Not Sure !!!

I’m not sure if I’ve done something smart or stupid here. I’ve booked myself into a hostel in Singapore for a couple of nights on the way to the UK. I thought I would save myself some money. Their private rooms are totally booked already, so I figured I’d better get in quick or I would be sleeping on the streets. So I said I didn’t mind share accommodation. I was thinking of the old youth hostels I used to stay in when I was in my early 20’s.

Well, Summer Tavern have dormitories. Kewl. 4, maybe 6 people, I can handle that. Well, I’m looking at more like 20 people. Probably most of them young. What have i gotten myself into. Possibly one of the experiences of my life. Whether it will be a good one or a bad one is yet to be seen, and I won’t know for another 4 months.

I will definitely have something to write about when I get there. I suspect good or bad, I will get lots of laughs from this one for years to come. Potentially good party story for years to come.

Bathroom

Dormitory

Madeleine

Saturday, 31 May 2008

Bad timing !!

Well I’ve just realised what bad timing my trip is. I’ve been checking out hotel prices for that time and comparing them to other times.

One hotel, for the 1^st – 3^rd September “average rates” are SGD$67 (AUD$51; USD$49; GBP24) per night.

For the 27^th – 29^th September “average rates” are SGD$245. (AUD$188; USD$179; GBP90) per night.

This grand prix stuff is obviously important to lots of people. This also means there will be millions and millions of people all there at the same time. Could be incredibly exciting, or an incredible pain in the backside. Everything will be dearer.

Costs more to be a single in a hotel. I do know that. The price I’m being quoted is much cheaper for the whole stay than per night but it is shared accommodation, like a hostel. Can I cope with heaps of young people being up and down all night? That’s the question. The place I’m looking at has no single rooms available and I suspect that this will be the case with most hotels in Singapore during that time.

I guess this is where sleeping tablets come in handy.

I looked at going a few days later but that means I’m pushing it to get to Miniatura in Birmingham on the 4^th and 5^th October. I will need a couple of days in Oxford before Birmingham to recuperate from the flight, time differences etc. I don’t want to jump off the airplane in London, travel to Oxford, and then to Birmingham without a break in the middle.

Damn!! I do hate it when a plan does not come together.

Madeleine

Saturday, 31 May 2008

Done !!

Well I’ve done the dastardly deed !! I’ve booked my tickets to the UK. Now I’m into panic stations about how much money I’m spending !! I know in my head it will all be fine, but part of me is scared of spending all that money. With insurance it will be costing me over $3000, and the part of me that scrimped for so many years, finds that kind of figure frightening.

However, at this stage, I will be leaving Perth on the 27^th September and spending a couple of nights in Singapore to break up the flight. I’ve found a kewl place to stay in Singapore, not your standard hotel – check it out.

I arrive in London on the 30^th September at about 6 a.m. That’s the time I need to check with M&K. I’m hoping they will be picking me up from London to go to Oxford, but both of them are working and that’s an awful time of the day to pick someone up at an airport.

So, I’ve sent them an email and waiting for their response.

Excited and scared !! Quite a combination.

Madeleine

Friday, 30 May 2008

PS

Damn. I’ve just checked the hostel I want to stay at and they ask: are you am making reservations during F1 Grand Prix. Duh! I’ve not idea what the F1 Grand Prix is. So we do a search, and find out that, yes I will be there during that time. Damn !! So I’ve sent them an email to find out whether that will affect prices and/or availability of the rooms.

Madeleine

Group D'OH!!

Names have been changed to protect the guilty!!)

A bit of explaining to start things.

The front door of our building (the one on the street) is an exit only door. The main door everyone uses is at the side of the building. We have a small car park, so normally staff park in the car park at the end of the road. Not far, except when it’s raining, which it was tonight. Sarah was parked in the work car park; Eloise, Jenny and I were parked at the end of the road.

