The past couple of days have been quiet for us, as we managed to get some tedious jobs done. I spent half a day transferring photos off my laptop onto an SSD hard drive to have more memory space on the laptop.
Today’s unfinished job was worse than tedious – I am taking down a small roof between our carport and garage as it has caused rust on the carport support beam.
Taking the roof down has been challenging as I didn’t want it to come crashing down. I ended up cutting out one of the Suntuf panels just to be able to reach the securing brackets and silicone. Once it is down, repairing the beam will be a challenge.
Bluey had a busy afternoon at the park, playing with several of his friends. He was greeted by Lewis and his brother through the fence, then ran on the sand with a series of different dogs, all about the same size.
On Saturday morning, we had breakfast with Bluey and our friends. At home we watched some test cricket and I made advances tidying the garage.
Today, we drove to Robina Town Centre to walk in air conditioning. We rarely go to this shopping centre, but Sunday morning was a good time to walk around and get our bearings before the crowds arrived. Red lanterns decorated an area near the Kitchens.
We were disappointed by our breakfasts at the Come Home cafe, but the coffee was good. There is some outdoor seating which is where I spotted this interesting potted plant.
We drove home via Wild Earth, where Anita was able to buy two pairs of walking shoes. By the time we got home, Australia had won the cricket, so we watched the replay.
I spent an hour trimming Bluey’s face and feet, and cutting his claws. We have problems finding a good and reliable groomer, so I signed up for a private grooming lesson.
I gave Bluey a bath yesterday to remove more of the gooey residue in the fur around his ears. This afternoon I had to bath him again! He was running on the low-tide sand with his friend Zeppe and followed her into the river. At most, Bluey gets his paws wet, but today he got his chest wet, then rubbed himself along the sand!
A pontoon is stranded on the beach at our park. My neighbour wasn’t convinced it had simply floated away as these can be expensive to have removed. It is dangerous as there are no lights or reflectors on the structure, and several sharp pieces of metal protrude from the sides.
We rearranged a couple of pictures to put some colour in the pantry, and spent time watching the test cricket match.
As oppressive heat continues, our outdoor time has been limited to an hour in the early mornings. The weeding is finished (for now), and the door trim has been fitted, filled, and painted.
I have tidied and culled the bathroom cupboard and our cleaning cupboard. Our 3-seater lounge was at risk of hitting the wall behind when the end seats were reclined. To prevent this from happening, I made a timber frame that keeps the back of the lounge far enough away from the wall. One day I will get around to painting it!
We had a ladies’ lunch for our friend who is one of the 0.06 percent of the world’s population who have a leap day birthday. She only gets to celebrate her birthday on her actual birthday once every four years, but on each of the intervening years, she celebrates on 28 February and 1 March!
Lunch was in a restaurant at the Marina Mirage shopping centre. About half the shops are empty, but a couple of interesting shops are still trading. Posh Pets sells posh cushions, but Bluey’s budget does not run to such expensive bedding.
An upmarket furnishings shop had this delightful teaset on display. It is in the Art Deco style. Fortunately we don’t need a teaset as it was very expensive.
There are millions, if not billions of dollars, worth of boats in the marina. The La Luna Beach Club has a swimming pool on a pontoon, a bar, and a restaurant. Kids have to be 16 or older to go into the Club, but must be at least 21 years old to go into the pool.
Later this afternoon I took Bluey to the park and he had a run on the beach with a 14 year old dog. When they had finished running, the other dog went into the water to cool down, then collapsed on the beach. I was worried it had died, but the owner said this has been happening sometimes after running. The dog enjoys running so much they don’t want to stop him from running.
Our friend invited us to breakfast at Nineteen in the Star Casino. My coffee was good, but the French toast was dry as the slices of brioche hadn’t been properly soaked in the egg mixture. We enjoyed the company and venue.
We tidied and organised more paperwork, culling redundant documents. I put time into understanding our electricity bills and the best time to use electricity given we have solar panels. I will have to do further research to understand the implications of our digital meter.
I finally fitted a length of quad to a door sill to hide a couple of holes in tiles. To squeeze gap filler into very narrow gaps on each side of the quad, I used a 10ml syringe without the needle. The first coat of paint can dry properly overnight before I apply the final coat tomorrow.
Bluey loitered on the beach for nearly an hour before deciding to play chasey with a long-haired dachshund. It was a very low tide, so there was plenty of hard sand for the dogs to run on. He is now resting with me and enjoying a tummy rub. His ears look a bit red, but I think he has just been rubbing them.
We spent an hour weeding near the pool, but still have more to finish on another day. After breakfast, we drove to Burleigh Heads to pick up our friends while their motorhome was being serviced.
