Tales of the Cathie

Does your dog bite?

2007-06-05T00:36:00.000+01:00

No she doesn't, she sleeps a lot though...

Clover spends a large proportion of the day sleeping, or rather seeming to be asleep whilst actually fully alert and ready to spring into action; I think that's called 'lying doggo'. If we try to go out she is soon up and running about (and howling if left alone!)

As you can see Clover took to insinuating herself on the couch when I'd fallen asleep, I was not however 'lying doggo' or I would've stopped D from taking these photographs...

Clouseau: Does your dog bite?
Hotel clerk: No.
Clouseau (bending down to pet the dog): Nice Doggie.
(Dog barks and bites him). I thought you said your dog did not bite!
Hotel clerk: That is not my dog.

Dogville (sorry I had to...)

2007-05-29T18:17:00.001+01:00

At Christmas a friend of mine asked me what had happened to the dog, what indeed.

This is a very belated update of 'dog blog'. Clover did in fact return home unscathed in November, she didn't suffer any ill effects from the huge piece of bacon fat James' housemate fed her (in fact she seemed quite pleased with herself); we eventually forgave her for the couch wetting incident and now she's back.

Yes it's better than Big Brother it's... Dog Watch! And unlike Big Brother this particular dose of reality ends at the end of the week when Clover goes home (or does she?)

So with what may be the only post this time round, the following may be considered:

a. Exhibit D(og) continues to howl whenever left in isolation: (she became a shop dog for a couple of hours on Saturday)
b. Exhibit D continues to defecate before making it to the park virtually every bloody time (she has a preference for No. 23's doorstep since you ask).
c. Exhibit D seems to prefer our couch to her own lonely chair in the corner.
d. Exhibit D likes barking at dogs on the television.

To evict Clover, email me with the subject "Clover"
To evict Dave, email me with the subject "Dave"

Tomorrow on Dog Watch Clover makes bread with Anne Diamond and Dave bites the postman...

Dog house...

2006-11-08T11:54:00.000Z

Clover was a very naughty dog yesterday. She was left on her own for 10 minutes when we went to the Co-op and when we came back she had wee'd on the couch. Not on her chair or even the carpet, the couch! She spent the rest of the evening in her basket in the hall. Naughty Clover.

She's been allowed back in the living room today where she still has a chair; we however are waiting for the couch covers and cushions to dry from being washed yesterday...

These pictures were taken before the disgrace, as you can see Clover is not that much bigger than Jules, the cat who comes to visit us.

In other news Clover seems to have made friends with a girl in the park who sits and has her lunch on a bench each day, Clover has stopped every day to say hello.

Dog days...

2006-11-06T20:55:00.000Z

Ok sorry for all the dog related titles...

Clover seems to have suffered no ill effects from the huge piece of bacon fat James' housemate gave her yesterday; apparently he was concerned about it tonight!

Our little four legged friend is now asleep in her chair having spent a productive afternoon walking in the park and barking at a fly?!!!

I had to go into work this morning just for a couple of hours and D was also at work, so we left Clover on her own. Last time she stayed with us she howled EVERY time she was left alone, even for a short time; I had to take her to work with me a few times. And yes she howled this morning, we're now contemplating taking her with us to the pub quiz tomorrow - D is going to check with the pub if that's ok.

Honestly you wouldn't think such a little dog could cause such a fuss...

Dog Blog...

2006-11-05T20:07:00.000Z

This is Clover the Jack Russell she's about 12 now (in human years - not sure how old she is in dog years - I think it's 7 to every human year?); anyway this makes her venerable we think, she even has her own chair (in our flat?)...

Clover belongs to D's parents, we're looking after her for the next week whilst they are in Italy.

Day 1 of dog sitting:

Clover had only been here a few hours when she (slightly) got into our bad books due to a little accident in the hall; nevermind we didn't tell her off as we think it's maybe just a strange environment and she'll settle in and hopefully remember staying here before.

We took her for a walk on Midsummer Common but only let her off the lead for a little while as we remember from the last time she stayed her tendency to (a) bark stupidly at other dogs especially much, much larger ones and (b) that she has no bike sense! I don't think I could tell D's parents if she got squashed by a bike on her first day with us...

