Snifter weather

Mutterings continued.

as my Dad calls it.

Went to see HP3 again last night, this time Gold Class. We had wanted to see Shrek but it was booked out - there were only 3 seats left for Hairy Pooter.

We were quite disappointed with the previews, we were hoping for Sky Captain (which is slated to open on July 15, woo hoo!) but, apart from Shrek, they were mostly kid/teenager oriented. We were hoping for more adult fare as the minimum age for patrons in Gold Class is 18.

Today I discovered a web site, sent the info off to a friend, and was told that Kevin Smith started the site for one of his Jay and Silent Bob movies. That's me, behind the times. It has an amusing review of a Towlie (in)action figure.

Monday.

Mutterings continued.

More amusements from Engrish.com - Tit Bits; Gus's breath may be bad but it's not this bad! and obviously Springfield.

One of the acts at the Glastonbury festival (think Woodstock but with more mud) over the weekend was the National Opera who performed, of all things, the Ride of the Valkyries from Wagner's The Ring Cycle. And by all accounts it went over very well.

Movie Mistakes HPatPoA boob count - still at 39.

Weather forecast conundrum

Mutterings continued.

The forecast over the next three days is "A few showers; occasional showers; back to a few showers." Do 'a few' showers happen occasionally? It is 'a few' as in 'quite a few', ie more than not many or 'a few' as in 'we lucky few', ie less than the required number to wipe out the French?

I got a stern talking to, complete with finger wagging, from Mum at lunchtime re not cancelling my holiday in September. So the trip is back on.

I made Beer, beef and borlotti bean pies for dinner last night - a tasty combination of two recipes that Leece thought up. And we watched the 3rd last episode of Firefly, the John Cleese ep of The Muppets (v. funny and only one dead parrot gag) and Hudson Hawke, which I think is a great movie. It costars Richard E Grant, one of my favourite actors, doing a wonderfully OTT villain.

At a time when I should be saving for my hols, I've just spent more money at Cafe Press (see Spend Your Hard Earned to the right there) - I got a $5 voucher from Rob so I've bought an All Unicorns are Different travel mug and a Get Fuzzy journal. The hero of Get Fuzzy is a Siamese cat called Bucky - having owned (been owned by?) a Siamese in the past I can relate to his total and utter self absorption.

Damn you ABC Classic FM!

Mutterings continued.

Do they know how much they've cost me in the last year or so?? I heard a couple of tracks from another "I want it! I want it NOW!" album this morning. It's "Songs for a Wise King" by the Renaissance Players - music written by/for Alphonso X of Spain in the 13th Century.

One of the tracks played was "A Virgen Que De Deus Madre", a sampling of which can be found on the Amazon.com website. The bastard CD is out of print (boo!) though I think Amazon.de, the German site, may have it (yay!). I say 'think' because the page is in German and the only thing I've been able to translate with any confidence is a button marked "hier klicken". I think it means 'click here', though I could be wrong.

And I say they may have it because next to the item are the words "Versandfertig bei Amazon in 1 bis 2 Wochen", which could mean it's available from Amazon in 1 or 2 weeks. Or it could mean 1 or 2 millennia, don't hold your breath.

The Renaissance Players are from Sydney - and I love that one of them is called Winsome.

I've just noticed that Gus has pulled all the toys out of her toy box - I wonder what she was after. No doubt, when I do the vacuuming in a little while, I'll find all her ping pong balls under the sofas.

How much are those pussies in the window?

Mutterings continued.

I came home tonight to find two furry faces looking out of the bedroom (Gus) and loungeroom (Milo) windows. I'd like to think they were welcoming me home but I suspect they just wanted their dinner.

From the Guardian: "Do the heroes of 60s and 70s rock and pop have anything to offer the young? Or are they just surfing a wave of nostalgia? We sent Sam Wetherell, 17, along to their gigs to tell us (after we told him who Kraftwerk were and what Paul McCartney looks like)." I sympathise with him - I can't see what the fuss about Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett is.

His comment on The Who: "Eventually, two middle-aged blokes emerged on stage under biblical spotlighting. Their first song, Who Are You?, was a primitive howl. The balder of the two (who had made the interesting decision to wear wraparound sunglasses) treated his guitar like a musical punch-bag, while the singer bounded around the stage, stopping occasionally to take a sip from a cup of tea. I had never knowingly heard a song by the Who until that moment, and it completely blew me away. It was heart-wrenching, belligerent rock music, authoritative and powerful, but at times almost paradoxically tender." What a shame he never got to see the incomparable Moonie.

