Sunday

Surveying the damage from the storm - there are a couple of trees down and M said she will need to call someone in to get rid of the biggest fallen gum. But we'll be able to play "pick up sticks" around the house given the amount of shedding the tree did in the storm. We were told to keep an eye on Highland Park as we drove through there this morning - M had said how much damage there was there - almost like it had borne the full brunt of the storm. But the crews had obviously been very busy overnight because the area did not look like a disaster zone at all. It would also explain why it seemed that we could hear chainsaws throughout the night.

The Markets were good this morning - and even better because N was there too. Her presence definitely changed the calibre of the conversation - and we covered topics from the Wall Street sit-in to mining tax to economics and even the slave trade. We may have solved some of the economic woes of the world - and created others.

And, of course, we hoped that we would be able to make our own personal fortunes at The Big House this afternoon. There was $20 Casino Dollars guaranteed ... but we were hanging out for the $100,000 dollars up for grabs in this week's promotion. It was the same as last week, where you needed to be there to win if your name was drawn out of the barrel - and we were there from 2pm to 6:30pm, but alas, we didn't win the big one. In fact, as Sooz could have told us before we went there, she was fairly sure that no-one would end up with the $100,000 - but I don't think this will rollover until next week.

But we weren't as unlucky as J who was having a very difficult time with her younger daughter who turned 14 yesterday. It sounds as though R was totally out of control yesterday - and not much better today - and J can't wait for the limousine to come and collect them and take them away to Surfers Paradise for the next few hours.

We were happy enough to go home because there was still iOS 5 update work to be done and recorded television programs to watch (especially since there was no screen-based activities yesterday because of the blackout).