Wednesday

Note to self: Remember to take a different way to work in the morning. There are roadworks on the way to Maccas - they have reduced the traffic to one direction only and are doing stop/start traffic on the remaining lane. I don't understand why they do roadworks during the morning peak (who knew I would ever consider 6:50am to be "morning peak").

It wouldn't have mattered but I was running a bit behind time ... I decided I didn't even have time to take a photograph of the cows silhouetted against a bank of mist.

Who wrote the play the Merchant of Venus? Close - but not the morning captions on television - it was Spida on the radio reading out the questions/answers for the Gold 92.5FM's Trivia Minute.

It was nice not to feel like I had to have an early start at work today. It's still end of month but we're up to accruals now- or a-cruels as Sooz calls them.

Alas, I was too late home to take Pearl for a walk this evening, I had planned to be home earlier but I dropped in at the shops on the way home for a few thing including some Pearl mince - she needs it since she's finished Mouse's care packages. Sooz had been cooking today - rhubarb, chicken Soup - and she was going to cook sausages for dinner: but who needs sausages when there's fresh chicken soup. We ate as we watched Master Chef. I know we had said we wouldn't be watching MasterChef in real time - too many ads - but we did tonight - for a while anyway. There are still way too many ads.

Offspring is on tonight - and Sooz is watching it while I catch up with the first episode of Fargo. I shouldn't have been surprised that it's as violent as it is (Fargo not Offspring). I seem to recall the movie of the same name was a tad on the violent side as well ... and wasn't something with a wood chipper?

Kezza's shoes

I did see the giant spider again yesterday - on the wall - above the doorway (space) between the kitchen and the living room. For a very long moment, I considered whether it might be thinking of trying out a bungee jump. Hmmm. Walk faster! It's gone now though. I wonder where to ... and yes, I did shake out my boots thoroughly before I put them on this morning ... I'd left them in the kitchen overnight - which reminds me that I'll have to get another pair of runners - I had a blow out in one of them on Sunday. It's just good that I wasn't going around a corner at speed when it happened.

Maggie's glad the television is back - she gets to sit with Sooz on the couch again. She also had a sit near Kezza while she was here - and word has it she also had a Raki treatment. She purred through hers!

It's a shame M missed Kezza - she would have liked her ... especially her shoes - as captured in the parking lot of Maccas where I dropped her for the changeover.

 

Tuesday

It was quite a different start to a work day. I was up early - cat and dog feeding - and doing tray patrol - taking Pearl for her walk - and then settling in to do some reading while I waited for the others to get up. We weren't due to leave the house until 8:15, so I had tons of time to "puddle" - especially as I had finished my "work" just before 12 last night. Perhaps I should have taken the opportunity to sleep in, but I don't want to get out of my routine - or get the furries out of whack either.

Did I mention that An didn't come to Trivia last night. They are in the middle of getting ready for their caravan excursion so she decided to give it a miss. When Fl asked where she was, I told him she was off celebrating her anniversary - and he asked for her phone number so he could ring her and give her a hard time - the same as the rest of us had given him last week. He said that, in the end, he and Mi hadn't gone out to dinner to celebrate their anniversary - they had ordered in and had dinner with their boys. It sounded like a lovely thing to do.

There was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing this morning about how we were getting Sooz to work but in the end, Je picked her up from Maccas. We'd had breakfast at the little cafe near the Post Office - always good - but if I had thought about it for a moment longer, I would have suggest Monte Matre. Next time!

It was wonderful having Kezza to stay - and she seemed to enjoy Latimers very much - but what's not to enjoy? Especially if you're there when the power's on. It wasn't supposed to be today - there was a note in the letterbox about a planned disruption - 8am to 4pm. We didn't get home until 6-ish (I was late leaving work - EOM accounts stuff - and then I had to pick Sooz up from Zarraffas, where Je had dropped her).

The mornings are brilliant here at the moment - each morning the mist is different.

Monday

"I can be your Katherine help burn." And so the captions on the Today show continue.

Everyone was asleep when I left for work this morning - except Pearl who was waiting for me to give her the rest of her breakfast cookies - but that's a job for Sooz.

Why does it take longer some mornings to get through the morning routine? Pearl and I didn't go on our walk until nearly 6:30 and by that time I'm usually long gone!

An is back from her reunion weekend in Sydney and came out to pick the girls up - to take Sooz to Aqua and to let Kezza explore the pool surroundings - Ferry Road and Southport Park. Then An gave them a lift back - and they all - including Syl - had lunch at Latimers. Who knew there was an Aldi at Southport Park? And that Aldi has a great blue cheese?

