Hendrix’s opinion on fly nets…

I see now that one of our defence systems is being weakened by the Kitteh…

The hours I work change from time to time,  on this occasion I needed to be at work early so I could get prepared for a meeting I was having first thing.  So… I got up early and let the cats into the bedroom…. (mostly to shut up Hendrix who behaves like he’s dying and couldn’t cope  another minute longer without us… “MEOW!!!”) I hopped into the shower leaving Matt with the cats… (“Purrr”). About 2 minutes later I heard “No!  NO!  You don’t F*^&%ing DO THAT! THAT’s DISGUSTING!”.  This was quickly followed by  Matt running into the shower next to me. He stayed in there for 20 mins (no.. not very water wise

What had happened?  Well… Apparently, Stan did his usual trick of turning his back to you and shoving his bum in your face.

Over the years we’ve realised that the best way to get him to stop that is to gently tap the back of his legs; for what ever reason, as soon as you do, he sits down.   Matt had gently tapped his legs but, instead of his usual reaction, the next thing he heard was a light “thud” on the pillow next to him.  This was promptly followed by a cold, wet sensation on the side of his neck….. and a 20 minute shower.

Understandably that put Matt in a very, very grumpy place and I was quite glad to go to work!!

Three hours later we were chatting on Skype and I asked him to keep and eye on Stan.  Obviously, that was an unpleasant thing that had happened but it was also NOT normal and might signal something was wrong.  Matt, once he’d fully calmed  down and was letting Stan be in the same room as him,  checked him over and noticed that he had been overgrooming around his groin.  There was a large red patch that didn’t look good.  So, something wasn’t right.  He called the vets.

By 4pm Stan had managed to chew on that red patch until there was a massive hole where there had once been a lump… Made Matt a little queasy!

All better now!

The vet was very sad to see him in that state. He did suggest that the cold, wet liquid may have been caused by an abscess bursting rather than… well the alternative.  I’m not sure what’s more unpleasant though!

The good news is that both Matt and Stan have fully recovered from their experiences and are friends again.

LOF's new Flame

I think I may have solved the age old question of “Where did Summer go?”. Fear not fellow Brits! It’s hanging out with me in Adelaide at the moment. I am currently writing sat at my garden table, typing away in my summer dress, sitting next to my new out door thermometer which is telling me it’s 28°s – It’s spring. LOF is sat opposite with his top off! Not something I’m usually accustomed to in Spring!

In preparation for the beginning of summer Spring, we decided to take one more step in the direction of real Aussie Citizenship.  We went BBQ hunting and successfully purchased one from a shop with THE most awesome name. How can anyone resist purchasing the new flame for the Lord of The Flame from a place called “Bonza BBQs” !

The trip to fetch this BBQ was interrupted only by a short trip to our favourite coffee supplier.  We wanted to get some special blend for our fabulous coffee machine. Whilst there we were talking to our favourite “cellar door” coffee assistant and as LOF was describing his need for a stronger, more bitter taste and how that conflicted with my penchant for creamer, smoother coffees a suggestion was made that we started the interesting journey of creating our own blends from a range of “single origin” beans – SUCH A COFFEE SNOB NOW!   HOW exciting!!!!!

Of course, in order to do such a thing, you need more coffee equipment. Namely, a coffee grinder.  Excitedly we purchased one, along with 500g of various “single origin” beans and it wasn’t until we left the shop realising we’d somehow spend just over $400 that we both panicked! It’s a good job that we like coffee!  Oh.. and Matt got a free coffee of his choice too whilst we were at it! Anyhoo.  Selbucks is now able to brew you a specific blend of your favourite beans   Tee hee.  It’s like my tea fascination.. but with coffee.  Feel free to pop round any time and get “buzzy” as we sample different blends – much more exciting that alcohol in my view!

Oh, yeah, BBQs.  So… after spending nearly $1ooo dollars on appliances yesterday we put the BBQ together. LOF then, feeling much more at home, declared that things were now as they should be once more. That we had made a good choice – all this done with a special fair trade, Ethiopian, strong coffee (from Selbucks) in his hand

Steak anyone?

