Alfie opens can of pringles

I was looking through my rattie pictures and found some old 30 second clips of Alfie, opening a (mostly empty) can of Pringles. His method was basically to make holes in the lid around the edge till he got a strip of it detached, and then pulled on that to take off the lid. Alfie was also the one who figured out how to twist open the yoggie jar and then taught Monty how to do it. The third clip is my favourite. It cracks me up everytime I watch it.

Alfie was such a great rat.


First clip: Alfie notices the can and decides to try opening it. With his teeth.



Second clip: Alfie really gets going, hauling the can to his play area and trying to get a better hold on it.



Third clip: About twelves minutes after the first clip, he does it! Hooray! Hilarity ensues.



We miss you Alfie!

Introducing Simon

Hi Simon!

Simon came to live with us in March this year. We picked him up from the RSPCA Blue Mountains shelter after seeing his ad on their website.



When we first got him home, he was healthy but skinny and surprisingly well-behaved for a rescue rat. He would certainly have been a pet in his previous home, being used to being held and petted, and very generous with licks and cleaning our hands for us. He also liked it very much when we scratched him on his scruff between the ears, probably because he hadn't had any rat company for at least a month that we know of (ratties can't reach that bit themselves, which is why they tend to groom each other on that spot).

I have no idea how it was that he came to be in some stranger's backyard up in the mountains, where he leapt upon a freaked out (but obviously kind) woman who brought him to the RSPCA. Which is where he lost his balls. Poor thing.

So he had his big outdoors adventure, lost his harbls, settled into the shelter, charmed everyone, and then came home to live with us. He seems to like it here.



He seemed very relaxed when we first held him, and would brux contentedly when we told him it was his home for life and we'd take care of him, hot dinners every night, warm bedding, etc etc, all the most comforting things we could think of to say to a lost rattie. I think he decided we were Okay.

Eventually, he made friends with Milo and Beans ("eventually" encompassing a whole month of separate cages, rat wrangling, big pouffy fights and many hilarious incidents), and moved into the big rattie apartment where his beautiful plush fur and big warmness would certainly have been welcome in the cold weather. Simon is the plushest rattie I've ever held - I think desexing might've helped on that account. He has masses of fragrant, soft and very fine golden orange fur, with a cream belly and a cream smear up on one side, an orange creamsicle of a rat!

Anyway that's it for now. More stories of Simon later. Here is a picture of him enjoying some strawberry smoothie with Milo and Beanie. He's not so skinny anymore!

mucosal musings

I have been home sick for a week and a half now.

When it began, I thought, oh well, I'll just rest it out, remembering the need to take lots of afternoon naps from the last time this happened.

Of course I'd forgotten that the reason I'd had to take all those afternoon naps was because I could not get any sleep at night on account of All That Snot. Needing to be ejected, painfully hacked out, or otherwise stubbornly clogging up headspace and all breathing routes.

Green snot is the most satisfying and the transparent stuff just feels like such a waste of time. Panadol helps though, as do hot water bottles, thick socks and sleeping in two layers of pyjamas plus fleecy bathrobe. The husband is also useful for sympathy (albeit wearing thin), extra warmth during the night and for re-fueling the hot water bottle in the morning.

The best thing however, has been the discovery of hot drinks made with lemon, mint, slices of ginger and lovely bluebell honey. Mmmm.

*sniff*

An extraordinary story

From the TED talks



From TED.com: "Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment."

We bought a sofa

Today, Bear and I bought our very own very first, brand spanking new sofa!


(photo courtesy of the Myer catalogue)

In this colour!



(It's actually much lighter in colour than it shows up on my monitor)

Super exciting! We are now waiting on the 6-8 weeks for them to make and deliver it. >_<

Also, the fabric itself, despite feeling soft and lovely like suede-made-of-cloth (if that makes sense), is apparently teflon-coated during manufacture, so stains will slide right off it! Wondrous!

Night time fooding

I am nocturnal again, and I have embraced it.

On the days where work people schedule morning meetings and seminars, I stagger through the day zombie-like and muted, but otherwise, it's grand! Like a secret life in the quiet night.

So I made stock at 1am tonight. With the carcass of a bought roast chicken and carrots from the garden, the usual onion and celery, a slightly old piece of ginger, a long red chilli, several cloves of garlic, a small bunch of sage, two bay leaves and a sprinkling of black peppercorns. I wondered if the sage and bay leaves would go along with the sort of asian-y ginger and chilli, and it was fine! I think the trick with chicken stock is to leave some meat on the bones, otherwise you're just waiting for the flavour to turn up and it doesn't.

The stock was done in 45 minutes and was gloriously rich and flavourful. Yum! And then I made spicy chickpea soup with it, by adding in a can of chickpeas. I made this once with dried chickpeas and I think the truth of it is that I have not the patience to soak or cook the buggers long enough. I also added some cumin to taste, and whizzed it up with the scarily powerful metal whizzy stick. Bear is usually the whizzy stick technician in our household, and I see why now, because I dirtied up two (two!) otherwise clean pots to get the right depth of liquid to prevent the stuff splashing everywhere. Of course by the time I was done it had splashed everywhere anyway, but whatever.

I heated it up again to simmer for a bit, then took it off the heat and added the juice of half a lemon. To taste. And then, for the hell of it, whisked in an egg. I froze most of it and then ate the rest with parsley and pepper.



So there you have it! That is how you make spicy chickpea soup with lemon and egg at 3am in the morning, not that the time really matters, but at 3am, no one is around to say anything about the mess you've made. And after that, a banana with ice cream, chocolate sauce and toasted almonds for dessert!

Yum for private feasting!

Zucchini

I bet you did not know,
that when a zucchini is picked,
fresh from the plant,
it is kind of spikey!



I did not know that either!