Day 9: Side Bun with a Twist

Today was a good day in so many ways.

I invented a new hairstyle. My side bun escaped from the clutches of my hair elastic and twizzled out into some interesting new design. I can also see thanks to the photo that I have so many smudges on my mirror... I should probably get around to cleaning it...

The hairstyle didn't last very long but it didn't need to.

Because, school finished early today! I feel like I write that a lot :) We had a practical exam that was supposed to be in the afternoon but the teacher swapped it to the morning. And then I had the 'luck' to be put into the first group to be examined. Less time to study BUT the teacher said as soon as we had finished, we could go home because they'd decided not to have the practical class in the afternoon. So I finished up around 11am.

But I had to stay behind and do my Pharmacology exam in the library. The one that only three people have passed so far out of about 20 people. I was one of the last ones to do it as today was the last day it could be done before students were locked out of the online exam. I read through my Pharmacology handout and thanks to luck (and a big thanks to prayer), everything that I had just read in my booklet was in the exam! Not only did I pass, but I did very, very well.

I only have exams left. Oh, as I write that I realise it's not true. One more teensy assignment too. So when I got home at lunchtime, I lay on the sofa and watched 'Tin Man', the Sci-Fi Channel's take on 'The Wizard of Oz' for the ENTIRE afternoon. It's quite a clever twist on the tale and stars Zooey Deschanel who is one of my favourite people to watch onscreen. The miniseries has been out for ages and ages but I finally got round to watching it today. I've still got a bit to go but I definitely recommend it. I should probably wait until the end before I go ahead and recommend it, but oh well.

And now to steal something from Danielle's blog because I hate being rude and not responding to comments.

****

Abigail: Thanks for your support re: farty dogs :) I'm far too excited about this Medieval Faire! I've only been to one beforehand when I was about 8. I really want to get dressed up, I hope I can coax Jess into doing the same! Have you been to a Faire dressed up?

Work and Weekend Update

Work
From what I can gather, the girl that was supposed to be leaving work, will be staying on. Sucks for me because they now won’t be paying me to do my work experience and mainly because now they will probably only be able to offer me 10-20 hours once I finish at the end of the year, instead of the full time work that was originally offered. BUT Suzanne is really lovely and has been immensely helpful to me since I started and she's new like me, which is good- we can muddle through together. So although it means less work, it means more friends. And that is a GOOD thing. People over money any day.

We had a farty, farty dog on Friday. Oh man. It was in the back room, waiting to have an operation to have a lump removed and it was farting something chronic. Which made me giggle. But then she continued when she was on the operating table which was not funny because it stunk out the operating theatre and I nearly died!! Then as soon as she woke up from the anaesthetic, she pooped in the cage and got it all over herself, so we got her out of the cage, where she promptly pooped all over the floor. We cleaned the old girl up, cleaned the cage, cleaned the floor and then waited a while to make sure she wasn’t going to go again. It seemed like it was safe so we popped her back in the cage, where she IMMEDIATELY went again!! Pulled her out and she went all over the floor. Cleaned everything up and then... yep, you guessed it, she pooped the second she was in her cage again. It was one of those ‘laugh or you’ll cry’ moments. The vet came along and decided to take the dog for a walk to try and clear everything out of her... and she pooed on the walk too. And it wasn’t normal poo, it was foul smelling, slimy poo. And then it was lunch time :)

Afterwards, Jess and I continued chatting and I had my hair plaited and up (practicing for next week!) and for some reason that got Jess talking about the local Medieval Faire (I’m sorry, I have to spell it that way!). It’s happening in July and we are going!! We spent most of the day talking about braiding hair (she showed me a great website) and planning what we will do at the Medieval Faire.
Things we will do:
drink ale at the tavern
crush on the jousters
join in with the Medieval dancing
And Jess is going to braid my hair for the event. I sense an epic blog post!!

