Aww, he has a little bit of white fur on his neck.

He's so black, you can't even see his little nosey!

This is Sooty. Isn't he the cutest little kitty? He belongs to Sue and she went to Prag with the kids and had forgotten about him, so she asked us whether we could look after him. My mother said yes and he's staying 'till Friday. He's so naughty! He sits on the furniture and climbs onto the kitchen surfaces.

The prezzies!

The old terracotta, er well ''Holy Family + others'', sadly the ox was thrown away and there never was a donkey.

The Angel choir. St. Peter must of been bad, his halo broke into three pieces.
The Advent Wreath with a Christingle in the middle. The orange symbolizes the earth, the candle represents God, the sweets are the fruits of the earth and the red band, which one can't see is the blood Jesus spilled for humans' sins. The Advent wreath is lighted four weeks before Christmas on the 4th Sunday before Christmas.

The Stable made from wood, my Father got it from his Grandfather as a kid. His Grandfather gave all his grandchildren one of these. Worth a Bob or two.

Close up on Jesus.

Much closer and the lens would brake! Ain't the donkey cute??? Everything in wood, hate to think what a fire would do to it.

The Christmas tree, presents and the crib with Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Sheep, a Donkey, an Ox and Shepherds.

Another year has past and it sure was an eventful one! It started with ... uh oh, what happened again? It's been so long, in fact a year, wait oh yes! It started with being in Germany. We had a very cold stormy winter with a lot of snow. The temperature warmed up although the climate at school was still icy, especially in Rain Forest Thing matters. In April went to see Carpe Jugulum that was about the only fun, since after an uneventful Easter the R/F Thing took over 'til the end of that school year and it caused quite a few restless nights, I don't mind telling you! Then came Summer and the failure of the vet exam. After came England, Germany and Italy. Uni started and now we're here. That's sort of a condensed thingy, ''History'' I guess.

Well, I guess you don't want to see the auditorium then...

Well whatever we did, it didn't work... 

Gawd Grandpa forgot all his medication at home!!! Found that out just now and my Mudja's phone won't work. Probably start going towards the Bio practical building although there's still 30 Min left.
Toodles

Well at least there is Paint. Here's something that might
add to the Christmas feeling or maybe not...

Wow, Christmas spirit is in the air, it's so thick you can hardly walk through it! The general Chemistry professor made a little joke: ''We will look at one more solid'' and he drew a Christmas tree. That's the one who thinks he's Snape. Talking about Snape, the Physics professor looks like he is Snape wannabe too, he always dresses in black, but he has yet to show is mean side. We have a Bio practical at 14:30 about a paramecium (dunno what the plural is), which we'll look at under the mike (roscope).
Here are my pathetic presents: For me mudja: a self-teaching Greek book (+ 3 audio tapes), which was quite money-draining, fadja: a comb + (if I ever start) audio tapes on CDs + maybe soap; Granny + Grandpa: stamp with name + address on, calendar with pics of us on (you probably wouldn't of been happy with it). Some photos have a descriptions, some are self-explanatory. It won't get here on time, but oh well as for a poster it isn't findable, the only thing Photocolor had was a collage, but they've already got one. Too bad we didn't know about that before, it would have made the collage-making easier.
Sorry your Christmas CD WILL NOT get there on time seeing as it's not even near finished yet. Oh well it can be a post-Christmas CD.
We still need to decorate the tree. Oh yeah, before I forget, the present form Gramps to me is: the full Blackadder series on 4 CDs and a bonus 1! The question still remains however, what to get for ma fadja????????
Don't really have any other news other than: 3 hours 20 minutes!!! and 2 days!!! 3 hours and 20 minutes hours before Grandparents arrival and 2 days before the holls start!!!
If you want I can take the comp to Uni and show you around the auditorium surreptitiously on Skype during the exercises tomorrow (Thursday).
Boring, we've still got an hour before the practicals. What to do? What to do? This stupid computer doesn't even have games on it. It might have paint though.
Side note for Dieter (AKA new youth worker): If certain people would comply to answer to a certain e-mail, it would be nice (end of side note).
Well see ya on Skype on the 25th? Hey and on new year! You start the new year 7 hours earlier than we do! When you countdown, it's only 5 PM here. We don't get to see any fireworks here though. Only in Germ. Do you?

