Autumnal grumblings and a nasty cold

Autumn has set in with a cloudy, mist-filled vengeance and gloom and darkness now seem to be the order of the day. Even here in Prague. Consequently, in my over-enthusiasm to workout harder in my aerobics sessions to develop strength and avoid colds, I miscalculated the difference in temperature in this flat and exercised without a jacket to begin with, and got a cold. Or was it just the stress of never knowing when I'll have time to myself these days and a lack of soothing candles and lights and things that make me go mmmm...?

This cold has been particularly nasty and I'm only just getting better, but in my slowness to recover, I've bought myself some time to do some much needed ground work in trying to build up meet-ee numbers again as well as get better paid writing work and improve my website to be more of a showcase of all my areas of work. So I guess I've been working hard without realising it. As usual. I even got out to a networking event. God forbid. Actually, I surprised myself and actually followed-up a couple of acting related contacts. Joining one more casting agency can't do any harm I suppose.

In the last few weeks, the cowboy and I have managed to get out for another couple of mushroom-picking trips, which has made me an above average foreigner when it comes to recognising edible varieties.  This, for example, is edible:

These, on the other hand, are not.

See, expert, right?

Well, not exactly. But at least I'm occasionally capable of picking the right ones so that not everything I gather has to be discarded. Although sometimes, the ensuing mushroom soup with potatoes that the cowboy has made, has given me the worst tummy ache ever. And you do not want to know the side effects of that. I shall not go in to such matters. Ugh. 

The gorgeous autumnal trees and colours of the leaves have been cheering me up though. 

And having a nasty cold has given me a good excuse to curl up in bed more and catch up on some old David Attenborough documentaries. Which is soothing, fascinating and in the case of the mole-rat things that live underground and gnaw away at soil to make their burrows, disgusting all at the same time. The platypus was just amazing though.

Zoo

There's something so soothing and rewarding about going to the Zoo.  This wasn't the one in Prague, but in Dvůr Králové:

There were other serene and/or entertaining animals, such as a baby orangutan, which was particularly sweet, and some amazing monsters, namely a vulture and a pelican chick which had grown to huge proportions in the space of just a couple of months.  And of course, some suitably scary pythons of epic width, a few lethal-looking big cats, and some rather odd but colourful birds who took to watching us, as if annoyed that we spent too much time watching the baby orangutan.  Not all of us can be cute, let's face it, so I understand the birds' outrage and determination to catch our attention by making strange noises instead.

But the ,,miminko" [word for "baby" in Czech, not her name] orangutan was being so captivating, with her mad scientist-type hairstyle and her fascination with the end of a round, metal bolt, that looked for all the world like a nipple to her, but somehow wasn't providing anything like the usual reward for sucking on it.  She had us entranced.  Unfortunately, this was the best photo I could get of her:

And then we came home and watched ring-tailed lemurs and tiny, slow-moving leaf-litter chameleons on the 'Madagascar' series DVD, narrated of course, by the consistently blue-shirted and disarmingly down-to-earth but expert David Attenborough.