Got Gold!

I had the best news recently. This photograph of jellyfish was awarded 'gold' in a recent competition held by the photographic society I am a member of. This means I will be published in their magazine and entered into the annual competition with other images that were awarded gold. I'm chuffed to bits!

Of course this is a wonderful antidote to my everyday bill paying job where I continue to (barely) tolerate things. Sammy is wearing his cone again. After his leg nearly healed he chewed the scab off and so it started bleeding again. Back to square one. He's allowed to have the cone off when he is sat on the sofa with me where I can keep a close eye on him. He loves to have his ears and neck scratched when the cone comes off and closes he eyes with pleasure and purrs like a nutter. Bless.

Cone of Shame

Poor little Sammy has had the cone of shame on for a few days now and is not at all happy with his new look. The problem started around 3 weeks ago when a couple of small bare patches of skin on the back of his lower leg started to bleed. A lot. I'm not kidding when I say that it looked like small animals had been sacrificed on my lounge rug and landing carpet. One trip to the vets, a course of antibiotics and steroids and a cone and he seemed to get better. However, last weekend the bleeding started again. He had worked out how to get round his old cone and so that was useless in stopping him from licking his leg and so it was back to the vet. We have more antibiotics, more steroids and a bigger cone, much to Sammy's chagrin.

The cone is transparent so at least Max can't ambush him anymore, but poor Sam doesn't understand and often asks me to take it off. He can't wash and so Max has been helping (but then lost the plot and washed the cone) and I have some moist grooming wipes.I'm really hoping this works as his poor leg is a mess. On top of that my stair and landing carpet is ruined and I dare not replace it until he's better.

The photos are a couple of recent snaps (pre-back leg issues) of my boys. I am still working long hours at work for someone who doesn't know their derriere from their arm joint and thinks Leadership is doing what they want. It's demoralising and stressful. I hope life is treating you well though.

Sent with love

Now I hope you are sitting down as this is the second post this month. I know, shocking isn't it? I am pleased to be here and interacting with you all though and show you one of the things I have been up to. The photos are of my own greetings cards featuring my photos. I am so pleased with how they look. I am trialling them at the moment to see how well they sell and may consider doing packs in the future and selling them online. What do you think? I am going to also put together some calendars.

Otherwise life ticks along. Work is hell on toast. It has got to the point where it is getting me down. I dislike my job. Actually that is a fib, it's not the job I dislike, it's the way I am managed. I won't go into too much detail as you never know who is reading but I feel constantly sidelined and undermined. I have spoken to another manager but they can't do much. I need to confront my manager but I am considering how to go about this using diplomacy as I still need to work with them. They are not the sort of person who takes criticism (or another point of view even) well.

I haven't been well lately either. I was out last weekend and suddenly had the most awful stomach pains. I went to the ladies and threw up and the rest of my weekend was spent on the sofa making poorly noises and knocking back pain killers. It might be some people's idea of a good time but not mine. The whole week I have been unwell on and off. It's getting boring for me and apparently for people on FB who are now ignoring my feeble attempts to gain sympathy. Oh, woe is me. No, seriously I will be fine. I have weathered worse storms than this. I just really wish someone would get the strange alien being out of my intestines or at least persuade it to loosen it's stranglehold on my stomach. I really don't think anyone should be this much aware of their innards. It just isn't right and quite frankly I have enough other things on my mind.

Anyway, less of my complaining. Let's focus on the pretty cards and I will be thankful that I have my photography. I'm doing a wedding on Christmas Eve and have been approached to do three family / child portraits as well. Perhaps I could turn this into a business?

Long overdue update

I have been absent for some time and until I checked the date on my last post, I hadn't realised how long. From my blog stats I can see that very few people drop by and so I am probably talking to myself, though I am pretty certain a couple of my oldest blog friends will check in.

My situation at the moment is complicated. I have very little time or energy for much once work has taken more than it's fair share these days. In short I am very busy at work but very unhappy as well. I feel that I am being set up to fail for a number of reasons but I don't want to go into any more detail here. You never know who is reading. I used to blog at lunchtime but now often work through lunches.

I am so far behind on my chores at home that I just see things to do wherever I look. The list lengthens and no matter how much I seem to do, it never seems to make a difference. Just keeping the house clean is a challenge. My garden is a mess. Weeds have more or less taken over. There are dead things in pots which saddens me as I haven't had time to do anything. I fear pygmy warriors may have taken up residence in the dense undergrowth, but they too are on my list to evict.

Not everything is negative. I launched my photography portfolio website and have been working on improving my photography lately. I potentially have commissions to do a small wedding and a couple of family portraits. This is something I enjoy and this creative outlet can be a real sanity saver at times.

A blog friend commented that I had been lost to Facebook. Yes, I am active on FB, but it is not the reason I am not here. It takes just a few moments a day to update my status and check in on others through the news feed. I actually find FB to be 'noisy' with no real intimacy. It's a platform where everyone seems to be transmitting but is essentially not emotionally fulfilling like blogging. Or perhaps that's just me. I miss my blog friends but just can't seem to make time to come here and do anything meaningful. I'm working on it.

Ironically, at the same time I have been toying the idea of discontinuing my blog. I am painfully aware I have not seemed to be a good blogger. My problem is threefold. At the moment my life is not running smoothly and I do not want to share these things here. They are negative and boring and there are people who visit here that I don't want to share my inner thoughts with, including a malicious person, which covers the second issue: I do not feel I can share here any more except trivial bits and that is not what I want to write about. The third issue is time and energy. I am toying with the idea of a new blog based more around my photography but with a lot of me thrown in as well. It addresses the issues and I can stay in touch with my blog friends and bring you with me. I'm just thinking at the moment. I'll keep y'all posted. Thanks for popping by. I really do appreciate it.

I've just read this and it seems very negative - I was going to delete it but I it explains a few things. Believe me there are some good things too. Life is never black and white.

Have you got a bear in your freezer?

Among the usual dross, trying to sell me things I don't want; trying to persuade me that their vision for my life is much more desirable that what I have and I could have it if I just bought their product; there are a series of adverts for a frozen food company that make me smile every time they air and they feature a slightly disturbing polar bear.



Things are fine here. Just very very busy at work and my spare time has mostly been split between chores and having a big clear out and tidy (I have too much junk) and working on wedding photos and compiling a photobook for the bride and groom as a gift. I'm very pleased with how it looks and can't wait to see the final printed version myself.