Finished Straight Up (A Ruby Steele Mystery—Book 4) by Mia Gold 📚. I quite enjoyed it but there are things that strain credulity.

[on a group holiday] a rich wife … wakes up with her best friend’s husband sleeping beside her—dead.

Ruby Steele has to figure out the mystery.

Book cover: Straight Up.

Pleasing dog news 🐶 : Sasha’s eye ulcer is almost healed. Some vascularisation that would worry the vet in another dog, but since Sasha’s already blind it won’t damage her vision further. Sasha’s also a whole lot more settled and relaxed. Last night she slept through the night!

I tend to see ngutupapa, Royal Spoonbills on the beach solitary, in pairs or even three at a time. Today is the first time I’ve seen a flock of maybe 12 or 15 — I was unable to actually count because of distance and the big piece of driftwood. 🐦 See more…

Flock of large white birds sheltering behnd driftwood.

I wonder why four military helicopters are flying south in formation? Going to help clear protesters overstaying their visit to Parliament?

Cancelling the reservations I made for the bike tour in April. I just don’t want to do that any more. I may instead do some random closer-to-home weekend type trips where I can take the bike on the car. New Plymouth, for example, has an interesting coastal path I’d like to visit.

Many thanks to @cheri for the excellent idea of delaying the birthday I’m not in the mood for! I’ve made myself an IOU. I feel better about it all already.

IOU for one birthday.

I slept an unbelievable 10 unbroken hours last night! Didn’t even have to get up to pee. Hope I’m not sick… 7 hours or less is more usual for me.

Birthdays aren’t really a big thing for me but I’ve never felt less inspired by one (soon) than this year. I guess there’s a few things going on: our dog Oshi died; his sister is missing him, unwell, confused and frail; some local stuff is annoying; weather’s weird; Covid… 🎉

It’s a rainy Saturday and my wonderful partner made delicious pikelets. Yumm!

3 pikelets on a plate.

The very essence of Kiwi: while the French police are readying water cannons against protestors our police are deploying lawn sprinklers to get protestors off Parliament Grounds (after 4 days of ‘occupation’). 😆 🇳🇿

Adjacent news items.

While I enjoyed the first 2 books in the series this third one just didn’t gel with me. Too Close to Kill (Detective Sarah Burke mystery and suspense Book 3) by Elizabeth Gunn. 📚

They always seemed so good together. But did Frank shoot Lois and then turn the gun on himself?

Book cover: Too Close to Kill.

Friends gave us a Leptospermum scoparium Red Damask as a remembrance of Oshi 🐶. Today I planted it on ‘Cemetery Hill’, a hillock where the previous owner of the property buried her two cats, and where my cats Olive, Aphra and Ares are buried, along with several Japanese quail.

Leptospermum Red Damask plant.

Sigh. Hundreds of times over the last x years, lift Apple Watch say: “Hey Siri, set timer [x] minutes”. Siri sets timer. Today: “Hey Siri, set timer 18 minutes”. Siri: “You don’t have the timer app installed.” What⁉️

Today more than 56,000 people received Covid booster shots while up to a couple of thousand protestors opposed to “Covid–19 vaccine mandates” camped out in Parliament grounds. Anti-vaccine mandate protest convoy arrives at Parliament. Today: 306 new community cases. 🦠💉

Crunch, crunch, crunch. 🐶

Black dog with head in food bowl.
Black dog crunching biscuits.
Black dog with mouth partly open, crunching biscuits.

The vet’s pleased with how Sasha’s 🐶 sore eye is coming along and we continue with drops. We’re now also giving Gabapentin for additional pain relief and as a slight sedative to calm her restlessness. Tonight she sleeps in her crate, having fallen off the bed twice last night!

Someone had fun writing this headline and teaser. Filling the big hole in Wairoa’s dental service

Pun filled item about a lacking dental service.

I’m working back through my photo library finding all my photos of Sasha and Oshi and labelling them. The further back I get, the worse the photos are, in quality, composition, sharpness … everything. I guess that means I have developed in skill over the years. 🤨

31 December 2009. “Yes, quite comfortable, thank you. Why do you ask?” 🐶

Two small dogs relaxing on a comfortable looking leather armchair.

Heard a snippet of this then sought it out. Magnificent! Prefer it to the song! Leonard Cohen … poetic reading of Simon’s “Sound Of Silence.”

The striking cadence and the precise enunciation delivered in Leonard’s unique voice resonates with the lyrics and the listener.