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A young Spanish girl has been visiting with her Dad in the house opposite mine for the summer

and she is leaving to go back to school on Friday. She loved to come over and watch the kittens play in the garden and is such sweet girl. The afternoon Gremlin was collected to go to her new home, she popped over afterwards to see if I was OK... as I would probably be sad to see little Grem go. She dropped me off a beautifully written little note saying that she had enjoyed her visit and was leaving... which was lovely to receive, people don't seem to teach their kids to write things down anymore now we live in this instant messaging, texting, mobile, email type of world. So I made her a card with a photo of Pandora, the last kitten looking for a home, hope she likes it.

Sadly, little Gremlin died yesterday, she got sick and never recovered, I am heartbroken, she was such a lovely little thing, had the most laidback approach to life and the courage of a lion. I thought it was hard to accept that little Two Ears lost his battle last week but I had known for some time that the odds of him surviving the fall he had were not good. So two of my five kittens are now on their way to Rainbow Bridge

This is little Gremlin and Two Ears curled up together when they weren't very well.
This is Gremlin, such a little character, I will miss her terribly. She was the runt of the litter and alway so much smaller and frailer than the others and spent a lot of her time in the house with us so we got attached to her more than the others.

Be careful what you ask for....

When we moved from the villa at Murjan into this villette (LOL) here at Pearl Beach I found this stove in the kitchen which I was supposed to cook on.... yeah right! You can see how undersized (is that a word?) it is because there was a gap either side and they had it on a plinth to make it the right height.... to say I was unimpressed is probably an understatement. So I requested that they get a proper grown up stove as a replacement.... well, that was March and April went by and I was busy, then May and I reminded them that I wanted a new stove... June passed and then July came along and I decided that I really needed to be a bit more proactive with regard to this... so I took to calling the compound manager daily and it seemed to be working... he would tell me it was 'in hand' and he was 'working on it' and I would definitely have my stove at the 'end of the week'... not actually saying which week in the year he was referring to... and then he stopped taking my calls....
Hah!! Bad move... that is like the proverbial red rag to the bull... ignore me will you? avoid me will you? So I took to walking up to the office every morning and enquiring as to the wearabouts of this promised new stove... so he sent a carpenter to measure the gap.... progress!!
So the daily visits went on... and on... and on... and he took to hiding from me.... he could see me coming from his office window and took evasive action!!
Hah! Hide from me will you? Avoid me? Hope I will go away and not come back? LOL... little does he know what he is dealing with!! So, I too got clever and approached the office from a different direction and changed the timing and popped in just after lunch... and the elusive new stove was promised to be delivered in a few days.... it was coming from Khobar... which is a 45 minute drive away but obviously takes stoves a week.... and then he disappeared off to India for a months vacation!! Leaving me with no stove!!
So I found the second in command and gave him a good talking to... and he promised to sort it and he promised to call me and let me know.... which he didn't!! So I went back and he wanted to know what was wrong with the old stove, perhaps they could get it repaired!! I WANT A BIGGER STOVE THIS ONE IS TOO SMALL.... it won't take a cookie tray, I can't fit my roasting trays in it... its too small!
So Ronnie, (second in command) assures me he will call the manager in India and find out what was happening, to leave it with him... harrumph.... you are kidding right? I WANT A BIGGER STOVE!! I don't want people lieing to me anymore, I don't want to be avoided anymore, I don't want to sit and wait for calls that don't happen....I have waited 6 months for a new stove and I am not prepared to wait any longer.... I get a new stove or I get a new house!! Poor Ronnie got both barrels.... and its a shame you have to lose it to actually get people to take you seriously... but he phoned me later and said he had permission to get me a new stove and the carpenter would be by to measure the gap.... again (just in case it had changed in the interim period). Then a man came and said the new stove was ordered!!!! Yippeee........ and it was the same size as the one I had...... what? No!! You are kidding me? This is a joke right? Nope, the new stove will be the same size so that it fits into the gap (with room to spare either side)!!
So I threw a hissy fit and told him he could phone them up and cancel the order because I WANT A BIGGER STOVE!!
So this is what got delivered and installed yesterday.... its MAHOOSIVE!! They had to remove one of the kitchen cupboards and cut a chunl of worktop out just to get in the space!! So anyways... my Nan always said 'be careful what you ask for....' and she could be right.... but its a lovely BIG stove and all my trays and roasting dishes fit (in fact they all fit in at the same time)!!

