Silver's first Aussie holiday

Hi everyone!

Silver here again. I'm starting to enjoy this blogging stuff. And I know I have to work hard to keep the fickle public wrapped firmly around my paws, lest they forget me and start reading about the global economic crisis, or worse, a cat's blog!


So, here's an update of the last week or so. The big news is that I went on vacation (here we call it 'holiday') with Mommy and Daddy.


But a few days before we went, I had to have a check-up with the vet. I know what you're thinking: I was just at the vet a lot before moving to Australia, so why do I have to go again? And that's a good point, but the fact is that I was due for some of my jabs. So it was time to go. Unfortunately, Dr. Jon lives too far away, being back in North Carolina, so we went to the Carnegie Veterinary Clinic which is about 5km or 2 miles from home, and I met Dr. Ketan. He's so nice and gives me lots of treats! He also told Mommy that some of the shots I had to have back in the US aren't necessary here, so I managed to get out of there with only one shot! Dr. Ketan is a great man. Mommy is also happy with him because, in her words, "he has a very good bedside manner, he's very laid-back and mild-mannered, and he doesn't dumb down the facts but does explain everything very well". Whatever that means. The important point here is that he gave me a lot of treats and only one shot!


So, a few days later, we were off for our long weekend in Metung, Victoria, close to Lakes Entrance. We did not get off to a very auspicious start because the smoke alarm in the house decided at 4am on Thursday morning to let us know that the battery was getting low. It beeped once every minute. Mommy was not impressed!


She was even less impressed by the 14 foot ceilings in the house that she had loved until that very moment, when she realised there was no way she could reach the alarm without a ladder, which we don't have. Daddy managed to climb onto a stool on top of a chair (don't try this at home, kids) and, as he and Mommy were discussing how this could only end badly for him, he did disable the alarm for two hours until 6:30 when it started up again. tee hee! For my part, I took the 'awake' time to go out and check for news in the backyard. There wasn't any.

At 8am Mommy and Daddy got up to take Daddy to work, and Mommy came back home immediately and started preparing for our journey. At around 3pm we went to collect Daddy, and headed on down east to East Gippsland, Victoria for our holiday.


At 6:30pm we arrived at the Hill View Cottage, where we stayed for three nights.

It's a lovely studio-style cottage set on a 15-acre farm that has lots of beautiful flowers everywhere, inside and out.


It also has an organic vegetable garden and free-ranging chickens. The owners, Ken and Lyn, were so kind to all of us, and I had a lot of fun running around the farm with their two Spaniels, Will and Scarlett. When we arrived, we were presented with a loaf of home-baked bread (which I wasn't allowed! Can you believe that!?), plus a bowl of fresh veggies and eggs from the farm, and homemade raspberry jam. Ken and Lyn told us about the area, and we settled in for the evening to be ready for our big day on Friday.


Friday morning we woke up mid-morning after a wonderful nights' sleep on the quiet farm, and we had breakfast with some bread and jam, and then Lyn gave us a list of dog-friendly walks in the area. We decided to go to the Tambo River Bay, where I ran around like crazy, rolled in dead fish -- yay! --and even was brave enough to chase the stones that Daddy was skipping into the water!


It was so nice to be on the sand and nobody else was around.


Afterward, we went to Lakes Entrance where we walked around for a while but then I kept trying to go into the shops so Mommy and Daddy had to stop. Tee hee! They punished me though by eating fish and chips for lunch by the river and they didn't give me any!


Well, they gave me a fry or two, but that's not the same as the fish! I was a good girl but they wouldn't give me any fish and even acted annoyed that I was salivating on them. They don't understand that drooling is a sign of affection and love. Living with humans is a constant exercise in training...You can never let it slip or else they'll back-slide and then it's nothing but work, work, work! Clearly, Mommy and Daddy need to be reminded of some things.

That evening they cooked local salmon on the grill at the cottage with some fresh vegetables and rosemary. Lyn, who had offered a lettuce from the garden earlier, instead brought over a prepared salad complete with olives, bell peppers, parmesan, and anchovies. Yummy! Of course, I didn't get much salmon because they never share the goodies with me, apart from a little bite. It smelled and tasted delicious!


On Saturday we took a special trip to Raymond Island. It was my first ever time on a ferry and it was weird!


