luckycanuck | Entries tagged with dogs

I came up to Sydney on Thursday, and had a couple of days with my parents before taking them to the airport on Saturday morning. Mum and I went shopping and she suggested that for Christmas I bring the girls to the Sydney Koala Park when they come out to visit in July. Done. I was going to struggle to come up with anything. We also had a chat about depression, which she got to see up close on Friday night as we had dinner with the guy who looks after the administrative aspect of the Collaroy Castle and his girlfriend. Me at dinner with four people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s instead of at the gym where I had planned to be. With all the frustration and alienation I was pretty shut down and fatigued all night, and almost struggled for breath like I did at work last winter at one point. When we got home she asked if I was ok, and I said "this is what depression is like." I don't think she understood until then, and I suspect she probably still doesn't. She's trying though.

On Saturday I took Minou back to her place on my way to Canberra and stopped in to visit Dora in her post Mr Burns phase. Back in Canberra at the party I was there to attend, Nerva Chu helped me shave my head. I know I normally have very short hair, but on Saturday night I shaved it all off in solidarity with JAQ who has lost all her hair during chemotherapy.

( Click for lots of pics )

Tomorrow I head back to Canberra so I can lead a training session at Parliament, and on the way I plan to stop to pick up a 20kg weight vest and to visit Minou again.

( Cut for pics )

Since then I've been doing a lot of studying for my training qualifications, watching the Boxing Day Test (which was an outstanding back and forth affair that was finely balanced and could have gone either way until very late) visiting the beach, and having very little personal contact. That's suiting me fine this time. There is no feeling of isolation, in part because I have plenty on the horizon.

I seem to get tired on the weekends.

I sold a third of my stake in KKT on Friday. It was the first sale I've made in some time. I intend to hold the rest of it but I wanted to realise the gain (it has doubled in three months) and have some more cash on hand as I expect volatility to continue. There may be some other sales next week and with the dividend payments that will be coming in over the next few weeks I should have enough cash on hand to remain flexible and to be able to take advantage of any opportunities that crop up over the next little while. VMG also issued a supplementary prospectus and I will be getting one option for every two shares I hold and will have two years to exercise them. More opportunity.

I took Friday off gym wise and watched some DVDs that Coffee Snob loaned me. A British series about being a political advisor, that reminds me of things that I didn't like about being a political advisor. I spoke to a couple of agencies and will be getting a bit more active in looking for work. There are quite a few options I will be looking at. I know that it's a good idea to "recharge" as some of my friends have said, but having time off doesn't seem to be doing that. I still feel detached, so part of me thinks I might as well feel detached and get paid. I've not been to therapy for a while and I don't feel like I've missed it. I like my psychologist, but I'm not sure what the therapy is meant to be doing.

YW: Tiretiretiretiretiretiretiretiretire! I went to town on the big tractor tire.

5 rounds - 6 tire flips across the room, 20 tire pushups, 6 tire flips back, 10 sledgehammers left and right.
5 rounds - flip to one corner, 10 tire jumps, flip to next corner, 10 tire pushups, flip to next corner, 10 tire situps, flip to next corner, 5 sledgehammers left/right
10 rounds - drag tire 10m, 5 burpees. (Oh man dragging a heavy tire is HARD!)

Then a long sweat in the sauna.

TW: Legs - Squat practice up to 120kg with a towel wrapped around the bar. I'm getting more used to this. Max weight leg presses, max weight openers, max weight closers, overhead squats (I succeeded at 40kg this time) calf extensions. Then another long sweat.

Last night I was at a birthday BBQ where I was a hero for bringing haloumi. I watched a very disappointing Wallabies outfit lose to Ireland and decided that I have had enough of Channel Nine. I am boycotting them until the end of the World Cup. They delayed their broadcast of the game to show the NRL playoffs, refusing to show the Wallabies on another channel. Then when they did show it, they interrupted the game with ads every ten minutes or so. (Something you can't do with a live broadcast.) They padded a two hour broadcast up by half an hour at least. Channel Nine, you are out. This evening I went to the pub to watch the close of Wales v Samoa and enjoyed Canada v France. It was a much better game to watch, and I did ten pushups for every point the Canucks scored, so it was a better workout than the Wallabies game.

