I’ m fascinated by user names and am always interested in where the name comes from!
My name Yowzer comes from a Frank Zappa song where he shouts Yowzer yowzer yowzer in the middle!
49 is the year i was born..and practically my waist size! 😀😀😀
How about you? X

My cat is called Froglet (aka Miss Frog, and Frog)
The name came from her kitten behaviour, frequently sitting next to a toy for ages, then ‘catching it’ by jumping really high in the air, and also having mad spurts of running up and down the flat from one end to the other, and finishing off by climbing up her scratching post – in reality a floor to ceiling column that has the first four feet covered in sisal – so Froglet as in ‘mad as a box of Frogs’
She still has the occasional mad spurt, but less often as she’s four now.

Frog wasn’t very well this week, she had feline cystitis, probably from getting dehydrated when it was very hot. She is better now, after an expensive trip to the vet, but still being spoiled rotten.

Mine is named after a Clangers episode called “I am the eggbot”. A little nostalgia mixed with a Beetles reference 🙂

OMG FROG…same here..DDs pusscat Ziggy Stardust had cystitis last week and yes a v expensive trip to the vets plus now on an expensive food,which he is scoffing like mad coz he must think its gorgeous!
I love watching cats play ..so entertaining…and such mysterious beautiful creatures too.
We cant help spoiling them,Frog…they are just so precious and give so much happiness xx

I Like it EGGBOT! Makes me smile:) x

I collect Maneki Neko which are the waving cats you see in Chinese restaurants and shops. I’ve been extraordinarily lucky since I’ve started collecting them. So… Lucky Maneki! I was panicking at first that people would think I was a bloke, a Lucky Man called Eki! Hahaha 😉

Hehe re Lucky Man!.have got that Verve song going round my head now!
Oh what a great thing to collect! Will always think of you now when i see them waving in my local chippy and chinese restaurants..we have lots of them in Liverpool as we have a Chinatown!
I’ m glad theyre bringing you good luck! X

I’m (not) a lucky maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

It started off with one about 9 years ago. On over 20 actual cats now, and several thousands of pounds worth of prizes won 🙂 I’ve got massive ones down to a little keyring about a centimetre tall. Money boxes. Clocks. Necklace. Cross stitch. Car sticker. Getting a bit beyond now lol. I’d be lethal in Chinatown, laden with cats 🙂

Hi Yowzer
Hope Ziggy Stardust is better soon. Froglet’s not on special food, thankfully – how long do you need to keep that up?
Frog had an injection of metacam, and I was supposed to give her another dose after 24 hours, but I was watching her carefully & she seemed fine by then.
She never seems to drink water, so I’m trying to sneak it in by mixing some with her food and giving her cat milk diluted with water.

Mines a bit sad, do you want a sad tale, can you be a****** well you have asked, are you sitting compfort ably. I was on a four year counselling course to train as a psychodynamic therapist, and during that time we were encouraged to work through anything ourselves with the onsite supervision counsellor. She is a Gestalt therapist, this means she uses visual aids to analyse the session. I went, as we were experiencing some unusual family disruptions ( basically a half brother appeared for my husband) he had no idea. It was rather nice, but disturbing for my oh.
During the sessions, I drew a picture of something I was working through, I had had no idea it was in my unconscious, but I revealed when I was six I was badly humiliated by this teacher, as I struggled with learning my tables, unfortunately I was also the youngest in the class, so always developementally at a disadvantage. But she made me stand facing the wall during a p.e. session in the hall, the picture I drew was a brown blob by the wall, and then in the middle of the picture were green stick figures with rays of sunshine shining on them and they were dancing. She helped me discover that I was the blob, brown because the wall was brown wood, and I had become one with the wall. I had realised from this that I wanted to be one of the children dancing in the sunshine, hence green Janet my name is Janet, I prefer Jan, and up to these sessions I always hated brown, had never realised why.
Was absolutely hopeless about learning tables. But I have two degrees, so was nothing to do with intelligence. This teacher in her humiliation, caused a lot of harm, such a small thing, but it directed the whole of my life.
So end of this woeful tale, the reason I am greenjanet, is because I plan to conquer my 41 years of failing at dieting, by using this eating plan, and then I will be one of the green children happily dancing in the sunshine, and not the brown blob on the wall..
Bet you are glad you asked now Yowser, got a tissue if you need one. But the term greenjanet for me now is an enormously powerful motivator for me, because it comes from deep within my mind, and makes me smile every time I see the name so very positive.
😊😊😊

