Conquering Cooper and Christmas

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Day 652

Yipppee! It’s the weekend already and I can tick off almost two weeks from Andy’s absence, thankfully the weeks are not dragging, despite being a little bit quiet at work, and I am finding myself fairly occupied at the weekends. Well, alright then I know it is only my second weekend, but there seems to be a lot on my list of things to do and today I will be able to tick Bredbo off that list!

Let me start with the events of my week. I think I may have mentioned Cooper the Ragdoll cat who lives with Bec, I was going to say that Bec owns Cooper but it is the other way round, Cooper owns Bec. Anyway, he is somewhat skittish around me and always runs past me and makes every effort to give me a wide berth even darting out of the cat flap as soon as I come home from work.

So a little bit of cat psychology has been in order, listening to Bec’s good advice I have spent the last couple of nights looking at Cooper when he stares at me and giving him long blinks, apparently that indicates to a cat that you would like to be friends and lets face it, I am not that scary, I don’t think I am anyway. Does it work? I really have no idea and maybe it looks somewhat silly and perhaps Cooper is thinking “crazy woman”. My best option for now is to feed Cooper.

Feeding a cat does work, several years ago I lodged in Kew (Surrey, UK) for about 12 months and there were two cats, one called Bubble and one called Hastings. Bubble would make every effort to fuss me but Hastings just did not want to know me and every time I turned up with my case on a Monday night, he used to look at me with such contempt as if to say “oh, it’s you again, I don’t know why you come here, you don’t live here!”

One day my landlady said to me “I am going on holiday for a week, would you mind feeding the cats during the week while you are here?” No I did not mind at all, it would be pointless getting someone else to pop in while I was there.

So, no more than a few weeks later I came in on the Monday night and before I got my own dinner on the go I sorted out the cats dinners and for the first time ever Hastings paid some attention to me as I spooned their meal out of the tin and into their bowls.

Every night following that and until I left that contract Hastings would accompany Bubble down the path every night to meet me as I came ‘home’ from work regardless of the fact that after that one week I did not have to feed them, he was like putty in my hands I had won over this “alpha male!”

So the plan is for me to give Cooper some food, but he has to see me do it, a couple of nights this week I have fed him, but it seems only to be a temporary solution as the following day he runs away from me again.

Plan B, I had to pop into town after work last night to finish getting bits and pieces together to send Andy a ‘care package’, my plan was to purchase a cat toy with catnip, that will surely do the trick!

I get home, Bec is still out and Cooper appears and watches me with some interest, he seems comfy with me being here but still not getting too close. So out come two cat toys, one with catnip and one without, he shows a little interest but it is not long before he goes out, I hear the door of the cat flap, it is like the sound of rejection.

In the meantime I put my dinner in the oven and speak to Andy to catch up on his day at work.

Cooper slides back in through the cat flap, just as my dinner is served, I make myself comfortable on ‘the boobs’, now this is where things just turn a little interesting. Cooper suddenly realises that I have pizza for tea, I can see these little thought processes working through his mind that say “if I get a little bit closer I can steal some off the plate!”

No matter how hard Cooper tried he just could not reach so eventually there was only one thing for it, he suddenly appeared on my lap and made himself comfy and try to lull me into a false sense of security, he gradually eased his way across my lap to try and reach the plate that by now I had again moved out of his reach, so he went around the other side and sat on the arm of the sofa, I had a slice of pizza in my hand with his paw he reached out toward my arm and very cleverly hooked his claws into my jumper and pulled my arm closer to his mouth and just as he could see his prize heading closer I switched the pizza into my left hand and the look of disappointment on Coopers face as it moved.

Anyway, we played this game for quite a while until the pizza was all gone and then he wandered off after losing interest in me.

Will I gain the trust of Cooper? Who knows? You will have to watch this space. I must add though, anyone who tries to steal my pizza is just looking for trouble, and they won’t win, including Cooper, no matter how much I want to win over his affections, sorry Snowy!

Back to today, it is bitterly cold outside again, Spring is due here in a little over a week yet the weather is playing tricks with us, the days appear to get warmer we have been over 10 degrees a couple of times this week so just when you think it maybe on the turn, we are plunged back into the cold.

