Still no rain

Monday:

Well the bushfire is still there, under control but we haven't had any rain. We keep getting a forecast for rain that gets moved back and back and back so it's always days away. However, the weather is now much cooler and not windy so it's not as dangerous. I check the map a couple of times a day and spot fires pop up here and there (Jasmine's High School has been threatened twice) but are brought under control quickly. I'm no longer worried about it all but I feel sorry for the firefighters and people whose houses are right along the edge of the fire front.

I didn't weigh myself last Monday as we were away from home, but the following day I weighed 71.1 kg which was a gain of 0.7 kg, and this week I have maintained that gain. Still 71.1 kg. I have been eating chocolate every day since Easter (Lindt milk, mostly) and letting other bad foods like chips at the movies creep back in. School holidays! But I finished my last little chocolate bunny yesterday, and although there is still another week of school holidays I plan to get strict with myself. Way too much sugar.

We went to a family BBQ lunch yesterday including some relatives we don't see often, I hadn't been to Tim's uncle's house before but I knew they'd been living there at least a couple of years so I was surprised that it looked like a construction zone. No access to the front door - you had to climb up a pile of bricks in the garage to get into the kitchen, roof space open, gaps between the house and the deck etc, (although the inside was nice). The uncle was building it himself, while working fulltime until recently. And then I learned they had been there 15 years! Fifteen years in an unfinished house. If I was Aunty Jan I'd be insisting on hiring someone to get it done! I was also told that their previous house was the same for 20 years, they only rushed to finish it so they could sell it and move... so that's 35 years living on a building site. Oh well, perhaps it doesn't bother them.

Aunty Cheryl was unintentionally hilarious, after dominating the conversation all lunchtime in an endless stream (I don't know when she had her mouth free to eat) she mentioned she wasn't fond of her son's girlfriend because she talked too much. No one could get a word in edgewise to comment. And when someone asked an innocent question about another relative, she acted as if we'd all twisted her arm and "reluctantly" spilled a whole lot of gossip she wasn't supposed to. Funny. It's not so bad having a couple of "talkers" in the family (Tim's dad is the same), there are certainly no awkward silences at family gatherings!