Associates, Hospitals and Shopping Centres

SAMSUNG
I was in a hurry so I took the coach!

I forgot and I downloaded mail on another computer which means that I cannot access it  here. I know,”what’s this got to do with anything?” well, one of the things I downloaded was a post called “Tribute to Twitch” , one of the saddest posts about a dog I have read in a long time. She looked such a lovely Lady, with big sad eyes, who would have been loved and cared for if her “new Mum” and friends had gotten her out of Afghanistan in time. Sadly this didn’t happen and I think the sad thing is not knowing when she died, where she died or even how she died. My very first dog, when we came to Australia, was  a “Bitsa” but she was the most adorable dog we ever had. She was “Scruffy” and  did she live up to her name. We would bath her, clip her and she would look neat and tidy – for all of seven seconds until she shook herself and the hair just went everywhere again.  She was actually part Australian Silky Terrier ;  she was loved by everyone and she had such a calm , placid nature . Even now when I picture her in my head, I still miss her – after  nearly twenty years, I still miss her.

It has been confirmed that at the end of the month I will simply stay in Adelaide and not come home one day only to have to go back down the next day and back home the day after – 1318 kilometres. Now it seems this is presenting problems in that we have just had word that Herself is required to be at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) for x-rays and tests at the Trauma Clinic – 4 years review- on the 28th May – right in the middle of the Assembly.  However, we telephoned them right away and managed to get the x-rays and tests  re-scheduled to first week in August. Whenever we go it will require an overnight stay because she has to have one x-ray in the morning and based on the results of that, the blood tests in the afternoon. About a week before we are due to go down I’ll organise to have a wheelchair.  No, she does not need a wheelchair generally, but spending a day wandering around the rabbit warren that is the Royal Adelaide Hospital, is just too much for her. When we have gone down there I have in the past taken a wheelchair because trying to get one at the RAH is next to impossible. When we do go, one of the boys will come over and stay the night and look after the dogs. The good thing about having the wheelchair is that she has no excuse about going into the Shopping Mall   :o)  A sort of “Captive Audience” in a manner of speaking..

Jazz, conferences, Warships and dogs.

My FordI suppose the last post, quoting an American President, was a bit cheeky, but there you are. I don’t really bother with political commentators, but I sort of liked Reagan – not taking sides here, but liked the man.  My idea of planting the plants in pots rather than in the soil seems to be working – well they are still alive so that’s a plus. I didn’t go to the garden centre on the way back out of the city.  It was a long and not very productive day and I just wanted to get back home. These days, we talk a lot but we really don’t do much. The next conference is in April and I think I might have a cold, or something…   It had been my intention to pay a visit to the State Art Gallery where there is an exhibition of the works of JM Turner.  Hanging above my desk is a reproduction of  ” The Fighting Temeraire” and it would have been really excellent to see the actual painting.  Now, that’s interesting – the SA Exhibition is ‘Turner from the Taite” but the Fighting Temeraire  is part of the National Gallery (London) collection, so I should think it unlikely that the Temeraire will be in Adelaide and that’s a great pity.

There was a little girl  (Fox Terrier) requiring a lift down to Adelaide so I said I would take her with me. However, she was picked up from SADR and taken down yesterday, so she will now be settling in to her new home.  I head off to a concert tomorrow and that will be me finished with Adelaide until May and I will be there for a week for the General Assembly. Days are taken up, evening I have to myself. There is a dinner on the Tuesday  night, but I will not be attending that;  however not far from the hotel is a Pasta  Restaurant and I am a sucker for Italian and Chianti.  “She who must be obeyed”  cannot travel, so I will be there on my own – me a computer , a smartphone and a Kindle. What more does a fellow need – except his babies, and I will miss them. It’s been a couple of years since I was away from them for more than two days at a time.

We did a fundraiser out in the bush in the middle of nowhere – Jazz Under the Stars – and this is a photograph I took of the car in the middle of nowhere on its way to that ridge you can see up ahead.  Good going in, fun driving out in the dark.

I was always told that if there are two dogs the female generally sleeps with the male human and the male sleeps with the  female human. No one could have told my two because he sleeps Samsung the noo 036with me and she sleep with herself.  If I was really desperate and because I have small dogs, my hammock is way out of their reach and besides,  they don’t like the swinging motion of the hammock – it seems to upset them. I know this because I took one of them onto the hammock with me and he was not very impressed.  He fought to get down and I could not let him just jump down onto the paving  because he could really have hurt himself. I had to  put him back down to earth.   The hammock is outside under the pergola, not in my bedroom  :o)