Pride 2012

The sign speaks for itself!

May Day, 2007

Ahhhh, today I didn't have any work at all, how sweet it was. In fact, I had crossed today off the calendar a couple of weeks ago, believing that it was a national holiday. Uh, no, unless you are a lobourer. I realised on Friday that actually, most people would be working, but no clients called and booked me, so I was free, gloriously free!

The day started well. I slept in until 7 am. Now, I realise, that by most people's standards, 7 am is NOT sleeping in. However, I've been waking up between 5:50~6:30 am for about the last six weeks, so 7 am seemed like a nice lie-in. 

I didn't walk the dogs this morning as both Little Fella's splints have worn holes through them! I didn't realise that the other splint was close to wearing out and on our last long walk it wore through. And continued wearing through to his foot. Which I didn't notice until the next morning when I changed his bandage (he gets fresh bandages in the morning.) Poor Little Fella. When I use his cart the wounded leg (which is the one suspended) gets all hot and swollen, I guess due to the not-yet-healed abrasions. So, no cart until he is healed up and no splints until the new ones arrive. Poor bored Little Fella.

I enjoyed my breakfast while trying to finish yesterday's crossword. I didn't succeed, darn it! Then I started a quilt for Kitty. Kitty is Angela's cat who died of FIV (Cat AIDS) the same day as LW. As I make AIDS quilts with the guys at Lourdes, it seemed reasonable to make a mini quilt for Kitty. I have been talking about it for weeks, today I finally buckled down and got it mostly done. No photos or descriptions as I won't be giving it to Ang until May 12th (her birthday!) and she reads my blog. Hee, hee, you'll just have to wait, Ang!
After a quick lunch I went to Taipei city to run some errands. First, I paid rent. I have to pay in person as I suspect my landlord does not claim this income. It's a pain in the neck as it is nowhere near an MRT station. I usually pay three months at a time, this time I paid four months, so I don't have to see him again until September. Good.

Then I went to the shop where I bought my camera and asked them to send it to Sony for me. I will find out at the end of the week if it is fixable and how much it will cost to fix. Meanwhile I am considering buying a digital SLR camera. Does anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

Next to the bookstore...because it's a bookstore, d'uh! Then back downstairs to Starbucks to get coffee for the house. I don't know about Starbucks in other countries, but here they only have one 'fair trade' coffee available. Fortunately it is delicious! It is not always available and often I have to track from one Starbucks to another, just to get a bag of coffee. (I tried Starbucks in Tai Da hospital last week and then another store in Gong Guan. I finally had success in Yung Ho! Huzzah!)

(You falling asleep yet? I know, it wasn't an exciting day but it was so very pleasant...I didn't have to meet anyone or be anywhere at a specific time...lovely!)

I took the MRT to Grandma Nitti's to drop off a couple of bolts and bearing...uh...things for the wheelchair that I returned to Animals Taiwan. Then over to Jane's to say hi and to give her a 'pizza oven', the 'surprise' in Ethan's 'Kinder Surprise' on Sunday. Jane was interviewed by some people from the 'Apple Daily' last week. The Apple Daily is a horrible, awful, trashy daily paper that is fabulously popular here. Since then she has been incredibly busy. They keep selling out of food by 8 pm! Anyway, she has new menues coming out and she asked me to proofread them. Mostly the problems were punctuation (or lack thereof) and capitalisation (or lack thereof). As payment I drank a glass of wine. ('Any time, Jane, any time!!')

Charlie and then later Beki showed up, so we chatted about this, that and the other. They both commented on my very nice new haircut. 'Er, no, not a haircut. I've lost 10 lbs.' Very amusing seeing their surprised expressions!

And so I eventually returned home, fed the beasties, enjoyed my Greek-esque salad with a second glass of wine. I still have to go up to Constance's and get some wood shavings for my dog to sleep on, I'm nearly out.

Oh, and tomorrow evening I will be meeting many of the Servas Taiwan members for an informal dinner at a coffee shop. We have a Servas guest from Japan for three days, starting this evening. She was going to stay with me, but then the organiser of Servas Taiwan asked if I could let her stay with someone else as I am almost the only person to have had an overnight guest so far here in Taiwan! A Taiwanese woman, Mei, wrote a book about her Servas experiences overseas last year. After her book came out our membership increased something like ten-fold. I went from being the only 'over-night' host in Taiwan to one of 60! As we don't get many Servas guests in Taiwan I don't think I'll be hosting anyone for awhile, if everyone is going to get a turn! :o) I did a lot of Servas travelling in the States and Europe in the early nineties. It's a pretty amazing organisation.

(If you are wondering what Servas is, check out this link (English) or this link (Chinese).)
Well, that's all the news that's fit to print. Have a great day/evening!

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PS I need help for the last two clues of today's crossword:
1. Coral or Cortez (answer: S_A)
2. Geared up (answer: _ARGER)
Any ideas? The two blanks are the SAME letter as 1 is horizontal and 2 is vertical. Many thanks!