Aww, are you ill then? Sorry to hear that. Sorry couldn't answer on Skype on Sunday, but it was Chemistry time and also a time of great anoyance, so great in fact that the book was nearly thrown through the air again. Fortunately for the book, my father was there and he hates it when things fly. Talking of books, I have to buy about 3 books about Biology, 1 book for organic Chemistry and perhaps one for general Chemistry. They cost roughly 100 Frs each, so it's gonna be multo expensivo.
You didn't like the story??? Oh, no! The characters won't be happy. Which one are you talking about, BTW? The E/H one or the one with the wife and the husband. The most annoying cliché phrases in movies are: ''I love you.'' hideous music playing in the background. Long silences and: ''I love you too.'' makes you want to shoot the script writer.
Of course the tree comes from a sustainable forest! It's next to the motorway and belongs to Crans. You choose a tree, chop it, pay (10 Frs a meter) and they replant it. Otherwise we wouldn't buy it there. We got Gramps a stamp with name + address on. Hopefully the bit with the name and address will get here in time. My Father got him expensive Port, Cherry or some brew or other. What can I get my Father??? I got him a comb and he wants me to digitalize a tape for him, but what else can I get him? What else??? If anyone has the vagest idea, speak now! (hint hint)
Well, time is running out we have a Physics practical at 14:15. Yesterday we finished Chemistry at 14:30!!! How cool is that? Of course ''Hteyay Ablay Artnerpay'' hadn't done anything, but with a bit of communal help from the others, we finished in 30 min.
You can already buy Prison Break and Lost season 2 and for some reason Eragon on DVD. Eragon is coming out on the 20th and you can already buy the DVD, but it costs 79 Frs, so yeah...
Anyway must go and see you on Skype perhaps on the 24th? See y'all (not at all the same time on Skype or else it might get slightly crowded. Can you have a convo with more than 1 person? Am I having a déjà vu or what? Well yes, I am.).
Toodles

We just bought a new graphic card and this junk still doesn't work! 

Actually, here's a story. Well, kinda:

- I love you. = What? Can't you see I'm reading the newspaper? - I said: ''I love you.'' = What? Tell me later. - There won't be a later ... for you. = Ah ha! Manchester United won. - Is the newspaper more important than me? = Yes. No. Shut up. - I will shoot you now. = Oh good, Tiger Woods has won! What? - Say it (= I love you too)! = Say what? - It. = Okay, ''it''. - (Pulls trigger) = Didn't I tell you I was reading? Can you be quiet? Thank you.

The End

The story which turned bad. Apparently she missed him or at least he survived the shot.

Cast
- : wife
= : husband

The Catherine Tate show is hilarious! ''Me, dear? Gay, dear? No, dear! How dare you? How very dare you! Just because a man looks after his body, you accuse him of taking the post in the back way!'' a gay in denial. Disgusting (the quote, not the gay guy, although he actually was hideous, what it means is me =/= homophobic) yet funny.
Do you wanna hear a story? What!? I was just kidding.
Here is a story (from Baldrick in Blackadder): ''Once upon a time, there was a little sausage called Baldrick and he lived happily ever after.'' Wasn't that fun? No? Here's something fun: ''I have a bag of money here, which I shall not give you!'' Maybe I should invent some own quotes. Here are some:

