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For some strange reason, I have a dearth of photos this week, which will no doubt be a relief to some, as endless photos of our dining out experiences must get a bit tedious. This probably also partly explains the lack of traffic on this site, along with mindlessly boring and verbose diatribe about the minutia of our lives (see?!).
So, in keeping with the above theme (the mind numbing boredom part), I'll describe what is a very significant day of the year for both us and Virg'n Mary. Once a year, the "girls" need to depart the peaceful sanctity of their luxurious home and travel to the vet for either a vaccination (each year) or a teeth cleaning and vaccination (every two). This year, it was the "big one" so we needed to plan with military precision the sequence of events to unfold during Friday and over the weekend.
Although not possessed with giant intellects, these two are well aware of the purpose of their blue carrier boxes. These seemingly innocent plastic carriers can strike fear into our cats at the very sound of them being lifted from their resting spots on top of a wardrobe. I literally tiptoed into their room and removed them to the bathroom on Monday night while Cassy distracted them. They were unaware I had secreted them in the bath...so far, so good!
On Thursday night they were sent to bed without supper and thus began their night of suspicions. This minor deprivation only happens when they are preparing for an anesthetic the following day. The next morning, anyone passing by might believe we were torturing them or cutting their throats, such was the volume of their complaints. We left for school with them crying, wary and hyper vigilant, lest the evil, blue boxes make an appearance!
We raced from our respective classes at 9 a.m., drove the car from the basement at school to home and stealthily entered our place. Cass slipped a T-shirt on, we grabbed the two slinking away from us in their room and managed to lock them, us and their baskets in our tiny bathroom before they knew what had hit them! From there, it was relatively easy as we crammed them into the carriers and whisked them down to the car, in and around to the vets, and organized to pick them up the next day.
By the time we procrastinated and held off collecting them for as long as possible on Saturday afternoon, they were reasonably unaffected by the drugs, but were huddled together in a cage at the vets, upstairs, and surrounded by cats and dogs in various states of infirmity. We bundled them up, re-caged them, then cradled them in our arms for the short walk across the main road and through the park home.
Even though they're still hissing at one another (which continues for about a week in our experience) they are remarkably lucid and non glassy-eyed for the experience. They've been extremely sluggish,however, even for them, and we've witnessed a bit of cute narcolepsy and drug induced deep sleeping going on!
We got some Maya Pizza for tea on Saturday night and entertained a few visitors for the "fight of the century" on Sunday, as Pacquiao fought Mayweather. During the fight, I was surprised to get a phone call from my sister Jen, telling us that her oldest child Patrick had announced his engagement: looks like I'll be able to fulfill my life's ambition to be one of those daggy uncles at a wedding after all! Seriously though, it was happy news, and although Jen might be a little intimidated to think she will be a "mother of the bridegroom" soon, I know she and Vince are stoked with the news.
End of year shenanigans are heating up here as Cassy had a great night out of fine dining at Le Jardin with her friend Kristin on Friday night. They wined on French champagne and dined on all sorts of exquisite French fare....we haven't been there for a while, but Cass reported that it was as superb as usual, a real authentic French gem in the heart of our Tienmu suburb. I had a few beers with Wol and caught some football and of course, we had extra conviviality hosting the boxing on Sunday.
Photos: just three, but the fuzzy top one is one of our annual delights. When the starlings start nesting under the eaves of the shops along our walk to school, we know that our summer break is nearly upon us. The tiny fledglings reacted to Cassy's wave and screeched into action seeking a morsel. The other is of a slightly drug wobbly Virgil resting at my feet...as it should be! Last one, still drug affected, luxuriating in her own fat on top of the lounge this evening.
Cassy is reading, and enjoying, Eleanor Catton's first book, The Rehearsal after being mildly underwhelmed by the much hyped Booker prizewinner, The Luminaries. I'm reveling in my re-reading of To Kill a Mockingbird: it's like a warm bowl of soup on a cold night! I also tried my hand at a Shakespearean sonnet, for what it's worth...
