Monday, February 28, 2011

Yo

I am a bad person.  I neglected my cats all day yesterday playing that stoopid computer game till past 11 o'clock at night (a match 3 game - Heroes of Kalevala).

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Bitchin'

Confusion reigns supreme and I feel spectacularly useless.
I wish I were at home.
I would still be useless, but at least could read a book instead of worrying about it.

Maybe visit my new hammock, as yet unchristened, with pillows and gin and tonic in hand and snooze suspended high above the ground (it is rather shorter than my last hammock and therefore a good foot or so higher).

O just let it rain and wash me away to a deserted island with but gulls for company. 

Actually I want my cats with me.

And fresh water also and some conveniently washed up sharp metal implements and naturally occurring fruit and vegetables wot I recognise and that look after themselves and maybe a fishing rod.  Though I am not comfortable with the idea of killing fish much.

Perhaps I shouldn't ask for a deserted island.  Perhaps what I need is an occupied island where they revere me as a god or something. 

But then, what if the crops are bad one year?  Or it doesn't rain when they need it too?  They'll want me to jump into a volcano or something equally discomforting.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Mmmmmmmmmm

Hot smoked fillet of salmon for cats dinner last night. 
I had some myself. 
It was delicious. 
It brought to mind a scene from the only comic book character written as a novel that I've read.
Catwoman
She ate the same tinned tuna she fed her cats.

I'm pretty sure her flat was much messier than mine ever is.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Impulse

I shall get my beautiful cats a treat tonight.  I shall buy them smoked salmon - even though they broke my last remaining wine glass this morning - not that I was drinking wine this morning - I was using it as a water glass and thus it was on the table with the water jug - and even though Sookie vomited on my freshly mopped kitchen floor this morning - this was before they broke the wine glass - and even though I expect to come home to some further domestic disaster, such as them breaking my only soup bowl because they wanted to sit on the cluttered side of the sink rather than the side I cleared for them so that they could leer at the pigeons on the roof of the deserted house next door without breaking crockery.

Perhaps I shall get them some caviar?
Though I think I remember they didn't much like cavier last time I got them some, but they were younger than and tastes change.

No I know - I shall get them some raw chicken.  They got terribly excited about that last time I gave it to them.  Nearly as excited as they get about BBQ chicken. 

I've been giving them treats for the last week though - tinned crab meat - seafood extender - mince.  I've been feeling flush of pocket and been reckless in the food stakes.  Must go back to miserly tinned food soon to save my bank balance. 

Awesome

She didn't even come inside.

We just chatted at the door and she scratched Bubba's head whilst he did his sucking up act.

Ah me - I am my own worst enemy

I have loved getting older, tremors about zero ending birthdays aside, because it has brought me calmness.

This weekend I was not calm.  This weekend was like I was twelve/twenty again and feeling like I wanted to cry and/or vomit every five minutes.  I did cry every five minutes.  And there has been a darth of sleep.  I am so tired.

My anxiety issues about rental inspections are getting silly.  I could do nothing this weekend, but sit slumped in my lounge chair and feel ill. 

I change the flyscreens on the security windows - which is a lot harder than I thought - and the pressing down with the roller thingy set off my neck problems (arthritis) which brought on the headache which knocked me out for the rest of the day.  I feel a great deal of retrospective sympathy for that cleaning lady who used to work for mum who had neck problems and would have to take off two or three days a month from work.

Sister wasn't going to Charters Towers after all, but did have basketball finals and stuff to take kids to, so her car wasn't available and other sister was sick and had their own grocery shopping to do and such like, so by the time she called me to say car was available there wasn't going to be enough time for me to get all the stuff I had planned to shop for (I was going to play homemaker and buy a few rugs and dirt to fill in the puddles in the yard and stuff).

Sunday was more feeling sick and teariness, though I got a bit done in the afternoon. Not enough though. 

... and I haven't taken my cats to my sisters.  It's all so much hassle and stress.  So I am going to ask time off work to be home for the two hour period they gave for showing up for the inspection and I am going to hide the cats in their cat carriers in the deserted house next door or under the house or in a cupboard - depending on how much noise they make.

