The Sifter

So Kate tagged me.... Here's my 20 things:

1. Amsterdam
2. Bangkok
3. Bordeaux
4. Canberra
5. Denver
6. Dublin
7. Edinburgh
8. Krakow
9. Lille
10. London
11. Los Angeles
12. New York
13. Paris
14. Port Villa
15. Prague
16. San Francisco
17. Singapore
18. Suva
19. Sydney
20. Wellington

OK, so I'm house-sitting for my folks at the moment. Which also involves feeding and watering Sushi.

I got Sushi as a kitten from the SPCA, many, many years ago. When I went on my "O.E" at the late old age of 28, I offloaded her onto my parents (I refer to her as their 'grandchild' ;-)

She is now one fat old mama cat.

I'd forgotten how demanding cats are. I let her sleep inside with me on Monday night as it was so horrible outside... which meant that I had to push her out of the room at around 4 when she decided that an early breakfast was in order. I then got up again at around 6 in order to lock her in the back porch as she was meowing at the bedroom door. When I got up at 7 she was around at the front door, wet and annoyed, so I then had to keep her away from me when I got out of the shower as she wanted to rub her cold, wet fur up against my warm, dry legs.

Then to *my* breakfast. I'd forgotten that I'd trained her as a skilled hunter when she was a kitten. I put down my bowl of muesli for a split second and like a flash she was up onto the table to see what it was/if she'd like some.... seesh!

Visitors to Ma and Pa are always bemused by the fact that she will climb up onto a spare seat at the dining table, and (if you give her a chance) try to claw food off your plate or even off your fork.

I guess she isn't going to win any of those MyPussycatIsCuterThanYours.com battles, but I'd put her up against anyone's cat in the cunning stakes.

Q: When could premature ageing be a good thing?
A: When you're a bottle of wine, naturally!

"Squirrelled away in his chemical engineering laboratory in rural Shizuoka, Hiroshi Tanaka has spent 15 years developing an electrolysis device that simulates, he claims, the effect of ageing in wines. In 15 seconds it can transform the cheapest, youngest plonks into fine old draughts as fruit flavours are enhanced and rough edges are mellowed, he says."

Read the whole story at The Times of London.

I wonder if he could reverse the process for humans to give us back the years that consuming said wine takes away... ;-)

Now they've been taught how to sing...

"Scientists have taught dolphins to combine both rhythm and vocalisations to produce music, resulting in an extremely high-pitched, short version of the Batman theme song."

http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1473208.htm

I wonder if these are somehow related to the previously mentioned Dolphins?

But you've gotta ask - why the Batman theme?

Dear oh dear. What a liquid weekend.

Friday night - after a day battling the machines again - they won :-( met Stephen and Ms Brown at Tupelo and polished off a couple of 'tinis and a shot of Fernet, not to mention a cleansing ale or five. [BTW, it was from there that I mastered the art of posting from the mobile, as per the previous post]

Then to Wasabi for some solids. And a bottle of sake each, naturally.

Stephen and I then pushed on, to Blondinis of all venues, to drink yet another martini (I think the bartender was rapt that we ordered one, not sure if they get that many ordered up there.) Then Chow for a shot of herradura (cos we really needed it by then) then Motel, then Boulot. Where (allegedly) I became upset that I couldn't hand-jive in the state I was in.

I made a break for home at this point. I loved Stephen's txt the next day: "I was a bit worried about you running off like that, until I realised you were FUCKED."

Saturday was my flatmate's sister's farewell party, that I'm sure the entire latin american community of Wellington attended. Tequila/beer/bbqing/dancing. Ended up sharing my bed with Guy's labrador which he conveniently left behind ;-)

Needless to say today I'm rather shattered today, so looking forward to a lucky laksa.