I have seen lemurs and am very happy

A red ruffed lemur who has just woken up from a snooze.
Photo by Mr listingslightly, Wednesday 1st April, Bristol Zoo.

"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons"

I love coffee. I love it even though it is probably very bad for me and I drink too much of it and sometimes it makes me a bit jumpy and sometimes I forget to drink water during the day and drink lots of coffee instead and sometimes I forget not to drink it too late on in the day and it keeps me awake and sometimes I remember and drink decaff which is odd stuff but is still coffee and I love coffee.

Here is a list by Benjamin Obler on the Guardian website about fictional coffee scenes.

Who lives in a neo-Gothic, windswept, haunted, crumbling mansion like this.....

Time for a new poll. If you could live in any fictional house, where would you live?

I would like to live in the Moominhouse. Oddly, there is a real life version of this in Moominland, which really exists, in Finland. Instructions on how to make one out of gingerbread are here. Yum. The four-houses-in-one where the Beatles live in 'Help!' is pretty cool also.

Mr listingslightly would like to live next door to Barney Rubble, who he thinks is the best neighbour ever.

I'm not sure about sydthecat, but I suspect he'd like something like this. Or possibly this.

I suppose something to consider is whether the original inhabitants would be there or not. The Moominhouse would be much more fun if I could live with the Moomins, but I'd contemplate the Ewok village if they weren't there....

If you are interested in fictional property speculation, you can find a list (ha!) of the most expensive fictional houses here.

Vote now, or leave alternative suggestions in the comment box. They can be novel, film or TV houses. One film-knowledgeable friend would like to live in the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse from the 1960 film, for example.

Infrequently Asked Questions

In which I update my reader(s) and herald the dawn of a new era, or, at least, of Spring.

1. Would you like a coffee?
Why yes, thank you! But wait...... is it the afternoon? And I'm not out this evening? Then tea please.

2. Where are you and what have you been up to?
Hibernating.

3. What is the best way to stay cheerful in the winter months?
Plan A: Get hold of the biggest, fluffiest duvet possible, wrap yourself in it and wait for spring. Administer coffee at regular intervals. Dine on sausage and mash. Persuade a cat to sleep on your feet. Read.
Disclaimer - You may find this interferes unduly with your work and relationships. In which case:
Plan B: See the lemurs and marvel. Consider owls. Dine on sausage and mash. Read.

4. Aren't you a little bit obsessed with lemurs?
Yes.

5. Are you also obsessed with hibernation?
Yes. There will now be a ban on discussing this matter until Winter.

Raindrops keep falling on my head, messing up my travel plans, getting in my shoes and generally being annoying.

Look at me, but a few days ago, full of optimism! What a fool I was... no sooner do I suggest that the worst may be over, that February has redeeming features and that hibernation is not the only sensible option, than this happens - biblical-style lashings of rain, that's what. I have been thwarted in my attempts to reach the class I should have been teaching tonight due to rail and road links being severed, and without waterproof trousers too.

If this continues I shall, as usual, contemplate building an ark to save myself, Mr Listingslightly and sydthecat, as well as any other creatures we pass by (lemurs or goats preferably, and in pairs if possible). However, I have also considered the fact that sydthecat may secretly be a Turkish swimming cat, as I have always hoped. He does look rather like he might be, as you can see by comparing these pictures with this one.

I met his mothercat, and she didn't look much like a swimming cat, but I like to think that his fathercat swam to Brighton from distant shores.

Intriguingly, there is a story linking Noah (of ark fame) and swimming cats here.

Hmmm.... I see I have not managed to contrive a list into this post, although there are interesting facts and links to pictures of swimming cats as consolation. I have been working on a cat-based theory, though, and will soon share it.

So Long, Miss Havisham....

There's a great collection of lists at McSweeney's. This is the most recent one (Fortune Cookie Messages Appropriate for Dickens Characters), and what reminded me to post the link.

Right, the sun is shining and there are things to do - I need to stop listening to Leonard Cohen and go and read about the nature of time in the laundrette.

More grumbling about the cold

You may have gathered that I do not like January. It is cold, dark, and awash with "flu-like viruses" (i.e. "it's worse than a cold, it's not flu, your guess is as good as mine but I feel grim").

With the exception of some birthdays of lovely people, it's been a month best spent indoors, with a supply of DVDs, hearty food and a cat. Hibernation is also a good way to save £££, as noted previously, which is useful in the lean post-Christmas, post-early-pay-cheque wilderness of the end of a long month.

