How quickly they grow up!

Robbie at Five Months by Steve Fagg

It only seems like a few weeks ago that we first met Robbie. Actually, it was almost five months ago now and he's grown tremendously in that time. Although he'll still be a "kitten" for another six months, it's got to the point where we're ready to let him roam the great outdoors. Or nearly so: first the little chap has to take a trip to the vet to get his shots updated, get a microchip implanted and have a little snip done. Then it'll be time to get him trained on the use of the cat-flap and reassure ourselves that he'll come home of his own accord. And all this has to be settled before we head off to Nice next month: we'll be leaving the kitties at home while we're away and they'll be looked after by a friend who'll call in once a day so they'll be on their own recognisance as far as comings and goings are concerned.

A little while ago was the ninth anniversary of Thomas joining us. He was four when we rescued him from the shelter, so he'll be 14 (in May) this year. That hardly seems possible either: on the one hand it feels like he's been around forever, on the other he doesn't strike us as being a senior citizen. I read somewhere that 14 for a cat is something like 70 for us, so he's not doing so badly. Madam Sofia, the third of the menagerie, turned five a week after that and a right grown up little Miss she is too! Sophie joined us when she was about the same age Robbie is now: funny how these things work out.

Mei Hua Cooks Again: the finished dish by Steve Fagg

On the food front we've been enjoying more authentic Chinese home cooking chez-nous thanks to our policy of setting guests to work in the kitchen when they come for dinner. My colleague Emma (Wu Lejun) was here last weekend cooking duck and dumplings and this weekend we again welcomed Mei Hua who constructed the complex but undeniably delicious dish shown in the photo.

Blogging all over the world

Just a quick note to say that I created two additional blogs this evening, to run alongside this one. I did consider mixing them all in together but decided their style and subject matter wouldn't sit comfortably alongside these more general ramblings.

First up, I've debuted a blog recording my thoughts on books I've been reading, this is called Nightwol's Books. It continues the similar notes I used to record on the Books Pages of Nightwol's Perch. I'm hoping the blog format will make it easier to add new entries as and when I finish reading each book.

The other new blog will record the fortunes of the Fantasy Cycling Teams Lisa and I have selected for the forthcoming European road racing season. Again this is an offshoot of something I've been keeping track of for some years on dedicated pages of Nightwol's Perch. Last year I maintained a season-long blog of our results using Apple's iWeb component of their iLife suite but that software became desperately unwieldy to use for a blog with over two hundred entries so I won't be using that anymore, big fan of Apple though I be!