News of the World
Jul. 16th, 2008 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyreI love between 4 and 5pm when the sun goes honey gold and coats everything. I remember playing in this light as a child, now I look at it out of my office window.
So, what's been happening in my life?
I went on a holiday! It was too short, but aren't they all. Matt's parents came over for a bit and we headed to Busselton for a few days.
We were relying on a TomTom GPS to get us to our destination and things started being a bit funny when it led us inland from Bunbury. We got stuck behind a huge truck in Donnybrook (honestly, I think the truck WAS stuck in the narrow main street of the town). So we detoured and found ourselves roaring along gravel roads in some lovely Jarrah forest, trusting the GPS to figure out where we were and how to get where we were going. Eventually we reached a T-junction with a sign pointing right stating "Busselton - 59km", but the GPS insisted we should turn left (and head back to the highway) and that Busselton was 90km away! Consensus in the car was to trust the sign, and the GPS kept insisting that we turn around and go back the way it demanded. After much puzzling we glanced at the entire route map and found the problem - it wanted to take us to Augusta! Matt's dad had keyed in the address of where we were staying, and for some reason it figured that address was in Augusta. When he just keyed in Busselton it was a lot more agreeable. A real worry there, but we made it to our (proper) destination.
Very different kind of holiday from ones I used to take with mum and dad. We didn't head out until 10ish, came home around 4 and seemed to be sitting in a cafe every half hour. We did the tour of Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse (but didn't wander much around it). Spotted a Fan-tailed Cuckoo which was nice. And my knees made it up and down the stairs. :) Then headed to Sugarloaf Rock for a look - wrong time of year for Tropicbirds though, then onto Canal Rocks where I was left behind on the boardwalk while everyone went rockhopping - I hope I'll be able to pretend to be a mountain goat again sometime.
Then the best bit - we went to Ngilgi (nee Yallingup) cave. I LOVE the caves. I'm utterly fascinated by them. This cave is also warm and humid and I wanted to spend the night. Lots of steps which my knee dealt with surprisingly well. Took photos - will post some in a future post.
Next day rained a lot and we headed down to Cowaramup/Margaret River to taste test candies, cheeses and a few wines. Matt and I MUST go to Woody Nook winery for a meal ASAP. Their winter menu was spectacular, the duck dish looked absolutely delicious.
On the last morning we walked the Busselton Jetty, which was more taxing on my knee than the cave was. Unfortunately the underwater observatory was closed due to all the wind and rain stirring up silt in the water.
I arrived home from our holiday to find no pee on the floor and just a bit of poo in the passage way, which was easily cleaned up. But that evening while I was laying in bed reading I heard a piddly sound and Lil was going on the floor. Admittedly, the door was closed, but I had opened up the bathroom as an escape route, obviously it wasn't good enough. I cleaned it up and didn't think much more of it, apart from the fact that it probably was her who peed on my backpack - Frebreeze didn't work, I really need to empty it and air it out but the rain isn't helping that task. Cue the next night, mum and dad were over for dinner as well as Matt's parents and it was just generally noisy. I figure it was possibly stress that caused Lil to poop on the bedroom floor AND pee on my ugg boot. I cleaned it up, figured she was just getting old and all the noise was unnerving her. NEXT night, I fed them and noticed Lil squatting on the kitchen floor, she left a few drops then headed towards the bedroom. Matt and I quickly herded her into the laundry and I sat in there with her and the door closed. She continued to squat, trickle, then seek out a new place to squat. I let her outside (much to Bella's chagrin) and watched her as she kept doing this. Oohkay. Google Balcatta Emergency Vet and find that their regular hours end at 9pm (it's only about 6pm when this happens). I ring up and enquire and we figure that it would be best for me to bring her in. Being an emergency vet they don't have appointments, so I tracked down Lil, who was still trying to pee more than a few drops outside, and bundled her into the carrier surprisingly easily.
