Puddles the Cat

 

My mum is amazing!!

 

Mum: "He looks like he's been the victim of an oil disaster."

Zappa's Flooded Birthday!

The other day the anticipated exciting event happened - the river flooded!

Where I was standing to take the above photo (unflooded Bellingen photo):

The view from Suzy's verandah is usually green fields:

Very exciting! Luckily we'd just bought tons of food so we were set. Suzy lives on the same side of the river to us (the non-'town' side) and so we went over to her house to do a jigsaw puzzle with her, Iona and Taylor, her daughters (well, Taylor more spectated. Now and again).

At first we couldn't get to town or the highway but we could get to Quigley's house, so it was all good. But then the river kept rising, and yesterday the back road flooded too - we were due to housesit for Quigley and Jean today! Suzy reckoned we should go at whenever low tide was, which would give us the biggest chance of getting through. So we woke up on Zappa's birthday, had birthday pancakes, and set off through the driving rain. The road/off-road had big ridges in it from all the water flow, and the water under the bridges was really close, but we made it! To find that the bridge to the driveway had been half-washed away and was now part of a raging river.

Not so cool. No matter! There was another bridge we could walk across... Quigley rang and said if we couldn't get there it was fine, the neighbours could look after the animals. We decided to walk up and see  how easy it would be to get all our stuff over the bridge and up to the house (the driveway is really really long, it's more like a track). We mostly wanted to see how our invalid chicken was doing.

Bit dodge...

Alright, very. It was so slippery too!! It was exciting (it's ok Mum, I'm still alive). We walked up, Possum the horse seemed very pleased to see us, and the garage door was open, as was the chicken pen gate, and someone's car was there, so we assumed someone was in, which was confusing, as Sally, the person housesitting until today, was supposed to have left yesterday. It turned out noone was there, and when we went to see the little paralysed chicken, it was soaking and lying in a pile of its own faeces - it obviously hadn't been moved since we'd left. It STANK and had almost no food, which was nowhere near it and sodden. That sold it. We were definitely staying, if only to look after it! I dried the chook off and put it in a new bed inside:

Poor little thing! We reckon it can move its feet a little better. Surprising it's managed to find the energy to heal anything considering. The other chickens didn't have any food at all so they were happy to see us too. There were piles of eggs everywhere in their favourite laying spots!

Apparently Sally isn't an animal person. I find myself believing this. I'm sorry if this has been a little bitchy but it makes me quite cross finding animals in a state.

Anyway yes it's Zappa's birthday and his chocolate cake is in the oven! Tonight we're going out for a curry in Coffs Harbour. He seems very happy. He is currently telling the chicken about the girl in Kill Bill who rehabilitated herself from not being about to move, as a motivational talk. Cake's ready!

Emma's birthday - by Zappa

My first blog. How exciting for you all.

Today has been Emma's birthday so I took the day off work (helping Ray our byron bay friend and host building a shed) and told Em we could do anything she wanted. We were deciding between snorkelling at Julian rocks – a short kayak ride from the pass in Byron, or going for a surf. After much deliberation we decided we’d go surfing on big yellow – rays 9’8” Malibu (which I have nicknamed big bird).We packed the boards and ballon animals and away we went.

The conditions were beautiful – the water was clear, the sun was shining it was amazing. Look see:

Em got some great rides – one of which she took this video of:

Check her out – groovy surf chick she is.I had some good rides on big bird so decided to get my 7’6 board out and have a little ride as I’ve been riding Ray’s custom Geoff Macoy’s (two beautiful and amazing to ride boards) and been making some good progress. Getting on my board made me realise it’s a bit too small and hard work for my abilities. It got me thinking – I should really trade this in for something a bit more sensible.... I probably shouldn’t tell Emma as she’s the sensible one when it comes to money.Anyway, after a great little session we went to buy Emma her favourite (gluten free) burger from in town. As she was so excited she obviously had to take a picture:It was sooo good and feeling very satisfied we decided to go home – but we thought we should go see Mad Dogs surfboard shop on the way home – Ray said the rafters contain an awesome surfboard museum. It was amazing, the history of surfing was all just there on display - old plywood boards and older surf skis.
Emma passed this and had to take a picture as its so pretty.

Then i spotted it. 9'6". Macoy. Immaculate. Dangerous. I was convinced Em wouldn't let me as it was $750 (prob over double that new). But she was as enthused as I was. I spoke to Mad Dog and left the shop to go seek out Ray for his advice - he successfully convinced me about a week before not to buy a beaten up old longboard so i was convinced he'd try and slow me down. Ray being a Macoy rider himself and loving his board was just amazed we'd found one so cheap and was as excited as we were. So anyway 10 mins later we were back selecting board bags and leg ropes to go with our new board and left my little board behind to find a new owner. It took us a good hour of sitting at home staring at it and pinching ourselves to be convinced it had all just happened.

So naturally - back to the beach:And then off out for some amazing sushi.I certainly enjoyed Em's birthday - particularly the present we bought ourselves. She should have birthdays more often.

Emma says: 'I had the best day EVER!!! I love EVERYTHING!'