On Sunday, Phill and I were sitting around at home, bored, trying to figure out what we should do. Phill suddenly remembered a couple months ago I’d gotten my eyes tested and suggested we go and actually close the deal and get me the glasses. I figured, why not? My eyesight was pretty bad, especially at night, because of my astigmatism, which is quite common, and results in blurry vision.

We went in and, after trying on numerous glasses (including some huge granny glasses which had us doubled over in giggles) a sales assistant finally took pity on us and came over to offer her help. The first thing she did was adjust the nose pieces so the glasses would sit higher, which was good because I’d actually dismissed all of the previous glasses because I figured they just didn’t fit right. I didn’t actually realise they were adjustable (duh). She pointed me in the right direction and I soon picked out a pair of glasses and a pair of sunglasses. She offered polite and honest feedback on how they looked (because Phill thought they all looked nice) and within half an hour, it was all over – my glasses were ordered and paid for and I was anticipating the thrill of seeing clearly.

Yesterday I got a text message telling me they were ready for collection. I scurried over in my lunch break and tried them on – and it seemed like the world was in high definition! Everything was clear and bright. I guess I didn’t realise just how crappy my eyesight was until I had the glasses. Driving home from work in the dark was thrilling – I could actually read the street signs before I was practically on top of them and I could make out the number plates of drivers in front of me.

It’s going to take me a while to get used to them and I still haven’t decided how often I’m going to wear them, but I’m loving being able to see clearly. I wish I’d got them before I went to see Avatar, because think of how much clearer and brighter the movie would have appeared to me! Perhaps I should go back for a second time.

So yes, finally, I can see clearly.

Do you remember my attempt at improving Puddy’s scratching post a couple weeks ago, with the fluro green rope? Well today Phill and I decided to re-do it… again. We thought it could look better and, since Puddy wasn’t very keen on using it, we wanted to get rid of the rope. We stripped it down which left us with the bare cardboard roll.

Now, what to wrap around it?

Puddy has a piece of carpet you’ve probably seen in some of the photos on here. We got it a long time ago to put under our office chairs, so they wouldn’t dent the carpet, but we had some left over and since Puddy seemed to love scratching at it, we put it downstairs for her to use. We figured this would be a good material to wrap around the post, since she already loves it, it’s free and there would be enough left over to leave on the ground for her to scratch at.

We measured and cut the carpet to size, then realised the post could unscrew out of the base, which would make wrapping it much easier. We decided the best way to do this was to place the carpet on the table (fuzzy side down) and lie the post across it. We then squeezed a generous amount of glue down the post, then pressed the carpet against it to stick. We let that dry for five minutes, then did the same at the other end, wrapping the carpet firmly against the post.

We attached the post to the base again and, using rope left over from the original version, we tied around the post to help hold it in place while the glue set. The effect was quite cute, almost like it was a creepy crawley, and I nicknamed the post the “Spidey Scratcher” (although Centipede Scratcher might be more suitable).

As I type this, it’s still drying on the dining room table and Puddy hasn’t been allowed near it, so I don’t know her reaction yet. I hope she’ll like it – it certainly looks more attractive than Scratching Post 2.0! We were debating whether or not to remove all of the rope after it’s dried – Puddy loves that rope and perhaps it would add a fun element if we left some (or all?) on for her to chew and grab at? What do you think?  Leave the rope on or take it off?

Oh, and is Scratching Post 3.0 the best version yet?

Last week, from Thursday to Sunday, Phill and I were in sunny Melbourne to see Jamie Oliver’s live show. There will be more about that later – right now, I’d like to use this opportunity to do a quick review of Tiger Airways, since there’s plenty of negative stuff out there, but not a lot of positive (or neutral, I guess). So if you’re planning to fly Tiger Airways, maybe this will help you.

The check-in process at both airports was pretty painless – Melbourne was much busier because there were two or three different flights all queueing up in the same line to check-in. This slowed down the process a bit and Tiger staff decided to open an express lane for the earliest flight, which meant everyone rushed to the express lane, leaving people who had been at the front now at the back – I didn’t think that was very fair. Phill and I were about third from the front in the original queue, so we decided to stay put instead of moving to the express line. I think a better idea would be to have the flights line up in different queues, so at least they are all together and not waiting behind people checking in for much later flights.

