girlofprey | Entries tagged with animals

We went to Cannon Hall Farm on Saturday. It was only a slight debacle - my mum was working until 2 o'clock, and the night before I asked mum if she'd told dad what was happening, and she said yes, and that morning I asked dad if he knew where we were going, and he said yes. But mum didn't know dad was expecting her to call when she got out of work, rather than just turning up at 2.15 like she'd told him. And then when we picked her up, dad didn't know we were going all the way to Barnsley, he thought we were just going to a local farm shop, and he didn't know exactly where it was and he didn't have his sat nav. I ended up looking up the webpage on my mum's slightly old-fashioned phone, and we ended up driving up and down looking for it for about half an hour, on the right main road but on the wrong side of Barnsley. But anyway. We got there in the end. At about 10 to 4 when my mum hadn't had any lunch and they were claiming the cafe would stop serving food at 4 o'clock. But everything was fine. And I had some quite nice onion rings.

And when we got into the farm there were plenty of animals and baby animals about. Baby goats, a few baby donkeys, piglets, one single calf, and lambs, lambs everywhere. Right up to proper newborns that had apparently only been born the night before. The goats were probably the best value for money - they all kept fighting each other, even the ones that looked heavily pregnant, and they had just two kids running around, harassing the adults, sneaking under fences and leaping up in the air. The lambs did plenty of springing up and down though. And in one building there was this one single little chick running around on it's own. Apparently it's brothers and sisters hadn't hatched yet, and it didn't need it's parents around, so it was just there on it's own in a pen. I hope it has some company by now. Or soon. Also we were promised baby llamas, but we didn't see any. Only adults, hanging out with goats and looking like they might spit at any moment.

Also I have started playing Infamous 2. I had sort of forgotten how much fun it is playing Infamous. I have some issues with the story, but the gameplay, kdjfslk. It's basically just flipping around and having superpowers. Playing as a guy who can be either good or evil, so they have him just be sort of flippant and annoyed as a baseline. Annoyed but basically good superheroes are one of my favourite things. Also, I think the games are really good because you always play in a city, and they REALLY go to the trouble of making their cities beautiful. I mean, it's not like it's all their own idea. The first game is set in "Empire City", which BEARS NO RELATION TO NEW YORK, and the second game is set in "New Marais", which BEARS NO RELATION TO NEW ORLEANS. But also the graphics are beautiful, and all the building sort of look like they're part of the same neighbourhood but are all different, and they have billboards and ads around, and little details like plants climbing up walls and grills on the windows and stuff. It's lovely. I really love the Infamous games.

I'm also waiting for a game to download, which is why I'm writing a slightly rambly post. Black March is also over, and I went a whole month without buying any entertainment products, which is quite a long time for me, woo hoo! I've also gotten interested in Prison Break, after finding out that Peter Stormare is in it, but the boxsets are weirdly still expensive. It's also Eastercon on Thursday, and I need to pack at some point, yay. My game has also finished downloading.

Current Mood: energetic
Current Location: My bedroom
Current Music: None

I have now complained about the thing I was upset about seeing on Loose Women earlier. And further to it's depressingness, I would like to offer a link to this Tumblr post.

Current Mood: good
Current Location: My bedroom
Current Music: None

Aaaaaahhhh. I got up at 9am this morning, for an 11 o'clock appointment in Wakefield. I went to bed at 1am, and went to sleep at about 6am. And then got up at 9am. I would say it's not so bad, I can just sleep it off tomorrow, but really I need to go to bed early tonight and then get up semi-early tomorrow, so I can go to bed early-ish tomorrow night and get up at 8am on Wednesday morning. For an appointment, and then another appointment in Wakefield in the afternoon. And then, possibly, get up on Thursday so I can go into town with my mum and buy/pick out food before she goes away to Portugal.

I'm aware that to people who go to work and stuff every day this probably sounds quite run-of-the-mill. It's just INCREDIBLY OUT OF THE ORDINARY FOR ME.

It wasn't a completely terrible day, though. I checked my bank balance, and found out I still have quite a bit of money at the moment. I bought my train ticket to Durham for next week, for Connotations. And I discovered the wonders of the game department in the CEX in Wakefield, and bought a game because it had a female main character on the front of it, AND she appeared to be fully dressed! I mean, I couldn't see all of her, and her midriff was naturally showing. But still, compared to others, woo hoo! Also, it was five pounds. Double woo hoo.

