Wow, it's my first day since the new year started when I haven't had to pack, patch, paint or clean anything. I'm also child-free till tomorrow. I've spent the morning catching up on some work I had to do, and yesterday I sorted my tax, so I'm toying with the idea of going to the movies. Or going back to bed with my Connie Willis novel (I just finished The Domesday Book, am rereading Blackout because All Clear is winging its way from the Book Depository). Tough call.
Apparently our open house sessions on the weekend were a triumph. I can't say for sure, because we had to be out of the way, and Mr Padge just can't seem to articulate clearly enough for me to make out more than FEED ME.
On Saturday there were 21 groups through, more than any other house in the area. At the dot of 10:30am the empty street was suddenly full of cars; they must have been lurking around the corner. We scarpered, and there was no sign of the cats as we left in the opposite direction. As soon as we disappeared, the cats came out and set up begging stations, one in the back yard (Mr Pooter) and one right inside in front of the front door (Mr Padge, of course), so that people had to step over him to enter. Our agent thought this was marvellous, so didn't shove him out of the way. 'A novelty,' she called him. We have other words to describe him when he uses this very familiar blocking technique.
Yesterday, Sunday, the agent expected around 10 groups. We got 12. The weather was gorgeous each morning, turning grey and ploppy later in the day. Lucky us! Padge stationed himself a bit further from the door, wandering in and out with the people, playing host.
Today he's sprawled near the door, looking outside wistfully, wondering who is going to come today for his pats. Thankfully, no-one. He can suffer in his jocks, spoiled puss.
So now it's in the hands of Ceiling Cat. We have another double-day weekend coming up, but anything could happen in the next few days. In the ACT you only have to get one builder's report, and this gets sent, with the contract, to interested parties to consider if they express interest. A much more sensible way of doing things rather than each group having to commission their own report. Whoever buys the house, pays for the report. So far 5 groups have requested the contract & report from our agent, and there have been a few requests for rental evaluations. Fingers crossed!
On Saturday we went looking at beds and furniture, just cruising the shops. I hate shopping, and so does BB, so we ended up quite cranky. We cheered ourselves up with a Hindi movie (I can't say Bollywood, because it was much more arthouse than that, with no dancing or singing, and only 2 hours long as opposed to the usual 3 or 4) called Dhobi Ghat, or Mumbai Diaries. It was great; if you get a chance to see it, it's very beautiful and quite engaging. We followed that with dinner at our favorite South Indian restaurant, Ruchi in Belconnen, where we treated ourselves to a Thali, Best Beloved's favorite way of eating. He had the meaty version and I had the vegetarian, which is excellent albeit a bit too reliant on coconut flavours throughout the dishes.
Yesterday we went to CanCon at EPIC and had a wander around, marvelling at the separate universe that exists to one side of ours. CanCon is the local gamers' conference, and there were three huge rooms: one devoted to board games, one to card games (like Magic, Pokemon etc) and the last to role-playing and figurine-based games (is that the right way to describe Warhammer?). Lots of amazing merchandise and fun people to watch and very funny t-shirts to read. We didn't play anything, but we did buy a few games to bring home.
I'm hoping to get into my studio over the next few days to do something more than just clean up the mess. I have a few workshops coming up, at Belconnen Arts Centre and at Megalo, so if you want to spend a day or so making stuff, come along!
I think the first thing to do is to go for a walk to my postbox. There's something in it, and it just might be the Connie Willis book, which will determine the rest of the day's trajectory.
8 comments:
I am so happy for you that the viewings went well. And that Mr Padge welcomed people - our Jazz growls at strangers and scuttles away with his belly to the ground. Jewel just scuttles. (We can't be blamed for their names, they were adopted and had already been named). I love your blog and someday will be brave enough to come out from behind the anon shelter.
Will the cats stay with the house, or move with you? Have you asked them?
I can guess what you expect them to do, but catz is catz ...
... Come to think of it, they might set up a dual ownership arrangement. It happened to us once - a cat we had had since small kittenhood turned up one morning with a collar and a message: "Who is feeding our Puss?". He looked smug.
I'm wondering what Peter's wondering, too.
Anon, in your own time. I like knowing you're out there :)
Peter & LT: funny you should mention this. BB says that the cats don't want to move, but I'm on the 'they'll be happy once they get there, they don't know any better' side. Which echoes both our childhoods: him not moving until he was 18, and me being dragged screaming from place to place with my mother saying 'you can go back in 6 months if you don't like it', which I never did.
They WILL move, and they'll love it. All the window sills are kitty-width for sitting and there are cat-nooks all through the garden. Plus a big park over the road full of birds. What's not to like? I'll tell them that they can go back in 6 months if they don't like it :)
Its anon the chicken-hearted again. When we moved from the central west of NSW to Canberra our cats cried and behaved in a fashion that necessitated the opening of windows, but settled v quickly and loved it. Though the first few days were fraught. Lots of luck.
Our cats have generally settled well after a move. But we do choose a room and leave them in it [with food, water, litter box, bed etc] for about three days until they start scratching at the door to come out. Then we open the door and let them venture out to explore. Generally there is a lot of mrowing and running back to hide in their 'safe' room but within a couple of days they are happy in the house and looking to go outside to explore.
My two survived the 24 hour car drive and ferry trip and settled in really well in just a couple of days. Most cats are more relaxed than people expect and I think the fact that Padge has been greeting the visitors means that he is a very cool cat.
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