April 4, 2007: Little Fella and dozing cats

Little Fella has a bad habit of draging his right hind leg with his toes knuckled under. He's been doing this for months, with the result that he has an open pressure sore on his right toes. Although it has never become infected I don't think this is a good thing! I went to the vet about this as it is slowly but surely getting bigger. He told me to put some gooey brown stuff on it (an iodine gel, I think), followed by a very thin breathable-but-not-sticky layer of plastic bandage, topped with cotton and then stretchy bandage. Which I did.
After the second day his leg was swollen and the wound was infected. Rats. He's been on antibiotics for five days which has reduced the swelling somewhat. However the vet is concerned that LF is licking the wound so it will never heal. We tried a funnel-thing around his neck. Didn't work as his nose is long enough to poke over the edge and he can still lick his paw. So the vet then suggested a muzzle and keeping LF in a cage (to prevent him from walking on his paw) until it healed. I thought this was a DREADFUL idea, it would be weeks until everything was ok! So instead, I cleaned the wound, put gooey stuff on it and a thin bandage thingy (yes, I know, remarkably unscientific vocabulary), then the splint and then covered the lot with stretchy bandage. Overnight he grew a very thin layer of skin. I took a photo into the vet and he was delighted! So we shall continue this method until his foot heals.
His leg is still a little swollen so he will probably need another six days of antibiotics (second vet visit tomorrow.)
Oooh, it's Tomb Sweeping Day and they just let a bunch of fireworks off at the temple down the road, must check and see if LF is spooked or not.
[Later] I guess he got used to fireworks over Lunar New Year, he's fine.
This is a photo of Xiao Man Tou, Little One and Sprout looking up from their (first) morning nap. Ah, nothing beats having a morning nap.

March 31, 2007: Sophie interviews Xiao Man Tou

Sophie slept over last night again. Again, it was a delight having her! This morning we went to play in the creek after breakfast, then we made these 'boats.'
While I was upstairs, Sophie 'interviewed' Xiao Man Tou. Watch the whole thing, the part where she is playing both interviewer and interviewee is classic. Or maybe I just think so because I love her so!



This is Part II. I cut the original video in to two pieces as YouTube thought the whole thing was too long. Just to translate: 'Xiao Man Tou' means 'Little Steamed Bun' and 'Fei Chang Da Man Tou' means 'Extremely Big Steamed Bun.' At about 1'28" in Part II Sophie says, "Let's interview the fatty, now." which sends me into gales of laughter. Truly, this child is a treasure.



More photos to follow shortly!

March 24, 2007: The Little Fella Collection

Feb. 24, 2007: LF

Just on my way to bed I remembered that my scooter was still out front. I went out to bring it in. As I was wheeling it through the doorway Little Fella slipped out. I quickly put the kickstand down I went to bring him in. He had stopped just beyond the front door and was cocking his rear left leg in a very uncoordinated way. He did this a couple of nights ago, too. Before my brain had processed this information I had scooped him up to bring him in.
Suddenly I made a connection: Male dog at 'his' front door, cocking his leg--he was trying to mark his territory!!
a) this means he has better muscle control, side-to-side motion, not just forwards and backwards.
b) does this mean he is also gaining bladder control? *does happy dance, a la Kat* Wouldn't that be marvellous! He could come inside the house!
For those of you who have *no idea* what I'm talking about, go HERE to discover who Little Fella is and why I am excited that he might be peeing at my front door.
I shall conduct closer studies in the following days...

Happy Sunday (Repost, January 28, 2007)

So late yesterday afternoon I was quietly sitting in the living room, enjoying my bowl of popcorn and episodes 11 and 12 of ‘Six Feet Under’ when my dogs started to bark. I pricked up my ears and realized that it was my neighbour, Constance, calling me. I gently picked up LW from my lap, put him on the cozy sofa cushion and ran downstairs. Apparently Andy, Simon and she had all been trying unsuccessfully to call me since four pm.

It seems that when I am sitting on the living room sofa there is no reception for my cell phone in my pocket. Andy had made stew and wanted to invite the gang around to my place for dinner. Yes!! They were scheduled to arrive at 7, which meant I had an hour to tidy the house up.

Yeah, right. I scooped up LW, placed him back on my lap, pulled a quilt over the two of us and watched the last 30 minutes of the final episode. Then, and only then, did I start sweeping, wiping and tidying like a woman possessed.

I had a plan, though. Keep the lighting low, light lots and lots of candles and have lots of alcohol on hand. About five minutes before I expected the first people (so 7:25-ha!) I lit a fire in the downstairs stove. As people entered they saw soft lighting, red/orange/yellow walls and a crackling fire: and thus noticed not the less-than spic and span appearance.

Andy had made a vast pot of Coq au Vin. Do you know, I don’t think I have ever had Coq au Vin before. When Andy opened the lid I saw that it was a deep purple colour. Apparently I hadn’t realized it was made with red wine. One lives and learns.

Dinner was fun. Good, hearty, stick-to-your-ribs food for a cold winter’s eve. After dinner I lit a fire upstairs. Some of us enjoyed the heat while others played pool. As there is no fire near the pool table I opted for the warm living room! Sophie played Twister by herself as the adults took turns spinning and calling out the next move.

