Assiduously contemplating kittens

[fivemack]

Kittens.

They're very fluffy.

They gambol in a tranquil fashion.

They will relax my brain.

Which is in sore need of being relaxed, since today I was collected at 10am by a Man with a Van to collect all my possessions from Cheltenham. We got in the van, and proceeded down to just before Royston. At which point a car from VOSA pulled in in front of us with a 'FOLLOW ME' sign flashing, and led us into a layby (http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=535375&y=242250&z=3&sv=535375,242250&st=4&ar=Y), whereupon a VOSAn declared that the van was leaking diesel to the extent that it was unfit to travel on Her Majesty's highway.

This was apparently due to loose nuts on the fuel-lines; Andy the driver had no suitable spanner, but fortunately this was a layby into which many commercial vehicles had been pulled (generally on account of inadequate tires), and some of them had spanners in the boot. After half an hour, I phoned home and asked Dad to collect me; twenty minutes after that Andy claimed to have fixed the van, ten minutes after *that* Dad appeared, and I said that I wanted to continue to Cheltenham with Andy in the hope of getting this all over and done with. Twenty minutes after that, documentation stating that the van was only so broken as to be unfit to travel on HM's highway from next Tuesday appeared.

Unfortunately, while tightening the fuel lines with a variety of spanners of not quite the right size, Andy had managed to break the brake line, and the now-brakeless van was once again declared unroadworthy.

I walked into Royston, caught the train back to Cambridge, had a sandwich at an expensive station cafe, and caught a taxi into work. It was at least a healthier way of wasting a half-day of holiday than the traditional one of waiting for a man not to deliver a television.

Trying again Friday. Hoping my bad karma for the week has been used up. Contemplating the Buddha of Tranquillity.

Comments

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Hasn't been a kitten for some years, but still

[hsenag.livejournal.com]

Did you mean you were collecting all your possessions from Cheltenham?

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

That was the goal of the exercise, yes; Cheltenham's not quite so scenic that I'd want to go there, by long-wheel-base Volkswagen van, purely for the love of the Cotswolds.

Ah, I see the typo -- and now I can rectify it, and your comment stops making sense.

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend kittens. Lucy and Schroeder have been with me three months now. They are adorable, snapshots of them overflow my LJ.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Have a kittenbreak.

I had no idea our highways were populated by diesel police. Doesn't seem to stop lorries spilling it on roundabouts at huge cost to motorcyclists' lives.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Here, have a nice kitten.

[fanf]

http://www.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wwwnews?grp=ucam.adverts.forsale&art=49925

[sparrowsion]

fivemack, meet gwynipeg. Who, while not a kitten, can be kittenish. But when was the last time you saw a kitten gamboling "in a tranquil fashion"? "Hyperactive ball of fur, rubber and unalloyed cute" springs to mind as a better description.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Aieee. *beams lots of virtual kittens in your direction*

[redbird]

Kittens are fluffy and delightful, but "gambol in a tranquil fashion"? A tranquil kitten is one that is either nursing or asleep.

[sparrowsion]

But a kitten that is either nursing or asleep is not necessarily tranquil….

[(Anonymous)]

That sounds like a tedious day of utter tedium. I hope that Andy and his van won't be charging you again to transport the stuff from Royston to Cambridge. Where is your stuff at the moment, anyway? Life here in dreamy Spiresville continues as normal, with no leaking diesel to amuse me. Am v. sympathetic. Will make kitten noises at you if required: not clear how I will differentiate my kitten noises from my mouse noises, but that's another story.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Possessions still in storage depot in Cheltenham.

Andy and van claiming might be available Friday; they didn't charge for

I have found the copy of Skvorecky's The Engineer of Human Souls that I borrowed from you long ago, likewise your Midnight's Children; do you want them back soon?

[(Anonymous)]

I have never owned anything by Salman Rushdie: the copy must be from the back bedroom and therefore belong to The Big Others. -The Engineer of Human Souls- would be a welcome return: I read some Skvorecky short stories last week or so and remembered just how much I think I like him.