Yeah it’s the weekend! Back to that later!

Well we are a three cat family now. There is Mitsos, Souki and Gizmo. The latter two we picked up off the street in December. Only temporary it was supposed to be. But they are adorable and we have been reluctant to part with them … not that anyone has been looking to adopt them anyway.

This is Gizmo all tuckered out from playing with the crumpled up ball you can just see next to him. I never knew a cat could be so enamoured with playing catch, and retrieving balls.

This is our very talkative, very active Souki. She is very very affectionate and loves to play with rolled up tinfoil, or anything going. Loves breakfast cereal-as soon as she hears the spoon ‘ting’ against the bowl she appears with that look you just can’t resist!

They have turned our life upside down, but have brought some order to it too as they needed feeding like every 4 hours when small, and have regular feeding times now they are almost a year old. They like to wake up early too, not too early most days – but we consider waking at 8 am a lie-in! And they love to play. We have a long passageway between the two parts of our apartment and they love to race up and down it and play with their various toys too.

So back to the weekend! Apples galore to deal with. I see lots of chutney and apple pie filling being made.

Tomorrow will be chopping and peeling and cooking etc. Sunday will be this

http://www.almazois.gr/race2012/en/index.php?option=ozo_content&perform=view&id=50&Itemid=21

I saw the volunteers at Ikea so thought I’d go with that.

Looks like it should be fun.

Yippeeeeeeeeee!

After almost 5 years of it sitting in my camera bag, I have at last managed to revive my SmartMedia card (they aren’t all that smart!).
See here for how to do the same (also xD cards) http://olypan.quotaless.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2
I wasn’t expecting much but it worked fine and was literally two mouse clicks from start to finish.

This was the reader I used, a simple cheap item I picked up at Germanos (Greece) for about 10 euros. It is worth every cent since it worked with the programs while my PC based set of readers didn’t. Now I have an extra card desperately needed for my trip to Austria with my Olympus C2100UZ – ancient but trustworthy! (A bit like me!)

Roll on February

Well, this year is not getting better fast. I had some bad news yesterday about another friend’s husband and then there was a bright spot: I at last got paid for work from 4 years ago (that’s what happens when you work for the Government!). Hopefully, they won’t get to keep the tax on it as well. No sooner do I get to take that round to the bank today and deposit it than I get a phone call to tell me our friend in ICU has died . That seems to be how it is so far this year – a total rollercoaster. It is very, very sad indeed. But I guess life goes on. So following the pattern, the next bit of news we get should be good at least. I was glad to get my money after all this time … but I would rathr have our friend back and my friend’s husband healthy again.
My new year’s resolution is to see our friends and family more, jumping off the treadwheel now and then. Life’s too short – and you never know how short it’s going to be. Savour every moment.

2008 At last

New Year again! Let’s hope this will be a good one, though it’s not looking promising yet – got problems left right and centre, and a good friend in ICU. But it’s a warm, bright sunny day here and it helps you look on the bright side of life as the MP gang would say!
Mitsos is very well and up to his usual pranks. At the moment he is fast asleep in my out tray – good job work is a little quiet at the moment!

Looks like Penguin have at last cancelled my order. Haven’t told you about that, have I? I ordered a calendar before Christmas from their co.uk site. Free 24 hours’ delivery, yippee! And I hadn’t been able to find it anywhere else, it was out of stock everywhere. Anyway, we didn’t get it before Christmas – because it was on backorder! (Would have been nice to have known that before I ordered it!). We didn’t get it after Christmas – because it was still on backorder. The fact it was on backorder didn’t, however, stop them from debiting my account the day after I ordered. I was none too pleased I can tell you (well, I am telling you!). I can thoroughly recommend Consumer Direct, part of the Office of Fair Trading (http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk). Very helpful advice given promptly. I have no doubt Penguin probably send their orders out fine generally, but if you have problems, don’t expect any contact from them at all: all of my e-mails have gone unanswered (I did get a confirmation of receipt for 2) – that’s using their form and ‘proper’ e-mail. So buyer beware!

An odd thing is that the OFT said that you are allowed a 14-day cooling off period after ordering, in case you change your mind. So why does nearly every shopping web site give you 7 days? This period apparently is a full 30 days if no arrangements have been made for delivery of the item(s). Anyway, I was very disappointed with Penguin. I am hoping to get a reply at least to my registered letter.