''Perseverance works!''
''Perseverance is the key to success ... and suicide!''
''Perseverance pays off ... if you weren't expecting any money.''
''Perseverance is frustration's cousin and anger's sibling.''
''Perseverance is more than just working during boring lectures to avoid falling asleep and to save time.''
+ '' Perseverance... is the wrong word!''
- What?
+ It should be perseveration.
- Oy, Sawyer... No, it shouldn't. Now shut up, you uncultured Texan twit.
+ You're game is ova!
- Stop stealing other people's script!
+ Why d'you think anyone will catch me?
- I'm not as dumb as you are!
+ I was caught in a net.
- My point exactly.
- ''Perseverance is the key to success and ... destruction.'' Your turn, Sawyer.
+ PerseveraTION is for people who have nothing better to do with their time.''
-What??? ''To persevere is to succeed or so most people think.''
+ ''To persevere is er... ''getting caught in a net'' ''
- Why did you use '' '' '' ? you said that yourself.
+ I'm quoting myself.

Quite bare still, but that will soon change.

Here's the advent thingy aaaand

the Christmas tree.

I've had it!!! How the heck are you supposed to do the frickin' exercises without having done the theory? The stupid book we bought has the vaguest explanations since Baldrick's last cunning plan and what was the point in buying it when you find a website with exactly the same explanation and pictures on it??? As far as I'm concerned all the chemistry people should rot in hell with an extra portion of fungus! I mean why should I do them anyway? What about ''Hetay Ablay Artnerpay''? But no, of course I have to do them. Frankly, good thing it's the holidays otherwise, the ''oops, I thought that was water, sorry didn't know it was HCl'' accident might have occurred. Gawd how stupid can you get? I must be the stupidest thing ever created, but what do we care about electrons? How will that help us draw an amoeba? Anyway, Hetay Ablay Artnerpay better have done them, if not he may be accidentally brutally seated on Bunsen burner. I managed to do 3 exercise, seriously pathetico and if it's wrong, then beware of getting them crammed down your throat annoying Chemistry assistants!!!

''Who searches, will find... if one knows where to look!''

The HP head moves??? Cool, it didn't used to, although it should have.

People are so mean! Some idiot committed a hit and run on a dog. A ''random'' woman called the animal ambulance which exists in Berlin and they came and took the dog to the animal hospital. It's bad enough knocking over a human and leaving them, but at least a human may have a mobile to call an ambulance themselves, animals can't do anything.

Does anyone ever win anything from these ''scratch here'' or competitions? At the station the employees were giving out scratching cards to win 5 Frs, 100 Frs, a half-price ticket and so on. I of course get the ''sorry''. They never talked about that card. I never win anything! Oh well.

You'll never guess what happened on CSI! Some relatively ''random'' people were talking dribble! You still speak it, right? That was a seriously minor part of the episode though. Who knew it was that widely spread! ''I kinda smell'' that was a hilarious bit from the same CSI episode! Don't really know what else to say, except I'm not there (at uni) to decipher hieroglyphs! If I had wanted to I would have studied archeology/paleontology! Can't the profs write better? You'd think you were in an ancient runes lesson.
Wouldn't the world be a better a place if people stopped lying? If people stopped lying and started communicating a lot of conflicts would have never occurred. Here's a ''funny'' convo between Einstein and Heisenberg:
E: How ya doing?
H: Fine, fine.
E: You working for the Nazis now?
H: Yeah, you should too.
E: Er, I'm Jewish!
H: Oh, right.
E: Working on anything new?
H: Pfff. No. (Secretive look)
E: What is it (you're working on)?
H: Just a little bomby.
E: The atom bomb!?
H: No, a time bomb.
E: Huh?
H: Of course the atom bomb, you twit!
E: How far along is it?
H: Er, hmmm... Nearly finished (fingers crossed, innocent look).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <=
E: Oh no! I have to go. Bye.
H: Bye. Weirdo.
E: (runs off to tell the americans).

