:: so anyway...

I've been trying to remember what on earth I've been doing that's kept me so busy.

I went to Ingliston Market on Sunday, always entertaining. It's shabby and shady and chaotic, but also cheerful and brash, and there's usually something interesting going on. I got peanuts and fat treats for the birds (over two dozen regulars now; happily the starlings seems to have deserted me but sadly so have the ring-necked doves) and visited my favourite computer software stall, then fell right off my moral high horse (which is actually more of a moral pony) and bought a couple of pirated videos. I make a fairly feeble point of not buying anything pirated if it's something I could easily afford, so normally I wouldn't get a video. But hey, they were films that aren't out on video yet and I hadn't seen them in the cinema.

I bought the Banger Sisters and Star Trek: Nemesis. I got my come-uppance with Star Trek, or Star Drek as it should be called. The sound quality is rubbish, it's as if someone has taken a video camera into the theatre and filmed it, and the visuals are muddy and blurred. It's not helped by a clunker of a plot and grotty acting. Boo! And I speak as a Star Trek fan -- I once queued up outside a science fiction bookshop to get the signature of Chakotay (Ellen made me! And he wasn't wearing his uniform, or his tattoo). The Banger Sisters is ok though -- it's like a normal video and it's a lively film, though a bit cliched. I haven't finished watching it yet, I haven't had time!

Weird dog story: Regular readers may recall the story of Sandy and his dogs, Amber the alsatian and Cassie the poodle. Shortly before he died last year, Sandy asked Pat, a neighbour, if she would take his dogs if anything happened to him. At the time she had one, a fairly elderly black lab cross. Sandy helped her find a nice white alsatian as a "replacement". So when he died, she suddenly had four dogs. First to go was her original dog, which was expected. Then Cassie was put down -- she was about 14, so again, no big surprise.

The other day I bumped into Pat and she only had Amber with her -- Kita, her other alsatian, had been put down after suffering severe fits and finally going into what the vet said was a state of constant fitting. She was only 18 months old, and she was doing well under Pat's care. She'd been kept shut up in an upstairs flat with very few walks before Pat got her, and she'd made great progress at learning to walk quietly on a lead and not bark hysterically at people and other dogs. She was lovely. Amber's always thrilled to see Bertie, relieved to see he's still alive I guess. She used to bark at him, but now she licks his face. Unfortunately he misinterpreted this as a come-on, and made his first attempt to try it on with a bitch. Pat threatened him with castration, so I guess he and Amber won't be allowed to play together any more!

Work has been great, I've been enjoying learning the new software. We start training the other staff a week on Monday. Oh, next Monday I have my follow-up MRI scan. Mum, if the CDs you've sent arrive in time I'm taking one with me: they have a very limited selection there, and you have music playing (with earphones) because of the noise the machine makes. They also talk to you via the earphones, so you have to wear them.