The Day And Night #Book Tag - #AmReading

This is another tag I found via Cat. You can see her post for it here. As usual, if you want to play along too, feel free to do so, whether that be on your own blog, in the comments section of this post, or whatever. Just don't forget to tell me where I can find your answers if you're not posting them directly in the comments section of this post, since I'd love to read them, and would hate to miss your post. For now though, here's the tag, along with my own answers.

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D – Do you read more in the morning or at night?

As a general rule, I do most of my reading at night. I always read for a while in the evenings, whether for only a few minutes or for a few hours. However, I can - and often do - also read in the morning or afternoon. But since I read in the late evening every night, and only sometimes read at other times, I definitely do most of my reading at night.

A – Are there any books that changed the way you thought about things?

There are several, though I can't really name titles, or give you examples of how a certain book changed my way of thinking about or looking at something. Whether we realize it or not, the books we read can - and will - influence our thoughts and feelings on a particular subject, whether on a concious or subconcious level.

Y – YA or not?

Yes, absolutely; I read YA books quite often. I read books for all ages, including young adult books. I see no reason why adults shouldn't do so, since there are some fantastic YA books out there, and being older than the intended audience is no reason for me to miss out on getting to read them.

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A – Are there any characters that you honestly believe are real?

Is this a trick question to gage what little sanity I have? I know characters - while based on real people, or a mixture of several real people, regardless of whether the author conciously based them on someone real or not - aren't actually real, even if they feel real. However, there are several I wish were real. Also, in the best books, characters feel real to me while I'm reading the book and following their story, which is the important thing. I can only hope my own readers feel that way about at least some of the characters in my own books.

N – Nobody touches my books or I don’t mind loaning my books out?

Nobody touches my books. I used to be willing to let people borrow my books, but after one too many came back looking battered, with pages bent and scribbled on, etc, I stopped letting people borrow my books.

D – Do you ever smell your books?

I used to, when I could still see to read print books. But smelling braille books and eBooks just isn't the same; they don't have that bookish scent. So I don't any more, and have to settle for enjoying the smell of books if I'm in or near a bookshop, or if someone I know brought a new book and is willing to leave me alone with it long enough for me to have a quick sniff. Yes, I'm weird. No, I don't care what you think of that. At least, I don't care while I'm writing this, though I guess I must care a little, since I try not to make it obvious that I'm offering to carry someone's books for them so I can sniff them. The only thing better than that new book scent is the smell of old books that have been around for a long time; new books smell great, but you can't beat that musty library scent.

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N – Not everyone loves books…Is that a positive or negative?

Neither, though I do think it's a shame. To each their own though, and if books aren't your thing, that's totally up to you. Different people have different interests and passions, and if some people get their enjoyment in a way that doesn't involve books, that's not for me to judge. I do wish those who don't like books wouldn't look down on those who do, and vice-versa, and that everyone would at least give reading a chance though.

I – I keep my books in the best condition or not?

Absolutely! I always try to keep my books in the best condition I can. I mean, it's not easy to damage an eBook - not if I still want to be able to use my Kindle anyhow - but I did when I still read print books too. Even as a child I was reluctant to do anything that could potentially damage a book, prefered to use something as a bookmark rather than folding the corner of a page to mark where I was reading, and didn't scribble in my books. These days I know how much work goes in to producing a book, so am even more dismayed by those who mistreat their books, but from a young age - even before I knew exactly how much work it was to produce a book of publishable quality - I considered them treasures that needed to be cared for as well as possible, and did my very best to take care of mine.

G – Gosh! I have too many books!  True or false?

False. There's no such thing as too many books. I do wish I had more time to read, so my to-read list wasn't so long. But being surrounded by books is pure bliss as far as I'm concerned, and I would never claim I have too many books.

H – Have you ever spilled or stained your books with something, and if so how?

Twice, unfortunately. One time I had a nosebleed that came on suddenly, and a bit of blood dripped on the page before I could do anything about it. Another time I accidentally spilled a whole cup of grape kool-aid on a book... A super-sized cup too. I still feel bad about it... Especially the kool-aid incident, where the book was ruined in the drenching.

