Today we all went over to the new house to do various jobs. Will fitted the new bathroom whilst Di cleaned the kitchen. Will and I took a trip in his Toyota "Ute" to a local building supplier where we bought some plumbing bits 'n' bobs. On the way back we got a take away coffee. I've taken to "flat whites". I spent he rest of the day in the garden. Luckily, it was a lovely warm day for a change. The weather since we got here has been most disappointing; more like a typical English Summer of late, rather than the hot Aussie ones we had hoped for.
But today was exceptional and I revelled in the warm sun with masses of singing, twittering birds for company. A birdy story: Will has had the house covered with polystyrene panels (or styrofoam as the Aussies call it). Next week, the renderers will come and attach mesh and render the surface so as to produce a robust and insulative layer. Trouble is, the naked polystyrene is not so robust and something has been chewing the upper edges, under the eaves. Will suspected rats and acquired some rodent trapping sheeting which he set in the chewed area of the eaves. It is extremely sticky and any beast touching it will become hopelessly stuck.
Brother in law Trent came round to view the progress of the house with his mate Grant and it was they who noticed a madly flapping bird at th bottom of the garden. I was called to deal with it as I was said to be "good with birds". To my amazement, I found a kookaburra flapping on the ground with the end of one wing firmly stuck to the afore-mentioned rodent trap. It struggled madly as I approached but got itself into a tight corner and then resigned itself to my mercy. I donned thick gardening gloves, not liking the look of that massive beak, and made a quick lunge. Thankfully the bird was totally calm and allowed me to pick it up and to hold the feathers of the wing firmly while Grant pulled the sticky sheet off. This was accomplished with minimum feather loss and I sat the poor little kookaburra on a fence and let go. He sat there for a few seconds, looking at me, and then flapped off upwards into the canopy where he was immediately joined by his mate. I watched him madly preening his ruffled and damaged feathers before they both flew off together. I bet he doesn't roost in our eaves again!
Anyway, I strimmed he lawn area immediately behind the house and Di and I weeded the border just behind the swimming pool railings. All this with appropriate amounts of tea, of course! We are British, after all, and we have brought our own PG Tips!
Tash took Ollie off to a friend's first birthday party in the late afternoon and they rejoined us later at home where we had got to just in time to barbecue some nice steak and to watch that bastard Irishman ruin the world cup by a needless sending off of the Welsh captain, Sam Warburton in the early stages of the match thus paving the way for a thoroughly undeserving French team into the final against either Australia or New Zealand. We all know they haven't got a hope in hell!
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