It twitches

The it in the title refers to Wuppie's ear. It twitches. A lot. And when I touch it, he shirks away. The ear is being held flat to his head. And it's warm to the touch, warmer than his other ear anyway. And when I felt it again this evening, I realised it was thick as well, and containing fluid!

According to the great book of knowledge called the internet, the most likely problem would be a hematoma. Something that happens more in dogs, but hey, I never said he was clever and if he thinks he is a dog, that could explain the hematoma. The question of course remains: how and where did he get the hematoma? Yes, his ears are always dirty, but everytime I have them checked by the vet, he or she tells me he hasn't got earmites. Yes, he tends to scratch his ears, but then again, he has been doing that for over thirteen years now! Besides, I haven't seen him scratch his ears an extraordinary amount lately and come to think of it, not at all today.

Anyway, I feel a phonecall to the vet is in order for tomorrow, hopefully he or she can get it sorted, because he isn't necessarily in great distress, he is not comfortable either.

He keeps me on my toes, that's for sure!

Present and accounted for

You might wonder where I might have been over the last few days, but don't worry, I have been working (the joy) and being at home. However I didn't much feel for spending time behind my computer, hence I didn't spend time behind the computer.

This is so annoying: I had finished this post completely and was about to stick a photo in, when the whole thing got stuck! So, in a nutshell:

Saturday: last staff party ever organised by me. We went out for dinner and then bowling. I was rubbish! Sunday: day off. Monday: boring work again. Tuesday: I took 48 out of the about 50,000 striking special education teachers to Amsterdam. It took 430 coaches about 32 minutes to clear the parking lot after the event had finished. Wednesday: I had to train someone on the job. Awful! Thursday: I drove for Anouk (Dutch singer) who had a concert in the Gelredome. Friday: today: work. Saturday: tomorrow: work. Sunday: off!

The thing that was worst of this week however, was that it was the week the World Championships Biathlon were held. And I missed most of it due to work. Next time I plan a holiday I will need to check the biathlon site as well.

Oh, and what is with this blogger thing now? It can't keep up with my typing. When it saves (about every ten seconds), it will stop me from typing. Very annoying. 

'Pink'

This week's challenge was pink and I had to go through a lot of photos to find one that contained pink. It might be my favourite car colour, but so far I've only owned a red Panda, a white Mazda and a blue Renault, so no luck there! In the end I did find one though. No car in sight, but a lot of bright pink flowers.

The photo was taken in Bad Kissingen (Germany), back in 2006, during a rather weird trip. The weather was very hot and humid to start with and then near the end of the week it turned and we had some massive thunderstorms and a lot of rain. I like this photo because there's a threat of rain in the background that seems to offset the flowers even more.

This is my ninth entry for Photo Theme for Thursday. Why not join?

Sleep-over



My bedroom in Brussels where I was an au-pair

Do you remember when you were staying at your grandmother's house? Or your aunts'? Where did you sleep? Well, I have slept in so many different beds over the years I can hardly keep track. When I stayed at my paternal grandmother's house, I used to share the bed with my brother and later with my sister. And especially in the case of my sister it was quite awful. Since she was six years younger than I was (she still is come to think of it), she had to go to bed way earlier than I did. But the bed we used to sleep in was an old bed and it had sagged terribly in the middle. So, by the time I got to bed, she was slap bang in the middle. The only way to get her out of there was to wake her up: she wasn't happy, I wasn't happy.

My maternal grandmother's was a different story: I used to share the bed with my uncle until I was about twelve and then I either had the single bed or shared again with my sister: a double bed on the floor made up of three small matrasses put together. I can remember actually feeling the floor on several occasions, but that might just be me. It wasn't comfortable by any means anyway.

The very first time I stayed at my friend Janet's place when she was married was a horror: picture those thin foam puzzle pieces that are great as a playmat for children. They do not make a bed! I barely slept and the next day everything hurt. My friend C has a different problem: she has a great double bed I can sleep in, but it is in a room that is very hot and I hate the hot. So, I sleep in a different room on a small single mattrass on the floor. But it's cold in that room which is how I like it.

Loved it!

And then there was the room at Carolina's place I stayed in last week. She had invited me over to stay while I was on my course in Groningen (she doesn't live too far off) and I took her up on that offer. I wanted to see her menagerie for a start! When she showed me the room I was to be sleeping in, I was a bit in awe though: it was a beautiful room with a double bed and its own private bathroom!! Needless to say I didn't wake up with my neck all crooked and didn't have to worry about how I would look in the morning: nobody saw me anyway! I think the only thing that was missing might have been the little chocolate on the pillow, but perhaps that's going a bit far...

Wuppie again

Remember when Wuppie slid off the bench a few weeks ago? If not, read here. Well, yesterday as he was asleep next to me, he woke up and started walking around like a drunk, falling over several times. And again it looked as if he had hurt his leg. When I got hold of him though and touched the leg, he didn't flinch and nothing felt out of the ordinary. I let him walk then and he was walking fine too.

I know he's getting on a bit, but still this is worrying me a bit. I will have to keep a close eye on him. 

