(Do not read before dinner!)
Ditto is in disgrace.
This small, 'butter wouldn't melt in my mouth', charming, little catus domesticus has for the last 24 hours begun behaving in a somewhat less that domesticus fashion.
I have kept cats for over 20 years, I thought I knew them inside out, what I did not account for was the differences between the domestic species who reside in a town, as mine did, and those like Ditto who are 'country cats'.
Poppy and gemmak, who lived most of their lives in suburbia, would not have known a mouse had bit them hard on the nose and in 36 years of joint life managed to capture perhaps 3 birds between them! Ditto on the other hand has spent the entirety of her two years in cat wonderland and has reasonably well honed hunting skills. As has been well documented here I regularly receive little 'gifts', most of which I am glad to say I manage to rescue before too much damage is done.
Things have moved on a pace I am sad to say. Yes I know it's natural'cat behaviour', I have nigh on a library of books on the subject, cats hunt given the opportunity. I know that.....honestly I do..... but she is pushing her luck now!
Last evening PG spied her taking rather too much interest in something small and furry. As is my way I set off at a pace to rescue said rodent from the fate of being a plaything...........I arrived at the scene of the crime just in time to see it's head be devoured! Ugh!
Thankfully PG 'dealt' with the remains while I went slightly pale, he then took the slightly bloodstained perpetrator indoors for a stern talking too.
She has since then shown her disapproval most markedly, she whined incessantly last night to be let out, something she never does normally, she harassed Poppy mercilessly by laying in wait around every corner and jumping on her from a height, she chased my feet and attacked my ankles and just as we went to bed she saw fit to use her litter tray and 'misfire', depositing the unmentionable on the floor. She followed that little gem by kicking the litter out of it's receptacle.... also all over the floor. Again not something she has done before!
This evening I came home to find she had again made 'good use' of the litter box. Today's trick was to step in the 'wet bit' and proceed to tread damp white paw marks through the hallway, through the living room, onto the table and finally to indulge in some dancing on the windowsill! This stuff set like clay!
Arghhhh. if I didn't know better I'de swear this cat actually understands!
Saturday, 25 September 2004
Heavens above..............
....it's nearly 48 hours since I last posted something here, the withdrawals are getting bad, this is a most unnerving situation!
I have said it before and I will say it again, how on earth do those bloggers among you, who don't have access to the internet from work manage to keep it up? My head has been so frazzled by the time I have arrived home each day I could think of nothing to blog about in the first place but even if I had come up with something I haven't had a moment spare to type it. It's not good, in fact it's very un-good!....I have to blog soon..... I just have to!
I have said it before and I will say it again, how on earth do those bloggers among you, who don't have access to the internet from work manage to keep it up? My head has been so frazzled by the time I have arrived home each day I could think of nothing to blog about in the first place but even if I had come up with something I haven't had a moment spare to type it. It's not good, in fact it's very un-good!....I have to blog soon..... I just have to!
Thursday, 23 September 2004
No smoke without fire
Smoke
About lunch time I noticed this pall of smoke coming from the vicinity of the farm behind our home, incidentally I would make an appalling photographic journalist, the fire was almost out by the time it entered my mind to take a picture!
Said pall of smoke presented me with a problem. I hate wasting the time of the emergency services and am well aware of the number of inappropriate calls they receive each year, I was married to a fireman for years and the tales of peoples idiocy still ring in my ears. This is also a farming community and I don't know what farmers burn in the day to day 'administration' of things farming.
My dilemma......to call a 999 or not. I hurriedly tried binoculars, rushed on foot a bit closer and still could not decide where the seat of the fire was or if anyone was attending or controlling it. My decision made on the basis that should I have taken it too lightly and someone got hurt it would be dreadful I called it in. Oh what embarrassment. My second hand fire service training had deserted me, I forgot that this would be a job requiring a predetermined turn out of some magnitude and suddenly this quiet little village had not one but three tenders and an emergency rescue vehicle rushing through it on blues and two's!
Suffice to say three left and only one remained to put out the offending inferno. I was somewhat reassured by the fact that it at least required some attention but have a nasty feeling that this may well have been just a farmer going about his business, albeit on a reasonably large scale. I have visions of some poor soul going about his day quietly until some 'silly city incomer' who didn't understand called the fire brigade and caused mayhem!
I don't think I will be broadcasting locally who called 999!
