Prison Dramas, Bands and Ouija Boards - the Excellent Cats audition, sing and plot

[TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne]

Our feline overlords have so many current strings to their joint and several bows.

Auditioning for Series One of The Prison Cat, forming a band, and continuing to plot against their enemies by means of their Ouija Boards - will they even have time to sleep now?

I remember being given half a crown by my grandfather once. I was really excited as not only was it a lot of money, it was also a really big coin (to a small child).
Modern value 12.5p 🤣

Same! My Grandad used keep coins in an old baccy barrel and would root around in there to give us a half crown on high days and holidays. (And I loved the tobacco smell 🤫)

Raining half crowns when large spots fell was a saying in my family - any one else recall?

I remember ha'pennies but only cause we had some in the house for no apparent reason. However I do remember some sweets were a ha'penny each so for 10p, you could get 20 sweets! Bargain!

Ghostie has been weirdly affectionate this evening, curling up on my lap and purring. Lex, Toad, and Raven are acting like there is nowhere to sleep and are all curled up on the floorboards in the landing, the poor neglected children 🙄

Do you have underfloor heating or is it some weird cat thing?

Kitty smiling for the camera.

No underfloor heating, just weird cats

Oh good.
I'm sorry it's so much, but Argyll is so far away from the rest of the country that I had to take the distance into consideration.

Anyway, Sybil sent me an email when she was looking after your business for the day, and she accidentally included the latest copy of your company accounts, so I know you're well rich.

All cats are weird.
A friend came for dinner this evening, and Linney refused to come in when he realised that there was a strange person in the house.
Despite the fact that it was raining heavily and he was drenched.

Despite the fact that it was raining heavily and he was drenched

Linney was drenched, not my friend.

My friend saw Gizmo up by the school and Gizmo came up enthusiastically.

I am issuing an official complaint about Cat Four. I thought I was getting a kitten not a puppy.
I heard a strange crunching sound under the table today.
She is chewing the corners of the chairs. Two chairs that have withstood Cat One ripping them up now have pseudo-tassels.
Cat chew toys arriving pronto.

I don’t go back that far but I do have 2 £1 notes my MIL’s MIL had saved - so one for each DC!

When I first arrived in the U.K. in 2000, I’m fairly sure that my roommate used to buy tins of no name peaches from Sainsburys for 10 or 20p? It was ridiculously cheap even for a foreigner. I’m still a little bit surprised when I see what they cost now.

Sadly it would be so much easier to donate loads to charity if it was cheaper 😞

I remember 10 bob notes - red I think?

Yes! I loved them, because my aunties and uncles would give me and my sister ten shillings when we were on holiday. Some even gave us a pound note. We had a great many aunties and uncles because my mother had nine siblings.
I enjoyed counting my haul of cash.

Wait. A bob wasn’t a pound?? My dad always talked about ‘bob notes’ and I just assumed it meant pounds. Ok that’s my mind totally blown

Bob was slang for a shilling. 10 Bob notes were sort of brown and smaller (dimensions) than a pound note.

eta: so half a pound. (20 shillings in a pound)

@CatsonPollock ah! Thank you!

Also, in urgent news:

You’d think they’d have learned with Gizmo and his eventual relocation to Scotland…

English Wildcats?! English Wildcats?!

updated to fix link

A farthing was 1/4 of an old currency penny - always remember those because they had a wren on them, but they went out of circulation about the time I was born
Halfpenny (pronounced Ha'penny)
Penny
Threepenny bit (usually pronounced thruppence or similar) was a brass coin
Sixpence (2.5p) was the smallest silver coloured coin in the 60's
A bob was a shilling (5p).
Florin was 2 shillings (10p)
Half crown was 2s6d (12.5p)
Crown (5 shillings, 25p) was only really used for commemorative coins that I can remember
A guinea was £1 and 1s - a term for the amount as there wasn't a guinea coin as such since some time in (I think?) 1800's.

Also notice that pennies weren't 1p, 2p etc but 1d, 2d - from Latin (same reason why pounds are £ for L)

Fount of completely useless information, I am!

They've been trying to save the remaining few in Scotland recently - the biggest threat as the article you linked says is the cross breeding by domestic cats.

10 shilling notes were browny red, £10 notes were orangy brown 😀

I remember the first ever £10 I saw!

I remember the pre-decimal coins! I only ever saw brass threepenny bits in those days, but, in the 1980s when gardening I dug up a silver threepenny bit, which I gave to my friend's young son. I also found a farthing, which I still have somewhere. I liked the wren.

I usually get my parents a hamper for Christmas and decided to go full posh this year and get it from Fortnum and Mason. Thought I'd link this here in case any of the excellent cats have dry paws and very expensive tastes 😄

I didn't put this in the hamper (nor the dog version for their dog).

www.fortnumandmason.com/wildwash-natural-cat-paw-balm

Here are some facts which are strange to consider these days:

There were 48 farthings in a shilling.

A shilling became 5p in 1971.

So it used to be possible for there to be 48 coins in 5p.

Likewise, £1 could be divided into 960 (farthings).

Bear in mind that an old penny wasn't equivalent to a new penny. 1p was the same as 2.4 old pennies.

All this really blows my mind.

Nowadays £1 can only be divided into 100p.

Long before decimalisation, in 1961, £1 could be divided into 960 farthings.

I was at a car show only about five years ago and on enquiring abour the cost of a small item on his stall the stall holder quoted me 30 bob.
I did wonder how many people would have realised he wanted £1.50 🤣

I don't remember bob notes. They were before my time.
And before Herbie's.
DS took a photo of him with all his toys and says he's very ungrateful as he will only play with an old shoelace!

saw Picasso again today have to get my cat fix when i can