We enjoyed Friday night dinner - still with F - but hosted by Mouse for the first time since the travellers returned from faraway places. Mouse is a fantastic cook and produced borscht, a lamb roast complete with vegetables and all the trimmings and, as if that wasn't enough, rhubarb crumble and custard for dessert. Yummmmmm.
On the way there, we drove past the new ferris wheel atop the Surfers Paradise transit centre. It was a blaze of light - and I'm prepared to bet it's using some newfangled lighting technology because it was so bright it almost lit up the sky. Such a thing would definitely have been banned during war-time blackouts where even a single headlight could be seen from miles away (because the decimal system had not yet been introduced here in Australia then). Imagine how far away a set of headlights could be seen from. Makes me wonder, if in these days of modern warfare, the same conditions would be enforced eg total blackouts or would smart bombs and GPS and satellite technology and infra-red and/or body-heat sensing technology mean it wouldn't matter if the other side could "see" you because they would know where you were at. (Hmmmm ... not sure what was in that coffee this morning!)
Lars woke up as a New South Welshman today and by nightfall he was a Queenslander thanks to the kind assistance of the mechanics who had a big enough screwdriver and a drill to be able to affix the new plates. Just have to remember to hand the old ones back in now. I'd left work early to get it done and despite a moment of concern when I was stuck on the M1 (Motorway) parking lot, I made it in good time ... and still arrived home in daylight to see M fetching hay for Hermes. The next door horses have been inside out of the rain for the last few days and M pointed out that he is probably starting to feel lonely - so she was planning to give him some hay and see if she could at least entice him to stand in his shelter down the back rather than in the rain up the top waiting for the others to come out. It can't be easy being him.
The other kids have been staying close to home and M had had to physically eject them a couple of times (as their mother she can do that) to make them remember what the great outdoors is like. That's about the only way they are going to see that the orange and mandarin trees are in blossom, that the lemon tree is bursting with greenery growth (I think it's fruiting activity is over for this year), and that the grass is in need of yet another mow. The only good thing is that great brown gashes in the lawn have been covered for another little while. (there seems to be no colour that starts with "g" that is a type of brown ... but I now know ... thanks Internet ... ducks don't have lobate feet and from whence the term "to brown nose" hails ... but heaven knows why!)
Zumba lessons have started at the local hall. This was excluded from previous despatches because it seemed it could be a passing fad. But it seems like it's here to stay, at least for a while!
Well, since there will be no mowing tomorrow (rain forecast) I think it will be either a movie or a trip to Officeworks for some filing items. Will be fun either way!
