Happy Easter.

---

Happy Easter everyone. Time for a little update.

We have had fantastic weather over Easter, autumn in Victoria is perfect. Cool crisp mornings, blue skies, no wind and around 27 to 29 degrees each day. Lovely.

We visited the site on Friday morning, the coving has all been fitted throughout, (including inside fitted wardrobes & cupboards??) and we have 2/3rds of a stair case. That was good, as it meant Emma could get upstairs for her first view of what it's going to look like when it's done. Everything is looking really good.

We are having a few issues with our new neighbour already. He seems like a decent guy, but he is responsible for building the retaining walls between the houses, as it is the low side that is responsible. Unfortunately, he has just lost his job - so that kind of complicates things. His builder is already contracted to build some retainers but their drawings have disclaimers plastered all over them to state that the wall is not designed to support the weight of the (our) drive. Which is a bit silly seeing as it is next to our drive. So, that's a bit of an issue at the moment, but I'm sure it will all work out.

From the house we went on to see Carol, Huck's breeder. She has 100 acres out in a place called Nar Nar Goon. We had a lovely afternoon on her property and Huck had a great time with his brother (Chevy), his mum (Diddy), and Ariel, Abbey and Axle. He wore them all out; if there is something going on, he just will not stop. The adult Danes all sneaked off for naps leaving Huck and Chevy to play. Chevy would then try and hide somewhere for a nap but Huck would find him and annoy him into playing again. He zonked out in the car on the way home and was shattered all afternoon, which was great as a tired puppy is a quiet, well behaved puppy.

He was banished into his play room in the evening as Emma and I went out for a night out in the city with a couple we met through this very blog. Christine and Tom have recently moved over here from Oregon so we met up with them in the City for drinks. We started off in North Melbourne at a quaint, trendy little bar where Emma, Christine & Tom all tried various brightly coloured, highly alcoholic concoctions. From there we went back into the city centre and hunted out a bar Emma has wanted to go to for ages. It's called the Gin Palace and was hidden away down an alley. You wouldn't even know it was there as the door was black and the alley was dark, only a small 'GP' sign above the door gave it away. Inside was fantastic, a darkened room with a great bar, sofas everywhere and great bunch of people in there. They had a huge list of different types of Martini's and various other drinks on offer. It just about saw us broke for a couple of drinks, but well worth it for the experience and atmosphere. There are loads of hidden bars scattered around Melbourne, we really must make the effort to see a few more of them whilst we are living close enough to the city. We said our goodbyes to Christine & Tom as they headed off to their penthouse apartment in South Yarra and we went in search of a train or tram - unfortunately, there were none as it was Good Friday, so we had to hail a cab home.

Saturday was another great day for weather. We headed off down the Peninsula to Mt Martha to see Kim & Steve. It was Hucks first visit down that way. He was great, he spent ages sniffing every nook and cranny of their house before settling nicely on his bed to watch us chat. We took him to their local dog park where he got his first chance to run around off-lead. He had a great time and made friends with some other little pups that were already in their, including the cutest little Beagle pup. Gordy & Marion joined us for a BBQ on the deck for dinner, and Huck was the perfect house guest. He just lay on his bed on the deck, then trotted off to bed in his portable crate that we took down. He never made a peep all night, and more importantly, had no little accidents in Kim & Steve's rental.

On Sunday morning we took him to the dog beach at Mornington. It was an ideal spot as it is a secluded bay with a cliff round the back and sides, so once you're down there he can't really run away - although he could swim back to the city if he was so inclined. There were no other dogs around when we first arrived, so the lucky lad got another off-lead run around. He seemed to enjoy the water, but didn't want to go too deep. Next time we go I'll take my swimmers so I can coax him out a bit further. Running around on the beach got him nice and tired, so we went into Mornington for a coffee and a bite to eat. He was good as gold, he laid out on the pavement next to our table and soaked up all the attention he was getting from passers by (he's a total chick magnet). It is unreal how much attention he gets, particularly due to his colour. In fact, it got a bit annoying after a while as so many people kept stopping. Needless to say, he was worn out so slept all the way home in the car and was nice and quiet and well behaved on Sunday night.

We managed to get him to walk to our local shops and back yesterday, which was a great triumph as he's not usually one for wanting to walk out of eyesight of the front gate. We brought him back and put him in his den before heading into the city for lunch. We went to Lygon Street, which is the Italian area - where we stayed when we visited Melbourne in 2007. We had a lovely meal sat out in the sunshine before coming home to relax on our last day off before going back to work.

Everything was going great until about 6 in the evening when Huck decided he was going to be a total bugger. He was running around the house full pelt, barking at us, nipping at us and generally just being full of beans. Typically, it was puppy class at 7. Needless to say, he was a total embarrassment. He acted like he had no discipline at all, wanted to play with everyone and everything, chewed his lead, wouldn't heal etc etc. We were the laughing stock of the class. He hates the tunnel exercise, so you can imagine my dread each time we get called up for that. It doesn't help that he doesn't like the trainer, or like being held down - so being held down, by the trainer, in front of a tunnel is not his cup of tea, and there's me in the other end of the tunnel with only my feet left poking out, trying to grab him and pull him back though with me. Once again, success eluded us.

We hung back after class as there is a Bull Mastiff pup the same age as Huck that has some aggression issues, due to being insecure around other dogs. We let them play together to help the Mastiffs training. They had a blast and it totally wore Huck out. When I got him home he crashed straight out on the kitchen floor, even staying there when we went into the living room and turned the lights out on him. An hour later we heard him wake up, yawn and trot off to his crate. We didn't see him again until this morning!

Back at work now, after what was a lovely few days off.

Well, just got home - someone has stolen Huck and replaced him with a monster. It's always worse the first day back after the weekend as he gets used to having us around at the weekend, then gets closed up in his den again when we go back to work. So, this afternoon he was an absolute whirlwind. I have a scratch the length of my back from him jumping, he tore round the house at warp speed, barking at me and would NOT come for a walk, he just parks his backside at the end of the street until you turn to come back. I eventually got him to run round the block with me and burn some energy off, so he's finally sparked out on his bed.

Hope you all had a great Easter too.

Tara for now,

Tony & Emma xxx

---