Picos Gemeos

Last Saturday night, some time in the early hours, on a dancefloor in Vauxhall surrounded by gay men in various states of inibriation, the DJ played the KLF's Justified & Ancient (All Bound for MooMoo Land), featuring Reba McEntire[1]. I stopped in awe - struck by how long since I'd heard this song - and smiled maniacally at my boyfriend: "Moo Moo! Moo Moo!"

My boyfriend looked at me with an all-too-familiar expression of what you going on about.

"Little Moo Moo," I said imbecilically, but he wouldn't know that was the nickname I'd given to Moo. He hunched his shoulders instead, smiled understandingly, and we continued to dance.

Little Moo Moo and I got into a nice little routine during the five days we were flatmates. I'd wake up somewhere around 4 in the morning with him stuck in the front of the house, calling to be let in.  I'd sleep some more and then, at 7am, feed him.  I'd leave for home with him already gone outside (probably to the neighbours, who Jane and Andrew suspect feeds him a second breakfast).  Then at night I'd be greeted by him on the hallway as I turned the key and stepped in.  I'd fend off his little paws as i prepared my dinner.  And we'd finally wrap up the night with him falling asleep by my feet in the living room as I watched something on Amazon Prime or read in bed.

On Wednesday, I got to work from home and observe Moo a little more closely and what he gets up to during his day. It involved a lot of back and forth from the house, staring at the garden from the living room's glass doors, prowling the garden while looking at the trees, or napping on the sofa/bed.

In the evening, I chose another film for our Moovie Night, this time the documentary Walk With Me, on a Buddhist monastery in France set up by the exiled Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh and narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch. Moo slept through the whole thing. He missed out a really nice concept discussed in the film - the concept of ringing bells that play across the monastery every 15 minutes and which are a signal for all to stop what they are doing and be mindful of the moment (even people who are visiting for the day.) I imagined bells spread out across Jane and Andrew's flat and garden, and what it would be like to enter mindfulness every time Moo knocked one of them... you'd be mindful all day.

[1] 4 in the morning, on our way home, as we sat in an Uber in Stoke Newington, waiting for one of us to collect bagels and croissants from a 24 hour bagel shop, the radio station, set to 88.8, came alive with... Reba McEntire hosting a country music show.