I bought a copy of the Keith Moon biog "Dear Boy" from Angus and Robertson on line yesterday. Bargain at $29 (including postage). Graham Chapman, a fellow alcoholic, had some interesting things to say about him in his Liar's Autobiography (a book I read so often it fell apart and I had to buy the hardcover). "Keith was kindness itself and never harmed anyone in his escapades, which certainly brightened up many lives... Keith is one person I know I'll see again."

Movie Mistakes' HPatPoA stuff ups count = 39. Hmmm, there were 40 yesterday.

Another week almost over.

Mutterings continued.

The meal at Acapulco Annies last night was delish. Very filling too. I'm a wuss when it comes to the hot stuff and was staying away from the chilies. Leece's mother, on the other hand....

Sendit (aka Blackstar) have got the series 1 DVD set of Blakes 7 going for under 30 quid and they're advertising series 2.

"DVD EXTRAS

Commentary track on 3 episodes. The Making of Part Two. June Hudson's costume collection. Mat models. Character introductions x 3. Trailer for Series 3. Saturday Superstore. Scene Today. Mulit-Coloured Swap Shop. 6 easter eggs. Small World Model Spacecraft."

The Movie Mistakes site count of boobs (as in errors) in Harry Potter and the Whatsit is at 40.

The most untranslatable word in the world - a worldwide poll of professional translators.

HHGttG

Mutterings continued.

From the Radio Times: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is back on Radio 4 - 25 years after it first started. The BBC has officially announced that the sci-fi comedy will return on 21 September for a new six-part series. Most of the original cast - including Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern and Mark Wing-Davey - are reunited for the new episodes, which will air as a Hollywood film of the book nears completion." I was never struck on David Dixon as Ford Prefect for some reason.

I wonder who will do The Book? More on the BBC website.

Amusing post on The Mausoleum Club forum: "I've seen elderly TV celebs advertising those disabled scooters before - June Whitfield, Frank Windsor - but never seen this one before: Paul Darrow advertises one and it actually includes footage of him riding around on it (and not looking too embarrased by it either.)" Wonder if he was wearing Avon's leathers at the time.

Guilty TV pleasures time - I laugh at 'allo 'allo.

More pleasures, though not at all guilty, I'm off to Acapulco Annies tonight for Leece's mum's birthday. I'm very partial to Mexican food.

Twangers.

Mutterings continued.

Get your twangers out and let's sing the Plucking Song.

And if you don't have any balls, ask a friend if you can play with his.

Funny how your tastes change.

Mutterings continued.

For dinner I'm having baked chicken with steamed vegies - caulie, broccoli, carrots and pumpkin. When I was younger I couldn't stand pumpkin unless it was in a scone or mashed up with potato - now I love the stuff. I bought some called "Sunset" which is bright orange, with an orange skin, unlike the "Ironbark" which is paler with a greeny-grey coloured skin. I'm steaming it with Tarragon and Oregano. V. nice.

What a thrilling life I lead, eh?

"Pole-dancer Donna Cleeve has been forced to quit her £1,000-a-week job because she's allergic to the metal pole.

After three months she realised nickel used in the poles was to blame. She knew she had an allergy to the element, but wasn't aware it was used in the poles." I'm allergic to nickel too - mine came from the back of watches, not poles.

From the Guardian: "Caroline Sullivan tries to say something - anything - nice about the latest rock-star offspring to try and do as daddy did: Rolling Stone Ron Wood's daughter Leah."

Exciting news from the world of archeology: "Stonehenge creators' remains found.

Remains found near Stonehenge are almost certainly of an ancient people who built the monument, excited archaeologists have revealed." The plans and mounds of tea cups and fag ends were a give away.

Quote

Mutterings continued.

One of the better quotes about Big Brother: "It's become like cock-fighting: poor dumb brutes being set upon each other by conniving television producers." In this case they're talking about the UK version but the sentiment is the same for the Aus version.

Cornflake catastrophe

Mutterings continued.

I opened up the box of Skippy cornflakes this morning and pulled out the bag only to have the bottom of it fall out, resulting in a veritable cascade of cornies.

