Well...

To quote the mighty Chemical brothers: "Where do I begin, where do I start?"

It's been quite an eventful time since my last blog. The car passed its MOT first time, which is a first for me, and then the clutch cable snapped the next day as I was leaving for work. It took me 2 weeks to muster the strength to sort it out, and 2 nights of lying upside down with my head in the driver's footwell to fix it. They're fiddly little bastards to fix. Anyway, it's obvious now that there are a few other issues with the car which are way beyond my capability to fix, so it'll have to go into the garage to be looked at.

On Tuesday we had to have Hansel, our oldest rat, put to sleep. He contracted some sort of a lung infection and with everything else that was wrong with him he just didn't stand a chance. It was obvious just from looking at him that he was exhausted, and the antibiotics just weren't helping him. Eventually he stopped eating and drinking, he couldn't support his own weight and so just lay down on his side the whole time, and he freaked out when we handled him. The vet said we could try antibiotics and painkillers if we wanted but we said we thought it was time and she said she thought it was the right decision. We already miss him.

The next day, Katinka - our other rat - also had to visit the vets, although hers was a prior arrangement: She had two growths under her front paws which needed to be removed. She's been very quiet since and It's impossible not to be a tad worried.

Then, the next day, I took the day off work and hopped onto a train to London where I bought a lovely black 2005 Yamaha YBR 125, and rode it all the way back to Newbury... Considering it's about 3 months since I was last on a bike I think I did pretty well. I figured It's worth getting a newer bike to avoid trouble with it.

The next day I discovered the headlamp is faulty on it. :@