I wonder if my Blog is slipping out of my grasp ? Or whether its just a reflection of the fact that everything is slipping slightly ? My memory , my thought processes , my abilities in all directions . Or maybe I just have a cold and its Autumn and the leaves are falling and everyone , but everyone I know is complaining of this and that .

For my part my CatCalling will be slowing up for the Winter months . My own cats are eyeing up the radiators and the water bed and jostling for the best spots around the house . There are signs that two of the Birmans would love to snuggle up to the hot-water-bottle that is Alice but so far it hasn't quite happened ; they struggle even to sit close to each other even though they are blood relatives .

And I am more than a little envious of a colleague who is going to get a puppy this weekend , a shi tsu / poodle cross . Another colleague asked incredulously , so what would you call that then : a sh*t- poo , or a poo-sh*t ? oh dear !
I can't wait to see him or her ...

Autumn Colds.....

I drag myself out of bed at 10 am ( has it come to this? ) thinking has it come to this? My head is still banging ... residual migraine , streaming cold , but at least the gastro-intestinal challenges of earlier in the week are on their way out .
As I have been sitting propped against the pillow drinking coffee since half six am without tasting it and my novel is boring me , there is nothing for it but to wander downstairs in search of new ideas.
The leaves are changing colour and everything is cooler out there .
The house is deserted .
Even Nat has gone to school . Her impetigo has receeded and she can walk on her Uggs . I test my own second patch and wonder how I would fare in my own walking boots ?
"Alice" I call upstairs .... but she feigns deafness.
I reply to a few emails and then try again .
I have had an idea .

I go up and collect fodder for the washing machine , meanwhile checking the progress of the dog . She opens one eye but says nothing . Fancy a walk ? I ask . Nil response. Are greyhounds dogs or some kind of dog substitute for the couch potato owner? As I leave the room she makes a lovely reassuring sigh .... I'm still here and all is well with the world .... and this bed is soooo warm and my cuddly monkey is the best toy I've ever had ( I note the monkey tucked sweetly under her arm ) .

Half and hour later she and I are trotting through Jesmond Dene , a brainwave designed to make a change from our usual haunts , exchanging the bracing coastline with its salt and fish and sand and pebble for stagnant pools and old pramwheels and then suddenly a bridge, a waterfall , falling leaves on our heads all puntuated with sudden runners and jogging buggy pushers . Pets Corner and the Coffee Shop are closed for major works .

Thus we find ourselves outside Starbucks with our clipped coupon for free latte snacking and warming ourselves and wondering where the Summer went .

Pearl is Evercats DailyCat RunnerUp .....

To cheer myself up I entered Pearl on the Evercats cat of the day site and she won runner up the next day The Daily Cat : EverCats coming second to Zoe . If you scroll through the site you can find the second the third cats of the day including Pearl lying in bed looking quite pleased with herself .

Had you glimpsed into the CatCalls Hub that day you would have seen not just the usual inhabitants of the WaterBed at midday ( Pearl in the lefthand corner and Alice bang slap in the centre legs akimbo on a hot day or rolled into a ball in cooler weather ) . There were also various human inhabitants looking very sorry for themselves .

It wasn't Swine Flu but Impetigo we had / have .... and my flea bites ( infected ) the culprits . I had largely ignored the inflamed patches of blistering skin around my heels and ankles assuming eventually they would heel , and had been too busy dealing with the eye , the conference , the injured dog , and life generally , and then getting on with enjoying my days off to want to be bothering with blisters.

Finally , when Nat's "swine flu " combined with a sudden eruption on her ankle of exactly the same kind of blister ( more like a gaping flesh wound by the time I saw it , it was time for action . She was treated before me at a walk in centre , it being the weekend , and they told her the flu symtoms were her body's attempts to fight off the infection galloping through her body . By this time I ws starting with some similar signs , a sore throat . I attended and was also given antibiotics ... which I have reacted adversely to so have now been given an antibacterial cream .

We are hoping the Impetigo which has infected the blisters will not spread further .... I now have another on my other heel .....but less gruesome than the first .

What next ?

Swine Flu?

