Loved stuff: My two favourite YouTube Classics

Ninja cat - so funny...



Brilliant elephant...

Loved stuff: Our Springle McDingles...

The Spingles are on sparkling form tonight. We've been at work today but my guess is that they have been sunbathing all day in the garden and now full of beans as a result. Sophie keeps running in and out of the room like she is on a yo yo. Even Tiggy (aka Fat Mama) is hyper mobile tonight.

I realised today that I hadn't posted any pictures of the beloved moggies on here, so may I introduce them...

Tiggy:

Note: confident gaze

Sophie:














Note: nervous gaze

Loved stuff: Whiskers on kittens...

...are, like the lovely Julie Andrews sang, one of my favourite things.

We are staying at Rob and Sarah's this weekend. They have a new edition to their family. She is called Jasmine and is so cute. She likes to sit on your shoulders and fall asleep. So adorable - I'm in love.

No-one puts baby in the corner

I mentioned in a recent post that Tiggy and Sophie are returned; back from the cattery after the completion of the building work. It is great to have them back home – they are so entertaining and adorable. Nothing beats the sound of a happy purring cat to lift my spirits and make me feel content about life.

What is so lovely about them is their predictability, interspersed with acts of randomness, that really delights. Following the predictability path Sophie and Tiggy reacted to coming back home in exactly the same way that they have done previously following their mini breaks at the full board luxury lodgings provided care of the Animal Medical Centre of Cricklewood.

Tiggy, aka Fat Mama, falls straight back into family life – trying to hunt out the junk food she loves and chilling on the sofa. Sophie, aka Pensive Daughter, was, well her usual pensive self. She has been hiding a lot under the bed or behind the sofa and then dashes out for attention and then runs off again. She also barely ate a thing for two days – just to make us worry and get some pay back for sending her away for nearly three weeks. She is such a funny thing – she loves attention, especially diving in and shoving Tigs out of the way (which often results in Sophie getting a whack on the head from her mother).

Despite being so bold Sophie will sometime have a freak out and end up deciding that she needs to hide again. No-one puts baby in the corner – she puts herself there.

The tortoise that cared too much

Now the building work is almost complete (just one more day to go) we brought Tiggy and Sophie, our beloved moggies, home from the cattery on Saturday. We had to do a monster clean to get rid of all the post-building work grime (so that the babies didn’t end up coated in dust). So on Friday night after work the marigolds went on and we cleaned for six solid hours. We had to clean EVERYTHING that we own. It was hideous.

Prior to the cleaning commencing I had to nip to Somerfield (the not so super, supermarket that is walking distance from the house) to buy said marigolds, kitchen roll and other cleaning necessities. It was a real toss-up between going to the ‘Field’ or jumping in the car and going to Sainsburys. The reason for the conundrum being that I absolutely loath the Somerfield experience. In theory it shouldn’t be that bad – it has a good selection of stock (they even have Yarden’s humus which is my number one favourite snack item), it’s quite spacious, it’s clean but there is just something so depressing about it. Friday’s experience just reaffirmed why I should have jumped in the car.

I walk to Somerfield, pick up a basket and start gathering up my supplies. I then proceed to the check-out which they need to rename ‘get frustrated on your way out’. I was in a queue of about 15 people, shuffling at snail speed through the sweet-racked maze created to control us. There were two people on the tills and I notice for every one person that this chap served, the women on the till next door managed to serve at least two and a half people. Now having worked on a till in M&S in my youth, I can be a bit uptight in the till queuing scenario (I was a speed demon on the till). So I start obsessing about why the differential in speed between the two cashiers – I had plenty of time to do this as it took me 20 minutes to get to the starting line. I couldn’t work out what was going on but found out as I approached the tortoise (not the hare) with morbid trepidation.

Now I know that I like good customer service but Mr Tortoise took this to a whole new level...

He picked the first item out of my basket, looked at it for about two seconds, then looked me in the eye, smiled then said ‘do you want this?’, I said ‘yes please’, he then turned the item around to find the barcode, looked at me, smiled, scanned the code, then placed the item in the bag. This happened for EVERY single item in my basket. It was unbelievable. I managed to stay cool, although my response to the question ‘do you want this?’ declined from the aforementioned ‘yes please’, to ‘yes’ to ‘a nod’ deteriorating to me just grimacing at him.

I nearly ran out of the building with my shopping yelling ‘free, free at last, thank god I’m free’, although in reality I walked home with plastic bags digging into my hands and grumbled away to myself. Bless the tortoise – he cared a lot, just too blinkin’ much.

Babies in the crèche...

Chad and I had to drop Tiggy and Sophie off at the cattery today. We have building work starting tomorrow for three weeks and they will freak out with all the noise and general stress. We have also been informed that this is a good decision because all the dust might cause them health problems with their eyes and lungs.

It is really bonkers how guilty we both feel - like sending kids off to boarding school I imagine. You know it is going to do them good but neither the kids nor the parents really like the idea of it - well not these kids or parents anyway! As I am sitting here typing I really miss the fact that one of them is not trying to walk over the keyboard. I didn't awake to four eyes staring intently at me waiting for breakfast which weirdly I miss.

They are in a 'penthouse' for three weeks, will get their nails done and will be looked after by very attentive staff - sounds like a good holiday to me. I have convinced myself that it OK. A bit too much anthropomorphic projection I hear you cry. Yes probably true but these cute little moggies are like our babies (friends refer to them as our gaybies) - which unless you are a cat lover you probably won't understand.