(taken on my last ever walk to work in the City – March ‘08)

Readers, I am off to London for that band’s 30th anniversary gigs, coffee with Phil and snowy walks by the river a la Love Actually.  The huge dichotomy in my nature is displayed right there in that sentence….

So I’m taking a little blogging break – back Wednesday probably.  In the meantime I leave you with some links and some blanks.

* Practice yoga this weekend – take a look through some of my past ones, or something from Emma’s blog.

* If you love tea and love Advent, you’ll love Catherine’s Advent Calendar!

* More yoga furore – an article in the New York Times about who yoga belongs to.  You can read the article and Darren Main’s take on it here.  Or Linda’s history of yoga here.  Both well worth a read.  As is this book (although I haven’t read it yet).  My take on it all?  Stop bitchin’, do yoga!  Life is too short to worry about what is right and what is wrong.  All we can do is what is right for us.  Everything else is superfluous.

* Are you taking part in the Reverb10 project?  Let me know if you are as I’m loving reading everyone’s posts.  I haven’t got time to do it this year.  And yes, I’m aware of the irony.  I will however be reflecting on my Year of Mindfulness, later in the month.

* And finally don’t forget Lauren’s blanks.

1. Holiday spirit… Jack Daniels, naturally!

2. The holidays are incomplete without.…Christmas Eve Mass, stockings, too much food, brandy, watching Love Actually at least once, getting bronchitis, a family argument!

3. My favorite things to do around the holidays are: decorate the tree, sing carols loudly and out of tune, bake mince pies for everyone and sleep.

4. A holiday tradition my family and I have is eating smoked salmon for breakfast – very vegan I know!

5. Holiday music is hilariously awful. I have only recently been able to see the funny side of it. For several Christmasses I worked in a Mexican cocktail bar (that sounds cooler than it was). The Christmas decorations went up on 1st December and Christmas music played all day every day. Considering I was working 16 hour shifts during the Christmas period you will not be surprised to know that I used to dream in Christmas music.

6. This year, I’ll be spending the holidays in Cambridge. Doing as little as possible!

7. Holiday wish list – peace and love to all (wo)men, no arguments and the Back to the Future trilogy on the TV.

I read an article this morning about Mickey, a hairless Sphynx cat in Russia who was anethetised for three hours to have an ornamental tattoo inked on his back and chest.

My initial reaction, as yours might be, was WTF! Seriously?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge fan of bodyart. I have several tattoos and am about to begin sitting for a new backpiece. However, I have made a conscious choice about all of my tattoos, a lot of thought went into each of them and they each mean something important to me. There are many theories as to why some of us human beans decide to get tattooed, none of which I think can be applied to cats.

A cat is incapable of making this sort of decision. But then, my cats had no choice when it came to them being neutered. Is this really any different? Whilst there is a reason for neutering a domestic moggie, a part of that reason is so that living with the cat is easier for the human. Is it hypocritical as the caretaker of neutered cats for me to take umbrage at somebody tattoing their cat? I can justify my cats being neutered but I cannot justify this. Then there is the argument of whether or not we should interbreed cats to have characteristics that are not really conducive to the cats survival – in this case having no fur.

Is anethetising a cat for a procedure that is purely aesthetic morally right? Is it Ok to be somewhat hypocritical sometimes?

On the other hand, on a person that would be a beautiful tattoo……

I’d be interested to know what you think, dear readers.