Let me explain. This morning my partner and I went out very early for a brisk walk - something we've started doing to keep fit. We were doing nothing more than walking, eyes set firmly straight ahead, when suddenly this brown dog comes charging from behind, runs straight between us and keeps going for about 5-6 metres then stops and looks back at us.

 

Straight away I knew this dog, which was a very young kelpie (I think), had decided we were taking it for a walk. Both of us looked around in hope that someone would appear to claim the dog but no luck. We tried simply to continue on but the dog just followed us.

 

The dog was very friendly (and smelly!). It would run off a short distance, sniff around a bit, look back to check on us and occasionally come back to jump up excitedly before heading off again.

 

We passed a couple of other walkers, whom the dog greeted enthusiastically but didn't decide to follow (having found us). I even held our newly aquired walking partner while a couple of girls (mother daughter team I think) desperately tried to get passed without losing control of their own dogs - both dogs looked like they were in more of a fighting, rather than welcoming mood.

 

Eventually I suggested to my partner that she should continue home so as not to be late for work whilst I worked out how to shake the dog. I headed back the way we came and my partner headed on. Of course the dog stayed with me (as I stated at the outset, I'm a dog magnet. This is the third time a stray dog has chosen me to be its walking partner).

 

The dog had a collar but not tag or any sign of a home address. Walking back I observed it's behaviour to see if it would gravitate to any particular house. Unfortunately it didn't. I did notice that it was very wary of cars. It would often come straight back to me at the sound of a car and sit quietly, keeping a close eye on each vehicle until it was out of sight.

 

I hung around in a nearby vacant block, hoping the dog would decide I was boring - no such luck. At one point it stepped on a three corner jack prickle that lodged in its back paw. Noticing the dog wouldn't put it's foot down I took a closer look and removed the offending prickle.

 

Anyway as luck would have it a female jogger came along, who was obviously more fun to the dog, because this was the exact exchange of dialogue I had as I headed her way and the dog spotted her and went bounding up to greet her.

 

Girl: "Friendly dog"

Me: "Yes, you don't happen to know anyone who owns a dog like this? It's not mine it's just attached its self to me".

Girl: (without breaking her jogging pace) "No. It'll probably attach its self to me now."

 

You know, she was right. As she continued the dog ran on ahead of her and kept ahead of her until both were out of view. Yes!!!

 

I went in the opposite direction heading for home.

 

The moral of this story is...if you own a dog. Care enough about it to put a tag with your contact details (or better yet your home address). People like me don't want the hassle of turning your dog into the proper authority (and if I did, it costs an arm and a leg to get your dog out of the pound) but if you at least tagged it properly I would make sure it found its way home.

 

As a footnote I have two cats at home so I can't take your dog home with me for safe keeping. I also don't see why me and my cats should be put out because of your stupidity. I really don't care if your dog ends up dead from a car that didn't stop fast enough 'cause your dog doesn't have any road sense - just so long as the dog doesn't get its self killed in sight or sound of me. (Rough I know but your fault it happened since the dog shouldn't be roaming free in the first place).

 

TET, March 10, 2006

 

 

For example, I'm not exactly a neat freak but I do know how annoying it can be for other people to have to constantly put up with your mess. You know that little trail of untidyness most people leave in the process of living their lives. People like me do it too but only when we know it won't affect anyone else - like when we live by ourselves!

 

It may be leaving crumbs on a counter after making a snack, or leaving a bit of excess toothpaste on the side of the sink because it never made it to your mouth. Little things.

 

Imagine you're like me and you share a house with people who think nothing of these little things. They don't realise that their combined effort at creating tiny amounts of mess is a continuing source of annoyance. Collectively they make a whole pile of 'little things'.

 

All of these things are just too petty to complain about and, if you did, you would spend much of your time in a bad mood, bitching about every little thing.

 

So you do your best to ignore these little things because life is indeed too short to spend much of it in a bad mood. No one else you live with seems to care about these little things, or even a pile of little things. Yet in some small way you wonder if they even care that they're annoying you.

 

-TET 21st Sept 2005

 

I never thought I would complain about the 'crap' music young people listen to.

 

I certainly couldn't have forseen that I'd be annoyed by the way SMSing, chat and the Internet have mangled written English, to the point where I'm sure young people must struggle reading words that are actually spelt correctly and constructed in sentences with proper grammer.

 

I never thought I'd be thinking 'when I was young we...'

 

There are many things I've learnt as I've grown. The main one being that 'there is no such thing as a mature adult'.

 

Most of the time adults are people who either 'never grew up' or they spend their time 'trying to feel younger'. Either way most adults don't usually claim to feel their actual age. Young people seem to be in a hurry to grow up not knowing that they'll spend the rest of their lives trying to feel or stay as young as their age will allow.

 

The one thing that I'd never thought I'd do is the one thing we all find ourselves doing, like a right of passage or a sudden awakening. That one thing is to think or say those immortal words handed down from generation to generation...

 

'Kids today have no idea...'

 

And they don't - just like we didn't and our parents before us. Kids today are no smarter now than we were then. They know 'everything' just like we did at that age.

 

- TET, 16th Sept 2005