Category: Uncategorized

One thing I promised myself I would not do on this blog is blog about blogging. One reason is that I have noticed a worrying correlation between my favourite bloggers taking up the subject and their subsequently giving up writing.

I am going to break my promise partly because I have found something I want to say about it and partly because I want to recommend some other sites to visit.

There are times when, having put the finishing touches to a 20 paragraph account of somthing amusing my cat has done, I find myself wondering if there really isn’t something better I could be doing with the precious hour of life I have given to the exercise. However, like many of you I feel compelled to express myself so I drift into thinking that perhaps my blog should aim to “make a difference”. There must be something I can denounce or someone I can inspire. So I sit at my keyboard with my brow beetling and my fingers poised and then out comes a blog entry about train delays.

I do not myself read blogs that trade in the kind of big message posts my subconscious is apparently determined that I should produce. That is not to say that what is written about on the blogs I do read is not important or that the writing is unambitious. Gamba has produced a memoir which is an astonishing piece of writing. Its ragged emotion and unflinching self-analysis are utterly moving. Mike, Menace and Disguntled each have apparently light-hearted blogs with a serious purpose. They are serious about their writing and even the shortest entries speak of the thought that has gone into them. Others are serious about being funny: Sweatpants,  Emma and Riley are to writing what Meryl Streep is to acting: you are conscious of the performance but dazzled and beguiled by its skill. Others like Kevin and Steve seem to draw from some bottomless inner well of humour. They neither varnish nor polish and somehow therefore communicate their personalities directly. Some bloggers write because their heart is so full of love for their children that it simply has to spill out (there are so many examples that it would be invidious to choose) and that moves me to tears. Finally, others have blogs that feel like conversations; their blogs are like an open invitation to friendship the beauty of which reflects their own inner beauty (Katja, Spinning, Fox and Cranky are all examples).

I feel I should mention everyone I read but will restrain myself. With apparently infinite numbers of blogs I read yours because of the beauty it distills. Anything that lifts the heart is beautiful and if you find me lurking in your comments section it is because you are inspiring others or at least you are inspiting inspiring me.

I’m going to tell you a story but it won’t be up for long.

First, those of you who are not experts in the UK political scene may want to read this. Each day speculation continues that our PM may be about to receive a visit from PC Plod. A key allegation is that donors were persuaded to make loans to the Labour Party rather than giving gifts as only the latter were disclosable.

Now a COMPLETELY UNCONNECTED story: Friday night was a surprise party for my senior clerk. He has been with Chambers for 25 years. Amongst the guests were most if not all of our former members. One of these guests (let us call him Mr A Blah) arrived halfway through festivities. His arrival was heralded by the sudden appearance of men with enormous chests, twitchy demeanours and bits of wire dangling from their ears. Following on behind came our illustrious former member and his dazzling permanent smile.

Our Head of Chambers has always had a very dry sense of humour but I had never realised, until Friday, quite how quick he is. Here is the exchange between him and Mr Blah:

HoC: And so in conclusion, as thanks for 25 years of service, we have a gift for you.

[He passes an envelope to our senior clerk].

HoC: I should say that I have the PM’s personal assurance that this constitutes a gift and not a loan.

[Much laughter, Mr Blah shifts uncomfortably]

HoC: And now, if I can persuade Mr Blah to overcome his natural modesty I will ask him to say a few words.

AB: Well thank you for those kind words, ha ha, I shan’t be appointing YOU as my lawyer ha-ha.

HoC: I hear you need one.

This morning the ambassador handed Rudi a final note stating that unless we heard from him by eleven a.m. that he was prepared at once to stop his micturations and defecations a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received and that consequently we are at war with Rudi.

 

Our cat, Rudi, has been a bit grumpy and out of sorts recently. A heart-stoppingly expensive trip to the vet’s has revealed the cause to be a rectal abcess (sorry if I have just ruined your meal). We asked the vet please to cure him. The vet indicated that it would be much more fun for all concerned (i.e. for him) if we were to try our hands at animal doctoring instead. So, he clipped a magnificent plastic collar round Rudi’s neck and gave us instructions to hold the cat down twice a day and flush disinfectant through the abcess with a syringe.

Rudi, the ungrateful little bastard, saw only pain and indignity in all this. He failed to acknowledge the bank haemorraghe that his treatment had caused and the good intentions which motivated our twice daily wrestling sessions. He took careful note that when he got his new plastic ruff stuck in the catflap or in the door to his litter box we laughed at him insensitively. He sat glaring at us and plotting his revenge. Each session with the syringe stiffened his feline resolve.

He waited until we had made up the guest bedroom for the visit of my brother-in-law and nephew. Once the freshly aired duvet and clean sheets were on the bed he trotted purposively into the room, jumped onto the bed and urinated copiously. We were alerted by his little catty snicker and the sound of our guests’ despair. It took a while to put things right and, in the end, we had to tie the door shut to prevent a repeat performance.

Surely, Rudi apparently thought, we had learned our lesson. Yet, at 6 pm, there he was being pinned to the floor by the fat one with the loud voice whilst the small one who serves him food was spraying water up his rear. As soon as we had finished, he bolted up to our room and showered our marriage bed with ammonia.

This was war. We raged and howled and boots were swung close to his pustular rear. He realised that he could not win a symmetrical conflict and his best bet lay in insurgency. He retreated into the shadows and developed a strategy. As we retired to bed and our said our goodnights, I heard the sound of my beloved sniffing the air.

P: “Can you smell cat shit?”

M: “Er … yes”

P: “Oh God … where is it?”

I turned on the light expecting to find a horse’s head of cat dung beneath the duvet. But I could find nothing. It appeared to be coming from the cupboard but we emptied it and found nothing. Rudi has stumped us. He has filled our room with a persistent odour of shit but we cannot find any. Has he sown it into the curtain lining? Has he shoved it into the mattress? Has he filled a shoe? He is saying nothing but he is abundantly smug.

He has won this round and the world shall hear from him again.