Mitey Marwood

Image from Dorling Kindersley

We took Marwood to vet last night. He was very good and didn't give us too much trouble getting into the basket. He didn't like it much and he miaowed a bit on the walk to the vets.

Once at the vets he didn't bolt out of the basket when we opened the door, he didn't come out like a wild thing all teeth and claws either. In fact he was well behaved throughout.

He hated the vet cleaning his ears out with cotton wool and he wasn't too keen on the drops going in either. He shook his head almost instantly and we had to hold his back foot so he wouldn't scratch. He had a look of ecstasy on his face when the vet was massaging the drops down his ear.

We attempted to do some more drops last night. It took us half an hour to do it and I'm not sure how effective we were at doing it! Again he didn't bite or scratch he was just a bit lively and wriggled a lot in attempts to get away.

Obviously his condition is going to get worse before it gets better as he has been scratching his ears more since the drops went in. His poor flaps were looking quite pink as he has scratched them so much. I will have to keep an eye on these to make sure they don't get worse. I'll have to make him some mittens or get a funnel put on him otherwise.

Mad Moon

As I am sure you all know the word lunacy is related to the moon due to the behavior displayed by animals (including humans) around the time of the full moon.

As far as I know it was full moon on Wednesday and Marwood was certainly acting strangely. I know cats are reknowned for chasing things that aren't there but he was haring around the house at 200mph and meowing a lot!

Did anyone else notice any mad moon behaviour?

Kitty!

This is m'kitty, Marwood.

We adopted him on Saturday from Animal Concern. My mum and dad took us to a guy called Kevin's house as Vince and I don't have a car and he lives out in the sticks. It took us a while to find his house as it's down a tiny lane but we finally made it.

I had seen a cat called Matey on the website (linked above) which sounded great so we were there to check him out. In a giant shed Kevin has chinchillas, chipmunks, other various rodents and a whole load of cats. The cats are kept in big cages, some with more than one cat in so they had company. We met Matey and he was very friendly. I had a fuss with another cat who was constantly crying for attention because I felt sorry for her.

We then went to a smaller outside pen where there were three more cages with a few more cats in. We met Rocky, a black cat with a white patch on his chest. He was very friendly too and we were torn then about which cat to get. Then Rocky got over-excited and bit Vince. So Matey it was.

My mum wanted to take home big bruiser Tootsie as he was massive but a gentle giant. My dad was very taken with Kevin's own cat Marmalade, or maybe it was more the other way round! I wonder if seeing all the kitties will make them want to get another cat, but I think my mum still has heart set on a dog much to my dad's dismay - he doesn't like dogs. My mum says that he didn't like cats or children though when she first met and has managed to win him round on both!

We have renamed Matey to Marwood, a character in the file Withnail & I (he is "I"). He is settling in quite well and is getting used to house noises after time in a shed. He still likes to hide in places (I have lost him twice and been worried when I couldn't find him!) but it is only his third full day so I don't expect him to be fully settled.

He follows me around everywhere I go. He's very friendly and quite talkative but won't settle on your lap yet. He's always dashing about the house giving everything in sight a headbutt!

I'm finding having a cat a little more stressful than I'd like, and also it has made me sad for the passing of dear old Anonymous who had to be put down last year as Marwood is my first kitty since then. Vince has said that I seem a lot happier since we got Marwood and I'm sure that as soon as he settles down and adapts to his change, that I adapt to the change too, I'll feel in purrrfect domestic bliss!

The Trials of Being a Woman

These are before and after photos of a makeover I had on the Benefit counter in House of Fraser in Carlisle in April.

In the first picture I am wearing no makeup at all and I look tired and puffy I think you'll agree. In the second I have been given a subtle amount of makeup, my skin tone is more even and I have eyebrows. About 10 products are on my face if you can believe that!

I don't wear with makeup every day, I can't be bothered with the effort. Today I have some very light cover foundation and a bit of powder on. For a little while after the makeover I did make more of an effort with my appearance, but I think this was just the novelty of having some new makeup products.


As I wear makeup so infrequently the only things that I have to buy regularly are powder and mascara as these are the things I wear the most. I am a bit of a makeup magpie however and keep buying various different colour eyeshadows and am amassing quite a selection!

I think the next product I buy will be a blusher. I have never worn this, except when age 16 I was really ill and grey and needed to get a passport photo so plastered myself in makeup, and also after the makeover. I will have to go back to the makeup counter to have a discussion about the many types of blusher that are now available and how one applies it as I haven't got a clue.

Part of me enjoys the time it takes to "beautify" myself. I enjoy thinking about the colour combinations of eyeshadows and watching the transformation slowly take place. Other times I wonder why there is this tradition of plastering our faces with various creams. When did men stop wearing makeup? Long gone are the days when men made their faces white, added red cheeks, beauty spots and wore powdered wigs. There has been a bit of new romantic revival recently with some men wearing eyeliner (much more of them should in my opinion) but men in makeup hasn't been popular for hundreds of years.

And it's not just makeup of course - men may have to shave their faces and run a bit of gel through their hair but that's about all the maintenance that is required. Women have to get rid of most of their body hair to be "socially acceptable" and you are treated as some sort of freak if you don't. Look at Julia Roberts when she didn't shave her armpits. My hat goes off to Beth Ditto, lead singer of The Gossip who is big and unshaved but is still sexy.

But what I want to know is why is it that women are expected to go to such great lengths to be considered beautiful? Who started this shaving business? Your hair grows of its own occurrence, it is natural and so therefore surely it is there for a reason. Too keep you warm and to show that you have reached sexual maturity. So if it is natural then why get rid of it?