Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
24 Responses to “Lazy Sunday!”
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John Greenfield likes to get creative at Catallaxy composing insulting terms to describe LP’s contributors. No offence but I kinda like his latest:
It really should be Komrade Kim and the KKKollectif (apparently Kim you’re an anti-semite join the club). Sorry but I think it’s cute. You should start a band.
Heh!
I try not to spend my Sundays thinking about JG, Adrien, even if that’s not reciprocal.
Well, a couple of mates and I did this ride. 75 kilometres (85 if you throw in riding to the train station, and back home from it), but more importantly about 1000 metres of climbing, all up.
Note to anyone considering buying a racing bike – unless you’re living on the Nullabor Plain, or you’re fit enough to stay with a pro tour peloton, you probably need a triple front chainring. I have one, my mates didn’t. They will have very, very sore legs tomorrow. I will have merely very sore legs…
Oh, and if you’re ever in Healesville, I recommend the Healesville Hotel for a counter lunch. That however comes with a secondary tip; if you’re at all susceptible to indigestion don’t have one of the larger lunches immediately before hopping back on the bike. The road back to Melbourne has enough rolling hills to make it somewhat unwise
Dog was boringly 100% perfect at obedience except for one minor point: very interestedly sniffing the grass instead of standing stock still for a “stand for examination.” Bloody terriers! bought more tomato seedlings, have 23 seedlings now, think that is enough, maybe?
Shortly going to fry a couple kassler chops in apple butter (see last weeks Sunday Salon)
Terriers will be terriers, Jovial Monk. I’ve never liked the perfect obedience dog thing, anyway. I like a bit of character in a dog. My whippet used to get bored in class and just take off for a run occasionally, taking all the other dogs with her. She’s a whippet; whaddya want?
I am secretly in love with Julia Zemiro.
I drove to Brissie for the (non) auction of Chateau VVB (read about the trip at VVB if you’re really desparate) but stayed in Mark’s neck of the woods (New Farm) as that’s where Offspring no 2 has landed, having been evicted to make way for the sale.
Had several good coffees and a meal in the Valley last night. All good.
woke up this morning in Gisborne, east coast NZ, Poverty Bay for the Cook fans, in the dark, Honey fed the Hbomb while i did the last minute packing, and off. very extended family saw us off, two flights to Melbourne with the Hbomb on our laps, she is two in a fortnight, so the last chance for a free flight.
five hours in Aukland airport were strangely easily filled with eating, climbing up steps, down them again, repeat lots, watching planes take off and land, riding the escalators and reading a local primary schools wall of art. on a sad note, my msr fuel bottle was confiscated by the nervous nellies at check in. i’d only been using it for the msr for four years, before that it carried my white spirits for my ultima choofa for about 11 years so, . . . sad.
it looked like all those stairs had done their trick as the Hbomb slid into sleep before we hit cruzing altitude. sleep lasted till dinner was dispenced, about an hour. all up the Hbomb bore it pretty well, tho she did want to go back to nanna’s for most of the last two hours.
we thought that we got the nappy timing right as we did a change just before the call, but it filled up quick, and if you thought that those toilets were cramped try changing a nappy in one, the change table is tiny. this trip to nz was my first set of flights as a parent, and i found myself wondering if that change table had always been there in those toilets and i’d just been blind to them.
the Hbomb had her first tantrum of the day about 3 minutes after we walked in the door, a change, her pjs and a bottle and she was out like a light.
it is good to be home
I’ve been in Buenos Aires for the past week and fly out this pm on a long leg to Cape Town, Joburg then Kuala Lumpur for a few hours before the short (?5 hours) run to Perth, where I’ll get to stop for a few hours on what will then be Tuesday. Then to Alice on Wednesday, overnight again there and finally (if I can get a lift!) back home to Yuendumu on Thursday…not looking forward to too many hours stuck in tin tubes and the shopping malls that pass as international transit terminals, I can tell you.
Early this morning I prepared and posted another piece for my new Crikey blog “The Northern Myth”, which went live late last week and looking forward to getting some work done on a few more over the next couple of days. All are invited and welcome to browse, post comments and poke fun at my early attempts…
Cheers and see you when I surface in a few days
Bob Gosford
Spent the afternoon at gays-in-the-park, more properly known as Pride WA Fairday. The hubby and I took the fur-kids (a Cairn and a Shih-tzu) who had a great time, and we caught up with a lot of dear old friends who I only see at such events.
Home to the finale of Dr Who.
Spent the day preparing a bring-a-plate for, and then attending, a quiet ‘one month’s mind’ arvo tea chez a dear friend who lost her husband a month ago, catching up properly with those who were at the funeral, in a more relaxed and elegaic mode. Drinks were had, stories were told, photo albums were passed around. It’s a really, really lovely idea.