Four of us left work at the same time tonight. Sarah only works part time and isn’t comfortable putting on the alarm. Jenny said she would turn on the alarm and lock the door behind Sarah, and then she, Eloise and I would run down the hall to the front door. Save a bit of walking in the rain. Eloise and I went down the hall and left Sarah and Jenny to do the door. We opened the door and waited for Jenny. She dashed down the hall, and by the time she got to us, the alarm was screaming. Jenny raced out the door, and without stopping, turned around and started to run back the way she came. A running UTurn !! It was great to watch. She didn’t even miss a stride.

At the same time as she did her turn around, Eloise remembered that there was a keypad right next to where we were standing.

Eloise turned off the alarm, reset it and we locked up and went home.

Group D’OH!!

We all knew there was a keypad at that door. But we are all so used to using the other one, we forgot that the dash down the hall was totally unnecessary !!

We had a good laugh at ourselves. A laugh is a great way to finish just before an extra long weekend.

Madeleine

Wednesday, 28 May 2008

Flights of Fancy

I was looking up at a helicopter and thinking about the water bomber helicopters and wondering if they had ever had an accident, let go their water in the wrong place wrong time.

Imagine standing outside, just watching the helicopter flying to some bush fire, minding your own busines and suddenly, water pours from the sky !!

Birdy birdy in the sky

Why you do dat in my eye?

I’m a big girl I don’t cry

Gee I’m glad that cows don’t fly.

Don’t ask me where the old poem came from. Just came into my mind at the same time as the thoughts about the helicopter.

Madeleine
Wednesday 21 May 2008

Walking Again

Rainy weather here in Perth today. I manage to duck out between showers to take the little Ally Dawg for a quick walk. One of the good things about rain in Perth is that it tends to come in short, sharp showers. I wore my nice warm jacket, and off we went. I did tell her it might be a short walk, but somehow I don’t think she listened to me.

Another lovely sunset. I do love dark clouds with the sun behind them.

You also never know what you will see on these short walks. Which is why I usually take my camera. Today, in the middle of the park, I spotted this.

I’m sure the postie didn’t put this junk mail in this mail box. Tickled my sense of the ridiculous. Why not just put your junk mail in the bin??

Madeleine

Saturday, 24 May 2008

Yard Glass

Interesting find. I was tidying up this afternoon and found this photo. This is called a yard glass. My husband was given one in about 1972 and they were all the “in” thing at that time.

There’s even instructions on the net as to how to drink it. It contains a yard of beer (almost 3 pints).

From Wikipedia

“Drinking a yard glass full of beer is a traditional pub game. The object is to drink the entire glassful without pausing for breath, and/or to drink it as quickly as possible. The tradition is most often associated with drunken and disorderly tomfoolery in party-like environments. Because of the shape of the glass, once it is raised and the liquid starts to flow, it is difficult to pause. When attempted by the novice, the liquid may flow out in a rush and soak the person holding the glass. To counteract this the glass is usually rotated as it is held.

Fits very nicely with Graffiti’s Binge Drinking blogs.

Madeleine

Sunday 18 May 2008

Planning my trip

Well, plans are on the way for my trip. I’ve still not booked my tickets. I seem to have this problem about actually booking my tickets. I think it has something to do with hating to fly. Every time I think about getting on a plane, I get anxious. I having some time off work the end of this month and that is my deadline. I’ve got to get the tickets booked.

My long service leave, holiday leave and leave without pay have all been approved. And I’m off for 4 whole months, paid for 3 months. Not bad hey?

K has booked our tickets to Miniatura (Check it out - click on Autumn Miniatura). Now that’s something to look forward to. The biggest miniature show in the UK and possibly anywhere. There are a couple of people going from Perth which will be hilarious. 3 Perth people meeting in Birmingham in the UK.

The three of us have day passes for both the Saturday and the Sunday and will probably be driving there since M&K have bought themselves a car. I’m still not sure where we will be staying or for how long. It probably depends on how much time the others can get off work. I could stay longer, but could likely be totally jet lagged. The show is on the 4^th and 5^th October, and my leave doesn’t start til the end of September. So I might just do the show and head back to Oxford with M&K and spend a week getting my land legs back again.

