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The Buzz Word

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Waspie_Dwarf's Blog

Entries in this blog

It's All My Fault, Obviously.

My cat, Elsa, is having a right old whinge at me because SHE brought in a mouse, SHE let go of it and SHE lost it... so obviously it's MY fault. One of the supposed benefits of having a cat is that they keep your property free of mice. Unfortunately no one told Elsa this . I now have two mice in my house which I would not have if I didn't have a cat.

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf in Cats

In the dog house with the cat

I'm in the dog house with the cat. Elsa decided to leap from the back of one chair directly onto the back of another. Her landing caused the chair to fall over. Despite the fact that my only contribution to the event was to say, "ow!" as the falling chair struck my knees, Elsa has decided that the whole thing was my fault and gone storming out of the cat flap.I'm in the dog house with the cat.

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf in Cats

Stupidity: have I peaked too soon this year?

It's only January and I may already have achieved my peak moment of stupidity for the year. I have lived in the same house for a few weeks shy of 48 years, which begs the question, how did I manage to misjudge the position of the toilet door so badly that I banged my head on the door frame?

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf in Misadventures

Outwitted by a small, black cat called Elsa.

I have a small, black cat named Elsa. She is good company, generally very quiet and very well natured (although not always so well behaved). We are, however, in a battle of wits over a chair, and I think I am losing. A few weeks ago a relative of mine moved and had more chairs than was strictly necessary for her smaller flat. The chairs are much newer than the ones I had and so she gave them to me. That is where the battle started. Initially Elsa was happy to claim a chair of her

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf in Cats

The bird of freedom chirps

- Winston Churchill, 8th May 1945   It is not my intention to make political posts in this blog. The only reason I quote a politician today is because, on the 75th anniversary of VE Day, I feel thankful that I can hear the chirps of the bird of freedom. The reason that I quote a politician today is because I can. Thank you to the men and women, of all the allied nations, who fought against the tyranny of the Nazis. Thank you to those who laid down their lives so those of

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

The return of the parakeets

It's been a few days since I saw, or indeed heard, my local, friendly parakeets. This evening, as I prepared to risk a trip to my local supermarket, I noticed they had returned to their favourite tree. I quickly grabbed my camera, but one flew off before I had a chance to take a picture. Still, I managed to photograph the one that was left.   I rarely see more than a pair of parakeets in the tree, however on returning from Sainsbury's I noticed that there was a trio.

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

A more subtle beauty

It's not just parakeets that visit my small garden, there are less exotic visitors too. While I was in my garden yesterday a male house sparrow paid a visit. He sat on a washing line post in my next door neighbour's garden long enough for me to get some pictures. This sparrow may not have the bright plumage of the parakeets, but I have always loved their markings. A more subtle colour scheme but beautiful none the less.

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

Cats: solar power and a shady character

As I have noted before I have a very small garden. That doesn’t stop it being the favourite sleeping place of two of my cats (Elsa is much more of a wanderer). To the uninitiated observer it may appear that my cats simply lie in the garden doing nothing all day, but that is not entirely true. As the sun moves across the sky Scamp and Nyana also move across the garden. However they don’t move in the same direction. Nyana loves to lie in the sun, soaking up the rays. It’s almost as

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

Parakeet Peekaboo

My next door neighbours have a hole in the eaves of their house. For a while I have suspected that the pair of parakeets that I regularly see in a nearby tree are living in this hole. I now know for certain.   Peekaboo!

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

More views from a small garden

As the sun began to set the robin returned. Flying from tree to tree he sang until it was dark .     Initially the parakeets seemed to have fallen in with human society and had taken up social distancing.     As the sun began to set, however, they once again paired up.     Nearby a magpie’s white breast reflected the red rays of the setting sun.   All too soon it was no longer light enough to photograph the wildlife. I

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

Views from a small garden

I have a tiny garden in a housing estate in the suburbs of London. That doesn’t mean there is nothing to see. This afternoon the song of a blackbird attracted my attention, so I headed out into my garden with my camera. The blackbird was in a tree across the road from me. As he sang his heart out I took pictures.     As I took pictures of the blackbird I became aware that he wasn’t alone. My old friends the parakeets were back. They were preening each other, f

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

Not many thoughts.

I have just looked back through this blog. I am shocked to find that I started it more than 11 years ago, My original intention was to blog my thoughts on... well any thing I had a thought about really. In those more than 11 years I have had several periods where I have not made an entry for years on end. In fact this will be only the 83rd entry. It seems that I have less than 8 thoughts a year.

