Saturday 5th April 2008.
Marty seems to have got his head around recent problems re his identity. He has managed to find humour to deal wth his head mash. He laughed at me last night and said, “Mam, I love you to bits, but when you mess up you certainly mess up good. So how come, when I mess up you come down on me and give me hell.”
“So, darling,” I repiled, “That you won't ever have this conversation with your disappointed kids.” Also, not one to miss the main line, he hit on the fact that as he's Nigel's first born son and therefore his heir he asked if he could claim an inheritance when he carks it. I said that it was entirely possible. He's of the opinion that if he's cursed enough to be lumbered with Valentine for a name then somebody should have to pay for that. I did bring him down to earth a bit when I explained to him that he loved it when he was five years old. He told me that I should have just had him put down then.
When he found out it came out of the blue and was a big shock to him. He's gone away, thought about it, decided that it doesn't alter who he is, dealt with it and he's okay.
Tia is sleeping over tonight for the first time since we had the huge fall out. We have her a bed, we have her a night light ...what can possibly go wrong?
I have had the test results on the Bardies and neither of them carry the Adeano Virus. This is fantastic news. It also means that it's an almost certainty that Bombo and Kadina didn't have it either, so their deaths are still a mystery.
I think I mentioned awhile ago that I rang my friend at Chetwynde (posh kids) school. I asked if he had any pupils particularly interested in animals and the possibility of going on to a career working with them. I asked him for a couple of kids to come once a week to do some intensive handling with the animals.
Well, so far it's been a huge sucsess. I have two girls, Emma and Ruby who come for an hour on a Sunday and usually stay for about three hours. They are doing a great job, and now I'm feeling guilty that I don't pay them. However, as Russ says, they are gaining lots of experience and that's going to be worth more to them than a few quid in their pockets. Emma is doing very well, but is a little bit nervous with them. Ruby has taken to it brilliantly. They have been for the last two Sundays and Ruby came again on Tuesday afternoon. She did some handling and took Kali for a walk for me. My only critisism is that they will try and restrain the animals. I've asked them repeatedly not to do this. They have to give the lizards freedom to move ... but it's just a case of them learning. My lizards are forgiving, though Ruby has been crapped on all three times that she's been. Emma, so far has escaped this sign of love and affection! I had to laugh at Ruby on Tuesday, she was getting one of the lizards out and I said to her. “Don't forget to talk to them all the time. Call them by name, they all know their names.”
“Yes, but therein,” (she's a posh bird,) “lies the problem... I don't know their names yet.”
“Ahh, good point.”
They are good girls. The troop are getting loads of extra handling, even if it is only on a Sunday, and it's all working out well.
This Sunday was weigh in and I do have some slight concerns. We had four losing weight this month.
Isa Bearded dragon, 5 grams
Bali Frilled Lizard, 5 grams
Falcon red iguana, 8 grams
Shilma Lepoard gecko 9 grams.
The fact that Isa has lost five grams is wonderful. She's overweight I'm trying to restrict her food intake. However, because we lost two Bearded dragons last month, it could have been cause for concern. Could have been, but isn't in this case, she's still eating and doing well. So that's a good result.
Bali and Tanimba's weight loss came as a bit of a shock because they seem to have been eating more recently. For big lizards like them a few grams is nothing .. but as I'm still trying to build them both up. I'm keeping a very close eye on them.
Falcon is my biggest concern. We are into our third month with him now and I've never yet seen him eat or drink a thing. Obviously he is eating and drinking because he'd be dead lizard leather by now if he wasn't. However I'd been hoping for an increase this month and a decrease is not good. I gave him some hard scrutiny last night. I was watching him climb from one branch to a higher one about eight inches above him. My God, he's beautiful. He's certainly lean, but he's in no way emaciated. When he moves there isn't a spare gram of fat on him, but his muscles are filled and toned. I'm concerned at this point but not excessively worried. I'm going to put him on weekly weigh in's for awhile so that if any problems are arising I can catch them before it becomes serious.
Earlier in the week I was worried sick about Shilma, my little leo. A nine gram loss is quite significant when you only weigh 61 grams to begin with. Lizards can be very bouncy, bouncy, pouncy, flouncy things. For some species this is fine and they can jump around all over the place. For some it's not a good thing. A combination of little legs and soft belly's are usually a good indication that it's not in the lizards best interests to drop them. Two weeks ago Shilma had a little fall when she jumped out of Russ' hands. She seemed okay at the time but for two weeks after that I didn't see her eat. This doesn't mean that she definitely didn't eat at all, but I never saw her when normally she's very good at taking food in full view. I wondered if she might be gravid (pregnant). She came to us as an adult in full breeding condition and I expected her to become gravid almost immediately. In fact I'm surprised that we haven't had eggs by now. I've examined her and there is no indication at all that she's with egg. Leo's only lay two eggs at a time (and just one on their first ever clutch) and you can clearly see an egg forming on either side of the abdomen when they are gravid. There's nothing to see with Slima. She does look good though. She's on the slim side of perfect but not in poor condition at all. Up to the other night I did worry that she was going to starve herself to death and that we might lose her too. I made an appointment to take her to the vets for Friday ... but Wednesday night I saw her take two locust. I saw her take two but she'll probably have had five or six. The night after she took five wax worms from the feeding tongs. She's absolutely fine and I'm not concrned about her at all now. Wax worms are very fattening and great for building them up, so I'm going to fire a load of them into her this month. She refused them last night, much to her mate, Kashmir's delight, but it's all good.