My biggest problem has been deciding which way to travel. I hate flying. I hate the boredom and being cooped up in the noisy plane for hours and hours on end. I hate landing and I hate take off. Problem is, that I love to travel, as long as it doesn’t involve airplanes. So I avoid buying the tickets even while I’m planning other things in the background.

I’m also planning to meet another blogger while I’m in the UK. I won’t mention who it is in case she has decided I’m too much of a nutcase. If she wants to tell, then she can. And there’s another blogger that I hope to meet at last, but I haven’t had a response to my email, so that’s still up in the air.

I keep looking at what’s on in Europe during the time I will be there. I’m sure there will be lots of miniature shows. England has lots of little ones. I wonder if there will be any in Europe. Now that would be kewl.

The Oktoberfest is just before I arrive and a few days into my stay. Not possible. The Edinburgh Tattoo is at the wrong time of the year as well. Two things I’ve never done and would like to.

Never mind. There will be something interesting to see and do.

Madeleine

Sunday, 18 May 2008

The Cupboard Cat

Hi, my name is Sunny. I’m known as the cupboard cat. It’s a long story.

This is me. Aren’t I elegant.

The first thing I remember is sitting with another kitten in a prison with bars. I found out later that I was in a cage in a pet shop. There was another kitten there with me. She became my best friend. One day a lady came into the shop and decided that she would take me and the other kitten home with her. That’s when I got my name, Sunny and the other kitten got her name, Misty.

We lived in a house with a little girl and a woman. They were nice to us. I liked the little girl and used to sit on her bed. I remember us sitting on the bed staring at things that ordinary people couldn’t see.

Life was good for a while. I had Misty to protect me. She was a brave little cat and when another cat came into our garden, Misty would chase them away.

Then everything started to changed. We moved. Strange smells. Strange places. Strange animals I didn’t know. Lucky, Misty was still there and so was the little girl. Misty kept chasing the bad cats away, and I started to feel a bit more safe.

Then, I don’t know what happened. But the little girl went away and never came back again. This is where all the horrible things started to happen

The next thing I knew we were living in another house. Misty was there with me and my woman but there were lots more people. 2 middle sized kids and another woman. They had a nasty cat who kept beating Misty up and another creature that smelled funny. It wasn’t another cat. The humans called her Baby. I found out later she was something called a dog. I’d never seen one before. Misty knew what to do. Hiss and warn. Then scratch. I hid under the bed.

The whole house was scary. The bed smelled of my woman, but no more smells of the little girl. I don’t know how long we stayed there. It seemed like a long, long time. Misty was very brave. She went outside and fought with the other cat. That cat was one mean cat!

Things sort of pottered along for a while with me hiding under the bed and getting cuddles at night when it was safe and I was alone with my woman. Next thing I knew there were boxes all over the place again and my heart sank. What was happening this time? Where were we going? What would my life be like?

We moved away from the nasty cat and the thing called a dog. Just the three of us. Me, Misty and my woman. This was scary. Life wasn’t supposed to be like this. I don’t like moving. But it was better without the nasty cat and the dog thing. I did like this house better than the last one, cause it was just us.

Next thing I knew, there were those boxes again. Now what was happening? I hid under the bed again. They locked me in one room and when they let me out again it was to put me in a cage and take me in one of these moving things that humans have. I was sooo scared. Going in these moving things that humans called cars always means something bad is going to happen. Either we went to the place that smelled of all sorts of strange creatures and they hurt you, jabbed you with sharp things or cut holes in you, or another house. I almost prefer the smelly place I think.

We moved into another new house. Me, Misty and my woman still. She still smelled the same which was good and so did her bed. The nice thing about this house was the cupboards. Nice high ones. My woman put some nice baskets in the cupboards and I lived in the cupboard.

Soon after we moved in, another creature came to live with us. I know now she is called a dog cause she told me. That’s how I found out that Baby was a dog. She told me her name was Ally. I didn’t like her at first. But she seemed a bit scared too. Misty and I hissed at her and she left us alone. Gradually we started to make friends.

Then Misty went away and never came back. I stayed in the cupboard. Ally came sniffing around the cupboard occasionally, but I ignored her. Nothing felt safe any more.