OR what could have been (insert this part where the (<=) is and replace the text below the (----) with it):
E: How far is it really?
H: Well, there are a few hiccups.
E: Hiccups?
H: Actually, it's nowhere near completion.
E: Good.
H: What?
E: I mean, how sad, really. I really must dash. Bye!
H: Bye. Weirdo.
E: (Heisenberg never finishes the atom bomb, due to a fatal illness, no AB for the americans).

It's not going to stay cool for long! Out of lack of will to (possibly) be electrocuted by the phone, my mother is going to take it to the Migros to see whether it can be repaired. Personally, I think that's slightly impossible, since they probably don't want to sell you the outside bit and they'll convince her to buy a new telephone.
We have Bio at 0230 (the time varies form week to week); it's about amoeba n' things. The worst thing is that you have to draw the things you see (or are supposed to see) and the annoying person next to me always forgets the dissection kit that contains slides for the microscope and little platelets to put on top of the goo they give you. It's extremely annoying. You can wash the slides though and the plastic thingies are replaced when we have none left (for free I hope!). Still it's the best practical of the week!
Eyes: windows to your soul. That's why HP's eyes are important. Even though he has the exterior of his father, he acts more like his mother (or at least not as bad badly as James did). I'm watching you! I can sense that you're on your computer and reading the word ''word'' on this blog. Told you I was omni-potent!

We've had copper put around the edge of the roof, so ya never have to paint it again. I'll try and photograph it on Thursday, when it's still bright when I get back. When it oxydates it'll go black, so ya don't see it. Now to something completely different, look what happened to the phone!



The lamp from my parents' room melted it.



From front. Can you believe it still works?



Pretty deformed, but still workable.

Well, I could write tons more about Claire, but it's probably best to leave it for a while, since already 4'220 words have been spilt over her in total. Why the heck can random people talk to you on Skype? There was this unknown person, so I blocked him and all of a sudden he was back to chat in Spanish! He was from Perto Rico, but er well I blocked him, 'cos I dunno who he is and it's probably not good to give weirdoes photos of yourself who knows where they could end up! Anyhow comment otherwise how do we know whether you read it?

Anybody there?

Last week's exercises weren't too bad, luckily. The thing I don't get is: why is the stuff we do with the assistant wrong? He comes, explains and ends up showing us how to do the exercise and when the other assistant (annoying woman!!!) corrects it, guess which part is wrong? Yep the part we did with the guy. Can you believe that?!? Anyhow worst lesson of the week is now over! Hooray! Next week is boring exercises and no experiments. Have to do them over the weekend and then we can finish n' leave Chem early. 2 weeks to go!
Regarding the webcam on Saturday: we have a nativity play at church and I somehow got enrolled to help the kids backstage, so there's a rehearsal at 10 AM 'til actually no idea, that's the problemo. Probably 13:00. Then there's also the Chem to do. On Sun the nativity play starts at 16:00 'til about 18:00. Anyway we could try to squeeze it in.

What to write? Nothing, you say? Where's the fun in that? Every Monday we have Chemistry practicals. I fear them as much as HP fears Potions. No matter what we do, it's always wrong. Frankly, I have a feeling that last week's exercises were no good and since we had a good and very good, we can only get worse. You try your hardest to be precise, but when you have some one next to you who wants to finish quickly and instead of waiting for the correct values starts writing fake ones in, how are you supposed to be precise? I mean not only that, but also how are you supposed to take temperature measurements when the thermometer has a bubble inside it? When the assistant came to replace it, he dropped and smashed it, so we had to wait for 20 minutes before he brought another one. We had to start again 'cos our potion had started to cool down again. There also is a good side whilst working with someone who wants to finish as quickly as possible: you learn to work fast.
We have maximum 36 hours and 45 minutes of lessons a week (if you take 4 hours to do the practicals). Since we tend to finish a bit earlier we have an average of about 34 hours 30 a week (if you do the practicals in about 2hrs 30) and an unachievable minimum of 25 hours 30 (if you took a speedy 1 hour per practical, which is impossible). Why in tarnation do we have to start at 08:15? One hour would suffice largely to eat. We could start an hour later and still finish at the same time. The people doing Chemistry only have one hour for lunch and finish at 5. They don't even do the same practicals as we do and they don't have them the same day, so we're not ''clogging up the space''.
Aaargh help, we start in 39 minutes!!!

