Return of the Idiot!...and other news.

So.......I have a new phone!Will got a new one about a month ago....the one he researched for two months before he got it.Well, he also got me one, like his, last week. It was an unexpected surprise. I like it, it's good but I am still getting used to it. I can talk to it, like "Hey, Google, send a text to Will saying 'I am on my way home',"....and it does!We have been tethering our laptops to our mobile phones and using our phone data allowances to get on the internet but it has not been ideal so we finally took the plunge and have ordered 'unlimited' broadband.We have been waiting eagerly for the new modem to arrive and expected it at the end of last week but it did not arrive. We felt sure it would arrive Monday....but it didn't.Yesterday I went to Garden City for my two hours respite. I did a little shopping but wandered the vast mall for exercise.

On the news later we learned of flash floods nearby and people rescued from cars and that there had been flooding in Fortitude Valley!Will had choir tonight and had to go on Jaxy because I needed Roxy to collect my wallet.I set off into the city after Dulcie went to bed, parked in the Valley and ran to the Police Station and back....I had no money for the parking meter....because I didn't have my wallet!Luckily I got back before I got a parking ticket. It would have been the last straw!My debit card had been cut in half.......as a precaution.......I shall have to get that sorted out.I am an idiot!

The boys are back in town!

How rude!Just as we arrive back in Brisbane all the World leaders head off with their new salt-water crocodile skin bags without even saying goodbye to us.It was 41 degrees here when we got back.....Dulcie and Wendi were shut in with the air-con on.It was much cooler this morning down by the Clarence and we had a little walk with Tracy before heading up to the Ashby markets, where Jen was at her leather stall, for lunch before setting off home.Of course everyone who left Brisbane on Friday with us was heading back and so we were delayed another hour in a terrible traffic jam near Bangalow and Byron Bay.Our route -

It took more than 3 hrs  14 mins.

Happy days!

Weekend break!

As Cameron, Obama, Putin, Joko Widodo and others arrive in Brisbane we have escaped to New South Wales and are down on the Clarence with Trace and Jen.It would seem that the rest of Brisbane had the same idea...today was a special G20 holiday and all the Brisbane schools were shut along with lots of other public services......(no showers as Blue Care don't really care about hygiene when it comes to holidays).....the road south was packed and we crawled for miles and  the journey took us over 4 and a half hours almost double the usual time it should take.The Mayor of Brisbane, Graham Quirk, is shouting 'We are open for business!' but no one wants to negotiate all the road closures in the city so there has been a mass exodus. The city shops will probably not have a good weekend. It will probably look like a ghost town on the news.There are barricades up with plexi-glass walls and eggs and kites have been banned! Barack Obama's people even wanted a roundabout demolished so that his motorcade would not have to slow down. Graham Quirk, who looks like he is related to Shanita and would also never deign to frighten a goose, found some balls from somewhere and said 'No!'Wendi is looking after Dulcie for the weekend.There is also a heatwave due this weekend with temperatures predicted to hit 40 degrees...hopefully it will be cooler here with the river breezes.We are off to the beach tomorrow for a dip....Great White Sharks permitting. 

The legacy of 'Shithouse' plumbing.

So... the night before last, as we settled into bed, I thought I heard the toilet upstairs running....it does it it sometimes when the flush mechanism sticks. Will went up to check it but it was fine and yet weirdly when he came down he could still hear water flowing in the pipes. Was it a leak?He meant to check the water meter yesterday...to see if it was moving when we had all the taps turned off...but we forgot.We all went down the garden today....to see the 'little fish' in the old bath pond.Dulcie is very concerned about them having seen big black crows down there and peewees and ibis's.We originally bought 6 but they have bred and there are countless minute fish swimming around now.We pointed some out to Dulcie....'Good God!" was her reply.Heading back inside we looked in at the fernery and that is when Will discovered standing water against the wall. He dug down and almost created another pond....he scooped water out of the hole but as soon as he did it it filled up again....it was not good!We eventually thought we could see it coming out of the wall where our shower room is downstairs....and feared the leak might be under the concrete....but did not let on to Dulcie.Will turned off the water and phoned the plumber.Two arrived just before it was time for our 'respite'. They looked about 15. I felt old. I was pretty convinced they would just make mud pies in the wet earth in the fernery but....no, they actually new something about pipes!They discovered that the leak was outside the wall, much to our relief, and headed off for the parts.We spent our respite say under the house waiting for it all to be sorted. We left Blue Care upstairs chuckling away with Dulcie.(I said to her later, "She sounded very happy!" Dulcie replied, "She needs to grow up! Big kid!")We paid the 15 year olds a very grown up $311.30 for their work and off they went ....back to school I imagine.We were just relieved that:a) we discovered the leak.....(Heck! With all the World leaders coming it would not have looked good if Brisbane ran out of water because of us!)b) it was not as bad as we had thought.The legacy of 'Shithouse' plumbing still comes back to haunt us!