T – Toned or untoned?  In other words, do you read and workout at the same time?

Not really. I mean, I have in the past listened to audio books while using a rowing machine or an exercise bike at home. I've also listened to one through headphones while running on a treadmill at the gym. But these days the only exercise I get while reading is housework or playing with the dogs. Mind you, with how much I crawl around the floor with Lilie and Logan when I'm playing ball or tuggy with them, that could definitely count as getting a workout while reading. It's certainly as tiring as doing so, that's for sure!

#MondayMotivation - #Quotes + Words Of #Wisdom 07-09-20

There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.
~Dalai Lama

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
~Robert Collier

Success isn't something that just happens - success is learned, success is practiced and then it is shared.
~Sparky Anderson

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.
~Andrew Carnegie

All great achievements require time.
~Maya Angelou

Nothing GREAT ever happens from thinking SMALL.
~Bryant McGill

It always seems impossible until its done.
~Nelson Mandela

Cut your excuses in half & double your actions around your goals.
~Robin Sharma

Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn.
~Miguel de Cervantes

The tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
~Benjamin Mays

Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again & bring their friends.
~Walt Disney

Artemis Turns 1

 Today isn't usually a posting day.  But today is a special day: Artemis' hatchday.

It's like a birthday, only for reptiles.

Yes, that's right, Artemis is a whole year old today.

We're celebrating - or, since we've already done it, I suppose it would be more accurate to say we've celebrated - by giving her some fresh raspberries.  After all, though tortoises are allowed fruit, it's meant to be considered treats, and what better time is there than to get a treat than on your birthday/hatchday? Plus, since it was her special day, I was a bit more generous with her fruit portion than I usually am, and gave her two berries instead of one.  Anyway, you can see her enjoying her raspberries in the video and photos below.

Happy hatchday, Artemis! May it be the first of many we get to celebrate with you.

I don't even know what to call this post... I'm so done with 2020!

This is going to be a long post.  Also, this post contains lots of complaining.  Don't want to read that kind of thing? Yeah, I don't blame you! If that's the case, come back next week for some nicer posts.  Also, sorry if this ends up in one huge unbroken lump, but I don't have it in me to try and make the new Blogger thingy do paragraph breaks properly right now (if it even does them properly these days).

 

 

August was a terrible month.  In fact, the past few months have been dreadful.  I feel kind of guilty complaining about it when we're still in the midst of a pandemic, but...

 

 

My Nan (Dad's Mother) died last month.  She died late on the night of August 19th 2020 (though it was the morning of August 20th I learned about it) after having spent almost two weeks in hospital with the doctors attempting - and failing - to remove the fluid from her lungs, heart, and everywhere else she had more fluid than she should have.  Not easy to do under normal circumstances, but she also had low salt levels, and several existing health problems to complicate matters.  She was 92 years old (would have been 93 in January) and had several existing health issues, as I said.  So it wasn't entirely unexpected I suppose.  But that doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

 

 

As I said on Twitter and Facebook a few days after she died: I've been torn between wanting to rage at the world for daring to continue as usual without Nan, and wanting to embrace the familiarity of those day to day things that show life goes on as before, wanting to do both at once.  I still feel that way.  It feels like everything has changed and nothing has all at the same time.  I've lost people before, and furkids too, but never a person that was such a big part of my life before, and I'm struggling with dealing with it, especially when it's come on top of everything else the year has thrown at me, and only a little over a week after the anniversary of when I lost Kero too (it's been six years since I lost him; the anniversary of that was August 11th).

Nan was cremated on Wednesday (September 2^nd).  Dad is having her ashes sent to him, and he’ll hold on to them until next year, when – we hope – this virus business will be over, and we can all say, “Goodbye,” properly.  In the meantime, I’m torn between being upset that she was cremated so quietly without any of us there, and glad waiting until next year for her proper send-off means I have a chance of being able to go.

