Saturday

What a lovely way to start the weekend! S had offered to do the furries so I set the alarm for 7:30 instead of 6 and then didn’t get up until 9! It's been a while since I roused with daylight already upon us ... and it a very nice change. Pearl was still in with me - although she had been up and had her breakfast cookies early so she wouldn't have them making her feel uncomfortable when she was in the car with us later as Coffee Sisters was definitely still on the agenda!

The hedges are well and truly cut back and a bobcat and tipper were there this morning loading the tree debris onto a truck. It really does look very denuded up there!

We three (S, Pearl and I) needed all our strength for the roundabout. It's growing again! They had traffic controllers working there this morning and we had to wait several minutes for the hold-up to clear. It always amazes me when they put up protection around the site and still the workers manage to be outside the barrier, on the road, with their bottoms protruding into the traffic.

Coffee Sisters was as wonderful as always - and while their coffee is usually quite good it was excellent this morning. I'm not sure who was more excited at the prospect of going out - S or Pearl (she said I could put that!). Pearl was wonderfully well behaved at breakfast (which is not to say that S wasn't as well). She (Pearl) didn't even look like she was going to eat the little yappy dog there who kept annoying her ... and we all know how they've not her most favourite things.

I have to remember to take a plastic bag with me every time when I walk Pearl - I thought she'd already attended to her business as we strolled along the Coffee Sisters street, but I was wrong and I didn't have a Baggie on me. So we had to go back to the scene with one. Anyone watching would have thought it odd for two people and a Pearl to pull up in a Volvo, go and blue-bag scoop something off the verge and then drive off. I did debate with myself whether we should go back at all but since it was my oversight, there was really no choice at all - and, of course, there should never have been any question about it!

Then, continuing Pearl's Big Day Out, we dropped her at Nana's. We had phoned A to let her know so she wouldn't have to make a special trip to feed Socks (she was on her way there but was okay with our offer of feeding Socks when we dropped Pearl off and peeled off to attend to her other errands).

While Pearl was playing with Socks, S and I were off for a walk around Pacific Fair, and a (very nice) haircut for S. I was sidetracked by the Gold Coast Bulletin ice skating rink which had materialized outside Myer, especially as I was carrying Nik and the smaller camera with me (thinking I could be trying to capture the essence of shopping in my own Photo Finish* assignment). I managed one or two okay shots but there were challenges including the lighting which cycled through different colours! But the snow machine was a great touch!

We weren't gone all that long, but you would have thought Pearl had been left at Nana's for days given the enthusiastic greeting we received on our return!

On the way home we took Pearl to visit L at Allambie Gardens. It's lovely there in the late afternoon.

The birds were all over the cut-back hedges when we drove in to Latimers. The workers had done a good job of turning over the soil along the hedge-line (and who knew there was a fence there) and the birds were loving it, a bit like they do after the grass has just been mowed.

We revisited the scene of the Great Tomato Heist this afternoon and S finally found a clue ... the “branch” the tomatoes were on - in the middle of the lawn, and it was all there except for the red tomato. Whoever took it off the plant left all the green ones - which means Maggie (a suspect because she had returned to the scene) is innocent! S has planted the evidence in case something grows from it!

* Photo Finish is a new program on the ABC where three amateur photographers are given cameras and a brief and spend the day trying to capture "the shot". They are each only allowed to put up one shot for judging at the end of the day - and the best shot is judged by a panel of experts. It's fun seeing if we can pick the winner - although it was a bit infuriating last week when one of them did not pick what was, in my opinion, the best of her shots. And because they don't post all of the photographs on the Photo Finish website, I couldn't even show it to S - not without more effort than I was prepared to put into it leastways.