We’re back!!!!!!

 

hello…….

sorry for the break in transmission

We are now living in Birr, Co Offaly in the Republic of Ireland – what an adventure it was for us 2 eurokitties – we travelled trouble-free from brussels to dublin via frankfurt arriving safe and sound in dublin on the morning of 16 may – to a very stressed out mummy, but she’s like that.  There’s a label on our cages which says ‘i had a great time at the Frankfurt animal lounge’ and our Mummy says that must be true as we never looked as serene as when she caught her first glimpse of us in dublin! thank you frankfurt animal lounge – danke schôn !!

http://www.frankfurt-airport.com/content/frankfurt_airport/en/business_location/cargo_hub/animal_lounge.htmli

AND of course thank you to the European Union which as a result of the White Paper on the completion of the internal market published on 14 june 1985 (our mummy was there!) us pussies don’t need to go into quarantine anymore – we have our ID chips, our passport and a valid anti-rabies injection – free movement of kitties; imagine if we had to spend 6 months away from our mummy in qaurentine – unthinkable!!

Here we are in our cages about to drive the 2 hours to Birr – which is not a long way ‘cos our mummy went from brussels to the gourdon area of france in april with her friends who had ELEVEN pussies and got there after a NINE hour drive – so our journey was nothing by comparison…….

As soon as we arrived we had to explore the garden – there was something called ‘grass’ we had never seen before as we lived in an apartment in brussels – here we are taking our first tentative steps

but we are tentative no longer – (this is fluffy speaking) ‘ FELIX who  u will remember is a handsome boy kitty –has two avid female admirers – mummy spends a lot of time trying to bring him home at night and needs to prise him out from under parked cars with her umbrella to get him home – naughty kitty that he is’

meanwhile mummy is looking for a new car and like us is settling in to her new life in this very nice town; she has been to dublin twice and visited the Hugh Lane Gallery during one visit

http://www.hughlane.ie/

this is a very eclectic gallery and includes the studio of Francis Bacon lots of irish art AND the very famous ‘les parapluies’ painted by Renoir which surprised – and delighted – our mummy; the painting is exhibited alternately in London and Dublin apparently………

Our mummy has a funny story about francis bacon by the way– once upon a time in 1979 she was in the south of france studying french (that didn’t work too well..) and she and her fellow students were having dinner in Nice – Francis Bacon who was in the company of another student from the school came over to say ‘hello’ – but none of the students including our mummy recognised him – isn’t that dreadful?  our mummy is not pleased with herself when she thinks of THAT incident !!

BUT to get back to OUR adventure; here we are trying out the front door – we have had lots of sunshine since we came home – how lucky we are……..

anyway we must go now – our mummy has to rush off somewhere – she is always rushing – but we’ll be back soon as we have lots more to tell you

MFN (Meow for now)

Oh that reminds us – there is a lovely classical piece for two soprano’s called ‘the duetto buffo di due gatti’ (humourous duet for two cats)

Our mummy saw it in a show in Birr theatre recently – yes we have a theatre too – http://www.birrtheatre.com/#!programme/cj2a

Here is ONE version of the duet – there are several on google – if you like cats (and surely you do) this will make you laugh out loud !!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFLF57vDYcQ

one more thing – you must be wondering why there are hardly any capital letters or full steps in this manuscript – well, our mummy finds that kind of thing slows her down so she rarely makes the effort – she says she is inspired by the American poet e.e. cummings who did that sort of thing; she always has a good excuse !!!!!!!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings

The 2 eurokitties’ preparation for the trip from brussels, belgium to birr, ireland…………….

 

THE BELIGIAN FLAG………………

 

Hi

Felix and Fluffy here again

well the ‘date fatale’ is getting nearer

we can tell – our mommy is doing strange things – there’s a pile of clothes on the dining table and the wardrobe is getting less crowded

which means she – and maybe we – are leaving belgium

from what we can guess we will soon be on a plane from brussels to frankfurt – on 15 may –  apparently we will stay the night in frankfurt and the following morning we will fly with Lufthansa to dublin where we hope our mommy will be waiting for us

after that we will have to drive down 2 hours to our new town, Birr in Co Offaly in Ireland

oh, it’s going to be a long haul to our new home

here is a link so you can see what it’s like – we know it’s a lovely town in the middle of ireland – it’s just that we are apartment cats, have never been outside the door and are a bit anxious going to a new country

Birr, Offaly, Ireland – Heritage Town

If you google Birr you will find a few definitions! Apart from our Birr,  there is a town in northern Switzerland.

