My cat is dead

An Unusual Cat-Poem
by Wendy Cope

My cat is dead
But I have decided not to make a big tragedy of it.

RIP Gemma

Thursday Photo Extravaganza

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.


The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.


Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing drear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.

Spellbound
by Emily Brontë

Photo Archive Thursdays

Esther has been looking through her photos and has decided to do photo archive thursdays - a different photo from the archive going up every Thursday. I have decided to join her in this (although I doubt mine will be as good). It will be interesting to see what memories they will bring up.

Photo Archive #1

Lights & Mirrors

Visiting Esther around New Year 05-06 with Lammie. Est took us to a bar/restaurant (the name of which I cannot remember) and this is a photo of one mirrored wall reflecting all the different lights. I liked the colours so much i made it my screen wallpaper.

25th birthday

My birthday week has come to an end. A week of snow, ids, strange men in bars asking me to say sausage (apparently this would prove i was 25), nudity and men in drag, family and friends and laughter. i also receieved a speech therapist's survival kit which i will no doubt be needing more and more as this year goes on.Thank you to everyone who made it so special.

Birthday Snow

I woke up at half past seven this morning to the sound of laura whispering on the landing "Siobhan" in a very excited manner. I realised it must have snowed if Laura was up and about trying to wake people up. I have never seen a child get half as excited as Laura does about snow. I looked out my window and sure enough the world was sugar coated. I wandered out of my bedroom and heard Laura "Brianne, Brianne, have you looked outside! We have to go outside". So Laura, Rachel and I wrapped up against the cold and went over the road to the park (Siobhan sensibly stayed inside). No one else had been out yet and the park looked perfect. We had snowball fights, built a snowman and had competitions to see who could jump the farthest. I felt like a kid again and quite carfree. Rachel said it was my birthday snow.

It's not my birtday until Saturday but last night when i got back from placement, the girls said that my birthday week starts now. We all find placements quite stressful and i think we all needed to let loose. So wine was opened and Helen came over to make apple crumble (as she had promised she would do for my birthday. It's my favourite dessert) but for some reason the girls would not let me into the kitchen. I thought they must be doing something extra special with this apple crumble. Then the lights went out in the living room and they emerged from the kitchen with a chocolate birthday cake covered in dolly mixtures and with four candles. Laura had made it that afternoon. Tonight we are all going ouot to Thai Corner for a meal and Saturday night I am going to see Twelfth Night at the Old Vic, so it really does feel like this is my birthday week. I feel very lucky to have once again found myself living with such a great group of people. I have been very blessed in my friends.

First post of the month. I feel i am step closer to finishing the course now that January is out of the way and this month i turn 25 (which is obviously very exciting for everyone who reads this). I have been ill this week and i am wondering if i was made to feel worse by the fact that i have got myself so worked up about my Wednesday placement. I woke up yesterday morning and the dread hit me straight away and i wanted to just crawl under my blankets and hide. The day went alright in the end (although i still can't believe they will ever let me qualify as a speech and language therapist).

I think we all were feeling a little light headed yesterday evening havening survived to another Wednesday evening (i'm not the only person in this house who dreads placements) and after a celebratory beer we were all sitting around the dining table playing 'panpipes' with our san miguel bottles (we know how to rock and roll). This was followed by a couple of episodes of the Forsyte Saga, a dvd we found in the house when we moved in. Earlier in the week Rachel B made the comment that period dramas were porn for women (this was after watching North & South), all we need to see is the man touch the woman's hand or stroke her face, thats enough for us (she also described N&S as four hours of foreplay leading up to that final scene on the train platform).

Now the countdown to placements starts again and for the next week the dread shall build up again.