something else

Last Sunday I rode the 65k Eastlink opening celebration ride - lots of fun, great road - hopeless crowd control. Never mind, it's good to have a big cycling event in the middle of Winter. So now I'm starting to think about getting started on the spring cycling fitness and this morning, decided I was going to combine my walking with some cycling..... This morning was a classic situation of "ugh do I realy have to get out of bed so early?" My new cat keeps waking me up at 5am, so by the time I throw him out of the room (no he is NOT allowed to sleep on the bed), and snuggle back down, I am just drifting off when the alarm goes. Today I had it set for 6.30 because I thought it was a good opportunity to try a combined train/bike trip across town and see how the timing worked out and how many k's it would be for the bike section. Anyway, Charlie did his usual thing and began yowling at around 4.50 am and I hissed at him then got out of bed and stomped my foot and him,...

Yes that's me sitting at Altona Railway station at 9:20 pm with my trakkie daks and pink fluffy slippers on. How did I come to be there? I invited Kristin over for dinner. Because Kristin is usually working in the city, I rang and offered to pick her up. She said that actually she was at home that day and would catch public transport in to where I work. Now remember that the first time she came over to my new house, she got off the train a station too early, and I had to go and rescue her, then the second time she came over she forgot to check the timetable and ended up on a train that went express straight through our station, so I had to go and rescue her.... This time she got on a tram without checking the timetable and instead of taking her in a direct line to where she should be, it did a right hand turn, it was dark, she was reading her book and the next thing I know I get a phone call. "I don't know where I am...." Eventually we got to our local shops and stop...

Well, I never thought that I'd end up an old lady with a cat - but there you are, and here I am with Charlie. This week Charlie has new toys to keep him occupied while I am at work .... The toys are pretty good value because Charlie invents all sorts of ways of maintaining interest in them, such as burying them under the beautiful rug in my lounge room. This requires much clawing at the rug to get it to lift so that he can access the toy underneath it .... and hiding it under the curtains so that he can attack the curtains with true tabby cat ferocity and regain his rightful possessions. This weekend Charlie discovered how to jump onto the table which is parked at the end of the sideway and to go from there, up onto the fence and out into the front garden (read ROAD). This caused a re-think in my `Living with a CAT Strategic Plan'. First Action item was to catch Charlie in the middle of tearing up the sideway passage, before he gets to the table and BLAST him with a jet strea...

You wouldn't think that something as cute as this could create havoc, but I was finally glad that the man with the chainsaw had thinned the foliage of the Callistemon, when Charlie discovered trees. I have to say, he hadn't even given this tree so much as a sideways glance, when suddenly he was up in it. Well that was all well and good, but as they say, "What goes up, must come down." and that was a little difficult. He tried a number of different routes, including performing some extraordinary acrobatics, and one manouver which made him look like a koala. Have you ever watched a koala back down a tree trunk? With a little encouragement from me, he found his way back to ground level and with his heart beating wildly decided to take me up on my offer of a bit of food and relaxation back inside the house. Later in the afternoon, I decided to let him out again for a run before nightfall. This time he managed to attack my pot of Carex grass, which trails beautifully, pl...

I still find it hard to believe how lucky I am. One of my favourite walks from my new home, takes me alongside a creek and down towards the rivermouth and coastline. A couple of days ago I walked in brilliant early sunlight, through scrub and grasslands, watching the mist rise off the creek and enjoying the morning. The flight of a pelican setting off for the ocean caught my attention. He rose above the creek grasses, like an old fashioned barge, his wings were oars carving the air, neck and head bent back and strong beak horizontal to the river. Slowly lifting his cumbersome weight and trimming his strokes to perform a silent turn towards his feeding grounds, he went forward, regardless of my admiration. The shags and cormorants were still standing with wings outstretched to catch the morning sun, while he rose above them all setting about his daily business, a proficient and efficient, tradesman amongst the townsfolk down below. There are so many things to catch your eye when out wal...