The next thing I knew, there was another cat living in the house. She told me her name was Purzah. She was awful. She prowled around the house, made the most awful noises, scratching at the windows wanting to get out. She told me that she needed a man in her life. One day she got out. She disappeared too. But Purzah came back and the next thing I knew there were 4 more little creatures wandering around the house. Ally thought they were great. I didn’t like them at all.

I stayed in the cupboard.

These four little creatures took over our house. But they weren’t big enough to get into my cupboards. They were pretty useless. They needed feeding all the time.

Gradually the kittens grew up and two of them left home. Two stayed living with us. They were called Harry and Benson. I stayed in the cupboard.

Over the next little while, Purzah left and never returned, and so did Benson, one of the kittens. I didn’t miss them at all. That left us with Harry, the cat and Ally the dog, and of course my woman.

I like Ally the dog. She plays gentle with me. We have visitors who let me sit on their lap and they pat me. I sleep with my woman and she pets me at night time. I don’t like Harry. He’s mean to me. But I just ignore him most of the time. Life is okay now. But I still like my cupboard.

Sunny the Cat

Saturday, 17 May 2008

Long week

Well I’m glad this week is over. It’s been a long week. Tuesday someone decided to vandalise my car. Could have been worse, all they did was to break my back quarter pane. Didn’t steal anything. Only thing worth stealing was a 6 pack of loo paper. Obviously vandalism was the purpose.

Then, I woke up this a.m. to a flat tyre. Damn.

First thing in the a.m. I don’t think very clearly and was half way to work wondering what was wrong with my car when some nice man next to me shouted that I had a flat. I pulled off, fought my way through all the junk in the boot of the car to get to the spare, find the wheel brace and the jack. Doing well until I realised the jack was jammed in amongst the metal of the car and I couldn’t get it lose.

This is where mobile phones come in handy. Figured it would be quicker to ring work than to wait for the RAC to come, so one of the women I work with said she would come and give me a hand. Next thing I know, a bloke has pulled up and is getting out the jack. And yes, he had problems getting it out as well, so it really was jammed, not just me being a weakling !!

Took car to the tyre shop and organised to come back later this p.m. to get the tyre fixed, others pumped up etc.

So this afternoon instead of coming home and relaxing, I spent the afternoon waiting for my tyre to be fixed (got the spare fixed, wheels rotated, pumped up aligned all that sort of stuff). 70 bucks later and a visit to Spotlight, I am on my way again.

Off to get my window fixed. Damn. Had to wait a while and by this time my back is really starting to ache. For some reason I’ve been very stiff and sore this week culminating in a stiff neck and sore back today. Doesn’t help to change a tyre when you ache. They didn’t have the size i needed available so car has to go back in on Monday. This entailed a couple of phone calls to work to see what Monday had planned for me clientwise cause I can’t leave a client in the middle of a session saying “Gotta get my car fixed. See you next week”. Somehow they don’t appreciate things like that.

The nice man at the car glass shop taped the window up for me without me even asking. I was talking to the woman, organising things and there he was with his big roll of tape, taping up my window.

So although it’s been a long week, there has been nice things in amongst the problems.

Right now I’m sitting in my comfy chair, feet up, Lara the Laptop on my lap, watching the news, drinking coke, and generally relaxing. Tomorrow I can go to Tae Kwon Do in the morning if I choose, or not.

I forgot to get tinned cat food on the way home so will have to go out later tonight, or they can have biscuits again tonight. Poor darlings think they are badly done by. We’ll see how I feel in a hour or so.

Madeleine

Friday, 16 May 2008

Mindfulness

Walking the dawg today. I was quite happily pottering along with my camera, Ally sniffing along the way. I was aware of all sorts of things happening around me. Then I started thinking of a current “buzz word” in the counselling circles. It’s called Mindfulness. It’s one of these words that come into fashion, everyone uses it and then usually goes out of fashion. It is a technique that I have used for many years with my clients without having a name for it.

