Originally emailed to family and friends on November 10, 2004. I had been in the UK for just under a month. I will put new comments in [brackets] to fill in some gaps. Enjoy this flashback...it got quite a lot of, um, attention the first time around! :o) I'll also include some photos.
Also, you can find Flashback #1 here, and Flashback #2 here, and Flashback #3 here.
Well, it's been another week already -- time goes so fast! It's been a fun-filled-action-packed week for us, as usual! (We're such wild and crazy people you know!) Last night we went to "Keep Fit" at the Village Hall. We were told it wasn't much of a difficult workout -- but that wasn't necessarily the case! :o) I am very sore today and so I've asked Alley to write the update letter. I hope you don't mind :o) She thought you might like a cat's-eye-view of our (mis)adventures! :o) [I will have Alley add new comments as well.]
Alley says... Finally! A chance to be heard! I'm so excited -- most people don't understand, but we cats are highly intelligent and highly communicative. I'm glad Mama is finally giving me a chance to be heard!
So, what has happened this week? Well, obviously Mama and Papa deserted us last night to go to something they called a "work-out." Papa says he's supposed to subject himself to the humiliation and pain because it's in his job description!! I'm glad it's not in my job description! And Mama just came home whimpering. She couldn't pick me up today because her arms and shoulders hurt too much. I think I'm not going to allow them to go again if it's going to interfere with Mama picking me up and paying attention to me! It was even difficult for her to fill my food bowl this morning! She says I don't understand because I'm not svelte. I hate it when she uses foreign words on me! [Mama and Papa only did Keep Fit at the Village Hall for a few more months because they changed the instructor, and Mama didn't like her. Not at all. I was glad because then Mama spent more time with us. Yay for the kitties!]
Sunday Papa went on a bike ride to Guildford with a man from church. He said it took him about an hour to get there, but it took a little longer to get back. It was rainy and muddy. But Mama says she's glad he did it because it helps them to know what he needs for when he starts riding his bike to school. That will be fun because then Mama can sleep in longer! Maybe we can get Papa to fill our bowl early and then convince Mama that he forgot and she'll refill our bowl when she gets up! Hee hee, I'm so smart! [Papa never rode his bike to work because Mama eventually got a job in town and they drove the car together. We also never convinced her to feed us twice. We're still trying, though.]
And yesterday morning a nice man (with a belly like mine) delivered something Mama calls a "dryer" to us. Mama was upset when he got here because supposedly he brought the wrong type? She told the man that in the US, there's only one type of dryer -- the kind that has the vent hose directed to outside. But here, there are 2 kinds -- the kind with the hose, and one called a condenser that doesn't require a hose. We don't entirely understand how that one works, but since this house doesn't have a place to vent the hose, we assumed we needed a condenser dryer. However, the large-bellied man said he was told by the Air Force office to bring a vent hose dryer! Mama didn't know what to do because she had already washed a load of clothes to celebrate the new dryer...and now she doesn't know how she's supposed to dry the clothes! Honestly, I don't like the dryer. There's nothing to watch. [I changed my tune! I came to ♥ the dryer. You'll see.] The washer, though...now that's high-quality entertainment! Our washer at home didn't have a window on the front, but this one does! It's so much fun to watch...I don't know how those clothes get going so fast in the circle! Mama says if I was more svelte I might be able to catch it! You humans like to have popcorn when you watch a movie, well I'm the same way. I like to have a little snack of kitty morsels while I watch the washer. She even took a picture of me watching my favorite show. I love it when she does laundry. And everything smells so nice and flowery...makes me think happy thoughts...
Gosh, it goes SO fast! How does it do that?
Aww. Happy kitty. I love the dryer now! Mmmm, warm cozy goodness.
And Mama and Papa keep taking apart the lovely boxes that I enjoy lazing on. Don't they understand? They have to leave me something! Boxes and big huge pieces of paper are just so much fun for a cat! I can hide out and pounce on Gypsy from atop the box! Or I can get under a piece of paper and quietly wait there for a surprise attack on Daisy (not much of a dog, in my opinion!) She scares easily, though, and won't chase me, so she's not much fun. At least Gypsy will run from me. But I'm starting to feel more like home because I'm recognizing some of my old favorite napping spots. Good cats are very particular and highly selective about their napping spots. My ultimate favorite is right next to the food bowl. I have to protect it from intruders, you know. Another one of my favorites is at the almost-top of the stairs. I like it because I can look down on the living room below and not really be noticed. Mama says I'm trying to be covert. She also says that I like that step because it is wide where I am wide and narrow where I am narrow. Whatever! It's comfy and I'm not afraid I'll fall off! And there are lots of huge windows that let in lots of sunshine (like today) for napping. Mama tried to take a nap today, and she told me she didn't understand how I could take a nap with the sun shining right in my face, but I believe there is a special eyelid adaptation for kitties. Whatever it is, I'm glad I have it and I wish Mama had it. I think she should nap with us more often. I don't think Mama and Papa get enough sleep. Papa goes into his room after dinner and stares into a colorful screen for hours and hours. I guess it's like me and my favorite washing machine show...just because others don't understand it doesn't mean it's not entertaining! But he stays up later than the rest of us, then sometimes on the weekend he will take a nap with us...but just not enough. I've heard that cats need more sleep than humans, but I think Papa simply pushes it too far!
