Three hounds and a budgie

On Sunday we had a greyhound meetup. C and her friend Erica both brought their dogs, Rocky and Minnie, to join Val and Kardygirl at Mullaloo Beach so that we could do a coastal footpath walk. At one point we were going past a row of houses and a man yelled out “Get that f***ing dog off my garden!” How unbelievably rude! 

Afterwards we went out for breakfast. The three greyhounds attracted a fair amount of attention and took up a lot of space on the terrace at the cafe. The waitress even brought out dog biscuits for them. Val and I enjoyed some buttermilk pancakes, while C had granola with strawberries. Erica enjoyed a chocolate croissant.

This was the view from the car park: it was a beautiful morning.

Now for the budgie story:

Val used to play golf with her friend Barbara. One day they found an injured budgie and Val decided to take it home with her, since she kept lots of birds in an aviary in her garden. On the way she was pulled over by the police for speeding. She explained about the “emergency” and the policeman asked to see the budgie. Val said “It’s in my cap and inside my handbag, but I can’t open it or it will fly away.” He looked at her for a moment and then asked to see her driving license.  She replied “That’s in my handbag too and I really don’t want the budgie to escape.” The policeman had had enough by this time and just waived her on.

Walking the dog early this morning.

A friend in need…

My friend Val had an eye operation this week. When she came out of day surgery, she had been warned she would have very limited vision and certainly be unable to drive. Her daughter lives in Darwin and her son in Albany: at opposite ends of the country. I offered to come and stay with her for a few days, to cook her meals and be her chauffeur. 

Val lives in a retirement village in a two bedroom bungalow with a very pretty garden. There is an indoor swimming pool in the complex and a park across the road. It really is a nice place to stay and it’s like a little holiday for me. I might become one of those house guests that cannot be persuaded to leave!

I am not allowed to post pictures of Val’s eyes. They are not a pretty sight and we can’t imagine why some people go through this purely for cosmetic reasons.

Val and her greyhound in the sheltered courtyard.

We swim every day and the water is a lot warmer than mine at Burswood.

30 degrees!


The very prolific lemon tree.

The very perfumed frangipani.

One of Val’s many pictures. This is a beautiful photograph taken near Esperance, showing the white sand dunes which look exactly like a snow scene.

This is not a bad place to escape the February heat in my apartment!

Scam!

A cautionary tale: how not to get scammed.

A few days ago,  I was just finishing my breakfast when I received a text purporting to come from my daughter. She had smashed her phone and needed me to contact her on another number via WhatsApp. I don’t use this app so it took me a while to set up. Then another message asked me to pay a bill for her. This bill was due that day, the end of the month, and she would pay me back tomorrow. This sense of urgency, and a desire to help your kids, stops you thinking rationally. Of course, I made the bank transfer. Fortunately for me, the payment for $3000+ was queried by Westpac and they held the funds. Wow, that was a close shave! In hindsight the scam depends on no voice communication between the parties.

This morning I’m at South Beach, out for breakfast and reading the paper. I came across this:

The newspaper article gave details about the huge number of recent scams, of various types, and reported that over 65’s were the most vulnerable. All this quite spoiled my breakfast, but the beach was nice:

This is something I’ve never seen before: a giant kite surfer holding two people, being towed by a boat. What next?

Even The Guardian is reporting the scams here