Wednesday

Can you believe it is the last day of Winter? Even though it turned a little overcast this afternoon (not the reason there was no mowing here again) we had temperatures of at least 22 degrees Celsius throughout the day - and some great sunshine. Of course, sunshine is no good if you're stuck in an office all day but at least the others were in a position to enjoy it - in between their various engagements which included, but were not limited to: coffee at Zarraffas, shopping at K-Mart (thank you for my new pants S!), coffee at the Southport Bingo Club (not it's real name but it might as well be), Bingo (where S won $20), and a Happy Bayram lunch at Mi and F's.

I joined them at Mi and F's after I finished work. I wanted to get there much earlier (and do my doctor's appointment after lunch there) but there was no chance of escaping work because we were trying to work out some problems we were having with "retention" (a common part of the construction billing and payment process ). I think I know what's going on - but for it to be accepted I have to "know" and be able to show it to my contracts manager - but it's proving quite difficult. The sum total of the variance is $170 approx and I reckon between the four of us who have now had anything to do with trying to sort it out - we have spent much more than that looking for it. Ah well, maybe we will have better luck tomorrow. (Hope so because we need to have it sorted in time to do some paperwork and have it away in the courier at lunchtime.)

If I had been there as planned, I would have seen M and A when they Skyped in from Malaysia where they too are celebrating Bayram - "with 9,000 of their closest friends" as M said - and then hurriedly adding that it was others at the same mosque as them.

Afterwards M took S home for animal feeding and so Emma could have her shot on time. I stayed on to finish my cup of tea and had just stood up to leave (over an hour later - it was a good cup of tea) when the doorbell rang and it was M returning to drop off some balm for F's back. Not sure what he's done to it but it's sore and he's sure it's muscular.

Then it was on to the Big House for a spot of CSP - where the jackpot is now over $270,000 and still worth playing for. I'm not sure if our dealer (hello Michelle) had had a bad day or was just "over" the Big House but despite M's best efforts (and she did try really hard) she would not be ... personable. It's a shame too because the mood of the dealer really affects the mood of the table - and even if you walk away without your money, if you've had a "good" game, you're happy (well, happier).