Speaking of underdressed ladies, I ended up catching some of Strike Back: Project Dawn last night. I meant to watch it from the start, but I decided my dad wouldn't want to watch it (I was incorrect about this), taped it, and then never caught up with it. I spent most of what I saw of the episode thinking I recognised every black guy in it - although I did not twig that the bad guy was Mr Eko from Lost. I'm still pretty sure the guy driving the car at the end was a paramedic from Casualty a while back. However, what I did pretty much catch was the preview of next week. ( Slight spoilers for that )

Also, I went to the Pets At Home shop. To look at lovely rabbits and rats and fish. Man, I would like a rabbit or some rats or some fish.

Anyway. I am so cold. And one of the t-shirts I loved at Threadless and haven't bought yet has sold out. Sadface.

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: My bedroom
Current Music: None

Also, guess what? Lamb cam!

(And yes, my previous post did have something about Tracy from Coronation Street in it. But I decided to take that out and replace it with something happier.)

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: My bedroom
Current Music: None

My parents gave me £50 for my birthday. And apparently, the Playstation 3 is coming tomorrow. Which is very nice of them. Especially since I realised that even if I have the Playstation 3 and manage to hook it up to a decent screen, I don't have any games to play on it, and I can't afford the ones I like. But now I can. I'm a bit excited really. This is the first time I've ever had a games console, aside from the time my sister borrowed a Playstation off a friend of hers for a few days when I was in highschool. We played a bit of Tomb Raider for a few days, couldn't get out of a cave, and then gave it back. Good times.

We went out for lunch as well, to The Rustic Arms, which is a pub in Ackworth that I haven't been to since I was a teenager, and used to go to a bit as a kid. It had a big playground and a lake/pond, and we thought it might be better for my nephews than the slightly posher place we normally go to. The playground has either been changed or I remember it being a lot bigger, and the pond was fenced off for the local fishermen/people, but it was lovely, and really child-friendly, and the food was really nice, so it was quite a nice day out. We came back to my parents' house for some cake, and brought my grandma down, which she ended up complaining ferociously about (as always), but there were no real fallings-out and it stayed quite nice. And then I came back and watched the Dancing On Ice final, and Chris Dean and Jayne Torvill danced the Bolero, and Craig Mclachlan, with beautiful scruffy hair and a load of stubble, skated a little bit of his routine he did in the first week. Which was all lovely.

However, I am not so pleased about this habit of me having to lose an hour of my birthday, world. I dimly recall it happening before, I think. Less of that, please.

Anyway. In other news:

Since reading all of Gastrophobia in the last week or so, I thought I couldn't love it more. But then I saw the latest strip, and it turned out I COULD love it more. New Who lovers may want to, um, not read that. ETA: UNLESS YOU LOVE PARODY. Maybe you should read it then.

It's a Cracked.com article, so possibly on shaky ground scientifically or prone to exaggeration, but apparently crows are even more intelligent and slightly terrifying than we generally thought they were. Crows will TELL THEIR FRIENDS YOU ARE DANGEROUS AND TRIED TO HURT THEM. I love crows. And even after that article, am only slightly afraid of them.

I also spent a lot of last night reading various Cracked.com articles about many comic book stories/characters you will probably wish did not exist. It's the combination of hysterical laughter and horror that is such a big draw for me.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: My bedroom
Current Music: None

Things that are great:

cakesy wrote me fic. She wrote me AMAZING fic. Oh my god.

My The Other Guys DVD came! Woo! On a related note, it's really a shame when you have a film you quite love, and most of the quotes on the DVD case are from The Sun or the News Of The World. Currently this is true of both The Other Guys and New Town Killers. But happily not Sharkwater, which is also on my desk. I'm assuming that the other dvds used the Sun and News Of The World quotes because they LOVED them and gave them five star reviews, whereas other reviews from better sources were slightly less glowing. Hopefully. I still love them despite The Sun though.