We have Roxy's family dog in the backyard, and I just came back in from playing with Smock. We had a real battle of wits going on.

Also, we have upgraded the internet to get ten times the data for a pittance more. Much better.

This could be a good explanation of what has happened in my office this week.

I've been feeling marginally better since Tuesday. I've not been able to workout on account of the ankle but I may do so this evening before the budget reply speech.

I am spreading the word about work. Coffee Snob already told me about a PR job in Sydney with a firm of political types which may or may not amount to anything. Apparently one of her colleagues saw me on Tuesday night and when I didn't respond he thought he must have offended me somehow. I think I am ready to start letting it become public knowledge. If it was public knowledge maybe this wouldn't happen. Still, I feel strange about being so open about this issue. It could mean I end up with a new job very quickly. Still, it may be better to take my time.

I found myself in the supermarket on the way home from work for nearly an hour for what should have been maybe five minutes worth of shopping. I was just in a stunned state.

An MP rang our CoS today to say how wonderfully helpful I had been yesterday. The thing is, I didn't do ANYTHING to help this guy. He must have me confused with someone else. Still, I was advised to take credit.

Helga advised me to maybe think of the public service, not because I would want to do that for a long time, but because I could do it for a little while before finding something better. I'd rather stay away if I can because I think I'd be bored and frustrated with the culture, but it may be a stopgap option if I need something. Helga has been quite helpful through this. She came home late last night and we had another talk about this and about relationship stuff. She's seeing a new guy who she likes and who likes her enough to cook her dinner.

I got a very strange message from an MP a few minutes ago that called me a faggot and advised me to kill myself because she hated me. not surprisingly, it was a virus. If I had clicked on "remove this application" it would have burrowed into my profile and sent itself on to my friends. I'm sure the Convicts would have LOVED me calling them faggots and suggesting suicide! It also purported to be from the Nicole Santos campaign. Now I don't know who Nicole Santos is or what she is running for, but this is possibly the worst electoral strategy in all of human history. Maybe I should apply for a job managing her campaign once the current people in charge are fired. ;)

Finally, I just found out from my friend JAQ that she may have to leave home on very short notice under unfortunate circumstances, and may have to give her tremendously sweet dachshund puppy away.

( Do not click unless you want to see photos of a dachshund who needs a temporary home. )

With the housing situation resolved, I can now pay attention to other things. Such as:

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I made it back from Sydney fine, after having lunch with an ex girlfriend. I have positive memories of her overall but I was reminded that she had moments of being quite objectionable. I mentioned how I did the Kokoda Track last year in Papua New Guinea and her immediate reaction was to decry it as the sort of theing she would never do because it was full of bogans and what not. Now I sympathise with that criticism and there is a lot of truth to it, but I wasn't all that pleased that her immediate reaction was to pour scorn on something I had done.

I also picked up some special coffee for Coffee Snob according to her precise instructions, and it made my car smell like coffee all the way home. minxyminou agreed that it made for a nice smelling drive home to her pad where I was greeting by a hysterically delighted Dora who got very shouty and jumpy when I came in. I had the chance to sample some of the coffee I had picked up and it was very good (though posh coffee is somewhat wasted on me.)

Today was my rostered day in the office. I took some school visits but overall it was a fairly quiet day. I did find out, however, that in the post election period, technically everyone's position is terminated, then people are signed on again. I don't expect anyone in our office is going to be unemployed in any real sense. W will carry on in his position, but if that changed, given the length I have been in my current position I would be entitled to 8 weeks pay. Apparently after previous elections some people took payouts (sometimes amounting to substantial sums of money) before being rehired the next day. That rort has been closed down. Now you would have to find work elsewhere. To be honest, I really don't understand all the rules under which I am employed. I just go in, do my work, and they pay me.

TW: Inspired by yurusumaji I attempted the USAF PT Exam hoping to score 100%.

62 Pushups in 1 minute - I did 71.
62 Situps in 1 minute - I did 58. DAMN YOU LAST FOUR SITUPS!!!
Run 1.5 miles (2.4km) in 9:30 - I did 9:21
Waist 32 inches or less - 32 inches

So I came up just short on situps, but I'm pretty sure I can do 62 in 1 minute. Another goal.

