Day 49 (Saturday)

It was another relatively late start to the morning - made all the better with the arrival of bed tea before I had even opened my eyes. "They" are right, it is a lovely way to wake up. Not so much if you get bitten on the foot by ants, which is what S had been off doing, although not intentionally, before she turned her attention to the bed tea. She had been up the back paddock, feeding Hermes some carrots, when she was viciously attacked. She came straight in and put vinegar on it - and steadfastly resisted all attempts to get her to the chemist then and during the day for something else to ease the pain. It was bearable but has left little tiny ant welts on her feet. Luckily she wasn't attacked by the rest of the ants which have taken to higher ground - on the fences. Looks like we might be in for some rain!

And rain has been predicted for today so "video store" has been moved on to the list of things to do - if it's raining, we're renting a movie rather than going to one! It has only taken us 7 weeks (actually 6 weeks 6 days) to get to the video store and I daresay, now that S has discovered the Foreign section, it won't take us that long to get there again. There was no talk of "chick flicks" today, only because we hadn't really thought about it that much - my cunning and devious plan was to find TV series for rent there for S (who is now planning to start watching the "River Cottage" series) and perhaps even a season of "Heroes" or "Star Trek" for me. Just as we were about to leave, I saw a title for sale and immediately wondered if it was for hire as well. It was and the one copy they had available came home with us. How good was it? Well, before I say, let's take a moment to revisit my last review, as recently quoted by mate C: the subject ... the Larsson novel trilogy. "A Blockbuster!" - New York Times; "A stunning series" - Sunrise; "You could do worse" - KM. So, how was the movie - with "the movie" being "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"? S enjoyed it and thought it was a good plot - but I think she missed out by not having first read the novel. I thought it was okay - but a bit light on because it wasn't entirely faithful to the twists and turns of the novel. But it was good to be able to watch the trailers for the next two movies. I now I've only just finished the novels but already they've started to merge into one.

For the first time today I noticed (on the way out the gates) a whole lot of little flying things congregating there. I didn't want to point them out to S at first, but when I saw one up close and realized that it could easily be "an ant with wings" I thought it was better she knew before one of them landed on her as she was closing the gate.

The only thing worse to bite you than one of them seems to be a sea lion. A young boy is in hospital today after having been bitten on the tummy at least twice by one of the Taronga Zoo sea lions who was startled by the boy, an audience participant in one of the shows there. As the keepers said, the seal responded in the only way it knew - fight or flight, and it took the former. The boy is in a stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery. The zoo's investigations as to what happened continues.

In other marine news, a 7m sub-adult humpback whale was rescued from nets off Surfers Paradise this morning; video of the rescue was posted to YouTube courtesy of Sea World. And, in unrelated news, if you book to go on a Whale Watching cruise with Sea World at the moment, and you don't see a whale, they'll give you your money back.

Okay, who forgot to tell the petrol people that today is Saturday and it is therefore supposed to be the cheapest day of the week for petrol. I took it at $1.28/litre - the same as yesterday - taking a gamble which was never going to pay off - as evidenced by the 4 cents a litre drop in the time we were at the shopping centre. Sometimes, though, you just need to fill up.

The weather reports were right ... it has taken some time ... it's now just before 11pm, but it is finally raining. There is nothing like the sound of it on the roof. The question is whether this will encourage Tink (who is the only one still outside) to come in or will it make her hunker down wherever she is. Just as well S is planning to stay up a little while longer to look out for her. (Tink did come in ... there's no doubt that the whistling works ... sometimes.)

We are remembering to check for messages after we've been out - admittedly it might be some hours later, but it is happening. I'm not sure what's more disappointing - there not being any - or going to the post office to pick up the item that won't fit into the box and finding out that it's a health testing kit (as provided by the Government as part of a national screening effort).

Time for bed so we can be ready for Skypeing and markets ... we're looking forward to it too ... and not just because N is bringing her new iPhone 4 tomorrow!