Feeling Lightheaded... again

My hair has finally gotten a little longer and today I went to the hairdresser and she cut all of my remaining blond off. It feels so nice - to finally have one simple "my own" colour. The haircut is pretty short, but my hair seems to be growing fairly quickly these days, so it doesn't bother me. I am hoping to grow it long again, unless I get sick of it prematurely. Last time that I had it this short (or even shorter I think) was in 2002, when I cut off all of my waist-long blond hair and it felt GOOOOOD. So here I am again - seven years later.

time for seconds

Banjo got a second name yesterday - Ash... 'cos his coat looks like it is covered in ash... so now he is Banjo Ash...

oh and Unix has long since hat his middle name defined for him - Unix von Dude :) just 'cos he totally behaves like Jeff Lebowski...

Feeling like Clint Eastwood

Everyone needs discipline. Even cats - and kittens most of all. So for this very purpose I acquired a little water gun, so that they get a little spray of water when they do something bad (mainly jump on top of the dinner table). The problem is that most of the time I spend in the small room studying for my exam, and the cats (being the sly little creatures that they are) have the dining room all to themselves. So every once in a while I walk out of the small room, trying to be extra quiet, carrying my water gun close to my hip (very much The Good, The Bad and The Ugly style) and then spring up on them if they're indeed on top of the table. I feel like a cowboy in my own home, it's kind of almost exciting.

Here's another video of them playing with each other... which mainly involves Banjo on his back with paws in the air meowing and Unix (possibly playfully and lovingly) biting him :)

Oh, and now there are some more photos of the little guy here.

Introducing Banjo

After long deliberation of more than 6 months we decided to take in another cat. The main reason for this is that we want to provide Unix some company for when we're away on holidays or at work. So last weekend we went to see a family of 5 gorgeous British short-haired kittens and paid a deposit for one male kitten. Yesterday he was delivered to us by his owner and at the moment is still getting used to his surroundings.


We were considering many names, including Che, Cheshire, Tom, Everett, Morris, Tzarevich... but this morning after hearing him whinge non stop decided to call him Banjo :) He was sleeping a lot yesterday and made me even consider that he was sick... but he seems to be a lot more active today. The funniest thing is that unlike Unix who really enjoys sleeping on his back with his fluffy white stomach up in the air, Banjo likes to stretch out completely flat on his stomach... very cute.

We read quite a bit about the process of introduction of a kitten to an older cat... and nowhere was there any mention of the scenario that happened here. Traditionally the worry is that the older cat will get jealous and territorial, and get annoyed by the little cat. Well we have the opposite problem. Even though Unix is quite curious about the kitten, he has been acting like a really good host and being very gentle - approaching him slowly, but not with threat and sitting down when the kitten gets scared. But the little kitten instead of approaching Unix starts hissing, wailing and fluffing his tail. This scene replayed itself all of last night and into the night, too :)

This morning however it's been better and the two cats have already sniffed each other a couple of times at close range and Banjo doesn't wail as much. Hopefully they'll learn to be friends and keep each other company.

Some photos here.

And a little video:

Storms over Berlin

Looks like in some ways this summer is going to turn out like the one last year - where we didn't really have a summer, but a couple of months of mild and rainy weather without very much sunshine.

So far there was one warm, but very humid week. Otherwise we've been having thunderstorms pretty much every day since the beginning of July. Even though it prevents me from riding my bike, I do very much enjoy the beatiful quickly changing sky. Here are two snaps:

Nothing lasts forever

All good things come to an end... as I've discovered this morning upon my visit to the dentist...

I have thusfar had notoriously perfect teeth. I think I had some minor thing done when I was still in highschool, but apart from that my yearly visits to the dentist have been under 5 mins each time. And each dentist I saw would be always in awe and tell me how all of my 32 teeth are completely perfect and that I was very lucky. Mainly I think I have to thank my Dad for my inheritance, because up until he was 50, he had one single filling and never had any teeth problems. Mum also needs to be thanked, because she didn't let me eat any sweets when I was little and up until now I have no desire to eat any sugar candy, or sweets that you suck on... chocolate is another matter, though... :)

So this morning when I went for my regular checkup I didn't think twice of it. But then alas - as I was sitting in the chair and the dentist started saying weird things like "C on B1" and "C on A2"... a little worrying thought crossed my mind. Yep - I need to have three (!) fillings done. I don't understand how this could have happened in one year - may be the last dentist wasn't so good... In any case I had one of them done today, and another two in three weeks... the anasthetic is still wearing off.

Hmmm... perhaps now is the time in my life to do something that I could be proud of... 'cos my teeth aren't gonna cut it anymore :(((