Last night was exciting! We had a power cut which lasted roughly three hours from about 9:30pm onwards. We pulled out some weak candles (must stock up some better ones) and after realising how few card games we actually know between us I finally got a chance to use my lovely retro Monopoly board ^^

It was almost a shame when the power came back on but a big relief as well. Snow's been with us here for almost a week now and when that began I understand the previous batch hadn't entirely melted. Not being reliant on public transport at the moment its all quite fun (although I appreciate the reasons it isn't for dozens of you) but with these consistent cold temperatures and no gas in these flats the prospect of not even being able to boil a kettle was a worrying one.

Although I keep failing to get out of bed this week its nice to be home and productive again. Really great, however, was the chance to catch up with a few furs in particular on Sunday. I'm really glad I was able to help in some capacity.

Post a comment and I will:

1. Tell you why I friended you. (if I can remember!)
2. Associate you with something - fandom, song, color, photo, word, ETC.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.

Post a comment and I will:

1. Tell you why I friended you. (if I can remember!)
2. Associate you with something - fandom, song, color, photo, word, ETC.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.

One of the things I love about snow is record of who and what went walking by. All of a sudden the secret daily journeys of the local fauna - and the local cats and dogs - become visible to us normally blissfully ignorance humans.

It was either a cat, or one of the local foxes who hopped the fence after crossing the railway line. The confusing thing is, there's no tracks on this side, nor on top or either side of the fence! Where did he go? Perhaps some journeys are meant to stay secret.

Out of the dark woods and over the railway... and into thin air!

Taken on Christmas day with my phone, canine pawprints on the common - some of them really huge!. Oh my.

Meme!

Post a comment and I will:

1. Tell you why I friended you. (if I can remember!)
2. Associate you with something - fandom, song, color, photo, word, ETC.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.

Okay, here's a meme for you:

Post a comment and I will:

1. Tell you why I friended you. (if I can remember!)
2. Associate you with something - fandom, song, color, photo, word, ETC.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.

How very Northern!

My surprise day-off-work was used to take my mother for lunch, cut firewood (with the added thrill that any moment I might slip and kill myself with the chainsaw, or fall on long nails, but needs must), and take a few shots before the light failed.



The foxgarden is looking a little bit chilly.

Back of yards, creepy snowman, festive tree, what my council tax was spent on, concealed strawberry plants, railway, back road between yard and gardens, chilly chickens, subdued ducks and finally, sleepy chicken!

Wow, real snow, and several inches of it in a couple of hours!

For what must be the first time ever, I can't get into work due to snow. Been on the road for about 80 minutes, and ended up doing a loop back home that normally might only take 5, everything is virtually gridlocked with cars slipping about everywhere. Even the A roads south of Wakefield are solid compacted snow and ice. Even hitting the brakes as a test while barely crawling forward results in a long slide. Really quite scary.

Photography might happen later. It's still coming down quite hard at the moment.

Well my beloved has not only landed herself a job up here she's also moving in :D with any luck we'll soon have our own place ^^.

As for me I have two interviews this week so we'll see how those go :3

Although a short update this week is going to be hectic in order for us to get everything sorted. Easier said than done when your sibling is a bone idle sod x.x I'll prolly update again by the end of the week.

Yay for Jo! :D

*If you do read this, please don't worry about it. There's nothing to worry about. But I do need to express this.

So the day I have been dreading for 13 years has finally arrived. Of course it was silly at the time, borne out of depression and teenage angst, but the fact that I remember the date concerns me. The fact that things have gotten so bad over the last three months concerns me even more.

I feel today is a portent, that something is going to happen in my life but I don't know what. It could be negative, it could be a reawakening, I don't know. But I believe that something is going to happen today. And that scares me.

This date has been on my mind since March 1997, when I first made the pledge to myself. Back then, I believed that I would die on this date, whether by my own means or by other causes. That fear has now dissipated but this doesn't mean that today is not monumental for me, irrespective of how silly all this may appear.

I have been thinking of this date constantly for 13 years. Early last year, in my state of happiness, I paid little attention to it. But since then, friends have died, my house was flooded and I have been forced out of my job. Things have taken a turn for the worse and the fear has crossed my mind that everything is pointing to this day.

