Big Catch-up

This blog seems to have lapsed in recent months.

All I can say is that life got rather busy.

First it was building works around the house, which necessitated offloading a lot of our possessions into a self-storage unit at Big Yellow from where most of them have yet to emerge. I do actually miss some of them, but have to wonder about others. All I know is that the monthly rent is crucifying us, so we ought to be retrieving that stuff and finding somewhere to put it.

We also acquired two Bengal kittens, Bennie and Tricki, who are now full-grown cats. At least, I hope they are: Bennie weighs in at over 6kg! They haven’t been a total success as they’re not as friendly as the breed is reputed to be – particularly Tricki. Tricki is also a little unreliable and has just had her bedroom privileges revoked again. It cost £19 to clean the rather nice goose feather duvet which in no way resembles a litter tray, at least to my way of thinking!

Then we had a really bad month in July, which culminated in us losing Stephen’s Mum and inheriting her five cats, one of whom turned out to be in poor health. He also turns out not to like having his pills administered.

Feeding nine cats separated into two separate prides and administering daily medicine to one of them has turned into quite a responsibility. We intend to get the cats all integrated one of these days, but they’re still at the stage of being able to see one another through half inch wire mesh. I think the hissing is becoming less frequent and that Bennie may have stopped growling, so progress is probably coming along.

I’ve managed to keep up with the Beckenham Concert Band, apart from their London Open House engagement, which I did not sign up for. We were originally planning to visit the Crossness pumping works and see an engine in steam, but at the last moment we decided to go to a craft show at Sandown Park instead. It turned out to be everything that the Weald of Kent one we’d visited at Penshurst Place a week or two earlier wasn’t: namely that they were actually selling craft supplies rather than just finished products. Mind you, I managed to purchase six pairs of completed earrings and various pies, jams, chutneys and sauces at the Weald of Kent one. We really enjoyed ourselves at the one at Sandown Park, where we split up so that Stephen could “do” papercraft while I did jewellery and knitting. We’d really meant to do jewellery together, but it just didn’t happen, so maybe we will manage it if we go to the big show at Alexandra Palace.

It looks like I’ve acquired another hobby: in addition to my photography and bassoon playing, I have taken up knitting again. I’ve acquired a really good textbook and I’m knitting some squares at present using patterns in the textbook. They’re mostly turning out pretty well. Maybe I’ll get back into crochet and even learn to tat one of these days.

Work had a little hiccup in July as well as everything else that was going on: Xchanging announced that there would be a number of redundancies and we spent over a month on tenterhooks until we found out who the unlucky people would be. I’ve escaped with my job, but it makes one think. Should I try and stick with Xchanging for the rest of my career and go on contributing to the defined benefits pension scheme I’m in; or should I be looking around. I’m staying put for now, but maybe my new hobby should be studying the RPG IV and RPG ILE textbooks to make me more employable should the unthinkable happen.