Friday, August 31, 2012

A ride on the ferry.

A few of you have been asking about Somewhere Else and where that might be. That is a very good question indeed and we'll let you know as soon as we find out. 

[Please check back in about 2 years.]

One of the best things about making a life change is a new appreciation of what you already have.

Yesterday, after having been a good girl all week and finishing a phenomenal spring clean [even if I say so myself], I was let out to play with some friends. I took a ferry from one of our neighbourhood wharves and in under 15 minutes, was at Circular Quay in the city. From there, it was a short 5 minute walk to Our Famous Opera House.

Here are some pictures I took of my little night out with the girls [and 1 man], sans the delicious half-naked men we went to see. [I was too busy ogling to take pictures of them.]
Here comes the ferry! Only a little late. 
This one plies between Darling Harbour [in the background] and Circular Quay. That tallest little needle is Centrepoint Tower which we have yet to go up. Typical. You always think you have all the time in the world to see things in the city you live in.

 And off we go!
Icons to the foreground and back. 
I'm assuming I don't have to name them or they wouldn't be icons.
Icon to the left too. *yawn* This city has too many icons. Is YOUR city like that? 
Watch your head! Here we go, under the Harbour Bridge!
And out the other side.
Welcome to Circular Quay and Sydney's main ferry terminal!
Please ignore the sign that says Railway Station. 
I definitely got off the ferry here.

 Here's the walk from the wharf to the Opera House.
Under those umbrellas is one of many cafes in the area. If you intend to eat here, bring lots of money. I've never in my life paid 9.50 for 3 tiny dumplings before and I will carry that experience to the end of my days. 
Have I, or have I not, mentioned there are a lot of birds in Sydney?

Here's when I got drunk on 1 little glass of wine. 
Or was it 2? 

After the rip-off a tiny dinner and drinks, we went to watch our show. I was too old and cheap knackered to party on after the show, and left my young friends to their drinks and giggles.  Despite a still somewhat stinky knee, I made it to the wharf in time to catch the ferry!
It was a bloody* cold trip home [because I stayed out on the deck to take more pictures] and I think I might have caught a cold.
Doesn't the park look a whole lot better in the dark?
And finally, home sweet home! 
I hope you enjoyed the ride on the ferry! It's one of my favourite things to do in our neighbourhood :) X



* Rose assures me this is not considered a swear word in Australia and that it's totally dinky-di to use it.



Specially for the ladies reading this, here's what we went to see.

What were you expecting? Manpower?



Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Some nice humans from my neighbourhood.

My humans have been talking a lot lately about moving to Somewhere Else. Of course, no one has bothered to consult me at all, which is frightening. Shouldn't I have some say in my future? Where is Somewhere Else anyway?
Personally, I like where I live. There are possums in the trees, fishing on the pier, parks everywhere and lots of other dogs to play with. 

The only down side to living here are the scary dog-hunting cats. 
 But I guess it's hard to find an absolutely perfect neighbourhood.
As long as you don't get your ears pecked by the mad swooping birds every Spring, you will almost certainly have a good time in my neighbourhood.

We saw this magpie get chased by 2 noisy miners on our Saturday walk!

There are also many nice humans where I live. This might surprise you since we live in a big city, but it's true.

Of course there are crap ones too who never smile or say please and thank you and who hog the sidewalk and supermarket aisles, but I won't tell you about those today because I'm in a good mood.

Some of my most favourite humans work at our chemist. 

I don't have any pictures except this blurry one from a long time ago and The Typist is too lazy to go get a nice new picture for me. It's the shop on the right hand side!

There's always a bowl of water outside and a big bag of treats under the counter for dogs that visit, and the humans there aren't stingy with them either.

*

From my experience, the easiest way to pick out a nice human from a crap one is to give them a good sniff. 
Nice humans always smell of treats. I don't know why that's so. It's just a fact of life.

You don't have to do very much to get treats from nice humans. All you have to do is be polite and patient.


I can't tell you how much I appreciate nice humans since The Typist usually sends me out into the cold without my brekkie every morning.
Miss Tracy made us more peanut butter bikkies last week! I got a big star! 
Can you believe my humans forgot to give me the heart bikkies from a few weeks back? They turned mouldy! and had to be thrown away! Don't worry. I've eaten the big star already.

Here's another example of a nice, sharing human. She belongs to Merlin.
This is Merlin.
As you can see, Merlin is a sweet and gentle labrador.

Look what Merlin's mini-human had in her hand one day! 
It was a piece of pear and it was obviously too big for such a little human. So I took it from her. So she gave it to me!

"That was yummy, mini-human. Do you have any more?" 
"Come on. Open your mouth and let me check." 

"And let's clean that horrible sticky pear juice off your fingers. No one likes a dirty baby."
 "Ooo. Is that more pear I see in there?"


I think she's going to be a nice human when she grows up, don't you?

*


Of course, it's not all about food! 

This is Mister Keith. He always wears gardening gloves to the park. Can you see them?

The Typist thought that maybe he had funny looking hands. But she's wrong! He wears them because he picks up rubbish for other humans who're too lazy to use the bins. 

Rumour has it there's another Mister in another park who carries a bucket and spade with him so he can scoop up any dog poop he sees on the ground. How kind is that? Sadly, we have yet to meet this saint ourselves.

Sometimes, Mister Keith gives us a little grooming.

Before.

After!
Midas was very happy with Mister Keith's work.


I hope you liked meeting some of the nice humans from my neighbourhood!

I don't know if we'll ever get to Somewhere Else but if we do, there'd better be some nice and kind humans there too. My Cushion will be in big trouble otherwise.
"I wonder how you ask for treats in Spanish."

*

The Typist would like to say a very belated 

thank you! 

to everyone at the park who's been asking after her knee! 

And especially to Tara and Sammy's human who brought over  a yummy homemade lemon meringue pie! 
She forgot to take a picture of the pie, so here's one from the internet.

[It was mostly eaten by My Cushion because he's not so fat.]