I swore, Gus ran (she circles me like a shark when there is food preparation going on) and I had to drag out the dreaded vacuum cleaner (dreaded because the cats hate the noise and I just hate vacuum cleaners) to suck up all the flakes.

I learned something today:
1. Cornflakes are a herd cereal - when one goes, they all go.
2. Cornflakes are very good at camouflage - just when you think you've found them all, several more have made themselves invisible against the lino and you only discover them by stepping on them.

I hate technology

Mutterings continued.

Since getting my pc fixed a couple of months ago, I've been battling with the printer. I've uninstalled the drivers, reinstalled the drivers, downloaded new drivers, pulled out all the plugs, put all the plugs back in, gone through the Troubleshooting screens from start to finish and the bastard just refused to work. This afternoon, after replacing all the ink cartridges and pulling all the plugs out (again) I noticed that there was a USB hole next to the cable at the back of the printer. Something stirred in my befuddled brain and I vaguely remembered that XP only likes USB connections for some hardware.

I pulled the USB cable out of my scanner, plugged it into the printer and, you guessed it, the bastard is now working. For some reason my OS decided that it now only wants a USB connection - the cable it was happy with for that last 18 months just isn't any good any more.

Sodding Microsoft.

It looks as though the price of petrol is slowly edging its way down - I saw it for 94.8c this morning. I'm surprised it didn't go up on Thursday - Public Service pay day, you know.

LOTR - RotK music. I can't recall if I noticed it the first time I saw the film, but there's a scene which features 3 bars straight out of Rurouni Kenshin.

And while I'm on music, I'm half listening to a doco about Mahler and I've just twigged that it's narrated by Kenneth Branagh. A few days ago I stumbled across a thing on the telly about Princess Diana and thought to myself that the narrator sounded very familiar. It was David Troughton so of course it was familiar - I have enough of his Shakespeare on tape to know the voice.

This was written last night but it appears to have gone into blogger limbo.

Another week over.

Mutterings continued.

My first full working week for a while.

I spent an interesting half hour this morning watching the new male orang, Dinar, being introduced to Puspa, one of the breeding females. A bit of teeth baring and swiping at each other (think four year olds lashing out but not connecting) but all went ok in the end.

Lots of junk mail and a lovely postcard from Malta (thanks Fiona) in the box today.

It's been an expensive couple of days - $45 for the doctor, $60 for my haircut (I'm rather pleased with it - just wish I could wield a dryer and a brush the way the hairdressers do) and $170 for an ultrasound this morning. $170 for them to say, "We can't see anything." I have a slightly swollen lymph node on my neck apparently; it took two radiologists and a lot of gel to give me the good/no news.

The haircut experience was lovely - they sit you down in a vibrating chair while they wash your hair and give you a scalp massage. I've had about half my hair cut off - the bottom half fortunately.

Amusing story from The Guardian's The Northerner:

" >>> HUMBER COASTGUARD WARNS OF DANGERS OF INFLATION


The Hull Daily Mail, meanwhile, reports a traditional seasonal rise in another transport problem: the number of holidaymakers
unintentionally setting out to cross the North Sea on inflatable
dolphins, children's dinghies and rubber rings.


This week's delightful sunshine has seen three of these amateur
mariners rescued by lifeboats or passing ships as they helplessly
tried to paddle back to Brid or Scarborough against the wind.


The Humber Coastguard takes the Mail painstaking through advice to
inflatable users, which is much more complicated than simply saying: stay inshore. Amateur sailors should check the wind direction with lifeguards (no Boy Scout wetting of your finger these days) and children in inflatables should apparently be tethered to the beach - or slumbering parents' toes - with a line.


If you are blown out to sea, you should "remain seated so as not to
tip the inflatable up.' Meanwhile, wave above the waves, shout as
loud as you can and stay calm in the knowledge that the Humber
Coastguard has apparently "never not seen anyone who has been blown
out to sea; help will soon be on its way" according to the reassuring spokesman."

Precipitation

Mutterings continued.

Leece's water tank has been overflowing - yay!

The kind of headline sub-editors dream of: "Virgin: Sydney a dud route". It refers to a story about Virgin airlines giving Sydney a miss for its flights to Fiji and Vanuatu.


