Before lockdown commenced, Cat Daddy and I had a conversation about the May bank holiday, which has always been the first Monday in May but, this year, it has been moved. That conversation went something like this:
Me: “They’ve moved the May bank holiday from Monday 4th to Friday 8th.”
Cat Daddy: “Why have they done that?”
Me, after Googling: “To commemorate 75 years since VE Day.”
Him: “Oh, right.”
Me: “You know what this means, don’t you?”
Him: “No?”
Me: “Louis Catorze’s extended birthday weekend isn’t going to be an extended birthday weekend anymore. It’s just going to be a normal-length birthday weekend.”
[Silence, tumbleweed, crickets]
Him: “So you’re objecting to honouring war veterans and remembering the dead, because it interferes with our cat’s long birthday weekend?”
Me: “I’m not objecting. I’m just saying.”
Cat Daddy: “And besides, you don’t work on Mondays. I don’t work on Mondays, or any days come to think of it. And Louis CERTAINLY doesn’t work on Mondays, or any days.”
Me: “…”
Him: “So whether or not the Monday is a bank holiday makes absolutely no difference.”
To be fair, he had a point.
Now, of course, things are rather different. Not only is a bank holiday of even less consequence, but even the normal week days and the weekends run into one another and we have lost all grasp of time. And our plans for the party of the decade are now shot to hell, which is probably just as well for our friends because I was going to invite them over under some random pretext, then announce that they were here for Louis Catorze’s 10th birthday, by which time they would be trapped and unable to leave.
Anyway, my challenge now is to plan a quarantine birthday party menu whose ingredients can be sourced from places other than the supermarket (too virussy / too many stupid people who won’t respect the 2-metre rule) or Ocado (delivery slots are rather like total solar eclipses, only happening once every 375 years or so).
And Catorze says we can choose any cuisine, as long as it’s French:
jesuisleroisoleil 
You know, I haven’t said this in a long time, though no less true in the continuum. I love your writing, how you craft your stories with humor, frustration, anecdotes, and more. I’m sure many of your friends who regularly read will agree that they too love the narratives, and you, and of course Catorze. The CD is of course often mentioned in his stage left entry and stage right departure with the epithets floating away with his exit, but no less an important part of the tableau. It’s much like a multi act play.
xo
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Thank you so much! The two of them certainly give me enough material to keep writing, and being locked down has made things even better/worse (depending on how you look at it).
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Couldn’t say it better Barry and fully agree!
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Thank you! You will always be very special to Catorze as you were his first overseas pilgrim! 🌞 👑
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Barry has said it so well 🙂 xxx
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Thank you!
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I love that you are even crazier than me. Makes me feel normal. Sort of anyhow. Excuse me, I have a birthday party to plan. The birthday cat wants tuna.
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I hope Louis Catorze has a great birthday, even if bankers can’t come. 🙂
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Thank you! I still can’t believe he’s going to be 10. He’s the tiniest little scrap of a thing and he looks like a kitten.
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Our Frankie will be ten in less than a year. He is not tiny but he is skinny and still runs around the house like a kitten.
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Haha! So our middle-aged boys are showing no signs of slowing down! 🤣
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Some cats are like the Energizer Bunny.
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They are indeed. And when Catorze is pilled he’s even worse!
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Is he a fan of mousse? I know you can use salmon,so it should work with tuna. And it sounds like mouse
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Realistically, because of all his allergic problems he will most likely just have his usual food, with maybe one sliver of a treat. 😐
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It’s the thought that counts
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Nice blog
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