Looking back on 2010 I see it as a year of losses. In September I had to have Boy-Kitten put down after what appeared to be some sort of stroke which paralysed his tail, and to a degree, his back legs. He didn’t want to be picked up and wasn’t eating or drinking. He was euthanased at home which saved him from even more trauma but I spent a bad night waiting to see if he would improve. While waiting for the veterinary team I put him onto my bed and he gave a very brief purr and a quick lick to my nose. It nearly broke my heart.
My house is to go onto the market in a couple of weeks and I no longer feel that it is entirely my own. The garden has been raked, weeded and mulched and the house and paving bricks pressure cleaned. The senior elf told me that by the time that they all finished there would be no spiders left but I suspect that was a promise like the one Bob Hawke made about children living in poverty because the box beams in the shed and carport are covered with cobwebs and I have bought some special spider spray. They are also starting to make their presence felt again in the weatherboards.
Himself finished his thesis yesterday, it has been bound and, along with a CD of the whole thing, it is off to Malta tonight. He certainly cut it fine and I had him over here a few days ago because his printer was insisting that it only wanted to be a fax machine and I offered the use of mine. He printed out a draft of Chapter 4 and I proof-read it. Then sense prevailed and he took the whole thing to OfficeWorks to be printed which happened much faster than my printer could have managed; he needed four copies. (Note added later - I have seen the consignment form; it is on its way to Malta via courier.)
I’ve not seen a lot of him this year while he worked on the thesis. Thursday mornings at COTA, of course, but little else. COTA has moved back to the city and although it is all rather crowded in the new place, at least it is more accessible and the shopping is better. The main problem at COTA is that people are buying new computers loaded with Windows7 and the COTA computers still have XP (which I prefer) so I have to take in my Win7 laptop and dongle.
Settlement for the new apartment is supposed to take place next April and I have spent some time trying to get a postal address, to no avail. Somebody, somewhere, must know what it is but the Claremont Council ignored my query and then the council offices burnt down. However, Oldest Friend said that postal addresses are usually allotted when a development is approved so I can’t understand why it is such a dark, dreadful secret. The apartment looks very uninteresting from the outside but can only be seen from a small stretch of the highway and a small part of the Hungry Jacks car park so I probably won’t need curtains. Herself is going to help me to measure it all when we are allowed in. Until then I am not sure how much of my furniture I will be able to fit and how much I’ll have to sell. D3’s husband says that it is more than twice the size of their house but the problem is going to be a lack of solid walls to hang pictures or put things against.
This time next year I will be in a different place. I have lived in this house for 47 years and it will be a big change but hopefully next year will not be as disruptive as this year has been.
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