Wednesday

Cold nothing ... It's freezing here this morning! And it's not one of those mornings where I can just jump in the car, go to Zarraffas for a hot beverage and then bundle myself into the relative warmth of work! Nope, this is a different type of morning - S isn't back from Brisbane yet (Sy will drop her home later today) and I have some routine medical appointments this morning before work. So just as well I had a later leave from Latimers because there was quite a bit to do for and with the furries. It was good to take Pearl for a walk first thing it was light and even though Ebony wasn't in her lean-to she wasn't anywhere to be seen - then - a while later she was in the paddock near the garage, tail wagging, waiting to charge up the hill to where I was putting the recycling in the bin and Tink was walking over to me (who even knew she was up - she slept on the top of the recliner last night and hadn't budged during the morning activities - she'd even stayed there while she had her shot!). I told Ebony no - go home - and she didn't move ... until Pearl came charging from the house and chased her to the fence as I tried to call Pearl back - just a little fearful of a dog stoush; even though Pearl did come back, I think it was more to do with her having chased Ebony off to the boundary than with my calling her.

Amazingly, it was good to finally get to work - the morning had been just a bit more hectic than I'm used to. And since I was in late, I stayed back and then went straight home to collect S (who Sy did drop home earlier this afternoon but not before they had stopped for a coffee at Zarraffas in Southport) so we could go into The Big House to run an errand for M. We also had dinner in there but it was a quick turnaround and we were back home by 8pm - in time for S to watch some MasterChef and then Offspring.

Over dinner, S told me a little of the Opera - and she will be able to tell M all the details. S was very sorry that M missed it because it was the one she really wanted to see ... And with good cause because it was amazing (although both An and S thought it could have benefited from a bit of an edit). The music was by Benjamin Britton and it was set in an unlikely locale.

The Transit of Venus happened although it did not receive all the planned coverage. I went to the Courier Mail's web site where you could watch live coverage of the event and, when I clicked on the link, instead of video, I was taken to a news story which told of the NASA feed being interrupted by a workman in Australia's Northern Territory having sliced through a fibre optic cable and cutting the feed. It was expected to be repaired by 3pm this afternoon - about half an hour after Transit end. But, they must have pulled out all stops because it was back up before then. But you wouldn't credit it - knowing all the organisation that must have gone into the link-up, just to have it severed. At least NASA had other viewing facilities whose feeds were not interrupted. Seeing the tiny black dot that was Venus against the huge disk of the Sun, it does make me wonder about who first saw it, and how, and then how they were correctly able to determine when the next one would occur, and from where it could be viewed - remember Captain Cook's journey to the South Pacific in the 1770's to view the Transit?

S has started talking about her birthday on Friday - in terms of getting another year older (“tomorrow is my last day as a XX-year old”) rather than how we will spend it. We will be in at The Big House for at least part of it - running another of those errands for M, before I take S out somewhere nice (not that The Big House isn't - but we want it to be special) for dinner to celebrate. Of course, this is only marking the day, her real birthday “do” will be towards the end of July - giving us all something to look forward to.