 

 

So many things about Nan’s passing have me torn.

 

Nan has always been there.  She was even part of the same household as me for a large portion of my childhood.  The thought that she no longer is... Well, it's just hard to wrap my head around.  How can Nan not be here any more?

 

 

Oh, and, speaking of Kero, since I mentioned him just now: the itchy issue Lilie mentioned in her post last Friday is the same thing that ultimately led to us putting Kero to sleep.  It’s common in Westies.  We’re hoping this time we knew what to look for well enough to catch it early enough to keep it under control.  If the pills and ointment/shampoo stuff she’s having aren’t enough, it will mean shots.  If those still aren’t enough they’ll do tests to try and pinpoint the exact thing they need to target.  If they can’t – or if they can, but that’s still not enough -... Well, I think you know where I’m going with this.  Essentially, Lilie will have the issue for the rest of her life (though she might get periods when things seem to clear up, if she’s lucky) and how many years that will be depends how long we can keep it from being so much of an issue that she suffers.

 

While dealing with all that, I've also been dealing with the fact our hopes for this move being a good thing have already been dashed.  I know if you’ve read the posts from the past few weeks, you’ll have seen that – despite Mollie and Artemis disliking the actual moving process – the petkids are happy with the move.  Reading those posts you’ll likely think we’re all happily settled in to the new flat, and everything about the move is looking positive.

 

 

You’d be wrong.

 

 

I mean, other than Lilie's issues, the petkids are happy.  Mollie and Artemis love their spots in the new place – though we did have some issues with keeping Artemis’ vivarium from overheating in the heat wave we recently had, so even she considered it too hot during that – and the dogs love that they can see out of the windows, as well as the fact it’s easier for me to manage to take them out too, so they’re getting more walks now we have less steps to deal with.  But – as many do with human children – we’re trying to keep them from being affected by what’s really going on around here.  Though I’m sure they – Lilie and Logan especially – know something is up.  So I tried to keep it out of the posts from them too.

 

 

But...

 

 

When it was discovered that the flat below ours was empty we thought it was a lucky thing, and I suppose it was in some ways.  But it was only a very short time after we signed the tenancy that the owner/new landlord made it clear this was only “Until something more suitable can be found.”

 

 

At first we weren’t bothered about that.  We thought he was being a nice guy who wanted us in a place that was in better repair, and just didn't understand about blind people.  So we figured we’d save up and move when we could.  I mean, his constant comments regarding my lack of sight and how he was assuming my being blind meant I needed this or that (none of which I actually did either want or need) were annoying.  But not everyone understands about blind people, and I thought maybe we could educate him a little while we’re here, so if he’s ever dealing with a visually impaired person in the future they won’t have to deal with his attitude towards blindness.  We figured maybe if he saw me managing just fine he’d learn, and stop hassling us about it.

 

 

He didn’t though.

 

 

First he made us give him the keys for the flat we were vacating early, even though we told him we hadn’t had time to clean up, and then tried to charge us £100 to clean it up.  When I refused to pay that on the grounds that not only had we warned him it would be the case if he robbed us of those days for cleaning, but also there was no way it would cost that much to clean, he got nasty.  We resolved that situation by having him agree we didn’t have to pay if Kelly went and did more cleaning up there.  After all, had he not asked for the keys on July 27^th when we were due to hand them in on August 1^st, Kelly would have done that anyhow during those few days.

 

 

But that was the least of the issues.

 

 

He started phoning every other day reminding me that he’d only given us this place because he felt sorry for me because I’m blind, and had spent £2,500 getting this place nice for me, so me and my dogs better not be trashing it.  Both he and his building manager for this property – or that’s who we were told she was later - have told us if they find it’s not spotless when they come to inspect the place, we’ll be evicted, so it better be maintained to their standards.  There have also been constant accusations of “huge puddles of pee” in the hallway from the dogs (bearing in mind, not only could they not point out where these supposed puddles were when asked, but my dogs are small ones, since I have a Westie and a Cavapoo, so I’m not sure how they could even be expected to do any kind of puddle that might be considered huge).  He even went as far as making a complaint to the previous landlords (who hold the freehold, and therefore responsibility for damage in, the hallway of the building – or did until towards the end of August) so they called us about the supposed puddles in the hallway too.

