HEROIN IS A DRUG TO MAKE THE WORLD GO AWAY

THIS IS A BLOG ABOUT A LIFE WITHOUT HEROIN



Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts

Saturday, 8 November 2014

Smith's Vole

Furry Friday on Saturday
Smith's Vole is the only type of vole native to Japan...
They have tiny little eyes...
They love nibbling things...
+ They're related to the common European water vole...
かわいいですね
That means AREN'T THEY CUTE!!
WISHING Y'ALL A V CHEERY WEEKEND
私はあなたにすべての陽気な週末をお祈りしております。

Saturday, 28 June 2014

The Etruscan Shrew: Smallest Mammal in the World

FURRY FRIDAY ON SATURDAY

The Etruscan shrew Suncus etruscus; by weight it is the tiniest mammal in the world...


It is native to Southern Europe and parts of Asia including Burma...


This little guy is fully grown...!


Wishing y'all a fantabulous weekend!


Saturday, 24 May 2014

Singing Mice of the American Forests...

Furry Friday on Saturday...


Deep in the jungles of Costa Rica and Panama, the Central American singing mouse Scotinomys teguina chirrups and chirps to avoid fights and confrontations with his neighbours...


Saturday, 19 October 2013

Pygmy Shrews, Harvest Mice and Roborovski Hamsters: tiniest mammals in the world!

FURRY FRIDAY ON SATURDAY!

THE EURASIAN PYGMY SHREW
(Sorex minutus)
weighing in at just 4g
with a 2inch (52mm) body and 32mm (1¾inch) tail
is the tiniest mammal in Europe
and the second tiniest in the world
(after the African pygmy mouse)

In a hand: to scale:~
How tiny and cute!
It's actually slightly smaller than the exceedingly agile Eurasian harvest mouse (Micromys minutus)
Which is very tiny and cute too!
Also very little in comparison to the human hand:
And quite a lot smaller than the Mongolian pygmy hamster
(Phodopus roborovskii)
~ better known as the roborovski hammy,
which is the tiniest hammy in the world
and, at just 50mm/2inches no longer in the body
but which weighs an average 20-25g ~ 5-6 times more
How delightful! This one's a teenager:
Pygmy shrew on Youtube:
Roborovski hamsters in the wild
(Northern China):~

Yes, as my American friends like to say, they are indeed
"SO ADORABLE!"
(We in Britain tend to prefer "delightful" ~ and of course they're both!)

WISHING Y'ALL A VERY FURRY WEEKEND INDEED!






Saturday, 8 June 2013

New Furniture New Home!

 FINALLY MY FLAT IS FURNISHED!

I got a brick red 2½ seat sofa, a large bookcase, a film director's chair, an occasional table and a TV and DVD stand. All for just £60. ($93.34). The furniture was free. £60 was the cost of hiring a van + 2 people. On reflection the two people weren't probably necessary but I was freaking out so badly about this furniture getting stuck on the public stairwell then a huge fire breaking out and 200 people burning to death because their one escape route was blocked by my flambeéd couch. And I was thinking "but I don't even own an axe to break it up!" Not that I'm totally neurotic or anything...

Last night, around the time I was delivering household rubbish and recycling to their respective bins, my mobile phone somehow went walkies. I felt totally lost without it. The bastard who found it switched it off. Eventually. Giving false hope for several hours that it might merely have fallen into some long-forgotten enclave of my home, only to rouse me with its cheery chirping next time someone chose to call...

What with severe furniture stress, the missing phone was the last straw and I went into a miniature psychotic episode with mental confusion, voices laughing and echoing twisted speech through the sinuous rills of my head and everything. Ultra-luminous bizarre thoughts pinging through my mind, echoing back and forth in an auditory reverberational kaleidoscope. So I took a stonking great dose of quetiapine, the antipsychotic, but still woke up at 5am. (By which time the voices had vanished.)

Binky has been such a good friend to me. Amid much exclamation at the depth to which I'd allowed my living conditions to sink (I had spent weeks camping on a stained concrete floor on uncovered duvets with no furniture to my name except a pine dining chair covered in rubbish). She cleared ALL the junk within the space of ONE single hour. That's absolutely amazing. Do you know it could easily have taken me TWO DAYS, pottering constantly all day, to achieve not even that much of a feat. In the Rubic's Cube of the human genome, the "cleaning gene" somehow passed me by.