(((((Jan)))))! How sad but simultaneously, how absolutely bloody wonderful! 🙂 We think you’re green anyway, just the way you are 🙂 Don’t we Yowzer? x

Eggbot – that’s a coincidence, I’d forgotten til a while after I’d named Froglet that there were Froglets in the clangers too
– and I had wondered about the origin of Lucky Maneki!

Oh Lucky you’re very kind, will pay you later.

Me to , now I know it doesn’t mean what I thought it meant. Hehe

Hi Jan
I’m so glad that this has turned your life around and with your positive attitude, I’ve no doubt that you will achieve anything that you set out to do😀

I’m afraid I’m not very imaginative with user names. Linda is my first name and my surname starts with A!

Now you all know 🙂 Dare I ask what you thought it meant Jan??? Dare I???

Which one, eggbot. Well I thought it was a man who had a problem with his bottom making too many smelly noises. Hehe this has been such a hoot well done Yowser, thankyou all 😅😅😅

So sorry eggbot, I love the changers she says whistling in the changers style. No offence meant. Especially if you are of the male variety. Ooh I better buzz of and stop digging. 🐤This is the nearest I’ve got to a clanger.

Hehe none taken Jan. 😉 I am a gal too and hadn’t considered bottom context!
Glad your name is positive for you after that bad experience. Mine reminds me of my son as he finds the clangers and that episode hilarious… Alien egg shaped robot lands on the clangers planet singing ‘doh’ and gets trapped in cave. A whole sound of music theme ensues, no ripley involved.

Crikey I didn’t know they were still on the t.v. Or is that a new series, I remember watching it with my children in the 80’s. Just the sound of those whistles they use, takes me right back. Or perhaps your son is older, I have two sons 35 and 32 ooh where has all that time gone.

talking of Ziggy Stardust, did anyone watch the David Bowie prom on BBC4?
just about to watch it on iplayer.

My dad had a mining claim he named Wart on a tree, when he passed away I claimed the name. I miss him terribly & it makes my feel closer to him.

GREENJANET Yr story is very touching and yes like Lucky said,youre already green and dancing in the sunshine now..you will just dance all the better when you lose weight! We all will! We’ ll have to do a big conga!
Seriously tho,it just shows how much influence teachers and any adults really can have on a tender young soul.x

FROG ZIg was on his meds for several days,not sure how long the new food but think its more or less permanent,but can be varied with his usual Felix some of the time.Apparently this prob is worse for boy cats as they have very short bladders! The vet has suggested they get an indoor water fountain,see if he will drink more.
He belongs to DD and SIL but i’ m his Grammaw..nearest thing yet i have to a grandchild!

LINDA A thanks,nothing wrong with a straightforward username! You wont forget it! And i love the name Linda anyway,my best mate was Linda,sadly no longer with us.x

WARTONATREE lovely that you can keep yr Dad close in this way x can you explain more tho if you dont mind,coz i dont know what a mining claim means x
FROG no,have been so busy watching Man Down and then seeing the repeat of the Keith Richards documentary, i didnt know about the Bowie prom. Thanks for letting us know…will catch it over the weekend.Hope you enjoyed it x
Beddybyes nowx night night anybody still around..is everyone here from Uk or do we have members in Australia/ the States/ Europe etc?

YOWZER49 I live in California, think 1849 Gold Rush. My dad had a gold mine on a creek in Northern California. The closest “big” town would be Redding, California.

