Day to day musings of a cat minder/ sitter in North Tyneside and Newcastle upon Tyne . For details of services go to http://www.catminders.biz

Welcome to CatMinders

Welcome to CatMinders


Saturday, 24 January 2009


Mr F will enlarge here if you want to see him in the water . Brrr ! Brave man !

Is your daughter allowed to swear ?



Today most of my plans have been cancelled due to a sickness / achey joints thing that has been creeping up for a day or two .

My CatCalling done and the dog walked , I settle back into the armchair in an array of comfort-clothes, namely my skinny jeans now baggy due to weight loss ( ha! not that I'm boasting and I am well aware that this is fragile and could change at any moment ) , a silk camisole now settling somewhat lower on the torso than it should , due to different aspects of the above ( the semi disappearance of the chest ) a striped cashmere sweater ( no issues apart from a large darn under the arms ) and a zipped up puffa waistcoat . Makes a change from the Lush pj bottoms and the bravissimo top and soft downy plush bathrobe with giraffe spots in brown and cream : a pile of newspapers to hand and a pot of lapsang souchong tea at the ready .


I have time . There are no pressures . I can take a slow chug through the travel section and enjoy at my leisure Tim Dowling's family ski ing trip in St Moritz. It will be as if I were away myself , and if ski ing does not take my fancy today , already having spotted Mr Fit- and -Eighty -if-he's-a-Day throwing himself into the icy waves on King Edward's Bay , and indeed photographed the moment for your amusement , then maybe Haneif Kureishi's trip with his son to Venice may be more my thing until at least my own fingertips have de-iced, and who would blame me ?
(Click to see Mr F in the water )
But .... and here's the thing , Tim Dowling is funny and relevant wherever he is and today he is talking about his boys ;


"The exhileration of the first day ( on the slopes ) ..is slightly tarnished by the walk back to the ski hire shop , listening to my children swearing behind me " and my heart leaps .

Tim , you are so on my wave length !


Though I failed to mention it earlier this week , I had a mobile phone adventure towards the end of the Grace Jones gig , when my new touch screen phone was located behind my seat at the Sage and handed back to me by a kind stranger . It had parted company with its back but as we were all filing out at this point I stuffed it in its entirety into my coat pocket only realising later that the sim card was missing .

Return to Hall One was necessary , scrabbling behind seats was done , to no avail , and the Sage engineers continued to dismantle Ms Jones's hydraulic platform in peace .

Meanwhile my phone was behaving most strangely . It no longer appeared to believe that its sim card was missing but instead was intent on making calls , to my local out of hours emergency doctors service and nothing I said or did would stop it . ( Touch phones , you have to hand it to them , once on a roll there is no stopping them ! ) The doctors were understanding . I was mortified . After them it rang a professional contact of mine . Argh ! At almost midnight . Not good . I finally managed to move it on so that if it rang anyone it would be my daughter's friend , so that I could ask her advice ..she has the same phone .

A text arrived from N telling me about her evening . She had had cider spilled on her by a large lady at the Pussycat Dolls and her description of the event contained a colourful expletive .
" Oh " said my friend curiously , trying to help me with the management of this evil phone which was completely beyond my control at this point . " Is your daughter allowed to swear ? "


There is really no answer to this .

It is the same question as " are your pets allowed on the soft furnishings " .


Kitty ( above ) was wondering the same thing about Greyhounds . Background detritus reflects onset of flu like symptoms . That's my story and I'm sticking to it . Usually D would not allow said detritus . Flu like symptoms largely his .

Thursday, 22 January 2009

Grace Jones at the Sage





I saw Grace Jones last night at the Sage , see above for images of Ms Jones now and (top) , how she looked at the time of her
well known attack on Mr Harty on his own show of all things .


Though for a while I avoided the Sage , I now revel in the upmarket ambiance and views across the Tyne from Gateshead towards Newcastle and the knowledge that in such a small world I am bound to bump into someone I know , but without the actual bumping which goes on in the City hall which is wonderful but altogether more of a crush .


Back to Grace Jones , an icon whose images were postered in the wine bars and drinking emporia of my twenties . Three shots for a pound after work on the sea front , with a six foot tall model on a leash with an oiled body and pushed into a cage glaring out at us . Grace Jones as angry big cat , claws at the ready .


Now sixty years old , nothing much

seems to have changed . She appears after something of a delay on a hydraulic platform looking like a zwarovski jewel , huge stiffened feather adorning her head and adding two feet to her height , and wearing a man's suit jacket , leggings and skyscraper heels .

As the show progressed there was a costume change with each song ( how does she do that ? ) and the audience was treated to increasing displays of..... well ... not to put too fine a point on it , everything . Accustomed as we are to displays of nudity behind the body stocking and flesh coloured undergarment , I found myself turning my head from side to side and thinking , why is the word "pudenda " springing to mind here as the only suitable word to describe what we are seeing and which is it which seems the rudest , that , or the intriguing way she manages to shimmer her well honed bottom cheeks ( at sixty ? ) . At audience participation time it seems the latter . The chaps giving it what for with her to " Pull up to the Bumper " can't resist cupping her cheeks and she chuckles " hey I think I'm gonna get laid here " or words to that effect . I am more fascinated by the guy who as she dances close is sidling off stage left .....


Without a doubt her body is amazing , her voice stunning and as far as I could see no one got slapped about . The excitement was palpable throughout and if I hadn't had such a migrainey , stressy day for quite other reasons , you may have seen me raking through boxes digging out some old vinyl version of Nightclubbing .