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

Privilege and prejudice

Sadly we live in a world of oppression and prejudice. People are subjugated and killed for their beliefs, race, creed, gender, political views, mental and physical handicaps and sexuality. These injustices should make all of us angry and drive all of us to be better people. We should strive to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. However, as well as those who are truly oppressed are the complainers, the whiners. Those who are complaining that they are subjugated simply because

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

Moonwalkers: And then there were four...

I am not sure what my earliest memory is. It of one of two. It is either my sister falling into a pond or it is sitting on my father's lap watching Armstrong and Aldrin walking on the moon. I may not know which of those memories is the earliest, but I do know which one sparked a life long interest. If you need a clue, I have never had a pond. So with today's passing of Alan Bean, Apollo 12 Lunar Module pilot and 4th man to walk on the moon, another of my heroes is gone. There are now j

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

The counting routine

Saturday night and time for the weekly counting routine. One, two for Sunday morning. One, two, three, four, five for Sunday night. One, two for Monday morning. One, two, three, four, five for Monday night. One, two for Tuesday morning. One, two, three, four, five for Tuesday night... I always thought I would be an old man before I had a routine like this, counting out the tablets for the week ahead. I never thought it would happen when I was still in my forties. I can't say I wasn't warned

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

200,000 and rising.

Unbelievable! It took my YouTube channel 3¼ to get 100,000. It's taken less than 3 months to go from 100,000 to 200,000. I'm impatient for the next 50,000 now. "A quarter of a million" sounds cool.

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

100,000 thanks.

I never really intended to have a YouTube channel. It didn't interest me at all. The fact that I ended up with one was a pure accident. On the 7th January 2011 I wanted to link to a NASA video about the sun. I just could not fathom out how to post it on UM. In the end I decided that the best way was to download the video then upload it to YouTube and connect to that. At that moment WaspieDwarf's YouTube channel was born. I didn't expect to still be adding to it more than two years later. It ha

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

Red Hot Chilli Peppers and other 2012 news.

Wow, it's been over two years since I last posted here, how time flies when you're having fun. A few things have changed since I last posted here. At work I was transferred to a different hospital lab. I made new friends. A year later my old lab was shut and many of my old colleagues were transferred as well, so I was reunited with old friends. In 2012 I also found out I have type 2 Diabetes, so I'm trying to break bad habits and lose a large amount of weight. One of my successes in 2012 was

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

Snow, snow, thick, thick, snow.

The promised snow has finally arrived in my part of South East England. It may be cold and bring the country to a stand still, but it is pretty. All photos above are from Bursted Wood, Barnehurst in Kent

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

A new arrival... of the furry kind.

I have commented before that my blog entries about my cats gain far more response than my blog entries about me. So in a bid to gain popularity some more about my cats... When I first started this blog I had 2 cats, an older, more sensible cat called Zeta and a young nutter called Nyana. In January 2007 Zeta passed away. Nyana slowly grew up and now, at the age of five is a fairly sensible and mature cat herself. I rarely call her Nyana Nutter-Cat these days. The sensible & mature Nyana

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

I must get back into the habit...

I really must start blogging more often. I keep saying that, but I don't do it. I've just been looking back and I've only made 2 or entries since July 2008. I notice that in that post of July 2008 I refer to my cat, Nyana. That shows how out of date my blogging has become. This week I got a 3rd cat. I'll mention more about my cats in my next entry. My last entry was called "Tired, tired, tired" back in August. I thought I should update that. I've had blood tests and I'm not diabetic. I do have

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

Tired, tired, tired

Tired all the time (TATT). I see that all the time on paperwork (I work in a hospital pathology lab). It seems to be a very common symptom. Well I know the feeling. I come home from work and frequently fall asleep. Well I've finally decided to get off my bum and go and see a doctor. With my weight I'm a prime contender of type 2 diabetes. I rather hope to avoid that. I need to start looking after myself more, regardless of what the doctor says. We'll see what happens after Tuesday.

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf

I haven't done this in a while...

It's been 15 months since my last entry. I've been back on UM for about 2 months now, after 8 months without a computer and life has changed a little bit since then. Once upon a time I had a good job, which paid well. Then the dreaded redundancy came. I was already suffering depression at the time and that pushed me into a state that took a long time to recover from. I was unemployed for around three years and in that time I managed to accumulate a fair bit of debt. Just under 2 years ago I man

Waspie_Dwarf

Waspie_Dwarf