Nigella …

It is a mystery, isn’t it M Kaz? How I can sleep in a tiny little ball on the end of my bed but need to stretch out to my full length (and then some) when I’m on yours. Hmmm. I guess we’ll never know.

I do like the new ‘balcony’ though. M Kaz found it for me – we can’t really say ‘built’ because it came already constructed from their favourite store Aldi – but ti was Aunty M who decided what to call it. It goes with the gingerbread house that Aunty M bought for me as a flat-pack and which M Kaz put together – with my help of course.

I wonder how long it will be before M Kaz tries to sneak another one of my things out of the house. She’s still doing that ‘decluttering’ which takes so much time – almost as much time as she’s already spent this week looking for something else she had put ‘in a safe place’. I don’t know why people can’t be minimalist like cats!

There has been a bit of sun out and about this week and M Kaz came Outback to sort the laundry on Monday (after she had been to the dentist) but she ended up popping her head down on the table and having a nap in the sun with me. I hope she never works out just how lovely it is out there or she’ll want to be out there with me all the time. No, I don’t mind sharing, but word on the street – and I can attest to this – is that she can tend to snore a bit when she puts her head down for a nap. Has she never heard of ‘quiet enjoyment’ of a space.

Yes. Yes. Midsomer Murders continues to show here at Jannie in the evenings. We do have a change of pace when Aunty M comes over to watch the Madame Blanch Mysteries. I think they were all pleased when they realised they still have two more seasons of it to go. But will Barbara the naughty woman (‘Bad to the Bone’ plays on Jean’s phone when she calls) come back in Season 2 or will the R-I-P bullets have done their job? Stay tuned.

M Kaz and I had a lovely start to the day with a game of Kill and Destroy on the bed.  Luckily M Sooz didn’t move her feet while she was asleep or she may have had a Nigey launch herself on to them with teeth and claws out.  Surprisingly, M Kaz managed to get bitten only twice (no blood was drawn either time) and she didn’t even get clawed.  I did try – otherwise what fun would Kill and Destroy be?  And then, when M Kaz was getting ready, she let me play with her shoelaces on the bed.  It doesn’t get much better than this!  Unless she lets me play with her new shoelaces.  She bought a yellow pair for herself and a red pair for M Sooz and once she works out how to use them – I think she knows how shoelaces work but these have little clasps which go over the aglets so the two ends just clip together.  It’s going to make it much easier to undo the shoelaces without having to work on those double-knots which are sometimes a bit tricky.  I am forever grateful that Nigeys don’t need to wear shoes. 

Aunty M came around to see me this morning but by the time I realised she was there, she and M Sooz were on their way out to breakfast.  M Kaz called out to them for me but they didn’t hear (or just ignored her – no, no, they wouldn’t do that).
I spent some time yesterday afternoon trying to break in to M Kaz’s office.  I don’t know why she insists on locking me out – I just want to help her with her work.  No, I can’t type (well) – we all know that, and the headphones don’t really fit me – but I can operate the foot pedal!  No, seriously I can – maybe not well because it’s hard to select which part of the pedal to press when most of you is on it.  Hmmm.

I thought the rain had gone, but I was wrong.  It bucketed down last night and again this morning, while M Kaz was out and about – yes, that would be when she was down at the Broadwater for her walk and morning photo session.  It didn’t rain heavily, but enough for her to get caught out in it and to realise that her backpack may not be entirely waterproof.  Hmmmm. 

What I was doing while she was out?  I was sleeping at the foot of her bed – stretched out – which I can’t do while she’s in there as well.  I do try to section off as much room as I can but her feet are bigger than mine and I am always a little worried that she will forget I am there and send me hurtling off the bed.  Well, no, it hasn’t happened yet, but a Nigey can’t be too careful.

Now that I think about it, yes, they are still watching Midsomer Murders – they’re up to Season 16 now, and Barnaby has a new sidekick – and he and Sarah have a baby on the way.  They miss Jones, but since they’ve already watched the whole series before, they know that he will be back – just for one episode, but they’re looking forward to that.
Aunty M has been coming around to watch television with the Mummies.  They had been watching ‘Queens of Mystery’, which they all seemed to enjoy, but they have now watched all two seasons of that – and have now moved on the ‘Madam Blanc Mysteries’ and, can you believe it, the second episode wasn’t about solving a murder – it was a completely dfferent type of mystery.  M Kaz said she likes it because she learns ‘stuff’ – like the meaning of ‘Ellie in a Nightie’ which is nothing like ‘a pig in a blanket’ or ‘Nigey on a towel’.

M Kaz is now disappearing for hours at a time out the front.  At first I thought she was going out, but it seems she is actually clearing out the garage/shed.  I know this now because M Sooz was saying the other day that it was getting a bit colder and she thought she needed some heavier covers on the bed.  When M Kaz came back in after her shed session yesterday, she had a blanket, a duvet cover and a duvet for her.  Just as well she hadn’t gone out there with the express intention of finding them because we all know that that would never have happened.  We’re all hoping it will be a different scenario when she’s finished decluttering and reorganising out there.  I’m hoping she will get to move some of the clutter out of my bedroom and stow it out there or send it on its way. I don’t really care either way.

The only good thing about all the rain we’ve been having is that I don’t have to go out in it – yes, yes, we all know I’m not actually allowed to go out in it but no-one had to say that out loud. There’s no need to rub it in. But anyway the last laugh is on the Mummies because I did manage to get out there earlier this week- not for long, mind, because M Kaz was right onto me – not fast enough to prevent it though – heh heh.

I am going to have words with M Kaz about my cat grass. She’s been letting the team down a little – I’m back down to one viable pot – not good enough M Kaz especially since Aunty M’s last intervention meant I had three – count them M Kaz, that’s three pots of cat grass for Nigey. Mind you, given what today is , you’d think she’d have pulled all the stops out to give me stuff I like. What’s today? Just five years since I asked the Mummies if they could rescue me from Toowoomba
and let me live with them at Jannie and become M Kaz’s photographic subject – and muse.  Just as well they said yes.

Ah the fun we’ve had since then – the places they’ve been while leaving me with Aunty Rosemary of the green hair and now with the woman who chats all the time – you know the one where they turned Mimi into “a talker”. Thankfully that wore off. And thankfully they’re not planning to send me there when they go off on their next trip because Uncle Wayne is coming to stay. Maybe he’ll put an extension in Outback while he’s here.

M Kaz is still managing to get herself up and out of the house before dawn most days. She seems to enjoy it and she’s still raving about the other day and how wonderful it was with an amazingly colourful dawn, Anzac Day remembered with candles, a minute’s silence by the bike riders ( “Hats off boy’s”), the Anzac Day Marathon, the flag woman, the flyover by the single World War II aircraft. It was, by M Kaz’s account, quite moving – but we all know she’s easily moved aka a big sook (is that how you spell it?)