Anne is coming!

So........after two years we are getting our first visitor from Up Over!We are very excited! We cannot wait to show our friend Anne Brisbane and beyond.She is staying with us until the beginning of November.I have been following her progress on the 'Flightradar24' app.......she changes planes in Dubai and has a three hour stop over there.........I am just a little concerned that she will get waylaid by all the shopping opportunities that Dubai Airport has to offer and miss her connection. She is currently over Iran, about level with Baghdad.She arrives here at 6.00 am in the morning local time.......we will have to be up early!

Appointments.

I was going to phone the hospital yesterday.......but forgot. I received a letter weeks ago, before we even went to the UK, informing me of my next appointment with Dr Fanning to discuss the results of my next CT scan, only I had not received any letter about when that CT scan would take place.So I was going to ring the hospital and find out yesterday but got side tracked filling in my UK Self Assessment Tax Form online....another thing I have been putting off doing for ages.I don't need to pay any tax because I am getting nothing but when I filled in the 'Check if you need to fill in a Self Assessment Form' ......it said I needed to fill in a Self Assessment Form........I went through the whole complicated, mind boggling and stressful process to be told that I do not owe any tax.I will have to do it all again next year!While I was struggling with all that the postman came and one of the letters said that I am to go for my CT scan on the 7th November......so that is that sorted.There was also a letter for Dulcie. It was from the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital informing her of her long awaited appointment at the Respiratory Clinic.She will be so pleased she can't make it.

Safety net.

So.......I may be a little less squeamish, after 2 years, when it comes to bugs and creepy crawlies but I still sleep under a net. Will hates it but it is my force field of protection.I have only seen two huntsmen spiders in the Man - Cave in that time which is not bad going but I did foil the entry of a Wolf Spider the other night when I spotted it acting suspiciously under the front door. I thought I'd squashed it with a towel, some of the offspring it was carrying on its back escaped and hurried away, but when I bravely went back to the towel the next day to check it was dead......found nothing.I hate that.Where the heck is it?I was tucked up in bed before Will last night and had been there about 10 minutes before he got in."Oh look," he said " at that big cockroach up there.....and it's in the net."He went and got a cup to catch it in......I got out of bed sharpish.It was a big American Cockroach.He caught it but dropped it climbing out under the net again. We found it crawling all over my shorts on one of my clothes shelves.He said it was moving slowly because it was full of eggs. I wish he had not told me that.I was under the impression he was going to deal with it humanely as he caught it alive but he flushed it down the loo........it probably would survive and it has 6 mice down there to feed on!No doubt it will be back again 10 times the size with a baseball bat."See," he said, " the net traps things in it!"I don't care. I would rather have it than not.......Who knows what is crawling around down here while we are sleeping?I got some sleep.....eventually....... because of the net.........and anyway the main reason for it is to stop being 'vampirised' by mosquitoes.One got me last night, after tea, upstairs in the lounge, on my inner thigh.......the first one in ages!No......the net stays!

Happy Birthday to Possum!

Two years to the day since the first post....https://possumgalore.wordpress.com/2013/10/12/arrival

Here comes the Sssssssssun! (Cue Thunder!)

It is still officially 'Early Spring' but apart from 2 cloudy days since our arrival back Down Under the Sun has shone and it has been unseasonably hot. It is 26 degrees at present but tomorrow is threatening 32.I must confess I did hastily say one day during Winter, as the temperature dropped to a chilly 19 degrees,"I can't wait for Summer to come back."I regret that now....it was stupid, I hate being too hot.I suppose that once we get up to Stanthorpe we will not have the humidity that we get here in Brisbane and the temperatures up there will not be as intense......on the whole......but we will pay for it in snakes!Snakes love the heat and mating season is just around the corner and well, I have already read predictions of greater numbers this year.I was reading an article today about a school teacher in Sydney who got bitten by a Red Bellied Black Snake outside her parent's in law's home.The article helpfully informed me that there are about 3,000 snake bites a year of which about 200 to 500 receive anti-venom. One or two of these, on average, will be fatal. Half the deaths are due to bites from Brown Snakes with the rest being from Tiger Snakes, Taipan and Death Adders.We have been here just over two years now.......It was our two year anniversary three days ago......and I have seen 6 snakes in that time and......nearly stepped on two of them. I suppose that is not too bad for all those days really.I have learned that they do not necessarily get out of your way when they hear you coming, that they still come out in Winter and, most worryingly, can still be active at night.As if all this was not enough to worry about with the coming Summer, experts are predicting a particularly bad storm season in the coming months......due to a particularly extreme El Nino event that is upon us. We are being warned to expect cyclones, hail, high winds and flash flooding.Oh Joy!Paradise is not all it's cracked up to be.