaching.  We won't be moving in until about the end of February when all the alterations are completed and I will probably take my own computers just in case.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Negative, negative, negative!

I have received the results of the breast biopsy I had the week before last and the result was negative  -  no cancer, no sign of cancer and nothing abnormal except for a small area of calcification of no significance.


I hadn't realised how much the result was preying on my mind  -  most particularly the fact that if I had to have surgery then the cats would have had to go to boarding school for a while and at this time of year all the catteries (the good ones, anyway) are fully booked and if they are to be boarded they are going to have to have de luxe accommodation with room for them to get away from each other.  They squabble every so often and then Poppy shrieks for help but I suspect that she is usually the one who starts it.


Today I finished spinning the first of the 'Jewel' braids.  Because it is so soft I did not split it down the middle but spun it "across the tops".  I had to keep quite a lot of tension on it or it loosened itself on the bobbin and made a terrible mess; at one stage I had to unwind a couple of metres and wind it back by hand under tension so that it would sit properly and not billow out from under the singles spun over the top.  It will be interesting to see what it looks like when plied.  I am going to have to ply it tighter than I usually do  -  I think ...