Friday, February 11, 2011

A ridiculously long post. Bring out the tim-tams. [Don't worry, it's a happy one.]

Monday.
It was a bad day. I woke up and wrote about something I didn't think I would ever need to again. I didn't expect many people to read it. I often rant and write about sad things, almost hoping that people don't notice them, but just needing to put the words down somewhere. To my surprise, many people did read it, and are still reading it. Some sent comforting words. Some were from people I've never even met, except in the dogblog park.

Let me tell you, a virtual hug is as good as any you may receive in real life.


Tuesday.
There are 2 pots near our garden door. Lush chinese star jasmines grew in them. Then Georgia came to live with us.

Every time we left the house, she would methodically chew through everything. Part of her You Left Me Home Alone routine would be to dig up the 2 jasmines and leave them on the deck for us. Part of my I'm Home, It's Time To Clean Up routine would be to sweep up the soil, shovel it all back into the pots and re-plant the jasmines. This went on for at least a year.

Georgia's not dug up the jasmines in a long time. They have weak stems and shallow roots, but they survived. But that's not the story I want to tell you here.

I want to show you what's growing BETWEEN the pots.
It's a baby orange tree. I first noticed it on Tuesday.

There used to be an old orange tree where the 2 pots are now. Over the years, it developed some kind of bug infestation. The branches blackened and started dying one by one. Eventually the entire tree died and the bark started to peel off. We took it down. We hadn't made any effort to save it because the fruit wasn't any good. That was 3 years ago, before we got Georgia, before we lost Jordan.

I don't know how it's possible that there's a baby orange tree growing there again, but I look forward to following its progress.


Wednesday.
I didn't feel like writing but I was keen to read. I saw that one of the bloggers on my blogroll had won an award and went over to congratulate her.

I've only just discovered this blog. It's about a lady who lives with a whole bunch of critters, many of whom she fosters. Her name is Jean. She has some amazing stories. Some of them make me cry. But that's okay. I enjoy a good cry now and then. In fact, here's one of my favourites. Bring out the Kleenex.

As I continued to read her post, I suddenly saw a familiar name. This one. littledogsonlongleashes.

Yes, she'd chosen this blog as one of the ones she was forwarding the award to. I told her I was gobsmacked. And, liking the word a lot, I'll use it here too. I'm gobsmacked.
Anyone who has actually seen me will know that Jean made a mistake with this award. Although I've lately started to wear [tent] dresses [mostly because I'm now too large to fit into last summer's shorts], I have never been, and will never be, mistaken for stylish.

So I will continue Jean's tradition of letting the stylish one in the family pick up the award.

"Thank you Ms Jean! I'm sorry I look so grumpy here but my stay-at-home human woke me up from my mid-morning nap just to take this picture and I didn't even get a sliver of liver for it."
I would thank God but I'm not religious. So I will instead thank Jean Who Lives In Pants, for giving me something to smile about on February 9th.

Thursday.
My friend Michelle turned 30. I don't remember what it's like to be 30 [or even 40, but maybe we shouldn't go there].

Being a brave girl, she wasn't fazed one tiny bit. I'm so proud of her for not wilting and wailing at the thought of being up the hill [though far from over it].

We had A Most Marvellous [and I bet fattening] Chinese Banquet to celebrate. I'm going to list the dishes here because I sometimes talk about food and share recipes in this dogblog, and I haven't done that for a while.


Oysters in shell, with lightly seasoned vermicelli
Peking duck crepes
Sang choy pau
Pineapple rice
Garlic and chilli prawn fritters
Slow braised pork
Wagyu beef with Chinese leek
Crispy deep fried fish
Assorted mushrooms, stirfried
Mango pudding
2 birthday cakes - taro and tiramisu

I hope I remembered them all, but if I didn't, you get the picture. It was Very Yummy.

Friday.
There are strings attached to getting the award.

String 1 - I have to tell everyone 7 things about myself. I've already explained to Jean that I don't have 7 revelations to share. What I do have, are some very good reasons for that. And these, I WILL share.

