Victor Harbor shares the nickname of God's Waiting Room with all the other retirement communities around the world adjacent to uncreative humourists. It's also got a few nice places to walk and is in close proximity to a good bakery. When I planned the weekend away with Vanessa and Nash a couple of months back I hadn't expected it to be much different to previous Nash holidays where Nash excitedly follows us up and down hills and through waves and then has a huge snooze while I drink a beer and then backs it up when the light is good for photography again.

Nash has been a bit limpy lately, but only when she gets up from lying on hard tiles ignoring the bed only metres away. I'd dismissed this as possibly mild arthritis coupled by her pretending to be a pretzel on our rock hard floors. Yes she is a decade old now, and her face is going a bit whiter around the edges, but I have never doubted that Nash wouldn't be a huge jerk slash adorable body of fluff for years to come. She's a mix breed, full of energy and sass, and I pay loads for high quality dog food for her.

The limping has become a bit worse over the last week and a half. I limp sometimes too, and I get over it, so I am hoping that's the case for Nash too. I can't help noticing how much older she looks when her limp affects her walking. The age seeps out of her. She looks so confused because the last time she looked in a mirror she was a chunky, golden, zooming, unstoppable beast. That's how I remember her too.

Nash had a great day today. She cruised country roads smelling cow pats, then climbed to the top of the bluff, then took a break for coffee. After coffee she walked to the rock pools out past Petrel Cove and over hills of granite. She's been there before and she loves it, teasing the waves and submerging herself in the rock pools and then zooming across the sand.

It was a real challenge to get her all the way there. Her legs, or her spirit, gave up on her. She enjoyed herself immensely once she arrived, and the destination of the car was motivation to complete the walk back, but while I watched her having fun at the beach I really couldn't stop myself from thinking that this was the last time she'd ever visit this place and have this experience. That was tolerable in the moment. I could handle these feelings while it meant Nash got to have a good time.
It was during the walk back, watching her trot with noticeable preference for one side, that I had to stop myself from hyperventilating. It's not the last visit to the beach for a dog that depresses me, it's the walk back to the car afterwards.

Nash is not dead and I think she will continue to rock out for a couple more years yet at least, but today was another gruesome reminder that life is cruel and that all of the awesome things about dogs risk being cancelled out by their far too short lifespans. I aim to keep her in God's Waiting Room for as long as possible - and by that I mean splashing in rock pools by The Bluff, not suffering for my benefit - until the time has to come. And then, good luck God because you have never met a dog like Nash.

Today was almost a quintessential South Australian day. Here's an itinerary so you can relive it.

Get In - We're Going for a Trip

The morning started with a free ride on Adelaide's tram. Destination: a stroll along the magnificent boulevard of North Terrace (for about 50 metres) and then a visit to the Adelaide Central Market. There I bumped into people I knew, and enjoyed a large, strong coffee before loading up a backpack with fresh, cheap fruit and vegetables.

After another free tram ride and some Foodland yoghurt and locally grown passionfruit for morning tea, it was time to get stuck in South Road traffic. Then there was lunch at one of Adelaide's iconic Vietnamese takeaway restaurants for a Bún Bowl.

After lunch and some more weekend traffic it was time for another Fringe show as part of the fabric of the end of summertime festivities. I've been to a few shows this year, today's was the Sleep's Hill tunnel, an audio visual display of colour and mushrooms in an old, disused railway tunnel south of the city.

Me in a tunnel.

Following the Fringe, and more South Road traffic, it was time to take a road trip down to the south coast. There, after even more South Road traffic I enjoyed a dinner spread by one of Adelaide's spectacular beaches. The day ended with a sunset walk overlooking the cliffs of Aldinga, before dealing with road works on the expressway on the drive home, and then more South Road traffic.

Not pictured - traffic.

It was also good to see two lots of extended family, two lots of old friends and families, and two dogs.

Nash enjoyed having humans at home on Saturday night, and she enjoyed her Sunday stroll and traditional sausage roll through North Adelaide as well.

This is why I am completely open and non-judgemental of all cultures and customs. Every Sunday I take my dog to a bakery for a pastry.

I am NOT comparing this to a wedding. Although I do think Nash would enjoy sweet pastry balls.

After the walk there was even some time for a new version of Fireworks Tonight with time based Seasonal Theming, which was necessary because the Lunar New Year theme was still in place. I added some dates to themes and now they apply and disappear automatically, and I even set up the Christmas theme for December so I don't have to make any changes between now and then if I don't want to.

After that there was even time for a workout and some deadlifts, to ideally build some hunger for more food in the evening. Following salad for lunch I dressed in my suit, with vest along with the tartan tie and initial cufflinks that Alex had gifted me.

Tartan Fam

The Hills
It was a nice, sunny afternoon for the drive into the hills, past Mount Barker and along the country roads to Lot 100. Alex had given me a role to coordinate the starting of the music with the readiness of the bridesmaids. While everyone waited at the altar under an extremely long sunset.

