Thursday

Living here at Latimers, and on the Gold Coast, it is easy to forget what traffic congestion and traffic jams are like. But you remember soon enough when there is a 7-car pile-up on the Smith Street Motorway in the lead-up to the afternoon peak. The traffic seemed to stop all around the area - moving - or not moving - both ways. Luckily there were only minor injuries reported at the crash site. And it only took me twice as long to get home ... it could easily have been much longer.

I had been planning to do some work at home this evening (Performance system self-appraisal is due tomorrow) but after dinner I sat down on the recliner to watch some television and Maggie came over and sat on my knee. I know M talks about Maggie putting her to sleep - and I'll never question that (not that I ever have) because within a nano-second of Maggie climbing on my lap and starting to purr, I was fast asleep ... and slept right through Glee!

We were a little surprised, although very pleased this evening, when Pearl came through the door with M. M had been to dinner with Mouse and rather than leftovers (always welcome because Mouse is such a great cook), M had brought Pearl home. It has been over a week and a half since we dropped her at Nana's on the way to The Mummy exhibition in Brisbane (and what a long week and a half it has been).

And even though her favourite dog was home, Maggie didn't come in when called at lock-down. I thought she was going to have to spend the night out - and that would have been preferable to the sound of caterwauling from the car port about an hour later. I raced out and even though I couldn't see anything, I knew there was something there because Maggie was increasingly unsettled - and I was surprised when she finally allowed us to coax her back into the house. I wonder if it's the same creature that spagged Beazley's back.