First you cross water but don't actually get wet, and then the machine makes a really loud, scary noise, and then you get off! I was a very good girl but I was a little spooked by the loud noise. Anyway, the point of Raymond Island was to see the koalas, but I was much more interested in the Clydesdale horse pulling a carriage! Koalas are all up in trees and they don't do much, and I like to keep my nose to the ground, if you know what I mean. The horse was captivating though, but Mommy and Daddy didn't let me get very close.


We took the ferry back to the mainland and then we went back to the cottage for lunch. Mommy and Daddy had the farm-fresh free-range eggs from the farm, and I was given kibble. What's that about? Later on I ran around with Will and Scarlett and then we went for a walk on the Mouth of the Tambo River. That was pretty with lots of unusual flowers, but there were plenty of fishermen so I wasn't allowed off-leash very much. There were also biting flies everywhere, so our walk was a little shorter than the one on Tambo Bay the day before!

That night, Mommy and Daddy actually left me to go have a nice romantic dinner on their own! So rude! They wanted to have a seafood dinner at Ferryman's Restaurant in Lakes Entrance and they enjoyed themselves a lot.


They were worried that I would be distressed in my new wire crate, but Ken and Lyn promised to keep an ear out for me. I didn't make a peep though, because as soon as they left, I promptly set to work destroying the crate! I did manage to pull off a couple of the wires, but I was unable to make my escape. Mommy and Daddy were disappointed that I behaved that way, but really, they only gave me 2 1/2 hours to try to get out! If they had left me for longer, I would've escaped for sure, and then they would've been so proud at my Weimaraner intelligence and resourcefulness. Next time...


On Sunday we had to head home, and it was nice to be back but I loved my holiday on the farm! Ken and Lyn were such wonderful hosts, and Will and Scarlett were a lot of fun to play with on so much land! Mommy and Daddy definitely want us all to go back there one day. I can't wait!

Leans n licks,
Silver

Interesting things about Australia

Hi everyone,

I hope you're all doing well back up North -- no matter where you are, I can say "up North" and be right 99.9% of the time because there's not a whole lot south of us, and nobody that I know lives in Tasmania, New Zealand (which is more "to the right" than "to the south"), or Antarctica.

Now that Silver is home

we have all of our furniture

and things are generally pretty settled, I'll let you in on a few secrets about Australia that you may or may not be aware of....

1. It does get cold here. And that kind of sucks. Don't let anyone tell you that it's always hot in Australia because they're either lying or selling something! There are parts of Australia that are subtropical and thus never get cold; unfortunately, Melbourne is not one of those places. The weather is generally milder than the winters in Europe and the US (north of Florida and SoCal, that is), but because there are very few times a year when the mercury drops below freezing, the Aussies haven't been as meticulous about things like insulation and quality heating systems in homes and buildings. This isn't so much the case in newer homes, but in old ones (like where I live and work), sometimes we can feel a draft inside when the wind blows :| New homes are required to have a 5-star energy rating, though, so they are much better insulated -- hermetically sealed is probably more the word. It's my understanding that in the future, anyone who wants to sell an older home will be required to bring it up to 5-star energy standards. Sooner rather than later would be ideal! In the meantime, Silver enjoys warming herself by the gas fireplace when she comes in from outside. It's kind of sweet but in a way, a little sad too.


2. It's really weird to have winter in the summer. It just is. I don't know if I'll ever get used to that. It is NOT, however, weird to have summer during the winter. I never complain about summer, whenever it happens to arrive. With that said, I haven't yet spent a Christmas here so it will probably be a little surreal to hear "Let it snow" and "walking in a winter wonderland" in the shops when it's 85 degrees outside. I'm so about spending Christmas and New Year on the beach though.


3. Melbourne is placed at the top of the Port Phillip Bay, and most of our beaches are actually bayside beaches more than open ocean. You can get to the open ocean, but you have to drive to the bottom of one of the peninsulas (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours driving) to get there. The open ocean is an extremely scary place, however, and I wouldn't recommend going in alone, or at all.
There's even a popular TV show here called "Bondi Rescue". Bondi is Sydney's most famous beach, and the show is like reality TV meets Baywatch. It's amazing how many people risk their lives by going outside of the safe zone or almost drown and when they're interviewed, they're oftentimes tourists who say "I've never been in the ocean before"... derrrrrr... Occasionally they have visiting lifeguards from places like Hawaii's North Shore who talk about how much more dangerous the ocean is here. That's frightening!