 

 

On top of that, he had refused to put curtain rails up unless we paid his guys to do it (which we couldn’t afford at the price they wanted) and we weren’t allowed to do it ourselves, since the terms of our tenancy mean we’re not even allowed to hang a picture on the wall, so we had put blankets up at two of the windows (we hadn’t used any nails or screws or anything, just sort of hooked them on the frames, so there was no tenancy breech in doing so).  One was up in the bedroom for privacy in there, and the other was up at the window near Artemis, because her vivarium was reaching temperatures of 40C and above even with the heat lamp off due to the sun shining directly on it, so we needed to give her some shade.  Apparently he didn’t like us having them up though, because he phoned and complained.  I repeated that I couldn’t afford curtain rails, and he hung up on me.  The next day he called and asked if he could pop in because his wife wanted to look around.  I told him that moment wasn’t convenient, but he was welcome to bring her round later.  He said he’d bring her the following day.

 

 

To be honest, with everything he’d said and done up to that point, I was suspicious, so we made absolutely certain the place was spotlessly clean before he arrived (not that it was all that dirty anyhow).  As it happens, I was right to be suspicious, since he arrived next day without his wife, had a quick look around, and – finding no issues but those blankets at the windows – fixated on those.  We told him if he put up curtain rails we’d put up curtains, and he left.  Two days later we got curtain rails, which I’m glad of, though not impressed that they arranged the time and date without asking if it was convenient for us.  Which, as it happened, it actually wasn’t, and meant some last moment rescheduling of things to accommodate them.  Annoyingly, with the windows being so tall, only one of our pairs of curtains actually fit, and we’re having trouble finding some long enough, so he’s likely going to be calling about the fact one of the windows still doesn’t have proper curtains up some time soon (if he hasn’t already by the time this goes live).

 

 

If all that wasn’t enough, on August 18^th 2020, we were attempting to take a nap (since all the stress of this, combined with the heat, has had me sleeping very poorly, so I’ve been just sleeping as and when I can) when his building manager just let herself in to the flat, having made no attempt to inform us she’d be coming, and – we assume by her fast departure and attempt to sneak away (even not closing the door properly, since you can’t close these flat doors quietly) – thinking we were out because it was quiet in here, and then attempting to leave unnoticed when she realized we were here after all.  It’s only that her entering woke me and the dogs, she didn’t properly close the door, and she was seen exiting the building a few moments later, we even know about it.

 

 

It makes me wonder how many times she’s snuck in when we’ve been out.

 

 

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.

 

 

I was going to call Citizen’s Advice, who provide legal aid to those on low income, and see what we could do.  But I told my friend, Lorna, and she found out who my MP was, and had a member of staff from that office waiting for my call, so I called them instead.  I eMailed them about the things in this post, as requested, but I might as well not have bothered, since they said it's not anything they can deal with (which isn't what I was told on the phone, but whatever).  They said to call Citizen's Advice after all, but then they say all they can really do is offer us a lawyer if we need one.  The thing is though, if we go down that route it means who knows how long of things being dragged in front of lawyers, because it's all their word against ours.  Plus, I bet any lawyer the landlord could get is better paid than the one I'd get.  So I'd rather avoid that if possible. 

 

 

So, I guess we're just going to have to put up with things while trying to move.  At least, unless one of them does something we can prove, in which case we can either call the police or Citizen's Advice, depending on what it is they do that we can proove without a doubt.

 

 

In the meantime, everything that can be of what we’d unpacked is being repacked.  We’re trying to save to move as soon as we can.  The sooner the better, and all donations gratefully received.

