Assembly, got it, puppy

1. My son's class are hosting the school assembly. They sing three songs and Aiden reads out his one-paragraph essay on why he loves Canberra. During the songs they all do choreographed movements, but Aiden really gets into moving his body.

2. After a slightly frustrating morning shopping I find both the present I wanted and my favourite cereal at another shopping centre. I had to get the cereal down from a very high shelf with a pair of BBQ tongs, but I managed it.

3. The new puppy that comes to school during the afternoon pick-up seems very taken with me for some reason. I wonder if I somehow resemble the breeders; the first humans it knew before it was sold. Or maybe I'm just a calm presence amongst the crowd of noisy children.

Dogs, summer, milk

1. This actually happened last week but I was thinking about it this morning and it made me smile, so it counts for today. There is a senior couple with two dogs that I often see on the school oval as I walk home from dropping the kids at school. One dog is an active black labrador who enthusiastially chases the balls thrown for him, the other is short and tubby and more of a "sniff every bit of grass you walk past" kind of animal. The dogs had never paid me the slightest bit of attention, but one morning our paths crossed. The labrador wanted me to throw his ball for him, but it was all slobbery and yuck so I wouldn't (his owners use those throwing sticks that allow you to scoop up the ball without touching it and then throw it a long way with the extra leverage) and he was a bit disappointed in me, I think. I gave the short fat dog a good pat and he seemed to enjoy the attention.
     So the next morning I see them again, way over the other side of the oval. The black labrador ignored me, presumably considering a very useless sort of human if I wouldn't throw his ball for him, but the little dog raced towards me. It was a long way for short legs and it took him a while, he looked quite funny with the round body bounding along. He seemed to think some more patting well repaid his effort, and I felt loved.

2. The sounds of an Australian summer. Cicadas droning, magpies warbling, cockatoos screeching, a thousand different insects clicking and chirping. As a concerto, quite a pleasing sound.

3a. Oh dear, I ran out of low-fat milk this morning and had to use full-fat in my tea. Damn...
3b. I remembered half a packet of Tim Tams (chocolate biscuits) I had hidden from myself and felt it was the time to get them out. I was momentarily disappointed to find only two left, instead the indulgence I expected, but it's all for the best.

Release, poem, dog

1. I didn't realise that they had changed the free parking at the shopping centre from three hours down to two, and there was a queue behind me as I sat in my car rejected by the exit because I hadn't paid for my two and a half hours. A man jumped out of his car and trotted up. "Don't tell my boss," he said as he swiped his employee card over the machine.

2. I saw a lovely poem somewhere on the internet:
Charmander is red,
Squirtle is blue,
If you were a Pokemon,
I would choose you.

3. Joe brings his little dog Jemimah for the school pick up and the kindy kids crowd around. Jemimah is friendly enough and seems to enjoy the attention, but when she sees her little mistress Miah she leaps to her feet and strains on the leash to get to her.