Then it was 150 shoulder presses (30kg) with 10 bench jumps every time I put the bar down. I managed it in 6 sets.

Today was mostly a day off. I did write a media release and sent off another one to hopefully make the news tomorrow, but after that I pretty much had the dsay to myself. I didn't even go into the office.

I did go for a run around Slade Point and stopped at local playgrounds to do pullups before stopping into the beach for another go at the surf. This time, for some reason, the pebbles had gone and it was just wonderfully warm water and soft sand.

I also made friends with "Lucky" the three legged terrier and a pair of staffy pups aged 8 weeks and 5 months who were just happy to see anyone. Two other full grown staffys followed me almost all the way "home." The local were pretty friendly and curious about what I was doing there. I do like asking people what they think of the election without revealing what it is that brought me to Mackay.

I did get back into an election state of mind to watch the leader's debate. It was better than I expected. The "worm" this time was tracking people's reactions to Julia and Tony, and they even had one worm for women and one for men. In previous debates I think there had been stacking of the worm panel because there were dramatic swings as soon as the camera showed one debater and before anything had been said. That was not the case in this debate. There was no dramatic results (there rarely is) but overall I thought that Tony Abbott won. I hadn't expected him to do as well as he did, but he wasn't unduly aggressive as some pundits had predicted. He even seemed to do better with women than he has. Julia seemed to struggle a bit on a number of issues, especially when she talked about "starting a dialogue" which sounds a bit like talk without action. I suspect it won't be decisive, but it is positive for my side. Is this the start of a good week?

Afterwards, like the rest of the country, I found myself watching the Masterchef finale. I haven't really gotten into Masterchef (not like Malice who never misses it) but they moved the timing of the leader's debate to avoid a conflict with it.

I've never gotten into reality television. The conflicts seems so contrived, but this wasn't a problem with this. I did, however, find myself thinking "a dessert that takes three hours to prepare? Not worth the work or the stress." Also, they are now launching an edition of Masterchef for 8-12 year old children. Great. Like I need fifty children to make me feel like a culinary Philistine. Eating a steak from the bistro (though they initially sent me away with the wrong order) is enough for me.

There was a swim in some cold an choppy water yesterday, and two kids on the beach who were moved to ask "what happened to your eye?" A black eye had developed overnight and I wound up looking worse.

Getting away from Collaroy is a bit difficult at times but I managed to get away around noon before making it to a market in Marrickville where I met with Mitzi and picked up some chocolate beetroot cupcakes (that were not quite as good as they had been built up to be.)

I managed a recovery workout in Minou's neighbourhood.

YW: 20 dumbbell swings, 1 pushup... 1 dumbbell swing, 20 pushups.

The cupcakes were consumed at Minou's place, and they gave me the energy to wrestle with Dora (Mr Burns wasn't quite so keen to engage, or to be photographed.)

Apparently there will be a house dinner later this week, in which each of us will be responsible for one course. Do TimTams count a a course?

This morning I was up early and went to All Bar Nun which has become the unofficial Holland World Cup HQ in Canberra. I didn't have anything orange to wear but it didn't matter. Spain was the better side, even though their one goal came just after what should have been an offside call and a goal kick that should have been a corner kick after the ball went out off a Spanish player.

How long will I last at work today?

I had every intention of going to the gym on Friday, but after work I just couldn't seem to rouse myself to go. Instead I went home and watched the calm and composed Dutch defeated a Brazilian team that got panicky and frazzled when things didn't go their way.

On Saturday, I had every intention of having a big session at the gym or possibly throwing a Mt Ainslie run in for good measure. The fact that I slept until the afternoon put an end to that plan. Instead, the first thing I ate that day was the scones made by my ex-Mormon housemate. With everyone home, we managed to clear out a lot of space in the fridge, mostly bottles of things that were almost empty and had been there for God only knows how long. Again, the new Chez Canuck is working out well.

I spent the evening with bakerypenguin and her friends watching Up (which was not as good as I had hoped) wrestling with two dogs, watching the final episode of The Pacific, and the Germany-Argentina match which the one quarter of me that is ethnically German was glad to see ended in a 4-0 victory.

It's been a good weekend for games. Plenty of talent on display which I like and can appreciate, and very little of the petulance or the diving or dissent that makes me dislike the game.

