Pete has a Bday

On Saturday we went down to Sydney for a picnic for Petes bday. Buckley came with us, and got to meet the rest of the family. He is a very good traveller in the car, and also enjoyed having a bit of an investigate around Mum and Dads place before we headed to the park.



Buckley and his puppy Mum and Dad


Buckley and Ava make friends with each other. Ava was quite cautious, she loves dogs and was intrigued by Buckley, but wasnt ready to get too close.


Buckley and Ava


The Jamos and the Roes


Buckley trying to secure some food from Lisa


Its a puppy.


Here you go.... Caillie trying to feed Buckley a pack of bikkies, sans bikkies.


A big day out


Buckley and uncle Marty

A little story. Warning, contains toilet references.

Buckley had a big day yesterday, and all of last night was very subdued. Late on in the evening he was generating some pretty special odours, so we made sure to get him outside before bed time. We hadnt seen him go number twosies for a while, but kind of figured he was being discreet.

When I headed downstairs for a mid sleep pitstop some time last night, I opened the door to find the bathroom littered like stars in the sky with little puppy deposits. Looked like a weeks worth. Poor old Buckley it seems had been having some back door issues and had finally hit the jackpot. I had to lock him out while I did a quick clean up because his excitement combined with that many little piles was just potential danger.

This morning he was as happy and bouncy as I have ever seen him, and he has had a puppy smile all day. So, we are going to cut back on the chicken necks, I think the bone content is playing havok with the little guy.

Sunday has been a nice day, super hot, but nice.


Crazybird is still with us, this is his spot above the door. He was gone for most of the morning on Sunday, but reappeared late this arvo. We have to try and figure out something to move him on because he is leaving lots of pressies on the BBQ and on the porch. He is so unfazed by anything though, it might be difficult. Crazy. Bird.

Jono, Jane, Baths, Crazybird

Our little guy finishing off the evening with a well earned nap. Loooooves to sleep. Now we just have to get him sleeping at bed time, in his room (the laundry). He is getting so much better though. The first few nights he didnt sleep at all, but now he gets quiet pretty quickly once put to bed.


Jono and Jane came to visit on their last night of holidays before heading back out west to Bourke. The day before they had acquired this new addition, named Pumpkin. Buckley and Pumpkin got on ok, meaning basically that there was no blood shed.


Jono, Jane and Pumpkin


Pumpkin. It is such a shame that kittens turn into cats eventually.


More sleepin. This is his mat in the loungeroom, allocated sleeping space.


More sleepin'. It is hard work being this cute.


Immediately after his very first bath. Surprisingly enough, he absolutely looooves the bath. He was completely patient and calm while he was getting washed, and then when it was all over he sat in front of the tub waiting to go again.

I decided it was bath time today, because of last night. I headed down to the bathroom at about 2 ish (also the laundry, also the puppy night timey sleepy room) to take a mid sleep whizz. It is hard to stay sleepy when you head into the bathroom and are basically attacked in a frenzy of pure happiness. (He has literally almost jumped into the toilet twice during similar situations) On this occasion he had been a bit busting himself and had left a little puddle on the floor right near the front of the toilet. I managed to avoid the puddle on my way to the throne, but in his haste to be patted on the tummy, the little bugger took a big old roll right through the little lake of wee wee. He then continued to be very very excited and clingy and generally quite unhygenic.

I ended up not only washing my hands, but a good deal of the rest of my body as well before heading back off to bed. Hence, bath day today.


Meet Crazybird. I dont know where he came from, but he now hangs out around our back porch. Tonight he watched me cook a BBQ from about 2 metres, standing right behind me on the tiles.


Crazybird giving his trademark "Crazy eye"


This is as far as CB goes when you scare him away, on the roof of the neighbors. I think he likes us.


Buckley and his puppy mummy hanging out.

And life rolls on........ Things are going well.

New Addition to the family

We have a new addition to our family. He is grey and shiny. ??

















Here he is.......

We also have another new addition to the family, who is white (ish) and fluffy. His name is Buckley. He is about 2 years old and probably a Moodle. (Maltese and Poodle) We got him from Doggierescue in Sydney on Saturday, and he is now a new Novocastrian like ourselves.

From the very first that we met him he had a very gentle and placid personality, and loooooves attention. Unfortunately he is suffering from some pretty severe separation anxiety at the moment so he doesn't do so well when we put him away for the night, or when one or both of us leave the house. We are working on him though so hopefully a bit of routine will get him a bit happier.

