The dog and I went for a walk this morning. We didn't go yesterday. I was weak and feeling sorry for myself after a late night. So we definitely had to go this morning. Definitely. Because, despite walking a little bit later in the day with friends.....
They led me into temptation to a very good gelato shop where self-control took a rapid dive into self-indulge....
Only thing was that, from the minute we stepped out the front door, with me desperately trying to shush an over-excited 6 year old dog, yelping for all her worth like I was belting her instead of taking her for a walk, I was set upon by some very enthusiastic bush flies.
"Shoo" I cried, waving my arms around my head.
And then I kept waving my arms around my head for the next 2.8 kilometres.
After 1k I found a handy branch of leaves which had fallen on the footpath so I fanned myself with that. "Shoo!". To no avail. They were stuck to me like glue.
I was beginning to feel a lot like Pig Pen in the Charlie Brown cartoon. How embarrassing. Did I really smell that bad? What on earth was attracting them?
"I should never have let the dog lick me this morning." I thought to myself "Or maybe it was the last dregs of the sample pack eye makeup remover that I used to remove my owl eyes after wearing mascara the night before."
"Oh well" I thought "At least my arms are getting a workout too."
But then I started to get really cross. I don't know about you, but when I get going on my morning walk, I do tend to breathe through my mouth, rather than my nose. But this morning I had to keep my lips firmly shut. Aussie bush flies enjoy buzzing right past your ear or landing on your nose or....no!...lips firmly shut.
The dog, and I slogged on. Arwen seemed to be going faster and faster. Perhaps the flies were annoying her too or was it the promise of the descent down Mukurta Street where sometimes, foolishly, I joined her in a run downhill. As we hesitated to cross the street, a woman came up the hill towards us.
"Are the bush flies really bad this morning?" she shouted at us.
Honestly, I could have kissed her except....we don't know each other at all...and those wretched bush flies would have got in on the act too.
"C'mon Arwen" I said "Let's out-run them."
P.S. And we're over-run with butterflies too apparently.
2 comments:
Love the butterflies, but have horrid memories of bush flies getting in to places they had no right to be, like nose, mouth and once, eye... I screamed, my grandfather lent me the veil that he used when smoking his bee hives, and suddenly, I was over six feet tall, just like him ..and fly proof. Yet another reason to miss that lovely man.
Ah dear Chris. What a memory. You would have looked very exotic....like Katherine Hepburn in that movie with Bogart...what was it ? The one set in Africa.
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