Of the others, we have no statics and everybody else has gained. This is fantastic for most of them. I'm watching Assante, the bosc monitor lizard, carefully. They are very prone to obesity but she only gained 29 grams this month which is acceptable. Stoker the blood python had a big gain putting on a massive 298 grams but he's a big growing lad.
My worry, my bane, my pain, my bloody nuisance, that damned green iguana, Frog put on a huge 180 grams in one month, making her 503 grams. She can not continue to grow at this rate. In fairness she is growing massively (and fast) in size as well as weight. She's well over four foot long now. She's at the stroppy adolescent stage where her bones are growing and need lots of vitimin supplementation to keep them strong. Her tail is as thick now as her body was last month. My problem is that I keep the two iggies together. One I'm trying to fatten up and the other I'm hoping to slim down. It's a bloody nightmare.
Frog says, “Oh I'll just sidle over here, while 'she's' not looking and eat your share as well as my own, Falcon me old mate.”
And Falcon says, “Oh, go on then, I didn't want it anyway.”
My big success this month is all five of my water dragons. Both the Chinese and the Aussies have gained beautifully. Eden my Alpha male Aussy is becoming magnificent and may have to be separated off shortly. I need to check my old records to find out when they reach their sexual maturity. I don't want to risk him getting some vim in his hemi-penis and having a crack at Merriden. Looking at the Aussy's I believe that I have a definite pair in Eden and Merriden, and Cooma, is I believe another male, which is a shame, but the good thing is that Australian water dragons are one of the few species of lizard where the males will live happily in colonies. The jury's still out with the Chinese water dragons, but it's looking as though Shanghai is male and I wouldn't like to have a hard guess on Chi-ting yet. 'He' could go either way but I'm leaning towards male.
The tickets have arrived for our holiday. We are going to the Letoonia golf resort in Belek, Turkey. I've checked it out on the internet and It looks fantastic. They have horse riding which is a big plus for me. It looks like being quite a sporty holiday and most of it is all inclusive. Only the most extreme of the sports have a charge. You name it and, if it's physical, they provide it. As well as the two huge outdoor swimming pools they have an indoor Olympic sized pool for serious swimmers. All the usual gym, sauna, racquet sports, whirlpool, Turkish bath, free massage, wind surfing, para gliding, scuba diving ... all sorts. My plan is to swim in the indoor pool one hundred lengths a day. I want to take a daily yoga class. Play some quash and probably badmington too. And, depending on the cost I want to get in at least two sessions of advanced horse riding, which will entail a good hard gallop on the beach...fantastic.
Do I expect to come back fit, toned and beanpole thin, er no. Get this for eating. Breakfast rolls into brunch, rolls into lunch, rolls into afternoon tea, into high tea, into tea and cakes at five o'clock, rolls into dinner, into supper, into late supper, into midnight feast and then there is free room service available from midnight to seven in the morning. The barbecues, ice-creams and seven snack bars, doing everything from crepes to Mexican, to burgers and full breakfasts are all free and run all day. Oh dear oh dear. I love the sound of the vitamin bar. It's a smoothy and juice bar available all day and most of the night, the perfect hangover cure.
I aim to wear a bikini without frightening the locals. Me, in a bikini, who'd have thought that five years ago when I weighed in at twenty two stone, eh? I may even go topless if that's still the trend. Sooooo... following the natural progression of logic. I am on day five of my latest crash diet. I aim to lose two stone between now and the twenty ninth of April, that's three weeks. So far I have starved myself and lost just five pounds. Stupid? Oh yes. Do I care? Oh no.
I am also half killing myself with obsessive/compulsive yoga. I have written my own two hour programme and aim to repeat it several times a day. On the front of the Barbara Currie yoga dvd box it says, 'Sculpt your body in just 28 days'. Well, this old body would need the expertise of Michelangelo himself to do that. I'm out yogaring old babs, so lets see if the claims are true.
I'm thinking of seeing if Jan, the landlady of the Gauntlet, has a couple of free hour slots to let out in the function room. I'm thinking of running a yoga class a couple of nights a week. I'll have to keep it up then.
Twenty three sleeps!