Still, February dawns, and although also cold, dark and pestilent, it at least has the decency to be short. And at the end of it: Spring (by my reckoning at least). My favourite fact (from this site) - "the Anglo-Saxons called February "Sol-monath" (cake-month) because cakes were offered to the gods during that month". Good plan. Cake-month it is then.

Meanwhile here are some notable February-themed events:

1. Candlemas - 2nd February
Notable for being the mid point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox, so we are 1/4 way towards midsummer already...... that was supposed to be a good thing, but now I read this and feel looming guilt at my lack of resolution progress. Tsk.

2. Groundhog Day - 2nd February also
In which a small mammal predicts an early spring or six more weeks of winter. According to the 13 groundhogs listed on Wikipedia, only five predict an early spring this year. Pants.

3. Valentine's Day
On which more another time.

4. Pancake Day
Which as a secular celebration is extra fun. Whereas in the past (or a stricter present) people would eat up all the fatty stuff before giving it up for Lent, now people (well, me anyway) eat all the fatty stuff and think "I'd forgotten how great pancakes are - let's do this again next week..."

5. New clothes in the shops
Are there blue and white clothes in the shops? Are some of them stripy? Do you look at them and think "Classic French resort wear, to be accessorised with a red handbag and a background of yachts", or even "Hmmm, perhaps it's time to stop wearing a duvet"? Then soon it will be Spring.

"Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes...."

....are quite annoying and also no-one pronounces it eyeLAshes.

It is snowing. It has been snowing for some time and there is a lot of snow out there. Here are some things to play with (indoors) until it thaws:

1. Make A Flake
You could do this with paper, but you'd need to find where you put it, and some scissors and tidy up afterwards. There's no glitter option with this online version though.

2. Make Another Flake and Watch It Twirl in 2 or 3D

3. Make a Snowball
If you have a well-stocked drinks cabinet. And if you like advocaat-based cocktails. And if you don't have anything going on later for which you need to be sober.

4. Dream of a White Christmas
Get out some tinsel, crack open the sherry (or advocaat-based cocktail) and settle down in front of an old film.

5. Rewrite the lyrics to "My favourite things"
Brown paper packages tied up with string - yes. Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes - no. Plus, I haven't been bitten by a dog or stung by a bee [grabs wooden table supersitiously], but remembering bright copper kettles would, I think, be unlikely to make it all better. Still, Maria the nun was much tougher than me, what with grouchy naval captains, 3 million children to look after and nazis to escape from. Lemurs, Alvin the Lobster, victoria sponge cake, Cary Grant - that's much more like it.

Lemurs are great

Since last week I have become mildly obsessed with lemurs. They are truly marvellous, and interestingly varied. I intend to visit some - not, sadly, in Madagascar, although actually that's probably just as well as that's where they live free and can probably do without me stalking them. I shall make a plan.

Here are places where you can learn more about them:

1. The Lemur Centre at Duke University (Durham, North Carolina)
Which has lots of information about lemurs, their habits and their relation to humans, as they are also primates.

2. National Geographic
As linked to previously. But here is a video about catching a wee mouse lemur in order to study it and then return it to its tree.

3. Lemur Health
A graduate research student studies lemurs in Madagascar. Good photos and pictures, including some good ones of mouse lemurs. She's going back to Madagascar this year to study bigger lemurs.

Two cheery thoughts for a cold, damp Sunday in January

In which I once again contemplate hibernation

Two Stephen-Fry-related gems

1. Immense gratitude to Stephen Fry for one of the most cheery moments of January - the mouse lemur, which he filmed as part of the 'Last Chance to See' series, is the best animal in the whole world. Here is part of his interview with Jonathan Ross on Friday - the mouse lemur bit is from 5.15. Its extreme cuteness may be one of the reasons for its being endangered - National Geographic says they are captured for pets - but may, I guess, also motivate people to prevent its extinction. The same may not be true of the very strange-looking aye-aye, despite its huge eyes. The 'Last Chance to See' BBC site has an amazing video of one finding its dinner in a tree.... Amazing wee creatures, both of them. Looking forward to the series.

2. Further cheers for Mr Fry also for the information, on this week's QI, that people in rural France used to sleep through the winter. This is just excellent. Previously my hibernating heroes were Moomins (who would fill up on pine needles before settling in for the long Finnish winter). This article ('Why Work When You Can Hibernate?') confirms the truth of this (French people, not moomins) and suggests tax incentives for hibernation.