The Senior Cat went off

to Sydney yesterday. My sister went with him as he will not, at almost 89, travel alone. My brother will look after both of them once they arrive.
This has taken a massive amount of preparation - but not quite the sort of preparation that most people do. The preparation involved copious amounts of thinking time and shed time. The result was that he went off with a large and very battered suitcase which held almost no clothes but rather a strange assortment of wooden objects.
There were two "hobby horses" - still in pieces. They will be assembled at my brother's place. He is also a keen woodworker so the tools are, fortunately, available. There were "posting boxes" - those nifty little boxes with shapes cut into the outside through which the child can "post" the relevant shape. There were jigsaw puzzles and a new tea caddy for my brother and his wife. He also had to take the shawl I had made my SIL and the books I had bought for everyone.
Clothes? Well yes he supposed that might be a good idea. What was he going to take with him?
He shrugged. There were clothes in the wardrobe.
He was being collected at around 1:15pm. At 10:am the suitcase still had not appeared. I went and found it, gave it a good dusting down as it had been in the shed, and started to sort some clothes. I had washed and ironed his second pair of light trousers earlier.
He wandered in with the most precious things at about 10:30am. Plenty of time. I queried certain items of clothing. Yes, they might be a good idea. Medication? Oh! Yes that would be a very good idea. Had he looked at the weather forecast? No? Then taking a raincoat might be a good idea.
And so it went on.
He was ready. He had even eaten a sandwich and read the latest book catalogue before my sister arrived.
She was, as always, running late.