Visitors

A couple of kookaburras live nearby and often sit in our tree or on the fence. It's a continuing thrill to see them.

But there's been another kind of visitor round here.

A letter in our mailbox this morning, from a resident of one of the houses on the other side of the park at the rear of our properties, warned us that some cowardly bastard had chucked a box of rat poison into his yard early this morning, and his two dogs were now fighting for their lives.

He was justly terrified by thinking that his grandson might have found the poison before his dogs did.

I'm always conscious, when Yoshi is in the yard, that he's a terrier cross with a propensity to yap, so we're all quick to call him in if he starts barking. I'll be even more worried now that this vindictive person has made his hideous presence felt.

:: I'm off to work this arvo. This is a new job that started last week, though with my former employer. As it involves working with whole pages rather than the words on them, it's all feeling a bit of a stretch for me at the mo. But I'll get there! Developing a system is paramount, then I'll be swinging.

It's fabulous to have a day's work a week — there'll be a bit more this week as a colleague is away and I'm filling in briefly after my job is done — and I love being back with old friends and colleagues.

It also adds some structure to the week, and even in this brief period I'm finding I'm using my time at home far more productively.

:: I just heard the secretary of the Australian Workers' Union, Paul Howes, talk of nuc-u-lah power. Shudder ...