I was out of Latimers early this morning - I had to visit OfficeWorks as my last favourite pen ran out at work yesterday. Added bonus was that the woman behind the counter knew exactly where "my" pen was in store - and that it now had "Friends" in that it now came in red, blue and black as well as the original purple. She either really did love stationery or she was on excellent example of "do you want fries with that?" as she was able to identify the erasable pens in my purchases and suggest I could be interested in the same manufacturers new line of erasable highlighters. I limited myself to just the one!
Stationery in hand, it was then time to meet S and M at Crave for breakfast. It's always good there and we hadn't been for a while. As we found out later, we weren't the only ones who had given Crave the "once-over" - F had been wondering if we were in the area ("pheromones" said S) and have even driven past, and then wondered again as he did some Bunnings shopping in the retail complex next door. It's surprising that he didn't bump into M there - because that's where she had spent over an hour - putting most everything back on the shelves as she approached the checkout except the glue that she had actually gone there to get. As she said, she had just wanted to bring the rest of it home because it looked ...and I can't remember which word she actually used there - but it could have been "pretty". It's the whole thing of manufacturers putting things in bright and shiny packages to make it look as though you want their product - or need it. She was able to resist - although hearing of F's purchases there, he may not have been quite as successful at resisting temptation.
While M was off doing Bunnings, S and I stayed on at Crave for a second round of coffees and a good catch-up - including talking about her mother who is of the age where she is soon going to need more care and help around the home. She called her after we arrived home, and it seemed that the call had gone well. It's sometimes difficult dealing with parents who are in remote locations!
S arrived home some time after us, and we all had a cuppa and a catch-up and tried out one of the devices she had purchased at Bunnings - a flying insect deterrent - which comes in a battery-powered pack and puffs out insect repellant every few seconds. And it seemed to work very well - usually when we are sitting out the front at that time of day, we are constantly chasing off flies and mosquitoes, but not this evening. Good buy M!
M went out this evening and S experimented with a vegetable pasta bake which was very nice. I can see it becoming quite a good quick dish especially in winter because it is both warming and hearty.
Tink was in trouble this afternoon. Her cat genes had her chasing, and almost catching, one of the willy wagtails at Latimers. We're not sure how much damage she did it but she does appear to have grazed the wing of what we think was the mother bird. She hopped (not flew) over to a glade of trees where she was joined by the young ones. This nature thing can be hard to watch - and if Tink doesn't watch out, she may soon find herself wearing a collar and bell to give the birds a fighting chance - it may be that their mistake is when they look at Tink, they see her as a cat that can't move very fast. Not so - and it's not a lesson we want them to learn the hard way.
