Off the vets...again

Well, Neo went back to the vets on Tuesday and visited the dentist, had a heart scan and more blood tests...another 300 Euros. We picked him up to find they couldn't find anything wrong with his teeth, but has a slight heart murmur and needs to have pills for the next 6 months.
A slightly groggy cat slept with us all night!

Work was slow this week, as everyone was in holiday mode - so I took it easy, finished lots of jobs I should have done ages ago, had some furniture delivered and cleared my office out and filed.
Friday was the start of holidays, unfortunately Ian didn't have Friday off, as he is not protestant! He worked from home, so we could take Morpheus to the vets to check his heart. I wish I had my phone with me to video the 30 minutes of crying all the way to vets.....and with a small bonus of peeing in his cage, which left me slightly embarrassed about the stink coming from him while waiting in the vets. Anyway his heart is fine, but they want Neo back next Tuesday as he finds it slightly hard to eat (although the dribbling is subsiding) and his inner eye lid is sometimes half closed. Mystery.
He has antibiotics now. I think he has learnt that the pills aren't treats, so I now just pop it in his mouth and he just swallows it.
We came back to find Tara trying to commit suicide by suffocation in a plastic bag. Maybe she thought she was next to go to the vets.

Today (Saturday), Ian played Xbox, while I researched another side of the family tree and talked to Sam and Georgie on skype - although Georgie was only interested in the cats and not me. We then went into town to have ice cream with Brigitte and Gunther. Although we did manage to have a quick glass of wine as well (and buy 2 bottles for me - 4 euros each - bargain).
We walked home the 'nice' way in the lovely 25c heat.

A nice start to the Easter holidays. Next week is supposed to be DIY on the house, visiting Mollie and Vinnie, haircut and highlights, vets (again), and a trip to the garage. I am guessing a fun but expensive week at home!
Have a nice Easter :-)

Off to the vets

Friday night was spent at the vets with Neo, 2 1/2 long hours of mainly waiting. He had blood tests, kidney ultra sound and managed to just poop once in his cage. He has high levels of Sodium in his blood and probably a tooth cavity. So he goes back on Tuesday to the dentist, more blood works and a heart scan. Lucky Neo. Once returning home, we had the usual problem with Morph....the biggest baby of them all......he hides and won't come out, although as it was his brother that had been to the vets, I think he was more forgiving and came out of hiding after only 16 hours (last time with Tank it was about 3 days).

Me don't like Neo anymore, he smells funny!

Is it safe to come out yet?

Neo had to drink water, so we were given a syringe and told to force it down him, but little does the vet know.....put some fresh water in a glass and Neo will see it is mummy's drink and want to drink it...result! Next painkillers, put the pill in front of Neo and he will automatically think it is food and just swallow it.....result. The bonuses of having a greedy cat.

Neo with a naked belly from his ultrasounds.

He has perked up this weekend, probably because of the meds and water, but still dribbles most of his food back into the food bowl, which I have to say is really putting the other cats of their food.
Saturday - was a trip over the border to the DIY store. I suggested to Ian he should get a new toolbox for all his helicopter bits (as there seems to be pieces of helicopter in the dining room, kitchen and office).



So only 4 days of work left and I get 10 days off.....yippeee. The idea is to get this house once and for all ready for selling, but with a little break to see Mollie and Vinnie and maybe go to the zoo, have my hair cut, and go to the dentist......

16lbs and dropping

Well last weekend was a lazy, but interesting one. First as the title suggests I have now lost 16lbs, and Ian is well ahead with around 22lbs. It is very rewarding fitting into old clothes, and when I rest my chin on my hand at work….it feels smaller! Anyway, after watching many episodes of ‘Who do you think you are’ about US celebrities researching there family trees, I finally got around to starting my family tree, and wow is it addictive. I started with the grandparents and progressed from there, my Granddad’s side was luckily already there from another long lost relative doing the research. Interestingly on that side of the family we found that my granddad had 12 brothers and sisters (although some died very early, and some during World War I – their births spanned over a long period). I also found a photo of my great grandma, which was amazing – I later decided she spent her life pregnant, she couldn’t write and obviously liked birds from the photo. Now, the Scrimgeour side of my tree started off more difficult to find, until I found a Scottish ancestry web site that you could view the full images of births, marriages etc. So I got back to 1700 with the Scrimgeours, but only on the ‘Scrimgeour’ side, so still lots to do. I found out that there is a history of ‘gardeners’ in the family (my granddad was a gardener – worked for the Queen you know!), the photo shows the estate where my great granddad worked (shame he didn't own it). From looking at dates, my great granddad married his wife 2 months before their first child was born……Scandalous! What was also nice, a lady from Oxford contacted me telling me how her mum was evacuated to Skipton, North Yorkshire during WWII, where her best friend was my grandma (Nana)……small world. She is hunting for more photos. So after around 10 hours of researching, and many calls to my mum with exciting snippets of information, I left the ancestry alone. I actually suggested Ian play on his Xbox for once!