We dont know if he was abused, but he does get quite scared sometimes, and he doesnt really know how to play. We are looking forward to teaching him how to play. He is already enjoying going for walks, and in a little while we will be confident enough to let him off the leash in the local puppy play area.

So.. He is very cute an affectionate and gentle, and a little quirky, and he is our new little friend.

Here he is.



Madonna signing the adoption papers


In the car leaving the shelter


In the car leaving the shelter


Sitting quietly on the trip home. He is an excellent car traveller.


At home with Donny


Having a quick snooze


Getting woken up by a guy with a camera


..... and back to sleep


With his favourite doggy mummy


ditto


Not a big telly watcher


In his bed in the kitchen


Our new little shadow, loves to follow you around the house and do what you are doing.

There you go. More updates to come.....

Oops

This is where I would be posting photos of our new dog if I had actually managed to copy them successfully onto my USB stick last night which it seems that I have not.

Stay tuned........

Flatty

While Madonna spent yesterday afternoon swanning around Lake Macquarie on a houseboat with some of her new workmates, I was slugging it out on the mountain bike trails in the Glenrock Reserve. It was probably the most humid (irish translation close) afternoon that I have experienced in ages, and as a result I was sweating up a storm but feeling ok.

After about 45 mins on the trails I was heading down into a creek crossing which looked ok on first inspection, but hiding under the surface of the water was a big ditch, that I hit at some pretty fair speed. I made it out the other side ok, but the tyre tube must have pinched on the impact and within about 20 metres the back was dead flat.

I was with my boss from work, and he had a dodgy repair kit that got me about an extra km, which was enough to get me out of the reserve, but after hitting the main road the back was toast again and this time for good.

I spent the next twenty mins or so wheeling the bike in the general direction of home, whilst the boss man rode off to his place and got his car to come and give me a lift home. Very nice of him.

Today I am going to buy a couple of extra tubes so that my level of preparedness is much higher next time. Obviously not much of a boy scout.

Meanwhile Madonna had a lovely afternoon out on the lake, going for powerboat rides and swimming in what I can only imagine was a gleeful fashion given the temp.

This mornings humidity was pretty much 100% given that it was lashing with rain, and since Madonna started work early down at the Pilates studio I had to make my way to work on her bike since mine was still incapacitated. (Oh yeah, Madonna has two jobs now, one is on the front desk at a Chiro clinic in The Junction, and the other is as a Pilates instructor at a studio in Charlestown. Yay, go Donny)

I was well prepared for the ride and took a full new set of clothes to change into, expecting to be pretty wet on arriveal. I arrived at work fully soaked as expected, but when I went to get changed realised that I had forgotten one very important item of fresh clothing, undies. There is not much point wearing dry pants when your undies are wet. Enough to say that today may not be the most comfortable of days.

We are off to Sydney this weekend to look at a few puppies in a shelter there, so there is every possibility that we will be puppy parents by lunchtime Saturday. That will be photo worthy, so stay tuned.

Anyway, as if all of that nonsense didnt make for boring enough reading I now have to do work related reading so that my friends is the end.

This Week

This week began this morning being woken up by some kind of loud banging noise which roused both of us from our respective slumbers. I dont know what it was, but we did walk around the house doing that thing where you poke your head into a room really quickly just in case there is someone in there. I have no idea what exactly would happen if there was someone in there, but I did bring my hurley back upstairs so that next time I can walk around the house with it, baseball bat style. I think we were both a bit spooked by a friend that we bumped into in a cafe earlier in the day who had had her car stolen the night before by people who walked into the kitchen, grabbed the keys, and walked out to the carport and proceeded to drive away while she was in another room on the computer the whole time.

Before we dropped back off to sleep (around 4am ish) I got a text message from Kev in Ireland, and at the risk of breaking the bond of Steve-Kev confidentiality I will recreate the message here.

"holy f*ck did u see that!? We've never celebrated a loss so much!Christ" (Note: Kevin didnt use a *)

Even in my half asleep state I was able to make the mental link that Munster were playing in the Heineken Cup this weekend passed, and I was able to put aside my strong distaste for Kevins harsh choice of language to deduce that it was an exciting match. This was confirmed later in the day when I was able to check the news on the internet, which said much the same thing but without the f word. The BBC is far too civilised for that. Anyway, the upshot is that now Munster have to beat Wasps this weekend coming at Thomond Park to make the quarters, which they have a very strong chance of doing. Wasps are the champions, and English, and must die. Go Munster.

