Lisa’s lowdown
The McLure family of Smiths Beach, popped by the Cowes testing clinic last week, after finding themselves in a tier two exposure site.
“It's been an eventful week to say the least. Let's start with dear Mavis the pug puppy.
She is a lounge-shredding piranha, a pooping machine but also the cutest darn snuggly thing you've ever seen. Remember when you first decide to get a puppy and it's all rainbows and butterflies.
Those first few days the puppy is oh so cute, even their teeny tiny poops. I'd take her in to the salon and she would snuggle clients and be adorable.
Fast forward two weeks and she has turned into a piranha. Nothing is sacred. Mavis is a chewing machine. I had to stop taking her in to the salon when she started climbing clients and pulling out their foils (sorry Kaye). The only saving grace is I know this stage will pass.
Plus, when she wears herself out being a total menace – following around poor Audrey our other dog, biting her legs, jumping up on Eric the cat and frightening the life out of him – at the end of it all she’s still so snuggly and cute. Not even the biggest burly tradie can resist her cuteness. We took her in to the paint shop in Cowes the other day and Dave fell to bits cuddling her.
After emerging out of the previous lockdown, I finally managed to catch up on clients last week, uttering the words "I have finally caught up, yay" to only then be thrown back in to quarantine with my darling family for two days, missing another day of work.
The universe clearly decided that remote learning and school holidays weren't enough “quality” time with my family. We found ourselves in a tier two exposure situation during the holidays and off we went on Wednesday for a family trip to the testing tent in Cowes.
By golly those nurses and admin staff work hard. They were most certainly caught off guard: when we got there we were in a line of 20 cars at 9am. Getting Evie swabbed is like trying to bath a cat. The nurse was very efficient though.
Last week I signed up myself and a heap of other local legends to walk 100km over the next month to raise money for the Black Dog Institute. As you all know I live with anxiety. So this is my way of trying to give back to a place who work hard to help others battling mental illness.
Walking has always been my brain saviour. Getting up and actually doing it lately has also been a struggle. Everything is going well and the walks happen, then everything goes to poo and all exercise goes out the window and shiraz happens. So the institute’s One Foot Forward challenge is to walk, roll or run 100km (40km, 60km or 80km) during Mental Health Month in October and raise funds for mental health research.
Finally last week I also managed to make a giant recycled brick planter box. A brick layer I am not, but I'm quite proud of my efforts. If a proper bricklayer person saw how I did it, I'm quite certain they would have a stroke.
But, with the help of friends donating their old brick piles, Tim helping me by mixing the mortar, and me, being creative and amazing, my vision became a reality.
Now, what will next week bring?”
Details: www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/get-involved/fundraise/fundraising-events/one-foot-forward/
