Mummy loves Morpheus

Mummy loves her little baby!

Easter Holidays

Well I hope everyone had a happy Easter, and ate lots of chocolate eggs. Well as usual the Pattisons had a lazy start to the holidays, but did manage to concrete another part of the patio, before a thunder storm ruined our DIY. Today is more DIY, but with a welcome delivery of cream slices from Brigitte.....not sure how many weight watchers points they are.

Tuesday was spent pretending to go to work (I drove into Vienna with Ian), and spent 2 hours getting my hair dyed and cut. It is very surreal to me that they still use tin foil and start at the front and work backwards, so you have a huge foil head and you can hardly see.

After the relaxing haircut, I visited my friend Mollie. We chatted all afternoon and played with her baby, Vinnie. As you can see from the photos and video, Vinnie had a great time.
Mollie attenpts to feed Vinnie - I love the idea of feeding him naked and then following with a shower.

Finally at the end of the day we had to make another visit to the vets, where we were told that Neo has an eye problem now….resulting in yet another appointment with the eye specialist on Friday.
Wednesday and Thursday were spent cleaning, washing, painting, and relaxing. The car went into a new garage in Vienna for its service and summer tyre change….this is a very expensive holiday at home.

Friday, Ian managed to take the day off (not because of the royal wedding). We started our day ready for a long search in the Czech Republic for an extra 3m of our patio tiles. Ready with Tom Tom we set off, only to discover a supplier was in the first Czech town, who kindly used Google translate to communicate with us, and hey presto we have some tiles on order ready for this week. Finally the patio will be finished and BBQs can commence again. The next exciting trip of the day was going to rubbish tip. It may seem strange that this has to be planned, but they only open when we are at work. So now we have a clear spare room, free of cardboard boxes. Finally we yet again went to the vets with Neo. This time he was given a drop in his eye, and if his pupil enlarged (as it was very small when we went in), he did not have a brain problem (although we think he probably was born with some type of brain problem – along with all the male cats we have :-)). Luckily his pupil turned into a huge black hole.

Neo not happy at the vets.

Look into my eyes....and I will dribble snot on you!

We then were told he had herpes in his eye, which after researching - most cats get this virus as kittens from their mum, and it only causes problems when they are stressed (such as a vets trip…..mmmmm).

They then checked his ear (bear in mind last time we went, the vet disregarded us telling her it is was his right eye that was a problem – and only checked his left eye and left ear), and he has a severe ear infection, which only a CT scan will be able to detect the severity. Question – are they trying to get as much money out of us as possible? Anyway guess what he got more pills, supplements, and eye cream, and the bonus of another appointment for a CT scan this week.
Poor Neo is now force-fed 2 pills in a morning, 2 at night, 2 squirts of cream in his eye and a food supplement which he dribbles everywhere. He is starting to dislike his mummy slowly.
Friday night was spent watching the royal wedding (was able to download it), which was very nice, although Ian would disagree.

Saturday was a trip to the local town of Horn to pick up essentials such as food, cat food, cat treats (to try and bribe Neo), and some car bits! Not to bore you anymore, Sunday was spent ironing (yes nearly all day), as I hadn’t ironed in about 3 months!
So an interesting, chore fantastic and expensive week at home.

Off the vets...again

Well, Neo went back to the vets on Tuesday and visited the dentist, had a heart scan and more blood tests...another 300 Euros. We picked him up to find they couldn't find anything wrong with his teeth, but has a slight heart murmur and needs to have pills for the next 6 months.
A slightly groggy cat slept with us all night!

Work was slow this week, as everyone was in holiday mode - so I took it easy, finished lots of jobs I should have done ages ago, had some furniture delivered and cleared my office out and filed.
Friday was the start of holidays, unfortunately Ian didn't have Friday off, as he is not protestant! He worked from home, so we could take Morpheus to the vets to check his heart. I wish I had my phone with me to video the 30 minutes of crying all the way to vets.....and with a small bonus of peeing in his cage, which left me slightly embarrassed about the stink coming from him while waiting in the vets. Anyway his heart is fine, but they want Neo back next Tuesday as he finds it slightly hard to eat (although the dribbling is subsiding) and his inner eye lid is sometimes half closed. Mystery.
He has antibiotics now. I think he has learnt that the pills aren't treats, so I now just pop it in his mouth and he just swallows it.
We came back to find Tara trying to commit suicide by suffocation in a plastic bag. Maybe she thought she was next to go to the vets.

