Continuing Sick
Let me state it for the record that, after a hard day at work, it is not my idea of fun to come home and spend an hour cleansing the kitchen of cat vomit and diarrhoea but such has been our lot over the past week or so.
Cyril has had more treatment from the Vet which has revealed that he has the onset of kidney disease. There's little that can be done about this. We have some low protein food which he is supposed to eat which will help maintain his condition in a stable state for some time. However, with complete perversity, Cyril has turned his nose up at this and has decided that the only thing that he will eat in any quantity is raw fish. So the house is turning into some sort of feline sushi bar.
He's in remarkably good spirits for an animal who is slowly poisoning himself to death. I'm hoping that I'm going to be round when the final moments come. Partially to say goodbye but also for practical reasons. As I remember from my cat Jones five years ago, it's a good idea to set the animal in some sort of curled up sleeping position before rigor mortis sets in. I can imagine Cyril popping his clogs some time during the day whilst Ross and I are out and him dying in a stretched out posture. We'd have to dig a trench a metre long to bury him in and that would mean digging up half the garden. I could do without the extra exercise.
So, dealing with the sick has taken up a lot of spare energy this week. Ross and I are still feeling low after our respective viruses and Ross is somewhat drained after his first week at college. It's been a case of get up, get dressed, have breakfast, go out, come back, sort Cyril, eat something, watch a little television and go to bed. Not the sort of excitement from which good copy is made.
We've managed one night out. My first opera of the season and Ross's first opera ever - ENO's new La Traviata at the Coliseum.
I wasn't holding out any great hopes for it having dislikes the last two Jonathan Miller productions I've seen there. However, this proved something of an exception. I could have done with a little more glamour at appropriate moments but it was generally well performed, tasteful and thoughtful.
If anything it was just a little too thoughtful. The tempi set by the conductor, Stephen Mercurio, were much more measured than usual and, as a whole, the performance lacked passion - which is unfortunate since passion is at the heart of the piece.
However, Ross enjoyed himself and seems happy to attend another opera
some time. Another convert! 
Ross has just come in from work and has gone upstairs to play SimCity 2000 on his computer (part of the reason for his recent trip home was to bring the last of his possessions down with him). There's food cooking. Now, all we're waiting for is Keith who's coming to visit and see Cyril.
I guess that that's going to be kind of emotional as Keith has come clean recently about feeling very depressed at present. Saying goodbye to Cyril is going to be tough for him as it's going to be like saying goodbye to a whole section of his life.
It's extraordinary to think that, up to 18 months ago, before the law of the age of consent changed, this relationship between Ross and I would have been completely illegal. Not that anyone would have done anything about it latterly but it does show how behind the times the law actually was. There has never been any danger of my recruiting Ross into doing anything he doesn't want to do.
I sometimes wish I could. I suppose it's one of the few differences that the age gap does bring that I want the house to be tidier than it sometimes is. However, when I was his age, I can't honestly say that washing, ironing and tidying was high on my agenda.
Actually, you can tell when you've passed into middle age when you look out of the window, see nice weather and say to yourself "Oh, good, another fine drying day before the winter."