Thursday

The mornings are definitely getting chillier and the thermometer in Lars rarely gets above 18 degrees as I drive out of the valley. It is a refreshing change and one that has come around relatively quickly - only from the start of this week. This probably means we have seen the last of the Summer weather, although, to be fair, we didn't actually see a lot of it this season (something for which S is incredibly grateful - as am I because it means the fan in the bedroom hasn't been on "hurricane"! It must be really difficult to feel the heat as much as she does.)

I was all geared up to race home to do more ROM this afternoon but it was raining at Latimers (again!) so I headed to Zaraffas instead. It wasn't raining there but it had been - and it never ceases to amaze me how localised the rain can be here - it often doesn't rain a couple of suburbs over - which is why I ring home to do the weather/rain check on the way to Latimers so I don't just think it has rained at home.

While I didn't get to do mowing, I did finally get the rest of the foliage detrius into the trailer and it is now almost ready to go to the tip - although I think the carob tree offcuts need to get loaded in as well, and the carpet - which will be good because we need something to keep those leaves in/on rather than leaving them strewn across the road from here to Molendinar.

We gave trivia at Advancetown Hotel a miss tonight as we are off to the Southport Golf Club for a game tomorrow night - and three games of trivia in the one week would be just too much (really!). So S cooked instead - sausages (a definite favourite of mine), little sliced oven potatoes (as she had baked the sausages), cabbage and the most wonderful tomato and onion gravy - cooked absolutely to perfection! (Thanks S.)

Since we didn't go out, I was able to do some iDevice backing up (it was time) and some music transfers although I am still trying to download some more Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons songs and get them on to a CD to use in the car since my transmitter (for hooking up the iPhone and playing it through Lars' radio) has stopped working ... I must have another look at that to see if I can find out why it's not working.

M was saying that B has a new van - which could be why he didn't bring the bins back down from the road this week - because they won't fit. I managed to get both the recycling bin and the rubbish bin back in one trip with the four-wheel drive (just beating the others to it) by throwing the recycling bin in the back and towing the rubbish bin. It would have been a better effort to walk up and pull them back but ... well, maybe next time!

Wednesday

There's been no word from The Great K so far this week - even though M sent him a text this evening, asking how things are going, there has been no word/s in response. We are taking this as a good thing.

Not so good was that there were no Winners Are Grinners at Bingo today - which is not to say that no-one won just that no-one at M and S's table won anything. It was close a couple of times though - M was one number off the $1,000 jackpot for more than a dozen calls - but her number didn't come in time. E was one number off a few times (they can tell, quite easilly, thanks to the magic of the PET machines!) but Mouse continued to have no luck at all. But not to be discouraged, there is now talk of a Bingo evening next week before Easter. It will definitely make a change from Trivia! There is also some good prize money on offer - so it's definitely worth going, afterall, as they say, you have to be in it to win it!

M jumped on ROM this afternoon and managed to do half Hermes' paddock before it was time to get ready to go in to The Big House where the CSP jackpot is now back up to over $100,000 - but still there were chairs at the table. When M and I rocked up, there was a choice of three seats (out of a possible seven). I noticed for the first time tonight that the Caribbean Stud Poker words printed on the felt on the table have a trademark - which suggests someone may be paying a licence fee to use the name/game rules etc. Is it the same with all casino table games?

We didn't stay late (it was a school night) and S was still up when we arrived home. I didn't stay up though because I didn't want to have to check in with the Neilsen Box and then check out again almost straight away - I know it could probably cope but I don't want them to know that C is incredibly fickle about television viewing just yet. As S commented, it could be an amazing surveillance device!

M had a good dinner with Sy and two of her friends last night in Brisbane - and she and S will catch up with Sy on Friday when she's down here for work. We were hoping the timing would allow me to join them for a coffee afterwards, but Sy will now need to go back to Brisbane earlier than expected to take (a very lucky) CoCo to the vet. CoCo has just been diagnosed with cancer - but luckily the cancer (which usually occurs in a joint in the leg and results in a full amputation) was isolated to her toe - which made it a very manageable prospect, even with the chemotherapy - which will now not be needed since the cancer, when biopsied, proved to be benign. Great news!

Tuesday

While it looked it was going to be a fine and sunny day, it wasn't always. As I sat in Zarrafa's this afternoon, the sun shining brilliantly, the rain came bucketing down out of nowhere! I had just made it in but others - you could tell who they were because they were more than a little wet - weren't so lucky. It could be that I spend a lot of time inside, or that they don't happen on weekends - or maybe that often - but this is the first sunshower I've seen in a while. It was actually very exciting to see the juxtaposition of sun and rain.

It had stopped raining by the time I arrived home - although we all know there was no way I would have left Zarraffa's if it had still been raining - and M, who was driving up to Brisbane this evening for a dinner, had time to squeeze in a walk with Pearl. And then, because I still needed to rack up a few steps towards my daily goal, I took Pearl again after M had left. We went down to B's shed and I was surprised at how much more interested Dolly and Pearl are in each other than previously - and not necessarily in a positive way although it's a little hard to tell across the species divide at times.

We had hoped that now J, N and the kids have moved in with L next door that someone would have more capacity to take Spot - the car chaser - in hand. But it hasn't happened yet - and it really does need to if he's going to survive on the laneway. For the regulars - it's okay because we know what he's like - but more than local folk come down past their house. Today, for instance, the Neilsen Ratings man came to install "the box" (did anyone else hear a drum roll there?). The technician (and he was a technician rather than an installer) was very knowledgeable and obliging and was able to do some "fixes" while he was there - a couple of them above and beyond what could reasonably be called "duty". S and M liked him a lot - or should I call them B and A - because those are their new ''secret" identities. And there are no prizes for guessing that K will now be known as C! The tech did a great job of teaching them too because they had no trouble/problem teaching me what to do when logging in and logging out. It will be an interesting exercise, especially as our data is transmitted back to base in the wee small hours of the morning. I wonder how they did it before the technology existed and if they choose households which don't have internet capability or whether that's built into their box! Questions, questions, questions.

Emma is still ''out of the"cupboard" and seems to be well within herself. Tlnk is still looking a bit on the skinny side, which is odd because she has been known to push Beazley out of the way to get to his cookies. Poor Beazley - Maggie does it too!

Monday

It was a lovely weekend but all good things must come to an end - so it was back to work today - so we can start getting ready for the next one . . . and we're not necessarily talking about the next game of trivia here - although, come to think of it, I don't think we do have any plans for the coming weekend yet - and even though the Toowoomba Show is on, I don't think we will be starters this year!

Even though the day was pretending to be fine and sunny, we did have some rain - just as well we ROM'd yesterday - but there's still another pile of rubbish to be loaded into the trailer for the dump - once we get rid of the full load that's already there. The other pile (up near the stables) may be a bit tricky though - the local wildlife has had a chance to make it their own and I'm a little worried about who we might find living in there! We know there are going to be toads and spiders and other creepy-crawlies (gloves definitely!) but I'm more worried about slitherins having moved in. Of course, there has been a suggestion that the pile could be burned where it is and that might have been an option if a lovely, healthy banana tree hadn't taken root there and appear to be thriving. And there would still be the issue of snakes - and I definitely wouldn't want to be there when they smelled smoke!

M stayed home to do the furries this evening while S and I went in to Southport RSL for another round of Trivia. F came too, as well as S, N and her sister who had just flown in today from France (talk about keen - or possibly not being given a choice). It was a fun evening although, coming in 6th, we are now starting to understand how competitive F is! And how disappointed he gets when we don't even place! (I do too, but I'm not as competitive as he is although, according to S, I am as dogged and determined!)

