Sunday

Well, the rain appears to have stopped, but for how long? At least the Kokoda Challengers wouldn't have been trudging through mud and slush all weekend! We did have a text from Sy during the evening last night to say they were sitting in a paddock full of cow droppings waiting for their Challengers. She gave no other details so we don't know if there were cows in the paddock as well. She texted this afternoon to let us know that their group had finished at around 4 this afternoon. Mammoth effort! Sy and M-A are talking about doing the walk next year if they can get a team together. Wouldn't that be an interesting exercise!?

The Markets were good - with a bigger crowd at our table than we are used to with M and the boys, and R, joining us. E is away in NZ at the moment, enjoyng less than clement Weather. A heavy cloud seems to have settled over Auckland and shows no sign of lifting. We don't have (much) cloud here today but there was enough, plus a cool gale, that kept us from going outside into the open air. It would have been difficult to make the move, too, because the table was groaning with food! A had done some special baking (including snow for “Christmas in July”) as it’s Mi's last markets for a while. Come Saturday she'll be boarding that big plane and setting off for Pristina. F won't be going with her but it won't be long until he'll be setting off for Jordan. There's been no further word on Lu's trip to the U.S. for his scholarship interview and if F is going to go with him but they’ll have to make a decision on that soon. I think they were leaning to Lu going by himself especially as he’s such a sensible young man and it’s only a few months before he’s off to do attend college there!

There are moves afoot to secure a new U.S. Sister City for the Gold Coast. It may actually be two but some of us are only excited by one of them! And that is ... Las Vegas. The other one is Honolulu. But given that the Gold Coast is due for those four new casinos, Las Vegas as a Sister City seems quite ... appropriate.

We were hoping to find a nice spot in the sun today to have a sit but it wasn't that kind of day, so we settled for an Asian lunch over at the Q Centre and I secured a table for us while S (thank you) did a "hunt and gather" at the shops.

Back at Latimers, rain stopped, S and I have been able to get out into the yard for a round of "pick-up" and, quite by accident I worked out how to do the very best job ... make sure you do it in the pair of snowy white runners that you have on for the first time. While S may have almost stepped in it, I didn't even come close! It's just a shame that the ground hasn't dried out yet so there was no way I could mow today. I'm hoping it will though and that I’ll able to do it tomorrow (especially since M arrives home on Tuesday).

Can you believe that this is the second-last week of MasterChef? They will lose three contestants this week and then one each night next week. I suppose the timing makes sense because the Olympics will soon be upon us and coverage of them will be filling the air waves.

Tink came in to watch MasterChef this evening, or we thought that was why she came in - actually it was so she could have a big nap on the couch - and impress us with her snoring! It's hard to know who's louder - Tink or Pearl ... they are both quite impressive. It's good to have Tink back inside though, especially as the temperature is supposed to drop down to 8 degrees tonight. It's definitely a night for Pearl to have her nightie on - it's been warm enough for most of the last week that she hasn't needed it - and the one night we did put it on her, she tried to take it off.

She must have been tired tonight because as well as sleeping through MasterChef, Pearl came to bed with me rather than sitting up with S as she usually does. For a moment there I thought Beazley would come as well, but that was not to be.