Bugger. A few weeks back Rhiannon's pet hamster (Hammy) came to live with us in the cottage. I think she got fed up of cleaning him out and to be fair, he would have been three in March which is a good run for a hamster - but as you might guess from my use of the past tense here, Hammy is no longer. I went in to check on him last night and the poor little soul was stiff as a board.
I'm hoping he died of old age but I feel so damn guilty that he might have frozen to death.
But the story doesn't end there... for a little while, he was either just about breathing or convulsing. This was enough to convince Eleanor it was worth setting about him with a hot water bottle, a towel, a hair dryer and burning up the last of the logs we were saving for Christmas.
He was definitely with the Angels though. Sigh. I think I shall wait until after Christmas Day to tell her. We put him back in his cage and put the whole thing in the conservatory where it's currently -4,856 degrees so he should be quite well preserved.
And on the subject of animals dying, I see Arnold Strang also died yesterday, aged 91. Arnold gave the voice to my favourite cartoon character of all time - Top Cat. Thank you Sir. They certainly don't make 'em like they used to.
In light of Christmas Day events going a little pear-shaped here, Eleanor and I have decided to have a pre-Christmas dinner of our own on Christmas Eve. In our wisdom, we have decided to return to the Cafeteria de Nirvana and treat my face to another fine, fine bacon sandwich. Maybe this will go some way to convincing you guys of how good this sandwich really is.
Read it again: I'm going to eat a bacon, brie and spicy pear chutney toasted sandwich instead of a traditional turkey dinner.
A sublime act of paganism I think you'll find amongst all of this consumerism/christianity. To be honest, I can't tell the difference any more.
It will come as no surprise to anybody either that I am VERY EXCITED about Doctor Who on Christmas Day. It had better knock me out with the speed and velocity of a two ton heavy thing. I've been disappointed with all of the Christmas specials so far but with this being the swansong... one can but hope.
