Saturday

I woke up to the alarm at quarter past five, got up and made myself coffee. Oh, and had a cookie! A day without a cookie isn’t a good day.

Everytime I go out for a smoke break, mippies – especially Mewthos – cry like tortured souls! When I come back inside, I have to pick up Mew-Mew, cuddle him for a while, scratch Ziva’s ears … only Lady Jane is keeping her distance, which saddens me somewhat. When I had our ice cream treat last night, she wouldn’t even come for her share of the custard. Mewthos came and had a few licks, but then wandered off – only Ziva sat next to me, waiting for me to finish, so she would get to clean the plate.

When I go to bed, I must spend at least ten minutes scratching Ziva’s ears in her cuddle cave, or she won’t sleep. Every night! Mewthos gets his pick-up time – but Lady Jane? She’ll come and mip at me while I’m typing this blog, and take a stroll across my lap, but that’s about it. I have to seek her out and spend some time with her or I don’t get to see her at all. Even when I give them their treats – Mewthos is as eager as always, Ziva sometimes needs to be picked up to start munching, but Lady? Is not interested. For her, I keep the Whiskas bowl filled, but even that isn’t getting her excited.

I’m still adjusting to this completely different lifestyle – funny, that happens every time I move. I’ve been thinking that, rather than unpacking everything and filling the shelves, this time I should unpack only what I’m using and rather re-pack what I need to sort through still. Like the hoard of papers I’ve collected, unpack a small stack and leave the bulk of it in boxes, but marked ‘papers’. The same with the books. There are many books which I have read already and know I’ll enjoy re-reading them. Those can go into the shelves, same with the reference books. But then there are still a lot of books I haven’t read, yet. Mostly my mum’s books. And some of them are just not my taste at all, so I can sort those for donation (since they are in German) and take them to the German Old Age Home, when I get a chance.

Today, however, I’m first cleaning the bathroom. I’ve cleared the litter boxes and cleaned and re-filled the little one – and mippies went to use it, one after the other, right away! Then I got as much sand out of the mats as I could, I hung the grass mat over a drying stand, brushing out sand by – what seems like – the bucket load! I’m leaving the feathers, though – Ziva seems to feel they are the perfect finish to a bathroom! I’ve just washed part of the floors – looked nice and clean! For about five minutes … then mippies investigated, adding their paw-print decorations back to the floor. Sigh!

I had barely finished refilling the big litter box, when Lady Jane jumped in and got busy! True to her name, my little ladyship! And just to earn some brownie points with her Ladyship, I scooped what she dropped right away!

Okay, I just spend fifteen minutes trying to sign into WhatsApp … pffffft! First, the device date and time need to be set – okay, I set it … now how tf do you save those settings? No clue. Clear the notification – okay, next: your version of WhatsApp is obsolete … try to download the latest version … sign into google account. Okay, I know how to do that … on PC! There is no ‘sign in’ or ‘log in’ option! Only ‘Redeem’ – and that doesn’t work with my google password. So … I give up! It will have to wait …

My landlord had a look at the leak of my washing machine, he said he just needs to adjust the clamp – but I can do my washing, no problem. While he was looking at the machine, Ziva came out and made her first friendly overtures! She’s not as shy of strangers as her babies.

After I washed the bathroom, I could start a load of laundry. I took the time to remove all tags and stickers off my new socks, so they are getting washed as well.

The sky has cleared and it’s getting quite hot again, today. Sigh. Normally I would welcome the sun over the weekend, but this time, I would much rather it was cooler.

Ha Ha! No sooner said than done! I was busy washing the dishes, when it started to rain. First a gentle rain followed by a veritable downpour! No only I need to shower, so that I cool down as well!

Mippies are too cute! They are stretched across the bathroom window sill, facing each other, paws touching, while they watch the rain!

I ended up doing some mild bathroom yoga after I showered, but only because my washing is hanging in the bathroom. I’m also wearing my least favourite strap top – because all the others are hanging to dry. And it’s only my least favourite, because the material is rather thick – which doesn’t really make sense in a strap top, does it?