All I need now is a fridge-freezer, a cooker and a washing machine. As much as anyone "needs" a nonessential like a washing machine I do need one. Handwashing clothes isn't really ideal and our local launderette charges £4 ($6.10) for 1½ domestic washloads and their dryers are CRAP. 50p (76c) a pop and they barely dry at all!

I'm not bothering with fitted carpets. Never thought particularly much of 'em anyhow. What I'm going to do is collect rugs about the size of a single bed. And just put ten or more of those down. Rugs look très bohème. I used to share a house with a girl who decked out her room au style bédouin what with Indian wallhangings threaded in gold, wooden chests and incense-burners galore... I'm not sure I'd go that far. After all I am a 41-year old man not a 25 year old girl. But it's a good sauce of inspiration...

I'VE FOUND THE BREED I WANT for my ferocious guard-puppy. Like I said, it has to be threatening and agressive (in a totally non-legally-challenging way) to would-be muggers. As for any burglars fool enough to break into my pad, it can feel free to savage them to death, as long as it doesn't ruin by Bedouin rugs with bloodstains. I think housebreakers are scum of the earth. Apart from fierceness, the main characteristic on my bodyguard-puppy wishlist is cuteness. It must have pointy-up ears and bushy fur... In other words what I need is an akita-tosa cross.

Usually when I talk about akitas, people assume I mean the tosa 土佐犬 fighting dog (something like a Japanese pitbull). The akita 秋田is actually a Japanese police dog ~ much more similar, in character and looks, to a German shepherd.

Mix the two together, however, and you get a massive dog who is very cute + very fierce-looking indeed!

Being regulated under the UK 1991 Dangerous Dogs act, I think it slightly unlikely that I'm likely to come across a tosa able to breed with an akita. Which is such a shame. Binky has been driven to the edge of distraction by my ceaseless "attack puppy name brainstorming". Top of the list so far are Qleddebber and Boddlemmer. Neither really "means" anything. I just like the sounds.

If I got a terrifyingly scary, ginormous female akita-tosa I might call her Bloodwin (after the Welsh name Blodwen, which means "white flower"...)

Oh and by the way, if you're wondering what type of inadequate person I must be to want such a horrendous dog, YES I AM. I also want a friend. Dogs are far more trustworthy than any people I've ever met. Also I'm dead set on having absolute control over this baying wild beast. When I click my fingers she rolls over, sits and gives me a paw. She will never pull on the leash. She won't go wild jumping up at strangers (which really annoys me in other people's pets and would embarrass the hell out of me if my attack puppy did the same). She will be intensely stand-offish, just like every akita I've ever met. And she will have a gorgeous bushy coat.

Because the regulations say I'm only allowed ONE dog or ONE cat (not even one of each) ie if she did have puppies I couldn't keep them, I'm not quite so bothered about getting a female now.

Binky says I wouldn't want to be bothered feeding or walking this gigantic beast. But I live minutes away from one of the biggest open spaces in London, where doggies are allowed to ramble freely (no leash laws here).

Hey wouldn't it be fun to rehome a retired police sniffer dog? Then every time I relapsed back on to heroin we could play "hunt the baggie"... Of course I'm not relapsing on to heroin... it's just an entertaining image...

AS FOR MY SOBRIETY I'm not posting anything about being "clean" (ie on methadone but not heroin) until I've managed two weeks flat. I've been told you don't even out until you've done that time... (Which I have, on many occasions ~ only I never counted days and so I never really thought about how long I'd gone "clean" (never really thought about heroin use either. 

Because I've only ever gone clean because I didn't want to use. If I did, I'd use. Simple as!

ANYWAY, it's a cheery, bright weekend here in London. I hope y'all have a great weekend too!


Illustrated: red sofa a bit like mine, tosa-inu, akita-inu, akira-tosa cross, sinuous rills, dirty drug "works"...

video

funky houses
love this



frantic/hardhouse academy 2004
don't know the name of this tune, but I like it...



tony de vit djing at trade club

Saturday, 12 January 2013

The Most Beautiful Birds in the World

 
 
feathery friday on saturday
 
Who can name the most beautiful birds in the world?
Well here are five good candidates...
 
 
SWANS
a white mute swan and an Australian black swan
 


EAGLES
this is a Scottish golden eagle
 


CONURES
these are sun conures, some of the brightest parrots in the world
 

 
BLUE TITS
favourite British garden birds
 

 
HUMMINGBIRDS
not sure of the specific species, but isn't it wonderful...
 
