Normal Service ..

Normal service , whatever that is , will be resumed soon . Meanwhile , you might like to watch Simon's Cat slithering in the snow which is what Ive been doing today whilst visiting my friend with TB and sneaking about trying to Christmas shop with her nose and mouth covered with a scarf . She 's been told its perfectly safe and her infectious phase which only really affects close contacts anyway is over very soon .
Here is Simon's Cat. YouTube - Simon's Cat 'Snow Business' (Part 1)

Urban Fox?

Posted on Twitter today .. I hope you can click to enlarge ...

Bjorn is heading for Italy now ....

Talk Fusion Studio UTC Bjorn is moving from Spain now to Italy and looking for places to stay and always for more football shirts .... if you can help please contact at http://www.theshirt2010.com/ .
Watch his interview on Spanish tv by clicking the first link . By the way if you keep watching he replies in English . We cheer him on on his journey from Oslo to South Africa and hope he stays safe and warm across the winter months .

Masked Gowned and Gloved .. an Hour Too Late

After my friend with the horrid cough and Tb in her lungs these past twenty years is finally admitted to hospital after a relapse and some nasty symptoms I eventually manage to gain admission to her room . This is no mean feat as for several days though she has a bed , always in a room in isolation , the room changes with the day . Initially she is On Admissions . Then , curiously , she is parked on a Plastic Surgery Ward . From my point of view , the saving grace is that she seems able to use her mobile phone and sends the occasional update regarding the sorry state of affairs pertaining to her treatment or lack thereof .
She lies in state , exhausted and losing all manner of essential bodily fluids from her lungs and we remain convinced her TB is reactivated from our reading many years earlier of "The Plague and I" by the Great Betty McDonald who taught us all we know about consumption .
When I am finally admitted all my worst fears are confirmed . Not only has she lost weight despite continuing to eat with her usual appetite , but she is hectic in appearance, and frequently coughing red into her handkerchiefs . I am reminded of the elusive fey girlfriend character in the crumbling hotel in "The Troubles" by JG Farrell and we take mutual delight in the benefits of our learning from our Humanities based education all those years ago .
We appear , indeed , to have more of a grasp of TB than the consultant who with her science based education is still going down the bronchiechtasis route at this point . ( A spell check later may result in a correction. Nope , I had it right . How's that ? ) .
I announce myself on the respiratory ward and gain admission quickly . The consultant is polite and smiles a lot at me .
It is about half an hour after I enter the room that the nurses appear and ask me to exit the room and re enter wearing the mask , gown , and gloves , all of which have to be found from a far distant cupboard . Hopefully I have not been infected during that initial half hour window .

Ms CatCalls goes to a Dinner Party

Cinammon and mixed spices drift about and settle around the house and my tapas dinner party and litter tray headache gently evaporate as I write.
The morning started late as I fell into bed just short of two am after weaving my way home through the late night police cars and taxis that patrol our streets , amazed at the level of surveillance out there . The police raid I seem to have stumbed upon yesterday may be part of something bigger as the police helicopter was also out and about .. maybe some drugs raiding taking place .

I wonder if the dinner party format is really me . I am more of a one to one person or a very tiny gathering person (as in one to two) unless the party is entirely made up of family members of people I know well but its good to do something different once in while and interestingly I was one of the last to leave and probably the only person there who knew no one apart from my hosts ( and attended without a partner) whereas the others were mainly in attendance in pairs . But I do know my hosts very well indeed therefore the undercurrents were fascinating and the twenty four million courses were amazing !

There has been a theme these past few weeks for me of recognising that in reality my life though seeming at times to be sliding into chaos , is rather the opposite in contrast to how others manage their affairs . I have heard recently , thanks to the refreshing openness of others , about friends who have lost train ticks and had to rebook business tickets to the tune of almost two hundred pounds , and last night a family trip to Cuba for four where the day of travel was missed thus costing almost two thousand pounds.

Suddenly my medication and query age related slips seem minor ..... the wrong word comes out ? Hey , who cares ? My daughter writes on Facebook that she was "in a proper good mood until her mother came by and p*ssed in her cornflakes !" ( Actually I thought that one was quite witty ). I forget to return to my car at the appointed time outside work and get a parking ticket .... so what ? It could have been Cuba I will tell myself in future .

And something about doing things differently seems to be what this November is about . I am usually a last minute person but this year I find myself soaking my fruit for my Christmas cake this weekend and today the cake is baking as I write . And whats more I am trying a different recipe . How about "with a hint of chocolate?" Though I conclude that grating Green and Black's dark chocolate with a lack of sleep ( rather than alcohol induced) hangover is much over rated.... still its the result that count . I shall as I usually say keep you posted .

