Lle Llywela

It's been ages since I posted here! I have a whole stack of photos from various outings over the summer, and kept meaning to picspam them, but somehow I never quite got around to it - so those will have to keep for a summer retrospective post or two down the line, because instead I am going to skip over those other outings and picspam yesterday, which I spent at the Monkey World primate sanctuary in Dorset with Ian, Mum, Chelsea and Layla-May.

Now, as a family we have followed the story of Monkey World for the best part of two decades now, as the goings on at the park are filmed for the telly - which both raises the profile of their work and also provides a steady revenue stream to keep the park going. But somehow we'd never managed to make the journey down there - at two-and-three-quarter hours, it's a long way to go and back in a day! But with the park celebrating its 30th anniversary, and Layla-May about to turn 2, we decided to bite the bullet and make the journey.

The date of the journey was chosen based on Ian's shift patterns and my annual leave availability, so we were a bit dismayed when the appointed day came and brought with it torrential rain. Still, undeterred, we set off on our travels, and took the rain with us for pretty much the entire almost-three-hour journey - but then, as we got close to the park, a miracle happened: it stopped raining at last! And it stayed dry for most of the day, despite every forecast having predicted steady rain for the entire day - it was gloomy and grey, to be sure, with a bit of drizzle here and there, but unlike Legoland a few weeks earlier, we managed to stay dry all day.

And Layla-May had a wonderful time, splashing in all the puddles in her welly boots!


( Picspam continues behind the cut )

So it's been a busy week.

First off, there was the Cardiff ComicCon last weekend, which was a lot of fun, and then the lovely Sue and nephew Adam came to stay and the weather couldn't have been more glorious if we'd arranged it specially. We took in the Doctor Who Experience, which was as much fun this year as it was last summer when I went and had a bunch of new exhibits, including the First Doctor's console room, as recreated for the forthcoming docu-drama An Adventure in Space and Time, which I am looking forward to enormously. They've taken the Zygon costume away, though, which I can only assume is because the Zygons are due to pop up in the anniversary special, so perhaps it'll be brought back with a new exhibit after that?

Perhaps it isn't a good thing that I can tell which exhibits are new and which ones have been removed! I already know I'm going to have to go again next year, to see what they do with the interactive bit after the regeneration...

Then came Wednesday. Now, Sue was with me on Tuesday so can vouch that I was absolutely fine. Then I got into work on Wednesday, rested my elbow on my desk (not the tennis elbow elbow, but the other one, the supposedly healthy one) - and yelped because it hurt. It felt bruised, which was weird, because I don't remember knocking it, but I do have a graze on the elbow that I'd noticed a few days earlier - again, I don't remember doing it, but I'm always knocking myself and not noticing, so I didn't think much of it. When it started hurting on Wednesday I just thought it must have taken a few days for the bruise to come out or something. But during the day it got worse and worse - the elbow became all puffy and swollen, bright red and hot to the touch and very painful. Barely slept a wink all that night, the arm was too painful and I couldn't let anything touch it, couldn't find a comfortable position in bed - spent most of the night curled up in an armchair watching the Fourth Doctor and Sarah battling the Seeds of Doom. Rang the doctor's surgery first thing Thursday morning and spent 10 minutes going round a nightmare loop of telephone menus before finally getting through to a human being, who refused to give me an appointment but took my number for the doctor to ring me back, which didn't happen until 10.30, so no work for me that day - not that I'd have been good for anything anyway. On the bright side, it was Dr Thapar who called and he's lovely and gave me an appointment for midday, examined the elbow and agreed with my self-diagnosis of an infection. So now I'm on antibiotic and two days later the elbow is much improved - still puffy and red and sore and hot to touch, but a lot better than it was; I can actually bend and move my arm again now, for starters!

So I've not been getting much packing done this week, what with having two duff elbows and all, but I need to pick up the pace because a) I'm supposed to be moving in three weeks, and b) this house is sold! We finally found a buyer - a lovely young couple looking for a home to raise the family they are hoping to start. Good timing, really! I'm just keeping my fingers and toes crossed that nothing falls through now.

I can't move for boxes now, which the cats are very excited and curious about. Alfie keeps packing himself!


Here are some piccies from the Doctor Who Experience! ( Cut to spare your flists because I'm kind like that, sometimes )

And last but not least, here's a pretty view across Cardiff Bay, as seen from on board the teeny-tiny ship Daffodil.

This is what I have to contend with these days, every time I want to use the bathroom for any reason.




Yeah, Alfie has developed a deep and abiding obsession with running water that shows no sign of lifting. If I go upstairs, he runs ahead of me to jump in the sink, just in case I might feel inclined to turn the tap on so he can play with the water. He even puts himself to sleep in the sink, which is apparently just the right shape and size to be cosy. What can I say? He's nuts.

Poppy, who is much more sensible, prefers to curl up on a nice, sunny windowsill, thanks all the same.

Just over a week ago, I went with the family on an outing to Longleat Safari Park. This is how close one of the tigers got to our car.

( More behind cut )

Then yesterday saw another long trip out to Oxford and back for my cousin's wedding - big congratulations to Stephen and Danni


But what was especially brilliant about yesterday was seeing my sister Deb up and about and on her feet again, looking almost like her old self. She was still in hospital last time I saw her, back in January. The trip to Oxford for the wedding was the longest she has been out of the house since Christmas and she was wilting badly by mid-evening, but is starting to get a lot better now they've got her on some decent medication. After her last MRI scan, the consultant decided that she did have viral meningitis after all, from which she is now recovering. They've got her on anti-nausea and anti-epilepsy medication and she's on triple-strength beta blockers, which are what has made the real difference. Since she started taking those, she has finally begun to get back to something like her old self again at last as the worst of the neurological symptoms are starting to subside, although she still gets terrible headaches and has no sense of smell or taste. That's the trouble with any kind of brain trauma, I suppose - it takes a long time for the damage to heal, and sometimes it never does. But at least she is definitely healing now at last.


After the long day yesterday, Deb and Ray have the mammoth task of closing down and dismamtling Ray's climbing wall business today. :( In other news, Deb has handed in her notice to the school she works at - she doesn't feel up to working full time any longer, after having been so ill.

And finally, ( click for something really scary )