 
LAUGHING PARROT
I think this is a green amazon...
 
 
 
wishing y'all
a very chirpy weekend!

Saturday, 8 December 2012

Midwinter Pigeons Having a Bath (etc)...

I SAW a flock of pigeons having a bath in a puddle this morning. They're very brave birds as it was about one degree celcius out there. I wish I'd had a camera phone to record it. But here instead are some birds in Pnom Pen...


What else can I say. I've given up the drugs again and this time it might work, because I woke up at four a.m. and tried drinking hot tea to keep warm and either the tea or the lack of sleep has made me high and I'm feeling so good I don't NEED drugs. Or drug singular. The one substance in the equation being the Killer B. The Big H. Brown Heroin.

Righto I've got to go I've got Mr Kipling's 6 Xmas Cake Slices on me and they're begging to be eaten. After which I really need a crash diet. I could do with losing 5½ stone/77lbs/35kg. I don't care if that makes me too skinny, I'm fed up of looking like Benny from Crossroads.

Righty-ho I must fly. Have a chirpy weekend...


And just for the entertainment, here's a chirpy lovebird:~~~~~



♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
 
O and 1 last thing. I love this tune...
 
FRIDGE ~ PARADISE ~ KOMAKINO MIX
 
 
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫

Saturday, 24 November 2012

Saturday, 17 November 2012

Spiny Mice

FURRY FRIDAY ON SATURDAY

Real Mice... With Spines!







Wishing y'all a Spiny Weekend... But not too spiny...

Saturday, 10 November 2012

Orange-Yellow Monkeys

 
 
 
 
 
FURRY FRIDAY ON SATURDAY!
 
ORDINARILY I'm not a huge fan of monkeys; they're too humanoid to be cute... but aren't these yellow ones the furriest entertainers you've ever seen?
Does anybody know what types they are?
Because despite my best efforts at googling, I still haven't a clue what they're called...

 

 
"Take a leaf outta my book..."
 
 
Real Monkeys of Orange County
 

 
"I want my Mummy!"
 

 
Monkey Correctional Centre: ~ "Lemme out!"
 
 
Designer primate:~ monkey feet in pollen orange by Manolo Blahnik; furry head by Philip Treacy; fur coat: Fendi
 
 
*******
 
FURRY ADOPTION: MOUSEY MONKEY; ORANGE BABY KITTY-CAT!
 



WISHING Y'ALL A VERY FURRY WEEKEND INDEED!
 
 
*******

Saturday, 13 October 2012

Our Awesome Cosmos


I HAVE NEVER FELT further away from God than I do now.

Watching this, the vastness and the glory of things I could never understand, I try ~ and yet I can barely conceive of the Mind who stretches from these vast distances into infinity.

And I wonder, who am I in the scheme of things.

And will I ever be remembered?





*****************************************************************


BARBER'S ADAGIO FOR STRINGS 
sung by the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge


The visuals are by Nasa







If you want to see what originally put me in the "cosmic" mood, it was the Carl Sagan short film You are Here (Pale Blue Dot) from the bottom of yesterday's post...

Sunday, 30 September 2012

I Hate Weekends

UKKKKHHH WHAT A WASTE OF TIME. It took me all day just to get up. Properly. I actually got up at around 6:30am because I know when I'm not going to sleep any longer. Then I watched some French crap and brooded. Then I switched to American crap: some Danielle Steel mini-drama about a beautiful woman with very fake looking blue-eye contact lenses whose ancient husband is terminally ill falls in love with another man. Halfway through I started leafing through a book, but it was still OK.

I tried going back to bed in the afternoon because I felt so ill but it was a waste of time.

My friend Pink is back in the nuthouse. Transferred back from the unit that gave her skin-grafts for third degree burns she inflicted on her leg by deliberately setting herself on fire. I cannot handle going in there today because 1 she is confined to her room with her leg in splints so no smoking and 2 I cannot face having a shower.

I keep forgetting I am actually (theoretically, at least) taking an antidepressant every single day. For what good it does me. This afternoon I started feeling desperate enough to go and hit doctors I don't know with a sob story about having come down from Manchester with a plane to catch and how I desperately need my Prozac (to induce a manic episode) or Dothiepin (to OD and hopefully die). I think I'd go for the Dothiepin because it's meant to be stronger than Prozac anyhow. Dothiepin is a tricyclic antidepressant, the only type that is worth ODing on. Because you really do go into the classical Danielle Steel drama style unconsciousness. Then you start fitting out. Which knowing my luck would attract my fuckwit neighbours, because fitting people can involuntarily scream. Then you have a heart attack and hopefully never come back. Dothiepin is now known as dosulepin, apparently: see ~ I would have got busted straight away asking for a drug that hasn't even bourne its own name for 20 years...

