What is up, buttercup?

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend. I am enjoying mine. Today, some pictures of Vanilje’s triumphant return. And others.

She’s getting to be a big girl. But still small. And less threatening than Magnethe and Mads. You can easily tell that when there are kids and visitors at the playground. Mads and Magnethe are big and intimidating if you’re not used to being around goats. But Vanilje is little and cute. Maybe it’s because her horns are still small.

Almost as tall as Shermin though.

That is my joy, three goats out and about. I love that.

Vanilje being taken out for a walk. I don’t really think it’s nice to put her on a leash like that. But permission was given from Kurt or Per so I couldn’t exactly step in and tell her off. It didn’t last for too long at least. Goats are meant to be free. Run around. That’s one of the things I like about Vanilje. She’s slim and energetic. Mads and Magnethe are more heavy and slow. They don’t run a lot. And when they do run then they stay “grounded”. Left foot, right foot, left foot. Vanilje sometimes gets excited (for no particular reason) and starts running around. With both feet at the same time. You understand? A jumping run. That’s fun.

Maybe that’s why she also sits down a lot. Magnethe doesn’t lie down often. Mads does it especially if the sun is shining and he’s a bit tired. But Vanilje just does it a lot, she doesn’t seem to be really tired. She’ll just come walking along and then lie down next to me for a while. And then get up and walk on. I have said it before, it always makes me feel “accepted” when they sit down next to me. Baby lambs and goat kids, they always sit down together. In groups. So it makes me feel part of the gang when I am sitting down with them. Yes. And it’s a great opportunity to stroke them. Just sitting down and relaxing together. Good times.

Kurt and Magnethe there. And the girl, she’s been at the playground before. Oldtimers might remember I wrote about a girl who was always happy to see me and when she said things then she’d sort of bounce up and down like an excited exclamation point. That’s her. Not bouncing so much this time, but still nice to see her again.

Mads at the beach. No not really. At the water fountain.

The kids like to make waterways in the sand. Dams and such. And then they turn on the water and watch it flow down into the systems they have built.

Aand there’s Vanilje again.

Thanks go out to Clare today. She sent me a nice card and some tasty treats. I feel well spoiled.

I saw a cat in our yard a couple of days ago. Moomincat? He walked by the door. He looked like Moomincat. Unfortunately I had my hand full with warming delicious soup. By the time I got to the door to check, the kitty was long gone. I’d like to think that it was Moomin. Maybe he still checks up on me from time to time.

There was something I wanted to write about… but now I can’t remember. Don’t you hate when that happen? Senility sets in slowly, said the smiling Superintendent.

Oh well. Maybe it’ll turn up. Bye for now.

Happy birthday to Plume! Yes, that’s me. I’m Plume. It’s my birthday. Happy birthday to me!

I am now officially 29 years old. if you can believe it. And don’t worry, I won’t blame you if you can’t believe it. I lost a good deal of years to social phobia and isolation. I don’t really feel 29. But on the other hand, I do feel… older. And at the playground I am often referred to as “that man”. So despite my babyface and general shortness of stature I guess I do look like an adult after all. I will always be a goat boy in my heart though.

It’s been quite a good day really. I didn’t sleep too well, but I still managed to get up early and watch Lost. And let me just say by the way, the last couple of Lost episodes have been really good. Feels like The Island is back as a character. Nice beach stuff. Jungle walks. Mysteries and good story progression. Back to its strengths.

After the Lost morning I went to TMU. I decided to keep it a “secret” that it was my birthday. Didn’t feel like having a fuss made over me. I was on the shopping team today. We have to buy and prepare our own breakfast and lunch. I was assigned to be on the food team on Wednesdays. My day off. But now I’m moved to Thursday. Today was my first time shopping. I was a bit nervous about it. But it went fine. I went with another student, Max. And one of the teachers, Paw. He drove us to the store in his car. No worries. Then I got the results of my Danish exam. I think I forgot to mention when I took it. A spelling/writing exam. I’m pretty good at that stuff so I wasn’t expecting problems. And didn’t have problems. I did make a couple of mistakes, but just goofs, nothing serious. So I passed with flying colours. I am writing good yes?

Then my stomach went all Chernobyl on me and I was excused. Went to the playground and partied with the animals. I was surprised to find Magnethe outside. Not inside with the buck. I asked Per about it. Turns out that Magnethe has gone “out of heat”. Or however you say that. She’s no longer in heat. So it would be a waste of time to keep her inside with the buck. Instead Kurt has taken the buck back to his place. He’ll bring it back when Magnethe gets hot again. I don’t know exactly how that works, how often a female goat is in heat and how long and all that. But I’ll look forward to seeing the buck again because he was quite beautiful and sweet I think. For now I will just enjoy the wonderfulness of having three goats running around freely. Three goats is better than two. And running around freely is better than being locked up in the pen. Right now it’s just pretty perfect. Mads, Magnethe and Vanilje out and about. And the lambs are in the goat pen so when I feel like picking Mini up and holding her then I’ll just go in there for a little. It couldn’t be much better. I might explode with delight when the new piglets arrive.

Bodil came by today. She thanked me for the photos I gave her. You might recall she asked for copies of the photos of the ducks and of Yvonne. None of them are at the playground anymore so she wanted pictures for the memories I think. She was a bit sad though. She is getting ready to give away her two budgies. She got them recently. And she loves them a lot. She has talked about them a lot, told me stories about them. But she has a problem with her asthma. Allergies I guess. So she has to give them up. Sad. At least she still has her dog Lulu. She said she wouldn’t know what to do if she had to give her up. But it’s bad enough with the budgies. It must be awfully hard to give up your pets. I was dreading even having to be without Magnethe for a month or two if Kurt had taken her to his place for the bucking. I know Bodil hadn’t had the budgies for too long, but she was very attached to them. I could tell she was sad. I hope Lulu can cheer her up. I’ll do my best as well, when I see her.

The weather forecast says we might get snow at the end of the week. Looks like I was wrong when I predicted there would be no more snow until next winter. Although it won’t be snowstorm strength, but I will take any snow I can get.

To round off my birthday I have watched Brøndby win the Royal League tournament. Beating the big rivals FC Copenhagen in the final. Good stuff. We’ve had a very disappointing season but now we have got a trophy at least.

Also on the positive list: 600 kroners from my mum. Although the Friends box set cost 899 kroners and she said she would pay for the whole thing. But I ain’t greedy, 600 bucks is still the most expensive christmas present I have ever gotten. And it came with a cute card. Another cute card came from Stu who has possibly the best website address in the world. Cheers, Stu. And then I got a phone call from my dad in Greenland. So I feel all loved. On Saturday I’ll have my birthday dinner. We’ll have chicken. That’s my favourite food. Apart from soup of course. But the soup has sadly been finished. And it would be a bit much to ask for another giant pot of soup again so soon.

That’s all for today. For my birthday. I have some pictures from today and some videos from today and yesterday. But that will have to wait. I think my birthday wish is to get a really good night’s sleep. It’s been a while since I’ve had a really good one. Stomach problems, jaw problems, throat problems and just general unrestlessnessness. Tonight we sleep like kings.

And finally a thank you to you all. Because you rock. I hope you’ll stick around for many years to come. And yes, I mean you.