:: blogback is broken

I was tinkering with the colour scheme and tried out the commenty thing to see if I'd changed the colours there & found it was broken!

Webmaster: Your site appears to be a Blogger weblog that has recently been converted to their new "Dano" system. As such, a BlogBack code update is required for you to continue to use this commenting service. Unfortunately, as a result of updating your code at this late stage, you will lose any recent comments made on the threads affected by these changes in Blogger. This is a symptom of the problem that the code update will solve, and is beyond my control.

I tried pasting in the new code but it wouldn't work. No biggie, since no-one much was using it. But still.

Bertie's bandage is off at last, but it's left a lot of damage -- he's got such delicate skin, and some of it came off with the sticky strapping. He seems pleased to have a bare leg again though.

:: Paris

Here's where we're staying in Paris, rue Mazarine: 

 

 

The flat is between rue Mazarine and rue de Seine.

:: nearly done

I've tidied up nearly all the archives -- just have to root out a few photos that didn't get punted over to the new site and it's all done.

The weather's packed in again, wet and muggy, so I may not get to work in the garden tomorrow as planned.

::archives

I'm slowly grinding my way through the archives, updating all the picture links. It's a tiny bit pointless, given that the long-term plan is to shift the archives themselves on to my own website, but hey ho, I might never get round to that. It's like all these things though -- balancing my bank account, keeping a database of my books -- I start out with great enthusiasm, then become overwhelmed by the sheer tedium of regular updating; finally the task is too huge even to contemplate.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I'm still going to Paris in September, even though Pinky isn't coming over this year. Chris is still coming, hurrah, and she and Julian and I will be sharing the apartment for a week. The owner has sent us a wonderful list of instructions for getting into the place, where to leave the money etc, plus a guide to the best cafes and shops in the area.

That leaves me with two free weeks, which I'll probably spend somewhere in the Highlands, and on the farm. Bertie's already been invited to stay there while I'm away, but because the Paris week is at the end of my holiday, he may end up staying with his other major fans, nearer to home. They were disappointed not to get him in May! He's a very popular guest.

:: garden news

The runner bean has flowers! This is exciting. Really. If only the other five had come up...

More good news: the neighbours hate the hedge too. Actually it's mainly because Jim has serious problems with his neck (degenerating discs) and can't trim it at its present height. But the upshot is, he's getting his brother (I think) to come and take it right down to a manageable height. Having recently risked life and limb struggling with the electric trimmer at the top of a ladder, I'm thrilled. (I did get one of those cut-off plug thingies, by the way.) I said I didn't mind how low it goes, so long as it's Bertie-proof. "Unless you'd like Bertie to visit?" Bertie's been enamoured of them since they had a barbecue last year and a guest fed him sausages through the gap in the hedge. But no, they're not that keen on having him drop by, so it'll be 4ft high or so.

:: hockadilly.com is go

I've finally got hockadilly.com up and running. It's all go over there! Check it out! There's room for all my photos, ramblings, Pinky's site, the works, and it's so cheap! Under £18 a year compared to £13 a month at Easynet. It took over three hours to punt everything across, but it went very smoothly, the line didn't drop once. Hurrah!

One little problemetta is that I'll have to redo all the photo links on this blog. Sigh.

Also today I mowed the lawn and went on a great long expedition to Tentsmuir and back via the East Neuk, one of my favourite days out. Bertie had a great time & has been conked out since we got back.

:: ch-ch-ch-changes

Well I'm trying to make changes. I'm checking out two ISPs at the moment and it's incredibly frustrating: one in Glasgow is enticing as regards prices etc, but its "customer services" department seems to be one bloke with a very poor memory. "Hockadilly? Ohhhh, riiiight, I completely forgot to call you. I'll make a note right now on Outlook to call you back." "Can't you set it all up now?" "No, I have to waffle waffle waffle, website, waffle waffle, but I'll call you at 2pm on the dot, though, promise."

Yeah, right. No call. And tonight I tried sending myself email from work to test the webmail and they bounced, all of them. Sigh. A deal-breaker.

The other crowd was doing well despite its crappy webmail (no folders! no address book!) until I hit a brick wall trying to upload files to my FREE 100Mb webspace. Tonight I finally emailed them about it and was told it should be working ok. So I'll give that another go and see. If it works, they're in and the Weegie deadbeats are out. I'm desperate for a new home! To add to the sense of urgency, I'm being deluged by junk mail at my easynet address. It's the usual rubbish -- viagra, penis enlargement, cheap loans, hot babes, Nigerian scams -- and I'm blacklisting as fast as I can, but it keeps on coming.

In other news, Bertie's had another prang. I'm not sure what happened, because he didn't "announce" it until a few hours after our visit to Beecraigs Country Park on Monday. It must have happened there, though. Anyway, I dressed it myself, but he kicked up a ruckus and claimed (through sign language) that his leg might actually be broken, so I took him to the vet. She thought it might be cracked, the leg bone that is. She shot him full of painkillers and antibiotics and put on a great big bandage. He shrieked and trembled and carried on, wouldn't let her shave around the wound, so I feared the worst. But the next day he was fine! Malingerer.

I went to see Whale Rider, a fantastic film -- it made me really homesick. Pinky and I had a great holiday once on the East Coast and it brought it all back. I thought the film conveyed the sweep of contemporary Maori culture there without spelling it out: the hard-case old kuia who run the show behind the scenes, the proud older men trying to keep the past alive, the dispossessed younger adults who've lost their way, the exiles "making it" in the wider world, and the kids, the hope of the future. Fab.

