June Long Weekend

So I was fortunate enough to work this long weekend....YAY (not).

I found it rather frustrating that I had to work all 3 days whilst my husband had all 3 days off!! All I wanted to do was spend some time with him. Life here in Sydney always seems so busy and I find little time to spend relaxing with my other half.

I was lucky enough that on Monday I only had to work 3 hours.

My husband had been speaking of going to a brewery in Manly for a few months now and we thought Monday for lunch would be a great idea....however, the weather was horrible!!!!!!!! But, we decided to go anyway. So in the car we got to drive an hour over to the other side of town. As we were driving down the M5 I was thinking "OMG, we are totally crazy". It was absolutely pouring and the traffic was chaotic (more so than usual).

We drove around Manly and spotted the brewery, the next thing we needed was a car park. As we drove around I saw a quaint little sign that read "Adriano Zumbo." YES! Right next to the brewery! (I have had a slight obsession with Adrianos pastries since MasterChef 2010)


Lucky I had decided to 'dress for the snow' because it was still pouring with rain and we didn't have an umbrella! We sploshed our way to the 4 Pines Brewery, arrived looking like drowned rats.

It was quite cosy and warm BUT busy. We found a seat, outside. Thankfully it was just out of the rain and the bar staff turned on the outside heaters for us.

We orded lunch and my husband ordered his 'tasting rack' of beer! We ate and drank as the rain fell, it was rather peaceful and lovely to finally spend some time relaxing together.


My 4 Pines Cider


The 4 Pines 'Tasting Rack'

After lunch we sploshed our way around the corner to Adriano Zumbos patisserie, only to find out it was closed. Sob.

Since I hadn't been drinking I had the task of driving home.....the LONG road home. I don't like driving in the city and I had to drive over the Sydney Harbour Bridge so it was a big deal! And to have a husband in the passenger seat who was half drunk didn't really give me the confidence I needed! Anyway, after a lot of stress we made it home safely. Dodging a few crazy vehicles on the way.

Even though it was only half a day, it was a great half a day and it's all the little things that make me happy!

An update on my friends, Zorro & Baby

Baby - Once Baby's surgery healed she went up to the shelter for adoption. It didn't take very long for her to be snapped up by a lovely couple with a few young kids.
A few days after her adoption Baby and her new family came for a visit down to the clinic. She still remembered us all and gave us a big kiss and a cuddle when we went to say hi. It's great to see Baby go to such a loving new family. I know her new family will bring her in for more visits in the future.

Zorro - Zorro is becoming a part of the furniture a the clinic. He has been with us well over 2 months as his road to recovery is slow. We sent a few xrays to a specialist to get an opinion on his healing process as we were all unsure whether his leg was healing properly. The specialist said it looked fantastic and we just need to keep up with physiotherapy. If you were to meet Zorro you would realise physio is a struggle.
You go outside, struggle to put his lead on as he bounces up and down, once the lead is on you get dragged out the gate and around the edge of the perimeter! As i've mentioned before Zorro is a very exhuberant, young dog who doesn't know what slow is and we are all struggling a bit to keep him calm. He is kept in a large cage due to his post operative instructions so he is always just itching to get out.
I worked over the weekend and felt sorry for him so I was a little sneaky and let him have a bit of a larger space to trot around in. When I went back to check on him I saw that he'd tucked himself back into bed and was resting peacefully. There is a quiet side to him, we obviously just don't see it often!
I will keep you posted with Zorro's time in the clinic and let you know when he finally goes up for adoption!

June 1-10

Day 10 - Best part of your weekend. Getting a foot massage from my husband after a long day at work.


Day 9 - Your view of today. Looking down at Blackie sitting on all the clean washing at work.


Day 8 - 6 O'clock. Beer O'clock


Day 7 - Drink. Keeta and Chubbs sharing a drink


Day 6 - Hat. Carlos in a hat using some of my creativity skills and awesome apps!


Day 5 - Sign. Some of the best chocolates around!


