Up until I decided to polish off that last bottle of Taboo last night, and in doing so making myself quite profoundly sick, yesterday was a pretty good day. In fact, yesterday was the icing on an awesome layer cake of good days, starting from Wednesday.

I hadn't seen Jason since last Friday so I was dying to see him again. So when he invited me to the cinema, mentioning in the fine print that Dave would also be coming, I agreed. I was kinda annoyed that it wouldn't be alone time, and anxious that I'd feel like a third wheel (Dave's got this weird, exclusive way of communicating where he'll constantly make references to funny YouTube videos etc. that only he and Jason have seen, whereupon anyone who's not in on the joke is left standing there like 'Buh?' - he also talks nearly non-stop so others can barely get a word in), but I decided that I'd rather have Jason with Dave Daveing about in the background than wait another day before seeing him.

We went to see 'Wrath of the Titans', which was an okay film. Not mindblowingly good, but not a waste of two hours as such – mind you, it wasn't worth the cinema fare they're charging these days. Jason knows a lot about Greek mythology, more than I do; I was sat there wondering if the film was accurate to the mythology. I seem to recall Jason's rant about 'Clash of the Titans' not being accurate, so probably not.

I did find it funny that Perseus was played by an Aussie actor. Australians didn't exist back then! Aboriginals, yes, but not Aussies like we know them today. That being said, you could say the same about the rest of the cast, largely British.

Anyway, Jason came back home with me and I totally did not kidnap him in suspicious circumstances. The next day, I remembered Holly telling me that she'd seen rats for sale in Trebaron garden centre – I'd been looking for a companion for Thelma for quite some time and was having absolutely no luck in her place of origin, Pets Emporium.

It was a gorgeous day, so we all took, minus Ashley, a little road-trip to Trebaron. The pets section was right at the back and oh my god. Oh my god. Cute little fluffy animals everywhere! <3 They had gerbils, mice, finches, rabbits both regular and lop-eared, hamsters and chinchillas, even little chicks that Dad guessed were only three days old. Due to his old job delivering chicks to farms in Moy Park, he's an expert on them. Jason's just an expert at eating them.

On top of the rabbits' cages, next to the chinchillas, were the rats. There must have been six or seven of them, all female, two of which were older siamese rats like Thelma, the rest of which were tiny little bi-colour cuties. After I 'sploded a few times from the cuteness, I decided on getting a couple of the smaller ones, just so I could tell them apart from Thelma. These are the two I came home with...



To the left is Boffin. She's the darker coloured one of the two and seems to be the more shy. Her sister is called Barnaby, and though she's the more outgoing of the two she always looks half asleep! I love them to bits, all three of my rats; they're my wee babies <3

So we got them home, and into Thelma's old cage which will do for now because they're only tiny. Thelma was going bonkers, wondering who her new neighbours were, and after giving them a while to settle down, I decided to try putting them all in a cage together. The results were pretty much as I'd expected – a few fights, mainly caused by Thelma who is used to being a solitary rat and who wanted to establish her position as alpha female – Anna and I saw the exact same thing when I first got Thelma and we tried her with Anna's rat, Alex. It was Alex who started a fight that time.

Boffin and Barnaby have since been moved back to their own cage, and I've put them up in my room, where Thelma can't get at them. We had their cages side by side and noticed that Thelma had a habit of grabbing them by the tail, if their tails poked out of the cage side. So they're out of the way now, where I can get a bit of one to one socialisation done with them, and where it's a bit quieter. When they're a bit more used to being handled, I might consider moving them back downstairs to get used to the sound of the telly, and so on.

Speaking of handling, I've had the two of them out a couple of times over the last few days. Barnaby seems content with just sitting in the crook of my arm, but Boffin is a little more adventurous, preferring to climb up my shoulders and onto my head. Thelma, however, loves climbing into my clothes and sitting there on my chest.

I've figured out where Jason's taking me, by the way! After the film, when we were heading back to the bus stop, he said that he'd probably have to give something away about it in telling me I had to make certain preparations for the day. I said he could tell me what preparations to make without telling me the destination. So he took a deep breath, and told me to pack stuff for two nights away.

“We're going to Southport, aren't we?”

He looked shifty. “Maaaaybe.” Which means yes.

“Richmond?” I guessed, remembering the B&B he'd stayed at with his family while I was in Ireland. He hadn't been too keen on it himself, but then he'd been ill at the time, and it didn't matter to me where we stayed, as long as we were together.

Alas, I was wrong! My next guess turned out to be right, and made much more sense.

We're going to the Scarisbrick Hotel, and from the pictures I've seen of the rooms, facilities and that, it looks brilliant! Jason's stayed there a few times and loves it; he has nothing but praise for the hotel.

You know, I worried that finding out where we were going would kind of spoil things for me; that I wouldn't be as excited to go. But two days away by the seaside, just me and my fiancé? OH MY GOD SO EXCITED.