Saturday
Lunch with the grandparents and then went to the movies with my mum and saw a nice little movie called ‘Get Low’, which I wouldn’t really recommend to you unless you are over 60 or you have an old soul (like me). Not much happened but it was nice and made me mad I wasn’t born in the good old days. But then I had the song ‘Low’ by Flo Rida stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Went home and watched Doctor Who... which ended up being another pesky two parter, grr!! It was nice to see Rory take on a bit of the limelight though.

Sunday
I went to a random church because they had a Gospel Music service. SO much fun. I wish I had more gospel music in my life. Mum came along with me, even though it meant leaving our house at 7.30 in the morning and neither of us are real morning people. Then we went to Ikea and we got a quilt for me, as well as a vase because I have decided that I will spend my spare money on flowers.

Hope everyone is doing well. I am shut in my room pretending to be doing my assignment but secretly I am on blogger (clearly). Downton Abbey starts tonight. I am looking forward to a soap opera masquerading as a period drama. This is going to be good!

Day 8: One Braid Back

As you may have gathered I have no idea what to call this hair style. After watching The Hills today, I should probably call it the ‘Lauren Conrad' (I really enjoy that someone took a photo of her while she is in the airport handing over her ticket. HOW EXCITING!!! I MUST TAKE A PICTURE!! Haha). I can see why she wears it so often aka all the time. It’s simple but it looks good. It’s a change from simply wearing your hair down as I usually do every day. Plus, it keeps the hair out of your face (from one side anyway). PS Bonus pictures of my bedroom door AND the front door!!

In other news, I PASSED MY TEST!!!!!!!!!!!! Such good news. They were handed out alphabetically and I was first and I literally stared at my exam with the pass mark on it for about two minutes before opening it because I could not believe that I had passed! In my last blog post when I was all “You guys, I really think I failed" I wasn’t looking for sympathy- I truly and honestly thought I had failed. For this test, the teacher said that it’s not so much how many marks you get, more that you can show that you are proficient in the subject. I guess I am proficient because I had a go, got some wrong but got some right. I still can’t believe I passed. That fear when I opened my exam paper and couldn’t answer anything will hopefully drive me to study harder for my next exam.

Also I did not get carded whilst buying a bottle of wine today. Normally I do. I must appear to members of authority as if I were a 15 year old girl instead of the 25 year old young lady I am. I always get carded for everything. Today whilst wearing my Kermit the Frog t-shirt over my purple long sleeved shirt I must have looked really mature. Although maybe 15 year olds don’t buy wine?

I really haven’t been doing so great recently (not sure if you could tell or not!) and I wrote to my mum and told her how I had been feeling which is a big deal because usually I would rather suffer extreme torture than talk about my feelings- at least in real life anyway, it's so much easier in blog form :) Well she drove to come and see me and we had a chat and I feel so much better now. She drove up in peak traffic times too! Two hours, instead of one hour. I love my mum and am so grateful for our relationship.

Day 7: The High Ponytail

Maybe this wasn’t the greatest hair style to wear on the day of a really important Science test. I think I channelled ‘cheerleader’ when I should have been channelling ‘science nerd’. I am 99% sure I failed. I left so many answers blank, I feel bleurgh. I’ve never had that experience in an exam before. It was like a nightmare, the kind where you’re in a giant exam hall and you turn over the page and you literally have no idea what the questions are, they might as well be written in ancient Greek. In fact, I probably would have done better if the questions *had been* written in ancient Greek. I’m annoyed at myself. I really should have studied harder. I’ve got no one to blame but myself. And now I will have to do stinking resits :(

But it’s not all bad news. I finally managed to get out ‘Tangled’ from the video store. It’s ALWAYS out but today, I procured it for myself (and my housemates- who have never seen it. Weirdos.). That might help to ease away some of the black clouds from over my head. Maybe I will find some hair inspiration in the movie?

I feel like it's been very doom and gloom recently in my life. Like, nothing terrible has happened but I have just felt so down recently. Here's to better times ahead!!

Day 6: The Side Ponytail

God answered my prayers and my Nursing theory exam has been pushed back to next week. Huzzah!!! As usual I am procrastinating on studying for my huge Science exam tomorrow and will have to fall back on prayer and adrenalin during the test. I usually manage to muddle through anyway.