It is also Election Day today and Bec has to vote, it is apparently illegal not to vote here, but you do have to be registered and as Andy and I are not yet registered then we do not have to worry about voting. I am not going to get into politics, but I think this will be a tight election, who knows maybe Australia will follow suit of England this year with a hung parliament?

So on our way out this morning, Bec casts her vote and we are soon on our way to pick up Bec’s friend Alison, then we are having a girls country day out and today we are driving down to Bredbo which is in New South Wales and part of the Snowy Mountains, just 33 kilometres north of Cooma and in 2006 it boasted a population of 169 people.

An hour or so later we arrive at our destination, despite being part of the Snowy Mountains, there is no snow here! However it is winter and the natural thing for us Brits for winter is also Christmastime and the reason for us being in Bredbo is the Bredbo Christmas Barn.

I wonder if Father Christmas is here, I think Christmas has been a running theme for a spell, we had Christmas in July, Andy is on Christmas Island and today I am heading for the Christmas shop, 3 things here, perhaps I should do the lottery tonight?

First though we need lunch and coffee, so in the little café there we make ourselves comfy and some good conversation accompanies our lunch. A while later we find ourselves opening the door into the land of Christmas at the “Bredbo Christmas Barn”

My eyes are officially out on stalks as the whole scene of Christmas envelopes me, colour and lights are every where, Father Christmas, Fairy’s and Angels amongst some other very scary looking Christmassy dolls, such as a human size fox with two legs and dressed for a masquerade ball.

There is a tree covered with Grinch’s, there are white themes, blue themes, traditional red and green themes and yes there is also Pink, yes pink not what I would call a Christmas colour however this tree is just gorgeous but they all are.

We chat briefly to the owner, he allows me to take some photos and I explain that they will be on the blog, I think he will be happy for the advertising. Sadly none of the decorations are made in Australia, but the owner explains that they import everything and are happy to do so as they believe that they should support the countries that Australia exports their own goods to, such as beef, lamb and cotton. In fact I lie the only thing that is made in Australia are the candles, except that the oil used in the making of them is also imported.

I don’t know how long we spent looking around; everywhere you look there is something different and such a busy shop too! I think we each had at least two trips around the shop.

I wonder if something was slipped in my coffee as a reindeer’s head poking through a wreath suddenly starts talking to us, he seems such a jolly reindeer.

Eventually we are done and we are back on the road again, we are all very pleased with our purchases and once again, good conversation fills the air as we head back to Canberra.

With Alison dropped at home, a quick coffee Bec and I arrive back it is late afternoon and gives us just enough time for a snack of cheese and biscuits before we have to worry about our tea. Excitedly I said “you know what will go down well with that?” to which Bec responds “a glass of wine would be lovely!” “er, well actually I was planning on a chai latte”.

Well, we ate the cheese and biscuits and washed them down with a chai latte and watched some of the election on TV.

Never before have I been so engrossed in an election campaign, once again I am not going to get into politics, but it has been an interesting campaign here to say the least.

We took a break from the election to eat dinner and watch a film, Down with Love with Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellwegger. A terrific film washed down with a couple of glasses of red and before we knew it we were back on the election.

It was nearly midnight when I went to bed and by then there was still no decision on who was in government, it is all a very close call and will surely be hung.

Until sometime soon.
Mrs KJ

ps. Mr KJ has some photos for you and will be uploading a blog very soon!

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Photos

Father Christmas
... see... he really does exist!

Cooper
This gorgeous little cat, I have to win his affections.

Mrs Christmas
She is a very jolly woman

Laughing Elf
so very jolly

Are our baskets full?
Bec, Alison and Caroline enjoy some christmas shopping in August

Rabbit
This is a little bit Alice in Wonderland, but somehow seems a bit scary to me!

The Grinch
This Grinch had no chance of stealing christmas here.

Blue & White
Every tree is decorated fully, there is barely a spare branch

Everywhere you Look
there is so much to look at you can barely take it all in.