Roger is the man of my dreams.

He's completely loyal and faithful. Roger is the only man I trust completely. I don't think he's capable of cheating on me. It would be completely out of character and against his nature.

In public he will back me up in any discussion, it doesn't matter if he thinks I'm wrong. If people get rude with me, he will let me sort them out, but if I need help dealing with them, he will always back me up and make the other person feel like an idiot.

He's not afraid to go against the flow. It doesn't matter what society has decided to think or feel about something, Roger will think it all through logically and decide what makes the most sense. Most of the time he will decide to do the opposite of what the rest of society does, just because he doesn't want to be a sheep.

He hates tradition. If tradition makes sense, he will do it. But if people are only doing traditional things because everyone else is doing it, he will reject it. Such as getting married or have kids.

He makes make me feel appreciated, even if it's just for the little things. He's completely honest. If he thinks I look like shit one day, he will tell me. So I know when he tells me I'm beautiful, he means it. He doesn't tell me he loves me all the time, he will only say it when he feels it. That way it doesn't become a meaningless phrase.

If he's feeling grumpy because he has to deal with stupid clients who frustrate him, he might get grumpy with me, but he will always apologise and hug me and make me feel special again within an hour.

He treats women as equals, and respects both men and women equally. He's not one of those guys who are completely in love with themselves and think they are God's gift to women, and who see women mainly as something to satisfy their sexual urges. These men will of course speak to women as if they respect them, but when it's just the guys, they will talk about women as if they are sex toys.

Roger could do that if he wanted. He's hot and has women falling over themselves to be with him, but he's just not interested in being that kinda guy.

He loves cats as much as I do. I've never met any guy who loves cats. I've met men who don't mind them, but they all prefer dogs. Roger prefers cats and doesn't want a dog because he feels no need to be in control of another creature. And not only does he love cats as much as I do, but he respects all animals and will defend any animal if he sees one being abused.

So Roger is perfect, and I adore him.

And it was his birthday yesterday. Happy b-day hunni:)

xxxx 

Thai has been here 3 days now. She has made massive progress in the short time she's been here, and we have seen no behavioural problems whatsoever. She uses the tray religiously, and she doesn't even make a mess. She hasn't scratched anywhere apart from the scratching post, and she hasn't attacked us.

Apart from the initial hissing and growling at us, she's been fine. When we talk to her she will put her tail up and rub up against something, and when we put our hand out she rubs against it. She doesn't meow, but gives and almost inaudible squeak when we talk to her.

She's turning out to be the perfect cat so far. I emailed Pet Rescue yesterday to tell them how well she's doing, and they are very pleased.

You can see more photos of Thai and our other cats here.

Our new kitty arrived last night, and wanted nothing to do with us. She hissed and growled every time we went near her, so we left her alone. She has the bedroom to herself so she doesn't have to deal with the other cats just yet, and also has access to the outside area during the day.

Today she hasn't been growling as much. She will growl if we surprise her when we enter the room and when she's offered food. She has let R scratch her head a couple of times, but I have yet to touch her at all. R is the cat whisperer. She also has a Feliway diffuser to help her calm down.

She was let out into the outside area in the afternoon, which she seemed to enjoy. The other cats sat and stared at her through the glass door, but she didn't seem to care. She's been an indoor cat and an only cat her whole life, so it must be weird for her to be outside and see other cats, all at once.

About 2 weeks ago I moved my mystery snail from my 15 litre killi tank to the 90 litre tank, because it was eating all my plants and I wanted to give them some time to recover.

A few days after I moved the snail I did a water change in my 90 litre tank, and when I lifted the hood I found this:

Snail eggs! My snail has not had contact with other snails in the 4 months I've had it, so I assumed the eggs were not fertilised, but then someone in the forum told me snails can store sperm for months. I thought baby snails might be fun, so I kept the eggs.

Today I looked over at my killi tank. It's right next to my computer screen, so I glance over at them once in a while. And I saw something round and small fall from the top of the tank. My first thought was 'Umm.. weird'. So I decided to investigate. I took the hood off the tank and turned it upside down:

Another 2 batches of eggs! The one closest to the camera is hatching, and you can see the little baby snails inside the eggs:

So the thing falling from the top of the tank was actually a tiny snail, and upon closer inspection of the tank, I found heaps and heaps of them:

In the first photo they are the little yellow dots scattered everywhere. They are about 5 mm in size. I've thrown the other 2 batches of eggs away, as I figure on is enough for now.

So my mystery snail suddenly started breeding like a rabbit about 3 weeks ago. Before that I never found eggs anywhere. Weird.

And fun:)

Oh and here's a photo of the proud mummy:

(You can click all the photos for larger versions)

We got an email from a friend of ours on Monday about a cat in desperate need of a foster home. Apparently she was terrorised by the kids in her family, and as a result she started peeing everywhere. The family then decided she wasn't worth keeping. Too much hassle for them. She's been in 3 different foster homes in the last month, and is apparently very traumatised from being moved several times. I don't know why they've kept moving her, but I suspect it could have something to do with the peeing...

So we said we'd help if we could and gave them our contact details. Yesterday they called us and we said we'd take her. They were sooo happy when we decided to take her despite her problems. Everyone else they've called have changed their mind when they've been told about her issues. It's a temporary thing, but if she settles in and gets along with our 4 other cats, we might consider keeping her.

She's a 5 year old Birman/Tonkinese cross. She's gonna stay in our bedroom with access to the outside area until she calms down a bit, then we'll start introducing her to the others. They should be fine, they are so used to being around other cats that I don't think they really care any more. Just don't know if the new kitty is used to other cats or not...

