"Pitch"

Wildlife

We went up to Samford Forest today to do the long walk and let Nicole have some sleep after her night shift.

It was the first time in the backpack for while for E and she is getting quite heavy! The path is pretty steep in places and I had to stop to catch my breath a few times.

Of course when Eloise wanted to get down and climb the hill progress slowed to a complete standstill, and the dogs would cast about and then we would end up waiting for them.

We saw two interesting wildlife events: firstly a dragonfly being taken by an ant colony and slowly being dismembered which you can see here, secondly a snake (aaagh! a snake) which slithered remarkably rapidly through my peripheral vision within a metre of my feet, and straight past Matilda, who thankfully couldn't find it. It was green in colour and I reckon about three feet long. The internet reckons it was probably a Green Tree Snake. It certainly brightened up my day.

Company

On Tueasday evening Mr Peacock popped in for a barbeque and a verre de vin rouge. Gary was in Brisbane on business with his new job. It wasn't until I was bathing Eloise that I realised how wierd it is to have someone you went to university with all those many moons ago popping in for a couple of hours. I spoke to Julie briefly to berate her for having blown out our pre-arranged phone call on Monday evening for Little Britain thinking she was watching it on television but they were actually at the live show - very good too apparantly.

Julie and Gary are coming up in a couple of weekends time as they have a house warming party to attend. Julie and I are thinking about going to see Boy George dj at the Met but now it is getting closer we are both getting cold feet as neither of us have had a night out clubbing in a very long time. The boys are very unkeen about joining us so at least the problem of baby sitting is non-existant. What does one wear clubbing in Brisbane? Could I manage a late night?

Under Pressure

I tapped Biker Nicole's expert knowledge of biking and excellent array of equipment to pump the tyres on the E-mobile up to the correct pressure of 40-65PSI per tyre. Nicole's spiffy bicycle pump has a pressure gauge and the back tyre showed a measly 10PSI and the front tyre just 20. No wonder I have been encountering significant "rolling resistance." And there was I thinking that was a military term.

Nicole did the first tyre as a demonstration and whacked it up to 65PSI whilst I tried to stop the dogs from tearing the shed apart chasing some imaginary intruder. I followed suit with the other tyre.

We took the bikes out for a brook experiment and it was much easier to ride. Then we got onto the rough ground and the bike has been transformed into a bone shaker. Eloise, when she said anything, said "Uuuuuuurgh" in the style of Bobby McFerrin on Bolivian Marching Powder.

The brook is lined by various parks and playing fields. We saw the empty sign frame above and the football, sorry soccer match being played opposite this morning.

Deathwish

At swimming today it became increasingly clear that E is short on caution to the point where you could reasonably assert either that she has a deathwish, or an excessive trust in her fellow man (i.e. me) or that she doesn't understand the biology of respiration. Perhaps all three.

Enthusiasm ruled as ever with the water wings on, paddling about, blowing bubbles, reaching and holding and doing all the things she should do.

When the waterwings, sorry floaties came off, a little caution crept in when she was being held by me.

However when she wasn't, that is when she was standing on a submerged table and waist high in the water, then caution was thrown to the wind. She would jump up and down with excitement, edging towards the edge - well, how else would you get there - then jump off and into the pool where she wouldn't exactly sink like a stone, but she certainly didn't float... so sinking slowly, arms and legs flapping, until I picked her up and brought her to the surface, where she would emerge giggling and gurgling, simultaneously.

Of Course

After a day of dog walking, house work, washing, etc etc and the events of Nicole's blog entry I went to my little course.

As it's a camera course it seemed rude not to take a happy snap from the car as I left. See how happy Nicole is to see me go!!

I left at 5.15 to get there for 6 which I thought was ample time. Oh how wrong I was, for the "Inner City Bypass" must be the the most inappropriately named road on the planet. OK so it does sort of bypass the city... but bypasses are supposed to make traffic go faster, right? I spent half an hour at a practical standstill on that road. And was consequently late.

The lecture itself was fine, students mainly "I've got a nice camera, how do I use it?" or "I'm going on holiday and don't want to just take snapshots" types. I learned some stuff, about composition mainly. I can do Golden Mean. No worries.

Nicole was right. I didn't believe her.

