Saturday, February 25, 2012

A Second Calling

Parsifal has decided that, considering his Bombay heritage, if he is not allowed to be a mongoose he is going to be a sweeper. He has taken to riding on the broom when I am trying to sweep, chewing the bristles as he goes. It is all very difficult and I am using the Baby Dyson much more since the kittens don't like the noise it makes and tend to take themselves off to the nether regions. I suspect that the time will come when they feel brave enough to help me with the vacuuming. Not a cheerful thought ...

I found the boy sitting in the dishwasher this morning. I always have to check cupboards before closing them but the dishwasher is something new; I am always very wary around the washing machine.

They are no longer kittens; they are baby cats and now eat baby cat food which they much prefer to the kitten food so we are onto chicken giblets with rich gravy and tuna topped with prawns which are given more as a treat than as any sort of main food. They get through quite a lot of pellets.

The water is still surging. It is almost three weeks since it first went belly-up and the pump people are supposedly waiting for a new part but that doesn't explain why it is all taking so long.

It was GB1's eleventh birthday yesterday. The GBs had a pretty full-on day yesterday and have another one today but since they both have sailing lessons over this way and since GB2 wants to see the little cats, I am hopeful that I will get to see them today.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Siren songs

The babies came through their surgery almost without a hitch. Parsifal had a bit of a dry mouth from the pre-med but he soon fixed that with a large dinner which he said that he needed after being forcibly fasted for so long. He also said that he wasn't ever going to have a dry mouth again and is trying to discover how to turn on the taps which, since they are simple levers, he is bound to work out before too long.

They both make a rather cute little kitten squeak when they want my attention but I caught Parsifal practising roaring in the bath where the acoustics are good. Poppaea is much quieter and is very cuddly and soft. She doesn't seem to be at all put out by the stitches in her tummy and I am hopeful that they will stay in place for another week. Dr Dave told me that she also has internal stitches so her insides won't fall out but he would prefer them to remain in place for the full ten days.

I made a trip down the highway this morning to the new LD shop which looks gorgeous. However, having bought up big of the things I went there for I didn't stay to browse but will do so when I go to pick up a couple of things which they didn't have in my size. Maybe I should invite Herself to come with me to see the new place.

R3 came over here yesterday for a quick run through of some of the differences between XP and Win7, since she has a new computer. Techie loaded Thunderbird onto it and didn't set up Windows LiveMail so we did that as she didn't like Thunderbird (and I agree with her. Techie put it onto mine too and I rapidly took it off again). I use Firefox for things like updating this Blog because it refuses to post if I use Win7; and the same thing happens with LibraryThing.com - I can't post on the forum using Win7.

The water is still surging and it is getting worse. According to the Management it will be the end of this week or maybe into next week before it is fixed because a new part has to be obtained. I can't see why it is taking so long what with high-speed air travel and overnight overseas couriers. I am not happy ...

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Catfish?

I thought that I was going to lose Parsifal for a minute this evening. He has developed a fascination with water, especially in the bathroom. He wants to get into the shower with me, traipses all over the vanity, leaving grubby paw marks, and last night I had to leap out of the shower to haul him out of the toilet. I need to explain here that the toilets are a very good design so that there is actually only a small hole where the water is and the rest is sloping porcelain. It looks as though someone has put a lot of thought into designing a pedestal in which it would be impossible for a child, or even a small animal, to drown.

However, Parsifal was spreadeagled around the porcelain part and I suspect that he was drinking the water, although I didn't wait to find out; I just grabbed him and put the lid down.

Tonight was worse. He had just used his litter and I had scooped it out and was flushing it down the loo when he jumped onto the rim of the bowl. I knocked him unceremoniously into his litter tray and in future will put the lid down before I flush, at least until he is bigger because, although I think that he is too big to be flushed down I certainly don't intend to take any chances.

He is being castrated the day after tomorrow and perhaps that will simmer him down a bit; he is the most curious kitten I have ever had and I have been owned by Oriental cats for over 30 years.

He and Poppy are also among the most affectionate kittens I have ever had. They are totally charming except at 5.30 am and I am going to have to shut them out of the bedroom for the next two nights - tonight so that I can catch up on some much-needed sleep and tomorrow night because they will be fasting and I don't want to be woken up at some ungodly hour by two babies reminding me that I forgot to leave any supper for them and they are both about to succumb to "night starvation". (For those too young to remember - that was the catch phrase for a malt drink called Horlicks.)

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Vile Bodies

The water pressure is still playing up; it surges so that when showering one has to get wet, soap oneself during the pause and then hope to rinse off when the water returns. It sometimes takes two or three phases to rinse my hair after I have shampooed it.

It is nine days since the pump started to play up and the management has put notices by the lifts to say that they are aware of the problem (probably getting sick and tired of us phoning them) and the problem is being investigated. Considering how much we paid for our apartments it is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. But it is not all that much of an inconvenience really; at least the water is still running.

The babies went to see Dr Dave to get their final vaccinations. He was very impressed with the size of Parsifal's nuts and said that they needed dealing with immediately. The babies are 18 weeks old today so they are both going into hospital on Monday morning to be doctored. I am glad that they can be done together - it is not easy to fast one kitten while feeding the other one. Because of the traffic between my place and the hospital they will have to go in first thing in the morning or it will take me up to an hour to get home again.

