My morning in three easy steps

Here my morning in three easy steps haha:

Step 1: Wake up and put this octopus hair in a bun to stop it from strangling me

Step 2: Open the door and in comes Luke for his first belly rub

Step 3: Morning coffee =) 

And guess what happened after taking the morning cup pictures?  

Luke`s first on the trek backpack - Kerbl dog saddle bag harness

The prince of sun and I are both passionate outdoor fans and since we have Luke, we do our little trips around the Porto Seguro region with almost set times - Luke already reminds us in case we get out later on a day, first calling us and when he has our attention, he leads us to where we store his harness :D. Just in case we forgot.

Even better is the fact that Luke will now be able to carry his own (poo plastic bags), water and food (or like today morning part of our weekly food shopping). He seemed so proud when first walking around with his new saddle bag harness on and was even more proud, when we arrived at home and he watched carefully when we were taking the vegetables out of his (before carried) saddle bag harness. He always observed us carefully when carrying our shopping bags and probably he finally felt like part of the mission group :D Funny enough, he was not shy at all and immediately put his head into the neck section of the backpack harness when I put it on him and all naturally wore his new harness as if he had done it for months! He seems quite comfortable wearing it, I put the saddle bag on my arm to check if there are any harsh edges that might be more dominant when the bags are filled with heavy stuff, but the material still felt quite soft on my skin and did not cut into it). And it seems to tire him out more than when he is wearing his normal harness, so that`s another plus point for our powerful and evergy-loaden moscito-hunter =)

In case you wondered, this morning on the way back home after our shopping trip, we actually fitted tomato sauce and cream in tetra packs plus several vegetables like onion and garlic evenly distributed on each side (and we could have fitted more in but wanted to test his resistance first) and Luke did not even seem to note the weight at all or make any signs of complaining, rather opposite like mentioned before =) Oh and you can fit in 500ml water bottles, but pick one, that`s a bit shorter than average and thicker instead, otherwise the top part of the bottle might have to stick out of the bag. 

Here a few details in case you would like to know more about the brown-black Kerbl 81198 dog saddle bag harness that I bought for Luke (20 EUR on Amazon):

Foldable, lightweight travel wellies - Hunter Original Tour Rubber Boots

Hunter Original Tour Wellies in black

This one is pretty funny. Every time I tell people that I urgently need quality wellies (rubber boots), the next best thing they answer is `but aren`t you living in Brazil - isn`t this one of the most tropical places with long sun hours and burning heat?`

It surely is. Nevertheless, the quantity of rain is very impressive all year round, the rainstorms and resulting immediate floodings cause totally muddy streets in less than 5minutes, streets would have to get redone about 2-3 months if they were to look about alright and tidy. But that`s probably just a dream of all residents, no reality in any case... I have often observed old people being really afraid of walking outside due to the totally slippery pavement and street, often the pavement is totally destroyed or simply non-existent, so everyone has to walk on the street instead. I already slipped several times - which isn t very tragic as my bones are still pretty flexible. But imagine someone older...

Hunter Original Tour Boots and its anti-slip rubber sole

And nobody likes to slip, if we are really honest, especially when it`s totally muddy. So shoes or wellies that have adequate soles for slippery grounds are very precious. Nevertheless, I also walk my dog in the muddy streets so.... he really doesn t care if the ground is totally slippery and muddy and will play anyway so my feet, legs and trousers will be totally soaking in water or mud when we come home (let`s not talk about Luke`s muddy condition after the walk here haha, that`s another topic). But well, good resistent waterproof wellies will pretty much resolve most of those problems. That`s why I decided to get quality travel rubber boots as I will also use them as winter boots, just with high boot socks to keep my feet warm in addition to dry during the autumn and winter months I spend in Europe. As I am going to travel with them, they should not be too bulky and heavy, and as I wish to use them both during walks in the countryside, but also in the city, they should be pretty as well.

Quite a challenge. But thank god, I stumbled over the following blog: libertylondongirl.com - Living in London and close to Hampstead Heath, food lover, sausage dog walker and passionate traveller herself who introduced her readers to her favourite Hunter boots. And following her blogs throughout the - what? about 5-7maybe few? years that she continues to passionately write about them, totally convinced me to get them myself.