I found a new animal to go on my Animals That Aren't As Bad As Popular Culture Would Have You Believe list: vultures! I was watching Zoo Days on Fiver yesterday, and a bit about Colchester Zoo's vultures came on, and it was all about how friendly and inquisitive they were, hopping around to see what everyone was doing and nibbling things to see what they were. The whole episode is actually on Youtube here, with the vulture bit starting at around 12.49. It's sponspored by Five and after the break, so you have to put up with a few stupid adverts. But it's worth it if you like LOVE. My favourite bit is probably when the keeper assures the camera people that they're not in any danger because vultures "don't have the power to kill". Or the bit with the vulture that thinks he's a human. Oh.

ETA: After trying that youtube link and trying to get to the bit I'm talking about for the past ten minutes or so it's mostly just not working and making me cry, so I won't judge you at all if you try the link and then give up. I'm not ordering you to watch it. I won't hate you if you don't. Except that I'll probably hate you a little bit for not going through what I've been through. But mostly not.

The welovehollyoaks.com December Brendanwatch is up. I will back soon. I am currently dead.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: My bedroom
Current Music: None

Another clothes-related post I have saved you from: dresses. I don't know what it is, but I am feeling interested in clothes at the moment. Possibly it's from buying those jeans. But anyway, I may have bought myself some dresses online in the past few days maybe. Only because I found really beautiful ones that were in my size and in the sales. And I only own one dress at present. But shhh, anyway. Partly, it's kind of to cheer myself up over the fact that this dress might be one of the prettiest dresses I've ever seen, and as far as I can tell, they only ever made it in sizes up to 12. Possibly this is because the form-fittingness might not suit a larger woman/person as well. But I'm choosing to assume that it's because high street shops and boutiques hate larger women. But in any case: sigh...

In cheerier news, another Christmas present I got, a few days after Christmas, was the complete series of Daria on DVD, which I have been watching for the past few weeks. God. I can't say I'd forgotten I love Daria, but I might have forgotten how MUCH I love Daria. I love Daria (the character). I love Jane. I love Quinn. I love Helen. I love Jodie. I love the female science teacher whose name I can't remember at the moment. I love Jake. I love Mr DeMartino. And quite a few other characters besides. And I love Daria (the show). It's a little bit of a strange way to watch it, because they've just put a certain number of episodes on each disc, so I don't really know which season I'm watching at the moment. But they kind of all follow on from each other anyway, so it's not too jarring. And in some ways, it's kind of nice to just have ROLLING DARIA. Anyway. I'm massively enjoying it is my point, I think.

And I have been watching Got To Dance lately, which I keep meaning to talk about, but keep forgetting. Got To Dance is sort of the poor cousin of all the dance shows that are out at the moment, I think, but I really like it. I'm not a big Pussycat Dolls fan, but I like Kimberley, and I like that she's the strict one. And I like that the judges just have to give their judgements based on the dance, before asking any questions or hearing any stories about the dancers themselves. They can change their mind later, and often do, usually one of the boys with Kimberley judging them from one side (although last night Kimberley did it, to the boys' amazement), but I like that they just have to make their judgements straight away, to begin with. And I quite like the ethos of the show, that it's just about giving little dance troupes a chance, not necessarily making them into stars, but letting them be in a competition and be on TV and hopefully win some money. And this series they're doing a thing where they've started a fund, and they sometimes go to dancers who didn't go through to the shortlist but who they think had potential or clearly had a passion for dance, and they give them some money to just train and maybe build up their technique, which is quite lovely. And sometimes some of the dancers they have on there are fucking amazing. So yes. I'm really enjoying it.

And finally, a thing I didn't know before and learned yesterday from a nature documentary: killer whales are apparently technically part of the dolphin family. Which I would not have guessed. It kind of explains their viciousness a bit though. And a thing I didn't know before and learned a few months ago from an encyclopedia: dolphins are actually mammals. I SHOULD BRUSH UP ON ANIMALS, MAYBE.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: My bedroom
Current Music: None

I got back from Connotations yesterday. It was a bit odd this year, I think because I hadn't made sure to have enough sleep before going so I was tired a lot, and because I'm not really watching any shows at the moment apart from soaps. Between the Wylde storyline on Emmerdale finishing really soon and the Ste/Brendan storyline on Hollyoaks just starting up and them doing quite a bit with them onscreen, I'm a bit soap mad at the moment, and suprisingly few people wanted to talk with me about Nathan Wylde (OH I LOVE HIM) for 3 hours. But it was lovely to be there and lovely to see everyone, and we had a fancy new hotel I was incredibly impressed with. I was with

jekesta and

cakesy, and our triple room (aka double room with a camp bed) had a sitting room/entertaining area. I kid you not. Also, there were three course meals basically every night, and suited hotel staff kept bringing random trays of cake and smoothies out every time we had a break. And I think the rooms only cost about the same as they did at the Park. It was awesome, especially when we learned our way around.

