Thursday

The furries haven't forgotten their morning routine so that's encouraging although Pearl may have wondered about me. I usually give her a couple of breakfast cookies - but not this morning. She has been bleeding from the mouth again and M thinks it has something to do with her new cookies - which are the only thing that's changed in her diet, so I was hesitant to give her any. Since M and Sooz were scheduled to have an early start this morning, I was fairly sure that Pearl wouldn't have too long to wait until someone fed her.

She was good on our walk though - even when it started to spit (but not much more) on our way back from B's. It's a shame because we really do need the rain. All the grass has been either burned off by the frost or is badly in need of water. There's rain forecast for the weekend and hopefully that will eventuate.

It was odd being awake for the whole day today - especially after having so much sleep over the last few days (which I'm sure did me the world of good). Mind you, it was fairly busy at work with a few issues to sort out, a spreadsheet to create, and some catch-up with what I could have done except I was off with the lurgy. The amazing thing is that it still manages to be there after a couple of days away!

Tonight was the Safety Course at the Pistol Club and I was surprised that there were about ten of us in total. I had Ross (not Kate - Syl had her) and it all ran quite smoothly - including the safety video which looked to be about 30 years old - based on the fashions and the hair cuts. The girl reminded us all of Charlene from Neighbours - before she became Kylie Minogue the Pop Queen. But the safety points are still valid and in this case it's probably the old "if it's not broken don’t fix it" in action.

Sooz could have gone out to Mouse's for dinner with M and Fl but I think she was fairly tired from real estate looking. I think she and M looked at about 8 properties today and Sooz and I will revisit some of them on the weekend (and maybe a few new ones). It's a good start - checking out what is available and seeing how much "bang" you can get for your buck. One of the agents was saying this is a good time to buy on the Coast - although possibly not to sell because the prices are on a par with those about ten years ago.

Monday - Wednesday

Well, there are some days I will never get back. But it was a good rest - if you call nearly 48 hours of sleep while deep in lurgy territory "rest". But I am feeling much better now and I think I'm going to be on deck and ready to go back to work tomorrow ... and this time I'll be more productive than I was on Monday ... it was all I could do to stay awake at my desk! That was my first clue that I wasn't feeling well! When I arrived home on Monday afternoon, I was getting ready to go to Trivia when Sooz thought it was probably better that I didn't go. As M said, I looked "like death warmed up". Amazingly I didn't feel like that until a bit later.

I have a couple of memories of yesterday ... one was that Mac came around and dumped something on the burning pile down the back. He said it was easier than doing it on Friday. I didn't question him on that. And that was about my only lucid memory of yesterday ... oh, wait, Sooz made lamb curry, the old-fashioned way. That was nice ... I had started with only a very small serve, but then had to have a touch more. Then it was back to bed for me. I think Maggie came with me at least for a while.

Today was just as vague. I woke up at five and had promised myself that I did, I would go to work, but once I had done breakfast for the furries, the only place I wanted to go was back to bed. I next woke up just as Sooz and M were going off to Aqua, then lunch, and some errands I think. Sooz picked me up some eye drops - and as soon as I put them in this afternoon when they returned, I realised how sore my eyes have been. (Sooz suggested they hadn't looked that great either.)

The one thing I do remember about Monday night is that the moon was absolutely fantastic! It was a Super Moon and it hung in the sky, yellow and enormous thanks to the Ptolemy effect.

Sunday

I was running a couple of minutes late for the Skype call with Tr this morning but she'd only just gotten out of bed so it was okay. Life is good for them and Tr was saying she's just received an invitation to Government House for an event with Governor Marie Bashir which will be her farewell as well. They are very much looking forward to it (the event, not the departure of the Governor).

