Jackie Chan, Sogginess, Jigsaws & VAT

Such have been the interests (or preoccupations, in the case of the VAT) of the day.

Emily spent all morning playing a long and involved Barbie game in her bedroom. I've no idea what on earth was going on, except that it involved the dolls having lots of baths, swimming, showering, washing clothes and, um, other water-dependent things. She had a ball. The floor is soaked. Not, however, as soaked as her windowsill was this morning - she'd left a loo roll tube (as you do) and a duster (also as you do) on it overnight. This morning, the loo roll tube had disintegrated into a soggy mess and the duster was as wet as if it had been left to soak in the sink overnight :-( Guess we have a condensation problem, then. Well, we've known that for a loooonnng time, but this morning was particularly bad. I'd also left a library book there overnight - thank goodness it was a hardback and escaped fairly unscathed.

This afternoon Emily and Daddy baked some gorgeously scrummy blueberry muffins, and spent ages on this rather cute 350 piece cat jigsaw:



Meanwhile, there's been lots of watching of Jackie Chan films over the last couple of days. Emily seems to be a fan. Started with her watching him in Around the World in 80 Days and seems to have progressed from there.

Finally remembered to fill in our VAT return today, and was less than impressed to discover that yet again we "owe" them nearly a thousand quid. OK, I could rant for hours about the VAT system and how unfair it is on small businesses like ourselves, but I don't have time just now. :-) Suffice it to say that that's 4 grand a year that would otherwise have been in our pockets. Colour me not a happy bunny.

We're still on kitten alert, although when I spoke to the RSPCA woman on Thursday last week I got the impression that we could be waiting weeks yet. Nothing firm, mind you. I don't think she "does" facts. Despite having originally been told that these kittens would be "ready" about three days after my first phone call, here we are a couple of weeks later and apparently they have "no idea" when they will be ready. Or even how old they are. Or what colour they are. Yet still she promises that we'll be the first to hear when they're ready to leave. I'm beginning to wonder whether I'm dreaming the whole darn thing. The lack of information is rather bizarre. Anyway, Jon came back from Tesco this morning with an extremely cute kitten notebook for Emily, so she can use it for all things kitten related when they finally arrive. She wants to keep a record of their weight and things, write some kitten stories, do a daily diary for them, and so on.

Emily did actually complete the Cats Protection League Kitten Badge back in January when she was doing her cats project. Hmmm; the Cool Cats kids club seems to have disappeared off their website... Anyway, the Cat Badge involves keeping a cat care diary for 20 days, so she's going to do that when the littlies arrive too.