Committed Travellers

Our morning walk ended just past our next-door neighbours’ house. Bluey made it clear he wasn’t going any further after pooping! He spent a lot of the day in his crate but he did interact with Karen who came to mow our grass.

When I pull up the blind to allow the critters to use the pet door, the morning sun can make the hallway quite warm. I used leftover insulation to keep those windows cool. The blinds are very effective at blocking the heat.

Cutting the mitre corners for the mirror trim wasn’t a straightforward operation. I had to make sure each angle was correct for the side of the quad that will be against the glass. I touched up the silver paint ready for assembly tomorrow.

Bluey was much brighter this afternoon and we stretched out the walk to more than an hour. He caught up with several of his doggie friends. Walk is an exaggeration as we wandered slowly with friends for no more than a kilometre. Zeppe was happy to see him, but Bluey wasn’t up to running.

We had leftover Portugese chicken for dinner. Bluey had already eaten his dinner but kept hanging around the dining room. I told him to go away, and he lay under a chair. Tilly was climbing up our legs to indicate how hungry she was for our dinner. After being told off, she climbed onto a dining chair to at least be able to peek at the food on our plates. Both critters did get some of our chicken after we had eaten.

We had breakfast with friends, then headed home to get started on a couple of jobs. The pantry splashback mirror needs to have trim fitted around the edges. I tried various bits of timber in my collection and settled on 12 mm quad pine.

I needed a longer piece of trim, so headed to Bunnings. While I was there, I had the idea to buy some silver paint. I thought I would have to buy enamel paint in a small can, but was shown the craft section where I found a small tube of acrylic silver paint.

I primed the timber all around, then painted it with three coats of silver. Quick drying is one of the benefits of acrylic paint. Hopefully it will be ready to fit tomorrow.

Bluey is still very subdued with his ear infection. When I took him for his afternoon walk, I ended up carrying him most of the way.

Tilly likes this big cushion being near the front door.

Bluey slept OK last night, but his ears were still red this afternoon. He behaved more like himself but needed lots of cuddles. The antibiotic ear drops are working.

I spent half the day having a bone scan. I was at the hospital at 8 am but didn’t finish until 11.45 am. The CT Spect scan involves an injection of a tiny amount of radioactive material, which has to have time to attach to bones before the scan is done. These scans show muscular-skeletal changes. Hopefully, I might get some idea what is causing my right-side sciatica when I am active. If I do nothing like when I had Covid, there is no pain, but we plan on walking many miles around old cities in Europe, so need to manage this issue.

We did some more research about our European accommodation options, but are at the stage of just identifying our preferred hotels to be booked at a later date.

Anita was testing how much she might fit into a small suitcase and medium-sized backpack. Tilly made herself at home in the backpack.

At last, it was a much cooler day with lots of flooding rain. It was freezing in the hospital so I was glad I had taken a jacket.

I took Bluey for his morning walk, where he had a short run on the hard sand chasing a dog chasing a ball. We headed to the caravan storage depot soon after it opened to return some washed and cleaned gear to the Bushtracker and to collect a few items.

Nearby, there is a large butcher shop called the Meat Hub where Anita managed to spend nearly $200. She was busy in the kitchen, packing meat into the freezer and cooking bulk meals for the critters.

At lunchtime, Anita put drops in Bluey’s ears as one was red and bothering him. Since he had been to the groomer 2 days ago, we presumed he had canker ear caused by water getting in his ear, so put in drops to treat any yeast condition. By the time our local vet had closed, we decided one ear looked worse, so I took him to the Accident and Emergency Vet at Varsity Lakes. This was a 15 kms drive in peak hour traffic, where twice I was lucky to not be collected another car that was driven straight across my lane.

Poor Bluey was trembling before I had even carried him inside. I hate to think what he might be able to smell at a vet clinic. He was initially assessed by the triage nurse, then after about 15 minutes, we saw the vet who took swabs from both ears and concluded he had a staph infection in both ears, the left worse than the right. She prescribed antibiotic drops, which also contain pain relief.

I drove the poor boy home where he was hungry despite having sore ears. I ate the chicken parma that Anita had bought from the butcher and cooked in the oven. It was delicious but was surprisingly hot and spicy, so it was a most unusual parma. Me thinks the person serving may have given us volcanic chicken instead!

We syringed 0.5 ml of the medication into each of Bluey’s ears, rewarding him with pieces of apple.

In between all of these activities and outings, I made version 3 of the cat door that is hopefully too small for Bluey to squeeze through and too hard for him to destroy. Tilly quickly learnt the latest structure was for her use, and she fits through comfortably, but a larger cat won’t  fit through.

We put Bluey downstairs while we went shopping and for lunch at Pacific Fair. He was waiting for us at the front door, having destroyed my latest effort to keep him from passing through Tilly’s cat door in the baby gate. This is the only thing he has ever deliberately destroyed.