I can't believe someone would decide to get rid of their cat after 5 years. Like they didn't care about her at all. I couldn't live with myself if I ever got rid of one of my cats.

I recently finished reading The Persimmon Tree by the Australian author Bryce Courtenay. I bought it on impulse one day I was at the book store, and I bought it because of what it says on the inside of the cover:

Altho my prefered genre in books is Fantasy, I love a good love story.

The story is set in the Pacific during World War II. The Japanese are invading Java, which at the time was occupied by the Dutch. Australian butterfly collector Nick Duncan is in Java looking for a rare butterfly he has wanted all his life, when he meets Anna. Anna is half Dutch, half Javanese, and her and Nick quickly fall in love and get engaged. They are then seperated by the war. Nick is able to leave Java before the Japanese invade, while Anna becomes a captive. 

I won't go into much more detail because some people might want to read the book. Let me just say that as far as love stories go, this isn't a good one. Anna becomes obsessed with staying a virgin because she wants Nick to be her first one. Nick, on the other hand, sleeps with everything that moves throughout the book, starting about a month after he left Anna. There is no sign he even feels remotely bad about it. The book doesn't even have a good romantic ending.

I don't know what other people expect from a love story, but I expect at least some romance and.. well, love. It's a good story of how things were in the Pacific during WWII, but that's it.

I spose you could say he has done that, a lot of men cheat without a second thought for the women who love them.

To conclude, if you want a love story, don't read this book. If you're interested in WWII stories, then this is a good book for you.

Norway has a law which says that if you have a garden pond, you are not allowed to keep any fish in it apart from goldfish and koi.

I find this law exceptionally stupid. The reason for this law is apparently that they don't want fish which don't belong in the Norwegian fauna to spread. Fair enough.

Here's the stupid part: Koi and goldfish are coldwater fish. They will thrive if released in the Norwegian fauna, and already do. Tropical fish have no chance of survival in Norwegian lakes and rivers, because it's too cold for them. The tropical species that *might* survive in the summer, would not make it through the winter. It is illegal to keep tropical fish in Norwegian ponds.

If these fish could spread, they already would have, because there are always idiots who dump unwanted fish in lakes. The only way to stop this from happening would be to ban all tropical fish altogether. So why don't they just make a list of tropical fish that wouldn't survive outside a heated pond, and make them legal?

It doesn't make sense.

That's not the end of the stupidity tho. I spend some time in a Norwegian aquarium forum, and the other day someone in the forum let slip that they keep a betta in their pond. Everyone had a go at them for it, some actually said 'responsible aquarium/fish owners do not keep anything but goldfish and koi in their ponds!' and someone threatened to report him.

Woot?!

They all mostly agree the law is stupid and doesn't make sense, and yet they are saying 'let's sit back and let the stupidity continue', as if they are whipped little sheep.

Whatever happened to democracy? These people are just letting the government make stupid laws which don't make sense and have a little fit when they find out someone is breaking it. Of course one should not break the law normally, but how about protesting once in a while when laws are unnecessary, stupid and don't make sense?

Norway was still a democracy the last time I checked, but it seems Norwegian politicians are on their own little personal power trip and make laws just for the sake of making laws. And why wouldn't they when the population obviously has the attitude that the law must not only be obeyed, but welcomed and embraced, just because it's the law.

Reptiles are illegal to keep in Norway, but some of the people who disagree with this stupid law keep them anyway. Why don't the people who disagree with the pond law keep tropical fish in their pond to make a point? To protest? Or just because they want to?

In this particular forum you are not allowed to even talk about this, because it means you encourage others to break the law. That's why I'm writing a blog entry about it. I was gonna post it in the forum, but the post would be either locked or deleted, so it would be pointless.

Whipped bunch.

We just got a phone call from AIS who handled our visa application for us - it was approved:) They said the application was so good we don't need to go in for an interview with the immigration people.

So now I have the right to stay in Australia for the next 2 years, I also have full work rights and am part of Medicare (yay free health service:)). In 2 years they will review it and if R and I are still together I become a permanent resident.

Yay:)

I've been a member of deviantart for about a year. I became a member when I was learning photoshop, because I wanted to post my stuff and let people comment on it and how I could improve, and also so I could look at other people's stuff and learn from them.

But now I'm so fed up with the site that I'm tempted to delete my account. The site is full of immature kids who treat the whole thing like a popularity contest. They don't draw what they want to draw and then post it for other people to give feedback on. They post what is popular to draw, which is usually anime and furries with huge breasts, and in their comment they say 'hope you like it', as if the only reason they drew it was so other people would like it, and consequently, them.

I sometimes commented on other people's stuff, which usually turned out disastrous. My comment would be something along the lines of 'This is good, I like this and this, but here's how you could make it even better...' Which sent them into an abusive fit towards me, and all their fans would be falling over each other trying to defend the 'artist' from what they saw as an attack on them. Or, alternatively, they would go to one of my drawings and leave a similar comment, except their comment would have no foundation in what I actually drew. Very mature.

And when one of these little kids gets a lot of views and comments on something they did, they will try to reproduce it and milk it for as long as possible, because it's all about being the most popular. When someone who's good at what they do gets a lot of views and comments, everyone else who's less 'popular' will do similar stuff in an attempt to become popular. (Hence why the site is full of the same kind of drawings, and is lacking in original thought.)

Most people in there are not looking for drawings/paintings which are artistically well done, they are all just looking for cute stuff. I have noticed this personally. I have posted stuff that took me the better part of 2 days to make and perfect, and I have done really simple stuff which required hardly any thought or effort on my part. And which one gets the most views and favourites? The latter of course. I'm gonna delete it, because it annoys me that people are more interested in what's cute than what's actually well done and looks good.

The site just shits me these days.