This turbulent period of time seems to be bringing out the furthermost extremes of human behaviour.
The good: Everyone in our street is sharing provisions (responsibly) and looking out for each other. And, last weekend, we had a quarantine barbecue with Oscar the dog’s family – them in their garden, us in ours, separate food and drink – of which the highlight (for us, probably not for them) was Oscar stealing three stuffed vine leaves from their table when nobody was looking, and letting his innocent human sister get the blame.
The bad: Most of the population of TW8 don’t give a hoot about social distancing. They stride along in the middle of the pavement, expecting the rest of us to move out of their way and not noticing or caring whether we do or don’t. We have seen many walkers and sweaty, virus-propagating runners with zero regard for the two-metre rule, happily letting us step into oncoming traffic to avoid them whilst they remain steadfastly on course for their new personal best. We have also seen not one but TWO cyclists, on separate occasions, cycling along the pavement whilst looking their phones. I used to think the reason why people in TW9 and W4 look down on us is because our neighbourhood is less posh. Erm, it’s not that.
The ugly: Cat Daddy and his boozy pub mates have been regularly meeting for drinks via Skype/Zoom/whatever. I don’t join in – video calls are my idea of torture, even with people whom I like – but I eavesdrop for the comedy value. Because they are all, erm, blokes of a certain age, the first 15 minutes of their virtual meets usually sound like this: “Tim, turn your microphone on.” “Pete, do you know that you’re sideways?” “Why are some of us in circles and some of us in squares?”
Louis Catorze’s life, on the other hand, continues as normal. He has Lily’s Kitchen Fabulous Fish aplenty – which, Cat Daddy remarks, will also serve us well if we run out of food and end up having to eat Catorze* – and we just about managed to squeeze in a jambon de Bayonne order before the curtain fell on Ocado. The only slight change for Catorze is that Le Jardin is now Le Fitness Suite with Cat Daddy’s stationary bike and my exercise step. Other than that, c’est la même chose. And, despite having been Côned for much longer than anyone ever thought possible, the little sod is happy and enjoying life.
We hope that you and your furry overlords are all managing to stay safe. If you are local and we can help you in any way, please let us know.
*Don’t worry, we would never actually eat Catorze. Mainly because there is barely any meat on him.
jesuisleroisoleil 
Is Le Roi unconed now ? I didn’t come to your blog until his troubles with the cone had already begun, so I didn’t catch the back story.
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Nope: still Côned! The back story is there in the archives if you fancy having a look, but it’s long and complicated. In short, he has an allergy and won’t stop scratching at his face! 😫
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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” lots of lovely people meanwhile lots of nasty. Keep safe.
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Thank you! Hope you are keeping safe, too. Obviously the positive neighbourliness is wonderful, but I hadn’t expected QUITE this much stupid.
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We are seeing the stupid for what it really is now.
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I am trying, with all my might, to focus on the positives. But the stupids really make it difficult.
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It beggars belief how some people are still behaving. I only wish the virus could target the f**kwit gene….
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I guess the stupids are more likely to get the virus on account of their stupid. It’s just a shame they may take down others, too.
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Another very entertaining blog of life in TW8!
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The phrase “never a dull moment” was invented for Catorze!
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I hope you, cat daddy and Catorze all continue to be well, I have 3 furry overlords, 2 of which could probably keep us going for a good week or so if push came to shove! 😂😂 we live in a very sparsely populated part of the country in Cumbria but you can bet if someone can invade your personal space at this time they will certainly manage up here, even if you are the only 2 people on the street as it is like the set of the walking dead! Xx
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Thank you. Not sure how much longer we can cope with being locked down with Catorze, but we’re managing. 🤣
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Today was our grocery shopping day. Yikes! Some people had masks, gloves and a terrified look on their faces and others were no worried about distancing at all. We have enough cat food for about 5 weeks. Right now our supply place is sold out but I’m hopeful that there will be some available when we need it. Otherwise, my four will be eating cereal.
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Joggers and pavement cyclists are utterly contemptible. However, they may be feeling healthy, but that wont save them from an indiscriminate virus!
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What man means for evil, God has good to come out of it. Look what happened to Jacob in the Bible.
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It’s a difficult situation… people are reasonably good about the social distancing etc – our local supermarket staff have been amazing – and I must have had a weird prescience since the Girls’ catfood was on special offer the week before this all began so they’ll be fine 😸
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Thank you for continuing to share Le Rois’ antics. You are a good maman and I pray that your little sod heals soon. As for happy hour, I can just see Catorze casually sauntering into view to greet his daddys’ mates, multiple circles and squares of black fanged yowls 😹
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Would you believe we had a run on cat food at the local megastore? It makes sense, but was totally unexpected. A little disconcerting to only find one bag of the overlords favorite kibble
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Cat litter has been selling out, too. 😱
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