Friday, December 29, 2006

Time travel and a natural born killer...



Playlist
Various – Albums of the year jukebox playlist
Children’s Introduction to A World of Good Music
Various 7” Singles

Pretty much no sleep at all last night and so I was up around 4 and downstairs with Meg the Black Cat...

I opened the cat-flap for her...

A big mistake...

As I sat at the dining room table with my headphones on, compiling my best of 2006 list, I saw her out of the corner of my eye running quickly through the living room towards me...

She dropped a little bird next to my feet...

It was still alive but quite badly injured and, I suspected, not long for this world...

I tried to stop Meg from going back out the flap but was too late – I opened the door and she was just sitting on the mat but when I tried to get her to come back in, she ran away...

I went back to the bird and wrapped it in paper towels and took it out the back door – I couldn’t bring myself to break its neck – I still remember trying to do that once a long time ago in a similar situation with a bird which had been run over and the struggle the bird put up to stay alive is burned into my memory...

I decided to let the bird die in peace, and so placed it in the wheelie bin and came back indoors...

I was totally wracked with guilt about just putting it in the bin, but I didn’t want to leave it in the open where it could be finished off by another cat...

If only I hadn’t opened the flap...

At around 6:30. I went out to check and there was no movement so I guess the bird must have died...

Next thing Pam’s up and is all bright and breezy – I didn’t tell her till later on about the bird so she might have wondered about my mood...

An hour later we were on our way to the airport and, after a quick nip into Tesco for more pills, I was back home just after 8....

We stayed in all day – Anne watched “Love Actually” on DVD then I completed the “Back to the Future” trilogy – I’m afraid there are just so many nit-picks re time travel that it’d take too long to list them – an enjoyable trilogy nonetheless...

By evening we were both coughing incessantly – only stopping to eat a lovely Chinese takeaway to cheer us up...

Watched “Coronation St” and “Grumpy Old New Year” (we should’ve been in it) before retiring at a preposterously early 10pm...

In between these I played some more old singles on the new turntable including a couple of David Bowie tracks which I don't think have ever been released on CD...

Firstly, a Chuck Berry cover, "Round and Round", the "B" Side of "Drive In Saturday" and then a storming version of "Panic in Detroit" which should have been included on "David Live" just like its "A" Side, "Knock on Wood"...

I also found a really old LP in the cupboard called "Children’s Introduction to A World of Good Music", narrated by one David Teig...

It's the record which my dad used, when I was around four or five years old, to introduce me to all the different instruments of the orchestra and to classical music in general...

Each instrument plays a solo version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", before the entire orchestra belts out a brilliantly overblown take on Mozart's nursery rhyme...

The disc also features pieces from Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping Beauty" and "Nutcracker Suite" and Grieg's "Peer Gynt" along with two lesser known pieces, Victor Herbert's "March of the Toys" and "On the Trail" from Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite"...

I gave it a spin and it took me right back in time, crackles, pops and all...

Lowlight of the Day : Meg the Black Cat doing what cats will generally do, given the chance

4 comments:

Cloudland Blue Quartet said...

Cats are independent animals and it is exactly this trait which draws cat-owners to them rather than, say, dogs.

I put temptation in my cat's way by allowing her outside at 4 in the morning.

She was merely following her instincts.

In the two years during which Meg has lived with us, as a guest at first and then as our own cat, she has brought in just three birds - one of which I was able to save, one which I hoped would recover but ended up being killed by another cat, and now this latest incident.

I don't like the fact that cats kill birds but it is a fact. I'd argue that they don't, however "decimate" the bird population.

I'd be willing to wager that humans kill many more wild birds than cats.

Cloudland Blue Quartet said...

Of course she may well have killed many other birds without my knowledge...

But what you don't know....

Anonymous said...

Just behind my house, men have been wandering around with shotguns for the whole of the Christmas holidays shooting I don't know what (as the fields behind my house are full of greenhouses and celery) but I wager that they are doing more harm than the cats...and cats at least have some justification for killing things since they have no pockets full of money to go to the supermarket with!

Cloudland Blue Quartet said...

Ah yes people v cats - just who are the biggest killers? You decide...

Happy New Year Lindsay and Ms L