Sunday

No Skype call with Tr this morning. I knew it was going to be a late night (no-one to supervise me and make me go to bed at a sensible time - since Sooz is away) so I rescheduled to next week.

Markets. There by 9:12am so I made it before the cut-off time of 9:15 - so no fine for me today. But surely they were only joking about that - I know, but after seeing Baba hand over his $5 to Mouse as soon as he walked in, it felt a little hypocritical not to be prepared to pay up this week! We started out a fairly small group - since Sooz, M and Mi (she's gone to New Zealand) were away. But Nu came, as well as Et and his family, and Um's Mum turned up as well, as well as Syl and An.

Syl and An were hard at work yesterday on the garden ... they are trying to get the house shipshape in time for the 60th which is now only two short weeks away. While Syl went off to Bunnings to get more supplies, I took An home so we could try some more video formats on their televisions - and the new one takes both .mov and .mp4 files, while the downstairs one reads neither of those formats. I'll try one more (.avi) with it, before we go to plan C - which is to burn a DVD. I've also picked up some new photographs from them, which I'll sort through once I get back to Latimers and transfer good ones to the appropriate files/presos. I showed them the "Friends" segment today and I think they both liked it - and I'll show it to Sooz and M when they get home today. I really do love doing this type of thing - and while An says she's concerned about the amount of time that's going into it ... when Syl commented that I could do this for a living, An responded that people have no idea how much time and effort goes into it ... so she does understand that time (as well as enough decent photos and a good soundtrack) is probably the most vital component.

Fl asked how we went at Trivia when we saw him at the Markets (the first time we've seen him since he arrived back yesterday morning from Malaysia and Singapore) and we stuck with the story about not telling him how close we managed to get to the Podium. When he tried to question us more, we changed the subject. But at least we had won drink vouchers for the team when we among the 3 teams to get the Baffler on the second question.

I finally made it to the carwash this afternoon and did some writing while they were working on the car. M is right, they have "gone off" so the car will be going to Espresso or somewhere else from now on ... but it was good to get it done today ... it has been too long but, as Anita said, it's a work car now.

Next stop, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary - and the Zarraffas there ... but they are no longer a Zarraffas. Still, the coffee was okay, although a little strong even though I had asked for my usual (telling them what it was of course, otherwise they may have served me anything ... and coffee is too important to take that chance). I stayed there until almost the last possible moment ... Sooz had texted to say the plane was leaving on time so I planned to be in the vicinity of the airport at 4.10pm. I'm sure it was their plane that flew over as I drove around the corner to the Highway. I only had to wait a few minutes for them to come out of the airport - they would have been sooner but they had to wait to reclaim the painting M had purchased at Hank's exhibition yesterday - which couldn't travel with them because the airline was strictly enforcing their "one person/one piece of luggage" rule. 

Sooz and M had a great weekend - and they made my day when they brought me back some fare from the Lebanese restaurant where they went for lunch. It was wonderful - I had it for dinner ... I was at least able to wait that long. The optimist in me thought there might be enough leftover for lunch ... but no. Sooz has now suggested that I had the leftover pasta from the other night ... which I will do. But the rice pudding I will have tonight!