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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Further Adventures of the Excellent Cats

994 replies

TheShellBeach · 17/08/2023 10:45

....... calling all the excellent cats from the last thread.

Stop chasing shrews, mice and birds and join us here.
Less well-behaved cats especially welcome.

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Thread gallery
281
Supersimkin2 · 22/10/2023 16:57

NMC update. Self-confidence is not an issue.

Further Adventures of the Excellent Cats
Further Adventures of the Excellent Cats
Further Adventures of the Excellent Cats
ImNotWorthy · 22/10/2023 19:54

@Supersimkin2 The phrase "making themselves at home" springs to mind.

TheShellBeach · 22/10/2023 20:51

Papergirl1968 · 22/10/2023 11:55

DS2 is the qualified bouncer, isn't he, @TheShellBeach ? I'm sorry his dad is treating him so badly. It will be nice for you to have him closer.
Thinking of everyone who is worried about the health of their furbabies. ❤
I am a very bad cat slave. I thought I saw a black sock left on my bedroom radiator and grabbed it to put it away, only for it to twitch angrily out of my hand. It was not a sock but Socks' tail. She was sitting on the windowsill hidden by the curtains.
I don't know which of us was the more shocked. When it moved I thought it was a rodent of some kind. Or a giant black caterpillar. 😂

Yes, DS2 is the qualified bouncer. It's the only course he's done since leaving school (and he's now 28). I won't derail the thread too much about him but we've spent the whole afternoon filling in more forms online with him.
We're hoping he'll be with us soon (in our village) although he is aware that we do not have any opportunities here for bouncers (qualified or otherwise).

DS2 did tell us that he had ejected Picard more than once when he was looking after Linney, so maybe his skills were useful.

Grin

Anyway - on to the play.

The play itself was a good play - it was just the way it was acted that made it the stuff of nightmares.

It was Whisky Galore! which has great possibilities. Unfortunately it was performed by the denizens of the (very small) troupe of actors in the next village - all seven of them, and four of them English to boot.

A big problem was the fact that most of the characters in Whisky Galore! are from the Hebrides, but we were treated last night to a range of bizarre accents - Gloucestershire, Belfast, Kerry................................anything other than the Hebrides.

The English characters in the play had the wrong voices as well - not posh enough..............................

Oh, and none of them could remember their lines, or project their voices, so we had trouble hearing them.

All in all, a disaster. We only went because our friend directed it.

I have no idea what I'm going to say to her when we next meet up.
Grin

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JoanOgden · 22/10/2023 21:08

Haha! I love the film of Whisky Galore.

Everyone knows that amdram is for the performers' enjoyment not the audience's. Tell your friend that the cast seemed to be really enjoying themselves Grin

TheShellBeach · 22/10/2023 21:36

Thanks for the advice, @JoanOgden
I am so bad at hiding what I really think of things.............she'll know.

Anyway, she said ages ago that there were a lot of problems with the accents.

She wasn't kidding.

The minister sounded like Fred West.

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TheShellBeach · 22/10/2023 21:37

And the doctor sounded like Dr. Ian Paisley.

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Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 22/10/2023 22:10

@TheShellBeach
That actually sounds as if it might have been ok. Bad but never boring perhaps? 😁

TheShellBeach · 22/10/2023 22:31

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 22/10/2023 22:10

@TheShellBeach
That actually sounds as if it might have been ok. Bad but never boring perhaps? 😁

I know what you mean but it went on for two and a half hours.
And we were in the back row and could hardly see it.
😫

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Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 22/10/2023 22:39

In which case Shell you do indeed have my sympathy.

Papergirl1968 · 22/10/2023 23:06

I think I need new glasses. I wondered what on earth the black and pink thing was in Lana's house - a wetsuit teamed with a pair of fluffy socks? Then I saw the final pic and realised it was a jacket.
I also thought the black trainers or slippers or whatever they are were kittens... 😂

Utterbunkum · 23/10/2023 07:41

@TheShellBeach was the set good? If looking for something nice to say, compliment the set. A good friend gave me that advice once and it has got me out of some awkward moments...

YetAnotherSpartacus · 23/10/2023 08:20

All in all, a disaster. We only went because our friend directed it.

I have no idea what I'm going to say to her when we next meet up.

It reminds me of the musical that Margo Leadbetter directed in the Good Life.

Utterbunkum · 23/10/2023 08:32

@YetAnotherSpartacus did she? I don't remember that one, bet it was hilarious. Ooh, I will have to look that up. I could do with a laugh.

TheShellBeach · 23/10/2023 11:35

Utterbunkum · 23/10/2023 07:41

@TheShellBeach was the set good? If looking for something nice to say, compliment the set. A good friend gave me that advice once and it has got me out of some awkward moments...

