Sunday

&0% of our ingredients are organic! That's The Meditation Farm vegetarian food and drinks sign at the front of their stall at the Markets. It would be interesting to know which 80% and whether 80% rather than 100% really makes that much of a difference. Ah the things we ponder when we have a little time on our hands ...

I went in early today - I was planning to do some photographs (didn't happen) and to make the call with Tr so I would be on time for the Markets. Sooz came in with M - and weren't that far behind Mi and Az - who were ... late. The surprise "on time" folk were Fl and Mi who arrived before 9am!

Otherwise it was the usual crowd - but without those noisy bird alarms - Fl turned the system off when he arrived - and it really does make an enormous difference.

After The Markets Mouse, M, Mi, Sooz and I went to the Gold Coast Arts Centre to see "The Budapest Grand Hotel". I am still thinking about it - and how they can wrap such a serious message in something that presents as a farce. On The Movie Show (or whatever it's called these days) Margaret had given it a 5, and David, a 4.5. We could see why!

Saturday

Well, that's 22 minutes of my life that I'll never get back .... or maybe it was a little less than that when you consider I read The Bulletin as well. The task at hand - changing the AG1 batteries in my keyring torch. When I got it, the batteries - four of them - were in a tiny plastic tube that slid out of the battery compartment as one. Getting new ones in (because I had inadvertently managed to leave the torch turned on in my pocket) proved more difficult as they had to be done individually (I tried but couldn't get them to go in the plastic tube) - and there was enough room in the barrel of the compartment tube for them to turn over - in some cases more than once - as they settled - mixing up the polarity and making the torch unwilling to work. But I did finally get the pieces to fall the right way - and hopefully I have worked out why I keep turning it on without meaning to so that should conserve/preserve the battery life.

Looking up the coast

Breakfast this morning was good ... again at Daniel Stuart's - with Sooz and M direct from their Deep Water Running, Syl on her way to the Library and me looking for a good cup of coffee and perhaps the read of a free newspaper. Sometimes I like the feel of the paper and turning the pages to see if there's any better news further in ... and the comics of course ... and puzzles.

Sooz had a haircut after breakfast - or before lunch because she managed to get an appointment in Nerang at noon. I hung around a coffee shop and read papers and ... changed the batteries in the torch.

Then it was home for a nap before going out to see Co and Da - but M had already beaten us! She had not been feeling and decided to come home to sleep it off before she goes to the Las Vegas show this evening with Mouse.

Co and Da and the kids were great. It was wonderful catching up with them as we sat on their balcony looking up the coast to Surfers Paradise. The kids can see the airport runway from their bedroom so they were pretty pleased too.

Friday

Misty morning.

Today was a good day and certainly a beautiful morning with a mist hanging over the valley as I drove out.

I had breakfast with Jo in Ormeau. I was supposed to see the Doc this morning but somehow the admin at the Medical Centre managed to book me for an appointment with a doctor I don't see - and no chance of seeing the one I do see as she doesn't work on a Friday. They obviously don't realise that I drive half an hour to get there and have to make up the time at work - so having them get it wrong is more than just mildly annoying. But I did manage to make it in to work an hour earlier than planned. Ah well, I've made another appointment and hopefully the Doc will be there for that one.

Work was more playing with numbers (of the accounting type this time) and devising some new systems for the next stage of the road works. It would be a much easier task if the switch to the new corporate accounting package was finished, reliable and a known quantity. Maybe next week!

Pearl had a visit to The Tevs today. She's going back on Monday for an X-Ray... not a scan - so they won't need to shave her. Just as well too because her fur hasn't grown back from the last time yet.

The other big news of the day is that M has bought the tickets for her and Mouse's trip so that all makes it very real. M has already started getting presents to take to the kids and she showed us some of them this evening - clothes, stationery, fun things. I'm not sure who will get more fun out of them - M or the kids... especially the slapbands. Smiggle is having a competition at the moment where the winner gets one of every item in their Safari range. I wonder, if M won that, would there be any room left in her suitcases?

M was out this evening so Sooz and I had a quiet night in with the furries. Pearl is still a little low key but more alert than she has been in the past few days - a visit to The Tevs can do that for/to a dog.

