A Work In Progress

Answer: Nothing.

For the last month I have been asking the building company to collect their skip from my driveway as the reno is pretty much commplete and there is no need for a skip. I have been ringing them daily over the last week and they promised to pick the skip up yesterday. Last night when I got home, I saw that they had indeed been true to their word and picked up the skip. But they dropped off another one. Do you think they did that on purpose?????

Last night I came home to feathers all over my bedroom floor and a large (dead) bird in the middle of them.  Curious to see what would happen, I let Tui out of her room (she still can't be trusted to have the run of the house) and let her discover the bird that her brother had caught. She was impressed. Until a feather got stuck on her nose. Then she freaked out until I rescued her and removed the feather. Cute.

Here's a handy hint for you: cat pee and heaters do not mix. Penzance has been a bit passive aggressive (and in some cases just straight out aggressive!!) to Tui,  but it is passing. Anyway, what I had not noticed was the fact that he has been spraying on a couple of things in the house. One of these things was the heater. I have not been using the heater as it started to get warm, but we have just had a cold snap and so I decided to turn on the heater again. BIG MISTAKE. Turns out that a) heaters don't respond well to moisture and b) cat pee smells really bad when heated. So my heater (which from an earlier blog you will remember has taken about 3 years to choose one that actually works) started to smoke and smell REALLY bad.  REALLY bad. So now I am trying air out the house..while also trying to warm the house with my remaining ineffective heaters...it is a hard balancing act.

Today I left the house and put Tui the kitten into the spare room. Couple of reasons for this, firstly I do not trust her to have the full run of the house with Penzance just yet and secondly, I knew the painters were coming so wanted to make sure she was locked up so she did not get let outside. So I put a big sign at eye level in thick black ink on the door that said: Do Not Open This Door. Kitten inside room and she is not allowed out. Thank you. At about 10am I got a call from the painter. Painter: "Hmmm, you know how you had a sign on the door to one of your rooms that said "Do Not Open As Kitten Inside" Me: "Yes" Painter: "Ummmm, well I opened the door" Me: "Oh" Painter: "And the kitten ran right past me." Me: "Yes, well that is why I had the sign as kittens do tend to do that." Painter: "Then I heard the cat door swing open and closed and I ran to see where she went and she went over the fence. She is a...

At last the kitten with an unusually small head has joined our family. We have called her Tui (after the native NZ bird). The picture below is her after her first day. She has settled in well and if I were to describe her in one word, it would be bold! She did not bond with Penzance immediately. As I expected, Penzance was keen to be friends and came running up to her meowing. She, on the other hand, hissed and battered her little paws at him. Fair enough. He is a bit bigger than she is and before he went to greet her, he first went and ate all her dinner. Not a great way to start a relationship. But over the next couple of days they seem to have reached a truce and while they are not best of friends just yet, the hissing has stopped and they both can sit close to each other and watch each other without making a fuss. So I have hope that budding friendship may be developing. Oh and yes, Tui does have her own mini tent. My Mum made it for my ...

I have mentioned before that I have a bad track record when it comes to talking to Managing Directors. That has continued again this morning. Couple of things you need to know before I start on the story. First is that we have security swipe cards that are required to be swiped before pressing your floor on the lift and then swiped before entering the doors on the floors in the building. Second is that my swipe card is in a plastic holder that attaches to my belt and I can pull out (on a string) and then it self retracts back in when I let it go. Okay - now for the story. Walking into the building foyer this morning, I spy the MD at the coffee bar. I walk a bit faster as I don't want to get stuck in the lift with him (knowing that I am incapable of making intelligent conversation with him) so I race into the lift (as the doors close on me) and start swiping my card and pressing my floor. However the floor won't light up. So I keep swiping and pressing, while hold toast in my mo...

All of my adult life I have had a rather large chest. It is very annoying and I get quite embarrassed about it. Anyway, yesterday HR came round and took photos of each of us for the work internal website. I have just seen my photo. Lord have mercy! Not sure if it is the dress I was wearing, the angle of the photo, or what, but there are two things that catch your attention in that photo and it is not my lovely brown eyes. Luckily the HR chick who took the photo is very nice and has agreed to crop the photo so it is more G rated. Tomorrow I go shopping for a minimiser bra.

I have spent all weekend inhaling paint fumes. Not in some weird recreational sort of way, but because on Friday they painted my ensuite, specially using oil based paint on the doors, and I came home to find my house smelling strongly of paint. I ended up moving into the spare room down the hall as the smell was so strong. Over the weekend I left all the windows and all the doors open to try and air out the house, but the place still smelt. I moved back into my room last night and woke up this morning with a headache from the smell. Clearly I am not cut out for substance abuse.