I don't think it was.
They took several parts each and you could see them changing behind screens. Those off stage were often so noisy that it was impossible to hear what was being said by those on stage.

Oh, and the seats the audience were on were really uncomfortable.

My friend told me to bring refreshments for the interval, so we took a flask of tea.

I could see Mr SB staring wistfully at all the people who'd brought alcohol for this but we were driving so it had to be tea.

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Utterbunkum · 23/10/2023 11:50

@TheShellBeach bugger. It will have to be the old, 'everyone obviously worked very hard' and hope your friend doesn't press for details.

ImNotWorthy · 23/10/2023 13:32

@TheShellBeach that play sounds like my cup of teaGrin Have you seen The Play That Goes Wrong, and its associated TV series? It was devised by the very professional actors who act in it. And it is hilarious!

The trouble with the Scots accent is the rhotic r, which is not a phoneme that features in English EnglishConfused

You reported the following:
A big problem was the fact that most of the characters in Whisky Galore! are from the Hebrides, but we were treated last night to a range of bizarre accents - Gloucestershire, Belfast, Kerry................................anything other than the Hebrides.

I am impressed that you were able to identify a Kerry accentShock

The Kerry accent is inpenetrable even to many other natives of Eire. My Lovely Man's DF came over from Kerry to N.London in 1947, which is why my LM is London Irish. LM's DF (LM called him The Old Steamer) eventually ended up here in NE England. He retained his Kerry accent to the end, and it remained impenetrable. Except that, somehow, even though you might not be sure of the actual words he was saying, somehow you could understand what he meantConfused

RumNotRun · 23/10/2023 16:17

@ImNotWorthy There was an old chap who used to drink in the same pub as me who had an Irish accent like that. Weirdly the more he drank, the more he could be understood (or maybe it was the more I drank!) We used to respond by listening to the intonation of his voice. He was a great chap, imaginatively called Paddy. His doctor told him he had to drink less, so he alternated his whisky with pints. Not quite sure that that was what the doctor meant!

TheShellBeach · 23/10/2023 17:24

I am impressed that you were able to identify a Kerry accent

One of our dearest friends in London, before we moved to Scotland, had a Kerry accent.

I love accents, and identifying them all. The different accents in Scotland fascinate me. My mother was from Sutherland and I trained as a midwife in Inverness, and when I hear those accents I become emotional.

Mr SB was deeply impressed that I was able to identify his own accent, when we met for the first time.

I recall that at the trial of Dennis Nilsen, there had to be an interpreter sworn in to tell the court what one of the witnesses was saying.

He was from Caithness - which is one of the hardest accents to imitate.

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Allergictoironing · 24/10/2023 07:51

Poor Tobias, with his lack of trust in humans 😢

Girlcat was on the back of the sofa, with me leaning across her all snuggled up. Both arms round her, one hand on belly the other round head and neck & my face buried in her fur. She was purring fit to bust, this is just about her favorite cuddle.

Then I looked up to see this little face in the doorway with such a wistful look on it. Sort of "I want that for me, but I'm far too scared to let her close to me" look. Heartbreaking.

LostCats · 24/10/2023 08:39

Oh bless his heart! That is heartbreaking.
But maybe, if he is acknowledging that he wants that, maybe in time it could come? And what a special and wonderful day that will be

YetAnotherSpartacus · 24/10/2023 10:17

I remember when Girlcat was Tobias ...

2023shady · 24/10/2023 10:59

Shady hasn't been for a poo so I've been a bit concerned

He just did the most dramatic collapse onto his side and I nearly puked with worry
Shady “belly rub? Also I’m going for a poo now”
AngryAngryAngry

Further Adventures of the Excellent Cats
nettie434 · 24/10/2023 11:10

Poor Tobias! But actually maybe the wistful look is a positive, he can see you and Girlcat enjoying a cuddle and might decide that he can do that too.

It's harder to find something positive to say about the Whisky Galore play. I've seen the old black and white film but not the remake nor have I read the novel. I think I would commiserate with the director on the challenges of working with such a disparate group of actors.

I have sent a cat advent calendar to my friends' cat.

TheShellBeach · 24/10/2023 11:31

2023shady · 24/10/2023 10:59

Shady hasn't been for a poo so I've been a bit concerned

He just did the most dramatic collapse onto his side and I nearly puked with worry
Shady “belly rub? Also I’m going for a poo now”
AngryAngryAngry

Linney suddenly collapsed on his side yesterday evening and for a moment I thought he was dying................

.............. but he was only tracking a spider really carefully in the corner of the room.

🕷

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Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 24/10/2023 16:26

No idea if any other litter tray cats do this but...
Unlike all the other cats I've had, when sitting up Basil doesn't tend to keep his front legs neatly together but he mancatspreads.
He was doing a particularly expansive job yesterday.

Further Adventures of the Excellent Cats
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