Ode to the Cat

There was something wrong with the animals:
their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads.
Then they started coming together,
little by little fitting together to make a landscape,
developing birthmarks, grace, flight.
But the cat,
only the cat
turned out finished,
and proud:
born in a state of total completion,
it sticks to itself and knows exactly what it wants.

Men would like to be fish or fowl,
snakes would rather have wings,
and dogs are would-be lions.
Engineers want to be poets,
flies emulate swallows,
and poets try hard to act like flies.
But the cat wants nothing more than to be a cat,
and every cat is pure cat from its whiskers to its tail,
from sixth sense to squirming rat,
from nighttime to its golden eyes.

Nothing hangs together quite like a cat:
neither flowers nor the moon have such consistency.
It's a thing by itself,
like the sun or a topaz,
and the elastic curve of its back,
which is both subtle and confident,
is like the curve of a sailing ship's prow.
The cat's yellow eyes are the only slot for depositing the coins of night.

O little emperor without a realm,
conqueror without a homeland,
diminutive parlor tiger,
nuptial sultan of heavens roofed in erotic tiles:
when you pass in rough weatherand poise four nimble paws on the ground,
sniffing,
suspicious of all earthly things,
because everything feels filthy to the cat's immaculate paw,
you claim the touch of love in the air.

O freelance household beast,
arrogant vestige of night,
lazy, agile and strange,
O fathomless cat,
secret police of human chambers and badge of burnished velvet!
Surely there is nothing enigmatic in your manner,
maybe you aren't a mystery after all.
You're known to everyone, you belong to the least mysterious tenant.
Everyone may believe it,
believe they're master,
owner,
uncle or companion to a cat,
some cat's colleague,
disciple or friend.

But not me.
I'm not a believer.
I don't know a thing about cats.
I know everything else,
including life and its archipelago,
seas and unpredictable cities,
plant life,
the pistil and its scandals,
the pluses and minuses of math.
I know the earth's volcanic protrusions and the crocodile's unreal hide,
the fireman's unseen kindness and the priest's blue atavism.
But cats I can't figure out.
My mind slides on their indifference.
Their eyes hold ciphers of gold.

Pablo Neruda

Mother sitting

Today my Dad needed to go out and do some banking and other bits and pieces, Mum is still not very well at all and can't be left on her own, so I went round late morning to sit with her whilst he went out. I was a bit nervous before I arrived because I didn't know what state she would be in. When I got there she wasn't too bad, still very weak, but not as bad as the worse case scenarios that were going through my mind. She looked a bit panicky when Dad left, but once he'd gone she seemed ok. We had a nice little chat, but I made sure I didn't talk too much in case she got tired or something. My main worry is always that she's gonna start choking, but luckily this didn't happen. She had some orange juice beside her and every now and again she would ask me to give her some, which I did, with a spoon, it was very pitiful really but who says life's a bed of roses lol! My brother phoned me when I was there, he's now moved to Oxford and they have settled in well. Rachel was getting to know the new doctors and midwife as she's having the baby in 3 weeks! My brother informed me that the baby's head was now engaged lol! So I say to my niece/nephew if you're reading this in 18 years time ('cos this is an 18 rated blog sort of) this was your first mention in this blog lol!
My Dad got back around 2ish without any incidents and in fact I really enjoyed the time we had together, it's nice just being me and my Mum, when Dad's there he tends to do all the speaking for her.

At Diamonds

While I remember, here's another pic from Gran Can. This was taken at Diamonds bar. We used to go here every night and have a beer and also Tim used to chat up the very cute Welsh barman. Who incidently took the shirt from Tim's back!

 

New iPod

Well, the iPod arrived, but not until 4pm, so I had missed a whole day of work! As I was doing some bar work in the evening it meant that I could not even work late and get finished, no, instead I had to go into work today. I didn't really mind though as I still have my holiday energy lol! Toprove it I even went to the gym when I finished work. I got back home about 3ish and have just been lazing around at home since then, I even had a little nap this afternoon. I bought myself some phish food ice cream this afternoon, so I'm gonna have some of that now and watch a film :) See you next week xxxxx

Ya he vuelto!

I'm back! We had a fab time in Gran Canaria. I'm so glad that we had 2 weeks, now I'm back in the UK I feel full of energy and completely reinvigorated lol! I didn't take a huge number of pictures because basically we just did the same every day and went to the same places, sounds a bit boring I guess but I think it's good for you sometimes just to do nothing except relax and enjoy yourself. There were only 3 little niggles I had, the first was that when I arrived my mobile didn't work, this was beacuse I'd changed to a monthly contract with Virgin and they don't turn roaming on until you've been with them for 3 months. I wrote an email to them explaining that I'd been a pay-as-you-go customer prior to being on pay monthly, they turned the roaming on a while after this. It was stressful because I knew that my Mum was ill and so I panicked a bit that there was no way anyone back at home could contact me. The second thing was that I didn't take enough books with me, I only took one! Stupid boy I am. I finished that in 2 days. I borrowed some books from others but they weren't really my type of thing. The 3rd thing was that my iPod was broken! I had no music, it was a bummer! But anyway the holiday was good, we met some lovely people had loads of lovely conversation, loads of clubbing, loads of lovely food, loads of drink and most important loads of lovely Spanish boys lol!

Right now I'm sat at home waiting for my iPod to be returned, the UPS tracking says it's been out for delivery since 7.20am but still no sign here. It's a bummer 'cos I have quite a bit of stuff to do at work and I can't stay late tonight as I'm working at the pub in Quy. Hopefully it'll arrive soon.

Chico Latino ;)

 

The Dunes

 

Los Almendros

 

View from our Bungalow