Bobby watches a wildlife documentary

Our cat is full of surprises and the latest is that after 4 years with us she finally has discovered the joys of watching  television. Usually she doesn’t care much about it when it’s on and often  just snoozes, but for a couple of days now she is transfixed by it. She responds to noises and on Monday she spent an hour watching a wildlife documentary about the Yellowstone River in Canada. At some point they showed how the snow came down and she started touching the screen. So I am wondering what cats actually can see when they watch telly. They usually do respond to sounds, certainly animal sounds and of course other cats, but what can they actually see and recognise on the flat screen? So I googled to find out.

 Here some links that shed some light on the question:

http://www.pawnation.com/2009/07/23/what-dogs-and-cats-really-see-on-tv-and-elsewhere/

 http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081221171729AAPq4kU

What do you think? If you own a cat, does she/he  also stare intently at the telly? Does she/he prefer specific programmes?

Bobby watches a wildlife documentary

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/may/23/germany.features11

It all comes down to language. And context.

I have been living here for almost eight years, find all sorts of things very funny, consider myself as someone with a dry humour and I am very fond of British comedians. The ones I enjoy are all very different from each other, among them: Bill Bailey, Stewart Lee, Russell Brand, Jo Brand and the Australian Tim Minchin. And not all of them really tell jokes in the traditional sense. Certainly not Lee. They also try to avoid perpetuating stereotypes and dissing other nationalities and don’t rely on cheap shots at Germans. I regard Bill Bailey’s Kraftwerk piss-take as a nice homage to the band.

In Germany we have different types of humour like the Brits, but the sophisticated political cabaret dominates more over here and has a long tradition. I grew up listening to old records by the Duesseldorfer Kommoedchen and people like Dieter Hildebrandt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Hildebrandt). Harald Schmidt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Schmidt) is a big name and in Germany and had his own late night show for years. He is funnier than say Jon Stewart, Jay Leno and the likes. The Misfits are a funny female duo that used to make me laugh out loud and I enjoy Dieter Nuhr’s satire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Nuhr). Loriot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicco_von_B%C3%BClow) is still very popular (and sadly his wonderful partner Evelyn Hamann died a few years ago). His sketches are timeless classics. I also like Kaya Yanar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaya_Yanar  and http://www.kaya-yanar.de/html/deutsch/home/home.php ) who is more like your typical comedian. He takes the piss out of everyone no matter what nationality.

You can find also silly humour and “below-the-belt” humour in Germany. Especially at this time of year in the run-up to Carnival. Cologne is the bastion of Carnival and for five days in February you can either dress up and get pissed and maybe shag some strangers (if you really have to) and get into the spirit of things – or you hide in your flat and wait it out. Or if you’re lucky you go on a holiday until “Aschermittwoch” – Ash Wednesday” when the show is over and people are back at work with a massive hangover. At this time of year German Television consist of a variety of shows which are called “Prunksitzungen” and are extremely unfunny. “Faekalhumor” or dirty jokes dominate these shows. Carnival is a time of year when I certainly don’t miss Cologne. I never enjoyed Carnival as I prefer to determine myself when I want to have fun. Organised fun – like organised religion – is not for me.

I prefer dry, ironic humour with a bit of sarcasm thrown in. But I do find Harry Hill’s TV Burp hilarious.

We adopted our moggie from CP in Cardiff and if it was up to me I would adopt another one – but Bobby might not be too happy about that. I will give it a few more years when she is older and then definitely adopt another cat. I can’t honestly imagine my life without cats, they make the best pets.

So if you consider buying a cat – check out CP’s adoption centres first or ask your local branch (which may not have an adoption centre) if they have cats in care. Ours was cared for by lovely foster carers, who became friends of mine, and not from an adoption centre as Cardiff hasn’t got one. 

 Here is a link to CP: http://www.cats.org.uk/

..when you can’t fulfil them.

Snow in our back garden

Bobby thinking about going out

..and she's off.

Last year my resolutions included learning how to drive, lose weight and read more books and get a book out. So what happened?

Well I had 11 driving lessons, am still shit scared of driving , don’t enjoy it and I simply ran out of money for more lessons. The urgent need to become a confident driver (I have a licence which is valid in the UK) is simply not there.