A good read
Now this is a book, or to be more specific a number of books, I would like to have adorning my book shelves and available for bedtime reading, if only I had the required space!
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, published yesterday, costs a 'mere' £7000 and takes up 12 feet of shelf space! It's biographies are of some 50,000 individuals who are considered to have shaped Britain into what it is today and includes those such as Stephen Lawrence, Linda McCartney, Queen Victoria and the Dunblane mass murderer Thomas Hamilton.
I wonder if there is an Adobe version I can download?!!!
Other items in the news that caught my eye this morning are the reports of Iranian bloggers protest against censorship by renaming their blogs after banned publications and this article, for obvious reasons, concerning a man who prevented a woman throwing herself off the Cliff at Beachy Head.
Oh... and finally this seems a little severe. Janet Jackson and her antics don't normally interest me but come on, accident or not, this was after all only a breast! It may be considered inappropriate to some but I find it slighly insulting that the momentary sight of a woman's breast can be deemed 'indecent' in any circumstances.
Perhaps Judy Finnigan should call her lawyer!
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, published yesterday, costs a 'mere' £7000 and takes up 12 feet of shelf space! It's biographies are of some 50,000 individuals who are considered to have shaped Britain into what it is today and includes those such as Stephen Lawrence, Linda McCartney, Queen Victoria and the Dunblane mass murderer Thomas Hamilton.
I wonder if there is an Adobe version I can download?!!!
Other items in the news that caught my eye this morning are the reports of Iranian bloggers protest against censorship by renaming their blogs after banned publications and this article, for obvious reasons, concerning a man who prevented a woman throwing herself off the Cliff at Beachy Head.
Oh... and finally this seems a little severe. Janet Jackson and her antics don't normally interest me but come on, accident or not, this was after all only a breast! It may be considered inappropriate to some but I find it slighly insulting that the momentary sight of a woman's breast can be deemed 'indecent' in any circumstances.
Perhaps Judy Finnigan should call her lawyer!
Wednesday, 22 September 2004
Ups and downs
Thus far this week I haven't posted much in the way of happenings in the gemmak household, in the main because it has been a strange week with things seeming to hang in the balance.
PG has been off work ill for 3 days and under my feet requiring ministering too at frequent intervals, as is the way of the male of the species. He hasn't in fact been that ill (a point that is of no consequence where levels of 'attention' are concerned) but given the nature of his job, is prohibited from work with any kind of infection etc. His work is with severely mentally and physically disabled adults who's immune systems can barely cope at the best of times.
To be encouraged, nay banned from work while ill seems a Godsend to those of us who continue to struggle in when ailing and receive little sympathy for our stoicism. It is not so much of a gift however when you consider that despite not having a choice in the matter he does not get paid!
I think in honesty he was glad to be out of the place for the last few days. Saturday bought him and his colleagues news of the tragic death of one of their number, who had apparently and without warning thrown herself off a cliff to her death.
PG was one of the last people to speak to her, she had only been with them for maybe a year but he and she had some common ground and often chatted together. There seems to have been no warning that she was feeling even remotely suicidal but it is often the case and ultimately it is sometimes impossible to know what is going on in someone else's mind. PG is not given to showing his feelings but I think quietly, this hit him harder than he would admit.
On a more positive note his father was moved from ITU late last week and has made such steady progress will hopefully be returned home by the end of this week. It was decided that further surgery was not necessary thankfully and having 'turned the corner' his subsequent recovery was impressive. The ability of the human body to heal itself amazes me. Of course in this case massive medical intervention saved his life but once over the worst the natural healing process is astounding.
So thus far it has been an odd week, sad and happy, up and down. Unusually I am working the rest of it,Thursady through Sunday, so less playtime for me. PG shuffled off to work at 6.30 this morning, looking slightly sorry for himself in the gales that have blown all week...... Autumn has most definitely arrived in this corner of the world.
This week over with and it is then only one week remains until we are off to London to visit my parents again, I can't wait..........
PG has been off work ill for 3 days and under my feet requiring ministering too at frequent intervals, as is the way of the male of the species. He hasn't in fact been that ill (a point that is of no consequence where levels of 'attention' are concerned) but given the nature of his job, is prohibited from work with any kind of infection etc. His work is with severely mentally and physically disabled adults who's immune systems can barely cope at the best of times.
