One born every minute..
(begun Tuesday 24th December at 2.45am.)

*Yep, I'm as surprised as the rest of you, to find myself back here so soon.  However, needs must when the very devil hisself is behind the wheel...*

Kitz has gotten too old and frail to take herself out of the window at night, so she's had to resort to dumping in the litterbox in the kitchen.. Not a problem, except that it's become a race between me and the two darned dogs to see who can get to the prize first...
My head had taken a while to process that particular grossness, but the trail of litter running across the floor to the passage finally made sense, and we've had to take to shutting the sliding kitchen door down to a tiny gap each night at bedtime..
Barrel-chested Sophie is probably first on the scene as she hears those noisy ablutions, but she gives up and curls on the sofa instead...  Cola genuinely seems to think he can squeeze through that tiny space, but by then I've heard them and I'm up and on the warpath, as he heads guiltily off to the lounge...

The anticipated family invasion hadn't happened last night after all.  There'd been a big storm brewing up their way and they'd wisely decided to travel this morning instead...
If I'd hoped to have an undisturbed night's sleep I was sadly mistaken, and it must have been shortly after 2am when Someone had begun casually abusing me as I lay on Cloud 9.  Shamefully, I'd not minded at all, until they'd gotten bored at 2.25am, and the experience had abruptly turned from vaguely pleasant to downright nasty, with the arrival of what I refer to as the Fabian Carey frequency... There was absolutely no point in giving my Visitor lip, so I simply got up and escaped here to the desk to chat to you...

The GameWrecker had taken a landline call yesterday around lunchtime, and he'd come out to say it had been someone purporting to be a realtor who had clients wanting to view No. 6.  Did we have our neighbour's number? *winks...
A possibility that I've entertained since the start of the massive upgrade to the Chickencoop some weeks back... They'd had the place on the Internet a few years ago for R1.2mil, and by now, if you add in the FTTH connection, it's probably worth nearer 2 mil...
Is he doing a runner willingly, or is their imminent departure due to other reasons?
Did his little wife find my constant reports on their activities to be creepier than she could handle? Ah, the irony...

As always I have my safety-net to hand, and I tell myself it's possible the Sadist has landed himself a cushy job abroad, thanks to my PR efforts here.. Though I find it hard to believe that anyone in their right mind would deliberately spend a huge sum of money to expose themselves and their family to the often appalling levels of radiation here in the valley, you can bet there are several suckers out there who are prepared to do just that... After all, Mr. A.K. Patel sailed on in to No. 4, and it's doubtful anyone down there is showing visible signs of over-exposure yet...
It's now 3.40am, and Rocky at No. 10 has been shouting the odds down towards the valley.. More mischief, or just a passing stray?  There'd been some serious headgames played with our two four-footed beasties late yesterday afternoon, and they'd both raced out repeatedly onto the front lawn, barking ferociously at some imagined intruder, until eventually I'd had to shut them indoors to calm them down...
The farce had been repeated after dark,once the GameWrecker was back from the shops, and I'd simply repeated the exercise and shut them indoors, creating another FAIL for the would-be stirrers...

Will the prospective buyers who view the Chickencoop notice Mr. Dawood and the Roseann cc's monstrosity looming through the gumtrees across the way?  Will they think to enquire after the proposed access to those three towering blocks, and whether it's set to affect the residents down this end of Harris Crescent?  Hell, we're pensioners, and a sudden surge in traffic down by No. 2 wouldn't bother me in the slightest, but it could just irritate someone who'd forked out a bucketload of cash not knowing that the little access road down to No. 2 is quite possibly set to become a very busy thoroughfare... Then of course, there'll be the eventual wiring up of those three enormous apartment blocks.. I'll stick to my guns and insist that is when it will become risky for the nearby residents, and the wildly fluctuating levels of power may well take their toll on nearby homeowners...

I'd shared with you the one occasion that I'd seen a powerful signal enhancer light being run from the very top floor of that shell facing us, and I've not seen another like it since then..
Mr. Dawood's contractors have been racing against the clock to complete the construction, and I guess it's going to get really interesting early on in the New Year, as you can bet THIS now conveniently dead gumtree will be removed to reveal the full glare of all the lights that will be installed on the block facing us...
Will they battle to find tenants, or is there already a waiting list of people willing to play Russian Roulette with the cellmast in spitting distance across the Freeway?

Will they end up stuffing those apartments with noisy students (read guinea-pigs), as has been done at the blocks over on Barnard Road?  Like I said, things are set to become really interesting, as the full impact of that under-the-counter property deal becomes apparent...
Does the Merc. Pinetown Account's Manager tell prospective buyers of the marvellous acoustics out there in the valley?  How they can anticipate listening to the hordes of chanting students and their music on a regular basis, and that it's quite possible there'll be more of the same facing them full-on, once the new blocks are completed and have been occupied?  It turns out that having my hearing systematically damaged over the past nine years could just be a blessing after all...Who knew!

Were they to have found a buyer for No. 6 (and I don't see why they wouldn't, as there's one born every minute), who will rule the airwaves roost after their departure?  Who will end up controlling the giant overheads and the waterlines?  Does the pole outside of Jesus' Sunbeam's home at No. 12 bear a similar tiny red pilot light to the one that's still active on Agent Balliram's pole, HERE?
It will no doubt be a fairly simple exercise to switch the computerised control of the waterlines to whichever hydrant is deemed best.. Is there one on Freddie's verge? I must check...
Alternatively, it's always possible that AK down at No. 4 is set to become the new one-eyed King in this land of the blind, but we'll have to wait and see on that score...

It's a given that any new owners at No. 6 will destroy what's left of the coral tree that overhangs our front yard, and, while I'll be sad to see it go, it will afford me the opportunity of sharing a whole new vista with you on Facebook...
Is she that determined to avoid my beady gaze that she'd sell at a loss?  Man, I've no way of knowing what's going on behind the scenes next door, only that I'll miss them, the Bastard and all...
With his special talents he can only carry on rising up the ladder of success in this morally decaying country, and you can rest assured that it won't be long before his new neighbours feel the impact of his arrival, be it here locally, or abroad...
I'd offered the Knob an olive branch more times than I care to remember, but that had been long before I'd come to realise our purpose as designated guinea-pigs for Sutcliffe's Smart City technology, and to accept that there was no chance of escape...
Yesterday's fine weather has been replaced by solid grey cloud this morning, and the valley is alive with birdcalls..

LATER at 5am..

The levels of the BackFire frequency were increased dramatically as I'd stood up to leave the desk earlier.. You may have figured out by now that there are two canaries in this little house of ours.. One rides between my shoulder blades and is a highly unpleasant, but totally reliable alarm system, while the other takes the form of my fat and grizzled Jack Russell.
For the past few weeks the latter has taken to crawling under the desk or a chair, in an attempt to escape whatever is being pumped into our home at the time... Something that would only occasionally occur, but has now become the norm...

I've no doubt that true to form, my Alter Ego at No. 6 intends to have as much mischief created at ours as possible, before he tears himself away from his aged pinata, for a while at least... Once he's settled in his new abode, he'll be back across the airwaves to visit us, and that's a given..
The world-wide Grid is a truly marvellous thing, and will cut across the miles, no matter where they go, unless he can be distracted by the gift of a new and equally mouthy prey?...Hint, hint... Fingers crossed, hey?
Peace..

---oOo---

Tuesday 24th December 2013 at 7.54am.