We stopped off at our friend James' house for a coffee and James' housemate took an immediate shine to Clover and took her to see the other housemates upstairs. He then fed her an extremely large piece of bacon fat which was about the size of her jaw, she seemed to swallow it whole so I hope this doesn't cause problems later...

Tune in tomorrow for day 2 of Dog Watch: Will Clover howl when left on her own?

Trying to keep plants alive...

2006-10-24T19:06:00.000+01:00

The first picture is the cutting my Mum gave me
to replace the houseplant which died. I don't seem to be able to keep houseplants alive which is sad. The other 2 pictures are what it will look like when it has flowered (if I can get it to that stage). As you can see it looks quite healthy at the moment so fingers crossed I can keep it that way! The one in the barrel was a cutting taken from the old plant, it thrived outside but the indoor one died.

This particular plant is a Seychelles Busy Lizzie or 'Ray of Hope', a hybrid of a rare plant which the Eden Project in Cornwall are trying to conserve. Proceeds from the sale of the hybrid are being used to fund conservation work back in the Seychelles. I bought one as a present for my Mum when we went to the Eden Project in 2004. At that time there were only about 120 of the original plant, Impatiens gordonii, in the wild. See the links below.

The Eden Project - Conservation horticulture

The Eden Project - Ray of hope

A large number of containers, hanging baskets etc. at my Mum's house now contain cuttings from the original plant; she's very green fingered unlike me...

The barrels outside look quite healthy still and I've been pleased with my gardening efforts. I wasn't really interested in gardening when I was younger which is a shame as my Mum and Grandfather are very good gardeners; I think my Mum was quite sad that my siblings and I didn't show an interest, I'm trying to now though.

I've got quite a few different plants and some herbs too and aside from the odd snail attack they're all doing very well.

Poorly...

2006-09-07T18:56:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted for a while even though I was all set to at the weekend; that was before I got food poisoning (we're not sure from what yet). Nobody else I know has been ill so the doctor was pretty sure it wasn't a bug.

I've only managed to eat toast for the last few days. I tried cheese on toast last night but that wasn't a good idea...

Anyway will post more when I'm feeling better. I might even get round to posting about what I'd intended to originally. It may or may not have involved snakes and a plane...

2006-08-16T10:15:00.000+01:00

We're off up to Edinburgh today for the Film Festival so probably won't post anything for a few days. I promise to post some photos when I get back...

Funny...

2006-08-15T22:04:00.000+01:00

We were playing tennis earlier this evening with our friends Tris and James when at a vital point (Tris and I about to win a set) the horrible girl tramp of the 3 tramps sleeping on the bowling green pavilion shouted "Hurry up and go home I'm trying to get to sleep". It was 7-30, I guess tramps go to bed early...

Chick it out

2006-08-13T22:36:00.000+01:00

Ok I've decided to post something cute now so I don't have nightmares about giant spiders...

My mum keeps chickens and one of the hens (Daisy) was broody so she let her hatch some of the other hen's eggs. Some are bigger than others because some are Bantam and some are normal chickens. My mum thinks one of the black ones might turn out to be a cockerel, which means he'll have to go elsewhere as there are already two cockerels. Trevor is in charge, he's a Bantam and the other cockerel Laurence is afraid of him. You can't usually keep two in the same place because they fight, but Laurence is a bit of a wimp (my brother thinks it's because of his name...)

Spider...

2006-08-13T22:34:00.000+01:00

So this is what almost caused me to scream this morning when I found it in our kitchen, then I realised it was dead... D tried to scare me by telling me it might have just shed its skin and that there was an even bigger one somewhere in the flat! He didn't actually touch it either (he used tweezers). I'm not normally scared of spiders but just look at the size of it!

Splashing about on the river

2006-08-07T11:35:00.000+01:00

Yesterday D and I spent the afternoon with our friend James messing about on the Cam in James' canadian canoe. It's a bit like the one in the photo except James' is green and made from kevlar (I think it would've been even better if made from wood, though it's very nice anyway and it does have 1 wooden oar). I didn't take any photos because I didn't take my camera for fear of it getting wet; I might take a disposable one next time, then it wouldn't matter. It's different from punting because you can go faster, but you can't fit as many people in! I was sitting on the floor of the boat in the middle, whilst the boys did all the hard work rowing - it was bliss.

