RIP - Lucien and Nickerty Nackerty Noo the Noo

Some sad news. My wee gentleman died this week. Lucien was 10 or thereabouts. He was a lovely cat and had a wonderful gentle soul which I nurtured from a kitten. He was my favourite colour of cat - grey with four white paws, bib and tummy. He loved to give me cuddles and sit on my knee watching telly and he is surely missed.













My other cat Nickerty Nackerty Noo the Noo was a pedigree Tonkonese. He was very friendly and liked to dominate, always the first to ask for attention and cuddles. He lived until March of this year to the ripe age of 15 and I got him as a rescue cat when the family he was with bought a Dalmation and he decided to live behind the settee for a year. He had always been a house cat until he came to live with me which meant freedom and a wonderful new life which he thoroughly enjoyed for 5 years.

I am just sorry to see them both leave me this year, but I may get another one later in the year.

Monarchy and Equality

Well done Your Majesty

The Queen was in the news recently concerning Equality. She has just given Royal Assent to the Succession to the Crown Bill which will mean that the first born of Prince William and Princess Kate will be crowned Queen or King, rather than comply with hereditary laws which have become out of date in the 21st Century. It also outlaws the principle that the Royal family cannot marry Roman Catholics without losing their right to the Crown and an unused rule that descendents of George II must gain the consent of the Monarch in order to marry is also out of date.

Two further Bills are going forward for their second reading before Parliament: The Hereditary Peerages (Succession) Bill and the Succession to Hereditary Peerages and Estates Bill will also look at making changes to the aristocracy whereby the nobility only pass their title and estate down the male line. These Bills are swapping sexism for ageism! such that women who are "Lady's" in society will no longer be passed over for brothers or cousins when property and title is to change within a family.

Not that Prince Charles has too much to worry about when the time comes - there are descendents of Kings and Queens alive today from the Plantagenets, Tudors or from the Scottish lines of Balliol and Bruce and Stuarts. But what will happen if Scotland chooses "Independence" in the 2014 Referendum - could we choose Princess Anne instead of Prince Charles or go right back to Balliol and deal with what appears to be Bruce's defamation of the Royal House perhaps, even what about MacBeth! the real version. I think there should at least be a challenge made to Prince Charles - maybe a competition of the lucky few who are known descendents of Kings and Queens of the UK - the Matthew Pinsents of this world or Earl of Burford to name a couple. Perhaps a newspaper could run an article on who they are given they have located Richard III this year in a Leicester car park and have established his descendent as far away as living in Canada. Would it make interesting reading to see how these Royal Houses have fared down the centuries, especially with the addition of DNA.

But for news over the last couple of weeks its a Well Done 'Mam' bringing gender equality to the Commonwealth and the UK in your lifetime.