It is ridiculous for a forty year old woman (nearly) to have to beg favours from people because of a rental inspection.

So I figure if I am not running around at 4 am in the morning with distressed cats and actually home for the inspection, which I never have been before, it will assist me to get over the growing anxiety issues I am experiencing.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

hA!

I have eaten and feel better.
I laugh at my horrible weepy mood of before. 
Laugh scornfully.
ha ha ha ha ha

It is probably nothing but a slightly exacerbated attack of PMS.
I shall not let it hobble me.

They may be no good at poaching eggs.
Their hollandaise is tastless, but for the sting of vinegar.
They no longer have a beautiful androgenous french waiter.
But by golly they make a nice BLT.
*smacks lips*
And I am surprised to report that Cher is not a bad soundtrack to breakfast.

Saturday Morning pre-breakfast

And lo, it is Saturday morning and I am up at an ungodly hour, or at least up before 8am, and in an internet cafe prior to buying breakfast.  It's been a while since I've done this. 

Am supposed to be taking my cats to my sisters so that I can open up my flat and spring clean prior to the rental inspection on Monday, but I didn't remember to call her last night and, though this may mean I am a faithless doubter, I do not believe she will have remembered and after a couple of long weeks at work I am just not up to the 6am or earlier transfer of kitties today. 

It all seemed to be so organised last week.  I'd get to move the cats at a reasonable time of the day and have time to try and do a good job - see if sister would take me shopping because I wanted to buy a few things that are too big to take home ont he scooter - but they have decided to go to Charters Towers this weekend and put the bollocks on that.  Certainly they are welcome to go to Charters Towers and they are already doing me a huge favour by setting up the large cage in their backyard for the day - it just would be nice - just once - for this to be easy, ey?

The usual routine is I get up at 3:30/4am on the day of the rental inspection attempt to cage all the cats (who see the cat carriers and hide in hard to reach corners and behind stoves etc), scooter over to my sister's place and borrow their car, come back, catch the cats that have managed to get out of the cat carrier - and worrying about the damage they will have inflicted on themselves in their escape - load the cats back up, gather up some litter trays and food and sheets for over the holding cage and a box for them to hide in, load the car, suffering the distressed pitiful mews on the trip back to sisters house, unload all the cats (who are huddling at the back of their carrier cages and refusing to come out) without making too much noise and then scootering back home to sweep and mop and do all the things I've forgotten to do - panic - stress - cry a bit and then go to work - is all a bit exhausting on top of a night of no sleep.

Was going to sleep in since last night wasn't a good sleeping night, but the council subcontractors turned up this morning not too long after 6am with trucks and excavator to remove cyclone debris from our street.  Which is also a good thing and I am not really complaining.   Everything will be better after I've had some coffee.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Dream diary entry

Wednesday night/Thursday morning Dream - House from disaster dream with neighbours dropping round to tell me stuff or look for stuff, can't remember, and leaving doors open all the time and letting all the hundreds of kittens out without noticing and me having to try and catch them all again without anybody seeing all the hundreds of cats and dobbing me into the authorities.


Vacant lot next door in last night’s dream held an old style fort/slippery dip/play ground equipment.

Dan Kelly was measuring it up and decorating it and doorknocking the neighbours houses to let them know about a solo gig he was going to do there.

Helped paint narrowish vertical stripes on the vertical planks and horizontal stripes on the horizontal planks of wood and steps (young mr kelly ain't usually that into geometrical shapes but dreams don't have to make sense).

Didn’t get to dream the gig though – bummer hey?

Love that old highset house I get to live in but.  Hope I get to dream about it again soon.  Like going back to the same place in dreams.  I am a stick-in-the-mud.

Can you see the cracks in my skull?

I am feeling terribly conflicted.

Glenn Richards is going to be playing some shows in Melbourne mid-March and what if this is the only time I get to see them play?  What if he doesn't come to Queensland for ages?  Besides if he does come up here it won't be full band like wot they'd have in Melbourne (which is not to say that solo Glenn or duo Glenn is also no doubt excellent - in fact solo Glenn is charming -but full band Glenn would be nice to experience, hey)?

