Dovahniik plays Lost Valley 3

Dovahniik plays classic Tomb Raider, City of Vilcabamba.

Dovahniik plays Tomb Raider: Cave level with daughter

A quick example of what it means to own a cat...

This is a message I just sent to my friend from the PC when trying to discuss games.

As if being fed twice by 9.53am wasn't enough for her! 

Good job she's cute, right? 

NX

Father's Day Weekend

Had a rather interesting Father's Day weekend; we went to Holmebrook Park to feed the ducks and I can now officially add a swan to the list of birds that have bit/pecked me! The list now reads: 2 lorikeets, a parrot, peacock, goose, duck, swan, turkey, a chicken, and a sparrow! I would totally stop feeding them directly out of my hand if I didn't count any interaction as petting or fuss. I have no regrets. (Lorikeets draw blood though FYI.)

On the Sunday, we went to Chatsworth for a picnic and I had my first ever experience with a crayfish, which looks like a little lobster and is really weird because it swims backwards. They were everywhere. The kids weren't that bothered but I was thrilled as I have never seen one before, so if you were at the waterside and you heard the girlish, excited shrieking of a small child, it was me. *waves*

It wasn't all sunshine and crayfish though, Lara is ill with a really bad cough and we've been up all night. I've had my second coffee of the morning and it's only 9.34am. Somehow I've got to manage to keep this child comfortable while I can barely keep my eyes open. She keeps looking at me. I think she can smell my vulnerability.  The cat and dog are unusually close to me today and it doesn't feel like it's sympathetic. I think today might be the day they turn on me. Just got to keep my wits about me. <_ nbsp="" p="">
Have a great week, guys!

NX 

Mental Health Issues - Petition

Hey guys,

UNILad have post a petition that I thought was actually quite helpful, titled:

        Jeremy Hunt MP: Waiting Times For Young People’s Mental Health Services Must Be Cut

And here's the information:

UNILAD challenges the government to tackle the mental health epidemic at the root, and fast. As Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Hunt MP is best placed to help solve this issue.

To do this, the government needs to cut mental health service waiting times for young people, by shortening the timeline of their pledge to introduce maximum waiting times by 2022-3. If not, our country will lose countless young lives in the meantime.

On average, a child waits a decade from the moment they suffer their first symptom of poor mental health to receiving treatment. Furthermore, two committees of MPs published a report on May 9, saying the government's plans will take too long to come into effect and will ‘fail a generation’ through complacency and inadequacy. 

At such a crucial stage in young people’s development, mental health issues should be treated as a matter of urgency. Diagnosing and treating issues early will help deal with problems before they develop into something worse.

If the government is really serious about tackling the mental health crisis, they need to finally take decisive action.

Here's a link if you want to read more about it: https://www.change.org/p/jeremy-hunt-mp-waiting-times-for-young-people-s-mental-health-services-must-be-cut?recruiter=296637141&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=autopublish

Fast Mental Health Treatment Is Important

I read this and nearly skipped over it until I thought back to my own treatment and how my referrals to Cognitive Therapy or any other treatment didn't get processed for a month to six weeks each time! Problem in my case was that by the end of the six weeks, I had either lost the motivation to treat my anxiety or I'd gone through the 'bad phase' and so it was no longer helpful. 

Imagine the people that are suffering from severe depression or something worse; do they have six weeks to wait for a response, let alone an appointment? Anyone who's had depression will know that getting the motivation for anything at all is nigh impossible, let alone trying to cope that many weeks after. If you're reaching out to the doctor for help, chances are you're already at your lowest point and are pretty desperate to receive treatment or therapy. It must be awful to then be stuck on a waiting list while you're battling those thoughts.

Then there are those who have suicidal thoughts, how are they going to cope with the waiting times? I hate to imagine, though I do know people who can only have one therapy session a month because of how full the lists are and both of those people have attempted suicide before! It really does need changing.

NX

Viral Conjunctivitis

So, it's finally happened. The moment I've been dreading is finally here. Lara has conjunctivitis. Those who've already had this or had children probably don't fear it the way I do, but I'm not a fan of eye-illnesses and this one has meant she's been wiping her green, eye shit on my arm for the past two days.

This morning she woke up looking like the rage infected from 28 Days Later and I momentarily thought about jumping out of the window. I've also been informed that it is incredibly contagious (just like the rage virus) and I'm already feeling not too fresh today. Because she's got a cold with it, the doctor thinks it's viral, this makes sense since she's given me that too.

Turns out the story was based on a pink-eye infected toddler in the middle of a tantrum. 

I've received two conflicting pieces of advice from people: the first is to avoid touching her infection so I don't get it, the second is to bathe her eyes with cooled, boiled water as often as needed. Basically, should I put my own health above that of my child? I'm not going to tell you which I'm leaning towards right now, but you can probably guess. She's kind of taken the choice away from me by sneezing directly into my eyes and mouth this morning before I had really woken up.

If you're thinking about having children, I would totally go on Wish and wholesale some face masks and goggles because they are totally disgusting little creatures. If you think they love you enough NOT to stick the fingers they've just had in their noses straight into your mouth, you are wonderfully naive!

So if you don't see any selfies from me in the next 5-7 days, I've got pink eye.

Have a great Wednesday, nobbers!

NX