Today (Saturday), Ian played Xbox, while I researched another side of the family tree and talked to Sam and Georgie on skype - although Georgie was only interested in the cats and not me. We then went into town to have ice cream with Brigitte and Gunther. Although we did manage to have a quick glass of wine as well (and buy 2 bottles for me - 4 euros each - bargain).
We walked home the 'nice' way in the lovely 25c heat.

A nice start to the Easter holidays. Next week is supposed to be DIY on the house, visiting Mollie and Vinnie, haircut and highlights, vets (again), and a trip to the garage. I am guessing a fun but expensive week at home!
Have a nice Easter :-)

Off to the vets

Friday night was spent at the vets with Neo, 2 1/2 long hours of mainly waiting. He had blood tests, kidney ultra sound and managed to just poop once in his cage. He has high levels of Sodium in his blood and probably a tooth cavity. So he goes back on Tuesday to the dentist, more blood works and a heart scan. Lucky Neo. Once returning home, we had the usual problem with Morph....the biggest baby of them all......he hides and won't come out, although as it was his brother that had been to the vets, I think he was more forgiving and came out of hiding after only 16 hours (last time with Tank it was about 3 days).

Me don't like Neo anymore, he smells funny!

Is it safe to come out yet?

Neo had to drink water, so we were given a syringe and told to force it down him, but little does the vet know.....put some fresh water in a glass and Neo will see it is mummy's drink and want to drink it...result! Next painkillers, put the pill in front of Neo and he will automatically think it is food and just swallow it.....result. The bonuses of having a greedy cat.

Neo with a naked belly from his ultrasounds.

He has perked up this weekend, probably because of the meds and water, but still dribbles most of his food back into the food bowl, which I have to say is really putting the other cats of their food.
Saturday - was a trip over the border to the DIY store. I suggested to Ian he should get a new toolbox for all his helicopter bits (as there seems to be pieces of helicopter in the dining room, kitchen and office).



So only 4 days of work left and I get 10 days off.....yippeee. The idea is to get this house once and for all ready for selling, but with a little break to see Mollie and Vinnie and maybe go to the zoo, have my hair cut, and go to the dentist......

16lbs and dropping

Well last weekend was a lazy, but interesting one. First as the title suggests I have now lost 16lbs, and Ian is well ahead with around 22lbs. It is very rewarding fitting into old clothes, and when I rest my chin on my hand at work….it feels smaller! Anyway, after watching many episodes of ‘Who do you think you are’ about US celebrities researching there family trees, I finally got around to starting my family tree, and wow is it addictive. I started with the grandparents and progressed from there, my Granddad’s side was luckily already there from another long lost relative doing the research. Interestingly on that side of the family we found that my granddad had 12 brothers and sisters (although some died very early, and some during World War I – their births spanned over a long period). I also found a photo of my great grandma, which was amazing – I later decided she spent her life pregnant, she couldn’t write and obviously liked birds from the photo. Now, the Scrimgeour side of my tree started off more difficult to find, until I found a Scottish ancestry web site that you could view the full images of births, marriages etc. So I got back to 1700 with the Scrimgeours, but only on the ‘Scrimgeour’ side, so still lots to do. I found out that there is a history of ‘gardeners’ in the family (my granddad was a gardener – worked for the Queen you know!), the photo shows the estate where my great granddad worked (shame he didn't own it). From looking at dates, my great granddad married his wife 2 months before their first child was born……Scandalous! What was also nice, a lady from Oxford contacted me telling me how her mum was evacuated to Skipton, North Yorkshire during WWII, where her best friend was my grandma (Nana)……small world. She is hunting for more photos. So after around 10 hours of researching, and many calls to my mum with exciting snippets of information, I left the ancestry alone. I actually suggested Ian play on his Xbox for once!

