The weather was humid in Basel today - which is the first report we've had from the other traveling M. She is traveling with a laptop, with camera, so we are hoping to see some of the sights of Switzerland in the background as she Skypes.
Election controversy continues and this time it centres on the payment to candidates returning more than 4% of possible votes in their electorate. Apparently Labor is set to have a "massive pay day" for the votes returned on the Gold Coast where candidates only seemed to be so in name only with little support and few resources provided by the Party for their campaigns.
And it's not the only popularity contest in the news. Local girl now Sydneyite, Jesinta Campbell took out second runner-up and Miss Congeniality at the Miss Universe pageant. Still no extraterrestrial contestants though so that casts a bit of a pall on the proceedings. Word is that Jesinta met Donald Trump and that he is a very nice man with a kind word for the contestants - but no suggestion that she had shared any hair-styling tips with him. There is apparently also a Miss Photogenic awarded in the competition which I think went to the first runner up. Is this the way it usually works - Miss Universe, Miss Photogenic, Miss Congeniality ... and then everyone else? When she appeared on local radio here, in the days before her version of an Australian national costume made headlines, the DJs were giving Jesinta practice questions ... none of which was the one she drew on the evening - about banning the burqa and whether governments should have a say in determining what women wear. In her response, she drew on comments from Iranian fashion designer Tala Raassi, whose Dar Be Dar swimwear was worn by this year's Miss Universe contestants. In a nutshell "fashion is freedom" ... which is why Latimers MWC will always have a place here!
Following the recent Westpac EFTPOS outage, and obviously not wanting to be left out, the ANZ had their own today. If one were suspicious, there could be a case here for checking what was happening with the other banks and whether they had suffered service disruptions as well. I can't help but think of the Lisbeth Salander character in this situation. (I think I read somewhere that they had found an unfinished fourth work by Steig Larsson and that there was enough of the manuscript there to make it viable to have someone else finish the work.)
Each night we go to bed, wearing PJs, expecting this to be the night when M, L or C knocks on the door in the wee small hours to say that it is "foal time". It still hasn't happened but it has to be soon. L doesn't seem overly worried though although he did mention to me the other day what the service fee was worth ... I think/hope I looked suitably impressed!
There have been no more rat visitors since the slashing - for which we are thankful. Don't know what we would have done last night if that rat had been alive. It was an interesting theory that they could be attracted to Latimers since there is a Rat currently in residence ... so much so that I'm now keeping a close eye out for them ... and Dragons!
And on the subject of things astrological and, by extension, astronomical, scientists today announced they have discovered a new star system - complete with planets - five definite but possibly with two more - meaning it would have just one less than our eight. (I can't believe that I keep forgetting that we don't have nine any more
since they decided Pluto was too small to count! Or that I still haven't heard the new mnemonic to replace "My Very Elderly Mother Just Sat Upon Nine ______" or ... I'll have to ask S what one she learned at school.)
Finished on the Coast for this week and off to Brisbane in the morning. Please let them have something besides filing for me to do tomorrow.