WARTONATREE thats so interesting! About the gold mine and the fact you live in California! I am fascinated by all things American and Canadian.
Ive got that Beach Boys song in my head now 🎵 i wish they all could be California..Girl-lllllls 🎵
That song just conjures up the image of sunny days on the beach! X

YOWZER49 The funny thing is most people have that Beverly Hills 90210/Beach Boys image of California. It couldn’t be more wrong. That is a VERY small part of California & you have to cross a fairly large mountain range to get there. The majority of California is agricultural & the coast is very rocky & rugged. Stunningly beautiful though. We also have vast forests. One of our family traditions is cut a Christmas tree every year. I grew up on a cattle ranch out in the middle of nowhere.
Even Southern California still has a lot of agriculture. Development hasn’t taken over everything. My husband if a surfer (former) from Southern California. A rancher girl from Northern California married a surfer from Southern California. 😳 It’s worked for 30 years.
The north coast tends to have Indian summers. You want to escape the 100+ heat of the Central Valley head to the coast but remember to take a jacket. There’s a famous quote here “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”
Now that I’ve share more than you probably wanted to know…….if you have any American questions ask away. I can’t help with Canada.

WOAT really enjyed reading that! Cali sounds magnificent! I had no idea it was so enormous ..my SIL is going to a conference in San Fran in two weeks..i’ ll tell him what you said! I love the idea of a surfer and a ranch girl gettin together..i bet theres a film in there somewhere! Does yr OH still get the chance to surf? X

Janeycoughdrop comes from my childhood nickname that my dad always used for me – he still does now at times!

Love the sun, hate the tedious grey that so often pervades the UK and think I should have been born somewhere warm and sunny – hence the ‘sunny’ and the B is just my first initial. Not hugely imaginative, but think sunny sounds positive and that’s what I need to encourage in myself.

I used to call myself Chubbychops on a dieting web site until I read a blog about being upbeat and your username bringing you down. I live in a hot country (8 mths of the year but we do have winter) and I love to swim so I chose Sunshinegirl, someone else had it already so I put the hyphen in it.

Thanks girls for yr input!SUNSHINE-GIRL I agree,an upbeat name is much the best..i regret picking mine now..i think it makes me sound like a particularly grouchy old man who smells of stale cigarettes! Instead of the grumpy old woman i actually am hehe! Smelling of chip fat! 😕😕 (no thats not true,i always smell nice even if i dont look so good!)

This is fun! I have wondered many times who and why around names, and I mis-pronounced them in my head a lot too (try wartonatree like “optometry”, he he he). I’m fourth generation Californian (she says smugly) who grew up in the Silicon Valley (just south of San Francisco) when it was still agricultural and called the Valley of Hearts Delight. I spent my childhood riding horses through apricot orchards in the tiny town of Saratoga — most of the orchards are now covered with houses and famous companies like Apple, Intel and Facebook. We are just about twenty five minutes to the coast so any summer day you would find us at 14th Street beach in Santa Cruz (now called Live Oak beach). I loved the song, the beach — I even chose my university based on proximity to a beach (University of California San Diego), which I promptly left and transferred to UC Los Angeles (got bored at the beach ha ha ha). Still love the Beach Boys song, still love to dance to it, have switched bathing suits however to a one piece so can cover up the ravages of time!😜

Your childhood sounds idyllic CG!X
Its hard to choose a fave B Boys song isnt it coz theyre all so good..i love Dont Worry Baby,I Can Hear Music,and Would t It be Nice..oh i love all of them! X
Ps…..My SIL goes to San Fran on tuesday!

Hi Californiagirl, my daughter has just spent a week in California attending the almond growers convention. Cant remember the name of where she stayed but it was out where the almond trees are as she did a tour. The first thing she said when she got home was, I want to live there. Got the usual photo shot by the GG Bridge.

Cool sunshine-girl! Tell her the move on over! If she was touring almond groves she was probably in the Central Valley! And Yowzer49, I love “Don’t Worry Baby” too!

