No Posts and No Pictures

I’ve been getting very lax with my postings of late, so what’s up? As with many things, it’s not due to anything in particular but a mix of things. Over the last three weeks or so I’ve had two colds, one on the back of the other. The first cold went to my chest and the second one to my sinuses so both managed to slow me down a bit.

On top of that I got a reminder from the UK Tax Office to say that the date to file the taxes and get them to work it out had change and was no longer January but the end of this month – time to panic.

Having got the data together I got round to reading the accompanying booklet and discovered that the form they had sent me shouldn’t be used if you are resident abroad as I am. So I duly telephoned the helpline;

“No idea why we’ve sent you that then, but fill it in and send it anyway”

was the comment. So I have, along with a covering letter to say that I was resident abroad and I had queried the form but had been told to submit it. Now all I have to do is wait and see if they accept it.

The other thing that’s reduced my time in front of the computer is that I’ve discovered BBC 4. I found an episode of Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation, a programme I watched with my parents back in 1969. Re-watching it only confirmed that a lot of documentaries today are pap in comparison. It’s sad that in an age when we are all supposed to be better educated we are treated like children when back in 1969 you were treated as an adult.

Tonight’s offering is the second part of ‘The Story of Maths’. When I watched the start of the first episode my heart sank when it announces that it was going to make wide use of computer graphics – I have to admit I have a loathing of CG being used as a time waster in documentaries having watched Horizon going from an informative hour long programme to a quarter of an hour of content padded out with flashy but superficial CG and the content repeated four or five times to make an hours programme. However I was really pleasantly surprised that the CG was not intrusive so I’m looking forward to that. Maybe it will diminish my cynicism of what we are fed on TV – but I will take note of what Lord Clark said:-

"It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs."

Sick Chick Back With The Flock

Sick Chick still has the hole beneath her vent but it’s much smaller. I followed Debs & Bob’s advice and have given her a dose of Dectomax (Ivermectin) and today she was looking better but pining for the company of the other chickens.

While I can keep her isolated I can’t keep her totally fly free. In the house she’s in a cat box which is fine when she’s feeling poorly or for transport but is really too small for long term containment and the house is not fly free either – especially not this year, the flies have been really bad
.
Outside I have the concrete rabbit hutches which give her more space but again they are not fly proof so having checked her again I decided that it would be better for her to take her chances out with the rest of the flock and I will catch her at least once a week and check her.

So after a final dose of iodine I put her in with the others. Her tail went up to the highest I’ve seen it for ages and she was clucking away for all her worth. She’s been really quiet for ages so that was a real surprise. She came over as a really happy chicken and overjoyed to be back on the grass and foraging. She still has diarrhoea but it doesn’t seem to be bothering her, maybe the Dectomax will deal with that in time. In the meantime, she appears to be happy and I will be watching very carefully for any signs that she’s not doing well and will deal with her as and when she needs it.