Hunter Original Tour Wellies - foldable & lightweight,
but city-chic - perfect for travellers

They have some original sturdy ones for rain and snow which are more convenient if you only use them around your area but also have one model for travel bugs like me: The Hunter Original Tour! Foldable, lightweight and stylish-city-chic! So I`ve ordered them, in pretty black which combines with about every item of clothing I have I guess... (and if not, who am I to care :D All I want is having clean and dry feet and less washing jeans to add that one - lol), happy and lucky to have found those boots that just include everything I needed at the very moment =)

Design, build and live in your own house - all at the same time: Part 2

Update of my house plan

It has been quite some time since I had first written about how to design, build and live in your own house - all at the same time.

Blogpost:
Design, build and live in your house - all at the same time

I just stumbled over this old blogpost and realized that by now - almost one year later - we have changed quite a lot during the course of construction works and changes in our previous plans and needs. I guess the best and biggest change was that we managed to seperate the kitchen and living room space, first we were not sure if we were able to fit in all furniture into the rather narrow kitchen-laundry room area neatly and comfortly but luckily it all worked out perfectly - we did not even have to remove the hammock!

And now it feels like our whole house is bigger :D Both livingroom and kitchen have a much larger feel to it. Amazing what a bit of moving-furniture-around can make of a drastic change.

I really could not resist adding in this picture of Luke who decided to gently remind me that I have been sitting at the computer/laptop for long enough, gently pawing my foot *_* and bringing along his all-time favourite toy: An old t-shirt of mine! ;-)

Puppy play time: Luke and his best friend Rhalf

Rhalf close to Luke's ear, whispering: "Luke, you won't
believe what happened yesterday...  Oh dear,
I have to whisper they're listening in :D!"

A few days ago we went to see a friend of ours who has two dogs, one puppy called Rhalf and one adult dog called Hans. Luke is best friends with Rhalf and together they run and jump and build sand caves and do just everything, like people say here "os dois estão grudados como cola" (those two are stuck like glue).

Luke will stay with them during our spring holiday, he has already spent one week there and thank god was alright and not too homesick, although from the day we picked him up again, he was even more stuck like glue to me ;) But I do love it, I freely admit it hehe....

More pictures of the 'gang of two', playing, wrestling and drinking water, exhausted from playing like the crazies - next to the 'old, wise often grumpy a bit jealous but mild' German-shepherd-mix ginger Hans:

Love parcels: Belated Christmas bunching

So waiting patiently during Christmas and New Year really paid off ;)

Punctually at about 2 weeks into the new year 2014 (oh and I totally forgot: HAPPY NEW YEAR BY THE WAY)! 

A small letter with a wedding invitation arrived around the 10th of January, then the first two Christmas and indulgence related parcels from my mum arrived on the 14th and the last Christmas surprises parcel came from my sister on the 16th.

My mum`s Christmas parcel had a really sweet mouth painted postcard with a wintery setting, a decorated Christmas tree and a pretty child-angel holding a the top star of the tree, in the background of a snow-covered landscape with a cute bridge and little houses. And even Luke received his own postcard, with a cute Christmas sausage dog frontside and a tiny yummy", crunchy dogfood plastic bag. Luke`s eyes totally glimmered when he was eating it, so this was a true Christmas treat!

The second parcel was poetry and arts indulgence with a beautiful butterfly spray painting, a ballet-culture postcard, a tiny calender for 2014 and a mouth-painted calender picture with a beautiful quote by Jean Jaures (German: Die groessten Menschen sind jene, die anderen Hoffnung geben koennen. = English: The greatest people are those who are able to bring hope to others.) plus some amazing dividable dog-sausage treats for Luke which he absolutely loves - a good thing to use for our training sessions, need to get more of those when I visit my family in spring. Oh yes, I did not mention it yet, but YYYAAAAAY, we are close to another trip to Europe, this time together with the prince of sun and we are concentrating on Germany only with a short visit to our funky capital Berlin (and Berlin girl obviously) and other treats coming soon *_* - cannot wait to see my sweet niece and sister, brothers, mum and dad, grandma, friends.... aaaah =) By the way, I was really laughing at the name of the Orlando dog sausage product but cannot go into details due to privacy reasons but... I really love the fun thought behind it and understand why mum picked exactly those HILARIOUS! And finally, my favourite relaxing Camilla bath liquid *_*