On a side note, my teacher popped his head around the classroom door and told us that there would be a question on bull’s penises in the test, specifically what is in there that isn’t in any other animal’s so we should look that up before tomorrow’s exam. We were like “WHAT?!?!?”. Maybe you should have taught us that instead of telling us to find out what it is before the test. Then because we were all like “That is so dumb”, he ended up telling us anyway! So I have at least one mark going for me in tomorrow’s test :) It is a sigmoid flexture in case you were wondering. It makes me laugh because it sounds like it could be a posh kid’s name “Hi, my name is Sigmoid Fletcher” and we all vowed to call our children Sigmoid if we married someone whose last name was Fletcher.

And after my Pathology test was remarked, I passed. Phew!!

So, hair. Running late as usual. Plus we had a practical in the afternoon so hair must go up. Which means that it was side ponytail because I really can’t multitask first thing in the morning.

Nilly happened to be hanging around whilst the photos were being taken so she got in on the action. Although she looks embarrassed to being ‘paparazzied’. Never mind. She secretly knows how to work it for the camera. This is how she sits during the ENTIRETY of dinner. Girl doesn’t know when to give up.

In which I just vent...

After four days of sickness, I am starting to feel a lot better. All I did was work and then go to sleep, when really what I should have been doing was working on my Pathology assignment. Instead I ended up having fever dreams in which the Hawaii Five-O team were doing pathology tests on Timmy in order to solve a case but they kept messing up the tests. Cue me getting angry and yelling at Alex O'Loughlin. So then I would wake up and I'd be angry because the Five-0 team couldn't handle their specimen samples correctly and then I'd be stressed because I hadn't done any of my actual assignment, I'd just been dreaming about it.

Now thanks to fruit and many, many cold & flu tablets I am feeling so much better. My Pathology assignment is close to being done and I am off to a Greek festival today. Yummy Greek food will take my mind off all my terrible assignments and exams that are all due next week. I have a Science test on Tuesday (not that I've studied) and on Wednesday I have my Pathology stuff due, along with a Nursing theory test. I just wished they'd spread it all out a bit more because in the weeks that follow, we literally have nothing because we will have finished all the work needed to complete Semester One.

Timmy is now off my hands. I have so much desk space now I don't know what to do with it! The vet is looking after him this weekend and will see how he fits into the family. Fingers crossed :) I felt like a nervous mother entrusting my baby to someone else! I spent ages packing together all his food and toys. And then I properly sat the vet down and outlined Timmy's routine!! I think the vet was surprised and kept asking me "Are you sure you don't want to keep him??". I am sure. I will definitely miss him but I don't think I could keep him properly. The vet has promised to bring him in again so that we can see what his eye looks like once the hair has all grown back.

And now it's time to finish my Pathology assignment before heading off to the Greek festival. Baklava is calling to me. Yum! And souvlaki. YUM! (and maybe there will be cute Greek boys there too)

Let's start with the bad news...

I have an epic cold. Ok, it's not that bad but it is seriously messing with my life right now. All I want to do is drink cups of tea and watch Hawaii Five-0 (as if the warm weather on the TV will suddenly make me better) but in reality I have tons of assignments to do, not to mention exams to study for.

AND I failed my Pathology exam :( By 3%... I got 77% instead of 80%. Lame, lame, lame. However, it was an online exam and so the marks come through automatically and don't take into account spelling errors or slight differences in meaning. My teacher has said not to worry too much as he needs to go through all the exams. Am crossing my fingers and toes!

Good news though, and it's GREAT news- it almost cancels out the bad news. The vet who owns the practice has offered me work there when I finish my qualifications at the end of the year!! It should be full time work as it looks like one of the nurses is leaving soon, however even if she doesn't leave, he said he would like me to at least be part time. I'm so excited and happy and lots of other good adjectives. I really love the practice and the people I work with there. They have been so kind to me and I feel like I am growing as a nurse and as a person there. And also as a result of the nurse leaving, they would need me to cover her shifts starting in a month or so- and get PAID for it :) My bank account is running a teensy bit low and any money would be much appreciated. I don't have time to study *and* work, so this would be brilliant, getting paid to learn more about my job.

