What a wonderful evening we had! We are just calming/coming down before we can even hope to go to bed and sleep. Francophile N, daughter C, and husband S were all in good form this evening when we met at F&Ms for dinner (chicken curry and chocolate cheesecake). We managed to find a respectable Pinot Noir (Oyster Bay from New Zealand) as our contribution. Good food, good conversation - and a clearly defined word to get us out of there at the end of the evening. But what's missing from this picture ... because somebodies are!
M is still very excited about the coming trip, although a little disappointed that she won't be accompanied for as long as she wanted by the other traveler! Amsterdam may be off the itinerary at this stage but it still seems pretty packed - as will M's suitcases when she starts loading it up with pressies for the rellies although, this may not be the case, because F knows that everything you can get over here you can get over there (can't you?).
Whales are making their way past the Gold Coast in massive numbers and the SeaWorld whale watching folk are guaranteeing a sighting or your money back. Looks like its time for us to get out there and get up close and personal with some mammals. I am practising my "whale speak" as last done, unsuccessfully, on the balcony of my room looking out over the sea at Cape Town. It worked for Dory so here's hoping it's not that hard to can get the intonation right - and that the practice in the interim helps.
Las Vegas on the Gold Coast - this may be what TabCorp has in store for Jupiters if they can get the go-ahead for more machines from the State Government. They have to do something to recoup the 10% loss they announced yesterday for Queensland operations in 09/10. We're still scanning the notes accompanying the reports to see if anyone we know is mentioned by name!
The search is on again, yes, yes, it's in NSW, but let's not let that detract from the story, for "big cats". A stool sample taken from the Brisbane Water National Park near Woy Woy has tested positive for cat - and it has to be a fairly big cat, because it included wallaby fur and bones. They're on the hunt for it - and others like it in the Blue Mountains - using a can of cat food (which attracted possums), and T-bone steaks (but that trap didn't work). No way are we letting Beasley out at night. We wouldn't want anyone to start searching for the "big cat" here.
'Geldiler, bastılar, vurdular'. The kolbasti has been in the news of late. New Zealand police arrested a Turkish man for assault - after they caught him doing the kolbasti with his wife. A judge has told the arresting officers to study a video of the kolbasti before he decides whether to proceed with the case. Thank you YouTube for educating me ... who knew ... until the two young dancing women (why was I thinking of our young N?) started mock slapping each other around the face. Interesting that, according to legend, the "kolabasti" comes from nightly police patrols of the seaport of Trabzon to round up drunks, who made up a song with the lyrics: 'They came, they caught us, they beat us'.
Isn't research wonderful? Who would have thought speed cameras, when sighted, cause motorists to drive erratically - as they take their eyes off the road to check their speed - and slam on the brakes, risking rear-end collisions? Seems that if the police were really serious about safety, they wouldn't use them. Not that we're worried about that though ... although, that being said, Mr Blue Van has only been sighted once in the last three weeks. Must be almost time for him to come out again.
Weather here is still gorgeous ... although just a little on the chill side in the evenings. Looking forward to it being fine weather tomorrow and on Sunday so more mowing can take place - although not too much - have to leave some grass for Hermes to eat. He is being well looked after and we are planning to do a complete do-over of his water down this end - emptying what's there, cleaning out the "trough" and refilling it with fresh water - tomorrow.