To be encouraged, nay banned from work while ill seems a Godsend to those of us who continue to struggle in when ailing and receive little sympathy for our stoicism. It is not so much of a gift however when you consider that despite not having a choice in the matter he does not get paid!
I think in honesty he was glad to be out of the place for the last few days. Saturday bought him and his colleagues news of the tragic death of one of their number, who had apparently and without warning thrown herself off a cliff to her death.
PG was one of the last people to speak to her, she had only been with them for maybe a year but he and she had some common ground and often chatted together. There seems to have been no warning that she was feeling even remotely suicidal but it is often the case and ultimately it is sometimes impossible to know what is going on in someone else's mind. PG is not given to showing his feelings but I think quietly, this hit him harder than he would admit.
On a more positive note his father was moved from ITU late last week and has made such steady progress will hopefully be returned home by the end of this week. It was decided that further surgery was not necessary thankfully and having 'turned the corner' his subsequent recovery was impressive. The ability of the human body to heal itself amazes me. Of course in this case massive medical intervention saved his life but once over the worst the natural healing process is astounding.
So thus far it has been an odd week, sad and happy, up and down. Unusually I am working the rest of it,Thursady through Sunday, so less playtime for me. PG shuffled off to work at 6.30 this morning, looking slightly sorry for himself in the gales that have blown all week...... Autumn has most definitely arrived in this corner of the world.
This week over with and it is then only one week remains until we are off to London to visit my parents again, I can't wait..........
Tuesday, 21 September 2004
I couldn't resist......
Cosy! © Xavier Chantrenne
........sharing this! It's one of today's offerings from Webshots the only site I pay good money to to use.
Given it's subject to copyright I suppose I should have really avoided the temptation to post, but hey........I just couldn't resist :o)
Expect disruption
It seems today is going to be another day of teeth gnashing and hair pulling in the endeavor to find and put in place a new template! I may complain bitterly at the task that is this but in honesty I enjoy it as frustrating as it can be. I'm not entirely sure why I do it or why I want to do it, other than it's akin to the feeling one gets when bored with the decor in the bathroom/bedroom etc. I think perhaps it's just because it's there to be done and beaten!
So never one to give up the fight and having been charged with the task of getting something new up and running by the end of the day by my ever helpful and patient 'HTML mentor' Lisa, I'm off on yet another trawl through the world of the internet on the seemingly unending hunt for a new template!!! Finding them is not the problem....finding one I like is.
Watch this space, expect some disruption but in the end don't hold your breath..... there is yet again a fair chance that nothing significant will have changed by the end of the day!
So never one to give up the fight and having been charged with the task of getting something new up and running by the end of the day by my ever helpful and patient 'HTML mentor' Lisa, I'm off on yet another trawl through the world of the internet on the seemingly unending hunt for a new template!!! Finding them is not the problem....finding one I like is.
Watch this space, expect some disruption but in the end don't hold your breath..... there is yet again a fair chance that nothing significant will have changed by the end of the day!
Just don't go there!
Well, I have spent the entire day alternately fiddling with templates and fighting an inoperable Blogger...to very little end!
I built too many templates to remember and then discarded them all, either because I didn't like them once complete or out of frustration when Blogger failed to allow me to do something as basic as publish!
In the end, not to feel like I wasted the entire day I made a few changes but you'll have to look hard to notice.....the complete remake will have to wait while I re-ajust my patience settings!
At least Blogroll has got it's act together now.
Anyone got any Prozac?
I built too many templates to remember and then discarded them all, either because I didn't like them once complete or out of frustration when Blogger failed to allow me to do something as basic as publish!
In the end, not to feel like I wasted the entire day I made a few changes but you'll have to look hard to notice.....the complete remake will have to wait while I re-ajust my patience settings!
At least Blogroll has got it's act together now.
Anyone got any Prozac?
Monday, 20 September 2004
'Blogroll' bother
Ever since Blogroll had a spot of bother a few days ago mine refuses to show the 'updated' append....anyone else noticed this problem with theres?
Sunday, 19 September 2004
It's good to talk.
That's another working weekend over with....I have three days of 'playtime' ahead of me now and then four at work! Yes I said four, I am actually going to work almost a full week for once, euchhh! I can't say I relish the thought but there is no avoiding it and the financial remuneration is not to be sniffed at!