 

 

Oh, and we’ve also made sure the nice neighbours still in the building know what’s happened, since if the previous landlords hand over those flats too we don’t want those nice neighbours ending up in similar situations.  None of them is blind, but there are dogs to consider.  Plus, I have to wonder if this guy would find something to complain about regardless, so wanted to warn the nice neighbours to watch their backs.  They're good people, and I don't want them stumbling in to a situation like we're now in.

I'm also still dealing with issues with the gas and electric company.

 

 

A temporary card for the gas meter finally arrived (luckily the hot weather meant the temporary credit didn't run out before it did) and when we went to put some money on the meter we lost most of it to a supposed debt.  When I called them about it - bearing in mind, this would make three times we've called to deal with that debt from the previous people - they said there was a debt on the property and since we hadn't proven it wasn't ours we had to pay it.  I pointed out we'd discussed this and had been told it had been cleared, but apparently - and they couldn't have just told us this in the first place - we had to post them our tenancy agreement to prove we only recently moved in.  When I pointed out that geting a copy of that for them was going to be impossible with so many places not open properly, the woman I was talking to told me that was my problem, and I either sent them a copy or paid the debt.  Then she hung up.

I called the company back, and got essentially the same response, except the guy didn't hang up on me.  Anyway, after a bit of yelling and pointing out they were making me regret choosing them, the guy eventually agreed we could try and get a photo of the tenancy and eMail it to them.  But they then weren't happy with the photo (first it apparently wasn't there, and then it apparently didn't prove anything because the signature page wasn't shown, and so on).  Now they should have what they need, but it's going to take them a while to deal with it and clear the debt.  Of course it is. *sigh*

  

At the time I’m writing this, the issue still isn’t resolved.  However, they suddenly have a slot available to install the smart meters next week (on Wednesday September 9^th) instead of making me wait until next month, and they say it will be sorted by then, so they’ll credit what I’m out for having paid part of a debt that wasn’t mine to my meters when they get installed.  We’ll find out next week if they actually do as they’ve promised.

 

 

As I said on Twitter and Facebook, as well as the title of this post: I'm so done with 2020!

Oh, and before anyone says anything about how I should step back from the blog to take some time for myself, etc: I appreciate the thought behind that, but right now dealing with blogs and things is giving me something to focus on besides all the issues, and I need it.  If, however, I feel I need to step away for a while, I will do so.

#AmReading + #AmWatching + #AmListening - Media Shares And #Reviews 03-09-20

The virtue of books is to be readable.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

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Welcome to this week's weekly media shares and reviews post!
 
*Disclaimer: no matter what's being reviewed, all opinions in this post are entirely my own, and I reserve the right to have them, regardless of who may or may not share them. Feel free to express your own in the comments, but please respect my right - and the rights of other commenters - to have opinions that might differ from yours, and to express those opinions too.
 
Also, please remember that I read/watch/listen to things in a variety of genres, and for all ages, so you should make sure you check that the book/movie/show/song is suitable for the intended audience before reading/watching/listening to it, especially if children are involved. I take no responsibility for anythingwhich  may happen as a result of failing to do so.

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OK. Let's see what I've been reading, watching, and listening to, and which song I'm going to share this week, shall we? After all, that's the point of this post, and why you're here today, right?
  

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• Reading:

This week I read one book. So, here's what I read, along with my book review.
  

The Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl, #5)
by Eoin Colfer
My rating: five out of five stars

This is an exciting and entertaining addition to the series. It's very imaginative, the plot is fun and moves at a nice pace, and the characters - those I've come to love from previous books, as well as the new ones introduced in this book - are fantastic.
 

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• Watching:

This week I watched more episodes of "Outlander" season 5.  But that's all
  

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• Listening:

This week I didn't listen to much music, but I did listen to a few random songs, including this one I'm sharing today, which I hadn't heard before, but which feels sort of appropriate for right now.  It's "Astronaut" by Simple Plan, which as far as I'm aware is the only song of theirs I've ever heard (and it was only by chance I heard this one).  Anyway, here it is.