Royal visits

Joe with his new relatives: Annika and Milly.


We were very pleased last night to host Kate and Joe on their way to WA from NZ. As a demonstration of their maturity, they declined an invitation from Annika and Milly to go to a midnight go-go disco. It was a wise decision as Annika got home at 3.00am and K8 and Joe were up at 5.00am to get to the airport.
I'm under strict orders not to make any jokes at Joe's expense but I can report he exists and that he's very pleasant company. Annika (and possibly Milly) will be attending the wedding to represent at least the Melbourne branch of the family. His parents have possibly the last two jobs left in Detroit in the automotive industry with positions with General Motors of which Holden in Australia is a division so there's a local link. He has a younger brother and sister who we should pressure into joining us in Lismore next Christmas.
Among other visitors this weekend has been Adam who is here for a birthday party for Nick McGee, one of the Nagambie movement. Adam helped me with the second bottling of olives from the tree in the back yard. I've bottled 11 kilos of olives so far and will do another six kilos in a couple of weeks. The one tree still has about 30kg of olives on it which explains why olive growers make so much money. Here's the rub - I have to wait six months before the preserved olives are ready to eat. If they're awful, I will have 18 jars of them. If they're really good, most of you will get a jar as your Christmas present. If they're excellent, next season I'll bottle the lot.
In other news, Annika picked up the keys to her new shared house today. She and her two female friends, Anna and Simone, went to the empty house and rolled around on the floors to celebrate the rare success of finding a rental house in the inner-Melbourne area. They'll be moving in within two weeks and it's all very exciting.
Julia and I have been married for 26 years today. Where did that time go? We're about to go to see Eddie Iffe at the comedy festival and I celebrated today by buying a proper casserole dish so I can make proper stews for winter. I christened it with a chicken, mushroom and tarragon stew tonight and it was very well received.
In work news, I might get a teaching gig in Vietnam in the second half of the year which, if it works, might give us the opportunity to spend more time there in the future. Fingers crossed...