The idea is that you stay in the here and now and don’t disappear into your own head and thoughts. You consciously become aware of your surroundings, your body, what you can see, hear, smell, touch.

So as I was walking, I realised that I was doing “mindfulness” without even realising it. As I was walking, I was very aware at an unconscious level of my surroundings. I could hear the birds, and even spotted a caterpillar wandering along the path. The only problem was, as soon as I became aware of what I was doing, I was aware of doing it and it all felt different. I was consciously aware of my surroundings, rather than just enjoying them. Damn !!

I did however have a lovely walk. Took some great photos, and when I got home I thought I would write about all the things I noticed, simply by being in the here and now. It was quite amazing. Almost nice to realise what I was doing, but irritating that my brain put it into a counselling technique rather than just enjoying the moment.

Anway, in the space of about 45 minutes, this is what I noticed.

Planes taking off. We are quite close to the airport and often will hear the planes taking off and landing. I’ve got some really nice photos from that spot.

Birds in the trees. Dusk. Birds are getting ready for bed and are quite social at this time of the day. They fly from one tree to the next. Chat to their mates. Argue with each other. There are quite a number of different birds that hang around there.

Caterpillar. I was rather intrigued by him. He was moving so fast that some of the pictures were fuzzy. Here he (she?) is:

Kids and families on bikes. There was a whole family, mother, father, and a couple of kids. The first kid almost ran her over. She wasn’t quick enough getting out of the way. Usually she comes to me when I call her and tell her to “come over” a couple of words she understands.

Helicopter. Saw this one coming and then going. I’ve no idea where it was going or coming to, but....

Ally sniffing.

Ally just wanders at her own pace. Sometimes behind me; sometimes ahead of me. Not normally this far ahead.

If you look carefully, you can see her near the sign. As I said, she doesn’t normally get that far ahead of me.

Other people and their dogs. This is a favoured place for walking the dogs. Near the river for those who like to swim and lots of smells, plenty of room to run and chase for those inclined.

Sunset. I’ve seen better. But not bad. Also interesting to see how the sunset was reflecting in the water.

Man showing a kid what he’d caught fishing. I never did find out what he had caught, but the boy and his parents were busily looking into the man’s bucket with much interest. I thought about asking if I could have a look too, but decided not to.

Bird sunning itself. There is one particular bird that can often be seen here, wings spread, drying itself before going to bed for the night. This bird is unusual as it’s feathers are not waterproof, unlike most waterbirds.

She must have finished drying and preening for the night. Usually I find them with their wings spread.

Clouds. Lots of clouds. Often Perth gets quite boring with lack of weather and constantly blue skies. Boring, you might say. Blue sky, boring !! Yes. All summer. Blue sky. No change in weather except to go from hot to hotter. Boring !!

Moon. Near the end of my walk, the moon started to become visible. I thought this one turned out rather nicely. A bit of cheese anyone. Don’t think I can see the man in the moon.

Houses across the river. Across the river is very expensive real estate and you can tell by the size of the houses and the looks of them.

Speed boat and 2 kayaks. The boat was coming quite quickly and I think one of the kayakers wasn’t quite happy as she pulled right over to the bank of the river until the boat’s wake had subsided. The boat was going quite fast until it saw the 8 knots sign. Then they slowed down. There has been a lot of damage to the banks of the river here, mainly because of speedboats hooning.


The rocks submerged by the high tide. The river was quite high today. Sometimes I sit on these rocks. But not today. Not without getting my bottom very wet.

Foam in the water after the speedboat had passed. The water looked like someone had put washing up liquid in the water.

And last but not least:

A little yellow baggie of dog poo at the side of the path. For some reason, people seem to pick up their dog poo, very tidily, with the little yellow bags available at the start of the walk, but somehow seem to think they will magically disappear if they leave them behind.

Not bad for 45 minutes or less. Even if I was aware of my own awareness.

Madeleine

Sunday, 11 May 2008

Ally and the Kitten - Part 2

Ally and the kittens

I love watching animals and their behaviour to other creatures and to their own kind. We’ve had all sorts of different animals over the years, and not just cats and dawgs. We’ve had a goat, a horse that used to live in our paddock, guinea pigs, mice, rats, ants and chooks. I think that’s about all. Nothing particularly exciting except for the echidna that got stuck in our laundry. But that’s another story.

