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Paul and Tracy's Main Blog
Welcome to Paul and Tracy's main blog. Here you can keep track of what we've been up to, and join us on our adventures.If you'd like to get in touch, you can either email us - see the links on the "About Us" page, or alternatively post a comment following any of the Blog entries.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Spunky and Heffy come to town!
Let's get this over with straight away. Spunky and Heffy are not some distant cousins who make their money filming each other in dimly-lit hotel rooms. They're cats. Long-haired domestic cats. Their carers (cats are not like dogs, which have "owners", they are free-spirits, straight from the jungle, ready to turn back into vicious hunters just as soon as they've finished sleeping, relaxing in the sun and generally being chilled), Richard and Karen are riding the Trans Am with me later this year (next month, actually). They currently live in Jersey and have jacked everything in for this "trip of a lifetime". When we met them back in October last year, they said they'd got everything sorted, packing their jobs in, selling their furniture, leaving their rented apartment... but they hadn't found anyone to look after their cats. "I'll look after them" said a slightly inebriated Tracy. And so on Saturday, Spunky and Heffy came to town...
To get them from Jersey to Manchester, Richard and Karen avoided the ferry and long drive and opted for a private plane. Sounded grand. And it would be flying into "Manchester City airport". I volunteered to pick them up, and so headed off to the airport. Which is also known as Barton Aerodrome and is a very small place indeed, where local private pilots offer sightseeing flights in small planes and helicopters. Which take off from one of the grassy runways. All overseen by a control tower that only needed a few good old boys lounging around in flying jackets smoking pipes whilst waiting for the instruction to "SCRAMBLE!" to complete the picture. Oh, and the rain to stop, as it was hissing it down. When I arrived, I went to the control tower to check on their flight. The air traffic controller knew little about it, above having a vague recollection of a possible inbound from Jersey. The rest of the staff knew even less (but I did have a good chat with the young guy who last year went back-packing to Ushuaia, our destination on the Trans Am). But they did tell me it was likely they'd have to close the runway as the grassy field, sorry "runway", tended to get water-logged if it rained (and this is MANCHESTER, remember!!). Then the radio crackled and the air traffic contoller (or some bloke on the 2nd floor of the tower at least) said "they're overhead". Which was a downright lie, as I could see them skimming the tree-tops on the other side of the airfield. There was a quick exchange of jargon about which of the many runways to use, and then the guy in the tower told me I shouldn't watch as the approach was "most unusual". But the pilot knew what he was doing and touched down perfectly. The plane that had brought Richard and Karen and 2 cats and their luggage (Richard and Karen also had a carry-on bag, the cats having used up the entire luggage space on the plane!) all the way from Jersey was no bigger than my car...
A quick half hour later and we were home and trying to entice the cats out of their carry-cases. They quickly settled in, stealing the best spots on the couch as only cats can do...
The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, chatting about cats and motorcycles, and drinking and eating. I even got the chance to subject Richard and Karen to my culinary "expertise", rustling up Thai food on the Saturday and Indian on Sunday. Spunky seemed to settle in much quicker than Heffy, who found her place under Katie's old bed and only made an appearance at feeding time. Spunky, meanwhile, showed off his tiger-like colouring is no fluke, by using Richard's legs as though they were tree-branches and falling asleep in classic tiger pose...
Come Monday and it was time to bid Richard and Karen farewell for a while, and I dropped them off at the real Manchester Airport for their scheduled flight home. Then off to collect Carlie from Uni. So now we have a full house again. And it's actually hard to tell Carlie from the cats. All 3 make an appearance when it's time to be fed and then disappear to relax somewhere. Well, all except Spunky, who's currently sat next to be purring and helping me write the blog...
I think we're going to enjoy having Spunky and Heffy stay with us...
To get them from Jersey to Manchester, Richard and Karen avoided the ferry and long drive and opted for a private plane. Sounded grand. And it would be flying into "Manchester City airport". I volunteered to pick them up, and so headed off to the airport. Which is also known as Barton Aerodrome and is a very small place indeed, where local private pilots offer sightseeing flights in small planes and helicopters. Which take off from one of the grassy runways. All overseen by a control tower that only needed a few good old boys lounging around in flying jackets smoking pipes whilst waiting for the instruction to "SCRAMBLE!" to complete the picture. Oh, and the rain to stop, as it was hissing it down. When I arrived, I went to the control tower to check on their flight. The air traffic controller knew little about it, above having a vague recollection of a possible inbound from Jersey. The rest of the staff knew even less (but I did have a good chat with the young guy who last year went back-packing to Ushuaia, our destination on the Trans Am). But they did tell me it was likely they'd have to close the runway as the grassy field, sorry "runway", tended to get water-logged if it rained (and this is MANCHESTER, remember!!). Then the radio crackled and the air traffic contoller (or some bloke on the 2nd floor of the tower at least) said "they're overhead". Which was a downright lie, as I could see them skimming the tree-tops on the other side of the airfield. There was a quick exchange of jargon about which of the many runways to use, and then the guy in the tower told me I shouldn't watch as the approach was "most unusual". But the pilot knew what he was doing and touched down perfectly. The plane that had brought Richard and Karen and 2 cats and their luggage (Richard and Karen also had a carry-on bag, the cats having used up the entire luggage space on the plane!) all the way from Jersey was no bigger than my car...
A quick half hour later and we were home and trying to entice the cats out of their carry-cases. They quickly settled in, stealing the best spots on the couch as only cats can do...
The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, chatting about cats and motorcycles, and drinking and eating. I even got the chance to subject Richard and Karen to my culinary "expertise", rustling up Thai food on the Saturday and Indian on Sunday. Spunky seemed to settle in much quicker than Heffy, who found her place under Katie's old bed and only made an appearance at feeding time. Spunky, meanwhile, showed off his tiger-like colouring is no fluke, by using Richard's legs as though they were tree-branches and falling asleep in classic tiger pose...
Come Monday and it was time to bid Richard and Karen farewell for a while, and I dropped them off at the real Manchester Airport for their scheduled flight home. Then off to collect Carlie from Uni. So now we have a full house again. And it's actually hard to tell Carlie from the cats. All 3 make an appearance when it's time to be fed and then disappear to relax somewhere. Well, all except Spunky, who's currently sat next to be purring and helping me write the blog...
I think we're going to enjoy having Spunky and Heffy stay with us...
posted by DoctorZippy # 12:14 PM 
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