Tuesday

Iceberg dead ahead! Huge frost in the Hinterland! Thus said the radio (except for the bit about the iceberg) further informing us that the temperature was at 1 degree. It didn't feel that cold but I felt compelled to keep my eye out for frost - it will be our first one for the Winter - although it's still dark when I leave Latimers, so I wasn't sure how much success I would have.

The moon was magnificent this evening - full and huge and yellow, hanging in the evening sky begging to have its photograph taken! So, I had to oblige. S and I were at Zaraffas at the time, having a coffee (as one does) and I left her reading the paper while I went out to the carpark with the camera. Alas, I didn't do it justice, so will have to try to remember the scene.

Speaking of coffee, new research suggests that if you have three cups of coffee a day, you can significantly increase your chances of not getting skin cancer. It really does seem like the miracle beverage - with this and the other benefits coffee drinkers accrue - which I can't quite remember at the moment (so increased memory ability probably isn't one of them). And it tastes good too.

Simon Sheik from Get Up does not appear to have been drinking coffee (and just as well) when he collapsed on camera on Q and A last night. He was okay but it did raise some questions/publicity - because of the response of the female politician sitting next to him - she seemed to be unsure of what to do so she pulled away to give other people room to tend to him. (Other reports were less kind.) The question stemming from the incident: how do individuals cope in a crisis? And is this (people collapsing) going to be the effect of carbon tax (which they were discussing at the time) on everyone?

S has been monitoring Tink's afternoon activities since it's only a couple of days before she (Tink) is due back at the Vet. What is evident is that as soon as Tink sees she is being watched, she makes herself scarce! So, S will be confining Tink to the house as soon as practicable on Thursday - while not looking at her - to make sure she is available for her Vet visit. Hopefully she'll be able to go to monthly visits (at least) after that. I have a feeling that none of the others will be lining up to go with her - not because they don't want to have an outing, or see the vet but probably because she's told them about ... the roundabout. It's getting worse! I was going to take a photograph of it for the blog but I couldn't work out how to show the area of concern without doing an aerial shot.

I was surprised the other day when S told me she has been doing weights - until I realised she was talking about lifting Beazley up to his cookies (when Pearl is around and likely to eat them if they are on the ground... that's the dog!). The good news is that she said it's getting easier! I’m hoping the reason is twofold ... one that Beazley's getting lighter, and two that S's core strength is increasing. Either way it's a win-win.

The crime rate in the Northern Suburbs of the Gold Coast (who knew there were any?) continues to be a problem and appears to be tarnishing the tourism attraction of the area. But that may all be a thing of the past. Someone (a real estate agent) has suggested a solution. Give those suburbs to Logan! Now that's thinking outside the boundaries!

I can't believe how quickly Wednesday (aka Hump Day) has arrived - it's only tomorrow now. This is good except I'm now running out of time this week - one of the projects is behind schedule (again! or perhaps still) and it's Cost Report time (my least favourite time of the month).

It will be interesting to see if J comes tomorrow. She didn't last fortnight (she was in Melbourne), and K didn't come last week (she was at a Memorial for a friend who had died too soon after being diagnosed with melanoma) - and if J misses again, S and I will need to do an Hour of Power* at Latimers to clear a way through the pet fur - and that's just in the bedroom!

*Hour of Power: an approach S and I developed some years ago for house cleaning. You turn good, boppy music on really, really loud and throw yourself into cleaning tasks and don't stop until you're done, or until the hour's up - whichever comes first. This is quite different to Speed Cleaning (which was trialled some time ago when the concept first came into vogue - small v vogue, not Vogue the magazine - some years ago) where you section the house into areas to which you dedicate 15 minutes at a time (daily?), regularly cycling through all the areas. I prefer Hour of Power - or a coffee at Zarraffas.