Sunday

Well, some could say "same old, same old" but it was all good. The Skype call with Tr was, for a change, without any technical troubles and that really improved the experience - even if we were talking about the solid trouncing Queensland's Labor Party suffered yesterday and the not-positive Change the NSW LNP have wrought on that State since they were swept to power. Tr reiterated, and it is something to hold in mind, that such big swings away from a party usually means that party is being voted out rather than the others being voted in - so the whole suggestion that the new party has been given "a mandate" is a bit specious.

There was little talk of the election at the Markets. We were actually quite down on numbers-even one of the Markets' staff commented. Mouse did make it to her Christening, N and V rang earlier to say they were on their way - they were at Coffs Harbour on their way back from a trip to Sydney - and we should wait for them - and we did our very best! M almost even had herself locked in the toilets - which suggests that she was the last but one (the person locking the toilet blocks) at the Markets!

S and I returned home via The Groper and his Missus where we had a nice lunch before racing home so I could jump on ROM and take a few laps around the yard. It was good and I even tried the new trick M had mentioned - using the mower to blow clippings off the drive! It worked a treat.

The cats were fed early this evening as we were off again - Vegetarian Chinese in Mermaid for an early dinner (and leftovers) before picking the Great K up from the airport and depositing him back at his student digs near Bond University. He had some feedback on his performance in his course last week that came as a bit of a shock to him and he's in the middle of working out how best to work with it and move forward.

Saturday

It was good to have a lie-in this morning - I didn't start moving until after 8:30 except for cat feeding and insulin shots at 6 - and while I would normally have stayed up and pottered, I realised that it is likely to be a late night tonight (we're off to see Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons at The Big House) and that I needed to get more kip if I wasn't going to fall asleep there!

But even with the later start we were still in time for Breakfast at Bumbles. And we had timed it well - as we pulled into a parking spot across the road from Bumbles, S noticed there were apiary activities happening on their roof. Ahh ... she said... no wonder it's got pictures of bees on the cafe awnings and as a (recurring) motif. As we were nearing the end of a very yummy breakfast, Kate, the owner, brought some honeycomb around - which we had on toast. It was extra yummy because it was so fresh.

We called into Pacific Fair on the way back to Highlands Park (and the voting booth - State Election today) to get me a hair cut (long overdue) and to have a bit of a walk to wear off some of breakfast. As S was having a wander, she passed The Coffee Club where Mouse and M were having a coffee - and as S was telling me this when we were in the Food Hall later, Mouse hurried past on her way home She's not a starter for the Markets tomorrow; she's off down the Coast to a Christening!

Hard work done (voting), I settled in for some yard work - determined to get rid of that pile of branches and leaves so I could ROM all of the yard. I was going to let Pearl help - since she couldn't go with M who was mowing the paddock below the garage - but once I realised that while she was well-intentioned she was actually more a hindrance, I popped her inside - and S reports that she did watch out through the back windows for a while before putting herself away for a nap.

Then yard work done, it was time for some fun - Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons! It was a great night and I am still humming (okay, singing) some of the songs. I haven't heard so many of those old classics in such a short space of time for goodness knows how long. As someone we were talking with upstairs afterwards said "and they say they haven't built a time machine!" Excellent. (Thanks again for taking me M.)

Friday

It was Family N Friends dinner tonight and Mi and F hosted - or F would have if he hadn't been off at the movies with the boys. They had already been to see John Carter when they decided they also needed to see The Hunger Games (while it will still be playing next week on their movie day, there are two more films dues for release which they would prefer to see then). So it was just we girls until he arrived - and not all of us either as M was delayed as she had to take The Great K to the airport (he is going home for the weekend to attend his family's yearly birthday dinner - three out of four of them have their birthdays within four days so they celebrate in style!)

Mi made a very tasty dinner - including mashed potato for me because she knows I prefer that to rice (thanks Mi!) As we sat and chatted before dinner, Mi shared the Graham Norton Show she had taped earlier in the week. It featured Gerard Depardieu who had a gap in his smile from a tooth lost through an encounter with Jamie Oliver fare - they didn't give details of the dish that had done it. Also on the guests' couch was Damian Lewis, the male lead of Homeland. We really do have to catch up with that - although now the season is finished it's not such an issue that we are going to see (unintentional) spoilers masquerading as the trailers for the coming week's episode.

It was a later night than I'm used to - especially since there have been a couple of later-than-usual nights already this week - but at least there's the opportunity of having a sleep-in in the morning.

Thursday

Trivia night really rolls around quickly when you are doing it twice a week! Tonight's was back at the Advancetown Hotel with Nikki and Fame Trivia - and, and I'm blaming it on being a bit tired, after the week's earlier trivia outing, the best we could manage this evening was third. Nooo ... we'll have to watch that - and start boning up on our weaker subjects - although in sme ways it really is the luck of what questions are asked on the night - and whether anyone in the group has had anything to do with it. In a way it's a bit Slumdog Millionaire - where the main character is able to answer the quiz show questions as his life experiences (few of them pleasant) have crossed/touched on the subject matter in some way. Alas, our trivia outings rarely end with Bollywood-style dancing although that might be something to raise as an option!

Wednesday

Day Two of being back on the walking machine! Now, I'm keener than ever to be back on ROM - but for it I have to take my pedometer off because if I go over bumps, it registers false steps and we can't have that.

After registering a 3 (out of 10) for the work day, it made sense that I would want to rush home to jump on ROM - I do find it very relaxing and completely mind-absorbing (I often struggle to do more than one thing at a time and trying to work out the best, efficient mowing pattern takes up most of the available space). There was a pile of bohemia tree (bohemian?) branches between ROM and I so I pulled the trailer over from the stables (much, much easier than hooking it to the four-wheel-drive for the 25-metre trip - or it would have been if the grass had been shorter!), and had just walked over to the shed to get the secateurs when S and M arrived home. Alas Bingo had not been kind to any at their table and they were not "winner are grinners" but they had been to a new shop in Southport - where nothing cost more than $ 2. 80 and they were both keen to show off their purchases including a table turntable aka a Lazy Susan and, for me, some small plastic coloured garbage bins for putting knick-knacks in (thanks S - I have been looking for something to contain my not-unimpressive bulldog clip collection at work ... and heaven knows it would be hard to have anything less than a "5" day with them around!

Then it was back to yard work - but straight on to ROM as M pointed out it was more important to do the mowing ("go around the pile of branches"). While I was doing that, M did some pruning of the carob tree in Herm's paddock (mmmm ... carob tree - but apparently it has never flowered and therefore never fruited). I didn't see if Pearl helped her ... but if she had that could have been a good way for this very wet dog to dry off. When I arrived home she was inside (resting?) and saturated - which S says is from her helping fill Herm's water!

Jobs done, M and I left S to her Wednesday night lifestyle programs as we went in to The Big House for dinner with Mouse (there was a Thai theme at Food Fantasy - aka Token Thai - ie a couple of Thai dishes scattered through the usual fare). It was good and even better when I managed a Full House at CSP (jackpot now around $ 91, 000) but I felt sorry for Mouse who had no luck at all and ended up having a very expensive "free" meal.

Tuesday

It was another day of not getting on ROM. Not that it's because I didnt want to, because I do: this time it was having to visit the doctors' to collect some blood test results - including the allergy tests work had organised at the start of last week (wow, that seems like a very long time ago now).

After all that, I didn't get back to Latimers until nearly six-thirty especially as the doctor was running a little late (if you call an hour "a little late") but I was able to use the time looking up YouTube for how to do Math problems - J's teenage daughter had asked for help with her homework - although really I think it was J, especially since she was getting a little frustrated when I couldn't commit to coming up there for an afternoon this week to do it. It did make me question the purpose and use of hornework. I can't believe students are sent away with homework that they have no clue how to do! Ah well, thank goodness for the interweb, I was able to send them links to a few sites that looked pretty useful.

Meanwhile, back at Latimers, M was on the phone with the ratings people whe wanted to grace us with "the box" (one of 5.000 in Australia) to help determine the Nation's viewing patterns. Of course, being the helpful trendsetters we are, the answer was yes.