"Star wants chest hair insurance
From correspondents in London

IT was one of the more unusual requests British insurance underwriter Jonathan Thomas had received: Could he please draw up a policy to protect an unnamed star against the loss of his chest hair?" It ain't Orlando Bloom - apparently he's being fitted for a chest wig for his next movie. "The policy is only valid for "accidental bodily injury" and - as is the way with insurance - has a lengthy list of exclusions.

If the star was to be left with a bald torso through war, revolution, radioactive contamination or terrorism - sorry, no payout.

Their lifestyle would also have to be circumscribed, ruling out activities as varied as fire-breathing and - a measure that sums up the sheer caution inherent to insurance brokers - pregnancy and child-birth. "

Chap on the iinet.general ng reports that tickets for the upcoming Eagles concert are priced as follows:

Diamond $558.57
Gold $228.57
Silver $140.57
Bronze $ 96.57

WTF???? I wonder how much the Dockers would charge? (small local football related injoke there).

Off to get my hair cut tonight. It needs it.

Windy, again.

Mutterings continued.

Been a warm day - 23c, overcast, howling winds. Cyclone weather. I rode my motor cycle home from WAIT in a cyclone in '78. Exciting, though vaguely scary. All the lights went out on campus and the poor sods in the library had to be led to safety by the security guards as there were no windows above the, I think, 3rd floor and all was pitch black. I was doing an Anthropology tute and we were rescued by the lecturer's wife who arrived with a couple of torches. We all held hands as we walked, crocodile file, down the corridors of the Social Science building.

I shared a house in Wilson with two other students; when I got home the power was out and there was a note on the fridge which said, "I know I'm a coward but I've gone home to mum!". Fortunately we had gas so we could at least eat something. The other girl and I spent the evening drinking coffee and smoking, something we did most nights when we weren't playing cards (and drinking coffee and smoking).

An article by Terry "Writer, film director, actor and Python" Jones on where his son gets to after choir practice.

From the Radio Times: "The two main TV channels are making rival Sherlock Holmes dramas, with ITV's Stephen Fry up against BBC's Rupert Everett in his first major British TV acting role for two decades. Both channels have given the go-ahead to new interpretations of the globally famous fictional sleuth, and the dramas will be broadcast within months of each other. Everett plays the detective in a TV film planned for BBC1's Christmas, but ITV1 is not expected to have its Fry drama ready until next year."

Off to Scarborough for F and C with the Usual Suspects. Not a great night to be out and about, admittedly.

Interesting site for sale/swap/info of British and other comics. It features a few I remember my mother used to buy me when I was little. They also have manga and US comics and a lot of TV annuals from the 60's - Pinky and Perky, the Man from Uncle ("Illya! Mr Waverley!"), Sooty ("What's that Mr Prime Minister? You want to play your xylophone?).

Cats!

Mutterings continued.

My Latest Leece Goodies arrived today - I ordered a cheetah clock (lovely it is) and a mug. I put the battery in the clock and set it down on the table, where Milo tried to kill the second hand. I turned it over but that didn't help as he tried to get to the hand from the back. I've now put it in my bag - it's going into work with me.

Milo is now trying to get the CSA journal out of its plastic wrapper.

Movie Mistakes contributors have now found 25 errors with Harry Potter 3.

Gongs

Mutterings continued.

The Queen has seen fit to gong Willard White, opera singer who played Othello in the RSC production (Ian McK as Iago). John Hurt and Patricia Routledge have OBEs (Other Bugger's Efforts).

L and R came over for dinner and DVDs on Saturday. Yum pasta, yum banana and chocolate cake from Miss Mauds and The Muppets (Bob Hope, who was surprisingly good), fourth last Firefly and MST3K Teenage Caveman (with a decidedly NOT teenaged Robert Vaughan). "Illya? Mr Waverley??"

Unhappy times in the West End. "London's West End is in despair and questioning its role after a series of expensive flops."

Road weather alert.

Mutterings continued.

Weather-wise, it's been a rough few days in Perth. The forecast for today sounded v. scary and almost put me off going to the shops. Almost. Not that I bought anything exciting but I do like to have a mooch around.

On Thursday night I met up with L and R before HP & tPoA for coffee. We sat in Dome watching the rain fall horizontally (does it fall if it's horizontal?). It was pretty impressive, anyway. The anoraks at Movie Mistakes have only come up with 23 mistakes (most of them pretty minor) so far. They've found 118 so far for Return of the King. I reported 1 in Fellowship of the Ring (guess this makes me an anorak too).

