Exercise 8.1: The 30-minute walk

Ziggy and I walk around the block

Ziggy the dog shoots out the door like a missile. She's on a lead but she's in charge. 'Which way today?' I ask out loud. Ziggy chooses the patch of bamboo jungle on the left. It's lovely in here, with its gentle green light, and silence. But Ziggy, tank-shaped, tank-strong, doesn't stop to enjoy the light. She charges out of the bamboo and we race past trim, empty retirement village backyards then cross a little bridge into the park. Ahead a path meanders enticingly under shady gumtrees.

A young man on a bicycle is speeding down the path towards us so I pull Ziggy to a stop. She doesn't like men on bikes. He slows down, perhaps to get a closer look at Ziggy, but she barks and lunges at him and scares him off into the distance. Ziggy doesn't like men on bikes.

Too soon the path ends and we turn right into a grove of trees. Once again I enjoy thirty seconds of green silence before we rush headlong into the glorious, unbounded space of an empty football field. I let Ziggy off the lead and without a backward glance she runs off into the distance, scattering birds before her, filling the sky with cries of complaint. I cross the oval. Ziggy follows. She's panting. Her tongue is hanging out. 'Don't worry Ziggy. We're on the home stretch.'

We emerge onto a busy road where cars zoom past. Ziggy, back on her lead, tries to zoom after them so we take a detour through the carpark of the local hotel. This is where all the people are! Lots of men in shorts sitting at small, umbrella-covered tables in the beer garden. Music thumping:
'Gonna get drunk won't you listen right here, I want one bourbon, one shot and one beer One bourbon, one scotch, one beer...'

No place for dogs. Ziggy and I pass quickly through, back onto the road and around the corner into our street. She's still straining on the lead, still dragging me along behind her just as she was doing when we first set out. I'm tired and thirsty. It's hard for me to keep walking so fast. I need a rest but it's ok. Ziggy is taking me home.