News Archives: August 2009

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Steady improvement, as of a society or civilization

Two news items today :

Gordon Brown claims we're making progress in Afghanistan.

Law tells Afghan women : Fuck or starve.

Methinks one of us has the wrong dictionary...

Posted by graham @ 07:32 pm

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Tara

We've had a tense few days. Tara's suffered from a couple of bladder infections recently. I took her to the vets yesterday, and they were worried that she may have developed bladder stones. Tara was booked in this morning for an xray. If they found stones, she'd have gone straight to surgery. Instead, they've discovered she has a misplaced bladder - too close to the outside, and hence prone to infection. There isn't much we can do about that, just keep her clean and treat any infection that appears. Poor baby.

One thing that did strike me was the speed with which vets work. If Tara had had stones, she'd have gone from initial appointment to home recovering in under 30 hours. Compare that to humans suffering similar conditions - your doing well to get through the same process in six months.

Posted by graham @ 09:15 pm

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Boardgames and Craft Evening

Anyone fancy coming round to ours on Saturday evening for boardgames and/or craft?

Drop me an email if you need directions or anything...

Posted by graham @ 08:46 pm

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Alfie's First Gotcha Day

Alfie's been with us for one year today. (An event often referred to in rescue circles as his "Gotcha Day".) We celebrated with tuna on his dinner, chicken treats, and a walk in the local woods. Alfie's now asleep beside me on the sofa - pretty much his default position in the house.

For a dog that came to us partly because Greyhound Gap were worried that no one else would take on an oldie who might not live too long, Alfie's doing well. He's a bit more blind than a year ago, but his diet's healthier, and he still wants to join us on walks, carrying a stick or tennis ball if he's in the mood. And he loves his food - tonight's tuna going down particularly well. The last year has been a joy, and I suspect he'll be with us for a wee while yet.

Posted by graham @ 08:53 pm

Monday, August 3, 2009

Culture

In our annual search for culture, we spent most of yesterday at the Pittenweem Art Festival. For one week every August, half the houses in this little Fife fishing village are transformed into impromptu art galleries. This is no cheap local show - the three pieces that most spoke to me would barely have left me change from two grand, should I have been rich enough to be in the market for such art. Instead, I played the voyeur, enjoying the exhibitions whilst contributing nothing more than good thoughts and kind words. (Claire did buy a cute little bowl, with a much more reasonable price-tag.)

That is, when it was my turn to enter the galleries. Since we couldn't leave the dogs for such a long period, I spent half the day as a street-based performance artwork entitled "Man with Dogs" while Claire did the cultural thing, then we swapped. And then on to the next artist.

Thankfully, our dogs are generally well-behaved. One rather dodgy moment came while "Man with Dogs" was waiting outside a small cafe for Claire to appear with ice creams. A small child of four or five, no parent in sight, strode over to Tara with a cry of "Nice wolfhound!", grabbed Tara's head firmly in both hands and planted a wet kiss in the middle of her forehead. One day, that kid will do something similar to a less tolerant dog, with results that don't really bare thinking about. There's a fine line for parents to tread between "we'll just give the scary doggy a wide berth" and "dog's are lovely, why don't you go stick your arm in its mouth?" Both extremes were, sadly, on display yesterday.

***

The humble haggis has become the latest source of friction between Scot & Angle. Interestingly, the English claim is based on documentary evidence, whereas the Scottish is little more than footstamping while shouting "It's ours. It is! It is! It is! It is! It is! It is!"

I suspect this is partly due to the people interviewed, but largely due to the different views each country holds of its history. Most people are aware of England's origins in waves of invaders - Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Norman - and so aren't surprised when some feature of later "English" culture is found to have originated with one of these peoples instead. Scotland, on the other hand, seems to often be viewed as having arrived fully-formed in much its present state, give or take a William Wallace and Charles Stewart or two. The waves from Ireland, England, Scandinavia, etc. that formed the current "Scottish" people seem largely unknown, so the idea that these other peoples could have influenced Scottish culture is more shocking.

(It may be significant that, other than a brief bit on the Highland clearances and the preceding crofting system, I was taught no specifically Scottish history at school, despite studying history up till age seventeen at Scottish schools. Oh, and a year of Medieval History at Glasgow Uni also mentioned Scotland barely at all.)

***

Tonight was game night. The plot has now reached the point where the players are going to need to know enough of the politics to have some hope of figuring out what's going on. And enough that what's going on isn't blatantly obvious. I have till next Monday to make it all up. (I know what's going on, but haven't made up most of the details that support that...) Eek!

Posted by graham @ 09:34 pm

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