Navmen and other delights

I think it is important to log how much in love I am with my Navman...okay okay Bel...OUR Navman.

Bel and I went halve-zees in a Navman a month or so ago and I'm just beginning to use it and discover its delights.....

I love that it can re-direct you in the event of road closures et al....I love that it can tell you where the nearest petrol station is....we laugh at how it pronounces names - the woman says Caloundra like Maroubra***.....which won't mean much to people who aren't from Australia but I'm sure you have equivalents wherever you live....it tells me when I am speeding...it tells me where there are speed/red-light cameras.  If you've ever wondered if it was an extravagance, I say to you...go and get one now....they are a godsend for those over 40 who find street directories hard to read at night or parents of kids who have to go to soccer-fields in godforsaken suburbs they've never heard of.....


It's very rainy here....I spent the day browsing in shops mostly...it's my last day of holidays before I go back to the proverbial salt-mine.  I got caught in a downpour in the city.  My shoes were soaked.  My jeans were soaked.  Luckily I could go to my father's unit and put my togs in the dryer, have a cup of coffee and borrow his shoes to drive home.  Here's the view from the unit.  You can't really see much from a mobile phone photo but I assure you that the river has broken its banks and is very brown with lots of interesting driftwood.  The City Botanic Gardens are absolutely soaked.

I was grateful to find bandaids in the unit as well...It's the little things that make a difference isn't it?...a blister on the back of your heel can be hell....

God bless the person that invented Navman and God bless the person that invented Bandaids.

And a big PS - God Bless friends who share their very special champagne with you and teach you how to do Fair Isle and take you to Noosa so you can browse in fabulous shops to your heart's content. Love you heaps girlfriend!!!

***in case you are slightly interested ....in Australia we pronounce Caloundra as in Cal - ow - ndruh......and Maroubra as Ma- roo - bruh (the "a"s on the end of both names are short as in "up")....so you can understand why we giggle when the lady says Ca - loon - druh.

Of Mice and Men....

A brief interlude in Byron for a couple of nights. We stayed at the Byron Bay Rainforest Resort. Robert and I agree it's probably more of a swamp instead of a rainforest - not much canopy - but it's probably hard to get guests in the door when you call it a swamp. Not that there's anything wrong with swamps. We found it restful watching a scrub turkey play with his mate and his mound. There were dear little honey eaters in the leaf litter who seemed oblivious of our presence at 5.30 this morning. It's a place where you can take dogs if you want. Next time Jessie. Next time. It's a bit run down but perfectly servicable and much nicer than staying in a cheap hotel. There was a nice big communal kitchen/cabana affair near the pool/spa and we agreed it would be nice to get a big group of people there all staying in cabins. But then again it may not be so peaceful if we did that ! I went to a New Media conference for the day down the road at the very swanky Byron at Byron Resort hosted by Screenworks. A very informative day Ms Chesher - well done ! I particularly valued the Yoga session for my silly back and the speakers were enlightening and patient with luddites such as myself. I was very proud to put up my hand when they asked who blogged. Little did they know I've only been blogging a week or two!!

Robbie played house in the cabin, reading the paper and then caught the bus into Byron to get some tobacco and something for dinner. Whilst having an aperitif he noticed a mouse in the leaf litter. Sometime between my coming home from the conference and our having dinner, said mouse snuck into the cabin. I had my usual waking at midnight fit and read til about 2.30. I polished off Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers-shed a few tears and moved on to Heath Ledger's bio. "Lights out!" I intoned to self. Then the rustling started. Rustle, rustle. Rustle, rustle. Willing myself to sleep, I tried my best to ignore it. Rustle Rustle, Rustle, rustle. "Damn it!, I thought, "That's inside the cabin." I turned on the light. The mouse fixed me with his beady gaze from the kitchen windowsill. I fixed him with a beadier gaze. Then he did a "I'm a very fast mouse" routine up and down the kitchen bench. Then he played statues on the windowsill again. I told him he had very nice ears, turned off the light and let him have whatever he was having. I thought it was the rice crackers. Turned out it was the loaf of rye. Does the plastic make them sick? No sign of him in the morning. I hope he's not sick.