Nigella …

Let’s just call it the battle of the wills – and be done with it.  Because I’m certainly done with M Kaz waving that spray bottle around in my face, just because I am up with the television.  It would be different if I was even looking at it – but, no, just being leg’s length from it is enough. 

Mind you, I have more than enough reason to have a go at the television!  Those Mothers finally finished all 24 available series of Midsomer Murders and I thought they were going to move on to another series.  I was wrong.  Can you believe it, they’ve gone back to the very beginning.  Grrrrr!  Still, we got to see the Rainbirds again – they weren’t very nice people the first time around and they haven’t improved with this next viewing – but they were characters!

The yard man came yesterday which is a bit odd because I’m sure I heard M Kaz say she was planning to do the mowing and whipper-snippering herself now.  Still, she has been a bit busy with trip-planning,  They are off in a little bit to Sydney for a long weekend, and then, of course, there’s their trip to Europe later in the year that needs to be organised.  I can’t tell you how many travel videos they’ve been watching.  M Kaz is so excited about it, she’s even put a countdown timer on her phone – so she’s told me, anyway – she doesn’t want me to see it and get all worried about them leaving.  I’m not, of course, because Uncle Wayne is coming to stay with me!

I don’t know why they would want to lock me outside but they did.  One minute I was our there just minding my own business and the next second the door into the Mummies’ bedroom was closing with me on the wrong side.  I checked the laundry door but that was closed too.  Thank goodness M Kaz started wondering where I was because otherwise I might have been stuck Outback all night.  When M Kaz asked if I was outside when she couldn’t find me in any of my usual spaces (and there are a few) M Sooz said that couldn’t be the case because Nigey (that’s me) was sitting on the couch just a second ago and there’s no way that she could have made it outside in the short time that she was closing the bedroom door to Outback. Well she was wrong.  They don’t call me “greased lightning” for nothing. 

It’s hotter and colder here at Jannie at the moment.  I have been enjoying Outback on the water heater and I have enjoyed being inside in the air conditioning – sitting next to M Kaz’s feet as she does what she does or on the white cupboard which has somehow made its way from the Mummies’ bedroom, to the hallway and then to near the television and then, finally, to near the table.  I like it there because I can be with Tobbie.  The only down side is that M Kaz has me in her sights – I can’t tell you how many photographs she has been taking of me while I’m trying to relax there.  She says she has to take lots and lots and lots of photographs because she’s testing the different settings on the phone’s camera and I am a wonderfully photogenic compliant subject.  Okay … okay … she didn’t really say that last bit about me.  It’s true though.

It looks like Mimi is getting a new litter tray – Aunty M sent a picture of a flat-pack to M Kaz this afternoon. Wait … it’s a false alarm. Apparently Mimi doesn’t need the privacy and it could be awkward to clean – even with the doors on the side. I know I wouldn’t use it if one turned up here! Just saying.

The Mummies were up in the middle of the night – well, 3.30am, so it’s no wonder M Sooz decided she wouldn’t go down to the Broadwater with M Kaz this morning. It was a shame because looking at the photos, it was quite lovely down there with the walkers, and coffee drinkers, and bike riders and dog people and swimmers. The only thing that could have been better was if the man from the Council hadn’t hosed down the tables and benches just before M Kaz got there. Just as well she’d planned to go for a walk with the camera/phone first so there was time for the seats to dry a bit – either naturally or with the help of someone else’s shorts.

Uncle Wayne and M Kaz were watching a movie the other night – and from what they were saying, it wasn’t very good. And then they decided to watch another one and that was worse! It was so much worse that at one point M Kaz was fast-forwarding through it so they could get past the school break at the lake rudie-nudie footage and go straight to the piranha attacks. They were fairly gory – but by the amount of laughing Uncle Wayne and M Kaz were doing, they were also funny. How could the sight of pre-historic fish chewing people up be funny? And who would have thought that I would have preferred them to be watching Midsomet Murders? Hmm.

But whatever we watch now we’ll have to manage without Uncle Wayne because he went back to Toowoomba yesterday. Yes, it is nice to have my room back but I think we are all going to miss him. It was strange this morning going to the front window and looking out and not seeing him out there doing his Sudoku or reading his Wilbur Smith book on M Kaz’s Kindle machine. He really is no trouble – and he’s very helpful as well. I’m not sure if I am a fan of Tobbie the robot yet but it was nice of him to assemble it for M Kaz.

Well, if I thought M Kaz took a lot of photographs before, I didn’t know what I was talking about. She has a new phone and she is constantly badgering me and taking photographs with it “to see what it can do”. She even took one of me last night in my room – and the light wasn’t even on. The photo isn’t bad – yes, it is a bit fuzzy but given it was completely dark when she took it, it’s not a bad result.

M Sooz is still not totally well so she has been taking it easy a lot of the time. That’s okay because while Uncle Wayne was here, he was able to keep M Kaz entertained – because there’s only so much that I can do.

I think Uncle Wayne is planning to make some changes around here when he comes to house-sit with me later in the year. We’ll see about that – can you imagine me not being on the table or on the kitchen benches or up with the television? I almost feel like drawing up the scoreboard now. NIGEY: X; UNCLE WAYNE: X. Although now that I think about it, since I won’t be able to keep track of the scores on the board (no opposable thumb to let me hold the whiteboard marker), it may be better if I just keep a record of in my blog when the time comes.

Now that Uncle Wayne has left, the rain he brought with him has gone too! If you look at a map of New South Wales, you can tell where he’s planning to go after Toowoomba by where it’s raining. He may be missing his calling – he could be “The Rain Man”.