Monday, July 30, 2012

The babies are off to boarding school *sob*

The babies are off for a few days boarding at the kennels where they were born.  It is times like this when I am glad that there are two of them so that things are not totally strange and frightening.  Not that much would frighten this pair but just the same it upsets me.

I thought that Parsifal had passed all of the cord he ate but on Sunday morning he had a mighty heave and a huge bundle came up.  It looked far more than the 20cm which I know that he ate  -  because I had a lead for each of them and was able to see how much was missing.  However, I decided not to unravel it to see if there was the odd shoelace in with it all and simply disposed of it thoughtfully as we are exhorted to do by the conservation groups.

He certainly showed no signs of discomfort and was eating normally but he is rather pleased with himself nevertheless.  He seems to have given up on the smurgling, thank goodness.  I have been discouraging him from smurgling on me and putting him onto his blankie.  Hopefully he has grown out of it or has worked through his allotted sucking time and is growing up.

It is exactly 52 weeks since I moved into this apartment.  The time has gone very fast and I love living here despite the design faults and general brainlessness regarding fittings and fitments.  It is nice to have everything so close to hand and I run into friends a lot ... and there is Koko Black!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

... which passeth ...

Parsifal has passed the 20cm of lead which he ate on the weekend.  Not that I was worried but I was glad to see it in the litter tray.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

There is something weird going on.

My microwave oven was returned to me yesterday.  It has sat in the repair shop for a week or so with various people pushing the door release button and it has been opening with no problems ... so they sent it back again.  The man who brought it back put it on the top of the bench and demonstrated to me that it worked perfectly, which it did.  Then he put it back into its proper place in the scheme of things and tried again; it refused to open.  He took it out again and it worked; put it back and the door, once again refused to open.

So I have the oven back again and I still have to use my fingernails to prise the door open but he is going to put in for a new oven for me.  He told me that Miele appliances should work properly under all circumstances and that it was not good enough.  All very odd!

Parsifal has eaten about 20cm of his new lead and I am still awaiting the outcome of that but everything seems to be working as it should.  I had the same problem with my Burmese female, Bast, who tended to eat shoelaces and eventually a shoestring strap attached to my favourite nightdress.  I consulted Dr Don about it when nothing came through and he assured me that the stomach acids are strong enough  to dissolve such things.  Certainly Parsifal seems none the worse for his strange diet.

I took them out for about an hour in the kittycarriage again today and they are both getting much braver about getting out and exploring their surroundings  - firmly attached to the kittycarriage but with quite a lot of leeway as I now have an extendable dog-lead with an lead expander attached so that they can get about 3 metres apart and several metres from the kittycarriage but I have the option of reeling them in quickly if I need to; as I chose to do today when an unleashed dog came into the park.  It was very well behaved and stayed with its owner but I don't want to take any risks with the babies.

The warranty for the apartments has now run out and the management has my list of things to be done.  I have stressed very strongly that I expect that the light which has blown three times and has not been working for the last two months will be under further warranty until the problem is fixed to my satisfaction and that no amount of new globes and transformers is going to solve the basic reason that it keeps on not working.

My son-in-law, who was going to install cat doors as soon as the warranty had expired has broken several ribs and punctured his lung so I will ask Hugh from Zoo if he can recommend someone when I go there to buy the cat-flaps.

Me, D1 & D2  are off to Adelaide next Friday for a couple of days for my niece's Nuptial Blessing and next Wednesday the babies are going back to their origins for a few days of boarding.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Coincidence

I took the babies out for a walk to the Mary Street Reserve in the kittycarriage this afternoon.  I let them out and a girl walking along the path stopped and said "Are they Bombays?"  She and her husband have one  -  about four years old, from Canning Vale (like mine).  Its mother was a brown Burmese and father a Bombay.  She took some photos to show her husband.  

It is fun to watch people when they realise that I have two cats in the kittycarriage; not at all what they expect.

The computer at work today was totally stuffed up.  The desktop had three very small COTA-related icons on it and My Documents had been cleared out totally.  All the gutter icons had gone as well.  Himself and I sorted it out as best we could but we never have enough time to do any proper adjustments.  I told the boss before we left for the day and he is going to have a look at it.

My accountant has applied for a variation on my quarterly tax assessment from $26,655.00 to $3,000.00.  I can't imagine what the tax department was thinking about but it came as quite a shock to me when I received the assessment; it wasn't going to leave me with enough to live on.