1. I am a very boring person.
2. I am a very shy person.
3. I am a very secretive person.
and lastly,
4. I am an anonymous person who is pretending to be a dog.

I hope those are good enough reasons for you.

Instead, I'll tell you 2 things about Georgia you don't know! I could only come up with 2 things because I've done nothing but write about her for 13 months, so I suspect you know almost as much about Ms Pea as I do!

Here they are.
1. Georgia used to be called Molly!

At least, that was the name on her collar. But we were told that it wasn't HER collar, just one from the pound that fit her scrawny neck.

If you've been following Georgia's story, you'll know that she and Rufus are housemates, but not the best of friends. I suppose the age gap is just too big. She wants to play and thinks he's boring. He wants to sleep and thinks she's a bluebottle in his tail.

But, in the beginning of time, it was Rufus B Thumper, not us humans, that picked Georgia Little Pea out of all the dogs he met at several rescues.

She was in awe of him in those days. She worked hard for 1 whole night to get onto his good side [and permission to enter the lounge room]. I have that whole Working Her Feminine Wiles On Unsuspecting Old Dog on video but it's too long and blurry to share, so here are a couple of pictures instead, of her crowning moment.

2. Yes, Georgia liked Rufus quite a bit back then.

String 2 - I pass the award on to a few more blogs. [Jean said 15, but that's practically my whole blogroll! So I'm just going to settle for 3.]

I'm also going to make more awards of my own to hand out, in addition to The Stylish Award. I have no pretty badges for them, but I hope the recipients like them anyway.

The Thank You For Making Me Look At My Senior Dog Through New Eyes Award goes to c at ddy. This blog has a lot of information and many helpful links for people who have senior dogs. As you may know, Rufus isn't just geriatric, he's also sickly in many ways. So it was wonderful to "meet" Chandra and to learn from her, how to appreciate my old dog as he is. To be honest, with so many bad Rufus days, I had forgotten. But I've now been reminded, and I thank her for it.


The Very Stylish As You Can See From Her Latest Post Award goes to The Queen and Supreme Goddess Of Bermtopia. I might be stepping out of line here, but I think this lady MAY be as opinionated as me. Plus she spontaneously helped me write 2 posts that went completely under the radar [according to my ever dependable stats counter] but which I will have to list as 2 of my favourites to write. And here they are 1, 2 and 3. Yes, if you're going to read 1, you'll have to read them all. Trust me on this. And if you'd like to know why I enjoy her blog, this is the post that did it for me, right HERE.


The On A Bad Day, Have A Look At How Some Other People Are Doing Award goes to Emmy at Dogs In Brazil. I found this blog a few months back because I like trawling for small blogs from farflung places. I then forgot all about it, until I saw it on DaleysDogYears. That was around the time of the Brazil floods. Emmy's up-close and personal account of the aftermath of the flooding [and particularly its effect on local animal life] was riveting to read. I haven't stopped reading the blog since.

I could forward the award to every blog on my shortish blogroll because I enjoy them all in different ways. Why else would they be there on the blogroll? But I'm going to stop here and, instead, say to everyone else,  

"I'm so glad to have met you. Thank you for making my visits to the blog park fun :)"

It's been an up and down 5 days. But it's late afternoon on Friday now, and despite the dread of Monday and thanks to friends, it's been a good week.

I'm now going to go back to My Life With The Critters and pay a visit to Jean's other awarded blogs. I don't believe I've heard of any of them before.

I think it's going to be a good weekend too.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratulations on the Stylish Blogger award. It is very well-deserved.

There's so much good stuff in this post I'm going to be late to work if I don't stop here. I'll be back later to check out the links.

Dogs in Brazil said...

Hi georgia, It is Emmy's mom from Dogs in Brazil. We are all really chuffed at our award. Emmy asked me if it was edible, so I had to explain to her that it was a stylish badge. Then she asked if she could wear it when she goes out! Seriously we love the award and you deserve yours too. Do I just publish the 7 things?