The vet had a few dogs ahead of me but I don't think I waited more than half an hour. Once she was put on the table (mind you she was remarkably subdued during the entire experience) immediately a few cloudly dribbles appeared and the vet said, "I bet it's a bladder infection." She got a kidney dish and tried to get a decent sample out of Lil but couldn't, so just tested the puddle on the table which confirmed the diagnosis. I now have anti-biotics to feed her morning and night for 2 weeks. I let the vet know that I knew the technique for giving pills to cats and she gave Lil the first one and told me things would settle in 24 - 48 hours. I took her home and she spent most of the night sleeping in the carrier, which she has previously hated. It's still on the loungeroom floor and she's still sitting/sleeping in it most of the time. The next morning I'm looking at the tablets and I notice it says "palatable" and "are often taken straight from the hand." Lil is a hoover for any food scraps, so I offered her the pill - *slurp* gone. Aah, this will make things MUCH easier! Unfortunately that night she sniffed at the offered pill then turned away and I had to administer it the unpleasant way. Lil was not impressed and Matt and I ended up with some claw and teeth marks. Next time round I put it in the gooshyfood (a previous attempt at secreting among cat biscuits didn't work). She ate it right up - this has worked twice in a row now so hopefully it continues to work, it will be a lot more pleasant for both of us.
Matt had a birthday. So we headed to Ikea (first time we'd been there since the new one opened, my God it's HUGE!) Matt ended up with a nice little cupboard to replace the dodgy shelves under the kitchen bench and a nice glass-fronted cabinet to replace the old buffet cabinet that has been in about 7 houses since 1985 and has now had it - anyone want an old cabinet to stick in a shed or something for storage space? Problem was, once the box was opened it was discovered to be missing about 5 pieces AND the back piece was incorrectly drilled. Matt has since got a replacement, this one better be complete. The idea was to set it up Sunday morning while his parents were around to help (I'll let Matt do the bitching about how the lack of Sunday trading in W.A. is really fucking annoying).
I have peas! And pea flowers. And flowers on the capsicum! and the blueberry! And the TOMATO has 3 flowers!!!!
And I sprayed the citrus with white oil, I hope that takes care of whatever is screwing up the leaves.
That ingrown toenail I had a few weeks back? Is now ingrown and sore on the OTHER side of the toe. Sheesh, will I ever get back the gym properly?
And Veggie Wash. Have you seen this stuff? I don't get it. What's wrong with water if you must wash your veggies? Why spend money on a product that adds more chemicals to the mix? Are they implying that the pesticides and other stuff potentially on veggies is so bad that it needs to be washed off with a certain substance? I'll just eat my fruit and veg as is thanks, anything I can do to fortify my immune system - hasn't failed me yet.
So, what's been happening in my life?
I went on a holiday! It was too short, but aren't they all. Matt's parents came over for a bit and we headed to Busselton for a few days.
We were relying on a TomTom GPS to get us to our destination and things started being a bit funny when it led us inland from Bunbury. We got stuck behind a huge truck in Donnybrook (honestly, I think the truck WAS stuck in the narrow main street of the town). So we detoured and found ourselves roaring along gravel roads in some lovely Jarrah forest, trusting the GPS to figure out where we were and how to get where we were going. Eventually we reached a T-junction with a sign pointing right stating "Busselton - 59km", but the GPS insisted we should turn left (and head back to the highway) and that Busselton was 90km away! Consensus in the car was to trust the sign, and the GPS kept insisting that we turn around and go back the way it demanded. After much puzzling we glanced at the entire route map and found the problem - it wanted to take us to Augusta! Matt's dad had keyed in the address of where we were staying, and for some reason it figured that address was in Augusta. When he just keyed in Busselton it was a lot more agreeable. A real worry there, but we made it to our (proper) destination.
Very different kind of holiday from ones I used to take with mum and dad. We didn't head out until 10ish, came home around 4 and seemed to be sitting in a cafe every half hour. We did the tour of Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse (but didn't wander much around it). Spotted a Fan-tailed Cuckoo which was nice. And my knees made it up and down the stairs. :) Then headed to Sugarloaf Rock for a look - wrong time of year for Tropicbirds though, then onto Canal Rocks where I was left behind on the boardwalk while everyone went rockhopping - I hope I'll be able to pretend to be a mountain goat again sometime.
Then the best bit - we went to Ngilgi (nee Yallingup) cave. I LOVE the caves. I'm utterly fascinated by them. This cave is also warm and humid and I wanted to spend the night. Lots of steps which my knee dealt with surprisingly well. Took photos - will post some in a future post.
Next day rained a lot and we headed down to Cowaramup/Margaret River to taste test candies, cheeses and a few wines. Matt and I MUST go to Woody Nook winery for a meal ASAP. Their winter menu was spectacular, the duck dish looked absolutely delicious.