Losing weight – well I didn’t make much of an effort, mainly because I hate dieting and because dieting makes you fatter and in my case sick. Besides it’s bloody hard to lose weight, when skinny hubby can eat what he likes and his mum buys lots of sweets and cakes almost every weekend. We still have chocolates and cakes from Christmas.

Reading more books – ideally 1-2 books a week. I started out well, but couldn’t quite keep it up, simply because some books are weightier than others, some are easier to read and because sometimes work got in the way. But I still think I achieved something here as I managed to get through about 20 books – some fiction, a lot of them non-fiction, some in German, most in English. I also started 4 books on writing and dip into them when I feel like it.

Oh and I managed to finish two fiction writing courses.

Getting a book out – well  I made a huge effort here, researched the book idea, wrote a sample chapter, table of content, cover letter etc and contacted two publishers. Both read it and rejected it on the understandable grounds that they have a similar book out for a slightly wider audience (my book idea was aimed at parents). I am not sure if I want to still pursue this, because parents get all the info free on the internet anyway and the subject matter is too close to me.

So instead I decided to write a novel. I am now on my fourth chapter.

This year I  aim to achieve the following:

Write my novel

Lose weight by eating less junk and exercise more

Watch less crap on TV

Learn to play guitar

Get more work

Continue reading loads of books

Go on a nice holiday

Learn how to make my own beads

Swear less

Get my jewellery business off the ground

Join a charity and volunteer

De-clutter the house

Some of this I have already implemented:

I joined the Prince’s Trust as a volunteer business mentor and next month I will go on two training days to learn what’s involved.

I also ordered lots of polymer clay and a pasta machine to get started with my beads and on the 22^nd this month I will have my first jewellery stall at a local Hafla (www.bellydancewales.com). So expect some photos of my jewellery on this blog.

Some of my resolutions don’t depend on me alone – so it will be interesting to see how far I will get this year.

I  will let you know on this blog how I get on with things.

It would be interesting to know from you what kind of resolutions you have made a year ago and which you have fulfilled? What are your resolutions for this year?

Dusty's paw marks in the snow

 

Dusty on small Balcony

Dusty looks into the camera

In and out

And she’s very different from Bobby – Dusty is an excellent hunter. She brings in mice, much to my dad’s delight who often just shuts both mouse and Dusty into the bathroom to get on with it. My sister usually tries to rescue the poor things. She recently told us that Dusty once brought home a bat – no birds though, which is a relief. It seems that Dusty has the most of the back gardens to herself – they stretch over several houses and there used to be a lot of cats. Thankfully most of them moved including those awful yappy dogs. Dusty’s claws are incredibly sharp and never get clipped, which Paul noticed the hard way when he attempted to play rough with her. Bobby regularly gets a “pawicure”, which works like this: dangle a treat or prawn over her head, while she sits flipped over on her back on Paul’s lap. He trims them. Mainly because she panics, when she gets stuck on the carpet, the sofa (which she ruined) and on our jumpers. Dusty however needs her claws, so she can access the gardens and climb trees. And boy can she climb- I’ve never seen her doing that before – but it’s really amazing how fast she is. She is a lightweight – what you see is just a lot of fluffy and very silky long fur, which moves up and down when she runs.

Dusty is not as cuddly as Bobs, but good natured. She tolerates being picked up and during  the first few nights she came to the bed for a cuddle which was nice.

When we arrived it was very cold, Cologne was covered in a thick layer of snow and it was -15.

Snow in Klettenberg

View from my parents' kitchen

Our Turkish taxi driver Hakan said they had over 70 accidents. He also told us about his kitten and how he regretted that he never paid his old cat much attention when he was alive. Hakan really regretted it, because he now realises how much fun his new kitten is and how much he cares. When I told him that I write for a cat magazine he revealed that he is writing a book about his experience as a taxi driver in Cologne. And this is his website: http://taxic25mkoko.de/index.html