I took the wedding present photos to Office Works yesterday and they did a really good job of printing and binding them.  I'll take them with me to Adelaide; I don't trust the mail after losing so many items which, my postman assured me, were not down to him as he knows which mailbox belongs to me regardless of which of my five addresses are used.  The Claremont Council still insists that I am A707, not B707 and that the A stands for 'Apartment'.  *sigh*

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Old friends and babies

My best friend from university, who is a cousin to my Ex, was in Perth for a couple of days, staying with her sister and we met this morning for coffee downstairs.  I had pretty  well lost touch with her as she married a Dutchman and has lived in the Netherlands for many years but is now in Queensland so it was lovely to see her again after all this time.

I took the cats in their kitten-carriage over to the park today and let them out onto the grass in the sun.  The birds all saw a couple of predators and went quite frantic for a while until they realized that the cats were firmly tethered and were no threat … but it was very exciting for the babies and they thoroughly enjoyed their little jaunt.  And this evening neither is nagging to go out into the corridor so there is lovely peace.  Poppy has the most appalling voice; very oriental and she doesn’t let up.

I have spent the last two mornings downstairs, coffeeing with friends so hopefully I can get to Office Works tomorrow morning as I have some printing to be done.  If all else fails there is a Snap Printing here in Claremont and that might be a better option anyway.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

The Apartment Warranty is about to run out ...

First of all I would like to apologise for the very erratic font size in some of my posts.  I have tried, and failed, to correct the problem.  I will keep trying to fix it but don't hold your breath.

The day before yesterday my microwave oven was taken away to be fixed.  The door has been sticking and for a while it has needed two hands to open it.  I assumed that someone would come here and fiddle with the catch and it would work properly but I was told that it probably needs a new part, that it has happened to other oven doors but never before, in the experience of the removed, has it happened to a Miele.  He also said that there was a queue for repairs and it could be some time before I get it back again.  This is a nuisance but not the end of the world and the cats think that the compartment in which it is housed is great fun and they like to sit in it and try to reach down to the power point which is some way down, through a hole.

I am not sure how the carrier managed to turn off the switch and remove the plug and I have no idea how he is going to get it back again; small hands?

I have all but given up trying to walk the cats on their leads.  Poppy is good as long as she is allowed to go where she wants to go but tends to spit the dummy if I try to take her where I want her to walk.  Parsifal is  hopeless; he lies down as soon as he gets outside the door (sometimes even before he gets all the way out) and rolls until his lead is wound around his tummy.  If I walk on with Poppy he will get up and follow but I am supposed to have my animals in my full control in the common areas.

Instead I have taken them out in their Kitten Carriage a couple of times, firmly attached to an extendable lead which is firmly attached to the carriage itself.  They seem to quite enjoy their trips but are wary of getting out and smelling the flowers.  Poppy is more adventurous than Parsifal in this activity.

An old friend from my University days dropped in to see me on her way to the airport on Thursday.  She has a couple of sons and some grandbabies over here and comes over every so often.  I met her down in Fremantle for lunch about this time last year.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The End of the World as we Know it #3

Today Poppy finally made it up onto the kitchen bench.  She very sensibly chose to start with the bench which has the cooktop, as it has a wall at the back so she was not in danger of sliding off the other side when she jumped up.

D1 has been staying with me for the last six days.  She was sent over on a work-related trip and told to take a couple of extra days while she was over here.  It was lovely to see her and she flew back this afternoon.  I'll be seeing her again in Adelaide early next month and again in Sydney in October.

Unfortunately I took her advice and booked my hotel through an agency and it is now set in concrete which is a great pity as Cousin H will be there earlier in the week and there is to be a family reunion dinner just before I arrive.  My airline ticket is also set in concrete and the hotel is fully booked for three days before we arrive so the timing is bad in all directions.  D2 and D3 are flying over on the same plane but are returning on an earlier one than me as I am hoping to catch up with Little Bro while I am there.  I am not holding my breath on that one, though.

Australia Post has obviously been investigating my lost mail as my Postie has had a little word with me and told me that he has been off for a while but that he will always ring up to the apartment if there is a parcel, and he commented that he knew my name and number as I was the first to move into the apartments.  The handbag and the wedding invitation haven't turned up but fortunately the senders sent replacements and the Medic Alert bracelet arrived back in Adelaide as soon as they started making inquiries at that end.

I weighed the kittens today but am not sure how accurate the scales are since I weighed a different amount each time, myself.

Parsifal  -  4.9 kilos
Poppy    -  3.3 kilos