A classic track

Fifi the cat is no more....

She was let out the day before yesterday like she normally was, she usually spent the best part of her time playing in the garden or walking up and down the fence ready to pounce on some unfortunate mouse... she had already butchered a few and was becoming quite the rodent serial killer, but the other night she came home and wasn't in a very good way at all, her back legs were weak and she looked like she had been drugged and her ears were cold, she had no physical damage except for one claw that had been frayed and her collar was missing, we assumed another cat had "jumped" her so we put her in front of the fire to warm her up, she was obviously in shock, but the next morning there was no improvement.

So Andrea took her to the vets, they decided to keep her in and initially the vets thought she had been poisoned, they x-rayed her but found nothing broken... but then she started to go downhill so they opened her up, and it was then that they found that she had massive internal damage akin to either being kicked or run over.... it wasn't long after that that they put her to sleep, and today out of curiosity I wandered onto the road and found her collar.... it kind of confirmed what happened, how she managed to crawl back to the house is beyond me.... :(

Anyway she has been buried now at the front of the house, shadow boy wanted her buried under the tree she liked so much, but after putting the shovel down and realising that it would be impossible because of the root system, I moved her to the corner of the garden, she now has a large slate slab over her grave as we have quite a few fox's around this area, I'll sink it into the lawn in the spring.....

Now I've never been a fan of having a cat, I made my views on cat ownership quite clear, and we only got the cat because shadow boy promised he would look after it..... well that initial zeal faded after a few weeks when he realised feeding and cleaning up after a kitten wasn't all cute and fluffy and he disowned it, which I have to say annoyed me intensely, I've never really liked cats, they do what they want, it's a bugger to house train them...... and to be quite honest I was getting to the end of my tether with Fifi leaving various "presents" around the house, but I have to say she didn't deserve to go the way she did.... so mixed feelings here, sad she has died as death wasn't in my final solution for her I was thinking more rehoming, but also glad in that nobody seemed to be bothered about the mess she made, well not the kids anyway it was usually left to Andrea to clean up after her, as I refused point blank, not out of being awkward or pig headed, but a deal had been struck and that had been broken, and I will refuse to fill in on somebody elses responsibilities. I think it's safe to say we will not be having a cat again.

I had an interview !!

but first off I'd like to wish all my readers of my drivel a happy new year and a prosperous one :)

Yes it happened !!! I actually got an interview, it was on new years eve..... albeit an informal one, initially they refused me in email saying I was over qualified, but I threw an email back stating how hard it was getting a job in the locality and that I had four kids to feed and clothe... and by George it worked !!! it's not much but it will pay the rent should I get it and we will have a little to spare, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed, interestingly they also run a maintenance and construction firm and their main customer is Trinity College in Carmarthen, so if I get the job I may well be up there fixing plumbing or electrics & windows and generally keeping things oiled and working well... but it's early days yet and I don't even know if I have the job, but if I do it will be a huge load off us financially...... anyway the interview seemed to go well, so fingers crossed !!!

Meanwhile I'll keep plugging away at the job sites seeing if anything suitable crops up.

New years eve was pretty uneventful, we just sat on the sofa and watched "Superman Returns" which I had recorded earlier on the DVR, then at about ten to midnight we turned it off and waited for the bong of Big Ben..... a bit of a damp squib of a new year, but at least we weren't nursing banging headaches the next morning.

The sullen one sent us a text from Austria, apparently she is/was having a blast, she is travelling back on the coach now.... it's only 28 hours journey ... a mere snip, I think overall she has enjoyed her Austrian skiing trip.

And I've just finished a book one of my Christmas presents :) it's called "Beyond Band of Brothers" by Richard D Winters, for those of you who followed the HBO mini series "Band of Brothers" it basically tells the story from Dick Winters side, and gives an insight into what drove the man to succeed as he did, it fills in an amazing amount of detail that was missing from the mini series, but I should imagine if they put all the stories in then it would have been unmanagable, sadly most of the men from Easy Company you see giving anecdotes and stories at the beginning of each episode have passed away now, but at least they got their story told, the battle of the bulge fought in and around Bastogne was particularly chilling and makes you wonder how so few men managed to hold off an advance when facing so many of the enemy, and the ludricrous situation of not knowing where their lines were and neither did the Germans and it was common place for enemy to wander into their lines and be captured, it really punches home how really awful that place was, and bitterly cold to boot ..... sobering reading and if that kind of thing interests you I thoroughly recommend it :)


Addendum.... I didn't get the job I've just checked my emails and I was in the final three out of 27 applicants, but somebody who had more specific experience in their line of business (totally un-IT related I might add) pipped me to the post :( ahhhhh well .... back to the drawing board