Nothing funny about this

As much as I love sitting in an office ringing people and howling at them to pay their bad debts, it's still nice to get out on the road and visit the ones who do pay. I went up to Bendigo last week. I haven't been to Bendigo for a very long time and forgot how nice it is.

That's the great thing about Victoria. There are so many nice sites all close to eachother, within easy driving distance, in theory . I say in theory because every time you actually drive on Victoria's roads there are roadworks so it takes you twice as long to get there and then you have half the time to see the nice sites. The number plate slogans here are Victoria, the place to be. Here's a better one; Victoria- It'll be great when it's finished.

And as pleasant as it was to get out, it was no consolation for a bad news week. Or month. Our little horseriding liebling in Germany has a nasty cancer and needs to have half or possibly all her stomach removed. But I won't bore you with details because most people understand it all - everybody knows someone with cancer. Dear Claudia gets a 6 hour operation on May 26th. Again, for those supernaturally inclined, please pray for the doctors etc. As I write, that's 6 days away. If she was in Victoria, that would be just enough time to drive through the roadworks to the Hospital.


Claudia and her friend called "Bundy". Which is not available in Germany. Poor Claudia! Although I fail to understand why Germans need any types of alcohol other than beer, which they drink from 500 litre vats loosely called "glasses"

So our trip in September may double as a rather long distance respite visit. Which I don't mind, of course. Once you've seen one 500 year-old baroque European village, you've seen 'em all and we would much rather see Claudia's smiling face. God willing, she will be fine and playing tour guide, albeit with a sore belly which will be unable to fit quite as much bratwurst and Bundy. This was a hell of a way to win the re-match of our August '03 Football night drinking competition. A forfeit.

Typically, this gritty little German is very up-beat and bouncy about the whole thing (I don't know the German word for "bouncy". Even if I did, it would probably mean something different) You know what I mean. She's very positive and telling us all not to worry.

Meanwhile, we are starting to convert our house into several small boxes in readiness for the big move which has now been confirmed for June 10th (long weekend. We're smart!!). I have been assured by Sharon that she has "thrown out some stuff", although with her propensity for rampant hoarding I have yet to visually confirm this. I am not getting my hopes up, and expect to move into the new house with more junk than we left with. So folks, when your house gets untidy, do as I do; buy a new one.