Not sure why but B hadn't returned the empty bins from the roadside by lockdown at Latimers. That's very unlike him - and means we'll have to go and fetch ours before the pile of rubbish growing here on the recycling bin (as we await return of the rubbish bin) gets much bigger. It's amazing how the cat litter builds up when there are four cats using it.

Em had some toast and Vegemite with S today and seemed to like it as much as she used to - which is to say that she did (enjoy it).

What the rest of we humans enjoyed - on some level we must have because we kept doing them (two, actually, and they took ages!) Target words - where you have to get a certain number of words of four letters or more - all using the nominated letter - plus, and this is the one we're more concerned with - finding the 9-letter word. Aaarrgh - and just can't stop doing it until you have it. And to think I was chuffed with myself at how quickly I had finished Mouse's puzzles this morning!

 

Monday

I was going to rush home this afternoon to jump on ROM but it was raining when I left work (I phoned S to check) so I took myself off to Zarraffas instead to have a coffee and put myself in the zone for tonight's challenge. We have decided to go to the Trivia Night at the Southport RSL - a quest fuelled (I fear) more by the prospect of a $5,000 prize pool rather than a thirst for knowledge. I'm not sure but I think it may be N who was the driving force - raising it at the Markets yesterday and saying we should go to check it out ... and once F heard this, he wanted to go at the next available option - this evening. S and I are not averse to a game of trivia (that would be something of an understatement) so it took little encouragement to get us along - even though it is a school night and right at the beginning of the week.

We were glad we went - it was well organised and the people were friendly, and the questions were difficult enough to keep the brain going but not too hard that you didn't have a chance of getting them. There were different categories for each round (10 questions per round, with 6 rounds) and before the game started you had to chose two bonus rounds - for double points.

The beauty of trivia is that there is usually something for everyone - even if it is the opportunity to do really neat writing (an erasable pen helps) in different colours.

I'd like to say the "First Timers" romped in first but the best we could do was tie for second - and then we went into the tie-break question: in what year was the jigsaw puzzle invented? Well, we didn't know what year but we did know it was invented as a way to teach people geography - so we guessed the year - helped by the aforementioned erasable pen. F said 17xx but we weren't sure it was that early (it was!) but we put 1897 and then, going earlier still, just before the host walked over to the table to collect our answer, we changed it to 1857. He looked a little odd as he checked our answer and I thought it must have been that our team and the others had chosen years on either side of the date and he had to do the calculations to work out who was closest. Not so. We think it was because both teams had chosen within one year of each other - and the others' 1858 gave us the point - and a ticket in the draw to win part of the $5000 prize pool - next drawn at the beginning of April. We also received a $30 voucher which will go towards refreshments when we come next week!

Meanwhile, back at Latimers, M was holding down the fort with the furries. I can't imagine how disruptive it must have been when S and I arrived home on our winning high!

Sunday

It was a day like any other day ... starting with a Skype call with Tr that was plagued with/by technical difficulties. I had hoped that by my being at home and on a reliable WiFi network we would be trouble-free - but it so much.

Oh wait, something different did happen this morning - as Tr pointed out, because she could hear them over the "phone" - the cattle have moved back into the paddocks at the back of L's so they're now close enough to hear and see. They are truly magnificent beasts! Most people never get to see them up close - especially when they're just sitting out the front having a cuppa (that would be the people, not the cows).

We were two short at the Markets today. M and A were absent so as yet they don't know that we have created a Monster ... F wants to go to Trivia again and having heard that Southport RSL (Monday nights) has a $5,000 prize pool, he is keen to go. So keen to go is he that he wants to go tomorrow night to scope it out - and since we'll be there, he says, we might as well play! Of course, we have to humor him so S and I, and N will go with F (and M is she wants). I'll find out some details - whether there is a size limit on teams, how much it costs to enter, how long it lasts, what the general categories are - and email the others (including M and A) tomorrow.

Après Markets, I did a quick lap around Harvey Norman while S waited in the car, and then we popped over to the Q Centre for lunch and some supermarket shopping. (We are such creatures of habit on a Sunday.)

It was a bit disappointing for S this evening. She had gone to the trouble of cooking a chicken - to a new recipe, which she followed to the letter - but when it was time to serve, the chicken hadn't cooked through, so back into the pot (literally) it went. The vegetables she had cooked to go with it were very nice - she had chosen the potatoes especially because they are good for roasting - so we didn't starve. M had called in to Baskin & Robbins (yum) on her way home so there was dessert for anyone who wanted as well.

Saturday

It's great having a day off on a Friday because it really makes the weekend seem longer - much longer than that one additional day suggests. It's going to be a bit confusing for Pearl tomorrow though - when I'm around for the third morning in a row.

It was fine this morning so M took Pearl with her to have breakfast with Mouse at Sisters. In the meantime, S and I went off to the Post Office to collect a parcel - which may have been a birthday present but was more likely to be - and was - S's new book Down To Earth - written by the same woman whose blog she reads. It's a nice book, very well-produced, a good size, and very informative to boot. When we ordered it, I had a feeling she wouldn't be disappointed and she definitely isn't.

Em, while still a little on the low-key side, is now not spending all her time in the cupboard. She is eating like a horse again and is certainly making sure she gets outside at every opportunity to drink the water out there.

Today is St Patrick's Day and there was a draw in at The Big House with a chance to win a trip to Dublin or $15,000 cash. S came in for this one, too, as we had made a booking immediately afterwards at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant at Mermaid. Mouse came to dinner with us too. Don't tell anyone, but for someone who doesn't like tofu, I enjoyed it very much! How did they make the beef and cashews taste like beef with cashews; how did they get the tofu to have the right texture, consistency and flavour? How does a vegetarian know how different forms of animal and seafood protein taste? And why is it that when you see just about everyone else in a restaurant having the same dessert, you know you have to have it as well, even before you know what it is! Mmmmm ... sago with organic ice cream. It was good, although S didn't much like its consistency - which left more for us ... okay, me.

M managed to get some gardening in this afternoon - a good trimming of the bohemia tree (ROM will now fit under it) and some mowing in Hermes paddock. She would have managed more had it not started raining - and it was still raining very heavily when it was time to go into The Big House.

Beazley was very happy today because he managed to get into M's room and have a nap on her bed. He doesn't get to go in there often because in the past he has proved himself to be non-trustworthy and managed to not go outside when he needed to. Hopefully he had better manners this time.

Friday

On the spur of the moment yesterday, I decided to take today off - call it my birthday present to myself and, since M was already going to Brisbane for a seminar I suggested S and I go up with her and spend some time trekking around Brisbane while M learned about search warrants. Alas, S turned up a little worse for wear this morning - she thinks it may have been something she ate last night - although the only thing she had last night that she doesn't usually have on trivia night was ice cream cake. Hopefully that wasn't the cause of her discomfort - but we can't think of what else it might be. Long story short, S decided to stay home - and while I offered to stay home with her, she thought it was best if I stayed with the original plan and took Nik with me to do some photography as I wandered around Brisbane CBD. It would be a good break for me - a day out of the office doing something completely different. (Thanks S you were right.)

Brisbane was fun but much hotter than I thought. I had taken Nik, both lenses and a bottle of water - all very sensible - and a vest which lasted until mid-morning before being stowed into my bag. It took me a while to get into photography mood/mode and in the end I decided to concentrate on still life - the various statues around Brisbane - and there are a few. There were a couple of shots I was happy with and still I managed to be at the bus stop on time to meet M for our trip to West End for lunch at the Viet Hoa. Imagine my surprise when I looked up at the bus stop to see Sy standing there. What a coincidence was that! All of Brisbane and she and I happened to be at the same place at the same time. Of course, it all made perfect sense when she told me that it was no coincidence - she and M had talked earlier in the day, and Sy was joining us for lunch.

