Cheap Therapy

• The evil yellow grapefruit tree is in flower
• The lemon is in flower, and green fruit
• The plum has come into blossom this week. So has the ‘other’ plum.
• The mango has some new growth
• Two leaves on the fig! Maybe it will survive this season
• There are lots of mulberrys. Perhaps a combination of Puggle pee and trace elements agrees with it. Pie tonight hopefully Nice photo op if only I could remember where the battery charger is.
• The apple is still not dead.
• The nectarine probably is dead.
• There are white creeper roses, probably from the rootstock
• Weeds
• More trace elements watered in

I don’t often seem to see rainbows (maybe I just don’t look at the sky enough anymore). But today there was a glorious one out my office, and even cooler, little rainbows in the rain splashed up by the rear wheels of the ute driving in front of me.

We wandered down to Cottesloe to see the last day of Sculptures by the Sea. It had obviously been too long since I’d been to the beach. I found it very relaxing to paddle my feet in the water, even though there was hot sun at 6pm in the afternoon (well, 5pm real time). Cottesloe beach has fond memories for me , going there with Mum or Gran to swim, and a few times to fish, generally unsuccessfully (I remember the old concrete boardwalk before it fell over in a storm, and the sea water swimming pool). To round the day off there was a twinpole conveniently split between Puggle and Bilby. I think my favourites were the snake, the sundial or the peapod tree at the end of the groyne. I asked Puggle which sculptures he liked the best, and he said “the elephants”. Of course, they weren’t actually part of the art exhibit, they were the garden ornaments outside the Indiana Teahouse.

• Software goes live. Nobody dies. Yay!
• MacGeeks at Agni. Mmm.. Curry.
• iPhone SDK amongst other things
• More busage plus walking. More weight loss.
• Lay my hands on an OLPC XO
• Finish Cory Doctorow’s Eastern Standard Tribe
• Mum’s birthday, book club.
• Music night, we have a band (of sorts :). Violin, guitar, and whatever else Bilby and Puggle pick up.
• Take Bilby shopping for the first time although she’s too tired to enjoy it.
• Bilby takes a fall She seems less fazed by it than I am.
• Jamie’s Sausages and 1kg of cherry tomatoes, followed by another mulberry pie thanks to our tree. Now if only the mango tree was as productive!
• Looking forward to the dentist on Monday

The start of the week seems a long time ago.

• Students return and wander the halls looking lost.
• WAMUG AGM, I manage to not get elected President. Yay!
• Household is down a computer. Resurrection attempts unsucessful. Backup exists but should have been a bit more current. Reprioritise maintenance of backup system. Puggle is deprived of YouTube.
• More of the public transport and walking thing.
• Gary Gygax died. His legacy was and is lots of fun for millions of people. Vale.
• Beer at the Belgian Beer Cafe, where you can get charged $24.50 for a stein of Hoegarden plus $5 deposit for the glass. Or you can get charged the same amount for a pint if you’re not paying attention… Fortunately they refunded.
• Mulberry crumble (or as Puggle called it ‘crimble crumble’) from our tree. Powered by Puggle pee.
• Bilby sang the tune to Click Go The Shears after Puggle sang it.
• No beer at home. Rectified.

Much thanks to Liz, Jason and G. for the games day at their place, even if I didn’t win Settlers. Walked Puggle to the end of the street to watch the fireworks. BOOM! Likewise thanks to Russell and Liz for cocktails, conversations and interesting company and the tour of their place and garden.This morning, cousin’s birthday at Kings Park Lotterywest Family area, which was very pleasant (and conveniently colocated with Stickybeaks Cafe to cater for the morning necessities), and has hopefully tired Puggle out enough he’ll actually have a nap.Now, a very nice cool breeze is blowing.

Perth’s newly relocated Ikea store in Innaloo off the Cedric St freeway exit opens at 10am on Valentine’s Day, 14th February. Perfect for that someone special in your life.

Happy New Year all! So far this year

•  New Year’s Eve party (Thanks to everyone who turned up (and or washed up, you know who you are!)). New Year’s Eve was celebrated 3 times, once at 9pm for the kids, once at midnight, and once 1 am for all those people who don’t believe in daylight savings
• Most of the week down in Mandurah. Caught the bus-train-bus down. Cost $8.10 for a DayRider ticket, and was pretty good entertainment for Puggle. Mandurah bus connection was a bit flaky on a public holiday, and the aircon was stuck on heat. Time door to door was 2 hours, which Google Maps lists as 88km, 1 hour 26 minutes if you drive it. Conveniently you don’t need to get off the train if you’re coming from the Northern line. Yay for more rail infrastructure!
• Catching up with friends
  
• Done backups, upgraded WordPress to plug some security holes (which I feel more justified in bothering to do given that the next release has been delayed until March.)
• Have almost managed to relax, in time to feel motivated to achieve stuff. Unfortunately it’s back to work tomorrow Or rather, probably later tonight.