Live music review: Dave Simpson on Grace Jones Music The Guardian

Saturday, 17 January 2009

Yoko Ono at the Baltic , Gateshead


I managed to take a few shots before I got the tap on the shoulder thatYoko Ono - BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art reminded me that I shouldn't have my camera out at these functions .
But , its irresistible . How can I explain the perfect magic wish tree without a photograph . How can I inspire you all to come to Newcastle / Gateshead to see the tree and pin up your own wish ?
The first one I read made me walk away to laugh in private , so strong was the wish to capture it on film yet I knew the light was not right , nor the crowds .
" I wish there was not hair all over my crack " .
Only in Newcastle I thought .....
On second thoughts , I have no guarantees about who wrote it . Or from whence they came , for that matter .
Where are you from ? What do you think ? Would such a price of poetry issue forth in your neck of the woods ?
More pictures tomorrow from The Baltic , unless the man who tapped on my shoulder has me closed down overnight .
I only have two more so I think it's unlikely .

Friday, 16 January 2009

Technology !
I can use touch screen phones , though its taken me a few days to realise it . And I can upload my own photos from the phone as well as from the camera without reference to Nat , though it did take me a while to get that bit organised .( poking cd s into the laptop and figuring out what they meant ) . And this time it was almost worth it as the resulting shots are ok , the outdoors one anyway .
What really galls me is that being one of those sad adults who reads the manual would you believe , is that there are almost no instructions on how to use the camera , so its all trial and error , mostly error .
I did consult Katherine, who is 14, and has the same phone , regarding the so called smile feature , which didn't appear to be working . This apparently enables the camera to detect when someone is smiling and yes , take a shot automatically . Ha! As nothing much about either phone or camera worked first time ,( my ineptitude) I hurried off to see K , but on this one she admitted defeat . Its rubbish , she said , doesnt work ! What I squealed ? That kind of thing I find completely unacceptable in a silly old bat kind of way which has me reaching for my old fashioned pen and paper , all ready to scribe a pompous letter of complaint to Samsung . K is far more sanguine . Nah she said , munching on her crisps , doesn't work . End of story . No big deal .
I take a deep breath . There are things to be learned here . Who cares really? My subject smiles . I press the shutter by hand . That's what photographs are , really .
Jess the cat is sufficiently recovered from her inflamed bladder ( for thus it was ) to be able to perch on the edge of my paper making table ( dining table transformed ) and making disapproving faces of the " when are you doing the tidying ? "

Meanwhile after much procrastination , I suddenly mid blend of some red and black paper , find the right words to start a new draft of some writing I am doing and head off to the laptop leaving Pearl investigating the shallow tray of yellow pulp ( hmm , not a good idea . Ten minutes later I am investigating a lovely custard yellow puddle on the floor and the guinea pigs are ranting disapprovingly in tandem from the top deck of their abode ... " You shouldn't have left her in charge , you shouldn't have left her in charge . Now give us a grape , now give us a grape . " )
Pearl is by this time surveying the scene from the top of the freezer presumably in case I hand her a dish cloth and ask her to clear up after herself . There is a definite smirk on her face , in recognition of the fact that she managed to up end the half full blender last time I made paper too and this time I had warned her I was keeping an eye on her . Score two nil .
Nat texts through her first GCSE results , I wonder if I can work out how to download some photos from my new camera phone , and I scratch about for bits of old wool to add interest to my cards . Fridays .... I love them !

Thursday, 15 January 2009

666 posts

I see I have written 666 posts on my blog as I log on today .
Not quite sure what this symbolises , although I ruminate as I drive to a piece of private work ( Day Job variety ) this morning that today feels like the day I am ready to put pen to paper and start Something Different . This is not anything new . I am good at starting new things . I have a dozen "fresh" pieces of writing in files on my laptop and perhaps twenty notebooks with first , second and third drafts of this that and the other . My best piece is in a tiny notebook in my second last bag but one and was written in a garden centre coffee shop just after one of those defining moments driving along the ... anyway as I ever I digress when I could be getting on with something .

The point is I forgot to soak my tiny pieces of paper last night . Which needed to be soaked for my paper making this morning . And the reason for that was family traumas involving texts , differences of opinions and hopefully a final resolution ..... all enough to take my mind off the tiny bits of paper ....( Have you ever tried sending animated texts in a hurry to get across your point when you have just got a new touch screen phone ? hey , my advice , don't bother ! Somewhat fortuitously Nat and I were as one , and she was able to do my Rapid Fire Texting for me on this occasion .

The plan was to walk the dog at 7 30 on the beach ( much against her wishes , I hasten to add , she prefering to laze these cold mornings until 11 at least , breakfasting at 8 , quick whizz down the yard if insisted upon , then back onto the bed if she can swing it ) , up to the secure unit to see the young woman ( private work ) at 9 30 , then back to paper making by 11 .

Thwarted on paper making front now will have to postpone till tomorrow but also Jess the Junior Birman has been on and off the pot all night so a trip to the vet appears to be indicated . Poor Lamb she seems to have a urinary tract infection . Jumps into a litter tray , sits for minutes blinking and squeezing , jumps off , having clearly produced nil , hops straight back on and tries again , or five minutes later disappears off upstairs and tries her luck up there .
As I fell asleep last night D reported she was sitting on the tray in the bathroom and when I went in there myself at six am she was parked up on the facilities in the upper Hall looking rather sad and tired . ( You would, wouldnt you ?)
I'm pleased to say she was fast asleep on the warm water bed at ten thirty when I got back from my visit this morning so she has had some relief but she was soon back in situ on the lav so the vets it is I think .
She even tried her best to squeeze a few drops onto the dogs bed but to no avail .

So with paper making off for today , is this the day I do Draft One yet again ? Or shall I wait till I get back from the vets and see how the day is panning out ?
Lets just see what the papers have to say ?

Migraine Days

Migraine Days

Flower and Bee on a Sunday

Flower and Bee on a Sunday

art on a sunday

art on a sunday