Three furry house guests

My old neighbours moved into a new place at the beginning of this month - in Potch; but they had to move out of their old place in Hartees at the end of July. Their four kitties (Karel, my feline kindred-spirit, died during this time) lived with me for three weeks in Jan when they moved from here to Hartees, so I offered to babysit the three cats since they know me and the property. Their dad, Stefan, comes to fetch them tomorrow evening to take them to their new home.

I'm going to miss my little house guests when they go; they have really integrated into my life. They're all lovely little personalities and have showered me with attention and loves.

Leo

Leo is a Persian. He's actually a little guy, light as a feather, his small body hidden by tons of fur. He's got a funny squishy Persian face, tiny nose and big eyes. He has this thing about talking to me when I'm washing dishes and he's become a shower buddy, dozing on the mat while he waits for me to finish.

Alex has the softest and silkiest fur ever. She's a mixed breed - not quite sure what. She's very anti-social and doesn't do cuddles or people. She darts around and doesn't make friends with humans. Interestingly, she is the one who sleeps on my bed at night, not the others. She started this a day or two after coming to stay. She sleeps on top of my feet and stays there the whole night. When she hears my alarm go off, she walks up to me for tickles and scratches. We're at the point now where I can pick her up, without her whining at me, and we can do strokes and tickles for a minute or two. She has absolutely beautiful green eyes.

Stella is a Maine Coon and she's the softest and floppiest cuddly cat I've met. We do lots of pick-me-up loves. Her home is on my couch, where she snoozes at night. She loves her snacks (we do crunchy snacks every evening when I get home - all three come running!) and often goes for Leo's snack dish, when she has finished her portion, 'cos he's slow at munching. She squeaks at me when she comes in from being outside, to announce her arrival. Leo licks her head.

Demonstrationg the 'Over Shoulder' and 'Upsidedown Kitty' holds. Stella would stay like this all day!

A few days a few days after they arrived, Stella fell ill. I took her to 'Uncle Larry', our vet, in the nick of time. She had a blood parasite, caught from ticks or fleas and when I got her to Larry first thing the next morning (she had looked ill the previous afternoon and didn't drink, eat or move the whole night), her temperature was through the roof (critical, system shut-down, having convulsions high), she was metabolising red blood cells, her heart rate was extremely elevated and she probably would have been dead within a few hours. Larry worked his magic and Stella has recovered completely.

Their mom, Louise, has been sending me pics of some lovely little 'children' from a kitty haven... And I saw a pretty young stray grey tabby outside the dance studio last weekend. I quizzed the car guard about her - she hangs around there and gets food from the people who live in the staff rooms; but she is a stray and doesn't come up to people.

I'm half-way tempted to adopy a kitty. My 'baby', Bracken - a beautiful tabby - is 15 years old now and she lives with my mom; I stop past to visit her often. But, I have reservations about adopting a kitty because of the associated 'parental' obligations to vet bills, safety (there's a busy-ish road on the one side of the property) and having kitty looked after if I'm away. It's not something I want to take on right now - having a pet, to me, is a big responsibility and a long-term one too. For now, I'll continue to befriend 'Stripes' (I don't know his real name) a young tabby that lives next door.

So, it has been an absolute treat for me to have these three little house guests staying with me for six weeks and home will feel very empty without them. Their parents have missed them (their two dogs have probably missed them too) and I'm sure they'll love their new home in a safe and quiet neighbourhood.

Generation bump

My circuit training buddies for our Friday evening sessionare a bit younger than me. We're talking an age gap of nine to 16 years.

This Friday we were talking about the Kinetic Adventure race and who would be racing and with whom. I say that I'm racing with Lizelle and Lizelle again and add, "It's a bit like, 'Hi, I'm Larry. This is my brother Darryl and this is my other brother Darryl.".

I start laughing and they're all looking at me with blank expressions.

