Committed Travellers

We drove one of our visitors back to the airport this morning. The traffic wasn’t too bad just after peak hour. Back at home I disassembled the makeshift bed. It looks dreadful but served the purpose. The mattress topper and mattress stayed together with the Velcro I had sewn on to them.

While Anita was out seeing a movie, I took Bluey to the park with our other visitor. He greeted his friends but was happy to walk with us to Ramon Bro and wait while we had dinner. A spoodle arrived with the family sitting at the next table, so there was a friendly dog meeting.

Bluey was surprised to have a second walk to the park, but did not object. We saw another boat stuck on the sand at low tide. This is the second grounding in two weeks. The skipper was in the water, futilely trying to push the boat free. Eventually a paddle boarder gave him advice to try reversing the boat with the engine, and that worked.

We spent the evening watching the Australian mens’ cricket team bowl the South Africans in the semi final, but could not stay awake for the whole match.

Tilly has adopted another strategy to intimidate Bluey on the stairs. We have to make sure she doesn’t cause him to fall.

She was moved from Anita’s lap to the couch without waking up. Tilly embraces visitors, but Bluey sometimes growls at them if they move suddenly or even if they change their clothes and look different to how he expects them to look.

We spent time sorting out paperwork while I have a break from ladder and floor work.

Our garden is benefiting from the recent rain, with these flowering ground covers blooming and spreading quickly.

We had dinner at Kyomi, one of the Gold Coast’s 24 hatted restaurants. It is a while since we ate at this Japanese restaurant at the casino, but the food was good, if not up to its previous very high standard.

Early this morning I took Bluey with me on the drive to pick up another friend from the airport. I drove south on the M1, where there were long stretches of roadworks with a 60 kph speed limit. Several lengths of the northbound lanes were at a standstill. We returned via the Gold Coast Hwy without experiencing any long delays.

We had lunch with a few friends at Omera Brothers at Mermaid Beach.

The restaurant is in a complex overlooking a marina on the Nerang River.

There are some interesting and quirky shops in the complex. This white dog reminded me of Bluey.

After breakfast I dropped Anita and our friend at the Pacific Fair Shopping Centre for a day out. I headed to Coles to buy biscuits, chocolate, and lollies to send to my father. I also hired a wheelchair for him to use in his care home. His physiotherapist rang me to say he has been having trouble walking to the dining room.

For lunch, I joined them at a lovely restaurant with another friend. The salad and the tirimisu Anita had found some clothes that she likes, and I found a great T-shirt for me at Uniqlo.

The shopping centre decorations include statues of poodles. If I had Bluey with me, he could have posed with these golden dogs.

Tilly only spent a short while outside today, coming in and rearranging the cushions.

We drove to the Sunday markets at HOTA about 7 am. As we wandered around, we saw this stall holder trying to help very young curlew chicks up the steps while the parents were flapping their wings at him.

He managed to get both chicks onto the same step as the parents, but they probably wanted to go down the steps away from the market stalls. That would have been challenging with hundreds of people nearby, some with dogs. We didn’t wait to see which way they went.

Anita found foods to buy while I waited for our coffees. The benefit of going early was the easy parking and short waiting time for coffees.

Today was Bluey’s bath day. After suffering that event, he had to endure me trimming his claws and cutting fur from his paws.

We drove to the airport to pick up a friend. The traffic was slow on the Gold Coast Hwy because of roadworks for the light rail extension. The motorway route was slower because of major roadworks widening the road and building bridges.

For dinner, we returned to Ramen Bro with a couple of friends, who also enjoyed their meals.

For a change of scenery we went to Le Gourmand Cafe, where we enjoyed great coffee and breakfast with our friends. New parking signs on the side street limit parking to two hours from 7 am, so we kept an eye out for parking officers.

Bluey had decaf froth and demonstrated the Christmas harness bought for our friend’s six kilo cat. I will make him his own harness using this one as a pattern.

At home I vacuumed the upstairs rugs and carpet with our 20 year old upright Dyson vacuum cleaner. Each fortnight our cleaner vacuums with her machine, but the turbo function on the old upright is very effective. This was collected today, so I do this every couple of months to keep Tilly’s fur under control.

I fitted a new plug in the basin because the spare part needed to repair the old plug wasn’t available. My next problem was the 40 mm waste pipe didn’t fit the new plug, so I went to Bunnings for a $2.84 waste adaptor.

There wasn’t one on the shelf, so I asked the staff to check where to find the adaptor. The computer indicated three should be in stock, but apparently the computer record is not accurate if it reports a stock holding of five items or less. Ten adaptors were in stock at the Nerang store, but to save time, I bought a 32 mm waste pipe instead for $16. Empty packets on the shelf suggest people have stolen plumbing parts instead of buying them.

The ends of the new waste pipe were the correct size, but it was a small fitting and would not quite reach the plug and drain pipe at the same time! I should have gone to Nerang! I drove to Mitre 10 before it closed to buy two 40 mm bends, priming fluid, and glue. If only I had realised the original fitting was 40 mm, not 32 mm! At least the job is finished and it doesn’t leak.

