Stories

One of the Guardian's websites, guardianwitness, is calling for people to submit their stories if they think they have an unusual job. Ever wondered whether there were people whose daily job it was to manage closed, historic cemeteries, or study rhino poo, or removed staples from documents, or paint telephone relay antennas? Well, there are people who do these things. I decided to add my own story as I think the job I do is unusual, too. Go here for the stories. Mine is called You write what?

B'day

Before setting out to a weekend with Tess, we had a quiet 53th birthday dinner with Yarrow on the day I returned from my tripette to Malaysia. I came home to this welcoming message on the front door, which was really nice. We went out to Newrybar with our friends Helen and Ian for a quiet coffee and scones, and spent the rest of the day Not Doing Much At All. Yarrow came to ours after school, and we enjoyed a nice meal of steak (favourite!), aardappelkoekjes and veggies, followed by a strawberry Victoria sponge. Yum! No wild party this time, maybe later . Yarrow gave me David Malouf's latest book, A first place, on the nature of Home, which I have started reading and am going to enjoy muchly.

Weekend with Tess

My love and I spent the weekend in Brisbane, with Tess. Having left Raffi with Helen and Ian, we met up on Saturday in a cafe called Brew, just before Tess had to go to work. Niki and I then had a delicious dinner at a Ukranian/Russian restaurant, Torba, in the South Bank area that evening: we kept Yarrow amused at the same time with Russian-accented texts, to report on the 'Russian lady' who was entertaining the guests with bland and annoying 80s music, until she (finally) sang a few Ukranian and Russian songs to much greater acclaim. We stayed the night at the Meriton, a needle-like serviced apartments tower in the CBD, and in the morning we had breakfast at Tess', followed by what we thought was going to be a stroll down the markets at the South Bank. Unfortunately, public transport let us down and we spent about an hour at the station chatting enjoyably, after which we decided to continue on to where Tess works: there she had organised a wonderful lunch. Her colleagues were all genuinely pleased to see her, and serve us - which Tess found somewhat  'unusual' as she is always the one serving. After lunch we went back to Tess' house on the water taxi and then zoomed off home in the dark. A truly enjoyable and great weekend!

Brisbane city by night

The Storey bridge

Smile!

Egg

Well, you see, we do need the wheelbarrow now to clean the stables, Desdemona. So, unfortunately, you will have to move to a different egg-laying facility... Laying a daily egg is always the first thing Desdemona does in the morning, as soon as she is released from night-time confinement. She rushes into the sheds, legs it to the nearby stables, and does her thing - in the wheelbarrow. Always. Fresh straw put there just for the purpose. However, this time, after she had laid her Thursday-morning speckled egg, the still-warm straw from the wheelbarrow was moved onto the ground and the wheelbarrow employed in the service of the Big Muck-out. Some of the other chickens who, in the meantime, had been pecking away at the damp morning grass, came back in to have a look at this disturbing upheaval of life as they knew it. Much a-clucking in consternation and affront was heard, until (not a minute later) they went back to their usual routine. We may have to search for the next egg, though - not sure where she will seek out her new oviparous production grounds.

Stabled!

Last night it bucketed it down, which was convenient as the stables had been finished earlier that afternoon. So, in they went, into their luxury accommodation, and stayed the night there while Pluvius drenched the paddocks. We checked up on them once to see they were calm and restful, which they were. This morning, we found them quite happy waiting to be let out into the freshly watered fields.

And off we go ...

It has taken a while, what with travel, work, life, love and the universe, but this weekend we finally managed to get the horses onto the spanking new horse float. First we went for a ride to tire them out a bit and get them into (obedient) shape; then we drove to Eltham, circled the roundabout at the pub and drove back home! Not a journey, in any stretch of the imagination, but certainly exciting (both for the horses, who were wonderful and boarded without too much hassle) and for us (it's quite a thing to load more than a 1,000 kilos of living flesh onto a trailer, not quite knowing how things are going to pan out.) Emu was, initially, scraping at the rubber floor, as if to say 'What the **** is this stuff?' However, via our on-dashboard monitor, linked to a camera inside the float, we could see that after a kilometer or so both Emu and Duchess had settled down. Now that we have successfully managed to do so, the world is our oyster and the next trip planned is to go to the beach at Lennox!

Coming out of hiding...

Now all we need to do is open it up and get them horses on...

Emu doesn't seem to be too keen ...pretending to be eating...

Hiding around the corner of the shed... I can see you, Duchess!

We can keep an eye on them on the dashboard monitor

Back from a ten-minute trial drive, to Eltham and back.

Another day in ...

For all of you who are coming to stay with us for the wedding ... a morning view ...

Stables

Whilst it rains outside, the 'resident' tradies can work inside. So, after a long, long wait, Red and Dave have started on the stables in the big green shed. A brief photo show of developments - we are so excited for them to be finished. It would have been good to have them in the current weather ... One of the reasons for building them is to be able to stable the horses during periods of wet weather as ours (last year) developed all sorts of trouble with the feet which ended up being a drawn-out and expensive affair ...

bringing materials in

Raffie helping out. "Ball?"

Red thinks he is in a SF movie... The gate must be to another dimension?

Raffie helping out some more. "Ball?

Ah, starting to look like stables.

And the gate appears to be, well, a gate. To be continued.

Chook

We've had a sick chook for a few weeks now, Ophelia, who seems to be unwilling (or unable?) to walk properly. A vet's visit seemed to be conclusive that she doesn't have some awful, terminal illness, but she may have sprained a leg... She's now living up the hill for a bit, away from the other chickens who ignore her anyway and probably feeling a bit more comfortable and safe. Last night, after a good old bottom wash (did you know there are actually Youtube videos on how to bathe a chicken, it's true!) she ended up in a luxury box in the laundry, and during the day today just outside the office under the upstairs verandah. She's cheerful enough, has started waddling about, and preening herself again, does do the occasional 30-50 cm walk, does eat (although very, very selectively). We're not sure (yet) what to do... Today it was a wet chicken as well, as she insisted sitting in the rain for a bit. She didn't seem to mind.

Invitation

The wedding invitations have been sent out, and now we are waiting for people to conform their departures and arrivals. Niki's parents will be there, as will be my Mum and bro-in-law Arthur, and Anjes and Jon. It's going to be a great day with lots of lovely people. It'll be a full house in Pearces Creek for a while, but we won't be working while they are there so we have all the time for everybody. Let's hope the weather will be better than today's...