Holiday's over, guys!

We've been privileged this January to be hosts to a bunch of smallish flies (not tiny ones) who apparently think they're spending their holiday break either in our kitchen or lounge, or sometimes in the bathroom and sometimes in the laundry. There are only ever about half a dozen at any one time, but they lazily float around the centre of the room, refusing to go anywhere near windows or doors, and consequently not only get in your way whenever you move, but also make it irritating watching TV, because there's this subtle movement constantly being caught in your peripheral vision.

Blowflies have the sense to make a great fuss about the fact that they've somehow got themselves trapped indoors, and are eternally grateful if you open a window for them that they can actually find their way out of. Although they do seem a little lacking in brain: open a window and they'll fly smack into the closed one next to it, or sit on the glass in the open window wondering where the breeze is coming from. But at least they generally leave when requested. And they plainly have places to go and things to do, if the speed of their departure is anything to go by.

These other little flies, however, have long since outstayed their welcome - though at least they don't make any noise. Finally we made up a mix of vinegar and water to spray at them, because I don't like using normal fly sprays, especially in the kitchen. All that happened was they got wet and carried on swinging back and forth across the room drying themselves. My daughter's comment was that the only way they would die was if they drowned from excess water. This didn't seem to happen.

Last night we resorted to using a proper fly spray. There was a sudden emptiness in the middle of the room after I'd sprayed it at them, and I was sure they'd all been sent to the place where all flies go (not somewhere I'm keen to follow, incidentally). Obviously one or two missed the blast, because this morning I notice that distinct movement out of the corner of my eye. Hopefully however, they'll have the sense to realise that the Summer holidays are over and they need to go back to wherever they came from.

Update: 22.2.21

We've moved to Oamaru since I wrote this post. Oamaru is a town about an hour and half's drive from Dunedin, our former home. Here we have an ongoing problem with small flies, and in fact we got a fly net to cover the back door which is where the bulk of them were coming in from. As in Dunedin, the big blowflies, the noisy ones, will happily go out a window if you open it for them. Not the little fellows: they love to hang round making no noise, floating across the room, or landing somewhere you think you can swipe them and then whistling off at great speed...only to linger in the air again once the danger has passed. My wife is not fond of them, and even though we've used fly spray on them, it seems you have to get them dead on for it to have any effect. 

The doggie-door saga continues

About ten days ago we installed a doggie door in our back door.  We wondered if the dog would ever work out how to get himself out of it, and back in again, in spite of considerable encouragement, treats, undignified pushes from behind and so on.

Well, all that wonderful hard work we did on helping him to discover that he now has an open door policy has paid off, and he trips in and out of it (I don't mean literally) without blinking an eyelid (again, don't be a literalist).  Occasionally he feels he should wait for permission, but we try and avoid giving him that.  He has to be his own man on this matter, and decide that when he wants to go out, he just gets on and goes.

He's had some routines in the past for going out. For instance, if we were in the lounge and he'd been in bed for a while in the other room and decided he needed a late night pee, he'd come in and stare balefully at me until I realised what he wanted.  Then he'd scoot to the back door and dance around in circles until he was let out. He doesn't have this option anymore, although he did try the baleful look thing last night. I ignored it for a while but finally realised that old habits die hard and he needed me to at the very least go to the kitchen and pretend to give him permission while doing something unrelated.

We used to find he was forever wanting in and out while we were making dinner in the kitchen. I don't quite know what the reason for this was, but it was annoying continually having to open the door for him.  Anyway, this issue has gone; if he wants out, he goes out.  And sometimes sits at the backdoor thinking about old times when he had us on a string and we would jump to action as soon as he indicated a need.

I feel as though a little something has been lost in the relationship, but I'm sure there are compensations.  The back door isn't getting scratched for one thing.  The cat hasn't decided that it's a multi-animal door, so she doesn't use it (it's probably beneath her dignity anyway, though how a creature that dumps a large mouse or small rat on the doorstep should consider itself to have dignity I don't know).  Consequently there's no squabbling between the cat and the dog as to whose access it is. And there's no longer the crazy rabies-infested-mad-dog-behaviour when it discovers, on our opening the door, that the cat is sitting just outside it.

Watch it at Home

Cinemas around the world are now providing lounge chair type seating for their customers, presumably for two reasons: firstly, their old style seating, where you were often jostling elbows with other customers wasn’t comfortable, and there was seldom enough room for people with long legs. Secondly, many people feel more comfortable in their own lounge at home, watching a DVD – even more so if they have surround sound and all the trappings such as a wide screen.
The problem for cinema owners is that it is more comfortable in your own home. You can stop the DVD any time you like and go to the loo, or make a cup of tea, or answer the phone. You can even keep your cellphone on. If the children fall asleep, you don’t have to miss half the movie; you can leave them where they are, or shuffle them off to bed and come back for the rest of the movie later. In line with the comfort aspect, some companies now make home theater seating, the sort of seating that even the luxury cinemas don’t provide. Full on armchairs, that can be swivelled to suit how you want to sit, and on top of these, a whole range of accessories for people who are mad enough to pay for things around the house, but not keen to pay ordinary cinema prices!