April Fools Day - the Electricity Board are Having a Laugh!!

Today, being Wednesday I was off down to see Mum.  My plan to get there as quickly as possible so I could spend as much of my three hours with her as I could before returning home via the butchers was thwarted by the Electricity Board.  I was nearly at Mums, just coming through Lemba when I came across a digger blocking the road drilling holes.  No signs, nothing to warn me so I sat there and then an electricity board worker came and said it would be about five minutes which was everso slightly disconcerting because I didn't know if he meant a Cypriot five minutes which could mean anything!!!  I had to text Mum to let her know the situation.  Five minutes proper was the quickest option as it would take me longer than that to turn round and get to Mum's a different way.  As it turned out it wasn't too much longer than that but it had set me back with my timings.  

I had to leave a little bit earlier too because I had ordered some meat from my new favourite shop - Shukrou Meatmarket which is not far from Mum.  It tickles me that I can sit down of an evening and text the butcher to see what he has got, get an answer then arrange when I will pick it up and it is all ready and waiting for me.  Nicky had wanted pigs cheeks which he had although not the neatly trimmed little nuggets I had bought once from Morrisons these were the whole ish so I am hoping her butchery skills are up to the job!!!

Back at home I had encountered a line of ants making their way into the house en route for Charlie's cat bowl which had been left down with a few bits in it.  I had squatted most of them and was returning with the hoover only to find both Charlie and Boo going crazy over them - in fact Boo was acting like he was on some sort of drug induced trip!!!  I have seen them eat live ants before but today they were rolling around and rubbing themselves all over the dead ants and I didn't know why so had to look it up.  This is what I found...

Cats and Ants: Why Are Some Cats Obsessed with Dead Ants?

Have you ever seen a cat seem to go crazy when she encounters a pile of crushed ants? Maybe she rubs around in them or eats them. It's one of those funny feline behaviors that might be baffling to humans.

Ants Contain Lots of Oleic Acid

Ants contain both formic and oleic acid. These substances act as pheromones for the ants, helping them communicate with other ants about ant-life types of things.

When ants die and are crushed, they emit these substances, which cats can smell much more strongly than we can.

Oleic acid is also a significant constituent of the pheromone that cats emit from their facial glands when they rub on things. It has a calming effect on them, and when they encounter it, their innate response is to rub overtop of it. So encountering a pile of crushed ants that is emitting lots of oleic acid gives a cat a cozy, homey feeling that makes her feel calm and happy.

If you ever catch your cat climbing on your table to try and grab an olive and rub on it, oleic oil is probably the culprit for that, as well.

Who knew???  Maybe I should keep some olives close to hand to calm Charlie down when he is going my head in at 3.00am in the morning wanting to be fed.

We have Di and Rob coming for a meal tomorrow evening - we had hoped that we might get an announcement relaxing our restrictions from tomorrow which would make them coming less time constrained but that didn't happen - all we got was an extra text on Saturday and Sunday - not that we will need it really.  Undeterred I started off our meal which needed to be cooked in the slow cooker.  I have opted for Thai but am mindful not to make it too spicy for Di.  I had to get my act together and make a batch of lemon pickle particularly as the Bobster had provided the lemons and he is getting low on supplies!!!