Kris Kindle

The same day as "The other cold one" mentioned it in a comment to the previous post we too received letters marked "Personal" and with the inscription on the envelope "Don't shoot the messenger"

These letters were regarding this years Kris Kindle. This is, as stated in the letter, an effort to reduce the expense of christmas presents and shipping cost.... There are a total of 10 members in the Kris kindle syndicate, consisting of my siblings, our parents and respective spouses.

The idea is that each person is secretly and randomly (although I am informed you can't get your spouse) allocated one other person to buy a present for, maximum value €50.

The letter comes with the a set of 6 rules which cover non divulgense of chosen target, not complaining about the draw, not getting help from partner.

Rule 5, as mentioned by the other cold one, covers the nature of the present as not as some of those present on the christmas day have not yet started formal sex education.

Rule 6, covers the allowance of general advertising as "The other cold one" so eloquently begun with this Limerick.

To take part in a family Kris Krindle,
Makes the hair on my neck rightly tingle,
It should be close shorn,
but the clippers are worn,
and blunt as an old fashioned thimble!!!!!

So, to the purpose of the post, firstly, as a forum for the 10 syndicate members to advertise and secondly, as I have no idea what I want for the blog regulars to come up with some suggestions for what I might want.

For syndicate members, advertise through the comments of this post. Click on where it says x comments below, select other (for those of you who havn't got a blogger account), give yourself a name with which all involved can identify you by, write your comment and do the word verification thingy. Check in regularly and hopefully you will eventually get the information you require.

Dear Mr Brian Tracy

I am half way through reading your "Eat that frog" personal development, conquer the world book, which my wife has recieved from the RVC, presumably to help her with the above.

I realise that you are an amazing man and who am I to comment, but I rather feel that your book contradicts itself.

You spend the first 9 chapters, correctly pointing out that should we have to eat a live frog every day, best get it done in the morning so the rest of the day will be brighter. That is to say, you should start the day with the job that will have the biggest impact and is probably the one you least look forward to. You also state quite rightly in chapter 6 that one should identify the area of work which is holding one back, which one is weakest at and focus on that to help you move forward.

In chapter 10, however, you contradict all this by stating that one should focus on the thing your best at and you most enjoy. Do this, you say, and you can lose your job, house and everything you own but yet have the earning potential to get it all back again and more.

Doing what you enjoy and are good at is not neccessarily what you are paid to do. Is it not a very common problem that we folk do what we enjoy instead of what we should be doing to move forward in life.

As with all such books and courses, you make some valid points but I am not convinced that your book will change my life and I have already concluded that I will never be as brilliant as you. To be honest, I'm finding your book a little tedious.

I would appreciate your comment.

Best regard
VL

Off with them again....

It seems to be becoming a habit. Today it was Vegas's turn to go to the vet. I pleased to report that he wasn't quite as careless as Amazing. Vegas managed to come back with his testicles............. Albeit in formalin!

The other big difference is that Vegas knew what they were for, and has actively made use of them. We now have a few nervous weeks to see if, as the testosterone drains out of his body, the cleaning load in Vegas's room reduces to nothing indicating that his marking behaviour is purely hormone driven and not too deply engrained into his brain.

Fingers crossed, Vegas is such a lovely animal, it will be great if we can have him out and around the house again.

Stud Pants, User Report

I thought I should give a quick user report on this wonderful discovery made by Mrs VL, the resident vet, some time back. Especially since we hopefully won't need to use them all that much longer.

For those of you who don't already knows this, the vast majority of fertile male cats are very keen to mark everything in site by spraying backwards and upwards against any and every solid object, not something you want happening in your house. It may seem a little indignant to put a nappy on an International Champion and Father of 7, but Vegas has come to accept it and now even stands still and purrs whilst you put it on him as he realises it means a run about the house.

We couldn't get spots so, as you can see, the next best thing had to do.



