Life is NOT boring (Warning: Pic overload!!!)

I'm not sure if it is a blessing or not but the last couple of weeks have been ANYTHING but boring.

Pet Expo

Brina and I attended the Pet Expo in Hamilton. It was an awesome weekend hanging out with the best dogs in the world. Brina was awesome and was quite happy to just loaf around accepting love from all. The club did a FANTASTIC job of the stand, it looked amazing, by far the best stand at the expo. At one point I think we had eight dogs on the stand too. We caused quite a traffic jam at times. There were a LOT of people that went through.

Melbourne

Last weekend I was in Melbourne!!!! Gill, Tracy and Maree shouted me a trip  for my birthday. It was an AWESOME weekend!!!! And SO what I needed after a difficult year.

Gill and I flew over on Friday night and were met at the airport by Tracy. The weather on both sides of the Tasman was DIABOLICAL. Pouring rain and howling wind. Seeing Tracy was just great. :-)

On the Saturday morning we started off with brunch and a chocolate shop/ cafe. It was lovely and the BEST hot chocolate EVER!!!!

After brekkie we headed to Docklands to check out the Royal Doulton factory shop. I'm very glad that a) I had no money and b) had no room in my luggage for the trip home as it would be very easy to buy lots!!! As we came out of the shops I saw........a BERNESE!!!!! Yay!!!!

After a few snuggles we headed off down the motorway to Mornington about an hour's drive from Melbourne. We had fish and chips and a wander around (managed to find an NZ shop for Tracy) and then headed back to the city for a bit of a rest before our evening out.

The evening was dedicated to seeing Cavalia, an AWESOME show. It was a Circue du Soleil style show with horses and acrobats etc. Fantastice show. I was very pleased to see the horses being ridden well and looked after. It felt like it was done 'properly'. The horses all had a gentle eye but were allowed to express their personalities. It was great. We got to have a wander around the stable afterwards too and we were treated to some very content, well looked after horses.

After the show we headed in to Southbank to see the 'flamey show thing'

On the Sunday we went to a market in a prison (starts with a P but can't remember). There was some AWESOME artisan food there including the best strudel I've ever tasted. We followed that with a delicious brunch and then a wander around the CBD.

After some yummy churros we dropped Gill at the airport and then after a bit of a breather Tracy and I picked up Tracy's friend Seri and headed to the Moonlit Wildlife Sanctuary for a night tour. It was SO COOL!!! We played with a snake called Pug, fed the wallabies and roos, fed some tazzy devils, saw Quolls (I had never even HEARD of quolls before going), got to feed and play with gliders (I LOVE gliders!!!!!). We saw a wombat, some dingos and koalas. There was an emu and some courting barking owls. It was one of the BEST evenings!!!!! I loved it!!!!

I was KNACKERED by the time I got home on Monday.


Brina

 Of course no story would be complete without a Brina tale. On the Monday after the Pet Expo Brina finally had her 'bounce' back (post eye surgery) She was really full of of beans when I got back from work and did a big bounce up the three steps to the bedroom. As she bounced there was a big yelp, she fell through the door and got tangled up in my suitcase. I knew EXACTLY what she had done and that it was expensive. I got her to the vets and, sure enough, she had ruptured her cruciate. :-( That girl REALLY knows how to break me!!!!!! She went in for (MORE) surgery on Monday morning so I picked her up once I got back into NZ. She was still really out to it so my wonderful vet came round to the house to help me get her in. This house is definitely not three legged dog friendly.

She is now recovering. She is on three legs and needs to be supported when she moves around (ie I carry her back end, which I can report is HEAVY). We have a long road ahead of us with lots of confinement and physio therapy and I need to REALLY cross my fingers that she doesn't do the other one (60% chance of that happening :-() She's REALLY funny though, when I lift up her back end she HURTLES off with her front legs and I can hardly keep up. I hope my back lasts the distance. She is taking her confinement in good grace so far (I think she is probably quite sore) and is quite cheerful just loafing about the house.

Hopefully she should be all go again before Christmas which is going to be a bit of a special one. :-)