Jovial monk: Our dog obedience club is Fine’s old club, I found out recently. Our two dogs are in different classes and their performance is constantly hampered by gazing at each other like two lovesick geese. It was even worse when they were in the same class. One dog is pretty good, the other one only Downs if you sit on him
I have a slight problem with the way the class is geared to obedience trials, so there is a lot of fiddly stuff to do in order to Do It Right whereas in the real world, the dog is being perfectly obedient anyway (e.g. most people are happy if their dog comes immediately to call, it is not absolutely necessary that they come and sit in front of you.)
Planted two Tiny Tims and four cherry tomatoes and a punnet of basil. Noted that the white cedar (Melia something) which had been eaten back to a stick by critters, is now putting out wee branches and leaves again.
The youngest nephew turned 21 on Thursday — family had an afternoon BBQ party for him on Sunday. BBQs and smoke alarms do not mix.
Helen, I think obedience clubs spend a lot of time teaching things people dont care about that much. Most people aren’t interested in their dog heeling perfectly. They’re more interested, for instance, in the dog not jumping on people, or getting out of cars calmly, or waiting while you talk to someone on the street. General obedience will help with all those things, but I’ve also known dogs who were perfect in the ring and little monsters outside of it. Dogs aren’t good generalists. Sometimes they can’t extend the lessons they’ve learnt in class to different circumstances, which is what we want.
Spent most of the weekend reading and taking notes from Don Cook’s The Long Fuse. (How the Brits lost America.) Its a very readable book, but somewhat marred for academic purposes by not having footnotes.
Also spent a fair bit of time reading John Ferling’s Almost A Victory. America’s Victory in the War of Independence. Probably one of the best military histories I’ve read so far. Up there with Mackesy’s War for America. (Haven’t got round to Higginbvotham yet, but I will, courtesy of Amazon. (Good to know all those ungettable books are mostly gettable at reasonable prices.)
TV. Saturday night. Wid at Heart. Sorry its finishing but I don’t suppose it could go on forever. And the Bill. Sunday. Dr. Who, Midsomer Murders. Didn’t mind the Compass on Rookwood. Been there a few times.
Only other big thing, walked up and back to the corner shop on Saturday so I could get chips and bread to make chip sandwiches. Waiting for a book from o/s so I can’t do it this morning. I’m gradually getting a bit more breath, energy. Was only a light smoker, not smoking at all now, as I don’t want to get worse or end up in and out of hospital all the time. Reckon in about a month will be able to walk the 2-3 km walk to and back from town pretty easily again. Here’s hoping.
Yes Fine – here’s a good example – Vera (head honcho dog whisperer guru) was explaining to us that when we’re waiting in front of our dog after having told them to stay, we shouldn’t show our hands – no scratching of itchy noses etc. This is just silly IRL; Maggie is a good stayer, and if you’ve told her to stay she’ll stay even if you’re having an arm waving conversation with someone. Another situation might be if you needed the dog to stay because of some hazardous situation where you needed to use your hands. I think Stay is a practical command and is just rendered useless by adding these requirements.
Maggie doesn’t really NEED obedience class, but as long as her housemate’s going, I think as a working breed type dog it’s good for her brain.
That’s right Helen. Stay has to mean stay. But going to class is good brain exercise for the dogs. My dog could never do ‘drop’. She always just looked at me with disdain, but she’s good with sit/stay and will do other useful stuff, so the teacher quite sensibly said not to worry about it.
I ride a mountain bike across 100 acres morning and night with my pair of Deerhounds in tow. They’re not allowed to hassle or chase sheep, lambs, goats or any other stock or kangaroos [plentiful] but may chase rabbits an occasional hare and foxes. That’s discipline with a capital d however I wouldn’t attempt obedience classes. Forty years with the breed and they’re still trying to teach me the appropriate level.
I love sighthounds! So graceful to watch and so calm to hang out with. Do they ever get a rabbit?
They like the chase and sometimes score. Better with the hares as they don’t go to ground and rely on turning out of trouble until they’re safely into scrub. Over the first 30 or 40 meters your whippet and its ability to turn would leave them behind tho’ my bitch will turn a hare several times over a couple of clicks.
I’m afraid my whippet would run away from a rabbit. But she did manage to take a swooping magpie out of the air once, which impressed me.
My chihuahua once chased a Xmas beetle. For about halfway acrosss the room. (when he was alive.)
Lazy Monday: the latest xkcd is brilliant.
Well, when I was younger I had a Dachshund/German Shepherd/Corgi-cross that used to chase jet airliners.
She never actually caught one, but would always come back upstairs with a smug expression as if to say “I gave that one a good fright, it’ll never come back again”.
Well, almost always. There was that day when she didn’t realise that the kitchen lino had just been polished and the back steps were approaching with an unexpected rapidity…