So effing WHAT!!!

Okay, so whoever marched into our home on Hallowe'en robbed us blind.
So, the insurance is being a ... female dog about paying anything.
So, I had to increase the overdraft on our poor old bank account to purchase a compact digicam at ALDI which, I can foresee, won't be my best friend anytime soon.
So, every time I see the now obsolete chargers for all our gadgets I want to cry and stomp my feet and slap somebody, anybody 'round the face. Mostly myself.
So- WHAT!


Our feline babies are alive and kicking, sweet as ever and then some.
The Man has lovingly fixed an old mobile phone (which had officially been pronounced dead about 6 months ago) for me which is now good as new and works a treat- he even took my most favourite picture off it and installed it as a desktop background on "Holly", the reliant old machine he built himself from scratch years and years ago.
There were so many incredibly lovely comments and mails from people we have never personally met... I have come to firmly believe that the internet is a true blessing and far more than just a way of showing off what you're up to, paying your bills and keeping up with the latest nonsense. Wonderful people from all over the world dropped us a line (or two or three) of support, asking how we're keeping and generally giving us the big thumbs- up.

D'you know what, peeps? I won't lie to you and say that mere things don't matter. They do. My camera, an extension of myself, is gone. Hack off my arm and it'll feel the same in some instances. So many pictures are gone, and it sickens me to think about it. BUT, and it is a very big, fat, in- your- face but, as much as this incident shattered my last remnants of faith in mankind, it also restored it. The Man and I came out stronger than before, and I had opportunity to get a glimpse at how many unbelievably lovely people are out there who are ready to offer a kind word and a shoulder to cry on to mere strangers. Our cameras, phones and laptops gave us convenience, their being taken gave us a helluva lot more.

Here's to us, little burglar, UP YOURS.

And do you know how much stuff one gets done when there is only one PC which needs to be shared between two adults, one of whom is the rightful owner AND builder AND guildmaster of a (pretty cool) online game of aforementioned machine?

Thanks to my (pretty much self chosen) deprivation of most things online, I re- discovered a lost love. Model clay. FIMO, whatever you call it.

Please excuse the appalling quality of the pictures, but not only am I not used to that new camera- thingy yet, the light- conditions in our house in our city in our country in winter also don't help at all.

So, there are loads of owls that need finishing touches, a decidedly moody bat and two dragons. If my (ancient) model clay (which I bought in Germany years and years ago) was any more cooperative, I reckon the outcome would have been a tad more acceptable, but for a lass with no talent and sausage fingers I think I didn't do too bad. Please cut me some slack for the purple poopers, they are for my bff and actually have her name printed on their bums.

The brown owls ALL had eyes, but the eyeballs decided to fall off. As you do. So they need some plastic surgery before they are sent on their way to Germany to a particularly lovely Mum I am proud to call mine.

You might have seen my Mum on here before? She is incredible. Thoughtful, selfless, caring, nurturing, fiercely protective, over- bearing (in the best way possible!), generous, forgiving, respectful, sweet, unobtrusive, you name it. Well, she gave me a bell yesterday, which I sort of expected because my bloody landline had been dead for almost a week (again) and she wanted to know how we're getting along.
Well, phone rings, I hear her voice, she sounds... tense? I immediately freak out "Mum, whazzup? Are you okay? What has happened?" (The lass is a cancer survivor, you start getting paranoid about little things as your mums voice sounding different, trust me) She's like "Awwwwwwwww, good to finally reach you, been trying, blah blah, how are you, how are the cats, yaddayaddayadda"  "Right, mum, WHAT IS IT???" And she starts telling me this little story.
She went to work yesterday morning. It was early, it was cold.
She heard a blackbird kick off as if it felt threatened... you know, this frantic chirpie- cheep thing they shoot off when there's a cat about. That's what Mum thought, so she looked around for the suspect.
My Mum is 53, and what she saw that moment was something she' d never seen before in her life.
An owl.
Well big according to her, larger than a magpie (her words) with a white- ish face and chest.. It looked at her with disdain (as owls do) and elegantly made an exit.
My beautiful, loving, mindful Mum took this as a sign. She immediately thought of me as I have a thing for owls. So straight after her shift, she grabbed the phone and made sure everything is alright in my neck of the woods. We are not superstitious, religious or otherwise spiritually inclined, but there are certain things that strike chords in us. A wee robin saved us from losing it during our aunties funeral (the little birdie sat in a tree nearby, singing away and enjoying itself with no care in the world like she would have done... minus the sitting in the tree part) and we both just held on to each other sort of knowing looking at it would keep us sane). And the night after I had to let my beloved first cat, Penny, go, for the first time in my life (and still the only time) I met a fox. It was late at night, I could not sleep for crying and went outside... and there was the fox. He or she did not shy away from me but walked with me for a minute or two before our ways parted. It was the day of the fox (or should I say night) and I decided right there and then that no matter what logic, science, brain and lifetime experience tell me, there is more between heaven and honeycomb than a dog cares to reveal.

Hey, this was a much longer post than I intended it to be. I meant to thank you all for your support, understanding and love in the last 2+ weeks- you are an incredible bunch and when I count my stars, you are on top of the list. Without The Man and you lot, I think I would have packed up and buggered off back to Germany, but you all managed to turn one of the most intimidating and discouraging situations of my life into an experience I wouldn't want to miss, even for the sake of getting my stuff back. (And I claim this after The Man provided me with a candlelight bath with classic music, a VERY relaxing bath foam and a nice, light glass of wine to get the tension out of head, legs and shoulders. I am so blessed!)

A great, big I LOVE YOU to The Man and every single one of you who have turned an impersonal internet to a source of support and friendship.