Lining up!!



and shaking that tail.



He's happy, he's done what's natural, we're happy as it's all been soaked up in the thin panty liner we line the nappy with.

A great product, but a couple of words of warning.

1: The resident vet doesn't reccommend leaving these on for too long (we don't normally leave vegas out for more than an hour) as the dampness can cause irritation.

and

2: It's best to avoid putting these on if the cat hasn't passed any solids in the recent past, as you can get a nasty surprise when you take the Stud Pants back off.......

We got them from here

http://www.laffindustries.com/stud_pants.htm

The Menagerie

Today, Catstycam, the last of Asia's most recent (and almost certainly final) litter, was picked up by his new owners.

The relative quietness got us thinking and after a few calculations we reckon that our Menagerie is at the smallest it's been since the arrival "Felix" the Ferret and the first of the hens to Crummock Ave around 5 years ago.

In that time, "Nasse Nøff" the guinea pig, "Snurre Sprett" the rabbit, the hens including "Mum", "Minimum", "Dotling", "Minidot", "Whitie" and "Darth" amongst others, "lily" and "Dia" the Diamond Doves, "Gordon" and "Georgie" the Canaries, "Felix" the Ferret and the two pigs have all come and gone (the hens moved home when we left the UK, the rest (except the pigs, see various posts from August until December 2005!!) passed on due to natural causes).

We have also sold 5 Bengal kittens, all of whome we have had the pleasure of for at least the first 12 weeks of their lives.

That leaves us with a mere 6 animals, as listed below in the order that they joined the Longship household.

Heera, our male Diamond Dove, who has now outlived 2 partners.



Peggy, our Three legged friend, pictured here leading the way, on the top of Skiddaw.



Anitra, our first Bengal.



Vegas, our International Champion Bengal stud cat, purchased after attempts to take Anitra to outside stud proved unsuccessful.



Asia, our second Bengal breeding queen, purchased after attempts to pair Anitra and Vegas proved unsucessful!!!



Amazing Incident, Vegas and Anitra's only child, created by our own hands through Cat AI (see previous posts "Virgin birth" and "We put them in and we took them out" .



These are all archive pictures, with the exception of Heera which was taken 10 minutes ago, we've had him for approaching 6 years and I couldn't find a decent photo of him, typical!!!

Beer Brewing

Relative to the price of beer in this country, we are not rich folk. For this reason I took the opportunity during our recent visit to Bergen to visit a shop where I knew they stock some fine home brew kits.

My experience with the commoner garden kits you can buy in most hardware stores and rely on the addition of cane sugar for fermentation are that they are at best mediocre.

Muntons on the other hand follow the Reinheitsgebot, a brewing law allowing malt, hops, water and yeast as the only ingredients. The abscence of sugar, which is completely alien to the brewing process, contributes to a much more real tasting beer.

We bought two kits, the Continental pilsner and the seasonable "Santa's Winter Warmer". The production of the latter, assuming all continues to go well should be timed nicely with the arrival of The Thoughtful Scotsman in a couple of weekends time.



The Process really couldn't be simpler, first you sterelise all your equipment



then you place the 2 cans of concentrate in hot water for 5 minutes to loosen the contents



Pour this in a fermenting vessel



Add 6 litres of boiling water and make up to 20.5 litres with cold water stirring well to make sure all the concentrate is dissolved.

Measure the temperature (should be around 20C) and the Specific Gravity, 1.050 in this case.



Place in a warm place, the bathroom with its heated floor is ideal,



and leave to ferment for 4-6 days.

Inside 24 hours it had begun to ferment at pace, so everything is going to plan right now. When the fermenting stops, according to the instructions, it should be below 1.014 specific gravity. Interesting this, as according to the calculation

(start s.g - end s.g.)x129 = %alcohol

you get

(1.050 - 1.014)x129 = 4.64%

However, Muntons say that this kit should be around 5.7% which by my calculactions requires a end s.g. of 1.006. I will duly measure and report back.

