Million Paws Walk

Every year, the RSPCA here in Australia has a fund (fun?) raising event known as the Million Paws Walk. The largest participation happens at the Centenial Park in Sydney, however 59 other branch ones are organised in other parts of Australia. This year it happened on the 21st of May in all other parts of Australia except Western Australia where it was on the 30th of May (They always have to do things differently don't they!!)

Basically you make a donation and/or buy paraphenalia, bring your poochie and go for a 2 km walk to meet other animal lovers and their pets. We were fortunate enough that one is organised right here in Bathurst. Hence, here are some pictures to share the event as well as a bit of the local scenery.

According to the paper, there were about 200 dogs (thats 400 paws!) that turned up to this event. We proudly contributed 8 paws, 4 feet and some $$. There were dogs and humans of all shapes and sizes.

Little ones...

and Big ones !

This is Richard with Raven. She is often scared of big dogs but she did really well that day.

View from the bridge of the river and the fast trotters. Everyone went at their own pace so we were spread out over the 2 kms :)
This is the start and finish point. There was a sausage sizzle and a raffle going on as well. Some dogs just loved the river so much they ran in it and played. It was a good day and we got to meet some people and pet lots of dogs. We are definitely going to next year's Million Paws Walk

Back in the saddle again

As the last of my boxes are to be unpacked today, I decided to take a peek into the blog world once more. I have missed reading lots of friends blogs but a lot of other things have also been going on in my life besides new job(s) (yes two!), new home etc. I know that nothing loses readers faster than no new posts, however, once again, I ponder the inverse connection between real life and online life. People are most often online when life is quite ho hum and has mostly a predictability or pattern about it. However, once a change, usually a big one, occurs, it is sacrificed over most other things.

Well besides the move etc. I have also been back to Singapore and did a 3D 2N visit of Malacca in Malaysia which was as usual a great culinary experience! I have yet to upload the picutres onto the computer so I can hopefully start blogging about that soon.

It has been a bit of a reverse shock moving into a larger town. In Cowra, I used to know to whom most cars belonged and would wave if I drove past them or when parking at the shopping centre or supermarket, I knew who I would bump into in there etc. There hasn't been even the hint of a familiar face here in Bathurst, a town about 4 times the size of Cowra. I know it will take time ... but in the meantime it has been a bit lonely.

We have been to a couple of different church services as well, mostly in the evening ( I am so not a morning person! ). You know you are feeling old when you don't quite click with the uni student crowd anymore! Bathurst has the main Charles Sturt University campus and thus we have been amusedly watching Orientation groups dressed up in various outfits made to walk the streets of Bathurst as part of an initiation.

It has been great having real "late night shopping" here on Thursdays. I feel I can get stuff done too as I got from 8:30 am to 5 pm ( as opposed to 9 am to 5:30 - often 6:30 pm) Here in NSW Aust, the normal shopping hours are 9 to 5:30 M-F and varies on the weekends. In Cowra, it was 9 to 12:30 on Saturdays and not at all on Sundays, and here in Bathurst, it is 9 to 4 on Saturdays and to about 3 on Sundays. This has been truly great ! Although I am not a huge shopper, I am a huge window shopper. Coming to Australia was difficult as Singapore used to have hours from 10 am to 10 pm for shopping centres and markets from about 7 am to late !

Also, I feel lucky to have about 3 Chinese restaurants ( Still mostly Australianised chinese), 1 Thai, 1 indian and 1 Korean/ Japanese restaurant. While not much sashimi or many raw fish sushi varieties, there is a decent bibimbab and kimchi to be had there. We have yet to try the other restaurants.

Well, hope to be sharing more pics of the new town soon! Meahile, its back to housework etc. :)