It's not our fault John

Novodevichy Convent Moscow

Sissi slept in this morning and did not attack me until 4:45 AM. At that time she seized my foot – through the Doona – and sank her teeth into my big toe. She was startled by my shriek and ran from the room. I don’t know why – she should be getting used to it by now.

Cate will be back tomorrow night and will take some pressure off me – but she is only here for a night and then goes to Korea and Indonesia. I am thinking of buying the legs of a clothing store dummy to see if I can fool Sissi into biting something inanimate. But I imagine if there is no shriek she will move onto something that does shriek.

The answer to your question is that I cannot shut her out because as soon as the bedroom door is shut Muffin has to go out – and then back in – and then back out - etc. Cat owners know what cats are like with closed doors.

I have fixed the bedroom windows so that they open enough to let air in but not enough to let cats out. The sophisticated apparatus used to achieve this miracle of engineering was the judicious use of a lead pencil cut into small chunks. Perfect solution to a difficult engineering problem.

In an expanded response to Matthew’s comment - I don’t have a € key because I have a keyboard bought in Australia – but I type the € symbol by typing Alt+0128. I can type £ by using Alt+0163 and a whole bunch of other special symbols – including Umlauts which are very popular here. The effect of an Umlaut is to take a perfectly good vowel and make it sound as though you are saying it while sucking a lemon.

Here is a list of special characters one can type using these codes. My question to Matthew is – will these work on his keyboard?

Today I had the toughest ride into the strongest wind I have so far experienced. I just hate it when I am going into the teeth of a gale because cyclists going the other way sail past without any difficulties and I am puffing and panting along in a very low gear.

I always try to go into the wind first so that I can sail home with it behind me – except in Wien I often find that – even though my circuit is a large triangle – I often have headwinds most of the way.

It was so tough I very nearly gave up but summoned up some inner strength and thought tough thoughts – mainly about Republicans and Tea Baggers - so I did my 30 kilometers through gritted teeth - but was knackered at the end of it.

Today's LOL moment comes from one of our favorites - Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

The Republicans really took the loss of the last election very badly – and are not responding well to the passing of the Health Care Bill. It passed with NO votes from the Party of NO. (PoN). There seems to be a misunderstanding here. After the election shouldn't the party that won get to enact at least some of the legislation it promised during the election campaign?

Senator John McCain said that the Democrats would get no further cooperation from the Republicans this year. Hmmm….as opposed to NO cooperation at all to date with anything at all. (He meant to say – until there is a Republican President – at which time they will start banging on about consensus and cooperation and non-Partisan politics).

That’s fabulous Senator – from the man who could have been President. This augurs well for the nation building that will need to take place over the next few years and for the work that needs to be done to dig the country out of the steaming pile of dung that it is in at the moment. What does this mean for America Senator?

I’m sorry – I didn’t catch that can you repeat it please – yes I’ve got it now

‘The country can go fuck itself!’

Thank you so much Senator we look forward to more of your constructive input in the future. PS: It’s not OUR fault that you picked Ditzy Sarah as your running mate.