The first three days I spent freezing my butt off. Mainly because I am not used to really cold temperatures anymore (Cardiff has crap weather, but it’s never that cold) and I didn’t bring any tights, proper shoes or lots of jumpers. The first night I didn’t sleep at all because the old duvet was devoid of much filling! My dad gave me his fancy duvet he never uses because it is too warm for him – but it was warm enough for me. Driving from Cardiff to Stansted to fly  with German Wings was exhausting, so we spent the first day resting and the next few days my lower back was in a right state. I spoilt myself with a super Thai massage (one hour) and my lovely masseuse warned me that I will wake up with sour muscles the next day and advised to take a pain killer. She was quite shocked by the state of my back – well I rarely have a massage over here as it is expensive and I wonder if I could find someone as good as this lady. If you ever happen to visit Cologne and want a proper massage this is their website:

http://thaimassagekoeln.de/

On Monday we went to Cologne’s biggest  and cheapest CD and electronic store “Saturn”  to buy CDs for my sister and myself and a headset for my dad so he can use Skype and save money on both our phone bills. I am not sure if he has spoken to my aunt in New Zealand yet, but we talked to her and were impressed by Skype’s clear reception. The only difference is that there is a slight delay, but you get used to it.

We visited my aunt who still lives in the same place in Ehrenfeld, where I also used to live. She lives with my younger cousin Bouba, who is 1 year younger than my sister, and their two cats: Kitty, who originally belonged to my cousin Markus, but as he moved around a lot he gave her first to his brother Manuel, and eventually the poor thing ended up at my aunt’s. Kitty is ancient – 18 years – neurotic, scaredy and hates Tapsy, the younger tom, with a passion. They just don’t get on, which is a shame, but unfortunately this happens often in multi-cat households. Tapsi is friendly and cuddly and my aunt adores him. He spent most of the afternoon curled up in the living room, while we didn’t see much of Kitty, whose tail is never straight up, always lowered down.

It was nice to see my aunt, my cousins Markus and Bouba and Markus’ lovely girlfriend Fen, who is an actress and very pretty. Think Natalie Portman, but way prettier. I really like her because you can have good conversation and we share some interests and like the same actors. When I was younger I thought of becoming an actress and had lessons for half a year at  a private acting school, but thought it was dreadful, because we never really worked on roles – all just improvisation and body work. 

When we were about to leave, Kitty appeared and got really friendly and curious, sniffing our bags! Talking about the wrong timing!

Tuesday we went shopping for presents in town and Paul had a field day in Cologne’s biggest outdoor shop: http://www.globetrotter.de/

It’s situated in the Olivandenhof, which used to have several smaller shops- now it’s just this massive outdoor shop. It’s got a cold chamber, a wet chamber and a small pool with kayaks in it to test. While he was busy looking at all the gear, I disappeared into the neighbouring Karstadt (similar to Debenhams over here) and bought tights and velvet to use to display my jewellery. One of the things I wanted to get was Fimo Polymer Clay, because I want to learn how to make my own beads- but to my surprise the three shops I could have bought it in were all gone – Malkasten – gone, Wolkenaer (where I used to buy my paints) – gone. Feldhaus – Cologne’s biggest and oldest toyshop – gone. I was really upset about that. What’s happening to my hometown?

In the end I found two different shops where I bought a few Fimo items and ordered the rest from the net.

However we found a Lego shop, which was fantastic, and bought Lego for my 4-year old cousin Bela. The shop assistant was a proper Lego-nerd. When we told him about Paul’s ancient Lego and that he even still has all the brochures with the descriptions, he was impressed and a little jealous. We briefly went to the Christmas market next to the Dom, where Paul enjoyed a proper curry wurst.

Cologne Cathedral with Christmas market

I ate so much junk food that day including some sort of  marshmallow type waffle, a sausage and almonds that I felt a bit sick  in the evening . Due to the cold and overdoing things a bit I had a mig attack when we got home. The same evening friends came over for dinner, so I had to get my act together. Thankfully the meds worked quickly this time, because I took them fairly early on.

Wednesday we bought a proper Christmas tree from one of the pubs close to my parents’. When we tried to decorate it the next day we discovered the lights weren’t working properly, but unfortunately it was too late to buy new ones. So Paul tried to fix it with more tape or something. In the olden days – well when I was little –we always had candles –even when Freddy was still alive. Nothing ever happened – and to me the real deal is a real tree with candles – it just looks and smells better and more Christmassy.

