The Journal of the Browncoat Cat

Today is the third day of the annual Tennis Championship at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. In other words, we are half way through Wimbledon 2004. Every year, in the last week of June and first week in July the World turns its attention to London SW17, for the greatest tennis tournament of them all. It used to be that there would be perfect weather for the whole of Wimbledon, however in recent years, the trend has been that if one week is fine, the other is disrupted by rain. Guess what, this week is the bad one. The weather has been absolutely diabolical. Still if the trend is followed, the there should be stunning weather next week.

I thoroughly dislike tennis. I find it extremely tedious, so it is a good thing I have better things to do with my time than watch people knock a little yellow ball backwards and forwards over an net. The only advantage Wimbledon normally has is the sight of attractive women in very short skirts, however, given what is fashionable at the moment, that advantage no longer exists.

20six Comments

(23.6.04 13:53)
Tennis is great for watching men’s legs too. And, quite frankly, there aren’t enough of those on show otherwise.

(23.6.04 13:57) Whatever floats your boat

Yesterday was the first day of Summer, so naturally I had to turn the central heating on for half an hour to relieve the chill. Rain and wind for most of the day.

There was however a bright start to the morning, so all the hippies at Stonehenge got what they wanted, a chance to see the sun rise over the majestic stone monoliths. Apparently the designers of Milton Keynes arranged it so that at sunrise on 21^st June, the dawn rays shoot down the central avenue, and reflect of the glass walls of Milton Keynes railway station.

The only problem is that now that the longest day has passed, the inevitable slide down to Winter. The days will start getting shorter, the weather will definitely get worse. Still enjoy it whilst we can.

As they say, it is better to be born lucky than rich. My friend Rhian is buying a new house, and does not like the carpet that was in situ on the floor of her front room. It is not an old carpet, and rather than bin it, she has given it to me. Add to this the rolls of excess underlay that my sister Janet has in her house, it looks as if I will have another room in my house completely finished. There should even be enough left over to be laid in the passage between my stairs and study that connects the front of he house to the back. As you can see from the picture, it is an attractive bottle green, with a yellow and gold pattern on it. Thank you Rhian and Thank you Janet, I am really happy.

I am now so hungry. I so desperately need to get into my clothes for my upcoming cruise that I am using emergency measures. So I am giving the Kellogg’s Cereal Diet a try, a bowl of cereal for breakfast, one for lunch and a proper meal in the evening. It has been OK for the first few days, but as I work until 8pm on Fridays, and wont have food until about 8:30pm. Having a bowl Special K for breakfast at 10am, a bowl of Sultana Bran at 3:30pm and then a long wait has left me so so very hungry.

On the plus side, my digestive system has just about recovered from the self-inflicted battering it got on Tuesday night. Studiously avoiding anything that could give me an attack of the icks. This includes no milk on my cereal, instead I am pouring a glass of orange juice on the them.

Oh boy, was I ill last night, and it is all my own fault. I had had a small salad at lunchtime, and another salad in ASDA in Aberdare for tea. And then I decided to have a scone with clotted cream and jam to finish the meal off. Now, I knew that this was going to cause trouble because I have intolerance to the protein in milk, which meant that the cream was going to give me trouble. I also suffer from intolerance to Soya protein, and I suspect that there was Soya flour in the scone, so I was hit by a double whammy. I got home and I was feeling sweaty and clammy and ever so slightly nauseous. It just got worse and worse. So I took my medication and went to bed, and had a very uncomfortable night’s sleep.

This morning I was very woozy, but I went to work as usual. By lunchtime, I was more or less back to normal, apart from a slight headache.

20six Comments

(16.6.04 15:48)
Oooch. Glad you’re better. Was there anything in the salads, do you think?

(16.6.04 16:04) I don’t think so, unless ASDA have started adding Soya oil to their coleslaw.

(16.6.04 16:08) Is it really worth it for a cream tea?

(16.6.04 17:24) I don’t think so, unless ASDA have started adding Soya oil to their coleslaw.

(16.6.04 17:26) Probably not. <HOMER SIMPSON> But their so tasty. </HOMER>

When I left my house this morning on the way to work, I was struck by a couple of facts.