Everyone left at around 11ish. I put the food away but could not be bothered doing the dishes. (I secretly hoped that the dish fairy would appear during the night and wash them for me. She didn’t arrive, possibly because it was too cold.) I hopped into bed with a book, ‘The Horse Whisperer.’ I finished it this morning. I thought it was ok. A bit too flowery, over-descriptive, for me.

Took the dogs out this morning. Little Fella started out with splints on. He went about 200 m then lay down, exhausted! We went back home, took the splints off, hooked up the cart and walked up about one km. Breakfast was leftover baguette made into French (‘Freedom’?) Toast, mmm. Simon dropped by on his way to Grandma Nitti’s and sampled the French Toast. Finished the book, played on the computer, washed up the dishes then went to MaryJane’s for dinner.

• Blue Cheese and Pineapple Pizza.
• Creamy Porcini Soup
• Fabulous Mixed Salad with Balsamic Vinegar Dressing
• Red Wine (came in a carafe, don’t know what it was!)
• And happy chit-chat with friends! Which all resulted in a happy Gael.

It’s 7 C outside and about 12 C in my study:  time for bed!

Giving Little One an enema (Repost, January 21, 2007)

Oh. My. Goodness. The fun never stops at the Pink Palace.

Today I took Little One to the vet to have a new thick bandage put on her arm, this to help her bone set straight. The vet suggested leaving it unbandaged until Wednesday. By putting a little pressure on the fracture, the boken surfaces touch and this will help the bone to heal well and quickly. I mentioned that she had little appetite and hadn't had a bowel movement since her accident. "You must put a kitty litter tray in her cage!" I gave him a funny look, laughed and reassured him that there was kitty litter available. "Ah, then you must give her an enema." Yea. This is what an enema looks like:

I have been through this once before with Little Fella.  With him it was very easy as he is paralysed in his back half: he felt nothing and so didn't squirm. When we got home, I took Little One into the bathroom with the enema, lifted her tail and then realised I wasn't 100% sure which was her rectum. Both possibilities were very clean (good job, Little One!) and thus uninformative. I sat on the ground laughing my head off--what a ridiculous situation!

I went outside and looked at Xiao Man Tou, one of my male cats. Hmm, apparently the hole closest to the tail. But what if it is different for females? What if I apply the enema to the wrong orifice and it causes yet more problems?

I went upstairs to check my "Cats for Dummies" book. Apparently they don't consider anyone could be so dumb as to not know which was the rectum. Next stop: the Internet. One site I tried had this hilarious story, it'll take you two minutes to read it, please do! There were many sites advising me NOT to do this at home, to do it with two people, not to use a 'human' enema as it's bad for the cat... Finally I found an accurate description of the location of the rectum: Yip, it's the hole closest to the base of the tail. I decided to ignore all the nay-sayers and just give it a go.

Back downstairs in the bathroom, I petted Little One for a couple of minutes, then I grabbed her tail and did the deed. Quick and easy. Within five minutes she produced what was expected.

Thoughts of the day (Repost January 18, 2007)

This is a photo of inquisitive Mower--same colour scheme as Little One, but a much fluffier (and crankier) version!

On being (or not) bitchy
A few weeks ago Angela made an interesting comment about my blog: ‘If I didn’t know it were you, if the names were changed, I might not know it was you. It’s like, there’s something missing.’
‘Yes, you’re right,’ I agreed. ‘I’m not generally bitchy on my blog.’
‘Er. Well, yes. You’re all cute and happy.’

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An overcoat hides nothing.
Gents, I hate to break this to you, but masturbating in public under your overcoat fools no one. This also goes for a tray table on an airplane, and a blanket on a sofa. The distinctive repeated pulling action combined with the occasional squirm and shortened breath gives you away. While I am a fan of masturbating, (yea!), I do believe it is something that is best done behind closed doors. Doing it in public merely demonstrates to the world that you truly are a sad and pathetic being. A briefcase is also insufficient cover. Remember: Behind closed doors, not in public.

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Strawberries in January?
Now is strawberry season here in Taiwan. Does it seem strange to you to have strawberry season in January? It strikes me as very odd, but quite wonderful all the same. I tend to buy a large flat of strawbs, eat some fresh and freeze the rest to turn into fantabulous frozen strawberry-gin cocktails in the summer.

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Happy Birthday!
I arbitrarily decided that January 11^th was Little Fella’s first birthday. Wonderfully enough, the splints I ordered for his back legs arrived that day. I was very excited and hopeful about these splints. In fact, they have NOT miraculously cured his semi-paralysis (rats), however they mean that he can walk on the road without scraping the skin off his feet as they drag. I still take him for his long walk (usually in the morning) using his cart, but the splints mean he can potter around relatively unfettered. A couple of days ago he started making his way down the river bank. I found him by following the ‘click, clack’ noises of the splints on the rocks. Hm, closer supervision required! Soph says he sounds like a horse when he is wearing his splints.