Sunday 21 September 2014

Неналюблю

 





When you read the title of this weeks blog you were a little confused. No, you're eyes aren't failing you and no, I'm not blogging under the influence. That's a word in Russian and it's pronounced as “nenalyublyu”; when translated into English it means "I love you but I hate you in this moment."

At least, I think that's what it means. I'm not 100% sure; I found out about it from watching Reginald D Hunters stand-up DVD and I later Googled it. And since I don't have a Russian speaking friend I can't really verify its accuracy. For all I know it might be a very rude word that I would use to describe Vladimir Putin.

Anyway, I digress; what I really wanted to say is that the phrase "I love you but I hate you in this moment" best describes my relationship with the board game Monopoly. As a guy who enjoys his fair share of computer games I still have a soft spot for it. A friend once described how they would play board games with their University roommates and I was more than a little jealous.

My love for Monopoly stems from the fact that I was an only child. That's not strictly true, I have a older sister but as fate would have it I was to be born 10 years after her. Which meant that when I was old enough to appreciate board games my sister was too cool to hang out with her little brother.

I grew up never really playing board games with..(cue Akon's “Mr. Lonely”)..anyone. I did play with my cousins but they weren't really interested; back then they just wanted to play with the Playstation. I would play draughts/checkers with my Dad, usually this took place when he was half-asleep on the couch. I won a lot of matches. Because I'm that good...(it has nothing too do with the fact that my Dad let me win so he could get back to napping)..

Last year I bought myself a Monopoly board game determined to play and I did; with my sister, her husband and my nephew. This was the point when the “I hate you in this moment” part set in. As much as I love Monopoly, it took a really long time to finish a game. Roughly 5 hours.

By the end we were a little bit cross with one another; usually down to the fact that we refused to sell or trade a crucial piece of real estate to one another, giving one player an advantage. Which only made the game last a lot longer. My poor nephew was caught in the crossfire when he had to choose between who he would sell his property to. When the game did finally end we were all pretty glad.

Right now, my Monopoly board game is in my closet. I still look forward to another game. Just not any time soon.





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Sunday 7 September 2014

Lost and Found


I know, I know; it's been a while (a little over 3 months) since my last post but a lot of things have happened since then:

1) Lost...

A little over two weeks since my last post “No good deed goesunpunished...” my hamster decided to eat her young. Either that or they got “poofed” like in TV show “ The Leftovers”; all I can say for sure is that when I went in to clean the cage, I didn't find them. I'm not really sure why this had happened (maybe stress), a few weeks later she did give birth to four more hamster pups and this time she didn't eat them. Sadly out of the four two later died. But the remaining two are enjoying life with their mum.




2) Found...

Two months ago I adopted two kittens into the family, so now I have four cats in total. The first cat, which I named Lucky I found on the main road just outside the school where I dropped off my nephew. The first thought that came to my mind on seeing a cat on the side of the road was that it might have been roadkill. As I approached the kitten raised its head so I stopped and brought it into the car with me and took it home. And she's been here ever since.

Lucky
Saying "Hello", sort of

Enjoying a nap

And just a little over a month after Lucky was found another kitten showed up; this time right outside my front door. She wasn't doing too well at first, she was a little skinny and since I didn't have the heart to ignore her I brought her as well. I named her Ollie after Oliver Twist, since he was an orphan as well. While the older cats aren't exactly pleased with the new arrivals, Lucky and Ollie have gotten on very well together; they're practically siblings and can always be found close to each other. A vase did end up getting smashed; blame Lucky for that.
Awww...

Enjoying the new hamsters as well


Lucky now

Ollie now




3) And then there were Moar...

Just a little over a month after bringing in Ollie a stray cat brought all her newborn kittens into our garden. Apparently she decided our house was a nice place to raise her litter. Well, we didn't exactly have the space (or the patience) to put up with so many cats so we decided to let them stay while we tried to find them a new home. I'm happy to report that we did find them a new home and recently sent them over to their new family.

Out in the garden

Off to their new home :)



That's it for now, as for me I'm planning to start writing again on a regular basis. Unless I get distracted by more critters showing up.


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