Dillon (1994 - 2009)

I finally had to say goodbye to my champion of a staffy yesterday. He had a good stint of 15 years or so, and was fortunate enough to be in pretty good health up until about the last 6 months. He was loyal, affectionate and a real character - there were many daffy things he did over the years, frequently causing us to crack up. He was loved dearly by our whole family.

Some of the things I will always remember about Dillon.

• How he loved people and was happy to meet, well, anyone really. As long as they were willing to pat him, he would have happily greeted a burglar with a wagging tail.
• How he disliked other animals... No cat ever got by without sensing the wrath of Dillon's hatred. It was a complete nuisance to him that he could not be let out to attack the cats every once in a while.
  
• How he loved to lie outside in the sun. He would stay out there for hours and finally stagger back inside when he was on the brink of dehydration. I could swear he had partly roasted himself on several occasions.
• He deplored rainy weather. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and as soon as it became a little overcast, Dillon would suddenly slip into a deep and obvious depression, sulking around the house (inside of course) and sighing as loudly as he could.
• How he would either snore or dream when he was in a deep sleep. When the latter occurred, he would sometimes start barking at an unknown something (probably a cat) until he woke himself up with the noise of his own barking.
• How he would stare you down if you were in possession of chips until you gave in and gave him some.
• How he would make you feel guilty if you had not paid attention to him in a while. By a while, I mean anything as little as 10 minutes. The severity of his looks would depend on what manner of neglect he had suffered and for how long.
• How he appreciated nothing more than a good pat, some sunshine, a walk or some scraps off the table.
• He would never give up on a game. He used to bite on to the used milk cartons and play tug-of-war with them. You could lift him up by the milk bottle and he would not let go.
  

So it's with sadness but fond memories that I look back on Dillon's life and our time together. I will miss him terribly. Rest in peace - I couldn't have asked for a more loyal companion and friend.

Jody

Breaking the Holiday Habits

Well, our holidays are nearing an end. I can't help but notice that rather than actually achieving something productive these holidays, I have merely managed to re-establish old habits (bad ones!). Here's my top five bad habits that I will need to break over the next few days...

Bad Habit #5: Tim Tams

I think I have gone through about 5 packets since the holidays commenced a few weeks back. Favourite way to consume Tim Tams? Bite off either end and drink coffee through it of course!


Bad Habit #4: Facebook

Well hey, there's nothing better to do... is there? Surely stalking your friends is worthwhile in some way?

Bad Habit #3: YouTube

This would not have been quite so bad if it weren't for those annoying little links they put down the side, which encourage you to follow the wildest of tangents with a simple click of the mouse. Favourites these holidays have included Radiohead videos and Miranda Sings as well as new Harry Potter trailers.

Bad Habit #2: Ignoring the Alarm

I hate the morning. Waking up is by far the most annoying thing to do every day, but normally if there is something I have to do I manage to drag myself out of bed. It began with only a few presses of the "snooze" button. In recent days however, I pushed snooze so many times that after an hour I simply didn't bother and went back to sleep, eventually waking up to realise it's time for lunch!

Bad Habit #1 (drum roll please): Video Games

Where do I begin?! Those little buggers are designed to suck the life out of you, I swear! Why I thought it would be a good idea to buy a DS I'll never know... Past experience should tell me that I have very little control at resisting a good game. So, many hours have been poured into Zelda and this dodgy little farming game I have become rather fond of. One of these days I'll learn my lesson.

We have a winner!

AMAZING singer!

This is just the funniest thing I've ever seen! Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS8zMAg_p3A&feature=channel_page

If you enjoyed this, make sure you watch her free voice lesson too - it's... enlightening! I think we will have a vote on whether she is serious or not. I still haven't decided. Either she is serious and is therefore delusional or she is a really good actress and is therefore (knowingly) making some of the funniest videos on Youtube. Let me know what you think, but either way it's pretty darn hilarious! Here's her profile.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mirandasings08

Enjoy!

How much trouble can one dog cause?

I have come to the conclusion that my dog, Dillon, has truly mastered the art of manipulation. He knows exactly what to do to get exactly what he wants - which is usually a sympathy pat (or 10). He has a daily pat quota which is rarely reached. My theory is that he does not actually realise that he is a dog, and instead he thinks that he is a terribly maltreated human.


Though he is skilled at getting what he wants out of people, he is not the brightest of animals. This can be a dangerous combination. Last night Dillon was either feeling particularly vindictive or particularly stupid... or both! The gate was left open for a moment and he figured he'd make a break for freedom. Nevermind that he is 15 years old, blind, deaf and quite feeble on his legs - off he went.

We had little over 20 minutes of daylight left to look for him and without success. He is a dark dog and basically disappears into the night after sunset. And then came the rain. He hates rain. I think he was probably starting to regret his escape at this point. It was cold, it was wet, it was dark and he was far too blind to figure out where the hell he was!

Fortunately he chose to give up hope on the driveway of a fellow dog-lover, who took him in overnight. After much stress, worry, phoning and flyer posting we finally heard the good news that he had been found, and picked up a very tired staffy from this lady's house several kilometers away.

Yes, it was an ordeal... but he has now received lots of pats and attention from relieved family since his return home. And so, his manipulation worked on us.

Dillon: 1
Us: 0

Perhaps he is not so stupid...

Though he has caused us huge amounts of worry and he is a massive pain in the butt I wouldn't have him any other way. Glad to have you back, Dillon!

More album covers

I think I am developing an addiction...

My album cover

Here are the rules:

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select “random quotations” or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together

Here's the results for my album cover...

How to Make Enemies at a Wedding

Yesterday was the beginning (and possibly the end?) of my “career” as a wedding singer. As part of the church’s chamber choir, the women are often asked to sing at weddings – and on this particular Saturday none of the other women were available. This is really the only reason I agreed to do it in the first place; I am thoroughly out-diva-ed by the other girls.

Bearing in mind that I have never learnt how to sing and would by no means consider myself a soloist, the prospect of more or less sight-singing half a dozen pieces on the most important day of someone else’s life was a little terrifying. Picture a congregation full of affluent Italians in one of our city’s most prestigious churches. Enter me, desperately trying not to lose my voice after three weeks of solid singing and teaching, with water bottle in one hand, thermal cup of boiling water for emergency steaming in the other and a pile of music tucked under one arm and only just resisting the urge to run in the opposite direction.

I managed to stuff up the first alleluia followed immediately by some improvised English text, fumbled my way through some hymns and then, shaking with fear, sang Schubert’s Ave Maria knowing that any slight error would quickly be noticed by many in the congregation. I might have got away with that one… Needless to say, I couldn’t get out of there quick enough!

Unfortunately for me and my poor fading voice there was a second wedding to do. Thankfully this service was in the chapel, and so it was far less elaborate and intimidating. No microphones – yay!! Not that it went without error; there were still moments of stylistically-challenged improvisation.

With any luck the brides either didn’t notice or didn’t care. The grooms (I assume) would not mind either way. But far from putting me at ease about any future weddings, I think this experience has increased my fear status to a full-blown phobia!!