Saturday

It was an early start all round this morning as we hurried to get ready to get on the road. Sooz and M had to be at the airport in time for their 8am flight to Sydney. They're off to the opening of their friend Hank's art exhibition as well as looking forward to catching up with a couple of their favourite eateries in their City of Sydney.

I stayed at home to work on An's birthday presos and to catch up on some other "jobs" that I just haven't been able to get to - refreshing the iOS on the iPad (which badly failed last time and took 4 hours to reconstitute ... and then missed some things) and on the iPhone, and resurrecting my photos (lost in the last iOS update). I needed the photos to look through to see if there were any more I could use for the presos - so it was all good and I felt like I was working to a common purpose.

I took regular breaks through - to check what Sooz and M were up to via FaceBook, and to check to see that Tinka was okay. M said she had some sores on her back which looked like Tinka had taken ticks out, and just in case this was what had happened, she wanted me to monitor her in case she became unwell. And then, of course, I had to spend time with Maggie (who spent the day asleep on the chair in M's room), and Pearl who was happy to be with me down the back as I worked.

It is quite different not having any other person around - "come and see this" doesn't work as well with the furries! But I will be able to show the humans when they return tomorrow.

Oh, yes, and I turned the dishwasher on, ran it through its cycle, and then emptied it ... so that was another little job ... and went out and had a look at the grape vine, deciding which two ... what do you call the individual growing things on a grape vine? ... to leave because the others have to go if the plant is to concentrate on producing fruit.

The litter box wasn't cleaned out early enough for Tinka ... she came down at about 7 to let me know that she wanted me to do it ... which I did - and made sure the unused litter box down near the office was well out of reach so she'd stop pretending she was going to use that one ... not a good look since there isn't any litter in it!

Mi and Az took Mouse to lunch at The Big House (Food Fantasy) today and they said it was very nice ... and from the way Az spoke it seemed it was much nicer than the buffet at the Sheraton they'd been to last week for Bajram. She was a bit flummoxed though when she had to put a dollar through a machine fear of losing points she'd amassed - and after trying without success, someone she knows through work happened along and assisted. She put in her card, put her dollar in - pressed the button for 10 lines (it was a 10 cent machine) - won $20 and left! Job done. Mouse won a $50 Food and Beverage on the great card swipings!

Choo Choo Ma Ma has reappeared in the paddock and the question we all have, since she went off to be serviced, is "is she pregnant?". We can't tell just by looking, of course, so we're hoping Candice will be able to tell us.

There were white galahs all over the back lawn at Latimers when I returned home from the airport run (plus breakfast, plus going to the Post Office) and I tried out the new camera lens on them but with only minimal success. Maybe I can find an instruction manual online for it. But whatever it is in the lawn, the galahs just love it! They were there for about an hour after I arrived back.