Karl’s Asylum ... for the terminally deranged

and I’m glad I’m past it.

Tuesday was plumbing, and some tiling. Wednesday was more tiling and half fitting the power shower. They finished up on Friday..walls tiled, shower installed. Not too bad at all.

The floor..isn’t done. We said putting big ceramic tiles on the floor would be stupid..what if a pipe burst or whatever? You’d have to pull the tiles up to get at it. Turns out the floor is too uneven anyway. So, they’re coming back THIS Friday to fit a “click together” floor. Which is fine.

The bathroom now needs me to polish up the tiles, generally de-dust and clean it, and we’re repainting the remaining walls, pipes and freshening up the radiator to match the shiny new look.

It’s all fun…;)

Honestly. I’m not. I always regarded cats as a self-supporting object. I’m a guinea pig person really. I’ve had contact with cats on and off in the “I see you in the garden” way over the years..but no more.

Then I met Jem. Her mums cat liked me (rare, allegedly). Jems kitten liked me. Odd. Now we have 2 cats, both like us, we like them. However, I’m finding I get set upon by random cats now!

We walked into Broseley to do the shopping today. It’s a nice relaxing 30 minute walk. We decide to go and sit in the memorial gardens on the nice benching. Jem sees a cat, and calls it over. Looks like a Siamese..but it’s not. “Normal” bodyshape etc. Siamese markings, blue eyes too. Normal cat otherwise. Next thing I know, it’s all over us. Cat fur, dribble, purr like a chainsaw, the works. I have pics. After about 10 minutes, we do the shop and come home. We decide to kick shit out of the garden.

Mrs Scruffy appears..as she does. I sit down for a rest, and she leaps on me. Knitting my leg, whistly purring, dribble galore, more fur on me, headbutts, paws in the chest and so on. Sprawled across me. Why?

I’m no cat person! I like them, but I don’t go out of my way to be cat attractive!!! Ah well. I feel accomplished anyway..the front garden hedges have been cut back, the weeds have been removed, the mostrosity that was in the hollow gate post has been hacked off and replaced with a nice plant, and in the middle of doing it our landlord appears with a van full of tiles for the bathroom which is being, in his words, “Totally retiled, including the floor” on Tuesday. This has been waited for since move-in day. We’re currently living with strips of Lino staplegunned down, peeling and battered walls, and an “on the taps” shower unit that works fine IF the old and scaled taps can be persuaded to open.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we have 2 chaps coming to fit us, in their words “a power shower”, and do the bathroom retile and refloor. That’ll be nice, but I have no idea how it’ll work..it’s our only loo/bathroom..we need it functional at all points. I’m taking Tuesday off to oversee it, Jem’s doing Wednesday. Call me “Mr Suspicious Bastard” if you like, but I won’t leave 2 people I don’t know alone in my house with our kit and the cats…They WILL be watched.

I think this week could be interesting…