It was a great lunch and a great cup of coffee afterwards at French Twist, a lovely ye olde world coffee shop, also in West End. Which was good because we then walked back into the CBD - which was surprisingly close given how long it seemed to take to get there on the bus. Back in the city, Sy bade her farewells, still waiting to hear from the vet about CoCo who was being operated on today - having a toe amputated to remove a cancer; amazing because this type of cancer usually occurs in joints and means the dog's entire leg has to be amputated - but luckily, that's not the case here. But, ongoing, CoCo will need to have chemotherapy - even though x-rays and blood work have failed to find any other masses.

M shepherded me into The Brisbane Big House - not difficult because I desperately needed a cold drink to bring down my exercise-elevated body temperature - and that was where the car was parked so we needed to go through there to get home.

I cannot believe how bad the traffic is on the way back from Brisbane - especially as we had had a dream run up this morning (under an hour door-to-door). There was a build-up near Springwood and it didn't really thin out until we were nearing Ormeau.

Meanwhile back at Latimers, although S wasn't feeling 100%, she had managed to bake a batch of Anzac biscuits which will be great for work on Monday.

All in all, I'd call it a good day!

 

Thursday

I was faced with a dilemma before I set off for work this morning. When I went in for my shower, I noticed one of the cats had coughed up a fur ball and some clear fluid just near the bathroom door - inside the bathroom. It wasn't that much of a stretch to think that if I hadn't looked down when I had gone in, I wouldn't have seen it. My dilemma - to clear it up as a responsible person would or go with the "it's my birthday (so I don't have to do anything I don't want to)" defence. As luck would have it, S chanced along and I outlined my dilemma - knowing (or was that "hoping") that she would say something like "don't worry, it's your birthday, why don't you make an early start and have a nice leisurely coffee and toast at Zarraffas". In retrospect it was good for me to clean it up, and S did offer which was enough under the circumstances. It didn't take that long and I still made it to Zarraffas for breakfast - with a warm feeling because I had been able to do a good deed before 6am!

The work day was fairly ordinary and it was a relief to finally leave for home - knowing that trivia was only a few short hours away. The Markets crowd had agreed to come along to trivia at the Advancetown Hotel (our usual Thursday night haunt) to help celebrate my birthday and I was very much looking forward to being part of a team with people who knew more about contemporary music and sports than S or I - and given our limited knowledge in these areas, we were sure it wouldn't be hard! Of course, we had no way of knowing A would be so wonderful at identifying "celebrities" in the picture questions! That was an added bonus! Not to mention birthday cake - and really there was no need for anyone to suggest there were a few candles missing from the top of the cake when it came out! It was a wonderful evening - and not just because we tied for first and then were awarded first because it was my birthday and because the other team still needed to be handicapped 6 points for their last week's win! I think everyone (thanks for coming!) had a good time and it will be interesting to see if they want to front up again next Thursday evening for trivia.

Wednesday

One of the work Colleagues came up to me this morning and told me that it would be 6-22 degrees tomorrow in Rome for my birthday."But how did you know I'm going to Rome for my birthday?" I asked. It wouldn't be bad would it? I have a current passport (somewhere) which is something M will be able to say in a minute as hers is currently expired but still renewable by the simple lodgement of a renewal form (with photos) and payment of a fee. She's done the form - a great start - and now that the reunion program is on the table -meaning they may head off earlier - there's an added impetus to lodge it, especially if they also need to get visas. Hmm, I wonder if Mouse's passport is current.

There were no winners (among our lot) at Bingo today but hopefully they had fun. No winner/s meant everyone bought their own lunch - and because it was Australia Fair, everyone could have the cuisine of their choice. I think S had Japanese, Mi (who met them there) had Chinese sesame balls. I'm not sure whether she and E then went off to Senior Zumba or whether that was another day (they all seem to meld together some weeks).

Not sure why but more than one of the furries is coughing at the moment and M seems to think that it might be that there are worms. One of them is due at the vets (it may be Tinky - who seems to still be losing weight) and M will have them check then.

M and I went off to CSP this evening - and it was good. We had a snack upstairs as we watched Roulette and marvelled at how few people were playing. It's funny that because you would think that there would be a few people playing most of the time but this isn't so - it seems to v ary more by the time of day rather than what day it is. The exception is on the days when there are member draws and at that point there needs to be more tables open usually, rather than the (only) one that usually is.

Tuesday

Some days seem longer than others, and today was one of them. I bet it seemed long to M too who had a headache and didn't stray far from home except to pick up some petrol for the mower and the tractor (no wonder she had less cash than she thought!) - and was that a recently-emptied Zarraffas coffee cup I saw onto bench this evening?

It was washing day at home but I missed it with an early start this morning, and a trip up to Jo's this afternoon for a catch-up and a very yummy dinner. Alas, it was too cool to even thinking about giving our feet a dangle in the pool!

J has a new boarder, a boy, Sh,who seems nice enough but J seems to think he's not as sharp as he could - which may or may not have something to do with a penchant for foreign substances (in his youth?). I joked with J, asking how the meth lab in his room was coming and she fixed me with one of those "not funny" stares and then told me she had just seen a mate of his at the hospital from when his meth lab exploded. Oh.

But Sh was more concerned about his news today as the result of the biopsy of a spot on his back wasn't looking good. He has to go back to the Clinic in a fortnight so they can start the excision process - I think'it's the one where they take a margin, check it for cancer, and if it's not clear they take some more. He was concerned about what would happen to his daughters if they didn't get it all with the excision, and radiotherapy and chemotherapy (if they are needed - and it has been suggeted they may be. )

It was a good visit and it will be interesting to see how R goes in Brisbane tomorrow - she's had a call about trying out for a modelling gig but the details are sketchy.

By the time I arrived home it was dark - and Tink was up the lane visiting Holly and Dolly. To her credit, she looked a little sheepish when I asked what she was up to - and then followed Lars home. Meanwhile, inside, Pearl the watchdog didn't ever seen to notice the two of us had arrived.

The big news of the day is that Mouse was contacted by an overseas television station which wants her, M and M to come (alas, at own expense) over to take part in a reunion program. The amazing thing (for me anyway) was that Mouse has only just recently been trying to locate the person she is to be reunited with! Problem solved! Incredible!

Monday

Well, that was poorly planned - on a number of levels. I rocked up at the pathology lab to have a blood test taken - and found out that I was half-an-hour early, and by that time it was too late to go across to the other one in Nerang - because at least this way I would be second in line (I wasn't the only one who got it wrong!). So much for my ability to successfully read a website - and even worse that I had tried to tell them that their site was wrong before I had triple-checked (because the double-check produced the same result).

Then, and I had known this some weeks ago, I was booked in at work for an allergy test - which I thought would be one where they prick your arm with a number of antigens and see what happens - but it was a RAST test (hopefully that will be a trivia question at some stage) and they took (more) blood for it. But at least I learned something about allergies during the seminar that preceded the test.

I had a quick visit to Zarraffas this afternoon before heading home to take the rubbish for a drive up to the road, and deciding that there wasn't enough in the recycling bin to take it up.

Then Pearl and I went for a walk down to B's shed while S fed the cats. I prefer to take her out rather than locking her in M's room ... although I still had to do that as the cats hadn't quite finished by the time we arrived back. Pearl was fantastic on the walk though, staying with me when I asked her to and not racing ahead (I figured she would know she was being kept out because it was cat feeding time - and even if she hadn't intuited it (I'm not sure that's a word but it's supposed to mean "come to by means of intuition"), she probably would have heard them calling for S to hurry up with preparing their dinners and hand it down to them already.