Home alone

The alarm clock went off at 05:30 as I was on an early. I arrived at work still half asleep and spent the rest of the day having a very blond day. Unfortunately, the girl I was buddied with was also having a blond day so we got through in a very haphazard manner.

I returned home tired, with a headache and in a bad mood. I decided I needed comfort food and was going to nip out to buy meat sausages and veggie sausages for bangers and mash alone but Eloise had a tantrum when I tried to leave alone. We all decided to go together and she then had a tantrum about this. Sometimes you can't win but this afternoon was not the day to be testing me. By the time we returned we decided Neil would heat up pasta and pesto left over from lunch and Eloise and I would eat after Neil left. It is his first night of his photography course at the University of Queensland.

I decided that I should take some paracetamol and felt much better about an hour later. Tea was tasty with onion, garlic and red wine gravy. Really a winter supper but nevermind. Eloise turned her nose up at supper after about a quarter of it. She didn't even want the icecream I served up for afters. She spent the time I was washing up hanging around the front gate. She went next door to "help" Peter water his garden and kept bringing Alice and I flowers.

During the bath she kept saying "wee wee" so we got out and I sat her over the toilet where she produced a poo. She was very proud of herself. After her bath she kept walking around saying "Daddy". I know that Neil won't believe this. After a couple of books she went off to bed. It is her first night without Neil and she seemed to miss him being here. I'm missing him too. It seems quite strange being home alone as it occurs so rarely.

Noosa

Yesterday we went up to Noosa. We had meant to go there a couple of weeks ago with our visitor Sarah but hadn't made it due to getting sidetracked on the way. But this time we would go directly and sample the delights of Castaways Beach, a dog beach we had found out about, and Noosa itself, which is a bit of a tourist trap by all accounts and has a famously cosmopolitan high street.

For once no recovery navigation was required and we made it up there in an hour and a half on the Bruce Highway. The drive was pleasant, and Nicole to us up to a vantage point called Laguna Lookout to have sandwiches. We were hassled by a dog which like Matilda wouldn't take No for an answer let alone Sod Off, but eventually it got distracted by something and we had a little lunch in the shade of a glade overlooking a nice beach below, which curved away to the west with mountains misted in the distance behind.

Then we went down to Castaways Beach where there was a convenient car park by the side of the road. A little path led down to the beach, which stretched off as far as we could see to the North and South, with lovely soft sand and great surf washing up the shore.

Eloise played chicked with the surf as it swept up the shore and got braver and braver with each wave until, with our help, she was going armpit deep and squealing delightedly.

The dogs were less sure and were frightened by the foamier waves, but we found a little lagoon which they went and played in.

After an hour or so we went back into Noosa and up to Hastings Street. We parked the car in some car park in the Parkland at the top of the street and remembered why dogs and towns don't mix. Matilda slipped her collar and pelted off into the parkland after a Bush Turkey, and took five minutes to recover.

Anxiety was a little high as we walked up the high street. The street was very nice, the street itself was flanked by lovely trees and little sitting areas with the shops behind. There weren't any of the usual chain stores but plenty of fashion boutique type shops and art galleries. We got some nice ice cream and drinks to keep us going, but considered returning when the rain started to pitter patter a little.

Nicole and Eloise went into an Art gallery and I stayed outside with the dogs. We walked a few paces up the street and sat on a bench to wait. After a few minutes my mobile went off and I was an unpopular person it turned out as they had come out of the gallery and note spotted me and had been waiting for a couple of minutes. Oooops.

Tiny slipped her lead on the way back to the car and ran after the Bush Turkeys. Fair's fair I suppose.

Then we went in search of a chip shop, then realised we had no cash and went in search of a cash machine, then a chip shop again, which we eventually found.

We ate our tea by the river as the sun set. Kids played on a little beach and a pelican meandered around on the water. In the distance flocks of birds fluttered around like strange mirages. We went a little closer to watch them, then set off for home.

Walking Walking Everywhere

We woke up at 7.30 this morning. E was very jolly first thing and we breakfasted on fruit bread toast and yoghourt while watching pop videos on the telly. Jingly jangly guitar music, yuck. Monsta beat techno, jiggly.

After the usual rigmarole, plus the complication of sunscreen in the eyes ("don't rub them, you'll only make it worse) we set off for the beach, where the tide was well and truly in. Up and down the beach we strolled, and paddled in a little lagoon where Eloise decided to sit down. In her dress. And nappy. Oooops. Matilda disappeared for a suspiciously long time and is now suspiciously rotund and gurgly. What has she eaten...?