1. Thirty years ago when I was a pupil at Treherbert Infants School, (for 3 to 7 year-olds) only one child was dropped off by car. The vas majority of the others would walk with their mothers, up to 2 miles in the morning and the same in the evening. Now for 20 minutes in the early morning, Stuart Street is chock-a-block full of cars dropping the little darlings off at school. It is debatable whether this is a good thing, children that young should not be expected to walk that far each day, and yet the amount of pollution that the School Run produces cannot be good for the environment.

2. When I was attending this school, the mothers dropping their little darlings of to school would all be wearing either dresses or skirts. Whilst it was socially acceptable for women to wear trousers in the early 1970’s, it was still unusual. Today, only one mother was wearing a skirt, all the rest were either in jeans or chinos.

Just goes to show how much times have changed in the past three decades.

Last night, I had an extra little helper in my garden. As my sister Janet was out in her Salsa class, my mother was babysitting, and she brought the boy down to the house with her. I think he enjoyed himself, digging out bramble roots with my mother, whilst I dug out yet another old tree stump. After an hour or so on this job, I decided that I needed to move onto something easier, like moving the last pile of rubble from one end of the garden to the other.

James was certain that I was going to set a bomb of in my garden. This is because he had misheard my mother had telling him that I would be lighting a bonfire. So, I set the fire going, with some newspaper and tinder dry kindling. James was very disappointed that I did not have any fireworks to go with my bonfire. I had to explain to him that that was something special for November. Seeing that ignition had taken place, my mother dumped a huge wedge of roots into the brazier, putting the fire out again. I was not best pleased, I had carefully ordered the pile of rubbish for burning, leaving the roots until there was a really good blaze. Bramble roots don’t burn very well, it must have something to do with the dry soil that clings to them. Fortunately, the brazier was still cool enough for me to empty it, and start again. I was glad that James’ mother arrived to take him home. at this point, as fire and children really do not mix. Thankfully, I have now incinerated everything that need to be burnt, as my house stunk of smoke for days after my last bonfire, and will no doubt reek of acrid smoke for days to come.

The Cherry tree stump is still alive and kicking, putting out shoots left right and centre. I cut one that was three inches long and had shot up in a day. Need to get something to kill the damn thing, I want it to rot away, but it will not do that if it is still putting out shoots. I have been looking at plants to put in the nooks and crannies of the stump’s root system to hide it, freebies from my mother’s garden, blue Campanela and orange Snapdragons

The Bryan Adam’s song Can’t Stop this Thing We Started has just been on the radio. Normally when Mr. Adams is played, I switch my ears off, as I am not a fan of the Canadian Rocker, (Everything I Do was pants, why was it Number One in the Charts for so long). However, this time something made me listen, and it suddenly struck me, this song is about a Stalker. He is saying that no matter what the poor woman who is the object of his affections does, she is going to end up with him.

Evidence for the Prosecution:

• The Title: Can’t Stop This Thing We Started; like she has any say in the matter.
• From the first verse: “You might have a dozen other guys But if you wanna stop me baby – don’t even try”; obviously saying that I am going to scare off anyone man get friendly with.
• In the Chorus: “But if you wanna stop me baby – don’t even try I’m goin’ one way – your way”; in other words I am going to follow you compulsively wherever you go.

So all in all, a creepy song. (more…)

I had a great day yesterday.  I went with my family down to the Masons Arms in Gabalfa, where I stuffed myself at the Carvery.  Started of with a prawn salad.  Then I had a carvery, slices of turkey and roast beef, with more brasica than is probably sensible piled onto my plate. Finally and Ice cream sundae and a cup of coffee.  And I was a very happy chappy.

Thanks to everyone who wished me happy birthday yesterday.  (more…)

It did not look like much, a few inches of very dead looking stump poking out above the soil, where the lower patio by my shed/garage is going to be. I thought it would only take a few hours to dig it out. Four days later on Saturday afternoon, after digging down three foot, and sawing through half a dozen thick roots, I eventually levered the blessed thing out. I am just going to leave the stump and roots from the old cherry tree there in the garden. Fill the gaps in between the roots with compost and plant alpine plants in them (if the bramble can grow there, then the plants should).

I have just about enough slabs to cover half of the area of my lower patio. Thirty six 18 inch by 18 inch patio slabs to cover a 9 foot by 9 foot square. Because there is going to be a step between the one half and the other, a slight variation in colour between the slaps will not be that noticeable.