It was a return to The Markets today and we were a small group - just five of us. Syl and An had planned to come but Vir was not feeling well so they missed it. That was okay though because we caught up with them this afternoon to wish them a "Bon Voyage" before they set off early in the morning. Vir was still not right this afternoon and An was tending her with alternating hot and cold packs. She was showing signs of improvement though and they're hoping she will be back on her feet tomorrow because they won't be there to look after her.

It was a shame they were in Brisbane last night because otherwise they could have joined us for dinner at Entwine at TBH. It was wonderful though - and just in time because last night was Entwine's last night before both it and Vivo close. Vivo will be back in December in a bigger and better incarnation .... Entwine's space will be replaced by a bar and Tapas cafe. I'm glad we made it there though ... thank you M. The food was wonderful and even though I usually have my steak medium-well, when I decided to have "The butterknife steak", so called because they serve it with a butterknife because that's all you need to cut it with, I decided to go with "medium" so as not to offend the Chef (too much). It was truly magnificent and, no joking, on the first mouthful I felt so joyful I could have cried! The others were as happy with their dishes I think, and certainly the entrees and desserts ... and oh my goodness ... the bread ... the butter ... were all way up there as well. Yum!

We were up a little late last night but not too late ... but still this morning I kept turning the alarm off so I ended up getting up half an hour later than planned ... and being just that few minutes late for the call with Tr.

But we weren't late for the movie today ... we decided to catch the 11:40 session as we were breakfasting at The Markets. This was almost the earliest we have left The Markets - and it was much much easier to make the decision given there were only the five of us.

The movie was "The Hundred-Foot Journey", set in France, with an Indian family setting up a restaurant across the road from a Michelin-Star restaurant. Of course, there's more to it than that but that's the basis of what is a very enjoyable "feel good" movie (if, like "Slumdog Millionaire", you ignore the opening!). And speaking of feel-good movies, Sooz saw a trailer yesterday for the sequel to the Marigold Hotel movie. It looks great ... and the only thing we're not looking forward to is that it isn't due to be released until next year.

Saturday

Siblings at the station

We were all up early this morning - M was off to her deep water running and we were getting ready to take Ch to the train so he could catch his plane back to Hong Kong. He was due to fly out at 10:30 so we had him on the 6:49 train. That left us over an hour and a half before we were due to pick Mouse up for breakfast so off we went to the beach - to watch the water and the activity that seems to gravitate there. Sooz spent some time watching two guys at the car parked in front of ours pulling on wet suits - which looked like very hard work. Who knew they were so hard to pull up and position just so. And then they were off - running down the dune and across the sand to the water.

Fruit plate post-Lamb

We were ten minutes early to Mouse's and waited across the road for her - until it was time. She must have been watching out for us though because she called out to us saying "Coming" - and there she was.

Breakfast was good. We went to One50 at Bundall, across the roads from the Gold Coast Arts Centre ... yes, the same place we went to on the morning of the "dead body, vomit and degloved hand" conversation. There were none of those this morning. And there wasn't an An either. She had taken herself off to the hairdressers - and when we thought babout it, the timing wasn't that surprising given she and Syl set off for the States in a couple of days. Vi was there though and she seems to have recovered from her feet operations (she had both done at once even though her surgeon had recommended that she have them done individually) and the better news (for us anyway) is that she is keen to do Trivia in An's place on Monday!

After breakfast, Sooz and I went to Espresso to have Billi washed. yes - No-Name finally has a name! Sooz and I have been working on it for a couple of days and when we were talking about it last night at dinner (Sooz bedinnered us with a fantastic lamb roast) it was M who came up with the name. It works on a number of levels.

 

Friday

I took the day off to spend with Ch and Sooz. I went to work but decided I didn't want to stay. In fact, when I saw the balloons coming down over Carrara all I wanted to do was follow them - and it was all I could do to make myself go to work. By the time I got there though I didn't want to stay so I decided to tell M that I wanted to go home so I coulkd spend time with my brother-in-law. I was very careful to say the real reason, not pretend I was feeling poorly because tomorrow is Saturday and there is no way I want to tempt any kind of lurgy to come calling - bad enough that there is a real possibility of picking up something from Pat.

