Walking Along The River

7.15am. Bruno and I head downstairs. I hadn’t cleaned the kitchen last night, bad me, I always try to do it, if Sam can cook, I can clean, I feel as though it is a failure if I don’t do it.

7.23am. I have finished cleaning the kitchen. I sit on the couch, Bruno joins me.

9am. Sam got up.

I make coffee and Vegemite toast.

I watch a South African car YouTuber who specialises in Alfas and who has a collection of Alfas. He has his own workshop, he’s handsome, which doesn’t hurt, from all accounts is successful. He has a great name. I wonder what I have done with my life?

I make more coffee.

I’m so disappointed with my lack of achievement in my life, I shut off the screen, I get up and organise my plants. Then I make a banana cake.

I follow this with vacuuming the house, but then it is Sunday and our usual house cleaning morning.

I’m finished at 10.20am

11am. I have a shower.

11.20am. We take Bruno to the Yarra for a walk. Then we’ll do some shopping.

11.25am. I drop Sam and Bruno off at the bridge when there are no car spots in the dead end street next to the big Salvos building, the preferred place to park, just by the bridge that crosses the river. I wait a few minutes and a Mazda 4WD comes and goes, an Audi 4WD comes and goes, and an Alfa 4WD comes, just as an Audi 4WD is getting ready to back out of one of the car spots, so I turn my car around before the Alfa 4WD turns around and comes back and attempts some funny business, and just like that, I’m parked.

I head across the bridge. Some woman had just asked Sam to hold onto Bruno because her Jack Russell was scared because it had been attacked before...in an off-lead dog park? Sam is much nicer about such things than me, he’d just do it with a smile, where I’d have to make a comment. I’d hang onto Bruno, but I’d have to say something. “You do know this is an off-lead dog area, don’t you?”

11.35am. We walking along the Yarra. It is overcast but still quite warm. It seems like the path has got narrower, or have the weeds got longer. I think the weeds have got longer.

We meet two German Short-Haired Pointers at the turn around spot, where the path narrows and heads up the cliff of an embankment where my problem with heights becomes a problem. The short-haired pointers are on leads but that doesn’t stop them wanting to play with Bruno, or Bruno with them.

We head to The Hive. All the streets are blocked off. We head around to the next street, Charles Street, where there is a steady stream of cars looking for car parks. A Land Cruiser turns into Charles Street in front of us and gets the one vacant carpark we would have got.

Sam leaves us while Bruno and I find a car park.

12.10pm. Bruno and I find a car spot and park the car. Sam has already messaged from the shops. The Nasi Lemak shop isn't open.

Victoria Street is blocked off all the way along. Is it the Chinese New Year festival? It’s pretty quiet, well, there are plenty of people, but it is not packed like other years.

I like walking down the middle of Victoria Street when it is in carnival mode. So many people’s faces light up, and so many people make comments, when they see Bruno. So many people say, What a beautiful dog.

I’m so henpecked I ask Sam for permission to buy hot chips for $8 at the first stall I come to. I’m not even really hungry, just as well as Sam says no.

There are plenty of blue staffys walking up and down.

Bruno has just finished saying hello to a geriatric pug when he gets bitten by a sausage dog. The female owner apologises, you know, which is nice, but seriously do you expect me to believe that Bruno is the first dog you dog has bitten? How about this, you do whatever it takes to stop your dog biting other dogs.

Bruno makes a bee-line for one of the carnival guys who is throwing tennis balls. “Oh, sorry, he is tennis ball mad,” I say.

 “Will he not give up until I give him a ball?” he says. His rather handsome face breaks into a smile.

“Um… er,” I stumble. I could take him away, I think. What?

He smiles and gives Bruno a tennis ball 🎾 

I thank him. 

Once Bruno has a tennis ball, he has no interest in other dogs.

There is a group of young teenagers on stage murdering Bowie’s Starman, but good on them for getting up on stage and giving it a go. They say their next song is Creep, as I walk away. Then, not for the first time today I wonder what I have done with my life? Why wasn’t I in a teenage band?

I meet up with Sam, who is perusing a big stall of food. We buy really expensive take away Asian food for $32. Sam tells me to pay.

We head over to The Hive to shop for food. Bruno and I wait out the front while Sam shops. Bruno is completely preoccupied with the tennis ball. Many people walking into the shopping complex comment on how cute Bruno is, lying out on the tilted floor with the tennis ball between his paws.

We’re home by 1.15pm.

We eat the take away food first, something like crunchy roast potatoes and something like gnocchi, and then the Vietnamese savoury crepes (banh xeo).

Then we eat broken rice, which is what we really bought for lunch.

I still haven't sprayed my maidenhair ferns with white oil. I must do that.

I catch up my blog in the afternoon. I re-write all of February.

Classic Peugeot time, 5.04pm Sam feeds Bruno.