Here is little Two Ears sitting next to his brother One Ear... they were both the same size before he got sick so I am working on building his body fat back up and getting him back on form.

Want a Date?

On the short walk to the beach this morning I passed a few palm trees which were laden with dates!! Only problem is... 1. I don't have a step ladder and 2. the birds seem to be getting all the ripe ones!! I love dates... maybe a kitchen chair would do?

It wasn't even 9 a.m. and the sand was too hot to walk on without sandals... and the water was warm and I had my walk up and down and found some shells and a dead crab and loads of little stripey fishes playing in the shallows, then I hot footed (LOL, good that eh?) it back to the air con in the house!

Here are the three kittens, Gremlin, One Ear and Pandora asleep in the shade of the front door. They are all fighting fit again but Grem and Pandora need to put the weight they lost back on... their big brother appears enormous next to them!

Another Kitty Book

This is another kitty book ready to have the photos added as soon as I know which one will be adopted next, hopefully!!

Close up of the front cover decoration. I used a piece of cardboard and painted it then inked and added some papers and beads.

This is Two Ears and he has been at the vet for nearly a week as he is very poorly. The vet thinks he had a fall and hurt his head and its damaged some of his nerves so he can't stand or co-ordinate his movement and is having to be fed and on a drip. We just hope he improves and gets better soon.

Maisey's Book

This is the book I made as a gift for the lady who adopted Maisey, one of the kittens.

I thought it would be fun for her to have a record of Maisey's life in the last couple of months.

I made a pocket in the back page to take the vet's business card so that she has a record of who to contact to do the follow up injections.

The lady loved it and has since asked me to make her another one containing photos of her grandchildren.

Gosh, it's been how long?

I apologise for being away for so long, but have been mega busy working on stuff that I can't show you for a wee bit yet! You never know, it might be worth the wait.... ;)

This is a little chipboard book I made from the Kaisercraft Babushka papers. Once I saw those dolls I had to trace them and use them as a pattern to make chipboard pages - then found out that Kaisercraft actually make a chipboard book in this shape!! LOL typical... but I wouldn't have been able to get hold of it out here so I guess my hard work didn't go to waste.
I love those little paper beads dangling from the bottom of the pages - used instructions I found here by Nichole Heady to make them and they are so easy and look really great. I will be using these on o'wires in the future, I am sure!

Once I get home I am going to photograph the Babushka dolls that Chris bought me when he was working in Kazakhstan - they are so beautiful and such works of art... not your normal big thick Russian doll with about 5 or 6 dolls inside... these are stunning and contain 15 - 18 dolls - the smallest being the size of the tip of my pinky fingernail and still with all the painted face and dress.... some people have have infinite amount of patience.... cos mine would be blobs of paint way before I got to the smallest!!

And this is what my doorstep looks like all day... Mummy cat and her 4 remaining kittens (I found a home for one of them, another is spoken for and 3 are still looking)... they lay here because there is a cool draft coming under the door from the aircon in the lounge... well, more than a draft now as Chris and I felt sorry for them laying in 45 degree heat and removed the draft excluder from the inside of the door! What are we like? ;)

Oh and this is Cheesie... she has come to stay for 2 weeks while his owners go on vacation... and what a noisy parrot she is!! She has an interesting range of sounds.... her previous owner was a math teacher so you get interesting titbits like "the square root of 48 is 6.9" and I think he ate a lot of microwaved food.... ping ping piiiiiiiing.......... and last week she had to go to the vets in a car with a cat in a basket............ who cried all the way there......... so she has a crying cat off now too!
I'm thinking that in two weeks I could teach her some really good stuff, especially as she is the only thing still living that has had the nerve to call me 'sweetie'.... or I can at least persuade Chris to teach her some Cockney slang.... it's his boss' parrot so it may be interesting!! LOL