School's out for two days!

Today there was no school. My teacher told us last Tuesday that he was competing in a [some kind of sporting event, I forget which] and that he wouldn’t be coming in next Tuesday because he would be too tired. So in turn, we could have the day off. And then yesterday it was announced that all the teachers would be attending a funeral on Wednesday so there would be nobody to teach us.

Good news= no school Tuesday and Wednesday which gives me more time to do my assignments

Bad news= no more hair updates this week

I still went into school today and sat in the library for a couple of hours and did a lot of the research that I needed for my assignments. At home I am very tempted to check my email and sit around but at least when I have made the effort to go to the library, I then also make the effort to actually do my work.

Now I am sitting at home and writing a blog entry instead of going through my research and trying to write my essay. This definitely proves my point. And before that, I watched episodes of The Hills for like two hours.

On the way home, I stopped at our local Vinnie’s. Katie has inspired me with her talk of a Writing Hat and now I want a similar Writing Article. I decided on a brooch and went to go and find it today. No luck. But I did get a sweater, a t-shirt (that looks like a piratey bodice!) and another longer t-shirt. AND best of all, I found a belt that is definitely a cousin or half-sibling of my lucky belt that was lost! So I feel like I have replaced my lucky belt and I can swan around channeling Cap’n Renoylds! Totally worth the effort and the whole shopping expedition only cost me $17 :)

Day 5: The Messy Bun (and obligatory pics of T-dawg)

Today, I was running late. I have let myself get lazy recently and I just cannot get my arse out of bed. Which meant no time to flip casually through my (library borrowed) Hair magazines and pick an exciting new hairstyle. Instead I fell back on my Ol' Faithful: the messy bun. I tend to rock this look a LOT.

PS I really, really need a better camera. Or a better photographer.



Timmy is being the cutiest patootiest in the world at the moment. And I love him to pieces. Even when he pees on me and leaves me cryptic love notes on my school work that I only find once they have hardened and dried.

He loves his new toys that I got him and he loves his new cage that girl roomie got for him. He likes to hang from the top of his cage and show off. His new name is Timmy 'Ninja' Glider. Ahh, he is a pirate/ninja... I have raised him well.

His wood block chew toy was his most favourite thing in the world. For all of five minutes and now he hates it. He loves climbing up the ladder because it is the lazy way to climb to the top of the cage so he can chill whilst hanging upside down. I'm so happy that he eats food from the bowls I got and that he seems to enjoy climbing up to get them. But the most precious thing is him sleeping in the pouch that I made for him out of an old t-shirt. Being a wild glider, he's obviously not seen a pouch before but he instantly knew what to do with it and hopped right inside and began napping straightaway. I'm so proud of my DIY skills and also of him for not being afraid of it and giving it a go.

I am getting freakishly attached to him now! I was SO ready to let him go over the last few weeks but now he really seems to have settled in and we've gotten into a nice little routine. He's still not wild about being handled but I think it's got more to do with the fact that he's lost vision in one entire side and gets a fright every time I pick him up because he can't see that my fingers will enclose around him and touch him on his blind side.



The new batch of crickets I brought for him are ridiculously fiesty. They hop around all over the place as soon as I open the box and it makes me squeal, like the girl that I am. I am thinking of getting him mealworms once the crickets have run out, a) because I don't want him getting bored of his diet and b) mealworms don't have the potential to jump into my face.

Also, thank you so much for your beautiful comments on my 60s hairdo! I felt all pretty and special :) Especially since I thought I looked good too and then nobody commented at school. Although in their defence, maybe it had lost some of it's bouffy-ness in the 15 mins it takes to walk to school.

Another update

Oh computer you are the bane of my life. I had just finished writing my update in AbiWord (because you decided a few months ago that you don’t like Word anymore) and you had a hissy fit and shut everything down. So now I have to write everything out all over again.

