Little Rover kept squinting his left eye so we took him to the vet who found an ulcer in the squinting eye and a cataract in the other. Nothing much can be done about the cataract but the ulcer required an injection and ongoing treatment with ointment and drops and a return visit to the vet next week and the week after and the week after that. No wonder my old mate Noel never kept a dog; he could barely look after himself let alone a dog (perhaps for the same reason he also never married but that's another story ☺).
The Valuer-General increased Riverbend's unimproved value to $695,000 which is all very flattering were it not for the fact that the money-grabbing Council will use it to also increase its rates.
Back in 2006 when it looked like we had a buyer for Riverbend, I flew to Cairns and visited Kuranda in the rainforest up in the mountains to look for a new home. One properties I inspected was at 46 Cadagi Drive, Kuranda. It was built in 1986 for around a million dollars and sold in 1993 for half a million to the then current owners who wanted to sell it again for $850,000. They eventually did sell it in December 2006 for $800,000. It's for sale again at $1.2million. Looking at it now, I wonder what possessed me as its sheer size would've enslaved me with all the cleaning and maintenance.
MV TENACITY has been anchored off Riverbend all weekend. Its skipper, Ross Britt, told me that he had at one time considered buying Riverbend. He must still like it. Why else anchor here when he has fifty kilometres of navigable river to choose from? Anyway, he's the kind of neighbour I like: here today, gone tomorrow.
As has this week: gone in a flash and leaving barely a ripple.
