Committed Travellers

We took ourselves out for lunch at Ladybird, an Asian-fusion restaurant in the former Palazzo Versace building, now the Imperial Hotel. The venue and service were excellent, but the food only good as rated by us. We drove there but could have caught hopo, the Gold Coast ferry service.

After lunch, we walked around the shops in Marina Mirage. This shopping centre struggles to attract customers and several shops have closed. A major revamp is planned for the venue. While there are plenty of Christmas decorations, there were very few customers.

Bluey knew we were going out today, but doesn’t hold a grudge, and gave us a great welcome home.

Tilly has kept close to me all day. When we were dealing with the super-excited Bluey, she showed off running upside down around the bottom of our mattress. She was on top of my garage shelves and snuggled down in my study.

Using the puffer stopped me coughing overnight, so I finally had a decent sleep. I had more energy, which was fortuitous as I had to walk back from the Toyota service centre 350 m across the main road. I took Bluey for the drive, visit to the cafe, and the walk home.

I had Bluey waitlisted at the groomer, and his name came up thanks to a cancellation. He had to walk there with me and Anita as the car was being serviced. I put on his harness to allow me to give it a gentle tug whenever he thought he could stop.

After leaving Bluey at Hollywoof, we stopped for a coffee at Merlo. We called a taxi to take me home, then take Anita to Australia Fair to see the film Wonka, which she enjoyed.

I walked back to pick up the car and later walked Bluey to the beach. I have almost completed 9,000 steps today, when for the past 13 days, I have only managed to walk Bluey to the beach. He has been obliging, quickly doing his business, then happily walking home.

We went to dinner at the Blue House at Bumbles with our friend Sue. Bluey was waiting frantically for us at the front door.

Tilly has been very quiet most of the day. I went looking for her and she was sleeping so soundly that she was not aware I was there. She might have had a busy night guarding downstairs.

Today I forced myself to do some jobs. I swapped the empty 9 kg gas bottle for a full one, but struggled to lift it into the back of the Toyota! Five minutes of weeding was my limit. Anita was in the pool, clearing out hedge trimmings left by our thoughtless gardeners. I cleared debris from our new pool cleaner, but struggle when out of the air conditioning. I have started using a puffer to hopefully settle my cough.

Bluey is having trouble climbing our staircase. He loses his rhythm three quarters of the way up, partly due to fear of Tilly attacking him, but also because his claws are so long. I trimmed them, but his two middle claws on both front paws are unusually long. I cut these claws as close to the quick as possible.

Two campers parked up at the end of our street with their wheels on the gutter and stayed the night. Council rangers visited the next day, and the campers haven’t returned.

Finally, our fatigue and Covid cough have started to slowly subside. Bluey has eased back on his need to have constant physical contact, and Tilly has become more sociable.

The hideous coronavirus is still affecting us, me more so than Anita. All I can do is rest and listen to audiobooks or watch the test match, and not think about the projects I would like to finish.

Anita subscribed to Kayo, and the main benefit is the volume level remains constant as there are no ad breaks broadcast at a higher volume. There are still ads, but only during long breaks, so we can mute the TV.

Our rear neighbours left their noxious tree and lilipilli hedge to grow too much without hedging. They finally had someone tackle this job, but it was a challenge for him to make straight cuts, especially where the hedge is nearly 2 m deep. At least half a metre was cut off the top of the hedge. Hopefully our gardener will come tomorrow to tidy our side.

I took Bluey for an early afternoon walk during a break in the thunderstorms. We are so glad he isn’t scared of storms.

There was no rain on Sunday, but it was like a sauna outside. I managed to walk a little further with Bluey and his friends, but need panadol, nurofen, and morning caffeine to do anything.

After Anita changed the sheets, Tilly claimed her pillows to have a nap. Bluey was at the other end of the bed until the cricket started, and then he stretched out on more than half the couch.

We can’t get Bluey to the groomer until January, so I trimmed his paws, tail, face, and ears. He looks regal in this old photo of him with long ears, but they are so impractical for fatigue-affected owners.

Anita put through some washing and the under sink plumbing withstood the test. We drove through the botanical gardens planning to get coffee from the kiosk, but an unwelcoming “no dogs” sign put us off. Instead we drove to Bumbles at Budds Beach to have lunch overlooking the Nerang River.

I gave Bluey a trim and bath before settling in for the afternoon to watch the test cricket. He has become such a lap dog that he gets onto the couch and nudges my arm out of the way so he can get in closer.

Tilly was missing in action when the rain started. I searched the house and garden before enlisting Bluey to help in the search. On the third search of my study, she magically appeared from behind the door. She enjoyed showing off her Christmas collar.

