well, i was wondering...

...how the "no nothing" restrictions were hitting the shopping centers (especially the duty-free shops) on the other side of the security line in UK airports, but the news reports in the BBC are rather silent on that topic right now.  Of course, part of that is the fact that news camera crews can't get to the other side to take a look and do a report.  Go fig.

But in hitting the beeb's web site, I did discover there's a bigger, longer-term issue with the concept of duty-free.

It seems the EU has voted to get rid of the concept on the continent.  Entirely.  No more duty-free at border crossings and possibly none at airports even if you're going to a country outside of the EU.  Yes, this makes tax collectors within the continent very happy, but it REALLY will cause a drop in alcohol sales.

Don't think that's a problem?  Tony Blair's people estimate that it could close several Scotch and Gin distilleries and potentially 1000 British jobs, as there are several that make the majority of their sales at those shops, particularly with distribution hassles being what they are to ship them to the States.

*sigh*

Well, the news on the cat ain't good.

She's got a bad pasturella infection in there, but at least the antibiotic she's on, while she doesn't like it, will still be able to treat it.  Which is good 'cause she was a pain to give pills to even before all of this started.  Yes, she likely got it through the broken tooth from the rabbit upstairs.  No, unless there's some reason they get into a bad fight and blood is drawn, its unlikely she'll give it to vivianne (the other cat).

Unfortunately, that's the good news.

The bad news is that she does have the feline equivelant of skin-cancer in her jaw and that's what's been eating it.  This is, yes, serious, but as its not in the lungs (they x-rayed them to be sure) she does stand a good chance for lasting several more years provided we go through treatment.  Treatment is, however, scary expensive - surgery to remove part of the affected jaw, and then some rad treatments to keep the relapse out.  they've appearantly gotten pretty good about preserving things, just as human doctors have.  We're already having to put her on total soft-food diets and so as long as she'll eat it before, she should still eat it after.  Everything else about her is strong, especially her heart, which is always a good sign for recovery.

It we don't treat, its pretty certain that it'll be in the lungs and fatal within 6 months.

I haven't committed to anything except thank you notes to the God and the universe that cyd has a job (and that my job would be understanding about the odd hours i'll have to work on treatment days).  I'll know more after the consultation sometime next week.

*sigh*

for those JMU types, this is the one cat I have that goes back to me and mav being together all those years ago.  she kept the other and the third she gave away soon after I left the 'burg.  So yeah, she's 16 which is already "old" for a cat.