I have been Head of the House all week as Norm was away in Ghana until yesterday. I often say I hate having responsibilities, that they give me anxiety as I always feel like I am forgetting something. Sort of like when you wake up late and you feel like you need to hurry all day, or is that also just me?
Norm arranged for Finn to go for a daily walk and then spend a few hours at the doggy day care since I am not strong enough to manage him on my own and he needs to be exercised to be bearable in the evenings. His best friend is the owner’s dog, the little black dog named Potato.
Poppy and Finn were delirious when Norm arrived home but Finn was annoyed at Poppy’s happiness as he thinks Norm is exclusively his property. Of course Norm’s arrival coincided with my weekly senior manager report session which is on camera. Norm took the dogs outside and tried to keep them occupied for my meeting.
My managers were happy with my progress and what I have produced so far. In fact I think they were a bit worried about whether I had done anything at all and when they said something along the lines of ‘can we set up a session to walk through your document before we have our meeting with the stakeholders’ I said ‘sure’ and shared my screen and quickly flicked through my 50 pages of graphs and reports and it was complete silence. I misinterpreted this as them not liking what I was showing them but when I said ‘CRICKETS’ loudly they laughed and said that they were just impressed with what they had seen. Most consultants hate creating documentation but obviously I love writing and a document is just a boring blog full of facts.
I had such a laugh at how spoiled our animals are when I messaged Finn’s dog walker to say “Finn was so exhausted last night he could not stay awake to finish the frozen butternut stuffed hoof we bought for him from Massimo’s.” Norm stocked up on them before he went away so that both dogs could have one in the evening as a treat. The stuffed hooves are so big that Finn eats the butternut mixture out of his own hoof, then steals Poppy’s and she takes his empty one to chew, but this time she ate most of hers before he woke up and decided to nick hers.
Little Pops is so excited to see Finn when he gets home from day care but he is too tired to deal with her for long. Sometimes he lies down and holds a tug in his mouth and she runs around him frantically trying unsuccessfully to remove it from him. Eventually he gets tired and tells her off and it becomes my job to amuse her until she too passes out. I sit dangling her stuffed chicken for her to tug or throwing her ball to chase around the lounge while I am trying to work or watch a series after work.
Blue is being so clingy at the moment. The three animals have been following me around the whole time Norm was away. I had to make a special bed for Blue in the chair next to my desk. He is finally starting to put a bit of weight on his leg and it is looking much healthier.
Poppy is usually asleep on my feet under my desk and the other two are asleep nearby.
Poppy also loves to lie in the sun on the patio and act as sentry for us. She thinks she is such a bad ass.
Last Sunday was Easter Weekend so we had a 4 day weekend and I had my friends Tamlyn and Louise over for lunch. I just did finger foods and snacks. Woolworths had their 4 for 3 offer on snacks so we had chili poppers, Arancini balls stuffed with mozzarella, chicken strips, Bao buns with chicken, crackers, veggies and dips. The animals were annoying AF since we ate on such a low table. Blue never stopped his long, plaintive meows and Finn is simply invasive due to his size. As you can see on one of the pics in the images below he actually got in between us on the sofa.
The wind was howling as only the wind can howl in Cape Town. If you have not experienced our wind then you have no comprehension!
The wind means I cannot sit outside as often as I usually do and that makes me a bit anxious, but sitting in the wind also makes me anxious as I am tense that the doors will slam or something will get damaged.
As if to deliver on my trepidations I woke to a tree limb down at the back of the house on Tuesday morning. It landed on my pots and snapped a few plants but I replanted them and hope they recover. It is a miracle that none of my bunnies or fairies were damaged. I gave thanks to my ancestors so many times for protecting them.
I have not ordered any take outs all week and have been munching on the shopping spoils. I made a yummy salad and added chicken strips. I was craving just a plain salad so I made up some ranch dressing with the mix I brought back from the USA. I made a simple salad of just the things I like since I am the only one I am feeding for a change. Basically plain old iceberg lettuce, tons of paper thin slices of peeled cucumbers, red onion, avocado, croutons and my delicious dressing. I topped it with some air-fried sesame chicken.
Night before last I was craving a Hasselback potato so I made one and just had salad with it. I gave in to the take away demon last night as I was tired and so I had a burger.
Vanessa came on Wednesday after work to give me a pedicure. We always cackle with laughter every time she is here and this time was no exception. I thought about how Norm used to pay Vanessa to Lisa-sit instead of dog sit. I would be at home but not able to cope when Norm would go away. I was also a big coward about staying on my own, but my justification was that I was working in the city and had to leave early and Vanessa did the morning feeds and popped home midday for a wee break for the big boy.
Poppy hung out with Vanessa and I and she was so well behaved. She did not steal anything, eat anything or get into anything from the manicure station, she just sat like a lady either next to me or on the floor next to us. We finished up just as Finn came home and the dog walker opened the gate when Poppy was in the drive but I eventually managed to catch the wee bugger.
After everyone had their dinner the animals and I sat outside at the back while the sun went down. The wind had finally calmed down a bit and it was so relaxing.
Each night we do a round of treats with the dogs. We buy dried meat (called biltong in South Africa) and they get little bits if they behave. Poppy sits nicely but she wants to dance around instead because she is so excited. Norm said Poppy looked as big as Finn in this pic because she is so close to the camera.
I was reading an article which said “there’s nothing worse than feeling like you’re the person who would fall behind on a narrow sidewalk that only fits three people” and that hit me between the eyes. Socially I tend to prefer a group of three, I wondered is that why, because I do not want to be the one excluded from a larger group? If there is a large group I tend to wander behind and let them lead and maybe that is why? Or is it just because I find cross conversations impossible to follow and want the flow to be less confusing? I tend to walk diagonally and knock everyone off the sidewalk, so there is that too.
