A load of shite

The European love of dogs is well documented but there are some aspects of that love that needs to be improved.

Why do "alleged" homeless people always have at least one dog tethered beside them - if they can't feed themselves how do they provide for the dog?

The treatment (or is that mistreatment) of dogs by guys who we see on the street corner is not pleasant - the dogs are so controlled to the point of being fearful. I sat near a guy and his dog while waiting for Sherry yesterday and a gentleman using a walking stick came over to share the seat however when the dog saw the stick it was obvious that this dog had had a stick used on him many times before as he cowered away.

Many times you see the lead being pulled so roughly to bring the dog to heal that the dog whimpers in apparent pain.

As for picking up after a dog defacates well that appears to be a no no. 

The other day in one of the main downtown shopping streets a lady waited while her dog relieved itself and then casually walked away leaving the mess for, and here it becomes multi choice:

a) the council cleaner to remove

b) to stay there until it dried solid and someone kicked it down the road

c) for someone to stand on it and smear it up the street

Today on two occasions we saw dogs defacate in the street and the owner leave it where it fell - in one case another gentleman pointed out to the dog owner that his dog had messed in the doorway of a shop without any reaction from the dog owner and in the other the dog had left droppings over about a metre but the dog owner had no concern to leave it on the footpath.

And to top it off this morning while walking in town Sherry had the misfortune to have a small amount of bird shite land on her arm!

After lunch in the city we walked to an area called Antigone which had different style buildings (more modern and set out with a degree of symmetry) and which commenced at the shopping area called Polygone and ended at Le Lez the river that flows through the city.

It was an open area with numerous trees on either side of the street

The council clearly has a problem in that the river harbours a weed that seems to be growing rampant 

but they also appear to be taking steps to remove it or at least try and control it

In the Antigone district is the Olympic sized swimming pool and a row of billboards outside of the pool made one think of home, if only momentarily 

With the election campaign being on at home and the promise of money being tossed around like confetti as parties promote their transport solutions particularly in Auckland, one would hope that someone has at least researched tram transport as used in Montpellier and other cities around the world as they are comfortable, can be installed in existing streets and also relatively quiet.

Montpellier has 4 lines across the city connecting 84 stations, with a total length of 60.5kms and over 300,000 people use them each day. The rolling stock consists of 85 trams.

A Citidus 401 tram manufactured by Alstom operating on Line 1 of the Montpellier network

The cost is €1.60 per ride over any distance on any number of trams in a 60 minute period if purchasing a single journey ticket reducing to €1.00 if purchasing a 10 trip ticket.

Later in the afternoon we refreshed in a rather cool pool at the apartment complex.