I don't have much to say about the panels, except that looking back it's kind of hilarious how quickly the Anti-Heroes (Not Villains) panel became all about villains. Also, we learned a bit more about what that The Losers film

katemonkey keeps talking about is all about. Also, I found out about the Futurama Citihall vid. Also,

jekesta,

cakesy and I all looked Moderately Tidy at the Moderately Tidy Dinner. Also, it was pretty awesome.

cakesy and I were going to go see a film together or something yesterday after leaving the hotel, but we were foiled by the fact that Durham only has one cinema with two screens, and there was nothing on there till 3 and there was nothing we really wanted to see on. So we decided getting the train was probably the best thing to do, especially with our suitcases and whatnot. An extra exciting bonus of the week for me was that on the way up on the train, I saw a couple of deer out of the window, and I couldn't decide if they were fauns or not. They were quite small. And on the way down I saw deer again, and then a fox, and then another fox. It's probably a bit ridiculous how pleased I am about seeing random wildlife, but I spent most of my childhood in my bedroom, and I didn't exactly start going on nature walks when I got to be a teenager. And apparently when I was young there was a fox living somewhere near our cul-de-sac which used to wander around the houses sometimes, and when I was living in Beeston with K and J she said there were urban foxes about which she and J saw once or twice coming back from nights out, and I never saw either of those. So it's nice to actually see apparently really common animals now and then. Also, DEER. That was really lovely.

Today I mostly ventured out of the house to go uptown and get the new soap mags, which I buy totally for the articles, and by no means for the pictures of Ste and Nathan Wylde. That doesn't make it better, does it? Anyway, there's a couple of really hilarious interviews in there with Amanda Donohoe insisting that Natasha Wylde is at heart an honest person, and that everything she's done she did to protect her family, and then giving really vague answers to whether or not Natasha would confess to killing her husband if she found out Nathan might be tortured or killed over it. YOU HAVE TO THINK THESE THINGS OVER.

In other news about what telly I've been watching, I had an incredibly ITV night last night. It started out with Hollyoaks at 6.30, then at 7.00 it was Emmerdale, at 7.30 it was Coronation Street, at 8.00 I went upstairs to watch Ray Mears' new thing, then back downstairs at 8.30 for Coronation Street again, then new Whitechapel at 9. This year's plot seems slightly more ludicrous than last year's, and some of the tension has gone now that the whole team seems to love Chandler, but it's still pretty enjoyable. And I quite love Chandler/Miles. Although Chandler/Kent is quite sweet too. And this year there is Suprise Peter Serafinowicz. ( Slight character spoilers ) So we'll see how that goes.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: My bedroom
Current Music: None

I'm back from Devon. It turned out we had a holiday bungalow on top of possibly the highest hill in Paignton, but we did have some lovely views of the sea. When the other bungalows on the street weren't in the way. We learned some interesting new definitions of the words 'mile' when we tried to walk into town, or seemingly anywhere in Paignton, and 'medium' in various food shops on the way down and when we were there (note: don't order a medium anything in Costa Coffee unless you really like coffee/tea/whatever). It was slightly gruelling looking after a five year old for a week, especially a five year old who doesn't really have bedtimes, mealtimes, or apparently any understanding of when is the proper time to listen to adults warning you about things or how to follow the rules of any game. But he is lovely quite a lot of the time, and chances are if we hadn't been on holiday with a child I wouldn't have got to go to the zoo, see a puppet show, go to the circus, or go on a carousel. So it was quite good in many ways.

