(no subject)

My brother's cat Chess allowed me to pet her and even purred for me today. Chess being the skittish recluse that she is, this felt like an achievement something akin to breaking the sound barrier! She is firmly of the opinion that humans should not be allowed to see her - she likes to know that they are there, but in an ideal world would be completely invisible. Odd cat. Pretty, but odd.

This is Poppy, who, unless something drastic changes between now and then, will be coming to live with me after the holiday in Pev at the end of this month. Eight weeks old last Friday. She will grow into the ears.

D did suggest that Small could bring Poppy back with her after her visit next week, but since the kittens have to come on holiday to Pev with us anyway, being too young for the cattery, it doesn't seem fair to drive her all the way from Kent to Cardiff, then back to Sussex in a couple of weeks, and then back to Cardiff again. That's way too much travelling for a baby, much though I'd love to have her sooner rather than later! So it'll be after the holiday that she comes to me.

Yesterday turned out to be a bit of an interesting day. There was one of our big family bashes on in the afternoon - my Dad's cousin Pat was celebrating her 40th wedding anniversary and was throwing a big family barbeque. Mum and Dad were going to pick me up on their way, having to detour because town was closed due to the MAS Carnival and Big Weekend. So I waited, and waited, and then had a phone call. They'd broken down about a mile away and were waiting for the RAC, would keep me posted. I ended up completely rearranging my entire loungeroom while I waited, not to mention cleaning it from top to bottom, it took so long to find out what was going on. Kept thinking 'oh, I'll just move that while I wait...' Still. The lounge looks lovely now. *G*

Got to Pat&Peter's in the end, Mr RAC having managed to get the car going again. Had a lovely time, although we missed half of it due to the breakdown. Family gatherings on my Dad's side are always entertaining - he's got between 50-60 first cousins, and it's a different combination of people at every gathering like this. Yesterday there must have been about 60 folk popping in and out during the course of the afternoon, so you just spend the whole time working out who everyone is, how they connect, and what the degree of separation is. It was nice to see Kevin P (one of Dad's younger cousins) there with his whole family; he and his wife have got five kids now. Their oldest, Elizabeth, was very, very premature, wasn't expected to survive and then when she did was expected to be severely disabled. Well, she's 14 now and yeah, okay, she's deaf and partially sighted, but she's grown into a lovely young girl, exceeded every expectation. It's really amazing to look at her now and remember how she was as a baby.

When I got home after the barbeque at Pat's I found I was still in a mad cleaning frenzy. These fits don't strike me often, but tend to be a bit severe when they do! So I've embarked on a campaign to clear out the cupboard in my bedroom, where all kinds of junk gets stashed and forgotten about. 'Untipping', as welshdiver would call it. Threw out two recycling bags of random junk yesterday, two smaller bags waiting to go to the charity shop in the week, and that was only a couple of shelves! Looks like it's going to take a few more sessions to get the whole thing done...

(no subject)

My brother's cat Chess allowed me to pet her and even purred for me today. Chess being the skittish recluse that she is, this felt like an achievement something akin to breaking the sound barrier! She is firmly of the opinion that humans should not be allowed to see her - she likes to know that they are there, but in an ideal world would be completely invisible. Odd cat. Pretty, but odd.

This is Poppy, who, unless something drastic changes between now and then, will be coming to live with me after the holiday in Pev at the end of this month. Eight weeks old last Friday. She will grow into the ears.

D did suggest that Small could bring Poppy back with her after her visit next week, but since the kittens have to come on holiday to Pev with us anyway, being too young for the cattery, it doesn't seem fair to drive her all the way from Kent to Cardiff, then back to Sussex in a couple of weeks, and then back to Cardiff again. That's way too much travelling for a baby, much though I'd love to have her sooner rather than later! So it'll be after the holiday that she comes to me.

Yesterday turned out to be a bit of an interesting day. There was one of our big family bashes on in the afternoon - my Dad's cousin Pat was celebrating her 40th wedding anniversary and was throwing a big family barbeque. Mum and Dad were going to pick me up on their way, having to detour because town was closed due to the MAS Carnival and Big Weekend. So I waited, and waited, and then had a phone call. They'd broken down about a mile away and were waiting for the RAC, would keep me posted. I ended up completely rearranging my entire loungeroom while I waited, not to mention cleaning it from top to bottom, it took so long to find out what was going on. Kept thinking 'oh, I'll just move that while I wait...' Still. The lounge looks lovely now. *G*

Got to Pat&Peter's in the end, Mr RAC having managed to get the car going again. Had a lovely time, although we missed half of it due to the breakdown. Family gatherings on my Dad's side are always entertaining - he's got between 50-60 first cousins, and it's a different combination of people at every gathering like this. Yesterday there must have been about 60 folk popping in and out during the course of the afternoon, so you just spend the whole time working out who everyone is, how they connect, and what the degree of separation is. It was nice to see Kevin P (one of Dad's younger cousins) there with his whole family; he and his wife have got five kids now. Their oldest, Elizabeth, was very, very premature, wasn't expected to survive and then when she did was expected to be severely disabled. Well, she's 14 now and yeah, okay, she's deaf and partially sighted, but she's grown into a lovely young girl, exceeded every expectation. It's really amazing to look at her now and remember how she was as a baby.

When I got home after the barbeque at Pat's I found I was still in a mad cleaning frenzy. These fits don't strike me often, but tend to be a bit severe when they do! So I've embarked on a campaign to clear out the cupboard in my bedroom, where all kinds of junk gets stashed and forgotten about. 'Untipping', as welshdiver would call it. Threw out two recycling bags of random junk yesterday, two smaller bags waiting to go to the charity shop in the week, and that was only a couple of shelves! Looks like it's going to take a few more sessions to get the whole thing done...