Monday, November 16, 2020

 

Not too bad a day. Lovely weather. Nice walk with Helen. Very weak.

 

I finished my “Crown” binge. It’s good to be rid of it. Some of it I found rather tedious. The one character I couldn’t “buy” was Camilla. Everybody else looked a bit wrong, or else very, but was acceptable. But Camilla – I’m something of a fan of the real-life one – didn’t seem right at all. The unknown actress who’s doing the Princess of Wales is brilliant. I got a bit more knitting done, of the final stripe of the Evandoon body.

 

And here’s one for you: Rachel’s husband Ed is the family expert on identifying actors when one is assailed by that where-have-I-seen-him-before feeling. Well, today I got one, and pursued it through from Don’t-I-know-you? To Could-it-be? To Google confirmation. Cameron Strike himself has a part. I won’t spoil it by telling you where.

 

And another vaccine! We had the husband from the Turkish husband-and-wife team who produced the first one, on the Andrew Marr show yesterday. He said that his vaccine produces a sore arm for a few days, and a fever. I didn’t entirely like the sound of that. Maybe I’ll wait for the Oxford one.

 

Life

 

Harry Dunn’s parents don’t give up easily. The High Court heard a case last week in which it was asserted that Mrs Sakoolas – she killed Harry by driving on the wrong side of the road – didn’t have diplomatic immunity and shouldn’t have been allowed to go back to the United States. We haven’t had the court’s decision yet.

 

I told you the other day about how, when I am in the downstairs lavatory, Perdita comes in, and I turn on the cold tap to a trickle, and she jumps up on the basin and drinks. This happens daily. First she drinks from the water swirling around the plug hole; later, directly from the flow. And I have been remembering cats I knew in my childhood who would sit next to a farmer milking a cow, and every so often the farmer would direct the flow of milk straight at the cat, who would catch it neatly. I can only speak for the cats of northern Ohio, where I spent two summers in the ‘40’s. But I suspect this skill was shared by cats world-wide and if milking machines ever go out of fashion, I suspect they could pick it up again.

7 comments:

  1. Yes that cat-skill in the milking parlour was well known in this country - I think you are right in saying it will have been worldwide. After all they are the farmers' friends in their rodent work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am addicted to using IMDB.com for finding out who "that guy" is and where I have seen him. I haven't watched Cameron Strike, as I don't think it available in the US easily. Or I haven't noticed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Our cats here in Canada could catch the milk as well. When I was a wee one we still had a few cows my father milked by hand. He would squirt the milk across the barn and the cats would get the milk. I was no wheres near as skilled as the cats and regularly got a milk face wash.

    ReplyDelete
  4. One of my cats insists on drinking from the bathroom tap when I get up in the morning. Two of the others want to drink out of a mug. The other one doesn't care about bathroom water. He will get in the dry bathtub and clean/play with his tail.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Does Perdita make horrible faces while drinking from the tap? I live in hope of catching our cat at the tap on camera, to catch that face!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous11:26 AM

    Love the cat stories! Yes, you can walk a dog. But you can merely watch a cat and be endlessly entertained. To have both would be a perfect world. Unfortunately, due to traveling, we have neither. Chloe

    ReplyDelete
  7. Professor Van Tam, who has my vote as a flu specialist and a brilliant coiner of persuasive images, has put his Mum on notice for the first vaccine that offers. After all, the flu vaccine gives you a sore arm for a day or two.

    ReplyDelete