But ... but ... Gareth Liddiard is going to be playing in Brisbane March 26, supported by the ever effervescent Dan Kelly and I'd really like to go to that too.

But I've never been to Northcote and don't know my way around and I hate going places I've never been before cause I am terrible at reading bus/train/tram schedules and I don't even know how to get a tram ticket though I spose they would sell them on the tram? wouldn't they?  Contrary though, I am perfectly comfortable going to the Zoo.  I have a hotel I always stay at and a cafe I always go to, but ...

the flights to Melboure are actually cheaper at the moment than the Brisbane ones - crazy hey?

But the accommodation is bound to be more expensive

And I really should be saving up for flyscreens and visiting my mother and paying her back for the scooter quicker rather than later and not flying off to go listen to musicians.

OH WOE WOOOOOE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOE WHAT TO DO?!?!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Onset of panic dribbling

Sloth and slightly tipsy cooking were my night, because when making a white wine sauce I tend to follow the Floyd method of one for me and one for the pot.  Chicken, mushrooms, onion, lots of garlic, sour cream, white wine and a little philli cheese .. but something was missing - it needed bacon.

Bacon makes everything better.
Except for my bowels, which have developed a very judgemental attitude to bacon.  I'm going to have to become one of those psycho breakfasters who have to tailormake my order.  One egg, one rash of bacon, half the amount of mushrooms you normally serve someone.  I've been too embarrassed up until now to ask for less and it seems so wrong when one is paying over $20 for an egg and bacon breakfast not to eat all of it.  Townsville is an expensive place to eat breakfast.

Rental Inspection is on Monday.  I have only sort of cleaned the lounge room.  Plainly speaking I cleared the floor and mopped.  However, my method of clearing the floor isn't sustainable.  I stuffed all the junk into garbage bags.  The temptation is there to just throw everything out.  It would make it so much easier to keep things neat and clean if I didn't own anything.

It's a variation of my method for clearing my bedroom, which involves putting all the clothing in the dirty laundry basket - well ... baskets - and craming them into a corner of the laundry.  A rotary clothesline can hold a lot of clothes.

And why WHY do the cats always start vomiting when I have a rental inspection due?  Are they manifesting my symptoms?  Do I have panic phermones?  What if the millitary find out?  I'd be stuffed away into a secret underground bunker and probed before I could say noodlemeister.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Gah

Lord love a duck - I am glad I had the weekend off. 
I even did some cleaning! 
I can walk across my livingroom without having to turn the lights on.
But work this morning at work is a mess, a mess, a mess.
Pickle my brain and call me Abby.
It is hard to think with bits of paper everywhere.

(Abby is a reference to Young Frankenstein and Matty Feldman's character stealing a brain of some woman named Abby - Abby Normal)

Friday, February 11, 2011

Smacks self in head

... and last night I just drank and read trashy books *hangs head in shame*  I didn't even scoop poop this morning cause I slept in.  I didn't even do emergency washing and just went and bought more socks instead (but one can never have too many socks anyway so that don't matter none, ey?)

However, I may not be working this weekend afterall, so I shall have no excuses Monday.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Resolute

Exploding Dog took the words right out of my mouth.  This is my resolution for this evening. 

Though I think whatever supreme being there is (if there is) is sending conflicting signals about virtue and diligence because my lazyiness in  not hanging washing out last night after babysitting was rewarded by it raining in the small hours of the morning.  How am I supposed to learn valuable lessions if it keeps confusing me like this?
10/2/11  I went to the movies instead - o woe i am a bad person - unclean unclean *rings bell*

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Y'ellow

MY POWER IS ON!!!
Did I say?
Sunday night.

Rushed out with my meagre (sp?) reminents (sp?) of money in a desperate hope that I might find bread, but sadly this was not the case.  I did find butter and one packet of croissants, so not a bad swap, but doesn't last as long.  One meal in fact.  But I get to eat tonight at my sisters, so that's okay.  And I get paid tomorrow so everything is fabulous.  And the shops reckon there will be staples back on the shelves tomorrow or the next couple of days, so that is even more fabulous and I am considering actually attempting to cook something from a receipe to celebrate even though I am a very bad cook.

