Myself and the current missus have been having some quality time together, which we had planned for a long time when we were being run ragged by cats, kittens and family.

For my birthday we went for a meal locally. Nothing spectacular; just the two of us.

Yesterday we spent all day in London, having lunch in a Mexican restaurant before getting one of the riverboats down the Thames with the intention of going to the Tower of London. As we had spent so much time eating our lunch it was getting too late to do the Tower justice so we went back to our usual plan. Find A Pub.

We found a good one just round the corner from Frankie Drake's boat at the side of the river. The pub was called The Anchor and has been around since the 17th Century. Go onto the pub review websites and you'll see people moaning about the prices etc etc but it's in a great location and serves good beer and food. What else do you want? I think some people spend their entire lives complaining about anything and everything.

Apparently Tom Cruise had a pint outside this pub in Mission Impossible

After spending a couple of hours in there we made our way happily, if a little unsteadily, back to the train station. We got the fast train and were back home inside 30 minutes, to find the kittens had wrecked the kitchen.

Again.

Footnote.

The significance of this weblog's title is from a conversation I had with Rebecca after a few beers yesterday.

Rebecca: Who's that American guy in the wheechair? You know, always thinking about the Universe and stuff.

Me: Er, you mean Stephen Hawking?

Rebecca: That's him!

Me: He's not American, he's English.

Rebecca: Really? But he's got an American accent...

Introducing the latest additions, who are complete lunatics.

It isn't the best photo in the world but this is about all I can get of Lilly and Rosie, our new kittens.

It's a case of grabbing my phone and snapping a picture in one of the few moments when they're not charging about.

In case your wondering, Rosie is on the right in this photo. I think. They are pretty much identical sisters who were abandoned just after they were born. They were rescued by the Cats Protection and are now 5 months old and happily settling into their new home with us.

Here's a slightly better picture of Rosie (I think) but they are impossible to tell apart as neither has any markings; they're both pure black with those big golden eyes. We've left the paper collar on Rosie so we know which is which, but if we can't see the collar we're stumped.

Our resident cat is not at all pleased. There's been a lot of hissing, some growling and even some spitting but today she seems a lot better and is able to tolerate being in the same room as them. Patience is necessary; we're keeping them separate at the moment and just doing controlled introductions. Huge fun

I've got the week off work and Rebecca's got tomorrow and Thursday off so we hope to get a ton of stuff done in the house and garden. What that really means is we'll get bored around lunchtime and sneak off to a nice pub somewhere for a beer and a bite to eat.

What I really enjoy is going off to our local Indian restaurant in the evening, just the two of us, and having a leisurely meal with a bottle of wine. No mother-in-law, no nieces, no kittens, just us. Perfect

Water, water, everywhere etc etc...

Lots of flooding in our part of England, thanks to global warming.

Mind you, in southern Europe they're having a severe heatwave, thanks to global warming.

Not only that, our cats keep fighting, thanks to ...

...global warming.

Ok, so the last one isn't proven, but apparently the other two are. I'm still a sceptic myself, as our lousy wet weather and southern Europe's heatwave are both due to a slight shift in the Gulf stream, or something. Does global warming cause that? I dunno

Nevertheless, I spent most of yesterday helping the current wife clear her workplace of flood damage. Long story, but basically she's the manager of a showroom far removed from head office, so once the insurance peeps had visited we got stuck into mopping up so things can get up and running asap. My negotiations regarding remuneration haven't been finalised, but she reckons she'll be extra nice to me

How very British, to drone on about the weather

Needless to say, the rotten weather (doh!) isn't good for stargazing, but I think I may have been saved by

Slooh

which I have to admit I have become addicted to. The basic premise is that you access telescopes high up on the Canary Islands and choose which objects to point them at. It isn't free - after the 7 day trial it's $99 per year - but I reckon I'm gonna go for a subscription. The picture from the 'scopes streams right into your pooter and later this year there's going to be a sister operation based in Chile, to access all the far southern astronomical delights. This is seriously good fun. If you're as sad as me

Following on from the last post yeah, the MIL is still here but things aren't too bad really. We just have to pick and choose our quality time together, but it's cool.

So yeah, the old girl is with us no more. Just a couple of months shy of her 19th birthday, her rear half decided it didn't want to work any more. We called the vet out and she did the necessary with the injection. It was very sad just to watch her slip away, but it would have been cruel to keep her going in that condition

We buried her near the end of the garden, nice and deep so the local wildlife couldn't dig her up again, and then planted an apple tree there as a permanent reminder. Unfortunately, not being particularly green-fingered, neither of us realised that we actually need to buy another apple tree, though not the same type, so that they will pollinate each other. Or something. Otherwise we'll never get any apples

Rebecca's been pretty upset, as she rescued Sadie from bad owners about 12 years ago, but we've got the two remaining moggies to keep us entertained.

In other news, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, etc etc.  We're going for a family ruby tonight  and there's some other stuff planned for the weekend, including my youngest niece's 2nd birthday. My sister and the girls actually popped round today to drop off my birthday card and things, and in the 30 minutes they were here my nieces picked a dried piece of cat pee out of the litter tray and placed it in the hand basin, brought a load of my CDs crashing to the floor from the shelf, got hold of some very delicate ornaments (we got them back just in time) and brought me next door's free newspapers, which were left on their doormat. It's just like a tornado passing through.

I'll try to be good tonight, especially as I've got work at 7am tomorrow, but the weekend is a different matter

To finish, a photo from our trip to Bath last week, a lovely Roman city in the west of England.