Much of yesterday afternoon was spent on an NHS Swine Flu website consuming an online quiz designed to keep us away from blocking our local resources and irritating our GPs. ( general practitioners that is not guinea pigs though ours are probably somewhat annoyed that their abode is left undone in the wake of yet more trials and tribulations ).
Meanwhile Nat lay burning in her bed describing a fish hook in her throat whilst I tried to get a reading on her temperature .
Finally , my cackhandedness resolved ( three attempts later) and the site declared that she fitted the diagnosis for Swine Flu and we were entitled to collect her a dose of TamiFlu . What was clear however was that this would be her one and only dose and was unlikely to do much beyond reduce the length of the illness. More alarmingly it was also possibly that it would cause nausea which she had not suffered since the previous evening . After a brief consult in her room she declared that she would rather do without .
I wondered how this would work. I had given her name and address to the site and in return had been allocated a Code.
Did they thus assume we would collect the Dose? If not would the Tamiflu Police appear to ask why not?
If at a later date we tried to collect would this present problems ?

Today though her throat is as bad , her temperature is lower and she feels less unwell . Maybe the diagnosis was wrong ? Who knows? Not me ?
All I know is my throat is grating like a pair of pinking shears .

Meanwhile, Alice is making a stunning recovery .
The collection of fluid under her chest turned yellow then rapidly disappeared. Her staples were removed last night . Her vet's bill which we hope will largely be paid by the insurance company , was less than three hundred pounds.
Today she has had her first run off the lead ( though prior to this she has been trying to run in the house , up and down the stairs , along the landings , the hall , over the backs of sofas ) in the short bursts of energy that mark the difference between "sleep" and "deep sleep" that characterise Alice's normal existence. Her two main settings have not been much changed by the accident .

..And now George has a Broken Jaw...

I miss my neice Felicity's birthday thanks to the various excitements of last week so she comes to stay on Tuesday . We plan a roast dinner and an episode of Holby City ( at least I do in my head ) ... though I suspect Nat and Felicity have more amusing entertainments in mind .

As I clear the table we receive texts to the effect that Felicity's younger brother George has been attacked in Liverpool and his jaw is broken . It appears his friend's younger brother, newly arrived for Fresher's week , came under attack and George waded in to protect him and took the brunt of the assault. It was captured on CCTV and the police will pursue the protagonists.
There has been a surgical intervention and the jaw is held in place by plates or pins .
The thing we find most upsetting is that the assault took place the previous week , in fact most likely as I was returning from conference and Felicity was at Florence and the Machine . George has made a choice not to inform family , not wanting a Fuss.
We jointly emote and agonise over this decision and wonder how sister Laura feels . She has a horrid Cold/ Flu to contend with also . We speculate that she may Understand George better but that we simply do not and will never Get Young Men , if indeed this in a Young Man Thing .
Had any one of us had a broken jaw or indeed a broken tooth , finger or toe , we would have rung texted or broadcast this information to the world at large , hoping for the maximum number of visitors , letters , cards , texts , small gifts , donations and the like . George by contrast stayed alone in hospital for three days , missed one day at Uni , then returned to normal life , contacting family only when he knew all was well .

Alice sails close to the wind ...

I arrive at my conference later than planned but after a train journey and taxi ride I find my room on the university campus without too much trouble and unpack and settle in .
I go off in search of food and drink and maybe company ( to no avail ) and .. horrors ... cannot find my way back to my room . It takes me forty five minutes of wandering in the woods and rabbit watching before I finally make out which block I have left .
I settle down to dinner of kit kat and coffee and at ten pm my phone rings .
Alice has been in an accident and cannot stand . She appears to have broken her collarbone and at this point they are looking for the number of an emergency vet where she can be assessed . I can hear her in the background . I can hear the panic . It is too late for me to return home . I do not have the car with me and besides I am scheduled to present a workshop all day tomorrow at the conference . I try to think on my feet , but all I feel is sick . Alice is so thin and frail her legs so spindly . If she cannot put weight on her legs , there will be little hope .
But , I try to reassure myself , it may all look different by the morning . best not to prejudge things .
Nat promised to ring back in a few minutes but nothing is happening . I ring her . They are at the vets and Alice still cannot stand . She is being kept there .
Nat calls me back in a few minutes and sounds desperate . I tell her to take deep breaths . I feel a million miles from home .
Alice is on a morphine drip and is being given fluids . A nurse will be with her all night . A vet is on call . They will monitor her and re assess her in the morning . Perhaps anaesthetise to x ray .
I finally fall asleep and sleep for an few hours after several more tearful phone calls .
By seven am I have the news that she has stood up for a few minutes which sounds very hopeful .

On my return home on Thursday
, late , when she flips and I see the huge blood stain / bruise on her chest my heart literally missed a beat .
She is making a good recovery . ( We think . We are on our way to the vet now to check )

Modern Art comes to Tynemouth

.... in the form of an arc of black nail varnish .

Don't the new carpets look just divine ?

Any ideas , folks ?