Tag: Everyday life

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My rat is back…

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

And this time it’s serious! There seems to have been a brief absence although, to be fair, I’ve not been sitting peering at the bird feeder all hours of the day and night. I have, however, been there at regular times and Ms Rat has not and I suspect the reason has been what used to be called ‘confinement’. Mrs Rat, instead of perching on the feeder and stuffing herself with seeds and raisins while the finches and sparrows hurl abuse from the sidelines, was this evening, nipping up the tree trunk, hopping over onto the platform, and making off … Continue reading My rat is back…

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Cross-over blog: exciting but not as exciting as CSI…

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’ve been away this week on a part business, part family trip such that the experiences, some of them quite unspeakable, straddle my two online identities in terms of blogworthiness. If you live in north America or Australia you won’t be impressed but for us Brits, a trip of 300 miles or more demands military grade attention to detail and personal fitness. This is because we don’t expect to spend more than an hour in our vehicles or encounter anything approaching inclement weather and so we are constantly outraged when that happens. Our outrage is justified because the builders of our roads don’t expect … Continue reading Cross-over blog: exciting but not as exciting as CSI…

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Unexpected visitor

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

 As Basil Fawlty would say ‘Is not hamster – is rat!’ Lady rat in fact, and a fit looking one as well so I reckon she’ll be bringing the kids along soon. The birds seem unperturbed and so the inter species melee of feathered flutterings and furry scuttlings expands and contracts with reference only to some programmed circuit of visiting schedules rather than the sudden acquisition of a verminous mammal. I quite like rats. Kept a few in my time, mostly black hooded lever-savvy types, so this one’s appearance doesn’t freak me out. Can’t say the same for the neighbours … Continue reading Unexpected visitor

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Rehabilitating ‘Man Flu’

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This is it, take a look, a rhinovirus in all its bumpy, canyony, proliferatingly infective glory – nasty little blighter! It arrives by stealth; hanging about in the air after someone has sneezed, or lurking insidiously on door knobs, papers, tables and chairs, following the trail of unwashed hands. It gets into your nose, wrecks your cells, mucks about with their DNA, then expels itself in search of new victims. But that’s not all it does, oh no! To call it  ‘just a cold’ is to misunderstand and to minimise entirely the impact it has on every other aspect of … Continue reading Rehabilitating ‘Man Flu’

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Getting the bird

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Last weekend, on the instructions of the RSPB and the BBC so who was going to dare decline, the nation counted its birds. For an hour of our own choosing on either the Saturday or the Sunday we were to sit peering into our  gardens cataloguing the wee wing-ed beasties as they dropped in for a visit. Robins – 2 of, Collared doves – 3 of, Sparrows – 4, no make that 5 of, Blue Tits – 2, 5, 3, DAMN keep still will ya! Starlings? Who’s here for Starlings? The instructions were to watch only for an hour and … Continue reading Getting the bird

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and it was all going so well..

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

After the snow we had mud and then we had torrential rain but today, just short of the frogs and boils which must surely follow, the day was glorious. Beautiful sunshine, the river at its height, blue sky reflected in large tracts of still water on the flood plain, and swans posing for photographs along the banks. Back in the garden, birds were visiting to take advantage of the food left out for them, and a butterfly – I kid you not – landed on the parasol. I kid you not about that unlikely feature either; every time I went out to … Continue reading and it was all going so well..

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Let battle commence!

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The CC ‘I-less’ writing challenge has closed and Prune-Ella is up against 13 others for the grand title of – well, nothing at all really. I must say though, if Prune-Ella did her stuff and flounced the opposition, I would be ridiculously pleased and need restraining from making postcards to send to people I hardly know. Also completed today was the last tutorial of the OU course which leaves just the final assignment due at the end of the month. I have a half formed offering that reads ok but doesn’t grab me. Do I work on it and make it … Continue reading Let battle commence!

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This ikigai stuff is dangerous!

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

There I was, ticking along with the bi-partite job bringing in the money and the sense of having a handle on things while I scratched away at snippets of fiction, then one sniff of ikigai and I’m thinking ‘novel’! How does that happen? How will it happen? I’m pretty familiar with project management and, way back in oooh-you-don’t-want-to-know, determined that my PhD was only going to take as long as I was being paid for so I’ve already got three years in my head. I’m conveniently ignoring the fact that I’m still working full time but I wonder if I should … Continue reading This ikigai stuff is dangerous!

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