Monday

The mornings are still chilly here at Latimers and I don't leave home without a vest these days. It didn't come off until lunchtime yesterday but this really had nothing to do with the duelling air-conditioner remote a couple of desks over - would J leave it set at 24 degreees (as V wanted) or take it back to 18 again?

The lawn looks much beter since it's had the chance to grow overnight. It's just given it back a bit of bulk (probably more to do with it springing back from where ROM compressed it!) but it could still do with a shorter cut and hopefully I'll get around to that in the next couple of days - and that trip to the tip.

The moon is about half full at the moment and the Southern Cross is also high in the night sky and I'm hoping that L (visiting from the US) will finally get to see it - she's been wanting to for a while but it's a bit difficult (okay, impossible) to see from the Northern Hemisphere.

We never tire of the stars and the big open skies here. It is always amazing how many of them you can see - clear through the Milky Way and beyond. It's enough to take your breath away.

There was a light mist hanging over the Latimers valley this morning - and oodles of bicycle riders about - not necessarily a good mix if you haven't seen the cyclists first. I'm never quite sure how far away from them I should flash my lights to warn approaching drivers.

M stayed in tonight (doing embassy business in preparation for her and Mouse's trip) while S and I went off to trivia with F yet again. It was a good night and although we were equal first at half time (missing out on the tie-break $15 voucher because we couldn't correctly guess the year the Oxford Dictionary was first published - we and the other team had both been two years on either side of 35 - how old was Mozart when he died) we came in 5th - three points away from the leaders - such was the closeness of tonight's competition. We are resolving to get more players for our team - we're doing okay with just three of us to the other teams five to eight, but we need to cover some more knowledge areas.

Tink was the only one still out when we arrived home and she dutifully followed us in - no doubt regretting it almost instantly when we locked her in. M was still working on the computer and I was able to help her finish off some correspondence (it really is amazing how difficult technology things can be if you don't get to do them that often) ... and now it will be interesting to see how fast they get back to her.