A Kookaburra in the hand, is ...........

.... worth
......one on the shoulder!

Sent Backpacking!

Simone, Tess and younger daughter were exported about an hour ago, bound first for a stopover in Seoul, then on to London and Europe for the next three months.

Eyes Front!

Team photo taken 10am Saturday 15 May. By 4 pm all had gone to their new homes except one who remains behind with us. The fern in the foreground is asparagus which they loved to chew, so their new owners may have wondered if all puppies' wee smells like that!

Breakfast anyone?

In a league of our own!

Last night, both sons, elder daughter and Kiwi Jiff, her fiancee, as well as yours truly went to the inaugural match to be played at Melbourne's newest sporting venue AAMI Park (opposite the Tennis Centre and close by to the MCG). It was a rugby league Test match between Oz and the Kiwis with the former winning in the pouring rain 12-8. That Melbourne is the sporting capital of the world is undeniable. As a Pom, I readily admit that Aussie Rules is the most exciting, most skillful and, more often than not, most physical ball sport in the world.

A Blog all to herself.......nearly

Elder daughter has hounded me for months to publish a blog just about her - she's clearly sick to death of all my references to her sister! So, the opportunity arose this evening when her fella Kiwi Jiff proposed marriage and she accepted, rather too readily if you ask me! Jiff, poor chap, is obviously not quite all there but, hey, she'll be off our hands!

Matron and I are simply delighted and look forward, at last, to becoming grandparents all in due course!

Raining Cats & Dogs

Elder daughter and her fella Jiff (really Jeff but being a Kiwi he has trouble in pronouncing his name correctly, actually he has trouble in pronouncing anything correctly) took Matron and I to see Cats on Saturday evening.

We got back just after midnight and two hours later younger daughter (who, as midwife, had fallen asleep on the couch) was woken by Gemma also on the couch. Not only was Gemma on the couch but so was pup number one! By 5 pm Sunday afternoon she had had 10 (of which one was stillborn and another delivered at the front door).

So, we have 5 boys and four girls.

Anyone in Oz want one, or two or three?

No, I'm not going in there yet!

Gemma is due to give birth next weekend; so, the other day we brought in her whelping box, got it all nice and comfortable for her and then invited her to re-acquaint herself with it.

Well, she absolutely refused to go anywhere near it, sulked and lay down, squashed between our couch and coffee table, and paid not the slightest bit of attention to our cheerful encouragement.

I have no idea where she gets this attitude from but it's not from me - I'm put in my box regularly and never dare put my foot down!