Meanwhile my friend is still in hospital though the staff have she reports closed her door ( and she wonders why ... I have told her she needs to look to her personal habits ) they no longer approach her fully masked and gowned which must be progress and seem to indicate that her TB is not considered Active . She awaits a CT scan . I expect she will wait till Monday at least .

The rain is almost horizontal .
And the dog is blowing a gale .

Kitty exhibits the CatNip Mice

Woken at four am and then five by the dog pretending to be a toddler with a very unusual and interesting Sleep Disorder . Jealous possibly as the cats had yesterday discovered and unpacked the new catnip mice from http://www.skittykitty.co.uk/ ( perfect , hightly recommended ) waiting in the padded envelope to be opened on Christmas morning . Mass excitement and much rolling about the carpet last night when they were presented with two as a Pre Christmas treat .

Or maybe Alice simply had a tummy upset . I closed my eyes tightly and feigned sleep while D muttered and mumbled and took her out at five to see what would happen . Turned out everything happened , and not far from the house . I tell myself that though it was Nat and me who wanted a dog it is D who feeds her large silly treats on Friday nights when he returns late with the shopping . I take no responsibility therefore for the rotten egg bad smells and nocturnal wanderings . And another thing , men wear those ghastly pull -on- quickly- things whereas my jeans take an age to fasten up . Zips and all .

I wake again at six thirty and dream I am back at my former home which had a leaky roof . I wonder if I have turned into my sister who currently has a leaky chimney stack . I listen and wonder.
There is a definite dripping noise which sounds both reassuring and comforting for some inexplicable reason . Perhaps only that I can see by opening my eyes that I no longer inhabit that house where so many unfortunate incidents took place , including a roof which let in gallons of water over the years .

I fall asleep and dream I am at an elite university where we daily gather on a summer lawn , called Great Hall , where there are postings of an interesting and informative nature on a board . As I read the board I become aware of the dripping noise again and soft rain is falling onto the lawn .
I feel quite blissful , and wonder if my friend Michaela , who is in real life very ill , possibly with TB , is healing , and I think to myself , I am in Great Hall and there is water dripping .

I wake , put on the coffee pot and hey , my coffee machine is leaking ! Drip , drip drip ....
I clamber out of bed , pushing the dog to one side and waking D to give him the good news . The bedside table is awash with black coffee : The glass jug contains half a pot of freshly brewed and piping hot brew so I decide to worry later and meanwhile start my day in style . Coffee , bran biscuits and Everything is Illuminated by Jonathon Whatisname Froer Sachs .

After an incident CatCalling last night when I witnessed a police raid and a front door being axed , I prefer to remain in Great Hall a little longer .

(Meanwhile Michaela has been admitted to hospital and is waiting for further tests .... )

Kitty as usual is Livid

Due to D's rare absence from the CatCalls centre last weekend and the catch up shopping trip on Monday there was a Miscalculate of the cat food requirements and an announcement last night that he was planning to make a late night excursion to the supermarket to re stock . As the wind was lashing and he already had a series of work commitments to fulfil , I suggested that we could " fill in " from the cupboard under the stairs until the main shop tonight . D was uncertain , knowing how Kitty takes out any perceived inadequacies of any description on him ( usually his lower legs ) , but fairly easily persuaded in view of the inclement weather and his ( probable ) exhaustion in the aftermath of a trying week.

Early this morning I carefully spoon out a rejected pouch of Hi Life from yesteryear and watch while Kitty and Co sniffs and spurns . Back to me . Now what ? There is a small stock of tinned tuna so I open one of those and carefully spoon out one of those into a cat bowl and place it gingerly on the mat , adding the usual bowl of dried biscuits which are Kitty's favourites . I know there is chicken to come later ( Alice's ) but decide D could see to that at a more reasonable hour ( it is after all still only six am at this point and I am awake this early due to the high winds .)

I can report that Toby tried the tuna . Jess and Pearl rarely bother with anything much . But Kitty is so livid that her usual four portions of Perle Gourmet has not been on offer ( allegedly for all four cats ) that she has also refused her dried food . Doubtless the dog has eaten them all and we will suffer the consequences later . On which subject I shall say no more. Meanwhile Kitty is doing Livid on the table and chasing D around the kitchen grabbing his lower limbs in passing .

Meanwhile Pearl sleeps on .

And meanwhile elsewhere in UK we have Rain .BBC News - Cumbria floods: Body found in hunt for policeman There are floods in Cumbria and a policeman has died in Workington having been lost when a bridge collapsed . Many people have been evacuated from their homes in Cockermouth after the river re routed and flowed down the main street . The tv shows scenes of helicopter and lifeboat rescues of people being taken to a local wool centre where people are staying for duration of the immediate emergency and are describing the water rising inside their homes . Many have had to leave their pets at home , on the upstairs level with food , and are clearly in a state of shock . Cumbria flood policeman's body found Environment guardian.co.uk

Cars continue to float down the main street . Surreal .