4. Australia is about the size of the US, but it has 8 capital cities and about 10-12 major cities in total (depending on how you define "major"), all of which are a plane flight away from each other with the possible exception of Sydney and Canberra. Imagine if the US only had 12 major cities, and the entire middle portion of the country was completely uninhabitable. That's what Australia is like. Thus, there are no day-trips to Sydney. So, we haven't seen much of the country yet, but we will! Our next trip (we hope) will be Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. We'll drive to Adelaide -- about 10 hours by car -- and then ferry over to Kangaroo Island. We hope to bring the dog. We'll wait till it's a bit warmer though, probably October or November would be nice for that.


5. Never say never: I bought a pair of Uggs yesterday. But let me explain! First off, I still think they're the ugliest things you can put on your feet apart from Crocs which beat them by a mile. However, yesterday they were on sale for half-price (the end-of-season sale), and I bought a pair of slippers, so you'll still never see me step foot in public wearing them. With all that said, I am SOLD on the Uggs. They are the most comfortable things I have ever put my feet into, including those water foot massager thingies. It's like walking on a sheep (I guess it sort of IS walking on a sheep). And of course, they are sooooo warm it's lovely. I highly recommend them, for use in the house only!

A few other minor interesting things:

• full-flush and half-flush options on the toilets. That is cool.
• It's very chi-chi to use re-usable grocery bags. Safeway supermarket (along with just about all the others now) sell green bags that you take to the shop with you. They are ubiquitous. They exist in the US, yes, but you only see them at earthy-crunchy shops like Whole Foods.
• Netflix has an Aussie cousin named Quickflix. And Quickflix, for all its wonders, sends whatever movie it feels like sending you from your Q, not necessarily the one at the top (or even in the Top Five)
• The price and quality of fresh produce varies greatly depending on the season. That's fair but it does take some getting used to. Limes go from about $1/kg in the summer to $2.48 each in the winter. It's a little bit of a shock at first
• A lot of our neighbours have citrus fruit trees. This has proven to be quite the exercise in restraint for me (see note above).

Well, that's about enough for now. Things are going well; we're sick of winter and ready for the sun to return. Work is going fine for both of us, and there's no real news of late. Hope everyone's doing fine and enjoying the summer!

July 2008 in Melbourne

Silver's in Australia!!!

Hi everyone. Silver here again. It's been a while since I've written, and for that I am very sorry. I know how much my public adores me, but sometimes even we famous dogs need a bit of time off, just to ourselves, to relax and chase small animals.


But now I'm in kennels, and so I'm a bit bored and I have some spare time to write. I'm not exactly sure how or why this happened, but basically, here's a run-down of the past several months:

In January, my Mommy and Daddy went for a ride in the car without me and never came back! Can you believe that??? Anyway, I was with my Grandmommy and Granddaddy, so it was OK. I like staying with them because they feed me donuts and let me sleep on their bed, and I just love playing with Charlie and Rasta!

Every now and then I could hear my Mommy's voice coming from the big box on top of the desk in my parents' office, but I could never see her. That was confusing. My Grandmommy said it was something called "Skype", but I don't really know what that means.

All this time, they were taking me on a very regular basis to see Dr. Jon and have blood taken out. I don't know why this had to happen, like, eight times, but it did. Humans! I just don't get them.

Anyway, last week, my Grandmommy and Granddaddy drove me up to Washington, DC. I thought I was going to see the sights, check out the Lincoln Memorial and all that (my Mommy and Daddy went in December and talked a lot about the monuments, so I assumed I was going to learn more about what it meant to be an American dog -- of German descent), but apparently there were different plans for me.

I was put into a huge crate, and then put into a really big flying car with wings, and sent to Los Angeles, California! I thought, well, that's OK that I didn't get to see DC, because I've always wanted to see the Hollywood sign and shop on Rodeo Drive and stuff, but I didn't even get to do that!! All I got to do was go to another vet, a different one this time, and then two days later, I was put on another flying car inside my huge crate and sent to Australia! I am in, like, a completely different country now than I was last week. It's so weird.


I have to stay in Quarantine for 30 days, but I've already been visited by my Mommy and Daddy. Yesterday they came to see me and we went out and threw the ball around for a while, and caught up on the latest news.