Favorite part of me: ma eyes!

OK, I already said that I would stop ranting about Claire, but a message from her, fired up the flames of anger yet again. What was the message about? It was spam, basically saying that if the message were passed on, you'd find happiness. What a load of *@#%! Also that last rant was not a psychoanalysis, but murder of a character.

Here original ''recordings'' from 2004, to get warmed up. Hopefully this is the last time you'll have to hear about Claire. If anybody would like to copy and paste (and send) her this text (anonymously), it'll do her a lot of good.

Claire's weird Character
*******************

She is a hypocrite: she pretends to like you or she is really nice to you, just to get money. She lies and steals, not to mention talks behind your back.

2003: She thought everything I said was laugh worthy.
2004: She always asks for money, doesn't take ''no'' for an answer, always wants a ride home, mocks you then expects to get a piece of cake (brought in cake for B-day. Claire was talking behind my back as usual, then sees the cake and expects me to give her some!), doesn't understand asking for money isn't good. Has a XXXXXXXXL mouth. Thinks her English is superb although she has an accent and makes loads of mistakes.

Claire- A psychoanalysis 2
***********************

After talking to a person who also knows Claire, this what we came up with. It also enables the production of a better psychoanalysis.

She is playing a role, very friendly when she wants something, but when she doesn't, you cease existing. She doesn't have time to spare a kind word for you. She puts on a show at home; she's pretending she's a virgin even though she isn't.
She is tactile to the point of squashing you. For instance, you sit somewhere to work, she comes along pushes your stuff out of the way, sits down and she just can't sit still. She touches your thighs or takes your hand when you barely even know her (luckily this was not inflicted on me). She pretends to care, but only when she gets something out of you. I beg to differ, what she really wants, is to know your secrets, probably so she can ridiculize you even more. In return she tells you nothing true. She thinks she’s a real psychiatrist, she thinks she’s got everybody figured out. Well, she got it all wrong! Boohoo, people made fun of her. Did she have a person who seemingly was her friend but turned out to be her enemy in her class? Did she have people she didn’t even know bullying her? Did she have a teacher who every day called her directly or by some other means an idiot and never missed a chance to ridiculize her in front of everybody? Was she rejected for (I suppose) being ugly? I would say not!!! She knows nothing about anybody and if she took a few seconds to think of others she would see that she isn’t too badly off. She comes up close to you, literally 1 cm from your face and spits all over over you O<-1cm->O, not only do you get soaked but you also nearly suffocate. She doesn't seem to realize that this is extremely annoying. She takes advantage of people (Salmonella). She's egocentric and wants all the attention on her => she used to sing loudly (and badly) in the workroom. Once she started a screaming match for no apparent reason (I was right next to her, trust me it was embarrassing and the reason remained obscure). She has extravagant (and ugly) hairstyles and goes whining about not having enough money. I've been twice in my whole life to a hairdresser (if you don't count the times I went to my father's friend who works secretly as a hairdresser in her house. If she declared it she would loose her husband's pension. He died at 40 and she'd have to pay tons of taxes. She makes less than 50 € a week and with 3 sons she needed all the income she could get). I mean just don't go then! She's always whining or crying about something or other.
Apparently she has some ideas about being a dictator in Africa, shudder to think what would happen...
Maybe her egocentricness has something to do with the fact that she has 2 younger brothers, not getting any attention at home, she seeks it elsewhere. Her parents both work and she was raised by an (incompetent) maid who apparently didn't teach her the value of virtues or manners for that matter.
She doesn't trust anybody, so the stories she tells you are fully or partly invented. She's always making up some story or other to seem interesting. Big deal she got laid! Shout it from the rooftops! She had a lesbian experience. So, who cares? (Maybe this turned on the guys who were there). Then she tells some cod’s wallop about her brothers, making them look both disgusting and demented. There must be some deep-going jealousy here because the things she told us were just disgusting. In secret I wonder how she could get any friends and how anybody could like her. She latches on to you and nearly brakes you.