Because I was sitting so low down James said I was sitting in the safest place i.e less likely to fall in than they were! I got slightly sunburnt legs from sitting with them outstretched in the canoe... They rowed all the way to Baits Bite Lock (we set off from near the Fort St George) where we stopped and had a picnic and watched a boat going through the lock. On the way back we stopped and picked the most perfect looking juicy brambles from a bush overhanging the river. I think I'm going to make an apple and blackcurrant crumble (even if that is more a winter dish)

I love the river, people always seem so much friendlier and are more likely to say hello. Whenever I've been to Baits Bite Lock (last year we walked all the way to Clayhithe and stopped there on the way) there's nearly always a boat going through and we always see the strange man jogging in a shirt and tie (once he was wearing a trilby as well!)

When we got back we had well-earned pints (well for the boys at least, doing all that rowing!) at the Fort St George and bumped into Tom (photographer) and his girlfriend.

The boys are thinking of going on an even longer expedition next time (maybe I'll even try rowing for a bit - though we wouldn't get very far with me rowing i'm sure...)

D and I are going to Bath later this afternoon as he has a job interview there tomorrow, I'm going along to have a look around whilst he's being interviewed (it's actually one of those assessment centre days 9-5). My Mum says we went when I was little but I can't remember, so maybe i'll post some photos of Bath when we get back.

Tired...

2006-06-24T00:10:00.000+01:00

I'm incredibly tired and should really go to bed, but I wanted to update my blog so here are a few pictures to illustrate. My favourite is the kitten...

Fed up...

2006-06-23T21:20:00.000+01:00

My afternoon was bookended by a stranger shouting at me at work and another stranger being incredibly nice. The 2nd person restored a little faith that people CAN be nice.

I've encountered rather a lot of unpleasant behaviour from customers over the years; perhaps this is just part of the job or perhaps I've sadly got used to these things happening but it's still upsetting, unsettling and sometimes frightening. I generally try to let things like this man shouting at me wash over my head (after all these people are quite often angry people anyway - it turned out he'd also shouted at someone over something trivial in another shop). Maybe I'm just fed up and incredibly tired having worked 50 hours already this week (with the weekend still to come) but today I felt quite upset for the rest of the afternoon. I found myself in tears (not in front of him as this is what I guess he was aiming for) and having to explain why I was upset to another customer who came in just after he'd left.

I mulled over what happened and momentarily considered that I'd perhaps caused it through the way I'd reacted to him and what I'd said, but of course this was nonsense; he was an angry person with a bad attitude (he even shouted at his friend when he tried to calm him down). I've dealt with so many different people from all walks of life, and lots of difficult customers, from clients when I worked at Centre 33 to very rude people of all classes in the shop (being difficult has very little to do with background in that way - the only difference is one set swear a lot more, the others are rude in different ways!). I've never had a complaint about my customer service and I get on very well with most of my customers (which I'm sure the 'regulars' would attest to). It just shows how that 1 person can spoil your day, you just have to try not to focus on the negative, especially if 'focusing on the negative' is something you've struggled with in the past. (I'm pro 'looking on the bright side' of things these days...)

It doesn't really matter what made the guy shout and swear, after all it's not the worst thing that's happened to me whilst working there. Having someone who was off his head on smack threaten to kill me and firebomb the shop because I accused him of shoplifting (quite rightly) or being threatened with a broken bottle (to name just 2 of many horrible incidents) might make it into the top 5 but not today's incident. It's not even the first time this week I've been sworn at; the horrible midsummer fair is currently in situ which always causes trouble and I asked to see ID from a bunch of girls (the youngest of whom looked about 14) and was called a bitch because none of them had any and I refused to serve them. It's more what he said that upset me; it was deliberately targeted to upset me (and unfortunately it worked today). My question is why do men (I say men because it usually is men that do this) attack your appearance? This guy actually came back 5 minutes later and shouted it again through the door for good measure. What he said upset me more than being called a bitch by those girls, in fact that didn't bother me a great deal. Perhaps, as I said, today in particular I was prone to getting stressed by things or maybe it's simply because a big bloke is more intimidating than a bunch of 14 year olds...

Later on an incredibly nice chap was chatting to me about how he was celebrating Ghana reaching the 2nd round of the World Cup and bizarrely about Sir Isaac Newton which made me smile. And just before I left this evening one of my favourite customers came in; we call him "the be lucky guy" because he says this without fail as he's leaving the shop. He makes everyone in the shop smile; Jim who I work with says he feels lucky all week after this guy has been in...

