Day Two (Monday)

Maggie spent the night outside but raced in when I opened the front door this morning.

Christine Nixon will quit her $345,000 a year job as chair of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority after criticism of her handling of Black Saturday.

The election campaign reached Day 3 with JG leading by 30% as preferred Prime Minister - but the Labor Party as a whole was not polling as well.

It appears that we are in the electoral seat of Moncrieff - named after Gladys Moncrieff (1892 - 1976), light opera and musical-comedy singer. The seat is currently held by the Liberals, and has been since 1984. The margin at the last election was 14.1 per cent.

For those who enjoyed last night's invention test, Coles is advertising Adam's prawn scotch eggs with coconut and chilli sambal. Hmmm instead of mmmmmm at this point - looks interesting but looked tricky in the preparation and cooking ... not to mention the combination of flavours.

Nelson Mandela celebrated his 92nd birthday at home yesterday with his family in Johannesburg. Around the world, global leaders and ordinary people committed to devoting 67 minutes of their time to community service - to mark the number of years Nelson Mandela spent in politics.

Not surprisingly, a man who stopped traffic in Perth's CBD as he brandished a replica handgun, while naked, on a large billboard, is undergoing a mental health assessment in hospital.

Chris records no conviction but a $300 fine for being found to have been in a stolen car.

Finished Take 5 and That's Life Puzzle entries. Wondered whether there were any 5 cent stamps to go with the 55 cent stamp on one of the envelopes ... or whether to take a chance and send it as it was.

Took the rubbish and recycling up to the road on the back of the Honda - individually. Left work at 5pm to be able to do them both in daylight. Didn't quite make it with both of them but it wasn't quite dark enough to need the torch. (Remembered to untie the to tops of the bins with the saying: unhook, untie, align.

Larry and Doug stopped me as I drove up ... they will come over mid-morning to attend to the hose fitting/s.

A Zumba (spelling?) pastry challenge - the V8 Vanilla cake - which looks like an angel but is really hell with 8 layers - sees Alvin's time in the MasterChef challenge come to an end. What is he going to do now? First thing is to get reunited with his king-size bed - he may even spend several days there. Jimmy's is the best cake of the night and he gets the next "advantage" - picking the contents of the next night's mystery box. Curry anyone?

Today was washing day - three loads - and it stayed dry enough for it to ... dry. It started raining this evening - quite heavily - but it didn't last for long.