I’ve just got back after a week’s house-sitting for Chocolate Muffin and Agent Grey. I was sole carer and defender for their two kittens, Harry (a.k.a Harryharryharry) and George.

They were much bigger than last time I’d seen them, a few weeks back, when they were barely a handful. Now they are quite bit – cats rather than kittens, although they’ve got a lot of growing to do. They are now so large that during the week, Harry learned to leap up onto the kitchen counter from the floor – apparently this is an important milestone.

We got on tolerably well, all told – they entertained themselves well enough, and although George was a little skittish to begin with (and even towards the end), they both came up to me for skritches and cuddles from time to time. Being kittens, they engendered a little bit of chaos now and then (there’s a pot plant that’s likely to never be the same again), but nothing that I couldn’t handle.

Six Foot Hobbit came around a couple of times, so I wasn’t entirely cut off from human contact (well, no more than I usually am); that was pretty cool. Saw Zodiac and the 1940′s Mark of Zorro with Tyrone Powers – both very cool, if very different films.

Coming back was an entertainment, though. Muffin and Grey didn’t catch their flight home, so I had to leave the morning after – a bit of a pity, as it turned out that my ticket was only valid for yesterday! Plus, I somehow managed to get onto a train to Glasgow, instead of to Edinburgh. I have no idea how that happened. And, due to rail engineering works, there was no train between Haymarket and Livingston; a bus was provided instead. So that all meant I was just in time to get back, dump my stuff, and then hurry the 2-ish miles to the Job Centre for the fortnightly signing-on.

I decided to do some shopping while I was there – I had obviously no bread or milk, being as I had been away for a week – but that turned out not be quite as clever an idea as I thought, as I then had to slog the 2+ miles back, only uphill and with heavy shopping.

However, I survived everything, and now I think I’ll possibly have a bit of breakfast/lunch, and a lie down…