Motetus, Mammoth Rider

...one very small and soft and sharp bundle of fluff and claws. Everyone, meet Nimue, goblin_dae's little kitten mistress (she is so whipped). God, she is the most adorable thing ever, and it's very lucky for her that she is because I wouldn't have tolerated her using my hands and feet as claw-and-teeth-sharpening material if she wasn't. I would have smuggled her home with me and let her trash my apartment and make me incapable of ever doing anything productive for the next 18 or so years, but Goblin's bag checks are very thorough.

Look at that face!



( Here be lots and lots of kitten photos. You have been warned. )

Oh yeah, you guys remember that post I made about a month ago where I rambled for a bit about the mphil and the experiment I needed to work in order to confirm the interaction between my two proteins? IT WORKED. I HAVE AWESOME DATA OR SO POST-DOC TELLS ME. You have no idea how excited I am about this - one postive result can get ripped apart in the viva, but two makes me so much more confident about things (and hey, could possibly mean a publication eventually). Oh hell, now I have to write it all up for the thesis. Next week's post: "Oh god, god, god, I don't understand anything HELP ME, WHAT DO ALL THESE NUMBERS MEAN?"

I took a short wander around Manchester's old northern quarter yesterday and found this huge mural on the side of a old warehouse. I can't find any information online about it, but the front of the warehouse still has the 19th century shop sign (used to be a Fancy Goods store) although it doesn't look as if anyone is taking care of the building now.



( Two more photos )

Because I don't know any children nearby, any attempts to fill this prompt the obvious way would probably end up with me being arrested. So here's one from my Lake District weekend that just about fits it if you squint a little.



While my high school friends and I may now be teachers, doctors, nurses, scientists, weapons engineers and RAF sergeants, the adventures of Rhino the hamster suggest that we haven't entirely grown up yet.

(that's a National Trust Jeep he's driving in the bottom right)

( Couple of landscape photos from the weekend )

Almost done, I promise!


( I will make you thoroughly sick of stucco and carved cederwood with this )

Another of my closest friends has gotten engaged to her ridiculously posh and wealthy boyfriend (I'm a bit annoyed that I found out through fucking facebook. I hate that website). I think I've started a trend. It's funny, I always imagined getting married in my mid-thirties after going through several partners, and thought the same would happen to my friends. Instead we're all settling down by our mid-twenties with the first guy we've entered into a serious relationship with.

I'll refuse to join in if they start getting broody though.

Anyway...

Yesterday I met up with clara_swift and inyadreems for a walk in Hardcastle Crags. I left the landscapes to them and took just my macro lens, which meant I ended up doing a lot of rolling around in wet grass and mud. You should have seen the state of my jeans afterwards.


( More under here (and in colour!) )

Yesterday's weather was absolutely lovely, so we made the most of it and visited Chester Zoo. It wasn't quite as impressive as the one in Singapore, and there weren't any areas where you could walk through the enclosures, though from the behaviour of some of the children there I can see why they don't trust us with their animals (also, I probably would have stolen the baby mandrill. SO CUTE). Still, it was a pretty good zoo and the animals looked fairly content.

No child-molesting baboons this time, though I did spot a young chimpanzee that was sticking his finger up the backside of his adult relatives. I love simians.



( Things with wings )

But first, a very happy birthday to the_little_owl! I was hoping to get a nice owl photo at the zoo to turn into a card, but they were all out of owls. So you'll have to make do with a naked Roman-themed one from one of my older photos of Herculaneum.



( Onto the rest of the photos )

Well, feeling much better and back to sleeping normally (now that the holiday is mostly over, har). I'm doing what Singapore is best for: eating masses of food, lazing around waiting for the next mealtime, then eating masses of food. I am going to have such painful cravings for hawker stall food when I go back.

The final wedding party is over and done with, hurrah. This one was probably the least fun of them all - the most entertaining part was watching my very drunken brother (currently a rancher on a cattle farm in Australia, soon to be a trolley dolly for British Airways - interesting career path) try to hit on my cousin's underage friend. That was certainly better than when he started telling me about his other sexual conquests in graphic detail. What is wrong with my family?

( So, onto the obligatory photo part of this post. )

...where I am bored out of my mind. I hate doing nothing on holiday, and my camera is sulking because I've only taken it out once this week. But we've spent enough time with family now to be able to escape - tomorrow we'll take a train down to the city and spend it wandering around, taking photos and trying not to keel over and fall asleep in the street.

Ah yes, sleep. Bloody jet lag, a week should be long enough for it to go away and leave me alone. Mind you, the wife and I didn't exactly help by taking a nap this afternoon, sleeping through the alarm and waking up four hours later. Tonight should be fun.

Oh, and I've discovered I'm allergic to something at the house we stayed in in Singapore, and the symptoms are still hanging around after a few days in Australia. Which is odd, because I've made it to 25 without ever being allergic to anything.

Anyway, here's a couple of photos from our wander around Singapore's city center. I could do without the heat there (winter in Australia is lovely however, but I do wish I had packed at least one jumper) but the food makes it worthwhile. I introduced the wife to roti prata and he now fully understands why I've been bitching about not being able to get it in the UK for the past 6 years.



(not pictured: her older German partner who was wearing the most amazing pair of lime green trousers. Wish I'd got a photo of him, he was quite impressive)

( 3 more )

P.S. A very happy belated birthday to sue_chose_this! Hope your day was lovely.