And the ‘Birr’ is the currency of Ethiopia where the term birr literally means ‘silver’ in a local language.

There is also a first world war cemetery near Ypres in Belgium where soldiers of the Leinster (Leinster is a province  in Ireland and Birr which is in Co Offaly is in Leinster) regiment were buried – it is a commonwealth cemetery and can still be visited today – especially poignant as it will soon be the 100th anniversary of the start of the first world war. Ireland was still part of the british empire during the first world war and many irish soldiers fought alongside all the other nationalities which explains the name of the Birr cross roads cemetery

We are amazed there is no Birr in the USA – maybe there is and we missed it – no doubt someone will tell us if there is…….

Oh we are a fount of information you must admit !!!

to mark our imminent departure from belgium a place we loved to live in we have inserted the  belgian flag at the top of the page

Belgium will play in the world cup in brazil soon and now  you can buy lots of items here with the belgian colours – tee shirts, mugs, keyrings, etc etc. They are everywhere to be seen…….

And below we show the emblem of Ireland, the shamrock

it looks like a 4 leaf clover but it just has three leaves – St Patrick the patron saint of ireland explained the holy  trinity on the basis of the shamrock when he was converting the pagan irish to christianity – not sure they ever really converted though – our mommy said that so don’t  blame us !!

every 17 march – the feastday of st patrick – the irish wear the shamrock and the irish prime minister of the day (‘taoiseach’) presents a bowl of shamrock to the president of the united states at the white house in washington! you can only find the shamrock in ireland which is why it’s such a strong emblem – unless someone else has found a shamrock in another part of the globe of which we are not aware

now it’s saturday evening and we are getting a bit tired and our mommy is going out to watch the eurovision song contest at a friend’s house – ireland is not competing this year – got voted out – oh well, what’s another year

will be back soon with more news, views and incisive – we think – comments on the world around us

furry hugs from felix and fluffy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

A TALE OF 2 EUROKITTIES

 

Hello

We are Felix and Fluffy

We are the spoiled rotten pets of our mummy who says she loves us dearly

Being fussy cats we are not sure of that but anyway……….

She is not so bad but as you will see from our day to day adventures she can be a bit bizarre

Although we live in Brussels she doesn’t speak to us in French or Flemish but in English – that’s because – between you and me – she is a bit lazy and hasn’t worked on her languages as much as she could have done over the many years she has spent in Belgium

Her excuse is that while she was working people insisted on speaking English with her – we are not convinced – but that’s her excuse and she is sticking to it

We call ourselves Eurocats or Eurokitties for the purpose of this blog – our mommy used to be what is called a Eurocrat but she has now retired – she intends leaving Brussels very very soon and moving back to Ireland her native country. And we’re going with her. We already have our pet passports and then we will have to go on an aeroplane to travel back to the emerald isle – the whole journey will be spread over 2 days and we intend to make life miserable for everyone. Apparently we will be living in a house with a garden – that will make a change as we are apartment cats – and of course we look forward to meeting some Irish cats. We may have to learn Irish too – gosh – what’s the Irish for meow – wait and see……………………….

Here are our bio’s :

I – Felix – was born in May 2002 which makes me a middle aged boy now – I lived with my mummy on my own until 2008 when Fluffy arrived; my mummy felt guilty about leaving me when she was away on holiday or on business and I used to feel lonely on my own even though my kind neighbour came to see me twice a day to feed me and tell me how beautiful I am. Since Fluffy arrived I have been much happier – we fight, we play, we groom each other , we give our mummy a hard time and we are great friends……………

And I am Fluffy – or Princess Fluffy as I prefer to be called. Indeed my mommy sometimes addresses me as ‘My Queen’, which is quite fitting I think! I am especially beautiful as I am sure you will agree. I am a true European cat being born on 9 May 2008 – that makes me 6 years old this year. As you are no doubt aware 9 may is very important in European history – on 9 May 1950 the French foreign minister – Robert Schuman – made the European declaration which is the foundation of what is now known as the European Union. You see we are not just pretty faces; we know a thing or two !!

We hope u will enjoy our little adventures – we enjoy them and we do our best to be good European pussy cats and of course we speak fluent purring and meowing and are very good at showing our displeasure – which is often – when we are displeased by our not so perfect Mama.

We’ll be back in touch soon as we will have lots to tell.

Au revoir for now……………