DISAPPOINTMENT

Today, Tony and I should be wandering the streets of Paris, our favourite city in the world,

at the end of a five week trip to Austria.

Visiting places like these.

Unfortunately that holiday had to be postponed at the last minute on medical grounds.

Due to pre-cancerous changes in some cells, major surgery was called for and I am thanking my lucky stars that modern medicine has made the experience so trouble free and painless.

Now for the mine field of trying to recoup costs via credit card free travel insurance.
Our flights were able to be changed ( a precaution we took for the first time because of all of our Oldies ) but, as I book all our accommodation in apartments via the Internet, I am struggling to gather all the information required from several different apartment owners with different cancellation policies.
Luckily the end amount is not large - only around $2000 - and a small price to pay for continued health.
I consider myself very lucky to have dodged this bullet !!!

I'll let you know how the insurance claim goes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recuperation time has been spent on making Scout some items for her trip to Sydney for the Flyball Nationals.

Her club colours are purple and yellow.

A rug to cover the mattress in her crate

and a pillow to rest her weary little head on were required.

 Looks like she is happy with both of them.

Now Sally wants a rug for herself so it is underway.

I'd better get busy, it'll soon be too hot to crochet.

Cheers.

PS. I have now rebooked our flights for late April next year and given us another week as a bonus!

FLY BALL

Have you ever heard of Flyball ?

It's a sport for dogs ! A team sport at that! and it is played by dogs and their owners all over the world. ( On a recent visit to Scotland Sally was a welcome visitor to a club there.)

Now I don't know that the dogs actually comprehend that they are playing in a team

but their owners train them to compete in a team relay race jumping over small jumps to fetch a ball then racing back to their owner.

Then the next dog has a go - and it's all against another team and timed to precision too.

You can see by the expression on the dog's face that they absolutely love it.

When they get over the jumps there is a "box" - a spring loaded contraption which has four places where a ball can be loaded. ( it depends which way the dog likes to turn )

When the dog hits the bottom plate of the box  ( and they do this with considerable force depending how fast they  are running ) the ball pops out and the dog catches it then turns and runs back to their owner over the jumps once again.

This is Sally's Scout in action. She is super fast !

The skill of the relay race is to let your dog go so that they pass eachother on the starting line,

and that they don't get distracted by the other dog running towards them and actually run their own race and not run off with the other dog coming towards them or worse still run over to the other team and interfere with their run.

As you can imagine the noise is terrific as the dogs and owners are very excited and calling out.

All types of dogs can play - Jack Russels, Border Collies, Poodles, Labradors all in the same team.

The height of the jumps is decided by the size of the smallest dog.

Two teams compete against eachother and the start is a bit like Drag Racing for cars with a moving light that starts at the top and moves downward till it goes green. ( you can see it in the picture above on the starting line showing green between the two teams.

As each dog has its turn the owner moves it into position and tries to time the release so that the dogs cross on the line.

Scout gets so excited it is all Sally can do to hold her back till its her turn !

When the dog has run its race it drops the ball in exchange for a Frisbee or some other reward toy and the owner plays tug with it.

Everyone is smiling, dogs and owners alike . Often dogs get distracted and make mistakes.

Everyone laughs !

Have another try Scout , Rosie, Clancy !

A little more training needed on the turn, helpers line up along the edge of the jumps to guide a wayward dog back down the line.

Smiles and encouragement all round.

You can watch a Fly Ball race here

Not all dogs are speedsters like the Border collies.

The Labs do it all calmly at their own speed,

the Blue Heelers are business-like,

the Poodles bounce

but the thing they have in common is they have FUN !

Sometimes they win the relay, sometimes they don't

but when they win a medal they are justifiably PROUD !

It's nice to be back Blogging. Hope I can find more things to  write about in the future.

Cheers.

PLAYING LADIES

Yesterday, the opportunity to play ladies presented itself so of course I leapt at the chance.

The occasion was the birthday of one of my sisters-in-law. 

It wasn't a momentous birthday, just your run of the mill getting a year older type of birthday

but as she pointed out we never know how many more of these we are going to get so its a good idea to celebrate them as they come along.

SIL lives an hour and a half away on pretty Tamborine Mountain where she takes great pleasure in participating in lots of arty/crafty pursuits and enjoys the lifestyle and especially the cooler climate that comes with a small increase in altitude.

High Tea was the order of the day and the venue was a small cafe tucked away in a tiny shopping centre away from the touristy centre called Gallery Walk.

This little business venture is called "Sweet & Petite" and is soooo pretty.

Pink and white is the order of the day

with pink roses adorning everything.

Including the sugar cubes !

Hand made napkin rings add bling and all the China is dainty and again adorned with pink roses.

and then there is the food !

The above  three tiered dish was supplied for every two people.

Dainty ribbon sandwiches, mini savoury muffins, scones with jam and cream and finished of with two devine little cakes.

Absolutely delightful !

Cheers.

AUSSIE SLANG

Can you understand this traffic report ?

JUST BREATHE

My blogging buddy Bee Jay from Wales has prompted me into action with her kind inquiry into my absence and well being. 

It has come on a day which I had vowed to spend like this !

I'll tell you why.

March

I had only been home from Hervey Bay where Dad was recouperating from his surgery ( he has melanoma cancer in his leg ) a short time when we flew to Sydney for a family celebration for Sally's 40th birthday....... Yes, I have a child who is 40 !!!!! How did that happen ?

