port melbourne this morning

Perry and I went to the beach this morning just for something to do. He loves to dig in the sand, I hope he doesn't cause an environmental disaster. We went out on this pier which btw I had never noticed before...

And got the weirds, because there are all these memorial plaques on it. Did you know about this? 

Then we had a quick look at the vacant site over the road. I can't even remember what used to be there, only that I was somewhat disappointed it was pulled down. 

I took this photograph through the gate. Made me feel a bit like the Mars Rover

i'm coming out

This bizarre animal, having been a complete shut-in for five and a half years, rarely if ever venturing out of my bedroom and spending most of that time underneath my bed, has now decided for some reason to do the complete opposite, and to be perennially in public (well, at least, she has located permanently to the sitting room and as far as I know has not returned to the bedroom once). She sleeps in the sitting room, usually on the couch, sometimes with her face turned resolutely towards a bar heater that's here at the moment and turned on a lot of the time. 

It makes absolutely no sense to me - and I suppose both nothing and everything makes sense to her. 

I will say that Nancy is here too and does not venture into my bedroom anymore either.

Perry, who used to sleep in the sitting room, now sleeps in the spare room. 

karkarook park

 

Perry and I like to go for walks in new places, particularly where there are clumps of plants or bushes that smell good, or grass where you can run round and round. Karkarook Park has both of these things in great quantity.

I have an embarrassing confession to make which leads to a quandary/philosophical question. I am not going to say where it came from but I was carrying a small bag of dog shit with me when we saw a corn can, that is, a can which had once contained corn, by the water (I actually initially assumed that someone had literally sat on the bank of the lake and ate corn out of a can but now I come to think of it - more likely they had emptied the can earlier and put something else in it, like bait, if corn itself isn't bait. There are a lot of people fishing at the lake - you'll note the sign above suggests it as an activity - but you can take the advice of that sign, or of the other signs all around saying the lake has blue-green algae in it and you shouldn't swim in it or fish in it). Anyway I didn't like the idea of a corn can being by the water so I picked it up* and put the dog shit bag in the can and we kept walking. There are signs all round saying, well saying by implication, that there are no bins/no rubbish pick up in the park, you have to leave with your rubbish. So I took the can all the way back to the car and when we go there realised it was empty i.e. I had inadvertantly dropped the dog shit out of the can. 

Now I didn't mean to do it, so I don't feel guilty per se, except I know someone will see that bag of dogshit somewhere and say or at least think 'what the fuck is wrong with people', at least, that's what I do every time I see a bag of dogshit lying around somewhere - it's almost worse than just ordinary unbagged dog shit. Although the bags in question claim to be biodegradable (or the manufacturers claim that for them). No-one's claiming that for a corn can. So, out of the two things, is it better to retrieve a corn can than bag some dog shit and remove it, ie should I have just stuck to my knitting?** 

'I'm implicated! Woof'

*Just to fully neutralise this act I would like to add the information that I knew that I had an alcohol-based hand sanitising towelette in the car, acquired during recent air travel. 

** I pay dogshit tax - I pick up more dog shit than my colleague above produces. Not as much as I should because it's really nasty to pick up some other dog's cold old dogshit but it's what Jesus would do. Dogshit is bad for the environment and Jesus loved the environment. 

perry and ferdie a few weeks ago

Ferdie is leading a gay old life. Mia and Emma have chickens now and he breaks in and steals the eggs regularly. He's always himself. 
 

misty

 

perry and i walked to yarraville to sun books to buy a copy of robert forster's novel

These pictures are completely out of sequence except the last one. Keeps it interesting

sunday

 Any ideas for what I should do with this picture welcomed. 

jacana birds

A short walk with Ferdie in Jacana this morning (and Perry too who has had his photograph taken too many times). Lots of birds on the sports ovals. Got some stuff from under the house, might tell you about that later if I can be bothered getting it in from the car/ have time.

You know what they say about cats and dogs, well, do they say cats like to be in the sunshine and dogs like to be in the shadows? I hope so because then these pictures bear out the truth of that saying. Nancy in particular loves being out on the deck, loves it.

Also here's a bonus picture of no essential value, of a building in Parkville Gardens when we went there last night. Enjoy! 

 

bearable sunday

 

It has been a bearable Sunday. Mainly doing a lot of writing for a book chapter I have had all the materials sitting around for for yonks now, but I haven't had the time/motivation to get it done, but now I've started it's coming together pretty nicely really all things considered. I have to write 4000 words and I have written over 2000. That's ok isn't it. It's mainly quality narrative, it's not just mapping out crap, though some is mapping out. Also, I took Perry to get some snacks and dinner food at the pet shop and have a wash in the wash place, and I combed quite a bit of matted junk off his leg (one leg is fine now, one still has a bit of stuff on it, he only has so much tolerance for the tugging). When we were in the pet shop there was a child at the counter with two rats. They seemed nice enough but I didn't know how Perry would feel if he saw them. Or what he would do. Anyway the woman at the counter - who knew Perry's name, I don't know how - advised the child to leave for a short time so I could make purchases. 

Yesterday we went to see Nirvanna the band the show the movie (I think that's what it's called) which was actually pretty impressive and funny. I would like to go to Canada someday. I wonder if there will still be much of a planet left when Donald Trump dies or if we are all going to die together, with him. At least he would then be dead but I think I've earned the pleasure of outliving that moving lump of shit. 

reasons to be sneerful

I don't care about national flags, except I care that the intensely embarrassing one this country presently has, appears unlikely to ever be changed in my lifetime. FFS. I will never feel pride when seeing a flag but it would be nice not to feel shame, even though it's not my fault at all. 

Speaking of grossitude, I thought I'd just record a moment just before Kyle and Jackie O were yanked off the air and the organisation which broadcasts them to a decreasing audience itself disappears. 

Here are some reasons to be cheerful: Nancy is now as big as Perry, or to be precise, Perry is now as small as Nancy.

 Monsieur Fancygestures. Get a cigarette holder you. 

uninteresting walk

On Boxing day (today) around 6 Perry and I walked to Kensington station and took a train to Glenbervie station. 

This used to be a retirement village at the corner of Pascoe Vale and Moreland Roads. It's been vacant forever. I know I walked around there and took photographs, maybe I blogged it, do you remember? From there, we walked haphazardly to Moonee Ponds creek and went south (in the meandering way that the creek does). You can follow the creek for a while, then you are compelled to go onto the road for a while. This was something I saw on the way. 

This block of flats which was OK I guess. 

Once we got back to the creek, Perry decided he wanted to walk in the middle of the creek. 

We went past these flats in Flemington Road which have intrigued me for a while. I see they are called Braemar. 

That's it. It was a longish walk but very little happened.