So ... what's easy and can be cooked in a small electric frypan?

*embarrassed coff*

Have I mentioned I have a rental inspection?  And you know how crazed I get before rental inspections - I am also working all weekend, so all my panick cleaning is going to have to happen in the evenings after work - and this just isn't going to work, cause I dither like a mad thing and it usually takes me a day and a half to stop panicking and actually start cleaning - and in fact I usually do the bulk the night before instead of sleeping, so ... please forgive the insane panicked babble that is going to dominate this blog in the upcoming week.  I know it is silly, but I can never adopt a systematic sensible attitude to these things.  I hate rental inspections.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Sunday

I have a day off, but still no power.  Want to buy booze as sediative assistance for fanless nights, but there are lines up out the door at the liquor barns.  I keep forgetting to take a picture :)

I should count my blessings.  I found some kitty litter :)

Friday, February 4, 2011

Sweating

Am called in to work today in my unwashed state, thankful the water treatment plant is back on line now.
 
I had not realised quite just how attached I am to flushing toilets.  I LOVE flushing toilets.

Was going to pull over and take a photo of Anderson Park and along Hugh Street where the trees are all down on the road, but realised I was about to run into a power line lying by the side of the road and decided against it - though the power is out so I am sure it would have been okay.  I think it's just that they look so much like snakes.  Creeps me out.

Got to test out some potential roadie skillz this morning - taping down the power cords from the generators to the computers and stuff :)

Not sure cello tape really counts though.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Short Walk




My oldest sisters doors.  Just because one has to tap ones windows because of severe Category 5 tropical cyclone, doesn't mean one shouldn't try and make it look pretty, right?

The morning after

Well ... that was a bit noisy.

Went to my sisters house with the cats as there was concern about storm surge and flooding for my suburb.

Bubba-cat wasn't impressed and refused to come out from under my nephews bed.  I dragged him out at about 7ish when I retreated to the laundry.  Sister and her family had the bathroom as their strong room.  The power went out not long after that.















The other cats decided it was all a bit too much for them too and went back into their hated cat carriers.















Was rather surprised to find that my scooter (on its stand out the front of the house cause there is no garage and brother-in-law wanted it a bit away from the house in case the winds were enough to lift it) stood standing through the entire thing.















Lots and lots of trees down and I've no idea what condition my place is in yet.  Probably won't get out to it till later in the day, cause the wind is still pretty wild and it will give emergency workers a chance to clear the roads and any live lines away, ey?

Brother-in-law has a generator and sister has made us bacon and eggs - mmmmmmmmm bacon

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Yo

Looks like my suburb is one of the ones they are going to ask people to evacuate because of storm surge, so I am at my sisters with my cats.  Figured I wouldn't wait for the door knock.

Was rather bemused to see journalists have actually flown into the danger zone to report today.  Are they mad?

Sister was explaining how the cyclone compares against the US hurricane grading and I think we would be a high category 4 on the US scale (and if the wind was going in the other direction of course).  Yasi is about 45 kph behind Katrina.

Townsville Urban inundation map

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Ciao ciao

Everybody is very nervous about Cyclone Yasi and we are closing now and have tomorrow off.  The cyclone advices are quite foreboding and I keep getting txt messages sent to my phone about potentially being in a storm surge area and that perhaps I should go stay at a friends or familys place TODAY - lol.

Nervous

So I got home yesterday and mooched about.  Grabbed a corona.  My neighbour came over to chat.  Then since I was feeling a little spooked about Yasi I decided I should maybe go buy some bottled water.  Just in case.

I come back to see Bubba stalking something.  I stand the scooter and rush over to save some poor innocent lizard, only to find he was inches away from something that looked a bit like this ...











I really really really hate snakes.

I am not sure if this is the actual type of snake cause it was getting dark, but most of the snakes we run into here are venoumous.

I grabbed my cat and rushed him to my neighbour and asked him to shut him in until I could get my door unlocked, as I didn't think I could unlock my front door and restrain a cat keen on the hunt at the same time.

Poor Bubba is quite upset this morning cause I didn't let him outside today.