And here I am again!

We have an internet connection! Yay! I feel as if I'm back in the world. I may even be able to get pics on here any day now!

Here's my news in brief:

:: I had a great week back at the paper. I was actually a little nervous on my first morning, but by lunchtime, exactly as Dace had predicted, I was well away and everything came flooding back. It was just fab to be back among my old colleagues and be part of their banter again. They really are a great team, and they were all so welcoming. I was touched!

:: We were in Albany early in the week for my Dad's 80th birthday party at the retirement village where he and Mum live. I tell you, there's a sit-com waiting to be written about life in there, if not a movie. The gossip! The plots and sub-plots! The subterfuge! The alliances and factions! The romance! The scandals! All at 20 kilometres an hour!

Anyway, we had a brilliant party, and all three of our kids were there, and all but one of my brother's, which was the first time we'd all been together in years and years. 

Of course, Mum, my brother Garry and I couldn't help but reflect on how Dad had been a year ago, when we'd held a quiet birthday get-together around his hospital bed, and Dad was so ill we never thought he'd recover. Such a thrill, then, to see him this week, drinking a birthday glass of wine, eating a big dinner, blowing out the candles on his cake and laughing and flirting with all the old ladies, who just adore him.

:: Our container of furniture and s-t-u-f-f is now in Singapore, and is expected to arrive in Perth on the 20th of this month, which is a fortnight later than we'd been told, so that's a drag. But we're getting on quite well in our lovely house, grateful for the loan of a few household essentials from Dace and Laura, and for the few bits and pieces we'd had in storage here in Perth.

:: Apart from being back in the land of my mates, these are a few of the things I'm loving about being home:

Fruit Tingles

Kerry O'Brien

Margaret Throsby on ABC Classic FM

Molenberg bread

Hearing magpies, wattle birds and even the occasional kookaburra in the big trees around here.

Hanging out the washing on lines with pegs!

Oh - and having a laundry with a trough.

Frogsong at night

The Southern Cross over our roof

Rock melons

Butcher's shops

Greengrocers

Bring out your rubbish weekends - Dace and I went trawling and I scored an old linen press (cupboard), four excellent cane armchairs and a lounge for our back deck, a three-door and three-drawer cupboard, and a bookshelf and a solid chest of drawers for my studio. Now, I'm sanding and stripping and painting. 

I really am a very happy camper.