The Title Thinker-Upper Is On Strike

If I lapse into inarticulateness (is there such a word?) during this post, please forgive me. It's late on Sunday evening, and I was woken by Pookie (or 'that sodding cat' as she's affectionately known) at four o'clock this morning, so I'm feeling a bit fuzzy round the mental edges.

It's been a funny old week.

Despite it being late winter here rather than late summer, and despite the fact that no-one is away on holiday, New Zealand seems to suffer the Silly Season at the same time as the U.K. The following story made front page news in the local newspaper, The Wanganui Chronicle today. The story is reproduced without permission of any kind. So sue me.

Rescued dog returns the favour

26.08.2006

A VIGILANT rescued dog turned rescuer this week, saving a Wanganui home and her master from a potential electrical fire.

Shona Williams, of Roberts Ave, Aramoho, switched on an electrical jug in her kitchen to make a pot of tea and returned to the lounge, where she was spending an evening watching television with Tori, the family’s female Samoyed pet.

Mrs Williams became distracted and after a while Tori suddenly got up from her fireside rug and left the room. She quickly returned and with agitated body language made Mrs Williams follow her into the kitchen.

The jug had nearly boiled dry after its automatic cut-off failed leaving the kitchen full of steam.

Mrs Williams quickly disconnected the jug’s plug.

“I don’t know what might have happened if Tori had not alerted me to the problem,” Mrs Williams said.

“She made me follow her into the kitchen. There could have been a fire.”

Five-year-old Tori is a rescued dog the Williams family received two and a-half years ago.

She had been returned to her breeder by a veterinarian after her previous owner had starved her and kept her in a muddy paddock without shelter for months.

The breeder offered her to the Williams family after their previous Samoyed died of old age.

Now Tori, who is in perfect condition, is a rescuer herself.

“She’s got a very keen sense of hearing, especially earthquakes before they happen, thunder and lightning and, of course, cats outside,” Mrs Williams said.

The thing that surprises me most about this story is not the fact that the incident happened, nor the fact that things were so slow in downtown Wanganui that the newspaper editor thought the story merited front page status, (it really is VERY quiet here), but the fact that the first thing Mrs. Williams thought of doing when her dog alerted her to the fact the kitchen was full of steam, apart from to turn off the kettle, was to telephone the local newspaper offices. I mean, just how much of a drama queen must this woman be? Probably the sort of person who rings the emergency services when they've lost their keys.

Anyway, what else has been going on in the buzzing metropolis? (That's a hard word to spell when your eyes are starting to cross!) Well, I've been getting myself jabbed up with various inoculations, in preparation for my trip to South Africa. I've had a tetanus booster and a Hepatitis A shot, and I should have had the typhoid vaccine as well, but I reacted very badly to that the first time I had it, when I went to Italy as a teenager, so the doctor decided I shouldn't be given a booster. Apparently I won't need malaria tablets, which is a relief. I've heard nasty things about their side effects (although they're not as nasty as malaria, of course.)

Unfortunately, the details of the project I'm going to be working on are confidential, but I've been invited to play a leading role, and it involves a minimum of six months' full time work and an all-expenses-paid two-week trip to Cape Town. As my normal wardrobe consists exclusively of jeans, tracksuit trousers and sweatshirts, I've also splashed some cash on some new clothes. Iain and I went to Palmerston North yesterday (the nearest 'big' town) and I got togged up. Iain was amazingly patient while I tried stuff on and didn't do the 'fed up bloke' routine once. I was mightily impressed. I don't normally 'do' clothes shopping, but I actually rather enjoyed myself yesterday. If you're going to have an addiction, I think an addiction to clothes shopping is probably the best one to have. Sure, you're in debt up to your eyeballs, your family has abandoned you, you've lost your house and are sleeping rough on the street, but at least you look fabulous while your life is crashing down around you.

I am so tired now I can't see straight. I really have to stop typing, and anyway, the battery on my laptop has gone onto the red, which means any minute now my computer will shut down. I'll try to make sure next time I post an entry I'm at least partially compos mentis.

Goodnight all,

Helen