I've been watching 100 One Hit Wonders on VH1 (hosted by William Shatner - ah, how appropriate). Amazing the number of tracks I really like that have turned up. They played Iron Butterfly's Inna Gadda Da Vida (I have the vinyl), a piece of music most memorably played in The Simpsons. "Seventeen minutes later...."

Tired Poss

Mutterings continued.

We went to the 9.30pm session of Harry Potter 3 last night. 9.30pm is usually my sleepy bo-boes time so I'm a tired Poss today. I got to bed about 12.30, took a sleepy, woke up at 4.37am, went back to sleep, woke up at 5.30 and dozed on and off until 6.25 when I fell soundly asleep, only to be woken by the alarm clock 5 minutes later. *sigh*

Harry Potter 3 was wonderful. Better than 1 and 2 IMHO. Very funny, scary in parts, with a great running gag involving a tree. David Thewlis as Lupin and Gary Oldman, Sirius Black, were impressive. Lupin was played very sympathetically. And I think young Rupert 'Ron Weasley' Grint is growing up into a pretty fine actor. I wasn't sure about him in Sorcerer's Stone but he seems to have toned down the over acting and mugging. The end credits are a giggle - I look forward to seeing them in full when it isn't so late and I'm not so tired. I think Leece fell in love with the hippogriff - she was leaning forward in her chair making "Ooohhh" noises. 8-)

The price of petrol seems to have come down a touch - last week the Liberty across the road was selling it for 105.9c a litre; today it's 97.2c, the cheapest in the area.

There was a delivery notice from UPS in the letter box today. I have no idea what it could be as I don't order stuff that is delivered by UPS. Apparently it weighs 0.2lbs, which means it's either from the US or the UK. I wonder if it's my latest order of Leece goodies from Cafe Press?? If so, that was a very quick delivery as I only ordered it a few days ago. Leece is now doing sepia red art work on organic cotton - loverly.

Soaps - spoilers for The Bill ahoy!!

Mutterings continued.

I read an article today about a tv show that was a favourite of mine but has slipped so far into soapdom I can't watch it. I'm talking about The Bill. Apparently June Ackland and Jim Carver finally get hitched (how many years has it taken??) but as a spokesperson for the show said, 'As with all soap marriages it doesn't run smoothly."

Bad enough the viewers think it's a soap - now the creators have admitted it. Bring back Galloway, says I.

Off to see Harry Potter tomorrow night (GenghisCon fundraiser) at the Astor in Mt Lawley - lovely deco theatre. The Silvery Gibbon Foundation people are attending the session before so here's hoping they don't leave bananas and peanuts everywhere. Bit of a furphy that - Silvery gibbons don't eat peanuts. Neither do elephants, come to think of it.

The bastard SGIC insurance company in Adelaide is advertising insurance for the over 50's - using one of my fave Oz bands, the Masters Apprentices! "If you ever had a pin up of Jim Keays on your bedroom wall, you're probably eligible...." NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Poss hurls herself to the floor and sobs. For the record, I'm NOT over 50 however I do see the half tonne looming on the horizon and I'm not happy about it.

Wild and woolly.

Mutterings continued.

Sun comes out, rain comes down in buckets, sky goes black, repeat. Dad nearly got blown away going to the letterbox this morning. I think it's a soup and toast kind of night.

I've just been listening to an astrologer rabbiting on about what the transit of Venus means. Seems that I, as an Aquarian, am going to have a very passionate love life until the end of June. Chance'd be a fine thing! One of the newsreaders described the sight of the transit as looking like an orange with blight.

Sunday - wet(ish)

Mutterings continued.

Just got back from the folks' place. Mum is feeling much better than she was - she stayed up for quite a while, we had lunch and went for a bit of a drive. I think she was ready for a rest when we got back, however. She thinks the radiotherapy may have helped as the pain in her shoulder and arm doesn't last as long and she's cut down on the morphine.

Gastronomic discovery - Beetroot and Ginger Chutney. Bought in the New Norcia Art Gallery shop last Thurs. Very tasty indeed.

Public hol. tomorrow. Yay!

I bought a new phone.

Mutterings continued.

I had long held off buying a mobile phone as I really don't like them. Interfering, noisy instruments that strip the users of all semblance of manners. I eventually bought one about 3 and half years ago and it's getting a little old. It has a fairly new battery (only a few months old) but I have to recharge the damn thing every couple of days, even when I don't use it.

