The Good, The Bad and The Dreadful

Alex's party went with a swing last night. He was surrounded by friends and family in a local hall, with bands and disco.

This morning, I got a surprise in the post (no, not Alex's signed photos from Liverpool Football Club, they arrived yesterday at his home Special Delivery). I was amazed to see this on one of the envelopes the postie delivered:



And inside it was this:

Which one of you lovely people made this happen? I am so delighted, I want to give you a big kiss!

Of course, the Royal Mail being as incompetent as it is, an envelope which had travelled across the Atlantic in pristine condition, got as far as my door before being folded to push it through. Luckily no serious harm was done, but I see another complaint coming on. Not that they've replied to the last three yet...

Today was the Kensington Dolls House Fair. After the Christmas one, I did a post about Mulvany and Rogers and their fantastic houses based on real life palaces. Here's a picture of their latest exhibit, which is a fantasy scene set in one of the Palace of Versailles luxurious outhouses:

The dreadful news is that the darling baby gorilla I've been visiting and cooing over for months has died after being introduced to the new male, who injured him during an introductory session. How could they have been so careless? They knew the risks, they should have been taken proper precautions. I'm not the only one who'll be devastated:

Time's short

I have to get ready for Alex's party, so just a quickie.

Don't poke your tongue out at me, Mr D'Onofrio. I might have to force it down my throat ;-)

Thanks to news.com for the picture.

The Consoler - Batch 4

Getting ready to spend the night with Eames.

Working, of course.

Happy Birthday Alex (no thanks to Royal Mail)

Today is my student's 18th birthday. He's had 10 unexpected years - most children with ALD die within months of developing symptoms, and Alex was not yet 8 when he was first noticed to have a problem.

Alex is a great fan of Liverpool Football Club, and as well as the gifts from their shop the hospital school and I have bought him, the club agreed to replace the signed pictures that went out-of-date soon after he received them at Christmas, when the manager resigned and their most valuable player was sold.

The pictures didn't arrive, and today I took the tracking number to the local sorting office - where they announced that the parcel had never been sent! I was given a (wrong) number, found the correct one, had three lengthy tries before finding an option that eventually connected me to an (alleged) human being, who reiterated that it cannot have been sent as it was not in their system. When I asked how the sender got the number in that case, she hung up on me!

Funnily enough I've sent in a complaint.

Of course, that won't make up for Alex's disappointment. Apparently he can make it to 18 under such dire circumstances, but Royal Mail can't even get a parcel to him.

Tomorrow there is a big party to celebrate the birthday he might never have reached, and I know all your good wishes will be with him now, and then.

The Consoler - third batch

His acting just gets better and better.

The Consoler - next batch

Still not happy with the piccies, so I'm going at it slowly. I'm just going to experiment with screen capture, trouble is, I can never remember where they get saved!

The Consoler - taster

After downloading, putting on to DVD, then starting to cap our latest treat, I find I've run out of time to finish the capping, watermark, then upload to Photobucket. I'm not very pleased with the caps either. They are not nearly as bright or clear as the episode as I watch it on Cyberlink PowerDVD. Don't know what's gone wrong. Any ideas, anyone?

Meanwhile, it seems we didn't miss much by way of reintroduction of our pair into the squad. Goren was of course magnificent thoughout, and Eames has clearly picked up some of his skills.

Gorgeous Gavin

Wendy tells me she has an electronic book short story set on a beach, with a hero called Gavin...hmm, wonder where that name came from!

I've just downloaded it, and think it will make suitable bedtime reading. You can download it just on to Adobe on your computer if you don't have a Kindle or other electronic reader.

Here's the link: http://www.portiadacosta.com/glint.html

At the bottom of the excerpt, there's a variety of links so you can get your preferred download method.

Don't forget to lay in extra tissues. No, not for your eyes.

Ruthless Rhyme

This one's my favourite.

Appreciation

Auntie, did you feel no pain

Falling from that willow tree?

Will you do it, please, again?

Cos my friend here didn't see.

Add to the pure selfishness of the rhyme - who knew they shortened "because" to "cos" over a hundred years ago?

Sleeping Beauties

I couldn't resist two of my lovelies as they basked in the sun.

First there was 15-year-old Beano, spark out on top of the chicken coop:

Then we have 17-year-old Jaspa, luxuriating in the warm conservatory (garden room), still looking like a sweet young thing:

Gotta love 'em.