Sunday, 22 March, 2015

Well, I can't say that I am bored anymore! :-)  On Monday, I drove over to the animal shelter in town to find out if I could do some dog walking.  I had seen an article in the newspaper about a need for volunteers there, so I thought that would give me something to do while Dad is away.  When I went there, however, I found out that they only had one dog and already had a young girl who came in to walk him.  They did need help in the office which wasn't exactly what I wanted to do, but I thought that it would at least keep me busy.

However, on Tuesday I went to the animal rescue place near the airport and found out that things were quite different over there.  They are attached to the Hervey Bay pound and have tons of dogs and cats who are waiting to be adopted.  They have about 20 dogs at this time and are always in need of dog walkers.  A bunch of ladies come Mon/Wed/Fri and so I decided that I would join them on Wednesday to see what the routine is.  I also asked about fostering a cat and they said that I could choose one that day and take it home.  I chose a big fluffy strawberry blond cat named Garfield.  He is lovely - he is cuddly and loves to be stroked.  He will come and lay on me or beside me on my chair for a rub or a nap and then will jump down onto the cold tiles and lay on them for a while in front of the door often to get a nice breeze.  I can keep him until we start travelling again and then will take him back to the rescue place.  Then, if he has not been adopted by the next time we are in town, I can go and bring him home again.  I am loving this as I have wanted to get a cat since we arrived in Australia, but it just wasn't possible with all the travelling that we do.

Garfield

On Wednesday, I met the ladies at the rescue place at around 8am and they showed me the ropes.  Basically, I put a leash on a dog, walk it around the cricket field nearby giving them a drink half way around, put them back in their cage when we get back to the rescue place and then move on to the next dog.  It takes about 20 minutes all up to do each dog.  On Wednesday and again on Friday, I walked a total of six dogs which took me around 2 hours.  I can tell you  that I got a really good workout. :-)  I was sweating buckets by the time I was done both days - the temperature has reached over 30C each day this week and by about 9am, the sun is shining strongly.  I have enjoyed doing the walking, though - the dogs get a walk and I get exercise, so it's a win-win situation, I think.

ready to take a dog for a walk

 my favourite ice-cream here in Oz - a Magnum Ego Caramel - I treated myself for my birthday :-)

inside the Magnum Ego Caramel ice-cream - doesn't it look amazing!

I put a sheet on top of the bed sheet on Dad's side of the bed so that Garfield could sleep on that side, but NO, he sleeps on my side :-)

On Thursday, I went out to lunch with my teacher friend, Bronwyn, to a local cafe called 'Salt Cafe' to celebrate my birthday.  It's right across the road from the ocean, so the view was lovely.  We ate and chatted for almost three hours - it was lovely to catch up with her.  She and her husband are both (mostly) retired and they both love to travel, so I always enjoyed hearing about their journeys.  Two of their four children live in the U.S. (her husband is American) and so they seem to be travelling there almost as much as we travel to Canada.

enjoying another iced chocolate at 'Salt Cafe'

 Me and Bronwyn at the 'Salt Cafe' enjoying our lunch

view from our table at 'Salt Cafe' - beautiful scenery,eh?

On Friday, after dog walking, I asked the woman in charge at the rescue place if I could foster another cat and she said 'yes'.  I had seen a cat called 'Violet' when I was there earlier this week, but she wasn't cuddly like Garfield was, so I had chosen him to come home with me on Tuesday.  Then, during the week, I began to think that I really wanted her to come home with me - how could I resist a grey cat named Violet? :-)  She is beginning to come to me and will let me give her a couple of pats, but mostly she just wanders around the house.  I am sure that she and Garfield are enjoying the freedom of roaming around a huge house.  Garfield, however, was not happy that I brought Violet home and has hissed a few times at Violet.  It reminds me so much of Belle and her hissing when we brought Tabby home. :-)

Violet

Can you tell that Garfield is not impressed with our new cat, Violet :-)

Robyn came back to HB yesterday and I am so happy that she is back - after chatting on the phone for a bit, we arranged to meet up at the 'Coffee Club' for an iced chocolate and a proper catch-up.  We then saw each other today at church and then had a good long yak on the phone tonight - we talked so long that her phone actually went dead.

Things are going fine with Dad in PNG, but he is starting to go stir crazy with not being able to get out of the hotel other than to go to the airport for training and to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  The weekends are especially hard as he can't go out at all during the two days.  He has been keeping busy doing his prepping - this is the first time that he has taught this course and he likes to be super prepared and so most of his time at the hotel is taken up with working on that.  We get to Skype twice a day which is great - we talk after he comes home from work and then again before he goes to bed.  Even though it has been really hard for both of us to be apart, I am grateful for this kind of technology that allows us to keep in touch.