Days don’t always go quite as intended but Mum said there’ll be days like this so I can’t say I wasn’t warned.

When Days Don’t Go Quite As Planned

We all have days when things don’t quite go as planned. Or we try and force them to go the way we want but the universe has other ideas. Or days when things just plain go wrong. My Mum said there’ll be days like this.

The Poor Guy With His Hand Luggage

On Faceache a couple of days ago (or Facebook as you guys call it), I saw a video of a guy on a plane trying to fit his hand luggage into the overhead rack and it wouldn’t go in the space no matter how hard he pushed and shoved. Until the stewardess came over and showed him that if he turned it round the case would fit in the hole easily.  I felt bad for the guy as someone was filming him and people were giggling – why not just suggest he turned it round rather than watch him struggle I wondered? It seemed a bit cruel plus it has been shared with thousands thanks to the internet. I wonder if his Mum ever told him there’ll be days like this?

Mum Had A Morning That Did Not Go As Planned

One day, my Mum had a hospital appointment, my Sister accompanied her. The day was all planned. They had to go to the ninth floor of a tower block in the hospital.

When they got there Mum was told the machine for her procedure wasn’t working and neither was the back up machine so she had to go home again. To add insult to injury, the elevators weren’t working. They both had to walk down nine flights of stairs and through endless corridors just to leave the hospital which did my Mum’s arthritic hip no end of good.

My Mum and Sister stopped at a coffee shop at the entrance to the hospital to recover. Mum was all hot and bothered and asked for an iced drink. Only to be told the coffee shop was out of ice. So she asked for a cup of tea. When she went to pour the tea from the little tea pot they had forgotten to put a tea bag in with the water… My sister texted me from the coffee shop with this tale of woe and I told them to get under the table and hide before the next thing happened.

What do they say about things happening in threes? Or fours? Well, Mum does say there’ll be days like this and she should know!

I Only Had One Job

Another time, it was my turn in spite of the day being all planned. I had an appointment to take two of our boy cats to be neutered. We have three boys that we want to be neutered (Tippy, Lupino and Hogie) but I only booked two appointments as I thought the chances of catching three at the same time were slim. Perhaps I put a hex on the day, who knows?

A Casual Start

At 8.15am all of the cats were on the porch looking for food but I couldn’t catch them then as it was too early to take them. Or so I thought. The vet has since said if you get them bring them in regardless of the time and we will handle it. Derrrr! Wish I had known that before.

By 10am we didn’t have any cats, it was so hot they were off hiding in the shade! Even the kittens had been taken off on an adventure with their Mum Scrappy.

At 10.15am Tippy appeared on the porch which was great. Some of you will remember Tippy from my story ‘Three Lost Kittens‘.

Mayhem Ensued

Three attempts to get Tippy in the cat basket failed. Reminded me of the guy on the plane with his hand luggage. Except Tippy seemed to have five extra legs and the strength of an Ox and there was no way he was going into that basket as far as he was concerned. At least the guy’s hand luggage didn’t fight back.

At 11am I finally caught Tippy and got him in a basket. By then I was drenched in sweat and hallucinating about dark cool places that I could hide in. Then Lupino appeared. Great, things were going as planned. Lupino I can pick up and cuddle and he has been to the vets many times before. Lupino is one laid back dude as you can see from the picture.

My excessive confidence that he would be easy to handle, coupled with his prior experience and the sight of Tippy trying to fight his way out of his cat basket was our downfall. Lupino fought, scratched the back of my hand badly and disappeared off into the olive groves muttering darkly to himself. So only one cat went to the vet… And I have to do it all over again in the future, deep joy.

All I can say is thank goodness for salted caramel ice cream, I didn’t feel quite so stressed after a bowl of that. Mum said there’ll be days like this.

Before you go

My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.

You can follow me on Facebook.

Thank you for reading!