John.....What A Girl! (An Appreciation of Fabulously Fastidious Female Feline)

I have just finished emptying John's litter box...not my favourite domestic chore I have to add....well there are none that I'm verging on orgasmic about ....but scooping the poop definitely registers about minus 15 on my Richter scale of knee tremblers!

Anyways...back to John...John is a house cat ...she prefers 'cat in captivity' or 'feline felon'...depending on sorry she is feeling for herself as she gazes wistfully out of the window at the Promised Land (aka back garden) where lesser members of her species wander free and unfettered.

As a house cat, John has her very own toilet facility and it is with regard to this that she behaves in a way I've never known with my other cats. Firstly, when she's done her business she doesn't just quickly cover the offending wee or doo-doo with some litter...noooooooooo..not her...we have about 10minutes...I kid you not... of raking,  scraping and what sounds like digging...so much so that I've often expected her to come through the hall ceiling!This is followed by another 5mins of  scraping her paws clean on the inside of the box. Finally we have a period of grooming and cleaning of the appropriate orifices...no dangle berries on this little lady...No Siree!

 

Now Leo...he does his offerings outside in the garden...well actually not my garden..but in surrounding gardens (Shhhhhhhhh!!) ..and he basically just dumps and walks...not even a cursory attempt to cover anything up!

However, it is in the post-toilet phase that John once again comes into her own because, once she has finished, she hovers around the box...often laying siege to the landing... with a 'So when are you going to deal with the aforementioned poop...'cause if you think I am going to use it again while that lot is in there you've got another thing coming' look on her furry face!Only when you have prostrated yourself in apology and removed the soiled litter will she go downstairs and relax on her chaise longue with a G&T! 

Heaven for fend if you don't do it before she needs to go again because she is as good as her word... the one time I was held up/distracted by something else...well let's just say...we'll never look at the bathroom scales in the same way again!

A Poem

When rifling through a box of old cards this morning ,I came across a poem I wrote in June, 2009. Now I'm not one for writing poetry but the event referred to in this poem affected me profoundly and I was literally compelled to write something about it. I had to put my thoughts on paper..if only to try and understand in some way what had happened.

Basically, on a beautiful summer's evening in June, 2009 a young biker died when his bike collided with a car here in Braes on Skye. This young man was 23 and, although I did not know him personally, I remember him when he was a school boy getting on the school bus that I often travelled on too. In later years, I often saw him hanging about with other bikers in the Square in Portree. He was handsome, friendly, always smiling.. in the prime of his life. 

My eldest daughter, Natalie, phoned me and told me that he had been killed and to go look at all the messages already posted on his Bebo page. I just could not process it...that this beautiful summer's evening had been this boy's last and his friends were now expressing and sharing their sense of shock and sadness at his loss in the most immediate and accessible way they knew.

Anyway... here is the poem which I had just scribbled down on a bit of paper...at least by typing it here I can acutally save it somewhere relatively safe.

Last Active

'Last active' 12hrs

Online status given damning power

As speeding death overtook at Braes

RIPs like the blood slick seep down his page.

Where friends pour out youth's soft pain

And he 'last active' forever will remain.

I Got An Award!

I got an award!

It really is

I'd like to thank Julie for sending this to me! :-)

There are rules to this award.

1. First, thank and link back to the person that gave the award.(Check)

2. Answer the 10 survey questions

3. Pass the award along to other bloggers whom you think are fantastic.
4. Contact the bloggers you have chosen to let them know about the award

1. If you blog anonymously, are you happy doing this?  If you aren't anonymous, do you wish you started out anonymously, so that you could be anonymous now? No wish to be anonymous...then or now!

2. Describe an incident that shows your inner stubborn side. I don't have a 'stubborn' side as such...if I want to do something...and it is a realisic 'want'....I pursue it...but I am fickle...my goals and aims change constantly because I get bored/fed up and abandon one goal for another. Similarily...if I don't want to do something...the same pattern applies.

3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?  Skye's answer to Demi Moore obviously ;-)

4 Favourite summer drink? Fizzy Chardonnay

5.When you take time for yourself, what do you do?  Read, walk, sleep and occasionally blog

6. Is there something that you still want to accomplish in your life? I would love to go on Safari and I would like to write a book...but as for the latter...I don't have the dedication...never mind the talent..to achieve that.

7.When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever, the shy person, or always ditching?  None of the above really, I loved school, did well but didn't fit into any pigeon hole/niche....happy days in the main

8.If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what would you see?Oh this is very recent...on June 16th when I was sitting with my Dad and daughters  in my parents' house and watching my Mum being being taken from her home  by the paramedics and knowing she was close to death and that she would never be in her home again.

9.Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog, or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people and events? Nooooo.... it's all about ME, ME, ME!

10. If you had the choice to sit down and read a book or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?Read a book...every time...because...again...reading...is very much a solitary, personal me' thing.....phone calls are ok but by definition have to be 50% about the other person's needs and issues.

Now - i think i'll pass the award on to 'Eye Love' written by my friend David whose blog is a firm favourite :-)

So Long Shitmas, 2010.......Reflections on a Christmas Past

Well  the big 'C' has been and gone and, whilst I am nothing if not delighted at its passing, I have to say it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Admittedly, the weather over the whole period was atrocious so that added extra worries about family travelling home on public transport etc and the disruption to mail deliveries resulted in some Xmas pressies turning into December 29th pressies!

For the first time in years we didn't go out for Xmas dinner but had it at home with a close friend and her son and a neighbour joining us. None of us could face going to the hotel we had previously visited....the absence of Mum/Granny would have been too difficult for us all to cope with...whereas having it for the first time in this new house with some new company added to the mix created a different feel and a new memory of Xmas for us.

Instead of having a proper sit down dinner with one course following on from another, we paced ourselves and spaced the courses out over the day starting with prawn cocktail at lunchtime, soup about 3pm, main about 6pm and trifle/xmas pudding about half 8.  All preceded, accompanied and followed by the odd vino or 3 I should add ;-)
Doing it this way it was less stressful I found and the serving up and the washing up were far more manageable :-) Natalie was a brilliant help  and Yasmin and Candace ....well.... they just sat and ate and looked Christmassy!

My poor Dad was rescued from oestrogen overload by the presence of neighbour George and they sat in the sitting room happily sipping sherry (Dad) and coffee (George) and  watching 'Still Game' dvds back to back :-) Natalie poured George a 'Natalie' measure of whisky about half 8 and the poor man heroically managed to stagger along the road to his flat at 11pm!

To the gifts...well I was delighted with my Kindle (how did they guess that was what I wanted?!) and very surprised with my snazzy lime green Ipod Shuffle....I had other lovely presents too....obviously I have been a very GOOD girl this year! ;-) Everyone else loved their presents too and Dad especially liked his copy of 'White Christmas', his sweeties and  minature of Laphroaig :-)

As for Hogmanay/New Year...well I completely opted out of that this year....maybe with a year's distance hopefully I will feel differently next December 31st :-)

So to sum up....bah humbug is still my default status, however, to be fair, the whole shebang wasn't too shabby at all....but I still would prefer the same company with slightly different food sitting out in the garden enjoying a holiday period with pressies in......MAY!!!!