Committed Travellers

It rained for much of the day, so our garden has had a good soaking. When I took Bluey to the park, he was keen to have his raincoat put on. While we were there, it was still drizzling but very still. We could clearly hear a dog barking from across the river, at least half a kilometre away.

I couldn’t work on the veranda in the rain, so tackled some indoor jobs. A pop-up bathroom plug has seized. I removed it and left it soaking in penetrene. Our floor drains needed attention, so I cleaned them and topped up the water levels.

To cut the roll of flyscreen, I rolled it out on the loungeroom floor. I double-checked my measurements before cutting the lengths needed for the remaining panels.

We have had more visits by wandering cats, usually early in the morning. Other neighbours are posting complaints about cats intruding on spaces occupied by their pets. I checked the Gold Coast Council website and found this very clear advice.

We waited for Aldi to open at 8 o’clock so I could buy a landing net for $20. This one has an extendable handle, and the net is made from modern material that avoids fish becoming entangled in the netting.

We had breakfast with our friends, plus one brother. The staff at Salt Cafe know our individual coffee orders. Bluey sat on the bench, enjoying everyone’s company.

I finally finished securing the screen frame to the veranda. I painted the screw heads black so they don’t stand out but have to wait for the paint to dry before fitting the screen material.

It wasn’t an ideal fishing day because of the wind, but I took Bluey to the river to see if anything was biting. I spread a towel on the sand, and he immediately laid on it. People walking past commented that he is so well-behaved. He had a bit of a run with one of his friends, but the big dogs were playing with each other, so he kept out of their way.

I caught two small whiting and sent them back to continue growing. There is a lot of seagrass at the southern end of the beach, so I put some effort into winding in the line, thinking I had collected a bunch of seagrass, but it turned out to be a blue swimmer crab. I was so surprised to see it at the waters edge that I didn’t maintain tension on the line, and it retreated to deeper water.

I had a physiotherapist appointment in Brisbane at 11.30 am, arranged on the phone with one of the regular receptionists. When I walked in, I was told there was no record of my appointment – Grrr. Worse news was to come. Linda, my physiotherapist for many years, tripped over in a Gold Coast carpark, breaking her leg.

That leg was previously broken during a rugby match when she was on the field as the team physiotherapist, protecting an injured player. She suffered repeat infections and only a few months ago spent 15 days in a hospital bed without moving for treatment of complex infections. She has now had more complex surgery, where her femur was replaced – obviously that also involves hip and knee surgery.

I had a cup of coffee at the nearby Pawpaw Cafe before driving back. Google Maps showed a route home that was disconcerting – it would have me drive south on the right-hand side of the M1!

I stopped at Bunnings for more fixings for that #@%^!#$ screen. At Spotlight I wanted thin shock cord, but it was $4 per metre, when I could have bought 20 metres for $16 at Bunnings! My final stop was at Pearl Energy to refuel the Toyota – over $220!

Last night, there was another attempted break-in along our street. About 2.30 am, a presumably stolen car pulled up outside a house that appears to have been targeted. There is clear footage of three young teenagers trying to enter the house. One jumped over a fence across the road but seems to have left empty-handed. People who know these kids would probably recognise them in this video.

With rain threatening, I moved most of my tools and equipment off the veranda until I can return to that job. There was only light drizzle when I took Bluey to the park. He looked like he was in a daze after his dinner. Tilly was busy trying to climb inside my trousers.

We drove to Harris Farm for a couple of loaves of our favourite sourdough bread. Bluey had to stay in the car as there are no outdoor dining options for breakfast. He did come in to Bunnings with us, but that was boring.

We drove on to Wild Earth, which was having a sale of shoes and clothing. The managers are very welcoming of dogs, and they sell an expensive range of footwear and other items for dogs.

A few months ago I bought a pair of Altra shoes from this fabulous store, and found them to be very comfortable. Today I bought three more pairs with a small discount, as having comfortable shoes is so important. Anita found herself a couple of pairs of shorts.