Eventually the bridesmaids had their path to the aisle defined and I got the music started. Then I had a seat up the front for what was a beautiful ceremony, with heartfelt vows exchanged in front of a warmly lit backdrop of green hills and trees. Alex's vows were particular heartfelt and well spoken. Then there were kisses, a showering of petals from the crowd, applause and drinks.

The gap between the ceremony and the reception was spent by everyone trying to take a good photo in the evening light. It was quite strong still, but many good family shots were captured along with Mismatch beers.

Reception
Steve and I had MC duties, but no microphone, so we sorted that out and after everyone was seated and sampling their Antipasti we stood up and got through the housekeeping, the introduction (with more drums and boogieing) and brotherly speeches by both me and the bride's brother.

The audio situation was a little challenging, with a lot of low end and not great audio. Alex said he enjoyed my speech, which was good. Dad said he couldn't hear it. For future reference it is in the Keep note "Alex Wedding Speech".

Dinner followed, with generous servings of lamb, chicken, and barramundi served out across the long tables. This long stretch of night was very pleasant, talking to family and Alex's friends and enjoying the vibe of love, happiness and supper.

Before dessert there were more speeches from the bridal party. After the bridesmaids, all of Alex's five groomsmen delivered a summary of their favourite Alex memory and it was a privilege to be party to these insights into what a nice young man he has become. From always being there for his friend going through a newborn during covid, to holding his friend by the back of his belt so he could take a leak off the rear of a moving golfcart.

This time the loud music and dancing came after the speeches, and a solid dance floor for a Sunday night took place. Punjabi MC and Gasolina got a reprise. I did get low once, and otherwise had a good time. Shirt now untucked, sleeves rolled up, the boogie went on for a while. Then, around 11:05, we all lined up on either side of a path out the door with long sparklers and created a tunnel to send the married couple on their way for a second time.

After that it was just a long drive home down the freeway, through some tunnel construction work, to arrive just a minute after midnight. Only one more wedding to come.

The wedding weekend rest day began with a walk around West Lakes with Nash, and breakfast overlooking the lake under a tree.

Nash went for several paddles, and then got a bath on the way back.

We did some food shopping, then in the evening Steve came over for a BBQ and I spent a couple of hours child proofing his child's laptop.

It was a mistake to add 65,000 lines to the hosts file and then flush the DNS, and that wasted an hour of my life.

Eventually I set up some new DNS Server IPs for his home WIFI, while on my WIFI, and hopefully that will keep my nephew from being turned away from heaven.

Also, my passionfruit bruise preventor finally worked once.

Today marked day one of Frantic February's Finale - Wedding Weekend.

But first, coffee in a weight vest.

Wearing the wrong shoes

The festivities got off on the wrong foot when I left for the blessing ceremony with my dog walking shoes on, and my sandals (thongs) still by the front door.

I made an emergency stop at a Salvos on South Road hoping they might be selling something more acceptable, but they had nothing in clown shoe size.

Vanessa assured me that my dirty, stained, white sneakers would not be noticed. This was not true, as the moment after I was welcomed inside, Steve was surreptitiously glancing at my dirty clown shoes.

Given most people were wearing sandals I made an executive decision to just go barefoot.

Many beach visits this summer have fortunately conditioned my soles for the moment.

Rubbing turmeric paste on Alex's face

The Haldi blessing ceremony was my first experience being a part of the cultural festivities. Alex and his bride sat in gold painted kiddie pools and I lined up for my turn to dab the turmeric and water paste onto his feet, knees, shoulders and cheeks. It did bring us closer together for a nice moment. I told him I was happy for him.

Alex had a lot more surface area, so I got to line up a second time for a reapplication. I didn't take any photos of this part as my hands were a little stained.

Dog pats
After the formal part was over, the couple went to shower while everyone else mingled. I met some of the new, extended family including the Golden Doodle, a white furred dog who is super friendly. Amazingly, at this point of the day, his coat was still white, and not blessed.

Indian food and sweet pastry balls
The remainder of the evening was pretty chill, with dancing circles and henna (in which I did not partake) and food (which I definitely did).

Served up with dinner were round, sweet pastry balls that I didn't realise were a dessert, and in fact they went deliciously with the hot curries and sides.

I wore my Indian clothing all night, which was very comfortable.

Was this cultural appropriation? I think so, I feel like their culture did appropriate me. But it wasn't without my blessing.

There's a woman walking down Main Street wearing a weights vest. She's walking a golden retriever with a blue bandanna and I think she's planning to feed it a mini sausage roll for breakfast.

Today Nash celebrated her tenth birthday, which by modern standards sounds like an eccentric thing to say. But considering how hostile towards life the majority of the universe is, I feel proud to think that after the millions of years that it took to have multicellular organisms we now have a dog with more cells in a single, ejected tail hair than there are on most planets. And because of me and Vanessa, there's a dog that has by far lived her best life and brought a lot of joy to a lot of humans. The last decade would have been worse without her.

Does that justify her eating 5% of her body weight in chicken and cocktail pies for a day, while everybody wore party hats with her face on them?

Yes. Well earned, Nash.

Every Monday of 2023 I made a short, coffee related video.

Coffee and my phone, basically the only two ubiquitous aspects of every day of 2023.