I was up at 4.30 am! What quiet activity can I pursue while Anita sleeps? I made a cup of tea and read one of our library travel books. It is 6.30 pm and I would like to be asleep but will try to stay awake and sleep later.

There was a lot of activity in our street from before 6 am, with concrete trucks, a pump truck, and workers. Our neighbours are adding a rumpus room to their small three bedroom home. Hopefully, the slab had a chance to go off today as we are getting a lot of heavy rain.

After locking Tilly in our bedroom, I removed the final 10 year old screen from the veranda. Once the new screen was fitted, we moved the BBQ back where it belongs and finished tidying the veranda.

It wasn’t cold today, so I was surprised to see Tilly curled up in her pouch. Later I encouraged her to use the pet door by holding it ajar, but she came back in by herself. It will be much harder to get Bluey to let himself in and out the pet door.

We planted the remaining potted plants out near the pool. When I pushed the mulch aside, the ground was dry, despite the 50 mm of rain we had a couple of days ago.

There is a new Japanese restaurant across the main road, so we tried it this afternoon. We sat outside under cover with a well-behaved Bluey thinking he was guarding the entrance. We sampled the menu and enjoyed every dish. I started with this delicious salmon dish, but the bao, gyoza, fried rice, and karate chicken were all lovely. The rain started just as we reached home.

After another very early start this morning, we decided to go out for breakfast and have a walk. As Hot Shott opens early, we drove to Tedder Avenue. It was easy to find a car park at quarter past six!

We walked around the shops and Bluey found these other “dogs”. He kept sniffing them but wasn’t keen to be photographed with them.

For the rest of the morning I was busy installing the 8 square metre front screen. I fitted the bottom first, then tacked up the sides to take most of the weight. We had to keep moving the heavy table for me to be able to reach the top of the frame from the ladder tied securely to the top of the table. Once the screen was tightly held in the frame, I had to trim off the excess with a blade. This is a nerve-wracking task as one slip could ruin the newly fitted $200 screen.

The technician came to service our lift this morning. He had to send the lift up and down several times, causing Bluey to retreat to his crate. He is having trouble climbing the timber staircase, probably because he is worried Tilly might cause him to slip and fall. She sometimes waits for him at the top of the stairs to jump on him. I think he may become less fearful of the lift once he realises he won’t fall out of it.

Late this afternoon, the final piece of screen was delivered, so I will be able to do the last screen on the front veranda tomorrow while the ladders are still in place.

I spent most of the morning cleaning the area around the BBQ on the front veranda. After disconnecting the BBQ from the gas connection, I needed ladders to clean the top of the large rangehood above the BBQ. Walls near the BBQ were washed down, the floor scrubbed, and excess water mopped up.

Some tools and equipment could be put away or moved to create access to the large front screen. I enlisted Anita’s help to move our heavy table up against the front dwarf wall, on which I secured a step ladder. This set-up allowed me to remove the spline from the frame. I took the screen down to the driveway for washing, as I will use it as a template to cut the new screen to size.

Anita had a very attentive audience while she was eating some of the leftover chicken that she cooked yesterday. It was delicious but flavoured with spices we didn’t think critters would like. They scoffed their share of the leftovers!

Our glazier installed the new piece of glass with a hole about 40 cms, ready to have the pet door installed. Tilly was quick to come into the house through the hole. She soon worked out how to come and go through the swinging door. I need to put a ramp outside before encouraging Bluey to use the pet door.

We had planned a trip to the caravan, so added other stops. First was to the library to borrow a couple more travel books to help us start to plan our overseas trip next year. We dropped off a couple of bags of donations at one of our local op shops. At Bunnings, we bought a dozen plants crowding Bluey in the trolley.

At the caravan storage depot there are now two other Bushtrackers parked near ours. They are both much bigger than our 15 footer. We tuned the new TV to available channels, but are still having issues with the satellite. Refitting the seat cushion covers was a workout as they are a firm fit.

The Meat Hub near the caravan storage has become our favourite butcher. It is a large business with lower prices and good meat. There is a coffee bar which sells burgers and other quick meals. I had a delicious pulled pork burger.

I planted six ground covers in the small bed under the carport, but the rest will wait for tomorrow. My next job was to clean the cushions on the veranda chairs as they needed a good clean to remove the dust.

I thought I had fixed the pop-up plug problem as the two moving parts came apart thanks to Penetrene. However, when I tried the parts in the sink, the plug would not go all the way down. I could have bought a new part for $8 while I was in Bunnings.

For dinner, Anita cooked us a marinated chicken from the Meat Hub. She put it on the rotisserie and it was delicious. Bluey and Tilly had already been fed, but they waited patiently for leftovers.

They both loved their chicken! Tilly was showing off in the hallway, pushing herself along the wall. These are not upside-down photos!