Back at home I returned to the challenging job of securing the top frame of the front veranda screen. This missing screen allowed this creature to fly onto the veranda. We quickly shut the doors until I could catch it and release it.

I had to go to our local specialist nuts and bolts shop for different fixings, but ran out of time to see if they will work. Both sides of the frame had to be removed, but one bolt would not come out. I resorted to the angle grinder, so now will have to drill another hole to secure the bottom of the side rail.

Bluey played with a couple of his friends running on the sand, while I watched these car-boats racing around on the river.

When I walked Bluey this morning, the grey minor birds were warning each other about the black cat sitting on the fence.

It was very windy most of the day while I removed one of the old screens on the front veranda. Months ago I had removed the bottom of the frame and hopefully waterproofed the screw holes. The top of the frame came away from the bulkhead after someone pushed too hard against the screen. It was not installed properly as the five screws would not hold as they had only been screwed into fibro sheeting.

I am trying this new type of fastener, which scrunches up behind plasterboard, so hopefully will work when used in fibre cement sheeting.

I enlarged some of the usable holes to 8mm diameter, then tapped in the anchors. I will have to remove both side frames to fit the top frame over the protruding anchors. Let’s hope this works because I don’t have a plan B.

The veranda was very dusty, probably from pool and concrete repair work next door. I brushed and hosed this off.

Earlier today, Anita had spilt some of my coffee onto the rug under the dining table. Tilly was licking that part of the rug, and rubbing herself on that spot. We have a dog who loves his coffee, and we appear to have a caffeine cat, but it can be dangerous for the critters so they won’t be getting any more.

Today we had to tidy our house ready for Kieran, our housekeeper. It is amazing how much we have to sort out every two weeks. Once that was done, I rigged up some fishing rods ready for the wind to ease later this week.

We treated ourselves to lunch at the Salt Cafe, taking Bluey with us. He also came browsing around the Comfort shoe shop, but we left without parting with any money.

Kieran told us about her car crash, where some idiot crossed three lanes of traffic in front of her. She could not avoid hitting the side of his car. The driver spoke to her, but when she said they had to exchange details, he took off. Kieran memorised his registration plate and reported it on a triple zero phone call. A fire truck soon arrived, followed by a police car. While she was talking to the police, she saw the car involved in the crash. The police had phoned the driver and told him to return to the scene of the crash. He was issued with several infringement notices.

Her 2002 ute was written off, but Kieran didn’t get much by way of a payout from her insurance. She had to borrow money to buy a second-hand car, while the government gets the fines paid by the at-fault driver.

Bluey had a quick visit to the park, as we had to be back at home, ready for local children trick or treating. The threatened storm dissipated after we had a brief shower.

Two families with young children live near us. The parents and children were all dressed in Halloween outfits, but the little ones forgot their lines! We had prepared small bags of treats for our neighbours’ kids, and soon the rest of our treats had disappeared into the treat buckets carried by older kids, who were all very polite. We turned off the lights before the teenagers reached our street.

Tilly loves this old laundry basket and patiently waits for one of us to carry her upstairs, where she eventually slept on a cushion.

A job that keeps slipping down my to-do list is car washing. This morning I was able to cross that one off! I set up the gerni and washed the Toyota under the carport. Anita took the clean car shopping so I was able to clean the carport.

Another job that has been on my list for a very long time is replacing the veranda flyscreens. Now that I have the screen material, I want to get that job done. One of the screens I fitted months ago was a heavier thickness and tighter weave. It was very hard to put the spline into the track. It wasn’t until I had fitted a new screen next to an old one that I realised I had been supplied the wrong product.

I removed that screen and fitted the replacement screen. It was easy to fit compared to the effort I had to put into the thicker version.

Bluey had been waiting patiently to go to the park. It was low tide, so good for him to run on while chasing Zebe, a schnoodle – three-quarters poodle and one-quarter schnauzer.

Tilly has played with Bluey every day since we have been home from our last trip. She has also been very friendly with us, wanting patting and brushing. The time she spends outside in her courtyard seems to have pacified her.