They told me that they had moved indefinitely to Australia, and they couldn't bear the thought of not having me with them (obviously!) and so they shipped me out here as well. My Mommy will be able to come visit me twice a week until I'm out of jail, and Daddy will come when he can because he works full-time so he's not quite as free as Mommy. Mommy and Daddy also told me I have to go on a diet --I hope that doesn't involve another long trip on a flying car -- because I've gained weight eating too many donuts! tee hee!

Since this is my new home, I asked Mommy and Daddy what it's like living in Australia, and I am so excited about what this new life holds for me! It sounds like so much fun. Here are some of the important things about Australia (and Melbourne in particular):


1. There are some really cool animals here. There are kangaroos and wallabies and koalas and wombats. All of these animals are called "marsupials" because they have little pockets where they keep spare change and their babies (or "joeys").
My Mommy says that kangaroos are easy to spot if you go out of the suburbs, and they aren't as shy as the deer that I liked to watch in America so they don't always run away. And the koalas, well they are like the slowest things ever but they stay up in the trees or in bushes. They don't run away either because they're too tired. They're always sleepy. Which is weird because they sleep a lot.

There are also parrots all over the place, and magpies too which are very beautiful but really loud and obnoxious. Damn birds. I'll chase 'em when I can!


2. Australia smells really good. There are plenty of food smells in the city (my favourite smells of course!) but since the country mostly has Eucalyptus trees, the country smells like Eucalyptus. The nickname for Eucalyptus in Australia is "Gumtree" so it's common to hear someone talking about "Red Gum" or "Lemon Gum" and that just means a species of Eucalyptus. The best smell is Lemon Gum because it smells like a cross between Eucalyptus and Lemon. It's sweet and fresh!


3. There's a saying "Pizza is like sex. Even when it's bad, it's still pretty good". In Melbourne, this phrase is absolutely true. Now, my Mommy and Daddy don't let me eat pizza apart from what I can steal --hehe-- but they have told me stories about the wonderful pizzerias in Melbourne and how good the pizza is here. Even the take-away pizzeria in Oakleigh makes really good pizza. It's not the same as the gourmet pizzas that you find at posh restaurants, but it's better than chain pizza! I have had "the snip" so I have no real interest in sex any more, so I'm hoping that pizza will give me some idea of what I'm missing!

4. Because we're in the Southern Hemisphere, our winter is happening right now, in July. That is going to take some getting used to! But in December when it's nice and warm, we won't be complaining. Spending Christmas on the beach sounds like fun! We also have our own special constellation that can only be seen from the Southern Hemisphere, called the Southern Cross. It's the stars that are on the Australian flag.

Well, that's about all the news for now. I am doing very well in kennels and eating everything I can get my paws on! Everyone tells me I'm very sweet and well-behaved. Mommy and Daddy are skeptical, but they are so happy to have me here. And they just filed their permanent residency application, so we're all in this for the long haul!

Hugs and licks,
Silver (world-travelling canine)

The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side (of the Planet)

Awww, aren't we cute? :)
Hello everyone! it's been a while since I've posted, and since then we've had two beach trips, Thanksgiving, a trip to DC to see Ellie and Jason (plus a failed attempt to buy Elephant Art which was later resolved), Christmas (we kicked ass at Dirty Santa at Jen's place), New Year's ....

Oh, and Edo and I moved to Australia. For the week of the New Year, Edo and I decided that we'd have a last "hurrah" of a vacation before we had to start preparing in earnest for our move Down Under, so we rented an ocean-front house on Topsail Island (Surf City), NC. The first day, Massimo and Nadia came down with us and stayed for the night. The next day my parents arrived and stayed until New Year's Day.
It was also the first trip we had taken together with Silver, and it was so much fun! The first three or four days, the weather was fantastic, so we spent plenty of time on the beach with Silver and Charlie playing in the sand and trying to get them into the water. Neither of them are exactly water-babies so we were mostly unsuccessful, but there was one time when they had gone in a few feet after a ball and Charlie got clobbered by a wave that snuck up behind him! The entire week was just wonderful; neither of us had work commitments (well, Edo did, but he ignored them because we were vacationing) so we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. We ate a lot of seafood at local restaurants like Rick's (particularly stews; North Carolina coastal cuisine is very much seafood chowder-based), and one evening we went into Wilmington with Mom and Dad to eat dinner at Elijah's, always a favourite!

