Omar's Diary for November 2021

To quote a member of the servant species in the popular culture of the entertainment industry, Arnold Schwarzenegger, “I am back”.

Life here at Omar Towers has needles to say been, like many other residences, full of difficulties and distractions.

Chief amongst the difficulties has been how COVID has affected the servant species around the world. Thankfully my Servants have not suffered from the virus and are fully vaccinated which I firmly believe is the right thing to do. Mitzi and I are up to date with our vaccinations as well which gives us some assurance about our health. They both had side affects after both of their vaccinations. I do prefer that word rather than “jabs” which has crept into common usage in the mass media and colloquial language. I can only assume that headline writers would have immense trouble getting the word “vaccination” into a banner headline and that “jabs” would be a better fit especially in the tabloid press. Or, they have problems spelling it.

Vacination? Vaxination? They would be the fonetic spelling. We all have dictionaries and spell checkers so I fail to see what the problems are with using the correct words with the correct spelling even if they are a bit long?

COVID has affected Mitzi and I in terms of the availability of our favourite comestibles. When our stock runs a bit low, I watch Lady Servant try to place an order and hear her muttering about eight-week lead times compared to pre COVID when it only took a few days despite it coming all the way from the Amazon. Not only have the lead times increased but the prices have as well. I must assume that these increases have been caused by freight rates going up as well as bunkering costs, the fuel ships use. You see I may only be a feline, but I do keep an eye on these things.

I have just checked our store cupboard and seen that there are enough feline supplies to last beyond Christmas.

Man Servant’s competency levels with technology were once again exposed.

The other evening, we were all watching television when Lady Servant noticed the remote control was not working. Man Servant leapt into action and changed the batteries. Still the remote did not work. The conclusion was that as it was about ten years old it must have finally given up. He ordered one from the Amazon.

Now, here is the thing I have trouble with.

Feline food from the same place can have a lead time of up to eight weeks yet a remote-control unit that is not vital for survival even on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs only has a lead time of two days. There seems to be something very wrong with our societal priorities.

The new remote control arrived, and Man Servant put batteries in it and did it work? No. Both Servants started to think that the control box must be failing. It was switched off and on a few times. “Rebooting” I believe is the technical term? Full functionality let alone any glimmer of functionality remained absent. Then, and I don’t know where this stroke of absolute genius and logic sprung from, Man Servant put another set of batteries in the new remote and Presto! It worked. He transferred the new batteries to the old remote and Presto! It worked.

The moral of this is when dealing with anything battery powered always make sure the batteries work before doing anything else.

Not wanting to clog Omar Towers up with gadgets and gizmos the new remote has been consigned to a charity shop in town.

It is that time of year again.

We have “Black Friday”, that abomination of commercial hype and consumerism imported from our cousins in America, is behind us and the run up to Christmas has now started in earnest. The box of cards and the address book appeared yesterday, and Man Servant managed one card. The Servants have talked about erecting the Christmas tree in the hall. It will be festooned with baubles, streamers and a nativity scene. I cannot wait as all of these will provide me with a much needed distraction at three in the morning when the Servants are fast asleep. “Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, let me set your baubles free”.

And when I do there will be mutterings from the Servants “Its Omar, he’s knocked off an angel again”.