Strawberry Fair

2006-06-05T22:03:00.000+01:00

I've been neglecting 'Tales of the Cathie' of late and thought I should rectify this. There seems to be so much going on that I've not found time, I think I'll have to do a few 'retrospective' posts to catch up...

One of the reasons I've not had much time is preparing for Strawberry Fair. This is held on the first Saturday in June each year (i.e. this Saturday just gone)

"The Strawberry Fair is a local festival of music, entertainments, arts and crafts that takes place in Cambridge on Midsummer Common each year. Over its 30 year history, Strawberry Fair has evolved into one of the largest, free, open-air festivals of its kind in the country. And, believe it or not, it is completely free to attend!!"

Check them out on Myspace and on their homepage: http://www.myspace.com/strawberryfair

http://www.strawberry-fair.org

Unfortunately I've never been able to spend more than an hour at Strawberry Fair pretty much since I've lived in Cambridge, this is because I work in an 'evil drinks emporium' situated not far from where it takes place... I've always been working on Strawberry Fair day (apart from one year, but then I was at a wedding in Kent!) as it's our busiest day of the year. The best time to go to the fair is in the afternoon, the atmosphere is much better, lots of families and people dressed as fairies etc. It really isn't Strawberry Fair unless I see someone with fairy wings...

I'm really hoping I'm not working for said 'evil drinks emporium' next year so I can go there myself for the afternoon. As it is I associate Strawberry Fair with lots of hard work getting the shop ready and then 'putting it back together' afterwards; and with lots of crowds in a tiny space all demanding cold beer etc. It gets so busy that I don't even have time to pause and take a picture of the masses of people queing out of the door. (I didn't get to go at all this year, I had to work a 12 hour day. Dave went along and took a few photos though) It can be quite stressful with all the people, especially later when people get really drunk at the fair and come in search of more alcohol (this is why we close at 9pm!). The best way to ease the stress is to try and enjoy the day, play some cool music, ignore the rude people and have a laugh with the fun people who come in. One of my assistants gained a cool hat and the (male) assistant manager went for a wander round the fair and came back with lovely glitter on his face, he said it was from 'fairy love...' Oh and wearing a funky t-shirt helps too...

Read this...

2006-05-14T19:34:00.000+01:00

http://sparkindarkness.livejournal.com/113195.html

I just found the above post whilst searching for my friend's blog "Sponging in Antarctica". It contains the words Antarctica and sponging hence the search finding it

And I thought my customers were bad...

Sometimes only cake will do

2006-05-09T00:19:00.000+01:00

My friend left this cake for me at the shop today, she then texted me to say she'd done this and that she'd gone crazy... She thought she'd missed my birthday and panicked, she then realised her mistake but brought it round anyway because it wouldn't last until my birthday.

I like that it's half a cake and that I HAVE to eat it before my birthday.

I think you should all eat cake tomorrow, I'd like to offer everyone a slice of mine ...

How can you tell if a cat is French?

2006-05-08T23:11:00.000+01:00

Here are some photos of the cat who visits us; we looked on his little collar and his name is Jules.
We thought he belonged to the lovely French family who live on the corner and I decided that it would be nice if we had a cat called Jim... We even tried speaking to him in French (we have a friend whose dog responds to French commands).

Today I've spoken to the lady I thought he belonged to and they don't have a cat, so perhaps he's just plain old Jules and not French at all. We like him and his frequent visits though we don't feed him; I wouldn't want to be accused of trying to steal someone's cat...

Lists

2006-05-02T12:44:00.000+01:00

TO-DO LIST

I just spotted this blog and thought it was really interesting. I think it's a good idea for a blog or a column though I'm not sure I'd buy the book they're intending to publish. Sometimes I've found other people's discarded lists and they can be very intriguing. Of course this depends entirely on whether you know the person, the most mundane list can prove fascinating if it causes speculation about the person who wrote it. But then of course anonymous things do tend to cause speculation. It's rather like people watching, or listening in to other people's conversations; which I confess I've engaged in on occasion, though haven't we all from time to time? It's also far more entertaining than watching Big Brother et al which is just too artificial to ever warrant being called 'reality' television.