John OHara (RTT) and the CAT cast

We had bought 7 tickets to CATS opening night at Burswood about 6 months ago.  Cliff & I, B, M, C and J & P ended up going.  The stage set was pretty good and extended out from the front to both sides.  The Cats came on and off the stage both sides during the entire show.  Cats were in the audience and as we were in the second row came off the staged and interacted with those in the front row.

The two favourite cats were Mr Mistoffelees (Adrian Ricks) and No#1 Cat Rum Tum Tugger played by John O’Hara who was the star of the show.  In fact, without RTT I think the whole night would have been yawnable.  I must say I was very disappointed in the musical score, not the orchestra or the caste but the actual original score itself which, compared to Miss Saigon or Phantom, is very second rate, repetitive and quite boring really.  The story itself, though is based on TS Elliot poems, also is very slight and without some speccy dancing by the caste would have been a totally boring night.  However, theatre is enjoyable because of the overall affect so with the stage set, the individual brilliant cast members, lighting and brilliant performances by Adrian and John it was an overall enjoyable night.  Certainly not a show I would see again (as we did Miss Saigon) but certainly we were very glad we saw it.

Rock delivery 8 tonne

As we decided to start building our house this year (plans almost finalised with Webb & Brown Neaves) we had to relocate the creek line to move it closer to the left boundary.  We had John dig the new creek with his backhoe and then decided we should make it more formal by lining it with coffee rock.

First we had a double load delivered (14 tonne) - the pile of rocks looked absolutely massive when it was delivered at the top of driveway and we thought it would take us weeks to move.  Cliff started moving it with Richie (our tractor) and taking it bucket load at a time to the edge of the creek.  He started laying on the dam overflow.  After a couple of days I started helping and it was much easier with the two of us loading and tipping out the bucket loads of rock and then jumping into the dug out creek and slotting the rocks in place like a random jigsaw.  It was tough

Richie digs in

going as there were many large, heavy rocks but although it was back breaking, sweaty work it was also very rewarding.

In no time we had depleted the first delivery and had a second load (8 tonne) delivered in a small truck.  We decided to move the whole lot, a bucket at a time, down along the edge of the creek and then spent 2 days laying all the rocks.  So by the end of 1 week we had done from the dam down to the fence line… about half way in to the job.

We had a 3rd load delivered (8 tonne) but got the delivery put down the back to reduce the amount of travelling for the tractor and to speed things up.  Cliff is covered in bruises on his arms and legs from rocks and a bruise on his ankle from me (accidental rock thrown that hit him!).

Flat out exhausted

The overflow

We are both too tired to continue this week and as it turned out the rain came.  We’ll probably continue this coming weekend and each weekend until we are done as we need to finish before the rain sets in and the dam starts overflowing.

Our new creek

Sam 44

Today I am 44.  This is the year that B is 22, I am 44 and Mum is to be 66 - which will be the only time we will be identically spaced out in age.  I guess this for B it is a snapshot of her in 22 and 44 years! I’ve decided we should have a commemorative photo done of the 3 generations of women of the Wheeler clan.

Tagine

It was a quiet birthday this year and passed uneventfully.  We picked C up from her mother’s home that evening as it was Easter Saturday.  S was catching a plane out that night to Melbourne for Theatre week.  Cliff bought me a beautiful Tagine.  We’ve always looked at Tagine’s and said “we’ll get one of those, one day”… today was the day!

We made our first Moroccan style meal in the Tagine the day we got it.  We loosely followed a recipe adding powdered ginger, cinnamon, fresh garlic, chilli and pepper.  We had bought a rack of lamb from the Boatshed for a photographic shoot so decided to slice the rack up to use in the Tagine.

Tagine

We added Kalamata olives, diced fresh tomatoes, green beans, gourmet potatoes and slow cooked it for a couple of hours and served it with rice.  For a first att

Well Shimi is all but grown up (certainly in size!).  Two weeks ago we got her sterilised.  The operation went well and her wound looked neat and was only 8cm long with all of the stitches internal.  The vet gave us one of those dog bucket collars as they said that many dogs lick or pull out stitches.  Shimi, however, was only told once “no licking” and that was it… she ignored it.  It obviously bothered her a bit and was quite sore for a few days but she was content with rolling over to show us her tummy so we could rub it for her.  She was a bit wobbly on her feet for 24 hours after the op then after that she was back to normal.

A week later she visited “Bonnie” (TNT’s 13 month old black lab) and ran around like a ‘mad thing’ with her for a couple of hours.

Shimi has remained very white in colour and she is just beautiful in nature too.  She has grown a lot quicker than I remember Jessie being at this age, already weighing in at 33kilos!  She is very sensible for a puppy… in fact she seemed to grow out of her ‘naughty’ puppyness at around 5 months.  We have had no things chewed up and no wet spots on the carpet in the past 6 or so weeks (maybe that’s because she ran out of rattan cup placemats to chew up!).

When Guy died earlier in January, Larry plummeted into a life of quiet aloneness.  He stopped making guinea pig noises and would sit for hours totally still.  I guess considering he spend almost every day of his 5 years with his buddy Guy, losing him would have been earth shattering to the poor little dude.