Pup Fan said...

Congrats on your award!

Love the photos. :)

georgia little pea said...

@ janeiro - YES, it's one of the 2 Strings attached!

You also have to mention who gave you the award. And pass it on to a few other blogs you love. If you go read My life with the critters (link on this post, and on my blogroll), you might get a better idea of what you should be doing. This post here is a bit of a kitchen sink :p

THANKS EVERYONE :) xox

sonia a. mascaro said...

Hi dear Georgia!
Congratulations on your Award!
Love your photo with the cap. You with Rufus looks adorable too!

Thanks for the links, they sounds great. (I don't know the blog Dogs in Brazil, yet.)

Have a nice weekend.

Jean said...

Well, I had to google tim-tams to find out what they are (thank heavens for Wikipedia) - yum, they sound delicious. Of course, I had to tell Charley and Sadie they can't have any tim-tams as chocolate is toxic for dogs, so now they are pouting. They think you should have said "Bring out the dried liver".

I agree fifteen blogs was a bit much! I'm still trying to get to the thirty-something that ended up on the blogroll event at the end of last year. Thanks for playing along - off to check out the ones you have mentioned here.

georgia little pea said...

TIMMIES! One of the great inventions of our sunburnt country. (At the risk of starting a fierce debate here, MUCH more edible than vegemite.) I hope google gave good advice on The Proper Way to eat them too?

Sorry CharleySadie. Sometimes, life is a box of chocolate timtams :)

KimT said...

Congrats on your award - you sooo deserve it! You've written a lot here to digest, and I read the previous post, too. I'm so sorry, for your loss, for your pain, for the void. I had a similar experience, I don't think I'll ever forget. Guess that's what we get for loving them so much!

Chandra said...

Congratulations on your award, GLP. You deserve every pixel of it!

And thank you thank you thank you for passing it along! You were gobsmacked over the news, Emmy's Mom is chuffed and I'm going to use my California roots to express my glee - I'm SO STOKED! I only wish I could receive it in person, along with a hug from Rufus but you don't do "in person" and I don't think Rufus does hugs! So ... I'm just honored. Thanks.

I think GLP's jasmine attacks were her way of trying to make room for the orange tree! And oranges for the new year are a good sign, right?!

I'll get to work on my award acceptance duties ... and figuring out where I can find Tim Tams in my town.

c at ddy.

georgia little pea said...

Yeah...get to work Ms Chandra :p

Ahhh...chewy caramel timmies, the best! I'm sure you must be able to get some in the great States? But if not, I can send some over if you like :) xox, anonymously of course.

Karen Friesecke said...

Well, I'd hardly think that you are a boring person. Give yourself a little more credit that than! You started a blog didn't you and that's far from boring :P

Love the pics of Georgia cuddling with Thumper!!

georgia little pea said...

@Karen - After thinking about this deeply while walking Rufus in the rain, cleaning the dishes and mopping the kitchen, I think you're right! I'm not boring. I just CURRENTLY lead a boring life. Yes, that's much more accurate :)

Jen said...

Thank you for stopping by my little corner of the interwebs... you've come by at a low point in my blogging, thanks in large part to a very stressful job and graduate school. But, I hope to recover the spark and get back to feeling normal! And, feel free to come by again!

I am happy to have discovered your blog; it's lovely!! I can't wait to visit more frequently!

Jen and the Black Dog Crew

sonia a. mascaro said...

Hi Georgia,
Next week I will do a post about my and Flora's "virtual dogs friends" who loves to take a nap on Mom's bed or on the couch too. May I post your photo on my blog? Please, let me know if I could do it. Thank you!

Have a nice Sunday!

georgia little pea said...

What a great idea, Sonia! Love it. I will email you a few pictures because I'm not too sure you can save the ones from this blog. I might have disabled the download function because I noticed quite a few image searches here in the last few months.

Happy Valentine's Day :) xox

Chandra said...

I've looked at the photos of GLP and RBT cozied up together about five times now! So damn cute.

c at ddy.