Our beautiful 12-year-old tabby cat, Tom, was anaesthetised yesterday and underwent X-rays, ultrasounds and blood tests to find the cause of his increasingly round hard belly. It’s like he’s got a bowling ball inside him, and what we’ve found out for the £361.99 spent so far is th...

Everyone seems to be struggling for money right now, don’t they? Everywhere you turn. There’s nothing more isolating than discovering you’ve got no money, or not enough money to get you through to pay day if you’re lucky enough to have a job. But remember, the very rich are f...

Image via Wikipedia A spring pregnant with ill-fated ambition, from whence the empty blackness comes; a summertime stiffly spent in black, shaded from exposure to a forgetful sun; an autumn blindly lived without colour, save for the rich black mulches of decay; a hard-edged winter borne from sufferi...

How quickly a week goes by. Today will be cockerel Captain Buttercup’s last day spent in the company of our 13 hens, as part of our family. Tomorrow he goes to start his new life on a farm near York. I really hope it works out for him, and that his life is a long and happy one. We’ve alr...

This Soviet war poster declares, “Don’t chatter! Gossiping borders on treason!” Image via Wikipedia. Regular visitors to The Spicy Cauldron will know that I’m not one to spend a lot of time focussing on celebrities. It’s not that I’m not partial to reading about t...

Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it. Vogue! We’re heading ever closer to a world of sad this coming Saturday, which is the day we bid ‘farewell’ to our beloved Buff Orpington cockerel, Captain Buttercup. He’s lived with us for such a long time, ever since he was a tiny...

This isn’t the video for the Pet Shop Boys’ new single Love Etc, but it is the song in entirety. The video isn’t doing the rounds yet because the song isn’t due for official release until March and the new album, Yes, will be unleashed upon an eager fan-base shortly thereafte...

Image by Sushanta Meh via Flickr The moon lady was beautiful, not shy at all that special night, white, and bright, and robed in a perfect circle of bruised and purple clouds. I stared up at her for some time. The way that face gazes down upon this Earth, it isn’t too hard to imagine a round-f...

Image via CrunchBase Channel 4’s 4oD service allows viewers to watch TV shows up to 30 days after they’re transmitted, with some classic and cult shows from the vaults thrown in for good measure. It’s free but sadly only works with Windows XP and Vista PCs running Internet Explorer...

It’s up, up and away. And nothing to do with us. What, you didn’t think humans were causing global warming, did you? Whatever next? Smoking kills? Image via Wikipedia An ad campaign advising people on how they can help in the fight against climate change has been banned by Northern Irela...