#7

Ug. Took a chuck out of my left cornea yesterday while grinding-down a weld I had done on my 1972 Ford Cortina. On close inspection with a bright light and a mirror I could see tiny shallow crater about 1mm in diameter. Fortunately it's no-where near my pupil so it does not effect my vision, unlike back in the mid eighties when the company Secretary, Mandy, slapped my face and in doing so dragged one of her long finger nails across one of my corneas -- right across the pupil leaving slight but definitely a visible scratch on my vision that remained for about a year. I really cannot remember what it was that I said to deserve that slap... must've been a misunderstanding, must have been.

Sumpy the Cat has yet again gotten engine sump oil on him (hence his name). He seems to get it from going under cars and rubbing himself under the engine and gear box etc. He has quite mat fur (and not silky fur) so it really stains and you can never get it off completely. Today he has come in with blackened ear tips (the photo is after some initial cleaning attempts) but usually it's a big stripe of oil down his back and onto his tail. I think he got this trait from when he was a stray -- I think he used to sit under car engines of cars that had just been parked-up to get the warmth from the engine during the cold winters. Sumpy has retained a few more alley-cat skills too, despite finding a good home here, for example he gets very very excited on the night when people put-out the bin bags for collection by the council the following morning... he is out and in like a yoyo. I had my suspicions that he was ripping into the bin bags and stealing meaty left-overs from them, but I had no proof of this...not until that is: one night he came in and sicked-up a bit of bin bag along with some aluminium foil with some chicken still wrapped in it!! Guilty as changed m'lord.