The highway needs widening and parents need to stop dropping their kids off at school in their SUVs.

The computer lounge is open for the year and my first client - who had some lessons in 2009 - wanted to know how to put pictures onto Facebook. Luckily I had re-opened my account there so I had some idea how to do things there and we gave her an avatar and posted a picture from one of my thumb drives.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

"For he hopped like a cricket ... "


The water has gone feral again. It started surging at about lunch time yesterday but did not cut out altogether like last time. Last night a security guard and someone who was presumably a plumber rang the bell and asked me if the water was still surging. It wasn't at that time but it started again very soon after. At least the cisterns fill up but I didn't attempt to have a shower this morning and last night's shower seemed to be OK. The plumber said that all he could do was to reboot the electronics controlling the pump so, like the gas, if the power goes off the water will probably do so too. Poppy went to sleep on his foot while he was talking to me. His wife's cat has just had kittens so he wasn't too fazed by her.

The babies are loving their new pagoda cat furniture. They were both on to it before it had even been unloaded from the trolley. Parsifal has perfected the Harrier jet jump; straight up into the air with all four legs extended and all his toes spread. It seems that he thinks that he is a mongoose and his mission in life, thwarted by being an inside mongoose, is to kill snakes. But he looks so funny that I can't help laughing when he does it. Click on the photo to enlarge.



And one of the kitchen lights, after fluctuating for days, has finally given up the ghost. It is acting like a transformer with its on again/off again performance. Grrrrr ... I will try changing the globe so that I can justify getting it fixed under warranty. It is swinging loose so I am pretty sure that it is not the globe, though.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Water, water everywhere

The water came on again at 8.05pm, four hours after it cut out. I met the plumber in the lift after going over to the loos in the shopping centre with a 4-litre bottle and filling it up in the handbasin of the "Ladies' toilet". He was looking for the control room which he eventually found at the other end of Level 4 where the residents' car park is.

Because he knew which apartment I was in he came up to check that things were working again and he said that someone had somehow overloaded the pump which had retaliated by turning itself off. The official plumber is coming today to find out why it happened.

After a couple of lovely autumn (?) days we are getting back to heatwave conditions again. So far the air conditioning has kept on working but it must be about the only thing left to go wrong.

... and I can almost always tell the kittens apart - finally. Their faces have differentiated enough that I no longer have to look under their tails. I'll try to take some photos but they rarely stay still for long enough to focus my camera.

... but not a drop to drink

The tilers came and fixed my shower recess this morning. I hope that it works; I can't actually use it for at least 24 hours but they have lowered the drain thingy which has been standing proud to the tiles. I have always assumed that was the problem.

However, now I have no water! Last night the pressure was pulsating - full on one minute and then down to a dribble the next. Now I have none. I phoned poor, patient Natalie who promised to contact the building manager who, I gather, co-ordinates things like that. The window cleaners were abseiling down the walls yesterday although they didn't clean my windows and I do wonder if they did something to the storage tank. I assume that there is a storage tank on the roof to create water pressure to the apartments.

The babies are still a delight and I am constantly amazed at their creativity; everything is, or can be turned into a toy. I accidentally kicked one of them a couple of weeks ago and felt dreadful about it until I realised that the way they beat each other up and crash headlong into the furniture must hurt them much more: but they just pick themselves up and carry on regardless.

D1 is moving in to her new apartment the day after tomorrow and has been busy packing up her stuff ready for the movers. In the mean time she has had it painted and carpeted so that it will be all new and fresh for her. Hopefully things will go smoothly and she will be happy there.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Who is the cleverest of them all?

The kittens are starting to look like little cats now; they have lost that fluffy roundness and look more like tiny panthers. I can usually tell which is which now; Parsifal has a sharper nose and he is fractionally bigger than Poppaea. Poppaea has a huge IQ though. She has figured that there must be a way down to all the interesting things beyond the balcony and although she has tested the limits and found that she can't break through, I will reinforce the brick mesh with a second layer ... for my own peace of mind.

We have an appointment with Dr Dave on 15th February for their final vaccination and at that time will discuss sterilisation; unless, of course, Poppaea starts to call before that time in which case it will be off to the doctor pronto.

Someone is coming on Monday (today is Thursday) to drill out the drain fitting in my shower recess and lower the whole thing in the hope that it will fix the problem I have been having. In the meantime, my makeshift solution is working very well so I am not too fussed about it any more.

And my smoke alarm has been replaced and I now have the booklet which came with it, since it is different to the faulty one and I can stop it chirping by sliding it away from its connections.

A repair kit for the leather couch is on its way from New Zealand. I can't blame the babies for the damage - they have their claws clipped every week; it was Bast who put the scratches there and there is a bit of damage from the move which needs some attention.

D1 is moving into her new apartment next week. Settlement was moved forward and the painters and carpet layers are customising it at the moment. Just to cheer her on her way I sent her this video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7Bvd33V9dQ&fmt=18