Unfortunately this week, Neo has not been well. We shall be talking him to the vets on Friday, as he was grumpy, and has now progressed to dribbling a lot, and struggling to eat food (although that is not stopping him from spending 15 minutes licking, slurping and drooling food everywhere). So we have prodded his mouth etc., and there is no sign of pain, so let’s hope it isn’t anything neurological related, and he has a sore tooth somewhere.

Ian and I were even more impressed this week, with our second attempt at a milk tart! Unfortunately it was for Ian to take to work, as he had promised everyone……so none for me. This time we bought a new flan baking dish (with a removable base – recommended), and it looked fantastic.

Spring is officially here.....

Yes, finally the weather has warmed up, and for the first time this year, flip flops were worn at the weekend (22c). You may think it is simply the month or the weather that pronounces it is spring, but no, here in Austria there are a few things that predict when spring is officially here.

• Our little friendly ants start to creep into the house through the tiniest of gaps and make a nuisance.


• Ian starts to get more irritated with driving to work, behind the slow tractors and the even more annoying tiny cars (the ones where you don't need a licence, and they only go 45km/h).


• My work decided to fill the huge fountain on the plaza, and take down the rope barriers (to stop people walking in the snow).


• It's light when we drive home from work.


• The twice a year ritual of swapping winter and summer clothes takes place in the Pattison household.


• Its time to swap the winter tyres to summer tyres on the car.


• Hazel starts to moan that is too hot


• Hazel starts to moan that we should never have put a glass roof over the wintergarden.


• and finally this year, Ian and Hazel rejoice in being able to fit into the summer clothes that have been stored away for 5 months.

So last weekend, we took the trip to Vienna and went for a little shop, as, after been extremely happy that we now had 4 PCs networked together, the PC in the lounge decided it no longer liked its power supply. So we went looking for a small power supply to fit a slimline PC......Stupidly thinking we may find one. But no this is Austria, yes there are big electrical stores, and one maplin-like shop (with only 5 different power supplies), but that is it folks.......If only they would bring a huge supermarket, electrical store, PC store, TK Maxx and, and and.....to Austria.

So internet shopping wll have to do.

Sunday, we finished the roof garden, by laying the final 60m2 of weed cloth protection, to kill the overgrown garden. Ian took a little trip outside with his helicopter. Oh yeah and we watched the whole and only season of 'Moonlight' - a similar minded sci-fi friend at work lent me the DVD - Vampires, romance, mystery and murder....oh and a wonderfully hunky Alex O'Loughlin. All that a girl needs.

Monday, my 'sista from another mista' (as Mollie likes to call me) came into work. I had been on holiday, and then she went back to the States for 2 weeks, so I was missing my BF. Little Vinnie has grown lots. She had been shopping while visiting the states and bought me a present from Marshalls (TK Maxx of the USA). A pink, cupcake, frilly, cute apron, a cake slice with red and pink shiney gems on it, and some cute Easter kitchen towels. She wants me to look like a Stepford wife I think.

Tuesday - Ian is somewhere in Austria with work, a team meeting/retreat thingy. He will be attending and also facilitating - using 5 types of balls, lego, and string (mmmm). I am at work (lunch break now), and have just receieved a parcel from my mum which includes some cadbury's easter nest cakes.....THANK YOU MUM! It made a nice surprise, as I was having slightly murderous intentions towards my office mate earlier. It makes me chuckle - the look of pity in her eyes when I say that we don't really 'club' anymore. We did that from the age of 16 - 28, and now it is more gigs, friends houses, meals and BBQs. I told her we were going to see Limp Bizkit in July, so she told everyone that I don't 'club' because I only like heavy metal music. Not sure if it an age thing or another cultural difference we all find working in an international environment.

Finally as I have no photos this week to share, I thought I would include 2 cute photos of Neo:

Peekaboo I really like the cushion, but I also like the sofa cushion.

I know I am so fat I can use both!