Nigella …

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!  Uncle Wayne has been visiting and the Mummies have had him doing jobs around the place again.  This time they had him putting up the solar Christmas lights.  The most amazing thing about that is that they still work – given the ones they had him put up have been sitting in the drawers near the front door since I arrived here five years ago!  M Kaz is not one to rush things.  And Christmas light fixing technology has come a long way since then – with little sticky things now available that will adhere to most surfaces to allow the fixing of the lights. 

Uncle Wayne has fashioned a Christmas tree out of some of the lights on to the fence in the front court yard and those are not currently programmed to do anything flash, and he’s framed that with flashing coloured LED lights.   It was that set of lights that he’s had to replace the rechargeable battery in – who knew they become unable to hold their charge after some time in the box. To be fair, M Kaz thinks they’d probably lose their ability to hold the charge if they’ve been used to.

That’s outside.  Inside, for the first time in a good few years – since the year after I arrived – Christmas trees have appeared.  The bigger LED tree has not been plugged in – I may have tried to chew on the electricity cord the first year I was here.  M Kaz has festooned both that tree and the little tree with strings (metals?) of battery-operated lights.  They’re pretty – Santas, gingerbread me (or are they reindeer), caravans and coloured balls. 

I think M Kaz likes them – I came in the other night and she was just sitting on the couch, in the dark except for the Christmas lights, just watching them.   It won’t be long until they start listening to Christmas music.  (Update:  I was right.  It’s started!)

When they were buying Christmas light supplies, M Kaz also bought something I hate.  They were billed as ‘commercial quality’ so it’s just wrong that she is using them on me.  What are they?  Bl**dy spray bottles – and they are so much better (worse?) than the one Uncle Wayne had while those Mummies were away because it doesn’t need to be ‘primed’ – just point and press the trigger and every time a stream of water spurts out.  Grrrrr.  There’s been a bit of spray bottle action since the Christmas tree came out – and more now that M Sooz has her nativity scene out.  It’s going to be a long time until 12th Night when they all came down. 

Another job the Mummies had for Uncle Wayne was putting up some security cameras Aunty Wendy had given them.  I have been trying to tell the Mummies that having the camera out in my area constitutes an invasion of my privacy but they don’t seem to be listening.  I’ve fixed their little red wagon though – I’ve now worked out that if I go to top of the (Mimi) cat tower, the cameras register me as ‘human’ and that triggers a notification on M Kaz’s phone.  Heh heh – and I know that she’s set the notifications from the cameras to sound even when her phone’s on ‘do not disturb’ at night.  I am going to have some fun with that.

Aunty M and her mother (and her sister and brother-in-law who are visiting from Turkiye) have almost finished moving to the new unit.
A big truck came and took all their stuff because there was too much to fit in people’s cars. It wouldn’t even fit in Ravi, and we know how big it’s boot is.

I haven’t been to the new unit but the Mummies say it is lovely. It gets a lovely breeze and there is a wonderful view to the north and out to the hinterland, and they can also see the ocean! M Kaz loved the way the afternoon sun lights up the nearby buildings.

Aunty M has had Mimi staying with Michelle (the cat minder) while they’ve been preparing for and making the move. It’s going to be quite different for Mimi – who has a touch of the ‘let’s go for a wander’ gene – to live in a 4th floor apartment rather than in a house with easy access to ‘outside’. Aunty M will have to take her downstairs and across the road to the park if she’s going to interact with the local wildlife. I think a pet backpack has been mentioned. Aunty M is also trying to work out how to make a safe enclosure on the balcony for Mimi so she can wander out to see the scenery – without being in danger of falling off if she (Mimi) gets distracted if she starts chasing after a bird or something. I’m not sure that she will get to see dinosaurs on the 4th floor – unless they’re geckos. Hmmmmm.
I am still enjoying the llama cushion Outback although I knew even it couldn’t save me during the massive thunderstorm we had here last night. It sounded as though it was right in the back yard but M Kaz said it couldn’t have been that close because the lightning and the thunder weren’t happening at the same time. She did concede that it was very close though – which wasn’t much comfort to me as I ran up the hallway looking for a safe place to be. If those Mummies had had any sense, they would have as well. The power did go out here for a moment – just enough that M Kaz had to reset the internet and the television. And she only did that because M Sooz had just turned on the television to watch the news. Which reminds me – believe it or not, Midsomer Murders has still not reappeared on the television since the Mummies arrived home.
Never let it be said that M Kaz is not a problem solver. She came out this morning to get some clothes out of the dryer and sorted them, and then she went to clear out my litter tray. She didn’t have shoes on and she went ‘ouch ouch ouch’ (what a wimp!) when she walked on the concrete (she had been on the mats) and she was going to abandon the exercise until she put shoes on, but realised if she did the tray from the other side, she could stand on the mat while she did it. It was good that she’d been up for a while and was fully awake or I fear she may not otherwise have been able to work that out. (Cheeky? Me?)
I’m counting down the days until the Mummies start putting up the Christmas decorations. It’s time! It’s time! I hope they’re going to put up my very own Christmas tree again (they never did find the Santa that I pulled off it) – and they can put one up for them too. M Kaz says they are going to bring out the nativity set this year – and I really want them to start using the Christmas all-colours (well, maybe four) light-up globe. ET would love that too!