Tinka was being a little ... hmm not sure what the right word is ... but when lockdown came, I couldn't find her inside the first couple of times - and then on the third of fourth time out, Sooz called out to let me know that Tinka was inside - and must have been inside from the start. Maybe she was set up under the bed again - that was probably the only place I hadn't looked.

Thursday

The day dawned bright and cloud-free - a nice change from the rain. This means we have not been interrupted in the road works although the long term forecast is not so fine.

As I sat having my coffee and toast at Maccas this morning, Ly was handing out free chocolates and when she reached me, she said open your bag - and tipped a cup full of chocolates in. "Give them to the people at work" she told me. How could I refuse?

Sooz had an almost quiet day here except there were visitors - P came to have a look at some work M wants done around the place; then Je arrived - and she was not in a good way. So Sooz offered her a friendly ear and ended up quite drained afterwards. It's been quite fraught for her lately with people she knows and/or cares about undergoing not so nice things. Is there more of it happening? Probably not but it sometimes seems that way.

M and I did a run in to The Big House for dinner at Zen. While the food there is very nice ... the water there is absolutely amazing! It is, and I kid you not, the best water I have tasted on the Gold Coast ... and they must know I like it because they just keep bringing it. And unlike some other Thursday nights, there were people at the numbers table when we arrived ... so we sat down to watch ... okay, play.

Sooz was still up when M and I arrived back at Latimers - and she was happy to take receipt of leftovers, a bottle of water, and a couple of chips straight from the numbers table.

Wednesday

Wednesday. Bingo Day ... and there were some WAGs. In fact, half of the four were - yes, usually they are five but this week An had rung to say she couldn't make it.

Pearl has still not fully recovered from whatever the infection in her nose was. We've all noticed that she's a bit lethargic and not her usual happy dog self. She's still very difficult to give her tablet to - and now, if M has already handled the tablet Pearl won't take mince from her - possibly because the smell of the antibiotic clings to the last person it touched (or who touched it).

Sooz and I had Mouse leftovers for dinner. That woman really can cook! And Sooz reheats things very well. It was corned beef this time... and why do they call it "corned beef" if there is no corn involved?

M mowed yesterday which is why ROM has gone off for a service today. The deck seems to be crooked again and that makes for a very uneven finish.

Tuesday

Mmm ... doughnuts! Mouse had business in Nerang this Morning and, being in the area, she called out to Latimers, helped M to trim the tree and plant the raspberries (some of which were actuallygrapes) and had morning tea: she had come carrying doughnuts and a lamington - and (Yes!) there was some doughnut left for my afternoon tea when I arrived home. Yum!

It was a quiet night - which was good after last night's Trivia excitement. I finally managed to get around to a couple of things on my "to do" list but not nearly enough! Ah well, the weekend will be here soon enough!

It rained most of the day today - giving the plants around and about a much-needed soaking. Sooz's plants in her garden are coming along very nicely - and she's still collecting toilet and paper towel rolls for the next lot. She seems to be enjoying the green thumb thing - and Tinka certainly is because she's been seen using Sooz's garden as her own private litter tray!

Monday

Monday again. Where do the weekends go?

Winners are Grinners and while we weren't they we were pretty pleased to have broken our tie-break curse and have pulled off second. Once upon a time 75 (our equal best score) would have been enough to be Grinners but not tonight - we were tied for second before the tie-break: in which year was the first church opened in Australia? We said 1789 and Tidy's Crew said 1798 - and it was 1793 - making us second place by a year.

Of course, if we were Flam, we would have interrogated the results and said that if Sooz had been able to join us she would have known Chris Bowen and Tony Jones ... and there would have been our best score ever ... and the win. Ah well, we're not Fl so we're not even going to go there.

On the way home, I looked for the owl again on the way down the lane - but it must have been too late for it to be up.

On the way back though, I did pass a tourist bus on Gilston Road and I thought I knew where they'd been ... somewhere along Latimers looking at the stars.

I know I've said this before but we sometimes do forget to look up - at the stars, at the clouds, at the sunshine (but not straight into her).

M and Mi had dinner with Mouse tonight - and we were the beneficiaries as well ... Mouse and Mi sent home goodies. Yum ... and these will end up as lunch tomorrow or dinner tomorrow night. Thanks M's.