See explanation below.   (C) PJ Croft 2016

I know I shouldn’t worry, but I feel I have to get all the ducks in line by Sunday when V arrives. All those jobs that seemed a waste of time, now need to be done. I’ve made good progress:

• I have a couch/settee partly assembled, have to finish tomorrow or Sunday;
• I’ve bought a pair of outdoor chairs for my outdoor table (my old chairs disintegrated in the sun);
• I’ve bought a pair of new towel rails (my bathroom lacks space for towel rails and has always had only one!);
• My patio has been cleaned and the decking re-oiled, courtesy of my great and good friend Keith;
• All the paths have been cleaned and weed stripped, again by Keith;
• I’ve finally installed the new toilet roll holder that I’ve had for two years;
• I’ve replaced my scungy old toaster that toasted so unevenly with a schmick new Breville that I saw recommended on a US photography web site (how about that?) and which won the Choice tests.

And so on, and on, and on. Funny how near enough is good enough when you live alone, but when someone else is coming … uh oh. Clean sheets, quilt properly fitted, bathroom glass cleaned, table cleared and tidied … ah, she’ll be right.

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I drove down to Rockingham yesterday to see my good friend Donelle, to tell her all the news. Phew, long drive: 90 mins to get there, on the freeway, so it’s not too bad. But two hours to get back, coming via the coast road to avoid the freeway congestion at peak hour. So many traffic light stops! Stop-start all the way. Very annoying and tiring.

Donelle gave me a very nice small gift for Veronika, something a woman thinks of but I hadn’t. Bless her. I do know about the usual greeting, but this will be nice.

While at Palm Beach we saw this:

It’s the Sun, with a refractive ring formed by ice crystals in the very high cirrus clouds that you can see, the wispy kind. I’ve seen this only once before, in the 1980s, and have a shot from that time too. If I remember correctly, the ring forms at an angle of 57º from the Sun, although how you measure that, I’m not sure.

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You’ve heard me refer so often to my great good friend Keith? Well, this is he:

Iron Man Keith

Yes, this is Iron Man Keith Geary, OM, VD, CD, DVD and five bars. He’s wearing the latest fashion garment, a cheeky little welder’s mask with an LCD screen that shields him from all criticism. He’s thinking of super gluing it on to give up smoking. A great bargain at $59. He’s very pleased with it. He doesn’t have to put his teeth in or shave.

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I had coffee in the city today with another good friend and was able to show her my new prize. We go right back to school days and she knows something of my life’s struggles, so she was very pleased to hear my love story. Nice meeting.

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Oh, bloody Facebook. What a time thief! I shouldn’t …