Thursday

It rained a lot this today - so much that at one stage (just as I was packing up to leave) I wasn't sure I would be able to reach the car without getting saturated. It didn't help that I park as far away from the office as possible to get those extra steps in. Finally, when it appeared it wasn't going to let up, I packed my devices as dryly as I could and then packed everything in a cardboard box so I could make the dash to Lars when the rain let up a little. Suffice to say I was a little slow and had to wait for the second let-up!

Storm clouds!

Work put on a First Aid Training course for those who were interested and even though I hadn't managed to do my online assessment by the time the trainer arrived (a prerequisite for the course ... the online assessment and the trainer) I could still participate. It was great ... there have some things that have changed since last I did a First Aid course ... and the CPR refresher ... and seeing how defibrillators work - was an added plus. I learnt something too ... when they defibrillate someone - they are not starting the heart, they are stopping it, and waiting for the heart to restart itself. All this time of watching medical dramas, I had no idea that was the case. (It's a bit like morse code where the dots and dashes were the bits between the beeps rather than the length of the beeps themselves).

The Grape Vine is growing quite quickly now ... and I'm wondering if I'm going to have to prune it back a little more so it can concentrate on fruiting rather than producing vine leaves (not necessarily a bad thing - but it would be good to have both).

More storm clouds

I didn't find out until M and I arrived at The Big House for CSP tonight ... but CSP has gone off ... again ... and needless to say, the jackpot didn't go to anyone we know. That's a shame because even though it was less than $100k this time, it would still have been nice to share it around and still have something to jingle in your pocket. "Kissing Man" wasn't there tonight but Mr Drunk-ish Man was sitting next to me and the O-De-Beer was quite strong, replaced by the O-De-Whisky when he left and someone else arrived. They still aren't providing bottles of water at the tables - but when M and I went upstairs for a coffee, two bottles did come home with us.

After waiting more than 45 minutes for the meals to arrive tonight ("The Nasi Goreng is ready but yours [indicating M] looked like cr*p so they're remaking it") raised the question of whether it might not just be quicker and easier to stop in at the Q Centre on the way in for dinner rather than taking our chances with TBH eateries.

The storms were still around this evening - there were big lightning flashes over the coast - and more over the Hinterland on the way home. They had downgraded the storm warning though - so there were some people breathing a bit easier across the Coast tonight.

Pearl and Tinka didn't seem that perturbed by the storms this time ... but Maggie certainly was ... and laid low in M's room for most of the day.