You would have thought that all of this shopping, and subsequent meat feast would keep LOF more than happy for the rest of the evening.  However, as I was chopping salad in the kitchen and preparing the lovely red peppers capsicum for the BBQ, I heard the following in a rather angry voice.  “Oi! Who told you you could have that EH? You little bastard! What the hell are you doing?!!!” Following these words was the view of a cat being flung through the patio door in my general direction as the words “You little Bastard” were repeated once more.  Now, this weekend is one of the first weekends in a while where we’ve had such lovley summer spring weather, thus everyone is in their garden enjoying the sunshine and “chucking another prawn on the BarB”  Matt and I are the only inhabitants of this here lovely house, so, no doubt they thought he was screaming at me until I shouted “What’s happening?” through the door too.  At this point I can see one of Matt’s prize steaks on the patio floor and Hendrix looking sheepish.  It would seem that, whilst his back was turned, Hendrix has managed to remove the steak from underneath it’s protective food umbrella thingy and has tried very hard to run off with it.  Unfortunately, this steak was the size of his head and he had been caught in the act!  On the up side he did then inherit a nice free steak for him and Stan to share!
LOL  LOF, on the other hand, was not impressed!

As usual click the piccies to make them BIG

Is he alive?!

Hendrix seems un-impressed by his theatrics!

Today being Sunday we decided to go and do something slow and relaxing. When you wander around Adelaide city center it’s nice to follow the remembrance trail to the river. It’s a peaceful and pretty walk. There’s a big ol’ wall behind the monuments and sometimes you can hear people having parties in the garden – perhaps taking tea . I’ve always wanted to know what was behind that wall and I often refer to it as “The secret garden”. Today, the plan was to finally get inside those garden walls and take a stroll where the elite mingle and eat sausages (cucumber sandwiches would be too pommey – sausage sizzle? AUSTRALIAN through and through.

We caught the train. Got there and then saw this sign…

I won’t insult your intelligence and explain the problem. Just take a look at the date of this post and the date on the poster…

So… we’d travelled into the city for nothing – DOH! Then we did actually smell that familiar Sunday sausage sizzle smell and remembered that when we were having lunch down by that aforementioned river on Friday they seemed to be setting up a heap of tents in preparation for something. We decided to follow our noses and discovered Matt’s dream world of doggies. The million Paws walk was happening!

Hundreds of doggies of all shapes and sizes with hundreds of walkers of a similar disposition strolling in the sunshine. Lovely! and what a lovely day for it. We lay, in the sun, on the banks of the river watching doggies go by. Lovely.

Then we went to Bunnings to buy a radiator heater (yawn)

It’s been soo sunny and lovely though and we’ve spent most of the afternoon sat in the garden. YES. we do need the heater in the evening as the temperatures have been dropping as low as about 12 degrees in the evening but in the day it’s a lovely and warm 18 -21 degrees! It’s like summer (UK style) in May…. in the southern hemisphere…(where it’s obviously Autumn) It’s lovely and we’re very lucky. The rains we’ve been having have also resulted in our garden growing a few items for the fridge too. Have a look… and watch out for the wild animal near the end…

I’m VERY pleased to say that the kitty’s mum and dad came to collect him today. It turns out that he lives about 3 streets away, is nearly 20 years old, an old farm cat who never puts any weight on and they had been really worried because he doesn’t normally go very far. I think he might have wandered off a bit and got lost. They were so happy to see him again and he’s been carried off home now His name is Stoney

So Relieved! Yay!

NOM! and YOM!

Well! Happy Easter blog readers ! We’ve been enjoying a lovely sunny (26 -29 degree) Easter weekend here and are loving it! April/ March seems a lovely time of year here as the weather matches that of a lovely, hot summers day in England.  You know one of those rare days where you get sun burnt in the garden because you can’t quite believe this is happening in the UK? It’s been like that all week and looks to continue to stay that way too So… next time you’re thinking of a visit somewhere at this time of year hop on over on a plane (it would be very easterly of you to do so wearing Easter bunny ears).

Chocolate eggs have been purchased and are currently in the process of being eaten (YOM) but this weekend has almost been more like Christmas than Easter. We’ve been able to to buy so many of the things that we still needed to get as a result of our choice to leave some things in the UK. It’s been ace!  We’ve got a lovely new LCD TV, a NOM NOM (or TOM TOM as most call it) so I dont’ continue to locate the schools i visit through the use of IPhone on knee (not very safe), a petrol lawn mower and a cat….  Yes another cat who, for the moment is being called Wilfred.  We have no idea whether this cat is a he or a she.  It’s hard to tell… I know what to look for but the poor little fur ball is in a bit of a state. He found us last night when we were heading to the beach for a coffee at about 9pm.  He was heading out of the bushes by the creek and started to meow as he walked to towards us. What’s really funny is he is almost exactly the same in colour and markings as Henny. He is bigger though and has a different face structure.  When Matt bent down to stroke him, thinking he was just a friendly neighbourhood cat, he realised just how emaciated he was and gasped.  He literally looks like he hasn’t eaten in months.  He has no meat on his bones at all.  You can see his spine at the back of his neck, put your hands behind his ribs and he has no muscles to feel behind his ears.  You know the spot cat lovers – it’s good for strokes and makes their ears wiggle… Not on Wilf.

