Saturday, July 12

 

On my morning walk yesterday, a woman came towards me with two little West Highland Terriers.  When she saw me coming towards her with my walking stick, she tried to get the two dogs under control.  One was on a long, long leash and the other was untethered.  She was clearly worried that the combination of dog on a leash and dog untethered would pose a threat to my equilibrium so she started to panic.

“Gordon!” she called to the loose dog, while attempting to coil the long leash to make sure it didn’t trip me up.  Gordon, of course, ignored her and went about his business.

I commented to her that Gordon was a great name for a Scottish dog and she started to complain about how naughty and how stubborn he was as if it was his name which caused it.  I think I only know one or two people called Gordon and I wouldn’t regard them as anything out of the ordinary.

It's a very cold day here.  My first job in the morning is to switch on the heating and this morning it took a ridiculous amount of time before the lounge room was comfortable enough to sit in.  Of course, even in Tasmania we don't build houses suitable for winter weather because we know that, in a few months, it will be 30 degrees outside and we'll need air conditioning.  I'll just put on another jumper.