To market, to market...

Mika Pic of the Day.

Happy Mika on her beanbag. If you look closely, you can see the stitches from her desexing surgery

My new cyclamens, which I don't think will live for very long. As you can see, we use Blast. Lots of bubbles and cleaning power for such a little bottle!

View of the lake in the Carribean Gardens

Scary Carribean Gardens Restaurant sign. Fortunately, the rear view mirror got in the way. The lattes at the restaurant taste like mud and froth

Chris and I have been going to different markets for the past few weekends. First, we went to the South Melbourne markets. I loved it! It's got everything from clothes to craft to fresh produce. We went home with a large green potted plant, a huge carton of fresh veggies, crabs, pork, the leanest minced beef I'd ever eaten, and chicken. Chris also bought me a cashmere and wool coat... mmm luxury :D If anyone visits Melbourne, I recommend the South Melbourne Markets. It's a bit smaller than the Victoria Markets, but that's what I liked about it.

Last weekend, we went to the Carribean Gardens. I wasn't impressed. Firstly, they charge you per person to enter the grounds. Secondly, the markets only make up about 20% of the space. The rest is made up of kiddie rides, Japanese Gardens (just a bridge and a few trees), and a restaurant with the scariest looking sign I've ever seen (see above). Despite these tremendous obstacles, I still managed to exercise some retail therapy and bought 2 scarves and a pair of gloves. Chris bought ankle guards - how boring.

This weekend, Chris's dad wanted to buy a second-hand laptop, so back we went again. I got to take Chris's little sister, Anthea, shopping. Thank goodness everything there's pretty cheap, or I would be broke. Notice I didn't take any pictures of the actual market because I got a little distracted by all the stalls. Anyway, I bought a pretty pot of pink and white cyclamens and was delighted with how they looked on my kitchen window. But all good things must come to an end. My mate Mel faxed me an article that said just one or two cyclamen petals could be fatal for cats!!!! :( So I think my little flowers will have to go outside the window sill and will probably die because I won't bother with watering them.

I should probably also include a picture of the cheapie watch I bought for $15! But I can't really be bothered to take a picture and I can't figure out how to put pictures between text.

I would love to explore the other markets in Melbourne. Chris doesn't like shopping at malls, but doesn't mind markets too much. Maybe I can convince him to make this a weekly thing ;)

xoxo,

J

My Very First Post

Ok, the thing I like most about blogs is the pretty pictures so there're two to grab your attention. That is my lovely new kitten, Mika (pronounced Meekah). In the first one, she's gearing up to attack my sweatpants. In the second, she's wondering why someone is pointing a camera at her.

I'm sure all of you pet lovers out there went through the whole "hmm what should I call my new dog/cat/rabbit/mouse/iguana" phase and it really is hard to come up with a unique name.

Chris, my fiance, wanted Tehir (pronounced Tee-yer), but I wanted to name her after something edible (because she is so cute you could just eat her up!) so I suggested Tikka (like Chicken Tikka) or Miso, after the yummy soup, and because she looks like a little Japanese Manga cat. So... put Miso and Tikka together and you get Mika! Actually, I think it should be spelled with two ks so from now on, she will be Mikka. I wonder if she'll mind that I just changed the spelling of her name. She's probably thinking, "Aww Mum, now it'll take me even longer to write my name at kitten preschool!"

How and why did we decide to get Mikka (ahh two ks, looks more symmetrical now, no?)? Chris had a gorgeous cat named Kez who very sadly had to be put down a while ago. He left a big hole in our lives and we missed him terribly. So, we went to the RSPCA to look at some kittens to hopefully fill the gap in our lives. That's when we met Mikka. When we opened her cage and went in, the first thing she did was try to open the latch, after seeing the way we had opened it. That's one smart kitty. She had only been given up by her foster family that very day. She seemed really quiet and affectionate, which was just what we were looking for in a cat. Little did we know....!!

Unfortunately, she had not been desexed yet, so we couldn't take her home until after the operation, so we had to wait three days. To make up for having to wait, we bought a large potted plant which Mikka now loves to sit on. It's like she knew it was her replacement for three days and is trying to dominate it.

Everyone who has had a kitten would know that they can be the most loving, affectionate, adorable creatures, but in a split second they can morph into paws of fury. When she's in a silly mood, anything that moves is at peril. I have had several near misses when she decided to attack my navel ring or any limb that she forgot was attached to the rest of me. Usually, a short, sharp 'no' is enough to stop her.

However, it's an entirely different matter when it comes to food. Whenever Chris or I have dinner on the coffee table, she tries to make a grab for it or leaps up on the table. My very helpful workmate, Simon, suggested that I keep a bottle of water handy and spray her whenever she did it. It was working until Mikka realised that we were spraying her, not the table, so now she sneaks up when she sees that the bottle isn't close enough for us to reach before she can make a grab for the food.

Kez was a very well-behaved cat, so this is entirely new to me! He would try to coax food from us by rubbing his cheek against us and giving us cat kisses, but he never tried to snatch it. Mikka, however, thinks that everything edible must be her dinner.

Ah well, I wouldn't have her any other way. She is currently curled up on my lap fast asleep while I am typing this.

So, there is my very first post. I hope this blog will grow to include my other interests, which include yummy food, gorgeous jewellery, and other random things.




xoxo,
J