On Wednesday we went on a boat ride, and I properly had to restrain myself so as not to start singing I'm On A Boat. BUT I THOUGHT IT. Also, over the week I sampled the culinary delights of chocolate and cherry ice cream (which from what I have heard, might be quite a regular and boring thing in America, but in England is almost unheard of), battered chips, and Turkish Delight ice cream. AND PEOPLE. YOU HAVE NO IDEA. THOSE THINGS ARE AMAZING. Oh, and I saw a plum tree! For the first time, quite randomly. When we were making one of our early, slightly ridiculous attempts to climb the hill back up to our bungalow. That was quite lovely. Oh, and we accidentally turned up on the first day in Paignton in the middle of a VW camper van and beetle show, which was quite lovely. That was part of some festival that finished the Sunday after we got there, sadly, but then the week after in the same place on the seafront they had a Children's Festival for a week. Which is probably why the circus was there for that week, and which was why when we got out of the circus on Thursday afternoon, there was a tent there for a company that did Positive Experiences with Animals, which involved a man letting a boa constrictor loose on the field for a bit, until she got slow because she was cold and had to be put back into her nice warm tank, me and my nephew getting to hold a tarantula, which is something I've been wanting to do for a bit (because I'm a bit scared of little spiders, but not really of big ones assuming they aren't deadly poisonous, and I wanted to see if that would actually be the case if I was properly anywhere near one, and I pretty much was, he was quite lovely), and getting to stroke a meerkat. All of which was pretty great.

So my holiday was quite good, if a bit difficult and a bit wet at times. And now I am back! Hurrah.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: My bedroom
Current Music: None

( Emmerdale )

Hello. I haven't been talking much lately. Mostly this is because I have been quite busy. Last Thursday, we had my nephew all day. Then last Friday we had my older nephew for even longer than we normally have him, because he'd finished school a bit early because it was the last day of the year, and even though I didn't manage to catch him and my mum doing things in town on that day, I was running around and getting ready and trying to find them. Then on Saturday and Sunday, my dad decided he wanted my sister's partner to come over and do some gardening/building work at our house for him, and my mum always feels bad taking him away from my sister on the days he doesn't work, so she has to deal with both kids on her own, so mum and I ended up taking the kids out both days, first to a park, then to a tea party event thing near my sister's house. Then on Monday I had to go into town to pick up a parcel from the post office which I'd bought from America and had a customs charge on. Then on Tuesday I got up to watch about 11 or 12 episodes of Horrible Histories on CBBC, starting at 11 in the morning, because it turns out Horrible Histories is great. Then on Wednesday I had to go to Wakefield to do a course about Finding and Getting A Job, with a company that wasn't the Jobcentre, but the Jobcentre had sent me to do it. That turned out to not last as long as I thought it might, because apparently there were only two people booked onto the course including me, and the other person didn't show up, and a lot of it was stuff I had covered in a similar course I'd done in Nottingham, so I managed to get it finished in about half a day, instead of two days. Yesterday was basically the first chance I had in nearly a week to have a lie in, because my mum was on a study day so we couldn't have my youngest nephew for the day. And then today my other nephew came round, but he ended up not getting here till about 4, and then was a little bit ill, so he couldn't really do much, and ended up sleeping on the couch for a few hours. He just left about two hours ago. And now here I am, posting on LJ.

I've been wanting to post about a bunch of things I have seen, but my thoughts on them always seemed to get a bit complicated and ranty. So essentially, in the past few weeks I have seen:

Wild Target, a film with Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt and Rupert Grint. ( My brief thoughts )

Predators. ( Thoughts )

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, on DVD, because I'd got the idea for Mike/Wonka stuck in my head again and hadn't seen it for years. ( Thoughts )

Inception, last week. ( Thoughts )

The new A-Team film, on Wednesday while I was in Wakefield. ( Thoughts, a bit spoilery )

That's sort of it for films. Also on Wednesday, to pass the time until the film started, I ended up going into the Wakefield Pets At Home store, which turns out to have actual animals in it for sale, unlike a lot of pet stores nowadays. And I saw some of the most beautiful fish I have ever seen. Fighting fish! Little sharks! And crabs! And now I suddenly want some, even though I don't have a tank and can't afford it, and the fish I like would probably turn out to be the kind that would eat each other. Still. Oh my god the fish.

I'm going to see if South Park is on now. Bye!

Current Mood: pleased
Current Location: My bedroom
Current Music: None

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