There were some quirks about the beach house that made for a rather interesting week: the heating system was bizarre in that when it came on, the top floor heated up very quickly while the downstairs stayed cool. Thus, in the middle of the night, we were often roasting while the rest of the house was freezing. Also, the master bedroom had a beautiful window overlooking the ocean and there were hardwood floors throughout. This meant that every morning at 6:30am the light came streaming into our bedroom because there was no curtain to cover the massive window (which was fantastic every other time of the day, by the way). As for the hardwood floors, it meant that when Silver got up to turn around or look for something to do in the middle of the night, we heard "click click click" of her paws on the floor. Fortunately, most nights she was so exhausted from playing on the beach all day that she barely moved.

When we got back to Raleigh, we started packing properly for the Big Move. Edo was offered a position at Monash University as a Lecturer in Civil Engineering, so we were off to Melbourne (Australia, not Florida)! The shipping company collected our stuff on the 24th of January, after which we went to stay with my parents for the last few days. On the 29th, we flew out of Raleigh and two days later landed in Melbourne.
The University was kind enough to set us up in a serviced apartment for a couple weeks while we looked for a place to stay, and in spite of all the nightmare stories I've heard about people looking for decent houses to rent in Melbourne, we landed a great place just as that two-week window was about up. We are living in Oakleigh, a suburb of Melbourne that's about 20 minutes by train from the City (and by City, I mean a 1 square mile spot on the map. seriously.)

Oakleigh is very Greek; it's like Little Athens. It's also affluent and has a central district that is more like a European square than the typical strip mall shopping centres you can get in most suburbs of Melbourne. There are cafes and restaurants, plus a more American-style shopping mall, all within about a ten minute walk from our house. We also live very close to Chadstone Shopping Centre, which is a HUGE shopping mall that just dwarfs the mega-malls in North Carolina. Southpoint, eat your heart out. Edo hates it and everything that it stands for, but it is damn convenient.

For all the Hellenic flavour of Oakleigh, the best things about it aren't the Greek ones (except for maybe the baklava at Nikos Cafe which isn't bad at all). There's a wonderful Persian/Afghan restaurant called Nights of Kabul, an Italian-owned fresh pasta shop -- really, that's all they sell -- and the Korean supermarket just down from that sells great little ice cream treats. The produce market is run by Chinese, as is the "if you can't find it anywhere else, we'll not only have it but have it for dirt cheap" shop where I have bought lots of obscure things like draft snakes and reasonably priced CD racks.

Our house has two bedrooms (visitors??? let us know!) and hardwood floors throughout. It also has a beautiful kitchen with stainless steel appliances, a sunroom overlooking the backyard which is big and comes with its own gardener Thank God, and sizable living and dining rooms. What it doesn't have is central heating. It has two gas fireplaces which do well to warm up the house quickly, but in the morning we're quite chilly. We're working on solving that situation. We also bought a car! We decided after renting one from Thrifty over the long Easter weekend that we couldn't live without a car (really, you need one in Australia -- not as much as in the US, but more than in Europe) so we are now the proud owners -- and by 'owners' of course I mean 'slaves to the lending institution' -- of a 2004 Hyundai Getz. They don't exist back in the US because they would be crushed by the Hummers. But it's a cute little car, with great warranty and a CD player, power everything, and very easy to park. It's all about priorities.

We've spent some time in Melbourne City (or Central Business District, CBD), but we find ourselves being pulled out of the city just about every weekend. Melbourne is nice if you're a city person, but Victoria is beautiful! The best thing about living in Melbourne is waking up on a Saturday afternoon and saying "would you rather go to the beach or the mountains?" and within an hour you're there. We have also visited the Wine Country of the Yarra River Valley and Healesville Sanctuary which is full of local fauna. OK I've written a novella here so I'll stop and write more in a couple of weeks. Sometimes we miss North Carolina... actually, we often miss North Carolina. But I don't feel like I want to leave here yet. Maybe one day we'll go back home, but for now I really like Australia. Except for this central heating issue; in spite of what we're all led to believe about Oz, it actually does get cold here in the Fall and Winter!

Oh, and Vegemite sucks :)