Day 68 of 100, Sunday 30th December

I woke at six but only got up at seven. Headache is back, just a slight pressure on the back of my head, bearable though unpleasant. Romeo’s caterwauling through the flat doesn’t help, silly boy!

I’m trying a different approach to my day, today. Maybe I’ll feel less depressed if I spend less time escaping from reality; so I’ve set up my cities for long-term production runs giving me the whole day ‘off’. Well, mostly; my main cities are still on short term runs, but I’ll stick to the basics throughout the day and do the extra tasks either in the morning or evening.

Lady Jane seems to be back to normal. She went out with everyone else when I opened the door, then came back for a nap in her chair, like she’s always done, and now she’s gone out to play! I hope.

Crap! I nearly forgot to pay the rent! Good thing I remembered in time! Last time I pay that lot! Feels good! But then again, that’s what I thought last time: that I could not possibly get a worse landlord! And yet, this lot turned out even worse! Just once I would like to meet an estate agent who is not maliciously greedy! Just once!

Temperatures are rising towards intolerable again, it’s one in the afternoon and over 30°C – now I’m glad I finished washing the dishes! There is air movement outside, so maybe I should go out and pot the Spekboom.

The air movement is not enough to counter the blazing sun! I quickly filled the smaller of the two large pots and potted all the geraniums and scraggly spekboom from the front half of the garden. I’ll leave the other half for later, when that part of the garden is in the shade.

Earlier, I took some more cuttings from Rose’s Lavender bush, since the one in the vase seems to have drooped. While I was busy there, I also pulled some grass which had grown taller than her Lavender bush!  So that just leaves three more Carnations and the rest of the Spekboom to be readied for transport. Well, actually, I also want at least one cutting from that white Pelegonia! That’s my favourite plant! And Rose also offered me the little succulent tree – I don’t know what it’s called – which Lady Jane also likes to climb! Well, Lady Jane climbs the big one, I’d like to grow one for her.

All my mippies love Spekboom, so I’d like to plant as many of those as I can! Maybe have a whole border of Spekboom, if there’s space where I’m going. That’s the one big unknown factor – I sure hope there will be space for me to plant what I’ve brought along and get a few beds going for herbs, veggies and flowers.

Lady Jane seems to be back to normal, she’s been outside, exploring, and comes inside to melt on the window sill – all as usual.

I’m not doing too well with today’s heat, though. I’ve checked the forecast and it should cool down for the next few days. I’ve sprayed my top with water, so at least that has a little cooling effect – especially when I move into the breeze!

I’m going to have to get to Makro sometime this week, my stock is nearly depleted; time to re-stock. I’ve run out of chocolate quite a while ago, I’ve just opened the last Whiskas and I’m low on sachets for the mippies. I’m also down to my last bottle of tonic water. I’m just trying to think if there’s anything else I should get from that store. Rope, maybe, to tie around the drawers – instead of taping across my furniture.

I’ll also need three more loaves of bread, as well as some more cold meats from that funny pseudo-german butchery. Although, with my luck, they’ll be closed for the holidays! I’ll see what time they deliver my keyboard set tomorrow – if they come early again, I might just go off shopping right away.  Shouldn’t go too early, though, Makro has such funny hours, I sure don’t want to be stuck outside again!

I’ve started working on Rose’s basket; sticking the waft onto the base – which is a horribly fiddly job; especially since I don’t have a big space to work on. I’ve picked all the plain sticks, leaving the pretty, colourful ones to weave with. I’m wondering whether I’ve got enough!

I went downstairs to water the garden – Mewthos came running eagerly to observe! He is such a funny one about water! Rose was just moving her car – I actually had to call Romeo; he was lying stretched on the grass in her way! Rose and I had our daily chat - boy, will I miss those! At one point Mewthos decided to go sit outside Rose’s garden – no matter how distressed I sounded, he wasn’t bothered! Ziva and Romeo were bothered, they don’t like me in distress – but Mewly? Nah – he’s a big boy! Sigh.

Later he climbed onto Rose’s car and decided her aerial makes a nice chew-toy! He was not impressed when Rose shooed him off! He gave us both such a look! Ha Ha! All six cats hung around while Rose and I chatted: Shadow came to sit on her porch, Frankie was sitting at the bottom of her stairs glaring and growling at Romeo, Lady Jane stretched herself on the gate rail Mewthos retreated to lie under a Spekboom and Ziva was cleaning herself by my feet – or near enough.

My headache stayed with me throughout the day, very mild pressure, not more than a nuisance. It’s overcast again – it has been for most of the day. Between the heat and the promising rain it’s hard to tell when it will clear!

I took a shower while the mippies were still outside, I’ve had dinner so now the rest of the evening – well if you can call an hour much of an evening – I can relax. Strangely enough, even though I didn’t physically do much today, I feel exhausted! Must be the headache and the heat.