04/02/2022 Rocks in Her Head: Melbourne

-

Our daughter met and bonded with the small fluffy dogs (SFDs).

"You've got no brains!" she cooed lovingly to SFD#1.  "Nothing but a single pebble rattling around in your skull!"

SFD#1 went into paroxysms of love and adoration before racing off to run in circles and bark at the wind, thereby proving that she did, indeed, have rocks in her head. 

 

We have not been successful in exploring the neighbourhood while walking the dogs, as the SFDs are limited to a sedate circumnavigation of the park after which they very determinedly head for home and we are forced to comply.

Sans dogs, we ventured further afield to our local takeaway, and were transported into raptures of joy to find a Citreon dealer just around the corner.  The car was promptly booked for a diagnostic appointment after which we hope to have a timeline for release from the tyranny of always searching for a drive-through parking slot.

Suffering from cabin fever after two days of not working but hanging around because I would be working if the IT issues got sorted, I took off on my bicycle for a spot of early morning suburban exploration. 

Bicycle-themed art installations in the alley not far from our house.

I found the Anniversary Trail which was very busy with joggers, walkers, commuters, and children being gently (and sometimes not so gently) chivvied by parents as they learned their way to school.  "Johnny, look at the path, stay left, stay LEFT, watch the bicycle, JOHNNY!!"

After riding on the Anniversary Trail I doubled back on the Ferridale Trail, which was less trafficked, muddier, and much more fun.  Not to mention no longer having to dodge little Johnny as he distracted his way to school.

I was very thankful for bridges when crossing motorways.

I also discovered that Melbourne shares Adelaide's cavalier attitude to pedestrian safety around train lines.

 

By the time I got home the dogs had forgotten I'd gone, so I was greeted with raptures of delight, much excited barking, and another sofa dance by Ms Pebblehead.  I think I'll have to go out more often, just so I can be entertained by coming home.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

23/12/21 The Dinosaurs of Newtown

-
Image
Some time in the months before Christmas, somewhere near Newtown, a shop had a sale of inflatable Christmas dinosaurs. Lots of people thought that a large inflatable dinosaur was just what they needed for their 2021 outdoor festive decor, so they bought the dinosaurs and then discovered that, once inflated, they were very big. Not as big as a real dinosaur would have been, obviously, but certainly big enough to be inconvenient if you happen to live in a trendy little terrace house with a handkerchief of front lawn and second story verandah almost the size of half a vegemite sandwich.   Dinosaur #1: taking up all the available verandah space I imagine that at this stage the dinosaur purchasers may have considered the size of the dinosaur (inflated or otherwise) in relation to their rubbish bin, but were likely prevented from this course of action by children who, enamoured of dinosaurs, had welcomed the creature into the Christmas fold and called it something festive like Rudolph, o...
Read more

Minor Adventures on Quiet Days

-
Image
 Roger took himself off on the train to South Australia for a week, so BD and I decided to have some adventures of our own, albeit not as exciting as riding the interstate train to Adelaide and getting to have an up-close stickybeak at the flooded Murray River. We took ourselves off to the Ormond Lookout to watch the sun set instead. As did rather more people than what we had anticipated. Mobs, in fact. We found a patch of dirt grass and settled in.  "I'm gonna come back here!" declared BD.  She wriggled around a bit: our patch of grass was on quite a slope and she kept sliding out of her shorts.  "With a chair," she added. In between admiring other people's dogs and taking observational lessons in 101 Ways To Take A Selfie, we watched the sun trundle slowly toward the horizon. No sunset is complete without a picnic. There she goes. Further down the beach, a container ship puttered across the horizon under the gaze of a lone beach-sitter.  And us, of course...
Read more

Quiet Life with Cat

-
Image
 After all the excitement of hospital stays, Emergency Department visits, and trying to balance the cost-benefit ratio of hospital cafeteria food, life became a little more settled.  After a week of blessedly boring drug levels BD was given a reprieve from daily blood tests and we, therefore, were released from daily drives to the nearest Melbourne Pathology lab.  We did some laundry and did some cleaning and I hopped on my bicycle and went for a ride or two.  Not that the weather was very conducive to enjoyable and relaxing bike riding, but I went anyway. All was fine at Albert Park, where the swans put on a good show, playing happy families all across the playing fields.  But that didn't last for long. Back at home the new cat let his crazy out to play.  He zoomed up and down the hallway in the middle of the night; scared the bejeebers out of us by jumping on the sound bar and blasting us with high volume TV; hid under chairs and batted at our ankles as w...
Read more