Lle Llywela

Springtime in my garden! Poppy and Alfie are loving it.


But they can only take so much outdoors before they have to retreat

Alfred the Great was an absolute champ for the cardiologist this afternoon. It seems he has what's called hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, which basically means that a leaky valve is obstructing his main aorta, causing the murmur they can hear. For now, it isn't affecting his general health, so it might be a stable defect that he can live with quite happily for the rest of his life...but on the other hand, it might deteriorate, so I have to take him back in 6 months for a second scan (another £150!) to see if it's getting worse and he needs medication or if he's stable and can continue without worry.

Happy days.

In related news, my cousin Sarah's baby daughter Chloe had her heart surgery yesterday, exactly one week shy of her 1st birthday. She's doing really well post-op and has already been moved out of ITU into high dependency, but although they were able to close up the holes in her heart, they couldn't save the problem valve, so she'll need more surgery to replace it, probably when she's in her teens. For now though, she's doing really well, poor baby.

So it's been a busy week.

First off, there was the Cardiff ComicCon last weekend, which was a lot of fun, and then the lovely Sue and nephew Adam came to stay and the weather couldn't have been more glorious if we'd arranged it specially. We took in the Doctor Who Experience, which was as much fun this year as it was last summer when I went and had a bunch of new exhibits, including the First Doctor's console room, as recreated for the forthcoming docu-drama An Adventure in Space and Time, which I am looking forward to enormously. They've taken the Zygon costume away, though, which I can only assume is because the Zygons are due to pop up in the anniversary special, so perhaps it'll be brought back with a new exhibit after that?

Perhaps it isn't a good thing that I can tell which exhibits are new and which ones have been removed! I already know I'm going to have to go again next year, to see what they do with the interactive bit after the regeneration...

Then came Wednesday. Now, Sue was with me on Tuesday so can vouch that I was absolutely fine. Then I got into work on Wednesday, rested my elbow on my desk (not the tennis elbow elbow, but the other one, the supposedly healthy one) - and yelped because it hurt. It felt bruised, which was weird, because I don't remember knocking it, but I do have a graze on the elbow that I'd noticed a few days earlier - again, I don't remember doing it, but I'm always knocking myself and not noticing, so I didn't think much of it. When it started hurting on Wednesday I just thought it must have taken a few days for the bruise to come out or something. But during the day it got worse and worse - the elbow became all puffy and swollen, bright red and hot to the touch and very painful. Barely slept a wink all that night, the arm was too painful and I couldn't let anything touch it, couldn't find a comfortable position in bed - spent most of the night curled up in an armchair watching the Fourth Doctor and Sarah battling the Seeds of Doom. Rang the doctor's surgery first thing Thursday morning and spent 10 minutes going round a nightmare loop of telephone menus before finally getting through to a human being, who refused to give me an appointment but took my number for the doctor to ring me back, which didn't happen until 10.30, so no work for me that day - not that I'd have been good for anything anyway. On the bright side, it was Dr Thapar who called and he's lovely and gave me an appointment for midday, examined the elbow and agreed with my self-diagnosis of an infection. So now I'm on antibiotic and two days later the elbow is much improved - still puffy and red and sore and hot to touch, but a lot better than it was; I can actually bend and move my arm again now, for starters!

So I've not been getting much packing done this week, what with having two duff elbows and all, but I need to pick up the pace because a) I'm supposed to be moving in three weeks, and b) this house is sold! We finally found a buyer - a lovely young couple looking for a home to raise the family they are hoping to start. Good timing, really! I'm just keeping my fingers and toes crossed that nothing falls through now.

I can't move for boxes now, which the cats are very excited and curious about. Alfie keeps packing himself!


Here are some piccies from the Doctor Who Experience! ( Cut to spare your flists because I'm kind like that, sometimes )

And last but not least, here's a pretty view across Cardiff Bay, as seen from on board the teeny-tiny ship Daffodil.

Doesn't everyone keep a cat in their shopping bag?


Alfie: Pet me! Pet me! Love me!
Me: *pets*
Alfie: Hey look, you have two hands. Pet me with the other hand! I want them both! I must have all of the hands!
Me: *double-handed petting*
Alfie: Ohhhhhhh, yes. This is nice.
Me: *takes one hand away to resume typing*
Alfie: Wait, what? Where did the hand go? Give me the hand! I need all the hands!
Me: *resumes double-handed petting*
Alfie: Ohhhhhhh. yes. Petting good. This is nice, isn't it, human slave? We shall stay like this always, m'kay.

Today feels like a day for a kittyspam to entertain me over lunch, so here are some pics of Alfie sleeping on top of Poppy and Poppy not really caring very much



( More behind the cut )

Came home from work this evening to find a dead bird on the front door mat, all over the mail (thanks for that, Alfie) and my cotinus bush half collapsed all over the back yard - more of a tree than a shrub, really, it's about 15 feet tall and grows up the back wall on two main stems. One of those stems had just bent right in half, irreparable. Luckily I'd seen it bending before work this morning and ran out in the rain to rescue a few pots from beneath it - and also the washing line, which is just as well, since by this evening it had collapsed so far the washing line would have snapped if it had still been caught! So, I've spent my evening so far disposing of baby bird remains, cleaning bird blood off my mail and performing tree surgery! My garden is now a sea of sad, chopped up branches. Now keeping my fingers crossed that the other stem, which is swaying worryingly, doesn't also come down overnight. This wind can die down any time now, please!

So to brighten my mood, let's have a cuddly kitty-spam! Poppy and Alfie love nothing better than cwtching up together, especially in stormy weather like this. :)

It's been an age since I posted, so here - have a random kittyspam!


( More Poppy and Alfie pics behind the cut )

I think Alfie has found a nest of mice somewhere in the lane behind the house. Just lately, every night when I get home from work I find sad little chewed up mouse remains waiting for me on the mat - usually little more than a pair of feet, and sometimes also a tail. I'm assuming he's been eating the rest, since I have yet to find any more remains stashed anywhere around the house! And this is the cat who wouldn't dream of eating cat meat, or even real roast meat that I've cooked (unless it is smothered in mayonnaise, he'll gobble it down then, because he is weird).

Yeah, cats are fun.

Poppy, on the other hand, remains incapable of catching so much as a spider. Alfie ran back and forth past her with a live mouse in his mouth six times last week, as I attempted to get the wretched thing off him. She didn't move a muscle. Just sat there and blinked at him in bewilderment. Bless her.

Alfie brought me half a mouse for my birthday. Just what I wanted! If only I knew what he'd done with the other half...

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, everyone :)