Antarctic Rat

One of Antarctica's largest residents is the giant albino rat! Few are aware of this, because only a handful of people have seen this magnificent creature, which resides partly on land, and partly in the Southern Ocean! The giant albino doesn't feed on the local penguins, but instead wades half way to Australia to discover the "Reggie's Crunchers" which can be found in the southern Indian Ocean!!!

OK, I admit it, there isn't REALLY a giant Antarctic Rat, it's just Moses having an explore on my desk! After posing for this picture he went off to nibble the corner of a maths book and to have a sniff at my pen collection! Charlie came out for a similar walk, but since he's more lively than Moses, the pictures were a tad on the blurry side!

I'm steadily building up activity again. Town this morning for a couple of jobs, then I cleaned out the rat cage and enjoyed watching the boys go round the whole thing with their noses, discovering the changes I'd made to the layout and finding where everything was again!

I also managed to unstick the valves of the pocket trumpet, thanks to a night allowing some WD40 to percolate into the screw threads and some judicious and careful use of a rubber band and an adjustable spanner. I put the valves back properly (they'd been inserted the wrong way round), and the little chap is now playable, although I'm a very poor trumpet player so I wouldn't recommend listening in - my brassy aspirations really lie with the larger instruments!!

So now it's time for lunch, another rest, and then on with the afternoon - viola practice, maths, applying for my CELTA course, and a little gentle housework are planned - not sure exactly how much I'll get done!

I suppose it depends partly on how much time I spend playing with giant rats in Antarctica!!!! ;-)