FEBRUARY 2004
Sunday 29 February 2004
Over to zeRellies for breakfast, lunch and birthday cake for Mistress Hellen.  Again it was too hot to be romping in the garden so we stayed indoors and enjoyed being a family.

Mister John from next door has returned from his brief holiday - so we went and welcomed him home by presenting him with letters, junk mail and the local paper.

Evening: Close Relative of Spot has emerged again, this time in the hall - and giving me such a fright that I barked instead of talking to let Mistress Hellen know of this repeat intruder.  Later, CR of S broke the house rules for huntsman spiders by venturing down the wall to human height so Mistress Hellen transported him/her out into the garden - near where Spot was released.  Hopefully they'll catch up with each other and stay out of the house!

Saturday 28 February 2004 * Mistress Hellen's Birthday *
Another year has rolled by!  Missus Elizabeth rang me the other day and asked if I wanted her to purchase a birthday card on my behalf for Mistress H.  What a great idea!!  So she did - and it was a beauty too.  Missus Elizabeth is good at getting things all happening.

Thursday 26 February 2004
Been enjoying the music Gary brought by yesterday - what a hoot - all piano works inspiring us to tap dance - unfortunately we've been listening in the car, so haven't tried it out for real yet.

I've been finding that doing the two shows has really drained me - although I enjoy doing both - it seems that so much time is taken up with the planning of 'Tuxedo Junction' that by the time I've finished that, I don't feel like doing anything such as updating the website.

Mistress Hellen says it's because I set my goals too high - wanting every show to be the peak of perfect music transitions and giving the absolute best in music.

Wednesday 25 February 2004 (back to top)
Had an enjoyable time doing 'Streamer Never Sleeps' today.  It rained heavily all yesterday evening and into the morning.

Later, on 'Tuxedo Junction' I had a listener (Gary) call by with some music for me and information that will be very useful for the show.  I discovered that it is quite different having a non-radio visitor in the studio.

Later still - off out of Sydney again to visit Jenni for the day.  Shadow and I couldn't really do much romping in the garden because it rained a lot all day.

Tuesday 24 February 2004
BIG walk this morning which was good.

Monday 23 February 2004
Relative of Spot appears to have moved on.  Not been seen for the last two nights.

Saturday 21 February 2004 (back to top)
Mistress Hellen woke at 4:30am, looked at the thermometer and declared she wanted to be out of Sydney for the day - just for the sake of it.  A short while later we were all packed and in the car, heading for a tourist town outside Sydney.

Of course, the disadvantage of us being out and about so early was that we arrived at our destination before anything was open or available.  Did a big walk around the area, taking in the sights and sounds (and smells!).

After our walk we considered it appropriate to stop at the General Store for refreshments, not a difficult decision, since it was the only shop open at that time of day!  We settled on the shop verandah and Mistress Hellen ended up in conversation with a Complete Stranger and the Person Running The Store.  Meanwhile I was wisely non-conversational to the humans and spent time collecting pats, ear scratches, tummy rubs and socialising with the dogs that came to the store with their humans.

Eventually the temperature was beginning to climb to uncomfortable so we headed home, feeling rather good about the adventure.  When we hit the outskirts of Sydney, we discovered that since we'd been gone, Sydney had been blessed with a cool breeze!  Yippee!

Later on we were invited to join Colin and Jenni and their family - plus Shadow their dog, for a meal - off into the car again for a big drive!  This was a wonderful night because we haven't seen these friends for months and months.  Lots of catching up to do and it was made all the more pleasant by the dropping temperatures.

Finally finished our day around 3:30am Sunday - a huge and wonderfully exciting day!

Wednesday 18 February 2004
Didn't do my 'Streamer Never Sleeps' show this morning but I did go and do 'Tuxedo Junction' later in the day.

Hmm, not good - a close relative of Spot the Spider has moved in.  It's not Spot, but a smaller version, fortunately taking up residence in the kitchen and dining room rather than the bedroom.

Tuesday 17 February 2004 (back to top)
I'm Back!  Had an unscheduled break from doing Beagle Diary and also decided to suspend publishing 'Streamer Never Sleeps' playlists for a while.  Not had any complaints, so maybe it's a long overdue idea!

Last week we had a visitor for a few days - who had 4 legs too many for my liking - a huntsman spider that earned the nickname Spot - as in Spot the Spider.  It took up residence in Mistress Hellen's bedroom - hence the 'Spot the Spider' game before bedtime.  Eventually she removed it - way out into the garden!

Something I did during this break was remove the links to the Guestbook page and Awards page.  The Guestbook went because the guestbook site decided that only the last 120 days of entries would be on display.  Since most of my guestbook is over 120 days old - it ended up looking very miserable - so out it went!

The Awards page went because I felt it wasn't adding anything.  The Awards in question are about the website shaping up to certain standards, and not really supporting my radio activities.  Ironically, the day after I removed the page I was notified that I'd received an award!  (which I'd applied for back in December - so this news was quite a surprise to me)  Tough luck - the Awards page stays gone.

Friday 6 February 2004 (back to top)
Mistress Hellen has booked herself in again for tap dancing lessons.  It's been 6 months since her last official lesson.  This time she'll have two lessons a week.  Woah!  I'll have to get busy and clear a practice area so we can start dancing together again without the usual mishaps involving furniture and sharp edges - not to mention smacking into and treading on each other.

We have been dancing together a bit lately (and smacking into and treading on each other) because of the music I'm listening to for the 10am-midday show - lots of very tap-dance-to tunes from the 1920s-60s. 

Thursday 5 February 2004
Good day for sitting under the house - so I did.  Peeked through the fence to check on the progress of the pool removal operation next door.  No activity at all to be seen - no pool either!!!

Wednesday 4 February 2004
BILL!!!!  His name is Bill!!  The Middle-of-the-Night Gardener.  On the way home from 2RRR this morning we spotted him, so stopped to introduce ourselves and let him know that he features in Beagle Diary.  A lovely man, who not only does his own garden in the middle of the night - but his neighbour's too!

Later: After the mid-morning show we collected more records from 2RRR that can be cleaned up and used.  Such gems as Sir Harry Lauder, Harry Belafonte and, AND...a recording of two Rudyard Kipling's 'Just So' stories!

Tuesday 3 February 2004 (back to top)
Forgot AGAIN to upload latest Beagle Diary.  Hmm, this is worrying.

Was woken too early by the sound of jackhammering - very LOUD jackhammering.  Turned out to be a contraption next door, breaking up their swimming pool.  Oh, well, it does look like they're having their cement inground pool removed.  (let's hope so or they're going to be very cross about this!)

We escape the noise by going on another walk and distributing more flyers about the Oldies Show.  Well, that only worked for about an hour.  On our return the noise was just as noisy as it had been in the morning - only more wearing.....*sigh*.  Was tempted to put on my Beagle Headphones and block out the world.

Sunday 1 February 2004
After a day of nothing much happening, Mistress Hellen and myself ventured forth to take a walk and deliver some pamphlets publicising my new show - and indeed, Bruce Argyle's Monday show - the original 'Down Memory Lane'.

After some random roaming, Mistress Hellen announced that we were sort of....lost.  Not totally, just not quite where she expected us to be.  We had a choice - turn back and do a lot of hill climbing, or keep on going and complete the circle we'd started.  We took the continue forward option.

The Beagle Diary
A fascinating (perhaps) insight into Streamer's life with and without Mistress Hellen.  The diary is updated frequently.