The weekend was reasonably uneventful this time, no customers of particular note, no gossip to cause excitement. Last week when I told the story of the customer from hell my description was supposed to be loose enough that the individuals concerned where not recognisable. Hey ho, I failed there. Yesterday a colleague arriving for work greeted me with the opening sentence..."so you had 'Mrs X' in then last Sunday"! Having read the post he knew immediately who I was referring to.... Ooops!
That brings to mind a conversation I had with my boss a week or two ago. I was in his office for my annual appraisal but as I think we both knew it would, the conversation turned to the topic of the sacking incident back in July. I admit to having been somewhat nervous of discussing this situation with him, I had until that point avoided it for fear of reprisal and for fear of inappropriately losing my temper. In the event I was pleasantly surprised. We managed to behave like adults! He had, as I suspected, acquired the URL for this blog ( yes I know where from now but it's not an issue) and had read the posts in question. What surprised me was his reaction....he was for the main part upset that I viewed him as I did and had felt unable to approach him to discuss my feelings.
He and I have some history, we haven't always seen eye to eye but we had in the past worked on that and had improved our working relationship dramatically. This situation had undermined all of that. This was I think the longest appraisal I have ever had and barely did we touch on any performance issues, we did however agree to disagree on the incident in question and move forward.
He, I assume for legal and professional reasons, was not ever going to tell me his side and I for the same reasons didn't want to discuss the specifics. That said he knows I will continue to support the individual in question and respects my decision to do so and I know he disagrees with my opinion.....we will both live with that.
I feel no less strongly about the situation and I will fight what I see as discrimination wherever I can, the colleague involved knows he has my full support but I have to give the boss credit ......I have rarely, if ever, had a manager prepared to listen to and accept the point of view of a minion, or to give up the time to do that.
It's good to be working in a more positive environment again and C.S. if you read this, my apologies for misjudging you.
The weekend was reasonably uneventful this time, no customers of particular note, no gossip to cause excitement. Last week when I told the story of the customer from hell my description was supposed to be loose enough that the individuals concerned where not recognisable. Hey ho, I failed there. Yesterday a colleague arriving for work greeted me with the opening sentence..."so you had 'Mrs X' in then last Sunday"! Having read the post he knew immediately who I was referring to.... Ooops!
That brings to mind a conversation I had with my boss a week or two ago. I was in his office for my annual appraisal but as I think we both knew it would, the conversation turned to the topic of the sacking incident back in July. I admit to having been somewhat nervous of discussing this situation with him, I had until that point avoided it for fear of reprisal and for fear of inappropriately losing my temper. In the event I was pleasantly surprised. We managed to behave like adults! He had, as I suspected, acquired the URL for this blog ( yes I know where from now but it's not an issue) and had read the posts in question. What surprised me was his reaction....he was for the main part upset that I viewed him as I did and had felt unable to approach him to discuss my feelings.
He and I have some history, we haven't always seen eye to eye but we had in the past worked on that and had improved our working relationship dramatically. This situation had undermined all of that. This was I think the longest appraisal I have ever had and barely did we touch on any performance issues, we did however agree to disagree on the incident in question and move forward.
He, I assume for legal and professional reasons, was not ever going to tell me his side and I for the same reasons didn't want to discuss the specifics. That said he knows I will continue to support the individual in question and respects my decision to do so and I know he disagrees with my opinion.....we will both live with that.
I feel no less strongly about the situation and I will fight what I see as discrimination wherever I can, the colleague involved knows he has my full support but I have to give the boss credit ......I have rarely, if ever, had a manager prepared to listen to and accept the point of view of a minion, or to give up the time to do that.
It's good to be working in a more positive environment again and C.S. if you read this, my apologies for misjudging you.
Saturday, 18 September 2004
The Infinite Cat
Friday, 17 September 2004
Payback
Princess of Wales Conservatory. Kew.
The last 48 hours has seen me absent from the blogosphere for an unusually long period of time.....and surprisingly I survived to tell the tale! I managed to pop in briefly very late last night but barring that not a keystroke have I made.
This unusual state of affairs was the result of the weather, unseasonably sunny and warm for the main part had the result of spurring into action a project that had been 'waiting in the wings' for some weeks.
