and today i have mostly been...

[steve_earwig]

Nah, I'll keep it and see if I can fix it at some point. It's not like I found these things, my dad had and used them for years, so I'm reluctant to just throw them away. I won't know what's wrong with it until I pull it apart but I can get a (pattern) piston for it off the bay for 15 quid, which would be good enough providing the barrel isn't too chewed (or I could go completely mad http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CYLINDER-PIST ... 336c1a822d ).

I don't think I'll be trying to sell them again but if I do it certainly won't be going through Max.

[Doggy]

Max?

[steve_earwig]

Max.



I think he used to work for some electricity company.

[OllieNZ]

Getting rear ended

[Welly]

Oh no that's not nice, hope your ok? even though that appears to be fairly light I bet it went with a big old thud.

[annie]

cutting off my rear stabilser track arm bolt and cutting through the brake hose....doh

[steve_earwig]

Getting rear ended

Oh bugger You ok?

[OllieNZ]

Oh no that's not nice, hope your ok? even though that appears to be fairly light I bet it went with a big old thud.

Getting rear ended

Oh bugger You ok?

I'm okay thanks guys. I was stopped at a pedestrian crossing and the lovely young lady behind me wasn't paying attention. I need a new bumper and n/s tail light other than that no real damage. I reckon that it's written her ka off though.

[steve_earwig]

Well, yesterday actually. For a while now I've felt a lump in my throat when swallowing/yawning/blowing my hooter. It comes and goes but I've been worrying about it so I was at the hostable at 1pm having it checked out. Of course I feared the worst but it turns out my reflux has now damaged my larynx. Oh good. More pills, change of diet (no pickles! ), don't eat after 3 hours before bed time, don't (this is weird) pour cold milk into hot coffee. I've also got to raise the end of my bed, I'm meant to sleep on more pillows but I can't do that, so hotrod bed it is.

I had a nice young female doctor looking at me, as she peered down my throat I really wished I'd cleaned my teeth before coming out and had sucked a breath mint. Up my nose, hmm, then she donned a headlamp, grabbed my tongue in a lump of gauze and got me to say eee and aaa as she peered at my vocal chords. I'll bet that's a fun job. I got her to laugh anyway, as my dad's had all this stuff me and my bro are going through I said it was our inheritance. From Monty Python - "one day son, all this will be yours." The odd thing is my brother is super-fit, cycles for miles and miles, has never smoked, eats healthily but he's having the same problems. A few days back he was diagnosed with Barrett's mucosa, which is damage to the lower end of his oesophagus caused by his reflux.

[steve_earwig]

Also... I see a few cats around here apart from our own, quite often I used to see a tabby and white tom who I named BT for his bent tail (obviously broken at some point). I'd not seen him for a while but a month ago I saw him with one red eye, obviously some sort of trauma (neighbour's idiot kids again?) and then not for another month. A week ago he started hanging about in the grass between our front fence and the firehouse, his left eye was then black and much bigger than it ought to be, making him look quite scary. I decided BT was the least of his worries but not being a Greebo I decided to change his name to Teatime ( "Te-ah-tim-eh"). Well hell, it's not my cat, I'll call him what I like. He was there for a couple of days, looking very thin, so I took pity on him and started to feed him. I wasn't really sure what to do about his eye, it looked right nasty but it didn't seem to bother him and I really didn't fancy trying to coax him into a box to get him to the vet's. I'd also never been within 6 feet of him without him running away.

This morning when I fed him our black tom Mr. Fish (AKA Obama) rushed out and chased him off, knocking the food bowl flying. I had a word with Mssr. Le Fish and made sure Teatime got to eat his food in peace, he bolted it anyway. When I picked t'wife up this afternoon he was waiting right by the gate, which was unusual, and then I noticed that he was in trouble - his eye had burst and was leaking down his face (urgh!). So I went to fetch the cat box... I didn't think I'd ever get him in there, I bribed him with some food but when I tried to grab him he hid under the yoyo. Around the other side, more food, I managed to grab him and into the box he went.

So I took him to the vet's where Anna (Mirela's on her holiday) checked him over: eye a disaster, half-starved, dehydrated and running a fever but with excellent chances, what do I want to do with him? Umm, fix him obviously. Antibiotics, vitamins, three syringes of fluid and a worming pill. She didn't want to mess with the eye, it'll probably be ok with the antibiotics and anything else will just make it worse.

Surprisingly, while most of the cats here are semi-feral (including ours), he didn't scratch or bite either of us and while Anna was off amassing the drugs I was scratching his head and he started purring.

I'll have to take him back tomorrow for more antibiotics so I didn't want to let him loose and face having to catch him again so I stuck him in the woodshed. Unfortunately it has a small skylight over the door and, of course, he's escaped and is now sitting on the back lawn:

I guess tomorrow is up to you mate...

[highlander]

( "Te-ah-tim-eh")

Is his first name "Jonathan" ?

[steve_earwig]

That's the psychopath, this is a cat

Just in case etc.
M0mU3393PGk

[Welly]

Very nice deed with the Cat there mate

[steve_earwig]

Shhhh! He's behind the yoyo, be vewy vewy qwiet...

[steve_earwig]

Bugger I managed to catch him and get him in the box but he managed to escape while I was getting my keys and locking up (and this is no cheapy box either). Of course now he's not coming anywhere near me, food or no food. So I put a bowl full out by the yoyo while he eyed me suspiciously from a neighbour's garden across the road and then left him to it.

Speaking of eye, it's gone back to big and black again. I think it must be doing that regularly, bursting, healing up, blowing up and then bursting again. It looks really frightening but it must feel even worse, poor guy.