Sunday

Markets day and Mi would have been very pleased if she had been there with us as the first thing the Markets Lady did was point out a sign on the wall announcing the new hours, effective next week. Mi has been campaigning for a later (7am) start over Winter for some time but the plea has fallen on deaf ears until now. Mi is in NZ at the moment so I posted a photo of the sign on FaceBook and it wasn't long before she commented "Yaaaayyyyy" (there may have been more As and Ys than appear here). She will enjoy it when she gets back - in a fortnight.
The problem with the Markets is that you sometimes smell yummy things and have no idea what they are or where the aroma is coming from - and that makes it fairly easy to go home without some - but not so this morning where it was slightly different - I knew what the primary aroma was - Worcestershire Sauce - and my stomach fairly quickly worked out that I wanted it ... on a pie for lunch. It's not often that I can identify exactly what it is I want for lunch - so it would have been good to have it if I could have found it. In retrospect, I could have just gone to the supermarket and purchased a bottle (or even waited until we got home - I'm sure we have some) and bought a pie to go with it - but since I didn't do either of those I had a kebab which didn't quite hit the spot. There's always tomorrow - must check with the CBD (bakery) at Crestwood if they do a pie with Worcestershire there.
There was some lively discussion at the Markets at one stage when table-talk turned to immigration and refugees - and whether Australia was well-regarded as a nation (as it had been, say, 20 years ago). Everyone in that discussion had very definite views on the subject - not all totally complementary or complimentary but I think some of that was based on lack of education and/or not enough critical reading of the stories the media pumps out. But whatever people's views I think the whole issue is going to heat up if we do move into the harder economic times some have mooted.
It was fantastic to be back on ROM this afternoon but just a bit disappointing because it is not cutting well. I had it on the top setting for most of the lawn and that was patchy, and it remained so when I dropped it to 3.5 and 3 for the bits that M did with the motor mower recently - and the bits next to those bits. It seems that one side of the cutting deck is not even touching the ground - the wheel on that side was "clean" and all of that side almost didn't need blowing down to clean. We'll have to keep an eye on it.
And on Pearl ... she went racing over towards M and L's this afternoon as young Spot and another dog (not theirs) came wandering down towards Latimers. I wouldn't have been concerned except that Pearl's hackles were up and the other dog didn't seem to be displaying particularly friendly behaviour - no waggy dog tail there! So I called her back - in a very stern and hopefully authoritative voice - using her full name - and nobody was more surprised that she came back than I. I quickly closed the gate with Pearl on this side and the others not, and took her round the back to distract her and to get dog snouts away from either side of the gate. Eventually Spot and friend went home but it wasn't until a good while later that the gate re-opened.