It did make me think though, that even if I did have pay tv I would still have been alseep for that one. So maybe it is just best to let Kev do all of the hard work actually watching the games, and then get his inconveniently timed text messages and read about it the next day on the web........ Or maybe not. Who needs sleep.

Anyway, back at work this morning and it is going ok. Finding the time to write this, so things arent too hectic obviously.

We had Maria come and visit on Saturady night, and then my folks drop around for dinner last night so we are continuing to have a few people make the trip up from Sydney which we appreciate. I think Jono and Jane will be our next visitors, but not sure when exactly they are coming.

OK, back to work. Will have the internet on at home any day now (hopefully), it has been a bit of a drawn out process.

Christmas Photos

I know it was a little while ago now, but here are some photos from our christmas. We spent the day at mum and dads place and a good time was had by all.

It seems I am well behind in both the blogging and the photos at the mo as there have been plenty of new things to write about and photo since these. We have had Pete and Lisa come up for a visit, and also we have our new car as well. I suppose photos of those two things will follow. It has been made a little bit more difficult in the last little while by having to do this from work, but we should have the internet up and running at home soon. Then we will be back on facebook and emails and stuff with a vengeance.

Anyway, here are the photos.


Ths dinner table with Ava holding court at the far end.


Ava and her uncle Marty


Putting together the best present that was given on the day, Avas new bike. After watching for a while, I pushed everyone else out of the way and said "I am an engineer therefore I know how to put together a childs toy" and it turns out I was right


In action on the new bike


Somehow Pete got his foot confused with a sausage and managed to burn it on the BBQ. I dont know how, but the blisters tell the story. Strangely Mum seems much more worried about it than he does.


At the table for lunch. Very nice.


Pete feels the effects of previously burning himself, but again he doesnt seem too perplexed


The full set of Jamo boys wives, recently completed with the addition of Sacha to the bunch. Well done guys.


Ava putting on a show


A squirrel riding a horse. You saw it here first.


This bird sat on the fence and watched us for a while on the morning of Boxing Day. I think it is a bit of a "special" bird (as in special needs).

Back to the grindstone..

Well I am back in gainful employment, and it is semi depressing. It has been 5 months now since I last turned on a computer in anger, so I guess it is about time. I cant really complain though, we have had such a great time over the last couple of years.

Christmas was a great day down at Mum and Dads place, and I am sure I am much fatter for it. Plenty of food as always, and the quality this year was good. Lots of seafood and salad-y type things, and some nice desserts. Winner.

Newcastle is going well, and we are settling in nicely. Our house is almost fully in shape now, and we had our first visitors over the weekend with whom we had New Years as well. We went out to dinner and then on to an open air gig right on the water in Newcastle, and ended up walking home about 2 ish. Our place is nice and close to the middle of town, I think it was about a half hour walk in the end.

I have ridden my bike into work today and intend to do so whenever possible, it is excellent to be close to everything. I also magnified my potential stupidity by a factor of 2 by signing up for another triathlon, without even really being in shape to do the first one yet. The first one is on a month from today, and the second is a further month after that. I think it should be fine. I will probably need the motivation to keep active.

We have signed up for our new car, and hopefully can pick it up on Monday. It is a new Ford Focus, and we are both happy with it. Just a little bit of paperwork in between us and taking posession so hopefully the express post man does his job tonight. We still have the hire car from work and it has been great having that available for the last 2 or 3 weeks.

We have put in a formal request with our landlord for permission to get a puppy or two, and the real estate agent said that she didnt see any problems with it, so hopefully the landlord feels the same way. We have found a few puppies/dogs on the net who are currently at rescue shelters, so hopefully we get word soon on whether we can go rescuing.

Ok, no photos this time, but I will put some up soon, hopefully of the new car and some from chrissy.

Hi to everyone we have been neglecting to get into contact with. We are stil sans-internet at home so this means no gmail/yahoo mail/hotmail/facebook etc, but we are trying to get that sorted as soon as possible. We have a phone on now so we will be starting to rejoin the world shortly.

Until next time........