Saturday

There was an old Australian movie called Sunday Too Far Away and even though it was only yesterday, Saturday really seems as though it is now "too far away" to remember. This is one of the problems of fitting in quite a few things in the one day - for some of us, anyway, it does all tend to meld into one and seem to shift to different days. But no, everything we fitted in to yesterday, including several hours at The Big House when we tried to win, but failed dismally, the $40,000 on offer in the all-members draw.

Of course, some of us had bigger days than others - including M who was up half the night with Tinker - the same Tinker who had helped her cut down the surplus banana trees yesterday afternoon long after Pearl had made her way back down to the house. We think it was while she was helping that Tink picked up the tick that caused her to be very unwell last night. Just as well she was inside - and sleeping in the same room as M so that she heard it when Tink started to be sick. M spent the next few hours tending to her - finding and taking the tick out and then monitoring her until she drank water on her own again - a sign that she was starting to recover. Tink is nothing if not feisty and it is a real puzzle as to how M could have been chasing her around the house, turning on all the lights, calling the emergency vet, and then sitting up with Tink and the other animals until nearly 5 o'clock this morning without S or I having heard a thing.

Yesterday morning gave no inkling of the drama it held in store. Being Saturday, young Pearl knew that it was her day out for breakfast - but she was still excited when it was time to jump in the car and go off to Coffee Sisters - where they had entered into the spirit of the end of the month and the only-a-couple-of-days-away Halloween to dress up the cafe and themselves. The most intriguing was the Holy Cow costume - which S deciphered first.

Then off to the Dog Park for a walk with Mouse (who had also come to breakfast) - and we passed quite a large family playing there - with the female-adult looking very familiar but with my lack of recognition of facial features - we will never know who it was. M and Mouse were concentrating on their beautiful yellow labrador puppy at the time so we may never know.

Back at Latimers, M did the banana tree before setting off for The Big House to swipe our cards for the draw (a kind gesture so none of us would need to wait in line), and we followed a bit later, picking up Mouse. We met F and Mi there - so it was a bit like Friday Family n Friends dinner - but at lunchtime, and at a different location. Everyone was in good form - and we even managed to get in a few hands of CSP ($327k and climbing - but the question is whether the shemozzle that is the new parking at the Casino will deter the average punter from going and adding to The Big House coffers). We didn't manage to win the draw but the woman who did was fairly excited - it's a while since I've heard such screams of delight.

S and I came home after the draw, but M drove Mouse home and they then took Prince for a walk. Mouse is keeping up Prince's exercise program right to the end (M and A are due back on Wednesday) and while he has been looking fairly trim, taut and terrific there was a minor set-back yesterday - when young Prince climbed onto the table and proceeded to demolish some "dinners" Mouse had prepared for Pearl. Now Pearl is several times the dog Prince is - so it was a bit surprising that he managed to eat the whole container - with the equivalent of three-Pearl-suppers. It was a wonder he didn't explode on the spot - because according to Mouse and M you could see where it might happen - his girth had increased significantly in the few minutes they didn't see him as he wolfed down the "snack". Just as well Pearl won't hear about it otherwise she might be tempted to eat Prince (not really) to get her dinners back.