The weather continues to be scorching -- by Scottish standards at least, the temperature's up to 24 regularly! I'm really enjoying having my breakfast outdoors every morning, and wearing sandals. Last summer, by contrast, it rained almost every day. I think I only breakfasted outdoors once. Of course every few days the Calvinist haar comes down to remind us not to get too complacent, but in general it's fantastic. I've been harvesting my raspberry bushes, fresh fruit and yoghurt, mmm.

I see in Europe it's been so hot they've had to shut down the Matterhorn -- glacier melt is causing rockfalls. And there are thunderstorms threatening down south.

:: visitation

Had a visitor today, an old friend from NZ (she's not old, the friendship is) who is now living in London. I haven't seen her since I was last over there, so it was great to catch up. She left with a head of garlic from my garden as a souvenir.

Another friend has just decided to take a job in Amsterdam -- she was worried about missing her many friends, but I assured her we'll all be over visiting her. I've been meaning to go back to Amsterdam for ages, it's one of my favourite cities.

Work hasn't been too frantic tonight -- Friday was diabolical, I was busy from start to finish. I do prefer to be busy but that was crazy. Everything's gone smoothly tonight (touch wood) and I even managed to get some advance pages done (graduation lists, nothing exciting).

:: some pix

Finally finally got round to downloading photos off my camera -- there were 109 of them! Just from a few weeks' noodling around, nothing special. First is from the day Andrew left Edinburgh -- I drove up to Perthshire behind him, and after a walk at the Hermitage, we had tea and cakes at a cafe in Dunkeld.


Andrew and Bertie at the Hermitage.


Bit of Americana -- no explanation for it, it was just there, deep in the woods.



The cakes! The one on the left is mainly marshmallow and cherries. The one on the right looked like a rocky road, with biscuits in it. But no -- those round things are Malteasers. They were amazingly sweet and gooey, both of them. Yum. The cafe is one of my favourites. It's run by an older couple who do everything in their own sweet time, so you have to be patient. But the food's good and the cakes! The cakes!

Another nice touch is that in the toilet, there are packets of tampons, panty liners and sanitary towels. Never seen that before in a cafe.

Finally, here are some roses from the field up the road:





Today I got the ladder out and trimmed the top of the hedge. Then I mowed the lawn. Then I weeded the front garden and hacked back the rose bush out there. Then I swept up. Then I washed the dishes. I've also had a couple of phoned conversations and walked the dog twice. I'm knackered! I'm going to have a hot bath and read my book.

:: a tidy kiwi

I'm having one of my periodic tidying fits -- long sessions with bin-bags and piles of old bills, magazines, Christmas cards, leaflets etc -- and it's boiling over into other areas. For a start today I got my gas and electricity organised so they'll be with the one supplier (ScottishPower -- take that, Scottish Gas!) and will be paid by direct debit. Phew. No more threatening letters when the bill disappears into the paper mountain. I almost cancelled Bertie's insurance because the premium shot up, but threatening to cancel brought a discount, hurrah. So he's still covered.

Next on the list is to get a grip on my website. At the moment I have four sites, would you believe it? Oh, and the blogspot. That's five. I haven't put anything on the latest one yet (it's a freebie), because I'm eyeing up another possibility. I've emailed them with a list of questions, and if their answers are good then I'm off to firefly, waving easynet goodbye. Sadly that will also mean saying goodbye to my domain name because they want £75 for letting me take it with me. Don't worry though, Hockadilly will live on elsewhere.

Footnote: I had a completely bizarre conversation with the ScottishPower woman.
"You're a long way from home!" she said perkily.
"This is my home," I replied.
"How long have you been here?"
"Thirteen years."
"Och, you've still got the accent though," she said in her strong Scottish one. "I've been here six years, myself."
"Where are you from?" I asked, startled.
"South Africa."
I marvelled at her accent, and she said when she talks to her folks back there she speaks in a South African accent.
"Your accent's is still strong, though," she said. "Where in South Africa are you from?"
"I'm a New Zealander."
"No! Really? You sound just like a South African!" This from a woman who sounded as if she was born and bred in Inverness!! It was weird.

The pet insurance lady was Indian, and I was sorely tempted to ask her if she was in India, because some of the call centres are. I don't think they're allowed to let on though.

:: hunting

Bertie's having such a great time at the moment -- there are rabbits and hedgehogs all over the place. The grass, clover and weeds in the big field up the road are nice and high, so the rabbits can't see him coming and can't speed away. The most exciting part -- from his point of view -- is that if he leaps through the grass he can literally jump on top of a rabbit. Today he did just that. The rabbit got away, of course, but he then became convinced there were more, exactly where that one had been. He was leaping along like an antelope, bounding over the grass in long flights with all his legs tucked up.

Last night it was a hedgehog: he carried it round for about ten minutes, dropping it every now and then to try and "open" it with his feet. No luck -- it stayed tightly rolled. It was a big one, not quite as big as one he caught a couple of years ago -- that was a monster -- but strong enough to survive Bertie. I'm hoping it didn't have ringworm. While he was messing with his hedgehog I came across another one hustling along the path. I rolled it away into the long grass.

We also go hunting at night. The other night he was rushing around sniffing out rabbits and I heard a twig snap in the trees. I shone the torch in that direction and sure enough, a pair of eyes lit up like lamps. A deer. It stood dazzled for a minute, then ran for it, crashing through the trees and down the bank, and landing with a barking cough before fleeing down the old railway track. Bertie was oblivious until I called him round to it had hit the footpath and he smelt it -- "hey! a deer!" No, you think so? While he was busy searching the area where the deer had been, I stumbled on a hedgehog, literally. I rolled it away into the long grass. See, I am a friend to wildlife! Bertie is such a madly inefficient hunter he mainly just gives them exercise.