Four days of eating out and walking kilometres around Sydney in very warm weather and then home, arriving about 8:30 pm .

At about 8:45 pm I received a phone call from my brother to say Dad had been rushed to hospital suffering from toxic shock and it didn't look good. Hasty preparations ensued and I arose at dawn and headed north arriving about 8:30am to find , to the amazement of the medical staff , that Dad seemed to be improving and the prognosis was more hopeful.

 He is an amazing man and in the following two weeks gradually this feisty 94 year old fought his way back. He has had all the lymph nodes in his upper left leg removed in a bid to stop, or slow down, the spread of the cancer as he is determined to be around to look after Mum ( also 94 soon). He's been looking after her for seventy years now and intends to be around as long as he can as she is beginning to struggle with her memory.

Eventually Tony flew up to drive me home as I was suffering from a severe ear infection myself.

April

As it is when you have a prolonged absence from home I was struck with a home decorating bug.

In my absence Tony had remodelled the garden on one side of the house.

It is so neat and tidy now. ( well, except for the hose ! )

It prompted me to do a drawer cleanup so armed with lots of different sized containers I set about the task of bringing some form of order to my drawers.

Phew ! That felt good and I can often be found gazing fondly at the beautiful sight of everything in its place !

We then moved on to redecorating. 

I love the French Provencial look. You know, white painted furniture with a little county pine combined and have finally convinced Tony that the clean cut modern look will never be welcome here. 

Our dining room has always been a little cramped with a sideboard and mirror on one side of the table and a very large bookcase containing a display of blue plates and books on the other.

We emptied the bookcase - a lovely piece of furniture but just too large. It won't fit anywhere else in this house so has been reluctantly put up for sale on Gumtree. Unfortunately no takers yet !

We've moved it temporarily here but it will travel to the garage next weekend till it is sold.

In its place on the bare wall will go a large photo - one of ours from our travels. We've moved the wine rack further down and Tony is going to give repainting it cream a go. 

This is not the permanent photo but you get the idea. 

Beside it on the wall will go a plate holder with blue plates when I find one.

The blue plate collection - just pretty plates, not valuable ones - now lives here.

The plates look so pretty with the light background.

As a final touch we added some very fancy new light fittings to the lounge and dining room.

Very posh indeed !

Then we moved on to the entry.

We replaced this 

With this

Once again using some photos from our last holiday.

We take so many photos when we travel that we have decided to use them for our artwork on the walls to enjoy them and they can easily be updated when we have new ones.

There is still more to do as we paint some coffee tables cream . 

I'll keep you posted !

I also made a quick visit to Hervey Bay to check on the Oldies. They are going OK but the leg is now an ongoing problem treated daily by visiting nurses, my brother has had a fall and now needs a shoulder replacement and his partner is recovering from a recent hip replacement !

Sally meanwhile has decided to study to become an animal physiotherapist ! This involves enrolling in Liverpool (UK) university to do a Masters and a move to the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane where she can do practical training with a dog physiotherapist. ........and to do this she must sell her duplex ......and to do THAT involved sprucing up her place and a HUGE cleanup !

Guess who helped there ?????

Let's hope it sells quickly.

May

 

Tony's mother turned 95 so of course we marked this milestone with a family party.

Her 82 year old sister flew up from Melbourne for the occasion and stayed with us for several days

Which meant daily visits to Nana while she was here.

She left yesterday, it was lovely to see her.

So today looks like this

And the laundry looks like this !

So that's it. 

The year has  been a bit busy.

Very tiring and taxing.

A holiday in Austria is being planned for September ( all being well ).

If you have managed to get this far with me in this marathon post, I thank you.

My blog is a bit like a diary so I needed to catch up.

I miss my blogging and will try to get here more often from now on.

And thank you Bee Jay for the caring message.

Cheers.

EXCUSES, EXCUSES !

So far this year we have had  :

* 8 birthdays - including Dad's 94 th, 

* 4 wedding anniversaries - including Mum and Dad's 70th

* 3 family members in hospital for serious afflictions - including a 16 day stay for poor old Dad ( he's on the mend now thank Goodness )

* 1 death of a much loved elderly member

I've travelled :

*  up and back to Hervey Bay ( 5 hours each way by car ) twice and stayed over a total of 10 days

*  up and back to Townsville in one day to a funeral ( a two hour flight each way - 6:00am up and home around 12:45 am ) - a very long day.

So I've fallen behind a bit with my vow to return to more regular blogging.

Let's hope things change from now on !

SNAKES ALIVE !

Summer is the time that snakes become more active here in Oz

and this Summer they seem to be more active than usual.

It's not so uncommon to see a snake slithering across the path as you walk in bushy, grassy areas in parks and gardens. 

Mostly they don't bother people but this year there have been a lot more people than usual who have been bitten by them.

The one below is a Common Brown Snake.

Brown snakes seem to be the ones that are most common in biting incidents and part of the problem may be in identifying them.

This group below are all Brown snakes and as you can see they are all definitely not brown in colour !

I like to give them a WIDE berth .......

and the one photographed recently in Cardwell, North Queensland (NOT a Brown snake this time ! ) would certainly have me moving in the opposite direction ....

F A S T.........!