I went outside for a smoke, my chair had got rained on, but that’s not a problem since I keep a towel just inside since the wet bum incident of week one! I moved the flowerpots so now they all get watered when it rains, and I put the bird cage … erm, I should say the caged bird bath … in the corner under the roof. I tipped the water out first, though.

As I was contemplating what I should do first, next Saturday, two pigeons flew under the roof right next to me – I’m afraid they seem to have a nest there. Sigh, poor birdies – they don’t know that this is their last terror-free weekend!

I’ve taken out one of the lovely pork chops from the German butchery, I’ll make myself a proper Kotlett – which is basically just crumbed pork chop – for dinner tonight. I’ll add some lemon juice to the egg and some sage to the crumbs. Hmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking of it!

Back to my garden contemplation, I’ve decided to plant the Dianthums along the path. I think they’ll be okay there, even though it’s under the tree, but they should get enough sun. I’m thinking short plants are best along the path – I remember having to juggle shopping bags around the carnations and cosmos in PE. And Dianthum don’t spread like Nasturtiums, so the path will stay clear.

Speaking of Nasturtiums, they don’t seem to have got the message: I see more of them trying their luck in my flower pots! One more week and I can start gardening! And they’ll be the first to be moved. Everything in the pots is flowering, though. Alyssum are in bloom, Dianthum coming up non-stop, carnations in full flower, the white geranium has several more buds opening soon, even the Vieruurtjie is about to flower!

Back inside, mippies are napping and I’ve put the towels in the machine. And now I’m at a bit of a loose end. It’s five in the afternoon, I’ve done everything that needed doing, now I can start doing something I’d like to do. And what I’d like to do is garden. The sky has cleared and the sun is back out … tempting …

I’m happy to say, with me at home, Lady Jane is again her usual, loving self. She mips for cuddles, curls up in my arms again, and even curled up on my lap today. Then she went and washed Mewthos, who returned the favour once he was clean! Some time later, I watched in surprise as Ziva was chasing acorns in the box while Mewthos and Lady Jane watched!

I went outside and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. The sun sets almost exactly on my right and rises on my left, when I sit in front of the lounge. So the lounge and kitchen face south, whereas the bedroom and bathroom face north.

Inside, it is unpleasantly warm. That will only improve, once I can open the windows, though I don’t know whether I can ever open the bedroom & bathroom windows, since they open into the landlord’s garden, where the doggies roam free. But even the kitchen windows will be a great relief! I couldn’t believe the heat just from washing the dishes in hot water! And now the washing machine is running at high temp, washing towels.

Again, I’ve worked quite slowly, but steadily today and I got a lot done. Slowly, but surely, I’m making the place my home. There are now no more boxes in the bedroom nor the kitchen. I’ve unpacked a few books, I’m beginning to sort the cupboards rather than just filling them, overall, I’m making progress and I’m happy.

Then, a funny thing happened: my landlord knocked on the door, then opened it a fraction, stuck his arm through and with the words “Watch how the kitties will come here, now” crumbled some biscuits on the floor! Then he closed the door again, and while I watched Ziva approach, sniff and turn away, I heard some raised voices on the other side. Next, my landlord knocked again and sheepishly apologised, his wife had been telling him off that cats aren’t like dogs, he had thought the cats would love the biscuits and it would be a way to introduce the two species.

His wife came through and brought the little Lady with her, who had been eager to meet the kitties since they first arrived! She came and sat on the sleeper couch in the bedroom and we watched as cats and dog eyed each other. Ziva was under the armchair, and when I pulled her out after a long time, her tail just bushed and she scrambled back under the chair. She, eventually, went and hid under the bed – however, Lady Jane came out! We chatted while we watched the two Ladies circle each other – keeping a close eye on tails! Ladys tail was wagging excitedly the whole time, while Janey’s occasionally bushed and she did occasionally go into attack stance: back arched, tail up and bushing. But nothing happened. They circled each other into the kitchen, then came back into the bedroom, then the bathroom – they haven’t made any contact, yet, but no aggression either. An hour later, even Mewthos felt it was safe to come out. He didn’t show quite as much interest, but no aggression either. By nine thirty we ended the experiment – happy that it had gone so well and confident that cats and dogs can become play-mates rather than … hurt.

It was way past me current bedtime, and I just fell into bed …