The staff were all very friendly and polite. I know it’s a budget airline and the level of customer service was not that of international flights – the staff were human, which means if you became angry at them for whatever reason, I think they would not hesitate to give it right back, rather than remain polite and calm. If you check in early (remember Tiger check-in closes strictly 45 minutes before the flight’s scheduled departure) and ensure your bags are not way over, you’ll be fine.

The planes themselves are really nice because they’re quite new. On the way to Melbourne we were offered emergency exit row seats for free, which of course includes more leg room, but on the way back we were in the normal seats. The room was fine for me – Phill wasn’t as comfortable, but it wasn’t bad enough to complain – it’s nothing different from JetStar or EasyJet. There’s a trolley service, but we bought food at the airport and brought it on, since the selection wasn’t fabulous anyway – mostly nibblies like chips and noodles.

The Airways crew were filming at Melbourne airport when we were leaving and I think we might have made it onto television. They were filming us as we boarded the plane and the camera man actually came onboard to film one of the passengers (I assume she had had an altercation with staff), which meant he was blocking the aisle and preventing people from being able to get to their seats. I was surprised at this because Tiger Airways is all about on-time departures, yet they send camera men onboard which disrupts the boarding and seating process.

So all in all, our Tiger Airways experience was positive. I found them the same as JetStar. Of course, you hear of horror stories where flights are cancelled, but both of our flights went without a hitch – we actually landed 15 minutes early both times! A downside is that there is no easy way to contact customer support. I’ve read about people being on hold for over an hour or being transferred from department to department with no resolution.

I think, to sum up, Tiger Airways is a budget airline which can be very cost-effective, but with all budget airlines, you have to be prepared for anything. Cancellations without warning and delays are apparently quite common with Tiger Airways (and remember they have a no-refund policy), although our two flights with them were fine, arriving early at our destination, with friendly staff and nice planes. The tickets were cheap and our luggage free (we were flying with only 7kgs of hand luggage each), so we paid a lot less for our journey than we would have done with another airline.

Have you flown with Tiger Airways? What was your experience like?

(And no, I am not receiving compensation in any form from Tiger Airways for this review.)

Remember how I mentioned Phill and I were going to try to make some cat furniture? Well, don’t get excited … we didn’t. Yet. But there’s a reason for it – on Sunday morning we were at his Dad’s house and I mentioned that Puddy had ripped up her scratching post and we were going to try to make a new one. Phill’s Dad looked at us like we were crazy and said, “Why don’t you just take one of ours? We’ve got heaps.” (It’s true … they have two cats living in the house and a gazillion scratching posts of all sizes and shapes.)

This thought hadn’t actually occurred to me, so I was surprised at the offer. I readily accepted, thinking it would be much easier than making one (okay, so I’m a little lazy!) but I was extra surprised when he pointed out the one we could take.

This one:

The massive, near-new, expensive, gourmet scratching post/cat furniture.

My first reaction was, “Are you sure???” and the second was, “How on earth is this going to fit in the car?”  I could hardly believe it – this thing didn’t exactly cost $20! We managed to get it onto the back seat and we drove it home excitedly, wondering how Puddy would react to it – after all, it’s  pre-owned and it can be very hard to convince another cat that it’s for them when they can smell the old owner all over it.

We took it out in the garage and brushed at it to get all the white fur off. Remember Isha? Yup, she was the old owner. Don’t worry, she’s happy and healthy – she just stopped using it like she used to. Anyway, once we’d got as much of the fur off as we could, we brought it inside and let Puddy investigate.

Sniff, sniff, sniff… what’s this? Who can I smell?

We put a couple of her toy mice on the platform so she’d feel a bit more familiar. The feather toy in the top perch is also hers, as are the treats in the metal bowl attached to the perch. The dangly mouse came with it.

After a little bit (and much more sniffing) she investigated higher…

And higher…

And higher!

So far so good! She’s being cautious, but is obviously very interested in this new toy. Phill was playing with her yesterday, dangling her mice through the tunnel, and she kept bolting through it to get to the mouse. I’ve caught her batting at the dangly mouse, yanking it towards her (incidentally, I wonder how long the dangly mouse will last?) When I got home from work today, there were little bits of fluff all over the ground – telltale signs she’s been scratching at the carpeted posts.

I’m thrilled (and still in shock!) that we managed to get such an amazing piece of cat furniture for free!

We are still enthusiastic about trying to make a basic scratching post, but now those plans have been put on hold for a little bit, since we’ve now got this new addition, plus her old scratching post which she still uses. It’s pretty awesome, isn’t it?