It has to all intents and purposes been a funny old week as the weekend started on Thursday. The week started in an ordinary fashion mucking around in the garage pretending I was busy trying to get Amber to use the dog door, though I fear it is going to be a long and winding road on this one. But we are making progress as she actually used her nose to open the flappy thing rather than just pawing at it and getting smacked in the face as it swings back. On the other hand Charlie just dives head first through it and has done almost since it was fitted. Now I’m not sure if that makes him smart and a quick learner or not so smart but still fast on the uptake. Or I could be completely wrong and that Amber is the smart one as she gets more treats as she plays dumb over a longer time. Probably never know.
So party time, this was to celebrate Holly becoming Doctor Holly Sitters and a friend of ours who became Doctor Matt Swan. So it was off to Doc Jules for making whoopee, the car loaded with two dogs, two humans and a load of alcohol in various guises, the fish had to stay behind because he drinks like a f***. It was going to be a cocktail thrash, so various species of booze were essential. It’s a funny thing all but three people we know are all Doctor something, or working on it, and one of the three is 11. Not that we know a huge number of people in Australia but I guess it’s the people you hang out with. It was with some trepidation that we let the dogs out into Julian’s rather substantial yard, he lives on a rural property, surrounded by rural things like cows, horses, alpacas and other stuff of a similar nature. He also has two dogs a venerable walking shag pile carpet called Emma and a feisty little bundle of Chihuahua bones called Mr D’Arcy. Though what the canine and the fictional hunk have in common is slightly mysterious though they both seem to have a strange effect on the ladies. However after a bit of a bark and a snarl they all settled down apart from Emma who, true to her usual habit went and hid in the hope that if I can’t see them then they don’t exist. Now the one thing about Emma is that her rabbit catching prowess belies her age and appearance, and once caught and despatched the wascally wabbit (apologies to Elmer Fudd or should that be PhD) is there to be enjoyed for weeks after. It was one of Emma’s triumphs that Charlie enjoyed to the max as the aroma of advanced putrefaction was irresistible perfume to him and so he rolled in it several times. Its times like that when you realise what a gag reflex is.
Anyway it has been said that you can get used to anything given time either that or people were too polite to notice but the party went really well with lots of jolly talking and quaffing of exotic beverages. I quite enjoyed the Tequila Sunrise though the sunrise the following morning wasn’t quite so enjoyable but after walking round their estate in the chill of the morning most of the cobwebs were thoroughly blown away (it’s amazing what a brisk southerly gale can cure when it’s straight off the Antarctic icefields). And in keeping with tradition of after party mung a huge pile of bacon and eggs was BBQ’d and packed away. Charlie went for a top up of Eeeew de mankyrabbit and Amber decided to use her head and get a fresh one if possible, if not run around like a complete idiot looking as if you have a chance of getting one. You could tell she used her head for once because it was covered in blood where she had bulldozed her way through the blackberry. So as soon as we got home they both had a thorough wash and brush up though there was still a faint whiff about C.
Eddy arrived on Saturday morning for the final phase of backyard makeover, which involved a thousand bucks worth of grass. As you can see from the photos it’s much better than the dust bowl. I really am going to miss Eddy and our little chats. Still we haven’t got a lawn mower yet, though I do hear that goats are pretty effective.
It’s my film choice this week so I went to Sanity and raided the bargain box and came up with film of the week Dredd which I think is a remake of the Sly Stallone epic Judge Dredd where he utters the immortal line “yi am de jurdge and yer arr gilty “ he does need elocution lessons . However Holly for some reason objected to a mindless violence film even though I pointed out it really is an analogy of life the universe and most things that you find in the lining of your pocket. So it’s a choice between a journey through the outback white fella style with a camel, an aboriginal journey through the outback or a bed and breakfast thing in Budapest, well a hotel there but close enough.
The birds have been a bit of a struggle after a short spurt of unusual ones and I think I’m using up too many common ones but at Kylie and Julian’s place I got an Eastern Barn Owl, they have split this from the rather common sounding Barn Owl of the northern hemisphere. Added to that but when I went to check on the dogs in the early hours there was a Tawny Frogmouth calling, it sounds very much like an asthmatic blowing up a lilo after vigorous exercise. I had better stop this as it’s getting out of hand and you have my admiration of your stamina if you got this far without resorting to a glass of red. Finally I know that in the UK clocks went forward a few weeks ago well they went back here which means I can watch live football at a civilized time.