Orwell - working on it.

The UK has more CCTV cameras per person than any other country on the planet.

80 % are not signposted to warn people of their presence (as is required by law)

And now the police have spy drones.

John Reid : "Sometimes we may have to modify some of our own freedoms in the short term in order to prevent their misuse by those who oppose our fundamental values and would destroy all of our freedoms"

Our current government is spreading paranoia and fear throughout the people as effectively as the American administration

Americans at least have a constitution to defend their basic civil rights.


NB. No kittens were harmed in the making of this post.

Daft kitten!

I hate to be so kitten obsessed and have every post devoted to them - but I'm gonna start this post with a few funny shots I got this arvo, playing with Monty. I was trying to take his photo, but he was more interested in the cord on my camera:

Step 1 : Monitor the enemy

Step 2 : Toy with it

Step 3 : And ATTACK!

So, now to prove I can write about something other than the kittens. It's been a cool weekend out of the lab, with Paul up to visit. He came up cos we went to see the very funny (and very handsome!) Dylan Moran (of Black Books fame) who came to town for a show. He was really funny and we had awesome tickets, right up near the front. Fortunately the lights were too bright for him to pick on the audience, so we were off the hook. I actually wore a dress and we went to a very posh winebar after, which for once I was appropriately dressed for!
Then today, we did a mini road trip over the port hills to Lyttelton and a bit of a cruise round the port hills. It was the perfect weather for it with a hazy sunny day. We stopped in Lyttelton to pop into the Wunderbar which is a super-cool little bar and finally I got a chance to take a photo of their wicked lampshade made of dismembered dolls heads. Pretty wierd! It's got a foosball table and for the first time EVER I beat Sean! Not that I'd wanna gloat! Anyway - a couple of extra photos and I'm off.

Nice view on the drive

Wishful thinking

Surreal - especially at night when it is lit up.

Kittens!

Well, an update on the kittens is very due. Unfortunately, one has disappeared (although it was the least cute one in my opinion), but the other two kittens are very much still round the place. In fact our garden (and indeed our laps) have become their territory - much to the annoyance of Squish - their dad. It took an unbelievable amount of coaxing and occasional feeding to finally win them over, but Monty (the black one) eventually sussed out that he loves being stroked and about a day or two after first being able to touch him, he was up in our laps like a shot. Grey would just stand around and watch and clean herself, but eventually (with lots more feeding - she's a smart cat!) let us touch her and now she fights with Monty for our lap! They even sit on one lap together and fall fast asleep, which is adorably cute, if a little uncomfortable.

So I thought I'd put up a couple of pictures of them. They're still very small, even though they must be nearly 6 months old now.

It's great having the mountains out of your office window!