Thursday (24^th) we celebrated Christmas the German way, which means – working in the morning in the kitchen and tidying the place until late afternoon when we had coffee and “Plaetzchen” – cookies. My sister baked this year and we also bought Lebkuchen (gingerbread) and Spekulatius with almonds, and marzipan. My dad likes his Panetone, so he got that too. And some other evil sweet stuff. After that we had to sing – my sister insisted and played the piano. Poor Paul didn’t understand and know the lyrics on the sheet. It’s quite weird singing religious Christmas songs in a mainly atheist household!

After the singing it was time to unwrap the gifts. My dad gave me money – not romantic but useful and a silver spoon made into a pendant -very clever design. My sister got me a CD by Germany’s funniest and versatile band Die Aerzte (http://www.bademeister.com/  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_%C3%84rzte ) I haven’t’ listened to it yet but the CD case looks funny: it is made of blue plush and is very soft!)

I already had my main present before Christmas which was a professional photo tent, but Paul surprised me with one book which I look forward to reading – Charlie Brooker’s “The Hell Of It All” which is essentially a collection of his Guardian columns from the last 2 years. Some of them are of course familiar, but it’s great to re-read them. Nobody can have good old rant better than him and it’s great fun. One of my favourite presents is a DVD by the world’s most adorable and talented comedians – Tim Minchin. Though I watched it already on Channel 4 it’s great to watch it again. A lot of it is available on You Tube. And here are some of my favourite Minchin songs for you to check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIm8WgwkTeI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6raVzrbqrM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UO6YlkYNJQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBUc_kATGgg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-OrfALplXA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrmOTkcfZgA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCyMtNl8T8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLLYO8Hd_sE

For dinner we had turkey – my dad loves cooking, and he loves his cooking gadgets – he has a fine collection of frying pans and kitchen knives – to which we added another one as a present. All was lovely and we ended up going to bed fairly early, because my dad was quite tired –plus we promised my gran to visit her the next day.

Friday we went to a place called Goch to see my grandmother. My uncle and his girlfriend were there; their son is having a whale of a time in OZ and is enjoying a summery Christmas over there. My other aunt Bettina was there with my cousin Bela and true to her word – she brought her two kittens Findus, a very cuddly black and white tom who doesn’t look like a Findus (who is a tabby cat out of a children’s book) and Pepa, who is a gorgeous petite Tabby with a crippled tail. While Findus enjoyed the fuss and attention and explored my gran’s home, Pepa stayed mainly in one of the rooms upstairs as she is a bit shy. Both cats were rescued from Ibiza, if I remember correctly. and though not related get on very well and Findus seems protective of his smaller female friend (who looks more like a Findus). Bela chose her initially and didn’t mind the tail at all, and because Findus got on well with her, they took both. They are a delight and I am so happy for my aunt that she finally can enjoy living with feline company.

Findus (left) and Pepa (right)

Pepa

Me and Bettina's cats

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay that long in Goch and I felt a bit sorry for my gran, as I think she couldn’t always follow conversations and there were just too many people. My uncle converted her downstairs area into her main living area, so now she has her bedroom there and an extra bathroom with a walk-in-shower. It looks really good.  

Saturday we went to the cemetery and my dad showed us a grave of someone whose relatives chosen the same design as my mum’s gravestone. It’s actually very beautiful – her gravestone- as it tries to emulate one of her favourite earrings. He said he was first not sure about his discovery, but then he was chuffed that someone obviously has seen his design!

The journey back to Cardiff was long and we gladly arrived to an incredibly clean and tidy house with a very happy cat and  Paul’s parents were still there waiting for us.

His mum bought me my favourite Christmas present – I live in it most of the time and our postie is already familiar with the sight of it: it’s a white, snugly M&S dressing gown. Lovely and warm.

Hope you all had a great Christmas – we definitely had a catty one.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/8396139.stm

It doesn’t take much effort to squash tin cans. Alternatively you could just make sure the bags are safely tied so the cats can’t rip them  and don’t put the bags out before very late at night.

