Bibs And Bobs

I have been so tired this week that I just haven’t got around to blogging. I feel like I could quite easily sleep for a week. It’s been an incredibly busy year.

So, by way of a catch-up, I’ll fill you in on what’s been going on in point form:

* we have been growing tomatoes. They are growing really well and the ones that have ripened are delicious. However, the other day we noticed that a few were missing. Last night I discovered a mother possum and a baby possum munching on them. They were both so cute I couldn’t disturb them by taking a picture, so they munched away for all they were worth. Boy, oh, boy, do they love their tomatoes!

*an enormous flock of white cockatoos flew over the garden this morning. There were about a hundred of them. Their squawking was so loud they drowned out the din of the school recorder group practicing. I am all for kids learning a musical instrument but Three Blind Mice played 45 times in a row, out of time and out of tune is not good for the soul. At all. So thank you, cockatoos.

* someone was handing out free chocolate at the shops today. I have been to a wine tasting before but not a chocolate tasting. It was a little sweeter than I like, but it was free. A world where chocolate is free…can you imagine the bliss of it?

* my dearest boy did really well in his end of year school report. He got a Faculty Award in English and an award for Academic Excellence in Science. I am really pleased for him because he has had it tough this year. In further good news the karmic wheel is beginning to turn. Two of the kids who were bullying him are repeating the year (I already feel sorry for their future classmates) and another has been expelled. It is good to see that they didn’t get away with their atrocious behaviour, but you do wonder what sort of future they will have with such a bad attitude at only 13.

* I am watching Agatha Christie’s The Secret Adversary on the telly. Agatha is still one of the best murder-mystery writers ever. I had all her books when I was a kid. I think I might read them all again. I love it when people die in the drawing room with the smell of almonds on their breath and the only clue is an overturned Queen Anne sidetable. And the butler has received a blow to the head which has given him amnesia. Brilliant.

* While watching The Secret Adversary it occurred to me that people don’t send telegrams any more.

Come at once stop Urgent stop All will be revealed in due course stop.

It is also becoming rarer and rarer to receive handwritten notes. I kind of miss that.

* My cousins planted a tree for me for Christmas. I am absolutely thrilled with it. It is probably the best present I have ever had. I wish that tree a happy, long life. One day I hope to go and visit it.

* It is good to be so tired that you actually sleep right through the night. Like a baby. I don’t know where that expression came from, where sleeping well is described as sleeping like a baby because every baby I have ever known had trouble with sleep.

* Even though I know it is impossible I still dream of white Christmases. There is a brief moment where I wake up on Christmas morning where I have convinced myself while sleeping that there is snow on the ground. I do it every year. Sadly, it is never going to happen while I am living in Sydney.

Hope you are all well.

Have a great weekend!