It continues to rain at Latimers - and elsewhere on the Coast of course. It's strange because it seems to fall in different places differently - it can be bucketing down at the Hospital site but as dry as a bone (but not for long) at home. The rain meant there was no work in the Latimers garden this morning so instead M and S gave the still-scratching-but-not-as-badly Pearl a bath. I'm sure she enjoyed the attention especially if it helps keep those naughty fleas under control. She has been on a new flea control substance but I'm not sure if that's making any real difference.
She was fairly tired afterwards and took a nap in with Em - not intentionally on her part I think - she had gone in there to be with S, fell asleep and, being quiet, S hadn't realised Pearl was there and locked her in. When she went back in a couple of hours later, Pearl was still there with Em on the bed. As soon as Pearl was escorted out, Em made a beeline for the litter tray. It seems that even though Em may be almost comfortable with Pearling the room, as long as she isn't eating the cat cookies, she may not be as comfortable on the floor with her rather than in the relative safety of on the bed.
When we got home this evening, Em escaped outside to have her drink and I took some litter tray things over to the bins - using the torch to make sure I didn't step in anything that was dog droppings, a toad or a snake. On the way back, being careful not to shine the torching Em's eyes, I pointed it up into the tree - and was surprised to see sleeping willy wagtails in the branches. They didn't stir which was good because there were still many hours until dawn. I could only see two there - one seemed bigger than the other - and neither of them was in the nest. So I'm not sure if either of them was the injured willy wagtail or if there was another one in the nest.
The kids were all in the immediate vicinity when we arrived home tonight and Tink even allowed herself to be scooped up and carried in.
It's still raining here but that didn't stop S and M from spending the morning in the garden. S has been meaning to put in tomatoes for a while (seems she is jealous of Bernie's efforts) and M was doing some general tidying up. There was no report on whether they had seen the wounded willy wagtail but the fence-to-tree-bridge is still in place.
Not sure if I have mentioned it, but the letterbox is back - looking better than ever. That Keith is truly a talented man. He can turn his hand to just about anything - M says it's because he used to be a toolmaker and can think laterally. He certainly does seem to be able to think his way around most things and has the knowledge and skills to go with it. He's the only man I know of that can make an entire fence out of scrap metal and make it look more than reasonable!
I finally managed to get to the shops to pick up some new socks and M was kind enough to drop S in to Pacific Fair so we could have dinner - nothing else hits the spot if you have a hankering for something and these days I'm always ready for a bowl of long and short soup. Last night, though, I was tempted to have a laksa to try it out - and would have if they had had a chicken version available.
I'm hoping I can convince the others to make a visit to Brisbane in the near future. There is a movie playing there "Monsters" which doesn't look as though it's going to come to the Coast. Yes, I could wait for it to come out on DVD but it seems like a good opportunity to see S and A and do Yum Cha, and perhaps even see what's on at the Art Gallery. Hmmm ... will need to think about dates because the work Christmas party is coming up - and that's in Brisbane as well!
S and M have found a new bingo venue - since the usual Guide Dog Bingo (not actually played with Guide Dogs) was not available yesterday. The new one is at Southport and, according to the flyer that came home with them, they have sessions just about every day - including Saturday mornings. S and M both think I would enjoy it because it is very well organised (they know about my penchant for Planet Competent even though, truly, some days lately I don't actually feel I should be allowed entry). The Southport mob also have LOTS PETS which at first I thought had something to do with lost pets (not sure why except perhaps that I am missing Samagrams) but which actually has more to do with being a bingo players machine. I need to go and see those in action!
M was out this evening and we had an early night - but took pity on Pearl who seemed to want company so we took her into our room with us. I promptly fell asleep while S listened to the radio - and for sounds of Pearl sneaking over to Emma's food bowl to vacuum up her cookies - which she didn't which is amazing because that would be normal dog behaviour. Hopefully someone gave the cats their supper cookies because except for Pearl barking when M came home, I heard nothing, except I think something about M having received a box of chocolates which is odd because she was out celebrating someone else's birthday!
We did get to Harry Potter last night and I can see I have a lot of work - viewing and reading - to so before I watch the next/final installment when it is released early next year. It was definitely not the end of the story last night with "he who must not be named" stronger than ever at the end of the movie.
Well, tonight saw us at the Residents BBQ at the Hinze Dam - reportedly the last one but the first one we've been to. It was very interesting, especially when we were in the quarry on site and they indicated the top of a nearby hill and informed us that that that had been ground level when they started. They showed us some of the plant on the site as well - and it's massive ... the biggest we've seen - but M had seen bigger when she was at the dam site near the Kimberleys in Western Australia where the equipment was at least twice as big. On the mines, of course, the plant they use is even bigger.
They have nearly built the dam up to it's final level - they have 900 mm to go - which in other language is almost 1 metre. It sounded as though it is fairly tricky work - especially as it has been one of the wettest six months on record. They said they had expected there to be really heavy rains once every four years in the area - they have had it 14 times since work on the dam started. But that's statistics for you.
We had a bus tour of the site - we were in the second bus - and even though it was raining and a bit on the wet side, it was very interesting. The Project Manager, who was doing commentary on our bus, was obviously very passionate and enthusiastic about the project, and has apparently taken to sleeping nights again now that they now they are going to have enough clay on site to finish the project.
To finish the evening, there was a BBQ and apparently they are used to meat-eaters there because there wasn't very much salad left by the time our part of the line (the end of the second bus load) got there. But the Rotarians who were providing the BBQ service were kind enough to keep cooking our meat past the normal "medium rare" - for which I, and I think M as well, was pretty pleased. All in all it was a good evening, very informative and a nice chance to see some of the other neighbours from around and about the area.