I’m known as Igor on other web sites, so I’m Igor as usual here. It’s the bolt through my neck and the random stitches (a la Young Frankenstein) which make me stand out 😉 (just joking)

Haha! I like that IGOR!! 😉
I’m Nursebean because I am (or rather was until I got struck down with ME/CFS) a nurse and when I was little my brother used to call me Bean – hence Nursebean! But you can call me Bean! xx

Hey Lucky Man -eki (!!) so is it worth buying one of those lucky waving cats then? Sounds as though it worked for you!

For anyone reading..Nursebean and i know each other from the Fast Day forum,where she was the Queen of ADF
( Alternate Day Fasting)
She answers to Bean,Beano,Beanibobz,BeanStalk and sometimes just for a change, i call her Nursy! 😀😀

Oooooooo by ADF do you mean like the WOE where you do 500 calories one day and then carte blanche every other day?? Krista Varady wrote a book about it? Or am I way off lol. Usually am!

Definitely Bean! One or twenty odd! Honestly the change in fortune I’ve had since getting my first 🙂

LUCKY..yes youre on it like a bonnet! A 500 cal fastday then a normal day then a 500 cal day and so on..and yes youre right about the book!
Old Beano did it for weeks and weeks.. I did it a few weeks but found it too hard! Was all good training for BSD! X

I did it for about six weeks from March to April, I lost a stone on it! It was (before BSD) simultaneously the best, and worst diet I’ve ever been on. Lost a stone and put it all back on again, I started BSD the exact weight I started ADF! Feast days were like… I’m not even telling you what I would eat, because I’m actually disgusted with myself. Fast days were a nightmare. When I read the BSD book I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to hack 800 cals a day if I couldn’t hack 500 every other day, but it’s amazing how much of a difference 300 calories a day makes! Especially when you take potatoes, bread, pasta, rice etc out of the equation! x

Oh gosh LUCKY its soul destroying when that happens!
On the 5:2 diet alone,ive lost and regained a stone and a half THREE times ..(and have done similar on endless diets over the last thirty years or so.)
Why does it happen,we sabotage ourselves! On ADF, i guess its almost a disaster waiting to happen when you think about it.
Starve one day,what could be more hoomin than to overeat the next,knowing that the NEXT, you’ll be starving again. I must say, i felt like i was losing my mind on my short stint of ADF but our Bean soldiered on,she was such a trouper!
I think in general i just lose focus and then its so easy to drift off and back into bad habits.
Please hit me round the chops with a wet lettuce if you see any signs of me doing that on BSD! This one has GOTto work otherwise its Homers mumu and his reaching stick for the rest of my days!
Ps time now for more GD! Woooohooo! X

No Mumu for you, lady! I’ll be keeping a close eye on you… 😉 Enjoy Greg – then when you’re done, look up Catastrophe!!! You’ll LOVE it, trust me!

GD? What’s that?! Homers Mumu? Is that the Mooomins?!! 😉
Thanks Yowzer for describing me Queen of ADF!! Yes, ADF was great at the time – and I used to weigh myself every day. It was amazing how it would go up and down, depending on the day. The trouble with it,though, is that you tend to go crazy on the non-fast days which defeats the object really doesn’t it.
Yowzer? I’ve got my wet lettuce primed – so be careful out there!!
You’re right Lucky – 800 cals is a doddle. Those 300 cals make all the difference don’t they. Its so easy!!

Hi Californiagirl, just spoken to my daughter. She was staying in a place called Loki, she was at the Wine and Roses Hotel. Have you heard of it. She is an almond buyer in the UK.

Last post makes me want my username to be almondbuyer !
I’m facinated by usernames too yowzer. Just a handful of letters, yet often expand to become a novella .

Wouldn’t get very good odds on people guessing my reasons at William Hill I suspect !

Hi fatnifty, my daughter is an almond and hazelnut buyer it is not a user name, so you can have it if you want. When you bite into your glass and a half with a nut in every bite, it is my daughter who has sourced and bought them for the chocolate company. Wash my mouth out, no milk chocolate allowed here, I prefer 75% dark.