Weekend with Family

We've had a really nice weekend with family and am already sad that it's over; my mom and brother came over to Slovakia on Friday with Sian's parents and we dropped them back at the airport this morning.

Family Falconry Selfie

We met them at the airport on Friday and went straight from the airport to town for food which was a slight disaster...

Wierd nutty paste pancakes, pasta with jam and chopped up pasta with poppy seeds, spinach balls... You get the idea.

In the afternoon showed them around town and Uni then took them to fly the falcons:

Everyone was pretty tired so after dinner we separated and got an early night.

Saturday morning we met on Hlavna for late breakfast at Theatre cafe then spent the day at Košice zoo.

We missed out loads of things when we went last time so was nice to go again - the zebra, some of the birds and monkeys weren't on exhibit, I guess because it was so cold, but we saw the bears this time.
It's a really nice zoo, the only criticism I have is the big cats - they don't have enough room or enrichment so not great to see. They're in good condition but the tiger was pacing in a figure of eight obviously waiting for food and he didn't have ponds, balls, swings, logs etc like the enrichment they'd have in UK zoos.

Yesterday we did our own things with our families so we went shopping to AuPark and met up late afternoon. We went to look at food in M&S and there was a sale on so I got two pairs of jeans which should have been €40 each, one pair was €7.99 and the other €3.99!

We met up later for coffee in a really nice place, Cafe Frei, and decided to take them to Steel Arena to watch the Ice Hockey!

Košice were playing MHC Martin and tickets were only €5 (cheapest were €3!) which is awesome value for a night out.

Košice won, obviously, 3-2 but there were something like 35 and 22 goal attempts so was exciting to watch.

At one point a guy took a puck to the face and was knocked out...

We dropped them off at the airport early this morning and I'll be home in less than 2 weeks! :)

Weekend with Family

We've had a really nice weekend with family and am already sad that it's over; my mom and brother came over on Friday with Sian's parents and we dropped them back at the airport this morning.

On Friday we went straight from the airport to town for food which was a slight disaster...
Wierd nutty paste pancakes, pasta with jam and chopped up pasta with poppy seeds, spinach balls... You get the idea.

In the afternoon showed them around town and Uni then took them to fly the falcons:

Everyone was pretty tired so after dinner we separated and got an early night.

Saturday morning we met on Hlavna for late breakfast at Theatre cafe then spent the day at Košice zoo.

We missed out loads of things when we went last time so was nice to go again - the zebra, some of the birds and monkeys weren't on exhibit, I guess because it was so cold, but we saw the bears this time.
It's a really nice zoo, the only criticism I have is the big cats - they don't have enough room or enrichment so not great to see. They're in good condition but the tiger was pacing in a figure of eight obviously waiting for food and he didn't have ponds, balls, swings, logs etc like the enrichment they'd have in UK zoos.

Yesterday we did our own things with our families so we went shopping to AuPark and met up late afternoon. We went to look at food in M&S and there was a sale on so I got two pairs of jeans which should have been €40 each, one pair was €7.99 and the other €3.99!

We met up later for coffee in a really nice place, Cafe Frei, and decided to take them to Steel Arena to watch the Ice Hockey!

Košice were playing MHC Martin and tickets were only €5 (cheapest were €3!) which is awesome value for a night out.

Košice won, obviously, 3-2 but there were something like 35 and 22 goal attempts so was exciting to watch.

At one point a guy took a puck to the face and was knocked out...

We dropped them off at the airport early this morning and I'll be home in less than 2 weeks! :)

Mabel the Pekin Bantam

So Mabel comes pretty much everywhere with me; Uni, home, work, shows and even on random days out!

So thought she deserved a photo post:

Even a Stobart lorry...

DONKEY!

Tommy the Donkey!

Student Onesie

Acceptable for Student to wear a onesie?

Waitrose: Love Life, You Count

Sainsbury's Customer Service

Just found this online

Legend!

