Water Fowl – a Grand day out (by sarah)

Way back in the fog that was last year we had a day out at Slimbrigde Waterfowl Sactuary, becuase of everything that happen I never got round to posting this and as a result I've sort of forgotten what half the birds are :/

We went along with Alaric's friends Ben and Jenny who have membership and so had a vachour to get us in cheap. It was a really nice and slightly too hot day.

These are Himalayian geese.

This is a Goose.

A coot, a bird that I always get to wind my cousins up about it being their surname 🙂

More geese.

This is a picture of the birds grooming.

This is a Moorhen

A black swan which I think was from Australia.

This one is a white swan.

Flammingos, they had I think at least three types there and this has resulted in me writing a childrens story thing that I just need to do the illstrations for. The food pellets of the Flamingos contain the carrotine they need to remain pink. They also have gay flamingos that hatch spare eggs 🙂

There where lots of chicks and duckling and in this case sygnets 🙂

I also found out that the southern hemisphere doesn't have any true geese they are instead basically shell ducks - one of these photos is of such a 'goose' but I can't remember which :/

We also went into the hatchery and got to look at all the baby birds which was great and really instructive some of the birds where so sweet and other pretty I have to say the smell of rotten fish from the flamingo enclosers was a bit over powering but it was a really nice day out.

Feeling yuck (by sarah)

Hmmm Christmas plus birthday plus accidentle ingestion of cows milk has resulted in me loosing wieght a bit too quickly once again, ulcers bleeding and I think its even managed to act up the arthritis - can arthritis be an allergic reaction too food? I am once again suffering the mild affects of anemia as well - with nose bleeds, blurred visoun, palpatations and the like.

I think its time for another trip to the doctors as things are obviously complicated by the pain killers I am taking etc...

Of course it could all be stress...

Yesturday I ended up in bed alot and so am feeling that I have achieved very little. Sorry to be winging yet agian but I thought I should explain why I haven't/wont be making it to alot of stuff in the next week. (Sunil I am really really sorry about your birthday).

Soya Stupidity (by sarah)

Currently suffering from having drunk cows milk in abundance I recalled that I wanted to write about what I think of as Soya Stupidity.

Now I tend to order drinks with soya milk when out becuase the chances of them having goats milk is remote and the only other non-diary option they normally offer is Rice Milk which I really can't stand (Jean loves the stuff). To my utter astonishment I have ended up with drinks made with soya with cream ontop :/ For me this completely defeats the point, but several times now in different coffee shops I have been told that poeple generally do want the cream and they have been shouted at for assuming that the person doesn't want the cream. They get shouted out far less just adding the cream unless you specifically say you dont want it.

This seems bizar to me as all the reasons I can think off for using soya milk would seem to me to render the use of cream a bad thing - to wit:

• You are vegan and therefore do not consume any animal products including cream.
• You have a food intolerance or other health problem that means diary products make you sick - this would I'd have thought made the cream probably worse for you than just having the drink made with cows milk without the cream?
• You are watching your diet either for weight lose or something like cholesterol control - again this would all surelly be voided by the presance of the cream

The only thing I can think of is that some people prefer the taste of soya milk but still like cream - personally I hat the taste of cream unless it is the pretend foam stuff in squirty cans and was always disappointed when things turned out to have real whipped cream on them.

It is an odd situation I feel.

Feast Meeting and where it may lead (by sarah)

So tonight I sat in the AGM of the Village Feast Commity - they organise the deer roast in the summer and the blues night ect... that we have unceromoneously dragged people too 😉

The out come of this? I want to make a website containing the history of the village feast as we have just been given a second archive in two years including programmes and stuff, I think I have possibly been press ganged into a chior and an art class - Sarah looks at her busy life and think - hmmmmm....

Still the choir would share weeks with the writting class which would be cool as it wouldn't mean giving up yet another night, it is gaspel choir and I am still a bit in two minds about it all. I really miss singing but I dont really like sticking to one type of singing. The actual village choir is very very coral and a gospel choir I assume just does gospel? I really miss the Haverning Youth Choir with its diversity from Magrigals to african chants, through in a bit of jazz and folk and I'm almost happy - well as long as I have access to my guitar and my Tori Amos music book not to mention the Nivana one. These choirs dont cost anything to belong to which is a bonus - I am a bit nervous of making commitements on Tuesday and Thursday nights as I am hoping to go back to college and they are the nights of the actual lectures you have to attend.

The art class you do have to pay for but is actually held in the farm just up the hill from us, it is a course rather than a perminant thing but the financial cost has me umming and ahhing at the moment.

Oh for a time dialation machine and a money press :/

Failure to Write Fantasy (by sarah)

Sorry to be writing about writing again :/

I wouldn't mind but its not even like I am a proper writer I've only ever had poems published - they seem really easy to get published for me bizarlly and I dont even like poetry :/

Anyway, I have been trying to write some fantasy and failing miserably, I always start off fine with dragons or fairys or witches, monsters that lerk and then at some point - generally during about the thrird chapter I suddenly realise that what I have described is gentic engerneering, a world with different physical constants or nanotech by a different name. It doesn't matter what I dream up there ends up being some scientific explaination.

I think this is becuase for me a story has to hold together and that means the world, realm, universe, or where ever else it is based has to hold together logically. Everything in that world has to obey the same rules or subsets of otherwise the story becomes laughable. Those rules may be vastly different from those that govern the 'real world' but they have to be consistant through out or if they do change they change in a consistant way.

To me though once you realise this all you are doing is making worlds with slightly different physical constants or different amounts of elelments or some such and then I find that though on the surface the story looks like fantasy it has become scifi suffering from the problems all my attempts at scifi have as I make tables of what does what and why.

As a result of this and the scifi problem I have far far too many stories started, some quiet far through. I wonder sometimes if I'll ever finish any of them - n the plus side if I do start finishing them I'll have lots of finished books all at the same time :/

Ella's efforts during Write a noval Mounth have made me think that perhapse I am being a bit too pick nicky but I cant help it and most of all I want the sort of stories i want to read - this is more important to me than being published. I just wish I could actually settle to these stories rather than writing all this silly Romance :/