Up on the roof

Syl came out to the farm today - something to do with taking the caravan to have the brakes looked at. They said, again, that there was nothing wrong with it - but this time they spent half an hour fixing the something that wasn't wrong. Then she was back - they had done the fix while she waited - and when she confirmed we would be around for a while, she pulled out the ladder and launched herself on to the roof of the portico to clear out the gutters. The tobacco weed that had been growing up there now isn't and the build-up of leaf detrius from the bohemia tree has now been reassigned to the garden as mulch. It was a bit "spooky" - apparently M had dreamt about those gutters last night - so there could have been some telepathy happening there.

I must say that while that would have been a good trick, I am in awe of how Syl backs the caravan into the stables shed. It took her a while this morning - there's a fence on one side so there isn't a lot of manoeuvre room but if it had been me, there wouldn't be a shed now.

 

Thursday

Chr and Pat finally arrived around lunchtime today just a little later than Jen who dropped in to see Sooz. Jen is ecstatic ... she finally has an iPhone. I wouldn't say it was "love at first sight" but it wasn't far from it. She is so impressed by what they can do - and she doesn't know the half of it yet.

We had arranged to go out to dinner near the beach with Chr and Pat over near Main Beach and Syl and M were coming too. Syl was getting there under her own steam but we had to have a quick discussion about how the rest of us were getting there. I didn't think everyone would have been comfortable in No-Name after we had shoe-horned us all in so we decided both M and I would drive - she would take Sooz and Chr and I would bring Pat. Alas, Pat was not well - the poor kid has always suffered from some kind of respiratory ailment and he has a cold to go with it now.

Who knew the Club where we were having dinner would be so busy on a Thursday night. We were just in time for the Member Draw - unfortunately M did not win it or the second chance draw - and then for the raffle with 30 or so prizes - and none of us were lucky in that one either.

Dinner was good - Sooz, Chr and Pat shared a seafood platter - and it was as good as we remembered. The only way it could have been better is if it had been light and bright (and maybe a bit quieter) - but light and bright so there could have been a view of the ocean. We did get to hear it though and that was nice.

On the way home, I took Chris, and M took Sooz and P back via the late-night chemist so they could stock up on drugs for him. He was so crook he can't have had that fantastic a time. Ch is good although he has a bit of a lurgy himself - just the dregs at this point, It was so bad at one stage that when he was in bed, he coughed and cracked a rib. He's still trying not to laugh because it hurts too much. (Why don't you take painkillers into the forest? Because the parrots eat them all! [That would be paracetamol.])

Wednesday

Admin staff was a bit sparse on the ground at work today ... Ch was away sick and AC left at half-time because she still has her mother with her as they still have errands to run before her Mum returns home. Still, the peace and quiet was good and I was able to start catching up on some of the paperwork I've been neglecting as we ploughed through that enormous backlog of invoices.

It was a good lead-in to shooting this evening. It's the start of the multi-week competition - I think six or eight - and you can shoot on either Wednesday night or Friday night. If you choose to shoot both, they take your best score of the two nights. The good news is that the shoot - air pistol - takes only a couple of hours so I was home by 7:30. That would have been important had I been wanting to watch the final episode of "Offspring" - which started at 8:30. This was the last episode of "Offspring' for this season, possibly ever as they haven't yet decided if they will be going into production for the next season. It ended well - if there isn't another episode there are no loose ends to wonder about.

Sooz's brother Chr is due tomorrow. Pat is driving him up from Kyogle and we are looking forward to Pat staying the night as well. At first it looked as though he wouldn't be able to but then Louise who he was supposed to be driving to her music lesson in the afternoon, took the day off to spend with Chris, saying she was sick, and by the end of the day she was. So no music lesson for her and no driving her there for Pat.