  

Now let`s get to the final love parcel, sent by my sister (and partly my mum as well):

My puppy Luke: 10 weeks - 6 months timespan

Luke is recovering - actually much faster than we thought, climbing the stairs three-legged and starting to use his worst leg and foot more and more, thank god. Spending the last few days browsing and marvelling at his early puppyhood pictures I thought I`d quickly make a photo collage, kind of a 10 weeks to 6 months timespan - before - after comparison. Enjoy =)

Plus my current favourite picture, taken yesterday afternoon =)

*_*

Strong, brave puppy recovering after a pitbull attack: Luke aka Po the Panda Dragon Warrior

Since I can remember, Pitbulls and other so called 'fighting breeds' such as Rottweilers always had a really bad reputation. But I would always mention to haters that it is not the dogs that are to blame. So the dogs should go into rehab instead of the owners (who instead then should get put down to - er sleep or well, not that drastic, but they should get a thorough value schooling and should not be allowed to have another dog.

When I watched Cesar's show (the dog whisperer), I would always admire Daddy, Cesar's pitbull and his patience and kindness as well as endurance in any possible case Cesar would encounter during dog rehab.

I was not lucky yet to meet a pitbull like that and unfortunately, Luke had a really horrible encounter a few days ago... (We believe it is a pitbull mix as the face is very much pitbull, but the size is just so enourmous and almost hip-high (for small women like me), that s why we believe he is mixed with labrador or another huge breed). The (himself also bully-like) owner actually lives in our (one-way) street with his own family and often keeps his huge, black pitbull running around without supervision, without leash and collar, a hip-high dark-nacked mountain of muscles and teeth lying heavily and imperious in the middle of the street.

We were coming back from a walk and the sun had already set - it was getting dark but was still really hot outside, a normal summer's evening so a lot of neighbours and their friends or relatives were talking in front of their houses in little groups.

His left paw on the upper side, third day after
visiting the vet

We walked into our street - as usual I had Luke on the leash - the prince of sun was carrying a few heavy bags. It all happened really fast. Out of nowhere appeared the black thunder and next thing I knew, he was all over Luke. I tried to lift him up, but was not fast enough and the huge, heavy pitbull was almost covering him already, heavily bumping his heavy body against my legs and hips and his nails rushing over my legs, but I did not feel anything at the moment it happened.

His owner called him over and over again (no reaction at all from the pitbull) and came over with a thing that looked like the stick of a broom. It probably was only seconds, but it felt like hours. While Luke was screaming in desperation, the prince of sun (seeing that the owner was only making his dog more furious while hitting him with the broom while ripping Luke's leash out of my hands), jumped into the scene, forced the pitbulls mouth open and pushed the dog a few meters away. He tried to lift Luke but BOOM, the pitbull had already come back and was again all over Luke.

His fixed right leg-axle (I will spare
you the other bite wounds)

A second time (the owner was still hitting with his broom causing mad fury in the pitbull), the prince of sun forced the pitbull`s mouth open and away from the screaming Luke, grabbing his legs and this time, while turning around to throw the pitbull further away found himself next to a wall crushing against it with his complete right side and face and the pitbull in his hands (with all people around us only standing right behing and next to him, being in the way and staring stupidly at him), threw the huge 50kg-heavy pitbull over their heads further away while the crowd run to the sides. (It was other people telling me everything afterwards as I only remember everything like a dense fog and did not see anything but Luke and the prince of sun, the pitbull and his owner, all bundled up in one horrible chaos.