Unfortunately this week, Neo has not been well. We shall be talking him to the vets on Friday, as he was grumpy, and has now progressed to dribbling a lot, and struggling to eat food (although that is not stopping him from spending 15 minutes licking, slurping and drooling food everywhere). So we have prodded his mouth etc., and there is no sign of pain, so let’s hope it isn’t anything neurological related, and he has a sore tooth somewhere.

Ian and I were even more impressed this week, with our second attempt at a milk tart! Unfortunately it was for Ian to take to work, as he had promised everyone……so none for me. This time we bought a new flan baking dish (with a removable base – recommended), and it looked fantastic.

Spring is officially here.....

Yes, finally the weather has warmed up, and for the first time this year, flip flops were worn at the weekend (22c). You may think it is simply the month or the weather that pronounces it is spring, but no, here in Austria there are a few things that predict when spring is officially here.

• Our little friendly ants start to creep into the house through the tiniest of gaps and make a nuisance.


• Ian starts to get more irritated with driving to work, behind the slow tractors and the even more annoying tiny cars (the ones where you don't need a licence, and they only go 45km/h).


• My work decided to fill the huge fountain on the plaza, and take down the rope barriers (to stop people walking in the snow).


• It's light when we drive home from work.


• The twice a year ritual of swapping winter and summer clothes takes place in the Pattison household.


• Its time to swap the winter tyres to summer tyres on the car.


• Hazel starts to moan that is too hot


• Hazel starts to moan that we should never have put a glass roof over the wintergarden.


• and finally this year, Ian and Hazel rejoice in being able to fit into the summer clothes that have been stored away for 5 months.

So last weekend, we took the trip to Vienna and went for a little shop, as, after been extremely happy that we now had 4 PCs networked together, the PC in the lounge decided it no longer liked its power supply. So we went looking for a small power supply to fit a slimline PC......Stupidly thinking we may find one. But no this is Austria, yes there are big electrical stores, and one maplin-like shop (with only 5 different power supplies), but that is it folks.......If only they would bring a huge supermarket, electrical store, PC store, TK Maxx and, and and.....to Austria.

So internet shopping wll have to do.

Sunday, we finished the roof garden, by laying the final 60m2 of weed cloth protection, to kill the overgrown garden. Ian took a little trip outside with his helicopter. Oh yeah and we watched the whole and only season of 'Moonlight' - a similar minded sci-fi friend at work lent me the DVD - Vampires, romance, mystery and murder....oh and a wonderfully hunky Alex O'Loughlin. All that a girl needs.

Monday, my 'sista from another mista' (as Mollie likes to call me) came into work. I had been on holiday, and then she went back to the States for 2 weeks, so I was missing my BF. Little Vinnie has grown lots. She had been shopping while visiting the states and bought me a present from Marshalls (TK Maxx of the USA). A pink, cupcake, frilly, cute apron, a cake slice with red and pink shiney gems on it, and some cute Easter kitchen towels. She wants me to look like a Stepford wife I think.

Tuesday - Ian is somewhere in Austria with work, a team meeting/retreat thingy. He will be attending and also facilitating - using 5 types of balls, lego, and string (mmmm). I am at work (lunch break now), and have just receieved a parcel from my mum which includes some cadbury's easter nest cakes.....THANK YOU MUM! It made a nice surprise, as I was having slightly murderous intentions towards my office mate earlier. It makes me chuckle - the look of pity in her eyes when I say that we don't really 'club' anymore. We did that from the age of 16 - 28, and now it is more gigs, friends houses, meals and BBQs. I told her we were going to see Limp Bizkit in July, so she told everyone that I don't 'club' because I only like heavy metal music. Not sure if it an age thing or another cultural difference we all find working in an international environment.

Finally as I have no photos this week to share, I thought I would include 2 cute photos of Neo:

Peekaboo I really like the cushion, but I also like the sofa cushion.

I know I am so fat I can use both!

The Holidays part 3 and beyond....

So ‘down South’ we went. We stopped on the way at TK Maxx, Tesco and also to buy some shower gel that you can’t buy in Austria. Friday night was spent catching up with Pops and Pam, with some birthday presents and a belated Xmas present (thank you to my secret Santa), and then a special trip to Spurs restaurant in Staines…yum yum.

Saturday was another South African themed trip, to a little South African shop, where we spent 35 pounds on yummy chocolates, and Nik Naks, (luckily I can buy some items at my work’s commissary) – oh and also a fresh Melktert (milk tart)….mmmmm.

We stopped off at a ‘fish’ shop….not an eating establishment, but to buy some new fishes for the Pattison’s aquarium…..I fell in love with a little Nemo, and I am seriously thinking about having 2 little fish at home. We relaxed with the Pattison’s on Saturday, while watching the chickens in the garden jump for minced meat (thinking they were worms), and caught up with Georgie and Anton (who, may I remind them, will visit us in Austria soon). Saturday night was an hour’s drive to the Luton Premier inn for a cheap night’s stay, but welcomed as we had to get up at 5.00am to catch our flight at 7am. We arrived in Slovakia in the morning, and did a quick shop at the Slovakian Tesco’s……doesn’t really resemble English Tesco’s, but has so much more than Austrian supermarkets. Stocked up on goodies, we headed home to give our boys and girls so love.