On the last morning we walked the Busselton Jetty, which was more taxing on my knee than the cave was. Unfortunately the underwater observatory was closed due to all the wind and rain stirring up silt in the water.
I arrived home from our holiday to find no pee on the floor and just a bit of poo in the passage way, which was easily cleaned up. But that evening while I was laying in bed reading I heard a piddly sound and Lil was going on the floor. Admittedly, the door was closed, but I had opened up the bathroom as an escape route, obviously it wasn't good enough. I cleaned it up and didn't think much more of it, apart from the fact that it probably was her who peed on my backpack - Frebreeze didn't work, I really need to empty it and air it out but the rain isn't helping that task. Cue the next night, mum and dad were over for dinner as well as Matt's parents and it was just generally noisy. I figure it was possibly stress that caused Lil to poop on the bedroom floor AND pee on my ugg boot. I cleaned it up, figured she was just getting old and all the noise was unnerving her. NEXT night, I fed them and noticed Lil squatting on the kitchen floor, she left a few drops then headed towards the bedroom. Matt and I quickly herded her into the laundry and I sat in there with her and the door closed. She continued to squat, trickle, then seek out a new place to squat. I let her outside (much to Bella's chagrin) and watched her as she kept doing this. Oohkay. Google Balcatta Emergency Vet and find that their regular hours end at 9pm (it's only about 6pm when this happens). I ring up and enquire and we figure that it would be best for me to bring her in. Being an emergency vet they don't have appointments, so I tracked down Lil, who was still trying to pee more than a few drops outside, and bundled her into the carrier surprisingly easily.
The vet had a few dogs ahead of me but I don't think I waited more than half an hour. Once she was put on the table (mind you she was remarkably subdued during the entire experience) immediately a few cloudly dribbles appeared and the vet said, "I bet it's a bladder infection." She got a kidney dish and tried to get a decent sample out of Lil but couldn't, so just tested the puddle on the table which confirmed the diagnosis. I now have anti-biotics to feed her morning and night for 2 weeks. I let the vet know that I knew the technique for giving pills to cats and she gave Lil the first one and told me things would settle in 24 - 48 hours. I took her home and she spent most of the night sleeping in the carrier, which she has previously hated. It's still on the loungeroom floor and she's still sitting/sleeping in it most of the time. The next morning I'm looking at the tablets and I notice it says "palatable" and "are often taken straight from the hand." Lil is a hoover for any food scraps, so I offered her the pill - *slurp* gone. Aah, this will make things MUCH easier! Unfortunately that night she sniffed at the offered pill then turned away and I had to administer it the unpleasant way. Lil was not impressed and Matt and I ended up with some claw and teeth marks. Next time round I put it in the gooshyfood (a previous attempt at secreting among cat biscuits didn't work). She ate it right up - this has worked twice in a row now so hopefully it continues to work, it will be a lot more pleasant for both of us.
Matt had a birthday. So we headed to Ikea (first time we'd been there since the new one opened, my God it's HUGE!) Matt ended up with a nice little cupboard to replace the dodgy shelves under the kitchen bench and a nice glass-fronted cabinet to replace the old buffet cabinet that has been in about 7 houses since 1985 and has now had it - anyone want an old cabinet to stick in a shed or something for storage space? Problem was, once the box was opened it was discovered to be missing about 5 pieces AND the back piece was incorrectly drilled. Matt has since got a replacement, this one better be complete. The idea was to set it up Sunday morning while his parents were around to help (I'll let Matt do the bitching about how the lack of Sunday trading in W.A. is really fucking annoying).
I have peas! And pea flowers. And flowers on the capsicum! and the blueberry! And the TOMATO has 3 flowers!!!!
And I sprayed the citrus with white oil, I hope that takes care of whatever is screwing up the leaves.
That ingrown toenail I had a few weeks back? Is now ingrown and sore on the OTHER side of the toe. Sheesh, will I ever get back the gym properly?
And Veggie Wash. Have you seen this stuff? I don't get it. What's wrong with water if you must wash your veggies? Why spend money on a product that adds more chemicals to the mix? Are they implying that the pesticides and other stuff potentially on veggies is so bad that it needs to be washed off with a certain substance? I'll just eat my fruit and veg as is thanks, anything I can do to fortify my immune system - hasn't failed me yet.