Looking for my mum and dad. Have you seen them?

I promptly scuttled off to get some moggy bix and my phone so we could call the RSPCA.  The trouble is he/ she has chosen to arrive along with the Easter Holidays.  The RSPCA advised us to keep him over night if we could and then named a shelter we could take him to in the morning.  So we did that. Well… wme brought him home and he stayed the night with litter tray, food, water and comfy blanky in the utility room.  In the morning we thought we’d better call the shelter to check they were open.  They were but told me that if he was in that state they would probably just put him down.  “Let’s put it this way we have 30 cats coming in today and 2 pens left” I was told.  Right… Not bringing him to you then. Tried the other shelter.  Same thing. *sigh* but this cat needs medical attention and we don’t even know if he has a microchip and an anxious owner.  There’s no way we’re putting him in a car for 30 mins drive so they can put him down.  No way at all. So… he’s still in the laundry room and there are now posters in the local church, chippie, shop and outside the primary school and on the road where we found him.  I’ll take him to the vets myself on Tuesday and getting him checked over.  He’s sleeping at the moment but he’s eating and drinking and he’s safe.  That’s all I can do for him for now but, it seems, it was more than the RSPCA or Animal Welfare League could do for him.  God knows what will happen there!  Hopefully his owners will come forward… If not and he’s healthy enough… maybe there we will be a 3 cat household (gulp) but he’s not being put down just because the pens are full! Oh no!

So Wilfred has remained in the laundry room ( or utility room as I used to call it pre-emigration) whilst we have mowed the lawn with our new mower, prepared dinner, watched and played computer games on our new TV and relaxed.  Hen and Stan know he’s there.  They’ve been sniffing at the doors but they don’t seem stressed out about it at the moment.  lol. Hendrix is currently curled up in a ball on his radiator hammock (there are no radiators of course.. it’s on a camping chair to give the same effect)

Other exciting news has involved the discovery of, and subsequent delivery of, the meat offer at Matt’s work. We now have an entire draw full of pieces of lamb for him to eat.  I guess that’s the advantage or working for a bank that deals majoritively with the Rural Community. There’s a massive hunk if it defrosting now for dinner later.  All for him…  lol.

I also attended the CEGSA AGM this week which was very insightful. Heard a very interesting man speak about the current 7 trends in ICT and education.  That’s not for this blog (I’ll do a teachertech one soon) but it definitely got me all fired up again and interested in what’s out there. I also made a few more contacts – the main purpose of these events being networking – and discovered a .2 English job in a High School I really admire. I’ve handed them my CV and all the paperwork required so hopefully I’ll be doing a regular stint there on a contract to cover someone doing a sabbatical on another project one  day a week.  They only have one IWB at the school though. (ARGHHH!) so I’ll need to sort that out for them   Should be fun though

I seem to be carrying a camera (either posh on or I phone ) everywhere at the mo.  Helps me to write my weekly blog post. So… here are some of this weeks shots

OOh Green! See! ohh and wellies, short shorts, green top, headphones around your neck (?) I KNOW it's not a good look. I KNOW!

Playing WOW on the big screen with Meowral support from Hendrix

The Super TV with DNLA, Flash, Internet connection, HD tuner and super powers...

In the Autumn Time! ♫ ☼

We went down to the beach this afternoon.  I made sure that we were well prepared with two camping chairs, icey water, reading books (Still battling with Capricornia… I have no idea how they made “Australia” the film out of it.) and money for iced coffee and cake.  Matt pulled a face ( as he usually) does when he saw me get all of this stuff together.  Especially when he saw me pack a light and now very old, purple table cloth and 4 pegs.  I was going to make a den using the two camping chairs.  That way if it got to hot we could sit underneath it in glorious comfort!!  Yay!

When we got closer to the beach however, we realised that today was definately not the day for experimenting with old table cloths and pegs.  It was very, very windy down there on the shore line.  We did stick it out for half and hour to an hour and we even had a coffee (although not an iced one) from our usual evening haunt,  The Jetty Cafe .  Eventually we realised that swimming was out, reading a book was out and so being at the beach was probably a bit pointless…  It was hilarious watching Matt chase down the beach and dive into the sand twice to catch flying objects before they were lost forever. First he ran and dived into the sand after his lovely, highly prized, straw hat and then, when the wind opened up his book and the money he had stashed in there (???!!!??) blew off down the beach, he had to do it all again.  That man can run when there’s $10 at stake!

(On a side note Span… He found an exact copy of “The Stand” in an old bookshop Friday and is now happily continuing the epic from whence he left it!)