'Exercise'

This week's prompt is Exercise and that caused a bit of thinking on my part. Because I am not the most athletic person in the world and to be honest, I don't do exercise. I did in the past, but I never managed to keep at it. However, I have folders filled with photos and I was sure I could find something that would show some form of exercise. In the end I settled on this photo.

Last year I had a local trip that involved 14 boys with spiders in their pants (they couldn't sit still) and 5 men who didn't seem to care much about it. The boys were from Northern Ireland and where in the Netherlands to play a football tournament. They were very good and walked away with first price in their age-group! The photo I show you now actually shows you how good they were: their goalie had nothing to do during most of the matches! You may even have to click on the photo to find him! For any of you who don't know much about football (the one with the round ball): the man on the foreground is one of the two linesmen. He was a bit bored during that game as well!

This is my eighth entry for Photo Theme for Thursday. Why not join?

The language

As you may know last week I spent in class. I have been trying to learn Norwegian since November and even though I did quite well, it was the pronounciation that stumped me a great deal. So, when I saw a course being advertised in Norway, I liked the sound of it and registered. It would be one week of intensive Norwegian and also meeting Norwegians and seeing businesses. A minimum of ten participants was required. Unfortunately they never got more than about four and the course was cancelled. However, I still had time off and felt that even though that course had been cancelled, that didn't need to mean I couldn't do a course anyhow.

I contacted a company that did offer courses, both for groups and for individuals and asked them to put together a course for me on my own. And not that lousy hour and a half per week, no four hours a day for five days. Which in the end turned to five hours a day for four days. So, on Tuesday morning I took the bus to Groningen, where the course was to be held and arrived nice and early to meet my teacher: a Dutch girl studying Norwegian in University.

The first day I was still a bit self-consious about reading out loud and by the end of that day I was exhausted. Learning pronounciation while having a massive cold and a headache isn't a good combination, I can tell you. Day two however I was a bit more confident. I managed to pronounce unnskyld to a satisfactory degree, even though any word with a u and a y in it is a horror to me, the sounds are so similar to me! Besides being able to pronounce quite well, I also saw that my level of grammar was already quite high and that I knew a fair amount of words as well. My teacher was amazed of me and said so on several occasions.

By the end of the week I was a bit sorry I hadn't ordered for a two-week course, it might have been even better, but I already noticed a big difference after I got home: I listen to Norwegian radio quite often and that night I was able to understand a whole lot more than I did before! I was able to distinguish more words from the mush that is Norwegian. Because to be honest, it is quite a mush. It's fairly easy to read, but when it comes to listening, ten words become two and you have to figure out which ten are meant!

This week I will take it a bit easier, although I still have all my grammar notes to type out, since it's a big muddle right now. But I am able to buy an apple now: Jeg vil gjerne ha et eple! And more importantly: I know how to pronounce it!

Was it worth it?

I don't often stay up for the Oscars. After all, the red carpet doesn't start until past midnight here in Europe! But since I am on holiday this week and had all the time in the world, I thought I might do it again this year.

The red carpet was littered with beautiful men and women who were slowly making their way up to the theater, posing and answering questions as they went. Somehow this reminded me a bit of one of the earliest scenes in 'Singing in the Rain' where two stars are asked about their career, although not their clothes! Which seemed to be the question of the day: 'Who are you wearing?' I must admit though: most of them did look lovely and I didn't see any horrors pass.

The show itself was a great show, I must admit. The only thing I didn't get was Cirque du Soleil. But that might just be me! I loved Will Ferrell and Zack Whateveriakis, Miss Piggy and Kermit didn't get nearly enough screentime and the three men accepting the Oscar that Angelina Jolie doled out were hilarious! Although I did agree with someone on Twitter: she should eat a little more! She looked too skinny.

There was however one thing I didn't like: the breaks. Over three minute for a break? What?? And every five minutes as well. It probably is normal over at that side of the pond, but I felt they were taking the mickey somewhat. Anyway...

As I have yet to see any of the films nominated or winning last night, I thought I would go to the cinema and see at least one. So, tomorrow me and my friend will go to the cinema and see one of the Oscar winners: The Muppets!

'Two'

This week's challenge was two. And I could pick any two I wanted. As long as it was only two and not any other number. So, two it was and I dove into my photos to find one with only two! I think I succeeded.

Last year I had to drive a fair amount of festivals and on one occasion I had to stay in a hotel, just in case something went wrong and all those festival goers needed to be evacuated. So, me and my colleague were both staying in this hotel, about 35 km from home. We both drove a bus that could at its fullest hold around 125 people. There were only thousands at the festival!! Nothing happened that night though and both buses stayed in the parking lot that night.

This is my seventh entry for Photo Theme for Thursday. Why not join?

Word verification

Some of you have commented about the difficulty of actually commenting due to a very difficult word verification system introduced by Blogger. It would probably have been more if it hadn't been for the difficult word verification system introduced by Blogger!!

Anyway, thanks to Anvilcloud who had a link to someone who knew exactly how to remove the difficult word verification system introduced by Blogger, I am now word verification free! So, I would suggest you take full advantage and leave a comment! Without difficult word verification introduced by Blogger!

In other news: the second day in my Norwegian class went a lot better than yesterday. We flew through the book and my pronounciation was a lot better than yesterday. Two more days of intensive Norwegian lessons and I should be able to buy an apple!