Monday, June 30, 2008

The Cat **** On The ***!

Hello there!

Long time no see. Sorry about that; I've been a bit busy. Not only have I become obsessed with "adult colouring in", interesting "music" machines and gardening but I've been uber-busy "mit Arbiet" and also in Paris. All of which, more later...

Let's see...Tuesday night was interesting. I spent the evening with both the front and back doors open in the hope of airing the house while I pottered around between the kitchen, garden and lounge. At some point I neglected to notice a visitor..Perhaps it was because I was obsessively colouring in intricate mandalas...or perhaps it was the solder fumes from my solar theremin project. But I digress, Midnight came and I decided it really was time to pack for the trip and to get my head down for the night. As I headed upstairs I heard a rumble in my bedroom and as I rounded the corner a ball of black lightning streaked (struck? stroked?) past me and proceded to bounce between landing and stairs in an unlikely attempt to make its way past me.

I had a cat.

He zipped around the kitchen while I tried to get the back door open. Havoc was caused. Patches of fur werte left attached to my cactus. Whooping noises were made.

Eventually he figured out how to get out and he sped through the garden and over the wall.

I went to bed.

Straight out of the house in the morning and off to Paris. Sat in 2 days worth of meetings...Yawn. Went for beer and football with the boss...Yay. The highlight was a Lebanese company (who deployed this particular IT solution in Afghanistan...it's mobiles...remember the Taliban demanding all the transmitters being turned off between 6pm and 9am?...that kind of thing) saying, "We are very used to deploying in difficult situations. It does not disturb us".

The journey back was...Interesting. Everything was going well; we'd mosied back through Paris to the airport, checked in (having eventually figured out which way up the passports go in the automated check-in machine), wandered over to passport control, when...wait! Why is everyone standing around? Why are there guys with guns standing in rows preventing people moving around...what's that van outside with some dudes in protective clothing doing?

Oh wow! Bomb scare!

Oh shit! This is going to make it tricky to get on the plane...

We went outside and debated our options (and smoked)...the only option was to wait a bit, hope it all worked out, or try to wangle an emergency booking on the Squeezyjet flight a couple of hours later.

Luckily, adfter about half an hour there was a loud "pop" and about 10 minutes after that the gates were besieged by 1000000000000 people trying to get through security at once. We toughed it out and just about made it to our gate...only to find the flight delayed by 30 mins.

Got home eventually and even managed not to get shivved as I wandered through the murkier parts of Bristol late on a Friday night.

I got home about half ten in the end. But lo...I wonder why the house smells a bit...different? Oh well, it's been closed up for the last 3 days...meh...chuck my bag in the kitchen, figure I'll have a little nightcap and a bit of TV. Wander into the lounge to find a nice dried up cat shit in my fireplace.

Bastard cat.

Clean that up. Sit down...why's the sofa wet? What is that musty smell...Oh wow. Cat piss!

Bastard. Cat.

So. Saturday was spent washing throws & cushions and generally defenestrating the feline miasma. Flo and I had a lovely tea and then spent Sunday riding round St Werbs on our horses...


Flo's horse is called "Heearku" (as near as I can make out)....I think this is Atchitaka's horse (don't ask).

Monday, June 23, 2008

Pretentious? Moi?

Saturday nights dinner could not have been more local: Lamb from down the road. Beans, onions and carrots from my mate Charley's allotment, potatoes, sorrel and spinach from my back garden. Yummy!

My "jungle" as Flo calls it. Rocket, nasturtium, calendula, potatoes, sweetcorn, borage...pansies.

My outdoor "office", more potatoes and borage...Sorrel, nasturtium and chervil.

"I'm Atchitaka being a mermaid!" (don't ask)

Chocolate croissant, porridge with blueberries...breakfast...any opportunity to get mucky!


We got to the farm early. Just right for feeding time...them goats is hungry. Flo is sporting her "coat in a bag", which she thinks is amazing (I think it's pretty awesome myself!)

We rocked some tats! (yes, that is an ice cream in her other hand)

It was very windy, which led to a game of "Blown Away". This basically involves spinning in circles shrieking and then suddenly collapsing on the floor...having no fear of looking like a fool I readily join in with these games...people round my way must think I'm a loon.

They are correct.

More garden produce. Summer Salad: Rocket, Sorrel and Spinach with Nasturtium and Borage flowers...spicy!

Flo playing with the "nature garden" (not a lot going on yet). She's got some plastic bugs, spiders and frogs in the little pond...if I could get her to stop playing in it, there might be some real "nature" hanging out there one day.

Improvised sun hat FTW! That's an old shower cap, which Flo refers to as her "Bakers Hat"...it was scorching in that corner, plus my garden is nicely sheltered so there wasn't much wind to cool us down.

Wind!

I'm off to Paris for most of this week interviewing potential suppliers for the deployment of my system to Africa...sounds exciting? It's not.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Happy Farmer's Day!

As Flo said to me on numerous occasions yesterday.

We had a lovely time pottering around the 'hood.





I gave her a choice of an action man comic (with free action man dude) or the princess magazine which Flo chose herself...the inevitable happened...but she did have a lot of fun with the lipstick.

Curses!

In other news, I'm single again...and I think I might stay that way for a while...

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Zoo Two

Zoo Membership came through, which essentially means we can go whenever we want for as long (or short) as we want...awesome!

Prairie Dawgs!


Meerkats are awesome!

Making sure the coast is clear!

We mainly visited the "tiny monkeys" (my personal favourite) and the butterfly house (one fo Flo's faves). Rosie's done her back in so I had Flo Sunday night as well, which pleased Flo...she woke up Monday morning shouting "I had 2 nights daddy!".

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Speed!


She has it!

Yes, I do realise I have not posted much of worth recently. I had to use my "street smarts" on the way home from work last night to avoid a mugging...maybe I'll write about that soon.

I was awesome, in a kind of secret-agent kind of way...

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Style!

She has it!

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