Bluey and Leo were much calmer than yesterday and spent a quiet day together. Leo takes toys he finds around the house, and once a toy is in his mouth, he doesn’t let go. He took advantage of Tilly’s incarceration in the garage to have a rest on her bed.
We had a lovely day catching up and eating. It was too hot to go walking so we stayed put in the air conditioning.
We took Bluey to breakfast on Saturday, and our neighbours sat nearby with Lewis, their toy poodle. Bluey was ho-hum about the other dog, but Lewis was very keen to get close to Bluey. He looks very different to Bluey as he is groomed by a Japanese woman who keeps his fur long.
The afternoon project was to finish the grouting near the lift. I mixed a tiny amount of grey grout and waited for it to dry to compare the colour with existing grout. It was too dark, so I experimented mixing different amounts of white grout with the grey. My final mix was two scoops of white to one scoop of grey. Once that was sorted, it didn’t take long to grout around the six tiles that had been replaced.
It was cooler on Sunday morning after overnight rain, so we made a start on the weeds in the pool area. After an hour, Anita had weeded several garden beds while I had only managed to clear the weeds around one of the pavers. To get to the base of each weed I had to move pebbles, before pulling out each weed with my fingertips.
Our rear neighbours were out, so I put a ladder against the fence to measure the distance from the boundary fence to our corrugated iron fence. This may become relevant if our neighbour refuses to cut his hedge.
Our motorhome friends called in for a visit this afternoon. Bluey and Leo were happy to see each other but had a serious growling session over a toy. They kissed and made up. We walked the dogs to the park, and Bluey recognised the motorhome.
It took most of the afternoon to drive to the Gold Coast Airport to pick up Anita. Google Maps showed long delays on the Pacific Motorway, so I opted for the more scenic Gold Coast Highway. Long-term roadworks are causing delays on both major arterial roads.
Tilly doesn’t worry about the heat. She just flops somewhere in the shade in her courtyard.
Anita put her backpack on the dining table, and Tilly quickly jumped in.
I tried to sponge the gooey medicine off Bluey’s ears, but it may take a proper bath to remove it after the final dose on Sunday. He is much happier now that his ear pain has gone.
The temperature has been back up to 30° so I forced myself to tidy and organise papers and files in my office – tedious but necessary. Bluey kept me company, but Tilly spent a long time sleeping under the shelter she had made for herself by pulling down the pet cover.
I took some books back to the library and visited my tiling friend to pick up some grout. This is for the tiles that were replaced when the lift was installed last year. The young tradies were either very tired or colour blind, as they used a near-black grout when it should have been mid-grey. I had toscrape it all out before it set. Hopefully, any residual black won’t be noticeable.
I carried, cajoled, and bribed Bluey into going for a walk this morning. We only managed 2 kms, but that is better than just standing around at the park. His ears look better, but the fur on them needs washing as the gooey antibiotic medicine leaks out of his ears. The 10 day course doesn’t finish until Sunday, and we will both be glad when it is over. If we have this issue again, I will ask if a slow release antibiotic injection is an option.
Over the past two days I have managed to complete some jobs around the house. The pantry mirror surround works well. I just used a few dabs of neutral silicone to hold the separate pieces in place.
While in the pantry I masked up small areas needing No More Gaps and primer paint. I held off finishing with the oil-based top coat as our cleaner was here today. The tiny gaps around the cupboard were also filled.
Our kitchen installation was done by rank amateurs 10 years ago. I finally tackled the so-called magic corner cupboard because the door panel has never fully closed or aligned with the adjacent door. I had to phone the company that provided the components to identify the brand and model – Hafele Classic Magic Corner Left Hand. We were not given any documentation for such items, so I contacted Hafele, but they sent installation instructions for a later model that is quite different.
I found one adjusting knob, but the door panel could not be aligned just with this. The door panel fittings each have four screws so I experimented by loosening some and tightening others, eventually managing to align the door sideways and in the same vertical plane as the adjacent door.
Today I spent time researching the law concerning trees on residential land that cause a significant nuisance to immediate neighbours. Our rear neighbours have tall deep hedges on all sides of their property. Our back fence is 2.2 m high, and the hedge is at least another metre higher. Standing on ladders to work this high up while reaching across the top of the hedge is dangerous. This hedge is probably 1.5 m deep, but another hedge on their land is 3 m deep. They value their privacy!
I have previously asked the neighbour to have his contractor trim the hedge on our side so we don’t keep having to pay for maintaining their hedge. He hasn’t accepted this offer. If I can’t resolve this with them, I can go to the tribunal for an order that he pays for regular trimming of the hedge, and reduces the height to 2.5 m. This is the maximum height of an overhanging branch that may be cut by a neighbour. Presumably this height limit relates to safety.
There is a long process of giving notice in writing etc, during which time the hedge will be overhanging our fence by 0.5 m. Our side of the hedge faces north so grows towards the sun.
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