Thursday

S’s new plants survived the night and after only one night in the soil, they appear to be thriving. Maybe there is something to be said for this Phase Planting! She was out there this morning checking on them and a gust of wind hit the tree sending down a shower of small leaves ... yay ... green snow! It was cold enough for it.

Not surprisingly, it is too cold first thing in the mornings for Pearl's walk and she and S and now doing it before they have their lunch ... actually, before S has her lunch and before Pearl finishes off her breakfast cookies (for lunch). There's no way Pearl is eating three meals a day - otherwise how would she be able to maintain her svelte figure - and return a weight of 26.0 kg on the scales this afternoon!

Yes, Pearl was at the vets for her vaccination and a check-up. M would have been very proud of her - she was so well-behaved, sitting when she was told, dropping when she was told, not biting the vet when she was told (not to) when said vet was doing invasive things like taking Pearl's temperature (with the new softer flexible tip) and manipulating her hind legs to check for arthritis. And except for the arthritis - in both legs (worse on the left) and in a little in her hips, for a nine-year-old she is in great shape. Her teeth are excellent - and the vet could see no sign of gum problems - which she had checked for but checked again when I mentioned the times Pearl has chewed the ball and there's been blood on it. No, she assured me, there was no reason for that except perhaps Pearl's enthusiasm for chewing. She was pleased to see Pearl wearing a tick collar as the tick season has moved ... to now ... and she also mentioned a new all-in-one (excluding tape worm) treatment which has Comfortis as the anti-flea component. Pearl did her shaking hands trick with the vet when she gave her a treat at the end of the consult for being such a good patient!

Tink also came to the vet. S managed to corral her in the house just after 3 so she was asleep on the couch and very easy to scoop up and into her cage when the time came. She is fine - her BGL was 9.1, weight 5.7kg and she's due back in a fortnight now. Seemingly taking no notice of my saying how difficult it was to give Tink 4.5 cc of insulin with a great degree of accuracy, it now seems her perfect dose is 4.25 cc - which I said I was more than happy to do if she could devise an effective measuring device which would work before my eyes were truly awake in the morning. We settled on four and a smidge - and another visit in a fortnight!

I think I have worked out why Tink doesn't like going to the vet with me (besides the blood test) ... it's because she has to hear my commentary about the Gilston Road roundabout which is still as much of a &^%$* mess - and if that wasn't enough, they continue to change the configuration so that you almost have to do a sharp left-hand turn to go back down Alexander Drive. Grrrrr ... which is a nice change from the morning brrrrrr I suppose.

While the animals were at the vet, S was at the podiatrist (has Australia's Cheapest Chemist always been next door) - who was running so late that I had time to go home and drop off Pearl and Tink before coming back in to collect S. This was good ... because finally the moon has been sighted - as I drove back in. And there was no doubting that it was the shortest day - it was dark when I left home his morning at 5:45 and again this evening when I drive out at ... 5:45!

It was another elimination night on MasterChef ... and it was no piece of cake, although, actually, it was. The team who lost the Hindu Wedding challenge last night first had to identify "what cake is that" and then the two who couldn't had to do bake-off with a layer cake. It looked as though Ben would fall on his spatula rather than cook against his friend Emma but the judges pointed out, nicely, that even if he did go home (in a self-elimination) rather than cook, Emma would still need to cook off against someone. In the end, it was just easier to whisk away - which they did and Emma, who wants to open a dessert bar one day, lost by a whisker (unlike the hair that was in Alice's dish last week) and walked out of the MasterChef house to the car which was waiting to drive her away from all things MasterChef which it did and then magically turned into a taxi by the time it delivered her home. It does that a lot - and, if that wasn't enough, it seems to be a different one each time.

One of the folk at work called out over the top of the workstation divider this afternoon to pass on some intel. We have previously talked about Francophiles and she has now found The Gold Coast French Speakers Group. I'm passing the details on to S (and can't help wondering how S and N are enjoying there time in France).

* Who knew some character strings are ruder than others?