Relaxing whilst a fictional world crumbles with some kind of virus... lol

So… after a small debate we returned home and set up in the garden.  I’m sat on my £20 sainsbury’s steamer chair now with Hen and Stan’s frieght box between me and Matt’s £20 Sainsbury’s steamer chair. It’s covered in the purple table cloth that was going to make up my den and Stan keeps hiding in it.  At least someone got to play dens..

1.. 2... oh! 3!

This week hasn’t been all that eventful. I guess life is returning to normal and so things have slowed down a bit.  That’s good I think !   Stan and Hen are continuing to settle in.  I mean.. How many kitties can you see in this picture?  They’re still at the – ” I’ll sit near you and look at your sideways but if you move suddenly I’m off”  stage.  At least they’re making some Aussie kittie friends. He lives next door with 2 female siamesie looking kitties (who hate Hen and Stan) so they can only meet to share their male stories of woe in our garden.  Poor love!

We have, after much searching, found ourselves a COSTCO replacement though A place in which you can bulk buy chocolate (and loo rolls etc ) It’s right behind the airport and has been there all this time.  One of Matt’s colleagues told him about it. You have to have an ABN (Australian Business Number) or prove that you work for a non-proft organisation – like teaching or somesuch – and then you get FREE membership.  It’s not as exciting as COSTCO and it’s a bit smaller but we can bulk buy kitty food and washing powder and make similar saving to before.  Unfortunately, there’s no cafe in which to purchase bargain jacket potatoes or giant tasty pizza but it’ll do until the actual COSTCO makes it a bit further south than Melbourne.

CAAAATTT FLAAAAAP ( read in stylee of John)

One very exciting purchase that we made this week solved Hen and Stan’s problems of access to the house and my problem with a very smelly litter tray.  A very clever company who also happen to have the most awesome name make patio door catflaps which are secure and require absolutly no amendments to other people’s (or your own if you’re not renting) property! It’s ingenius and the boys now have their own cat flap! It just sits inside the frame of your open patio door and locks itself into position.  You can then close your existing sliding door up to it and Bob’s your monkry’s uncle! Ta da!

As a result of this ingenious device we actually didn’t get woken up until way after 9am!!!  Yay!  However… we got woken up by Henny (as usual) who had discovered our bedroom window was open and had chosen this as an even more effective method of getting brekkie than standing outside our closed bedroom door.  He also seems a little afraid of coming back inside for some reason.  We’ve shoved him in and out but he keeps crying at the back door instead! Fool! Ah well he’ll get used it eventually. At the moment, he sleeping where he usually does next to the big rosemary plant at the bottom of the garden.  He always comes in smelling like Sunday roast now! (I hope Matt doesn’t eat him…..)

At the moment I spend at least 2 hours a day searching for valuable teaching resources for the users of teachertechnologies.

Sometimes I come across sites which are awesome but I can’t put them on TT – they’re nothing to do with learning!

Check this out:

Sooo fun!

Now this site contains a guitar tuner which is useful for Music teachers… so… The question is… should I add it to the site anyway.  I have to be honest… If I was teaching the kids would so get to sing in the show or play air guitar at the end of the lesson

These guys did make it onto the list. Brain training is what we’re all about.. Having said that I played the games on here for far too long yesterday for it to still constitute work.  I mean I do have to test the sites but I’m not sure playing “bird watching” counts does it? 

On the note of bird watching.  Hendrix brought me a pigeon yesterday.  We’d just sat down to dinner as he approached the french doors with a great big crested pigeon in his mouth.  The funniest thing about it was that he couldn’t work out what to do next. He’s used to his cat flap being low and he would have tried to wedge it in through it to deliver his gift.  Unfortunately for him (and fortunately for us) he has to jump up quite high to get in through an open window at the moment. He couldn’t hold it in his mouth and make it up that high.  That meant he was just wandering around with it… Needless to say, dinner doesn’t look so inviting if a cat keeps bringing a dead animal to the window.  Matt got rid of it for us.

Then, almost as if he’d worked out the problem with his last present he decided to bring me a gecko (possibly the one that used to sit on the window every night – the one pictured with Stan in another post).  I called him in at 10pm and was very surprised when he obeyed and bounced through the window without question – doesn’t normally go that easily.  I wasn’t so happy when I saw he had something in his mouth!  The worst thing was that Geckos lose their tale when threatened so as he jumped into the room it’s tale detached and started writhing under the ironing board. He still had the rest of it in his mouth.  I assumed he had two objects and ended up getting Matt of the phone to his mum to help me!  Honestly, the poor thing. Not sure if it survived but we put it (and it’s twitching detached limb) outside and kept the murder in.

I guess this means he’s settled!