It is getting closer to Syl and An's Melbourne departure date and at this rate I don't think I will see them again before they go.

At Trivia tonight, two teams scored 77 - and we weren't one of them. It is the best score that they've had here since we started playing a couple of years ago - and for two teams to get it on the one night is astonishing. We had a passable score of 70 which ordinarily would have guaranteed us a place on the podium - but not tonight.

Kezza at the Club

The Fl post-mortem suggested we could have made six more points - but not to be. I think Ke enjoyed herself - and the booing over one of the answers certainly gave her a flavour of the game.

There's only two more weeks of play before St and An set off for France. St is going a little earlier - taking part in a bike race - I think we're calling it the Tourette de France (which of course led to a lot of inappropriate conversation when we thought of it at Trivia).

Tinka

I couldn't believe it when Ke told us after Trivia that she had never played a poker machine before - and we were just a little surprised when she fished a coin out of her purse and popped it into the machine. We gave instructions, as best we were able - it's not easy explaining the intricacies of a poker machine to a novice - it's not like you just have to push a button or anything ... it might seem like that - but it's actually more complicated than that - as we realised as we took Ke through the steps.

After Aqua this afternoon, when they got home, Ke gave Sooz a Raki treatment. She enjoyed it very much - and so did Ke who almost went to sleep herself as she was doing it - and she never does that! We can only take her word for that though - because I think I was mostly asleep when she did me yesterday! It was the strangest feeling - not be asleep - but when she had her hands on my face - and they were absolutely cold - and I had thought that Raki was about heat. Hmmm. I felt good afterwards though - which is my excuse for not doing better in the Scrabble match. Tinka was in on the bed when I was having my Raki - and she seemed to enjoy it as much as Pearl did this afternoon - she slept near the bed as Ke was doing it.

I watched them all go off to bed tonight as I stayed up to get some work done - part of the End of Month accounts - that I would be doing at work tomorrow if I wasn't having a later start - giving Sooz a lift to Ashmore and then dropping Ke off at Robina so Di could pick her up to take her to the airport.

Sunday

Skype call with Tr. They had been to Vivid (Sydney's festival of lights) - and yesterday before the auction she sent us a photo of people standing in front of a giant rabbit - one of a - what is the collective noun for a group of rabbits? - bunch of them under the southern end of the Harbour Bridge.

It seems that Mi - who did go the Markets - didn't let the others know that we weren't starters for today's session. We had errands to do - before Kezza arrived - the most important of which was investing in a Scrabble set so we could play with her this evening. And, because I thought she and Sooz might enjoy watching Q&A tomorrow night, we also went out and purchased a new television set. Why do they call them television "sets"? And Scrabble "sets" for that matter.

But even before we got to do that, we called in to Ferry Road for morning tea and some shopping. Chicken was definitely on the list - and Sooz also saw some proscuitto and melon that wanted to come home with us.

The "oddest" moment at Ferry Road though was when we were at the Children's shop and were looking to see what Scrabble Sets they had - we'd already bought one at Target but I thought they might have something a little less plasticy - and with a board with recesses for the tiles. Sooz, who was walking in front of me, stopped and picked up a toy doll - boy - from a pram. She proceeded to tell me it was "anatomically correct". Of course, I had to know how she knew; and she told me she had "felt" it because that was not as strange as pulling its pants down to check would have been! Only Sooz could think of that.

We met up with Kezza and her friend Di at the North Burleigh Surf Club - we were not alone. It was incredibly busy there but we still managed to get a table - and one near the window overlooking the beach. Splendid! There were lots of board riders out and about - you wouldn't have thought it was the first day of Winter! Just think - only 21 days until the days start getting longer again - but they have to get shorter first.

Scrabble letters

We had a quick call with M on Skype this afternoon. She has been trying to contact us over the last couple of days - but with no success. Just as well she caught us today thought because they are off on the Mediterranean cruise tomorrow - starting from Rome. It should be wonderful - and hopefully M won't have any trouble with seasickness -- hopefully none of them will.

Syl was out at Latimers when we arrived home after lunch and she was kind enough to help me move the now-not-working television and install the new one. It is amazing how much smaller the new one is ... but it serves the purpose. Sooz can finally get back into Foxtel and see how many of her programs she's missed because she hasn't been able to watch and delete them.

Not that anyone was watching this evening ... we were Scrabbling ... and we ate dinner (anti-pasto - thank you Woolworths and Ferry Road Markets) as we played. I'm not saying that I had the worst hands - but I think anyone who saw them would get the idea that I was pushing it uphill for a bit of the game!