The reason there was no Wednesday hair update was because in a fit of uncharacteristic rebelliousness teamed with a slight cold, I said “That’s it!” and took the day off school. Even though I felt unbelievably guilty about skipping school, I think it must have been the right move because my cold disappeared the next day. Oh, it’s still there, circling, waiting for its next opportunity to strike but I’m holding it off for now. I’ve been waking up with a sore throat and going to bed with the sniffles but so far, so good- no fullblown cold.

And in other news, things with Timmy are looking up. His eye is a teensy bit infected but apart from that it’s healing nicely. But best of all, we found out that he is not a sugar glider but actually a squirrel glider and these little guys are rare and endangered. I think we’ve got a very good chance of a wildlife park taking him off our hands and letting him live with the ladies in order to boost the squirrel glider population. Isn’t that every boy’s dream??

At the moment, he’s shacking up with me after spending the week at Jess’s. He is now onto a new food source- live crickets. The things I do for the ones I love. I have to feed him by hand, and by hand, I mean tweezers. I like to put the crickets on the table in front of him and watch him at work. He’s usually chilling on the table, grooming himself, when all of a sudden his whole body goes rigid as he spots the cricket ambling along the table. He darts over to the cricket and snatches it up in his hand all in one fluid movement. It’s lovely to see sweet ‘tame’ Timmy turn into ‘hunter’ Timmy. And now because he is getting all his aggression out on the crickets, he has calmed down once more- no more biting and hating on me.

I went out and brought him a wood block (pear flavoured), a ladder for his cage and some food bowls that I can dangle from the top of his cage so that he has to think in order to eat his fruit and nuts. I am using this to ease my guilt at putting a wild animal behind bars. There’s a chance that the vet might take him but I’m crossing my fingers for a wildlife park.

Day 4: The '60s Updo

Today was a much better day. I think because the sun was shining and I finally got out for a run, which even though I hate it, it does make the rest of my day better (even if it's only because the worst part of my day is over and done with!!).

I got my hair all prettied up and went to school. Although this one looks easy, I found it pretty hard to do. I don't have many hair products or actually even a hair brush (I get by with a comb) so I think I would one day like to invest in hair 'things'. I did my hair, went and made breakfast, then came back to take the photo for the blog and the hair was not in its correct place! So I had to redo it and actually by lunch, the backcombing bit of the hairstyle along with the back of my head was just a giant frizzball, so I just pinned it back normally. I also did not post photos from the back because I'm pretty sure it was a mess, so I saved your eyes from having to see that!

Then I came home and to celebrate school being finished for the day, I decided to finally catch up with the two Doctor Who episodes that I've missed. And who should be rocking my hairstyle but Miss Amy Pond! It's like we're in some weird time travel thing and she is communicating to me via hairstyles. Possible future Doctor Who storyline in the making? Stephen Moffat, if you steal this idea- I will know!! I had to include this photo because it incorporates Badger who is now in EVERYTHING!! I feel like he'll be popping up in my life next, maybe as a sardonic subsitute teacher or a dog owning client at the vet practice. I think he would own a Staffy. Ok, now I want to google stalk him and see if he owns a dog and what kind. I'm walking away from the computer...

Day 3: The Plaited Bun

In general news, today was horrible. I got called on twice in class and both times I didn't know the answer. The first time, I had to come out and draw something on the board- which I couldn't do and just stood there like a loser before shoving the board pen back in the teacher's hand and again saying "I don't know". The second time, I said completely the wrong answer, so much so that the teacher jokingly slapped my hand. It was funny and I know he didn't mean to embarass me but I just felt stupid especially as he went on and on about it. In addition, he had completely forgotten my name again. And called me a whole new name, so now instead of mixing me up with two other girls, it's now three other girls. Awesome.