So this morning I took myself to the Telstra shop and got another one. It's got interchangeable picture thingies in the cover and has a camera and a torch and a radio (apparently). It won't, however, do the dishes or feed the cats, a definite oversight by the manufacturers.

I'll probably still only use it to do the occasional text message and ring the RAC.

From Ian McKellen's Rumour page:

"McKELLEN'S SNORING DISTRACTS THEATRE-GOERS: Movie actor SIR IAN McKELLEN was caught napping during a London stage performance on Wednesday - and snored so loudly he distracted the entire auditorium. The LORD OF THE RINGS star, 64, was sitting in the audience for the opening night of THE HOLY TERROR at the DUKE OF YORK'S THEATRE in the capital, when his snoring could be heard reverberating round the venue. A source says, 'Some people looked around to see where the noise was coming from. He must have slept for about 20 minutes.' "

Fact: "I have never been known to snore — ask whoever you can find! As for snoozing in the theatre, think of it. At the end of a long day's work, you settle down in a comfy seat and they turn the lights off. I have slept through many a distinguished production. The only satisfactory aspect of this report is that my age was reported correctly." — Ian McKellen, 4 May 2004 "

Nick Gone (was here....now......gorrrrn!)*.

Mutterings continued.

Put Nick on the Greyhound bus for Adelaide this afternoon. This morning we visited Fremantle but the weather was too horrible to do much. We had a wander around the markets, strolled to Dome coffee shop for...coffee... and then had a good mooch through Elizabeth's Second Hand book store. Nick had discovered the Perth branch and was very much taken with them. I bought a copy of Who's Who in Shakespeare for $8.80 - lots of great photos.

We then drove to South Mole and back up to Stirling Highway, passed the submarine and Maritime Museum, the railway station (which I think looks fabulous) and the container terminal.

Home for lunch and then into town via taxi. We were going to have coffee in the Art Gallery coffee shop but it looked as though it wasn't open to the public.

Not a lot of people on the bus, only about half a dozen. Nick was asked where he wanted to sit and if he wanted to face the front. We hadn't realised that you could face any other way on a bus! We had a quick squiz at the seats and all seemed to be facing forwards so I'm not sure why he was asked.

We had a lovely time in New Norcia yesterday. The weather was fine and sunny and we had a good look around the town, through the art gallery and museum and a peer through the monastery gates.

* One of my favourite lines in Noises Off - it was Leah's delivery that made it so very funny.

Damned cold!

Mutterings continued.

1c when I got up yesterday. The flat is nice and warm however and we haven't needed to put the heater on. Nick keeps looking at the blue skies and saying, "But this is the middle of winter!" The days have been lovely.

Last night we went to Scarborough for fish and chips with Rob and Leece. Very enjoyable evening. And today it's off to New Norcia to see the Benedictine community. I took some friends there once for the annual picnic and they were so impressed that one of them declared he was going to book out the entire hotel for his 50th birthday.

Now, said friend has been known to dress up as Evita for parties (he tried to catch a cab home and couldn't understand why they wouldn't stop for a 6" tall chap in a long frock and size 12 stilettoes and moustache), so how the good people of New Norcia would have coped makes for fun speculation. In the end he hired a farmhouse in the South of France for 20 of his closest friends. Gosh I know such sophisticated people. I'm obviously not one of them as he didn't invite me. 8-( That's because I was travelling to Europe a few months later anyway and really couldn't afford to go twice.

Tourist

Mutterings continued.

Nick arrived the UK yesterday and it's been interesting seeing one's home town as a tourist. The weather was bloody awful yesterday but cleared up in the afternoon and today was quite lovely. Cold out of the sun, but nice blue skies.

We went to the Zoo today and saw nearly every thing. Ended up at Kings Park about 2ish for lunch.

I'm taking mum to the hospital tomorrow so I've given Nick a bus time table and a map of the Cultural Centre and hope he'll be ok.

The cats are confused as they're not used to having to cope with closed doors. Living on my own (well, apart from 2 cats) I tend to leave all the doors open all the time. Not possible when you have a visitor. Both Gus and Milo sat staring at the closed spare bedroom door for ages last night after Nick had gone to bed. It's not that they wanted to go in there, it's just that the door was inexplicably shut.