Then I saw my very own superhero Clark Kent aka prince of sun in his blue shirt and red trousers-shorts coming close and felt enormous relief while he picked up bitterly crying Luke. And we went home, I even forgot the heavy bags that the prince of sun had thrown on the floor when the attack happened and only remembered them (they had our keys and wallet and other precious things), when the prince of sun asked me to pick them up. Then we entered our home, shaken, with no look back. The pitbull and owner and other neighbours, I have no idea what happened to them next. But the whole street was in complete silence (and that`s something I almost never saw in our lively street). The only thing I remember was that we arrived in our own house and HOME.

I have never thanked god more than the second, that we realized while examining Luke's horrible bite wounds, that somehow:

Luke, the hammock dog: It's me or the laptop! & Brazilian Fast Food Dinner

Luke with me on the hammock

Here I am - lying innocently on my hammock... when my puppy Luke suddenly decides that he is fed up of having to compete with my laptop and HOPPI DI HOPP, jumps onto my belly and lap right onto the hammock :D I managed to take a few pictures with my laptop while he was mumbling "listen - it's ME or the laptop! Decide now!" So I gave in, put the laptop on the table next to me to then give my sweetie the attention and tummy rub he thoroughly deserves =))

Coxinha, pão de pizza
and pineapple juice

Now the prince of sun just came in with a typical Brazilian (fast food) take away, a huge 'coxinha de frango com catupiry' (delicious fried chicken croquettes with cream (kind of-mayonnaise-ish, just better) sauce) and a 'pão de pizza' (pizza bread: sweet-ish bread with a mix of tomato pieces and tomato sauce, ham, chicken, cheese, corn (maize) and other goodies)...

Mmmhhhh, having these now together with freshly made pineapple juice mmm-yummmyyyy....

And Luke is meditating next to me - but this time under the hammock :D

Luke's first beach trip: My puppy at Taperapuan Beach

Playing 'catcher'

Yesterday we went on a beach trip, walking the whole distance of about 1h from our borough to the beach, had two short breaks for Luke to relax and drink some water and around noon, we took the 'lotação' back home (lotação is kind of an unofficial cab/taxi service, a union of normal car or minibus drivers that pick up random people on bus routes charging the same bus fares, but often take you right until your doorstep. If you are a group of people, it is fine to go with the lotação, but I guess if you are new in town, it might be best to stick to the buses to be on the save side...

The prince of sun, Luke and I (swimming in the background)

It took us about 40minutes to find someone willing to take a dog on board so that was quite a challenge to be honest....and we did pay 2 bus fares extra for Luke's place in the car but that's fine I guess... ). Unfortunately dogs are not allowed on buses (at least those that don't fit into bags...) and Luke is still too young to walk the whole way back. Maybe next time we will rent a car instead...

It was Luke's very first time on the beach. We left very early, about 7:30am in the morning and had the beach almost for ourselves. A few chuvas passageiras (which means 'really quick and light rain showers) came around in our first few minutes at the beach and then the sky cleared up totally.

First break on our way to the beach

The water was fresh but not too cold and the waves mildly-friendly-wild, I had a few mergulhas (run ins and outs plus dips and short swims) but we did not introduce Luke to the water and swimming yet, we want to get him used to the beach and sea step by step and he was still very sceptical and we want to avoid that he gets afraid of the sea, he only got close to the breaking waves about 4 or 5 times running along when we were playing 'catcher' so his being careful told us that we still needed to wait a bit - although he seemed veeeery curious when observing me in the water swimming... =)

Enjoy our 'photo love story' - loads of pictures of yesterday's beach trip and our puppy Luke ;)

Brazilian beef loin ribs with potatoes, rice and beans: Costela de gado com batatinha, arroz e feijao

Cooked beef loin ribs

My absolute favourite among meat cuts are beef loin ribs, I love them either soft just falling off the bone - cooked in our pressure cooker
with potatoes and tomatoes, but also crunchy - grilled on our stove-top barbecue pan after being bathed in a mix of soy oil, garlic, salt, vinegar and corante powder.

