Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “hamster”

06 Apr 2012

A visit to The Menagerie or maybe a Private Zoo


All days have things which were not planned, but today there were long odds against visiting a house in Croydon crowded with animals. The story goes like this. A close relative was asked to house sit and then invited us around to sit in the garden on a nice sunny day. In fact a very nice sunny day. The house though cannot be described as average. A large house on four floors, including a basement that functioned as a room.

Around 7 cats roamed the house and the environs, all that i viewed being ginger or marmalade coloured. Some friendly and some not. What our relative had not been fully briefed on was that one of the cats was pregnant. So today when the cat was missing, she went searching for it and found it plus one kitten under the duvet in an upper floor room on the top of a bunk bed. The kitten and mother were doing just fine. I am not an expert on ageing kittens but guessed that this one was around 12 hours old, looked well, did some squeaking and was feeding from mother, so all was well. Photographs below. Mother did not object to the paparazzi there.

In the actual garden there was a rabbit run with two rabbits, each allowing folks to pick them up for 10 seconds before they engaged in a kind of rodeo effort to remove themselves from your arms. All fine, until they managed to escape. Now luckily a pair of Crocodile Dundee like 11 year olds were in attendance and caught the two miscreants before they run out of or burrow out of the garden and make a rapid escape from Croydon environs. Next entertainment was the chickens in a huge run who were making desperate attempts to escape, around 6 of them and not stupid either. Lastly, there were 3 hamster cages. One contained a tiny hamster that looked more like a field mouse , and was apparently a Chinese Crested Hamster/ Russian Dwarf. Another contained a hamster without exaggeration as large as a guinea pig, and the final cage seemed to contain nothing……….worrying. All good fun on a sunny afternoon.

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21 Dec 2011

The Animals of New Malden


New Malden is becoming more like a zoo each day with the various animals living here or thinking that they do. In an average day we would see a fox or two in the garden seeking sustenance from the waste bins , far too many evil minded squirrels , various cats, and now we are blessed with a hedgehog and a hamster. The Hedgehog was initially on a sort of holiday visit, but is now a permanent fixture. The Hamster, called Houdini, as he always manages to escape, must be almost 2 years old. Enjoy, meeting these charasmatic animals.

houdini the hamster

 

Hedgehog emerges

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30 Jul 2011

Saturdays are back to normal


Football has returned. Went to a Brentford friendly today away at Aldershot. Crowd not bad for a friendly about 1300 with 250 Bees fans there. I like Aldershot as they dont try and stop me taking my photographs. Brentford look like a decent team this season, and in fact the existing players, O’connor, Bean etc are the ones that look poor. We have a loanee from Celtic with thousands of followers on Twitter, we are assessing some French player from FC Lens, we have a great centre back from some German side……… and so on. Bees won the game 2-1. Maybe the most one sided game I have ever seen. Have posted a few photos to keep you amused but try looking at the penalty photo with Richard Lee going the wrong way!
Other than that weather lovely here in UK, back to T shirts. Hedgepig is starting to be more friendly, houdini is on form, but some horrid animal in the night knocked down and broke a Sunflower I have been growing. It has been a good year though for Sunflowers and we have 3 heads harvested with seeds already……..so have planted another.
Elena was delighted as our potatoes have grown, not many ( and have cost a fortune, could have bought about 40kg from Co-Op for what our little tubers cost.
I did realise something sad today though…….. the NHS will try and pay me my pension in less than 2 more years……must be getting old. But looking forward to eating the food harvested from the garden tomorrow, when Charles comes over. Potatoes,Strawberries and Rocket…..
On the down isde, the young foxes are causing havoc, stealing all sorts of things in the garden like trowels etc and so noisy.

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30 Jun 2011

Strike Day in UK


Well having read all the stories from Mexico, it all seems very banale here.
Monday I had an early morning start to drive to Newcastle again, a mere 350 miles, but met another doctor for a lovely lunch at Jesmond Dene hotel. The sort of posh place with napkins and waiters had bow ties even at lunch. He was telling me all sorts of stories about in the wars how the folks round here were building ships for two sides (China was one side……..cannot rememeber the other).
Then stayed overnight in Beadnell near Seahouses. I need to live here. Not now as I am too young but when I am very old and very grey ( sadly I have more grey hair than when you left). It was a long drive home the next day. Weather is still kind of nice but with thunderstorms when you least expect them. Yesterday the air traffic control tower at Gatwick was hit by lightening and for some reasons trains were also delayed because of lightening.
Wednesday was a nice day. A day I had planned for 6 months. A day at Arundel watching the cricket. Charles could not come as he had his work at Henley to attend to. Great day in the sunshine. It struck me that I was one of the youngest people there. Maybe another aged over 70 age limit applied? Got some good photos and without being boastful they were significantly better than the single photo that appeared in the Times this morning.
Brentford are back in training and have signed another player, the Swindon captain. So who knows whats in store for us this year.
Today though in the UK is Strike day. Most schools are shut and Immigration folks are on strike, the latter I have no issue with but teachers, I think it is appalling. We are all having to take pension cuts and most of us realise that we are all getting older as a socity and living longer. So pensions must reflect that. There is also the issue that Burlington school routinely refuse leave of absence for children. So for example Elena was refused official permission to have half a day off on her grandmothers 70th birthday to attend a ballet……… But seemingly this fulsome attention to education vanishes when the need to go on strike arises. there is also talk that the strikes may continue all year. Because I was a governor ( until i realised that there was no way to make any changes to anything and the whole thing is not unlike a gentlemans club ) I am CRB checked. And could if needed and asked go in and teach a class for a day. They would have interesting lessons. For example Maths would be the mathmatics of a football club.
This afternoon I am off to Scotland till tomorrow evening so hoping airports are as much fun as always.
almost forgot. Driving back from cricket at Arundel yesterday, the A3 going south from near enough the M25 to almost guildford was solid. Why? there were 3-4 skewbald ponies running down the road! No idea where they came from or how they might be caught………
Hedgepig is fine but smelly. Mistress of the house is having nasty thoughts that are almost audible. Houdini hamster is fine and continues to be far more active and enjoying his new roomate. could they live together?

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