Tabby

Guess who turned up today?

I was feeding Gabby and Xena out the back. Gabby goes on of the garden shed (or old duck pen) to eat, and in the afternoons Xena either usually goes on top of a platform (perch) I built on top of the fence, or while Hallie's about, just next door. For that I put her food on a plastic plate and lower it to the ground on the other side of the fence using a child's gardening hoe (hey, this works!).

Did so today, and when I went back to retrieve it shortly afterwards, I saw a grey cat looking at me.

I called out "Tabby" and it immediately meowed at me and came closer, so it's a good guess that this is Tabby that I mentioned yesterday. I probably made a big mistake, but I took pity on him and fed him a sachet of wet cat food. Xena was less than impressed as the next photo shows.

Thing is, I think that Tabby and Xena have been "sharing" next door's back yard for some time. Someone is living there again as well, though I'm not sure if it's Alex or not. In any case, it seems that Tabby hasn't been "knocked on the head" just yet. Perhaps they've already moved and left him behind.

If I don't see Tabby again I'll know that they probably did put him down, though it'd be odd if he adopted me now. I'd assumed he wouldn't get through the cordon of Xena/Gabby/Ebony, but Xena seemed only mildly annoyed at me feeding him.

Perhaps I'll be known as the "mad cat woman" of Charlton Street"!

 

Other Pets

Just in case they feel left out, here's a photo of Pegasus and Hallie all over the sofa and me:

And of course here's Ebony too, in a typical "Humph!" pose. I've had a curtain up between the lounge room and the hallway to my bedroom and the craft room. That was to disguise from Hallie the fact that Ebs is there, however Kevin suggested removing it as a step to "normalising relations" between Hallie and Ebs.

Hallie still mostly thinks that Ebs is interesting and loves to chase her when she can. The other day, when Kevin's girlfriend Kelli was here I brought Ebs down to show her. Poor Ebs ended up behind a curtain while Hallie kept on sniffing at here (with occasional swipes and hisses from Ebs). She snuck back down to my end of the house some time later.

Ebs may have felt neglected until then. She clawed a hole through the fly-wire over a side window and may be sneaking out and back via that at night. She loves to go out early mornings while Hallie's not up and stalk about in the front garden. Lately too, she's been visiting me when I go to bed - I'll be lying on my side and Ebs will jump up on me and peer down until I pat her. I woke up once and she was still there!

Set Top Boxes

As you may or may not know, Australian free-to-air television has been broadcasting in digital since 2001. I seem to remember there were plans to cut out analogue broadcasting by 2006, with with only about 28% of the population bothering with digital, it seems that's been put back until 2012.

In any case, I resisted getting a "set top box" until now. They always seemed too expensive and I couldn't see the advantage, considering that I was still using my 1983 Lemair (sp) colour TV (in the lounge), and my 1977 Sharp B&W portable (in my bed room) adding digital wasn't going to add a great deal of quality.

Then, last council pick-up, Kevin helped me get a better TV that someone else was throwing out. Bigger screen, remote control and stereo sound - much better. The B&W went out into my garden shed (where it's very handy if I want to watch the news while feeding Pegasus) and the French colour TV went into my bedroom, and the rescued TV into the lounge. Kevin also got a small colour set which he hooked up to my old semi-busted VCR (as a tuner) to get a fuzzy picture.

ALDI were advertising standard definition set top boxes for a mere $39 - which seemed a lot more affordable than the $150-$300 sets they were selling when digital first came in. I got one and so did Kevin. The picture is crystal clear on both sets, and so is a vast improvement for Kevin's.

So far, the difference for me has been 1) two extra channels, (ABC2 and SBS News, though there are others, they're copies of existing channels), and 2) teletext on one of the commercial channels (the rest opted for sub titles). Golly, almost under-whelmed. However, ABC2 has some redeeming features - some comedies, concerts and docos are only on it (Pop[b]session is currently on, all about MOOG). Teletext seems um, er, pre-Internet (you select pages by typing their number).

Still, early days yet. What luxuries!

Progress

Went to the uni today to start a lit search.

Tried going to the Huxley first, but there were builders with jack-hammers next door so I migrated to Auchmuty on the other side of campus. Got distracted by some new books about graphics novels there, but got (and e-mailed myself) results on subjects such as virtual reality, transsexualism, and comics.

It's a start.