The weather was a miserable drizzling day and I can feel a cold coming on. And also today, our classes got swapped on us without us being told so nobody had the right books so we had to listen to our teacher just read out of the book for five hours. This is the first time I have ever doodled in this class because normally I love what I do. But for the last hour, this was my effort. Please note the pirate with the eye patch in the bottom left hand margin and the winged horse on the right. I'm pretty darn good, right? You can tell I make a pretty sweet living from my art :)


And now onto the good stuff. The hair stuff. The actual reason why you might have stopped by this blog. Well, last night I watched the next episode of 'Game of Thrones'. I spend most of my time going "Ugh, I hate him/her so much", which makes you think I would hate the show but actually I super love it! I've never watched a show where I pretty much hate everyone's guts but somehow this works! Anyway, I got my hair inspiration from an unusual source- one of the children on the show. She's a cute fiesty young thing however I wasn't sure how it would look on me considering I'm way more than double her age. But I was desperate and needed to keep my hair up out of my face as we were supposed to have a practical class that afternoon and my hairstyle that I wanted to wear was one where half my hair was down. If it all works out well, you'll be seeing that one tomorrow!

It actually looked pretty darn good. I mean, I'm not the one that has to stare at it all day because I'm the one wearing the style but I was really pleased with how it turned out. The front looked 'interesting' but the back looked 'pretty'. And since I sit in the front, you're welcome fellow students! Also see how miserable I look in the 'front' picture, it's like I'm having a premonition of how terrible the day is going to be. And my hair looks a really different colour than it actually is.

Updates

Ok, I'm going to try and give you the shortened version of what has happened.

• Timmy survived his op! It was touch and go and he even woke up during the operation, which was a nightmare but he was drugged up on roofies so I like to think he just thought it was a bad trip. He didn't wake up after the op and just slipped further and further into deep sleep. The vet was preparing me for him dying and he was just holding Timmy in his hand. Timmy's gag reflex was gone and his bladder was emptying- these are two of the last things to go before death. The vet was trying to keep it light and was like "Hey, why don't we definitely see if he's a boy?" because before Timmy had been squirming so much we had only been able to make an educated guess. He found the testicles and then a penis and was fiddling around with the penis and suddenly Timmy did a huge starfish stretch and was awake!!! It's going to be a while before the vet lives down his 'magic fingers' reputation!!! Tim was still very groggy when I left for the day but he'd eaten the pineapple piece I offered him. I felt special because he would only take food from me... but on a side note, I was the only one to offer him pineapple coz I know that's his favourite!! The vet did such a great job on Tim's eye, I can't wait to see it next week.

Sorry, already I'm rambling!

• Had a lovely Mothers' Day with my mum. We went for a picnic with my aunt and cousin and had fish and chips on the seafront. I hardly ever see my cousin as he works overseas as a diplomat- super cool, right?! It was great fun to catch up with him and hear what he's been up to. He's done it tough with his postings in the last few years (basically every country that you hear about on the nightly news) so he wants something a little more easy for his next posting. He teased me with the idea that he might go for a posting in LA and then for his job, he would be helping out with the G'day LA week that they have there, where it's basically a giant party for all the American based Aussie movie and TV stars. I told him I would be on the first plane out :)

And I guess that's it. Hopefully next week I will have my camera sorted and will be able to post pics of Timmy embracing his bad-ass pirate self and also more pics of my hairstyles. I only have one hairstyle picked out for the next three days. Any ideas????

PS Hello and thank you to the new people who checked out my blog. Kristy, I don't really have to thank as I already know her in real life and I would probably have bullied her into cyber-stalking me if she hadn't done it soon enough on her own. Hannah, thank you for being kind enough not only to comment but to also follow me. Check out her beautiful blog. Random internet people are the nicest!

Day 1 & 2 of my Hair Raising Exploits (plus bonus sugar glider update!)

I had two major assignments due in, which is why this blog was suspended for a while as I worked my little booty off to try and get them in on time. Mission completed!!

Day 1 (yesterday)
In honour of my first follower (I now have two!!! Huzzah!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for adding me Jennifer- your blog and your story looks lovely, I so look forward to reading it all in more depth!), who is my charming Internet buddy Katie, she suggested that I do the ‘milkmaid braids’ thing. So I did. I actually wasn’t sure if I should and then I saw a picture of Amy from Doctor Who wearing them and I was sold on the idea!

