Perhaps I am just a curmudgeon

I read The Times each day on my iPad.

It is now almost impossible to  wade through the Olympic stuff to get to anything else that happened in the world. They are – of course – entirely focused on the medals they will win – and they should win a whole bag – the host country always does.

The Times says it will be providing live Olympic coverage for 24 hours each day. 24 hours? The midnight to dawn coverage should be fascinating.

For every gold medal Royal Mail will be painting a red box gold in the home town of each gold medal winner. I mean – really! What do they do for the losers – paint the mail boxes black.

I am sure that in Australia it is not much better.

All Australia’s gold medalists are to get a cash bonus. I suppose that all the other competitors – who probably worked and tried just as hard but did not win – can go and stick their heads up a dead bear’s bum.

SKY has 24 Olympic channels. 24! We are not going to miss a scintilla of the events.  

The opening ceremony is costing £27 million and will probably last for four hours.

I remember Melbourne in 1956 – I think there were flags and balloons. The budget was probably less than $100.

I wonder if we are getting a teensy weensy bit carried away with it all.

Perhaps I am just a curmudgeon.

One must have ready access to life's essentials

Sunset from our cabin 

I get wistfully homesick every time I visit Australia. There is no other place like it on the planet.

As I mentioned – we stayed on an Alpaca farm in the Hunter Valley – which is one of Australia’s major wine producing areas.

It was a wonderful place to stay – and apart from the astonishing racket made by the ducks and birds – was very peaceful indeed. (I am sure that Alpacas make a variety of noises – but they were silent during our visit). 

Each dusk and dawn a big mob of Wallabies came to feed and water themselves  on the property next door – an amazing sight to see for anyone other than an Australian – for whom it is very unsurprising indeed.

Every time we do this we think that we would like to live in the country – and that could well be where we end up. Although it is likely to be in a country town rather than in isolation on a farm.

After all – one must have ready access to a coffee shop and a Patisserie.

And we certainly wouldn’t be trying to grow things – including Alpacas. I have demonstrated quite clearly over many years that I should not be put in charge of God’s creatures or plants.

He takes some getting used to

Cate makes friend with some Alpacas

The most exciting thing that happened while we were on holidays was that Cate lost both her notebook computer and her iPad. We think she left these in the taxi in which the driver was berating us for taking his cab such a short distance.  

We were in a hurry to leave - so might have left them behind. We have – of course called the company – but I don’t think this particular driver would have turned them in.

This did not happen until the trip home but she was very distraught because she had lots of work that she had done in Australia and could not access it – and on the way home on the plane had to resort to watching movies.

Also she could not access emails and I thought for a while she may have to be sedated. Cate is not happy when she is not in touch with her world.

In theory she can access emails from her BlackBerry but this often does not work when she is outside Austria – and did not in Australia. Just one of those weird communications things.

The cats were very pleased to see us back and were interested to hear about the Henderson’s Exotic Short Cat called Pugsly. I have never seen a cat quite like Pugsly – and he takes some getting used to. 

Monika and Sissi refuse to believe that Pugsly is in fact a cat – and I must admit – at first glance……

But he is quite lovely and affectionate when you get the hang of him -  and only defecates on their bed when it is absolutely necessary.