They were only just born in the 80s, of course they wouldn't know 'Newhart', a tv comedy programme with Bob Newhart as the owner of an inn. According to Wiki the show aired on CBS in Oct 1982 and run until May 1990.

Larry and The Darryls didn't appear much in the show until the second series and by the third series they're much-loved regulars. Everytime they make an appearance, Larry introduces the group with, "Hi, I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl.".

I found this lovely clip online, from the second episode of 'Newhart' when the brothers make their first appearance on the show. [Larry, played by William Sanderson, is Sheriff Dearborne in the True Blood series]

Answering email

I get a lot of email - it does go through phases but there's generally enough of it to keep me very occupied. As a result, I also send a lot of email - in reply, nature of my work and general communication. My life (work, sport, social, friends and family) has been very much running through email since early 1995 - that's 15 years now.

As the volume of email has increased over the years, I've become very 'controlled' in my approach; I try to send emails to people the way I'd like them to be sent to me.

Sometimes, when I'm just saying hi, I don't ask questions. This is an undemanding email that is just making contact but not expecting a reply or responses.

I aim to confine a topic to each email - not multiple themes in an email - labeled with an appropriate subject heading (very important!).

I also try to reply properly to emails to limit back and forth volleys; if I can solve a problem or attend to an equiry first time, I won't have to deal with another five emails from the same person around the same topic. With this in mind, I try to ask the right questions when I email people.

I also try to whack through my inbox everyday so that I don't start the next day with left-over emails. Often I'll just reply with "Done", confirming that I've read their email and completed the task. Very rarely one slips though, but I'll usually catch it when I sweep through my inbox to cleanse every few weeks.

It's the complicated and demanding emails that I find most challenging; those that ask a lot of questions... most of these are AR-related. Advice on how to find sponsors, how to get into the sport, what clubs to join, training advice... people, please... just phone me, use Google or give it some thought yourself. I don't have time (nor the inclination) to write long replies to this stuff - so I don't. Most of it is on http://www.ar.co.za/ anyway.

While looking for an image to accompany this post, I found this useful article "Yes, you can stay on top of email (productivity tip)" by Michael Hyatt.

On a related topic - being in media work it is amazing how many editors (many, not all), producers and such never bother even to reply with "OK, thanks". Nothing, nada. For people who are contacted by media and the public, I'm sure they get lots of email. And there is certainly a ton of useful content that they miss. The problem is easily solved by hiring a wannabe-student, someone who wants a career in media (tv, radio, PR, magazines), to reply-to and log emails every afternoon. Pay them student rates and they score great in-house experience. It's a matter of creating a spreadsheet and pulling out the senders name, contact details and topic of the email. How much easier for the producer to look through a neat list than a scary, overloaded inbox!

Mmmm...

Cruising in a K3

Last night at the Dabs time trial I paddled for the first time in a K3. My boat partners were Amy (driving) and Steven (piggy in the middle). Amy's a very experienced paddling and she drives up a storm so we were often in the thick of things. We logged a 55min time trial for the 10 laps, which Amy says is "very respectable". There were five K3s on the dam - a good number.

The first time I saw a K3 was in about 2003 when I was taking photos at a river race (Liebensbergvlei). I took a really great photo of paddlers with a lovely tree behind them - it took a while for me to realise that there were three people in the boat, not two. I've seen K3s at time trial recently and wanted to give it a try. Awesome!

Ant Stott and company dropping
down Cradock Weir

Searching the web I see that Ant Stott paddled Fish River Canoe Marathon last year in a K3 Yeti, which he says is "an extended, high-line Accord" made by Pope's Canoe Centre. He adds that he "was very impressed with the boat's handling; the rudder responds at the same speed as a standard K2 making it really easy to control through the rapids. As a result we had perfect runs through Keith’s flyover, Salt pans rapid and over Cradock weir". There were 40 K3s at this race last year!

I do hope to paddle this K3 more often - it's just good fun.