Monday

It's Monday - Rubbish and Recycling Day - which means it’s almost the end of the working week. How did that go again? Well, Monday is today, which means tomorrow is the day before Wednesday - aka Hump Day - which is half way through the week, and then Friday is only the day after tomorrow ... and then it’s the weekend again already! (Thanks M - this way of looking at the week has stood me in good stead lately.) Who knows, we may even get to Dinosaur Island this time around ... especially if everyone else is working to the normal week.

S took this!

Dolly came racing over this afternoon as Pearl and I walked down the lane. S was busy corralling and feeding the felines so we could get away to Trivia. (It’s a bit hard to reconcile Monday night Trivia with the fact that the week is all but over - but I’m working on it.)

Well, we have made the quadrella - four out of four furries - Beazley took himself into our bedroom to spend time with S today. Yes, at this rate the rest of the house will be “animal-free"! Beazley seemed to enjoy this special treat ... only allowed because we know M sometimes let's him into her room. It’s the least we can do for him!

Tink stayed in with us most of the night last night - S saw more of her than me though, because once my head hits that pillow, that's it. It was S who opened the door to let Tink out, who opened the door to let Tink in, who opened the door to let Tink out ... and so on throughout the night. Maggie was her usual “I'm here in this one spot and this is where I’ll stay until someone carries me out at 2 o’clock tomorrow afternoon!”. And I’m not kidding. The only one who can match her is Pearl - who, alas, was having a little whimper in her sleep last night but then settled. Hopefully it was just that she was dreaming that she was the one who had to let Tink out, and let Tink in, and let Tink out ...

S taped MasterChef - an elimination round - and we watched it when we arrived home after a sound thrashing (ours) at Trivia. “Confident. That sucks for these two because I’m just going to dominate” said Beau at the start of the show as the judges asked each of the three up for elimination how they were feeling. Hmmmm. Them’s fighting words ... but let’s see if they’re backed by some decent cooking! And they were - good on Beau! It was an amazing challenge ... if Zumbo’s pastry challenges are hard - having a challenge set by the chef who taught Zumbo everything (well, almost) he knows - Vincent Gadan - was daunting! As was the challenge of not being disappointed when the recording cut out just as they were about to announce who had been eliminated ... but S has now proved she is the “master”! She had set the next program to record as well, so she switched to that and ... voila ... We found out that Amina was safe ... and Andrew (billed in the recaps as FFM [Flamboyant Family Man]) was off home to his wife and children. His cooking future includes a plan for “food for foodies” - meals for when you don't want to cook (because not everyone has a S!).

MasterChef continues to use that flaming logo for throws to the commercials - and at this point - now that the Carbon Tax is here - it sounds like most Australians would like to introduce Julia to something similar in real life! I have been remiss in not making the time to fully understand the impact, ramifications and workings of the tax but will carve out some time to do that soon.

It’s Christmas in July! St Bernard's up on the Mountain have started advertising and it won't be long before we're trekking up there in search of good Winter Fare. It will need to be a Saturday though because I don't think I could handle the excitement of the Markets and the Mountain on the same day! A bit closer to home ... the Big House has also started Christmas in July and we may end up there for dinner next week when we run another errand for M - unless we end up there sooner, of course. (Does anyone else smell smoke?)