Today we had our costelinha cooked in our pressure cooker with potatoes, tomatoes, (no oil as the loin ribs already have a high amount of natural fats), corante powder, salt, garlic, a bit of black pepper powder and fresh parsley/coriander. We had it with our dear couple `feijao com arroz` (beans with rice) and our before freshly(-plugged) made acerola juice (go to Acerola Juice recipe.).

Luke hypnotizing acerola juice

One of Berlin girl's favourite Brazilian juices is ACEROLA JUICE. She is absolutely right, I also adore acerola juice, especially freshly made.

Today the prince of sun, Luke and I went to visit the prince of sun's brother and his family plus two dogs, one adult German Shepherd mix and one puppy, pitbull mix. Luke loves playing with the puppy and together, they run and jump and dig and play around the large 'sitio' of the prince of sun's brother (sitio is kind of a huge backyard-garden mix). His wife is a declared plant lover and takes care of about 100 different trees, bushes and smaller herb plants, all on their property.

Acerola tree

Every time we go to visit them, they offer us some of the fruits or herbs growing in their sitio, this time it was fresh pitanga while watching the dogs play and then the prince of sun plugged about 300g of fresh acerola fruits from the medium size tree.

Arriving at home, we directly started making the juice, it is pretty simple, especially now that we bought a new mixer (our old one broke down, just too much juicing during the last couple of months :D hopefully the new mixer (ours is from Philips Walita and is quite sturdy) will last a good while.

Acerola juice & our Philips Walita mixer

Making the juice is quite simple:

In memory of my little angel Amie

Amie <3

In memory of my beloved first dog and her huge fluffy oversized paws...  

Cuddle Session with Luke after first long (rainstorm) walk

YAY! Luke had his first successful long walk today and absolutely loved it. Of course we came into a heavy rain (almost storm) and ran the last 100 meters. Arriving totally happy and exhausted, wet and dirty, we resolved taking a warm shower (Luke was the first to have his shower :D) and now we are sitting together in the living room, cuddling on the sofa and sipping warm Camomila tea and eating the prince of sun's birthday vanilla custard/pudding cake *_*....

More Luke pictures:

Parcel post delivery in Brazil like bus bunching in London?

It is one of the funniest (but at times also most annoying) phenomenon of London buses. You keep waiting AGES for a bus... and then two or three often even with the same destination come along at once. They called this phenomenon bunching as far as I remember.

My mum's autumn surprise parcel

We are talking about buses, right. 

However, here in Brazil parcels seem to fit into the same bunching category it seems. You feel like no letters or parcels from home are arriving when people finally ask whether you got their (SUPPOSED TO BE) SURPRISE parcel, both of you already believe some of them got lost(or stolen-used (my favourite soft toothbrush that my mum had sent by parcel) or eaten (Lindt chocolate), depending on the delicious content :D lol)  which did happen at times. 

Berlin Girl's surprise parcel

And then, out of nowwhere, when all hope was lost, during two or three days ALL parcels are delivered in groups or one day after another. That’s what happened with Berlin girl’s and my mum’s parcels more than once. Berlin girl had even sent a yummy chocolaty replacement care package for the last care package which did arrive (last parcel blogpost with Big Ben notebook) <3 this time with two yummy Ritter Sport with the chocolate flavours Nugat and Halbbitter 50% Kakao) which arrived today together with a lovely autumn surprise parcel that my mom invented <3, I could almost smell the perfume of German autumn with its wet and windy weather and dancing colourful leaves!.... 

Parcel bunching it is.

"Puppy-photo-love-story": Luke's first time playing in sand

A few weeks ago, we were doing construction works again and therefore had some sand in our yard. Of course Luke couldn't resist and HOOPI DI HOPP he jumped right onto it <3 Judging his face and reactions he absolutely loved it ;)

Luke Pavarotti, Luke Ludovico, Bilu-ke: Our new puppy =)

Last night I was listening to some youtube music videos and just quickly went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I couldn t believe my eyes when I came back from the bathroom and saw my puppy Luke lying on the sofa, with his tiny head placed neatly into the headset and listening to the music with closed eyes :-O 

He probably realized (could hear) that I was listening to the following youtube video:

Amie.

