Robin Loh, the man behind Robina, or the man standing in front of Robina in the photograph in The Gold Coast Bulletin this morning, has died at the age of 81 following a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
The road folk were in attendance by the time I drove past this morning. Just a pity they didn't seem to be doing much. There was a light flashing atop one of the dutes and that was the only visible activity on the site. But something must have happened during the day because the road is starting to take shape. There are still a couple of rough patches but I'm not quite as fearful of losing Lars down a pothole now.
The big news of the day is that we now have internet connectivity again. S has missed it very much. We are still running comparison tests but it looks like the new modem is considerably faster. I downloaded a 500MB podcast in less than 15 minutes tonight. With speeds like this we could really start getting through some bandwidth. The only problem with this though would be finding the time to watch on read or listen to the downloads! Although there are those train rides to and from Brisbania.
S should have been very proud of me yesterday. We are getting ready to hand back a couple of the apartments in the complex that we've been using to accommodate folk from Sydney and we were to the point of sorting out the linen/manchester. Now while I can't tell the difference between linen and manchester, I can tell the difference between hand towels and bathmats! Joan was suitably impressed by that and the way I used a fitted sheet to secure everything to the trolley for the trip back to the office. And while I could have capped the whole exercise off by showing her how to fold the aforementioned fitted sheet (the Martha Stewart way) I decided that there should continue to be some mystery and mystique.
I didn't feel that way when the conversation at work turned to the Twilight series ... it seems we have a "Twihard" on staff - and it was amazing that neither she nor any of the others knew that the author was a Mormon or that the books were reportedly written to promote the Golden Ring Club - promoting celibacy in teenagers. (This is why some people should not have ready access to the Internet ... some fifteen minutes later I've fact-checked re statements in this paragraph, read about S Meyer's favourite author and downloaded his novella "Ender's Game" for later reading.)
It is incredibly hard sometimes to tell where sound is coming from at Latimers. Late this evening we could hear a horse or horses whinnying (or maybe it was neighing ... what else do they do?) and each time we went out to have a look, couldn't see anything ... and it would stop so we couldn't tell where it was coming from. I thought it wasn't Hermes but to be sure, I checked the top paddock ... because the noise sounded close ... nope, he wasn't there. Back inside. Ten minutes later, there it was again. Outside again, check over the gate towards Larry's. Nothing. Back inside again - each time trying not to let the cats out because we were already in "lock down" for the evening. Then ... there it was again. With my bedtime fast approaching I dragged S and Pearl with me (everyone knows what a non-brave person I am and until we know what's making the gouge marks in the paddock I'm not going out there by myself ... especially since I'm not sure how a burrowing bandicoot reacts when approached) down to the bottom paddock to check Hermes. S has done a fantastic job with him because as we approached through the round yard calling him, up he came. He was perfectly fine especially since I was very careful to keep the light from the torch off his face. S asked if we should carrot him - and we decided against it. The last thing we need is to start a habit of late night supper carrots for Hermes. So back to the house we trudged and while it would have been easy to have hot showers to warm up, we didn't ... but we did take off our wet-grass-covered shoes before we went back inside - and managed to not let Beazley, Tink or Maggie out as we slipped back in. They are all well, and taking turns in the different seats/positions around the house; one of the most favoured at moment is lounging with S. It's like musical chairs there in the evening sometimes ... one gets off, one immediately jumps into the vacated spot.
We never did find out who was making the noise but as the last of the evening closed in on Latimers, all was quiet - except for the sound of some wildlife (definitely not Hermes) in the top paddock. I'll probably go and check it out for tracks (hoping I won't find any) tomorrow.