Show Cats #2 The International Champion

This past weekend took us to Stockholm and possibly the largest Cat Show we have been to. It may seem extreme to drive a round trip of 1400 Km but there was method in our madness.

Out of the 5 Cat shows that we have attended since my last Show cats report, our stud cat Tuhina Vegasdream has attended four of these. Vegas has been liked by the judges and succeeded in winning his category and also being deemed good enough to receive his certificate each time. After our first three Norwegian Shows Vegas achieved Champion status. After two more shows Vegas had two certificates as a Champion and needed one more from another country to become an International Champion.

In Norway one is very fortunate that there are no restrictions on movement of animals between here and Sweden, making attending a "foreign" cat show very easy for us.

Typically the only show that fitted, date wise, was Stockholm, so we signed up, booked a little chalet to the south of the city and prepared ourselves for a long drive. The cats tolerated the journey pretty well although it was a little noisy in the car for the odd hour or two, now and again.....

So, we had 2 days for Vegas to win his class once and receive his certificate. The Saturday was a large disappointment for us as Vegas was rightly beaten by one of the most stunning Bengals we have seen. Fortunately, we ascertained that they were not attending on the Sunday and after much stress (most for us, not the cats) Vegas duly did the business on the Sunday winning his class, receiving his certificate and gaining the title "International Champion". He missed out on a nomination for best in show because he was, in the judges words "a little too naughty". We are of course very proud. Vegas's prize for reaching this stage, castration some time in the coming weeks.

Starsprung Skiddaw was the other cat we had with us, as we have come to expect she got many good comments but her lack of contrast meant that she was pipped to the post in her heavily contested class.

Here for your appreciation are some photo's from Stockholm Cat Clubs Show 11th and 12th December 2006

Stress Relief, Vegas style!



Mrs Long Ship and Skiddaws Foster Mum



The judges tables



Finding out who's won and why



The Show cages



But where's Dr Evil (A Sphynx)



Success!

Scrabble

Saturday evening and a game of scrabble with Mrs LS, the sister in law and a family friend.

It was the first time I have played scrabble in Norwegian and I led from start to finish, which made me more than a little satisfied. Before you ask, I had very little help.

I want a Saxaphone...

And to learn to play it. As a man who likes music with feeling the Sax seems an instrument you can lose yourself in.

I'm not sure if the music is inturrupting the chain saw and tractor driving or the other way round during our long weekend here on the west coast.

The occasion this time a small local music hall and amateur wind band. 'Meland Musiklag', very proficient and enjoyably traditonal.

Concert review

The combination of solo violin and contempary music brought haunting flashbacks of my childhood and 'the other cold one's', now highly proficient, earliest musical days.

The occassion, Arne Nordheim's 75th anniversary concert in Greig Hallen in Bergen.

The rest of the concert, random noise and plenty of it. Excellently executed, no doubt. They even took the time to tune their instruments, I don't know if there was point though!

In the basement.

Cat's always want to be on the other side of a closed door. Now fortunately cats can't normally open said door.

Anitra, on the other hand, has now not only been guilty of letting the Male cat loose in the house (now his room must be locked if she's in with him), but she has also become so adept at opening the door to the basement that if it's left unprotected for more than a moment she along with all the others are on their way underground.

What ensues then is 5 minutes chasing shadows in the basement, followed by 5 minutes trying find out if you've got them all back in the house, followed by another trip to the basement to fetch any you missed on the first pass.

On this occasion, I found the kittens Esk Pike and Crinkle Crags at the top of the stairs still pondering the decent, fetched Asia and Anitra up on the first pass and Amazing on the Second. That means that it was only Catstycam who didn't avail of the open door opportunity.

On a cat related note, all three kittens are due to relocate to their new homes in the next 2 weeks, things will become a little more normal again then. Read all about them all on www.starsprung.com