Back again

Ah, following the prime example set by Dopey, I shall tread once more the path of the insane blogger. It's actually more of pure laziness that's keeping this blog unattended to for the last couple of weeks - that, and TONNES of back-logged stuff waiting to be settled (and mostly settled, thankfully!!)

1) Update D/O on electives
2) Elective report (still to be done)
3) Photo albums - and damn proud of them =)
4) Finding a missing box of precious CP seeds
5) Finding some missing CP catalogues
6) Collecting a few Nepenthes from a friend
7) Replying to emails from 2 weeks' worth of netlessness
8) Touching up the garden
9) Touching up my fish tank (OMG - this needs an entire post to explain)
10) And mostly, getting to grips with a drastic change in the people I hang out with in school

I think most people would know about my new groupmates by now .. they aren't a bad bunch, to be honest. Just needs getting used to. It's such a shame, I hate D/O for doing this. It's not easy for a sociophobe cum agoraphobe to really get comfortable with people. Ah. Miss my old group. We did have a good time in the past. Sensible, mature, intellectual people.

OK, enough ranting about this.

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The Tickling Game - several days ago, 20-ish of June?

Most of the time, playing with Brownie = mock war games. I'd get his (new) favourite soft toy rabbit, pretend that it was attacking me and shriek in horror, and the boy would pounce, fling, wrestle and chomp the poor toy into submission.

Just that other day, yx decided it would be funny to tickle an exquisitely-ticklish person. Of course, I decided to fight back and in the midst of this, Brownie hopped into bed and joined in the fun! So it was a tickling fight between 3 people, and then he started imitating us! When I did my low-pitched laugh (from amusement), he'd do a low-pitched grunting noise - the usual "gwow-gwow-gwow" stuff that he does when he's trying to tell us he's hungry. But when I started shrieking (because a certain idiot started tickling me instead of the boy) he actually howled together with me! Haha .. I told yx to reach for the video cam at this point - this would have been a definite AFHV gala-winner - and started choking from tearing too much. It was hilarious. Of course, the fun stopped, and we didn't manage to get a shot of this.

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Garden Day - today

Went out early in the morning to get some materials for the garden, and ended up buying an absolute gem! Bought myself a vine, Jacquemontia violacea, with 2-cm diameter satin-blue flowers. Ooooh, I am so in love with it! Mom's gourds are also putting out fruit. Also bought 4 pakcets of gravel to cover up the muddy areas of the garden, and a couple of fittings - the start of Mission: Automate Garden Watering.

Spent some of the morning conceiving the earliest ideas of making a cactus corner in the garden, inspired by the Princess of Wales Conservatory in Kew. Lithops, anyone?

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Fish tank business - ok, it's a really long story, I think I'll tell it after I've done something about the tank. Vaguely thinking of re-scaping the tank. Veering away from the cliche (as yx guessed at the start I eventually would. Look at the CPs. It started with orchids.) - so, no reef tank I guess. I'm vaguely - vaguely, mind - thinking about a kelp forest biotope. Not giant kelp of course, but mainly seaweedy stuff, bundles of molluscs like mussels and oysters, seagrass, just a couple of corals here and there (I still love corals!!!!!) and seahorses, pipefish and the like. We'll see how the funding goes. As it is, funding's bleak.