I’m not sure what that M Kaz has been doing, but it’s not transcribing my blog for me.  She seems to be doing ‘stuff’ but I’m not exactly sure what that is but I think part of it has been helping Aunty M with her move.  M Kaz and Ravi (and sometimes M Sooz) have been going off to Aunty M’s place, sometimes bringing stuff back here, sometimes taking it to Vinnies (the charity shop) or Lifeline (another charity place) or to the tip at Molendinar or Helensvale.  I think M  Kaz likes going to the tip (aka waste collection and recycling centre) because she’s talking about taking some of her and M Sooz’s leftover things there.

I’ve been doing quite well out of Aunty M’s move.  I scored Mimi’s cat tower which it looks like I’ll now be keeping, and last week M Kaz came home with a cushion with strange looking four-legged creatures with long necks on it – I think she said they were lamas – oh wait, I think that’s llama with a double l – not the other kind.  I’m not sure if Mimi will want this one back, but I am certainly enjoying looking after it for her.  It is very comfortable – although I did hear M Kaz pondering the other day about just how I am able to fit so comfortably on it. 

There’s still been no sign of KB (the snake) but I am a little worried that the Mummies might find it out the front again (or out the side or out the back where they are not expecting to see it).  M Kaz was sitting out in the sun in the front courtyard the other morning and I bravely kept an eye on things from my window seat (all right, bed) in her office. 

I don’t think the Mummies are going to move my tray back inside but they may have to move it somewhere else Outback if it keeps raining from the north.  While they were away in Toowoomba last weekend (yes, they deserted me again) the rain blew in and left a coating of damp clumping litter in my tray.  It wasn’t too bad but it’s certainly not something I want to get used to.

But I am used to being back on the table in my box (and the insert from the new coffee machine box) and I’m getting as much ‘on-table’ time as I can before Uncle Wayne comes back next week. 

What was that Mummy thinking?  Why did she put the air conditioning on and blast it straight at me?  I was just sitting here in my box on the table, minding my own business when I was blasted by this gust of freezing cold air.   I gave her the evil eye and she turned it off but she shouldn’t have done it at all.

I have been outside most of the day – it’s been a bit on the warm side but it’s quite cool Outback, especially up on my cat tower (previously Mimi’s).  M Kaz is going to see Mimi tomorrow – I think, unless she (Mimi) is homeless by then.  Aunty M is busy selling off furniture and other goodies (there’s a garage sale tomorrow) in preparation for the house settlement and I wasn’t sure how to take this but it seems Mimi has only two houses left.  She used to have more than I do – even though M Kaz keeps moving mine on.

There were fireworks out the back this evening (no, not Outback – further away).  I was a tiny bit scared and came inside – which is when I jumped up to my table box – and when M Kaz hit me with the cold blast from the air conditioner.   She enjoyed the fireworks though – especially because she had never previously seen an explosion that gave all the colours rather than just the one they normally do.  She said the fireworks looked as though they were at HarbourTown and that they had a searchlight there too.

It wasn’t until it had found a good place to hide that M Kaz told me about the dinosaur she’d seen inside.  There was a tiny one out near my litter tray as well, but I couldn’t get to that one at all.