Thursday - and back from Toowoomba

The furries were all at home when we arrived back from today - Pearl was in helping Je with the cleaning, Tinka was out on her seat out the back, and Maggie was looking for a place to be - she came over to have a pat with me, then went off to eat some grass, then on to the back of my seat, clambered over me and onto the table, then down to the chair at the far end where she settled in for a nap.

Je was still here when we arrived - she wasn't able to come yesterday - and she kept saying something about it being good that she hadn't because it had been so wet here. It had been cool and foggy in Toowoomba but we certainly didn't have the torrential rain of the Gold Coast nor the high winds that Warwick was hit with last night. That's not to say it didn't rain a lot last night, because it did, but it wasn't severe weather.

On the way back to the Coast we called in and had lunch with Jo at Ormeau. She had He with her - yes, the same He who had sparked Jo's interest in overseas travel and she was telling us about her recent visit to Ireland with her sister who is researching a biography she is writing on* an Australian author (*or perhaps "about" would be a better way of putting it ... otherwise how would she have the writer stay stationary [or is that stationery?] enough to pen the tome?). And, in a minute, He will be travelling again, this time to Russia. Jo's planning her own trip soon - a cruise around some Pacific Islands in September with the family.

It looked as though Jungle John had been in our absence - the front garden had been cleared out and re-hayed, and had there been more pruning of the Bohemia tree? But it was odd that the back garden (with the tomatoes) had not been touched because I was sure M had said that was on JJ's list. As it turned out, it was all M ... she had thrown herself into chores mode - including some gerneying on the back area! She's done a great job.

M, S and I went out to dinner at The Big House this evening - and we all had the Shank Special although two of us paid more for it ... thanks to Jupiter's differential pricing! Not to mind though, because it was very nice - and you couldn't get it for $15 (rounded) (red tier members) elsewhere, and definitely not for $10 (rounded) (black tier members).

Tinka and Edmund

The Casino seemed to be not very busy at all tonight, and certainly, and uncharacteristically, we didn't have to wait in line at all to get into Spinners! And it didn't get to "full" at all while we were there - either having dinner, or when we went back latter for S's Treacle Tart!

On the way home, we made a quick call in to Mouse's so M could tell her about the phone repairs booked ("that's a half-hour I'll never get back" lamented M when she was telling us about placing the service call) and what she, Mouse, needed to do - basically checking the line to see when it had tone again, so they could then arrange for the redirect currently in place to be removed. For some reason, once the line goes live, Telstra is not able to remove the redirect themselves - and they start charging. Hmmm. So much for communications and service.

Tinka has obviously missed us while we've been away. She seems to have really cosied up to Edmund in our absence!