Amie.

My little puppy Amie was very special. A very kind and playful dog. She loved everyone. The same moment that she put her oversized paws on the pavement of our street, she ran to greet anyone who was standing there and if they’d let her, she’d lick their feet or hands and climb in for a hug. She loved children and playing with them. Even when they fell over her and screamed and ran like a chaotic whole lot. She would play in the sand and run around forever, she lived her life almost as if she knew that it would be short. When she ran to get a ball we had thrown for her, she’d literally throw herself onto the ball and floor, she jumped onto sand hills, swam in the stormy see and climbed over little obstacles we had build for her, sometimes she would get bruises and cuts but did not care. She ran, jumped into the mud leaving her shiny coat stripy, even knowing she would have a cold shower afterwards and making us having a bath with her, she still knew she would get a towel drying lap hug afterwards and lived every second she had, she enjoyed every day up to the last minute and she lived the life like a pure happy spirit. With her whole energy of bundled up love and joy.

Every morning, she was there. Waiting patiently and jumped and her little tail went almost like a helicopter propeller. Throwing her love onto us the second we woke up until the minute we went to sleep. Even followed me to the bathroom door when I took a shower waiting patiently at the door with her deep, loving, true, patient brown eyes.

When she got sick, she seemed to feel guilty when we had to clean after her  vomit and diarrhea. She observed us cleaning, looking at me with sad eyes, letting her head hang down and she tried to hide. But I didn t let her believe that she had to take a distance from us. I talked to her and she returned, still sad, but almost immediately wanting to climb onto my lap. I had her with me until the last moment. Even if I had to have up to 5 showers a day. But she realized after a few days, that nothing would separate her from me. So she stopped hiding and waited patiently for me while I cleaned what needed to be cleaned and then looked at me, waiting for me to invite her to sit beside me or on my lap.

In her last days, she stayed within 1m distance of me. No matter what I did, if I cooked or cleaned, she was there. As I was with her. 24/7. And most of the time, when invited or called, immediately climbed on my lap, whether I was sitting on the sofa or on the hammock. A real hammock dog. That’s how she lived her life. Not caring about anything but life, love, action and living those three.

She inspired me to live the very moment until her last minute. I had barely slept 4h tonight, when I felt I had to get up and look after her to give her some water and try to get her eat some liquid food. She was there. Waiting. Looking at me with her faithful eyes. Trying to lift her tail to greet me, using all the force she had left. I felt sick inside, but tried to cheer her up until the last minute. We went to the living room and sat down for some cuddles. I gave her water with a syringe which she had even more difficulty to gulp than the days before. She walked around me with weak feet and pressed her body against my back. Then she stood on her weak feet, using all her tiny strength and force to lift her head up and she looked at me. One intense look full of love. Then she climbed onto my lap and laid her head on my knee to rest. While I was softly patting her back, a few seconds later she collapsed. Her body went limp. Blood streamed out. And she died. She was a fighter from the start. And she wanted to make me happy and show her deep love until her last breath.

I love her so much. She will be with me, whereever I go. Forever.

Those are the last pictures I took of her. On 14 March, one day before she fell ill.

Angel returned to heaven

Amie has returned to heaven.  

She had a virus. Saturday morning she vomited and had diarrhea for the first time. The days after it went worse. no medications and injections helped. She also vomited them. We gave her water and liquid medication with a syringe. But this morning. She looked at me. Climbed onto me and put her head on my knee. And collapsed. Blood. And died. I am broken.

Amie's first beach trip

Last Sunday, we went on our first beach trip with Amie. She is 11 weeks old now, received all necessary vacc. shots and is used to short walks and sprints, so we thought we'd introduce her to the huge beach sandpit and sea bathtub with its soft and wild waves.

We were really excited and proud when she actually managed to swim first try! Although she doesn't like having a bath at home, she quite enjoyed cruising through the sea water. YAY!

But the thing she probably enjoyed most was caving her way through the sand and creating comfy warm wholes to lie down after an exhilarating sprint up and down the low sandy hills.