Midnight Ponder, ft. Kitten.

I'm sitting with the kitten in the first few minutes of the last day of the year and we're reminiscing about 2013.

My highlights include: Dubrovnik, Glastonbury and bringing Cosmo home.

His highlights include: chasing his tail in the shower, sitting in the sink and hunting a daddy-long-legs in the porch.

Here's the naughty little critter's version of events:

He does like music...

Beautiful...

So being an adult is difficult, isn't it? Why didn't they teach you that at school instead of trigonometry? We could have done with a warning and a few lessons in how to deal with hardship graciously. Nonetheless, F.Scott Fitzgerald posits an interesting conundrum of a metaphor:

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

How can you move forward when you're still stuck in ideas, events, tragedy of the past? 

I hope 2014 brings you all health, contentment and adventure, in whichever form you deem fit for you right now.

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Sunday Round-up

Perfect day for a wedding in London yesterday

Today doesn't feel like a Sunday at all because no days around this time feel like a specific day. In fact I almost forgot that Sundays are my Sunday Round-up post day. What makes a day feel like a day? Sundays are usually sleepy, as today was. Sundays are usually surrounded by family, as today was. Sundays are usually peaceful and unnerving all at once, with the impending doom of Monday madness lurking. As today was. So why didn't today feel like a Sunday? Strange one.

This week I have been:

Reading: these interesting pieces on grief, Dove and abortion.

Shedding tears at: this video of Beyonce making a dream come true for a lovely little girl and this video of an inspiring love story (thank you lovely Christina for showing me the latter)

Watching: Raised by Wolves, written by Caitlin Moran and her sister Caroline. It's a sitcom based on their upbringing and the pilot was well worth a watch. I also finished watching the final series of Him & Her. Good stuff.

Cooking: a Christmas dinner for eight. Best one I've done yet, didn't burn too many things, only messed up the timings sliiiightly. Thumbs up.

Showing: American visitors around London. It was fun to go around the sights taking pictures of somebody who actually wanted photographs for once!! (Blogger problem??!)

Wearing: my new penguin onesie, complete with penguin feet. On Christmas day whilst I cooked, and for about three days straight afterwards too. Kitten was pretty terrified of me for a while, not least because I was the same colour as him, but he's warmed to it now. Cosiest outfit ever. Unfortunately doubt there'll ever be the occasion to wear it outside these four walls, but I'm gonna be working on that...

Looking forward to: wearing my NMP3 t-shirt, finally!!

I'm off to have a curry with some school friends this evening and will have some more family time over the next couple of days. How do you plan to spend your last few days of 2013?

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Kitten-Human Time

Cosmo and I spent some quality kitten-human time over the weekend. We played, we painted, he practised his hunting, we wrapped up presents, did some scrap-booking, listened to some London Grammar. You know, all the usual stuff. I can certainly tell he is growing up into a fine, young cat. He's more obedient, doesn't try and trip me up on the stairs too often and lounges about like he owns the place. This is his first Christmas and contrary to popular forecasts, he has not torn apart ANY presents under the tree, nor has he knocked over or tried to eat the tree itself. Hooray!

Wishing you all a peaceful Christmas xxxx

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Surprise Party

For M's birthday this year, his friends held him a surprise party.

Sometimes in life you reach points where your world pretty much stops for you. You spend all your time consumed by one thing, you don't quite understand how everyone goes about doing their usual day-to-day things, still laughing, still smiling, still obsessed with the trivial, when you feel like your world is falling apart and struggle to remember how you used to also be like that. M is pretty good at coping with less than favourable situations, but nonetheless a hard time is a hard time, right?

So, in an overwhelming act of kindness, it was wonderful to see all the people who care about him most come together to show him how much he is appreciated. A room in the local pub was hired out, a buffet ordered, a cake baked (and decorated like a child, I know...sorry), banners and balloons displayed and a good 30 people or so waiting to jump out and shout "SURPRISE!" when M came in, thinking he was just having a drink with a couple of friends. Wonderful. What was extra special was that M had noooooo idea at all. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

How do you feel about surprises? Have you ever been thrown one?

PS. My cake had raving reviews despite the child-like decorations (those worms do taste pretty good though) so if you are interested in the recipe, you can find it here.

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