Three plumbers arrived on time in three vehicles. We left them to get the job done and went to Alfons for breakfast. As we could not use our toilets, we had to stay out at shops.

Our next stop was Bunnings at Southport to buy 50 mm pipe to join a short piece onto the drain pipe in the laundry. No short lengths were available, so we drove to the store at Arundel, where they were available. Our next stop was the Meat Hub but Anita wasn’t able to buy everything she wanted. We took Bluey home and headed to our our local air-conditioned shopping centre to wait for the plumber to finish.

Only one plumber was supervising the equipment. He showed me the type of tubing used. A felt-like outer t⁸ube is held in place by an inner tube full of air under pressure. A resin is pumped in and covers the outer felt-like cover. This takes two hours to harden. He had to do a second length of tubing, so had another two hours to wait for it to dry.

The specialised equipment comes from Germany. The plumbers doing this work had special training in Sydney. The owner of Jetset is committed to a very high standard of customer service, and his workers have embraced the ethos. Each of the plumbers introduced themselves and addressed me by name. They left their work area clean and tidy.

I cut and glued the extension to the drain pipe, and fitted the U bend. I will leave the cupboard doors off until I am convinced there are no leaks.

I collected my friend’s dog Odin as she is away until tomorrow. Bluey wouldn’t walk on his lead, so we all loitered on the beach.   A neighbour told me she had rushed her Jack Russell to the vet after having a green frog in her mouth. The poor dog was vomiting and collapsed on the floor, but by the time they reached the after hours vet, Daisy was fully recovered. Apparently, green frogs carry a poison, but the symptoms only last for about half an hour. It was an expensive visit to the vet!

The plumber came today – on time, neatly dressed, knowledgeable, and personable – rare characteristics for a tradie in a dirty job. He jetted out the pipe and used a camera to discover we have 4 m of disintegrating clay pipes connecting our entire drainage system to the main sewer, going down a considerable depth. All of this is under a corner of our garden where the pool equipment is on a concrete slab, with underground pool pipes and electrical connections.

So far, our quote to reline the pipe is $9,000, which will take three men most of tomorrow to complete. Access is very limited and realistically precludes digging a hole big enough to reach pipes that go 2m underground. A single storey house on this block was demolished in the late 1990s to build our two storey house in 2000. The original sewer pipes were not dug up and replaced when it would have been a relatively easy job on a vacant block of land.

At least I finally tested negative and have regained most of my energy. I was able to stay with Bluey on the beach while he had a great time running and chasing his friend.

I have a couple more wonderful photos I downloaded from nature sites – a white Japanese cherry tree, an outback storm, lightning strikes over an hour, and the castellated rock forming Stuõlagil Canyon in Iceland.

Just what we needed on top of Covid is a blocked drain! Our laundry sink filled with water from the washing machine. It didn’t overflow, but the U-bend leaked a little because it remained full of water. We removed all of the trees from our garden, so suspect our neighbours’ tree roots are the likely cause of this problem. The plumber can’t come until tomorrow.

Anita is much better but I am still keeping Bluey company in bed most of the day. I spend my days listening to audiobooks and playing scrabble against the computer. Any activity still exhausts me.

I found these two rainbow photos online. The full circle rainbow was captured by an airline pilot. The Pinnacles national park is closed for the summer, but this amazing drone photo was posted online.

Anita had a long-term dry cough that disappeared when she started taking phenergan to avoid seasickness. We thought the phenergan had stopped an allergy-related cough. We both decided to stop taking phenergan Wednesday evening so we wouldn’t be affected by the medication when we were driving home from the airport on Friday.

On Thursday Anita started coughing again, which we thought indicated an allergy-related cough had returned because she had stopped phenergan. She did a Covid test just in case, and it was negative.

We first became aware there was Covid onboard while having dinner on the final night of the cruise. We overheard the people at the next table talking about a woman who was confined to her cabin because she had Covid. Her husband was apparently not required to stay in their cabin.

By the end of our dinner on Thursday night we both started to feel unwell, so went back to our cabin. We both coughed all night and felt ill. Anita was really bad on Friday when we left the ship and travelled to the airport. I was well enough to drive home from the Gold Coast airport.

Friends told us other Roadies had tested positive for Covid, so we tested ourselves Saturday, and I was positive but Anita was still negative, even though we had similar symptoms.

If we had been told earlier that there were Covid cases onboard, we could have worn masks, avoided lifts, and crowded areas.

By today we are both feeling better, and managed to get out of bed and watch some shows on Britbox. I managed to take Bluey for a walk to the beach, keeping well away from other people.

I took a few final photos as we cruised into Sydney Harbour at dawn.