Today I did manage to get to the gym, though not before running the vacuum through the house like I was asked and a trip to Brand Depot where I got some cheap work shoes (that will stay at work) and some work shirts and a tie at Trade Secret.

There were some new things tried at the gym today.

TW: 10 power cleans (new and interesting), 10 standing corner presses (new, wedging a heavy bar in the corner and loading it up with weight and pressing it towards the corner to work the chest and arms, one arm at a time) - 5 rounds. 10 deadlifts and 10 high box jumps (like about hip height) - 5 rounds. 10 pullups (with emphasis on going all the way down and all the way up), 10 dips, 10 marine pushups - 5 rounds. 50 burpees.

I finally made it to the gym. Hooray! And I tried some new things there. Double Hooray!!

Tomorrow I have a shadow cabinet brief to write. I've left this kind of late, but I am confident it will work out fine.

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

I drove up to Sydney just after getting back from North Queensland, and stopped along the way to be plied with sticky date pudding by

minxyminou and to have a bit of a play with Dora and Mr Burns which included me "stalking" them as they sat on the sofa. It was rather amusing to see the two of them group together (for protection?) and back up as I approached. It was also amusing to see Dora have a brain snap and gallop around the lounge room in a deranged state before hiding under an end table. Yes, I'm a dog person. Dogs have personality.

On Saturday I went to play with the Convicts. I wasn't sure if I was going to go on account of having a cold and running a half marathon next week, but I did turn up and they put me in to start at inside centre. In the backs. I did make one nice run, but overall I don't think I make as big an impact on the game in the backs. On more than one occasion our captain had to pull me out of rucks to get back into the line, and when waiting during a lineout or a scrum I felt awfully lonely and isolated with seemingly acres of space around me. They put me into the forwards later in the first half and I felt better. I took a pass from a penalty tap and ran through two guys who got a hand or a forearm on me and another got me around the waist but I was close enough to the line and had enough momentum to crash over and score a try.

In the second half I was back in the backs and was involved in a couple of turnovers that turned into tries against us. Once I was not quite in position for an inside ball and they scored a couple of phases later. Later on when being tackled I tried to pop the ball up from the ground to one of my teammates who was rushing into the ruck and it must have been knocked forward and recovered by the other team who got it wide and scored. Sometimes I make mistakes, but I know the mistakes I made. I was still awarded three points by our coach and the plaudits of our Maori-lesbian assistant coach (who also brought her girlfriend and her dalmation who was happy to run around amongst the players after the game.) She thought I was a strong runner and used to best effect in the back row.

There was more talk about the Bingham Cup and the prospects of me going. It still doesn't look good, but they are quite keen for me to go (as I am) and a number of my teammates are keeping their eyes open for opportunities. The NRL job, as it turns out, closed just before I heard about it. It would have been a hell of a time to move into that position anyway given the events of the past few days. To be dropped into that kind of crisis on your first day on the job would be up there with the worst induction ever. (Though not as bad as Winston Churchill, who, on the day he became Prime Minister, found out that the Nazis were invading France. Think about that when you think you're having a tough day.

Then it was back to Canberra, stopping along the way for a brief chat with more dogs, who despite their great size, backed up when I "growled" at them. I stayed in and got up early in the morning (after not enough sleep) for the ANZAC Day dawn service.

I've not missed a dawn service once since coming to Australia. This one was a bit frustrating. I found myself feeling distinctsly stabulent over pretty petty things. The 10 year old boy who read In Flanders Fields read it with no understanding, emotion, or even appropriate cadence. He read thd read the poem eight beats at a time and didn't pause for punctuation. It was as if it was being read by someone who hadn't bothered to find out what it meant. And it pissed me off. It also pissed me off to see two grown men open a gap in a crowd control barrier and jump the queue to get in to the memorial. I didn't say anything. Neither did anyone else. I kind of wish I did.

After viewing Uncle Sandy's and Uncle Jim's names on the memorial roll I left, feeling a bit petty about being the kind of person who gets annoyed by a child improperly reading a poem. Someone suggested that it might just be that I take ANZAC Day seriously.

I'm tired, but don't want to sleep now. Why can't dawn come at a more civilzed hour?