Plan C is to cut a cat-sized hole in scrap 6mm acrylic sheeting, which I will screw to the gate. That job just became a priority.

First up this morning we tidied our front garden beds, planted some seedlings, and removed the last of the weeds. It soon became too warm to work outside, so spreading the mulch will have to wait for another day. We forgot to shut the gate to the cat enclosure, so Tilly was waiting for us at the front gate after our lunch outing.

Our shopping expedition was a waste of time. I was looking for new T-shirts in Uniqlo and Connor, but I didn’t like any in the stores. During lunch, I ordered two Connor T-shirts online that were not available in the store. We had lunch at Modo Mio Cafe Cucina Bar, managing to get a table without a booking on Valentine’s Day. The red emperor in lemon butter sauce was delicious.

It was a very low tide at 5pm when I took Bluey to the park. A large dog, possibly a Belgian Shepherd, was running full speed in the water following the rivershore, from one end of the beach to the other. A spaniel started running back and forth with the big dog, then Bluey joined in the game, but he stayed out of the water, and avoided being run over.

The past couple of days have been largely uneventful. There is a neighbourhood dispute about complaints concerning our local river park being an off leash dog area. Apparently, one man has complained about dogs running around near the playground area after 5pm, during the off leash time period. His 3 year old can use the play equipment outside of off leash times from 7am to 5pm, so he hasn’t received a sympathetic hearing.

Others have complained about dog fights at the park, but I have only seen one dog fight over the hundreds of hours I have spent at the park. That was caused by a woman taking her late father’s Jack Russell to the park, not realising the dog had never been out of the garden. Two dogs play together, and their antics might have been construed as fighting.

Today Bluey endured the trauma of a visit to the groomer, and our budget suffered a $120 bill. His fur feels lovely and smells much nicer!

We have finalised our itinerary for the European trip, but still need to choose a few hotels.

The outside temperature is still hovering around 29° to 30°, so not much is being done around the garden. I spotted this collection of plants growing in a narrow bed at the IGA Queen St Village. The native violets, Japanese grass, and succulents work well together and should suppress weeds.

We returned home from breakfast at the Marriott to find Bluey had escaped through the hole I made for Tilly! I quickly got to work to make the hole narrower using some high density foam and fibreglass rod. He can’t fit through now, but Tilly can. Bluey was very happy to have us home.

Our breakfast was a birthday celebration, which provided a good excuse to get together with family and friends. Back at home, we resumed making hotel bookings. Tilly wanted attention so was being cute.

When I let Bluey out first thing this morning, he suddenly jumped and spun around. I didn’t see what had caused this, but was worried it could have been a snake or cane toad. I reviewed our camera recordings and discovered Bluey had been frightened by a large blue tongue lizard which ran away under the gate. It is probably hiding in our gatehouse.

We took Bluey to breakfast with our friends, then parked him at home while we went to the Jasmine Room for Yum Char with other friends. The food was very good, but we didn’t order any of these specimens.

If it hadn’t been raining, we might have returned to the Southport CBD for the street performances for Lunar New Year.

From the veranda of the Jasmine Room, I could see the pole and platform erected for use by Osprey eagles near the Sundale Bridge. Both parents were present but my phone camera is not telescopic, so I found this photo online.

I created a hole in the baby/pet gate that is big enough for Tilly to pass through, but too small for Bluey. When I called her, she didn’t hesitate to walk straight through. I cut out a section of one upright, then used some leftover electrical conduit to cover the cut ends.

As it was cooler this morning, we took Bluey for a short walk. We left him at home when we drove to Isle of Capri for breakfast and shopping.

After putting away our provisions, we headed out again, taking Bluey with us to Bunnings. We bought lots of mulch to try to deal with our weeds on our next cool day.

I spent the rest of the afternoon researching the cost of various train fares, in order to work out the best tourist passes to buy. So far, it looks like the Half Fare Card will be our choice for travel in Switzerland. For the rest of Europe, we are looking at the Eurail pass that gives 10 days travel in 2 months. We need to finalise our travel plans between Venice, our final port for the Mediterranean cruise, and Budapest, the first port of our river cruise.

Bluey hates going to the groomer, but when I brushed his fur this evening, he fell asleep on my lap.

I had to cut two small wedges for the gate to compensate for the angle of the wall at one end. Once they were painted, I screwed them to the wall and put the gate into position. I will have to either make a hole for Tilly to get through or a bridge for her to climb over.

The noticable tile chips and scratches had to be cleaned and dried before I mixed a small amount of the beige and white MagicEzy tubes. Toothpicks are ideal for applying the paint to the chips and scratches. Up close the patch is noticeable, but not from a standing position.

I helped Anita do her complex jigsaw made from small pieces of wood.

When I took Bluey for his afternoon walk, a cool change encouraged other dog walkers to gather in the park. Bluey was very happy to see several of his friends.