Thread 18 - TalkLair: "That's no moon. It's a space station!"

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 17)

We've had our heatwave - is this it for the summer? All is lush and green in our LairGarden, flowers are blooming, berries are ripening...

In the TalkLair, all the windows are open, the Pimms is chilled, the MN massive salad is ready to serve. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics. We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

It might be worth checking YouTube for help/repair videos - often clearer and more helpful than manuals.

I had a lovely day yesterday. My last two aunts died late last year and a cousin died in February. My aunt’s children decided to have a family get together with as many cousins as we could manage on their mum’s birthday as a celebration of life. It was great - some of them were people I haven’t seen since we were all children. I took my elder son with me and he’d never met any of them. We had a lot of talk and laughter and eating and drinking.

Have you taken out all the bits you can clean? Filters, arms, spray heads, drains etc. a thorough clean and the hottest cycle might sort it.

Yep, that was my first thought so I dismantled all the usual bits for a scrub. Also checked (with a cautious finger) that the pump impeller thing is moving freely. Whatever the "technical problem" is, it isn't within obvious reach of my scrubbing brush.

Our dishwasher had a tizzy, some time ago. I accessed what I could, then turned it off for ten minutes, nada. A mate who knows said he'd come round and to pull it out, I unplugged it and did so.

We plugged it in and it worked perfectly. Apparently, they do that, sometimes.

Ours is officially German but probably manufactured in Turkey - never again! The washing machine (same brand) had already broken down once and had to be replaced under warranty because they couldn't get the necessary spare part.

On a cheerier note, I was just listening to R4's Pick of the Week and there was an excellent clip from Monday's episode of Curious Cases about the intelligence of corvids vs children. The corvids seem to win hands-down, with the jays coming out on top. Must listen to the whole thing.

And jays are such beautiful creatures, too. I’ve sent the link to MrPSB as he is very fond of all corvids - thanks.

Randomly (from Nextdoor): people offering cat-sitting services? Is this really a thing? I thought the whole point about cats was that they didn't need baby-sitting. It does sound like easy money, though.

Parts of MN will be up in arms but I don’t think cats need sitting if you’re away for a night or two (especially if you have an automatic feeder). But longer than that, cats do miss their humans and need company. We’re getting a cat sitter in while we’re on holiday. They will come in twice a day and will check Mochi’s food and water, also open/close curtains, pick up post so it doesn’t form a pile at the door, if weather is hot will water plants - but most importantly will provide cuddles to Mochi.

That's what I thought. A sitter for a night out seems crazy, though.

Seriously, people were getting a cat-sitter for a night out? Madness!

In local cat news a friend's stepmum (a horrid woman in her 80s) has got herself a Maine Coon kitten, presumably to annoy her lovely husband's Bengal-cross. Obviously the Bengal just ignores it. But the MC is supposed to spend all its time in stepmum's room to "keep her company". Needless to say it is quick as a bunny and escapes and hides/goes out of the window at every opportunity. The most bizarre thing is that she paid £3k for it, which seems excessive even by MC prices. £3k for a cat that hates her ... goodness how sad! 😂

Oh dear!

We are going home to our cats tomorrow. They have been cat-sat by our neighbours’ son, with supervision by his mum and a nice other neighbour. They will probably ignore us for a while.

We left (ABANDONED!) our Catalan cat for 4 months with a live-in slave ... MrG had an short-term gig elsewhere, the slave (a close friend) needed somewhere to live and Catface (real name redacted) knew and tolerated him. He said she sulked for a bit, but they soon bonded and it was fine.

The day we came home she hid under our bed, refused to come out and hissed and swiped at me when I sat down for a chat. We just let her get on with it. I woke up in the middle of the night to the usual scenario: me clinging to the edge of the bed while Catface lay between us, shoving, and I knew we were forgiven.

i am a mean cat parent. It’s hard enough sharing a bed with the rather large MrBrit and I can’t bear cat hair in the bed so ours are Not Allowed in the bedroom. MrB is a softy and before I came along when he lived with his old cat used to let him sleep on his pillow. That’s an urgh no from me thanks.

Phoebe was our first cat, adopted nearly 20 years ago. She was a young adult semi-feral when rescued off the streets and then had spent quite a long time in the shelter because torties were less popular and she was aloof with visitors. When I turned up and said, "I love torties!" they practically fell over us urging us to take her.

The shelter had advised us to keep her shut in one room for a few days until she got used to being there. So we set up all her things in the dining room, sat talking with her all day while she prowled around the room suspiciously, then closed the door and went off to bed.

As we drifted off to sleep, in the quiet darkness, we heard a haunting childlike voice calling mournfully, "Hellllo? Hellllllo? Helllllllo?..." and both went "WTF is that?!" We crept out of bed to investigate and realised it was Phoebe! Opened the door, she followed us to our bedroom, we got back into bed, she hopped up with us and settled down at the foot of our bed. And that was where she slept, almost every night of her life with us.

Why on earth are torties unpopular? They're gorgeous.

We had similar and DP who is quite handy did the tipping thing and we ran a couple of hot empty cycles and eventually it cleared itself, not sure what was responsible ultimately!

I know right??! They're absolutely beautiful! But I have heard people commenting that they look dirty or scruffy, the ignorant fools.

Here's an old photo of my Phoebe - just look at her gorgeous silky fur and lovely patches!

Dirty or scruffy? How ridiculous. Phoebe looks gorgeous!

In mememe news we are on the Eurostar about to depart for Paris and then CDG to catch a plant to Boston and then a bus to Portland and then a taxi home. I’m tired already having been up since silly o’clock to be sure of getting an early train to Euston and lug the luggage down the Euston Road to St Pancras.

She does! Neve heard of them being unpopular, that's a new one on me.

Sounds like a long and exhausting journey home @Britinme!

@Ereshkigalangcleg If I could persuade DH to lend his muscles, I'd be tempted to try. But he's not keen and as we won't have that many days putting up with it, we'll just do without.

Having said that, I put the dishwasher on a hot empty cycle about an hour ago and (touch wood) it is still going, no distraught beeping yet. Perhaps whatever was stuck in its innards has dissolved away...

Oh God I've jinxed it haven't I?

A plant to Boston, eh? Is it fruit bearing?