TV Trauma

My TV, which has been playing up for some time, has been taken away to be fixed.  Because my last one died an early death I actually had the sense to buy an extended warranty for this one so it is covered until 2015.

However, the men sent to collect it had problems finding the place and since the truck they came in was 2.7 metres high, it would not fit into either parking areas and the DJ's Loading Bay refused, quite rightly, to allow them to park there.  Anyway, they finally managed to get here and take the TV away and it will probably be ready next Friday, when I will be on my way to Sydney.

I am going to an all-day seminar at iinet on the next Tuesday and with COTA on Thursday mornings I can see problems ahead.  But maybe they will send it back in a smaller van..

I finally got around to washing the floor of my balcony, something too difficult with all the big pots on it.  Everything there is now readily portable and it all looks so much better and the cats had a lot of fun paddling.

My spell checker has gone crazy.  It is marking properly spelled words as wrong and when I double click it puts in an extra first letter so that I get mmetres and bbalcony.   There must be either solar flares or gremlins. 

Geraniums Red and Geraniums White

I suddenly started to get fed up with all my scraggy potplants.  Parsifal had eaten, or at least chewed, most of them and had started in on the parsley which was about the only thing doing reasonably well.

So I gave away or uprooted everything except the small Rosemary plant which Himself gave me and which, for some reason, Parsifal passes up so it is flourishing, unlike the Bay Tree which was in a sad state  -  very chewed with multiple holes in all its leaves.

On my wanders around Claremont I chanced on a shop which sells water features and artificial plants so now I have a balcony of pots of red and white geraniums and it looks so much nicer.  I am not sure what will happen when it rains but I'll worry about that when it rains  -  or replace the geraniums if needs be.

We had the annual general meeting of the Council of Owners on Monday evening and I hauled along the nice man from 702 who had a few issues he wanted to discuss but didn't know where the meeting was to be held and his English is a bit iffy as he only stated to speak it at age 50.  It was a good thing I took him along because there was a problem with getting a quorum with much phoning around to see if they could lure one more person in.

Since the rules state that if there is not a quorum the committee has to wait 30 minutes before canceling the meeting, the chairperson suggested that we should have a general discussion and bring up any issues which troubled us.  The meeting became quite lively and when another owner arrived to make the quorum the meeting proceeded with a continuation of the discussion afterwards.  It was all very helpful, hopefully we sorted out a lot of issued and the chairman said afterwards that it was the best and most productive meeting he had chaired.

I took the babies out to the park in the kitty carriage yesterday but neither would get out onto the grass; Parsifal curled up as far from the grass as he could get with his ears back.  He hasn't forgotten the dog, poor little cat.  I'll keep taking them over to the park at odd intervals but will let them decide, in their own time, of they want to explore or just lie in the sun in their carriage.  We don't get sun in the apartment except a bit very early in the morning in summer so I like them to see the sun every so often.

Happy birthday ... now you are one

Today was the cats' first birthday; a red letter day and easy to remember because it was my parents' wedding anniversary.  For a birthday present I gave them one of those feeder things which they have to work to get their food from.  Parsifal is orally fixated and is getting fat; Poppy is a little plump.

Parsifal, naturally, has worked out how to get food from it but I am a little concerned about Poppy who really hasn't got the idea yet.  I might have to slip her a little something on the side but neither of them wanted their 'salmon in seafood sauce'  so either they have fur balls or Poppy has managed to get enough from the feeder.

They are both losing their winter coats and I have bought them one of those glove things which they love, particularly Parsifal who likes all things sensual.  Poppy needed to be very lightly restrained for the first few sessions but enjoys it now.

Things which I have learnt since I got the cats:

• Never leave anything long and soft around (string, cord, ribbons etc) or Parsifal will eat it
• Turn all the fliptop rubbish bins to the wall; Parsifal can open them and likes to inspect the contents.  The bathroom one contains used dental floss  - see point 1.
• Check all drawers and cupboards before closing them and count heads just to be sure
• Always back out the front door to repel the cats when they try to come out with me
• Don't bother trying to keep them off the kitchen benches; it is a waste of time
• Keep a bowl of water in the shower recess and top it up with warm water whenever I have a shower
• It is impossible to grow plants on my balcony as Parsifal eats them
• Be aware at all times where Poppy has hidden her favourite toy

There are more but I can't think of anything else at present.

I am off to Sydney in a couple of weeks for B1's 50th birthday and the cats will be going back to their breeder for a few days.  The whole family will be turning up and she has asked my brother and sister-in-law, niece, nephew and their partners and Uncle John Cobbly and all as far as I can see.  Hopefully I will be able to catch up with Cousin H for morning coffee while I am there.

With the time difference and 'summer time' over east it is going to be a long haul with me leaving home before 7.00am and arriving in Sydney in the late afternoon after a 4.5 hour flight.  Coming back is better; we arrive back almost as soon as we leave Sydney.