She takes a hautin air when she explains something to you (when she tests whether she knows the subject) and in fact you know the subject off by heart. She's like: ''I'll explain this to you now since you don't know anything''.
She interrupts you when you're talking to her or to someone else, sometimes you wonder why you bother to tell her anything. You're talking to the teacher and she comes, interrupts your convo, says something off-topic and you get to shut up or get scolded by her for having interrupted! She has a fake laugh that rings through the corridors. She always wants to copy the work you did in many hours hard work and ''no'' is not an answer.
When no one better is around, you’ll do just fine to sit with. As soon as somebody else walks past you may just as well have been talking to the wall. She leaves you sitting there looking like a lemon. She usually gets what she wants because she knows just what to say and when to say it, so you feel guilty if you were to say no. She can charm people and you feel like you’re her best friend, but she can just as easily treat you like a pile of excrements. I would say she’s sarcastic, but she’s not intelligent enough for that.
She’s shallow and cares for no one. She thinks she’s wise just because she’s able to retain every single detail about philosophers.
Does she think that money grows on trees or that I have it coming out of my ears? Does she think that I’m the National bank? A bank that has a 0 % interest rate and requires no reimbursement! My father has to work for his money; he doesn’t work at the UN and get it shoved up his backside! People have been shot for owing less than she does! She should be glad my family isn’t part of the Mafia…
Be that as it may, but it all boils down to her being too shallow and egocentric to realize that she is chasing people away who could have been potential friends.
I would never recommend her as a psychiatrist. Instead of helping you, she’ll either tell you that you’re a looser, crazy, reassure you of your lack of style and friends and spend most of the time telling you about her life whether it be the truth or not.
She could be an actress; she certainly has the skills and shallowness for it. Then again having her as a role model? –OH MY GOD, KILL ME NOW!!!-

Sorry, but this is the blank truth. If she read it, she might become a better person or maybe not… I have half a mind to use one of my yahoo e-mail addresses and send it to her anonymously or perhaps with text such as: ‘‘I was surfin’ and came across this. Thought you might find it interesting’’. Perhaps that is too much of a good thing? What do you think? I needn’t lie. It could me written by anybody. It would serve her damn well right!!! I’m not that mean though… You may say: ‘‘You’re a hypocrite too! You helped her n’ stuff…’’ and sorry to disappoint you, but there’s a difference between a hypocrite and having manners. I mean would you say to somebody that they were a real idiot? What excuse could I have given? Sorry, but I dislike you? It's just not in my nature to refuse. There are things in life, which one doesn't like doing, but which one has to do anyway. Life isn't all sugar-coated.
Anyway sorry that you have to read this now… :D

It would have been Omi's 93rd Birthday today. So: Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Omi!


(Christmas 2002-2003: Last Christmas before she died)

Updated profile, in case anybody cares...

Yeppo, definitely Grandpa should ''make'' her move more. The thing (<== need to vary my vocabulary used this word 1000 x already) is, that if we got her to move around more by making her fetch things herself, she probably wouldn't fetch them. For instance say she wants a cup of tea. She'd ask some one to go and fetch it. If that person doesn't do it, either she asks again or forgets, but if one said: ''I have no time. Could you get it yourself?'', she wouldn't do it. If Grandpa didn't empty the dishwasher, she wouldn't do it either. The ''you can have that piece of cake after you emptied the dishwasher'' strategy wouldn't really work, because:

• a) She doesn't really want the piece of cake, it's just greed. If it weren't there she wouldn't miss it.
• b) She probably would ''forget'' to do it, or at least she wouldn't make a big effort to try and remember to do it.
  
