Congratulations Liz. Well done!

I must admit I've had a downright slothful weekend on account of the weather. The camping and session weekend was called off on account of one of the worst storms in history around here. The Hunter area which we were going to was declared a natural disaster. The Central Coast and Sydney and the Illawarra also received a buffeting from this storm, 9 people died, there was widespread flooding, roads closed, power cuts, trees down, a wharf at Cremorne in Sydney sank, a huge tanker ran aground at Newcastle, beaches were eroded, and there was massive damage to buildings.

Fortunately we watched all this from the comfort of the lounge room. With wind and rain lashing all around us, we decided the best thing to do was to lay low. So we spent all weekend in a nice warm house, watching episodes of Dr Who on UK TV, or the latest news and weather, or the Lifestyle Channel, or on the computer. John did more than I did - he drew a lot of characters for a pirate poem he has written to entertain children.

We ventured outside briefly on Saturday afternoon to drive down the road and see how high the Cooks River had got, and watch thousands of seagulls helping themselves to worms and things that must have come up for air on the flooded golf course. We are high and dry on a hill here, so the only damage we had was that the tarps we had over the BBQ area are in shreds and there is a mess of ropes and poles and things all over the ground.

Even the tender plants in the no-dig garden which had the protective plastic ripped off them seem to be okay. I cleaned up a bit today and partly unpacked the car (probably having another go at camping in about 3 weeks) Yes, I feel quite relaxed!