This week a couple of my Elder Meditations really caught my attention. I mean they all do, just some send me off down a mental rabbit hole and that is what these did so I will share them with you.
The first one is: “The family is the seed of the future.” I love this as I am very family oriented and I am never happier than when my kids and grandchildren are with me. It made me think about Amelia doing the motions for the 7 directions morning prayer and how happy that made me. Amelia also looks so much like she is indigenous, she has her mom and dad’s dark colouring and big brown eyes.
The second is: “Everything’s so simple, and we make everything so complicated. That’s why we’re confused.” It went on to expand on this.
The Creator designed a very simple set of Laws for us to follow. If we follow these simple
things, we’ll be happy. If we don’t follow these simple things, our lives become complicated.
- Respect Mother Earth
- Love one another
- Be truthful
- Give to your brother and sisters
- Be gentle with each other
- Be happy
Evaluating my success against this list, I think I am pretty high up on the chart. I pray to Mother Earth every morning, I say the ho’oponopono prayer to Mother Earth, her atmosphere, her waters and lands on a regular basis. I immerse my hands in her earth daily and nurture my plants on an almost obsessive level. I know exactly how big they are day to day and can tell if anything changes. Norm and I do what we can from an ecological point of view: we recycle, we reuse and repurpose where we can (almost everything becomes a planter). We try not to buy too much plastic non-recyclable crap (but sometimes I am guilty if it is a fairy).
For those whom I love, I love fiercely. I am a ride or die, support you to the end sort of parent and friend. On the flip side of that, I will also call you on your delusions and bullshit in a Virgo autistic fashion.
I am painfully truthful (see above). I do not know how to lie, and I am not always good at detecting it when people lie to me. #Autism If anyone lies to me it is a deal breaker. End of relationship.
I am very generous, I give monthly to several charities and I am always happy to contribute to help a friend out if needed. I rotate my contributions to different charities. At least once a year we clear out our closets and donate all of the clothing to the local charities on a rotational basis. Anything of really good quality that we want to get rid of we offer first to our kids, then to Vanessa my manicurist because I know she will appreciate it and look after it. We gave her family a teak table and chairs which her dad sanded and refinished and they look amazing. If Vanessa does not want it, then it goes to charity too. Nothing gets wasted or thrown away.
Gentleness is not in my nature, I can be a bit rough and slapdash because I am incredibly clumsy (thank you for that one too neurodiversity). However I am very gentle with my puppy and my granddaughters. I am gentle natured with my children but I do tease them somewhat dreadfully, probably because that is how my dad showed his love to me? I am not a ‘lie in my lap and let me stroke your hair’ kind of mama. I would never reject any offers should they hug me but I seldom instigate physical contact.
And finally, being happy is something I strive for but ‘happy’ is not really in my nature, it sounds so giddy. I am a melancholy brooding Virgo, a silent and contemplative autistic freaky deak and I am OK with that. I actually achieve ‘content’ on a 99.8% basis so I am happy with that goal (see what I did there?).
So overall I am pretty compliant on my scale of life laws.
I made a video the other day and when I watched it back I noticed how odd my accent was. People often remark on my voice on videos. It is also an autistic characteristic to unconsciously mimic speech patterns. My ‘accent’ or voice inflections change depending on whom I am speaking to, or even what series I might be watching! For example, at the moment I am as southern as a biscuit because I started streaming a new series to keep me amused while Norm was away.
I chose ‘The Righteous Gemstones‘ because the advert had my man Walton in the photo but he did not make an appearance until episode 3 and he is definitely NOT portraying a sexy character as Brother Baby Billy. Even when they do flashbacks to a younger Baby Billy and he was a good looking man, the styling of bouffant hair and flashy clothing make him very familiar to me as a southern girl, but very unattracted to any sliver of it. Notice the pigeon-toed chicken butt stance he has when he dances if you watch it.
The cast is a group who often work together. The creator is Danny McBride who also stars as ‘Jesse’, the eldest of the horrendous brothers, with Adam Devine playing the youngest brother, ‘Kelvin’. John Goodman plays Eli, the patriarch of the church dynasty with Edi Patterson playing the only daughter, the weird and twisted ‘Judy.’
This series is just my sense of humour, absolute nonsense and over the top horrendousness. If you like Seth Rogan or Will Ferrell’s type of goofy humour you will enjoy this. If you do not, you will not enjoy this vibe, so do not waste your time. I love it, it makes me cringe and laugh in equal measures! One episode made me yelp twice, Finn came over to check on me because of the noise I made. I just finished season 1 and I give it 5 Kitten Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
As I was finishing up my post, I wanted to add something about some seeds I ordered and then I saw that I had already set the title as “The Seed of the Future” based on my Elder Meditation and I had to laugh at how the Universe teases us and shows us they are paying attention to all of the little things.
Back to the seeds. Regular readers know that I’m poorly sighted & autistic & make silly mistakes on sizes & quantities of things I order. I’ve done it again. I ordered some cacti, passionfruit and succulent seeds. I thought it was 20 or 30 seeds per packet but it’s 20 to 30 PACKETS of seeds and now I have 310 packets of seeds coming. I had been thinking about putting a cactus garden by the outside gate so I guess that will now be happening. I have giant barrel caci and all sorts of things coming. It is equally exciting and terrifying.
I had a delivery yesterday afternoon of my latest bunnies and the pot I ordered to replace the one Norm broke when trimming the hedges. I will be pottering about happily all weekend. It is so lovely to have Norm home to do nothing with.
I hope that if you also have a long weekend in store that you enjoy your time off and if you do not I hope you still enjoy your regular old 2 day weekend 🙂
Until Next Time, Kisses from the Kitten x0x0x0xx0
Kitten in the City 
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