We got back via some shopping at Fresco's where Eloise met her favourite checkout lady. Snack on dried bananas and almond flakes etc, then to bed.

Washing, washing, washing... a bit of reading and the Daddy squawk comes. So off again, lunch of peanut butter and banana sandwiches, yummy for me but E not interested, she wanted to read books instead and play in the garden. Then she decided it was time for a walk and stood by the front gate shouting "Daddy! Door! Walk!" until I got the message that this was a really great idea.

So we walked up the street and round the extended block, such as it is. We met Bill and Louise when Eloise spotted her with her baby Sophie sitting in the steps of their house. We'd never met them before. They seemed to be very nice people.

Up Lanham Avenue to Lanham Park where we met a South African lady with her girl Caitlin on the swings. We'd never met them before. They seemed to be very nice people.

We swung and slid for a bit then over to the Sensory Playground where Eloise presses buttons and a blue post asks you questions like "Do you know what the Queensland flag looks like" (No) or "Do you know why we celebrate Anzac Day" (I have my suspicions). There we met an Australian lady and her boy Harry. Eloise and Harry were educated in the finer points of taking turns and co-operating with one another on the water pump and turning globe respectively.

We wung our way back down a bike path then across the football, sorry soccer pitch back home where we messed around a bit before I cooked a lovely meal of broccoli and rice with a cashew sauce. Yum!

Worship at the Temple of Glittering Nearly-Possessions

It bucketed down with rain this morning for a couple of hours. On the metal roof of the house it sounded like a never ending London Marathon in jackboots playing overhead, coming and going in waves. For the first time we saw large puddles forming in the garden as the ground saturated and the water then ran off.

The gutter at the back of the house couldn't take the volume of water and overflowed. Some water came in through the back window and the carpet in the dogs' bedroom got wet. Curiously, when we looked at the roof afterwards, the upper roof (makes the place sound like a mansion, doesn't it?) drains through a down pipe directly onto the lower roof, so the gutters there need to take the run-off from a wider area than you might expect.

When the rain relented we embarked on a bike ride down to the brook. Unexpectedly there were quite a few people down there, and the brook was once again swollen and very fast moving, building speed and energy as we rode down it and the storm drains fed into it, and in the shallows or where there were rocks, turning into a roiling rapid.

The dogs ran really well today. Yesterday was a bit of a nightmare as Matilda was disrespectful of the off-leash boundary, going onto a road at one point, which, judging by the honks, was unpopular with motorists. Oh well! On the plus side we saw our erstwhile walking chum Janice there yesterday for the first time since before Nicole had to go back to England.

After a delightful midday feast of baked beans on toast, Nicole went to work, and soon after that Eloise went to sleep (where soon is equivalent to four books).

I sat down in front of the telly and watched a film with Kevin Spacey in it called the Shipping News, which was OK in a picturesque kind of a way. Just when it finished and I started to get underway with paying bills, housework, etc, Squeaky woke up. Limited rest for the wicked.

We went to the library and she cruised for dogs (two beagles and a poodle... when I said "That's a poodle" she wouldn't stop pointing to its arse and cooing "Poo!") then we spent a happy hour or so choosing and reading books. The librarians were talking about setting her up on a blind date with one of their boys, but he's three and a red head, so not only cradle snatching but the possibility of unwanted recessive gene combination problems.... not sure how he took it when I said that....

Nicole had suggested that, as we were a bit flush at the moment (everything's relative) that I could spend some money, so after library we headed off to Chermside shopping centre, Mecca of Consumerism, to spend all our money on a nifty lens for our camera.

Unfortunately we were hungry and stopped off in the food court for some chocolate cake and coffee / milk. By the time we'd finished that, and spent half an hour traipsing the hallowed collonades lined with the Shrines to Mammon, we/I realised we/I were lost, and didn't actually know where the Camera shop was, and actually all the shops seemed to be closing, and Eloise wanted down, and there were Teddy Bears in that window over there, and it was too late...

Still, we got a carton of sour cream in Woolies. And Eloise did a pretty good number on the kiddies section of an excellent bookshop I will probably never be able to find again.

So, mixed vegetable curry in a creamy sauce for supper! Yum!