Emma is not her usual chirpy self - laying low in the wardrobe for most of the day. But she is eating (not as much as usual), and drinking, and doing all the other things we watch - but she just seems low-key. If she doesn't start eating all her dinner/breakfast, we're going to see about not giving her insulin ... and we have had the thought that now she's lost more weight, we may be giving her too much insulin. Her blood sugar levels were fine when we took her to the vet the other day - and it certainly isn't something we thought to ask at the time.

M's allergic reaction to whatever bit her yesterday continues and has not fully responded to the anti-histamines; hopefully it will.

Sunday

Let the balloon go. But the question is: where did it go? Since M's birthday, we have been watching the helium balloons slowly deflate - particularly agonising if you've ever done helium voices and want to again but are too scared to because of the health warnings about that particular activity - d'oh. Last night, M went to let down one of the ''60" balloons (there are two) but found she couldn't because they are self-sealing - possibly a safety measure to prevent helium voices. By the time she read that, she had already taken the string off, and after some persuasion she agreed to let the balloon go. We didn't expect it to float to the ceiling - it had been bobbing about at the same level with the string on but now, being that much lighter, up it went. Tonight, it's nowhere to be seen. So where did it go?

It was a busy but good day. It started, as most Sundays do, with the Skype call to Tr, then the Markets where we were joined by N and her friend J - but also by M, R,A and L - so it made for a very big and full table. J, who had come down especially as she had heard so much about it, and very much wanted to meet Mouse didn't seem disappointed.

Alas, I didn't make it to Dracula's garage sale - there may have been a bargain or two on props and costumes from what must be the Coast's oldest and best-known theatre restaurant. But I did make it to The Big House for today's draw - $20,000 was up for grabs in the Miss Kitty promotion. I'm sure the people who won would have been pleased with their efforts. While we didn't win, I had a good time watching roulette with M and Mouse.(I learnt yesterday that Mouse is called "Mouse" because way back when she used to love cheese - and you know how people say someone is so such-and-such that it's their middle name - well, Mouse loved cheese so much more that it became her first name!)

There are some lovely orange flowers on the bohemia tree but I can't tell if they belong to it or not. I missed the photo this morning of a bird with its beak up to its wings in one of them. By the time I had the camera, the bird was gone.

I remembered to take the photographs from M's birthday board to return to their rightful owners today. I didn't take scans of them as M says she has copies - just as long as she does because we may need them!

We are going to try a new strategy with Beazley and his cookies in the morning - rather than just giving him a few when I get up, I'll give him a proper breakfast amount - I do already but in three or four lots; hopefully if he gets them all at once, that will satisfy him.

Beazley and Pearl are watching television with S tonight - and both are sitting, sharing very nicely indeed, on the couch across for S. I'm only surprised they're not trying to sit with her.

Saturday

It was time for our monthly breakfast with S (at Crave as usual). Today was "birthday day" because M, S and I are all Pisces so we exchanged cards and gifts. It was good to catch up but we may need to think about moving venues because Crave is just getting busier and busier on a Saturday morning. We know why that is ... it's just so good - and it's usually okay because we have time to settle in for a nice leisurely breakfast but it might be something of a challenge if we were in a hurry.

Sa is well and has been promoted at work and she seems much happier for it. It's not without its challenges though - there are some hangover supporters from the person who was in the role before S moved into it, but she seems to be dealing with that. She has an idea for improving their "hit" rate which she's working on and it's great to see her so passionate about what she's doing.

Post-breakfast (wait, that's just reminded me of the Post Cafe in Marrickville where we had many a good breakfast too), we had been thinking of a visit to Budds Beach to read the papers by the water, but we decided to do some shopping at Pacific Fair instead. I am in search of a new stylus for the iPad - I tried one someone had at work yesterday and it just slid across the screen - rather than the pushing I have to do with my others (don't ask how many ... I showed someone a selection - not all mind - of them today and they were fairly stunned at that - and I was glad at the time that I hadn't dug out the others). It was good that we had some time to spare so it meant there was time for a decent mall crawl and to "do" stuff: When I dropped in to Australian Geographic I noticed that their demonstration perpetual motion machine (Newton's Cradle with five balls suspended in a metal frame) was all tangled - so I fixed that - and, surprisingly, had more luck, much more quickly, than I usually have with my headphones (hmmm, I wonder where my doovers for keeping them tidy are?) I did find my stylus - the person selling them (three varieties) was kind enough to let me try them in-store (or, more accurately at their booth in the middle of the main thoroughfare) and one of them was a clear winner - especially since one of them didn't work at all! I'd been trying them out in my 7Notes Premium HD app and she was interested enough to ask for the details. An app which will turn handwriting to text can do that. Hmmm ... my dream job would be to go around cafes and coffee shops or even sitting in any public places eg libraries, using my iPhone and iPad to attract business for Apple (they would have me on retainer and pay me a modest commission for each "sale'" - K sent me).

Then it was off to The Big House where Suzanne had a bit of a play on the machines while I worked on the Christmas letter and drank compliment arg hot Chocdate in Bite as we waited to meet M for a coffee, before S and I set off to dinner. It was a good drive down the Coast, past Burleigh where we have stayed a number of times on holiday over the years. But nothing cmpares to driving along the beachfront at Currumbin and looking up the Coast to Surfers and down the Coast to Coolangatta. It's just magic on a moonlit and cloudless night especially when you can see the moon's reflection stretching out over the Ocean.

Dinner was at The Beach Shack - tapas. I'd been meaning to bring S down for some time - since I discovered it open the night M's plane had been delayed on the way back to the Gold Coast, and further delayed by way of Brisbane which resulted in passengers being bussed back to the Coast. Dinner was good although we were surprised by the size of the serves - we had always thought tapas meant "small" but there was nothing small about these dishes - all of which were incredibly tasty: thai beef salad in cucumber, bread with trio of dips, pork spare ribs and spring rolls. Yummmm or as people say on FaceBook these days "nom nom nom".

Friday

No rain fell on Latimers today but the grass continued to grow - it was almost as though it had spent the entire day concentrating on coaxing every millimetre of length it could to replace what I'd ROM'd yesterday. It did well.
I don't know why (possibly because I'd spent what seemed to be all night dreaming) but when the alarm went off this morning, I was so tired I actually considered giving Emma and Beazley their insulin shots, and then crawling back into bed. Work could wait until Monday. But, not to be, and I'm glad because it was a good day. I spent some time with one of our young engineers, putting together the Minutes of a meeting we had both attended a fortnight ago; we'd both taken some scratchings during it and Nathan put his hand up to do the minutes based on his - and I offered to help. It was good fun - collaborative work for a change - and there's usually little opportunity for that. Although, come to think of it, it may have been because it was "writing" rather than "numbers".
One of the other engineers had also brought in his new eBay purchase - a nerf rocket launcher - remote controlled and, with an action similar to a tank turret, very aimable and is great fun (until someone loses an eye I can hear safety people say)!
The ptolemy effect was alive and well this evening - with the moon hanging huge and glowing bright and yellow in the eastern sky. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to see it rising out of the sea. As M said as we watched it as we drove in to Mouse's for Family N Friends dinner, you could understand why the ancients did (regard it with such awe and/or fear).
It was our first dinner at Mouse's for a while and Mi had requested borscht and vereniki - because you cannot have one without the other. Amazingly, there was no sign or word from The Great K - usually he knows when one of his favourite dishes is on - seeming to pick the aroma out of the ether.
The invitations to Trivia for my birthday were finally sent out this afternoon and at dinner we did some practice - using questions from the last two weeks - and everyone seemed to at least have a go. F said he was good at Geography and he certainly had little trouble identifying the four countries that border South Africa to the north. That was the homework question for this week, and S and I know we only named them all because we had looked it up on the interweb (the homework questions are "sure points" and, surprisingly, are usually work out to be almost the number of points you're handicapped for a previous week's win).
It was a great night - and F's favourite dessert appeared - except with a twist - rather than being the usual rhubarb crumble, this time it was sans crumble - and while I don't eat it, the others approached it with some gusto. Yum ... but Family N Friends dinners always are ... great food and great company!

