TheBanyanTree: Hearts and triangles

[John Bailey]

Wednesday April 27, 2005

HEARTS AND TRIANGLES

I managed to speak to the selling agent for the house in Northumberland and 
came away reasonably happy that we're in with a chance. Graham is being far 
more sensible than I about it. He's very keen but is not building up his 
hopes. Me, I'm wildly enthusiastic about it, so much so that if, as is 
likely, we don't manage to synchronise our sale with it and lose it to 
someone else I'll be bitterly disappointed. The darn place is perfect for us.

Hey ho. I'm tasked to call agents tomorrow and make appointments for them 
come see this house, give us a valuation and a clear indication of their 
terms. That'll probably bring me down to earth. Financially I'm as happy 
about the deal as I can be without concrete figures, and I feel confident 
that even if we do miss out on our target house, there will be others. 
Indeed, I know very well that a heavy duty local search would be likely to 
yield an even more suitable place. Can't tell that to my heart, though, 
which seems to have fallen in love. Irritating things, hearts. Totally 
irrational, and think they rule the roost. Which they do.

Speaking of falling in love, Dolly the Mega-Cat has a major problem of the 
heart just now. On our visit to IKEA yesterday we picked up some new 
bedding for the spare bed and a rather nice small woollen rug for the 
external doors to the study, and she's fallen completely in love with both 
of them. A perfect arrangement for her would be to have the rug on the bed 
but, sadly, they're separated by two rooms and the hallway. So she pugs up 
on the new bedding, glaring at us, daring us to move her away and then, 
when she hears me in the study, rushes in to check that I've not stolen her 
new rug from its position in front of the french doors. And so it goes, 
right through the day.

I had to go out for a mini-provisioning trip this morning, leaving Graham 
to take advantage of a sunny, dry spell to do some final titivating on the 
outside of the house. So Dolly had the place to herself, and no human aid 
to indicate which of her two new loves needed protection the most. When I 
got back she was curled up on the floor almost exactly half-way between 
them, keeping guard.

"It would have been kinder," I said, "to have brought them into service one 
at a time. That way she'd have got over the heat of her passion for one 
before falling in love with the second."

"Kinder, perhaps," said Graham. "But it's a lot more fun this way. Sort of 
a menage a trois, or another twist on the eternal triangle."

"Tee," I said. "Hee."

"Hmmmmph," said Dolly, meaning something I refuse to translate.


--

John Bailey   Lincolnshire, England

journal of a writing man:
<http://www.oldgreypoet.com>