Papa needs to figure out how to sleep ON the pillow instead of under.
Mama figured out how to get lamps and telephones last week. It wasn't a very exciting story, so I won't bore you with it. She just went early, found a parking spot a few blocks away, bought them and carried them to the car. Boring. The excitement came when she got them home, though. There were boxes for us to play in while she was assembling the lamps. And then she got the first one plugged in, put in a light bulb, turned it on and felt very proud of herself. She's pretty handy...usually...
...but about 10 or 15 minutes after she turned the lamp on I heard a short buzz, then a loud pop, then the room went dark! It was scary! I had to have a snack to calm my nerves! She took out the light bulb, but it didn't seem broken. She found another light bulb and plugged it in to make sure the lamp still worked, and it did, so she felt better (then she took it out!). But she called the store to ask why that might have happened, and the store clerk was very smart. He said "Are you from America?" Mama said "Yeah..." duh! And the man said that the light bulbs here in the UK are different from the ones in the US and if she had put a US light bulb in, then that might have caused the problem. She read the light bulb, and it said 120v 60Hz 20w. The man said that the bulbs for the UK are different than that, and that she had to find the right kind. He also told her that there were 2 kinds of fittings. One called an "Edison Screw" and the other that has 2 pins coming out the side. So, disappointed in herself, Mama went in search of another, UK light bulb. I tried to comfort her. I told her that I wouldn't have known either...but she told me that it's probably because I can't read and she should have known better!
Here's what I want to know...why does everything have to be so different here? Wasn't Thomas Edison an American? Wasn't Henry Ford an American? Wasn't George Samon (invented the dryer) an American? It's like the Brits have taken everything American and perverted it and made it different and backwards and complicated and confusing! Mama says we'll get it all straightened out sooner or later and that we need to be flexible. Boring! At least Papa gets away with being defiant since he gets to drive his American car on their roads! Hee hee!
Speaking of cars, Mama and Papa are still trying to find Mama a car. She doesn't feel comfortable driving the Miata on these roads. She is pretty sure that she couldn't see the ambulance driver in the round-about last week because of being on the wrong side of the car...but driving a car with the gear shift on the left side really scares her too! She's not left-handed and is afraid it will be scary driving a car with the gears on the left. I tell her she needs to be brave like me. [Mama got used to it. In fact, I think Mama did more driving than Papa during the 3 years we lived there.] And the Miata is too small for big runs to the commissary. She needs to have enough room to bring back big bags of kitty food. I wish she would give me more food. When we lived in Colorado, I could get away with more because Papa would always sneak me a few extra morsels without Mama knowing it, but since Mama is home all the time now, he can't get away with it so easily. Bummer. I have to say, though, that I'm really glad that Mama is home all the time. We can help her with household chores (we help flatten freshly folded clothes by laying on them, we help her make the bed by getting in the middle of it, and watch the washer to let her know when it's finished). We keep her company. We try to convince her to nap more often. We girls call it QMT (Quality Mama Time). We know that when she gets a job, our QMT will be significantly decreased. Hopefully nothing like it was in Colorado, but still!! It gets lonely around here during the day. Daisy just naps all day (She's such a prima donna), and Gypsy tries to find hiding places. They're boring. They don't have conversations with me like Mama does. She understands me so much better than the others. She still doesn't feed me enough, though. [Daisy and I learned to nap together. Mama said we had to share the comfy chair. It's a good thing Daisy was so little, else I woulda had to just sit on top of her.]
You stay in your corner, and I'll take up the rest.
Mama can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving! Maybe she'll have a special dinner and give us a few extra scoops of food to commemorate the bounty from centuries ago... And she read that she has to have her Christmas packages in the mail by November 24th to have them delivered by Christmas! She laughed and said that obviously the postmaster didn't know how Mama and Christmas presents work! She likes to extend the celebration, often into February, or even October! But she does feel more pressure now than she did before. That hasn't motivated her to do much shopping, though! She says she has to be "inspired" to buy presents for people. Plus, she says it's hard to be "inspired" when she looks at these prices! [That didn't change. Mama still owes Aunt Angela a birthday present from July!]
Piles of paper. Ribbons to chew. Warm fires. Man, Christmas if the best day of the year!
Papa says that school is going well for him, but he works really hard, and he hopes that he won't have to put in this many hours as he gets further into his program. He likes it, though, and that makes him happy. And doing crazy things like biking to the city and doing calisthenics make him appreciate the quiet time he gets with his research. [Mama says "Ahem, cough, what was I thinking? Cough, cough."]
Hopefully next week Mama will be injured again and I can write you some more...I like getting all these thoughts off my chest! It's tough being a housecat! :) And she said to tell you this (I don't understand it)...
Tune in again next week to find out how our Dynamic Duo handles their laundry quandary...
Love to all,
Alley, Gypsy, Mama, Papa, and Daisy (snob!)
you are an absolute genius!
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