And this is what mine looked like (not that you can really see them!)

There were so many people in my class who made kind comments about my hair, I actually got a bit embarrassed :) My teacher when he saw me asked if my hairdo was in honour of the Royal Wedding! He always gets me mixed up with two other girls in my class and struggles for my name but today he remembered my name straight off the bat!!! And also today he brought up my hair again, saying that all the teachers in the staffroom were saying how lovely my hair looked! Must have made an impression!

It was quite easy to do so I might bust it out again once the challenge is over. I was also running late so didn’t have time to secure them exactly as I would have liked. And it stayed in all day. Definitely onto a winner with that hairstyle and it’s one I never would have tried.

Day 2
I spent all last night doing my assignment but promised myself I would go for a run this morning. When I finally dragged myself up from my bed, it was quite late so I didn’t have time to do a fun style. So I just wore my hair how I normally wear it. BORING!! It’s only Day 2 and already I am reverting to my generic hairstyles. I thought I would be wearing those styles in the last few days as I get desperate! Um... and my camera is now not working!!! So no picture, my camera had better be working for next Monday!

Tomorrow is a work day so no fun hairstyles, however I do have my next hairstyle all picked out.

In sugar glider news, he’s still going strong. Because he will (hopefully!) be getting eye surgery and becoming a one eyed glider, girl roomie said he was like a pirate. And you know how pirates say ‘Shiver me timbers’? Well our glider is called ‘Sugar me timbers’! That made me laugh so hard! Or Tim for short.

I’m surprised at how used to him I am and how used to me he is. When I am working at night on my computer, he runs around my desk. It is honestly such a privilege to be able to interact with this animal that not many people even get to see. I went to Sizzler for lunch yesterday and they had this nut mix and I stole giant amounts of it for Tim! It has all his favourite food- nuts and dried fruit. The mix introduced him to dried pineapple which is his new favourite thing. I showed him the selection of food and offered him a little pineapple piece. He started nibbling and then grabbed it with his hands. Then he realised there were more pineapple pieces, so he moved the pineapple piece into one hand, picked up another piece and started eating that one! He cracks me up. He’s a greedy guts at heart, I’ve just got to work out what food he likes. Food that is healthy!!

He still isn’t eating as much as I would like. They are supposed to eat 1/4 cup of fruit and vegetables and a tiny protein mix every day. He eats a small amount of dried fruit and nuts, it’s the only thing I can get him to eat. At this stage, I would like for him to just get fat so we know he’ll be able to survive surgery. However, as much as I love him and the joy I get from him, I don’t know whether captivity is the best option for him. It’s not like he was born into captivity, he was a wild animal who used to roam around and he is now sleeping in a cat carry cage. Obviously if he survives surgery, I will get him something bigger and more suitable. But he’s started displaying some worrying signs, he ran around my floor in circles last night, like he was chasing his tail. He started being gross with his popped out eye yesterday and was using his little hand to try and pull it off. As a result, he was in a mood with me because I kept poking him to distract him from pulling his eye off. I am quite prepared that if the vet wants to put him to sleep, I will agree that it is the best option.

I will miss him so much though. I love peeking into his cage and checking out his outrageous sleeping positions! He loves sleeping on his back with all his feet in the air, looking all the world like road kill, with his bung eye sticking out (I promise he is alive in that photo!!). Or on his back with his tail curled over him like a blanket. He’s just so chilled, I might accidentally disturb him with my movements and he’ll just open his eyes, see that it’s only me, stretch and then go back to sleep. And the night before last, I had him out and I was lying on my bed and he was grooming himself whilst perched on my tummy. My stomach then started making odd noises which freaked him out, so he ran onto my leg- a safe distance away from the scary noises! My stomach kept making the noises and Timmy was so hilarious as he kept cocking his head every time there was a noise, as if he was *really* trying to work out what that noise was. I couldn’t stop laughing. He’s a funny little critter. I hope he will be better tonight when he wakes up and I let him out.