I'm too old for this stuff, or: The Murtaugh List, Skopje edition

Well, not too old, exactly, but I'm certainly old enough to feel the strain of 90 minutes tennis, in the sun, when the temperature in the shade is 38°. I gulped down 1,5 litres of water mixed with green tea, and we made more short pauses than we usually do, but it still qualified as working out under duress. No lasting damage done, though. If I remember to pour water over my head at regular intervals, I don't risk heat stroke, either.
Since the weather won't be changing during the next few days, and Friday is a Macedonian holiday, Elena and I decided that on Friday we're going to play 8-9.30 a.m. instead of 4.30-6 p.m. It's the much healthier, not to mention more pleasant, option, and since office hours will be starting at 9, I'll just be arriving at work an hour later.

Now the nights, too, are getting rather warm, and unfortunately there's almost no wind, which would make it more bearable. Well, I signed up for staying longer, knowing full well how the summers are here, and I'm not really complaining. Especially since Vienna is currently having about the same temperatures but 95% humidity. Now that *is* awful.

In completely different news, one of my street cats has had kittens. There are five of them, about 10 weeks old I'd say, and they're adorable. The building site opposite my building, which has been blessedly inactive for almost two years, is the perfect nursery for kittens -- a large area with lots of hills of soil excavated when they built the foundations, trees and shrubs and boltholes. Mum is very protective of her little ones; so far I've seen them only once at the usual feeding spot, but I guess they're still mostly nursing. Mum's teats are still very big. But I can watch the kittens from my balcony -- if I'm wearing glasses that is -- and, much though I'd love to cuddle them, I'm very glad they're extremely shy. The sooner they learn to stay away from humans and cars, the better. The one time they were out at the feeding spot, mum was there watching them like a hawk, and even though I was standing about five metres away, she was growling and meowing threateningly, as is only right and proper.

Switching topic once again, yesterday I got a photo-cum-blueprint of the walk-in wardrobe that's being built in my bedroom in Vienna. I'll have a lot of storage space! It goes from floor to ceiling, which means a height of 3,50m, and from wall to wall, which means 4,8m length. One side will be 60cm deep and for hanging stuff, the other side has 40cm-deep shelves. I suppose I could store all my belongings in there, and there's still be room for an entire family, but this is exactly what I wanted. No more ironing boards, suitcases, hoovers and cat litter bags awkwardly stored in corners and cupboards. And I suppose the Critters are going to like it a lot -- think of all the climbing possibilities... So the bedroom will of course be smaller, but there won't have to be a cupboard, just the bed, and a small table plus chair, and probably the nice dresser I like so much. And that's it.

I think I'm going to pretend now that I'm doing some work.