Today I am 27 years 44 days old - the same age that my hero, Kurt Cobain, shot himself. Insignificant as it may be on the surface, spiritually it is important to me. It got me through my teenage years, and although I am far more mature now than I was at the age of 14, I have feared today for so long.

Perhaps 4 January 2010 is the day I will finally banish the depression and be happy with myself. Perhaps nothing will happen at all. The rational, irrational, superstitious and emotional parts of my brain are colliding and I don't know what to think. I guess I just have to live through Sunday and see what happens.

It's hard to know what to write about last night, it was a strange one. Was it a good one? In places. But it has again made me wonder whether furry house parties are for me. Furthermore, it's a shame that it ended in the way that it did but that can't be helped. I hope everything resolves itself for all concerned.

Before all that, the night was one of peaks and troughs. The gaming and sexual undertones made me feel like I didn't fit in. I felt a little uncomfortable. Most of this was probably in my head though, I really do need to loosen up. After all, I did manage to catch up with a few furs (we talked predominantly about football) whilst we had a lot of fun burning bread and beer packets on the barbeque to create rock cakes and an incendary conflagration respectively.

However, Little Wolf and Lone particularly made my night and thanks go to them for turning it into a special one.

I admit I needed to cut loose after all the bad things that have happened in the last three months. Breaking a chair and glass in a pique of rock 'n' roll excess was probably not the best thing to do but it did get a lot of anger and frustration out and I feel calmer for it. I was also drunk as the proverbial skunk so that's my excuse. And I did clean it all up this morning.

Most of the evening was spent chatting with Little Wolf. I have never really gotten chance to chat with her before so it was great just talking. We talked for hours about everything and nothing - it was great getting to know her and developing a stronger bond of friendship. Furthermore, Wolfie, Little Wolf and I have made plans to visit the Torture Garden in February, which is something I am very much looking forward to.

After that, we saw the New Year in on top of a hill overlooking the centre of Manchester. The fireworks were breathtaking. It was around this time that I started smoking cigars and drinking Bollinger with Lone. We decided to take some chairs up to the hill and watch the Manchester skyline twinkling below. It was bloody cold but the port and Bollinger warmed us up. It was all rather civilised. Wolfie soon joined us and the three of us indulged in convivial conversation and sophisticated pass-times. Then I phoned my mother who was upset I chose to ring her at 2am. I thought she had been out when I rang her earlier, turns out she had just been in bed. I then continued drinking. Lone brought some really expensive drinks with him and it was great having the opportunity to sample them. Again, it was also great just chatting to him. He even gave me his gloves because my hands were cold. A true and proper gentleman indeed and a fantastic time was had.

I can remember little else - largely because I got through all my beer and Lone kept topping up my glass with port. I may have said a couple of blunt things so if I offended anyone, then I apologise. However, according to Little Wolf, I am quite "cute" when drunk so I don't think too much damage was done. I certainly don't have that sense of dread you get when you know you have done something bad.

We slept on her floor, on an airbed that we couldn't pump up, surrounded by pine needles. It was very Christmassy. I kept everyone awake with my snoring. Again, I'm sorry :-(

Happy New Year everyone, all the best for 2010.

Happy new year, and all that.

What a spectacularly clear and crisp winter night - perfect for some moon-photography, and great way to kick-start one of my hazy new years resolutions: actually do something this year with my camera-kit!

I give you a so-called blue moon, a roughly once-every-three-years 'extra' full moon event:



For the curious, shot taken with a Canon 400D, and 70-200 F4 L lens at 200mm, F5.6 1/500 ISO100 on a Manfrotto tripod with remote release / mirror lock-up. Image cropped at full resolution, processed from RAW.

I'd love to try this another time with a longer lens, or even just an extender tube. Not bad for 200mm.

And rather than spend forever trying to catch up with everyone's LJ posts, or try sending out texts which won't get there until 12 tomorrow afternoon...

Happy New Year 2010

Happy new year!! Been singing Auld Lang Syne loudley and out of tune xD