Thursday

I had never thought about it before tonight but there is a time when the moon becomes "full". I had always thought of it as being full moon on a day, as opposed to there being a specific time, let's call it a minute, that is is full and then it starts becoming un-full again. Today, full moon was just after 6 this morning ... I think. I was too busy digesting the idea that it is only full for a moment to be embedding the details in my brain. But, regardless of that, it still "looked" full this evening when we saw it from the top of the hill, near the Advancetown Hotel.
Luckily it wasn't/hadn't been raining so we had an unimpeded view of it rising above the sunset-pink clouds - and yes, of course, I took a photo (well, a few actually). That was the second photo I'd taken today - the other was of the freshly mown lawn at Latimers (to share with M). I gave ROM a fairly good workout this afternoon, doing all of the house yard except for the small front patch. The newly-serviced ROM didn't do a bad job, although it is still a bit uneven in places - like the deck's still not level, but it seems to be. I know this because I checked to see if the R pin was still holding it in place, in the right place, and it was - although, now that I think about it, I didn't check both sides. D'oh. Ah, well, that's a job for tomorrow - or maybe even the weekend. I was impressed when Pearl came up to join me as I was finishing blowing grass off ROM, and then walked back to the house with me. I'm not sure what she wanted - there wasn't a ball in sight and I think she had already had her dinner.
We did Trivia again tonight at the local and it was again a good night. It would have been better if we had won - but we were handicapped because we were last week's victors. But even with a 6-point deduction, we still managed to come in second. I always find it amazing what facts are stored in our brains ... and how we can retrieve them at the right time .... and then discount that answer because we're not absolutely sure it's right. But as I told S last night, even if we don't know the answer, it's better to put something down so we at least still have a chance of getting it right. I thought the questions were harder tonight - and that's not even counting the music questions. S suggested we could start boning up on music - popular and otherwise - but I suggested we might be better off finding someone who knows music and coercing them to come along on Thursday nights instead.
I took a photograph of our form tonight and I want to do some work on it in Photoshop to make it into an invitation. It's my birthday next week and I'm hoping to get some folk to come out to Trivia to celebrate (so I finally get my games night!).

Wednesday

You have to love Hump Day! Only two days of the working week left - not that I'm trying to wish it away, but some weeks are best put behind us .... such is/are Cost Report weeks. But it's better to be busy than not - that's what they say anyway. And it's fine and warm this afternoon so one can't really ask for more - well, you could but that would just be being greedy.

I'm meeting S at Zarraffa's after work. I'll buy her a coffee, actually any drink of her choice, to celebrate our 22nd anniversary. And show her the Facebook post, likes and comments.

She and M have been off having a busy day - the last I heard it was starting with Spotlight, then Ferry Road (for breakfast), then Bingo at Southport RSL and then, if it's like their usual Wednesdays, they will1 have lunch with Mouse somewhere before making their way back to Latimers. It's a busy schedule! But the good news is that I received a three-letter text from S which assured me she'd had a good time at Bingo: WAG. Translated it means: Winners are grinners. Both she and M had won something but, alas, Mouse missed out again. They did go to lunch with Mouse and for a moment it looked like Mi might join them as well but, in the end, she texted to let them know she had a better offer - she was going to Versace instead with F, M and E. Hopefully it was to celebrate her NATI - her translator accreditation. Congratulations Mi! We knew you could do it!

The road patches seem to be holding which came as a bit of a surprise - which has just reminded me of the driving exhibition I saw in Nerang this morning - it serves as a reminder that you never know what type of idiot you are going to see on the road: within 200 metres he had tailgated, overtaken on double unbroken lines and gone through a red light. Is anything worth that type of risk?

Pearl watched lifestyle programs with us tonight - my gift to S (watching lifestyle programs with her - not Pearl), and we'll go out for a proper anniversary celebration on Saturday (when it's not a school night)! But the point about Pearl is that she jumped up onto the couch first time, no problem at all: M's fitness regimen for her really seems to be working!

Tuesday

It's another grey old day here at Latimers and on the Coast - and it's no secret that I much prefer to have to put my sunglasses on when I drive to work rather than the windscreen wipers (although since Frank the mechanic fixed them - bent them into Volvo windscreen shape - it has been a much safer scenario).

Even though it was raining throughout the morning, M managed to get Hermes' paddock mowed - which is just as well because the rain does keep the grass growing and growing ... and growing. By the time I arrived back at Latimers, it was raining again so there was no mowing for me.

We had a quiet evening in watching The Vicar of Dibley - there were several episodes on - Hugo and Alice's marriage, the one where Geraldine falls in love with Simon and where Simon doesn't fall out of love with his Liverpuddlian girlfriend and breaks Geraldine's heart in the process.

Most of the furries were in with us as well including Pearl who had brought her ball on a rope in to the house and in to the lounge room with her. She wasn't playing with us or asking us to throw it to her - just keeping it close.

She was funny this afternoon . M had prepared her dinner beforehand and it was up on the counter, waiting, and do you think Pearl would leave the immediate vicinity for any length of time? The answer is no - but at least she had already been out for a walk with M so she didn't really miss out when she declined to come out with me. She did miss out on a good walk though - up to the road and then down to B's shed, stopping for a chat with Holly and Dolly who were down near their shelter. It looks as though the bays with "stuff" in them have now been gated off so there's no chance of Dolly getting in there and accidentally doing herself an injury. I can't get over how much she is growing - and how her legs seem way too long for her body. Holly is still staying close to her but didn't position herself between Dolly and I this time as she has in the past. The walk was made even better by the light rain that fell throughout - very cooling and very refreshing. You'd have to take a walk around Latimers over the walking machine just about any day ... any night is another matter - I'm not sure how I would go strolling in the dark!

The Council or whoever it is in charge of road-fixing out our way must have been tuned in to my grumbles as I drove along to the main road this morning - the pot holes were turning into something much larger! By the time I drove back in this afternoon, though, they had been filled - hopefully not with the same combination of spit and dirt that usually sees the fissure re-open at the very first thought of rain!

Monday

It was raining again this morning and even though there is a severe weather warning in place for the Gold Coast and South-East Queensland, it wasn't enough to keep me away from work! Pity.

There was time to catch up with some news before work (I don't always) - how Senate vacancies are filled and something about medical examinations which is too serious to even start to go into here - let alone the story about China's latest hit program! I wasn't the only one catching up on the news: S was listening to the Health Report with Norman Swan and said they reported on a study of sedentary office workers - one group who did their normal thing, and the other where folk stood up and moved about for 2 minutes every 20 minutes. These folk had much lower blood sugar levels compared to the others.

I'm not sure if the bad weather eventuated - I didn't get to look outside let alone go outside until it was finally (an hour later than usual) time to leave. Come to think about it, someone did say that they walk been planning to go for a walk outside (just after lunch) but had been thwarted by a downpour. It looked dry most of the way home but when I drove into Latimers Valley it looked like it had been raining all day - and still was! There is some talk that a cyclone may be forming off the SEQ coast but we'll have to wait to see if that happens.

C was feeding Holly and Dolly as I drove in this afternoon and the three dogs were watching from their vantage point - in the middle of the road. They were content to sit there and had there been room I would have driven around them but in the end C had to come back over and shoo them off the road. But at least Spot is learning a little road sense (except the not sitting in the middle of it) and doesn't chase after the car as you drive past now.

It was far too wet to mow this afternoon - which I sometimes judge by the amount of water in the yard and the number of furries lounging around inside the house ... an indicator of his truly wet it is. Even Tink was in this afternoon! Mouse, on the other hand, was out this morning. She is feeling a little better and had taken herself on a big walk (to the newsagent to pay her bill) before going off to Monday Mahjong! She is truly an amazing woman and, frankly, an example to us all. M is no slouch either - she took herself to stretch class again today - I think she's currently doing two classes a week - today's and an advanced one on Fridays. In preparation for the Global Corporate Challenge (starting in a couple of months) I am increasing my daily steps rate and feel someone ought to warn the walking machine that its days of rest and leisure are about to come to an end!

