Settling into a routine

 19/01/2012
  One of those days when I seem to have beavered about all day with not much to show for it. The stinger nets are now open but there don’t seem to be many takers, it will take time for peoples confidence to return. We have lost one of our curlew chicks, only one turned up last night with Mum and Dad, most likely snake fodder.

 20/01/2012
  Friday seems to be my day of toil, grass cutting, toad culling general duties, all an embuggerance getting in the way of life here in Paradise! So with that over and done with by lunchtime, time to take it easy. We phoned for the courtesy bus to come and pick us up to take us to the rugby club, where we had a few, and a few more beers with Paul and Lorraine and Frank and Julie, then a free ride home.

 21/01/2012
  It rained on and off for most of the day and the forecast is for more over the next week. There is a monsoonal trough to the north of us and is steadily moving our way. It’s the sort of low pressure that cyclones can develop from, but so far there are no warnings.
 Thought we might have a beer at Yorkeys Knob yacht club as it’s just a phone call away for the courtesy bus to come and take us out there, it’s a wonderful idea! We met my brother Steve there for a couple of schooners sitting under cover on the deck looking at the boats. It costs up to $21,000 to $27,000 to park them there for a year! After that we caught the bus home again, free of charge. Glad we don’t own a boat!

 22/01/2012
  Jane would just like it recorded that she worked hard this morning, hoovering, mopping and a bike ride to the shops. Huh…..women’s work! I cleaned the pool, swam and sunbathed as it’s been a beautiful day, not at all what they forecast. We held a mini Matildas, us, Paul and Lorraine and their girls and Glyn and Alana who are still on their detox of carrot juice! We waited until they had gone home for some lettuce then we BBQ-ed half a cow! Then it rained.

 23/01/2012
  Alan and Lorraines daughter Kate baked us some cookies (hate the word, it always used to be cake or biscuit) we ate some of them last night after our lump of cow and I am finishing them off as Jane has a cholesterol test in the morning. Shame!
 I have kept busy most of the day pottering around the yard, there is always something to do as everything grows so quickly here in the tropics. Our car park is part covered, mainly for shade, but we are hosting an Australia Day party here on Thursday, and if wet, under the car port, so I have been smartening it up. We will have our party on the beach unless the monsoon that they keep threatening us with arrives.
 Whilst all our friends are Australian we thought we might just set aside a Poms Corner and hope they will let us join in, seeing as every other country in the world seems to celebrate a national day and we English don’t.

 24/01/2012
   Our mission today was to get the van booked in for a service, a job that should have been done months ago. That is sorted for next week. After the garage I then went for my ‘Bunnings fix’ ( B&Q), wandering around looking at stuff we may need sometime then the excitement of buying something we actually did need ( a swing top rubbish bin and a new strap for the leaf blower). ( Wow).
 One of lifes little pleasures during the tropical wet is to sit on our patio at night watching the sheet lightning and the rain hammering down. We do get some rain during the day but mostly it comes at night and to sit there in the warm is a real treat. Only us Brits can get a buzz out of that!
 An apology. The captions on the latest photos were crap. I can say this as I had nothing to do with them. The theme was the Boxing Day hunt not an Enid Blyton Janet and John book……….. ‘Trevor is hiding’…… I ask you! Not  ‘the fox has gone to ground’. Barry captioned ‘The Master’ like something out of Dr  Who instead of Master of Hounds. No mention of the famous TALLY HO. Barry with his favourite hound ( Bill) also didn’t get a mention, Bill is proper miffed. Nothing said about the stirrup cup, it was there, as was the hunting horn brought all this way from Warwickshire. The one thing that was correct was the bewilderment of our Aussie mates, their faces were a picture. It was a bit of nonsense that was rather funny, unfortunately the pictures didn’t explain that. There, I’ve had my rant.