The weather was rather vile today - tepid, dark black clouds overhead (rain has finally started falling now), and so forth. Naturally it was the day the boys from Workskills came up to work in the garden. But they worked with a will today - I was quite proud of them. The end result was that we now have water in the garden. Previously we had one tap right out the front of the garden, through the gate and beyond a big shed. Now we have taps throughout that will let kids pull hoses without dragging them across garden beds and destroying other people's hard work.

It was great until lunchtime when I ran into a friend in the local supermarket. She is living on benefits and has a small job, like me. But she can not afford rent so is living on the charity of a local business woman - not a situation she can tolerate but she would otherwise be homeless. I offered for her to come stay here (though goodness knows where she would fit as all the rooms are full of stuff that should be in a shed if I had a shed) but she declined because, like me, she hates being beholden (besides we would be scratching out each others eyes if she stayed too long).

I have to wonder how many other people are going to be severely affected by this new regime as she no doubt will be. As I am being. Last pay for no apparent reason my payment was reduced by $15.00. This pay it was reduce by over $60.00. Naturally the phone line is engaged constantly so I am still wondering what the heck is going on. Recently we all enjoyed a very small ($7.00 per fortnight) payrise, and an adjustment of the permissable income. Since the budget has not been passed yet, I have to wonder why they are suddenly trimming us back so savagely (10% of fortnightly income is savage when the income is already below the poverty line).

She told me that the reason they are planning to increase HECs interest rates is because Tony has sold off HECs debts to a debt-collection company in the United States. How can this benefit Australia, or indeed pay for the actual cost of course-provision here? The world is going rapidly mad, and it will not get better unless we can get rid of these vicious people who care for no-one but themselves and their mates.

On the upside, I found that the leaves have disappeared from my medlar revealing three rather beautiful fruits. I wonder  if they have bletted yet?