Sunday

The Sun was out when we woke this morning - does this mean "the curse" has been lifted or that they know we're going today?

Mouse has a cold! She's apparently had it for a couple of days but I didn't notice until this morning when we saw her at the Markets and her speech was "thick''. Poor Mouse - but a simple cold is not enough to slow her down!

M had done three good deeds this morning before getting to the Markets - not a bad effort at all! He can be proud of himself. He allowed a dog to follow him home; he rescued some ducklings who, when trying to jump up on a kerb following their parents had fallen down a grate, and then he was called to help with the neighbour's toddler who had caught her leg between the bars of her cot - he gave her same liquorice to distract her while he slathered her leg with some cream (that would be a lotion rather than the dairy product) and coaxed it free. All this from a man who had eight hours in the dentist's chair this week. He's been having his food pureed since then, and A suggested that she was glad it wasn't her - she had tasted the food she was preparing for him and even though one of the ingredients was pickled chilli she thought it didn't have much taste.

A had made a cake for the Markets and she tried not to tell people what it was until they tried it. This was a great idea because it was wonderful and I don't think some of us (including me - in fact, probably only me) would have tried it if we'd known one of the key ingredients was pumpkin!

After the Markets, S and I took ourselves off to Harvey Norman - to see if their 20% off sale on iPod accessories held any treasures for us. S needed some new headphones (tick) and I invested in some more blank DVDs - since Nik (the Nikon) came into our lives, I've needed more!

Then, it was back to the Big House for the Miss Kitty promotional draw. Several hours later, we left - none the richer, but I had managed to book M's birthday Opera tickets, checked the job ads, decided on some employment agencies to which to send my CV, penned some more of a letter to D, watched a few hands of CSP (up to almost $80,000 now), had a freshly-squeezed orange juice and seen the finishing touches being put on a Toblerone (the drink, not the chocolate). Not a bad afternoon's work! Of course, we could also have had a wager on L's horse, but it ended up not racing today.

 

Saturday

Who would have thought that The Big House "curse" would be alive and well? When I first woke this morning - a little after 5 - I was surprised that it was so dark. But, of course, it's getting darker in the mornings because we are now in Autumn and the days will be getting shorter - so it must be getting lighter later and darker earlier. That's how these things work. But that's not why it was so dark this morning. I realised when I next woke up (40 minutes later) that it was dark because it was overcast - as anyone who has been following the recent history of S's visits to The Big House will know. When she visits, something happens which means she cannot swim - either it's raining - or the pool is closed for maintenance - and if not, then it's closed because they're either preparing for, having, or cleaning up after a pool party. It was nice of Mi to ring to razz us about it too, but I suppose that was partly my fault for putting it on FaceBook.

So, how to make the best of it? We decided we would have a day of doing nothing much - reading, writing, puzzles, CheeseLand ... relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered! And, with any luck, we wouldn't have to venture outside at all.

We were just finishing our breakfast at the Executive Club when M texted to say she and Mouse were having breakfast (but without Pearl because it was too wet for her to come out) and asked us to guess where. As it turned out, it was downstairs at Spinners, and we joined them there for a coffee (for me) and a glass of water (for S) - before they went off to do shopping and whatever else they had planned for the day.

S and I came back upstairs and spent a few hours relaxing (I think S had a little nap as well) before we went to Bite for lunch, then a little play in the Casino, then back to CheeseLand for a cup of coffee for afternoon tea. Of course, we were back there 2.5 hours later for the real CheeseLand - and at this stage think we won't even bother with dinner since we've been grazing all day. If we do get hungry, we have some fruit to keep us going - and there might be a butterscotch lolly around somewhere.

One of the great things about staying here is that they still have bath tubs - and I'm planning to make use of the one here before I turn in for the night.

The rain has come and gone throughout the day and it has been wonderful to watch from the window of the hotel as we puddled ... and caught up with blog entries. Life is good.

Friday

Finally - the end of the working week ... and boy, does it feels like the end of a very long - but good - fortnight. I must have been tired this morning too because when I arrived at Zarraffa's to pick up my coffee - I found that my wallet wasn't travelling with me. So, no Z Card but luckily I had some cash in my bag - so I didn't have to haggle with them over whether they would let me have a coffee on account. I wonder if they would. As I was ringing S to ask her to keep an eye out for my wallet, she was ringing me to let me know she had found it.

It will be nice to have some downtime over the weekend at The Big House! Thanks M! She checked us in this afternoon and came back to Latimers to hand over the keys - and after feeding Em and giving her her insulin shot, we came in - unfortunately too late for CheeseLand but it will keep until morning - for breakfast (is it called CheeseLand in the morning?) - and we are definitely planning to do it tomorrow afternoon. But we still had to eat tonight and we decided on Spinners - even though the Special (we did miss out on the Whole Chicken Dinner) isn't on on a Friday night. We started with a drink each - a non-alcoholic Passion Brew. It is amazing - no two of these have ever tasted the same, and now that they are blending them rather than muddling them - they're different again.

M was in at The Big House tonight as well - at the Moulin Rouge Cocktail Party. She didn't bring Mouse with her because she didn't realise it was a sit-down event. She had also thought there would be just finger food but there was more than that - including a noodle bar and - and she was very pleased about this - the ice cream cart which had been in the lobby - and it was loaded up with a new flavour too - honeycomb.

I met up with her afterwards to go upstairs for a drink - and we watched some roulette (we were lucky enough to score a table near the table). S doesn't like the upstairs area and stayed in the room to watch a murder mystery. She was still awake when I returned (I was gone only an hour or so) with some upstairs water and some Cool Mints. (I just remembered the the gifts A and Mi gave M - some Mints [to remember what she Mint to do]; some confectionery teeth; and a bag of marbles - in case she lost hers. Very clever.

I stayed up late tonight (as is my wont when we stay at a hotel) to watch some television and noticed at some point that there was half a yellow moon (oh, all right, a full moon) sinking towards the horizon in the distance. Life is good.

Thursday

It was a bit of a late night last night - and rather than a 5 o'clock rise, I set the alarm for 6 instead - foregoing breakfast at Zarraffas for a little extra sleep. It was a good plan which didn't quite come to fruition - because I woke 20 minutes before the alarm and decided that even though it was tempting, it wasn't worth going back to sleep. Subsequently, I was a little on the tired side - not enough that I couldn't function well, but come the end of the day I really wondered whether it was a good idea to go off to Trivia at the local hotel. Of course, we had already been to the vets after work, taking Em for her annual check-up and vaccination ("get them to look deep into your eyes" said the letter addressed to Emma - and implore them to take you - but we would have anyway!). She is in good shape (for an old lady) and even though she has lost more weight - she is down .4kg since her visit last year, the vet isn't concerned - even though Em isn't as gracious a cat as she used to be. The vet had to call in a nurse to try to keep Em restrained as she examined her, took some blood to check her sugar levels, gave her the vaccination and clipped her claws.

It was lucky we made the appointment time. I was delayed leaving work and the traffic was atrocious this afternoon - and even worse on the motorway - which I took great lengths to avoid in case it was congested. Of course, that didn't help at the Gilston Rd roundabout - still under construction - where there were two lollipop men in attendance - both leaning on their upside-down lollipops and doing very little in the way of actual traffic control.

I'm glad we did go to trivia though - and not just because we won again: a $50 voucher for placing first plus a six-pack for being the first one up with the right answer written down for the question - on which piece of apparel would you find an aglet. I edged someone out from one of the other teams by a metre. I'd like to say "I beat them by a length - but how long is a length - as in horse racing? According to the Australian Oxford Dictionary, a length is the full extent of one's body - but surely there must be a physical standard measure of a length?