• c) She cannot be bothered i.e. the ''reward'' at the end of her work is not worth it.

The only way of making her loose weight (mass) as mentioned before is to not buy the cake to start with or to not fetch it for her. Of course we could live there for several months and always keep going in the attic, look at the way she ''ran'' up there! When we go to England we could get her to walk around the garden with us or do the ''Weight Watchers'' diet for her making sure she doesn't eat over a certain amount of calories, yet allowing her to eat little treats. Problem: unless we can motivate Grandpa to do this when we're not there or we get that elusive ''person who could look after them a bit'' er... person who would do it, this plan would be rather useless, in fact very ubber super mega useless. As long as we do something with her. Ya know when you play ''Sevens'' you have to choose whether the Aces are one or higher than the King, right? Well she forgets, right? It's not dramatic, but it can make a big difference between winning and loosing, 'cause all the Aces have the same value, ya can't keep changing, saying once it's worth 1, next it's worth 14 the way it suits you. Unless you do it before the game. Oh, well that's life I suppose, but we should really try and talk to Grandpa more, with eight hours time difference for you, it isn't exactly easy, but I will tell you one thing in secret, he's kinda sad that you don't call often, of course the time difference screws things up majorly, still. I only have so much life-shattering news to tell him. Each time we talk to him he asks about Singapore. So got any life-changing news? Anybody? That's it really.

Yeah, it must get really hard for Grandpa and we can only hope for his sake as much as Granny's that her memory doesn't deteriorate. But you have to see it from his side: can he have a good conversation with her? Not really. Can he tell her something and await an accurate response? Hardly ever. She always makes reference to the past (table tennis table), but she can't remember what the answer is: remember how she always was asking Grandpa whether they had one and where it got to? He told her about 5 times that they did but that it had been disposed of. She just wouldn't drop the subject. He must get quite bored and now that Uncle John has died, he must be quite lonely. Maybe we could send him letters or videotapes of us (or DVDs when we get around to buying them a DVD [at least player] recorder). Once you've programmed in the channels (most difficult part), it is easy peasy to use. Just put it on the right channel and press record. Grandpa would figure it out if we showed him how to use it! As your mother said though, those pills probably do more good than we realize. It's most likely not Alzheimer's though, because:

• a) her memory loss started after her operation about 7 (maybe more) or so years ago. We have already witnessed on other accounts older people suffering from short term memory loss. Granny had to have that operation, my great aunt however did not. What they both have in common is being several hours under a general anesthetic and that can not be good. Both now suffer from short term memory loss. Even if doctors will never admit it, I'm sure that being under general anesthetic affects the brain in a negative way.

• b) People who suffer from Alzheimer's know they forget things, at least they do at the beginning. Ususally the patient's mental health degrades slowly over a period of 7 years. At the end of that period, they can no longer fulfill their own needs and basically are like children (one of my other great aunts had it, but she's not part of the family, she's married into it). Granny's memory loss started about 7 or 8 years ago, had she had Alzheimer's her condition should be a lot worse by now, even whilst taking those pills.

• c) Doctors can only diagnose Alzheimer's for sure after death. Can't remember why except that there is some kind of change in the brain, which one can't see without having a look inside. Ok, this does not prove that Granny doesn't have the disease, but fact is that her condition started abruptly whereas Alzheimer's progresses in steps. Most likely she has some kind of Dimensia due to her operation. It probably would have happened anyway though, because Granny acts exactly the way her mother acted (They both got fat, obsessed with food, interrupt people to ask whether they want more food, become ''aggressive'' when one doesn't answer and memory loss). I still say it's partly because of the operation though. If we gathered a hundred old people who had an operation and who know suffer memory loss, I'm pretty sure 75-90 would have had an abrupt memory loss. It's hard to prove though: ''They're old anyway, blablabla, they already had it, blablabla..''.
  

