Oh..I’m leavinggg on a jet-plane… ackkk  sptt.. phew… sorry folks, my singing voice ain’t what it used to be. But, that song just keeps sticking in my head.  I dunno…maybe it has something to do with me leaving on a jet plane, ya think?  That’s right folks, it is time for me to fly!  I’m heading overseas to find out what life (and real estate) are like in other parts of this great great world.  For the next few months I’ll be taking a look at life around the globe.  Be sure to check out my Chester Chronicles too for more fun and interesting information.  You can find my chronicles from the Dallas Homes web site at: www.dallashomes.com.  Stay tuned for my first stop...New Zealand.

Chester Pet Tips

Since August is the month officially dedicated to dogs…I thought I would give some helpful pet advice.  I asked my canine friends out there to send in their pet tips.  And here is what they sent

How to give your CAT a bath in 4 easy steps...

Step 1   Thoroughly clean your toilet bowl.

Step 2   Squeeze in ¼ of a cup of dish detergent or your favorite shampoo. 

Step 3  Put cat in toilet bowl and quickly shut the lid and hold it down. (Cat’s thrashing about will provide plenty of suds in bowl.) 

Step 4  Flush toilet to rinse (may be necessary to repeat flush).*

 *Make sure cat is large enough as to not be flushed down toilet with flush.

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A moment in Texas History...1970...

Hurricane Celia struck the coast of Texas producing wind gusts to 161 mph at Corpus Christi, and estimated wind gusts of 180 mph at Arkansas Pass. The hurricane was the most destructive on record along the Texas coast causing 454 million dollars damage, and also claimed eleven lives. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)

For more interesting and historical weather info for the month of August check out the following site: http://www.awc-kc.noaa.gov/wxfact/august.html

For a list of Bizarre August Holidays, check out the following web page: http://library.thinkquest.org/2886/aug.htm?tqsHkip=1

 August Moon is one of Texas’s best Chinese Restaurants with locations in both Dallas and Plano.  For more information, check out their homepage at: http://august-moon.com/

 Ok, I’ll Admit My Naiveté

 Kia Ora! That’s the Maori greeting here in New Zealand.  The Maori are the native New Zealander’s (kind of like the aboriginals in Australia).  The Maori call New Zealand the Land of the Long White Cloud.  I haven’t been in New Zealand for long folks but I’m already confused.  It’s one thing that they drive on the wrong side of the road, not to mention on the wrong side of the car.  I guess I’m just used to jumping in on the passenger side to take my ride.  Well, this time when I jumped in, for some funny reason there was a steering wheel on my side.  My doggie mate Flagg (mate here means friend) says to me “Oi mate, you’s plannin’ on drivin?”  I felt kind of funny about the whole thing, but we all had a good laugh.  We were on our way to a cricket match.  Crickets huh?  I thought…how do they get those little bugs to play against each other.  Well, durr…my mistake again!  Cricket is actually a game kind of like baseball played by blokes (that’s the term for guys) dressed all in white.  The thing they didn’t tell me is that a simple cricket ‘match’ can last all day or even for days at a time.  Hummm..and I wasn’t even allowed to chase the ball.  Anyway…I’m still getting used to things here in New Zealand I suppose just in time to be leaving.  My next stop…Indonesia.

Sheep Sheep and More Sheep 

Well, believe it or not it is winter here in New Zealand.  Imagine that winter in August, ha!  What does that have to do with sheep you ask…well, nothing really.  But I just thought I’d add that bit of information. Anyway.  As an interesting bit of trivia, New Zealand has about 4 million people yet it has about 80 million sheep!  Whew, that’s like a lot of sheep per person.  But who has the most responsibilities with these fuzzy friends?  Well, you guessed it (or maybe you didn’t guess at all) in that case, I’ll tell you.  The Dogs!    I decided to visit my cousin Shep on his Sheep ranch.  Shep as you can guess is a sheep dog.  He let me join in with his chores one day and for helping I would receive a “Tucker” or a  ‘feed’ or in American lingo… a free meal.  It was fantastic how we herded those sheep around.  I felt very powerful and think that someday I may return to work on a sheep ranch (with Judy’s permission that is).