Shortly after I got Ally, my dawg, I acquired a cat we called Purzah. Before I had a chance to get her fixed she came on heat. So for 5 weeks, I had this screaming, female, feline who nothing more than to find the nearest man and root herself silly. But I was adamant. I was not going to have kittens in the house. I was not going to have any more animals. I had two cats and my dawg, and that was sufficient.

Finally the caterwauling diminished and I let the cat outside for the first time in weeks. She disappeared for about 3 days, and yes, 9 weeks later, she had four kittens.

As many of you are aware, I’m a sucker for a pretty face, and Ally appears to be as well. They were bedded down in the bottom of my wardrobe and Ally and I would lie on the floor together and contemplate the miracles of nature.

As Purzah became more confident, I was allowed to touch her babies and Ally was allow to lick them.

Over the next few weeks, the kittens grew and began exploring their new world. Ally followed them around like a mother hen. When Purzah went outside to do her business and to get something to eat, Ally would watch over the kittens. She would lick their bottoms ever so gently, and they would snuggle up to her, just like she was their mother.

As they got older, they would climb on Ally. She would lick them ever so gently. However, as they got bigger, you could see that Ally was aware that they were bigger and stronger, and she would push them, again, gently, and play with them. Exactly at the level they could handle. Never once was she ahead of them.

It was amazing to watch. This little dog, who had never had a litter of her own, knowing instinctively, what these kittens were capable of.

Ally has her own chair in the lounge. As the kittens got big enough to climb up on the chair, they would and Ally allowed them to. You could almost see the look of pride on her face as they learned to negotiate the chair, and improved their climbing skills on Ally’s favourite chair.

More time passed, the kittens got bigger. One day I heard Ally growl. Something she rarely does. I turned around and there she was growling at one of the kittens. Ally had decided, as do all good mothers, that this chair was hers again and the kittens were now big enough to be told that it was time for them to move onto other people’s chairs and to claim hers back.

Madeleine

Wednesday, 18 January 2006

Ally and the kitten (part 2)

As you can see I wrote this in 2006. Last night I went to visit friends who have recently acquired a kitten called Taffy. He is a gorgeous little, yes, ginger, kitten. As usual when I visit these friends, I took the Ally dawg with me. Their dawgs and The Ally Dawg are great mates and we visit regularly. Ally and Taffy had met once before. With this initial response:

Shortly they decided to ignore each other. This kitten has no fear. He lives with a border collie and a golden retriever, both big dogs, and little Ally is not frightening to him.

Moving forward a couple of weeks. I went to visit these friends again and Taffy and Ally met up for the second time.

After a few initial moves of “who are you?”, “what the .... are you?”, and “do you play?”, the two animals spent the whole evening chasing each other around the house. Now Ally is not a pup. She is not a young dog. I got her in 2000 and at that stage she was supposed to be 2-1/2 years old, which would make her 11 this year. Her face is very gray and when puppies want to play, Ally quite often will get cross with them, and warn them off with a growl.

But a kitten !!! A totally different kettle of fish (or kittens as the case may be).

Taffy hid under the bed. Taffy pounced at Ally from under the bed. Ally nuzzled him with her nose. Taffy hid under the bed again and played with the ruffles and Ally talked to her “Come on out. You’re cute”.

I got there at 8 p.m. and left after 1 a.m. We sat and chatted for hours. And the two fur kids played as well.

Taffy only stopped twice for a well needed rest, but only with coaxing – like being held on someone’s lap and constantly patted until he went to sleep. These were literally cat naps and didn’t last very long.

The whole time Taffy was sleeping, Ally was watching him for any sign of movement and then they were off again.

This one’s quite fuzzy. But you get the idea.

However, old dogs pay the price the next day, same as humans. This is Ally this morning.

One tired little fur kid.

Madeleine

Sunday, 11 May 2008

p.s. The font keeps changing on me for some reason.