Everyday I take Quinn for a walk. Sometimes it’s a short work, just up to the park and back. Sometimes it’s a long meandering wander around the city, or out west, or wherever. Right now I’m loving the peace. Sometimes feeling better is as easy as taking the time to wander around with your dog.

What are you loving about your daily routine right now?

We got copies of Quinn’s Class Photos yesterday. Tell me you wouldn’t be a proud puppy parent too.

I’m not a generally festive person. I don’t really enjoy Christmas Carols, and sure, I’ll put up a tree. But only so the presents have something to sit underneath. It’s not that I hate it, or don’t enjoy it. It’s just that it takes so much effort. I’d much rather walk down Franklin Rd, or hang out in Western Park and enjoy other people’s efforts.

But then this morning, while I was dropping Quinn off at daycare, I took the two seconds to help Quinn be a bit more festive. Because I’m pretty sure that Quinn is the kind of dog who really would enjoy making the Christmas effort if he didn’t live with such a ‘cant be bothered’ family.

Sometimes, even if you can’t be bothered, Christmas wriggles its way into your heart with its cuteness, and you can’t help feel a little bit festive.

What seems ages ago now (though it wasn’t really) The Fourth Quarter and I took Quinn down to the waterfront and rode our bikes along the boardwalk.

We hooked up a basket to the front of one of the bikes for Quinn. There was MUCH too much foot traffic + cars around for him to run alongside free, and even more dangerous had we tried to put a leash on him. Quinn is a bit unpredictable at the best of times. He seemed to enjoy the novel view and , as long as he could see me, wasn’t too fussed.

Is it silly that I love that my dog is small enough to fit in a bike basket?

It was a pretty nice ride, too. We parked up at one end of Tamaki Drive, and rode till near the end of the flat and then back again.

The sky was blue, the wind calm. It was pretty gorgeous. I love that we have places like this in Auckland to do these kind of things :)

Over the weekend JB and I took a walk around the domain with Quinn, and with our fancy SLR’s (of which I’m still stoked that Siblings boyfriend let me use his old one) and started snapping some shots. The idea was that he’d be able to show me how to use this brilliant piece of equipment with all of its brilliant buttons, but instead we ended up walking around, with our hangovers, taking random photos.

Some where hilarious (and to save some of my dignity are not shown here. You don’t need to see me pulling a funny pose in front of a fountain with a clever perspective), others where just pretty. I’d forgotten how nice it was just to walk, and talk and snap.

We lasted until the skies opened and I got a phone call that meant dashing off into the day. All in all, I got some good shots, I think. It was a pretty wonderful day for wandering around and smelling the flowers as we went.

Every Saturday at the back Parnell, La Cigale holds a small French Market. I wish I’d known about this earlier, it’s a great bunch of stalls filled with fresh veggies, still warm breads and pastries, stuffed olives and dips and tabbouleh salads, smoked meats, freshly squeezed juice stalls, big stoves of paella and stalls making while-you-wait crepes and waffles.

In short, a ridiculous amount of fantastic food. The Boy and I took Quinn down on the weekend (and the weekend before that . . .) and we had breakfast – two sweet chilli prawn skewers and a whitebait fritter, cooked up right in front of us! Mm, SO GOOD! We also stocked up on this brilliant cherry tomato foccacia, roasted capsicum dip, fruit for the week, chocolate croissants AND white chocolate tarts. The Boy and I also split a chocolate éclair, which was DIVINE! The chocolate on the top was still warm, and it was stuffed with the most delicious chocolate whipped cream I’d ever eaten. Ridiculously sweet, pretty much an orgasm in your mouth.

Walking up and down the little aisles, I was reminded of the fruit and veggie shop my parents used to own in Parnell. It was an open air shop, basically some clever shelves stuffed with every kind of fruit and veggies you can imagine installed on a patio a little off the street, with the coolers and workshops downstairs.

I spent a fair chunk of my childhood scrambling around the back streets of Parnell. Today Parnell is mostly fancy restaurants, and expensive botique stores, but back then I was small (and cute) enough to wrangle baked goods from the fancy upmarket bakeries, lollies from the confectioner down the road, and and milk fluffy’s from cafe owners.

It was a nice reminder of simpler times, I think. But I’m glad that Auckland still has these kind of open-air markets. And that we spent the rest of the weekend eating the goodies we brought back? Totally. Brilliant. :)

Take a super cute pup who would never hurt a fly:

Add a geek like The Boy (who may or may not have recently seen 28 Days Later), some minor photoshopping and you get this:

The things The Boy does never ceases to amaze me :)

When I arrive home after work, or at Barkley Manor to pick him up, Quinn does this funny little snuffle thing when he greets you. And he does the funny little snuffle thing because he’s trying to grin the biggest, cheesiest grin that you’ve ever seen on a funny little dog:

Now imagine his whole back end wriggling with the excitement of his little little tail and you have the best, most adorable, most likely to make you laugh greeter that you’ve ever met. :)