Well I don't want to die. I just want to get out of here because I am boiling hot. I have a dr's appointment on Wednesday anyhow. The "antidepressant" I mentioned being on is actually an antipsychotic (Seroquel). If I'd been popping real antidepressants I'd have gone star-rocketing up a long while ago. But Seroquel does nothing. It is only recommended for bipolar depression because bipolar people's brains are so fucked they cannot tolerate any normal drugs at all.

Well I've got to go. Sweat is running down my back it is disgusting. I hope your weekend was a hell of a lot better than mine.

Saturday, 29 September 2012

Rebel Songs

I AM ONLY HERE because I had to go out to get methadone, and the internet cafe is on the way back from the methadone chemist. If I didn't have to go out, I would have gone back to bed already. I feel intensely sad today. I cannot face the world.

But I did find 2 musical gems. I was trawling the world gone by. Who would ever have thought I of all people would grow up into someone who hates the here and now?The past is my one refuge.

These are the 2 musical gems: both by Jeanette:~~

JEANETTE DIMECH
Jeanette singing Soy Rebelde in English: "I'M A REBEL"




JEANETTE: Corazon de Poeta in English
A HEART SO WARM AND SO TENDER




Why are all songs about rebels sad?
Here's Sinead O'Connor: REBEL SONG
~~which would have been better titled ENGLISHMAN



I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE AN OK WEEKEND...

✔ ➝☨+*✔ ➝☨+*

Sunday, 23 September 2012

Autumnal Already

SUNDAY EVENING: dark, rainy and cold. I can't wait to sleep tonight.

Saturday, 22 September 2012

Judy Garland: A Complete Mess

I SAW A TV FILM called Life With Judy Garland: Me And My Shadows first thing in the morning. My: was she a mess. I knew she had her pill problems, but didn't realize they were quite that bad. In the end she was taking 1600mg a day of Seconal, on top of heavy doses of (prescribed) amphetamine. Plus she was drinking heavily. Barbiturates like Seconal are supposed to magnify the effects of alcohol considerably. They also cancel out the jitterier side-effects of speed, so you get a double-high.

In the beginning she was depicted on speed giving a master performance: singing her heart out, gesturing, pinging across the stage, reaching out to audience members' hands etc. Then she put in an Oscar-nominated performance opposite James Mason in the 1954 film A Star Is Born ~~ and yet no-one wanted to hire her afterwards because by that stage in her career she was already considered unreliable.

In the end she was performing concerts in theatres for practically no money because she owed it all to the IRS as back taxes for movies made the decade before. Drunk, confused, forgetting what song it was, tangling herself up in the microphone wire. And booed off the stage in Australia.

Her poor daughter Lorna Luft (upon whose memoir the film was based) had to tell a family court judge that she wanted to be with her mom rather than her dad because her mother couldn't live without her. This was true, in the most literal way. The judge sighed and granted custody to "Miss Garland". And the drunken, drugged confusion continued.

Towards the end, Lorna, who is barely in her teens, is reduced to a state of nervous collapse and physical exhaustion and realizes she just cannot go on. So Judy Garland is left alone and drinking. One night she cannot sleep despite all that Seconal and so she takes several more. And is found on the bathroom floor, dead.

It was a pretty horrible story. Funny how when you see something close-up it doesn't seem in the slightest bit "glamorous". A lot of people do consider drug-taking and even drug addiction glamorous. The more you see, the less you like it. But many don't see the full details until they themselves are addicted. By that time your one comfort, that seems to give you life, is the thing that is killing you.

*

I wasn't trying to say yesterday that I thought my lovely label would get my any special treatment. Merely that I tick a box. So they would know what preconceptions to shove my way if I ever did get inpatient "care"...

Here's a furry picture of a cute koala.


Illustrated: the woman to the left in the second picture is Jacqueline Susann, author of the 30,000,000 copy bestseller about pillpopping, Valley of The Dolls...

*


MUSIC: Judy Garland sings THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY in A Star Is Born

 
I HOPE YOU HAVE A NICE WEEKEND
 
***