Monkey's Blog - with a little help from Alice

The promised photos.

(You really ought to read my second post, which is my first proper one, before you look at these.)
Don't forget that if you click on a photo, you get to see it  even bigger and more splendid! Vera says there are more still on SmugMug, and most of you would know about that. Search me...

The first one is of me in the Great Eastern Temple, in front of the Great Buddha of Nara, Japan, November 2007. Not a very good picture, really, but a memorable moment.

For more information on the place, see Sacred Destinations.

In 2007, and again in 2008, I went to Cortijo Romero, an alternative holiday centre in Spain.

 I thought it would be a bit much, all touchy-feely, full of hippies left-over from the 60s. But it was really super: ever so warm, lots of wonderful flowers in the garden, marvellous food, friendly people, interesting courses and activities. The humans did a lot of swimming in the pool (some of them in the nude!) or sunbathing. My constitution isn't very suited to the former recreation, but  I enjoyed the sun. This was the last day, packed and ready to go.

This is from our recent visit to Winchester. The famous cathedral is in the backgound. Good old Wikipedia can tell you quite a bit about it, though the editors have quibbled about citations and verifications. Who cares? And of course the C of E has a whole website dedicated to the place.

We also went to a splendid Open Studios Weekend at Project Workshops in Quarley, North West Hampshire.

This beautiful wolf sculpture (below) is by Amy Goodman. 

Wolves again. Synchronicity, as Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) would have said. Interesting bloke. He must have had a sense of humour, as he once said, "Thank God I am Jung and not Jungian".

   One of Vera's recent cinema trips was to see A Dangerous Method, all about him and Freud and a young woman called Sabina Spielrein. She started off pretty crazy, but ended up writing a so-called "seminal" paper, that didn't get the recognition it deserved (of course.) The Telegraph wrote an insightful review. Vera  said she was mainly interested in the history of  Psychology, but she did also have the treat of watching both Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender together in one film! Aragorn and the star of Shame... I thought she was quite over-excited for several days afterwards.

I am used to going to the supermarket when making visits to stay with friends. I help with the shopping by giving advice on menus, recipes, ingredients, and how to budget. Nevertheless, they still make some ridiculously extravagant purchases. Humans!

Animals have so much more intuition and good sense. 

This lovely little cat had a traumatic childhood (from which her current kind owner has rescued her) and is usually quite suspicious of strangers - so much so that she will hiss in a very threatening manner. But as you can see, she and I got on famously. I hope to visit her again when she's moved into the new flat for which her owner is currently negotiating. Vera gave it the thumbs up.