P also had a lone guinea, Rusty, whose own friend died about a year ago.  So there seemed an easy solution and when TnT came over for dinner last Wednesday night they brought a little box with holes in it that contained Rusty.  Cliff put Rusty into Larry’s cage and they quickly introduced each other.

It has now been almost a week and both are very happy.  They eat together, sleep together and are both making all the proper guinea pig noises again.  Today is Australia Day 2010 and the boys are enjoying their daily feast of freshly picked grass, lettuce, carrot, cucumber and a bowl of rabbit mueslie!

Cliff and I have been living at the farm for the past 3 weeks while Sheldon & Caitlin are at their mothers.  Shimi absolutely loves the property and runs around the paddocks and quickly discovered the dam.  She has been going in for a swim several times a day and more when it is hot.  Sometimes she just stands in the water with a stupid look on her face but other times she swims laps backwards and forwards across the remaining muddy water.  She gets out wet, soggy, muddy and looking very pleased with herself.

Then, she sneaks back inside and sits on her bed - still wet, soggy, and sandy!

Guy

On Thursday, 7th January 2010, Guy passed away.

Guy joined our family (along with Larry) on 2nd February 2005. Guy had lived a charmed guinea pig life with our family being fed not only a yummy pellet and rabbit mix with grains and lucern but also a daily diet of fresh veges.  His favourite vege was Chinese Veges (Bok Choy) and he preferred it if you pulled apart the leaves.  He loved Cucumber, apple and carrot sliced and celery sticks immensely…..but, by far, his most favourite food was grass… and lots of it!

Guy leaves behind his guinea pig friend Larry.

Shimi at Avalon

Mahli and Shimi

We’ve had to wait until Shimi had her vaccinations to be able to take her anywhere because Parvo virus has been prevalent this year.  We headed down to the beach house on 28th December.  P&R, J&R, & TnT where already there.  Mitch, Sheldon & Caitlin came with us and Beth joined us for one day (before flying out to Canberra with Eila on New Years Day.  Eila turned 16 on New Year’s Eve.

So, Shimi saw the beach for the first time.  We knew she would LOVE it because she just loves water (of any kind) so much.  She loves the hose on, or the sprinklers, and sat on the black slide up at the farm with the kids wizzing down it this year.

Some dogs can’t dog paddle straight away but Shimi had no such trouble

Shimi loves water

and swam back and forth with

Cliff shows Shimi a shell

ease.  Having never been on a lead before we were amazed that she took to it quickly and just walked calmly at our side.  She was fussed over by everyone on the beach and said hello to every dog she saw.  She chased Mahli round and followed her up to Mahli’s favourite limestone caves.  Both dogs walked over the uncovered reef.

We took the pups for a walk twice a day and Shimi slept for hours afterwards exhausted, but very happy!

J&I, V&R and Luke, J & C came down to the beach house for New Years and V,R,L & C stayed over night.  Once they’d left we decided to stay another couple of nights before heading home.

Favourite reef bit

Mahli shows Shimi the caves

Shimi and Mahli Nov 2009

An angel when asleep!

Shimi is growing fast.  Mahli has decided she is not so bad and occasionally plays with her.  Shimi now has a size and weight advantage and sometimes decides to smother Mahli.

Shimi at work!

Beautiful Shimi is now 12 weeks old.  She has grown so fast and weighed in at almost 12 kilos at the vets this week.  She has trained extremely fast and learnt to sit on the first attempt (how did she even know what to do?).  We have always made dogs ’sit’ before we give them their dinner so I took her bowl out the back and said “sit”… and she did and I gave her her dinner.  From then on every time we said ’sit’ she does!  She also understands quite a lot of other words.  She learnt how to use Mahli’s doggie door at home and from that minute on has not messed inside during the day or night.  At 10 weeks I was getting sick of having to get up at 5 or 6 am because she was yapping in her cage for breakfast.  I was exhausted after two weeks of that.  So we decided instead of putting her in her pen to use it to section her off so she could only be on tiled areas and had the doggie door.  From that day onward she no longer whines in the morning and waits patiently for us to get up at 7am when I get her breakfast.  She is still not completely toilet trained at work as there is no doggie door it is more like ‘toilet timing’ when she gets up after a long sleep or after a drink or food we take her out and she’ll go to the toilet.  She’s had a couple of slip ups so she still has to learn to go to the door and ask to go out.

Shimi checking out the damn overflow pipe

She now towers over Mahli in height and is almost double her weight and she knows it as she uses these to her advantage when they play.  She is a bully and sides on to Mahli and pushes her against the wall or stands over the top of her.  She’ll even walk past Mahli and turn and knock her over with her backside!

We’ve been spending weekends up at the Piesse Brook property and Shimi LOVES it.  She loves sniffing around the paddocks, checking out the dam and the overflow pipe.  Playing in the mud and checking out the ducklings.  She is content sleeping in the house in the cool on and off during the day while we are outside working.  She comes down every now and then to see what we are doing and heads back inside if it is too hot.  Even at night she’s totally trustworthy to leave loose in the house as she uses the doggie door to go

Shimi even gets cuddles when all muddy!

out to the toilet and then comes back inside and goes back to sleep.  It is so nice having such a trustworthy dog who doesn’t bugger off every time you open the door like Mahli did as a puppy and young dog.  Even now you can’t completely trust Mahli not to disappear when you have your back turned.  Beth is taking Mahli down to Mandurah this weekend.