This time we are not moving, but as our house is very small and space is very limited we have to do a massive clear-out of our roof. In January we want to get most of it insulated to save on energy costs. The two rooms facing the street (and where I spend most of my time) are always a bit cold, so I hope insulating the roof will make a difference. At the moment we have so much stuff up there, which it is hard to move around. If we wanted the whole roof done, we would lose all our storage space, so we opted for only getting the sides done. Saturday we started our clear-out – well one corner of it – and most of it we discovered were electrical items such as cables, old phones and my fax machine (which works fine except for the bad sound quality of the answer machine – and if you read this I am looking for someone who could do with one), and old computer games which are now, as hubby discovered, collector’s items. These games are in mint condition and still work – AstroWars, Grandstand Munchman and Space Invaders plus the Casio organ made famous by German band Trio (DaDaDa). And then we discovered loads of children’s toys and books. Lead figures, Playmobil figures, Rupert p jigsaws, Lego etc. Most of it in very good condition. His parents kept all his toys for decades and a couple of years ago decided enough is enough – let him store his own stuff. But they obviously kept it all so it wouldn’t rot. Now we had to decide what to do with it all. Some of it goes to a local second hand book shop, some of it goes to collectors, some straight to the tip and some to charity. I suggested keeping the Playmobil figures – and there is a good reason for this. He loves them and he also discovered the http://www.playmobil.de/website which sells the most amazing figures and kits – you can have Playmobil figures for almost every situation and profession – pets, vets, hospitals, the Coliseum, ancient Egypt, wild animals. They are rather cute and if we had a child I would buy the Playmobil vet box. But there is more on the roof – mainly lots of furniture we don’t have any use for and boxes of my stuff – most of it actually tax related as you can’t throw these things out for years. So next weekend we have to tackle the next section of our roof. I dread to think what I find in those boxes which are not tax related.

Bobby loves the roof – mainly because of the chaos. Every time we go up there she meows very persistently, so we often give in and Paul takes her up secured with harness and leash – and this is how it looks like:

Bobby in our roof 1

Bobby in our roof 2

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8147566.stm

I have to admit I’ve never noticed this particular purr action in Bobby. She has a very gentle purr she mainly uses when she is content and relaxed. If she wants something from us she either meows, looks at us with a very intense stare and waits until her patience wears off and she resorts to scratching our sofa or carpets – which is far more annoying than the purr described in the article.

My cat Freddy had a different technique in the mornings to get me up to feed her – she’d plonk herself on my chest, purr and lick my face. Which is not very pleasant when you are half asleep!

So how do your cats get you to what they want – do they use the purr described in the article?

A few months ago our cat started to develop a sleeping or more precisely waking up pattern which clashed with ours. She would wake up at 4 and hassle us by scratching the carpet, cupboard door and anything else she could get her claws on. It’s an incredibly annoying sound when you are tired and want to sleep. After trying all sorts of things to stop her – hurling pillows at her, letting the cat flap open, locking her in the kitchen or trying to entice her to bed for a cuddle, we finally got professional help. We made an appointment for a phone consultation with Vicky Halls. We had to fill in a long form explaining what the problem was and details about our cat. When the day of consultation came I asked my husband to talk to her. We were not only told that essentially we need to try and ignore her scratching, but also start watching her diet. So we started weighing her food. Ignoring her scratching at 4 a.m was not so easy. In fact we had 2 sleepless nights, but then she seemed to settle for our time when the alarm clock goes off, which is 6.  We went on our holiday in the same week, which reinforced the new regime as Bobby stayed at home and was looked after by my mother-in-law who visited at about 8 in the morning. Bobby had no-one to hassle!

When we came back the routine stayed with her for a few weeks, but she developed the endearing habit of climbing up the bed and sleeping between my legs (on the duvet, not under!). (She slept on top of my pillow when we were away and obviously missed us very much.) The downside of this habit is that it isn’t comfortable for me, but I manage to eventually change my position so we both get more comfortable.

She also lost a bit of weight due to the new feeding regime. But now it’s November and we have let the routine slip a bit. If we don’t tire her out in the evening and make sure she goes to bed at the same time as us she will wake us too early which isn’t great. Thursday we will see the vet for her annual booster and hopefully he will tell us that Bobby has the right weight. Because she has her winter coat it is hard for us to determine her weight. We have stopped weighing her food and because it’s colder she may have gained weight again.

http://www.simonscat.com/