If you want to read about our murderous cat, scroll down a bit…
Firstly I guess an apology is in order to anybody who normally reads my blog. Over the last week I have been either working on-site, or working late so much that I have not touched a computer in “my own time” for over a week… (well, apart from picking around with Python).
This is going to be a very boring entry, but basically is required just to let you know what I’ve been up to since the last entry.
Last week I was pulled from pillar to post at work to help on a new project, and to finish development for a new system I was installing later in the week. In the end I managed to be all things to all people, but it meant the week was no fun what so ever.
The new project (at the moment) involves helping out with DTP and design work - another string to my bow that very few people know about, thankfully. The whole project is becoming bogged down in a paper chase between the directors. The database driven website I developed for them is still empty after several weeks sat online. I may offer to go ahead and populate the website myself, and let them alter it afterwards.
On Thursday and Friday I commuted over to Swindon each day to install the stuff I had been developing for the last week or so (in reality the development was mostly done the day before I went - including a healthy dose of overtime).
On the way back from Swindon on Friday I stopped off in Didcot to go for a drink with my brother in law. We went in the pub opposite the railway station in Didcot (for those who have any idea of it). I had two pints of “Greene King IPA”, and then continued on my way. In hindsight it was a bad idea - I had not eaten properly all day, and it went straight to my head. It was something of a battle staying awake as I travelled through Reading, Maidenhead and Bourne End stations on the way home to Marlow.
So - I get home on Friday, get changed, make tea for W who has been off work ill, and attempt to get ready to go into town to have a drink with some colleagues who are leaving… and the cat walks in with a snake it has found in the garden.
Following a bit of a panic, we get the snake off the cat, and deposit it at the far end of the garden (making sure the cat can’t see us). I’m just about to leave when I notice the cat behaving strangely once more in the middle of the garden. This time he has a doormouse cornered….
I ran onto the lawn, grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck, and lift it into the air… the cat has one final swipe at the doormouse, thumping it end over end several times… and is then distinctly disgusted with me for grabbing him in such a violent manner…
After throwing the cat in the house, the mouse scuttles off into the undergrowth on it’s own - having (surprisingly) not died of shock during it’s capture by the cat.
Chopping the rest of the weekend out of this blog entry (we went to lunch in Henley, which was great), I heard the cat jumping around behind the sofa last night, and wondered what on earth he was up to… then we heard a squeek.
Our damn cat had brought another mouse in from the garden, and had it cornered against the book shelves… once again we grabbed the cat, and then W kept an eye on the poor little mouse while I found a box to pick the mouse up… poor little thing. She took the mouse up the garden to release it, and apparently it shot off through the grass like a missile, so we’re hoping it was okay…