Of course we should always try to involve her though, it's just that her acute loss of interest makes it hard to do anything with her. If we played cards she probably would forget what we are playing, but we should do it anyway. We could play Monopoly or something, maybe not what's that game you bought from e-bay called again? Oh yes Echelon. Maybe not that. Too much memory involved in that, but yes... The only way to get her to loose weight is by asking some one professional, who could help around the house and so on, to do the shopping and only to by low fat stuff and no chocolate, only healthy things. But what's the point in that? She's old, she should be able to enjoy life. Either way, she's still Granny and we can't exclude her.

The date of Harry Potter 5 in the cinemas: 11 July 2007. Hope it's correct since it's only from the stupid MSN website, also don't know for which country this date applies. Also found the 13th on IMBD, go there for the same trailer in English.

http://allocine.msn.fr/video/video_gen_cfilm=58608.html go here to see the trailer. It might be in French. Sorry ain't got no loudspeakers at Uni.

That could work except that she would probably forget to write them down. We don't really know whether she's in denial -Grandpa certainly was at first- i.e. does she realize she forgets stuff? If she did she would refuse to write it down, ya know the sort of ''I don't need to do that'' mentality, but she probably isn't like that. Her problem is that she can still do routine stuff pretty well and remembers things, for instance when Coronation Street is on, because she's been watching it over the last 20 years (even though the date and time may have changed over the years). If she had been writing telephone numbers down since a long time, it would have been OK. Basically people have to know that they can't leave important messages with Granny and should not be over-confident of getting their call returned. Another inconvenience is that she has never been very logical and as time goes by it isn't going to get any better. The thing is that Granny sort of lives in the past, you know, for instance when she says she'll iron later or do something else, she isn't going to and there are some things she just can't do anymore. Also she hated doing the cleaning so she isn't going to put in a great deal of effort in to remember to do it, is she? She sort of lost interest in a lot of activities such as going shopping (admittedly walking around town now is quite difficult for her), doing the crossword (well she does it sometimes), going out, seeing friends, etc... If she lost some weight, she would be a lot more healthy, but there's no way that's going to happen. I hate to say it, but I used to prefer Granny over Grandpa, because Grandpa used to be quite grouchy and shouted a lot, also I did not understand his black/sarcastic/ironic/Yorkshire humour. Now, I feel that one can't really have a conversation with Granny, I know it's awful to say this, but sometimes I feel there is no point talking to her, because she'll forget 5 minutes later anyway or sometimes you have the impression that she doesn't understand what you're talking about (especially something scientific), but since she's not interested, she doesn't exactly flood you with questions about what she didn't understand or sometimes it looks like she isn't listening at all because she stares into space. Grandpa takes interest, asks questions to the point of becoming annoying and isn't half as scary as he used to be. The thing is one can't just ignore Granny, she still is Granny and if you leave her there to rot you can be sure that she isn't going to get any better. At least time I rung them up she was right about the weather. Once I rung up and she said it had snowed, but Grandpa later said it hadn't. Whether she was looking at something white, thought it had snowed or was making it up just to say anything is any person's guess.
Going to see ''Casino Royale'' with Dieter AKA new youth worker on Thursday or at least maybe we are going to see it. Have you seen it yet?
The pantomime was good: ''Alibaba and the thirty thieves'' with a difference and no the clown guy from two years ago still hadn't washed his face!
See ya!

There is some good news in these dark times, it might not relieve the pain of a loss, but it is a ray of light anyway. Granny remembered something, that she normally forgets rapidly. You know how she usually forgets who phones? She remembers that somebody phoned, but not who. Well, this time she remembered both this time! I phoned her and about 30 min later Grandpa phoned saying Granny told her I rang up. At least that's something good!