The building PG and I live in was originally built approximately 200 years ago as 4 cottages for workers on the nearby railway. Having been long since decommisioned the cottages were sold. 5 years ago they where renovated and converted into 8 flats by our current landlord. We inhabit a flat on the first floor which provides us with stunning views but no garden. Those on at ground level have gardens. The property directly below us is let to a guy who keeps it purely as a 'bolt hole' and rarely visits even to collect mail let alone attend to his garden, which for the last year has borne more in common with the Amazon than an idyllic country extension to the dwelling.
So it was this situation that prompted myself and a neighbour to tackle the landlord on a solution to the ever increasing eyesore. As is the way of landlords he was in no hurry to spend time or money rectifying the situation but after some discussion gave us permission to effect a take over. Ok....so it's not our property but it is the environment we live in and is our home, the two of us finally agreed to take on the task.
For the main part I enjoy gardening and have missed not having a 'patch' to call my own. I am passionate about plants and horticulture in general, how many of us residing is Scotland I wonder visit Kew gardens on perhaps ten occasions a year.....I do!
The weather having taken a turn for the better my neighbour and I decided to take the proverbial bull by the horns on Wednesday morning and tackle the task before us. And some task it turned out to be. Plants and shrubs of maybe decades age and rooted somewhere near Australia were in abundance once we had cleared the ever advancing weeds, the soil was heavy with clay and we dug and pulled and swore and sweated for the entire day. For all our efforts, upon standing back to admire our progress this patch of land looked barely touched...... and so it was that on wakening yesterday morning to find yet more sunshine we set about day two.
The rewards were at last evident by the time, late in the evening, that extremely strong winds and rain called a final halt to the project, Kew Gardens it will never be but this small piece of land albeit quite bare and uninteresting thus far, is at least clear and tidy....but oh how I suffered.
I recall many moons ago teasing my mother, when she had been involved in some physical task complaining of her aches and pains and being warned to 'wait until I was her age'. So now I am suffering her warning and the payback is brutal! My back is locked into a strange position, I have muscles I never knew existed complaining loudly, my hands are red raw and so stiff even my efforts at typing are painful and I lost all but 3 long and manicured fingernails into the bargain!!!
PG nagged me into a bath last night in an endeavor to alleviate my state of decrepit-ness having taken much amusement in the state of disrepair I had fallen into. He rarely misses an opportunity to remind me of in the fact that he is some years my junior! The results of the prolonged soak were pleasing, somewhat less pleasing was waking at 3 this morning and being unable to eject myself from the bed without his assistance in rolling me off the edge!
Goddamn....what happened to this body of mine? Having been a gymnast for years, ridden large motor bikes and spent years in a physically demanding job it used to be strong. It seems but a few months since I could easily lift a 40kg bag of cement (don't ask) without any detrimental effects, not bad for a woman of 5 foot and 7.5 stone,...........oh how my mother will laugh. The phrase 'I told you so' will soon be ringing, if sympathetically, in my ears I think!!
My only comfort is drawn from the fact that my neighbour, the other member of the 'digging party' is suffering no less than I...... despite being 10 years my junior. :o)
City girl, new experience.
Harvested
Clouds
This normally quiet part of the world has been a hive of activity and noise for the last week or two. Something that has never figured in my life before has been much in evidence.....the harvest.
As a city girl the question of how crops got from the field to the consumer had never really fluttered through my mind for more than a few childhood moments sat cross legged and impatient on a cold hard floor during school harvest festivals!
Here in a community whose economic survival is based on farming, the seasons and weather are of greater importance than I am used to and dictate what is done and when. I am fascinated by a way of life I have never witnessed before and have given little or no thought to previously.
The harvest in particular seems to be fraught with difficulties, crops can only be lifted under certain conditions and here for the past few weeks the normally still, quiet atmosphere has been permeated by the sounds of heavy machinery in the fields. This is not a 9-5 job by any stretch of the imagination. Once the crop is ready to be harvested and the weather suitable, those who's job it is to carry out the work are in the fields 24/7 until it is done. Social lives stop, the pubs are quieter than is the norm and it seems half of the already meagre population disappears.
Never before have I seen the almost eerie sight of these massive harvesting machines cutting their straight lines in the fields throughtout the night lit by powerful halogen lights. Nor did I ever realise just how big and technically advanced they are. These things are immense and this is the one time of year when getting stuck in traffic becomes slightly more common. Get behind one of these monsters and you have no chance......alone they can barely manoeuvre using both lanes let alone allow other traffic past!
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