Our Chinese take away

You can't really blame us. Hubby seems to have been away an awful lot so far this year. It's lonely without him. Our teenage girls do well to manage with both of us traipsing off here and there. A bit of stability is what they need....

So went the reasoning at the beginning of this week when our eldest was pining for a pet once again. What with that and pressure from daughter number two, who has been wanting a new pet since our rabbit passed away,  there was a motherly sense of needing to pacify them both.

We started surfing the web to see if there were any animals available near where we live. In previous conversations with hubby about getting a pet while he was away he had told us that if we ever got a puppy he wouldn't be coming home, so puppies were out of the question. He didn't specifically mentioned kittens, so when we saw the litter of kittens ready to be homed NOW and with only one left, my eldest phoned the contact number and arranged to see it.

The lady explained that she lived above a Chinese take away so when we arrived and couldn't find a doorbell we went around to the kitchen area where a chinese chef was doing lots of chopping. He told us in broken English that there was no one here. Puzzled, we asked again about seeing the kittens from upstairs..... he carried on chopping and ignored us.
By this stage the three of us were a little horrified - firstly at the fact we had pre arranged and had been let down and secondly by the confusion that seemed to surround us being there..... visions of kittens being chopped up and put into foil containers under the guise of chicken came to mind.

We left disappointed, every other possible avenue of getting a pet had also come to a dead end, perhaps we weren't meant to have a kitten after all!

Until...............
the Chinese lady rang back - profusely apologising that she had missed us. My eldest was quite verbal about the fact we had travelled all the way to visit them and what a waste of our time that had been, to which the lady offered to bring the kitten over to see us!

Within seconds of her arriving on the doorstep with the kitten in a pet carrier mewwing away we were smitten. The lady was insistent on showing us photo's of the kittens parentage when all we wanted was for her to let the poor thing our of it's cage.
 'Daddy .... persian, look see' (holding camera and showing photo's) meeeow 
 'yes' (me trying to be patient) meeeow
 'mother cat, she so beautiful' (carrying on scrolling through 30 or so more photo's) meeeow
 'yes' meeeow

Turns out she had 10 cats, 2 of which had a litter to the persian tom cat. I can't begin to imagine what the inside of her flat must have looked like. There was no need to ask the girls if they wanted this kitten. As soon as she escaped her cage she was purring and wanting to make friends. We agreed a price and the kitten was ours.
'What does she eat?'  I managed to ask before the lady left our house.
'Rice.....mixed with a little cat food' was the reply. I should have known.

And so we were left holding our very own small and lost looking kitten. What to call her?
Having suggested a plethora of names between us, when daughter number 2 came up with the final inspired suggestion  we all laughed and it was unanimous. The newest member of the Wilkinson clan is called Noodles.

'Noodles' joins the family

Transitions

Noun

The process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.

Transitions are a process! Sometimes we have no control over the changes that happen around us. When we are not in control we can find ourselves fearful and resistant to change. Even when we are in control we can still find ourselves in moments of panic and uncertainty at the changes afoot.
 
Anyone who has given birth knows what it is to experience transition. For me it was that critical period of time when nothing seemed to to be happening. I was tired from riding the pain of contractions and all of a sudden there was a lull. Text book stuff! (Though I know not all women experience the same! )
Just when I was about to give birth I actually wanted to go to sleep! Maybe it was the exhaustion of the 9 months preparation, or maybe it was the drugs! Whatever it was, I had a strong urge to press the pause button, stop the world and get off!

Notionally I had accepted that we were going to have a child, we were happy with the transition from a couple of DINKY's (Dual income no kids yet) to being parents. The fact was we soon realised that we were on a roller coaster of change for which we had no control.
No control over the timing or date of birth, no control over the sex of our child, no control over the personality type of the child...... the preferences of our child....... the skills of our child.....and so on.

When we embark on a journey of change we mostly have no idea how things will turn out. The people we are in our teenage years often bear no resemblance to the adults we become. When we transition jobs we can end up being shaped and transformed into totally different people after a period of time. Ultimately it's to do with the way we react to change, whether we can embrace the 'pain' and the unknown that go hand in hand with changes and come out the other side enriched and expanded as people.

I have been working towards transition in my current role as consultant in an innovative company I have contracted to. As much as I love change I have still found myself in an uncomfortable place. There has been a 9 months research period which has involved writing strategic recommendations and now there is a lull whilst the strategy gets approval. At the this stage I have to confess the strong urge to press the pause button. I've worked hard towards strategising for change and now it's about to happen. There's no getting away from it, DELIVERY is imminent!

So my blogger friends I am currently procrastinating, writing a blog about it, distracting myself every which way and trying not to let the fears surface.  Remembering the lull of transition in the birth process I know what comes next. The time to push will come and after that the graft of those first few months of getting used to the new. Watch this space.