Saturday

Tara and a very relaxed Dzambo.

This year is going soooo fast ... I went to update this blog post entry only to discover that I hadn't even started it yet!  But the good news is that I had remembered to post last week's entry ... which seems so long ago now but can't really have been given that this week has whizzed by!

What have we been up to?  First and foremost, because we have done it more days than not, is helping So with her antibiotic injections for Tara the cat - who is not well and they are not quite sure what is happening with her. The vet wants her to have some tests - which would cost in the vicinity of $5,000 (for the initial lot) and that would be for diagnosis by exclusion ... but in the meantime, and they don't know why, Tara seems to be improving with the antibiotics.  If they were being given to me I would be showing signs of getting better as well ... the antibiotic is as thick/viscous as a milkshake which means So is having to use a large gauge needle to be able to draw it up into the syringe ... and because of the gauge, it also means the needle itself is longer - 25mm - although these had been in short supply for a moment and the next shortest we had been able to find was 32mm long - intramuscular I think the pharmacist referred to them as.  So each night Tara has her antibiotic injection and while it seems to be getting less fraught - for the humans involved in the injection: So to deliver the shot, Sooz to hold Tara and me to provide reassurance and comfort to them and Tara - as Tara gets better, she seems less willing to stay still as the needle approaches her.  I can't say I blame her.  But it is good to see her increasing in wellness with each visit ... last night she even came out to welcome us when we arrived.

The mid-evening visit is throwing my timeclock out a little bit ... by the time we arrive home it can be almost 9pm and then by the time we have a bite to eat or a cup of tea, catch up with a television show or two (MasterChef is back!!!) and we think about getting ready for bed, it's already after midnight.  I will start my planned "early to bed; early to rise" regime next week!  Folk on the local FB group keep posting photographs of the most glorious sunrises ... and I would like to do that ... but not much chance if I'm not out of bed and out of the house in time to catch one!

Nigey ... outside ... and loving it!

Nigey had a walk outside this week - after her numerous attempts to sneak her way out the front door while Sooz and I are coming in.  She certainly can be a darter when she wants to.  But she knows the rules:  no harness, no outside.  So the other day she put on her "let's get this done" face and then we went outside for her to sniff and chew the various grasses around the yard and to try (unsuccessfully) to catch some lizards.  She certainly wasn't keen to go back inside once her time was up so if it stays fine, and she deigns to go into her harness, I'll get her outside again sometime in the next couple of days.  It looks as though it's going to be fine, so I should also be able to get a mow of the yard in .. and I prefer to have her out there when the grass is short (enough to allow us to see any Cecils that might be out there)!

We've been down to the Broadwater a couple of times this week ... there is always something to see down there ... although I was sorry I went down too late on Thursday afternoon to see the two dolphins who were playing in the water near Charis Seafoods.  D'oh.  But I did manage to see a couple of raptors - and have the right camera out but I wasn't impressed with the pics I managed to get ... so I'll have to go down again to wait for them.  They're sneaky too because not all raptors fly with the same wing pattern/movement - and if they're by themselves, as they often are, they can be fairly hard to see.  The ones that do hover overhead usually do so when I don't have a zoom lens on me - or it's too dark to actually take a good photograph of them.  It could be me of course, which is why I keep practicing!

We managed to win one round of Trivia on Monday night, and to be on the Podium with a second at Wednesday night's Trivia.  It's amazing the different folk who do show up at Trivia - on Wednesday there was somewhere there from the company I worked for three years ago.  Kel and her team (first-time players at the venue) managed to take out First, so they were pretty chuffed.  And this under changed playing conditions ... the screens weren't working so it was a very truncated game and some of the trickier rounds were dropped - including a couple of those we do not do well at - Fastest Finger and Horse Race.  But because it was slower game play we also managed to note a couple of "facts" which may come in handy for other games/venues.