Day 4 - Close up. Feeding kittens!


Day 3 - On your plate. Cookies I made!


Day 2 - Empty. My empty vodka next to a full one!


Day 1 - Morning. The poochies waiting for me every morning!

Photo A Day June!

Day 27-31

Day 31 - Something Beautiful. Luscious, pink, feminine lips


Day 30 - My Personality. Bright, funky, cute, quiet, independant.


Day 29 - A number. The Chapter I'm up to in my book.


Day 28 - The Weather Today


Day 27 - Something Sweet. Lokma, a Turkish dessert.

Day 22 - 26

Day 26 - 12 o'clock. Just pulling double choc chip cookies out of the oven!


Day 25 - Unusual. A bowl of salt instead of shakers....not something you see everyday.



Day 24 - New. Newborn baby bunnies!!


Day 23 - Technology. The technology I deal with on an almost daily basis.


Day 22 - Pink. My 2 fave pink nailpolishes!

My Dog Chubbs

I have 2 dogs and 2 cats.

Two domestic medium haired cats, Louie and Mintie an Akita x Heeler, Keeta (very original I know!) and an American Bulldog called Chubbs.

3 weeks ago on a Sunday morning I woke up and noticed Chubbs wasn't acting himself. He wasn't jumping around all excited to see us, he seemed depressed and I noticed he was limping on his right hind limb. I also noticed a small lump on the lower part of his front left limb. On Tuesday he was still limping so I decided to take him to work with me to get checked out and get the lump removed.

We anaethetised him and had a feel of his legs and took some radiographs of his legs and hips. The news wasn't good. It was diagnosed he had a partial cruciate tear and hip displaysia. Chubbs is only 3.5 years old. Whilst he was anaethetised Dr. Brown removed the lump and did a fine need aspirate to try and determine what the lump was. Dr. Brown didn't think it looked good, the differential diagnosis was a mast cell tumor which is a very aggressive form of cancer. We sent the lump away so we knew exactly what we were dealing with. I had to go home and break the news to my husband that our crazy, larakin of a dog has a cruciate rupture, hip displaysia and possibly cancer. It wasn't a good day.




Chubbs recovering after his big day at the vet.



The next couple of days were even worse, waiting on the test results, trying to decide what to do with our beloved pooch. If it's cancer do we euthanise? (I was convinced it was cancer) Do we proceed with surgery on the cruciate? Do we rest him and keep him on anti flammatories? My mind was jumbled and I was mixed with emotions.

Friday, the test results came back for Chubbs histopathology. The lump was a histiocytoma - a small bening lump that usually occurs in puppies less than 12 months old. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Dr. Brown had also taken sufficient margins when removing the tumor so it will never be back!

Now we only had to deal with the cruciate issues. I went home and researched every vet, every procedure that could be done. I discovered that it seemed a TPLO procedure was best for dogs as large as Chubbs. There was another procedure I read up on, a de-angelis, which was more successful in smaller dogs. I came accross a very good source, a book The Dog Cruciate System by Dr. Chris Boulton

The only option in my mind was TPLO surgery. I had been given a reference to an orthopaedic specialist who could do surgery, but it was at a great price. Honestly I didn't care, I just wanted my boy to be better, I wanted the best for him. It wasn't only my decision so I had to speak to my husband and see what he thought was a good idea. He wanted a second opinion....so off to another vet he went with Chubbs.

The outcome from the second vet was to give Chubbs some cartrophen injections once a week for four weeks and see how he is at the end of it.

Today we went to the vet for his second cartrophen injection. It was a different vet at the same practice who gave us a different opinion again............that Chubbs will 90% need surgery and he can do a more simple, much cheaper procedure, a modified de-angelis technique.

At the moment I'm still confused and not confident with going ahead with a modified de-angelis technique as i've heard it doesn't work as well with larger dogs.....

It's all very confusing and stressful. As I've mentioned before, All I want is the best for my boy.