Syl was quite busy this afternoon ... she also managed to get on to ROM and take a spin around the yard. She was then asking about Hermes' paddock but by that time it was too late for her to even start to think about that. I was a bit disappointed that she had ROM'd of course, I had been looking forward to doing it this afternoon when I arrived home. I would have done it this morning but the grass was too wet. D'oh. Will I ever get on ROM again?

As I went to bed this evening, I couldn't help but wonder what that thing was that M saw run under the couch when I was taking her on the virtual tour of the house this evening. Thankfully the big spider hasn't moved and I think that I will be keeping an eye out for it over the next few days ... just in case.

Saturday

Sooz was still asleep when I left this morning. I'm hoping she slept well last night because she has been more than a little anxious about today's auction. It is, afterall not just our first auction but also the first time we have sold a property.

Syl - shooting.

Otherwise it was a fairly standard start to the day - except it was an hour later - and already light - by the time we were "up and at them"! The furries were in no hurry to get up this morning and I had to call both cats from their beds for their breakfast! Then, breakfast eaten, they went straight back to those beds! Mind you, it's not looking to be one of the nicest days here on the Coast - it's dawned cloudy, cool and a little rainy. That would make it a perfect day for a DVD in my book - if we didn't have some Supermarket shopping, and shooting to do.

I tried out the German bakery, Devour, near Spotlight, this morning on my way to the GCPC and it wasn't bad. I'm not used to having ham and cheese croissant for breakfast but they didn't have anything as boring as raisin toast.

Syl came out this afternoon. She'd stayed on at the GCPC this morning for "The Match" while I left early to make sure I was home with Sooz for the auction. It was an auspicious day for an auction, with 888 properties up for auction this weekend in Sydney, 88 of which were in the Inner West. Ours went well thanks I think to the excellent people we had on our team, the great advice we received along the way, and the amount of worry that Sooz has put into the exercise. We were both happy with the result ... more than happy actually.

I can't believe how wet today turned out to be. I was hoping to get in a mow but it was way too wet for that. At least the grass in the paddocks is getting a good soaking, and the garden beds that Sooz is going to re-plant in a minute.

 

Friday

Tink - weighing up options

I took Tinka to the vet this afternoon and I was very proud of her. She didn't cry on the way in - or the way out - or leave anything in her box either. Of course I had to leave the cover half off the cage, and have my fingers in so she could lean up against them, and to rest her chin on them (and drool just a little). So, the Vet, was very good with Tinka and managed to get her blood on the first go. She weighed in at the same as last week - and her blood sugars were elevated again. So said that she did understand that Tinka gets stressed out by the vet visits - and she tries to keep that in mind when she's considering the readings. The upshot is that Tinka is now on 11 units of insulin two times a day, and she goes back next Thursday afternoon for another check.

I breakfasted in Nerang this morning and called in to collect the work mail from the BC. I found a red card (signature item to collect) there - and handed it in to the person in the "hatch" and before I could tell her what number - she told me what it was. i was stunned and asked her how she knew ... she touched her forehead and said "psychic". When she came back she said it had been quite easy ... with the name of the company emblazoned on my shirt. D'oh. But, still, she had done well to remember our box number! It was a fun way to start the day.

I also checked the Latimers box at the Nerang Post Office. I'm not sure M's post from the friends in Broadbeach will be of use to her while she is in Turkey - although there may be an invitation for her to take part in some promotion or other.

Well done Sooz!

Sooz was busy today - she cleaned out the front and the back areas so they are now pleasant areas to hang out in - there's room to put a cuppa and bikkies on the table again! She did a great job!

It was Br's last day , with us and she provided morning tea to "celebrate" - doughnuts - is there nothing they can't do? She will be missed ... and her help ... there's no way we could have powered through as much as we have in the past few weeks without her. We're not on top of End of Month - but we're in better shape than anyone could have expected. She wasn't the only departure this week ... Jim left yesterday - he is going back to Rockhampton - and University. One of the engineers has also resigned and he leaves next week. Who said there is nothing as constant as change?

Well, tomorrow is the big day ... our unit is under the hammer (going to auction) ... fingers crossed!

 

Thursday

Sooz had made spaghetti bolognese for dinner - which was good because it was a little late (but not greatly) by the time I arrived home ... I worked back again tonight trying to get just that little bit more out of the way while it was quiet - which it might have been had there not been a night shift on.

We have now locked in the details of Kezza's visit - and we're very much looking forward to seeing her again. I wonder where our Scrabble Board is ... that's if we actually do have a Scrabble Board!