Easter weekend has come and gone, and so quickly too. Spent most of it in a twix between chillin’ out and running around like a headless chook getting things ready for mum and dad’s arrival to Perth. Because hubby had to finish a big assignment I tried to keep out of the house on Saturday, which was pretty easy to do. A trip into town to fix a problem with my iphone, a grocery run and then my usual Saturday arvo at the animal shelter did the trick.
On Sunday we had an easter egg hunt. We divvied up the eggs between the three of us and each had a particular section in the house to hide them. I happened to be fairly good at it which made it more enjoyable, and in the end we went around finding the eggs no one had found and divided everything evenly. We were 3 eggs short, hopefully they don’t turn into a sticky chocolate mess somewhere.
I then spent a lot of time reorganising the laundry and spare bedroom, one of those jobs that takes forever but still looks like nothing has been achieved. The kitty litter was moved from the bathroom to the laundry; Griff had started to wee on the floor. I think he didn’t like sharing his bathroom, but hopefully the new laundry arrangement will suffice.
Yesterday J hung out with some friends from his new school: Time Zone, Burger King, Skate Shop etc. He seemed to have a good time, and I am stoked that after only a week and a half at school he has made some friends. I had a great day, too. Had some time out from home and went over our friends place in Subi for home cooked American pancakes (with real maple syrup) and banana bread. I can still taste it now, hubby will be sad he had to miss out. We then went and had a shopping day at IKEA. It was supposed to be quiet, but had turned out to be their busiest day of the year to date. I got quite a few goodies, as well as remembering to change the brackets over to the correct ones, and had a yummy feed at the IKEA restaurant to make the trip complete.
I picked up mum and dad from the airport last night, they arrived for their six week holiday. I sat them down before I unleased the Beast, who still was over excited with the prospect of new best friends and managed to scratch mum on her face. I think mum finally realised how big she is and that she won’t be able to walk Aoife. I do see her slowly turning into a dog person, however, and Aoife’s big brown eyes already seem to be inching their way into her heart.
Funny quote:
(After discussing the metric and imperial systems with my American friends)
Me: “How long is a yard?”
V: “It’s about 36 inches.”
We both realised at the same time. LOL.
I haven't posted about the crap we are dealing with in NZ about out house insurance after the EQ. It still stresses me out.
I’m feeling stressed. No idea why but I can’t shake the feeling.
On Sunday we parked at our usual spot in the carpark at the local dog beach. Normally it’s very crowded which can be a pain - Aoife goes mental trying to play with every single dog on the beach, at once. Of course half of them see a 54 kg giant bear running towards them and freak out. Of the half remaining perhaps one quarter seem interested while the other quarter are quite happy to play on their own, fetching their own ball. They don’t need a thick coating of newfie slobber to contend with. On a normal Sunday I will spend my time either holding onto her lead as tightly as I can, or chasing her up and down the beach as she plays with one of the few dogs not intimidated by her size and puppy antics. However, this Sunday it was overcast and windy and nearly deserted. We had her off lead, frolicking around in the waves running up and down. We managed to walk all the way up to the ship wreck without any other dog intervention and only clipped her back on the lead when a three legged dog came into view. (These pics are from her first big swim about six months ago now. She has grown A LOT since then.)
I have been told it’s an unsafe beach, hence I never bring my phone or wallet, and I should have thought being so deserted it was more at risk. However I have been there SO many times, many of them also deserted in the middle of a work day, I had forgotten this. As soon as we got back to the carpark I could see that we were missing a window. The car is constantly full of junk, so there was nothing to steal (actually it might have done us a favour if they had taken something!) but I still felt shaken none-the-less.
And the hassle. Drove back home carefully, phoned the police, phoned after hour insurance, tried to vacuum out the car in the dark. I’m not happy that’s for sure. I hope bad karma follows around the person who did this. Thanks to them we will be out a few hundred bucks for the car excess and they didn’t even get anything. As a friend pointed out on FB, bad karma has probably already happened and they probably have a sucky life. But still, it hasn’t helped my stress levels that already feel elevated for unknown reasons.
I’m really looking forward to the Easter break. I’m hoping chocolate and a few sleep-ins with resolve the stressed out nerves.
Today will be about Me. Just a quick background to set the scene. I am a kiwi, now living in the furthermost-west of Australia, current town Perth (Fremantle to be precise). My hubby and I have been here for about 4 years where we both work in the resource sector. Well, I used to work. Some crazy notion has me back at uni starting a phD.
We live with our 3 cats, all Australians (our beautiful Cian who we bought over from NZ was killed about 2 and a half years ago) and one giant pup. I’m not exaggerating either, Aoife is 54 kg and just over a year old. Aoife and the cats (Kinky, Sylvie and Griff) are commonly referred to as The Zoo. They are all very naughty and spoiled, and I love them heaps.
We have just been joined by my step-son who has moved over from Christchurch after the EQ. He is 14 and is pretty cool. So far no teenage moments. I’m like an instant mum, don’t really feel qualified for the job, or know what I am doing. I guess I’ll have to stop being so selfish now! I’ve known him since he was 4, and we get along very well, which is great.
As well as full time study I work one Saturday a month at my local vet, and every Saturday I volunteer at The Animal Protection Society as a cat carer. I like animals. I had a slightly different opinion on Wednesday night when I got home, however. As I opened the front door Doof (that’s Aoife’s nick name) was there to greet me. Straight in my face, literally, her legs up on my shoulders as her sloppy wet tongue slurped down my face. Trying to regain control of the situation as ‘dominant household/pack leader’ I commanded her to get DOWN, which she promptly did, her front leg getting tangled in my material shopping bag, ripping the handle off and sending the contents to the ground. This, in itself, is a very normal occurrence. I did happen to have my lovely camera in the bag however (EOS 40D), which met the ground with a hasty thud. Still in the padded case, so all okay. Apparently not – when I tried to get the lens cap off yesterday to take some photos at our fundraising morning tea, it was stuck. After some firm negotiating with the cap I managed to loosen it enough to thrust it off, only to be met with the view of shattered glass. My poor (and very expensive!) lens! I wanted to cry. Deep breaths prevailed and under further investigation it appears it’s only the UV filter that cracked. I now have the task of trying to remove copious amounts of glass dust and am hoping wildly that it hasn’t sustained any scratching. I might take it into the camera shop in Freo on Sunday and get them to give it a clean.
RIP Beautiful Cian
