Thread 3 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucingsparkles]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads 1 and 2.

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

K’s been on a GI diet for six weeks after he had an infection, but now that’s come to an end he’s going to get a special poached chicken Christmas dinner.

He can smell it.

I can haz chicken?

He looks just like the original I can haz chicken cat.

Can’t see it myself

He's ridiculously cute!

This is Phoebe on my lap. Just realised from the photo that she needs a new collar.

Spectacular house.

It is. I love the wall colour, and the table centrepiece. And Phoebe of course.

To accompany the English Dinner, I offer you a Full Spanish Breakfast, according to a Madrid-dwelling friend of mine: a cigarette and a black coffee.

Lovely house, lovely cats.

Unlikely sounding but comforting sore throat remedy - capful of cider vinegar (the 'with the mother' stuff) and a similar quantity of honey in a teaglass or small mug topped up with boiling water. You can give it extra antibacterial oomph with a little sliced garlic, but the honey and cider vinegar are soothing and effective.

Sorry so many of us are poorly so near Christmas! I am limping on an ankle I sprained last Friday, but otherwise in fair condition. We are going to a restaurant for Christmas dinner, but my son and his family in NJ are driving up here the day after Christmas and we will host them, and some other family members, on the Tuesday. Of course this turns out not to be a great idea in terms of shopping, but I have stuff in the freezer and we will undoubtedly wrestle something together. I shall make mince pies, at any rate. I imported some M&S mincemeat via a website called British Corner Shop.

@CyanCyan your cat shouldn't be allowed. Far too cute!

@Kucingsparkles your house and cat shouldn't be allowed, cat too cute house too lovely. I'm currently trying to decide what colours to paint my rooms. I'm thinking of going for matching walls and ceilings except in the kitchen which I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with some shade of yellow because my favourite kitchen years ago was yellow and so cheery. It's exciting to think about what I might do.

Francis on the pillow next to mine. He's a pain in the bumhole at times but I do love him. I moved his litter tray a bit further from my bedroom today. The plan is to get it to the bathroom, moving it a little closer each day. Tomorrow I'm going to go out on the terrace, close the door behind me and attempt to get him to use the cat flap. He hasn't figured it out yet. He's very dim.

Kitten Tash helping herself to coffee. She often drinks from the water bowl like this - dipping her paw in then licking off the water.

Francis looks so silky.

How dainty of Tash. Kasper has no grace. He’s recently discovered ‘knocking things over on purpose’, particularly anything shiny like a glass of water. The other day he casually extended a big fat paw and batted a plant off the table. It’s good exercise for my composure.

@CyanCyan Haha, thank you for your compliments! It's amazing what a short focal length photo will do for a background but I must confess I still love the wall colour, it's been I think 5 years since we took the plunge and went dark.

Exciting news for the day ahead is that our local fish&chip shop is finally reopening, after several months in receivership. Now that's what we're calling a proper Christmas treat!

Damn, caught out by lack of edit button. Meant to "@" a bunch of people in my previous post.

And also to say (((cats))) 😍

Heh! at English Dinner.

Crows, if you can stand it, try salt gargles (mix at 9g salt per litre of water).

Get well soon, unwell threadsters. We're just keeping our fingers crossed for Christmas, with various lurgies abounding at the schools our kids go to.

Well done on the cat pictures everybody, I am sure like most here I can say it brings real joy to see them.

Yes, me too. MrW does not like cats, and although he would put up with one if I insisted, it doesn’t feel fair, so I have to enjoy other people’s vicariously. I think we will eventually get a dog though. The 7 year old is obsessed with them; every walk takes twice as long as it should because he stops to chat to all the dogs he meets and their owners.

I'll share my first cat (since I left home). This is Ebby, who was NEVER normally allowed on worktops, but this was just after moving into a rented house and he hadn't got used to it yet. I got him when he was 8 weeks old, and he died the day after I found out I was pregnant with DS. He always snored, and when DH moved in he got the double whammy of snoring from me, and Ebby on top of me. He never got the hang of the catflap, so I used to prop it open for him in the vain hope that it would help him learn. It didn't.

Still a bit upset about Terry Hall, as I am sure a few others here are. This clip of an interview from two years ago has cheered me up a little knowing he found happiness after half a centry of depression. He brought so much joy to others, he deserved some himself.

twitter.com/DanMUNDIAL/status/1605122923752296448

Me too Pike - I've been up since 5:30, and I've spent a reasonable part of that playing Specials and FB3 songs. Thanks for the clip, I'll take a look.

@Ginmonkeyagain thank you for your reply on the other thread. I thought it was better to post here as I didn’t want to derail.

When I contacted him I expressed my concerns about the fire risk. He’s actually since installed an enormous wooden-framed, ceiling-high makeshift cupboard in there that extends the whole length of the room, filled it with stuff and padlocked it. The meter room is right very close to my bedroom window as well. I’m not happy about it at all. This was the response I got:

‘Thank you for reporting this issue. Your comments have been noted. If you would like your suggestions considered, please write to our client [the RTM limited company name] and request membership. Their correspondence address can be found on the Companies House website. The board of directors can then consider your proposal.’

It’s even worse than I remembered. This is the kind of prick I’m dealing with.

I will contact the freeholder and energy company and see what they say.