Last weekend, we started our spring clean, or as Ian calls it, disinfecting the house. Two whole rooms were ‘disinfected’ and items thrown away. The rest of the house was cleaned on Sunday, with a trip to Hardegg to make sure the heating was working, and a little chat with Leo, the friendly neighbour, who I am beginning to understand more and more……his wife was ill, Austria is expensive and said that a man without a beer belly is a cripple! At least that is what I think he said. So all in all a successful weekend of cleaning, cooking, shopping, cat brushing and more organizing. Sunday Ian and I made a Milk tart, which was scrummy…not sure how many points that is on weightwatchers though, and then followed by ironing and packing for our 4am start on Monday to take Ian to the airport. I arrived at work at 6.30am, where I am currently writing this, as I can’t officially start work until 7am. So I thought I would keep myself occupied from not sleeping on my desk. I am definitely leaving at 4pm today to go home to sleep….. Ian is back on Tuesday.

This weekend, disinfecting the house started again. The office was ripped apart and all paperwork was organised. The recycling bin is now full of paper and we still have another month before it is collected. So the office is starting to resemble a room again, and I may even feel like actually sitting in it occasionally. All PCs were upgraded to windows 7, and a new router was installed. After a few hours of Ian cursing his PC, we had a fully operating network, where streaming video actually worked. In fact for the first time in 10 years, all PCs can see each other. A quick trip to the Czech Republic was made on Saturday, where we bought some new Reebok trainers, after we found out all shoes were ½ the outlet price. Ready to start the upgrade from walking, to trotting, to jogging and then finally running.

Czech Republic - Airplane restaurant and a big globe, with some dragons and knights (Don't ask me why).

19 Euros for a visit to Moulin Rouge....enough said!

You can but full size plastic cows in the Czech Republic.

The holidays part 2

Thursday was a day of fun and Richard's birthday (yes 3 birthdays in 3 days). We relaxed a while in the lounge, and I tried my best to annoy my sister, without success.
The best part of the day was our 75 minutes of lazer combat. Richard, Ian, Sam and I ran around the woods with our £1000 lazer guns trying to shoot our enemies, which included many 6-10 year olds.
My mum and dad were watching with amusement and catched some great photos.

Always time for a quick pose during war.
Ian trying to be a sniper.
Me hiding behind the Ammo shed.
The 4 shooters at the end of combat. As you can see I still had
my gun and helmet, I like to think that was because
I was better than the men and wasn't killed.

After combat we did even more exercise and walked the long way home across the forest to the house. Our last night was spent eating Italian food for Richard's birthday.

To commemorate our final night, Georgie decided she would have explosive vomiting during the night. Poor Pauline and Richard had a very upset baby, with a travel cot covered in puke and a very stinky bedroom......Everybody managed to get to sleep around 3am.
Friday was goodbye day, with an early start to trek to the car and bring it back for packing. We all left and said farewell to one another, which led Ian and I onto the next part of our trip 'down South'.

The holidays part 1

Well it has been a while since the last blog, and I actually have things to talk about.
We arrived in the UK on a busy Saturday, after the usual hassle free, yet slightly squashed, Ryanair flight. We picked up our hire car and drove through the usual road works to Derby to have a little shop. We found a new shop that we walked around in awe.....Poundland. So much to buy for a pound. In fact by the end of the holiday, we had been to 3 poundlands and bought lots of interesting items.
We stayed the night at the Hilton (sale prices), where I fell asleep at 8.30pm for 12 hours and left Ian slightly bored. Sunday we had our English breakfast, but counted our WW points and only had a miniture fry up.
We drove 'up North' on Sunday, with a quick trip to TK Maxx, to Stevie and Tay's house, where we chilled, chatted, ate and watched a film. We always love visiting Pudsey, to visit our bruv and sis, see the town we used to live in and chill on our old sofas!
Monday morning was another early start, with a birthday trip to the helicopter shop for Ian, where he bought some helicopter goodies (which I won't try to explain). We then met my family at Castleford outlet village for some more shopping and a pizza hut buffet. It was the first time ever that I only ate 2 slices of pizza and salad at a pizza hut buffet.
We then drove down to Sherwood forest in 3 full cars and drove around the maze of centre parks to find our lodge. A lovely 4 bedroomed, 4 bath house with a games room including a PS3 and a pool table. Unpacking took place quickly and the cars had to be returned to the car park, as it was a no car zone for the rest of the week. Tuesday, my 34th birthday was spent walking for miles through the forest and watching Sam quad biking.


My birthday treat was 3 hours of relaxing in a spa, with many different steam rooms, saunas and relaxing rooms and an outdoor pool....It was fabulous.
Wednesday was Ian's birthday, where I sneaked a facial in the morning, and we walked and walked for the rest of day, with a quick game of pool with sam, and enjoyed a birthday meal at night.
When we first arrived in the lodge, there was a huge chalkboard by the entrance and so I wrote everybody's birthday on it. The cleaners obviously saw it and left a Thortons Birthday cake for the 2 boys and 1 girl. Little did they know, it was for a 41, 34 and 32 year olds! oops