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| New on the website - French magazine advertisement, Guerlain Perfume, c1960 |
Disaster struck
this week, hence the late Blog.
Technology is a fine thing until it carks it, isn’t it? One minute I was happily plugging away at the
laptop, cataloguing new things to come into the shop and onto the website this
week, and the next minute it broke. No
warning, no speccy explosions, no acrid smoke, no data turning lime green and bleeding
off the bottom of the page in a dramatic sci-fi You’re Losing All Your Data moment, just blerk, it’s broken. But ha-ha! yes I am a good gel who does
backups, and for the stuff where I was less than a good gel the hard drive was
recoverable so my slackness wasn’t punished.
How I hate technology.
So now I have a
spiffy new laptop (white, not my first choice but it was the last of its type
available in any store because of the fabo price, so white is now my first
choice). But how I hate Windows 8.
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| New on the website - English green Depression Glass Lidded Storage Container, c1930 |
OMG why can’t computer geeks get it that normal
people like their electronic tools to be user-friendly? Taking good photos for the website is
challenging enough without some stoopid computer system not allowing me to
easily crop and fiddle as I wish. But fortunately,
if you know someone who knows someone who also prefers Windows 7, you can get a
bunch of that operating system back.
Sort of. Enough, anyway. How I hate computer geeks.
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| Caleb has discovered Mischka's secret spot on top of the bookcase and seized it for his own. |
Meanwhile, the
search for a suitable play date for Caleb continues. Poh the Little White SomethingorOther came by
on Wednesday for their first meeting.
But Caleb was snoozing on the desk when she came scampering in and was startled
by her sudden presence. He immediately
jumped off the desk and came for her, snarling with every single big bad Bengal tooth showing.
Poh backed off to
the end of her leash, but Caleb kept advancing with a quite aggressive
stiff-legged gait. But when he reached
her and touched noses he realised it was only a nice little mutt and he was
happy to play. He rolled over and showed
her his belly, and when that didn’t work he put his head between his front paws
and his bum in the air, in a very dog-like gesture of inviting a game. But Poh was having none of it. One little snarl had entirely put her off,
and she decided on a quick retreat. But
I’ve said it before – never run from Caleb.
So of course he chased her, which really
made her run. Which really made him chase her.
Her owner picked her up for some comforting, and we decided to try again
another day.
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| New on the website - Chinese Shipwreck Salvage from the Tek Sing, c1822 |
So Poh came back on
Friday. And this time I made sure Caleb
was awake so he saw her at the door. I
carried him so there could be some closely supervised nose touching, and Poh
was happy to give him a quick face wash, but when they were put on the floor
together she hid behind her owner’s legs and Caleb could not entice her
out. But at least this time she didn’t
run.
Poh came back again
on Saturday and her owner said Poh had dragged her in, so that was a good
sign. Unfortunately it was Calypso in the
chair on Saturday, and there is no mistaking it when you’re a dog and Calypso
tells you to Back Off. So we’re trying with Caleb again this coming
Saturday. Hopefully it won’t be over
before I have time to reach for my camera this time.
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| New on the website - French Art Deco cocktail prongs with red bakelite ball tops, c1930 |
I was told that Thursday’s play
date would be a golden retriever who is a sook for cats. But it turned out to be two big golden
retrievers. Now this was an entirely
different experience for Caleb – to have to look up at his play dates, so
little chance clutching them in a quick headlock and giving them a judo
throw. He was cautious but inclined to
touch noses and engage with the first retriever, while still leaning against my
legs for a bit of reassurance, but when the second came to join in he was
overwhelmed and fluffed up every single bit of his body. I’d never seen a cat double the size of their
face before, but Caleb managed to double the size of every bit of him. And yes, every single big bad Bengal tooth was again on show, and the mutts backed off
rapidly.
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| New on the website - French gilded brass Cherub & Dragon brooch, c1940 |
But at least they
didn’t run, just backed away. And
because they only whined at him and didn’t run, he then regained his courage
and again marched up to the first dog.
But, as with Poh, one little snarl seemed to have put the retriever off
so he kept backing up, right out the door.
Caleb isn’t allowed outside on the street, so he had to stop at the
front door and that was the end of the encounter.
Given a little time
I think the retrievers might be good play dates for Caleb. At least he can’t immediately flatten these
dogs, and it was funny to watch his reaction to meeting something a whole lot bigger
than him. He totally lived up to his
name (Hebrew for Bold), even when he
was unsure and a bit afraid. He’s never
met a person or animal that was mean or aggressive towards him - not counting
that idiot a few Blogs ago who said he would shoot him if he could - and isn’t
that a nice way to encounter the world?
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| New on the website - and my favourite piece of glass in the shop right now - French glass vase, c1900 |
In actual shop
news, I have outdone myself this week and put heaps of new things on the
website. We continue to find lots of interesting
things in our garage from previous trips, so being forced to go hunting to find new stock is turning out to be an excellent exercise – long overdue.
And how lucky are we to not be stuck in
the middle of a coldest-March-in-50-years blizzard in the UK right now? All in all, I’m glad we’ve kept to the 2013
Plan, even though I do still secretly hanker for a little bit of Paris.
Meanwhile, the
contract has been signed, the deposit has been paid, and work is starting on
the new part of our house on Thursday. I
told the builder to cut his hair and make himself look pretty – perhaps a few
beads and braids in his beard would be nice – because he’s going to feature in
future Blogs.
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| A random photo of Mischka because she hasn't featured for a while and this is a nice shot. She and Caleb have become very close lately, which is amazing considering how she hated him with every fibre of her fur when he first arrived. |
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