Lewis (age 20 & 1/12)

Photo Wall

Revision was boring me so I made a photo wall...

Hughie Nomming a tomato

Hughie ma tortoise eating a tomato :)

That is all...

Dissection: Mare Reproductive Tract

Last semester we dissected a Mare's reproductive tract, which was interesting because she was on oestrus.
As with all the dissections, we had to write it up but this time we couldn't just use the photos, we had to draw what we saw in the dissections and put them in the assignment ... was actually quite hard to draw them so had to try + trace it, esp in the proper scientific style! Looking at them now I think they look quite good once they were scanned in, didn't think so at the time!

So we started off with the tract, cut away the fat and bits we didn't need and got:

Dissected the vulva and vagina distally to see the interior + the cervix which is a folded smooth muscle with an interior cervical canal down the middle!

Dissected Mare reproductive tract:

 Cervix:

Then, moving proximally (up!) we found the oviducts and the utero-tubal junction + infundibulum:

Then we get to the ovaries, there were 2, one in oestrus and one in anoestrus.

So first the outside of the ovary:

Then a cross section of an ovary in oestrus (reproductively active mare) - you can see the follicles and corpus luteum:

Sherlock Santa Suit

Just found Trevor's Santa Suit so put it on Sherlock.

Cutest thing ever! :P

Poultry Red Mite Photos

I found Poultry Red Mite (Dermanyssus gallinae) in the chicken coops earlier in the year, and me being me decided I needed to get some High Res photos of them, and then have a look at them under my USB digital microscope!

Got a few photos, some of the best ones are here...
(Click to enlarge)

Will be used for Uni work so please don't use them without my permission ;)

Omlet Qute ... Testing!

Omlet asked me to preview and test their new small animal house, the "Qute".

 So far I'm really impressed! :)

Its like a contemporary piece of furniture that doubles as a functioning small animal house!

It seems well built and robust like the Classic and Cube are, really chunky piece of furniture, well thought out and the gerbils seem to like it! Nowhere for them to gnaw at edges like some cages either so it should last ages – even the tube has a metal rim so they can’t chew it!
Its easy to keep the pets in the top or bottom with the “Lift ‘n’ Twist” tube to be able to clean out the bottom drawer, or to fill up food and water. I added a couple of tubes into the bottom draw so they were running though those and making tunnels.

One thing with it being solid on top is how dark it is inside the top ... good with nocturnal animals!

The drawer comes out to empty it to clean ... or use as a "Mobile Play Pen" and take it around the house, as the advert says.

 Looks good next to ma bed and perfect height to use as a bedside table to put ma alarm clock on! :P

Only bad things are – its really heavy! 

I struggled to carry it upstairs so a child would have no chance moving it. They can easily use it to take small furries out and to clean out though. You do need a big deep sink to put it under the tap like photos show with the massive double sink! Its easy to take the top apart and give it all a wipe down too, just 2 clips at the top and it slides out.

 Top opens down to clean it out...

 And the tray comes out to give it all a proper clean...

I think it could do with being a bit taller as they like to climb which they can’t really do so if the top section was taller you could put in shelves, hang in hammocks and wooden ladders – could be used for degu then! The draw is also a really good idea but could be a bit bigger to fit a hamster ball or bigger bag of food in.

As great as it is, I do think its a steep price tag. Have seen a few people comment to say similar, I paid around £50 for my Gerbilarium which is similar and thought that was expensive.

So, I’d definitely get one, would look great, be easy to use and the gerbils would love it ...  just not on ma Student budget! :)

Dairy photos

Got some photos on the Dairy Farm so thought I'd pop them on here!

Calves nomming on my hand...

Sid! My favourite calf :)

 Little red calf

 Lesbanim calves kissing each other

 Inside the milking parlour...

 Cow being milked

 Clusters / Milking unit on a cows udder

 Cow on antibiotics being milked out into a dump bucket

 Milked out mastitic milk

And last but not least!

Me with my arm up a cow...