The other big news of the day is that ROM is back and the deck seems to be level again - M had a test ride to make sure it was okay and it's giving a much better cut.

Wednesday

Happy Birthday M! And this time it's on the actual day! As Sy asked at dinner, how do computers cope with 29 February birthdays - but just as well they do otherwise M wouldn't have received her free birthday Boost Juice when she visited there today! She had a voucher to take to Crabtree & Evelyn so it didn't matter about a computer there - and there were Casino Dollars as well to collect - but they weren't specifically for the Birthday Girl.

Come to think of it, they had a very busy day - because it is Wednesday and after breakfast at The Big House (and Birthday errands) there was still Bingo. They did well too - M won, S won, and E won - unfortunately Mouse didn't ... but there's always next week - if she decides to go back. Hopefully she will because she has to be just about due for a win!

So, did M work out where her birthday dinner was? I think she did but she was kind enough not to let on. This was her third visit to The Big House today (breakfast, Dollars, celebration) - and by the time we arrived - we had timed it so the others would be there before us - Mi had decorated the private function room at Zen with balloons and banners and had put up the boards with some photos of M over the years, and some words written about M.

It was a lovely evening and M seemed to enjoy it very much - which is great since it was her birthday celebration. And while she may have figured out the venue - and the guest list - I think the cake came as a bit of a surprise - not that it was an ice cream cake (she loves them) but that we had decorated it (using a Photoshopped picture and edible icing) as the Senior's Card (re-named Cake for this exercise) that she's been talking about for a while! I have a photograph of the expression on her face when she saw it (priceless) and she couldn't blow out the candle at first because she was laughing too much!

Tuesday

M's birthday is tomorrow and there was a bit of secret birthday business tonight - printing M's "Night at the Opera" "voucher" for the joint present - which is okay to write about here because it's already happened! I was working mainly on the computer but had run into a spot of bother because I couldn't find my good paper stock - and I guess that's why we have a cat! Emma found it! When I went into the bedroom at one stage, I found Em had put herself into a plastic milk crate under the desk in our room - and when I saw here there - and she jumped out to say hello, or maybe just to get some cookies, I saw that what she was on was ... paper stock ... and the card stock I had been looking for. (Thanks Em!). So I turned the computer and printer on again and printed the card out again - finally happy with the job! Of course, it all would have been easier had M not been checking out email at her desk (just across from mine) - so I had to keep the laptop screen turned away from her or angled down in case she happened to look across - huh - suspicious - I don't think so!!!
There's still no sign of ROM - hopefully it will come back soon because it would be horrible if it turned into a jungle out there!
M and S met me for a coffee at Nerang Zarraffa's this afternoon. They had been out for part of the day with Mouse - who had been to Pacific Fair, Broadbeach and Robina today - not a bad effort - and it was at Robina that M and S met her. It was good to see them - except I hadn't realised when I suggested coffee that they had just had one with mouse - so it was good of them to come!
The furries are being very good at the moment - coming in at lockdown when they are called. Beazley has also been good (as far as I know) and managed not to be "frightened" inside the house. It was interesting to hear the vet refer to him as a "small cat trapped in a big cat's body" and he really is.

S continues her foray into knitting and has been working on her own pattern. She did finish her first dish cloth which she is planning to give to my Mum, once she's puts the finishing touches on it. Pretty clever - and amazing that only the last time I visited Jo, she was also knitting. I picked up the needles and thought about having a go - but I remembered my early knitting experiences - and stitches so tight on the needle that they couldn't be slipped off to the other needle easily which is kind of a prerequisite for knitting. S is doing much better!

 

Monday

Some weekends are more relaxing than others - and today it would have been fairly easy to roll over and go back to sleep when the alarm sounded. Ah well, only a few more days before the next weekend - and we're looking forward to it because we're staying in at The Big House (I don't think it's only M's second home!!!!) on Friday and Saturday nights. But let's not wish away a perfectly good week - especially since it's a birthday week! There's much to prepare and much to do ... the guests are invited, the cake is organised, the decorations are in hand, M has been told Mouse wants her to dress up for it, I've been breaking in my orange (apricot?) shoes which I will wear in public for the first time (and hopefully it won't be as big a shock to their system as I suspect it will be to mine).

ROM is not yet back and the grass is getting longer. The small patch of grass I didn't get to last week is now no longer discernible - the other grass has caught up with it. This always amazes me - if grass grows at the same rate - why isn't that patch the same length longer than the cut grass? Is it like dust -it doesn't get any thicker after four years - now - who was it that said that? Quentin Crisp comes to mind but that could be very wrong. Actually, it's almost right ... according to Wikipedia (knows all/sees all) he moved to New York in the early 1980's and lived, as ever, alone in a one room apartment which he famously never cleaned. "After four years," he quipped, "you don't notice the dust."

 

Sunday

I was up early and at Maccas to make the Skype call with Tr. It was good, and there was plenty of opportunity to discuss the political intrigue currently happening here with a leadership ballot for the Nation's top job (Prime Minister!!!!) happening tomorrow morning in Canberra. The candidates at the moment - current incumbent Julia Gillard, and previous incumbent K. Rudd (who also called himself Yours Truly in an interview with Laurie Oakes this morning) - and it will be interesting to see if other challengers come out of the woodwork tomorrow morning.

We took Mum to the nursery this morning so she could select a rose for her garden as her birthday present. It was still wet and I thought a bit treacherous as she is still using crutches to help her mobility and walking on wet concrete and gravel is probably not the safest combination.

On the way back to Latimers, we stopped at Sprengers - and were amazed to find they had no home-roasted peanuts (their speciality) because, as we were told, "it's too wet for peanuts". It was probably just as well, too, because M isn't eating them at the moment - but we would have helped.

Dinner tonight was supposed to be at The Big House - the whole chicken dinner - because this may be our last opportunity for the February special - unless we go tomorrow night, or Tuesday. We can't do Wednesday night - the 29th - the last day of February - as we're going out to celebrate M's birthday. (Which reminds me, I'd better start work on those words!)

Saturday

We are naturally curious so it was no surprise that we wondered what was happening when we saw more people than usual at the Blacksoil service station; a photographer by the side of the road (near what was Roses Cafe and is now The Girls Cafe at Marburg - I think that's right) - a man with a serious camera with a lens that I envied all wrapped in plastic because there was a light rain falling; a group of people by the side of the road, some sitting, obviously waiting for something; and then, at Laidley, a larger group of people, standing on the traffic island, camera on tripods. We resolved to stop and ask the next lot of people we saw - the group at the car had been flying a flag so we knew what to look for. S, with her amazing memory, had already started working on it, though, and suggested that it was something to do with a Truckers Memorial ... and she was right. On the Gatton ByPass, a convoy of trucks, led by a police car with lights flashing, passed us. Hmmmm, that answered part of the riddle, but not the other - the people we had seen with their cameras all pointing the other way. A search of the interweb provided the answer - the Lights on the Hills Truckers Memorial was being held at Gatton and a convoy was coming from Toowoomba (the one which passed us) and one from Archerfield in Brisbane - this was by far the larger of the two - and given the one that passed us seemed like a hundred trucks, it was no wonder people were out to see the other one!

Toowoomba was cloudy, foggy and wet. The family was good and it was great to catch up with my sister again (who has recently moved back from Mt Isa). We spent the afternoon playing UNO (which should be followed by a Registered Trademark sign but can't be here because I don't know where it hides on the Apple keyboard) - and I won - if you call getting to 500 first "winning". The others looked at me strangely when I suggested this. Of course, I was helped by having the opportunity to pick up 14 cards in one go (I started it with a +2 so it served me right) - which gave me 218 for that hand. But it was good to have a games afternoon!