Saturday, September 28, 2013

dog attack

I took Truffs out for a walk yesterday morning around the Dcoklands. We made our way to a park near Woolworths. There were two other dogs in the park playing ball with their owners. Both dogs were off leash (even though there are no off leash areas in Docklands).

As we were making our way across the park both dogs ran over and one of them instantly set on Truffs and started biting her head and neck. The dog's owners and I were frantically trying to pull the dogs apart. All the while, Truffs was yelping.

We finally managed to separate them. The dog's owners, a lovely Asian couple, were apologising profusely and checking Truffs for any damage. Fortunately she didn't receive any (I think her thick fur saved her from serious injury).

Evidently the aggressor was a rescue dog and the new owners are trying to get it better socialised with other dogs. I think it still has a long way to go. Despite seeing Truffs attacked, I was empathetic to the owners (though they really should have had their dog on a leash or muzzled). Anyhoo..we had a nice chat.

As for Truffs, she got a treat from the aggressor's owner for the 'trauma' and almost instantly started wagging her tail at the owners' other dog. Seems like all was forgiven.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

new acquisition

One of these is by an American artist and is owned by The National Gallery of Australia. The other was painted by an aboriginal artist and just entered my collection. Which is which?



tonight's dinner highlight...

....was a whole fried snapper at Longrain (photo courtesy of sis).




collecting my award

I got a teaching award yesterday. It was nice to celebrate it with Nathan and my youngest sis, who flew down from Canberra as my 'interstate' guest. The awards ceremony was held at the museum in the afternoon. Unfortunately I had to give a lecture so I was a bit concerned I'd arrive late but the traffic Gods were kind yesterday and my European driver (who doesn't seem to speak english) was very efficient getting me there.

We stayed for canapes after the ceremony. I think there is definitely a strategy to attracting the attention of waiters that are bringing out food (and I don't mean standing outside the kitchen). We used eye contact and a friendly smile that said 'come dither with the food' (see example below):




Afterwards, we headed off to dinner at the delightful Commoner. The food there was amazing. We ordered several dishes to share (the eel special and the pumpkin are illustrated). All photos courtesy of my sis. 


Off to Canberra on the weekend. Looks like I just missed fellow blogger Andrew.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

F.U.

So, The University of Ballarat is going to be renamed Federation University. Seriously? FU?

ballarat

We went to Ballarat yesterday for the day with some friends. Beautiful city. We had a lovely lunch at the Craig's Royal Hotel  and wandered around the Art Gallery. It was a lovely day. The only dampner was our v-line ticket purchased for $24.80. We subsequently found out we could have paid just half that amount had we used a myki (being a weekend)....Such an amazing price disparity. It was clearly more of an issue for some of our friends than for us – judging by how much they were going on about it. As far as Nathan and I were concerned...it's not worth sweating the small stuff. You live and learn for next time.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

competition

I was lying on the couch this morning with the lap top, reading the news. I think the dog felt neglected and started competing for my attention...



Friday, September 13, 2013

wow...what a week

Some working weeks are quite unremarkable. This past week was not one of those.

I had a student collapse in one of my lectures on Monday. He was unconscious for several minutes and an ambulance had to be called. I thought about cancelling the class but the paramedic suggested it would be best to continue. I ended up delivering the lecture while the three paramedics were assessing the student at the front of the lecture theatre. Thankfully the student was ok.

Today, I had a different kind of 'remarkable'. I spent the day with a production crew who were filming me for a short documentary. It's a fascinating process but I'm not sure if I will ever feel 100% comfortable in front of the camera. This crew was much more enjoyable to work with than my last filming experience where I had to stare at the cameraman's arm and pretend that I was looking at the interviewer (who couldn't actually make it in person and interviewed me by phone)...that interview was such a disaster that I was too embarrassed to watch it on TV (and no, the fact the cameraman had a decent bicep didn't help).

Sunday, September 8, 2013

weekend

Aside from the terrible election result, I had a fantastic weekend. I got to catch up with a friend on Saturday for brunch, and took the dog to my favourite dog park in North Carlton today (which happens to be right nearby my favourite pub restaurant).




Sunday, September 1, 2013

Canberra

Nathan and I just got back from Canberra. I went up on Wednesday and spent a couple of days doing some gardening – first at mum and dad's place and then at my sister's. It was nice to be out of the office and doing some outdoor work in the sun. Nathan flew up on Friday. My Melbourne-based sister and brother-in-law drove up and arrived on Friday night. We celebrated grandma's 91st birthday on Saturday and took dad out for father's day lunch today. I feel energised for the week ahead, which is just as well...I begin teaching first year students on Monday.