It's Been A Long Time Coming - This Blog Post Has

Thank you to those who have continued to hang around waiting for me to get my blogging mojo back, not sure it is back, but here goes.

Max Updates:

Sensory Deprivation - Max is still occasionally having bouts of kittenish 'Mad Max' behaviour where he drives us all up the wall, especially our old cat Jarmie. Purely by accident, one day he got in my huge hall cupboard and went to sleep on an old quilt behind some cushions. Quite the little hidey hole, took me ages to find him as he wouldn't answer me when I called!! He now asks to get into the cupboard quite often. On days when he is having one of those moments, I put him there, nearly close the door so it is all dark and off he goes to sleep. Waking much calmer. Right now though he is tucked up in his little bed near my feet.

Toilet Antics - Max does not like it when I go to the toilet and close the door. He yowls and scratches for me to let him in. So when there is no one home I leave the door open for him to come in. His latest trick is to to climb into my pants, I know that sounds weird, but I don't know how else to explain it. My trousers and undies rest on my ankles and somehow he gets under my undies and lies down in my pants until I am ready to resume the upright position!! Strange cat.

Baby - When Max was a kitten I got him a tunnel to run through and hide in. Inside the tunnel was a little fluffy ball with a bell inside which was attached to the tunnel by a piece of elastic. Max nearly strangled himself one day by tightly wrapping the elastic around his neck, hence I cut the ball out. He has spent hours playing with the fluffy ball since then, so much so that now it is just a piece of ragged fluff. The plastic ball that encased the bell has fallen out as he slowly broke through the material (and has never been found). I thought that would be the end of 'baby' as the bell had gone, but he still runs around with this piece of fluff, tossing it in the air, carrying it in his mouth, patting it across the floor, kicking it as he walks past. He brings it to bed, drops it in his water bowl and feeds it by putting it on top of his dry food. It is so tattered but of all his toys it is the one he loves best.

Holiday - hubby and I went away for a few days and put Max and Jarmie into holiday care at a really nice cattery. Max was absolutely shattered when we picked him up, he yowled all the way home, crying his little heart out and telling me all about how much he missed us. He would not leave us alone for weeks. Yowling each time we were out of his sight. I think I was as traumatised as he was, not sure I can ever leave him again and will be looking for a house/cat sitter when and if we travel overseas next year.

Oh and Max continues to drum with the hubby any time he can.

Now for my updates:

Holiday - had a 3 week holiday in November, did none of the things I had planned in the house like painting, choosing new carpet, tidying my study, painting and so on. Did go away to beautiful Margaret River for a few days, but was evacuated (missing out on the last 2 days and 1 night) due to a huge and destructive bushfire. Thankfully the beautiful place we stay was not damaged unlike 39 house and 9 chalets and a historic home. No human lives were lost, but many of our native animals would not have been able to outrun this fire, it was fast, hot and unpredictable.

Unbelievably great view to wake up to every day, so glad it survived.

Work - still debating whether to drop to 3 days per week next year, as there is so much work and unless I can job share there is no hope of me keeping up. Going back after 3 weeks off to the same crap that was there before I left, has left me despondent to say the least.

Health - have finally finished the 2nd drug trail which did little good, and now my doctor has written to the Federal Health Dept requesting permission for me to be put on the expensive 'biological' drugs for my type of arthritis. Means I have to give myself a weekly injection, but hopefully will mean a halt to the progress of degeneration and some pain relief. Supposedly less side effects as well, which will be great as I am over the nausea and diarrhoea that hits me almost daily.

Christmas - being hosted at my eldest daughter's with all of us bringing food to share. We are doing Secret Santa again for the adults, which takes a lot of stress off choosing presents and also means people get what they want rather than random things they put in the cupboard. I get everyone to make a list of what they would like, with multiple options, so they don't know exactly what they will be getting on the day. My biggest grand-daughter helped me with the draw which was nice.

Other stuff - there are other bits and pieces I will be sharing soon, but now is not quite the time.

Oh, and I have gone darker with my hair colour, loving the colour and shine.

So once again, thanks for visiting and leaving me messages of support, especially MyBabyJohn, Elephant Child and Kam and I will try and be back here often and try and get back to reading your blogs as well. xxx